heart

The popular drama came out in 2021 but is brand new to Channel 5

Viewers looking for a gritty crime thriller are in luck, as Channel 5 has acquired a firm favourite.

The broadcaster has announced that Walker, starring Jared Padalecki, Lindsey Morgan and Molly Hagan, is now available to stream, with weekly season drops from July 30.

Walker, which first launched in 2021 in America, is a direct reboot and reimagining of the 1990s action crime drama Walker, Texas Ranger starring Chuck Norris.

The drama, which is made up of four seasons, sees Gilmore Girls star Jared Padalecki reinvent the iconic franchise as Cordell Walker, a widowed Ranger returning home to a family he barely knows and secrets that refuse to stay buried.

It has been described as a series that blends “gripping action with genuine heart”, and has strong reviews from those who watched the drama when it originally launched.

“So captivating!!” wrote one viewer on IMBd, adding: “I loved the episode it was a strong pilot and I can’t wait to see what happens! I loved the establishment of the characters right away you knew the relationship of everyone and you already got a little bit of insight to how they interact with each other. This is a show that can only keep getting better!!”

While a second wrote: “Big Supernatural fan of Jared’s and honestly was worried about seeing him transition to a new show after 15 years of playing one character.

“But after watching the pilot episode of Walker, man I was blown away! He was so believable as Cordell Walker, Sam was not to be found. Kudos to the entire cast! This episode introduced us to all the characters seamlessly, and I look forward to seeing where this show takes them.”

Others warned not to compare the reboot to the original. One viewer explained: “Stop comparing; it’s two completely different shows.

“This Walker is all about heart, family and fighting crime. Jared Padalecki is not and never will be Chuck Norris, thank goodness… Norris is all action and no acting! I never liked the original!

“But this one… This one is a great story and an amazing cast! And the intrigue and drama is getting better and better each week!”

A synopsis reads: “A widowed father returns to Austin after one year, attempting to reconnect with his children, navigate clashes with his family, and find common ground with his new partner, while growing increasingly suspicious of his wife’s death.”

Walker is now available to stream on My5 with weekly season drops.

The Odyssey actor said he loved the ‘creamy shredded chicken dish’ for its taste and ‘sentimental reasons’

Tom Holland’s been doing the rounds promoting Spider-Man and The Odyssey this month, and during an appearance on the podcast Dish, he shared a classic 60s dinner that holds a special place in his heart – and it could boast a number of health benefits.

Holland, who plays Telemachus in Christopher Nolan’s film, recorded the episode with hosts Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett the day after England played against Mexico in the World Cup. Starring alongside his wife in the film, Zendaya, who plays Athena, he raved about a dish called Chicken Véronique.

And according to WebMD, one of its ingredients, chicken, could help with weight management and, as a result, reduce the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure. The health experts explain: “Research suggests that 25-30 grams of protein per meal can help us feel more full.

“Protein-rich meals can make us feel fuller despite us eating less, which helps to promote better weight management. Healthier weight leads to improvements in risk factors for heart problems, such as high triglyceride levels and high blood pressure.

“A food rich in protein, chicken can help with weight management and reduce the risk of heart disease.”

The health experts also note that chicken is a lean protein that provides the amino acids our bodies need to build and maintain muscle, which becomes more important as we age. A higher-protein diet can also help support bone density.

Because of this, eating chicken can help keep muscles strong and bones healthier. This can lower the risk of injuries and conditions like osteoporosis.

So the chicken in Tom Holland’s dish could actually provide some benefits to our health. But as with everything, always make sure you are having a healthy and balanced diet, as while a dish may include a healthy ingredient or two, it doesn’t always make the dish itself healthy.

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During the podcast, Holland’s younger brother, Sam, who is a chef, shared a pre-recorded video, explaining that their mum and Granny Tess “cooked Chicken Véronique and an apple crumble on a beach in Thailand for the cast and crew of Impossible”.

Now, 15 years later, and it’s “our favourite family meal” especially after Tom has a “long stint away” filming, Sam said, calling it a dish he loves for many “sentimental reasons.”

Tom shared the same memories, re-calling: “We were making a movie in Thailand. It was my first ever film. It was a real family.

“The crew were such lovely people, and we would always go down to this beach called Memories Beach. Cast and crew would be down there every weekend – all weekend.

“We started cooking down there, we became friends with the people that ran the beach bar, and they would let us cook. The English guys would cook one week, and then the Italians would cook the next week.

“Naomi Watts was the star of that movie. So, my granny roasted two chickens in her oven at her house in Thailand. She then drove it through the jungle to this beach, because you had to kind of go down this dirt road for about 25 minutes.

“She made Chicken Véronique. It’s like a kind of creamy shredded chicken dish, but then you peel and roast the grapes. And then you shred the potatoes. It’s absolutely delicious.

“So now if I’ve ever been away and I come home to the family house for dinner, that’s always what we always have.”

Host and chef Angela Hartness replied: “Now you’ve mentioned it’s a really old, classic French dish. And one that you’d have had in the ’60s.”

While they did not cook the classic dish during the podcast, they did cook a dish Tom called a “treat” – spicy pork and pineapple skewers with Greek salad.

Spicy pork & pineapple skewers – full recipe

Ingredients

• 500g pack British diced pork shoulder
• ½ supersweet medium pineapple
• Vegetable oil, for griddling
• 1 satsuma, halved
• 2 salad onions, thinly sliced

For the marinade

• 1 satsuma, juice
• 2 clove/s garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp Cooks’ Ingredients Turkish Pepper Flakes
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Method

1. Soak 8 wooden skewers in cold water for at least 30 minutes to prevent them burning. In a mixing bowl, combine the marinade ingredients and add a few cracks of black pepper. Add the pork (halve any large pieces) and stir to coat. Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, or preferably overnight.
2. Peel, core, then cut the pineapple half into 24 chunks. Thread 3-4 pieces of pork and 3 pieces of pineapple alternately onto each skewer and discard any remaining marinade.
3. Heat a griddle pan over a medium-high heat, brush the pan lightly with oil, then cook half the skewers for 12-15 minutes, turning twice, until the pork is cooked through with no pink meat, juices that run clear, and is charred in places. Keep hot, while you cook the second batch.
4. Char the satsuma, cut-side down, on the hot pan. Serve the skewers scattered with the salad onions and the warm satsuma juice, squeezed over at the table. Perfect with a leafy salad on the side, if liked

Angela Hartnett serves this recipe with a village Greek salad. You can find check out the recipe for that and handy cooking tips and tricks on the Waitrose website here.

Ospreys finished 11th in the URC last season and were knocked out in the last 16 of the Challenge Cup.

Mark Jones’ side were impacted by uncertainty, with fans protesting against the WRU and Y11 at fixtures in Bridgend.

The unsettling situation was a factor in Wales captains Dewi Lake and Jac Morgan opting to join Gloucester for the coming season.

Signing the Professional Rugby Agreement (PRA) with the governing body offers some level of security until 2028, but the latest development will provide more challenges for both Scarlets and Ospreys.

“Is it really a surprise? We just had a little bit of a break from the debacle,” said former Ospreys and Wales wing Shane Williams on Radio Wales Breakfast.

“The conversation has always been that everyone believes there will be a region cut, that players’ welfare and jobs will be put on the line again.

“It’s no real shock to me, we just have to start the conversation again and the uncertainty hits us again.”

There is the prospect of a tender process to be the western club, or the possibility of reviving the merger that almost happened in 2019.

“It’s easier said than done,” said Williams, who is from Carmarthenshire. “There is huge rivalry and the Ospreys are in the process of rebuilding St Helen’s and there is Parc y Scarlets, which is barely used by anyone else.

“For the fans, there has been a huge rivalry and it would take some job to get those two sets of supporters together to support one entity.”

Samantha Morton didn’t mean to start humming during that scene in “The Odyssey,” the scene everyone is talking about, when, as the sorceress Circe, she turns Odysseus’ men into pigs, literally molding them into their true savage selves.

It wasn’t in the script. It just happened. And when Morton was done, she looked over to director Christopher Nolan, waiting for him to say something like, “Maybe try it without the humming, Samantha.”

But Nolan didn’t say anything, so Morton did it again and the music that was swirling inside her head, which she remembers now as a symphony of glass harmoniums and theremin, kept coming out as Circe went about her witchy business, altering her gluttonous guests, who are busy slurping and gulping down her stew.

