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Vicky Pattison has explained why her husband, Ercan Ramadan, is desperate for her to be booted from Strictly Come Dancing – and the impact the show is having on their married life

Vicky Pattison says husband Ercan Ramadan secretly hopes she gets the Strictly boot – so he can see more of his wife again. She says the couple have barely been together since she started on the BBC show as she trains for 14 hours a day – and it’s taken its toll on their sex life.

“After a full day doing the Charleston the last thing you feel like is going home to do the Mattress Mambo,” I’m A Celebrity winner Vicky laughed.

“He’s having to be a bit patient at the moment. I think he’s the only person in my inner circle who is secretly hoping I get booted out. He’s my number one supporter though. I am really lucky but he’s probably hoping he gets sex soon.”

READ MORE: Vicky Pattison suffers chipped tooth and cut face in chaotic Strictly Come Dancing weekREAD MORE: Strictly’s Dianne Buswell breaks silence as Stefan Dennis pulls out of live show

Vicky, 37, admits she’s been miffed with Ercan, 32, this week after he jetted off on holiday without her. “He’s actually in the dog house at the moment,” she admitted. “Obviously I love my husband but he’s been on holiday to see his family.

“We had this trip booked and then I got Strictly so I told him to go because all I’ve been doing is rehearsing, coming home knackered, whinging and going to bed. I told him to go away because he deserved a break putting up with me.

“So he went and I’ve been coming home to an empty house. He’s not there. The dogs are in day care because I’m working 14-hours a day. I’m coming home alone and it’s dark and cold.

“You need that normality coming home to your lovely partner or your dogs when you are out of your comfort zone, scared, lonely, working hard. It’s been really hard without him but he’s back now.”

Dancing the Charleston to A Little Party Never Killed Nobody from The Great Gatsby, Vicky and partner Kai Widd have been getting lots of good luck messages from their celeb pals.

Angela Rippon, who danced with Kai last year, sent her best wishes to the pair. “We did have a call from Angela,” said Kai, 30. “She gave Vicky some words of advice.”

“She’s wicked for an older bird,” said Vicky. Kai continued: “I made it to Blackpool with Angela and I hope to think Vicky and I can go further. Vicky is what Strictly is all about. No dance experience. Starting from scratch. We have such a great relationship.”

Vicky has been open about her struggles with anxiety but say Kai has been amazing at settling her nerves.

“He does say this really lovely thing to me each week, he says: ‘It’s just me and you dancing’, and that helps because I get in my head. Everything I’ve learnt in the week just goes out of me head. I’m thinking about the judges, the audience, the people at home, all the things that are out of my control. So he’s a really good egg like that.”

It’s been a tough week for the pair, as they battled illness. Vicky also suffered a chipped tooth and a cut to the face after having a fall in rehearsals practising a “spicy lift”.

Undeterred, Vicky ploughed on and is eyeing up her best score yet this weekend, with a cheeky plan to try and get it. “I’ve been flirting with Anton (Du Beke),” she revealed. “I just want a seven and I’ve been flirting with him but he’s not bothered.”

Watch the Strictly results tonight at 7.15pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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Business and leisure travel are showing signs of a pick-up after a weak start to the year.

Scott Kirby, chief executive of United Airlines, told the Los Angeles Times that, with some easing of uncertainty surrounding tariffs, the economy and global politics, more people and businesses are gaining the confidence to hit the road again.

The airline industry is perhaps the best real-time indicator of the U.S. economy, as travel is one of the first things that businesses and consumers cut back on when they sense difficult times ahead.

Since June, however, United’s orders suggests there is more certainty as consumers know what to expect and booking demand since Labor Day has surged, Kirby said.

In an interview, Kirby took a swipe at ultra low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines, discussed artificial intelligence and explained why he thinks the 2028 Olympics might not be such great news for the airline industry.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity

How are United Airlines operations changing in L.A.?

In Los Angeles, we have 21 gates. We have about 140 flights per day here. I think it’s our highest gate utilization airport. We’d love to have more flights, but there aren’t enough gates in Los Angeles. So the constraint in Los Angeles is gates.

Our constraint on growth in Los Angeles is the gates. Essentially, if we want to add a new route, we have to cancel our current route. We just don’t have enough gates yet.

