Barbara Palvin and Dylan Sprouse are expecting their first child together.
The model debuted her baby bump Thursday at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where she walked the red carpet for the premiere of “Parallel Tales” along with her husband.
The couple posed for photos at the event, drawing attention to their gestating bundle of joy by framing and caressing Palvin’s belly. According to TMZ, the baby is due around August or September.
Palvin and Sprouse also took to Instagram to share their happy news. Included in the slideshow they posted Thursday is what appears to be a sonogram image of a fetus in a womb, throwing a “rock on” hand signal.
“High School Musical” star Vanessa Hudgens, who appeared alongside Sprouse in “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” in 2006, was among the couple’s well-wishers on social media.
“Rock on little family,” Hudgens wrote in her comment, which also included a heart emoji.
The former Disney Channel star and Victoria’s Secret model first met at a party in 2017. In a 2018 video for Vogue Australia, Palvin shared that Sprouse was her first boyfriend in six years and described him as a “perfect guy” who is “very kind and gentle.” The couple tied the knot in 2023.
In April, Sprouse tackled a trespasser at his Hollywood Hills home after Palvin spotted “the creepy” intruder. Palvin called the police, and Sprouse held the suspect down until they arrived.
CHONGQING, China — Three years ago, in the idyllic town of Woodside south of San Francisco, the United States and China held their first high-level talks on the dangers posed by artificial intelligence. President Xi Jinping and his longtime foreign minister appeared serious in their conviction that a channel should be a established between Beijing and Washington — a red phone for AI in case of emergencies.
They authorized a diplomatic effort that would begin in 2024 in Switzerland, only months before the U.S. presidential election. A large U.S. delegation arrived with high hopes that were abruptly dashed, according to four sources who attended the talks. The Chinese contingent dismissed American concerns over runaway AI as academic, almost theoretical, quickly turning the conversation to export controls seen in Beijing as yet another U.S. effort to hold China back.
“They naturally view any American diplomatic initiative involving limitations or restrictions of one flavor or another on a capability as being a trap,” Jake Sullivan, U.S. national security advisor under President Biden, said in an interview.
Despite the distrust — and Democrats losing the White House to Donald Trump — an accord was struck in November of that year in Peru, where both sides agreed to keep AI out of the command and control of nuclear weapons.
“It was a breaking of the seal that we could actually do something on AI,” Sullivan said. “In the transition, I told the incoming Trump team that they should really pick up that dialogue. But the Trump administration’s view was just far more laissez-faire, and they didn’t seem particularly interested in it.”
“That’s all changed in the past few weeks,” he added.
A Trump administration once eager to gun for technological supremacy is now, for the first time, reckoning with the power AI could unleash if left unchecked.
In a surprise reversal, quiet discussions have taken place ahead of President Trump’s state visit to China this week to explore reviving talks on an emergency channel, officials told The Times, prompted by shared alarm in Beijing and Washington over the debut of Mythos, Anthropic’s powerful new model.
One senior administration official told reporters Sunday that the White House was looking to create a channel of communication for AI like others that they have “in many areas that have intense focus with the U.S. and China.”
“I think what that channel of communication looks like, its formality and what that looks like, is yet to be determined,” the official said, “but we want to take this opportunity with the leaders meeting to open up a conversation. We should establish a channel of communication on that matter.”
Mythos’ capabilities are seen across the industry and government as those of an unprecedented cyberweapon, able to infiltrate and exploit digital communication systems — including government databases, financial institutions and healthcare programs — with untold consequences.
Whether an announcement will come to fruition this week is not yet clear. Any talks between the United States and China over AI regulations — designing some kind of arms control agreement governing the use of a technology that neither side fully understands or controls — will be fraught with suspicion, misunderstandings and risk, experts say.
“Right now, there is almost no support from U.S. policymakers to engage in formal discussions on AI governance with China,” said Aalok Mehta, director of the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The logic is that this is a winner-takes-all race,” Mehta said, “and that it’s imperative to accelerate AI progress to ensure that the United States wins that race.”
China would enter those discussions with a powerful argument, that U.S. leadership in AI — and the prevailing strategy of American AI companies — is propelling the world to a fraught frontier.
Every major U.S. player in the arena — OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Microsoft and Meta Platforms — is racing to be the first to build a model capable of artificial general intelligence, or AGI, a threshold without a common definition, but that most agree will require a model to perform any intellectual human task.
