James

A JAMES Bond favourite has taken himself out of the running after believing he’s “not the right person” for the role. 

Ever since Daniel Craig said goodbye to the role in 2021 release No Time To Die, the role of super spy 007 has been up for grabs, with speculation rife over who should take over. 

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Over time, bookies have placed their bets on a string of Hollywood A-listers to take on the role, including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Idris Elba and Henry Cavill. 

With Amazon acquiring the 007 franchise from the Broccoli family, this was then extended to American stars including Patrick Schwarzenegger, Timothée Chalamet and Jacob Elordi. 

But one emerging favourite – Top Gun 2 and Anyone But You star Glen Powell – has shut down speculation he could take his martini shaken, not stirred. 

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Glenn said simply: “I’m a Texan. My family and I joke around, I can play Jimmy Bond, but I should not be playing James Bond. 

“Get an authentic Brit for that job. That’s who belongs in that tuxedo.” 

In the 63 years James Bond has been on screen, seven actors have played the character – all of whom white men from the UK and Ireland. 

Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig have portrayed the spy in the film series, with David Niven taking on the role in a non-official adaptation in 1967. 

Debate has since spread over whether the franchise should deviate from tradition when it comes to the character, with James Bond and 007 code names that can be taken on by anyone. 

At one stage, Gillian Anderson was being considered as the first female Bond, while Idris Elba has held firm as a favourite to become the first Black star to portray the spy. 

However, some actors have noted they don’t want to play such an iconic character, as doing so would mean that they could be defined as “Bond” for the rest of their career. 

The White Lotus star Theo James previously ruled himself out for that reason, telling The Guardian in 2024: “I do think there are better people for that job. 

“And, honestly, it would be terrifying: if you do that, there’s no going back. You’re opening Pandora’s box there.” 

The new favourite for the role is relative unknown actor James Nelson-Joyce, who played James ‘Yatesy’ Yates in BBC drama, Little Boy Blue, and Michael Kavanaugh in the gangster drama, This City is Ours.

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NEW YORK — An appeals court has thrown out the massive civil fraud penalty against President Trump, ruling Thursday in New York state’s lawsuit accusing him of exaggerating his wealth.

The decision came seven months after the Republican returned to the White House. A panel of five judges in New York’s mid-level Appellate Division said the verdict, which stood to cost Trump more than $515 million and rock his real estate empire, was “excessive.”

After finding that Trump engaged in fraud by flagrantly padding financial statements that went to lenders and insurers, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered him last year to pay $355 million in penalties. With interest, the sum has topped $515 million.

The total — combined with penalties levied on some other Trump Organization executives, including Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr. — now exceeds $527 million, with interest.

“While the injunctive relief ordered by the court is well crafted to curb defendants’ business culture, the court’s disgorgement order, which directs that defendants pay nearly half a billion dollars to the State of New York, is an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution,” Judges Dianne T. Renwick and Peter H. Moulton wrote in one of several opinions shaping the appeals court’s ruling.

Engoron also imposed other punishments, such as banning Trump and his two eldest sons from serving in corporate leadership for a few years. Those provisions have been on pause during Trump’s appeal, and he was able to hold off collection of the money by posting a $175 million bond.

The court, which was split on the merits of the lawsuit and the lower court’s fraud finding, dismissed the penalty Engoron imposed in its entirety while also leaving a pathway for further appeals to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.

The appeals court, the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court, took an unusually long time to rule, weighing Trump’s appeal for nearly 11 months after oral arguments last fall. Normally, appeals are decided in a matter of weeks or a few months.

New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, who brought the suit on the state’s behalf, has said the businessman-turned-politician engaged in “lying, cheating, and staggering fraud.” Her office had no immediate comment after Thursday’s decision.

Trump and his co-defendants denied wrongdoing. In a six-minute summation of sorts after a monthslong trial, Trump proclaimed in January 2024 that he was “an innocent man” and the case was a “fraud on me.” He has repeatedly maintained that the case and verdict were political moves by James and Engoron, who are both Democrats.

Trump’s Justice Department has subpoenaed James for records related to the lawsuit, among other documents, as part of an investigation into whether she violated the president’s civil rights. James’ personal attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, has said that investigating the fraud case is “the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign.”

Trump and his lawyers said his financial statements weren’t deceptive, since they came with disclaimers noting they weren’t audited. The defense also noted that bankers and insurers independently evaluated the numbers, and the loans were repaid.

Despite such discrepancies as tripling the size of his Trump Tower penthouse, he said the financial statements were, if anything, lowball estimates of his fortune.

During an appellate court hearing in September, Trump’s lawyers argued that many of the case’s allegations were too old, an assertion they made unsuccessfully before trial. The defense also contends that James misused a consumer-protection law to sue Trump and improperly policed private business transactions that were satisfactory to those involved.

State attorneys said the law in question applies to fraudulent or illegal business conduct, whether it targets everyday consumers or big corporations. Though Trump insists no one was harmed by the financial statements, the state contends that the numbers led lenders to make riskier loans than they knew, and that honest borrowers lose out when others game their net-worth numbers.

The state has argued that the verdict rests on ample evidence and that the scale of the penalty comports with Trump’s gains, including his profits on properties financed with the loans and the interest he saved by getting favorable terms offered to wealthy borrowers.

The civil fraud case was just one of several legal obstacles for Trump as he campaigned, won and segued to a second term as president.

On Jan. 10, he was sentenced in his criminal hush money case to what’s known as an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction on the books but sparing him jail, probation, a fine or other punishment. He is appealing the conviction.

And in December, a federal appeals court upheld a jury’s finding that Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and later defamed her, affirming a $5 million judgment against him. The appeals court declined in June to reconsider; he still can try to get the Supreme Court to hear his appeal.

He’s also appealing a subsequent verdict that requires him to pay Carroll $83.3 million for additional defamation claims.

Peltz and Sisak write for the Associated Press.