In California, Spirit has slashed the number of airports it serves. What is the issue with the low-cost airline model?

Ultra low-cost carriers, I don’t think they work. Primarily because their business model was based on bait and switch with customers. It is based on a low headline fare and it’s really hard to figure out what all the other fees are going to be. Then you show up at the airport and get charged $99.

When your business model is based on screwing the customer, that business model is not going to work in any industry. It didn’t work here, and I never thought it would work and now that’s what happened.

Don’t people want cheaper flights?

People want good value. They get good value at United. They don’t want a cheap flight that gets delayed, that gets canceled, or where they can’t trust the airline.

It has been a tough summer for tourist traffic from some countries. What have you seen?

At the end of June, it was like a light switch got flipped back on. It had been very slow to start the year, but demand has come back. It’s been even stronger post Labor Day.

I think the economy is in better shape than most people think. A lot of the economic statistics are trailing. We’re a good real-time indicator. The economy was weak to start the year — for the first five, six months — but it is much stronger coming into the third quarter.

There was a big drop-off in Canadian travel. There was a drop in European travel. Those bottomed out in about May, and they’re still down, but they’re not down as much. It is coming back.

How have the immigration raids impacted travel?

Those are so tactical that they’re not big enough for us to see in our macro statistics. I just look at the overall demand, and the overall demand is strong. Maybe it would be a little bit stronger without that.

What is United doing to help with travel to L.A. for the Olympics?

The Olympics, interestingly for airlines, lead to less demand. When the Olympics come to town, business travel shuts down.

We’re going to add flights and we’re going to be a participant. It’s not a big deal, but it actually is a net negative for airlines when the Olympics come to town.

How is United using AI?

There are a lot of tactical places, like call centers or reading contracts, where it works. But AI is not good at everything. I am in the camp that believes AI in many industries is more evolutionary than revolutionary.

Our digital technology team thinks that they’re 30% more efficient on a lot of the coding work. We’re testing getting AI to use all the data we have to tell customers what’s going on with flights. To be able to take uncertainty out for customers, that’s an exciting example.

RUBEN AMORIM sees the departure of Andre Onana as key to his rebuild at Manchester United.

Cameroon keeper Onana is joining Turkish outfit Trabzonspor on a season-long loan.

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SunSport believes Onana’s relationship with United boss Amorim broke down irretrievably over the past month.

A source claimed: “It felt like Andre was there to just show up but wasn’t there or showing any team mentality.”

Amorim was unhappy that Onana, 29, picked up a hamstring injury at the start of pre-season training.

All the more so as he had been filmed playing on a mud patch in his homeland in June.

Onana is one of a number of stars that Amorim has let go this summer.

He has already sent  Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Alejandro Garnacho and Antony packing.

And left-back Tyrell Malacia looks set to join Turkish side Eyupspor on a temporary deal.

United’s boss feels he has cleared the way for a more positive future and can kick on with preparations for Sunday’s Manchester derby.

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Onana was left out of the starting XI for the opening Premier League games against Arsenal and  Fulham.

He then put in another error-strewn display in the humiliating Carabao Cup defeat at Grimsby.

It saw him dropped again for the Prem win over Burnley before United made a deadline-day £18.2million swoop for 23-year-old Belgian Senne Lammens.

And it has emerged that insiders felt Onana was showing a lack of involvement and interest in working for the team in the final days before the international break.

That included the former Ajax and Inter Milan keeper effectively refusing to even acknowledge his manager in training.

So Amorim was happy to wave through Onana’s exit, leaving him with Lammens, struggling Turk Altay Bayindir and Tom Heaton, 39.

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Amorim has to decide whether to give Lammens a debut at the Etihad or stick with Bayindir for now.

Meanwhile, Onana copped more flak for the 1-0 defeat by Cape Verde on Tuesday that virtually ended Cameroon’s hopes of automatic World Cup qualification.

The keeper was at fault for Dailon Livramento’s winner, staying rooted to his line as the forward ran through on goal.

The Indomitable Lions are four points behind Cape Verde with two group games left.

SEOUL, Aug. 11 (UPI) — North Korea‘s defense chief on Monday condemned the upcoming large-scale Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea and warned of “negative consequences.”