The prevailing theory is that the first to achieve AGI will secure a prize that multiplies itself: a self-training, recursively improving intelligence, growing exponentially and leaving all competitors in its wake.
Chinese companies, by contrast, are following a state-sanctioned strategy focused on integrating AI into siloed industries and systems, training models to improve individual tasks and accelerate growth in a more tailored approach.
“The Chinese believe there is no single race, but multiple races,” said Scott Kennedy, senior advisor on Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. “The U.S. is focused on achieving AGI, while China is focused on diffusion and applications of AI into the rest of their economy — manufacturing, humanoid robotics, all aspects of the internet of things.”
China scholars, AI industry insiders and successive administrations have questioned Beijing’s strategic thinking and forthrightness.
“It’s so baked into the community here that AGI will have this transformative potential that people can’t believe China isn’t focused on this, as well,” said Matt Sheehan, a scholar of global technology issues at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace with a focus on China. “It says it’s focused on applications, but is that a fake out for an AGI program hidden in the mountains somewhere?”
But most insiders believe that Beijing’s guidance to Chinese companies reveals its true intentions.
“They are not as AGI-pilled as the United States is, and I think that remains the case today,” Sullivan said, “so they regarded a lot of the conversation in the U.S. around extreme frontier risk — misalignment and loss of control — as a bit abstract, and not really as relevant to how they saw AI diffusing in China.”
President Biden greets Chinese President Xi Jinping in Woodside, Calif., in 2023.
(Doug Mills / Pool Photo)
Although China’s progress has exceeded U.S. expectations — especially since DeepSeek released its model over a year ago — the state has focused computer power on specific applications rather than the broad strategy needed to develop more powerful models capable of advancing toward AGI.
“It’s not just chips. It’s money,” Sheehan added. “China’s leading companies are much more financially constrained than U.S. companies. There’s concern over a bubble here, but OpenAI is valued at something near $800 billion. Leading Chinese companies that have gone public are valued at $20 billion. There’s just an orders-of-magnitude gap in available financing.”
Still, some in the U.S. government fear China won’t need comparable computing power if it simply steals the technology wholesale.
Doing so isn’t simple. But last month, in a memo, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy accused Chinese actors of “industrial-scale campaigns to distill U.S. frontier AI systems,” in effect replicating the performance of the most advanced existing models “at a fraction of the cost.” The memo did not accuse Beijing of endorsing the activity.
In the process, the memo added, carefully constructed security protocols are deliberately stripped away.
Whatever its strategic calculus may be, China would enter talks with the Trump administration trailing in the race — while disagreeing on the nature of the finish line.
AGI, in theory, could reach a stage of recursive self-improvement that results in a loss of human understanding or control. But if it is only the Americans, and not the Chinese, seeking to reach that threshold, then who is responsible to stop it?
Daniel Remler, who led AI policy at the State Department during the Biden administration and took part in the Geneva talks, cast doubt on Chinese claims of disinterest in AGI and ignorance of its risks. China falling behind in the race is no strategic design, he said.
“Chinese technologists are close observers of the U.S. AI ecosystem, and sometimes they say what they think,” Remler said. “Many were impressed by the [Mythos] model to the point of despair. Leaders in China’s top AI labs have been vocal in recent months, even before Mythos, about how compute-constrained they are at the frontier. Some have said they may never catch their American competitors.”
Talks at this point in the race could follow a familiar pattern in the recent history of U.S.-China diplomacy, in which Beijing claims it is behind the United States in development, ultimately securing a handicap and greater concessions at the negotiating table.
In other competitive domains — such as with China’s entry into the World Trade Organization and in cybersecurity negotiations between Beijing and the Obama administration — agreements were ultimately reached that Washington believes in hindsight disadvantaged American companies.
The Trump administration, Remler added, “needs to approach AI diplomacy with China with clear-eyed expectations anchored to our own national interests.”
Silicon Valley itself is divided over regulating AI. Anthropic, which was founded on concerns that other AI companies were failing to take safety and alignment concerns seriously, raised alarms over Mythos, its own model, to the Trump administration, a moment that has prompted reflection at the White House on the best path forward.
Spooked after meeting with leaders from America’s top banks over their vulnerabilities, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent internally advised U.S. government reviews of future model releases — a practice already underway in China, where the training parameters for models, known as “weights,” have been publicly released.