“These are sounds that can make you go mad, apparently,” Morton, 49, tells me, reclining on her bed at the Hotel Chelsea in New York. “So to transform the men, the magic came not just from my hands but from my sounds.”

Samantha Morton as Circe in “The Odyssey,” directed by Christopher Nolan.

(Melinda Sue Gordon / Universal Pictures)

Morton unabashedly believes in magic. How else, she asks, can you explain how a girl who was shuttled between children’s homes and a dozen foster families, only to be living on the streets of Nottingham, England, at the age of 14 with a criminal record, be here talking with me now, sipping green tea at the Chelsea?

“That’s got to be guardian angels and love — and not that I suddenly became good at acting and got a job,” says Morton, a veteran who’s been at it for 35 years, dazzling audiences and stealing scenes for the likes of Steven Spielberg, Jim Sheridan and, now, Nolan. “I’ve always believed that anything is possible and there’s no doubt in here,” and she pats her heart, “because I’ve always felt this immense love for me from another entity.”

When Morton heard that Nolan wanted to meet her for “The Odyssey,” she says she wept. If that sounds dramatic, she makes no apologies. She likens it to being an athlete who qualifies to represent their country at the Olympics. She’d spent decades honing her craft for that phone call. When it came, she flew to Los Angeles in January 2025 during the wildfires, embarking on what would become the best job interview of her life.

I ask her what she remembers about that meeting.

“I think it went really well,” Morton answers, laughing.

Morton told Nolan she hadn’t read “The Odyssey,” which, when you quit school at the age of 12, makes sense. Flying back home to England — she and her husband live in East Sussex with their children, 18-year-old daughter Edie and 12-year-old son Teddy — she recalled that, yes, she knew a bit of “The Odyssey” from having seen it parodied on an episode of “The Simpsons.” (“We’re ‘Simpsons’ mad in our house,” she says. “Like, mad.”)

But Morton doesn’t believe in bogging herself down in research, not since starring in a British TV production of “Jane Eyre” when she was 19 and carried around a heavily highlighted copy of the Charlotte Brontë book, despairing whenever the adaptation deviated from the novel. From that point on, she stuck to the script and her own imagination.

“That’s got to be guardian angels and love — and not that I suddenly became good at acting and got a job,” says Morton of her career. “I’ve always believed that anything is possible.”

(Ebru Yildiz / For The Times)

Thinking about Circe, Morton recalled going to the library with her dad (“We had nothing and were beyond poor, but he always had a library card,” she says) and finding the Howard Pyle fairy-tale book “King Stork.” She remembers being mesmerized by the story’s wicked witch. She recalls other witches from folk tales like Baba Yaga, frightening characters but also, she says, “women possessing an innocence that had been eroded over the years by the harshness of life.”

Morton does a playful verbal evasion when discussing the nuts-and-bolts aspects of shooting the scene where Circe transforms Odysseus’ men, saying that back in the day when behind-the-scenes features were prevalent on DVDs, she routinely declined to participate.

“I didn’t mean to be tricky, but it was like: This is my private moment. This is for me,” she says. “I do like the idea of a little mystery.”

But then a beat later, she laughs it off and dives in, remembering that her husband showed her an Instagram post from Nolan’s set revealing how the movie’s Cyclops was, in fact, a puppet.

“Oh my gosh — I love puppets!” Morton raves, and off she goes, telling me how much she adores Jim Henson and how “The Dark Crystal” is one of her all-time favorite films.

What she will say about her “Odyssey” scene is that there were no digital effects. Everything was real and “in camera” and that she was so in the zone that she barely remembers any of it, only flashes.

“That’s not CGI,” Morton says. “That’s human brilliance and a connectivity of me as a performer, almost dancing and feeling one. And not to say that it was sexual, but I wanted it to be very sensual when she’s with the men and the animals, just like, you know, that she’s almost one with them.”

“What was lovely about that,” Morton begins and then stops, wondering if she should draw back the curtain on the creative process. She goes ahead. “There was a day on set when Chris was like, ‘OK,’ and he put his hand in because I was a little scared. It’s like that scene in ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ where he puts his hand in the thing, and you’re like, ‘Oh no!’ I was a little nervous, but Chris did it first. I think he actually cut his finger.” She giggles. “You know, he’s going to go in first, like getting into the cold water in the sea. I felt protected and supported in that whole process.”

When Odysseus’ men arrive at Circe’s home, hungry, asking to be fed, Circe seems frightened — understandably so. She’s alone, and these soldiers have a history of pillaging and taking what they want. And yet, she’s a powerful sorceress. Is Circe really scared or tricking them to lure them in?

“I played that like she was genuinely frightened because she was caught off-guard,” Morton says. “I also wanted to play somebody that was all ages, so I played her like a 16-year-old girl in that scene. And then in other scenes, I’m playing her as a 90-year-old woman or a 49-year-old woman or a sister or a mother, a grandmother. I just wanted her to be ageless.”

Morton, looking out for Circe, stresses that transforming Odysseus’ men was not purely vengeful.

“It’s not just hate,” she says. “It’s not just harm. It’s not just anger. It’s almost like a Zen master within the goddess role of the teaching as well. ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ gluttony, greed, all of these things.”

There’s a righteous feminist rage underneath the scene as well, a modernization that brings “The Odyssey” fiercely and disturbingly up to date. It’s another reason why people leave are leaving the theater talking about Morton.

“In some weird way, the film lived or died over that character,” says director Nolan of Morton’s Circe, a creation of pure acting and no digital sorcery. “She was the fulcrum.”

(Ebru Yildiz / For The Times)

Nolan thinks “The Odyssey,” in some weird way, “lived or died over that character — she was the fulcrum.” He told The Times that “after one of her takes, the crew gave her a great round of applause.” Emma Thomas, Nolan’s producing partner and wife, later recalled that the last time that had happened was with Heath Ledger on “The Dark Knight.”

Morton makes a point of telling me how much Ledger meant to her, having been cast opposite him (and Odysseus himself, Matt Damon) more than 20 years ago in Terry Gilliam‘s 2005 fantasy adventure “The Brothers Grimm.” Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein overruled Gilliam, dropping Morton from the film because, in his eyes, she wasn’t attractive enough.

“And Heath fought for me with such kindness and compassion,” Morton says. “He’s up there with Philip Seymour Hoffman for me. There’s something otherworldly personal about what they gave, such sincerity and vulnerability and an absolute dedication to craft. They leave a mark on your heart.”

It’s not the first time Morton has invoked the heart in our conversation. She brought her son, Teddy, to New York for the premiere of “The Odyssey” because she wanted to show him the place where her creative spirit was born. Morton first came to New York as a teen to do press for “Emma,” returned a year later to promote “Jane Eyre” and then couldn’t bring herself to leave, “sofa-surfing” at friends’ apartments so she could immerse herself in the city.

“New York stole my heart,” Morton says. It’s where she first got into literature, devouring Charles Bukowski, roaming the aisles at the St. Mark’s Bookshop, checking out movies from Kim’s Video and gobbling hash browns and eggs over easy at the Waverly Diner.

Not long after, Morton scored the role that would land her the first of two Oscar nominations (for now, at least), playing the mute laundress in Woody Allen’s “Sweet and Lowdown.” The production put her up in a Greenwich Village apartment and when it ended, she moved to the East Village.

Only the diner remains but Morton still plans on touring the Village with Teddy, showing off all of mom’s old haunts and, yes, having a cup of soup at the Waverly.

“Life is good right now,” Morton says, smiling. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll indulge in some hash browns.”

ROSARIO, Argentina — Lionel Messi arrived back in Argentina on Tuesday for a few days of rest following the World Cup final loss to Spain.

Messi’s private jet landed near his hometown of Rosario from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at 6:27 a.m. Although many fans were waiting with signs and flags, he did not make a public appearance.

“The pain is immense, and this wound will take time to heal,” he posted on his Instagram account. “I cherish all the good moments, memories that will last forever — and the support of an entire nation which, combined with this group’s hard work and effort, propelled us once again into the ranks of the world’s best.”

Supporters only caught a brief glimpse of the SUV that met Messi on the tarmac to transport him and his family to the private neighborhood of Funes, roughly 185 miles north of Buenos Aires.

