exit

EastEnders star Balvinder Sopal, who plays Suki Panesar, has paid tribute to Strictly Come Dancing presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman

Strictly matriarchs Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly will be sorely missed, says EastEnders star Balvinder Sopal. This week the presenting duo shocked everyone when they announced they would be departing the show at the end of the current series. Balvinder, 46, paid tribute to the “caring” and “supportive” pair.

“People are sad to lose them and their iconic presence on Strictly,” said the actress, who plays Suki Panesar. “They’re so brilliant. They’re powerful, they’re funny, they’re sexy. They’re sassy, they look amazing, they’re of a certain age and they still power through. They’re engaging, they draw audiences in, people tune in sometimes for them. It’s incredible what they’ve done for the show and for us.”

“They’re the best of friends and they come across like that. How lucky are we to be able to absorb that energy and be taken care of? They’re the matriarchs of the show, they really have taken care of Strictly Come Dancing in the best possible way. And what an inspiration for us as well, to be looking up to such women like that.”

Soap star Balvinder – who danced the quickstep to Texas Hold ‘Em by Beyoncé last night with partner Julian Caillon – described is an “end of an era” and said it’s a privilege to dance in their final season.

“They are of the old school of Strictly, the time of Len Goodman and Bruce Forsyth. They bring all of that legacy. So now when they depart, we’re going to have two new people that are going to provide the show with a different direction. Things come to an end and we just have to reinvent and move on. Let’s see what happens. They’re big boots to fill.”

Tess and Claudia announced their departure from the show on Thursday (23 October) in a joint video, where they said: “After 21 wonderfully joyful years on Strictly, we have decided that the time is right to step aside.”

They added that they have a pact to leave together. In a separate statement, Tess referred to Strictly as her “third child” and “second family” and promised she wasn’t going to stop watching Strictly but felt it was time to “hand over the reins”.

“We were always going to leave together and now feels like the right time. We will have the greatest rest of this amazing series and we just want to say an enormous thank you to the BBC and to every single person who works on the show. They’re the most brilliant team and we’ll miss them every day. We will cry when we say the last ‘keep dancing’ but we will continue to say it to each other. Just possibly in tracksuit bottoms at home while holding some pizza.”

Sources close to the pair, who always had a pact to leave together at the same time, suggested they had told the top show execs of their plan some weeks ago, but their video on social media caught many of the Strictly cast and crew off guard. Insiders said privately Tess and Claudia have been discussing the idea of leaving for around a year.

A TV source said: “The feeling is Tess and Claudia wanted to go out at the top and whilst the show is still huge and shortly after they received MBEs. Announcing it mid series also gives them a bit of a swansong and doesn’t take the spotlight away from the winner.

“Claudia is right at her career peak with The Traitors and other TV offers flooding in. Tess has been hosting the show for more than two decades and like that idea of more weekends with her family and her friends.

“The recent scandals around the show have also impacted the ratings a little bit and there might be more around the corner, so they weighed it up and feel it is the right time to quit.”

Another source close to the duo said: “They always said they would go together when they felt right and it just feels right this year.”

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Neighbours star Stefan Dennis was forced to pull out of Strictly Come Dancing this week after he ‘tore his calf so significantly’

Strictly Come Dancing star Stefan Dennis has confirmed his future on the dance competition after he was forced to quit due to an injury. On Monday, the Neighbours star announced his departure in a lengthy post shared on social media, explaining he ‘tore his calf so significantly that he was forced to withdraw from the show’.

“I owe both the Strictly Family and Dianne [Buswell] a massive debt of gratitude for giving me the opportunity to fulfil my dream of being able to dance with my wife. (When my leg is better),” he said. Stefan – whose soap character Paul Robinson lost a leg in a cliff fall – added he was “gutted” about leaving.

Despite the blow, fans will still be able to see him on Strictly before the programme ends.

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“It’s a bit of a s****er, but I’ll be back at the end of the year, for the final,” he explained to The Sun.

However, it is not known whether he’ll be joining in on the group performance or if he will even be able to perform with his injury.

Meanwhile, Stefan recently confessed he felt like ‘he let people down’ because of the injury and subsequent exit from the beloved competition.

“I just feel like I’ve let everyone down,” he said to The Mirror during the Pride Of Britain Awards. “They all say I haven’t, of course, and the pros know all about injuries, but it feels like a shame to go out in this way.

“It was all going so well. When you go out, you want it to be because the viewers have spoken, because it’s your time, not like this.”

The news was a particularly upsetting blow for Stefan as the news came after viewers saw Chris Robshaw and his partner Nadiya Bychkova get voted out.

Stefan then revealed he begged producers to let Chris return to the show in his place. “I said they should keep Chris in now that I’m going but they said they couldn’t do that – once you’ve gone, you’ve gone.”

Two exits in two days could lead to just three pairings in the live final in December – provided no one else gets injured along the way. “That’s what has happened before I believe,” says Stefan.

