mystery

Emmerdale pulled off another big moment on Friday night which saw the killer John Sugden plot take another sharp turn, proving there’s still twists and turns ahead

While Emmerdale‘s dark John Sugden storyline looks set to be heading for the finish line, Friday night’s episode proved there’s still plenty of life, no pun intended, in the killer plot.

While some fans have had enough and are ready for villain John to face his comeuppance, perhaps the latest twist that aired on Friday could see it take its biggest turn yet. The latest episode of the ITV soap saw the moment it was revealed that John’s latest victim Mackenzie Boyd was still alive.

He’s been missing ever since John appeared to kill him a couple of weeks ago, in brutal scenes that sparked a number of Ofcom complaints. Mack was shot with a bow and arrow before John appeared to silence him for good, slamming a rock over his head.

But in the shocking closing moments of Friday night, we saw Mack alive while seemingly in a bad way. Then, nothing. The episode ended before we got any context and any news on his condition post-attack.

READ MORE: Coronation Street’s Adam Hussain’s reason for quitting ITV soap and decision by bossesREAD MORE: EastEnders’ Kat and Zoe stars spill on explosive reunion and confirm ‘complete carnage’

Of course there will be questions and likely some reactions calling out the big move. How could Mack possibly have survived such brutal injuries? How did he get Mack away without anyone realising?

All to be revealed of course, but arguably this is one of the biggest twists yet, and one of the best in the entire storyline. “Robert Sugden’s big return, the will-they-won’t-they Robron chaos it triggered and Robert finding himself in the middle of John’s secret antics, and the resulting feud, was very much an epic move by the show, and it revitalised the storyline,” our soap insider shared.

“But this latest twist does so much for the storyline, and means so much. To have Mack alive completely reaffirms that John is not an intentional killer, he’s just someone who’s done very, very bad things.

“He’s a manipulator, he has to be in control and he goes to desperate lengths to ensure things go the way he wants. But he’s not a planned killer, and he feels guilt… most of the time. He could have killed Mack, silenced him, but he didn’t, because he no doubt couldn’t go through with it.”

This isn’t about painting John in a “he’s just made bad choices” light though. The twist is “genius” according to our soap expert, as it could completely derail John’s life and be the pivotal moment that sees it all come crashing down.

With Aaron already suspicious over John’s behaviour and his lies, about the cottage and about his whereabouts, surely it is only a matter of time before the truth about Mack, and everything, finally comes to light. We know John is leaving the show, so a comeuppance is inevitable.

Not only does Mack’s survival seal John’s end, but it could spark a ton of new mysteries across the coming days and weeks which can give this rather dark plot some new life. Again, no pun intended, RIP Nate. “The fact that John has ‘saved’ Mack, the very person that now knows everything, there is every chance the already guilty villain will cave and expose his own deep, dark secrets – not to mention keeping Mack alive surely has to spell the end of his villainous ways.

“John is already on the edge, and we don’t know yet, thanks to the cliffhanger, what his plans are for Mack and whether he plans to let him go. We know very little asides Mack’s true fate. John could crack at any moment with Aaron or even with Mack, given his desperate calls and messages to the helplines recently.

“But the bigger question is the stuff we haven’t seen. Mack’s survival was kept top secret, so we are guaranteed to be shown or told some unaired moments, and stuff that has not been given away in spoilers. That cannot simply be it with Mack, it has to be revisited.

“What did happen to him after that showdown? What has happened since his capture, and what’s gone on in those weeks he was believed to be dead? Surely, onscreen or not, we will be told some previously untold and unaired moments.”

That’s not all though, as it could spark some new mysteries. “This isn’t just going to leave big questions in terms of what we haven’t seen, but also a new mystery surrounding whether Mack will live or die, and if he can get away. Then there’s the ongoing mystery surrounding the body of Anthony Fox who was killed at the start of the year by Ruby Miligan.

“John still hasn’t disclosed where he buried him, and he sparked new theories with fans when mentioning him in a recent episode. This latest twist with Mack will no doubt leave fans wondering what really happened there too, and where Anthony is. Some may call it unrealistic, but I’d say Mack’s reappearance is somewhat a genius move, given all the things it could now lead to. It’s really, really exciting.”

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

The Twilight Saga teased a major announcement on Wednesday and fans finally have answers

Twilight enthusiasts have been left thrilled following a huge update from the iconic film series, but it’s not good news for all movie-goers.

The much-loved franchise, based on Stephenie Meyer’s novels, released five films between 2008 and 2012, with Breaking Dawn: Part 2 marking the end of the series.

Fast forward over a decade, and the saga made a cryptic announcement across social media on Wednesday (August 27). Fans were tantalised with an image featuring Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), accompanied by the words “Forever Begins Again, “The Twilight Saga,” and “This October.”

The post also included the mysterious caption “Tomorrow,” hinting that further details would be revealed on Thursday (August 28). Now, the enigma has finally been unveiled, reports the Manchester Evening News.

As many fans had speculated, the entire Twilight Saga is set to make a comeback in cinemas this October, perfectly timed for the first novel’s 20th anniversary.

On Thursday evening, the franchise posted a trailer on Instagram featuring clips from each of the five films, along with the caption: “All five films. Back in theatres. This October.”

Naturally, the announcement sent fans into a whirlwind of excitement, with many expressing their joy in the comments section.

One fan exclaimed: “Omg I get to see it in theatres for the first time,” while another simply wrote: “Finally.

“Exciting!!! I actually missed out on the first one in theatres,” enthused a third.

However, some sharp-eyed viewers have spotted that the trailer reveals the celebration will be “nationwide,” indicating the re-release is limited to American cinemas only.

International fans have been left devastated by this news. Expressing their frustration, one viewer raged: “Why only nationwide? ? ? This should be international thooooooo!!!”

Another added: “NOOO MAKE IT WORLDWIDE PLEASEEEEE,” whilst a third begged: “WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE WORLD?”

Currently, it seems only US-based audiences will get to enjoy this massive celebration.

Twilight follows the tale of teenager Bella, who becomes smitten with vampire Edward and gets dragged into the supernatural realm of bloodsuckers and werewolves.

The film series catapulted Pattinson and Stewart, who were establishing themselves in Hollywood at the time, to worldwide stardom.

WASHINGTON — When President Trump’s administration last month awarded a contract worth up to $1.2 billion to build and operate what it says will become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex, it didn’t turn to a large government contractor or even a firm that specializes in private prisons.

Instead, it handed the project on a military base to Acquisition Logistics LLC, a small business that has no listed experience running a correction facility and had never won a federal contract worth more than $16 million. The company also lacks a functioning website and lists as its address a modest home in suburban Virginia owned by a 77-year-old retired Navy flight officer.

The mystery over the award only deepened last week as the new facility began to accept its first detainees. The Pentagon has refused to release the contract or explain why it selected Acquisition Logistics over a dozen other bidders to build the massive tent camp at Fort Bliss in west Texas. At least one competitor has filed a complaint.

The secretive — and brisk — contracting process is emblematic, experts said, of the government’s broader rush to fulfill the Republican president’s pledge to arrest and deport an estimated 10 million migrants living in the U.S. without permanent legal status. As part of that push, the government is turning increasingly to the military to handle tasks that had traditionally been left to civilian agencies.

A member of Congress who recently toured the camp said she was concerned that such a small and inexperienced firm had been entrusted to build and run a facility expected to house up to 5,000 migrants.

“It’s far too easy for standards to slip,” said Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat whose district includes Fort Bliss. “Private facilities far too frequently operate with a profit margin in mind as opposed to a governmental facility.”

Attorney Joshua Schnell, who specializes in federal contracting law, said he was troubled that the Trump administration has provided so little information about the facility.

“The lack of transparency about this contract leads to legitimate questions about why the Army would award such a large contract to a company without a website or any other publicly available information demonstrating its ability to perform such a complicated project,” he said.

Ken A. Wagner, the president and CEO of Acquisition Logistics, did not respond to phone messages or emails. No one answered the door at his three-bedroom house listed as his company’s headquarters. Virginia records list Wagner as an owner of the business, though it’s unclear whether he might have partners.

Army declines to release contract

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved using Fort Bliss for the new detention center, and the administration has hopes to build more at other bases. A spokesperson for the Army declined to discuss its deal with Acquisition Logistics or reveal details about the camp’s construction, citing the litigation over the company’s qualifications.

The Department of Homeland Security, which includes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, declined to answer questions about the detention camp it oversees.

Named Camp East Montana for the closest road, the facility is being built in the sand and scrub Chihuahuan Desert, where summertime temperatures can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit and heat-related deaths are common. The 60-acre site is near the U.S.-Mexico border and the El Paso International Airport, a key hub for deportation flights.

The camp has drawn comparisons to “Alligator Alcatraz,” a $245 million tent complex erected to hold ICE detainees in the Florida Everglades. That facility has been the subject of complaints about unsanitary conditions and lawsuits. A federal judge recently ordered that facility to be shut down.

The vast majority of the roughly 57,000 migrants detained by ICE are housed at private prisons operated by companies like Florida’s Geo Group and Tennessee-based CoreCivic. As those facilities fill up, ICE is also exploring temporary options at military bases in California, New York and Utah.

At Fort Bliss, construction began within days of the Army issuing the contract on July 18. Site work began months earlier, before Congress had passed Trump’s big tax and spending cuts bill, which includes a record $45 billion for immigration enforcement. The Defense Department announcement specified only that the Army was financing the initial $232 million for the first 1,000 beds at the complex.

Three white tents, each about 810 feet long, have been erected, according to satellite imagery examined by the Associated Press. A half dozen smaller buildings surround them.

Setareh Ghandehari, a spokesperson for the advocacy group Detention Watch, said the use of military bases hearkens back to World War II, when Japanese Americans were imprisoned at Army camps including Fort Bliss. She said military facilities are especially prone to abuse and neglect because families and loved ones have difficulty accessing them.

“Conditions at all detention facilities are inherently awful,” Ghandehari said. “But when there’s less access and oversight, it creates the potential for even more abuse.”

