passing

Police allege Australian-Russian citizen joined Ukrainian military seeking to send information to Russian intelligence.

Australian police have charged a dual Russian-Australian citizen for trying to pass Ukrainian military information to people he believed were linked to Russian intelligence.

The 27-year-old man was due ⁠to appear in court in Brisbane on Friday on charges of foreign interference.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett told a news conference that the suspect travelled to Russia for training in October 2024. He then returned to Australia but “maintained contact” with individuals he believed were linked to Moscow’s intelligence services.

The police allege the man enlisted in the Ukrainian military in May 2025, ‌where he “gained access to information relating to their military personnel, units and locations”.

Barrett said he shared the information obtained in Ukraine with “individuals he believed were acting on behalf of Russian intelligence services”, putting the safety of Ukrainian military staff at risk.

“We don’t want Australia to become a safe haven for people who are undertaking foreign interference on behalf of other countries,” the commissioner said.

The identity of the suspect, who is unemployed, has not been revealed. Police said there was no indication he had received military training in Australia. Search warrants have been executed, they added, noting the possibility of further arrests related to the case.

Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation spy agency conducted the investigation.

“This case should put regimes perpetrating foreign interference on notice: we have zero tolerance,” ASIO Deputy Director-General Claire McGuinness said.

Russia’s embassy in Australia said it had no knowledge of the case.

“At this stage, no official requests or notifications have been received by the Embassy or the Consulate General in Sydney, either from the Australian authorities or from the individual concerned,” the embassy said in an email to the AFP news agency. “We are currently using the available channels and resources to establish the circumstances of the case.”

Russia arrests Ukrainian operatives

Meanwhile, Russian authorities have arrested nine people and charged them with working for Ukrainian intelligence, state media reported on Friday.

The TASS media agency said eight of the suspects were found to have 35 drones, equipped with explosives smuggled from the European Union, and planned ‌to attack a strategic defence enterprise in the Moscow region.

Separately, a foreign ⁠national was detained close to the Norwegian border. The FSB security service said that the man – whose nationality it did not reveal – had been arrested for trying to launch a surveillance drone over Moscow to help Ukrainian intelligence plot an attack on the Russian capital.

The FSB said it had detained the individual as he was trying to flee to Norway on foot.

LIAM Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy has revealed that she’s ‘living her best life’ after making one change since his passing.

The social media star was in a relationship with the 1D singer before his tragic death at the age of 31 in October 2024.

In her latest TikTok video, Kate explained she was putting herself first and said: “Your best life starts when you put yourself first.”

The highlight clip included Kate being carried across a grassy field at a festival and wearing a green halter‑style outfit with a matching scarf as she posed for a selfie.

She was also seen in sunglasses with a friend at a huge gig as they partied with a crowd behind them.

Another showed Kate driving with a friend in a red convertible as they cruised down a sunny street.

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Another image showed her sitting on a huge swing with chain supports, as she leaned back with her arms outstretched.

She accompanied the video clip with the hit tune Stop The Wedding by Ashe.

Fans flocked to comment and one wrote: “Keep glowing babe.”

Another added: “I’ve been a fan for a while and I love too see you keep glowing as the time goes on.”

A third added: “You give me so much hope. May you live happy.”

This comes days after Kate hit back at trolls who accused her of abandoning the dog she shared with the singer.

The influencer and her late One Direction star boyfriend adopted their rescue pup Nala just a month before the singer’s tragic passing.

In a TikTok post, a jubilant Kate revealed she was flying off on another trip.

Sharing a video from the airport, she wrote over the top: “I’ve been flying out of town for some peace of mind.”

However, some fans wanted to know where Nala was, while she went off on her holiday.

But Kate was quick to shut down speculation she had left her dog home alone.

“Nala is literally staying with Anna everyone plzzzz,” she snapped back.

Liam tragically lost his life when he fell from the balcony of the hotel he was staying at in Argentina in 2024.

JULY 23, 2011, was one of those days when most of us remember where we were.

It was the day Amy Winehouse died.

In my case, it was a music festival in Gateshead on the banks of the river Tyne.

The tragic news spread through the crowd like wildfire that balmy late Saturday afternoon.

