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Emmerdale fans have been left even more worried about Jacob Sugden after his latest run-in with Doctor Todd on the ITV soap
Emmerdale fans have been left even more worried about Jacob Sugden after his latest run-in with Doctor Todd on the ITV soap. The medical student, played by Joe-Warren Plant, has been terrorised by his superior at Hotten General for months now, originally masking her bullying as tough love as he began his journey in the profession.
On Monday’s edition of the Yorkshire-based soap, Jacob called round to see Doctor Todd, also known as Cailtin, on the day of her father’s funeral. He took with him some flowers as a gesture of condolence and explained that he hoped to put the past behind them, especially now that she has decided to retire.
Caitlin (Caroline Harker) thanked him for the flowers and seemingly agreed they could draw a line on it, but as soon as Jacob was out the door, she dismissed his gesture by tossing the flowers onto the sofa.
READ MORE: Emmerdale Dr Todd’s cruel next move ‘seals’ fate – and it’s bad news for JacobREAD MORE: Emmerdale fans ‘work out’ who brings Dr Todd down and it’s not Jacob
Later on, Caitlin bumped into Vanessa Woodfield (Michelle Hardwick) in the shop, where Jacob was working on the till amid his paternity leave, and arranged to go on a date with her. Vanessa then got a phone call and had to leave immediately to deal with a family emergency, with Caitlin swooping in to offer to pay for her shopping so she could leave quickly.
She took the basket to the till and instantly used this as an opportunity to lay out her plans for Jacob. She said: “Thanks again for the flowers. I was a bit blindsided by you showing up, to be honest.
“But you said something about us going our separate ways and moving on. That’s gonna be a bit difficult, that first bit, isn’t it? Because we both live here.
“But I’m gonna have a lot more time on my hands, as you know, what with no job, and no dad to worry about. I wonder what I’m gonna do with it. Hopefully, it won’t involve finding new ways to make your life as hellish as when you worked with me…especially with what I know. Cheery-bye!”
Jacob was left looking confused to say the least as Caitlin walked out of the shop, but the knowledge that she has is that baby Leyla isn’t actually his daughter, nor is she his wife Sarah’s.
The retired doctor has worked out that Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins), who is Sarah’s grandmother and had claimed to be acting as surrogate, is the child’s biological mother, having conceived the baby during a one-night stand with Ross Barton.
Reacting to the shock threat, one fan wrote on Reddit: “Todd is seriously scary now she’s in full psycho mode.” Another said: “Is Todd that sad that she’s retiring to make his life a misery?”
A third wrote: “Jacob – ‘this woman is bullying me and making my life hell every time I see her, so I know what I’ll do, I’ll go round to her house’”
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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From Maddie Lee: Dodgers left-hander Justin Wrobleski had a chance to slam the door shut on the Braves’ second-inning rally. He fielded Sean Murphy’s comebacker, and set his feet to start a would-be inning-ending double play at second base.
Angled up the mound, however, he sailed the throw, which second baseman Alex Freeland wrangled to at least salvage an out.
The way the Dodgers’ offense has been scuffling, however, their 7-2 loss hinged on that four-run second inning.
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“It’s just,one half-inning of being pissed off about it, and then you’ve got to keep going back out there and doing your thing,” said Wrobleski, who was charged with seven runs but gutted out a career-high 8⅔ innings. “So yeah, it’s frustrating. It’s annoying because now I look back at it and, yeah, that’s what cost me from having a good outing.”
With the Dodgers’ rubber-match loss, the Braves took sole possession of the best record in the majors. The Dodgers (24-16) dropped the series to the Braves (28-13) after scoring three or fewer runs in each game.
“I thought we turned the corner in Houston,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We kind of got back down a little bit this series. … It’s hard to articulate. There’s some empty at-bats, there’s some early outs that are not just quality outs. There’s the passing the baton to the next guy — and sometimes it just doesn’t happen.”
After Wrobleski cruised through the first inning in just six pitches — first-pitch flyout, four-pitch strikeout, first-pitch groundout — he had an uncharacteristically long second inning.
Lakers star LeBron James slaps hands with coach JJ Redick on his way to the bench in a blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
From Bill Plaschke: They possessed a halftime lead with one of the most accomplished playoff players in NBA history.
They possessed the best scorer in NBA history at the controls of a sizzling offense in a loud arena against a team that had every reason to pack it in.
They lost by 23.
To those who witnessed the first three games of these Western Conference semifinals between the Luka Doncic-less Lakers and the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, it is no surprise that the Thunder lead three games to none.
What is shocking is that, with a 131-108 win Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena, the Thunder steamrolled to victory over the prone body of an NBA legend.
Lakers forward Rui Hachimura tries to shoot a layup in front of Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jaylin Williams in Game 3 on Saturday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
From Broderick Turner: In their darkest playoff hour, Lakers coach JJ Redick advised his players during practice Sunday to take the same mental approach for the win-or-go-home Game 4 that they’ve used since the first day of training camp.
The Lakers trail the Oklahoma City Thunder 3-0 in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series. The Lakers must beat the Thunder at Crypto.com Arena on Monday night or their season is over.
“Our first slide that we put up in training camp was [to] win the day,” Redick said. “Today was a quick offensive review and then just going over some stuff defensively. Got to win today and we got to win tomorrow. We know what we’re facing being down 3-0. So it’s just more of a mindset check than anything else.”
Ducks forward Alex Killorn, second left, celebrates with teammates after scoring against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals Sunday at Honda Center.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
From Kevin Baxter: The Ducks’ second-round playoff showdown with the Vegas Golden Knights has become a best-of-three series.
With a 4-3 victory Sunday before a raucous sold-out crowd at the Honda Center, the Ducks evened the series 2-2 as it heads back to Las Vegas for Game 5 on Tuesday. But it wasn’t easy, with the Golden Knights twice rallying from one-goal deficits, only to see the Ducks answer each time.
And the Ducks’ power play, so lethal in the team’s first-round win over Edmonton and so ineffective in the first three games of this series, finally found a spark, scoring goals in each of the first two periods.