The Argentina captain reportedly traveled with his wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, and their three children, all of whom had accompanied him throughout the tournament in North America. Waiting for him in Rosario was his 68-year-old father, Jorge, whose ongoing medical treatment for an undisclosed illness had been revealed by the family during the World Cup.

Fans had gathered at the airport as early as 3:30 a.m. hoping to catch a sight of the star. Among them were two young girls in La Albiceleste jerseys holding welcome signs, one of which read: “Messi: You’re a legend. Thank you for bringing joy to our hearts. A whole country loves you!”

Messi is expected to rejoin Inter Miami in late July or early August for the ongoing MLS season.

Fifteen members of Argentina’s 26-player World Cup roster, led by head coach Lionel Scaloni, landed at Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza Airport on Monday on a chartered flight.

The squad’s arrival followed Sunday’s 1–0 extra-time loss to Spain in the World Cup final in East Rutherford, N.J., decided by a Ferran Torres goal.

“It is hard to fully appreciate our achievement right now, but this group reached two consecutive World Cup finals. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for every greeting and message,” Messi added. “I also want to congratulate Spain on winning the championship.”

The match marked Messi’s third World Cup final appearance, following 2014 and 2022. He ended the tournament as the runner-up for the Golden Boot with eight goals, two behind France’s Kylian Mbappé.

Mbappé tops the all-time World Cup goal-scoring chart with 22, one more than Messi.

Álvarez writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — For Mary Fisher–mother, artist, philanthropist and HIV-positive woman–the moment is now.

She tries hard not to think about the future: her future, or the possibility that her children will face their future without her. When she feels the fear, it comes “in that reflective place you find yourself in at night, when you’re forced to find a quiet time,” she said.

“I allow my work and my children to fill my time, so I don’t have to think about those things on a daily or hourly basis,” she said. “I couldn’t get through the days if I did.”

Nor does Fisher dwell on her medical situation with her two young sons, who are now 6 and 4. Neither of them is infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS.

“The best thing I can do for them is be with them, look them straight in the eye, answer their questions as best I can and be here, be involved in their lives as best I can,” she said. “They know I have a disease. I don’t know if they’re relating it to what their dad had–and I don’t know if I want them to relate to it, because I’m not sick.

“I don’t want to instill my fears–if I have them–in my children,” she added.

It has been nearly two years since Fisher, 45, seared the public consciousness with her speech before the Republican National Convention.

Standing before her fellow Republicans, she spoke in calm, gentle tones–but delivered a personal story that shocked the hall into silence.

“I think she reaches people that activists like myself can never reach, which is people who respond to maternal warmth and not to yelling,” said playwright Larry Kramer, a close friend of Fisher’s who is a founding member of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power).

“That’s why she is as important as we are, maybe more so,” he said. “We’re a funny pair because she’s always saying to me: ‘Larry, I wish I had some of your anger.’ And I’m always saying to her: ‘Mary, I wish I had some of your compassion.’ I see her speeches on TV and say: ‘Mary, why don’t you get angrier?’ And she says: ‘Larry, I can’t.’ But I think she’s exceedingly effective being as she is, and I don’t want her to change a decibel.”

Fisher challenged the Republican Party to confront the AIDS epidemic with candor and compassion and to make the issue its own.

Since then, she has traveled the nation, speaking in churches, schools, prisons–wherever there is an audience that can learn from her message: If it can happen to me, it can happen to you.

In many quarters, “people perceive AIDS as a depressing subject and don’t want to take personal responsibility,” Fisher said from the home she now rents in a Maryland suburb outside Washington, where she moved her family from Boca Raton, Fla., last summer.

“They try to make me an exception,” she said. “I am not unusual. I am unusual only because I am speaking out. . . . The point is, there are a lot of me’s out there, women with small children who are (HIV) positive, women who are devastated, women who are scared to talk about it. I know, because they come to me when I am traveling. It’s truly amazing.”

In some ways, Fisher is wrong–she is unusual in the framework of the AIDS epidemic: She is wealthy — the daughter of longtime GOP fund-raiser and Detroit real estate mogul Max Fisher — and she works for herself at home (she creates art using handmade paper) so she has no “workplace problem” with AIDS.

And she has enough money to keep her children sheltered, although she has not isolated them.

Moreover, she is a longtime Republican with impeccable political credentials and connections.

Fisher includes former Presidents Gerald R. Ford and George Bush and their families among her closest friends. She once worked in the Ford White House, and photographs of Ford and her two sons, Max and Zachary, adorn her living room.

But AIDS is the great leveler, so she is also right–in many ways, she is no exception at all.

Fisher was infected by her former husband, Brian Campbell, who reportedly was at one time an intravenous drug user. He has since died of AIDS. Women infected through heterosexual contact have become a rapidly growing population.

Fisher said it took a long time for her to come to grips with her infection–and to speak about it.

“The discovery that we are HIV-positive tends to divide our lives into ‘before’ and ‘after,’ ” Fisher wrote in a newly published collection of her speeches, “Sleep with the Angels,” subtitled, “a mother challenges AIDS.”

The book, she says, “is not just about AIDS, it’s about children. It’s about religion. It’s about how we as a people deal with each other, and it’s about my life, my relationships with others and the unconditional love that’s out there.”

Kramer, who is quick to criticize others involved in AIDS activities, has only praise and affection for Fisher.

“It’s impossible not to like Mary because she is so caring and loving and motherly and interested, and because she puts her arms around you and gives you wonderful hugs,” he said.

Fisher learned in July, 1991, that she was infected, but she said it took six months before she was ready to tell her story publicly.

After she did, and after she spoke to the GOP convention, Bush appointed her to the now-defunct National Commission on AIDS, replacing Earvin (Magic) Johnson, the HIV-positive retired Los Angeles Lakers star who quit over what he said was an unresponsive Administration.

Fisher also founded the Family AIDS Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising AIDS awareness nationwide.

The network, she says, plans to give “care-giver” awards this spring because “they are the people who take care of us. They are the people who do not leave this epidemic.” She also said she hopes that the organization can raise enough money for small AIDS research grants.

Currently, Fisher has no symptoms and takes no AIDS medication. “I feel really healthy, and am doing fine,” she said. “As far as I know, everything is good.”

Fisher said she intends to keep doing everything she is doing for as long as she can, speaking quietly and forcefully about the epidemic to whoever will listen.

“If we can create a dialogue and keep it going, I believe it’s the only way we can make a difference,” she said.

LeBron James didn’t have a speech prepared.

“I’m just speaking to y’all from the heart,” the NBA’s all-time leading scorer told the audience Thursday night at the Time 100 Sports gala in New York.

In James’ heart and on his mind at that moment was his oldest son Bronny James, who nearly three years ago suffered sudden cardiac arrest as an 18-year-old rising freshman while practicing with the USC basketball team. He later was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect but eventually was able to resume his basketball career.

James and his son ended up becoming Lakers teammates for two seasons before the 23-year veteran became a free agent this summer. Bronny James is entering his third season with the Lakers after contract became fully guaranteed earlier this month.

“Obviously, if it wasn’t for the coaching staff and the medical team and everybody at USC being there in a timely fashion, we’d possibly be sitting here without our oldest son,” said James “So thank you to everybody and all the efforts when it comes to cardiac arrest.”

In June, Time magazine released its inaugural issue highlighting the 100 most influential people in sports, with James on the cover as “athlete of the century.”

James was one of the featured speakers at the gala honoring those individuals, as were fellow Time 100 Sports list members New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson, Olympic gold medalist skater Alysa Liu, Invictus Games founder Prince Harry and women’s soccer legend Alex Morgan.

Savy King and Damar Hamlin speak onstage during the Time 100 Sports gala July 16 in New York.

(Jemal Countess / Getty Images for TIME)

Earlier in the evening, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin and Angel City FC defender Savy King gave a presentation on their experiences as athletes who suffered cardiac arrest while playing in games for their respective teams.

Like Bronny James, they were both young athletes at the time of their incidents — Hamlin was 24; King was 20 — and both were fortunate to have trained medical staff members on hand to perform CPR and use defribulators to save their lives.

Their message hit home for James.