Speaking about the severity of the injury, he added: “I thought I’d be able to carry on but they said absolutely not,” Stefan admitted. “The muscle needs complete rest. So that’s me done unfortunately.”

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Two iconic stars of the ITV soap Coronation Street have shared what their future with the soap is looking like after fans feared they would be leaving the show

Coronation Street legends William Roache and Barbara Knox have opened up about their future on the show, after accepting an award for their long service to television and amid fans’ fears that they are due to leave the show.

William, 93, and Barbara, 92, were awarded with the Outstanding Contribution to Television Award at the Variety Awards on Sunday (19 October).

Following the award, the pair both insisted they would not be leaving the show anytime soon, despite their combined 118 years on the show.

Coronation Street aired it’s first episode, starring William, in 1960. Four years later, Barbara appeared in an episode, and by 1972, she was back in a continuous role. When asked if they had plans to retire, both said they weren’t thinking about that as an option.

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In fact, it was the work that kept them feeling young. The nonagenarians were asked what they do to feel young and Barbara responded: “Well honestly, I think we’ve had the opportunity to work, that’s the greatest thing.

“I don’t want to and I know Bill doesn’t want to retire, because stimulus from your brain gets you up. So we’re fortunate to have been able to do that.”

They were also asked what their advice would be for actors starting their careers and William joked that “the first 65 years” were the hard part. “When young actors come to me, I say the first 65 years is the tough bit, the rest is easy.”

Before he acted, William was a captain in the British Army. He started acting on a stage in Nottingham and went on to appear in various films and TV shows before landing Ken Barlow in Corrie. As he was in the first episode, he is the longest-serving castmate on the show. In fact, he is the longest-serving actor to play a continuous role on a show ever and, as such, has a Guinness World Record.

Meanwhile, Barbara is best known for playing Rita Tanner on the show. She is the second longest-serving Corrie member, after William.

Ant and Dec also picked up an award for Outstanding Contribution to Television, while Vernon Kay was given a prize for the Outstanding Contribution to Radio. Jamie Wilson got the same for Musical Theatre, and Olly Murs was recognised for his contribution to music.

ITV, who air Corrie, were celebrated as well. They were given the award for Outstanding Contribution to British Broadcasting. The network celebrated 70 years in the business this year.

Over 70 years, ITV has become a core part of British television. They are one of the leading networks in the country, with iconic shows such as Corrie, Emmerdale, Love Island and Britain’s Got Talent under their belt.

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WASHINGTON — Dozens of reporters turned in access badges and exited the Pentagon on Wednesday rather than agree to government-imposed restrictions on their work, pushing journalists who cover the American military further from the seat of its power. The U.S. government has called the new rules “common sense.”

News outlets were nearly unanimous in rejecting new rules imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that would leave journalists vulnerable to expulsion if they sought to report on information — classified or otherwise — that had not been approved by Hegseth for release.

Many of the reporters waited to leave together at a 4 p.m. deadline set by the Defense Department to get out of the building. As the hour approached, boxes of documents lined a Pentagon corridor and reporters carried chairs, a copying machine, books and old photos to the parking lot from suddenly abandoned workspaces. Shortly after 4, about 40 to 50 journalists left together after handing in badges.

“It’s sad, but I’m also really proud of the press corps that we stuck together,” said Nancy Youssef, a reporter for the Atlantic who has had a desk at the Pentagon since 2007. She took a map of the Middle East out to her car.

It is unclear what practical effect the new rules will have, though news organizations vowed they’d continue robust coverage of the military no matter the vantage point.

Images of reporters effectively demonstrating against barriers to their work are unlikely to move supporters of President Trump, many of whom resent journalists and cheer his efforts to make their jobs harder. Trump has been involved in court fights against the New York Times, CBS News, ABC News, the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press in the last year.

Trump supports the new rules

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump backed his Defense secretary’s new rules. “I think he finds the press to be very disruptive in terms of world peace,” Trump said. “The press is very dishonest.”

Even before issuing his new press policy, Hegseth, a former Fox News Channel host, has systematically choked off the flow of information. He has held only two formal press briefings, banned reporters from accessing many parts of the sprawling Pentagon without an escort and and launched investigations into leaks to the media.

He has called his new rules “common sense” and said the requirement that journalists sign a document outlining the rules means they acknowledge the new rules, not necessarily agree to them. Journalists see that as a distinction without a difference.

“What they’re really doing, they want to spoon-feed information to the journalist, and that would be their story. That’s not journalism,” said Jack Keane, a retired Army general and Fox News analyst, said on Hegseth’s former network.

When he served, Keane said he required new brigadier generals to take a class on the role of the media in a democracy so they wouldn’t be intimidated and also see reporters as a conduit to the American public. “There were times when stories were done that made me flinch a little bit,” he said. “But that’s usually because we had done something that wasn’t as good as we should have done it.”