The Ducks’ goals came from Beckett Sennecke, Mikael Granlund, Alex Killorn and Ian Moore. Pavel Dorofeyev, Brett Howden and Tomas Hertl scored for Vegas.
Sparks guard Kelsey Plum, left, and forward Dearica Hamby, right, battle Las Vegas center A’ja Wilson for the ball during the Sparks’ 105-78 loss at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday.
(Luiza Moraes / Getty Images)
From Marisa Ingemi: Before the Sparks opening day loss to the Las Vegas Aces, coach Lynne Roberts said that this year “felt different.”
After one game, though, it feels a lot like the same.
During their season opener, the Sparks couldn’t get momentum against the defending champion Aces and fell 105-78 behind a remarkably efficient shooting day from the visitors at Crypto.com Arena.
After posting the worst defense in the WNBA last season (88.2 points per game), the Sparks made a flurry of offseason moves prioritizing stopping opponents. It’s why they brought in Nneka Ogwumike, Ariel Atkins and Erica Wheeler.
More: Sparks sign fan favorite Kate Martin to developmental pool
The Washington Wizards won the draft lottery on Sunday and are poised to pick first overall for the first time since 2010.
(Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)
From the Associated Press: The league’s worst team this season is getting the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.
The Washington Wizards won the draft lottery on Sunday and are poised to pick first overall for the first time since choosing John Wall in that spot in 2010. Wall was the Wizards’ on-stage representative for the lottery.
Washington had a 14% chance of winning No. 1, tied with Brooklyn and Indiana for the best odds. The Wizards had basically a 50-50 chance of getting either a top-four pick or the No. 5 spot.
Oswald Peraza celebrates after hitting a two-run home run for the Angels in the fifth inning of a 6-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday.
(Cole Burston / Getty Images)
From the Associated Press: Jo Adell hit a pair of solo homers, José Soriano struck out seven over 7⅔ innings to stop a three-start winless steak and the Angels avoided a three-game sweep by beating the Toronto Blue Jays 6-1 on Sunday.
Oswald Peraza added a two-run homer as the Angels ended an eight-game road losing streak dating to April 16, while also ending a nine-game slump in Toronto.
Soriano (6-2) gave up two hits and a walk in the first inning, including Kazuma Okamoto’s RBI double, but didn’t allow another runner until Myles Straw reached in the eighth with an infield hit, ending a streak of 20 consecutive outs.
Houston’s Antonio Carlos, top, heads the ball over LAFC’s Eddie Segura, left, and Ryan Porteous during LAFC’s 4-1 loss Sunday at BMO Stadium.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
From the Associated Press: Jack McGlynn scored a goal in each half and the Houston Dynamo thumped LAFC 4-1 on Sunday night at BMO Stadium.
McGlynn used an assist from Lawrence Ennali in the 25th minute to score on a shot from well outside the box, giving Houston a 1-0 lead. It was McGlynn’s first goal after scoring a career-high six times last season.
Guilherme Santos scored off a free kick in the 34th minute for a two-goal lead. The first-year midfielder has six goals in 11 matches.
Second round
All times Pacific
Game 1: at Oklahoma City 108, Lakers 90 (box score)
Game 2: at Oklahoma City 125, Lakers 107 (box score)
Game 3: Oklahoma City 131, at Lakers 108 (box score)
Game 4: Monday at Lakers, 7:30 p.m., Amazon Prime
Game 5*: Wednesday at Oklahoma City, ESPN
Game 6*: Saturday at Lakers, TBD
Game 7*: Monday at Oklahoma City, TBD
*- if necessary
Second round
All times Pacific
Game 1: at Vegas 3, Ducks 1 (summary)
Game 2: Ducks 3, at Vegas 1 (summary)
Game 3: Vegas 6, at Ducks 2 (summary)
Game 4: at Ducks 4, Vegas 3 (summary)
Game 5: Tuesday at Vegas, 6:30 p.m., ESPN
Game 6: Thursday at Ducks, 6:30 p.m., TNT, truTV, HBO MAX
Game 7*: at Vegas, TBA, ABC or ESPN
*-if necessary
1892 — Azra, ridden by Alonzo Cayton, wins the first three-horse field in the Kentucky Derby, nipping Huron by a nose.
1900 — James J. Jeffries KOs James J Corbett in 23 for heavyweight boxing title.
1918 — Exterminator, a 30-1 long shot ridden by Willie Knapp, loses the lead but regains it to win the Kentucky Derby by one length over Escoba.
1923 — Setting several Pacific Coast League records, Pete Schneider of Vernon hit five homers and a double to drive in 14 runs in a 35-11 romp over Salt Lake City.
1928 — British Open Men’s Golf, Royal St George’s GC: Walter Hagen wins 3rd of his 4 Open Championship titles, 2 strokes ahead of fellow American Gene Sarazen.
1959 — New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra’s errorless streak of 148 games ends.
1963 — LA Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax throws his second career no-hitter.
1966 — European Cup Final, Heysel Stadium, Brussels: Fernando Serena scores the winner as Real Madrid beats Partizan Belgrade, 2-1; Madrid’s 6th title.
1968 — The Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup, completing a four-game sweep over the St. Louis Blues with a 3-2 victory.
1972 — The Boston Bruins win the Stanley Cup in six games with a 3-0 victory over the New York Rangers.
1977 — Ted Turner manages an Atlanta Braves game.
1980 — Pete Rose, 39, steals second, third, & home in one inning for Phillies.
1983 — Aberdeen of Scotland win 23rd European Cup Winner’s Cup against Real Madrid of Spain 2-1 in Gothenburg.
1988 — KV Mechelen of Belgium win 28th European Cup Winner’s Cup against Ajax of Netherlands 1-0 in Strasbourg.
1992 — The Portland Trail Blazers win the highest-scoring playoff game in NBA history, 153-151 in double overtime against the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference semifinals.
1994 — The Phoenix Suns, down 104-84 with 10 minutes left, come back to force overtime and beat Houston 124-117 for a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals. The Suns start the fourth quarter trailing by 18 and are down 20 with 10 minutes to go. Phoenix holds the Rockets to eight points in the quarter and Danny Ainge hits a three to tie the game at 1:08 and send the game into overtime.