“Guys, take that serious,” he said. “If you got kids in elementary, you got kids in middle school, kids in high school, colleges. Make sure they have these devices available where you can get them, practice them. It’s very important, super, super important. Obviously, we know how important it is to our family, so we’re a big advocate of that.”

Kris Jenner’s mom, Mary Jo “MJ” Shannon, has died.

Jenner announced the news of Shannon’s death Thursday in an Instagram tribute. She was 91.

“Today, we said goodbye to my beautiful Mommy MJ. … There are no words that could ever capture what she has meant to me or the heartbreak of having to say goodbye. My mom was the heart of our family.”

Jenner wrote that her mother, the matriarch of the Jenner-Kardashian clan, taught her everything that “truly matters.”

“To love your family fiercely, to be kind, to show up for the people you love, and to never take a single moment together for granted,” she wrote alongside a glamour shot of Shannon. “She taught us that family is everything. She showed us how to love unconditionally and how to find joy in the little moments. She showed me how to face life’s challenges with resilience and faith.”

Jenner concluded the post with an open letter to MJ:

“Mom, thank you for every sacrifice you made, every piece of wisdom you shared, and every moment you loved us so completely. I will miss our daily talks, your smile, your laughter… Our hearts are broken, but we find comfort knowing that love like yours never truly leaves us. Your love will live on in our family, in our traditions, in every moment we are together, and in every life you touched. When I look at my kids and my grandkids, I will forever see pieces of you in all of us. There is not a part of me that isn’t shaped by you. And if I have done anything right in this world, it’s because I spent my life trying to live in a way that would make you proud. Every memory, every moment, every blessing, it was all because of you, and I will forever thank God every single day for making you my mommy. My heart is broken into a million pieces… thank you for giving me the greatest childhood and oh what a beautiful blessed life… I love you forever Mommy. Thank you for giving us everything.”

Born Mary Jo Campbell on July 26, 1934, MJ married her high school sweetheart, whom she divorced two months later. Then in 1954, she wed Jenner’s dad, Robert “Bob” True Houghton. She gave birth to Jenner the following year and Jenner’s late sister, Karen Houghton, in 1958. After seven years of marriage, MJ and Bob called it quits and she married Harry Shannon, a businessman who helped raise Jenner and her sister in San Diego, where MJ ran a children’s clothing store.

Harry Shannon died in 2003.

MJ was featured on the famous clan’s E! reality series “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and the follow-up Hulu series “The Kardashians” numerous times over the years. In a clip from the show, granddaughter Kim Kardashian detailed that her grandmother had survived colon cancer and breast cancer and, in her sunset years, struggled with sickness resulting from the cancer treatments.

In one clip from the show, MJ said she didn’t have an appetite without taking her “medication” first. Then she persuaded her daughter, Jenner, to have marijuana gummies with her. Together they lit some incense and munched on muffins and chips and guacamole.

In another clip, Jenner interviews MJ about her life, and during the sit-down, Jenner asks MJ, “What’s your biggest fear?”

MJ replies, “I try not to fear,” and then follows up asking Jenner what her biggest fear is.

Jenner starts to cry and says, “I don’t want to say it. I can’t believe I’m crying. … Just, losing someone.”

On Thursday, Kim Kardashian caught flak online when a post featuring the Skims mogul and her sister Khloe Kardashian swigging tequila from a boat on a lake published shortly after Jenner announced the news of MJ’s death.

“This post was scheduled a few days ago before we lost MJ, so its timing came right alongside her passing,” Kim wrote in the comment section of the post. “I’ve been by my mom and grandma’s side this past week, and my heart is completely with my family right now. We love and miss her so deeply, and in the days ahead, we’ll be focusing on celebrating her beautiful life.”

Kim followed up with a post celebrating her grandmother, writing, “My sweet Grandma MJ, my best friend, my gossip buddy, my forever twin … You taught all of us the importance of family, and those values are something we’ll carry with us forever!!!!! You were the woman who showed me what it meant to be a hardworking businesswoman. You gave me my very first job at your store in San Diego and taught me lessons about work ethic, strength, and confidence that I’ve carried with me ever since.

“You always believed in me, championed me, and were my safe place. You truly were the matriarch of our family, and your love is woven into all of us. I know you’re at peace now. Give Papa Harry, Aunt Karen, and my dad a hug for me. You will always be a part of me, I love you soooooo much and I will miss you forever and ever. … YOU ARE THE BEST OF US!!!”

Two weeks ago, Jenner’s bodyguard, Mason Haynes, who also worked as a close protection guard for other members of the Kardashian-Jenner family, died in a traffic accident. He was 52.

Bonnie Tyler, the husky-voiced, powerhouse vocalist who performed memorable and dramatic pop rock songs including “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in the 1980s, has died.

The Welsh singer died in a Portugal hospital on Wednesday night, according to a statement on her official website and social media accounts Thursday morning. Prior to her death, Tyler was hospitalized and underwent emergency intestinal surgery in May 2026. She was placed in an induced coma to aid her recovery which she awoke from in mid-June but remained “very unwell,” her family said at the time. She was 75.

“Bonnie’s family and team are heartbroken to announce that Bonnie unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for,” the statement read.

A three-time Grammy Award nominee, Tyler first rose to fame in the late 1970s. She was known for her raspy vocals, offering listeners an edgier sound that also melded rock and pop. Tyler released a total of 18 studio albums, beginning with her debut, “The World Starts Tonight,” in 1977. But she solidified her place in music with collaborations with songwriter-producer Jim Steinman, a hitmaker who worked with Meat Loaf, Air Supply and Celine Dion.

Tyler contributed her powerful voice to Steinman’s dramatic “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” which was released in 1983 ahead of her fifth studio album, “Faster Than the Speed of Night.” Steinman initially envisioned the power ballad as a core piece in a musical adaptation of “Nosferatu,” but with Tyler, the number took on a different life.

“Total Eclipse of the Heart” climbed music charts and earned Tyler a Grammy nomination for female pop vocal performance in 1984. In addition to its commercial and critical success, Tyler’s moody hit became a mainstay in pop culture, covered in the musical TV series “Glee” and finding new life in versions by One Direction, Kelly Clarkson and several other musical acts.

“When I first heard it, I couldn’t believe it had been given to me to record. I just cried at the intense emotion of it and was so happy to have that song,” Tyler told the Guardian in 2009. “Now when I go on stage and sing ‘Total Eclipse,’ everybody sings with me. So many people say they fell in love to it and it means a hell of a lot to them. It’s such an anthem, and such a wonderful feeling, I never get tired of singing it.”

“Total Eclipse of the Heart” wasn’t the only celebrated hit from Tyler.

A year later, she performed “Holding Out for a Hero,” produced by Steinman and co-written by Dean Pitchford, for the 1984 film classic “Footloose,” starring Kevin Bacon. The energetic anthem, which features Tyler’s thunderous voice over a racing beat, also climbed the Billboard Hot 100 (it peaked at No. 34) and went on to be featured in other screen projects, including a pivotal scene in the animated comedy “Shrek 2,” with Jennifer Saunders performing the hit.

Tyler, also known for “Bitterblue,” written and produced by Dieter Bohlen, continued releasing music throughout the ’90s and early aughts. Amid the process of creating her 16th album, “Rocks and Honey,” Tyler joined the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013 to represent the United Kingdom. Though she finished 19th, she said at the time she was glad she competed “because it was an incredible experience,” likening it to the Grammy Awards. She released “Rocks and Honey” that same year, her penultimate album, “Between the Earth and the Stars,” in 2019 and her final album, “The Best Is Yet to Come” in 2021.

In 2022, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire during Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, recognizing Tyler’s contributions to music.

Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins on June 8, 1951, to homemaker Elsie and coal miner Glyndwr, and was one of seven children. She was raised Protestant and cared for by her grandparents in the small Welsh town of Skewen. Her passion for music could be traced to watching British charts program “Top of the Pops” with her father, writing down lyrics to the hits of the time and singing them herself. Tyler officially caught the singing bug after placing second at the talent show hosted by a local rugby club.

After the contest, the singer continued her artistic pursuit, performing with a handful of bands including Bobby Wayne & the Dixies and, later, Imagination. She was eventually scouted and traveled to London to record a few demos but did not immediately hear back. “After two years, someone called me out of the blue and told me I’d got a record deal on the same label as Elvis,” she recalled to the Guardian.

