Joe

Ari Aster’s “Eddington” is such a superb social satire about contemporary America that I want to bury it in the desert for 20 years. More distance will make it easier to laugh.

It’s a modern western set in New Mexico — Aster’s home state — where trash blows like tumbleweeds as Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) stalks across the street to confront Eddington’s mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), whom he is campaigning to unseat. It’s May of 2020, that hot and twitchy early stretch of the COVID pandemic when reality seemed to disintegrate, and Joe is ticked off about the new mask mandate. He has asthma, and he can’t understand anyone who has their mouth covered.

Joe and Ted have old bad blood between them that’s flowed down from Joe’s fragile wife Louise, a.k.a. Rabbit (Emma Stone), a stunted woman-child who stubbornly paints creepy dolls, and his mother-in-law Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell), a raving conspiracist who believes the Titanic sinking was no accident. Dawn is jazzed to decode the cause of this global shutdown; there’s comfort in believing everything happens for a reason. Her mania proves contagious.

Bad things are happening in Eddington and have been for decades, not just broken shop windows. Joe wears a white hat and clearly considers himself the story’s hero, although he’s not up to the job. If you squint real hard, you can see his perspective that he’s a champion for the underdog. Joe gets his guts in a twist when a maskless elder is kicked out of the local grocery store as the other shoppers applaud. “Public shaming,” Joe spits.

“There’s no COVID in Eddington,” Joe claims in his candidacy announcement video, urging his fellow citizens that “we need to free our hearts.” His earnestness is comic and sweet and dangerous. You can hear every fact he’s leaving out. His rival’s commercials promote a fantastical utopia where Ted is playing piano on the sidewalk and elbow-bumping more Black people in 15 seconds than we see in the rest of the movie. Ted also swears that permitting a tech behemoth named SolidGoldMagikarp to build a controversial giant data center on the outskirts of the county won’t suck precious resources — it’ll transform this nowheresville into a hub for jobs. Elections are a measure of public opinion: Which fibber would you trust?

Danger is coming and like in “High Noon,” this uneasy town will tear itself apart before it arrives. Aster is so good at scrupulously capturing the tiny, fearful COVID behaviors we’ve done our best to forget that it’s a shame (and a relief) that the script isn’t really about the epidemic. Another disease has infected Eddington: Social media has made everyone brain sick.

The film is teeming with viral headlines — serious, frivolous or false — jumbled together on computer screens screaming for attention in the same all-caps font. (Remember the collective decision that no one had the bandwidth to care about murder hornets?) Influencers and phonies and maybe even the occasional real journalist prattle on in the backgrounds of scenes telling people what to think and do, often making things worse. Joe loves his wife dearly. We see him privately watching a YouTuber explain how he can convince droopy Louise to have children. Alas, he spends his nights in their marital bed chastely doomscrolling.

Every character in “Eddington” is lonely and looking for connection. One person’s humiliating nadir comes during a painful tracking shot at an outdoor party where they’re shunned like they have the plague. Phones dominate their interactions: The camera is always there in somebody’s hand, live streaming or recording, flattening life into a reality show and every conversation into a performance.

The script expands to include Joe’s deputies, aggro Guy (Luke Grimes) and Bitcoin-obsessed Michael (Micheal Ward), plus a cop from the neighboring tribal reservation, Officer Butterfly Jimenez (William Belleau) and a handful of bored, identity-seeking teens. They’ll all wind up at odds even though they’re united by the shared need to be correct, to have purpose, to belong. When George Floyd is killed six states away, these young do-gooders rush into the streets, excited to have a reason to get together and yell. The protesters aren’t insincere about the cause. But it’s head-scrambling to watch blonde Sarah (Amélie Hoeferle) lecture her ex-boyfriend Michael, who is Black and a cop, about how he should feel. Meanwhile Brian (Cameron Mann), who is white and one of the most fascinating characters to track, is so desperate for Sarah’s attention that he delivers a hilarious slogan-addled meltdown: “My job is to sit down and listen! As soon as I finish this speech! Which I have no right to make!”

The words come fast and furious and flummoxing. Aster has crowded more pointed zingers and visual gags into each scene than our eyes can take in. His dialogue is laden with vile innuendos — “deep state,” “sexual predator,” “antifa” — and can feel like getting pummeled. When a smooth-talking guru named Vernon (Austin Butler) slithers into the plot, he regales Joe’s family with an incredulous tale of persecution that, as he admits, “sounds insane just to hear coming out of my mouth.” Well, yeah. Aster wants us to feel exhausted sorting fact from fiction.

The verbal barrage builds to a scene in which Joe and Dawn sputter nonsense at each other in a cross-talking non-conversation where both sound like they’re high on cocaine. They are, quite literally, internet junkies.

This is the bleakest of black humor. There’s even an actual dumpster fire. Aster’s breakout debut, “Hereditary,” gave him an overnight pedigree as the princeling of highbrow horror films about trauma. But really, he’s a cringe comedian who exaggerates his anxieties like a tragic clown. Even in “Midsommar,” Aster’s most coherent film, his star Florence Pugh doesn’t merely cry — she howls like she could swallow the earth. It wouldn’t be surprising to hear that when Aster catches himself getting maudlin, he forces himself to actively wallow in self-pity until it feels like a joke. Making the tragic ridiculous is a useful tool. (I once got through a breakup by watching “The Notebook” on repeat.)

With “Beau Is Afraid,” Aster’s previous film with Phoenix, focusing that approach on one man felt too punishing. “Eddington” is hysterical group therapy. I suspect that Aster knows that if we read a news article about a guy like Joe, we wouldn’t have any sympathy for him at all. Instead, Aster essentially handcuffs us to Joe’s point of view and sends us off on this tangled and bitterly funny adventure, in which rattling snakes spice up a humming, whining score by the Haxan Cloak and Daniel Pemberton.

Not every plot twist works. Joe’s sharpest pivot is so inward and incomprehensible that the film feels compelled to signpost it by having a passing driver yell, “You’re going the wrong way!” By the toxic finale, we’re certain only that Phoenix plays pathetic better than anyone these days. From “Her” to “Joker” to “Napoleon” to “Inherent Vice,” he’s constantly finding new wrinkles in his sad sacks. “Eddington’s” design teams have taken care to fill Joe’s home with dreary clutter and outfit him in sagging jeans. By contrast, Pascal’s wealthier Ted is the strutting embodiment of cowboy chic. He’s even selfishly hoarded toilet paper in his fancy adobe estate.

It’s humanistic when “Eddington” notes that everyone in town is a bit of a sinner. The problem is that they’re all eager to throw stones and point out what the others are doing wrong to get a quick fix of moral superiority. So many yellow cards get stacked up against everyone that you come to accept that we’re all flawed, but most of us are doing our best.

Joe isn’t going to make Eddington great again. He never has a handle on any of the conspiracies, and when he grabs a machine gun, he’s got no aim. Aster’s feistiest move is that he refuses to reveal the truth. When you step back at the end to take in the full landscape, you can put most of the story together. (Watch “Eddington” once, talk it out over margaritas and then watch it again.) Aster makes the viewer say their theories out loud afterwards, and when you do, you sound just as unhinged as everyone else in the movie. I dig that kind of culpability: a film that doesn’t point sanctimonious fingers but insists we’re all to blame.

But there are winners and losers and winners who feel like losers and schemers who get away with their misdeeds scot-free. Five years after the events of this movie, we’re still standing in the ashes of the aggrieved. But at least if we’re cackling at ourselves together in the theater, we’re less alone.

