WHETHER you’re on a fly and flop break or sight-seeing adventure, it’s only natural to want more out of a holiday.
TUI has revealed one trick that lets you visit three countries in one day – and there’s no queueing up at the airport either.
It works particularly well if you’re booked at a TUI hotel, called the TUI BLUE Kalamota Island which is on an island off the coast of Dubrovnik in Croatia.
Not only is it off the coast of Croatia, it’s right beside both Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This is where TUI comes in – if you book with TUI Musement it offers full day tours and experiences of the neighbouring countries which don’t require any flying.
In some cases they can even pick you up from your hotel.
One day trip to Montenegro starts off in Perast with a visit to the island of the Lady of the Rocks before heading off to Kotor.
There’s a guided tour as well as free time where guests can explore the sites in their own time – these start from £79pp.
There are more options if you start away from the hotel in Dubrovnik – for example a full day trip from Dubrovnik to Montenegro starts from £52pp.
It includes a drive through Zupa Dubrovacka and Konavle valleys and along the picturesque Bay of Kotor.
This is followed by a visit to a charming fishing village called Perast and then hop onboard a boat to reach the island of Lady of the Rocks.
There’s then a tour of the Old Town of Kotor before returning to Dubrovnik.
You can also book a tour to explore some of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Dubrovnik without having to fly.
One experience heads to the city of Mostar and the beautiful Kravica Waterfalls from £41pp.
The full day trip starts at the waterfalls where visitors can even have a quick dip in the water.
Then it goes onto Mostar to wander about the city, see the famous Old Bridge before heading to the village of Počitelj.
If you want to book a stay in the TUI BLUE Kalamota Island this year, there are still holidays available from £718pp.
This is for an all-inclusive break from October 11-18 in a double room with a balcony or terrace including return flights from Birmingham Airport.
The hotel is adults-only with a white pebble beach, swimming pool and the island itself is traffic free.
TUI BLUE Kalamota Island Experience Manager Kelebek Canbulat said: “Guests can wake up on a peaceful island, head out on a TUI Musement experience to Montenegro or Bosnia and Herzegovina, and be back in the evening for dinner by the sea.
“It gives customers the best of both worlds. They can explore multiple countries during their stay, but still enjoy the comfort, ease and relaxation of having one hotel base.”
Gillian Anderson was once a young person experimenting.
“I don’t even know if I was questioning my sexuality but there were a couple of moments during my teen years where I was with women,” Anderson tells me candidly on a recent afternoon at a Beverly Hills hotel. “I haven’t really spoken about that very much.”
Though she won’t go into details about those early interactions, she remembers the isolation that plagued her. “In interviews, I’ve alluded to a relationship that I had later in my post-college life, but not about that particular time and how not even confused, but just alone I felt and how different I felt to the rest of the kids in my high school,” she adds.
For some time now, the once and forever “X-Files” star has leaned into episodic television (Netflix, she says, has become a great partner). She earned her second Emmy in 2021 for her blistering turn as polarizing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Crown.” Yet a major shade of her public persona has become her activism around sex positivity, encouraging women to open up about their needs and wants, both in the bedroom and as individuals in every aspect of their lives.
“It seems to still be an important topic for women to hear other women speak about,” she says. “I have come to love talking about it in the context of women’s empowerment, finding ways to embrace their own integral agency.”
Clad in a sleeveless bright green dress, Anderson, 57, radiates an ageless grace, undeniably sophisticated yet unpretentious in her demeanor. Her hair in a braid evokes the look of a figure from ancient Rome. When speaking in her unmistakable throaty voice, her expressive body language (hand movements often complement her sentences) reveals her assertiveness. That confidence makes it difficult to imagine she ever was a fragile teen.
Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in the movie “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.”
(Mubi)
In Anderson’s latest movie, the horror-tinged, dreamlike “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” (in theaters Friday), Anderson plays Billy Presley, a reclusive former scream queen who was one of those “final girls” from a popular 1980s slasher horror franchise in which the killer was aptly called Little Death (a nickname for an orgasm, derived from a French phrase). Now Billy spends her days alone living in the woodsy location where her breakout movie was filmed long ago.
That is until auspicious indie filmmaker Kris (“Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder) comes to visit Billy with the intention of persuading her to act in a reboot. The two develop a friendship that empowers Kris to dive into her unspoken sexual yearnings — desires drenched in fear, violence and curiosity — with Billy as her mentor and, eventually, patient lover.
On top of her ability with accents (she does a Southern one here), Anderson physically commands the screen from the moment she makes an entrance worthy of a timeless diva. Her regal aura contrasts with the grotesque sensuality of a scene where fried chicken and dipping sauces take on an almost pornographic lure. Her Billy, a woman who can fluctuate between a loud cackle and an introspective speech about the lust-inducing “flesh and fluids” of horror movies, feels equal parts otherworldly and tethered to earthly urges.
“I knew on a deep level that I wanted to be a part of it, but it’s only in retrospect that I completely understand why it was so meaningful to me,” Anderson says. “It feels like such a salve for so many.”
“She put everyone at ease during those moments in a really beautiful way,” says director Jane Schoenbrun of Anderson’s work with Einbinder on their most daring scenes. “She is so physically tapped into her own abilities.”
(Mubi)
Einbinder, with whom Anderson shares scenes of blood-soaked eroticism, describes the veteran star as meticulous and diligent while also having a “lot of access to spontaneity.”