Youssef said it made no sense to sign on to rules that said reporters should not solicit military officials for information. “To agree to not solicit information is to agree to not be a journalist,” she said. “Our whole goal is soliciting information.”

Reporting on U.S. military affairs will continue — from a greater distance

Several reporters posted on social media when they turned in their press badges.

“It’s such a tiny thing, but I was really proud to see my picture up on the wall of Pentagon correspondents,” wrote Heather Mongillo, a reporter for USNI News, which covers the Navy. “Today, I’ll hand in my badge. The reporting will continue.”

Mongillo, Youssef and others emphasized that they’ll continue to do their jobs no matter where their desks are. Some sources will continue to speak with them, although they say some in the military have been chilled by threats from Pentagon leadership.

In an essay, NPR reporter Tom Bowman noted the many times he’d been tipped off by people he knew from the Pentagon and while embedded in the military about what was happening, even if it contradicted official lines put out by leadership. Many understand the media’s role.

“They knew the American public deserved to know what’s going on,” Bowman wrote. “With no reporters able to ask questions, it seems the Pentagon leadership will continue to rely on slick social media posts, carefully orchestrated short videos and interviews with partisan commentators and podcasters. No one should think that’s good enough.”

The Pentagon Press Assn., which has 101 members representing 56 news outlets, has spoken out against the rules. Organizations from across the media spectrum, from legacy organizations like the Associated Press and the New York Times to conservative outlets like Fox and Newsmax, told their reporters to leave instead of signing the new rules.

Only the conservative One America News Network signed on. Its management probably believes it will have greater access to Trump administration officials by showing its support, Gabrielle Cuccia, a former Pentagon reporter who was fired by OANN earlier this year for writing an online column criticizing Hegseth’s media policies, told the AP in an interview.

Bauder writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Laurie Kellman in London contributed to this report.

Martin Clunes is making an unlikely return to the Doc Martin universe – three years after the ITV drama ended with fans devastated over the news

Martin Clunes is making an unlikely return to the Doc Martin universe. The actor, 63, played Doc Martin in the ITV show from 2004 and 2022, where he starred as the rather awkward GP of a small British village.

The show wrapped in 2022, with fans up and down the country devastated. At the time, ahead of the UK show’s final season, Martin and Philippa Braithwaite released a joint statement, which read: “We have loved making nine series of Doc Martin.

“When we launched the series in 2004 we could never have imagined how much our loyal viewers would take to the grumpy Doc like they have. The series has avid fans both in the UK and throughout the world and we are thrilled that Doc Martin has topped the ratings every time. However, after sixteen years we now feel that the time has come to say goodbye to Portwenn.

“We will be making the tenth and final series in 2021 and we are very much looking forward to returning to Cornwall to film it.”

At the time, Martin insisted there was no bad ratings that caused the end of the series – but they just felt it was time.

He said: “All good things have to come to an end. And I’m sure there are lots of people who aren’t fans of the show who think it’s terribly repetitive anyway, but we’re at huge pains not to repeat ourselves. I just think we’ve sort of done everything. I mean, it would be so great to just sort of carry on, but I don’t think we can keep it as good.”

However, Martin is back in the world of Port Wenn once more – but in a very different capacity. Martin will be returning to the show as the father of Dr Martin Best is the United States reboot of the show, titled Best Medicine.

Josh Charles, 54, will star as Dr Martin, who has left his career as a surgeon in Boston and heads to the East Coast fishing village of Port Wenn, but with a few secrets up his sleeve. Martin’s wife Philippa Braithwaite will also serve as executive producer on the new show.

The synopsis for Best Medicine teases drama ahead, as it reads: “A brilliant surgeon leaves Boston to become a small-town doctor where he spent childhood summers. Despite his medical skills, his rude manner alienates locals as he battles hidden phobias and struggles with personal connections.”

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Nathan Aspinall threw two nine-dart finishes during the Players Championship 31 only to be blown away in the final – as Luke Littler suffered an early exit.

Aspinall, 34, produced perfect darts in a 6-4 victory over Irishman Steve Lennon in the second round, then repeated the feat in a 6-5 win over Germany’s Lukas Wenig in the last 16.

Englishman Aspinall had taken a 2-0 lead against Jermaine Wattimena of the Netherlands in the final in Wigan.

However, Wattimena reeled off eight legs on the bounce to clinically see off Aspinall and seal his second ranking title of the season.

Luke Littler, on the back of a semi-final defeat by Beau Greaves in the World Youth Championship on Monday, suffered a first-round exit as he lost 6-4 to fellow Englishman Ritchie Edhouse.

The 18-year-old world champion is currently 67th in the Players Championship standings, external and has three events to secure his place in the top 64 to qualify for the finals.

Michael van Gerwen is also in danger of not qualifying after he was knocked out at the same stage with a 6-4 loss to Dom Taylor.

The Dutchman is 92nd in table and must now make the final in the Players Championship 32 on Wednesday to secure his spot because he is skipping the final two events because of a pre-booked holiday.