July 18 (UPI) — The Edward M. Kennedy Institute will give President Joe Biden a Lifetime Achievement Award at its 10th Anniversary Celebration this fall.

Biden plans to attend the event on Oct. 26 at the Institute’s Columbia Point, Mass., building. The award is to recognize Biden’s “more than four decades in public life, beginning with his election to the United States Senate from Delaware in 1972, to his ascent to leadership positions in the Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees, to the vice presidency and ultimately to the White House,” a press release said.

The Institute, named for Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy, will also give out its Award for Inspired Leadership to former secretary of labor and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh and Retired U.S. Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“We believe that we can inspire new generations of leaders by highlighting the example of those who came before them like Senator Ted Kennedy,” said Victoria Reggie Kennedy, Kennedy’s widow and the co-founder of the Kennedy Institute. Biden, Walsh and Franchetti “are all such exemplary and inspiring leaders, dedicated to improving the lives of others in our community and throughout our country.”

The Institute’s fall dinner is its annual fundraiser, supporting its mission to foster bipartisan political leadership, provide a forum for civil discourse about critical issues, and educate the public about the Senate’s role in the American system of democratic government.

“President Biden’s life has been one of honorable service to his country, and like the man for whom the Kennedy Institute is named, fought for the interests, and to better the lives, of all Americans from all socio-economic, cultural, and personal backgrounds,” Kennedy Institute Chair Bruce A. Percelay said. “His tenacity and persistence — again, traits that echo those of Senator Ted Kennedy — are constant reminders to our current political leaders of the dedication and hard work required to do the people’s business in Washington.”

Emmerdale’s Joe Tate threatened Dr Crowley amid his plan to fleece Kim Tate being revealed on the ITV soap on Monday night, but could someone else trigger his downfall?

There’s trouble on Emmerdale as Dr Crowley continued to target Joe Tate and Kim Tate, but could a downfall be set?

Viewers learned last week that Kim’s mystery new man Eddie was in fact Joe’s surgeon and accomplice Crowley. He’d helped Joe steal a kidney, operating on him and performing the transplant after Joe had his own uncle Caleb Miligan stabbed.

He needed the kidney to survive after being diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and instead of going through the usual process, he stole Caleb’s. Crowley was mortified by this and disappeared in the days that followed.

Now he’s back for revenge, with him threatening Joe last week and revealing he was after Kim’s money. He wants Joe to steal the money from Kim and send it to him, so he can flee.

On Monday night Joe refused and pulled a shotgun on Crowley. But Crowley saw right through him and knowing he would not pull the trigger, he pushed the rifle away and left.

READ MORE: Emmerdale’s John Middleton joins Hollyoaks to play show’s ‘most evil character ever’

Soon Joe realised he had no option to do as Crowley said, and he put together a plan to convince Kim to invest some money. He then told Crowley to leave, telling him his plan was underway and he’d get him the money.

But, having already threatened Dawn Taylor amid her romance with Joe, as well as her kids, he refused to leave until the money was in his account. Kim then thanked Joe for his support, making Joe feel pretty guilty about betraying her.

It’s clear though that Joe is stuck, and he knows he can’t just ignore Crowley – so it’s unlikely he will trigger his new nemesis’ downfall. But what id someone else is onto Crowley?

Kim made a comment when Joe suggested she should be careful as she barely knows ‘Eddie’. She commented that she wasn’t someone likely to be tricked, saying she was “no fool”.

The emphasis on this no doubt sparked suspicions, given she’s said similar things in recent weeks, and with her often proving she is not to be messed with. So might Kim be playing Eddie AKA Crowley at his own game?

Might she be onto the fact that things have moved very quickly and he could be about to get her? Might she have actually seen him with Joe in the past, and might she know who he really is?

Then there’s Dawn, who seems supportive of her stepmother’s new romance just months on from her dad Will’s death. But could she be onto him, and perhaps she alone or with the help of Kim or even Joe, might be what eventually brings Crowley down?

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

Joe Layton’s evil character Mick Michaelis is back to cause chaos in Weatherfield but as Joe tells The Mirror he’s already received a torrent of online abuse from viewers

Corrie cop killer Joe Layton has been forgiven by Colson Smith for killing off his much-loved character PC Craig Tinker in a violent attack with a baseball bat. The same can’t be said for fellow Weatherfield residents, whose lives will be in danger next week when Joe’s character Mick Michaelis runs amok on the cobbles after a dramatic jail break.

As he tries to snatch his kids and flee abroad, Mick lands DC Kitt Green in hospital, needing lifesaving surgery. Joe, 33, who is leaving the soap, says of Colson: “He was such a positive energy and for the other cast and crew there’s obviously a massive Colson-sized hole everywhere at Coronation Street. “But we had a good chat when we first met and continued to chat.

“We were both Leeds United fans, so we bonded over that pretty quickly. And I was just struck by what a lovely warm-hearted person he is.“He never made me feel in any way shape or form: ‘I’m doing this bad thing to this popular character.’” Playing a Corrie baddie has prompted some unexpected encounters. Joe tells The Mirror: “I was in Scotland with my sister who lives up there. We were sitting outside a restaurant having a drink and a lady came out from the restaurant.

READ MORE: Corrie’s Sally Dynevor reveals she and husband Tim are making a huge change

“She stood next to me and looked at me and she went, ‘should you not be in prison?’

“She told me that she and the five ladies inside sitting looking at us through the window were all police officers, including the head of the constabulary in Scotland!” Monstrous Mick has had Corrie fans on the edge of their seats since he first stepped on to the cobbles back in February.

But Joe, who was spotted by a US agent at 22 and moved to the States – where he spent 6 years after being promised Hollywood stardom – says his younger self would have turned the role down. Joe, who returned to Britain five years ago, says: “If you’d asked me when I moved to America if I’d ever do a soap, I think I’d have said ‘no.’ No disrespect to soaps, but I didn’t think they were for me.

“I’m just so happy that I was offered the role in Coronation Street when I was. I’d grown up a bit and my attitude towards work had changed. “It’s a great lesson for me that you should try everything, because what I experienced in my six months at Coronation Street was incredible.” And he will be leaving the cobbles with a bang, as Mick causes mayhem after his jail break.

“No-one on the street is safe,” Joe warns. “We’ve seen what he’s capable of – he’s already killed Craig and attacked Kit. “His plan is to look for his kids and try to escape. We see a different side to him and how much his kids mean to him.

“Serving a life sentence isn’t something he can deal with and he’ll do whatever it takes to get out of the country and take his kids with him.” Joe’s big break came 11 years ago when he landed the lead role in the BBC drama series Tatau.

“I came out of drama school and hit the ground running,” he recalls. “I did Tatau and off the back of that I got picked up by a US manager and US agent and had the opportunity to go out there.

“They said ‘you’re going to come over and you’re going to do whatever you want to do.’ In your early 20s why would you not believe that?”

But, renting a studio apartment in the middle of Los Angeles, the scales soon fell from his eyes “It was great, but it was like living next door to Harrods, but not having any money,” he laughs. “I was walking past all these lovely shops and restaurants, but I was cooking baked beans back in my apartment.”

Still, he was delighted to land a role in the hit American TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. “When I first drove into the Universal Studio parking lot, I remember sitting in my car calling my dad saying ‘you’ll never guess where I am,’” he smiles.

But, despite this great role, life in LA could be tough. At times, he admits: “I also worked as a carpenter and doing food delivery. I was a very small fish in a very big pond. “It was demoralising at times, but it also taught me to stand on my own two feet.”