James E. Silcott, a trailblazing Los Angeles architect who, thanks to many gifts to his alma mater, Howard University, became the most generous benefactor to architecture students at historically Black colleges in the U.S., died July 17 in Washington, D.C. He was 95.

Silcott’s memorial service took place on Saturday at Howard; he will be laid to rest in L.A.’s Inglewood Park Cemetery on Sept. 6.

Silcott, who started in Los Angeles working for Gruen Associates alongside colleagues like Frank Gehry, made history as the first Black project architect for both Los Angeles County and UCLA. His successful legal battles with the county — he alleged that he had been unfairly terminated because of his race, and was later a victim of retribution for his lawsuit — shined a light on the entrenched barriers Black professionals faced in public institutions at the time.

Born Dec. 21, 1929, in Boston, to parents from the Caribbean island of Montserrat, Silcott grew up in the city’s Roxbury neighborhood during a time of limited opportunities for young Black people. Living in tenements and walk-ups, and making friends of all races and ethnicities, he learned self-reliance, resilience and cultural fluency, as he recounted in a 2007 oral history for Northeastern University’s Lower Roxbury Black History Project. After graduating high school, he worked as a hotel cook alongside his father. “I didn’t know what I wanted,” he said. But an aptitude test at a local YMCA pointed him toward architecture. After being rejected from several architecture schools, he received a lifeline via Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Silcott entered Howard — its architecture program was the first at a historically Black college to receive accreditation — in 1949. He came under the mentorship of Howard H. Mackey Sr., one of the most prominent Black architects and educators of the 20th century, known for instilling a sense of architecture’s civic purpose. Silcott’s studies were interrupted by three years in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, where he rose to the rank of sergeant. Returning to Howard, he earned his 5-year bachelor of architecture degree in 1957.

Those years were marked by constant financial strain — often forcing him, as he put it, to decide “whether to buy books or buy food” — an experience that would later drive him, as a donor to Howard, to ensure that future students wouldn’t face that choice. He would never forget the role Howard played for him.

“He felt like when nobody else would take him, Howard took him,” said his niece Julie Roberts. “He really credits them for laying the groundwork and setting the path and changing the trajectory of his life.”

Silcott began his career working for architect Arthur Cohen in Boston before moving to Los Angeles — he always hated the cold, said his friends and family — in 1958. Joining Gruen Associates, one of the era’s most influential firms, he, among other efforts, collaborated with Frank Gehry on the design of the Winrock Shopping Center in Albuquerque. He would soon work at UCLA’s architectural and engineering office, becoming the school’s first Black project lead on buildings like the UCLA Boathouse (1965), with its light-filled, maritime-inspired form — including porthole windows and an upper story deck for viewing races. Also at UCLA he collaborated with Welton Becket and Associates on the Jules Stein Eye Institute (1966), with its clean-lined facade of pale stone columns and glass walls that opened to natural light while maintaining shade and privacy.

He later joined Los Angeles County’s Department of Facilities Management, where he would become a senior architect and help oversee projects like the Inglewood Courts Building (1973, another collaboration with Becket) and Los Angeles County Southeast General Hospital (1971), eventually renamed Martin Luther King Jr. General Hospital. As the only Black architect working in the county, Silcott’s good friend (and fellow Howard architecture graduate) Melvin Mitchell said he was not always welcome. “None of those men could ever imagine someone of Silcott’s race or color wielding that kind of power, despite the phony smiles and benign language used,” Mitchell said in his eulogy at Howard.

At the end of the decade Silcott was demoted and later laid off during budget cuts — a move he contended was racially motivated. The county’s Civil Service Commission eventually agreed, ruling in 1984 that he had been improperly terminated in order to preserve the jobs of white employees with less seniority, and ordering that he be reinstated with full back pay. “I had to fight for my job just to make sure the rules were applied fairly,” Silcott told the Los Angeles Times.

Chief County Engineer Stephen J. Koonce, left, gestured as he discussed with James Silcott the details of the architect’s return to work, on March 15, 1984.

(Steve Fontanini / Los Angeles Times)

But the reinstatement was short-lived: within months, Silcott alleged that the county had retaliated by stripping away meaningful duties, among other retributions. “They had him working in a closet at one time,” said Roberts. Later that year, the Board of Supervisors approved a roughly $1 million settlement offer to resolve his federal discrimination lawsuit. The Times noted that his case had “become a rallying point” for those seeking greater equity in public employment. As Silcott later reflected, “This was never just about me. It was about making sure the next Black architect who comes along doesn’t have to fight the same battles.”

Silcott would later work as an architectural consultant to public agencies and universities while serving on several public boards, including the South Los Angeles Area Planning Commission, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission, the Los Angeles Board of Zoning Appeals and the California State Board of Architectural Examiners.

He built a stylish home in Windsor Hills, where he would regularly host family, not to mention mayors, council members, and, later, former President Obama, said Mitchell.

In 1995 — retired as an architect — he took on minority ownership and a board seat at Kennard Design Group, one of the largest Black-owned architecture firms in the country, following the death of its founder (and Silcott’s good friend) Robert Kennard. “He didn’t hesitate,” said Gail Kennard, Robert’s daughter, who still leads the firm, and wanted to ensure the company’s stability at a difficult time. “He was always there to help. For advice, support, anything. Without hesitation he’d say, ‘I’ll do it.’ He just had that generous spirit.”

But Silcott’s greatest love, noted Kennard, was Howard — particularly its Department of Architecture — where he would go on to become a historically prolific philanthropist, and help mentor generations of aspiring architects.

“He would tell me stories about people who were coming up in the profession,” said Kennard. “He’d say, I found this new student and he or she’s my new project.”

Silcott’s ability to support the school financially grew out of skillful real estate investments, which began with a few buildings in Boston that he inherited from his mother. He managed and expanded numerous properties both in Boston and Los Angeles.