There are 34 Players Championship events across the year, with the competition’s finals held in Minehead from 21-23 November.

George Gilbert was repeatedly warned by Big Brother for using offensive language and has now been removed from the ITV show in scenes that will air tonight’s episode

Big Brother contestant George Gilbert has been asked to leave the show following repeated use of offensive language. The 23-year-old’s removal will be aired in tonight’s episode.

George has been a controversial figure on the show since he entered, as he has had several arguments with other housemates over political issues like immigration and homelessness. He was also given a formal warning by Big Brother after doing a homophobic impression of another housemate, Sam Ashby, in a game of Truth or Dare.

In scenes deemed by ITV to be too offensive to air, George is said to have made an antisemitic comment that led to his ejection from the house. His full exit will be shown tonight (9 October).

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In the episode, George will be called to the Diary Room, where Big Brother will remind him of the rules he agreed to when he started on the show. “Hello, George,” Big Brother said. “George, before you entered the Big Brother House, the rules regarding unacceptable and offensive language and behaviour were explained to you.”

George then flippantly asked, “What is it?” Big Brother responded that the show has issued a warning to the Essex-based contestant on “several separate occasions” about his language and even issued him with a formal warning.

“Despite this, at 6.22pm, in a conversation about conspiracy theories, the words you used broke the rules regarding unacceptable and offensive language.

“George, Big Brother thinks that your repeated use of offensive language in the house including during yesterday’s conversation is unacceptable. Big Brother cannot permit you to use language in a manner which is likely to be considered offensive by Housemates or the viewing public.”

Parish councillor and actor George said he understood, but Big Brother then had more to say. He continued: “Despite the prior warnings and the opportunities we have given you to adjust your language in the House, you have persisted in using offensive language. And as a result, Big Brother has no choice other than to remove you from the House.”

George was given the opportunity to say something. He said: ““I always want to question any theory, any movement, I just like to, I just want to know the truth about things and I’m sorry. So I’m really gutted but if that’s what you want to do then I’m sorry it’s ended like this.”

This is very similar to what he said upon leaving the Big Brother house. “As a flag bearer of freedom of speech, I never hesitate to discuss and question any topic regardless of how contentious it may be,” the 23-year-old said.

“Sadly, the boundaries of what is deemed offensive are subjective and I evidently went too far this time by crossing their line one too many times. It is a shame that specific debate could not be had and that it has had to end like this. Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me.”

Because of his language and behaviour, George was nominated for eviction in this week’s vote. However, his removal forced ITV to halt the public vote. Addressing the situation on Big Brother Late and Live, host AJ Odudu said “George was removed from the Big Brother house today following repeated use of unacceptable language and behaviour.

“As he was up for eviction, the vote has been closed for now. So if you’ve voted already, your votes don’t count. But new votes between Cameron B, Elsa and Richard will be opening tomorrow and you’ll have five new votes. So tune in tomorrow to see the housemates reaction to the news.”

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The Sonia Jackson actress says she feels and looks different after leaving the BBC soap after three decades

Move over Sonia Jackson and take your trumpet with you… after 32 years it is finally time for Natalie Cassidy to take centre stage.

The 42-year-old was only 10 when she joined EastEnders, and she inhabited the character with such conviction that the lines of fact and fiction blurred. But no more… Natalie says since leaving the BBC juggernaut this year, the changes have been so huge that not only does she feel different, she looks different too.

“It was amazing when I got to ­reinvent myself after leaving EastEnders,” she says, beaming. “Sonia isn’t the most glamorous of characters, bless her, but I wanted to stay true to her character, so I never got extensions put in, or dyed my hair.

“She was just a worker who didn’t have a lot of money and worked for the NHS. But coming away, and breaking free, I just thought, ‘I want to be glam. I want to wear coloured nails. And just feel like me’.

“I do feel like my face has changed a little since leaving EastEnders, because I was quite sad when I was playing Sonia, or angry all the time. So I feel like my frown lines have sort of faded away, which is quite nice!”

Since Natalie joined in 1993, Sonia fell pregnant at 15, lost Jamie Mitchell, faced a rocky marriage to Martin Fowler and had a cancer scare. She also took the lead in the live episode in February for the soap’s 40th anniversary, giving birth in the Queen Vic.

News of trumpet-playing Sonia’s departure shocked viewers, who had grown up watching Natalie’s powerful performances on their TV screens. Natalie says her 40th birthday was a turning point.

“It’s a bit of a cliche, but it is a milestone. You know who you are, who your friends are, and where you are in life. You don’t want any rubbish. Having been in this business for such a long time, I just needed to be free and be open to everything else.”

Mum-of-two Natalie admits she felt chained to the show, while conceding: “And that’s not a bad thing, because it’s regular money. But you haven’t got any time to plan anything else, so it does take over your whole life,” she says. “For me, I just knew I needed to be brave, and I needed to break free from that to sit and go, ‘What else is going to come?’”