And when he started being offered bigger jobs back in Blighty, he came home. Since then, he’s worked alongside Jodie Comer in Thirteen, he appeared in the Dawn French comedy The Trouble with Maggie Cole and in the Netflix crime drama Young Wallander, as well as being cast in the BBC series The Bombing of Pan Am 103.

Then came Mick – a wife beating thug and one of Corrie’s nastiest characters of recent years. “I got a lot of hate online in the form of comments or tweets or direct messages,” Joe recalls. “I think everybody just thought ‘There’s no room for this guy on the street, we don’t like him, get rid, we wish that you’d never existed as an actor or a person!’ “Because Corrie is such a staple in so many people’s day to day and because it’s been on so long, there’s sometimes a fine line separating reality and your character.

“I was lucky that my previous job was The Bombing of Pan Am 103. That was airing at the same time on BBC. So, the night that Craig was killed I was on ITV at 8-9pm and then 9-10pm I was on BBC playing a really nice American character.”

London-born Joe, who grew up in Ilkley in the Yorkshire Dales, wrote a journal as Mick, to help understand his character. “I wrote it first person as Mick,” he explains. “It was just a stream of consciousness. “I was playing an abusive husband who kills a police officer. On paper that’s dreadful and horrible, but my job as an actor is to get to the why and the motivation. You don’t judge the character; you try to understand them and step into their shoes.

“Mick is a really wounded, angry man who has been let down and fallen through the cracks at multiple different times in his life. Sadly there are lots of men out there like that.”

But Joe, who would happily return to Corrie, won’t be watching his final scenes. He is filming in Lithuania for a new Apple TV sci fi series Star City, in which is is playing a Russian cosmonaut alongside Rhys Ifans and Anna Maxwell Martin.

“It was really exciting to go straight into that,” he says. Joe, who will also be touring the UKwith the play Lost Atoms in September, is glad he will miss his soap exit. He says: “When I did my very first TV job my mum organised for lots of friends and family to come over and watch and I felt more nervous than I’d ever felt performing on stage in my entire life!’ he says. “I was hardly in it, but I still felt self-conscious.

“So, the morning that Craig was killed, I went on ITVX at 7.30am to watch it on my own, to prepare myself before I watched it with my girlfriend and our friends in the evening!”

Lost Atoms premieres at Curve Leicester from 22 September before a nationwide tour. For tickets and information go to: www.franticassembly.co.uk

Emmerdale spoilers alluded to Dr Crowley being the one harassing Joe Tate on the ITV soap with the help of his accomplice Shaun, but Tuesday’s episode may have teased it’s someone else

There was a big hint on Emmerdale on Tuesday about who could be targeting Joe Tate, amid spoilers appearing to reveal all.

But amid new images and teasers revealing Shaun attacks Joe before Dr Crowley returns, wanting revenge, a scene in the latest episode hinted it was someone else out to get him. Joe’s made a number of enemies since his return, one being his uncle Caleb Miligan.

Joe had Caleb stabbed so he could steal his kidney, needing a transplant to survive after a chronic kidney disease diagnosis. Instead of asking for a donor he decided to steal Caleb’s kidney with the help of Crowley, who he paid a lot of money to keep him alive.

Things took a turn though when Joe got Shaun to stage a car theft and stab Caleb, with Joe then bringing his uncle to the place where Crowley would perform the operation. Crowley was mortified at the state of Caleb and had to battle to save his life, before giving Joe the organ.

Weeks on from this, the drama with Caleb as well as Joe’s other shenanigans came out, and Dawn Taylor shoved him from a window. With Joe still public enemy number one, he’s realised someone is targeting him.

READ MORE: Emmerdale confirms exit for character amid heartbreaking new health storyline

From keying his car, his medication going missing and his window being left open, to someone leaving him a sinister note, Joe is convinced Billy Fletcher could be to blame. Things escalate next week when a blackmail demand is made, before a terrifying incident unfolds.

Back to this week though, and a scene on Tuesday may hint that someone else is targeting Joe asides Crowley and Shaun. perhaps they’re even working together, ahead of the revenge drama next week.

Caleb Miligan showed up randomly at Home Farm in the latest episode, and he was acting strangely. He kept insisting on speaking with Kim Tate, saying he needed to see her and only her.

After a run-in with Joe, he noticed Shaun and asked who he was. Caleb began asking Shaun questions, saying he recognised his voice. Wanting to know who he was and why he was there, Caleb kept pressing for answers.

Shaun feared he was about to be exposed as his attacker, but Caleb left before this happened. Shaun fumed at Joe and vowed to leave, not wanting to stick around long enough for Caleb to work out the truth.

But given Caleb’s weird behaviour and random appearance, could he be out to get Joe? Might he be working with someone like Crowley to get his own revenge?

Spoilers have not revealed what happens to Joe or what it is Crowley is after. But with him set to loom over the character in a makeshift hospital, could Joe regret ever being in cahoots with him?

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

Emmerdale spoilers have teased a very big week ahead on the ITV soap, as Joe Tate faces a villain in a revenge twist, while there’s a double hospital dash and drama for Robert Sugden

There’s big twists and turns on Emmerdale next week, including a shocking return, revenge drama and danger for more than one resident.

Joe Tate finally learns who’s been targeting him with a harassment campaign, resulting in horrifying scenes next week. It sparks the return of a villain, with Joe possibly facing serious danger.

He’s not the only one, as two characters face trouble in a car incident as one of them faints behind the wheel. There’s also schemes and threats as Robert Sugden takes action, while there’s plenty of decisions and big moments ahead.

Let’s kick things off with the return of Joe’s former accomplice and now nemesis, it seems, Dr Crowley. We last saw Crowley after he got dragged into Joe’s schemes when he needed a new kidney.

He was paying Crowley to help him find a donor and then perform the operation, which he did. What Crowley wasn’t banking on though was Joel having his uncle Caleb Miligan stabbed, before being forced to remove the kidney and transplant it into Joe.

READ MORE: Emmerdale cast say heartbreaking scenes will give fans ‘goosebumps’ after sad twist

With the police snooping around Crowley fled and he has not been seen since. But it seems he’s out to get Joe, after weeks of harassment and he’s not working alone.

As the villain makes a comeback it seems he’s more dangerous than ever, blackmailing Joe. As he’s revealed to be behind Joe’s ordeal, he demands £100,000 to be placed in the kitchen at Home Farm.

Fearing Shaun is behind it, Joe sacks him leading to the character turning threatening. Joe plots to flee the village fearing he isn’t safe, only to be knocked out by a shovel-wielding Shaun. That’s not the worst of it though as he wakes up in a makeshift hospital room to a menacing Crowley looming over him.

So what does Crowley have planned and will Joe make it out alive? Two other characters face danger next week, when Gabby’s crash diet ahead of her wedding leaves her and Sarah Sugden in a bad way.

Sarah is still recovering from her emergency hysterectomy when the pair go for a drive as mechanic Sarah offers to ensure Gabby’s car is fine after some issues. She’s trying to take her mind off things, clearly struggling and refusing to rest as suggested by the doctors.

But having barely eaten for days, Gabby faints at the wheel meaning Sarah has to quickly grab the wheel to bring the car to a stop. Sarah is left in agony at having to stretch out amid her wounds from her operation.

As they both end up in hospital, Sarah collapses. When joined by her grandfather Cain Dingle, an emotional Sarah admits the accident made her realise how badly she wants a family of her own so he suggests surrogacy.

When Charity Dingle fears Cain is raising their granddaughter’s hopes, Cain says he’s determined to help her. As for Gabby, she’s given the all clear but as fiancé Vinny Dingle supports her, he continues to hide his concerns over their relationship and continues to question his sexuality.