2008 — PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Sergio García of Spain claims the biggest win of his career to date in a sudden-death playoff over American Paul Goydos.
2009 — Cleveland makes it an NBA-record eight straight wins by double digits with an 84-74 victory over Atlanta to advance to the Eastern Conference finals. The Cavaliers are the second team to sweep the first two rounds of the playoffs since the NBA expanded the first round to best-of-seven in 2003.
2013 — English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (86,254): Wigan Athletic upsets Manchester City, 1-0; Ben Watson scores 90+1′ winner.
2016 — Max Scherzer strikes out 20 batters, matching the major league record for a nine-inning game as he pitches the Washington Nationals past the Detroit Tigers 3-2.
2014 — PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: German Martin Kaymer leads after each round to win by 1 stroke ahead of Jim Furyk; first 8-figure purse in golf with winner’s share $1.8 million.
2018 — Top-ranked Rafael Nadal loses to Dominic Thiem 7-5, 6-3 in the Madrid Open quarterfinals, breaking the defending champion’s run of 21 straight wins on clay courts. Nadal hadn’t lost a single set on clay since falling to Thiem a year ago in the Italian Open quarterfinals. Nadal had come to this event fresh off winning his 11th titles at both Monte Carlo and Barcelona.
Compiled by the Associated Press.
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports from Al-Shati Refugee Camp, where families search through the rubble after overnight Israeli airstrikes despite a ceasefire. Residents described the attacks as a breach of the truce, saying they lost shelter, belongings and the only places they had left to stay.
Published On 9 May 20269 May 2026
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The final dinner party was completely chaotic (Image: Channel 4)
Viewers confessed they found themselves shouting at their television screens during the final Married At First Sight Australia dinner party.
Fans branded it ‘unhinged’ as proceedings spiralled into mayhem and waterworks. Just a handful of episodes remain of the current reality series from Down Under, with Final Vows anticipated to broadcast next week.
While Australian audiences have already seen it through to the end, UK-based fans are almost completely up to speed. Once again, more than a dozen strangers exchanged vows upon meeting for the very first time as part of an unconventional social dating experiment.
Throughout recent weeks, audiences have been captivated by numerous dramatic developments and its climax is scheduled to reach British screens this week. One couple even chose to call it quits just days ahead of the finale.
Recent days have witnessed the surviving couples undertake a final challenge devised by the experts. This was succeeded by a catastrophic breakdown as multiple participants fled from the cameras, threatening to abandon the programme, reports OK!.
This evening’s episode (May 7) resumes just in time for the final dinner party. Scott, still shaken after his bride abandoned him, reveals that he suspects Gia has travelled back home. He says: “Gia sent me a voicemail. She’s upset and her daughter’s crying. She sent me pictures. I think she’s trying to make me feel bad?” Despite Gia’s earlier insistence that she’d quit the experiment and jetted off, Filip drops a bombshell – he’d actually spotted her in their apartment block. Unsurprisingly, she’s not about to miss out on Dinner Party drama.
Elsewhere, Alissa and David are battling to repair their relationship following their explosive row over the final challenge. David confronted Alissa about her conduct, which saw him storm off and Alissa hurl her wedding ring in his direction.
David offers an apology for removing his ring and expresses his desire to listen to Alissa’s perspective. However, Alissa refuses to say sorry for her antics during the lunch with the alternate matches, insisting she was simply enjoying herself. In a dramatic gesture, David drops to one knee and tries to slip the ring back onto her finger.
He declares: “I love you” and Alissa pauses before responding: “Thank you.”
The experts observe the exchange, with Mel Schilling appearing distinctly unimpressed by Alissa’s reply. She remarks: “That shows absolutely lack of flexibility and saying this is who I am, take me or leave me. She’s giving him nothing.” Alessandra adds: “I can’t believe that was her response to saying he loves her.”
Shortly after Gia makes her entrance, Bec wastes no time exposing her fabrications. Gia’s knee-jerk reaction is, predictably, to announce she wants out. Once more, Bec appears oblivious to the presence of cameras and microphones as her covert scheme unfolds before the audience. She instructs Gia: “They all know you weren’t in Melbourne. You know what you need to do.” Gia responds: “Out victim him. So, what am I saying?”
Bec advises: “I’m looking at this strategically. It’s not just about your relationship, it’s about all of Australia. This is your moment. And if you can cry, that would be great.”
During the confrontation, Gia delivers a rehearsed statement as directed by Bec. She declares: “Dear Scott (cue tears), this hurts in a way I didn’t think it could.”
Upon completion, Stella disapprovingly shakes her head, while Bec applauds in isolation and gestures for Gia to cease the waterworks. Scott then presents his own statement, which resonates far more with the majority of the group, including the words: “You are not the one for me. We are a different calibre of people.”
Gia attempts one final manoeuvre, suddenly levelling accusations at Scott, who has already departed, of pressuring her into a ‘showmance’. She further alleges he never paid her compliments, criticised her drinking habits and exploited her physically. Claims that devoted viewers have never witnessed on screen.
Audiences at home were swift to voice their reactions. One viewer questioned: “Is this more dramatic than the I’m A Celeb reunion?” Another remarked: “Gia for once was put in her place. So whatever else she says now will be met with pure disgust. No less than she deserves..” One person asked: “How many of us are arguing out loud with our TVs?” Another confessed: “‘To bare my soul, not for the cameras but for you’ – the worst performance I’ve ever seen, Gia. And loving this letter show down.”
Others remarked on David and Alissa’s predicament, with one stating: “So, David taking off his ring was unforgivable, but it was absolutely fine for Alissa to lob hers at him.”
And another: “Alissa pretending she didn’t do or say anything wrong at that dinner is unbelievable. And David is just being FAR too graceful. Bless his heart.”
Married At First Sight Australia continues Monday at 7.30PM on E4 and streaming on Channel 4.
Video shows a car left on a beach submerged by the sea – and rowed over by paddleboarders. Locals in the Welsh seaside village of Abersoch were left stunned after seeing the luxury 4×4 become fully engulfed by the tide.