The initial reaction was a combination of shock and dismay at the loss of Britain’s finest female singer.

But, for me and for those I spoke to that day, there was also an air of inevitability about Amy’s death at 27, joining an unwanted “club” with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain.

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She was a shooting star, burning bright for a fleeting moment and then she was gone.

Fifteen years on from her passing, the love for Amy and her music only gets stronger and deeper.

She had the voice, the image, the songs, the wit, the heart and the soul — but the story she told through her music was also filled with pain.

Her second album Back To Black charted in unflinching detail her turbulent relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil as well as her persistent problems with alcohol.

Of course, it scored an emotional bullseye with her listeners, becoming a ­Grammy-grabbing chart-topping sensation.

Rehab, You Know I’m No Good, Love Is A Losing Game, Tears Dry On Their Own and the title track are all indelibly etched into our collective consciousness.

Though she drew comparisons with some of the greatest soul/jazz voices — Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Etta James — there has been nothing quite like Back To Black before or since.

With that rich expressive contralto, she could hold us in the palms of her outstretched hands.

In 2004, the year after she released her debut album Frank, Amy, then 20, was asked by Jonathan Ross if music industry types had told her to change the way she looked or spoke or behaved.

“Yeah, one of them tried to mould me into a big triangle shape,” she replied, laughing and forming a triangle with her ­fingers. “And I went, ‘Nooo’.

“I’ve got my own style and I write my own songs. If someone has so much of something al­ready, there’s very little you can add.”

When she chatted to my SFTW colleague Jacqui Swift to mark Back To Black’s release, Amy, 23 by then, opened up about her inspirations while also displaying more of a fiercely independent nature.

She described reaching her lowest ebb and being begged by management to go into rehab, to which she famously responded “No, no, no!”

“Rehab is like Butlin’s — it’s a holiday camp,” she said. “It’s an everyday thing for some people, like going to Tesco’s.”

She elaborated further: “I was having a particularly nasty time with things and just drinking and drinking.

“My management decided to stop buying for me and said they were taking me to rehab. I asked my dad (Mitch) if he thought I needed to go. He said: ‘No, but give it a try.’

“So I did, for 15 minutes. I went in, said hello, and explained that I drink because I am in love and have f***ed up a relationship. Then I walked out. I didn’t need help because, if I can’t help myself, I can’t be helped.”

Five years after she aired those feelings, Amy lost her life at her house in Camden, North London, the coroner recording a verdict of “death by misadventure”, an unintended consequence of heavy drinking after a period of sobriety.

The tragedy led to acrimony and blame games around why she wasn’t given enough support.

Blake, her family and record company execs were all in the firing line at various times.

Some believed it was her own self-destructive nature — but it is Amy’s voice and songs that define her legacy.

Musically, she and legendary “Godmother Of Punk” Patti Smith had little in common apart from their raw, honest approach and unbridled spirit.

But soon after Amy died, Patti recorded a heartfelt tribute in the form of a poem set to music, beginning with the lines, “This is the girl for whom all tears fall”.

During a trip to London, she told me: “I’m heartbroken as a fan and as a human being.

“What Amy did was magnificent and I had been looking forward to see how she would evolve. It would have been wonderful to go through life hearing what Amy did next.”

Though Patti vividly remembered herself at Amy’s age, wild and impulsive, This Is The Girl came from a different perspective.

“I actually looked at Amy in a maternal way, she was a similar age to my kids,” she said. “I was very concerned about how things were managed around her.”

What to her, I asked, was so special about Amy’s music?

“I loved Joan Baez when I was young and Darlene Love and all the R&B singers,” said Patti. “I really love Adele’s voice but Amy was a cut above us all I think.

“She had a gift you seldom hear. There was an authenticity to her voice. She understood R&B and jazz from the deepest part of her. It was organic.

“Not only did Amy have that thing from the Forties, Fifties and Sixties but she was modern. When she sang Rehab or Back To Black, she wasn’t stuck in the past or nostalgic.”

In 2026, Amy’s legacy is plain to witness through those who followed in her wake, including fellow BRIT School alumni Raye and current chart favourite Olivia Dean.