Gabby’s stepmother Laurel Thomas overhears Vinny talking with pal Kammy and demands a private chat. She encourages him not to marry Gabby if he’s unsure about the relationship but what will he do?

Finally next week, Robert Sugden causes more trouble when he avoids discussing plans for Annie’s field after a deal with Moira Dingle. But when Ross Barton confronts him about the missing weed, Robert threatens to cancel the land deal with Moira, forcing Ross to back down temporarily.

Kim Tate prepares to share all about her new man, and Tracy Robinson fumes at Cain over Nate’s memorial. Lewis Barton gets a job at the café and proves to be a hit.

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

Influencer Liver King says he still has his sights on Joe Rogan, even after he was arrested in Texas earlier this week for making online threats toward the popular podcaster.

The 47-year-old social media personality known for his carnivorous and “primitive” lifestyle was released from Travis County Jail Wednesday afternoon on $20,000 bail, officials confirmed to The Times. He was arrested Tuesday in Austin on suspicion of one count of misdemeanor terroristic threat. Court records show that the influencer — born Brian Johnson — must stay at least 200 yards away from and must not contact Rogan and his family. Johnson is also prohibited from possessing firearms and must undergo a mental health evaluation within a week of his release.

Johnson addressed his release and its terms in a video posted Thursday to his Instagram and Facebook pages. Standing on a vibrating exercise plate, Johnson seemingly hints at plans to confront Rogan — namedropping a Hollywood star to sidestep mentioning the podcaster’s name — while respecting the terms of his restraining order.

“If anybody knows where Seth Rogen is — the other version of him that rhymes with ‘blow’… where his family’s gonna be today, if you can let my team know so that we can stay away from them,” he said, before immediately walking back his request.

“Don’t do anything to their family,” Johnson continues, before contradicting himself and asking fans again to alert him and his team if they are near anyone with “the last name Rogan.” He pans the camera down to display his ankle monitor and rambles about his plans to appear at the state capitol building.

He adds, naming the wrong celebrity: “I’m picking a fight. Who’s it with? Seth Rogen. It’s with Seth Rogen. What’s it for? Family.”

Neither representatives for Johnson nor Rogan immediately responded to The Times’ request for comment on Friday.

Liver King booking image.

(Austin Police Department)

A spokesperson for the Austin Police Department told The Times on Wednesday that detectives learned Tuesday morning that Johnson, 47, had “made threats against the “Joe Rogan Experience” host on his Instagram profile.” Detectives reviewed the posts and saw that Johnson was en route to Austin, where Rogan lives, “while continuing to make threatening statements,” the spokesperson said.

Detectives contacted the podcaster who claimed he never interacted with Johnson and felt threatened by Liver King’s online posts. The spokesperson said officials obtained an arrest warrant for Johnson and detained the social media star at an Austin hotel.

Johnson on Monday posted an Instagram video of himself bear-crawling as he calls out Rogan: “I challenge you man-to-man to a fight.” Johnson rambled in his video about his weight, the stakes of this would-be battle and the “real tension” he has with Rogan. Johnson continued to post Instagram videos — some still name-dropping Rogan and some filmed while he’s in a shower — throughout the day, even after he arrived at the hotel in Austin.

Johnson’s Instagram account also posted several lengthy videos documenting the moments prior to his arrest Tuesday. In one clip, Johnson can be seen getting dressed in a burgundy sweatsuit, including a hoodie featuring a design that essentially pits his brand logo against that of the “Joe Rogan Experience.” Videos also see Johnson haphazardly picking up dishes and various items — including a screwdriver and a multi-tool — as he instructs someone off-camera to keep recording.

A second video shows Johnson huddling and praying with his family in the hotel room before officers escort him down a hallway and into an elevator. In another video posted to Johnson’s account, the person off-screen explains to the influencer’s wife that her husband will be “in and out” and will “need to see a judge before he is dismissed.” They exit the hotel and approach the law enforcement vehicle, where officers are seen securing Johnson into the back seat.

In court documents reviewed by The Times on Friday, a detective noted that Johnson’s social media posts featured “long rants that didn’t appear to make much sense.”

“Affiant knows that behavior such as that can indicate some sort of mental health episode, indicating that Brian Johnson could be a danger to himself and others,” the detective wrote before detailing other videos from Johnson that raised concern.

The detective also wrote of their correspondences with Rogan, who spoke of Johnson’s alleged “significant drug issue” and said he feels “Johnson appears to be significantly unstable and seems like he needs help,” according to the court filing.

June 26 (UPI) — Republican House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer on Thursday issued a subpoena to a former Jill Biden aide in his panel’s probe into Joe Biden‘s mental health.

The subpoena targeted Anthony Bernal, a former assistant to the president and senior adviser to the former first lady, calling for him to appear for a deposition on July 16 as part of Comer’s probe into what his press announcement called “the cover-up of President Joe Biden’s mental decline and potentially unauthorized executive actions.”

Comer’s announcement on the subpoena said Bernal was reportedly so close to the former first lady that he was referred to as her “work husband.”

A day earlier, Bernal had notified Comer’s panel that he would not take part in its requested interview. Comer on Thursday said that Bernal previously had confirmed that he would appear “for a voluntary transcribed interview” on Thursday. However, Comer said, the White House Counsel’s office informed Bernal that it was waiving executive privilege for the committee’s investigation. At that, Bernal refused to appear.

In a subpoena cover letter, Comer said, in part, to Bernal that “the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform requested that you — because of your role as a senior aide to former President Joe Biden — appear for a transcribed interview on June 11, 2025, broadly regarding ‘the extent of your influence over the former President and your knowledge of whether the former President was personally discharging the duties of his office.’

“Given your close connection with both former President Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden, the Committee sought to understand if you contributed to an effort to hide former President Biden’s fitness to serve from the American people,” the letter continued. “You have refused the Committee’s request. However, to advance the Committee’s oversight and legislative responsibilities and interests, your testimony is critical. Accordingly, please see the attached subpoena for testimony at a deposition on July 16, 2025.”

Bernal was one of the sources cited in Jake Tapper’s book Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. That book also has been referenced by Comer in his panel’s investigation into Joe Biden’s mental health.

In May, Comer announced his investigation, citing general concerns about Biden’s age and mental capacity after the president’s troubled performances and missteps on the campaign trail, which eventually resulted in Joe Biden withdrawing from his presidential run.

Comer’s investigation also launched as renewed interest in Biden’s health erupted after the former president announced he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump ordered an investigation into Joe Biden’s cognitive state, alleging that White House aides covered up his mental decline.

Emmerdale’s Joe Tate is suspicious that love rival Billy Fletcher is out to get him in a revenge storyline after realising someone was targeting him on the ITV soap

There was a new mystery unfolding on Emmerdale this week, with Joe Tate the target of some worrying behaviour.

The character has created multiple enemies of recent, resulting in him being shoved out of a window at Home Farm. While it was fling and now partner Dawn Taylor who confessed to the crime, plenty of other people wanted him dead.

While that storyline has died down now and Joe has recovered, it seems someone else is wanting payback. Joe was left furious to find his car had been keyed this week, and then on Wednesday night there was more signs that someone was out to get him.

Joe realised someone had been in his room while he was out, noticing his medication had been taken. He confided in Sam Dingle about it, and revealed that someone had moved things around, taken things that he needed, and had even opened the window.

He immediately suspected Billy was to blame, but Sam was adamant he wouldn’t have done it. Sam did advise him to have it out with his love rival though to put a stop to the drama.