Beach-goers spotted the Land Rover Discovery half-submerged in the water on Sunday – less than two miles away from Bear Grylls’ private island.
The expensive car, which sells for around £80,000 was spotted by one paddleboarder at around 7.30am, just over two hours before high tide. The car could be seen floating in the water still attached to a tow rope.
The paddleboarder’s husband, who was walking his dog, then used his drone – which he had brought to the beach in an effort to spot dolphins – to capture imagery of the vehicle as it became fully submerged.
The 45-year-old then took video as she paddle boarded over the top of the car at around 8.55am – still just under an hour before high tide. Locals in the village say they have no idea who the car belongs to.
“It’s gone mental in this tiny little Welsh village,” the paddleboarder said. “I don’t know (whose car it is).
“The local farm pulled it out with about three tractors and diggers. It’s a very, very popular seasonal tourist village. Everyone thinks it’s hilarious, wonderful – there was a big crowd watching it being pulled out, but still no-one knows whose it is.”
The paddleboarder suspects the car must have been placed there overnight – with the previous low tide at around 4.30 in the morning.
She added: “Because of the tide, you know there was some kind of foul play on the beach at night, around 3 or 4am, for the tide to come in over it.
“It happens, but they usually get towed out. Because it was the middle of the night, it didn’t. It did have a tow rope on the back that was floating up out the water, so maybe someone tried to pull it out.”
The US empire has opened multiple fronts in recent months. (Edgar Serrano)
Donald Trump’s rhetoric and actions against Iran, Venezuela and Cuba over the last year have few parallels in modern history. They have to be seen as marking a new stage. As such they call for a reevaluation of analysis and strategy on the part of the Left.
Trump’s repeated threat to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages where they belong” is unmatched by the rhetoric of even the most notorious and brutal heads of state over the recent past. Decapitating the entire leadership of a country to compel total submission, as Washington and Tel Aviv have done in Iran, is also a novelty in war strategy. The kidnapping of Venezuela’s president and First Lady as a first step in attempting to establish a colonial relationship by taking complete control of the country’s principal source of revenue, namely petroleum, represents a throwback to practices associated with centuries-old imperial rule
These are examples of “hyper-imperialism,” a concept theorized by Samir Amin to describe the United States “as the sole capitalist superpower.” More recently, the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research has observed that U.S. hyper-imperialism persists despite a marked erosion of its economic and, though to a lesser extent, financial power. Its military supremacy is not only unrivaled, but is complemented by hybrid warfare, most notably “hyper-sanctions” and the use of lawfare.
What needs to be added to the concept of hyper-imperialism, particularly Trump’s version of it, is its sui generis nature. To find a parallel for the kind of hegemony the United States now exercises – highlighted by the continuous indiscriminate use of force and the threat of it – one would have to look back to the Roman empire or even earlier. One of Trump’s innovations is his deployment of the military to reinforce the system of economic sanctions, examples being the interdiction of oil tankers, the quarantine of Cuban oil, and full-scale war against Iran.
Trump II’s foreign policy hardly represents a complete break from the past. The groundwork was laid by past Democratic and Republican administrations. However, his actions force the Left not only to reformulate strategies, but to reconsider past evaluations and analyses of nations of the Global South subjected to extreme forms of imperialist aggression. The resistance to U.S. aggression must be given greater weight when evaluating governments. In addition, the popular desperation and exhaustion that erode revolutionary fervor and distance people from those same governments should be understood in light of the daily trauma people endure as a direct result of imperialist actions.
The starting point is to recognize that since Trump’s return to the White House, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba have been in a de facto state of war, which is an escalation of the multiple forms of hostility and aggression of past years. This is key to how all three nations should be judged. While the Left’s commitment to democracy needs to remain unquestionable and unwavering, in these cases primary responsibility for democracy’s somewhat uncertain prospects lies with the siege imposed by imperialist powers. No one other than James Madison said “Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded.”
The encirclement imposed by hyper-imperialism on Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela illuminates salient features of imperialism going back in time: first, Washington has honed the sanctions regime into a powerful tool, sometimes inflicting damage comparable to armed intervention; second, imperialism is the principal driver of the pressing economic problems facing the three nations; third, the justification for the actions taken against the three nations does not hold up under scrutiny; and fourth the brutality of the sanctions system underscores the need for its complete elimination. The discussion below looks at these points.
Tehran’s response to Operation Epic Fury underscores the crushing impact of sanctions. The nation’s leaders have made clear that the lifting of sanctions – as well as “international guarantees of U.S. non-interference” in the nation’s internal affairs – is a non-negotiable condition for ending the current conflict. That is to say, the Iranian leaders place the destruction caused by the sanctions on a similar footing as the bombs.
In the case of Venezuela, the events leading up to the abduction of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores on January 3, 2026 reveal the far-reaching and highly coordinated machinery underpinning the sanctions regime. The second Trump administration’s tracking of the “ghost fleet” carrying Venezuela’s sanctioned oil—and its interdiction of several of those vessels— underscores how far Washington has gone in perfecting sanctions enforcement since the early years of the Cuban Revolution.
The first Trump administration pioneered in promoting “overcompliance” in which Washington’s well-publicized monitoring was designed to assure that companies and financial institutions world-wide would shun all transactions with Venezuela, even ones not specifically targeted by the sanctions. The aim was to impose a veritable blockade. Mike Pompeyo and Elliot Abrams spearheaded a campaign – drawing on the FBI, the Treasury, U.S. embassies, and the intelligence community – to scrutinize the dealings of companies worldwide with Venezuela, in what amounted to a warning shot to companies throughout the world. Even firms that engaged in oil-for-food swaps, which were not proscribed by the sanction regime, were warned that they ran risks. Companies under investigation were likewise told that penalties could be suspended if they halted all dealings with Venezuela.
A retrospective look at the first Trump administration’s sweeping enforcement measures and their devastating impact reinforces the argument that the sanctions have been so harmful that they need to be dismantled unconditionally and entirely. This position contrasts with that of liberals such as the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), which criticized the sanctions against Venezuela yet called for using “negotiations to flexibilize financial and oil sanctions” as leverage to secure concessions. Indeed, power brokers in Washington also favored sanctions relief as a bargaining tool to push the Maduro government to enact market-oriented reforms to the benefit of U.S. capital.