“I was a fan of her from, of course, ‘The X Files’ and a lot of her other work, so she just held this significance to me as an artist,” Einbinder tells me over the phone, “but meeting her, my expectations were surpassed because she’s really cool.”
“I didn’t want Billy to come across as a predator,” Anderson says. “I didn’t want her to be creepy or too maternal and so there were moments where she shows care, and it was a really fine line of how to play those beats. Even our first kiss and our sex scenes were very specific so that it didn’t feel not OK to be witnessing or representing.”
To Jane Schoenbrun, the movie’s writer and director, Anderson has the “elegance of old Hollywood, a classic mystique.” The filmmaker describes meeting her as a “strange coming home feeling,” since her “X-Files” character Scully held a special place in Schoenbrun’s formative years. “I spent as much time with her as I did with my siblings,” they add.
Schoenbrun credits Anderson as a “calming and nurturing presence” during the sex scenes between her and Einbinder — the first sex scenes the filmmaker had ever directed.
“Gillian had such an elegant, serious, professional but also caring perspective on how to talk about it and how to guide through it in a way that felt like it was going to be very present and alive on screen,” Schoenbrun recalls. “She put everyone at ease during those moments in a really beautiful way. She is so physically tapped into her own abilities.”
Anderson, seated with director Schoenbrun on the set of “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.”
(David Astorga / Mubi)
Anderson found her way into playing Billy through the character’s distinct accent. Having played the tragically romantic Blanche DuBois from “A Streetcar Named Desire” on stage in the past, she aimed for a different version of Southern. “What I liked about it was this particular pitch that holds strength and vulnerability in it, which I think is very much where Billy lives at all times, from minute to minute,” she says.
Other recent TV roles have steered Anderson in the direction of an unabashedly queer storyteller like Schoenbrun. Jean Milburn, Anderson’s humorously matter-of-fact sex therapist from the series “Sex Education,” represented a watershed beginning in 2019.
It was because of the success of that show that she was approached to write “Want,” a 2024 book that collected the sexual fantasies of anonymous women (a follow-up, “More,” is out in September from Abrams Press).
“Sex Education” also inspired Anderson to launch her own brand of soft drinks cheekily called G Spot (they are caffeine-free and infused with vitamins and minerals). Some retailers, she says, have refused to use the drink’s name. “We’ve had so much pushback on the name and I refuse to be cowed, to be shut down, to be told that it’s a dirty word or that it shouldn’t be in public spaces,” she says.
“The strange thing is I don’t identify with Scully in the same way I do with other characters that I played for much less time,” Anderson says. “Part of that is because of how square she was. I have such an intrinsically rebellious nature.”
(Ian Spanier / For The Times)
For Anderson, humor is an important component of the conversations she wants people to have about sex and sexuality. During her time on “Sex Education,” she started posting pictures on Instagram of props on set that resembled both male and female genitalia. Some of her posts kept getting blocked.
“There were all these amazing things, from chess pieces that were phallic to a soap holder that was a yoni,” she says, smiling. “We started to call them ‘penis or yoni of the day.’ Then fans started posting back to me pictures of penises or yonis of the day they would see in nature.”
Anderson doesn’t quite understand the swath of Gen Zers who deride sex in movies and is, in general, uncomfortable with the subject of physical connection.
“For my younger kids, who are late-teens, the thought of picking up a phone to [call] somebody that they’re interested in feels so intimate,” Anderson says. “If a phone call is intimate and your conversations on a regular basis are snapshots of your face making funny images, then the idea of going into deep intimacy must be absolutely terrifying.”
She’s hopeful that young people might start to turn toward in-person activities to bond. But while the subjects of pleasure and open-mindedness captivate her, on screen Anderson is not letting the industry pigeonhole her.
Anderson’s recent output includes playing a shadowy operative with icy conviction in the thriller “Animals” opposite Ben Affleck, and a Nazi guard in the limited series “The Boys From Brazil,” both coming to Netflix in the near future. And in last year’s “Trespasses,” another TV show, she became a Northern Irish alcoholic mother. “I wouldn’t have guessed that at my age I would be having so many different and varied opportunities,” Anderson says.
In the aftermath of her time on “The X Files,” Anderson moved to London, both because she longed for the city where she partially grew up and for a chance at reinventing herself professionally.
“I’d never had my own publicist before that,” she says. “Had I had one, they probably would’ve tried to convince me that moving to London was the worst thing I could do for my career.”
For a long time, Anderson’s relationship with Dana Scully was complicated. “I felt like everything that I did was in an effort to get away from Scully,” Anderson admits. “Then when people would bring it up or I would do a 45-minute interview and they would ask one question about ‘The X-Files,’ they would use my refusing to talk about it as an excuse to make it the headline.”
It made it challenging for her to be considered for film roles and even for TV projects of a different vein.
“Now you have A-list actors, the Nicole Kidmans, moving between TV and film,” she says, “but back during ‘The X-Files,’ if you were on telly, it was the B, if not C version of what an actor’s life could be.”
In England, though, the likes of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith or Glenda Jackson had always navigated effortlessly between the big and small screen and the stage. “That’s the life that I wanted,” Anderson adds. “The minute I moved there, the quality of the stuff and also the range of characters that I was being offered was so different from what I’d been doing for almost 10 years as Scully.”