Company will be responsible for security

A June 9 solicitation notice for the Fort Bliss project specified the contractor will be responsible for building and operating the detention center, including providing security and medical care. The document also requires strict secrecy, ordering the contractor inform ICE to respond to any calls from members of Congress or the news media.

The bidding was open only to small firms such as Acquisition Logistics, which receives preferential status because it’s classified as a veteran and Hispanic-owned small disadvantaged business.

Though Trump’s administration has fought to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs, federal contracting rules include set-asides for small businesses owned by women or minorities. For a firm to compete for such contracts, at least 51% of it must be owned by people belonging to a federally designated disadvantaged racial or ethnic group.

One of the losing bidders, Texas-based Gemini Tech Services, filed a protest challenging the award and the Army’s rushed construction timeline with the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Congress’ independent oversight arm that resolves such disputes.

Gemini alleges Acquisition Logistics lacks the experience, staffing and resources to perform the work, according to a person familiar with the complaint who wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Acquisition Logistics’ past jobs include repairing small boats for the Air Force, providing information technology support to the Defense Department and building temporary offices to aid with immigration enforcement, federal records show.

Gemini and its lawyer didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.

A ruling by the GAO on whether to sustain, dismiss or require corrective action is not expected before November. A legal appeal is also pending with a U.S. federal court in Washington.

Schnell, the contracting lawyer, said Acquisitions Logistics may be working with a larger company. Geo Group Inc. and CoreCivic Corp., the nation’s biggest for-profit prison operators, have expressed interest in contracting with the Pentagon to house migrants.

In an earnings call this month, Geo Group CEO George Zoley said his company had teamed up with an established Pentagon contractor. Zoley didn’t name the company, and Geo Group didn’t respond to repeated requests asking with whom it had partnered.

A spokesperson for CoreCivic said it wasn’t partnering with Acquisition Logistics or Gemini.

Biesecker and Goodman write for the Associated Press. Goodman reported from Miami. AP writer Alan Suderman in Richmond, Va., and Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, N.M., contributed to this report.

This summer, I read my way around Los Angeles and highly recommend the experience.

There were plenty of freshly published L.A. novels to dive into: My literary journey began in pre-Eaton fire Altadena (“Bug Hollow”) and ended in a run-down Hollywood mansion crawling with influencers (“If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You”); other novels transported me to West Adams Heights post-World War II (“The Great Mann”), Laurel Canyon of the mid-’60s (“L.A. Women”), contemporary Glendale (“The Payback”) and, farthest afield, Salton Sea (“Salt Bones”). And while the novels varied greatly, each was engagingly local. The familiar L.A.-ness of narratives populated with malls, dreamers and celebrities real and fictionalized added to those books’ appeal, while others set in less familiar (to me) communities enriched my understanding of the area.

To help you choose your next L.A. literary adventure, we asked five authors to tell us why they set their latest novels in and around SoCal, along with their favorite local spots to visit.

(Phoebe Lettice Thompson)

‘L.A. Women’

Ella Berman

The title of this retro novel telegraphs its setting while echoing an earlier work by Eve Babitz, a famous L.A. scenester who contributed to Movieline magazine when I worked there decades ago, though as a newcomer to the city I did not appreciate it then. Berman’s novel centers on two, rather than one, woman: A pair of frenemies — reminiscent of Joan Didion and Babitz — circle each other in the Laurel Canyon creative scene during the mid-’60s to early-’70s, navigating relationships with rock stars and visits to the Troubadour and Chateau Marmont as the free love vibe begins to sour.

Why L.A.? “This story couldn’t have been set anywhere other than Los Angeles,” says Berman. “The central relationships, conflict and emotional stakes are all a product of this beautiful city during this period of cultural upheaval.” To get the period details straight, she relied on a friend “who had lived in Hollywood since the late 1950s,” writing the first chapter from a hotel room in West Hollywood after lunch with her. “Later, I walked up to the Canyon Country Store immortalized by Jim Morrison in ‘Love Street’ and I felt a sense of wonder for the ghosts of the past.”

Fave hangout spots: “I love anywhere that feels like I’m time traveling so a classic margarita at Casa Vega, the eggplant parmigiana at Dan Tana’s, a show in the close-up gallery of the Magic Castle or a martini at Musso & Frank’s always deliver,” says Berman, who also loves to browse the Rose Bowl Flea Market for midcentury treasures and vintage band T-shirts.

‘The Payback’

Kashana Cauley

Once a Hollywood costume designer, Jada is working in an unspecified mall that seems suspiciously like the Glendale Galleria when Cauley’s novel begins, but that job doesn’t last either. Sticky fingered and bogged down with college debt, she ends up recording ASMR videos to make money while fleeing the debt police — until she and her pals come up with a scheme to erase their financial woes. The storyline will surely resonate among those saddled with their own college debt or just feeling pinched by rising costs at the grocery store.

Why Glendale? “I wanted my main character, Jada, to feel truly kicked out of Hollywood, as she is,” the writer with credits on “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” explains. “So part of me was like, well, where’s the farthest place, vibe-wise, you can get from Hollywood, and still, in Jada’s case, feel very L.A., and the Glendale Galleria fit.” Cauley much prefers the Galleria to the Americana and says fellow transplant Jada feels the same.

Favorite spot: “These days I’ve been hanging out at Taqueria Frontera in Cypress Park because I’m unable to fight my massive addiction to their carne asada queso-taco. It’s perfect. The meat is tender and just the right amount of salty. The cheese is present without being overwhelming. It comes with a handsome scoop of quality guac and a charming green salsa,” she says. “But also the restaurant itself is a vibe. It feels more outdoor than indoor because of a big row of stools out front that’s alongside the kitchen. And it attracts a large, laid-back crowd that feels like a party.”

‘Salt Bones’

Jennifer Givhan

Far from L.A.’s suburban sprawl, a Salton Sea butcher is haunted by the disappearance of girls in a novel suffused in Latina and Indigenous cultures. The water that once sustained the community is horribly polluted and younger characters dream of escape; Mal, the mother of two daughters, is visited by a shapeshifter in her dreams. A book for fans of mysteries and magical realism, it illuminates the environmental hazards of agrifarming in Southern California.

Why Salton Sea? Growing up in the area, her mother warned her that the water was poisonous. “We could smell for ourselves the fish die-offs, the weeks-long stink of toxic algal blooms,” she says. Visiting later, Givhan heard from a friend that the Salton Sea was drying up and releasing toxic chemicals like arsenic from decades of pesticide runoff and “became increasingly concerned about the fate of the place that raised me.” When activists encountered apathy from Sacramento politicians, “I knew I had to tell this story,” she says. “My soapbox may have been slippery, but people tend to love murder mysteries. So I wrapped my heart in one.”

Fave SoCal spots: “Anything by the water; I love hanging out on the beach and eating tacos. As I write in all of my novels, the water haunts me,” Givhan observes. “Many of the pages of ‘Salt Bones’ were drafted while we were living in Chula Vista and making trips back to the Salton Sea and surrounding communities for research. I started this novel at Imperial Beach, where we couldn’t go into the water because of the sewage problem and the signs warning No Nadar! Then I moved to Coronado Beach. On the way onto the peninsula, we’d stop at a great little burrito place for breakfast burritos, and I’d haul my portable typewriter to a picnic bench, set it up with the ocean spread before me and start tapping away.”

‘If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You’

Leigh Stein

Back in Hollywood, influencers have set up shop in a crumbling mansion with an infamous past, desperate to go viral; the owners of the property are looking for sponsorship money to pay for its repairs. In steps photographer turned entertainment journalist Dayna, who gets dumped on Reddit in humiliating fashion as the book opens. Stein’s novel, in case that description does not make clear, has much to say about Hollywood, social media and the creator economy; at its heart is a gothic horror story wrapped up in a mystery with satirical undertones.

Why Hollywood? “Like ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ my novel is about fears of aging and irrelevance in an industry that runs on youth and beauty,” Stein says. “I’m obsessed with how the creator economy is completely reshaping the media and entertainment industries.” The mansion is inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House in Los Feliz, which has appeared in movies including “Blade Runner” and also has a troubled legacy. “The more research I did, the more it seemed cursed,” she says.

Fave L.A. haunts: “I’m originally from Chicago and I first fell in love with Los Angeles through Francesca Lia Block novels, where everything is magic and draped in curtains of bougainvillea,” the author says. “My ideal day in L.A. would be taking the Berendo Stairs to Griffith Park, checking out the staff recommendations at Skylight Books and going to Erewhon to get their spicy buffalo cauliflower and some overpriced adaptogenic beverage that promises to change my life.”

‘Loved One’

Aisha Muharrar

Less overtly L.A. than the rest of the novels on this list, “Loved One” unfolds in L.A. and London following the death of Gabe, a 29-year-old indie musician who was the first love of Julia, a UCLA law student who became a Hollywood jewelry designer. Eager to reclaim his prize possessions for her and Gabe’s mother’s sake, she meets Gabe’s girlfriend Elizabeth in England. Through a series of flashbacks, key moments in Julia’s relationship with Gabe — and her life in L.A. — are revealed.

Why L.A.? Muharrar initially resisted the idea of setting her book in L.A., but ultimately felt moving there would just be the logical next step for a musician like Gabe, who has “a passion and then, career-wise, it turns out L.A. is the best place to pursue it.” Julia, she notes, arrives in L.A. for school with one career goal in mind and then ends up doing something else.” In the end, “it’s just a place people live.”

Fave L.A. hangout spots: “I love the bookstores: Reparations Club, Chevalier’s, Skylight. And I also love Silver Lake Library. It closed in July for several months of renovations and won’t be open until 2026 and I am, no exaggeration, devastated,” she says. “Also: Above the Fold in Larchmont. Is it the last newsstand in L.A.? I think it might be.”

Editor’s note: The newsstand has since closed.

A SUSPECT has been arrested in connection with four bodies which were found mysteriously floating in the River Seine in Paris last week.