A full grasp of the scale and severity of Washington’s “war” on Venezuela undercuts the notion upheld by some on the left who argue that the sanctions were no more to blame for the nation’s pressing problems than government mismanagement. An even harsher position on the left affirms that the sanctions “do not explain the root causes of the societal collapse we have lived through.”
Likewise, the forcible removal of Maduro and Flores demonstrates that Washington was intent on dismantling a government whose example and policies ran counter to U.S. interests. Prior to the January 3 kidnapping, some on the left in Venezuela and elsewhere denied that Washington sought to remove Maduro from power because they were convinced that he had effectively sold out. But they were wrong insofar as Washington clearly wanted Maduro out. Pedro Eusse, a leading member of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), which broke with the Maduro government in 2020, wrote in July 2025, “Everything indicates that the true intention of the US and its allies’ policy of aggression toward the Venezuelan government has not been its overthrow, but its subordination.”
In the case of Cuba, the extreme measures of the Trump II administration against the nation also shine light on the cruelty and effectiveness of the system of sanctions per se. Trump’s navy-enforced quarantine on oil shipments is a first for the nation since the October 1962 missile crisis. The result has been recurring 16-hour blackouts that have disrupted water delivery, hospital operations, food production, and garbage collection.
The quarantine spotlights Cuba’s near total dependence on oil, in contrast to nearby Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, which generate a significant share of their electricity from coal and natural gas. The dependence stems precisely from the sanctions, which impeded imports and pushed Cuba into relying almost entirely on Venezuelan oil—only for Trump to cut off that supply too.
Indeed, the quarantine underscores Cuba’s reliance on Venezuelan oil and the reciprocal solidarity that saw fuel exchanged for Cuban medical personnel. That’s a plus for Maduro. The program undercuts the claim of some on the left that Maduro’s foreign policy, in the words of the PCV, never moved beyond an “anti-imperialist rhetoric” without substance.
The Washington-crafted narrative on Cuba and the reaction to it by the mainstream media and the Left are curious. In contrast to the demonization directed at Venezuela and Iran, Washington’s condemnation of Cuba has been relatively hollow and has gained little traction in mainstream outlets or left-leaning circles. The anti-Cuba vilification—driven by hardline anti-Communism—remains largely confined to the far right, epicentered in Miami. The official rhetoric is a departure from the wording in 1982 when the State Department designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism due to “its long history of providing advice, safe haven, communications, training, and financial support to guerrilla groups and individual terrorists.” Now the Trump administration’s justification for the same designation is that the Cuban government grants “safe harbor to terrorists” and refuses to extradite them.
As false as the narco-terrorism case against Maduro is, it nonetheless offered a rationale that undoubtedly resonated with at least a slice of public opinion. Compare that to Marco Rubio’s line on Cuba which flatly denies the catastrophic effects of the oil quarantine. Rubio claims “we’ve done nothing punitive against the Cuban regime” and adds, the blackouts “have nothing to do with us.” Instead Rubio faults the Cuban leadership on grounds that “they want to control everything.” A classic case of victim-blaming, but with few buying into it. A YouGov survey in March found that only 28 percent of U.S. adults support the U.S.’s blocking of oil shipments to Cuba, as opposed to 46 percent opposed.
In addition, Rubio’s assertion that the only novelty is that Cuba is “not getting free Venezuelan oil anymore” is blatantly fallacious. Rubio is well aware of Venezuela’s swap with Cuba involving the latter’s International Medical Brigades, which maintain a sizeable presence in Venezuela and elsewhere. This is precisely why Rubio has vigorously attempted to sabotage the program throughout the region, unfortunately with a degree of success.
If the oil quarantine demonstrates anything it’s that the hardships facing the Cuban people are rooted in Washington’s war on Cuba, now going on 65 years. Criticism of Cuban government policies, or of socialism itself, comes in a distant second place.
Trump’s bullying offensive abroad has fueled mounting opposition to interventionism and has even fostered anti-imperialist sentiment in the United States. Just one week into the 2026 Iranian bombings, 53 percent of the U.S. population opposed the strikes, in sharp contrast to U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and Iraq, which enjoyed large majority support at the outset. That the former editor of The New Republic called the U.S. war on Iran imperialistic is telling. In a New York Times op-ed, Peter Beinart wrote “Donald Trump’s foreign policy vision is imperialism.”
One lesson of recent events is particularly relevant for the Left: the demonization of heads of state is a sine qua non for military intervention. In the case of Iran and Venezuela, the discrediting combines some fact with a large dosage of fake news. In the case of Maduro, the demonization which dates back to shortly after he assumed office in 2013, was taken to higher levels as a result of the controversial presidential election of July 28, 2024, which the opposition claimed was fraudulent. Subsequently the corporate media consistently tagged the word “autocrat” and “dictator” onto Maduro’s name. Six months later, Trump was in office and the vilification escalated to a new pitch. Indeed, the branding of Maduro as a narco-terrorist was an indispensable prelude to the bombing of boats in the Caribbean and the subsequent kidnappings – notwithstanding the doubts raised by some media outlets regarding the veracity of the claim.
The takeaway is that the Left needs to distinguish between criticism and demonization and take cognizance of the possible dire consequences of the latter.
The demonization of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his inner circle also set the stage for imperialist actions, but, of course, his government could not be placed in the same category as those of Cuba and Venezuela.
Furthermore, as in Venezuela and Cuba, harsh sanctions have been conducive to shadow economies, clientelistic networks, and fraudulent dealings, patterns well documented in numerous studies on sanctions throughout the world.
Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, a prolific scholar on Iran who is highly critical of the government, told Jacobin “While the Islamic Republic is paranoid, it is also very much under siege from all sides.” He also notes the intrinsic relationship between the sanctions and the nation’s pressing problems: “Sanctions and structural weaknesses of the Iranian economy feed off one another — there’s a symbiotic relationship between them.”