“The House of Mirth,” Terence Davies’ 2000 period drama based on the satirical 1905 novel by Edith Wharton, represented a breakthrough. “At the very beginning, I remember I was so surprised that there were other people who thought that I might be able to do something else other than Scully.” (When I tell her how extraordinary she is in “Mirth” as a socialite caught between stability and something more passionate, Anderson replies with a bashful, whispered “Thank you.”)
And while she can now think of “The X Files” as the “blessing” that it signified in her career, Anderson is clear that she has more often seen herself reflected in other women she’s inhabited, such as Blanche or Stella Gibson, the detective she played in the series “The Fall” starting in 2013.
“The strange thing is I don’t identify with Scully in the same way I do with other characters that I played for much less time,” Anderson confesses. “Part of that is because of how square she was. I have such an intrinsically rebellious nature. I can, obviously, play square, but I think because of that, she didn’t necessarily get her hooks inside me in the way that some of these other characters that really push against the establishment did.”
Anderson is not entirely opposed to appearing on Ryan Coogler’s just-announced “X-Files” reboot, but she is far more excited about several sci-fi projects she is currently developing (one of them she describes as “huge” in scale). They will bring her back to similar territory, but this time on her own terms.
“It’s the first time that I’m properly going into the genre and embracing it and instigating that work,” Anderson says. “I’m very excited about those but no doubt when it comes time to do press around them, there’s going to be a lot of ‘X Files’ talk, inevitably.”
She’ll be ready for it. At once pragmatic and playful, Anderson seems to be taking on the world these days like someone who’s unraveled a deeper mystery.
ozgurdonmaz/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images
Apple (AAPL) has published a guide for Mac users in mainland China explaining how to connect Alibaba’s (BABA) Qwen artificial intelligence service to the company’s Siri and Writing Tools features.
According to the guidelines that appeared on Saturday in the Mac
The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.
This week’s caption reads:
U.S. Marines with 3d Reconnaissance Battalion, 3d Marine Division patrol through an underground tunnel in support of offensive operations during the Korean Marine Exercise Program 25.1 at Camp Stanley, South Korea, March 10, 2025. KMEP is a semi-annual exercise that provides iterative opportunities for Republic of Korea Marine Corps and U.S. Marine Corps units to train together, improving their combined capabilities to deter threats and maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Kendrick Jackson)
PRIME DIRECTIVES:
A WEBSITE considered the eBay or Vinted for holidays allows travellers to essentially buy second-hand breaks with massive savings.
Savings can be huge, one man even saved £6,000 on a luxury cruise that he bought online.
Called Transfer Travel, the website is a place to snap up absolute bargains with savings between 40 to 70 percent.
On the flip-side, it lets users sell any part of their trip that they can no longer go from flights to hotels, accommodation or whole holidays.
Maisie Blewitt, head of commercial at Transfer Travel, told the Daily Mail: “We’ve always said we’re like Vinted for travel or eBay for travel. If you can’t go on your holiday, you can just pop them on our platform and then resell them.
“There’s well over a thousand listings on the website at the moment, well over a thousand different people who need to kind of recoup a bit of money or sell travel plans when things change.”
One man who spoke to The Times said that he saved £6,000 on a luxury cruise after buying it on Transfer Travel.
Jorge Paiva bagged himself a two-week cruise around Portugal, Morocco and Spain and paid just £1,500 each, which was a third of the full-price ticket.
Originally listed at £9,000 he spent £3,000 on two non-refundable tickets for a Silversea Cruise when the sellers were advised not to go on health grounds.
Another woman who was visiting the UK from the US managed to nab first-class rail tickets from London Euston to Glasgow worth £240 for £150.
You can buy the holiday as is, or try and haggle the price down even more with the ‘Make Offer’ button.
Once the holiday is bought, the platform holds the money from the buyer until the new passenger’s details have been updated for the trip.
The money is then released to the seller, and if the seller doesn’t transfer the trip within 72 hours, the buyer is given a refund.
Sun Travel has found some great deals too – some are even during the summer holidays.
One flight deal is from Manchester Airport to Split with Jet2 from August 9 to September 5 for £190 – which is almost 60 percent less than the original price.
When it comes to holidays, one summer break on offer is seven-nights in Ibiza for £1,100.
Included is a stay at Hotel Brisa between August 17-25 and return flights from Manchester.
It’s a saving of 33.49 per cent.
Currently on the website is a cruise onboard Royal Caribbean‘s Allure of the Seas from Fort Lauderdale to Jamaica.
It’s for four people in a balcony cabin for six days between August 30 to September 6 at the cost of £1,711 – which is 39.47 per cent less than the original price.
For anyone who wants to go on a safari, one traveller is selling a break to Umkhanyakude in South Africa.
It’s a six-night stay for two in a Zulu Nyala Heritage Safari Lodge with all meals included and two daily game drives with professionals.
At the cost of £1,599.75, it’s 66.92 per cent off the original price.
The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.
This week’s caption reads:
U.S. Air Force 2nd Lt. Garret Burgess, 490th Missile Squadron nuclear and missile operations officer, pulls a blast door inside a launch control center at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, April 11, 2026. The blast door secures access to the underground Launch Control Center, where missileers maintain continuous command and control of assigned intercontinental ballistic missile forces. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Teniya Caldwell)
PRIME DIRECTIVES:
The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.