Natalie is busy recording her podcast, Life With Nat, appearing in BBC comedy Boarders and fronting C4 consumer show What’s The Big Deal. The star, engaged to cameraman Marc Humphries, also plans to do lots of mum things with Eliza, 15, and Joanie, nine.

“It’s been freeing leaving EastEnders,” admits Natalie. “I feel liberated and just happy. Albert Square will always hold a place in my heart… and the door is always open for me to return, never say never.”

Read Natalie’s full interview in the November issue of Prima here.

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Craig Revel Horwood has called for a former Strictly Come Dancing professional to make a comeback almost a decade on from when she left the BBC dancing programme

Craig Revel Horwood has called for a former Strictly Come Dancing professional to make a comeback almost a decade on from when she left. The TV star, 60, is gearing up to take his usual place on the panel alongside Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas, and Anton Du Beke, where he will be no doubt unleashing his typically acerbic feedback onto contestants like Love Island winner Dani Dyer, Neighbours legend Stefan Dennis and rugby player Chris Robshaw, amongst a host of others.

But when asked if he had to take to the floor himself, Craig, who was a professional dancer himself before joining the BBC competition series and is no stranger to the stage, having directed musicals like Sister Act and starred in hit shows like Annie and The Wizard of Oz over the years, revealed he would dance a Charleston and want to be paired up with Natalie Lowe.

He said: It would be a Charleston because I love the energy and goofiness of the dance. I would dance to Fat Sam’s Grand Slam [from the musical Bugsy Malone] and if I could choose any pro to dance with, I’d bring back Natalie Lowe.”

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Speaking about why he would choose Natalie, who left the show in 2017, he added: “She’s a blast from the past, she’s really tall, and I think she’s fantastic to dance with.

Natalie first found fame when she was a professional on Dancing with the Stars in Australia, and she won with footballer Anthony Koutoufides in 2004, and also made it to the final with boxer Danny Green and former Home and Away star Tim Campbell.

Following this success, she moved to the UK to compete in Strictly Come Dancing and joined the programme in its seventh series.

While Natalie never managed to win the programme, she did reach the final with former Hollyoaks star Ricky Whittle, and got considerably far into the competition with stars like TV chef Ainsley Harriott and EastEnders actor Scott Maslen. After competing alongside Olympian Greg Rutherford in 2016, she announced that she had quit.

“This was a very difficult decision for me not to accept the invitation to appear on this season of Strictly Come Dancing,” she told the Press Association at the time.

“It is with a very heavy heart that I have arrived at this decision. I’ll be forever grateful for the amazing time, opportunities and memories that Strictly has created for me. My time on the programme has been everything that I dreamed it would be and more.

“From the friendships I developed, the amazing dances I was able to perform in and the experiences that Strictly provided, it has been an incredible and extraordinary adventure.”

But amid all the scandals that have unfolded around Strictly in recent years, Greg had nothing but praise for his former dancing partner.

At the time, he said: “I was fortunate that I had a very experienced dancer in Natalie. We just tried to have as much fun as we could because it was her last season.”

Reflecting on the recent furore surrounding the professional dancers, which has marred the star-studded series, he concluded: “It works both ways. It’s a very intense show and you have dancers that have a very different view of the world to others.”

Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Saturday for its launch show.

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Jakob Ingebrigtsen described his performance as “terrible” after he suffered a shock exit in the men’s 1500m heats at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

The world outdoor title is the only international 1500m gold medal missing from the Norwegian star’s collection after he was beaten by Great Britain’s Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman at the past two editions.

But the 24-year-old will not have the chance to end that wait inside the stadium where he triumphed in the Olympic 1500m four years ago after finishing eighth in his heat on Sunday.

Ingebrigtsen, a two-time Olympic and world champion, has endured an injury-disrupted season and did not race for six months prior to these championships.

“I was terrible,” Ingebrigtsen told BBC Sport.

“The race itself was perfect, especially how it turned out, it was gifted to me.

“Unfortunately I have lost too much and I have not been able to prepare.

“Of course I’m disappointed but it’s a reality check that it was never really going to happen. I was holding on for dear life because I love to compete.

“I’ve been glued to the floor unfortunately. I’ve not been able to do what is needed, clearly. I just have to look forward.”

Britons Kerr, Wightman and Neil Gourley progressed – and saw their medal hopes boosted further as Frenchman Azeddine Habz and talented Kenyan teenager Phanuel Koech, the top two fastest 1500m runners this year, both also exited the competition.

The men’s 1500m semi-finals take place on Monday (13:30 BST), with the final on Wednesday.

The uncertainty over his future puts his hopes of reaching the milestone of a century of Test appearances agonisingly out of reach at just two short.

“I fear that the international ship has sailed,” said Williams, who also played in a World Cup semi-final having made his debut in 2012.

“I’ve not called time on that but it would be impossible without a club.