It comes after a horrified train passenger spotted a corpse in the water before police rushed to the scene and found another three bodies.

1

A 24-year-old Algerian man has now been taken into custody and accused of committing several murders.

The bodies were found in the French capital on August 13 in Choisy-le-Roi.

One of the victims died from strangulation while another had suffered “violent injuries”, the local prosecutor said on Saturday.

It is currently unclear how many of the four victims the man is accused of killing.

The first body which was reportedly submerged for a shorter time than the others was identified as a man aged around 40 who lived in the local area.

More to follow… For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos.

Like us on Facebook at TheSunUS and follow us on X at @TheUSSun

Are we in for a new age of scripted basic cable television? Given the successes of the old age, which threaded its way between broadcast and premium cable TV, a little bolder than the former, less pricier than the latter, making up what it lacked in resources with invention and charm — producing such shows as “The Detour,” “Halt and Catch Fire,” “Lodge 49” and “The Closer,” to name just a few of my favorites — I’d be all for it.

Premiering Friday on the USA Network, lately devoted to sports, reality shows and reruns, the legal drama “The Rainmaker” is the first fruit of an intentional return to the network’s self-styled “blue sky” era, when its slogan was “Characters Welcome” and “optimism” in storytelling was a stated goal. “Psych,” “In Plain Sight,” “Monk” and “Suits” — whose recent success after being recycled onto Netflix would seem to be a factor in this turnaround — were among the series born in that period.

Based on John Grisham’s 1995 novel, faithfully adapted by Francis Ford Coppola into a 1997 film starring Matt Damon and Claire Danes, the TV “Rainmaker” has been kitted out with some new and altered characters and a novel focus, and in order to keep you on the hook across 10 episodes, it stirs in a case of arson and a serial murderer. (And surely some additional complications — only five episodes out of 10 were available for review, so even though I wouldn’t tell you about what’s coming later, I couldn’t.) Serial killer notwithstanding — nothing drearier than a serial killer — the nuts and bolts and girders and panels of a USA show are here — colorful characters, one part comedy to one part drama, a mystery to solve, and just a tiny bit of sex. (This is basic cable, remember.)

We meet hot-headed good guy Rudy Baylor (Milo Callaghan) and his cheery girlfriend Sarah Plankmore (Madison Iseman), both not long out of law school, both yet to take the bar exam, at a legal-aid event, providing free advice to the sort of people who could never afford a lawyer, wouldn’t know where to start or maybe just want someone to listen to their stories. They meet Dot Black (Karen Bryson), who is very much not over the death of her son while in a hospital whose name I can’t recall but for my own convenience will just call Bad Hospital. Badspital. That the hospital — the Badspital — has offered her $50,000 while their motion to dismiss is still pending, sets Rudy to wondering what they might be trying to hide. Anyway, Dot, whom we’ll see again, finds the offer insulting and also needs an apology.

Rudy and Sarah have both been hired by the 800-pound gorilla law firm Tinley Britt. On their first day, he arrives late to work — and bloody, having gotten into a fight with his mother’s shiftless, but large, boyfriend. He proceeds to get into another fight, abstractly, with senior partner Leo F. Drummond (John Slattery), who fires him. (In the novel, Rudy is merely laid off in a merger — not so dramatic!) Moaning to friend and bar-owning sometime boss Prince Thomas (Tommie Earl Jenkins) that he’s been turned down by every other respectable firm in town, Thomas suggests “a not so respectable one.”

John Slattery stars as Leo Drummond, a senior partner at Tinley Britt, the law firm where Rudy is hired and subsequently fired.

(Christopher Barr/USA Network)

Here things depart significantly from the text, and the fun begins.

Rudy is delivered to the law offices of glamorous Jocelyn “Bruiser” Stone (Lana Parrilla) and associates, located in a partly converted Mexican restaurant — though past the receptionist the only associate in sight is “paralawyer” Deck Shifflet (P.J. Byrne). A purely comic character, Deck has failed the bar seven times but has many useful skills and qualities, not least a flexible sense of professional ethics. He insists on calling Rudy “Boo Boo.” It takes him a minute to realize it, but Rudy has found his people.

Gender flipped from the novel’s J. Lyman Stone, Bruiser (when not in court) favors animal prints, plunging necklines and short skirts. “I only need three things,” she says. “Kentucky bourbon, a bloody steak and a man who won’t spend the night.” You get the picture.

But there’s more to her than that. When Rudy, who has been with Deck trolling the Badspital for clients, suggests he wasn’t cut out to be an “ambulance chaser,” she also has this to say.

“You know where the term ambulance chaser came from? It was used by white shoe firms in the ’20s to crap on any lawyer that wasn’t a member of their club. When the contingency-fee law was enacted, small firms rose up full of attorneys who were just like their clients, the ones on the Statue of Liberty, the tired, poor, the huddled masses — those same people are our clients now, and if you think you’re better than them, you’re not. You are them.”

It’s good to know someone still takes Emma Lazarus seriously.

Among the figures Rudy and Deck encounter at the hospital, or the Badspit — oh, never mind — is Melvin Pritcher (Dan Fogler), whom we have seen in the series’ opening scene, escaping a house fire that kills his mother. There are several things to say about him that probably constitute spoilers, so I’ll just note that though Melvin is quite unpleasant, Fogler is very good.

With Sarah working for the Empire and Rudy embedded with the rebels, their relationship has been engineered by the writers to be problematic, possibly to break down — though each does seem to be trying. (They’re good kids.) She’s got a trust fund; he’s doesn’t own a suit of his own, dressing rather in one passed down from a dead brother. They’ll wind up in court opposite one another like Tracy and Hepburn in “Adam’s Rib,” for Tinley Britt is defending the hospital from Dot, who has become a client of Bruiser’s firm. Their future together is also potentially complicated by Kelly Riker (Robyn Cara), a woman who lives in Rudy’s building who is obviously being abused, and Drummond’s smarmy lieutenant Brad Noonan (Wade Briggs) — of course he’d be named Brad — who has been assigned to weaponize Sarah against Rudy.

Callaghan gives off a scintilla of Matt Damon vibes, but is his own Rudy, keeping his naive idealist free from leading-man tics. Parrilla finds the balance between Bruiser’s sauciness and seriousness; Byrne plays the clown adeptly; and Slattery, a boss again after “Mad Men,” softens his villainy with some Roger Sterling insouciance.

Developed by Michael Seitzman and Jason Richman, it’s a very watchable show — serial killer passages notwithstanding. There’s nothing fancy in the execution — it’s the opposite of stylish — but everything’s clearly defined and dialed up a step past normal into that space we call entertainment. Welcome back to the blue sky.

Thirty years ago, the coming-of-age romantic comedy “Clueless” opened in movie theaters and went on to become an enduring American pop culture touchstone.

“I’m thrilled that people love it and continue to love it,” the movie’s star, Alicia Silverstone, said in a recent conversation in New York. “Young people. Old people. It’s really gone on and on, and obviously that’s lovely.”

AMC Networks is counting on Silverstone’s multigenerational appeal to help boost the New York-based media company’s streaming service Acorn TV, which specializes in British dramas and other programs from overseas.

Silverstone is the lead in the new Acorn original series “Irish Blood,” which premiered Monday. She plays hard-bitten Los Angeles divorce lawyer Fiona Sharpe, who heads to Ireland to resolve a mystery involving the father who abandoned her as a child.

AMC has also signed the imperishable Brooke Shields to star in another Acorn project titled “You’re Killing Me.” She portrays a mystery novelist who teams with a young wannabe writer and influencer to investigate murders in a small New England town. The series starts shooting this summer and is set to premiere in 2026.

Why put two iconic American actors on a streaming platform with a well-defined niche of providing viewers with international locations and accents that at times require closed-captioning even when the language is English?

Even the small players in streaming have to get bigger.

AMC does not have the deep pockets to compete with the likes of Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+. The company has blazed its own digital path by serving dedicated audiences who will pay for an additional streaming service that caters to their passions, such as Shudder for horror fans and HIDIVE for anime lovers.

The company’s suite of streaming services has around 10.4 million customers. Even with that modest figure, AMC Networks’ streaming revenue has steadily grown to the point where it will soon surpass what the company earns from its traditional TV channels such as AMC, BBC America, Sundance TV and WE, which continue to see subscriber declines because of cord-cutting.

AMC has found that the strong fan bases for its niche services are willing to absorb price increases and are less likely to cancel. The company has managed to keep its streaming platforms priced at less than $10 a month.

Brooke Shields is set to star next year in “You’re Killing Me,” a new small-town mystery from Acorn TV.

(Evelyn Freja / For The Times)

Now AMC Networks is looking to accelerate its subscriber growth and Acorn — the most popular and profitable of its standalone offerings — is seen as the platform best suited to the task.

“It’s a service we really believe in,” Courtney Thomasma, executive vice president for streaming and content strategy at AMC Networks, told The Times in a recent interview. “Over the last year, we’ve been really focused on looking for ways to continue to raise awareness of the brand and invite new viewers in who we know would also love it. We’re doing that with a focus on investing in the brand and inviting bigger talent that’s more familiar to North American audiences.”

Many fans of Acorn — which started out as a direct marketer of British TV series on home video and was acquired by AMC in 2018 — are what Thomasma calls “armchair travelers” who want to take in a French vineyard or the cobblestone streets of Chelsea. But AMC believes aligning Acorn more closely to the mystery genre will widen its appeal.

A monthlong promotional campaign under the banner of Murder Mystery May — which featured a number of season premieres — drove Acorn TV subscription sign-ups to a four-year high. The 20 million hours watched during the month was the best ever for the service, according to AMC.

The emphasis on mystery provides Acorn the latitude to cast Silverstone and Shields. One way AMC attracts star talent is the opportunity to put their own creative stamp on their programs. “They become as invested in the success of the projects as we are,” Thomasma said.

Silverstone came on to “Irish Blood” as executive producer and became involved in the development of the series. She was involved in the hiring of key positions in the production and worked with the writers. She’s happy with the result.