This week’s caption reads:
U.S. Soldiers assigned to 14th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division enter a cave to conduct Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) operations during Rotation 25-11 at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif., Sep. 16, 2025. Rotations at the National Training Center ensure Army Brigade Combat Teams remain versatile, responsive, and consistently available for current and future contingencies. (U.S. Army photo by Cpl. Jeffrey Garland, Operations Group, National Training Center)
PRIME DIRECTIVES:
A NEW attraction is opening in the capital in less than two months and it will feel like you are stepping into a very famous video game.
Arcade Arena London will open in September with immersive gaming experiences including Mario Kart-style racing.
Known as Chaos Karts, visitors will be able to race through futuristic landscapes where they will have to steer around obstacles as well as collect weapons.
It’s more than just racing around a track in a go-kart – the walls and floors will feature an immersive world and teams compete to get the highest score.
In addition to Chaos Karts, there will be two other immersive experiences.
Alien Invasion will be exclusive to the London venue (with the other venue in Manchester).
Read more on travel inspo
In this game, you will join the Cosmic Cadets and head on a mission to save Earth while keeping an eye out for alien druids.
And there will also be Pac Man Live Experience, where visitors play as Pac Man themselves in a giant glowing maze.
As you venture around the maze, you’ll have to collect power pellets and try and escape the ghosts.
Between the different games, players will also be able to grab a bite to eat and a drink in the bar area.
Tickets for each experience cost from £30 per person, or you can do all three experiences from £65 per person.
If you don’t want to wait until September, you could head to their venue in Manchester where Pac Man Live Experience and Chaos Karts cost £27 each, per person – thanks to the Great British Summer Savings scheme.
Or you can get family tickets, where you must purchase at least one adult and one child – costing £21.50 and £18 respectively.
The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.
This week’s caption reads:
Members of the Moroccan Groupement des Forces Spéciale clear tunnels used by opposition forces during a Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) at Tifnit Training Base, Morocco, May 13, 2026. JCETs bolster regional security and improve threat response by building shared readiness and fostering collaborative relationships. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Enrique Barcelo)
PRIME DIRECTIVES:
THERE’S no better flight feeling than knowing everyone is onboard your flight and the middle seat next to you is free.
Well, United Airlines is adding a seating option that will guarantee no one sits next to you.
The seats called Economy Plus will be on sale later this year.
Flyers booking these not only get to keep the middle seat free, but the row has comes with extra elbow room too.
The seats also have one custom table from armrest to armrest across the open middle seats – so there’s more space in front of passengers.
United hopes to include the Economy Plus option on its entire fleet of A321XLR planes which also come with three inches of extra legroom.
The airline expects to be the only one in the US that offers this seating option.
The new perk from United comes after the announcement of United Relax Row.
The Relax Row seats come with a custom-fitted mattress, blankets, extra pillows and a toy for children.
These will be onboard its Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 widebody aircraft and are expected to be available from 2027.
Andrew Nocella, United’s Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer said: “The XLR is our newest aircraft and not only offers all-aisle access lie-flat seats in United Polaris but now also includes seats in Economy Plus with extra leg and elbow room.
“Our customers are going to love all these new options.”
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Sunrun (RUN) is piloting a program that would allow customers to earn hundreds of dollars per month by using electricity from rooftop solar installations to power home-computing systems for artificial intelligence, CEO Mary Powell said Monday.
The company is in
The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.
This week’s caption reads:
Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, provides command and control of air power throughout Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and 17 other nations. The CAOC is comprised of a joint and coalition team that executes day-to-day combined air and space operations and provides rapid reaction, positive control, coordination, and de-confliction of weapon systems. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Joshua Strang)
PRIME DIRECTIVES:
KATIE Price has revealed an explicit photo confession during a chat with Love Island Aftersun host Joe Baggs.
The former glamour model, 48, was speaking to Joe, 29, to promote her Sky documentary series Nothing To Hide.
Former Gogglebox star Joe fired off a series of 90s trends to Katie and asked her if she would bring them back or ditch them.
When he suggested disposable cameras, the mum-of-five suggested she’d used them to snap naughty photos back in the day.
She said: “Nowadays, because you’ve got your phone, I think people take more explicit photos.
“With a disposable, you have to be careful and remember you have to take them somewhere like Boots.
“So someone is going to look at your pictures. So someone like me is definitely not having a disposable.
“I don’t want to bring them back.”
It comes after Katie revealed she’ll be starring in a reality show with fourth husband Lee Andrews.
Katie married self-proclaimed millionaire Lee in Dubai in January, just days after meeting him in person.
She stood by her man when he recently spent time in Dubai’s Al Awir jail, where he was held over unpaid debts. Katie said on the Reign podcast this week: “There will be a documentary coming out about Lee, and he knows it.
“He’ll be appearing in it and yes, there is scandal around me — there always is. Not only now, there’s years of it.”
AS one of the most talked-about, celebrated and frequently derided pop stars of all time, returning with her first album in seven years is a high-stakes move for Madonna.
The Queen of Pop has never left it so long between albums in her 43-year career. And she has taken an even bigger risk by recording a follow-up to her much-lauded 2005 dance-pop opus, Confessions On A Dancefloor.
But rather than playing it safe, Confessions II sees her doing just that — confessing.
She addresses everything from how she failed her eldest daughter Lourdes to her regrets over her relationship with her late brother, Christopher Ciccone.