In 1991 he helped establish the James E. Silcott Fund, now valued at $250,000, offering emergency aid to Howard architecture students in financial distress. In 2002, he established the James E. Silcott Endowed Chair with an initial $1 million, bringing architects like Sir David Adjaye, Philip Freelon, Jack Travis and Roberta Washington to teach and mentor at Howard. And with a $1 million gift he funded the T. George Silcott Gallery, named for his late brother, providing a venue for exhibitions, critiques and public lectures. Silcott also made unrestricted contributions of hundreds of thousands more to Howard’s Department of Architecture, supporting scholarships, travel fellowships and capital improvements. By the end of his life, his contributions to Howard exceeded $3 million, making him, according to the school, the largest individual donor to architecture programs at historically Black colleges and universities in the country.

“Howard and its school of architecture was at the very center of his life,” said Mitchell, who noted Silcott’s gifts also helped keep the school afloat during difficult periods.

Silcott received the Howard University Alumni Achievement Award, the Centennial Professional Excellence Award and the Howard H. Mackey Dean’s Medal, named after his mentor. He also received the Kresge/Coca-Cola Award for philanthropy to HBCUs. In 2020, he was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows.

After a stroke in 2020, Silcott moved to Washington, D.C., to be under family care. He was placed in hospice in 2022, and put on a feeding tube, but lived three more years against the odds, noted Roberts, one of seven close nieces and nephews who called him “Uncle James.”

“He would not acknowledge that he wasn’t going to live forever,” said Roberts. Silcott remained engaged with Howard until his death.

Everton manager David Moyes says he’s disappointed by the crucial video assistant referee decision that gave Leeds a 1-0 win, insisting James Tarkowski did everything he could to avoid conceding a late penalty.

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In Nicholas Boggs’ lively and vigorously researched biography of James Baldwin, the great writer’s search for the source of his art dovetails with his lifelong search for meaningful relationships. Black, gay, born without the benefit of money or guidance, repeatedly harassed and beaten in his New York City hometown, Baldwin physically removed himself from the turmoil of America, living abroad for long stretches to find proper distance and see his country plain. In “The Fire Next Time,” “Another Country” and “Giovanni’s Room,” among other works, Baldwin gleaned hard truths about the ways in which white people, white men in particular, deny their own sexual confusions to lash out at those who they feel may pose a grave threat their own machismo codes and their absolute dominion over Black Americans. In his novels and essays, Baldwin became a sharp beacon of hard truths.

Baldwin was reared in an oppressive atmosphere of religious doctrine and physical violence; his stepfather David, a laborer and preacher, adhered to an quasi-Calvinist approach to child-rearing that forbade art’s graven images in the home and encouraged austerity and renunciation. Books, according to Baldwin’s father, were “written by white devils.” As a child, Baldwin was beaten and verbally lashed by his father; his brief tenure as a religious orator in the church was, according to Boggs, a way to “usurp his father at his own game.” At the same time, Boggs notes, Baldwin used the church “to mask the deep confusion caused by his burgeoning sexual desires.”

As a child, Baldwin is marginalized for being too sensitive, too bookish, a “sissy.” At school, he finds mentors like Orilla “Bill” Miller and the Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen, who introduced him to Dickens and the 18th century Russian novelists. When his stepfather loses his job, it is down to Baldwin to support his mother and eight siblings. Taking a job at a local army base, he is confronted with virulent race-baiting from his white supervisor and co-workers.

Baldwin leaves Harlem behind shortly thereafter and falls into the artistic ferment of Greenwich Village in the ‘40s. He shares ideas about art, music and literature with a fellow budding aesthete named Eugene Worth until he jumps to his death from the George Washington Bridge in the winter of 1946. His death “cast a pall over Baldwin’s life,” Boggs writes, “but it would also play a major and enduring role in his development as a writer.” Baldwin, who had developed strong romantic feelings for Worth but never made them plain to his friend, makes a promise to himself, vowing to adjoin his private life as a gay Black man to the public life of an artist, so that “my infirmities might be forged into weapons.”

Beauford Delaney, a respected painter and Village fixture, becomes Baldwin’s lodestar and encourages him to confront his sexuality head-on in his art. What that art might entail, Baldwin doesn’t yet know, but it would have something to do with writing. Delaney would become a lifelong friend, even after he began suffering from mental deterioration, dying after years of hospitalization in 1979.

Baldwin’s life as a transatlantic nomad begins in 1948, when he arrives in Paris after winning a scholarship to study there. More importantly, he meets 17-year-old Lucien Happersberger, a Swiss painter, and a relationship blossoms. Happersberger shares deep artistic and sexual affinities with Baldwin, but Lucien is also attracted to women and becomes a kind of template for Baldwin’s future partners, most notably the Turkish actor Engin Cezzar, that he would pursue until his death in 1987.

Baldwin held these romantic relationships in tantalizing suspension, his love affairs caught between the poles of desire and intimacy, the heat of passion and long-term commitment. The love triangles these relationships engendered became a rich source for his fiction. Boggs asserts that many of the author’s most enduring works, including “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and his breakthrough novel about gay love “Giovanni’s Room,” sprang from these early, formative encounters. “The structure of a not fully requited love was a familiar and even eroticized one for Baldwin,” Boggs writes, “and would come to fuel his art.”

Away from the States, Baldwin was freed “from the trap of color,” but he was pulled ever deeper into the racial unrest in America, taking on journalism assignments to see for himself how systemic racial oppression worked in the Jim Crow South. In Atlanta, Baldwin meets Martin Luther King Jr., who invites him to Montgomery to witness the impact of the bus boycott. Entering a local restaurant, he is greeted with stony stares; a white woman points toward the colored entrance. In Mississippi, he interviews NAACP organizer Medgar Evers, who is busy investigating a lynching. Baldwin notes the climate of fear among Black citizens in the city, speaking to him like “ the German Jews must have talked when Hitler came to power.”

Nicholas Boggs tracked down a previously unwritten-about lover of James Baldwin for his new biography.