“If I start playing regularly and there are some injuries in the back three then Steve [Tandy, head coach] may give me a call.”

Williams worked with Tandy on the Lions’ tour to South Africa in 2021 and believes he can help turn around Wales, who ended an 18-match losing streak in the summer.

“Steve’s personality is a good fit for Wales, he’s very passionate, productive and positive,” said Williams.

“Wales is in a sticky spot but we have a young squad and hopefully the guys can thrive over the next couple of years.”

Williams hopes he can still play a part in that recovery before hanging up his boots.

RUBEN AMORIM sees the departure of Andre Onana as key to his rebuild at Manchester United.

Cameroon keeper Onana is joining Turkish outfit Trabzonspor on a season-long loan.

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SunSport believes Onana’s relationship with United boss Amorim broke down irretrievably over the past month.

A source claimed: “It felt like Andre was there to just show up but wasn’t there or showing any team mentality.”

Amorim was unhappy that Onana, 29, picked up a hamstring injury at the start of pre-season training.

All the more so as he had been filmed playing on a mud patch in his homeland in June.

Onana is one of a number of stars that Amorim has let go this summer.

He has already sent  Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Alejandro Garnacho and Antony packing.

And left-back Tyrell Malacia looks set to join Turkish side Eyupspor on a temporary deal.

United’s boss feels he has cleared the way for a more positive future and can kick on with preparations for Sunday’s Manchester derby.

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Onana was left out of the starting XI for the opening Premier League games against Arsenal and  Fulham.

He then put in another error-strewn display in the humiliating Carabao Cup defeat at Grimsby.

It saw him dropped again for the Prem win over Burnley before United made a deadline-day £18.2million swoop for 23-year-old Belgian Senne Lammens.

And it has emerged that insiders felt Onana was showing a lack of involvement and interest in working for the team in the final days before the international break.

That included the former Ajax and Inter Milan keeper effectively refusing to even acknowledge his manager in training.

So Amorim was happy to wave through Onana’s exit, leaving him with Lammens, struggling Turk Altay Bayindir and Tom Heaton, 39.

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Amorim has to decide whether to give Lammens a debut at the Etihad or stick with Bayindir for now.

Meanwhile, Onana copped more flak for the 1-0 defeat by Cape Verde on Tuesday that virtually ended Cameroon’s hopes of automatic World Cup qualification.

The keeper was at fault for Dailon Livramento’s winner, staying rooted to his line as the forward ran through on goal.

The Indomitable Lions are four points behind Cape Verde with two group games left.

When Kamala Harris left the White House, she was trailed by three big questions.

She’s now answered two of them.

First off, the former vice president will not be running for California governor in 2026. After months of will-or-won’t-she speculation, the Democrat took a pass on a race that was Harris’ to lose because, plainly, her heart just wasn’t into a return to Sacramento.

On Wednesday, with publication of the first excerpts from her 2024 campaign diary, Harris answered a second question: What kind of book — candid or pablum-filled — would she produce?

The answer flows directly to the third and largest remaining question, whether Harris attempts a third try for the White House in 2028.

If she does, and the portions published Wednesday by the Atlantic magazine give no clue one way or the other, she’ll have some work to do mollifying the person who made her vice president, thus vaulting Harris to top-tier status should she run again.

That would be one Joe Biden.

Harris’ book — “107 Days” — recounts the shortest presidential campaign in modern U.S. history.

It’s no tell-all.

Surely, there’s a good deal of inside dope, juicy gossip and backstage intrigues that Harris is holding back for political, personal or practical reasons.

Still, it’s a tell-plenty.

The headline-grabbiest passage is Harris’ suggestion that Biden, felled by a thoroughly wretched debate performance that showed the ravages of his advanced age, should have stepped aside before being effectively forced off the Democratic ticket.

“ ‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision,’ “ Harris wrote. “We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized. Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high.

“This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition,” she went on. “It should have been more than a personal decision.”

The relationship between Harris and Jill Biden, which was famously glacial, will surely turn Arctic-cold with Wednesday’s revelations. And Biden’s thin-skinned husband, who still harbors the fanciful belief he would beaten Donald Trump had he been the Democratic nominee, isn’t likely to be any more pleased.

There’s more.

Harris suggests in many ways Biden was more hindrance than helpmate as she struggled to step out from the shadow that inevitably shrouds the vice president.

When Biden finally spoke to the nation to explain his abdication and anointment of Harris as his chosen successor, Harris notes he waited nearly nine minutes into an 11-minute address to offer his cursory blessing.

She also expresses a deep personal pique toward Team Biden and West Wing staffers who had little faith in Harris or her political abilities and had no hesitation stating so — in private, anyway.

“When the stories were unfair or inaccurate, the president’s inner circle seemed fine with it,” Harris wrote. “Indeed, it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more.

“Worse, I often learned that the president’s staff was adding fuel to negative narratives that sprang up around me.”

Fact check: True.