“I thought it was quirky and also an emotionally deep drama,” Silverstone said. “There’s a lot for me to do.”

Shields and writer Robin Bernheim pitched the generation gap tandem at the center of “You’re Killing Me” to AMC, and the actor remains deeply involved in the process as shooting begins. “This is the first time I’ve ever had this much creative control as an executive producer,” Shields said in an interview. “I feel lucky that they entrusted me to do what we’re doing.”

Silverstone, left, with Ruth Codd in “Irish Blood.”

(Szymon Lazewski / Acorn TV)

Acorn teams with production partners around the world and generates revenue from selling some of its series for second runs on international broadcasters and PBS. AMC spends in the range of $1 million per episode for its cost-efficient series, which are heavy on dialogue and largely car-chase free. The audience is older — they are avid readers who are likely to subscribe to newspapers, watch cable news and PBS, and enjoy solving puzzles.

And though Acorn is hoping to attract more younger subscribers, the service won’t be losing its British accent.

Acorn recently launched “Art Detectives” with Stephen Moyer, who also is an executive producer. The series, about a Heritage Crime Unit that solves murders connected to art and antiques, had the strongest premiere in the streamer’s history.

Later this year, it will offer a new six-episode series starring Matthew Lewis, known for his Neville Longbottom role in the Harry Potter films. Based on the series of Canon Clements mystery novels by the Rev. Richard Coles, “Murder Before Evensong” is a co-production with British broadcaster Channel 5.

“We pride ourselves on being a boutique neighborhood store, the kind that you walk in, you know the owner [and] the owner knows you,” Thomasma said. “We have deep connection to our audience.”

Whale songs are far removed from the singing that humans are used to. Unlike our musical sounds, those produced by whales are a complex range of vocalisations that include groans, clicks and whistles and that can sound like anything from the mooing of a cow to the twitter of a bird. These vocalisations can be so powerful that they can be heard as far as 10km (6 miles) away, and can last for half an hour at a time.

But while they may not be exactly dancing material, whale songs are critical for communication: between males and females during mating, or among a school of whales migrating.

For researchers, these complex sounds are a window into whale behaviour, even if humans don’t yet know exactly how to decode them.

The frequency of songs and their intensity can signal various things: an abundance of food, for example. In recent studies, however, researchers have been alarmed to find that blue whales, the largest whales and, indeed, the largest mammals on Earth, have stopped singing at specific times.

Their eerie quietness, scientists say, is a signal that ocean life is changing fundamentally. The most recent study, conducted by scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California in the US and published in February, examined three types of whales. Researchers found that blue whales, in particular, have become more vulnerable to this change.

What have researchers found, and where?

At least two studies between 2016 and 2025 have found similar behaviour: blue whales have reduced their singing for stretches of time.

The first study, conducted in the sea waters between the islands of New Zealand between 2016 and 2018, was led by scientists from the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University in the US. Over that period of time, researchers tracked specific blue whale vocalisations linked to feeding (called D-calls) and mating (called patterned songs).

Researchers used continuous recordings from underwater devices called hydrophones, which can log sounds over thousands of kilometres, and which were placed in the South Taranaki Bight – a known foraging spot for blue whales off the west coast of New Zealand.

They discovered that during some periods, particularly in the warmer months of spring and summer when whales usually fatten up, the frequency and intensity of sounds related to feeding activity dropped – suggesting a reduction in food sources. That decline was followed by reduced occurrences of patterned songs, signalling a dip in reproductive activity.

“When there are fewer feeding opportunities, they put less effort into reproduction,” lead researcher Dawn Barlow told reporters. The results of that study were published in the journal Ecology and Evolution in 2023.

Then, in a study published in the scientific journal PLOS One in February this year, researchers tracked baleen whale sounds in the California Current Ecosystem, the area in the North Pacific Ocean stretching from British Columbia to Baja California. Blue whales are a type of baleen whale, and the study focused on them, alongside their cousins, humpback whales and fin whales.

Over six years starting in 2015, the scientists found distinct patterns. Over the first two years, “times were tough for whales”, lead researcher John Ryan, of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California, noted in a press statement, as the whales, particularly blue whales, were found to be singing less. Over the next three years, however, all three whale species were back to singing more frequently, the study noted.

Why are blue whales singing less?

Both studies found one main reason for the reduction of whale song: food or, in this case, the lack of it.

It turns out that the research, conducted between 2015 and 2020, captured periods of extreme marine heatwave events that killed off krill, the small shrimp-like animals that blue whales feed on.

Those heatwaves are part of a looming environmental catastrophe scientists have been warning about: ongoing global warming marked by increases in global average temperatures, and caused by high-emission human activities, chief among them being the burning of fossil fuels.

Scientists say the world could soon reach a tipping point at which there will be irreversible change to the planet. Already, 2016, 2023 and 2024 have been recorded as the warmest years ever.

Why are food sources disappearing for whales?

Krill, which blue whales primarily feed on, are highly sensitive to heat and can all but vanish during heatwaves, the studies found. Their movement patterns also change drastically: instead of staying together, as they usually do, krill disperse when it is hot, making them harder for predators like blue whales to find.

Typically, when foraging, blue whales sing to others to signal that they have found swarms of krill. If there is no food to sing about, it makes sense that there will be no singing.

Heatwaves can also trigger harmful chemical changes in the oceans that encourage the growth of toxic algae, which causes poisoning and death to mammals in the oceans and sea birds, researchers have previously found, suggesting that blue whales are also at risk of being poisoned.

In the more recent study in California, researchers found that in the first two years when whales were singing less frequently, there was also a reduction in other fish populations.

Are blue whales more vulnerable than other whales?

The second period of three years witnessed a resurgence of krill and the other fish, along with more whale singing. When krill again declined, blue whales again sang less frequently, while singing from humpback whales continued, the study noted.

“Compared to humpback whales, blue whales in the eastern North Pacific may be more vulnerable due to not only a smaller population size but also a less flexible foraging strategy,” Ryan, the lead author of the California study said in a statement.

“These findings can help scientists and resource managers predict how marine ecosystems and species will respond to climate change,” he added.

It is likely, both studies say, that blue whales need to spend more time and energy finding food when it is scarce, instead of singing.

Are other animals changing their sounds?

Studies have found that climate change is altering the sounds of several other species as well. Nature-related sounds, such as birdsong from certain species, could disappear altogether in some places as warming temperatures alter animal behaviour. For example, some animals might move permanently away from their traditional habitats.

In New York, scientists found that over a century (1900-1999), four frog species changed their calling patterns, which males use to attract females for mating, and which are usually tied to the warming of spring and early summer. Over time, some frogs were calling about two weeks earlier than usual, researchers found, adding that it signified summer was arriving earlier.

One of Sex Education’s biggest breakout stars took on a very different role in a sun-soaked new drama coming to streaming soon

Sex Education star Emma Mackey’s latest cinematic role will be available to watch at home very soon.

Best known for portraying Maeve Wiley in all four seasons of Netflix’s beloved comedy-drama, she has since appeared in major films like Barbie and Death on the Nile.

Still currently in cinemas, her latest project sees her taking on her first leading role in a provocative and mysterious drama based on a Booker Prize nominated novel.

Inspired by Deborah Levy’s 2016 novel of the same name, Hot Milk follows Mackey as Sofia, a young woman whose mother, Rose (played by Fiona Shaw), has contracted an unknown illness that’s left her wheelchair-bound.

When the mother-daughter pair travel to a small Spanish seaside town to track down a physician with unusual methods who could hold the cure, Sofia finds herself drawn to an alluring traveller named Ingrid (Vicky Krieps).

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The film will be streaming on Mubi from Friday, 22nd August for anyone who missed out on Mackey’s sultry and thought-provoking drama on the big screen.

The Independent gave Hot Milk four stars, calling it “a slippery, subversive coming-of-age tale”.

Mackey and Krieps were praised as “formidable” in The Guardian, while Deadline says Shaw’s performance is “truly extraordinary”.

One fan of the film gave it a five-star Google review, penning: “Powerful performances set against dreamlike scenery where reality merges with imagination.

“Starts as a slow burn but builds into a heightened frenzy of complex sensations that is impossible not to sense as you witness each separate character’s life unravel and deteriorate.”

Someone else praised: “Fever dream magic, great indie film if you like trippy movies, reminds me of I’m Thinking of Ending Things on Netflix.”

Enthusiasm for the film continued on Letterboxd, where one user wrote: “The pace was perfect. The score was stunning.

“The acting was incredible, Fiona Shaw is such a talented actor. Emma Mackey is just an unreal actress too.

“I felt as if she was speaking to me and I shall carry these words with me the rest of my life. This was a film I watched at the right time in my life. A film I didn’t know I needed till I had seen it. I wish I had words to properly express how much I adore this film.”

And a final fan said: “Beautiful adaptation of the book, felt it in my soul – the story, the characters, the setting…. so moving and so real.”

Film fanatics should make sure they sign up to Mubi to check out this indie cinema gem, and many more movie masterpieces, in just under a month’s time.

Hot Milk will be released Friday, 22nd August on Mubi.

The day off was unanticipated.

The change to the lineup was even more of a surprise.

In what has become a season-long struggle by Mookie Betts and Dodgers coaches to get the slumping superstar back on track, this weekend brought the most glaring examples of experimentation yet.

First, on Saturday, manager Dave Roberts gave Betts an unexpected off day and providing what he felt was a needed mental reset after sensing Betts — who missed the All-Star Game for the first time in a decade this year — was still off despite his week-long break.

Then, on Sunday, Roberts gave the veteran slugger an unexpected challenge: Bumping him up from the two-hole to the leadoff spot in the batting order in hopes it would trigger something amid a career-worst season at the plate.

“Looking at how things are going, where Mookie is at emotionally, mechanics-wise, all in totality,” Roberts said, “I felt that giving him a different look in the lineup, hitting him at the top, something he’s obviously been accustomed to throughout his career, will put him in a mindset of just [trying] to get on base and just trying to take good at-bats.”