The North “strongly” denounces the allies “for their provocative moves of clearly showing the stand of military confrontation with the DPRK and making another serious challenge to the security environment on the Korean Peninsula and in the region,” Defense Minister No Kwang Choi said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

“[We] solemnly warn them of the negative consequences to be entailed by them,” No said.

The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, which includes live field maneuvers, computer simulation-based command post exercises and related civil defense drills, will be held from Aug. 18-28.

No called the exercise “not only a direct military provocation against the DPRK but also a real threat to amplify the unpredictability of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.”

The North will “strictly exercise the sovereign right of the DPRK at the level of the right to self-defense in a case of any provocation going beyond the boundary line,” No said.

Pyongyang regularly condemns the allies’ joint drills as rehearsals for an invasion and has at times reacted with missile launches and other provocations.

A representative of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command on Monday emphasized that the exercise, which will involve around 21,000 personnel, is “defensive in nature.”

“All professional militaries train,” the representative said in a background briefing with reporters. “North Korea trains, we train. Our training is designed to protect everyone living inside the Republic of Korea. They fire missiles and rockets — it’s not the same.”

The CFC representative noted that the tone of No’s statement was relatively measured, however.

“If you actually look at North Korea’s statement, it’s a little bit tame compared to historical norms,” the representative said. “They basically said: ‘Whatever you do, just don’t go across our border.'”

The exercise comes amid efforts by the administration of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung to improve frayed relations with Pyongyang.

Last week, the South’s military removed loudspeakers that had been installed along the DMZ to blast anti-Pyongyang messages across the border. On Saturday, North Korea began removing its own speakers in some forward areas, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a message to reporters.

Half of Ulchi Freedom Shield’s 44 planned field training exercises have been rescheduled to next month, the CFC representative confirmed Monday, citing an ongoing heatwave and flooding damage to training areas as the primary reasons. According to local media reports, the move is also being made in an effort to avoid provoking Pyongyang.

The CFC representative said that the changes would have “minimal impact.”

“There shouldn’t be any loss in readiness or defensive posture from rescheduling those events,” the representative said. “The most important training is being conducted as planned.”

The chancellor has told the financial industry it must change the “negative” narrative around savers investing money in stocks and shares in order to help grow the economy.

In a speech, Rachel Reeves said: “For too long, we have presented investment in too negative a light, quick to warn people of the risks without giving proper weight to the benefits.”

The government is working with the financial regulator to provide support for would-be investors.

It comes as Reeves stepped back from cutting the tax-free limit on cash Individual Savings Accounts (Isas) after a backlash from lenders – she is keen to shift some of the £300bn in these accounts to being invested in the UK and its companies.

At the annual Mansion House dinner in the City of London, Reeves told business leaders: “Our tangled system of financial advice and guidance has meant that people cannot get the right support to make decisions for themselves.”

She said the government is consulting with the Financial Conduct Authority “to introduce a brand-new type of targeted support for consumers ahead of the new financial year”.

The government is under pressure to ignite growth after figures revealed the UK economy shrank in May following a contraction in April.

Meanwhile, U-turns on welfare benefits and the winter fuel allowance have stoked speculation there could be tax rises in the Budget later this year.

Some Labour MPs have previously suggested a wealth tax, such as a 2% tax on assets worth more than £10m, could raise £24bn per year.

Speaking at the Mansion House event, Sir William Russell, former Lord Mayor of the City of London, told the BBC: “Unfortunately, there’s going to be this pause between tonight and October. In a way, that’s not good because there’ll be speculation about wealth tax which I don’t think will happen, this government is much more sensible than that.”

But he said: “That pause doesn’t help because there is uncertainty and if there’s one thing we all would agree with, the City does not like uncertainty.”

Reeves said the new measures to encourage consumers to invest would mean “savers can reap the benefits of UK economic success”.

But the value of investments in assets such as shares can go down as well as up, and savers have tended to be cautious over the risks involved, although the spending power of savings can be eroded by rising prices.

The government has in the past encouraged the public to buy shares in UK companies, including in 2013 when Royal Mail was floated on the London Stock Exchange.

But perhaps the most famous example was in 1986, when the state-owned British Gas was privatised and Margaret Thatcher’s government launched the “tell Sid” campaign. TV adverts featured characters urged each other to “tell Sid” about the chance to buy shares in British Gas.