Things didn’t go well though and Joe, sending accusations Billy’s way, was confronted by both him and Kerry Wyatt. Not getting the desired reaction Joe took action, meeting up with his accomplice Shaun and telling him he wanted Billy to be taught a lesson.

READ MORE: Emmerdale’s Belle Dingle star ‘lets slip’ new romance with telling comment

So is Billy in serious danger? Either way, fans are convinced that Billy isn’t lying and is actually innocent. So if not Billy, then who is targeting Joe and why?

Viewers are suspicious of two characters in particular, both of whom blame Joe for the deaths of three characters including someone close to them. Joe caused the drugging of his brother Noah Dingle, leading to him wandering out into the road on the night of the limo crash.

As driver Charity Dingle swerved to avoid hitting her son Noah, she crashed onto an icy lake. The accident caused the deaths of Leyla Harding, Suzy Merton and Amy Wyatt.

At the recent party where Joe was exposed for what happened that night, Amy’s mother Kerry made it clear she wanted payback. Amy’s husband Matty Barton was also distraught and wanted Joe to face up to his actions.

So with both of them wanting Joe to pay, could it be one or both of them who are out to get him? Viewers certainly think this could be the case, naming these two characters as the likely culprits.

One fan posted on social media: “So the person who is haunting Joe is either Kerry or Matty.” Another viewer agreed with the theory, saying: “I think Kerry or Matty or someone from the party still wanting revenge.”

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

Cardiff City captain Joe Ralls is leaving the club, bringing an end to 15 years at the Bluebirds.

Ralls, the Bluebirds’ longest-serving player, had initially been in discussions over potentially extending his stay at Cardiff City Stadium.

But, after talks with new manager Brian Barry-Murphy, the 31-year-old midfielder will move on when his contract expires at the end of this month.

Midfielder or right-back Andy Rinomhota is also set to depart with his three-year deal also not being renewed.

A decision on their futures had been put on hold as the club awaited to appoint a successor to Omer Riza after demotion to League One, with Barry-Murphy being confirmed as new head coach last week.

Ralls thanked owner Vincent Tan and the Cardiff board on social media, and Barry-Murphy for “being completely honest with me”.

“It’s incredibly hard to find the words after 15 years here… but the time has come for me to move on and for the club to go in a new direction,” Ralls said.

Terrance “T.A.” Dixon, once a hype man to rapper Fat Joe, has sued his former employer for $20 million, making some allegations that might blend right in at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ RICO and sex-trafficking trial.

The federal lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York and reviewed by The Times, alleges that the rapper underpaid Dixon, cut him out of promised pay for contributing to album tracks, defrauded authorities about his income, ditched Dixon in foreign countries without money or transportation home and is running a criminal organization built on intimidation and violence.

The lawsuit alleges that Fat Joe forced the hype man — a sort of backing vocalist who pumps up the audience — into approximately 4,000 sex acts with women in front of him and his crew.

The 54-year-old rapper, born Joseph Antonio Cartagena, is also accused of having sexual relationships with girls who were 15 and 16. The allegations go back to when the rapper was in his late 30s, the lawsuit says. Fat Joe’s song “She’s My Mama,” which has graphically sexual lyrics, was based on what is alleged to have happened with him and one of the girls in real life, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit states that Dixon’s role over about 16 years was more than that of the usual hype man. He “consistently” had duties that included co-writing lyrics, structuring hooks, recording background vocals, performing at more than 200 live shows as Fat Joe’s primary onstage counterpart and managing travel logistics, including equipment transport, security and emergency arrangements. The complaint alleges that Dixon also acted as Joe’s bodyguard and handler during tours.

According to the filing, Dixon wrote or co-wrote tracks including “Congratulations,” “Money Over Bitches,” “Ice Cream,” “Cupcake,” “Blackout,” “Dirty Diana,” “Porn Star,” “Okay Okay,”“No Problems,” a version of “All the Way Up,” “300 Brolic,” “All I Do Is Win (Remix verse),” “Red Café (Remix),” “Winding on Me,” “Cocababy” and “Get It for Life.”

The complaint alleges that Dixon was not properly paid for his efforts, even though he says he was promised certain ownership percentages and documented credit on songs that Fat Joe released commercially. Dixon, who left Fat Joe’s team in 2020, was unable to obtain certain evidence of wrongdoing until a person named as “Accountant Doe” came forward last year with information, the lawsuit says.

Fat Joe “exercised sole control over contracts, budgets, tour management, licensing, and credit attribution and intentionally omitted Plaintiff’s name from liner notes, publishing registrations, and royalty structures, despite Plaintiff’s direct contributions to these works’ creative and commercial success,” the complaint says.

Joe Tacopina, an attorney for Fat Joe, called the lawsuit “a blatant attack of retaliation” and labeled the allegations “complete fabrications” that his client denies in a statement to Variety. Retaliation referred to the slander lawsuit that the rapper filed against Dixon in April after the former hype man accused him on social media of flying a 16-year-old across state lines for sex.

Dixon’s attorney, Tyrone Blackburn, is also representing producer Lil Rod (Rodney Jones) in his $30-million federal lawsuit filed last year against Sean “Diddy” Combs and others in Combs’ orbit, in which Lil Rod alleged sexual harassment and sexual assault. A judge tossed out a majority of Lil Rod’s allegations against Combs in late March.

Both lawsuits include trigger warnings in bright red type ahead of the allegations — something not often seen in such documents.

“Fat Joe is Sean Combs minus the Tusi [pink cocaine],” Blackburn said in a statement to the Independent. “He learned nothing from his 2013 federal conviction,” the attorney added, referencing Fat Joe’s four-month sentence and $15,000 fine in a plea deal for failure to file a tax return in multiple years on more than $3.3 million in income.

In addition to Fat Joe, defendants in the new lawsuit include Peter “Pistol Pete” Torres, Richard “Rich Player” Jospitre, Erica Juliana Moreira and several companies —including Roc Nation — that are affiliated with the rapper. Dixon is asking for a jury trial.

Dolores Huerta, the labor and civil rights leader who co-founded what eventually became the United Farm Workers union, endorsed Joe Biden for president on Friday.

Huerta, who is based in Bakersfield and is one of the nation’s most prominent Latino activists, offered her support on International Workers Day and as Biden’s campaign seeks to improve support among Latino voters.

He trailed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, his main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, among Latinos for much of the primary. Biden’s campaign attributed the gap to a lack of financial resources that made it difficult to reach voters, but the former vice president also faced protests over the Obama administration’s deportation of nearly 3 million immigrants who were in the country illegally.

Huerta on Friday said Biden has been a “staunch advocate for labor” and has prioritized Latinos.

“At a time when the current White House has used fear mongering and racist rhetoric towards Latinos, Joe has made it clear that he will fight to protect and advance our community,” she said in a statement.

Huerta plans to appear at a virtual Todos Con Biden roundtable on Sunday with actor John Leguizamo.

Cristóbal Alex, a senior Biden advisor, said in an email that Huerta is “an icon” and her endorsement “represents the Latino community’s excitement and confidence” in the former vice president.

Huerta founded the National Farmworkers Assn. with labor leader Cesar Chavez in 1962 and is credited with coming up with the rallying cry “Sí se puede” (“Yes we can”). In 2012, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

She endorsed California Sen. Kamala Harris’ presidential bid in February 2019 and co-chaired her campaign. During the primary, Huerta criticized Biden’s opposition to decriminalizing unapproved border crossings.

At a July 31 Democratic debate, Biden also found himself at odds with rival candidates who said crossing the border without permission should be a civil violation, not a criminal act. “If you cross the border illegally, you should be able to be sent back. It’s a crime,” Biden said.