In short, any serious reading of Iran must foreground the role of sanctions—an approach that inevitably tempers the tendency to cast its leadership in purely demonizing terms.
The issue of the accurateness of the July 28, 2024 election tallies in Venezuela needs to be reframed. Those elections could not have been democratic, regardless of the announced results, because Venezuelan voters had a gun pointed at their heads: reelect Maduro and the sanctions continue; elect an opposition candidate and the sanctions will be lifted.
The overwhelming majority of Venezuelans knew full well what was at stake. Luis Vicente León – the nation’s leading pollster, himself a member of the opposition – reported that 92 percent of the population believed that the sanctions negatively impacted the economy, and most characterized the effect as “very negative.” (The poll puts the lie to the State Department’s repeated claim that the sanctions only harm government officials.)
A similar scenario played out in the Nicaraguan presidential elections of 1990 when opposition candidate Violeta Chamorro upset the Sandinistas in the midst of a devastating, U.S.-promoted civil war. But there was a fundamental difference. Far from demonizing the Sandinistas, Chamorro accepted a power-sharing transition agreement with them. In contrast, for over a decade prior to the July 28 elections the opposition’s main leader, María Corina Machado, had ruled out negotiations with those who had allegedly violated human rights. She never tired of voicing the slogans “no immunity,” ”no to amnesty,” “no agreements with criminals,” often with specific reference to the Chavistas and to Maduro himself. Maduro and his followers had every reason to fear the type of repression that the opposition initiated during the two-day abortive coup it staged in April 2002 against the Chavista government. Even opposition pollster León admitted that the fear was well-founded.
Marta Harnecker, the renowned leftist theoretician, wrote that the Sandinistas erred in holding the 1990 elections amid U.S. promoted violence and sabotage. Harnecker labeled the decision to organize elections “on terrain shaped by the counterrevolution” a “strategic error.”
A reevaluation and reinterpretation of the July 28 elections is instructive. The hard-core Chavistas accept the official results which showed Maduro winning with nearly 52 percent of the vote. The opposition refutes that claim. A third position is defended by supporters of Maduro who nevertheless express skepticism and point out that because of a massive hacking attack from outside the country, it may be impossible to ever know the true count.
The debate about the accuracy of the official results of July 28 sidesteps the overriding issue of whether the elections should have been held in the first place. Indeed, the idea of conditioning elections on the lifting of sanctions was not far-fetched. A year before the elections, Maduro, in a reference to the United States, declared: “If they want free elections, we want elections free of sanctions.” Subsequently, Elvis Amoroso, the Chavista head of the nation’s electoral council, tied the participation of European Union electoral observers to its lifting of sanctions. At the same time, the Biden administration indicated its willingness to bargain with the Venezuelan government along those lines.
Carlos Ron, a former vice-minister and currently an analyst for Tricontinental, told me that the Chavista leadership ruled out delaying the elections in order to demonstrate its democratic credentials in the face of the international smear campaign. Ron said “At that moment, greater importance was placed on the need to defend the democratic character of the Bolivarian political process and its continuity, and abide by the Constitution, in the face of imperialist pressures.”
Maduro’s intentions may have been commendable. But the decision overlooked one compelling reason to suspend the electoral process. Tying the holding of elections to the removal of the sanctions would have placed the entire blame for setbacks to democracy where it belonged: U.S. intervention in Venezuela’s internal affairs.
As a rule, the Left has always championed the defense of democracy. In this sense, the Left’s vision compares favorably with U.S.-style “liberal democracy,” shaped by the influence of big money and other inherently undemocratic practices such as gerrymandering, the Electoral College and voter suppression.
Historically, however, the Left has faced formidable obstacles on this front. For instance, it has come to power in countries like Russia, China and Cuba that were lacking in democratic tradition. That, however, was the least of the problem. Its main problem has been, and continues to be, imperialist hostility which limits options.
Precisely for that reason, the Left needs to tread cautiously in the way it frames the issue of democracy in nations that are in the crosshairs of imperialism. In the three countries discussed in this article, the Left can’t deny that democracy has been infringed upon. The Maduro government, for instance, stripped the PCV – the country’s oldest political party, forged in a history of militant struggle including two periods of clandestine resistance armed struggle in the 1950s and 1960s – of its legal status, transferring recognition to a marginal breakaway faction that appropriated its name and symbols.
Nor can it deny that discontent is currently widespread in the three nations, which became most evident in the Iranian “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests and those of the first days of this year. In Cuba and Venezuela, protests reflect widespread disillusionment, even while the mobilizations have been manipulated and financed from abroad.
One troubling sign in Venezuela is that the disturbances have spread out from upper-middle class neighborhoods where they were confined during the 4-month protests (the “guarimba”) of 2014 and, albeit less so, during those of 2017. The two days following the July 28, 2024 elections, for instance, protests were registered in Caracas barrios such as Petare, the city’s largest. Reflecting on the protests, long-standing Caracas resident and international commentator Phil Gunson reported “Petare is a traditionally Chavista zone, but ever since a few years ago, people have been distancing themselves from the government.”
The Left can’t turn its back on this reality. But nor can it join mainstream voices that channel dissatisfaction into blanket vilification of governments under imperial siege. Rather its line has to be basically: “What do you expect!” In the face of hyper-imperialist aggression these countries are at war, figuratively and in some cases literally speaking. Criticism needs to be framed within this context.
Lenin’s concept of democratic centralism – the principle designed to guide the internal workings of his political party – is instructive. In his writing throughout his political career, party democracy remained a constant, but the degree of centralism depended on the political climate in the nation. Along similar lines, the Left’s adherence to democracy can never be minimized. However, valid criticism of undemocratic practices in countries like Venezuela and Cuba in which the Left is in power needs to consider those actions as overreactions to imperialist aggression.
In this era of intensified hyper-imperialism, the Left is compelled to stand behind nations like Cuba and Venezuela, and recognize that the real blame for backsliding including violation of democratic norms lies with imperialism. The barbaric actions of Trump II are making this imperative clearer than ever.
Steve Ellner is a retired professor of the Universidad de Oriente in Venezuela where he lived for over 40 years and is currently Associate Managing Editor of Latin American Perspectives. He is the author and editor of over a dozen books on Latin American politics and history. In 2018 he spoke in over twenty cities in the U.S. and Canada as part of a Venezuelan solidarity tour.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.
This article was originally posted in CounterPunch.
SHERIDAN Smith has today revealed how she was once kicked off a plane for being “too drunk”.
The I Fought The Law actress, 43, also revealed how she annoyed the cabin crew so much, they “left her behind” in Florida.
Talking on Alan Carr‘s Life’s a Beach podcast, the host asked the much-loved star: “Have you missed flights before and all that?”
Replying, Sheridan, who is currently starring in BBC One’s The Cage, said: “Yeah. I went to Florida to watch my mate boxing.
“And they wouldn’t let me on the flight Alan.”
The Chatty Man star then asked her: “Why? Too drunk. Oh, God.”
READ MORE ON SHERIDAN SMITH
A mortified Sheridan then admitted: “I was too drunk. But I don’t drink now, so I can say this now.
“I can say it now and I can look back and laugh.
“But at the time, it was a nightmare because everyone else got on the flight.
“Oh, my God. I was left there!”
Meanwhile, in the same chat with Alan, Sheridan also made a saucy confession.
The star revealed she had a fling with a hunky stuntman when she filmed the drama The Castaways.
The actress played Erin, a woman who goes to Fiji to investigate the disappearance of her sister Lori, in the 2023 drama that aired on Paramount+ and was filmed in Greece.
Now she has confessed that she had a romance with Alex Anlos while filming, and it came after she split with the father of her child, Jamie Horn.
Spilling the tea, she told host Alan: “I did have a holiday romance actually. I was filming in Greece and the stuntman – I’m giving so much away – he taught me to swim, so he was holding me.
“And the next thing we did have a bit of a romance – it’s an exclusive!
“It’s so romantic and it’s the heat and the bodies are all out!”
At the time of filming, Sheridan posted a picture with Alex, which she shared on her Instagram stories.
In the cosy snap, the pair were all smiles as they posed for the behind the scenes picture.
She had penned over it: “Hanging out after stunt rehearsals with @that_stunt_dude Greece. This guy has made me look bad ass.”
Sheridan also shared another photo of them both on her feed as she captioned it: “Love filming here in Greece. With my set bff @that_stunt_dude. I was a non-swimmer till we met!”
The Gavin and Stacey star split from fiancé Jamie in 2021 after three years together.
The pair had welcomed their son Billy in May 2020 and had got engaged back in 2018, shortly after meeting on dating app Tinder.
The Widow first aired in 2019 (Image: Coco Van Oppens/ITV)
A gripping thriller that left viewers on the edge of their seats is free to binge.
The Widow is available to watch on ITVX, and stars Kate Beckinsale in a tense role.
It follows the Underworld actress as Georgia Wells, who has believed her husband died in a plane crash.
However, three years later, having lived as a recluse and grieving widow, she sees him in a news report following a riot in the Democratic Republic of Congo and hunts to find him, travelling to Kinshasa for the truth.
As she looks for answers, she’s left questioning why her husband may have faked his own death.
The synopsis teases: “Kate Beckinsale leads as a grieving woman in this gripping drama.”
It adds: “A woman’s search to uncover the mystery of what happened to her husband leads her to the Congo, where she’s forced to seek the truth about what happened to the man she loved.”
The series first aired on Amazon Prime Video in 2019, before being added to the free streaming service.
Parts of The Widow were filmed in South Africa, with Kate suffering from the heat and later revealing she “fainted” while filming because it was “really, really, really hot”.
The cast also included Game of Thrones star Charles Dance, Strictly star Alex Kingston, Olafur Darri Olafsson, Matthew Le Nevez, and Shetland actress Louise Brealey.
Viewers were left hooked by the programme, with one admitting they were “glued to this show”, while several others echoed that they “binged” it.
Another person said: “It kept me on the edge of my seat each show. I really enjoyed the series.”
Reflecting several fans’ pleas for a second season, one person said: “The acting and cinematics are phenomenal. I cannot wait to see season 2!!”
“It was thrilling and entertaining,” someone else said, as another called it “nail-biting”.
Someone else called it “absolutely magnificent”, adding: “The setting was breathtaking and the dialogue was phenomenal.”
Yet another hailed Kate’s “outstanding” performance, while one person added: “A bit slow to start but a gem of a series.”
Despite fans begging for a second season, writers Harry and Jack Williams previously told Express.co.uk that they have no plans to take it forward.
They explained: “By the time we get to the end, it’s a one-off. It’s very satisfying. There’s no secret pilot. There’s no following season.
“It’s really exciting for the eight parts, it’s almost like a movie really.”
The writing duo and brothers behind The Missing and Liar continued: “I think there isn’t scope for more.”
The Widow is available to watch on ITVX
MADONNA has been left heartbroken as she revealed that someone has “stolen” her vintage clothes after performing at Coachella.
The 67-year-old music legend teamed up with Espresso singer Sabrina for a show-stopping finale – dressed-to-impress in purple lingerie.
Two decades after her own epic headlining slot at the Californian festival, the queen of pop turned heads in a flesh-flashing frilly outfit.
Wearing a purple corset with matching lilac gloves, purple stockings and knee-high stiletto boots, the comeback queen accessorised with tinted shades and her long blonde hair down in waves.
She joined a lingerie-clad Sabrina, 26, who wowed in a white lace sparkly bodice and heels during her headline set at Coachella.
But now pop icon Madonna has been left with a sour taste in her mouth after precious pieces from her wardrobe went missing following the set.
She shared on Instagram today: “Still flying high since Friday night at Coachella!
“Thank you to Sabrina and everyone who made it possible.
“Bringing Confessions II back to where it began was such a thrill.
“This full circle moment hit different until I discovered that the vintage pieces that I wore went missing – my costume that was pulled from my personal archives – jacket, corset, dress and all other garment.”
The musician stressed how irreplaceable these items are and issued an appeal for them to be returned.
Madonna continued: “These aren’t just clothes, they are part of my history.
“Other archival items from the same era went missing as well.