“There’s a lot of internal kind of searching that goes on with the mechanics and things like that,” Roberts added. “But I personally do feel that the external part of it — hitting at the top of the order, having a mindset to get on base — I think will help move this along better.”

It all served as the latest confounding chapter in what has been a trying season for Betts and his once-potent swing, the newest effort by the club to ease the frustration that has weighed on his mind amid a summer-long slump — while waiting for his mechanics to finally get back in sync.

Mookie Betts sits in the dugout in the first inning before batting against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“This is a process I’ve never been through,” said a dejected Betts, who entered Monday sporting a .240 batting average (ranking 120th out of 158 qualified MLB hitters), .684 OPS (132nd) and 11 home runs (tied for 89th), to go with well-below-league-average marks in underlying metrics like average exit velocity (29th percentile among MLB hitters), hard-hit rate (20th percentile) and bat speed (12th percentile).

“I don’t have any answers,” he continued. “I don’t know how to get through this. I don’t know. I’m working every day. Hopefully it turns.”

The leadoff exercise started with mixed results Sunday. Betts singled in the third inning, one at-bat before new No. 2 man Shohei Ohtani hit a home run. But, in a failed ninth-inning rally that sent the Dodgers to a series sweep against the Milwaukee Brewers, he finished a one-for-five day by lining out sharply to center field, ending the game with Ohtani stuck in the on-deck circle.

Betts will continue to lead off for the foreseeable future, with Roberts committing to keeping him at the top of the order — and Ohtani, the team’s previous leadoff hitter, in the two spot — at least until Max Muncy makes his expected return from a knee injury sometime next month.

“The only way we’ll know, we’ll find out, is once we do that for an extended period of time,” Roberts said. “I do think that there will be some fallout from that kind of external mindset of, ‘Hey, I’m hitting at the top of the order. My job is to get on base, set the table for Shohei and the guys behind him.’ I think that will lead to better performance.”

Until such a turnaround actually materializes, however, the search for answers to Betts’ struggles will go on, with the Dodgers continuing to try to unravel the mystery behind a sudden, unsettling slump no one saw coming.

“I just got to play better,” Betts said. “I got to figure it out.”

Indeed, while his superstar teammates were at All-Star festivities in Atlanta last week, Betts spent the break back home in Nashville, working on his swing at a private training facility.

In one clip that emerged on social media, Betts was seen doing one of the many drills that have helped him maintain offensive excellence over his 12 big-league seasons: Taking hacks with a yellow ball pressed snuggly between his elbows, trying to promote the fluid and connected motion that has eluded him this year.

“With Mookie, a lot of it has to do with how his arms and hands work, and getting his arm structure properly lined up,” hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc said. “It sets up how the bat slots, and how his body sequences.”

For Betts, a 5-foot-10 talent who has long exceeded expectations as one of the sport’s most undersized sluggers, such mechanical efficiency has always been paramount.

As he noted early this season, when his slump first came into focus in early May, he has never had the same margin for error as some of the sport’s more physically gifted star hitters. He can’t muscle doubles or hit home runs off the end of his bat. He can’t afford to have a bad bat path or disjointed swing sequence and be the same hitter who, just two years ago, batted .307 with 39 home runs.

“I can’t, unfortunately, not have my A-swing that day but still run into something and [have it] go over the fence or whatever,” Betts said back then. “Even when I have my A-swing, if I don’t get it, it’s not gonna be a homer. If I don’t flush that ball in that gap, they’re gonna catch it.”

And this season, much to his chagrin, flushing line drives and cranking big flies has become a frustrating rarity.

Identifying the reason why has led to countless potential theories.

At the start of the year, Betts believed he created bad swing habits while recovering from a March stomach bug that saw him lose 20 pounds and some of his already underwhelming bat speed.

But as he tried reverting to mental cues and mechanical feels that had recalibrated him in the past, nothing seemed to click in the same way they once did.

“The cues and feels that I’ve used my whole life, in Boston and L.A., just don’t work anymore,” he said this weekend. “So I’m just trying to find out who I am now, what works now.”

Some of that, of course, could be attributed to age. Betts will be 33 by the end of this season. He is coming up on 1,500 career games. Inevitably, even players of his caliber eventually start to decline physically.

Roberts, however, framed it more through the lens of evolution. On the one hand, he said of Betts, “I know he’s still in his prime. I know he’s as strong as he’s been in quite some time.” However, the manager added, “his body has changed and will continue to change,” requiring Betts to find new ways to maximize the power the team still believes he possesses.

“That’s the nature of hitting,” Van Scoyoc said. “He has to find something for him that works organically, that gets him lined up again.”

This dynamic is why, to both Betts and the Dodgers, his full-time move to shortstop this season hasn’t been to blame.

Betts has repeatedly pushed back against that narrative, pointing to the MVP-caliber numbers he posted while playing the position during the first half of last year (before a broken hand cost him two months and forced him to return to right field for the Dodgers’ World Series run) and the two-week tear with which he started this season (when he batted .304 with four home runs over his first 15 games).

Mookie Betts and the Dodgers continue to insist his season-long slump at the plate has little to do with his full-time move to shortstop.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

And though his new defensive role has come with some added challenges — Betts said on his Bleacher Report podcast last month that his daily pregame workload has increased while playing shortstop, to the point “it probably does weigh on you a little bit hitting” — he has also emphasized the confidence he has gained from his defensive improvements; his shortstop play serving as the one thing that has gone right in a season of offensive misery.

“I just can’t see that you go out there and stick him in right field tonight and he’s going to throw out two hits or three hits, or he goes to second base and he’s going to go on a heater,” Roberts echoed earlier this month, before reiterating Sunday that the team has not considered changing Betts’ position. “That’s hard for me to kind of imagine. It’s a fair ask. But I just don’t see that as the case.”

Instead, the focus has remained not only on Betts’ flawed swing mechanics, but the resulting side effects it has had on his approach at the plate.

One stat that jumped out to Roberts recently: In Betts’ last 99 plate appearances, he has walked only one time — a shockingly low number for a hitter with a walk rate of nearly 11% over his career.

To Roberts, it’s a sign that Betts, in his ongoing search to get his swing synced up, is failing to accomplish the even more fundamental task of working good counts and waiting out mistakes.

“If you’re ‘in-between’ on spin versus velocity, and [getting in bad] counts, you’re not as convicted [with your swing],” Roberts said, tying all of Betts’ problems into one self-fulfilling cycle that has only further perpetuated his lack of results. “So my eyes tell me he’s been ‘in-between’ a lot.”

Which is why, in recent weeks, Roberts had started to mull the idea of moving Betts into the leadoff spot.

After all, the manager hypothesized, if Betts can’t find his swing by grinding in the batting cage and analyzing his mechanics — as he did during his off day on Saturday — then maybe reframing his mindset in games can better help him get there.

“It speaks to how much faith I have in him as a ballplayer,” Roberts said. “To, where he’s scuffling, not move him down but ironically move him higher in the order. “I think that kind of support, and the different way that he’ll see the lineup as it’s presented each day, will kind of lead into a different mindset and I think that’ll be a good thing for all of us.”

For now, the Dodgers can only hope.

With Muncy still out, Freddie Freeman having his own recent slump compounded by a ball that hit him in the left wrist on Sunday, and the Dodgers stuck in a current 2-10 spiral that has seen their once-comfortable division lead dwindle leading up to the trade deadline, they need the old Betts more than ever right now.

Thus far, the search for answers has met no end.

“It’s hard,” Betts said, “but I got to figure it out at some point.”

In “The Hunting Wives,” a brightly configured murder mystery cum cartoon sex opera premiering Monday on Netflix, Brittany Snow plays Sophie O’Neil, newly arrived from Boston with husband Graham (Evan Jonigkeit) and prop young son to fictional Maple Brook, Texas, a rich people’s town somewhere in the vicinity of Dallas. Graham is an architect, seemingly — at one point he will say, “Soph, you gotta check out this joinery,” which, in the three episodes out for review, is as specific as that will get — who has come to work for rich person Jed Banks (Dermot Mulroney) to build “the new Banks HQ.” What will happen in there is not said.

The O’Neils step into this world by way of a fundraiser at which Banks, who wants to be governor, is making a speech in support of the National Rifle Assn., highlighting the need for guns for “good people” to fend off “all sorts of evil sumbitches” and the “personas malos keep pouring in every day” across the border. This is as much of a platform as he will bother to have; plotwise, the point is that running for office may expose his swinging private life to public scrutiny.

Over the course of the party, we meet the major players: Jill (Katie Lowes) is married to Rev. Clint (Jason Davis), who runs the local megachurch; her son Brad (George Ferrier) — who would be named Brad — is an unpleasant slab of basketball-playing meat who is seeing, which is to say, trying to sleep with Abby (Madison Wolfe), a nice girl from the wrong side of the tracks. (Jill is against the relationship; Abby’s mother, Starr, played by Chrissy Metz, has her own reservations.) Callie (Jaime Ray Newman), second among the eponymous wives, is married to Sheriff Jonny (Branton Box); I’m not sure whether Jonny is his first or last name, but this does seem the kind of place where the sheriff would be known by his first. Supplementary wives Monae (Joyce Glenn) and Taylor (Alexandria DeBerry) are just there to make up the numbers.

Most important is Margo Banks (Malin Akerman), whom Sophie encounters in a bathroom where she has gone to take a Xanax for her social anxiety, and who, within seconds and not for the last time, is casually topless. Margo has no social anxiety.

She seizes on Sophie as fresh blood, or from some genuine connection, or because she recognizes in the newcomer the sort of person who needs a person like her, someone Margo can productively dominate to their mutual advantage. Margo immediately declares they’ll be besties — creating a rift with Callie, the current occupant of that role, who, radiating jealousy at every pore, is determined to get between them.