(Noah Loof)

These eyewitness accounts would feed into Baldwin’s impassioned essays on race such as “Down at the Cross” and his 1972 nonfiction book “No Name in the Street.” For Boggs, Baldwin’s nonfiction informed his fiction; there are “continuities and confluences between and across his work in both genres.” The throughline across all of the work was Baldwin’s ire at America’s failure to recognize that the “so-called Negro” was “trapped, disinherited and despised, in a nation that … is still unable to recognize him as a human being.”

Baldwin would spend the rest of his life toggling between journalism and fiction, addressing racism in the States in articles for Esquire, Harper’s and other publications while spending most of his time in Turkey and France, where a growing circle of friends and lovers nourished his muse and satisfied his need for constant social interaction when he wasn’t wrestling with his work, sometimes torturously so. Boggs’ book finds Baldwin in middle age poised between creative fecundity and despair, growing frustrated with America’s failure of nerve regarding race and homosexuality as well as his own thwarted partnerships. Despite a powerful bond with Engin Cezarr and, later, the French painter Yoran Cazac, who flitted in and out of Baldwin’s Istanbul life across the 1970s, the picture of Baldwin that emerges in Boggs’ biography is that of an artist who treasures emotional continuity but creatively feeds on inconstancy.

In fact, Cazac had never been cited in any previous Baldwin biography. Boggs discovered him when he came across an out-of-print children’s book called “Little Man, Little Man,” a collaboration between Cazac and Baldwin that prompted Boggs’ search. After following a number of flimsy leads, he finally finds Cazac in a rural French village, and they talk.

The novels that Baldwin penned during his last great burst of productivity, most notably “If Beale Street Could Talk” and “Just Above My Head,” have been maligned by many Baldwin fans as noble failures lacking the fire and dramatic power of his early work. Yet Boggs makes a strong case for these books as successful formal experiments in which Baldwin once again transmuted the storms of his personal life into eloquent indictments of systemic racism. The contours of Baldwin’s romantic engagement with Cazac, in particular, would find their way into “Beale Street,” the first time Baldwin used a female narrator to tell the story of a budding young romance doomed by a gross miscarriage of justice. Boldly experimental in both form and content, “Beale Street” and “Just Above My Head” were, in Boggs’ view, unjustly criticized, coming at a time when Baldwin’s reputation was on the decline. Only novelist Edmund White gleaned something special in his review of “Just Above My Head,” Baldwin’s final novel, finding in his depictions of familial love a Dickensian warmth which “glow with the steadiness and clarity of a flame within a glass globe.”

A literary biography needn’t be an artful accretion of facts, nor should it traffic in salacious gossip and cheapen the subject at hand. Boggs’ even-handed and critically rigorous biography of James Baldwin is guilty of none of these things, mostly because Boggs never strays from the path toward understanding why Baldwin wrote what he did and how his private and public lives were inextricably wound up in his work. Boggs has dug much deeper than his predecessors, including Baldwin’s biographer David Leeming, whose book has been the standard bearer since its 1994 publication. “Baldwin: A Love Story” is superlative, and it should become the new gold standard for Baldwin studies.

Weingarten is the author of “Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown.”

James May, who is best known for his role on Top Gear and The Grand Tour, bought a pub in 2020 and it’s been reviewed by a content creator who was left impressed by one aspect

Jeremy Clarkson isn’t the only former Top Gear presenter to own a pub. Following his success with Amazon Prime’s Clarkson’s Farm programme, the Grand Tour star opened his own establishment, called The Farmer’s Dog, in August 2024.

Located in Asthall, near Burford in Oxfordshire, it continues to attract sizeable crowds keen to sample the Cotswolds pub for themselves. Meanwhile, fellow Grand Tour star James May purchased The Royal Oak in Swallowcliffe, Salisbury, Wiltshire, in 2020. Unlike Clarkson, May owns half the pub, which dates back to the 18th Century.

Recently content creator Phil Carr, who is known for his satirical reviews of towns and businesses across the UK, decided to visit the establishment himself to see what it was like. In a TikTok video, Phil observed that most celebrities who buy a pub do it as a “self-indulgent folly, a bit of fun, or simply to invest in massive property in hugely valuable areas in a way that people will love them for”.

However, James, who is a part-time resident in Swallowcliffe, and the community-owned pub “looked like it was going down”, he “decided he didn’t want to lose his local”, so he bought into it.

Speaking to Country and Town House, May previously outlined his reasoning for purchasing the derelict pub: “I was a bit browbeaten into buying it, but I also realised that if I didn’t there wouldn’t be a single pub within walking distance of our home.

“Buying it was the only way to ensure there would be. I don’t take any money out of it. I take the view that it’s like owning a nice painting or sculpture – you own it for self-gratification.”

Phil described the pub as “pretty cut off”, but said this is “part of its charm”. He paid £175 per night for a “mid level room” in July, which he found “charming”.

He also noted that breakfast is included, which helps “take the edge off” the cost.

After exploring Swallowcliffe, including the fields, he concluded there’s “really not much to it” beyond “the pub, the church and 174 residents”.

However, the highlight of the pub, which truly impressed him, was the cuisine. According to Phil, patrons started arriving in the evening, but it “didn’t really get busy like Clarkson’s Pub”.

Joined by fellow content creator Ann Russell, she highlighted James’ own gin, launched in 2021 with the idea to blend the flavours of Parsnip and Asian spices. She described it as “rather nice”.

Then Phil got to the “good bit” – the food. He elaborated: “The highest praise I can give it is, Ann lives just up the road [and] she’s been here four times, and anyone who knows her knows she doesn’t suffer bulls**t”.

Having ordered bread, cured trout, souffle, Sirloin steak, a pint of beer, Panna Cotta and Semifreddo, the £104.64 bill felt like “more than a fair exchange”, according to Phil. The quality of the breakfast food also left a positive impression on the content creator.

Phil wrapped up his thoughts by stating: “Don’t come here for a week on holiday or honeymoon but do stop in for a night definitely, if you’re on your way to the West Country or milling around the nearby Stonehenge. James did a great thing securing a community pub and they repaid him by making it really very good.”