And also, surprisingly, how her first husband, Sean Penn, 65, made her feel during their short-lived marriage.
The most venom-tongued track is titled Bizarre, in which she squarely attacks the Hollywood A-lister, who she was married to from 1985 to 1989.
She references the 1968 Shelby GT500 convertible she gave him as a wedding gift and his conviction for reckless driving in 1987.
And she also lays into how Penn was “threatened” by her and claims he resented her while they were together.
Madge sings: “Love is the strangest thing. Just when you think you’ve finally let go, it comes back to you.
“Movie star, deep blue eyes. In Hollywood, we’re a perfect prize.
“He drove way too fast, Shelby Cobra wasn’t meant to last.”
Earlier the lyrics had turned to anger, as she sings: “Roll out the carpet for us, but you don’t share it.
“All ’cause you’re threatened by me, you won’t admit it.
“The little things that you do don’t make me want you. Who knew love could be so bizarre?”
And in a later verse, she adds: “I know I left you behind and you resent me.
“A thousand reasons why you could never have me.
“The thought of being with you is so indecent. I guess you’ll never know my dirty little secret.”
Penn isn’t the only subject of her scorn, with Betrayal appearing to be about her stepmum Joan, who died in 2024 while the album was being made. Madonna did not attend her funeral.
The singer was five years old when she lost her mum — who she was named after — to breast cancer. Three years later, in 1966, her dad Silvio married Joan, who worked briefly for the family as a housekeeper.
In the opening verse of Betrayal, Madonna sings: “This is a story of betrayal. You couldn’t see your fall from grace.
“So take the hammer, hit the nail. You’ll never take my mother’s place.”
And later in the track, she adds: “You betrayed me, you enslaved me.”
But Madonna, 67, shows her softer side on The Test, which sees her and Lourdes, 29 — the eldest of her six kids — open up about their at-times difficult relationship.
On how her daughter was thrust into the limelight because of her own fame, Madonna sings: “Little star, I tried to put you on a pedestal, you didn’t ask for all the flashing lights.
“I didn’t think of how we could disturb, or how it hurt. I wish I knew the pain I caused.”
She continues: “Sometimes I think you wish I’d go away, but the shadow stays, and it’s OK to be yourself.”
Madge also appears to touch on her 2023 brush with death, when she was found unresponsive at her New York apartment and placed into a coma after suffering from an infection that led to sepsis.
Lourdes, 29, who Madonna had with fitness trainer Carlos Leon, was among those that rallied around her in hospital.
Madonna sings: “You made me whole when I was broken, too. I hope and pray I can do the same for you.”
Paying tribute to her mum, Lourdes sings: “You are my reason to be, what I want or look like, what I wear, all the clothes on my back, and what I attract.
“I trace the line of what you have sewn. Keep my own design. Make it a landscape. Make it alive.”
Elsewhere on the album Madonna makes peace with Christopher, who she was accused of “dropping” as her creative director in the early-2000s, and who later wrote a book titled Life With My Sister Madonna.
The once-close pair never fully repaired their relationship and he died of cancer at the age of 63, in October 2024 although she says he now visits her in her dreams.
On the song Fragile, she sings: “We shared a name, a home. We shared a fragile bond, now you’re gone.
“We laughed, we cried, we held each other’s hands. We had each other’s eyes and they belonged
“This is the time I hate the most, the words inside my heart
“I know you’re fragile ’cause you’ve been hurt, been let down.”
At the end of the track, she adds: “Late last night I was fast asleep, you came to me in a dream.
“You said don’t forget about me, don’t forget to be happy.
“So I hope you found a higher ground.”
The 16-track album clocks in at almost 64 minutes, and is a metaphor for a night out, starting with the heavy, pulsating beats of a club.
Then the final five songs represent the evening winding down, with Madonna spilling out her deepest feelings with the bravery and vulnerability that comes from a night of loud, messy partying.
When she reaches the last track L.E.S. Girl — about her life pre-fame on the Lower East Side of New York — you can hear traffic beeping, signalling she is finally on her way home as the morning rush hour starts.
It’s a neat arc for the ambitious album, which she once again made with English producer and songwriter Stuart Price, who she teamed up with on the first Confessions album.
But this record is much darker, heavier and grown-up.
And as well as being symbolic of a single night out, Madonna uses it to represent key parts of her life and the moments that have made her.
The most brilliantly bombastic highlight comes in Danceteria — named after the New York nightclub where she found her friends in the industry and where DJs played her music for the first time.
It’s a feel-good number with a Vogue-style rap and namechecks for everyone from her pal Debi Mazar to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and even The B-52s.
Another highlight comes with Love Sensation, which appears to be a tribute to her boyfriend, Akeem Morris, 30.
She started dating the former football player in 2024, two years after ending a three-year romance with dancer Ahlamalik Williams, 31, and they now live together in London.
Madonna sings: “When I feel alone I always want to bring you near ’cause you bring a smile right here. You chase away my darkest hours.”
And in the chorus she continues: “Baby, come and get with me, there’s something that I gotta do.
“Baby, when you’re here with me, there’s nothing that we cannot do.”
So far in her career Madonna has sold 450million albums, and counting.
And with this project, she proves there is still plenty of passion, ambition and talent.
Undoubtedly it is her most cohesive and accomplished album since the original Confessions, 21 years ago.