The singer underwent several name changes over the course of the career. First she pivoted to Sherene Davis to avoid confusion with fellow Welsh vocalist Mary Hopkin. Then once more, at the behest of RCA Records, to Bonnie Tyler — a name she conjured up by mixing and matching names she read in a local newspaper.

Now Bonnie Tyler, the singer released her debut single “My! My! Honeycomb!” in 1976 and her debut album the following year. However, she would not come into her signature sound until the spring of 1977. Tyler suffered nodules on her vocal cords and underwent surgery to remove them. She feared her career would end as a result, though that would be far from the case.

Tyler, after a brief recovery period, returned to the recording studio with a huskier, edgier voice. “It turned out losing my voice was not too treacherous for me,” she told the Guardian. She released “It’s a Heartache” in 1977 with her raspy voice front and center.

“I had my first hit in America with my new husky voice on ‘It’s a Heartache,’” she said. “Maybe my husky voice was what that song, and my career, needed.”

After her tenure with RCA Records, Tyler signed with CBS Records in 1982, leading to her memorable collaborations with Steinman. At the end of the ’90s, Tyler signed with Hansa/BMG Ariola and, eventually, with EastWest Records and continued to find success in continental Europe. In addition to her albums, Tyler embarked on several tours, most recently her Between the Earth and the Stars live tour in 2019. Her most recent release was “Together” in July 2025, produced by electronic music artist David Guetta, which samples the chorus of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

Tyler married former Olympic martial artist Robert Sullivan in 1973. The pair never had their own children — the singer suffered a miscarriage at age 39 — but experienced “no shortage of children,” she told the Guardian in 2012. Tyler had numerous godchildren, more than a dozen nieces and nephews and multiple great-nieces and great-nephews. With her fame, Tyler supported her family and purchased several properties including a home in Mumbles, Wales, and a home in Portugal.

When Tyler reflected on her decades-long career for the BBC in 2019, she said she had long exceeded her own expectations.

“I didn’t expect ever to be making records,” she said at the time. “I was just happy being in a band, singing.”

BONNIE Tyler fans have some incredible songs to remember her by after the sad news of her passing in Portugal on Wednesday night.

On Thursday it was confirmed that the singer had died aged 75, weeks after undergoing emergency surgery and being put in an induced coma.

The star was put into a coma back in April at Faro Hospital, later suffered complications, but woke up from the coma in June.

Her heartbroken family shared a statement that she had passed away from an illness last night.

Bonnie, who was born in Gaynor Hopkins in Mumbles, South Wales, shot to fame in the 70s and has had an amazing singing career.

Over the years, according to Official Charts, Bonnie has had one UK No.1, five UK top 10s, seven UK top 40s, and 12 UK top 75s.

LEGEND GONE

Bonnie Tyler dies aged 75 – weeks after undergoing emergency surgery

HEALTH FEARS

Bonnie Tyler wakes up from coma in Portugal after ‘suffering cardiac arrest’

Her single Total Eclipse Of The Heart, which was released in 1983, peaked at No.1 and was there for a total of two weeks.

Meanwhile the 1984 tune, Holding Out For A Hero, peaked at number 96 in the charts.

It’s A Heartache, which was released in 1977, got to number 4 and was in the charts for 12 weeks.

And the 1976 tune Lost In France hit number nine and was there for a total of 10 weeks.

Married Men, which was released in 1979, peaked at 35 and was in the charts for 42 days.

The 1983 song Fasted The The Speed Of Night was in the charts for 35 days and managed to get to number 47.

And Have You Ever Seen The Rain?, released in 1983, hit number 47 and was in the charts for three weeks.

She’s also had a number of other chart-topping songs including A Rockin’ Good Way, Getting So Excited, Holding Out For A Hero, and Believe In Me.

Over the years she also released over 15 studio albums.

Her album, Faster Than The Speed Of Light, peaked at No.1 in 1983 and was there for one week.

It stayed in the charts for an amazing 45 weeks.

The Greatest Hits peaked at number 18 in 1986 and was in the charts for 21 weeks.

Her other albums include The World Starts Tonight (1977), Natural Force (1978), Diamond Cut (1979), Goodbye to the Island (1981), Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire (1986).

Some of her others are Hide Your Heart (1988),Bitterblue (1991), Angel Heart (1992), Silhouette in Red (1993), Free Spirit (1995), All in One Voice (1998), Heart Strings (2003), Simply Believe (2004), Wings (2005), Rocks and Honey (2013) and Between the Earth and the Stars (2019).

And most recently, The Best Is Yet to Come, which was released five years ago.

It comes after a statement published on the singer’s website today (9 July 2026) confirmed the legendary singer passed away last night following an illness.

It read: “Bonnie’s family and team are heartbroken to announce that Bonnie unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for.

“We will issue a further statement shortly but for now ask for privacy to deal with this tragedy.”

In April, she began to feel intense abdominal pain shortly after arriving in Portugal, where she has a second home, following tests in London.

It was announced in May that Bonnie had been rushed to hospital with a serious tear in her bowel and had to have emergency surgery.

But complications from the operation meant doctors had to place the singer in an induced coma.

Portuguese media claimed Bonnie went into cardiac arrest when doctors first tried to bring her out of her induced coma several weeks ago.

She was due to perform at the Sunshine Festival in Worcester this summer, along with a number of European dates.

Bonnie had also been booked to perform at Cardiff’s Utilita Arena on December 17.

The singer who was married to property developer Robert Sullivan since 1973.

She competed at the Eurovision Song Contest for UK in 2013 and finished the competition in 19th place with her song Believe In Me.

Lauren Bennett, the British singer who told millennials to “put yo’ hands up” in LMFAO’s megahit “Party Rock Anthem,” and a member of pop group G.R.L., has died. She was 37.

G.R.L. members Emmalyn Estrada, Natasha Slayton and Paula van Oppen announced Bennett’s death on Monday via social media.

“It is with great sadness that we share the passing of our beloved Lauren,” G.R.L.’s statement read.

“Our hearts are broken, and we cannot begin to express how much she meant to us. We will forever cherish the love, laughter, and countless memories she gave us. Her beautiful spirit touched so many lives, and she will be deeply missed and forever loved. Rest peacefully, sweet Lauren. You will always be in our hearts.”

Bennett’s cause of death has not been revealed.

The British singer first splashed onto the music scene when she appeared on the U.K. “X Factor” in 2006. She was eliminated before the live show round of the series, but the following year she was recruited to join Paradiso Girls, a group launched by Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin. In 2009, they dropped “Patron Tequila,” featuring Lil Jon and Eve. The group disbanded in 2010 and their debut album was never released.

In 2011, Bennett joined forces with electronic dance duo LMFAO on “Party Rock Anthem.” The track spent six weeks topping Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and became wildly popular globally. Billboard ranked the megahit second on their official “Top Hot 100 Songs of the Decade” list for the 2010s, behind Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk.”

In 2012, she and Antin teamed up again, forming pop group G.R.L. (Girls Rock Life) with founding members including Bennett, Estrada, Slayton, van Oppen and Simone Battle. The group debuted on the “Smurfs 2” soundtrack with “Vacation” in July 2013 and, in early 2014, they were featured on Pitbull’s “Wild Wild Love.” In the summer of 2014, they dropped “Ugly Heart,” the lead single of their self-titled EP, but in September, founding member Battle died by suicide. G.R.L. split up the following year. By 2016, the group reformed as a trio with Bennett, Slayton and new member Jazzy Mejia.

Bennett welcomed her daughter, Harlow, with partner and “Footloose” star Kenny Wormald in 2019. Wormald often shared photos of Bennett on his Instagram with loving captions.

Longtime friend and music producer Josh Stevens, who co-wrote and engineered LMFAO’s sophomore album “Sorry for Party Rocking,” posted a tribute to Bennett on Monday, writing, “My friend [Lauren Bennett] we will deeply miss you. I was lucky enough to witness you change the world! We traveled the globe party rocking from night clubs to stadiums, a wild and crazy time. A true legend!

“Later on in life our children had the same birthday, I remember us texting each other while you were in labor and my wife was in labor on the same day, same time, both in the hospital. We were laughing and it somewhat seemed calming to know to each was going thru this at the same time.

“We will very much miss you.”

SCARLETT Moffatt has heartbreakingly revealed that her fiancé Scott Dobinson’s mum has passed away.