IBIZA’S ‘Final Boss’ Jack Kay has continued his party tour of the island – spending the afternoon with Towie’s James Lock.

The pair were snapped together at Wi-Ki-Woo Hotel in Ibiza as James plugged his agave spirit brand, Cerrar.

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Standing underneath a pink umbrella, Jack stood alongside Lock, showing off thick gold chains and rings posing with “finger guns” and a serious face.

James – who had brushed his hair forward in an attempt to emulate Jack’s distinctive bowl cut hairstyle – later uploaded the pic, and joked: “Essex final boss Vs Ibiza final boss 🧑🏽”

The pair’s day together comes after Jack shot to fame in the space of a month after being declared “Ibiza’s final boss” due to his deep tan, tattoos, veneers, goatee beard and signature hairstyle.

He was captured dancing by a TikToker who later gave him the moniker as they posted it online – with the clip quickly picking up steam.

Jack’s hair in particular has been compared to a range of pop-culture icons from Ringo Starr to Friar Tuck and a Lego man.

“Final boss” is a joke from the gaming world used to suggest someone is the ultimate version of a particular stereotype.

Since then, Jack has been lapping up the attention, and it looks like it’s set to make him some serious cash as a result.

His viral fame caught the eye of ITV2’s Big Brother casting team and led to conversations about him joining the upcoming series.

Yesterday, he announced a step into a music career by releasing a new dance track on Spotify as well.

With a potential Big Brother stint too, it’s clear Jack is set to get the last laugh – all the way to the bank.

A source said: “The Ibiza Final Boss has really captured the nation’s imagination and is exactly the kind of character that makes for a fun Big Brother housemate.

“Bosses had talks with his management, it is very late in the casting process for housemates but everyone thought worth a chat whether it be in time for this series, even as part of a task, or for the future.

“Jack’s reps Neon Management have been inundated with offers for him so he’s certainly going to be busy for at least the next few months.

“They’ve seen an unprecedented level of interest in him, and that’s the nation loves him.”

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England beat Sweden on penalties in the Euro 2025 quarterfinal before going on to beat Spain in the final.

England defender Jess Carter said she felt a sigh of relief when her non-Black teammates missed penalties during their shootout win over Sweden in the Women’s Euro 2025 quarterfinals, fearing Lauren James would suffer “astronomical” racist abuse if the forward had been the only player to miss her spot-kick.

England overcame a two-goal deficit to force penalties in Zurich, eventually triumphing 3-2 in a dramatic shootout that featured 14 attempts.

Sweden goalkeeper Jennifer Falk saved four England penalties, including James’ second effort. Beth Mead, Alex Greenwood and Grace Clinton, who are all white, also missed their spot-kicks for England.

“It’s horrible to say but it’s almost like a sigh of relief when other players that weren’t Black missed a penalty, because the racism that would have come with LJ (James) being the only one that missed would have been astronomical,” Carter told United Kingdom broadcaster ITN on Monday.

“It’s not because we want them to fail – it’s about knowing how it’s going to be for us (England’s Black players) if we miss.”

Carter said in July that she had been the target of online racist abuse since Euro 2025 began in Switzerland and announced that she is stepping away from social media for the duration of the tournament.

“It makes you feel really small. It makes you feel like you’re not important, that you’re not valuable,” the 27-year-old said about the effect the abuse had on her.

“It makes you second-guess everything that you do – it’s not a nice place to be. It doesn’t make me feel confident going back on to the pitch. My family was so devastated by it as well and so sad.”

England, who traditionally take a knee before matches as a gesture against racism, opted not to do so before their semifinal against Italy, following Carter’s revelations about the abuse she faced.

She also admitted to feeling fear when England manager Sarina Wiegman informed her she would be playing in the final against Spain, which England won 3-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever been scared – too scared to play,” Carter said.

“I think it was a mixture of such a big game, but then on top of that (I was) scared of whatever abuse might come with it, whether it’s football-based or whether it was going to be the racial abuse that was going to come with it because I did something wrong.”

Speaking about the impact the abuse had on her, Carter said: “It makes you feel really small. It makes you feel like you’re not important, that you’re not valuable.

“It makes you second guess everything that you do – it’s not a nice place to be. It doesn’t make me feel confident going back on to the pitch. My family was so devastated by it as well and so sad.”

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said during the tournament that the governing body had referred the “abhorrent” abuse to UK police.

Carter stepped back from social media following the abuse, though she said the support received from the England fans “meant everything”.

The England team decided to stop taking the knee before matches, with manager Sarina Wiegman saying the impact of the anti-racism gesture was “not good enough”.

Carter said the psychological impact of the abuse she suffered made her feel “scared” when Wiegman told her she had been selected to play in the final.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever been scared – too scared to play,” she added.

“I think it was a mixture of such a big game, but then on top of that [I was] scared of whatever abuse might come with it, whether it’s football based or whether it was going to be the racial abuse that was going to come with it because I did something wrong.”

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Justice has subpoenaed New York Attorney General Letitia James‘ office in a criminal investigation.

Two grand jury subpoenas were issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York seeking information about James’ investigations into the Trump Organization and National Rifle Association, according to CNN, NBC News and ABC News.

There is also a grand jury investigation into James in Albany, N.Y. It is said to be looking into deprivation of rights against Trump.

“Investigating the fraud case Attorney General James won against President Trump and his businesses has to be the most blatant and desperate example of this administration’s carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign,” said Abbe Lowell, an attorney for James. “Weaponizing the Department of Justice to try to punish an elected official for doing her job is an attack on the rule of law and a dangerous escalation by this administration. If prosecutors carry out this improper tactic and are genuinely interested in the truth, we are ready and waiting with the facts and law.”

Neither the Justice Department nor the White House has commented on these investigations.

A spokesperson for the New York Attorney General’s office told NBC News: “Any weaponization of the justice system should disturb every American. We stand strongly behind our successful litigation against the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, and we will continue to stand up for New Yorkers’ rights.”