And long may the Queen of Pop continue to reign.
I Feel So Free: The opening track, released in April, is a throbbing song with breathy vocals and a sample of the 1989 Lil Louis acid house track French Kiss, complete with orgasm. It’s a statement of what’s to come as she says: “On the dancefloor, I feel so free.”
Good For The Soul: Heavy-sounding verses make way for a buoyant and optimistic pop chorus, all about how important letting your hair down is. It was written on her first session for the record.
One Step Away: Madonna dives headfirst into house music on this pulsating track about the release she feels in a nightclub. Over the beat, she utters: “The dance floor is not just a place, it’s a threshold. A ritualistic space where movement replaces language.”
Bring Your Love: The credibly cool lead single features Sabrina Carpenter, uniting two generations of pop stars who are resolute in their determination not to be swayed by naysayers. In the chorus they say: “Bring your love ’cause you cannot shake me. Bring your love ’cause you’ll never break me.”
Danceteria: “Everyone here is a work of art,” Madonna sings on this wonderfully poppy single, inspired by the New York nightclub she went to as a youngster.
Read My Lips: Spanish guitar and a guest appearance from Colombian singer Feid give this a different feel, though there’s a Latin trap beat to keep the party going. It’s clear Madge isn’t happy on it, though, singing: “You cut me with your lies, ’cause you hurt me with your kiss.”
Everything: It opens with strings reminiscent of her 1992 track Deeper And Deeper, but evolves to have regular house music breakdowns fit for a packed Ibiza dancefloor. And she’s worked up, spitting: “It’s not OK, I don’t f*** with it.”
Love Sensation: Pop makes a return on this heart-warming crowd-pleaser. “There’s nothing that we cannot do,” she repeats as the track builds to euphoric choruses. This is destined to be a future single.
Love Without Words: An ode to partying, starts with the sound of smoke being pumped on to a dance floor. “Call it trance, call it house, call it love without words,” she sings.
Bizarre: Madonna teamed up with super-producer Martin Garrix for this revenge track about her ex Sean Penn. The melody, complemented by strings and hints of EDM production, is enough to have people throwing their hands in the air.
School: “I can make moves on the dance floor, I can make love on a man’s floor,” she breathlessly coos on this track, on which her vocals are heavily distorted. It’s one of the weaker songs.
Fragile: There’s a major change of pace with break beats and strings, as she sweetly sings about her late brother Christopher. Her voice truly takes centre stage here.
My Sins Are My Savior: She is joined by Belgian rapper Stromae on this dark and moody track, which wouldn’t sound out of place on 1992’s Erotica album. Reflecting on the criticism in her career, she sings: “I was not lost, I was just broken. They tried to take me down, they tried to take my crown.”
Betrayal: She teams up with producer Mirwais, who she first worked with in 2000, on this 90s-inspired track, featuring brass and piano over bleak and mournful vocals.
The Test: Madonna has said Lourdes approached her about working together to heal their rift, and it certainly sounds cathartic. Her daughter’s voice here is far smoother, but they blend exquisitely.
L.E.S GIRL: It’s the end of the night, Madonna is on her way home and she’s reflecting on when she was a “Lower East Side girl, lost in a fragile world.” It’s a tear- jerker, and triumphant look back at how far she has come. The perfect ending.
The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.
This week’s caption reads:
An officer walks past a Royal Air Force Harrier GR7 ground attack jet, from the 2nd/4th Wing RAF Cottesmore, parked inside a hardened shelter at a base in an undisclosed location in the Gulf 04 March 2003 AFP PHOTO/POOL/Chris Helgren (Photo by CHRIS HELGREN / REUTERS POOL / AFP) (Photo by CHRIS HELGREN/REUTERS POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Coronation Street revealed it was Sarah who killed Theo on Monday(Image: ITV)
Coronation Street’s Sarah Platt has been exposed as Theo Silverton’s killer.
Now, actress Tina O’Brien, who has played the character since 1999, has addressed whether she’s about to bow out for good. Flashbacks during Monday’s episode confirmed what really happened to Theo, and who was to blame.
We saw Sarah accidentally killing Theo after he turned sinister. As he threatened her, she shoved him before hitting him over the head with a metal pole, leading to him plummeting off the scaffolding.
In the fallout, Sarah will be desperate to cover her tracks. But will she be caught out, and could it lead to a prison stint, or possibly a permanent exit from the ITV soap after after nearly 30 years in the role?
Tina shared: “It’s not just about her now, it’s about her family and her son, and there are times when she can’t cope with the pressure and you think she’s just going to hand herself in. And then she thinks about her son growing up without a mum, if she’s convicted and can’t prove she acted in self defence.
“And because of those things, she’s so desperate to do whatever it takes to be part of her family’s life.” It was her ex Gary that she frantically called for help, with him now keeping her secret.
With Gary’s rivalry with Sarah’s partner Kit Green now at boiling point, Tina explained why Sarah told Gary and not detective Kit. She said: “I think she absolutely went into panic mode, shocked, stunned and numb. She obviously didn’t know what to do, she didn’t know how to react and in that moment she thought, I can’t call Kit because of his job in the police.
“And so in that moment, she thought who can I call and it was Gary. There’s a lot of guilt there and I think also, selfishly, she feels like she’s ruined her chance with Kit, because if he knows what she’s done, he might not want her anymore and she so wanted him to be her future.”