Even the suggestion of government oversight sparked backlash from Silicon Valley. Last week, the White House sent out a memo to reassure industry allies that submitting new models for federal review would be strictly voluntary.
If talks ultimately resume between Washington and Beijing on AI, experts believe the negotiations would be far more complex than those that resulted in arms control agreements governing nuclear weapons in the Cold War.
The superpowers would not only be discussing threats of instability to the global financial system, but also fears of proliferation — advanced AI tools getting into the hands of bad actors interested in using bio- or cyberweapons that could target both countries.
And they ultimately would have to decide whether to discuss regulating the integration of AI into the Chinese and U.S. militaries, an almost unfathomable goal between the world’s biggest adversaries, where trust is lowest and verification would be hardest.
Those in the industry who most fear what artificial superintelligence could bring have told the Trump administration that talks with China are an existential necessity.
Dario Amodei, the chief executive and co-founder of Anthropic, speaks at an event in New York in 2025.
(Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images)
But even within Anthropic, which has championed diplomacy, there are concerns that Beijing could exploit its current disadvantage to entangle American industry at the cusp of its crowning achievement.
Rather than pushing for a single sweeping agreement, industry insiders are advising the administration to pursue targeted deals with Beijing to mitigate specific risks, like the pact on nuclear command and control, two industry sources said.
In private, both Xi and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi seemed to understand that the gravity of the emerging technology before them required some form of cooperation, Sullivan said.
“At a conceptual level, I believe they had a conviction on that and authorized it,” Sullivan said, “but I believe their level of urgency was considerably lower than ours, and saw this as a longer-term process that would play out over time.”
“Their level of urgency and their stake in it has gone up,” he added.
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China currently boasts one of the lowest rates of homicide, violent crime, and gun and explosive incidents globally. The Chinese-style sense of security is a comprehensive system integrating advanced technology, community engagement, and continuous improvement in living standards. This has positioned China as one of the safest countries in the world, according to the 2025 Global Security Report, with 98.2% of Chinese citizens feeling safe by 2025, further solidifying its status as a globally stable destination. The pillars of this Chinese-style sense of security are built upon advanced digital technologies, relying on smart networks and modern surveillance systems such as facial recognition and artificial intelligence to enhance the security network within China.
The phrase “Chinese-style security” refers to China’s model for achieving social stability and reducing crime rates. This model is based primarily on three pillars: proactive prevention systems, where, rather than simply addressing crime after it occurs, China focuses on prevention and control through extensive security networks and a constant police presence in key areas; the continuation of the community mobilization system (the Fengqiao model), a historical concept (currently revived) that involves citizens and local committees in resolving community disputes before they escalate into crimes or legal cases, thus promoting the idea of self-regulation and public cooperation with Chinese authorities; and the use of digitalization and artificial intelligence technologies, where China has heavily invested in smart city technologies and the Skynet system. Skynet utilizes millions of cameras equipped with facial recognition and big data analytics to predict suspicious activities and track wanted individuals with high precision. This combination aims to create a secure environment that supports economic growth within China, despite the occasional international debates it sparks regarding the balance between public security and individual privacy.
Data and reports confirm exceptional social stability in China, with citizens’ sense of security exceeding 98% for six consecutive years. This security is attributed to effective governance, advanced digital technologies, and a high standard of living, making China a safe destination for investment and a source of stability. Key features of Chinese governance and the sense of security include increased levels of trust and optimism, with the Chinese people ranking among the world’s highest in trust in the government and optimism about the future, according to trust index reports. A robust safety net exists, built on Chinese-style security through crime prevention systems, community mobilization, and enhanced digitalization. These systemic features, along with numerous other advantages, reflect the stability within China and the state’s ability to fulfill its commitments and provide a safe and stable social environment, earning international praise, particularly in light of global geopolitical conflicts. With the continuation of Chinese-style modernization, ongoing modernization has contributed to raising living standards, thus strengthening the sense of security within China.