Sophie, Graham seems proud to announce, was once “a bit of a wild child … a party girl” who became a career woman — a political PR operative — and, for the last seven years, a full-time mother. He has a lightly controlling, “for your own good” manner, keeping her from drinking or driving — there’ll be a reason for that, you’ll have guessed — but before long, she will drink, and she will drive. “Two rules,” says Margo, getting her behind the wheel. “Trust me and do everything I say.”

Drafted into Margo’s world, Sophie is soon shooting skeet, and then, having bought her own guns, wild boar. I cite again the Chekhov dictum to the effect that a gun in the first act ought to go off in the second, but there are so many about here, and our attention so significantly drawn to them, it would be a shock if some didn’t fire — the only questions being which and when and whose, pointed at what or whom.

Developed by Rebecca Perry Cutter (“Hightown”) from May Cobb’s 2021 novel of the same name, the series offers a light dusting of political references — “deplorables,” Marjorie Taylor Greene, no abortion clinics “left to bomb,” negative mentions of feminism and liberals — that might as easily been left off in light of the insular fantasyland within which “The Hunting Wives” operates. (Did J.R. Ewing ever express a political opinion?) Given the context — liberal Northerners camped among conservative Southerners — one might have expected a “Stepford Wives” scenario, but this is something different. Within, or exploiting, their sociocultural limits (“We don’t work, we wife,” says Monae proudly), the women party heartily while the men, even when nominally powerful, come across as comparatively bland, uninteresting and distracted. Graham, who is very nice, can seem positively dim; “Take my wife, please,” he’ll happily joke when Margo rides up on a jet ski to spirit Sophie away from a family day at the lake.

The characters are types, but the actors fill them out well, and the dynamic between Margo and Sophie really is … dynamic. Margo is intriguing because she’s hard to figure. Like Sophie, she has a hidden past — when a mysterious figure at the local roadhouse (Jullian Dulce Vida) calls her Mandy, it makes her atypically nervous because, obviously, she was once called Mandy. She lies to her husband; she’s having sex with Brad, which just seems like bad taste. But there’s something authentic and genuine about Margo magnified by Akerman’s entrancing performance. Margo is a temptress, the devil on Sophie’s shoulder — but maybe the angel too.

Lest we forget, there’s a murder, which opens the show in a flash forward; the series catches up with it by the end of Episode 3. (It brings in Karen Rodriguez as Det. Salazar, which promises good things.) There’s also a briefly mentioned missing girl, which will certainly tie in somehow. But with only three episodes out of eight seen, it’s impossible to say where it’s all going — unless you’ve read the book, I suppose, but even then, you never know. What’s clear is that there’ll be more secrets to reveal, with skeletons tumbling out of every closet. And these are big houses, with plenty of storage.

An early line from “Salt Bones,” the latest novel from talented poet and novelist Jennifer Givhan, reads, “Daughters disappear here.”

It is a line that haunts the Salton Sea region, where Givhan has set her latest novel and infuses the toxic air upon which her characters must survive. In other words, this warning to keep your daughters close clings to everything. It is in the air, but also — in this thriller that employs elements of magical realism and mystery — it is in the water, buffeting each of these characters with the cadence of windblown waves crashing against the shore.

The Salton Sea is just as much a character here as Givhan’s main protagonists: Mal, a mother of two daughters, and the two daughters themselves — Amaranta, in high school, and Griselda, a science major in college. Through them, we get a sense of this place, what it was, what it is and what it is becoming. A sea that evaporates and pulls back year after year, exposing a lake bed contaminated with agricultural runoff and revealing not just the bones of fish but also a painful history that many would rather remains beneath the water’s surface.

“Salt Bones” by Jennifer Givhan

(Mulholland Books)

El Valle, the fictional town that serves as the primary setting for “Salt Bones,” is haunted by what surrounds it. By the memories of the missing. Daughters like Mal’s own sister, Elena, who disappeared more than 20 years before.

Now with two daughters of her own, Mal is a butcher at the local carnicería. But when one of the workers at the shop, Renata, a young woman the same age as Mal’s eldest daughter, doesn’t show up for work one day, Mal begins to spiral into the past, questioning what she could have done differently, and then what she could do now. And, most of all, why does all of this seem to keep happening here in El Valle?

For Mal and her family, there is no escape. They are followed not just by memories, but also by Mal’s mother’s spite-fueled dementia, which returns all of them again and again to the fissures in time just before and just after the disappearance of Mal’s sister. And now, with Renata gone missing, there is nowhere to hide from the tragedy of this place, not at work, not at home and not even at the edges of the Salton Sea where Mal can sometimes find a tenuous peace.

But it is not just Mal who roams these shores, but La Siguanaba, a shape-shifter often associated with Central American and Mexican folklore, wearing “whatever a man lusts after most. Sequins. Spandex. Fishnet. Nothing at all.” And then after enticing these men to approach, this being — often described as a woman — turns and reveals the “white-boned skull of a horse” beneath her long dark hair.

“By the time they scream,” Givhan writes, “it’s too late.”

La Siguanaba is a cautionary tale and a myth to some in El Valle. She is a ghost story to keep the kids safe and away from danger, but to Mal, she is very real. La Siguanaba comes to her in dreams; in her waking hours, she lurks just beyond the light. Her smell — something like urine and unmucked stables — floats on the wind, acting like a warning, a memory, a message.

But all this — the monster in the shadows, the missing daughters and even a rising tension in El Valle over a lithium plant and a looming ecological disaster — is only part of the story. Mal can only know so much, and it is through the details revealed by Mal’s daughters, Amaranta and Griselda, that we begin to comprehend the depth of this story.

Like all good mysteries, there is a whole world just out of reach: secret lives, secrets kept, secrets used like currency. For us — the readers — the clues are there. Givhan does a wonderful job infusing the early pages with hints and observations from each of the three perspectives, Mal, Amaranta and Griselda, all of whom are hiding things from each other.

To the reader, who benefits from the combined knowledge of these characters, each perspective adds a different lens. Mal, with her mother’s intuition and almost otherworldly connection to La Siguanaba, Amaranta, who is the youngest and still very much a child and who sees what others don’t expect her to, and then Griselda, home from college, who looks on all of this with a fresh, almost outside perspective. All of them come to the same conclusion very early on: Something is very off in this small community.

“Salt Bones” is a worthy read. It’s a book infused with the language and culture of a strong Mexican American and Indigenous community. In some way, like La Siguanaba, it’s a conduit into another world. A complicated, real and very much welcome, if a bit scary, world.

And though the layering of information — of what we know, what remains hidden from us and what has been foreshadowed — does add up (delaying what becomes a propulsive search for the missing in the second half of the novel), Givhan’s talents as a writer of blunt, strong sentences and remarkable poetic passages regarding the landscape and the sea more than make up for any delay.

“Salt Bones” is a triumph. One of the most masterful marriages of horror, mystery, thriller and literary writing that I’ve read in some time. And it is certainly a book that will haunt you (in a good way!) for a very long time after you’ve turned the final page.

Waite is the author of four novels and a book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.

July 18 (UPI) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced that an unknown illness sickened more than 100 people aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship earlier this month.

According to a press release from the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program, a “gastrointestinal illness outbreak” occurred on the Navigator of the Seas that traveled round-trip to Mexico from Los Angeles between July 4 and11.

Out of the 3,914 passengers, 134 reported being ill, as did seven crew members. The victims experienced symptoms that included abdominal cramps, diarrhea and vomiting, but the CDC reports that the “causative agent” has not been determined.

The ship’s crew took preemptive measures for passengers by isolating sick and then collected stool specimens from them for testing. Cleaning and disinfection procedures were also implemented and the CDC notified.

Statistics from the Vessel Sanitation Program show 18 bouts of gastrointestinal illness aboard cruise ships under the program’s authority in, which ties for the total amount in all of 2024.

There were only 14 in all of 2023, but a CDC spokesperson told USA Today in April that although “the number of recent cruise ship outbreaks has been higher than in years prior to the pandemic, we do not yet know if this represents a new trend.”

“Untamed,” a quasi-police drama premiering Thursday on Netflix, is a vacation from most crime shows, set not in a big city or cozy village but in the wilds of Yosemite National Park. (Never mind that the series was shot in British Columbia, which has nothing to apologize for when it comes to dramatic scenery, and whose park rangers are not threatened by draconian budget cuts nor their parks by politicians’ desire to sell off public lands.)

The mountains and valleys, the rivers and brooks, the occasional deer or bear are as much a part of the mise-en-scène as the series’ complicated, yet essentially straightforward heroes and villains. Lacking big themes, it’s not so much meat-and-potatoes television as fish and corn grilled over a camp fire, and on the prestige scale it sits somewhere between “Magnum P.I.” and “True Detective,” leaning toward the former.

Created by Mark L. Smith (“American Primeval”) and Elle Smith (“The Marsh King’s Daughter”) and starring Eric Bana and Sam Neill, Antipodean actors wearing American accents once again, it’s a limited series, though, for a while, it has the quality of a pilot, introducing characters that could profitably be reused — with perhaps a little less of the trauma peeking out at every corner. Of course, if the show becomes a fantabulous success, the Netflix engineers may contrive a way to make it live again; it’s happened before.

“Untamed” starts big. Two climbers are making their way up the face of El Capitan when a woman’s body comes flying over the cliff, gets tangled in their ropes and hangs suspended, dead. She is hanging there still — the climbers have been rescued — when Investigative Services Branch special agent Kyle Turner (Bana) rides in on his horse.

“Here comes f—ing Gary Cooper,” mutters grumbling ranger Bruce Milch (William Smillie) to new ranger Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago), a former police officer (and single mother, with a threatening ex) newly arrived from Los Angeles. (The horse, says Milch, who regards it as a high horse, gives him “a better angle to look down on us lowly rangers.”) What are the odds on Vasquez becoming Turner’s (junior) partner? And on a difficult relationship developing into a learning curve (“This is not L.A. — things happen different out here”) and turning almost … tender?