“It was a great disappointment to hear Vice President Biden use that kind of language because he’s really speaking just like the Republicans,” Huerta said after the debate.

On Friday, Huerta said in an interview that Biden’s track record of supporting immigration reform bills when he was in the Senate made her optimistic about what he would pursue as president.

“When we look to Joe Biden’s record, he actually voted for immigration reform,” she said. “That’s why we have the hope that he will be with us as we try to get immigration reform again.”

In the weeks since Sanders suspended his campaign, Latino groups — including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ BOLD PAC and Voto Latino, a voter registration group founded in 2004 — have started to coalesce around Biden.

María Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino’s president and chief executive, said the group decided to back Biden with its first-ever endorsement after he sent a 22-page document answering questions on his positions on student debt, the environment, immigration, criminal justice reform and the modernization of electoral systems.

The group is now talking to his campaign about how to address the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the Latino community. “We want him to think boldly, because it’s the time for that leadership to help get our country out of where we are,” Kumar said.

Kumar said Sanders’ success with Latino voters came from his strategy of reaching young voters and discussing not just immigration, but healthcare, student debt and climate change.

“Young people in the Latino community have tremendous leverage in their households,” Kumar said. “The more that we can speak to them, they in turn influence their family members.”

Ticking the strike over

Since his debut in ODIs, only two batters have a higher non-boundary strike-rate than Root (minimum of 2,000 non-boundary runs). Off non-boundary balls, Root has a strike-rate of 59.89, England’s Jos Buttler is second with 63.77 and at the top is South Africa’s AB de Villiers (65.70).

High control

Since the start of 2018, Root has a false-shot percentage of only 11.1% in ODIs. In matches between Full Member nations, only one batter in world cricket has a lower false-shot percentage than Root – New Zealand’s Kane Williamson (11%).

Great against spin

Root averages 70.3 against spin in his ODI career – the next highest English batter is Buttler (52). In ODI history, only five batters average higher against spin than Root for a minimum of 1,500 runs – Mike Hussey (Australia), MS Dhoni (India), Michael Bevan (Australia), Shai Hope (West Indies) and Babar Azam (Pakistan). Of these, only Dhoni has scored more runs against spin than Root, while none of them have scored at a higher strike-rate than Root’s 90.

Scores runs off good balls

In his ODI career, Root averages 47.7 against deliveries in the channel outside off stump and scores at a strike-rate of 77 against them. The average right-handed batter averages only 33 on this line. When the ball is wider than that, Root cashes in on the width, scoring at an average of 94.5 and striking at 109.

Master of the middle overs

Between overs 11-40, Root averages 66.6 at a strike rate of 87. Only two batters in world cricket have scored at an average and a strike-rate higher than Root’s for a minimum of 2,000 runs – India’s Virat Kohli (ave 70.7, S/R 93) and De Villiers (ave 68.9, S/R 97).

Always evolving

In ODIs until the end of 2015, Root had seven dismissals playing the reverse sweep at an average of just 7.4. Since the start of 2016, he has averaged 158 with the shot. Previously, he used to reach out well in front while playing the reverse sweep, with an average interception point of 2.10m from the stumps. Since the start of 2016, that has come much closer at 1.77m.

Joe Root became England’s leading run-scorer in one-day internationals as his sparkling unbeaten 166 secured a three-wicket win over West Indies in Cardiff.

Root, who is also his country’s highest run-scorer in Tests, finished with 166 from 139 balls as England reached their target of 309 with seven balls remaining to take the three-match series with a game to spare.

He surpassed World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan’s tally of 6,957 runs on the way to his highest ODI score, leading England’s recovery from 93-4 which included ducks for Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett and Jos Buttler.

Root combined with Harry Brook for a third-wicket stand of 85, before a masterful partnership of 143 with Will Jacks put England within touching distance of victory.

A fierce spell from Alzarri Joseph, who finished with 4-31, accounted for Jacks for 49 and Brydon Carse for two to keep West Indies interested, but Root and Adil Rashid calmly ticked off the remaining 21 runs, sealed in style by a classical Root drive down the ground.

Earlier, West Indies’ 308 was set up by Keacy Carty’s 103, bookended by half-centuries from Brandon King and Shai Hope – and with plenty of assistance from England’s sloppy fielding.

Carty and King added 141 for the second wicket but the former was put down on by Duckett on one and Saqib Mahmood on 41, while Duckett also dropped King on 11 and somehow squandered a run out opportunity when both batters were stranded in the middle of the pitch in the 21st over.

The innings fell away from 205-2 when Carty fell three balls after reaching his century, with Rashid taking 4-63 and Mahmood’s three late wickets mopping up the tail.

The visitors were left to rue wasting 14 balls of their innings as the last five wickets fell for 50 runs, the lower order offering Hope little support as he was last to depart for 78 from 66 balls.

The third and final ODI takes place at The Oval on Tuesday.

Cokanasiga will start on the wing against French Top 14 side Lyon on Friday night (20:00 BST) as Premiership leaders Bath look to clinch their second trophy of the season in the European Challenge Cup final, having also been part of the squad that won the Premiership Rugby Cup in February.

He scored a scintillating try last weekend as they thrashed Leicester 43-15 in the league, running from deep in his own half after Max Ojomoh’s interception.

Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan said Cokanasiga has become a “more rounded player” during his tenure at the club.

“He’s by far the biggest winger that I’ve coached but Joe’s got this amazing ability to finish tries, he’s got this hunger to get better,” he said.

“We’ve ID’d certain bits of his game he needs to get better and he’s become a much more all-round player.”

Cokanasiga agreed his consistency across the pitch has come with the more experienced he has become.

“As I’ve gotten older my priorities have changed of how I need to perform in the game,” he said.

“Then we’ve got people like [Bath attack coach] Lee Blackett that has a different view of the game than I do and that’s helped me improve massively.

“Johann’s someone I can go and speak to about anything and let everything out, he can be honest with me, I can be honest with him, same with Lee and JP [Ferreira, defence coach].

“They give you a lot of confidence and that’s massive in players.”

JOE Biden is facing fresh scrutiny over his health while in office amid his “aggressive” prostate cancer diagnosis.

The former president, 82, claimed to have had cancer in a speech he gave three years ago – which sparked fears for his health at the time.

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Biden’s comments came during a speech about “cancer-causing” emissions from oil refineries near his childhood home in Delaware.

He said: “That’s why I and so damn many other people I grew up with have cancer and why for the longest time Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation.”

Biden’s use of the present tense led to speculations that the president was suffering from cancer.

But these were dismissed after it was suggested that the comments were a reference to “non-melanoma skin cancers”.

Before assuming the presidency, Biden had a number of “localized, non-melanoma skin cancers” removed by surgery.

In November 2021, Biden had a polyp removed from his colon that was a benign, but potentially pre-cancerous lesion.

And in February 2023, he had a skin lesion removed from his chest that was a basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer.

Non-melanoma skin cancer typically develops in the areas of the body most exposed to the sun such as the face, ears, hands, shoulders, upper chest, and back.

But Biden is now facing fresh scrutiny over his cancer comments following the announcement of his cancer diagnosis on Sunday.

This comes as Donald Trump took a swipe at his predecessor and said he was “surprised” the public wasn’t told long ago about Biden’s cancer.

The US President cast doubt on the timeline of Biden’s diagnosis on Monday as he said it usually takes a “long time” to reach such an aggressive stage of cancer.

Trump was backed up by a leading oncologist who claimed that the former president likely had cancer when he took office in 2021.

Dr Zeke Emanuel said: “He had it while he was President.

“He probably had it at the start of his presidency, in 2021.”