“I’m hoping and praying that some kind soul will find these items and reach out to my team.
“I’m offering a reward for their safe return. Thank you will all my heart.”
Over the weekend, Madonna and Sabrina delighted the crowds with classic hits including Vogue, Like A Prayer and I Feel So Free from Madonna’s new album.
Sabrina had been mid-performance when an instrumental tease of Madonna‘s 1990 hit song Vogue weaved in.
Madonna told the cheering audience: “Wow, thank you.
“Sabrina, thank you so much for inviting me on your show.”
Holding hands, she replied: “No thanks needed, Madonna.”
“Well, I have a few things I want to get off my chest. So, 20 years ago today I performed at Coachella,” admitted the Ray of Light singer.
“I was in the dance tent and it was the first time I performed Confessions On The Dance Floor part one in America.
“It’s a full circle moment, you know? Very meaningful for me.”
She urged: “Let’s try to be together. Let’s try to avoid disagreements.
“And to that point, the great thing about music is that it brings people together.
“It’s the one place that people have to put their differences aside, put their s**t down and just everybody have a good time together, right?
“So I am thrilled to be a part of that healing experience…”
The Vogue singer confirmed this week that she will release her first record in seven years this July — a sequel to her 2005 smash Confessions On A Dance Floor.
The original, inspired by disco and Eighties electropop, shifted more than 10million copies.
It featured No1 singles Hung Up and Sorry, and ushered in a new era of dance music.
In 2024, Sabrina paid tribute to Madge by attending the MTV VMAs in a vintage strapless gown previously worn to the Oscars by her musical hero in 1991.
Sabrina said of Madonna last year: “She’s so lovely and exactly how you expect her to be — just, like, so magnetic.”
Hong Kong fire survivors return to Wang Fuk Court five months after a blaze killed 168 people. Thousands of displaced residents sifting through charred remains searching for belongings found little intact.
Published On 20 Apr 202620 Apr 2026
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ITV’s The 1% Club host Lee Mack kicked off the programme with a string of gags, but it soon caused confusion(Image: ITV)
ITV’s The 1% Club host Lee Mack kicked off the programme with a string of gags, but it soon caused confusion.
While the comedian is no stranger to cracking jokes, one quip proved poorly timed and left a player utterly baffled. The show’s format presents questions to contestants beginning with simpler ones, gradually ramping up in difficulty with each round.
Within the opening minutes, one of the more straightforward questions displayed on screen was a “spot the difference” featuring the Coronation Street set.
Two images were placed side by side, with one reading Rovers Return Pub while the other read Ravers Return Pub. As the 30-second countdown began, he reminded contestants they needed to identify the difference between the two pictures, before quipping: “One’s on the left and one’s on the right.”
Regrettably, one contestant took the remark at face value, convinced he might be dropping a hint and that it was a “trick question”, so she wrote that down.
Lee was utterly gobsmacked when he called out to her in the audience to find out what had gone wrong, only to discover his throwaway joke was the culprit.
The host confessed to feeling rather guilty as he noted: “In the history of the show, no one has taken the joke as the actual clue.” The contestant laughed it off good-naturedly, before Lee asked her, as he does with every player, what she would have spent her winnings on, to which she revealed it would be her house plants.
An embarrassed Lee then told her: “I’m glad you haven’t won. What a waste of money!” before laughing it off and pressing on with the remainder of the programme.
At the close of the show, contestants are given the choice to either pocket £10,000 or take a gamble on the 1% question, which would award them the full prize fund, standing at £94,000, reports the Express.
The 10% question eliminated eight of the nine contestants, leaving just one participant, Tessa, aged only 19, to be offered the opportunity to tackle her 1% question. In a surprising turn of events, she revealed to Lee that she was a hobby opera singer and even treated her fellow contestants to a brief glimpse of her vocal talents.
She ultimately opted to take the safe route and pocket £10,000 rather than risk it all for the £94,000. Had she chosen to proceed, her question would have been: “Using only two letters to fill in the blanks, what is the world below?” With P—E–I-N spelled out. Fortunately for her, she didn’t know the answer and walked away with the £10,000.
22:10, 15 Apr 2026Updated 22:12, 15 Apr 2026
Influencer Emily Ball crying on a plane(Image: Jam Press/@emily_ball)
A tourist claimed she was left stranded late at night after a flight took off without her despite already boarding.
Influencer Emily Ball, 23, alleged that she asked to leave a plane to try to to grab her forgotten wallet, after realising she had left it in the terminal when she was already sat on the flight. The TikToker said she immediately told a flight attendant and asked if she could quickly run back to get it, at Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania, US.
But what the influencer thought would be a speedy dash to grab her goods quickly spiralled into chaos.
READ MORE: Ryanair asks tourists ‘please’ stop wearing clothing item on board planesREAD MORE: Brit tourist lands 80 miles from Frankfurt Airport after booking blunder
Emily, who shared her account of the moment on her TikTok page (@emily_ball), said: “I told a flight attendant right away and asked if I could quickly run to grab it, and she said yes.”
After leaving the plane, she tried to re-enter through the boarding door “but was stopped by security”. Emily said: “They told me to stay where I was. They said I had broken protocol by exiting and trying to come back that way, and security was called.”
Emily claims the situation escalated rapidly, with officials filing a report and escorting her away from the gate. Meanwhile, her belongings were removed from the aircraft.
She said: “In the moment, I was honestly shocked and overwhelmed because I thought I had permission and was just trying to grab something important.”
Emily said the situation became even more chaotic with the airport closing for the night. The influencer claimed the only option offered to her was a replacement flight from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, around 100 miles away, at 4am. The TikToker said she was forced to travel to the other city in the middle of the night and called the ordeal “exhausting and chaotic”.
She said: “While I understand there are strict airport security rules, I do wish there had been clearer communication about what I was actually allowed to do. The whole situation spiralled way faster than I expected, especially that late at night.”
The clip sparked a mixed reaction online with one person saying: “Poor girl.” Another person said: “As a former flight attendant, it’s insane that you opened the doors.” A third user added: “I would never open the plane door even if they told me to! That’s scary!”