In reference to her recent travails – including a tearful appearance in the House of Commons – Reeves said that during a visit to a school, a girl had asked her what job she would do if she could have any job in the world.

“Given the events of the last few weeks, I suspect many of you would sympathise if I had said “anything but chancellor”,” she joked with the audience. “But I didn’t.”

In her speech, Reeves said she would “continue to consider further changes to ISAs, engaging widely over the coming months”.

She also provided more details about changes to the UK’s financial services sector including reforming regulation.

“In too many areas, regulation still acts as a boot on the neck of businesses,” she said. “Choking off the enterprise and innovation that is the lifeblood of growth.”

She said regulators in other sectors “must take up the call I make this evening not to bend to the temptation of excessive caution but to boldly regulate for growth in the service of prosperity across our country”.

Ahead of giving his own speech at the Mansion House gathering, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey was asked if there was a trade-off between providing stability and growth.

In the past, Mr Bailey has been cautious about deregulation.

But he told the BBC: “In no way am I suggesting that all our rules are perfectly formed so no, there isn’t a trade-off, but that doesn’t mean to say that we don’t change and modernise the system and keep it up to date – we balance those two things.”

In his ongoing war on “woke,” President Trump has instructed the National Park Service to scrub any language he would deem negative, unpatriotic or smacking of “improper partisan ideology” from signs and presentations visitors encounter at national parks and historic sites.

Instead, his administration has ordered the national parks and hundreds of other monuments and museums supervised by the Department of the Interior to ensure that all of their signage reminds Americans of our “extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity and human flourishing.”

Those marching orders, which went into effect late last week, have left Trump opponents and free speech advocates gasping in disbelief, wondering how park employees are supposed to put a sunny spin on monuments acknowledging slavery and Jim Crow laws. And how they’ll square the story of Japanese Americans shipped off to incarceration camps during World War II with an “unmatched record of advancing liberty.”

At Manzanar National Historic Site, a dusty encampment in the high desert of eastern California, one of 10 camps where more than 120,000 Japanese American civilians were imprisoned during the early 1940s, employees put up a required notice describing the changes last week.

Like all such notices across the country, it includes a QR code visitors can use to report any signs they see that are “negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes”.

An identical sign is up at the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in Kern County, a tribute to the struggle to ensure better wages and safer working conditions for immigrant farm laborers. Such signs are going up across the sprawling system, which includes Fort Sumter National Monument, where Confederates fired the first shots of the Civil War; Ford’s Theater National Historic Site in Washington, D.C., where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated; and the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Park.

So, nothing negative about John Wilkes Booth or James Earl Ray?

In response to an email requesting comment, a National Park Service spokesperson did not address questions about specific parks or monuments, saying only that changes would be made “where appropriate.”

The whole thing is “flabbergasting,” said Dennis Arguelles, Southern California director for the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Assn. “These stories may not be flattering to American heritage, but they’re an integral part of our history.

“If we lose these stories, then we’re in danger of repeating some of these mistakes,” Arguelles said.

Trump titled his March 27 executive order requiring federal sign writers to look on the bright side “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” He specifically instructed the Interior Department to scrutinize any signs put up since January 2020 — the beginning of the Biden administration — for language that perpetuates “a false reconstruction” of American history.

Trump called out signs that “undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”

He specifically cited the National Historical Park in Philadelphia and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., as bowing to what he described as the previous administration’s zeal to cast “our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness” as “inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.”

His solution? Order federal employees and historians to rewrite the “revisionist” history with language that exudes patriotism.

“It all seems pretty Orwellian,” said Kimbrough Moore, a rock climber and Yosemite National Park guide book author. After news of the impending changes began circulating in park circles, he posted on Instagram a sign he saw in the toilet at the Porcupine Flat campground in the middle of the park.

Across from the ubiquitous sign in all park bathrooms that says, “Please DO NOT put trash in toilets, it is extremely difficult to remove,” someone added a placard that reads, “Please DO NOT put trash in the White House. It is extremely difficult to remove.”

Predictably, the post went viral, proving what would-be censors have known for centuries: Policing language is a messy business and can be hard to control in a free society.

“Even the pooper can be a venue for resistance,” Moore wrote.