Biden announced his cancer diagnosis in an official statement from his personal office on Sunday.

The statement said that he was seen by doctors last week after suffering urinary symptoms, with a prostate nodule then being found.

He was then diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday, with the cancer cells having spread to the bone.

The statement read: “Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms.

“On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.

“The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”

A Gleason score of 9 means the cancerous cells “look very abnormal” and that the disease is “likely to grow quickly”, according to Cancer Research UK.

Biden served as US president from 2021 to 2025, with his term ending on January 20 when Donald Trump took office.

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Former US President Joe Biden, 82, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, a statement from his office said on Sunday.

Biden, who left office in January, was diagnosed on Friday after he saw a doctor last week for urinary symptoms.

The cancer is a more aggressive form of the disease, characterised by a Gleason score of 9 out of 10. This means his illness is classified as “high-grade” and the cancer cells could spread quickly, according to Cancer Research UK.

Biden and his family are said to be reviewing treatment options. His office added that the cancer was hormone-sensitive, meaning it could likely be managed.

In Sunday’s statement, Biden’s office said: “Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms.

“On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterised by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.”

After news broke of his diagnosis, the former president received support from both sides of the aisle.

President Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that he and First Lady Melania Trump “are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis.”

“We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family,” he said, referring to former First Lady Jill Biden. “We wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”

Former Vice-President Kamala Harris, who served under Biden, wrote on X that she and her husband Doug Emhoff are keeping the Biden family in their prayers.

“Joe is a fighter – and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership,” Harris said.

In a post on X, Barack Obama – who served as president from 2009 to 2017 with Joe Biden as his deputy – said that he and his wife Michelle were “thinking of the entire Biden family”.

“Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace. We pray for a fast and full recovery,” Obama said. In 2016, the former president launched a “Cancer Moonshot” programme and announced that Biden would lead it.

The news comes nearly a year after the former president was forced to drop out of the 2024 US presidential election over concerns about his health and age. He is the oldest person to have held the office in US history.

Biden, then the Democratic nominee vying for re-election, faced mounting criticism of his poor performance in a June televised debate against Republican nominee and current president Donald Trump. He was replaced as the Democratic candidate by his vice-president, Kamala Harris.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer affecting men, behind skin cancer, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that 13 out of every 100 men will develop prostate cancer at some point in their lives.

Age is the most common risk factor, the CDC says.

Dr William Dahut, the Chief Scientific Officer at the American Cancer Society and a trained prostate cancer physician, told the BBC that the cancer is more aggressive in nature, based on the publicly-available information on Biden’s diagnosis.

“In general, if cancer has spread to the bones, we don’t think it is considered a curable cancer,” Dr Dahut said.

He noted, however, that most patients tend to respond well to initial treatment, “and people can live many years with the diagnosis”.

Dr Dahut said that someone with the former president’s diagnosis will likely be offered hormonal therapies to mitigate symptoms and to slow the growth of cancerous cells.

Biden had largely retreated from the public eye since leaving the White House and he has made few public appearances.

The former president delivered a keynote speech in April at a Chicago conference held by the Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled, a US-based advocacy group for people with disabilities.

In May, he sat down for an interview with the BBC – his first since leaving the White House – where he admitted that the decision to step down from the 2024 race was “difficult”.

Biden has faced questions about the status of his health in recent months.

In an appearance on The View programme that also took place in May, Biden denied claims that he had been experiencing cognitive decline in his final year at the White House. “There is nothing to sustain that,” he said.

For many years, the president had advocated for cancer research.

In 2022, he and Mrs Biden relaunched the Cancer Moonshot initiative with the goal of mobilising research efforts to prevent more than four million cancer deaths by the year 2047.

Biden himself lost his eldest son, Beau, to brain cancer in 2015.

In March 2024, I wrote a column about President Biden’s State of the Union speech with a confident headline that made perfect sense to me at the time: “Chill out, my fellow Americans. Your president isn’t cognitively impaired.”

Boy was I wrong. For months, critics and supporters had been raising pointed questions about the president’s physical health and intellectual acuity. Had he won the November election, after all, he would have been the oldest president in American history. (Since he lost, that honor goes to the current White House occupant.) But during his hourlong speech to Congress, Biden had sparred repeatedly with Republican hecklers. He was on his game. Democrats were relieved.

Having watched Trump raise spurious questions during the 2016 campaign about Hillary Clinton’s health —particularly after she was visibly ill at a 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan — I thought Republicans were harping on the issue of Biden’s age more as a tactic than anything else. It was a good distraction, considering that his opponent, then-former President Trump, was only a few years younger and given to rambling incoherence himself.

Republicans may have exaggerated Biden’s issues, but they were, as we soon learned, in the main, correct. By the time the president stood slack-jawed and confused on a debate stage with Trump only three months after his triumphant State of the Union address, it was clear that something was very, very wrong. The debate stage can be a cruel place, and with no prepared speech loaded onto a teleprompter, Biden was suddenly naked in the spotlight. It was not a pretty sight, and suddenly, he was no longer a tenable presidential candidate.

But why are we talking about this old news when we have a president flouting every ethical norm of his office, wantonly violating the Constitution and cozying up to murderous dictators such as Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince whom the CIA concluded had ordered the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi?

Biden is back in the news thanks to “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” by longtime CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios White House correspondent Alex Thompson. The book, whose subtitle says it all, has been excerpted in the New Yorker and reviewed by other publications. Its publication date is Tuesday.

I tried to get my hands on a copy, but the publishing house blew me off.

In any case, so much of the book’s insider information has been made available that it is possible to make a convincing case, even from a distance, that Biden’s insistence on running for a second term, despite his promise to be a one-term “bridge,” and his belated decision to drop out, is how we got to where we are today: in the grip of a chaotic, despotic self-dealing president who is turning the Constitution on its head.

Heckuva job, Joe!

I was as surprised as anyone that Biden became the nominee in 2020. I recall watching him stump in Iowa, certain that he was too old for the job. Onstage, he was shouty, his voice rising and falling for no particular reason — “mistaking volume for passion,” as I wrote back then.

And yet, for all his faults, gaffes and frailties, I would still prefer an impaired Biden to the corrupt felon who currently occupies the Oval Office.

Those who have read “Original Sin” say that it does not contain any bombshells. What it offers is a detailed account of the systematic effort by family and advisors to conceal the truth from the American people, and calls out the cowardly Democratic leaders who knew Biden was not up to a second term but were afraid to cross him.

As the Washington Post put it in its review: “The book is a damning account of an elderly, egotistical president shielded from reality by a slavish coterie of loyalists and family members united by a shared, seemingly ironclad sense of denial and a determination to smear anyone who dared to question the president’s fitness for office as a threat to the republic covertly working on behalf of Trump.”

Co-author Thompson, as it happens, was one of the few mainstream political journalists to aggressively report on Biden’s worsening condition and the struggle — you might even call it gaslighting — to keep it from the public.

For that, the White House Correspondents’ Assn. awarded him its top honor in April. In his acceptance speech, Thompson was unflinching.

“President Biden’s decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception,” he said. “But being truth tellers also means telling the truth about ourselves. We, myself included, missed a lot of this story, and some people trust us less because of it. We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows. … We should have done better.”

I take his point. We are now living with the consequences of our failures.

@rabcarian.bsky.social and @rabcarian

CANNES, France — In Cannes, the weather changes so fast that you can enter a theater in sandals and exit in desperate need of rain boots and a scarf. On Friday, I ran to my room to grab a warmer shirt for an overcast outdoor party. I checked the window and added a jacket, then checked the window again and was stunned to see the sun. By the time I raced back down the Croisette (in something sleeveless), the cocktail hour was over. C’est la vie.