This isn’t the first time Sarah has been caught up in a murder plot. Fans will recall that back in 2015, Sarah’s sister-in-law Kylie Platt murdered Sarah’s love interest Callum Logan. Callum had tried to attack Sarah, leading to Kylie killing him with a wrench.
Sarah and Kylie, with the help of Sarah’s brother David Platt, covered up the crime, and buried the body under their house. Sarah’s mental health spiralled in the fallout, and she was admitted to a psychiatric unit for treatment.
With Sarah caught up in another murder, Tina said this time her character could face prison. She teased: “If she’d have called the police straight away and explained what happened, she would have been in a much better situation, because it was clearly not pre-meditated, it was a situation where she felt she had no other choice.
“But to cover it up, to actively cover something up, she knows that she crossed a line that she can’t come back from.” She added on exit fears: “I genuinely didn’t worry, at the end of the day this job is incredible, but to be an actor is not necessarily a job for life. So, I just was really excited to be given the honour of being the murderer, and then hopefully, however it plays out, I’ll enjoy Sarah’s arc.”
So does this hint that Sarah will stick around? After keeping quiet for months, Tina shared: “I’ve literally been a big bag of nerves. It’s been so difficult, I told my mum and I just recently told my daughter Scarlett and my son Beau. You’re seeing all the chat on social media, everyone’s saying I think this, and I think that.
“Actually filming these scenes the weeks after have been the hardest thing I’ve ever filmed because I felt like my face looked guilty constantly and I thought everyone’s going to know it’s me instantly.”
It came as no surprise to Tina though that Sarah killed Theo. She explained: “I completely understand how it happened, why it happened. For me to get into her character and her head, I feel like in that moment, she didn’t feel like she had any other choice.”
Coronation Street airs weeknights at 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITV X. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok, Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads.
The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.
This week’s caption reads:
A scalar model for an atomic bomb proof hospital. Details show Geiger counters, decontamination chambers, oxygen wards, boiler room, power plant and huge hospital city below ground. The underground part would be insulated against radioactivity and poison gas by protective belts of earth, steel, and concrete. The underground hospital would accommodate 700 patients and a full hospital staff, in addition to an undetermined number of civilians. The three level subterranean hospital would be stocked with food, water and other supplies which would enable continuance of life for an almost indefinite period. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
Prime Directives:
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood silent and stone-faced behind Donald Trump on Wednesday as the president joked of passing the buck if his deal with Iran, under increasingly withering criticism and scrutiny, ultimately falls apart.
The blame, Trump said, would likely fall on his vice president, JD Vance, who led the negotiations toward a memorandum of understanding with Iran and will sign the agreement this week in Switzerland — a ceremony that will generate indelible images for a politician openly considering a run for the White House.
The controversial diplomatic breakthrough poses a quandary for Vance, whose aides see Rubio as his most viable challenger for the Republican presidential nomination should the secretary choose to run.
“If it works out, I’m going to take the credit,” Trump said of the Iran deal, with Rubio by his side.
“If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD,” he joked. “You better be careful, JD!”
Rubio, who also serves as the president’s national security advisor, has remained effectively mum since news of a preliminary peace deal was announced by the administration on Sunday.
His absence has drawn notice across foreign policy circles — not only because Rubio has served as chief architect of the administration’s global strategy thus far, but also because he has become one of the president’s most effective communicators, both at home and abroad.
By contrast, Vance, on a scheduled press tour promoting his new book, has emerged as the face of an agreement that appears to be fracturing a Republican Party already divided over America’s role in the world.
The administration’s internal divide over Iran extends beyond the war to broader U.S. support for its historic allies, including Israel in the Middle East, Canada and Mexico in this hemisphere, and Ukraine and Europe against a revanchist Russia.
“Rubio has always been a hawk on Iran, and Vance has always been an appeaser,” said Danielle Pletka, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, describing the vice president as positioning himself “as Trump without the flaws.”
“Rubio has a harder job because he’s more of a traditional Republican,” she said, adding that a competitive presidential run by the secretary might require him to pitch “a return to normalcy.”
Behind closed doors, Rubio advocated against the deal in its current form, citing intelligence reports that found it highly unlikely Tehran would give up its nuclear ambitions, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Rubio’s internal skepticism was first reported by Axios.
The deal kicks down the road highly technical discussions over the mechanics of unwinding Iran’s nuclear program — with no guarantee of success — while granting Tehran immediate relief, lifting a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports that will allow Iranian imports and exports to resume.
In exchange, Iran has only agreed in principle not to pursue nuclear weapons — a vow it has made multiple times before — and to do its “best” to return commercial shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz back to prewar levels. It commits in the deal to refrain from implementing a toll system in the strait, according to U.S. officials, for a mere 60-day period.
“This agreement is a road map for Iran to become a rising, stronger power in the [Persian] Gulf — stronger than it is even today,” said Robert Pape, a political science professor at the University of Chicago.
“That is going to be an issue for the balance of power with Israel, which before the Iran war was the rising power. Now it’s lost that paradigm,” Pape said. “And this is going to be an issue with the future disposition of American forces in the region, because the [memorandum of understanding] states quite clearly that Iran is expecting those forces to withdraw.”
Despite mounting skepticism, Vance has embraced his role in ending a war that a powerful faction of Trump’s base aggressively opposed from the start.