Accordingly, the Chinese government and the authorities of the ruling Communist Party of China support several pillars and points that support this approach to enhance the sense of security within the country. Based on current developments, focusing on security as the foundation for development in China, the stability of the situation in China is seen as a key element in boosting investor confidence and building a safe and stable living environment for citizens, which contributes to economic growth. With the intensification of the Chinese-style modernization model, modernization in China is not limited to economic growth but also focuses on improving the quality of life, providing employment opportunities, and upgrading social services, which significantly raises living standards. With the stable sense of security, China, through well-considered social policies, has succeeded in maintaining a high level of social security, which enhances public trust in the government and contributes to long-term stability. This has resulted in continued international praise (amidst crises). At a time when several regions around the world are experiencing geopolitical conflicts, China’s stability stands out as a model attracting the attention and scrutiny of international observers, particularly due to the Chinese state’s ability to effectively manage its internal affairs compared to many systems worldwide, including American and Western ones. This strengthens China’s capacity to lead the developing Global South and strongly promote its model of Chinese governance.
Based on the preceding understanding and analysis, we can see how the development for security strategy can form a fundamental pillar within the Chinese governance system. Improving living standards contributes to consolidating social stability and public security within China. This analysis highlights a delicate equation in the contemporary Chinese landscape, where continuous development (Chinese-style modernization) is linked to social stability, creating a secure environment in a turbulent world.
MOVIE hardman Jason Statham and his model partner Rosie Huntington-Whiteley have bought a £20million beachfront “forever home” — and are spending another £5million renovating it.
The actor, who has two children with fiancée Rosie, bought the six-bedroom mansion in the South of England, Land Registry records reveal.
The contemporary new-build is set on 20 acres and has its own private beach, enormous tree house, boating lake and wild swimming pond.
Building work has been going on for some time, with experts estimating a further £5million is being spent.
Public records show Jason, 58, who has amassed a £90million fortune from movies including the Fast and Furious franchise, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, paid £20million for the site in 2024.
He has always been upfront about his life goals, saying: “I just want to work hard, make money and eat with good people and love the same woman over and over again.”
Several high-profile celebrities also own homes in the area. Jason also has extensive properties in Hollywood and Cornwall.
The couple, who have a home in London, met at a party in 2009 and got engaged in 2016.
Rosie, 39, has a £30million fortune via fashion collaborations with M&S and Burberry, and acting roles in Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Mad Max: Fury Road.
She recently revealed she was moving to the countryside.
Rosie said: “I’ve been dreaming of this since I left home.
“It will be mud and kids climbing trees.” The couple were approached for comment.
COMIC Jack Whitehall kicked off his £250,000 wedding to model Roxy Horner yesterday by rowing a boat across a lake to her.
The 37-year-old’s romantic gesture moved some guests to tears — but his pals soon lightened the mood as they jokingly called out to him: “Shagger!”
The comment was believed to be a reference to his appearance on BBC ancestry programme Who Do You Think You Are? in 2019.
It saw Jack discover that his great-great-grandfather Richard, a travelling salesman, was a bed-hopping womaniser killed by syphilis.
The funnyman smiled on the show as he called him “a bit of a shagger”.
His wedding took place in the grounds of £12million stately home Euridge Manor, near Chippenham, Wilts.
Read more on Jack Whitehall
The Georgian-style property is owned by Kate Middleton’s former boss, Jigsaw tycoon John Robinson.
Jack and Roxy invited more than 100 guests, including the comedian’s fellow TV star father Michael and mother Hilary.
Jack and 34-year-old Roxy’s two-year-old daughter Elsie acted as a flower girl.
The comedian’s sister Molly appeared to be a bridesmaid while his brother Barnaby was his best man.
Speaking to The Sun earlier this year, Jack said of Barnaby: “I gave quite a savage speech at his wedding.
“There were a few low blows he wasn’t too appreciative of.
“He’s going to have his opportunity to get his revenge on the big day.
“I’m bracing myself for that.”
Celebrity guests were said to include TV pals James Corden and Jamie Redknapp, who Jack worked with on Sky’s A League of Their Own.
Guests were asked to turn off their phones during the ceremony and were put on a social media blackout.
Cars driving in and out of the venue had blacked-out windows and there were security guards at the gates and by the entrance to the stately home.
Brit Awards host Jack and Roxy started dating in 2020 after meeting on a trip to Australia.
They got engaged in 2024.
“The Real Housewives of Miami” star Lisa Hochstein has been charged with a felony for allegedly spying on her ex-husband.
Hochstein, 43, and her former partner Jody Glidden, 52, were booked on felony charges of unlawfully intercepting oral statements from the Miami housewife’s ex-husband Leonard “Lenny” Hochstein.
Hochstein turned herself in at Miami-Dade’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Wednesday morning, according to NBC Miami. The embattled star’s bond was initially set for $5,000, but she was released on her own recognizance later the same day. NBC spoke with Hochstein as she left the Miami-Dade jail and asked, “How was it in there?”
Hochstein’s attorney, Jayne Weintraub, walked alongside the reality star and intercepted questions, answering, “Five stars!”
Hochstein repeated, “Yes, five stars.”
Glidden, who also appeared on “Real Housewives,” was arrested April 12. He has since been released. Hochstein and Glidden have pleaded not guilty. Her arraignment is scheduled for April 20.
According to a March 17 arrest warrant obtained by People, Hochstein and Glidden allegedly placed a recording device in Leonard Hochstein’s Mercedes-Benz following an acrimonious split back in March 2023.
The outlet reported that Leonard Hochstein loaned his car to the “Real Housewives” star after she said she wanted to take it for a test drive because she was thinking of getting one for herself. When the car was returned, Leonard Hochstein allegedly found a suspicious device in the driver‘s side floorboard, covered with tape and hidden from view. The South Florida plastic surgeon contacted his lawyer, who then brought in experts who were able to pull recordings from the device.
A total of 98 recordings were recovered, according to the affidavit, and “one of the last recordings from before the vehicle was returned to the victim depicts Lisa Hochstein and Glidden holding a discussion and the distinct sound of a device such as the hidden recorder being wrestled into place.”
Hochstein can allegedly be heard saying “done.” The warrant also states that Glidden ordered two recording devices of the exact same make and model on Amazon three months prior.
The Hochsteins’ divorce played out on Season 5 of the Bravo reality series after Leonard Hochstein admitted he was in a relationship with another woman and planned to divorce Hochstein during a hot-mic moment that shocked audiences and Hochstein alike.
After the divorce was finalized last year, Hochstein told Entertainment Tonight, “I am very happy right now. It took a long time to get here, a lot of ups and downs, highs and lows, but I’m finally on the other side, and it feels so good.”
JODIE Marsh has been charged with assault after allegedly confronting her neighbour in a row over her animals.
The ex-glamour model, 47, said she “lost it” and “put her hands on his neck” after he carried out what she called a “campaign of harassment”.
Marsh claims the neighbour filmed her animals and doctored clips to make them look “skeletal” after trespassing on her land.
Describing the clash, she said: “I put my hand on his neck because I leaned in to whisper to him.
“I can’t even remember what I said because I was so upset. It lasted around 30 seconds.
“I’m scared to sleep in my own house. I’m scared to go out.”
The former lads’ mag star turned her back on fame to run Fripps Farm rescue centre in Lindsell, Essex.
Marsh is due to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court tomorrow.
She is charged with common assault, specifically the use of “threatening / abusive / insulting words / behaviour with intent to cause fear or provoke unlawful violence”.
Common assault carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison.
But speaking to The Sun, Jodie insisted she did not hurt her neighbour, adding: “I didn’t actually injure him in any way.”
An Essex Police spokesman said: “At around 12.40pm on Friday 16 January officers were called to an address in Lindsell to reports of a woman behaving aggressively towards a man and assaulting him.
“It was further reported that verbal threats were made.
“As a result of further enquiries, charges of common assault and using threatening / abusive / insulting words or behaviour have since been authorised against Jodie Marsh, 47, of Lindsell.
“She is due to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Friday 17 April.”
Fripps Farm is currently home to over 250 animals including alpacas, emus and reptiles, many of which have been saved from slaughter.
The reality star’s website reads: “Jodie gives a loving home to animals that are either unwanted or in danger of being put to sleep or slaughtered.”
It comes after a fire on her farm killed two of her beloved marmosets.
Fripps Farm hasn’t been without its controversies amid neighbour rows and court battles.
Marsh was left in tears of joy after winning a court battle to keep lemurs at the sanctuary.
She had appealed against a council’s decision to refuse her application for a wild animal licence.
Concerns had been raised about her taking a meerkat to the pub.
She said trolls were behind much of the criticism.
At a previous hearing, clips of screeching zoo lemurs were played to Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court.
But Judge Christopher Williams dismissed the council’s argument about the animals’ noise.