More heroically proportioned and handsome than anyone else in the show, a man of the forest with superior tracking skills, Turner is also a mess — a taciturn mess, which also makes him seem stoic — barely holding himself together, drinking too much, living in a cabin in the woods filled with unpacked boxes, undone by the unaddressed family tragedy that broke him and his marriage. (The dark side of stoicism.) Sympathetic remarried ex-wife Jill (Rosemarie DeWitt, keeping it real), who herself is only “as happy as I can be, I guess,” and sympathetic boss Paul Souter (Neill), try to keep him straight.

“You’ve locked yourself away in this park, Kyle,” Souter tells Turner. “It’s not healthy.” Turner, however, prefers “most animals to people — especially my horse.” Nevertheless, he has a couple of friends: Shane Maguire (Wilson Bethel), a wildlife manager — that means he shoots things, so be forewarned — also living in the woods, but without the cabin, is the toxic one; Mato Begay (Trevor Carroll), an Indigenous policeman, the nontoxic one. And he’s sleeping with a concierge at the local nice hotel, just so that element is covered; it’s otherwise beside the point.

If the dialogue often has the flavor of coming off a page rather than out of a character, it gets the job done, and if the characters are essentially static, people don’t change overnight, and consistency is a hallmark of detective fiction. The narrative wisely stays close to Turner and/or Vasquez; there are enough twists and tendrils in the main overlapping plots without running off into less related matters. (Keeping the series to six episodes is also a plus, and something to be encouraged, makers of streaming series. Your critic will thank you for it.) Still, between the hot cases and the cold cases, with their collateral damage; hippie squatters from central casting chanting “Our Earth, our land;” a mysterious gold tattoo, indigenous glyphs and old mines — there is an especially tense scene involving a tight tunnel and rising water — the show stays busy. Though last-minute heavy surprises don’t register emotionally — trauma overload, maybe — you will not be left wanting for answers, or closure.

And you will learn quite a bit about vultures and their dining habits — not what you might think.

NEW YORK — Martin Cruz Smith, the best-selling mystery novelist who engaged readers for decades with “Gorky Park” and other thrillers featuring Moscow investigator Arkady Renko, has died at age 82.

Smith died Friday at a senior living community in San Rafael, “surrounded by those he loved,” according to his publisher, Simon & Schuster. Smith revealed a decade ago that he had Parkinson’s disease, and he gave the same condition to his protagonist. His 11th Renko book, “Hotel Ukraine,” was published July 8 and billed as his last.

“My longevity is linked to Arkady’s,” he told Strand Magazine in 2023. “As long as he remains intelligent, humorous, and romantic, so shall I.”

Smith was often praised for his storytelling and for his insights into modern Russia; he would speak of being interrogated at length by customs officials during his many trips there. The Associated Press called “Hotel Ukraine” a “gem” that “upholds Smith’s reputation as a great craftsman of modern detective fiction with his sharply drawn, complex characters and a compelling plot.”

Smith’s honors included being named a “grand master” by the Mystery Writers of America, winning the Hammett Prize for “Havana Bay” and a Gold Dagger award for “Gorky Park.”

Born Martin William Smith in Reading, Pa. , he studied creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and started out as a journalist, including a brief stint at the AP and at the Philadelphia Daily News. Success as an author arrived slowly. He had been a published novelist for more than a decade before he broke through in the early 1980s with “Gorky Park.” His novel came out when the Soviet Union and the Cold War were still very much alive and centered on Renko’s investigation into the murders of three people whose bodies were found in the Moscow park that Smith used for the book’s title.

“Gorky Park,” cited by the New York Times as a reminder of “just how satisfying a smoothly turned thriller can be,” topped the Times’ fiction bestseller list and was later made into a movie starring William Hurt.

“Russia is a character in my Renko stories, always,” Smith told Publishers Weekly in 2013. “‘Gorky Park’ may have been one of the first books to take a backdrop and make it into a character. It took me forever to write because of my need to get things right. You’ve got to knock down the issue of ‘Does this guy know what he’s talking about or not?’”

Smith’s other books include science fiction (“The Indians Won”), the Westerns “North to Dakota” and “Ride for Revenge,” and the “Roman Grey” mystery series. Besides “Martin Cruz Smith” — Cruz was his maternal grandmother’s name — he also wrote under the pen names “Nick Carter” and “Simon Quinn.”

Smith’s Renko books were inspired in part by his own travels and he would trace the region’s history over the past 40 years, whether it be the Soviet Union’s collapse (“Red Square”), the rise of Russian oligarchs (“The Siberian Dilemma”) or, in the novel “Wolves Eats Dogs,” the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

By the time he began working on his last novel, Russia had invaded Ukraine. The AP noted in its review of “Hotel Ukraine” that Smith had devised a backstory “pulled straight from recent headlines,” referencing such world leaders as Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin of Russia and former President Joe Biden of the U.S.

Smith is survived by his brother, Jack Smith; his wife, Emily Smith; three children and five grandchildren.

Italie writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — It was a surprising statement from Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi as the Trump administration promises to release more files from its sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein: The FBI, she said, was reviewing “tens of thousands of videos” of the wealthy financier “with children or child porn.”

The comment, made to reporters at the White House days after a similar remark to a stranger with a hidden camera, raised the stakes for President Trump’s administration to prove it has in its possession previously unseen compelling evidence. That task is all the more pressing after an earlier document dump that Bondi hyped angered elements of Trump’s base by failing to deliver new bombshells and as administration officials who had promised to unlock supposed secrets of the so-called government “deep state” struggle to fulfill that pledge.

Yet weeks after Bondi’s remarks, it remains unclear what she was referring to.

The Associated Press spoke with lawyers and law enforcement officials in criminal cases of Epstein and socialite former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell who said they hadn’t seen and didn’t know of a trove of recordings like what Bondi described. Indictments and detention memos do not reference the existence of videos of Epstein with children, and neither was charged with possession of child sex abuse material even though that offense would have been much easier to prove than the sex trafficking counts they faced.

One potential clue may lie in a little-noticed 2023 court filing — among hundreds of documents reviewed by the AP — in which Epstein’s estate was revealed to have located an unspecified number of videos and photos that it said might contain child sex abuse material. But even that remains shrouded in secrecy with lawyers involved in that civil case saying a protective order prevents them from discussing it.

The filing suggests a discovery of recordings after the criminal cases had concluded, but if that’s what Bondi was referencing, the Justice Department has not said.

The department declined repeated requests from the AP to speak with officials overseeing the Epstein review. Spokespeople did not answer a list of questions about Bondi’s comments, including when and where the recordings were procured, what they depict and whether they were newly discovered as authorities dug through their evidence collection or were known for some time to have been in the government’s possession.

“Outside sources who make assertions about materials included in the DOJ’s review cannot speak to what materials are included in the DOJ’s review,” spokesperson Chad Gilmartin said in a statement.

Bondi has faced pressure after first release fell short of expectations

Epstein’s crimes, high-profile connections and jailhouse suicide have made the case a magnet for conspiracy theorists and online sleuths seeking proof of a cover-up. Elon Musk entered the frenzy during his acrimonious fallout with Trump when he said without evidence in a since-deleted social media post that the reason the Epstein files have yet to be released is that the Republican president is featured in them.

During a Fox News Channel interview in February, Bondi suggested an alleged Epstein “client list” was sitting on her desk. The next day, the Justice Department distributed binders marked “declassified” to far-right influencers at the White House, but it quickly became clear much of the information had long been in the public domain. No “client list” was disclosed, and there’s no evidence such a document exists.

The flop left conservatives fuming and failed to extinguish conspiracy theories that for years have spiraled around Epstein’s case. Right wing-personality Laura Loomer called on Bondi to resign, branding her a “total liar.”

Afterward, Bondi said an FBI “source” informed her of the existence of thousands of pages of previously undisclosed documents and ordered the bureau to provide the “full and complete Epstein files,” including any videos. Employees since then have logged hours reviewing records to prepare them for release. It’s unclear when that might happen.

In April, Bondi was approached in a restaurant by a woman with a hidden camera who asked about the status of the Epstein files release. Bondi replied that there were tens of thousands of videos “and it’s all with little kids,” so she said the FBI had to go through each one.

After conservative activist James O’Keefe, who obtained and later publicized the hidden-camera video, alerted the Justice Department to the encounter, Bondi told reporters at the White House: “There are tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn.”

The comments tapped into long-held suspicions that, despite the release over the years of thousands of records documenting Epstein’s activities, damaging details about him or other prominent figures remain concealed.

The situation was further muddied by recent comments from FBI Director Kash Patel to podcaster Joe Rogan that did not repeat Bondi’s account about tens of thousands of videos.

Though not asked explicitly about Bondi, Patel dismissed the possibility of incriminating videos of powerful Epstein friends, saying, “If there was a video of some guy or gal committing felonies on an island and I’m in charge, don’t you think you’d see it?” Asked whether the narrative “might not be accurate that there’s video of these guys doing this,” he replied, “Exactly.”

Epstein took his own life before he could stand trial

Epstein’s suicide in August 2019, weeks after his arrest, prevented a trial in New York and cut short the discovery process in which evidence is shared among lawyers.

But even in a subsequent prosecution of Maxwell, in which such evidence would presumably have been relevant given the nature of the accusations against an alleged co-conspirator, salacious videos of Epstein with children never surfaced nor were part of the case, said one of her lawyers.

“We were never provided with any of those materials. I suspect if they existed, we would have seen them, and I’ve never seen them, so I have no idea what [Bondi is] talking about,” said Jeffrey Pagliuca, who represented Maxwell in a 2021 trial in which she was convicted of luring teenage girls to be molested by Epstein.

To be sure, photographs of nude or seminude girls have long been known to be part of the case. Investigators recovered possibly thousands of such pictures while searching Epstein’s Manhattan mansion, and a videorecorded walk-through by law enforcement of his Palm Beach, Fla., home revealed sexually suggestive photographs displayed inside, court records show.

Accounts from more than one accuser of feeling watched or seeing cameras or surveillance equipment in Epstein’s properties have contributed to public expectations of sexual recordings. A 2020 Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility report on the handling of an earlier Epstein investigation hinted at that possibility, saying police who searched his Palm Beach home in 2005 found computer keyboards, monitors and disconnected surveillance cameras, but the equipment — including video recordings and other electronic items — was missing.

There’s no indication prosecutors obtained any missing equipment during the later federal investigation, and the indictment against him included no recording allegations.

An AP review of hundreds of documents in the Maxwell and Epstein criminal cases identified no reference to tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with underage girls.

“I don’t recall personally ever having that kind of discussion,” said one Epstein lawyer, Marc Fernich, who couldn’t rule out such evidence wasn’t located later. “It’s not something I ever heard about.”

In one nonspecific reference to video evidence, prosecutors said in a 2020 filing that they would produce to Maxwell’s lawyers thousands of images and videos from Epstein’s electronic devices in response to a warrant.

But Pagliuca said his recollection was those videos consisted largely of recordings in which Epstein was “musing” into a recording device — “Epstein talking to Epstein,” he said.

A revelation from the Epstein estate

Complicating efforts to assess the Epstein evidence is the volume of accusers, court cases and districts where legal wrangling has occurred, including after Epstein’s suicide and Maxwell’s conviction.

The cases include 2022 lawsuits in Manhattan’s federal court from an accuser identified as Jane Doe 1 and in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein had a home, alleging that financial services giant JPMorgan Chase failed to heed red flags about him being a “high-risk” customer.

Lawyers issued a subpoena for any video recordings or photos that could bolster their case.

They told a judge months later the Epstein estate had alerted them that it had found content that “might contain child sex abuse imagery” while responding to the subpoena and requested a protocol for handling “videorecorded material and photographs.” The judge ordered representatives of Epstein’s estate to review the materials before producing them to lawyers and to alert the FBI to possible child sexual abuse imagery.

Court filings don’t detail the evidence or say how many videos or images were found, and it’s unclear whether the recordings Bondi referenced were the same ones.

The estate’s disclosure was later included by a plaintiffs’ lawyer, Jennifer Freeman, in a complaint to the FBI and the Justice Department asserting that investigators had failed over the years to adequately collect potential evidence of child sex abuse material.

Freeman cited Bondi’s comments in a new lawsuit on behalf of an Epstein accuser who alleges the financier assaulted her in 1996. In an interview, Freeman said she had not seen recordings and had no direct knowledge but wanted to understand what Bondi meant.

“I want to know what she’s addressing, what is she talking about — I’d like to know that,” she said.

Tucker and Richer write for the Associated Press. AP journalist Aaron Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.

It first aired in 2019 and ran for four seasons before being cancelled.

ITV has subtly added all four series of a beloved mystery drama to its streaming platform. Roswell, New Mexico, originally broadcast on The CW from 2019 to 2002.

The show is a reboot of the 1999 version, inspired by the Roswell High book series penned by Melinda Metz.

Featuring Jeanine Mason, Nathan Dean and Michael Vlamis, the plot centres around Liz, the daughter of undocumented immigrants, who returns to her hometown of Roswell in New Mexico a decade after her older sister’s death, only to uncover a startling secret about her teenage sweetheart, Max.

It transpires that he is an alien who has been concealing his supernatural abilities and true identity for years.

As Liz and Max rekindle their relationship, she strives to safeguard his secret. However, when a violent incident suggests there are more aliens on Earth, his concealed identity becomes jeopardised, reports Devon Live.

“The politics of fear and hatred that run rampant in Roswell threaten to expose Max and his family and could endanger his deepening romance with Liz…as well as their lives,” the synopsis hints.

In addition to Grey’s Anatomy star Jeanine and General Hospital actor Nathan, the cast boasts Lily Cowles, Tyler Blackburn, Heather Hemmens and Michael Trevino.

Fans have been singing the praises of the series since its initial airing.

A viewer was effusive in their praise, saying: “This tv series is worth your time no matter who you are. Roswell New Mexico is my ultimate favourite tv show without doubt. From the excellent direction to captivating storyline. This tv series deserves more appreciation. its authenticity makes it even more enticing to watch.”

Another confessed their adoration for the show, remarking: “I love this show! Modern, smart, great at dodging some of the more cliché tropes-also has some really great acting.”

In a spirited review, a third fan declared: “This generates the adrenaline.. It felt like I had permanent goosebumps the entire show! I just love how every character has a role and has a part to play and is important.. This series has a good unpredictable plot. This show is VERY UNDERRATED.”

While Roswell, New Mexico got the chop from The CW, the finale gave fans closure, serving as a dignified farewell not originally planned.

Showrunner Chris Hollier shared with EW the ambitions laid to rest due to the cancellation: “This [finale] was intended to help launch us to a nice wrap-up of season five. More craziness would’ve followed.”

He discussed what might have been, including time leaps towards a “legacy ending”: “What does it mean when you start to find the people that you want to be with? How do you actually go and generate your own happy ever after? I loved where we were going to take those characters.”

Hollier revealed tantalising glimpses into a future that will never be aired: “We were talking about setting the ending multiple years in the future. It would’ve been another wrap-up with where all of our couples were.”

Roswell, New Mexico is available to watch on ITVX.

CAPTAIN COOK’S ship, HMS Endeavour, which the adventurer used to explore Australia, has been identified after a 250 year long mystery.

The vessel was the first European ship to reach Eastern Australia, in 1770, and went on to circumnavigate the main islands of New Zealand.

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It was then sold, renamed the Lord Sandwich and was last seen in the US in 1778, during the American War of Independence.

During the war, the ship was scuttled (intentionally sunk) to create a blockade to prevent French ships from entering the harbour and supporting the American forces. 

And it has now been confirmed that a shipwreck off Newport Harbour, Rhode Island, USA, called RI 2394, is in fact the HMS Endeavour.

In a new report the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) announced the verdict, after 25 years of studying the wreck.

“This final report is the culmination of 25 years of detailed and meticulous archaeological study on this important vessel”, said museum director Daryl Karp.

“It has involved underwater investigation in the US and extensive research in institutions across the globe.”

“This final report marks our definitive statement on the project.”

The ship was hard to identify because anything that would have been of value, such as a bell, would have been stripped from the boat before it was intentionally sunk.

However, experts were able to determine that the shipwreck is the lost ship by comparing it with plans for the Endeavour.

For example, they discovered timbers which matched with the placement of the main and fore masts of the ship.

Additionally, measurements from the wreck corresponded to those taken during a 1768 survey of the ship.

Analysis of the ship’s wood also revealed that it had come from Europe, which is consistent with records show that the Endeavour was repaired there in 1776.

ANMM archaeologist, Kieran Hosty, said: “We’ll never find anything on this site that screams Endeavour. You’ll never find a sign saying ‘Cook was here’. 

“We will never see a ship’s bell with Endeavour crossed out and Lord Sandwich inscribed on it.

“We’ve got a whole series of things pointing to RI 2394 as being HMB Endeavour. 

“The timbers are British timbers. 

“The size of all the timber scantlings are almost identical to Endeavour, and I’m talking within millimetres – not inches, but millimetres. 

“The stem scarf is identical, absolutely identical. 

“This stem scarf is also a very unique feature – we’ve gone through a whole bunch of 18th-century ships plans, and we can’t find anything else like it.”

However, the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project previously said the identification is “premature” and has not yet ruled out that the Endeavour could be another shipwreck .

Only 15 percent of the ship remains and researchers are now focused on what to do to preserve it.

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One chilling death sparked widespread panic, leaving villagers to wonder if a supernatural predator was lurking in the shadows.

At the same time, the CIA was locked in a brutal struggle against communist Huk rebels, deploying a mysterious operative named Edward Lansdale to lead covert operations. But how far did Lansdale go to crush the rebellion?

In this episode:
-Michael Pante, historian
-Allan Derain, folklorist

Cara was hoping to get a break in New York, but it won’t take her quite as long to get to her holiday ‘resort’

A student was left gutted after buying a Wowcher mystery holiday and discovering she’s paid to go to Edinburgh – the city where she lives. Cara Piper splashed out £129 on it and had high hopes for a weekend away in New York.

The 23-year-old opened an email from Wowcher and discovered the trip was to Edinburgh, the city where she’s lived for the past four years. “I saw the Wowcher master holiday on social media and impulsively decided to do it for a cheap holiday,” said Cara.

“I was honestly happy with anywhere as long as it wasn’t the UK. I opened it in Edinburgh because that’s where I’ve been living for the past four years.”

Cara, originally of Derry, Northern Ireland, filmed herself revealing where she was going to jet off to. In the clip, Cara shouts “no” as she discovers that she’s paid to go to the city where she goes to Queen Margaret University and studies education.

She said: “Me and Ethan decided last night to book a Wowcher mystery holiday. It’s £129 each if we want to go during the summer months. We want to go in July I think and we’re redeeming it right now.

“The only problem is, we have to travel from Belfast. We’re limited on where we can go. We don’t think it’s going to be New York or anything like that. We’re happy with anywhere. I’m nervous.”

Cara is on the phone with a friend as she anxiously opens the email from Wowcher. She said: “No, no, no, no. We got Edinburgh. I’m in Edinburgh right now. We did not just pay £130 each to go where I go to uni for the past four years.

“For f*cks sake. We can ring up and change, I think. I literally live here. I actually can’t believe that.

“I was saying if we got somewhere in the UK I’d be fuming. I’m going to see if I can change it.”

Cara shared the video on TikTok where it racked up more than 126,000 views. Morgan Mcsherry said: “I’m not joking, as soon as you said Wowcher I was like ‘they’re either getting Belfast or Edinburgh’“.

VIDEO CONTAINS LANGUAGE SOME MAY FIND OFFENSIVE

Claire Ferguson added: “I honestly would have ended it right at that minute. Devastated for you.”

Keisha Deane said: “This is heartbreaking.”

Another viewer added: “No, literally, out of everything I would be fuming. Bless you.”

A fifth person said: “Oh my God, I’d be raging.”

Anna MacAuley added: “I’m dying. What are the chances.”