The mutability is a lovely parallel for the filmgoing itself. At the end of a great movie, you feel like the world has changed. And when a film is bad, the director suffers the shock of their forecast being dramatically upended. Before the premiere, they were chauffeured around in festival-sponsored BMWs and now their friends are stammering how much they like their shoes.

Harris Dickinson, the young British actor who convincingly dominated Nicole Kidman in last year’s “Babygirl,” seemed a tad flustered introducing the premiere of “Urchin,” his directorial debut. Jacket and tieless with his dress shirt’s sleeves rolled up lopsidedly, he hastily joked, “I’m nervous, but I hope you enjoy it — and if you don’t, tell us gently.”

That barometric pressure is especially intense in Cannes, but onscreen (so far, at least), the wind is only blowing one way: south. Almost every film so far has been about a character braving a storm — legal, moral, political, psychological — and getting dashed against the rocks.

Joaquin Phoenix, left, and Pedro Pascal in the movie “Eddington.”

(A24)

“Eddington,” Ari Aster’s twisty and thistly modern-day western, is set in New Mexico during that first hot and crazy summer of the pandemic. To his credit and the audience’s despair, it whacks us right on our bruised memories of that topsy-turvy time when a new alarm sounded every day, from the social-distancing rules of the coronavirus and the murder of George Floyd to the rumors that Antifa was rioting in the streets. With “Hereditary,” Aster made horror trauma hip; now, he’s shifted to satirizing our shared PTSD.

Joaquin Phoenix stars as Joe, a sheriff with a soft heart and mushy judgment, who rejects the mask mandate of Eddington’s ambitious mayor (Pedro Pascal), arguing that COVID isn’t in their tiny rural town. Maybe, maybe not — but it’s clear that viral videos have given him and everyone else brain worms. Joe’s wife (Emma Stone) and mother-in-law (Deirdre O’Connell) are fixated on conspiracies involving everything from child trafficking to the Titanic. Meanwhile, Eddington’s youth activists, mostly white and performative, are doing TikTok dances advertising their passion for James Baldwin while ordering the town’s sole Black deputy (Micheal Ward) to take a knee. No one in “Eddington” speaks the truth. Yet everyone believes what they’re saying.

Phoenix’s Joe watches Henry Fonda movies and wears a symbolic white hat. Yet, he’s pathetic at maintaining order, pasting a misspelled sign on his police car that reads: Your being manipulated. Having lived through May 2020 and all that’s happened since, we wouldn’t trust Aster anyway if he’d pretended a savior could set things right. Still, there’s no empathizing with hapless, clueless Joe when he whines, “Do you really think the power is with the police?”

Well, one person in a Cannes film does: the lead of Dominik Moll’s “Dossier 137,” a single mother named Stéphanie (Léa Drucker), who just so happens to be a cop herself. Once, Stéphanie investigated narcotics. Now, she gathers evidence when her fellow officers are accused of misbehavior. An inspired-by-a-true-story detective movie set in the aftermath of the 2018 Paris demonstrations, the film’s central case involves a squad of undercover officers who allegedly shoot a 20-year-old protestor in the head with a rubber bullet, shattering the front of the boy’s skull.

Moll has made the kind of sinewy procedural that makes your palms sweat. “I have no personal feelings,” Stéphanie insists, even as her ex-husband and his new girlfriend, also police officers, accuse her of being a traitor. More precisely, she allows herself no visible emotions as she questions both the accusers and the accused. It’s impressive to watch the meticulous and dogged Stéphanie put together the pieces and make the liars squirm. But she’s the last person in the movie to see the big picture: No matter how good she is, she can’t be a hero.

Aleksandr Kuznetsov in the movie “Two Prosecutors.”

(Festival de Cannes)

Sergei Loznitsa’s Stalin-era drama “Two Prosecutors” lugs its own protagonist along that exact same journey; it’s affixed to cynicism like a train on a track. Here, the ill-fated idealist is a recent law student (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) who wants to interview a prisoner that the government would rather remain disappeared. The voices that once boldly spoke out against the Soviet regime have long since been silenced. Now, the Great Purge is locking up even the Russians who swear they love their leader.

Methodical and dreary, the film’s key image is of Kuznetsov (who coincidentally-but-on-purpose has a nose that appears to have been busted around) walking down endless dismal hallways. He’s polite and stoic, but we all know he’s not getting anywhere. The film plays like a sour joke with an obvious punchline. I respected it fine, but slow and inevitable don’t make great bedfellows. The jet-lagged stranger next to me nodded off for a nap.

Snores weren’t a problem at “Sirât,” a nail-biter that had its midnight crowd wide awake. The fourth Cannes film by the French-born Spanish director Oliver Laxe, it’s about dirtbag ravers who’ve gathered in a barren stretch of Morocco for a stunning party: orange cliffs, neon lights, thumping EDM beats and dancers thrashing in the dust like the living dead. The only sober attendees are a father (Sergi López) and his young son (Bruno Núñez) who are hoping to find the boy’s sister, a bohemian swept up in the relentless rhythm of this road-tripping bacchanalia. But when the party gets busted up by the police, this fractured family joins a caravan headed in the vague direction of another fest. Next stop, disaster.

An image from the movie “Sirât,” directed by Oliver Laxe.

(Festival de Cannes)

The small ensemble cast looks and feels like they’ve already lived through an apocalypse. Two of his actors are missing limbs and nearly all are flamboyantly tattooed. As these battered vans hurtle through the desert, it’s obvious that “Sirât” believes the age of “Mad Max” has already begun. But Laxe’s cadence of death is nasty and arbitrary and delightful. He’s unconvinced that we can form a community able to survive this harsh world. At best, he’ll give us a coin flip chance of success. I’ve got to watch the film again before I decide whether (a) it’s a comedy and (b) it has anything deeper to say. But a second viewing won’t be a hardship. Even if “Sirât” proves half-empty instead of half-full, witnessing another audience gasp at its mean shocks will be sweet schadenfreude.

Which finally brings us back to Harris Dickinson. His film “Urchin” is good. Great, even. The last time he was in Cannes, it was as the lead in Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness,” but he’s a real-deal director. It’s high praise to his acting that I don’t want him quitting his day job just yet.

“Urchin” lopes after a drug-addled boy-man named Mike (Frank Dillane, fantastic) who’s been sleeping and scavenging on the London streets for five years. Yes, Dickinson has gone 21st-century Dickensian; Mike pesters people for ketamine, vodka and spare change like Oliver Twist begged for porridge. But this isn’t a pity piece. “Urchin” is energetic and filled with life: funny asides, tiny joys, stabs of recognition and flourishes of visual psychedelia.

Mike is given multiple chances to change his fortunes. Yet, he’s also stubbornly himself and we spend the running time toggling between being scared for him and being scared of him. Dickinson, who also wrote the film, wants us to know not just how easy it is to slide down the social ladder but what a small step forward looks like, even if his tone is ultimately more Sisyphean than self-help.

After the movie, I ducked into the drizzle, then into a cafe. A man was monologuing to an acquaintance about his career change from tech to film and this is my favorite place to eavesdrop.

“I was rich and successful but I had to look for something more jazzy,” he explained, stabbing at the other person’s plate of charcuterie. He’s now broke, he said, and divorced. But somehow, he seemed content. He’d emailed his script to Quentin Tarantino. Maybe next Cannes, he’ll be the one getting fêted and chauffeured. Maybe the wind would start blowing his way. A great movie really can change your life.