Just as she was breaking through, Olivia paid this tribute to her fellow Londoner: “I don’t think Amy had any interest in being a pop star — she just wanted to be herself.

“It was clear in her music that she was using it as a form of therapy and then we just so happened to be hearing it. It was so personal.”

Of Back To Black, she added: “My interpretation of the lyrics is that you can’t have all of her. Amy was a free spirit. We were very lucky to have her.”

Another BRIT School success story, Adele, had this to say: “Amy paved the way for artists like me. She made people excited about British music again.

“I don’t think she ever realised just how brilliant she was and how important she is.”

From the States, where Back To Black was equally huge, Lady Gaga gave a typically singular view: “I don’t believe what I do is very digestible and somehow Amy was the flu for pop music.

“Everybody got a little bit of the flu — and fell in love with Amy Winehouse. And now, when more flu comes along, it’s not so unbearable.”

Lana Del Rey, a singer like Amy known for her retro styling, said: “I believe in Amy Winehouse. I know she’s not with us any more but I believe in who she was, and, in that way, she got it right.”

As if to prove that Amy’s flame burns as bright as ever, the Rolling Stones recorded her You Know I’m No Good for their recent No1 album Foreign Tongues.

Guitarist Ronnie Wood told me that he, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards jumped at the chance to pay their respects.

“Amy was such a jewel,” he told me last month. “A very lost jewel in a jewell­ery box but she was ­wonderful.”

Ronnie remembered how he had provided a shoulder to cry on “shortly before she died”.

“She was asking me, ‘Oh Ron, what am I going to do? And I was going, ‘Don’t worry because everyone knows you’ve got vodka in your water bottle. Just don’t hide it and try to go on stage tonight’.

“Amy needed a carer or else she went off the rails.”

But Ronnie also recognised her stellar talent and added: “She was like Billie Holiday. She had that once-in-a-lifetime deep blues.”

Back To Black co-producer Mark Ronson told SFTW: “Amy was an incredible singer. She had so much power in that tiny frame.

“I was so spoilt because everything she was coming out with was so spectacular.”

Salaam Remi, who worked on both of her studio albums, gave us a wonderful insight into Amy’s playful character.

He said: “She was one of those people who could make you cry with laughter — or say something deep. Her character was a big part of her talent.

“She cleaned my kitchen one time and it was better than any cleaning lady.

“It was three or four shades whiter when she’d finished. She said, ‘I’m meant to be a Jewish mum, of course it’s sparkling.’ ”

One of Amy’s final recordings was with the last of the legendary crooners, Tony Bennett.

She was so nervous that there were several false starts before they nailed the sultry jazz standard Body And Soul.

It was typical of Bennett’s kind manner that he was able to put his duet partner at ease.

He said afterwards: “People think that anyone can sing jazz, but it’s a spirit you’re born with . . . or not. Amy was born with that spirit.”

It’s also important to salute Amy’s striking image, developed during the Back To Black era in step with her Sixties girlband influences such as The Shangri-Las — her sky-high bee­hive, that winged cat-eye make-up and those daring halterneck minidresses.

She once said: “I’ve always had my own style. I’ve always been different.

“I don’t like to wear anything that anyone else is wearing because it’s very important for me to make a statement.”

In her short life Amy made a statement — and then some.

The last words are with Dale Davis, her bass guitarist and musical director who still leads The Amy Winehouse Band on its frequent tours.

He told me: “For a long time I was her favourite person to go anywhere with — then I was second after Blake. After they split up, I was back to being her favourite person.

“If she liked you, she really liked you. If she loved you, she loved you hard.

“She was a warm, beautiful, generous person who made me feel special right from the off.”

Dale estimated they played around 170 shows together, the last being a desperate performance at an outdoor venue in Belgrade in June 2011.

“That final one was my most difficult night on stage,” he said. “To this day, I can’t believe we played for an hour and 20 minutes.

“It was a funny thing with Amy because I thought she only needed to take one step to be happy, but that step was too difficult. She was never far from being OK.”

Amy and Dale’s final conversation took place by phone on the night she died at her Camden townhouse.

Clearly finding the memory painful, he recalled: “I talked to her at 11.30pm, three hours before she went to bed. She was on good form.