But Harris also skates around certain hard truths, suggesting the staff turnover that plagued her early in her vice presidency was just the normal Beltway churn.

Harris has a reputation for being an imperious and difficult boss — it’s not misogynistic to say so — and she did suffer a notably high level of staff burnout and turnover that hindered her vice presidential operation.

Harris embarrassed herself in some stumbling TV appearances — especially early in her vice presidency — and it’s not racist to point that out. She has no one to blame but herself.

Perhaps most critically, Harris bequeathed the Trump campaign a sterling political gift late in the campaign when she appeared on the TV chatfest “The View” and, served up a softball of a question, whiffed it spectacularly.

“What, if anything,” Harris was asked, “would you have done … differently than President Biden during the past four years?”

It’s a question she could have easily anticipated. The separation of a president and the vice president looking to follow him into the Oval Office is a political rite of passage, though always a fraught and delicate one.

It’s necessary to show voters not just a hint of independence but also a bit of spine.

George H.W. Bush handled the maneuver with aplomb and succeeded Ronald Reagan. Hubert Humphrey and Al Gore did not, and both lost.

Given her chance, Harris squandered a choice opportunity to put some badly needed space between herself and the dismally regarded Biden.

“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” was her tinny response, and that gaffe is entirely on the former vice president.

It didn’t necessarily cost her the White House. There were plenty of reasons Harris lost. But at a time when voters were virtually shouting out loud for change in Washington it stamped the vice president, quite unhelpfully, as more of the same.

‘I am a loyal person,” Harris writes, which is not only self-justifying but has the slightly off-putting whiff of someone declaring, by golly, I’m just too honest.

Perhaps behind closed doors she screamed and raged, telling the octogenarian Biden he was old and senile and sure to cost Democrats the White House and deliver the nation to the evil clutches of Donald Trump — though that seems doubtful.

“Many people want to spin up a narrative of some big conspiracy at the White House to hide Joe Biden’s infirmity,” she wrote.

In fact, she said, Biden was “fully able to discharge the duties of president.”

“On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best.”

Fact Check: Again, true.

“But at 81,” Harris went on, “Joe got tired. … I don’t believe it was incapacity. If I believed that, I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country.”

Plenty of books have been written offering insider accounts of the White House and presenting far more dire accounts of Biden’s physical and mental acuity. Many more are sure to come.

Harris’ contribution to the oeuvre remains to be seen. Her book is set for publication on Sept. 23 and there is a lot more to come beyond the excerpts just published.

What has been revealed is Harris’ eagerness to settle old scores, to right the record as she sees it and to angrily and publicly call out some of her perceived enemies — including some still active in Democratic politics.

How does that affect her prospects for 2028 and what does it say about whether Harris runs again for president?

You can read into it what you will.

IT may not be an imposing castle and there’s no Claudia Winkleman but Downing Street has become the stage for a real-life version of The Traitors.

Sir Keir Starmer set the scene for weeks of vicious plotting when he banished his faithful deputy from the Cabinet.

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His gushing letter to Angela Rayner after she was forced out was true to the hit TV series.

It could be summed up as: “So sorry, Ange. I really like you and I really, really hope it isn’t you. But I’ve got to go with my gut.”

But it hasn’t washed with her admirers who now see her as a standard bearer for Labour’s Left.

The problem for the PM is whether his ousted sidekick will be recruited by The Traitors — a clique of MPs and activists hellbent on revenge.

They think Sir Keir is the real traitor — a class traitor — and are ready to unleash anger and resentment that has been building up over the past 14 months.

‘Knives are out’

When Ms Rayner quit as Deputy PM and Housing Secretary, she also stood down as Labour’s Deputy Leader — an elected position.

The search for her successor will become a divisive and bloody battle for the soul of the party.

One activist declared: “It’s going to be carnage. The knives are out already — and many of them are aimed at Starmer’s back.

“Most MPs can’t stand him or his politics, and over the past week their hatred has gone off the scale.”

Ms Rayner and her supporters are not the only people to harbour a grudge against the PM.

Her departure forced him into a hasty Cabinet reshuffle in which several of her colleagues were also thrown under the bus.

One minister dumped in Sir Keir’s shake-up even vowed privately: “I’m going to f*** him up.”

The deputy leadership race could now turn into a proxy war to destabilise the PM and find his successor.

There are whispers about a stalking horse to pave the way for Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to steal the crown and, bizarrely, that Ed Miliband is pondering a bid for a leadership comeback.

The scandal has also exposed the Prime Minister’s indecision and weakness — flaws he once levelled at Boris Johnson.

Sir Keir allowed Ms Rayner to cling on to her job for eight days after it was revealed she had avoided paying £40,000 stamp duty on her swish new seaside property at Hove, East Sussex.

It was clear that at the very least she was guilty of rank hypocrisy and had to go.

One of his biggest tests will be the Budget on November 26

You’d think after being gifted £2,400 of free spectacles, Sir Keir would have seen what was coming.