In an emotional tribute to his mum Janice, the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! star – who is expecting her second child – said she was “so upset” that Janice wouldn’t be around to meet their second son.

Scarlett and Scott have been together since 2018 and are already parents to son Jude, revealing in April they are expecting another little one.

Announcing the sad news that Janice has passed, the star wrote to Instagram: “My heart is broken for Scott and all of his family at the loss of his mam Janice 💔

“You were the best Nanna to Jude, the kindest mother-in-law and one of the loveliest people I’ve ever known.

“I’m so upset that you won’t get to meet your second grandson but I know you will be watching over us all, I’ll forever be grateful for all the love, kindness and warmth you showed me from the very beginning, and especially for the love you gave Jude.”

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Scarlett continued: “You raised true gentlemen in both your boys, and that says everything about the incredible woman you were.

“We will miss you more than words can say. Sleep peacefully Janice, our Nan Jan”.

Scarlett and other half Scott met through mutual friends over 15 years ago, but didn’t officially start dating until 2018.

They welcomed son Jude in the summer 2023 and got engaged in November that same year.

Since revealing they are set to welcome another child back in April, Scarlett has admitted the pregnancy hasn’t been smooth sailing.

Shortly after the announcement, she told fans how she had been struggling with sickness, hot flushes and migraines.

And alongside the health woes, the star has also had a wave of pregnancy cravings.

She told The Sun in May: “I’m having different cravings to last time,” she says. “With Jude, it was honeydew melon. Sometimes I’d have a whole melon a day.

“Now it’s cheese — specifically grated cheese. I think it’s a texture thing. I want grated cheese sandwiches all the time. I can’t have the pre-grated, it’s too hard, so I’ve got Scott grating me cheese at 11pm.”

“When Calls the Heart” co-stars Erin Krakow and Ben Rosenbaum celebrated one year of marriage by publicly introducing the latest member of their growing family.

Krakow, 41, and Rosenbaum, 39, revealed via People on Tuesday that they welcomed a baby girl — their first child together — in April. In a joint Instagram post with the outlet, the Hallmark co-stars shared tender photos from an intimate shoot of themselves cuddling their baby girl and posing with their dog, Willoughby. The couple did not dish additional details about their child’s birth.

“Our daughter has been the greatest gift, and we are loving getting to know her better with each passing day,” Krakow and Rosenbaum told People via email.

Krakow and Rosenbaum have starred in the hit Hallmark period drama since its premiere in 2014. “When Calls the Heart” is set in the early 20th century and follows Krakow’s schoolteacher Elizabeth Thatcher as she makes a life for herself in Hope Valley, a small town in western Canada. Rosenbaum stars as Hope Valley resident Mike Hickam.

The new parents first generated dating rumors in 2023 when Krakow revealed she and Rosenbaum had become dog parents. Months later, Rosenbaum confirmed their romance in a Valentine’s Day post. The pair tied the knot last June and revealed in November that they were expecting.

“When Calls the Heart” wrapped up its 13th season in March and will return for production on Season 14 in 2027.

GREG James has confirmed his Radio 1 show return and revealed that he’s ‘exhausted’ as he shared an update on his dad’s recent open heart surgeries.

The radio star, 40, was missing from the Radio 1 Breakfast, which airs weekdays from 7am to 10:30am, on Wednesday and Thursday (18 June 2026).

Greg took to his Instagram story this morning to reveal the heart-breaking reason why – and admitted that he’s “in no fit state” because his father Alan Milward has undergone heart surgery.

Then this afternoon, he decided to give his 1.3m followers on the social media platform an update.

Sharing a selfie from a sauna, Greg wrote: “Hello from the sauna! I felt daft updating on all of this but because it was such a loud part of the comic relief challenge, I feel like it’s nice to be honest about it all.

“Just to say, my dad is responsive, just about conscious and being looked after amazingly.

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“Obviously, after two open heart surgeries in three months, he’s not out of the woods by a long way, but we’re hopeful he’ll be fixed and we can all just get on with life.

“Which is what I’m gonna try and do.

“I won’t keep updating on here about it all as quite frankly, we’re all exhausted by it and it’s going to be a long road to recovery.”

He then went on to share exactly when he’ll be back on the radio – and fans don’t have long to wait.

Greg continued: “I’ve wanted to make sure my mum is OK so it’s been nice to spend loads of time with her and my big sis, but I’m back to the show tomorrow and I can’t wait.

“Thank you again for the most amazing load of messages.

“It’s genuinely very comforting.”

It comes after Greg told fans yesterday: “Hello from my mum’s garden! I wasn’t on the breakfast show today as my dad was in for another go at heart surgery (it’s been a wild few months and I didn’t want to bore you with it all). 

“But here we are. Back to square one. Waiting for news and staying distracted and keeping calm by making water features. 

“All being well, back on tomorrow morning.”

However Greg later revealed Alan’s surgery took “much longer” than they’d expected so he would be taking another day off. 

He said: “What a great day! An absolute hoot in ICU. 

“Surgery was much longer than everyone hoped. Big up my mum and my big sis. And the surgeons. And the NHS. What a gang. We’ve all gone mad. 

“Real talk, surgery went ok but he’s far from out of the woods so I’m gonna take it easy tomorrow and hopefully back on Friday. 

“Plus, I’m in no fit state to be on the radio. I mean, look at me, I’m posting photos from intensive care ffs. Thank you for your lovely messages.”

In March Greg had to cancel his show and rush home after Alan suffered a stroke during a planned heart operation.

He later opened up about his dad’s struggles during his 1,000km tandem bike ride for Red Nose Day.

Undertaking the mammoth task just a week after Alan’s stroke, Greg got emotional talking about the man he calls “Big Al”.

He said: “I feel elated. I feel a bit overwhelmed by all these people who just turned up out of nowhere. I just burst into tears as I was going up to Blaenavon. It was all a bit much.

“Just thought about… I just thought about everything. Just thought about my dad, thought about my mum. It got way too much. It’s so silly. It must have been the altitude.”

Ben Gibbard remembers late 2023 as a time of competing realities.

Onstage, the frontman of Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service was thriving as his two bands toured together to mark the 20th anniversaries of Death Cab’s “Transatlanticism” and the Postal Service’s “Give Up.”

Behind the scenes, Gibbard’s personal life was in shambles.

“I was getting off phone calls — very difficult phone calls — 20 minutes before going on in an arena,” he says. The singer and his wife, photographer Rachel Demy, were in the middle of an agonizing breakup that would eventually lead to divorce. Yet audiences in the thousands were turning up nightly to see Gibbard reanimate the peak-millennial classics that made him one of indie rock’s defining stars.

“I’d just tell myself, You’re a professional — you’re gonna go out there and do it, and no one’s gonna know,” he recalls. “It was all waiting for me when I got offstage, of course. But for two hours I was able to disconnect and be a performer, which was incredibly …” Gibbard, 49, trails off into a laugh.

“I don’t know if it was healthy,” he says. “But it was helpful.”

Two and a half years later, that split-screen experience — “this idea of how we compartmentalize our pain or our grief or our trauma,” as Gibbard puts it now — forms a through line of Death Cab’s ruminative new album, “I Built You a Tower.” Due Friday from Anti Records, where the group landed after leaving its longtime home of Atlantic amid a corporate shake-up, the LP sets thoughts of broken fences and never-ending storms against tuneful arrangements that can churn, shimmer or chime.

“I pledge myself to your misery / I kneel at its throne,” Gibbard sings in his still-boyish tenor over the sleek new wave groove of “Trap Door,” “Respecting your proclivity / To languish on your own.” In the fuzzed-out “Envy the Birds,” the frontman recounts an argument between two lovers “spraying bullets of grievances”; the driving “Riptides” is narrated by a guy “too tired to end the war.”

“This record is definitely the result of a divorce,” Gibbard says plainly during a recent visit to Los Angeles from his home in Seattle. “But I didn’t want to make a score-settling record or an angry record. This wasn’t an opportunity to defame someone or make this about how I’d been wronged. People drift apart — relationships don’t work. And I think how that’s affected me at almost 50 is a very different mindset than I found myself in when I was 33 or whatever the last time it happened.”

Gibbard means his first divorce, in 2012, from the actor and singer Zooey Deschanel — a split that inspired Death Cab’s 2015 album “Kintsugi,” on which one song asks, “Was I in your way when the cameras turned to face you?” and another chides an unnamed celebrity: “You’ll never have to hear the word ‘no’ if you keep all your friends on the payroll.”

“There’s some gnarly stuff on that record,” says Gibbard, who’d moved to L.A. to be with Deschanel then promptly left as soon as their marriage collapsed. “It’s not exactly a kind album.”

Bassist Nick Harmer, who formed Death Cab with Gibbard in the late ’90s after the two met as students at Western Washington University, agrees that “I Built You a Tower” represents a shift in perspective. “There’s so much more self-examination — and so much more self-indictment,” he says. (Death Cab’s other members are drummer Jason McGerr, guitarist Dave Depper and keyboardist Zac Rae.)

Which isn’t to say that Gibbard entirely resists placing blame. In “Trap Door” he sings about “a trap door in your heart and a button on your desk well-worn from being pressed.”

The frontman says that in recent years he’d “tried to get away from using the word ‘heart’ because that had been a touchstone for so many of our early records.” Yet this line seemed worth holding onto when it came to him.

“I Googled it to see: Did I already write this?” he says, laughing. “Or is there a very popular song called ‘There’s a Trap Door in Your Heart,’ and now I’m just rewriting it? We’ve made a lot of songs at this point — you gotta check your work.”

Indeed, “I Built You a Tower” is Death Cab’s 11th studio LP. After the band’s previous album, 2022’s “Asphalt Meadows,” fulfilled its deal with Atlantic, Death Cab reupped with the major label for one more record, Gibbard says, based on its strong relationship with the company’s then-CEO, Julie Greenwald.

“Julie was our shepherd and our protector the whole time we were there,” the singer says of Death Cab’s nearly two-decade run at Atlantic, which began with 2005’s Grammy-nominated “Plans.” Yet just days after they reached an agreement for “Tower,” Greenwald was fired and replaced by a new leader, Elliot Grainge, about whom the band felt less than optimistic.

Ben Gibbard

(Cielito Mercado Vivas / For The Times)

“We weren’t given the impression that Elliot had spent a lot of time with ‘Transatlanticism’ in college,” Gibbard says of the 32-year-old exec, who made his name signing rappers like Ice Spice and Trippie Redd. With Greenwald’s help, Gibbard says, Death Cab negotiated an exit from Atlantic with ownership of the new album.

Did Grainge try to persuade the band to stay?

“Never heard a word,” Gibbard says.

In an email, Grainge (whose father is Universal Music Group Chairman and Chief Executive Lucian Grange) said that Death Cab’s music “has meant a great deal” to him.

“Working together may not have been in the cards for us; however, that does not lessen my enthusiasm for the band,” he wrote. “They have delivered an impressive body of work over their decades-long career, and I am looking forward to their new music.”

Death Cab’s Harmer says he and his bandmates “talked for half a beat” about putting out “Tower” on their own before thinking better of the idea.

“We’re not businesspeople,” Gibbard says. “Music is the only thing we know how to do.”

At a friend’s wedding in 2024, the frontman had been seated next to the musician Allison Crutchfield, who was then heading up Anti’s A&R department; early this year, Death Cab announced that it had signed to the indie label, whose other acts include Fleet Foxes and Madi Diaz.

This summer, the band will tour behind “I Built You a Tower,” including two shows in August at L.A.’s Greek Theatre. After the “Transatlanticism”/”Give Up” anniversary outing — not to mention a subsequent tour on which the group looked back at “Plans” — Gibbard is “very ready to play some new material,” he says.

Doing the hits was fun. “But at a certain point,” he adds, “it’s really about moving ahead.”

A holiday in Lanzarote turned into a nightmare for the family after John suffered a heart attack – and then they had issues when trying to get their sons home

A father of two was on holiday with his family when he suffered a heart attack, but faced turmoil when trying to fly their children home.

John Evans, 61, from Cardiff, Wales, had been on holiday with his wife, Annette, and their two children, aged 12 and 15, at the time, when he started to feel unwell. While they were enjoying a sun-soaked getaway at a resort in Lanzarote, John felt unwell. When his wife, a nurse, became concerned, they called a doctor. The next thing they knew, John was told to go to hospital.

“At that stage, I didn’t want to make a fuss, but I thought fair enough. I hadn’t had much chest pain at the point, but I was light-headed,” John told the Mirror. At the hospital John was undergoing an ECH when he began to experience “severe pain”.

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The 61-year-old explained: “They said, ‘he’s having a heart attack now’. My wife was asked to leave the room, and they put some lines in me. I was vomiting and not very well at that stage, but they managed to put a stent in. Basically, there was an occlusion (blockage) in my left main stem artery, which is the worst possible place to have an occlusion. But then the stent got blocked, so they had to shock me a couple of times.”

Thankfully, John came around, and was taken to Cardiac Care Unit where he remained for three days, before being transferred to another ward in the hospital. Yet, as his heart attack happened the day before the family were due to fly home, the parents were left with the additional stress of trying to get their children home.

“My wife was obviously very upset, and we didn’t know how long I’d need to be in the hospital for,” John said. “We didn’t really want the kids getting worried, so we thought it was best they flew home with the other family (they had been on holiday with), and my sister would then meet them at the airport in the UK. We weren’t sure what we needed for them to fly without us.”

John and Annette signed a note confirming they had given consent for another family to travel with their two children back to the UK. Annette went with the group to Lanzarote airport to ensure everything went smoothly. As they had all checked in to their flight online the day before, they went through airport security and to their departure gate.

However, when they got to the gate, John claimed that his wife was told by easyJet staff that the children couldn’t travel without their parents onboard. John alleged: “They had our four boarding passes and a letter with our consent, but they point-blank refused and said that we had to get a letter from Guardia Civil to allow the kids to fly without parents, which was a bit of a shock. I had spoken to other people who have travelled with their own kids and taken other kids on holiday, and they never had any problems.”

As a result, their children had to stay in Lanzarote, which John said “put a bit more stress on the wife” who had to find an Airbnb near the hospital and start making plans for how to get their children home, as it was unclear how long John would remain in hospital.

It’s worth noting that easyJet states on its website that children aged 15 years and younger cannot travel unless they are accompanied by an adult. The airline also confirmed to the Mirror that, for British nationals, children under 15 can travel with another adult provided they have written consent from the child’s parent or legal guardian, but said there are different regulations for children of certain nationalities or when travelling to/from specific countries. However, the child must be on the same booking as the adult they are travelling with.

Annette went to the Guardia Civil to inquire about what they needed for their children to travel back to the UK with their godmother, who had flown out to Lanzarote. However, the couple say she was told by staff there that they didn’t need a letter from Guardia Civil, despite what they’d been told at the airport.

After this, they rebooked flights with another airline for their two sons and their godmother to fly home together. John said. “They flew home without any bother on Monday. They didn’t check any documentation and didn’t ask for anything.”

The following Saturday, and after a week in hospital, John was able to fly back to the UK. But following the ordeal, John said: “My wife was struggling, and it was frustrating. I was a bit annoyed at easyJet as they had given my wife the wrong information during a fairly stressful time.”

While John was able to claim the majority of their additional expenses, including the flights, through travel insurance, the issue is not settled in his mind, as he feels that nobody addressed the fact they were given “wrong information at the gate”.

Annette got in touch with easyJet, who apologised for the “challenges you all faced at Lanzarote airport”. However, John said he still feels “quite angry” at the whole situation as “the boys were struggling, their dad was in hospital, and they were in a nasty position – they had to stay around when they could have been at home, out of the stress”.

A spokesperson for easyJet told the Mirror: “We are very sorry to hear about Mr Evan’s circumstances and fully understand this will have been a stressful time for the family.

“We take the safeguarding of minors very seriously and have processes in place to ensure their wellbeing and to support our customers should their children need to be accompanied by someone other than their parent or legal guardian. This includes ensuring children are on the same booking as the adults they are travelling with, and we can make these changes to a booking for customers ahead of travel.

“Whilst Mr and Mrs Evans provided a letter of consent, as their children were on a separate booking to the adults they were travelling with, they were unfortunately unable to travel. We are in touch with the family about their experience and are offering any further assistance they may need.”

Limestone stretches on all sides like an inland ocean – appropriately enough, since the shimmering white rock has its ancient origins in coral, shells and the skeletons of sea creatures. We advance carefully, stepping on clints (blocks of rock) and avoiding grykes (the deep fissures between them). It’s a warm, dry day and, even if it were not, limestone drains better than most types of terrain. For a long while, it’s broad, flat and hallucinatory and then, suddenly, the rocky sea collapses like a waterfall and we’re at the edge of a huge fault. The words Yorkshire Dales might evoke pretty villages and walled-in sheep fields, but this landscape is raw and wild, the kind of natural realm WH Auden celebrated in his poem In Praise of Limestone, and the kind that prompts geological speculation and inward ruminations. To cap it all, there are just three of us and nothing much and no one else all the way to the far horizons.

It’s my first decent yomp of the spring. I’ve come here with two walking pals on the egregiously under-promoted direct train that connects Rochdale and Manchester with the national park and Yorkshire’s Three Peaks. While the Leeds-Settle-Carlisle service – which recently celebrated its 150th birthday – is deservedly famous, the Yorkshire Dales Explorer, which started in June 2024, is much less celebrated. It’s also far less frequent. Trains travel between Leeds and Settle, continuing to Carlisle or Morecambe, 20 times a day Monday to Saturday, 11 times on Sundays. Trains between Manchester Victoria and Settle run on Saturdays only and just once in the morning each way and once in the late afternoon.

We alight at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, the penultimate station before the terminus at Ribblehead, where rises the magnificent viaduct. Both stops are great for walkers, but ours takes us immediately into the heart of the Three Peaks. Pen-y-ghent is behind us as we leave the station, Ingleborough ahead and, to the north, on our far right, is Whernside. All have summits of about 700 metres and if you’re super fit, you can do them in one day – even between the two train services if you want a challenge. The men’s running record is 2hrs 46mins 3secs, set by Andy Peace, of Bingley Harriers, in 1996. Victoria Wilkinson, from the same club, set the women’s record, 3hrs 9mins 19secs, in 2017. It’s more than 23 miles (37km), and trained, fit walkers can manage it in 8-10 hours.

Ours is a less daunting mission: walking on a plateau between the peaks down to Settle, for a pub lunch. It’s still an adventure in the sense that there are very few marked footpaths on the OS app (OL2 is the Ordnance Survey printed map), but this is open access land and so you find your own route. We use cairns to navigate, climbing from the station platform at about 250 metres to the Moughton trig point at 427 metres, where we get a sweeping view of the Yorkshire Three Peaks and Bowland Fells to our south and west, and a chance for a cuppa. I hear my first skylarks of the season, but the air is also filled with the unmistakeable gurgling croak of ravens. Shake holes break up the limestone pavement and you have to be alert to these sudden depressions, but the only significant obstacle is getting down the scars, where the elevation suddenly drops tens of feet. At Long Scar we pause to plot a path and to take in the vertical edge, and in the middle distance, the Norber Erratics – 100-plus boulders transported long ago by glaciers and abandoned wantonly above the village of Austwick.

But the edge is enthralling. You can imagine this formation as an underwater cliff, aeons ago, though glaciation, weather and uplift have played their part in creating the static drama. It could be a rift in the Patagonian steppe or a Yorkshire-tinted section of Arizona’s Monument Valley. We sight an obelisk and head for that and soon find ourselves at the edge of another drop, Moughton Scar, where we descend again, passing a massive quarry; here the material hewed out of the strata is a tough gritstone called greywacke, the colour of cement.

It’s green and agricultural the rest of the way, and while we’re hitting the 10-mile stage of the walk, it’s fine to have wobbly legs now we’re off the tricky pavement. Wild garlic is bursting through, newborn lambs are dozing, and daffodils are sprouting around the tiny hamlet of Feizor, where there’s a teashop that used to be for walkers but now seems to pull in mainly car tourists.

We plough on, over two small rises, and finally on to the banks of the Ribble, which begins its long, meandering journey close to where we began. Settle is full of bikers, shoppers and sightseers, but there are also pints and late lunches in the pubs. We’re contented and have earned our pies. We can either get the late train back or hop on the number 11 minibus to Clitheroe. Those travelling from farther afield have the backup option of later trains to Leeds or Lancaster.

Ours was an ideal first long walk if you’re getting back into exercise after the wet winter. If you want to use the train to attempt the Three Peaks, I’d recommend splitting up the hikes over a weekend. Horton to Pen-y-ghent and then on to Ribblehead, 10 miles all told, is a nice day’s jaunt. You can do Whernside and Ingleborough on the following day, covering a similar distance, ending back at Horton. There’s a choice of campsites and a pub with rooms – the Station Inn – at Ribblehead.

The three hills have different qualities. Pen-y-ghent is a proper big lump, with a dramatically steep southern face that requires a short scramble. Ingleborough is a similar shape, but more haughty and spread out, almost mesa-like in its flat-topped appearance. Whernside is a long-elevated whale-back ridge, running north to south.

I can see the Three Peaks from my kitchen window, 22 miles away as the raven flies. The day before our hike, it had rained at home. But it had snowed on the top of the peaks, making them look out of place. They bear the full brunt of cold westerlies and are higher than anything nearby, and consequently create a micro-season of their own. Bear that in mind if you’re aiming to bag them on your next weekend outing.

A new trailer for Clarkson’s Farm has shown a moment when Jeremy Clarkson was hospitalised after suffering an issue with his heart where it “wasn’t getting any blood”

A new trailer for Clarkson’s Farm has shown the horrifying moment when star Jeremy Clarkson had to be hospitalised after a heart scare. In the clip, he told colleague Kaleb Cooper that his heart “wasn’t getting any blood”.

The trailer for season five was released on 18 May. It started with clips about life at Diddly Squat, including Jeremy’s pursuit of a driverless tractor, but the tone suddenly shifted when he opened up about a recent hospitalisation.

Clips of the star in hospital, with wires connected to his chest, just after a clip of an ambulance racing down a country road. Jeremy could be heard telling Kaleb: “You’ve got three arteries that feed your heart to keep it pumping. My heart wasn’t getting any blood.”

READ MORE: Clarkson’s Farm star Kaleb Cooper ‘replaced’ in season 5 trailerREAD MORE: Jeremy Clarkson calls Aberaeron Wales ‘achingly beautiful’ with ‘best hotel in the world’

The camera cut to Kaleb’s shocked face before another Diddly Squat farmer said: “To be fair, my mother dropped dead of heart attack at 67.” Jeremy responded that this was “cheery news”.

Jeremy has faced heart issues before. In 2024, he went through a heart procedure where he has a stent put in to open up a blocked artery after suffering from tightness in the chest. Writing in his column for the Sunday Times, the then 64-year-old said he thought he was having a heart attack because the symptoms were so familiar: “I certainly wasn’t having a heart attack. But if it hadn’t looked that way, I never would have been sent to hospital.”

Though he will discuss his latest hospitalisation in Clarkson’s Farm, Jeremy does not seem to be letting his heart scare slow him down. The rest of the new trailer showed him to be getting stuck into life at the farm as it battled a tuberculosis outbreak among the animals.

It also saw him consider using a driverless tractor. In the trailer, Jeremy is sitting in his office and talking to Charlie Ireland: “I’ve had a brainwave, don’t worry.” Charlie was left shocked when he was handed a piece of paper that had plans for a driverless tractor.

The footage cut to said tractor, which was described as the “Starship Enterprise of farming”, working away on the land and Jeremy declaring to farmhand Kaleb: “Behold my technology at work.” Kaleb responded: “That is basically taking my job.”

But, Kaleb didn’t have to worry about his job as the tractor soon stopped moving in the middle of ploughing a field. “That went well,” Kaleb joked.

The new series was greenlit by Prime Video back on November 5, 2024 and filming took place last year. The first four episodes will be released on 3 June and the remaining will arrive in batches on the 10th and 17th.

Prime Video have not said if the show will continue after the upcoming series, but Jeremy has expressed his desire to have the show come back for at least two more seasons.

“We’ll definitely do six – Amazon want to [do season six] and I want to. I’ve got a good idea for six,” Clarkson told The Sun earlier this year. “I said I’ll stop doing them when there are no more ideas. But I’ve got two quite good ones, so we’ll do six and then we’ll see.”

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