“She said, ‘Dale, I’ve just been watching myself on YouTube and I can sing, can’t I?’.

“I replied, ‘Of course you can sing. You’re the best’.”

The high school football season is more than a month away, but fans seeking an early preview of teams with top quarterbacks, top receivers and top defensive backs have come to appreciate the annual Edison Battle at the Beach seven-on-seven passing tournament that is taking place on Saturday.

It’s the unofficial kickoff to teams getting serious because so many quality teams compete from 9 a.m. through the early afternoon in Huntington Beach, with food, music and lots of banter among parents. You know how much players like to rise up against players with better “star” rankings than them, and this is the tournament to see it play out.

It’s not about wins and losses — it’s about players testing themselves against great competition. This tournament has built credibility by showcasing teams competing at a high level, then shaking hands afterward.

Mission Viejo has won the last two tournaments at Edison, but the Diablos are spending the summer trying to figure out who will start at quarterback. Sophomore Brett Burnor and senior Nash McElree, a transfer from Texas, are competing. Could coach Chad Johnson really alternate quarterbacks like he did two years ago with Luke Fahey and Drai Trudeau?

“You never know,” he said.

The Trinity League is represented by St. John Bosco, Santa Margarita, Orange Lutheran, JSerra and Servite. Corona Centennial and its new quarterback, Jaden Jefferson, a transfer from L.A. Cathedral, is entered, along with San Diego’s likely No. 1 team, Cathedral Catholic, which boasts the No. 1 player in the state in USC commit Honor Fa’alave-Johnson. His appearance alone should attract plenty of Trojans fans, particularly for the 10:30 a.m. game against the likely No. 1 team in California, St. John Bosco.

Palos Verdes has four-year starter Ryan Rakowski at quarterback and standout defensive back Jalen Flowers. Rancho Cucamonga gets to show off many of its top skill-position players.

One interesting trend is that this tournament will feature some very good tight ends, a position that has become increasingly important in college football and the NFL but not so much in high school football in the era of spread offenses.

Mission Viejo’s Johnson said he has three tight ends with college offers, another rarity. He could join the Rams with his three-tight-end formation. He intends to use them against defenses that use odd-number fronts this fall. One of his most improved players is tight end Luke Karby, a Duke commit. Another is Arizona commit Max Markofski, who is 6 feet 4 and 228 pounds. Santa Margarita has tight end Luke Gazzaniga, a Kansas commit. Jaylin Smalls of Rancho Cucamonga is 6-4, 230 pounds and moving up recruiting boards.

This is the first opportunity for early clues as to how first-year coaches are doing at JSerra, Los Alamitos, Servite, Orange Lutheran, Long Beach Poly and Oaks Christian.

One of the always-interesting scenes is Edison coach Jeff Grady refusing to take the easy road when making the bracket, so he scheduled his team to open up against St. John Bosco at 9 a.m., perhaps hoping the Braves show up a little sleepy. Running back Maliq Allen has returned to the Braves after spending the spring at Inglewood.

Ocean View also is hosting a 32-team passing tournament in Huntington Beach on Saturday. San Clemente, San Juan Hills, Huntington Beach, Downey and Carson are the teams to watch.

Fearsome duo

Long Beach Poly might have the most decorated cornerback duo in JuJu Johnson, a UCLA commit, and Donte Wright, a Miami commit. Just watching them cover receivers on Saturday at Edison should be a highlight in itself. Johnson was injured last season, but few have raised their profile in the offseason more than him.

Poly is in Pool C and the duo gets to take on receivers from Capistrano Valley, San Diego Lincoln, Servite and Santa Margarita.

King/Drew fearing no one

King/Drew players participating in the Simi Valley tournament.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

This has been a fruitful summer for King/Drew of the City Section. The Golden Eagles have been driving around willing to play seven-on-seven against top Southern Section opponents, including visits to West Hills and Simi Valley.

It’s the same strategy Carson and Birmingham have taken to prepare for City Section play during the regular season. If you can compete with Southern Section teams, then you’ll do just fine against City Section opponents.

Makeo Smith, a 6-4, 265-pound sophomore lineman, figures to receive lots of attention after contributing as a freshman.