James sued and won against Trump and his company over fraudulent misrepresentations of his wealth and financial statements. Her office won over $300 million in the case, which is now at over $500 million in interest while he appeals.

James’ office also sued the NRA and its leadership. James had sought dissolution of the NRA, but that was struck down. But she did win a civil fraud case against Wayne LaPierre. A jury convicted him of taking millions from the organization for personal use.

In May the Justice Department opened an investigation into James’ real estate transaction. She responded, saying that she had made a mistake on a mortgage application and that she had filed letters correcting the error.

James is one of many on Trump’s list of political enemies.

He has repeatedly said she is biased against him. In 2021, he sued to stop her fraud investigation, saying, “Her mission is guided solely by political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against a private citizen who she views as a political opponent.” The lawsuit also alleged that Trump was the victim of “viewpoint discrimination.” He later dropped the suit.

The United States Department of Justice has subpoenaed New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had successfully filed a civil lawsuit against US President Donald Trump for alleged fraud in his business dealings.

Friday’s subpoenas come as the department convenes a grand jury to investigate whether James, a Democrat, violated the civil rights of President Donald Trump and other Republican-affiliated entities.

Anonymous sources with knowledge of the subpoenas confirmed their existence to The Associated Press and other news agencies.

According to the media reports, the grand jury will not only probe whether Trump’s rights were violated by the fraud lawsuit, but the subpoenas will also seek information about a second lawsuit James launched against the National Rifle Association (NRA), an influential gun lobby group.

A spokesperson for James’s office did not confirm the subpoenas but rejected any wrongdoing.

“Any weaponisation of the justice system should disturb every American,” the statement said. “We stand strongly behind our successful litigation against the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, and we will continue to stand up for New Yorkers’ rights.”

James’s personal lawyer, Abbe Lowell, also said in a statement that her legal team was “ready and waiting with the facts and the law”.

“Investigating the fraud case Attorney General James won against President Trump and his businesses has to be the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign,” Lowell said.

A history of in-court clashes

The reports on Friday revealing the subpoenas have fuelled criticism that Trump is increasingly weaponising the Justice Department to settle scores.

Trump faced numerous legal challenges, both civil and criminal, during his period out of the White House from January 2021 to January 2025. He is the first US president to not only face criminal charges but to be convicted.

James, meanwhile, was among the officials who spearheaded civil proceedings against him.

She took office in January 2019 and has since filed several lawsuits against Trump and his policies.

But one of the most high-profile has been the 2022 case in which she accused Trump of inflating the value of his assets — including his real estate properties and golf clubs — to defraud banks and lenders.

In February 2024, Trump and his sons were ordered to pay $454m in the case, though the president continues to appeal that ruling. Trump has argued his financial statements actually under-valued his assets.

Separately, James successfully filed a lawsuit against the NRA and its founder, Wayne LaPierre, for misusing millions in funding for the group. Trump maintains close ties to the anti-gun control lobby group.

Revenge on political adversaries?

For years, Trump has alleged that he is the subject of a political “witch hunt”.

Those who prosecuted him, he argues, have abused their office for political gain, in an alleged effort to dampen his popularity among voters.

Trump has expressed particular ire towards James, calling her a “horrible person” and a “total crook” in May.

That month, the Justice Department, under his authority, opened an investigation into James’s real estate holdings, alleging she misrepresented her property records to obtain more favourable loans.

Trump has also argued that statements James made on the campaign trail indicate her political bias against him.

While running for office in 2018, for instance, James called Trump “illegitimate”, “incompetent” and “ill-equipped to serve in the highest office of this land”.

Friday’s subpoenas come on the heels of other investigations that critics perceive as retribution from Trump against his political adversaries.

Just this week, the Department of Justice also announced it would open an investigation into members of the administration of former President Barack Obama, a longtime target of Trump’s criticisms.

The probe centres on intelligence community reports examining whether Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election, which Trump won.

The reports concluded that Russia sought to sway the election through disinformation, though no votes were tampered with. They also suggested that Russia favoured Trump over his Democratic rival, something Trump has since described as an effort to delegitimise his victory.

Trump has since accused Obama of “treason”, although no evidence has emerged of wrongdoing.

The Department of Justice has also recently sought to purge career employees who worked on two federal criminal cases filed against Trump after he left office in 2021.

The first related to classified documents Trump took from the White House after his 2020 election defeat. The second was connected to Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Thomas Frank has had time to brace himself for Son Heung-min’s departure – but the long-term unavailability of Maddison is extremely unwelcome, to say the least.

Son’s farewell match in South Korea earlier this week was marred by the latest knee injury suffered by Maddison.

The anguished expression on his face said it all, and the sympathy lies with him.

But spare a thought for Frank, who in his first season in charge, faces losing two key attacking players.

You’d imagine that Spurs will give big consideration to entering the market for a new attacking midfielder.

Had their move for Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White ended successfully then the requirement to enter the market for offensive reinforcements would be significantly less pressing.

Such attacking quality is hard to come by. Expensive, too.

Mohammed Kudus, signed from West Ham this summer, has played centrally before and could provide an option.

But Spurs will have to do something to replace Maddison’s contribution.

Rangers head coach Russell Martin talks to BBC Scotland about his decision to leave out captain James Tavernier and midfielder Nicolas Raskin for the Champions League qualifier against Viktoria Plzen.

Rangers v Viktoria Plzen – report, reaction & how it happened

Near the conclusion of the news conference to address his contract extension with the Lakers, Luka Doncic detailed the training program that contributed to his striking weight loss.

When he was finished talking about how he lifted weight and refrained from playing basketball for a month, general manager Rob Pelinka made it a point to offer some thoughts.

“Luka’s done all the work,” Pelinka said, “but it’s important to have a support system around you to help you do the great work.”

Pelinka went on to praise Doncic’s trainer, Anze Macek, and physiotherapist, Javier Barrio. He remarked how Macek and Barrio have “worked seamlessly” with the Lakers’ staff. He name-checked Doncic’s agent, Bill Duffy, and business manager, Lara Beth Seager.

These weren’t garden-variety compliments.

This was a pledge of allegiance.

Shortly after Doncic was traded by the Dallas Mavericks to the Lakers last season, stories emerged about tensions between his inner circle and former team.

Pelinka’s words contained an indirect message: We will support you the way Mavericks didn’t. This is your team.

The commitment was formalized on Saturday, the Lakers signing the 26-year-old Doncic to a three-year, $165-million contract extension.

The news conference ended with seven Lakers players and coach JJ Redick emerging from the back to take a picture with Doncic as he held up his jersey. A couple of the players, center Deandre Ayton and guard Marcus Smart, were personally recruited to the team by Doncic.

Doncic is now officially the center of the Lakers’ universe, and as inevitable as that seemed from the moment Pelinka acquired him, the dynamic intensifies a question that was initially raised last season: What does this mean for LeBron James?

Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, left, and Luka Doncic hold up Doncic’s jersey during a news conference in El Segundo on Saturday.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Too much shouldn’t be made of James’ absence from the news conference on Saturday, as Austin Reaves wasn’t there either. However, James is under contract for just one more season and Doncic for at least three more, and how will James deal with not being the focal point of his franchise? James is a player who is used to exercising boundless influence over teams that employ him, enough to where the 17-time NBA champion Lakers drafted his undersized son.

While the Lakers once had visions of Anthony Davis replacing James as the face of their franchise, the imaginary baton was never passed. The Lakers didn’t make as big a deal of Davis’ extension two years ago as they did with Doncic’s on Saturday, for which a Doncic-themed photo gallery was erected for the news conference.

There’s an uneasy feeling about the situation, in large part because James hasn’t clearly communicated his thoughts. When James exercised his player option for the upcoming season, his agent said that because James wanted to play for championships and the Lakers were “building for the future,” their camp wanted “to evaluate what’s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career.”

The 40-year-old James will have a say in what happens, as his deal includes a no-trade provision.

Asked how James viewed the Lakers’ summer and whether he thought James would retire with the team, Pelinka replied, “So all the interactions we’ve had with LeBron and his camp, [agent Rich Paul] in particular, have been positive and supportive. So very professional and Rich has been great. The dialogue with him has been open and constant.

“In terms of LeBron’s career, I think the number one thing we have to do there is respect he and his family’s decision in terms of how long he’s going to play. I think that’s first and foremost and we want to respect his ability to come up with his timetable on that. I think that’s really important, but if he had a chance to retire as a Laker, that would be great.”

In other words, there wasn’t enough clarity for Pelinka to be able to say with any degree of certainty, yes, he thought James would retire a Laker.

Doncic accepted an offer from the Lakers to be their next headliner. That was an important development for them. But for them to be able to properly showcase their next act, they will have to close their previous one, whether it’s by him accepting a supporting role or deciding to take his talents elsewhere.

A proposed international league described as the F1 of basketball gained attention over the weekend when Misko Raznatovic, the agent for Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, posted a photo on Instagram of him meeting in shorts and bare feet with LeBron James and the Lakers star’s business partner Maverick Carter on a yacht off the coast of the French Riviera.

Raznatovic accompanied the photo with an intriguing comment: “The summer of 2025 is the perfect time to make big plans for the fall of 2026! @kingjames @mavcarter

The post triggered speculation that perhaps James and Jokic could team up on either the Lakers or Nuggets, but more likely it suggests James has more than a peripheral interest in the new league.

Front Office Sports reported in January that Carter was advising a group of investors trying to raise $5 billion to jump-start the league but that James wasn’t involved. That may have changed.

So what’s the league about?

Early discussions are of a touring model with six men’s and six women’s teams playing in eight cities, none of which is likely to be in the United States. Investors include the Singapore government, SC Holdings, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, a Macau casino operator, UBS, Skype founder Geoff Prentice and former Facebook executive Grady Burnett, according to the Financial Times. Reports have linked VC firm Quiet Capital, tech investor Byron Deeter and Hong Kong-based Galaxy Entertainment to the effort.

Investors are leaning toward not allowing players in the league unless they cut ties with the NBA, making the model somewhat like LIV Golf — the professional circuit funded by (PIF). A better comparison in terms of format and scale might be Formula 1 Racing, which holds 24 races a year across five continents.

Raznatovic’s involvement would be key. His Belgrade, Serbia, agency BeoBasket has a partnership with Excel Sports Management and represents dozens of top European players, including Clippers center Ivica Zubac.

The EuroLeague is currently recognized as the world’s second-best basketball circuit, but can’t come close to paying players NBA-level salaries.

If Raznatovic’s social media post is an indication, the new league could launch as soon as the fall of 2026. Until then, fans wanting an alternative to the NBA can check out Ice Cube’s tour-based Big3 basketball league, which makes its single stop in Los Angeles on Aug. 9.

The LA Riot, coached by Nick Young and starring Dwight Howard and Jordan Crawford, will play the Boston Ball Hogs at the Intuit Dome at 1 p.m. PDT.

Australia: Wright; Jorgensen, Suaalii, Ikitau, Pietsch; Lynagh, White; Slipper, Porecki, Tupou, Frost, Skelton, Hooper, McReight, Wilson

Replacements: Pollard, Bell, Nonggorr, Williams, Gleeson, McDermott, Donaldson, Kellaway

British and Irish Lions: Keenan; Freeman, Jones, Aki, Kinghorn; Russell, Gibson-Park; Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, Itoje, Ryan, Beirne, Curry, Conan

Replacements: Kelleher, Genge, Stuart, Chessum, Morgan, Earl, Mitchell, Farrell

July 29 (UPI) — Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday evening announced that a misconduct complaint has been filed against District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg “for making improper public comments” about President Donald Trump, amid his administration’s targeting of the U.S. judicial system.

Boasberg, a President Barack Obama appointee, has rejected Trump’s attempt to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador to be interned in a notorious mega prison for terrorists, attracting the ire of the president, who has called for the judge’s impeachment.

The complaint, obtained by both Politico and Courthouse News, focuses on comments made by Boasberg to Chief Justice John Roberts and some two dozen other judges who attended a March 11 judicial conference.

According to the document, Boasberg said he believed that the Trump administration would “disregard rulings of federal courts,” which would trigger “a constitutional crisis.”

The Justice Department alleges that the comments deviated from the administrative matters generally discussed at the conference and were intended to influence Roberts and the other judges.

The conference was held amid litigation on Trump’s ability to summarily deport the Venezuelan migrants, and days before Boasberg ruled against the administration. He also ruled that Trump had deported the migrants to El Salvador in violation of his order — an order that was vacated in April by a divided Supreme Court.

The complaint states that within days of making the alleged comments, he “began acting on his preconceived belief that the Trump administration would not follow court orders.”

“These comments have undermined the integrity of the judiciary, and we will not stand for that,” Bondi said in a statement on X announcing the filing of the complaint.

The Trump administration has attracted staunch criticism from the legal profession over actions it has taken that have been described as targeting the independence of the U.S. judiciary system.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has threatened to impeach judges who rule against him, including Boasberg, described them as “rouge judges,” sanctioned law firms and lawyers linked to his political adversaries and has ignored or defied rulings he disagrees with.

His administration most recently fired newly appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Desiree Leigh Grace because the New Jersey judges did not select Trump’s pick for the position.

The complaint against Boasberg was signed by Chad Mizelle, chief of staff for Bondi, who alleged in a statement that Boasberg’s March comments violated the Canons of the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges.

“Federal judges often complain about the decline of public trust in the judiciary,” he said on X. “But if the judiciary simply ignores improper conduct like Judge Boasberg’s, it will have itself to blame when the public stops trusting it.”

The Justice Department, in the complaint, is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to launch a special investigation to determine whether Boasberg’s conduct constitutes prejudice against the Trump administration. It also seeks “interim corrective measures,” including reassignment of the cases related to the deportation of the Venezuelan migrants to another judge.

The complaint is also the second that the Trump administration has filed against a judge. In February, Bondi filed a complaint — which is still under review — against Judge Ana Reyes for “hostile and egregious misconduct” against the Trump administration during litigation on the president’s executive order to ban transgender service members from the military.

The Assassin is a fast-paced thriller interwoven with family drama

Kicking off with a high-energy opening sequence packed with fight scenes and cinematography that could rival a James Bond film, The Assassin certainly delivers, reports the Express.

The six-part series centres around retired hitwoman Julie Green (portrayed by Keeley Hawes), who is reluctantly pulled back into the game for one final, potentially fatal job.

However, there’s a significant hitch: Julie’s estranged journalist son Edward (played by Freddie Highmore) has decided to visit her for the weekend after four years, under the impression that she’s a simple head hunter.

What ensues is a thrilling, fast-paced drama intertwined with family dynamics as Julie and Edward truly reconnect.

This series marks a distinct shift in pace for Hawes, who earlier this year portrayed Cassandra Austen in PBS and BBC’s tranquil period drama Miss Austen. In fact, Hawes’ last venture into Greek territory was as Louisa Durrell in ITV’s heartwarming family series The Durrells, set on the picturesque island of Corfu.

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However, with her impressive performances in Spooks, Line of Duty and Ashes to Ashes, Hawes certainly has the action credentials to portray Julie convincingly.

The Assassin sees her reunite with writers Harry and Jack Williams, following her appearance in the second series of their International Emmy-winning show, The Missing.

Her on-screen partnership with Highmore is a match made in heaven as the contrasting pair compete in a battle of wits.

The chemistry between the two actors is palpable, forming the beating heart of the show.

Highmore effortlessly steps into the role of investigative journalist and vegan Edward, portraying his struggles while on the run with ease.

The former child actor is no stranger to intricate on-screen mother-son relationships, having previously played a young Norman Bates in the modern Psycho prequel, Bates Motel.

Other notable members of the cast include Jack Davenport, Alan Dale, The Tourist’s Shalom Brune-Franklin, and David Dencik from Top of the Lake.

However, this isn’t your typical thriller – there’s a wickedly dark strand of British comedy woven throughout the storyline.

The sharp one-liners flow effortlessly between mother and son, showcasing the Williams brothers’ razor-sharp writing skills.

From Julie being dubbed a “menopausal James Bond” to Edward being cautioned that his search for his biological father “isn’t Mamma Mia”, The Assassin is loaded with as many witty remarks as it is with gunfire and expletives.

Sometimes you’ll find yourself uncertain whether to chuckle at the over-the-top scenarios, but the formula works brilliantly.

The Williams duo have struck gold once more with The Assassin – this is a genuine winner.

Whilst their previous series The Tourist delivered nail-biting tension, The Assassin balances the drama with considerable humour and wit, creating the perfect British action-thriller with a darkly comic twist.

The Assassin is available to stream on Prime Video now

“I played all right there,” Clayton told Sky Sports. “Total respect to Stephen, he didn’t play his best game but I kept him under pressure at times. I played well.”

Earlier in the evening, Wade found himself 4-1 down to Van Veen, despite dominating almost every leg as poor finishing cost him.

But the Englishman came out with renewed determination after the break and won the next eight legs on the spin to take control.

Although Van Veen closed the gap and finished the match with the better average – 99.24 to 96.35 – and a better checkout percentage, Wade did enough to see it through.

“I thought I’d thrown it away,” the 42-year-old told Sky Sports. “Towards the end, he was coming back and it was God’s gift to me, not my ability [that secured the win].

“I had a very stern word with myself [after the first session], I was disgusted. You do what you need to do.

“I’m lucky he didn’t make the most of his opportunities. But then if I’d made the most of mine, I’d have been 5-0 or 10-0 up. I’m proper buzzing.”

The third and fourth quarter-finals take place at Winter Gardens on Friday evening with world champion Luke Littler facing Andrew Gilding, while Wales’ Gerwyn Price takes on Josh Rock of Northern Ireland.