But he left it to an ethics adviser to reach the inevitable conclusion — and even then, the PM didn’t sack her but let her resign.

Sir Keir knows he must fix the economy and stop the boats if he has any chance of winning the next General Election.

But the Left has been angered and emboldened, and their opening salvos are likely to be fired at the Labour Conference in Liverpool later this month.

One of his biggest tests will be the Budget on November 26, when drastic action is needed to plug the £50billion black hole in Britain’s finances.

Normally, all the pressure would be on Rachel Reeves to deliver. But the PM sidelined the Chancellor last week to take personal charge of economic policy.

He appointed his own economics guru and poached Ms Reeves’s geeky number two Darren Jones as well as the Chancellor’s chief tax adviser to join his No10 team.

One disgruntled source said: “Keir has made it clear he plans to own the next Budget.

“If that’s the case, he can shoulder all the blame when it goes down like a bag of cold sick.”

Cabinet heavyweight Pat McFadden has been put in charge of forcing through welfare reform, months after benefit cuts were ditched amid a backbench rebellion. His task just got a lot harder.

Time to get a grip

Another big mission — which eclipses any TV challenge Claudia could set — is to tackle the asylum crisis.

Voters are desperate to see this Government deliver on its promises soon

Sir Keir staged a clear-out of the Home Office at the weekend, removing Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and two of her ministers following their failure to stop the boats and close migrant hotels.

Hardly a surprise, as Sir Keir has had more success removing ministers than asylum seekers.

He has ushered in tough-talking former Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood — who supports chemical castration for serious sex offenders — to head up the dysfunctional department.

The PM knows that if she is unable to get a grip of the nation’s number one concern, he won’t be given time to send in a third team.

Voters are desperate to see this Government deliver on its promises soon.

Sir Keir returned from his summer break to declare he had begun “phase two” of his plan to change Britain.

If it continues like this, there won’t be any time for a phase three.

Voters will ask Sir Keir to reveal whether he’s a Faithful or a Traitor.

Then banish him from Number 10.

REFORM MP Lee Anderson wants schoolkids to wave Union Flags and sing the National Anthem at morning assembly.

Not so much Cool ­Britannia as School Britannia.

WHILE the nation was entranced by the Angela Rayner scandal, the Green Party elected a former hypnotherapist as its new leader.

Zack Polanski once claimed he could help women who wanted larger breasts by unlocking the power of their minds.

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Now he’s turned his attention to growing his membership before persuading the rest of us to reverse Brexit.

I can only imagine how he’ll do that.

Perhaps he’ll mesmerise us into a second referendum with an election speech which goes: “Look into my eyes, look into my eyes.

One, two, three . . . you’re back in the EU.”

Shebah Ronay was the original Hollyoaks poster girl, but her character Natasha Andersen was tragically killed off after just a few months on the Channel 4 soap

Former Hollyoaks star Shebah Ronay, who portrayed the legendary Natasha Andersen, has embarked on a striking career transformation three decades after the soap launched.

Natasha served as Hollyoaks‘ original pin-up – alluring, spirited and tragically, the first main character to meet her demise in a shocking death plot.

Her devastating end unfolded in March 1996 when she suffered a fatal overdose after her beverage was laced with ecstasy during a house party. She later collapsed and died in hospital leaving fans of the Channel 4 soap in shock.

Shebah, now 53, initially appeared on our television screens as Natasha on October 23, 1995, when the soap launched on television. But her character’s death was announced in January 1996.

The sequence was branded a “sensational scene in an attempt to boost ratings” at the time, crafted to elevate viewing figures and provide a sharp departure from the “softer stories about teen romances and spots”, reports the Liverpool Echo.

During its first year, Hollyoaks encountered backlash for its absence of socially conscious storylines, prompting producers to develop a powerful narrative centred around Natasha’s drug-induced death.

This plot generated significant media attention and represented a pivotal moment for the programme as it started addressing weightier topics.

Looking back on Natasha’s departure, series creator Phil Redmond commented: “Natasha’s death depicts the stark reality of unnecessary death coming very close to one group of friendly and fun-loving people for the first time in their lives and how this is bound to change their outlook in many ways”, reports the Mirror.

After her departure from the show, Shebah didn’t linger in the acting industry. She featured in the short film The Things We Do For Love before shifting her focus to modelling, presenting, and journalism.

The soap star spent a number of years as a film columnist for the weekly newspaper News of the World, before taking on the role of stylist editor at the glamorous Wedding Day magazine.

She is wedded to artist Jonathan Yeo, with whom she shares two children. The artist specialises in portraiture, with his celebrated work including King Charles III and Sir David Attenborough.

Shebah also has notable family connections, being the granddaughter of Hungarian-born food critic Egon Ronay and the daughter of fashion designer and former actress Edina Ronay.

Elsewhere, Hollyoaks will celebrate its 30th birthday in October, with the soap due to crossover with Brookside.