“I think there are some people who just want the bombing to continue, regardless of whether it accomplishes anything for Americans,” Vance told CBS News on Wednesday.
“I do think there are people,” he added, “who sometimes confuse the ends with the means.”
Because the preliminary Iran deal leaves key details unresolved, further negotiations virtually ensure the agreement remains in flux through the election season — potentially thrusting the talks into the center of the presidential primary campaign.
“Given the distance between the parties on the core nuclear issues, as well as the Trump administration’s poor track record with coercive diplomacy, I fully expect the 60-day window for talks to be extended, as the [memorandum of understanding] text permits, taking this issue to the heart of the midterms and beyond,” said Reid Pauly, a professor of nuclear security and policy at Brown University.
“There will be a lot of incentive in the administration,” Pauly added, “to distance oneself from this fiasco.”
As a guest on Megyn Kelly’s podcast this week, Vance acknowledged the political realities of Trump’s base splintering over the Iran war, noting that a coalition of isolationists — as well as those advocating what he called a more “aggressive” foreign policy — had together swept Trump back into office.
The war may be breaking that coalition apart, he said.
“We have a constituency right now that is saying, we’re going to send boots on the ground — they want Donald Trump to send hundreds of thousands of ground troops into Iran,” Vance told the former Fox News host.
“Those are Republicans,” Kelly said.
“We need people to be pushing back from inside the tent,” Vance replied.
The must-read: He graduated high school with honors. ICE detained him the next day
The deep dive: What we know about two SoCal men arrested in alleged plot to attack White House UFC fight
The L.A. Times Special: L.A. defies the skeptics for a World Cup marked by unity, mutual respect, fearlessness
More to come,
Michael Wilner
—
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THE World Cup is dominating England this summer, so why not up your footie game and swap the pub garden for the beach when England plays?
This beautiful spot in Cornwall is letting footie fans watch matches right on the beach with plenty of drinks on hand, from beer jugs to cocktail pitchers.
Shoreside on Carlyon Bay near St Austell is a coastal hangout with street-food pop ups, bars, live music and now, World Cup screenings.
On Instagram, Shoreside said: “Cornwall’s biggest World Cup Fan Zone & the best spot to watch the World Cup this Summer!
“With live pre-match entertainment, 4 dedicated bars, and a host of street food just a throw-in away, Shoreside is your definitive home for the World Cup.”
It will show “every England match” and other selected games on the big screen which is under a sheltered marquee so it won’t matter if it’s raining.
It adds “entry is free & tables are first come first served”.
For the first England game tomorrow there’s a live DJ to get everyone in the spirit before kick-off at 9PM.
From the four bars, visitors can order beer jugs, cocktail pitchers and enjoy snacks like chicken wings and burgers.
One Hidden Gems website described Shoreside as a “sleek beach shack that looks like it could have been plucked from California.”
For those who aren’t football fans, there’s plenty of other things to do and watch over summer at Shoreside.
Every Friday night, it hosts a line-up of live rock bands which take to the stage.
There are also silent discos, karaoke evenings, and quiz nights – all of which are completely free.
It’s not just Shoreside that has set up on Carlyon Bay, there are plenty of other food stops open throughout the day.
The Beach Cafe is open year-round serving soft drinks, coffee, tea and cakes.
Frooth offers smoothie bowls and matcha, Jasper’s Kitchen makes fresh stone baked pizzas.
When it’s really hot, Callestick Farm is the place to grab an ice cream with plenty of flavours from clotted cream vanilla to salted caramel.
There’s also OGY1 Pasty Shop, Crinnis Crib Hut, Herd, Stevie G’s Doghouse, Fry Buoys and a souvenir shop.
Carlyon Bay itself is two-miles long which visitors have called ‘beautiful’ and ‘unspoilt’.
It’s a popular spot for swimmers and lovers of watersports.
You can hire out wave runners, standup paddleboards, jet skis and kayaks and get out onto the waves.
Back on the sand, there’s also weekly sunrise yoga on Wednesdays and beach yoga every Saturday.
The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.
This week’s caption reads:
FEB 22 1981; Federal Emergency Management Agency (Underground Bunker At Den Fed CTR); (Photo By Dave Buresh/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Prime Directives:
The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.
This week’s caption reads:
First Lt. Pamela Blanco-Coca, 319th Missile Squadron missile combat crew commander, and her deputy commander, 2nd Lt. John Anderson, simulate key turns of the Minuteman III Weapon System Feb. 9, 2016, in the E-01 Launch Control Center in the F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., Missile Complex. A properly conducted key turn sends a “launch vote” to any of a number of Minuteman III ICBMs in a missileer’s flight area, and two launch votes from two separate LCCs will enable a real-world launch when directed by the U.S. president. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jason Wiese)
Prime Directives:
The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.
This week’s caption reads:
U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Tom Wilcox II, center, Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center commander, talks with Airmen at the 423rd Security Forces Squadron bunker shoot house training location at Royal Air Force Molesworth, England, Sept. 29, 2021. The AFIMSC leadership visited the 501st Combat Support Wing and its mission partners at the U.S. European Command Joint Intelligence Operations Center Europe Analytic Center at RAF Molesworth, England. The AFIMSC provides base communications, civil engineering, security forces and logistics support that assist the 501st CSW in fulfilling its mission. (U.S. Air Force photos by Senior Airman Jennifer Zima)
Prime Directives:
