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DENVER — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis accused President Trump of playing “political games” Sunday after the federal government denied disaster declaration requests after wildfires and flooding in the state earlier this year.

Polis’ office said he received two denial letters from the Federal Emergency Management Agency late Saturday. The letters are in response to requests for major disaster declarations following wildfires and mudslides in August and what Polis had described as “historic flooding” across southwestern Colorado in October.

Polis and Colorado’s U.S. senators, fellow Democrats Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, decried the denials. Polis said the state would appeal.

“Coloradans impacted by the Elk and Lee fires and the flooding in Southwestern Colorado deserve better than the political games President Trump is playing,” he said in a statement.

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said Trump responds to each request for federal disaster assistance “with great care and consideration, ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement — not substitute — their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters.”

Jackson said there is “no politicization” in Trump’s decisions on disaster aid.

The Trump administration has also yet to act on California’s request for $33.9 million in long-term disaster assistance nearly a year after the Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles. Gov. Gavin Newsom said FEMA officials refused his request for a meeting when he visited Washington a few weeks ago.

Trump has raised the idea of “phasing out” FEMA, saying he wants states to take more responsibility. States already take the lead in disasters, but federal assistance comes into play when the needs exceed what they can manage on their own.

A fan has been left stunned after they spotted an Oscar-nominated actor alongside his huge popstar girlfriend at a London pub.

The pair were filmed in a busy boozer playing cards and ordering drinks, going seemingly unnoticed by the other punters around them.

The VIP guests, were none other than actor Paul Mescal and his popstar girlfriend Gracie Abrams, who were sat in the middle of a busy North London pub. 

In a video uploaded to TikTok the pair can be seen playing cards on a table together, in the beer garden of The Canonbury Tavern at night.

Paul looked inconspicuous in a cap whilst ordering drinks for the pair inside at the bar.

The fan took pics of the star as he ordered seemingly going unnoticed by the other punters around him.

PAUL SUPPORT

Gracie Abrams snogs and parties with Paul Mescal until 3am after Glasto set

heating up

Paul Mescal spotted on date with Gracie Abrams ahead of her Glastonbury set 

The eagle-eyed fan captioned the video: “Paul Mescal & Gracie Abrams playing cards in Canonbury.”

In the second clip which showed the pics of the A-lister at the bar, she wrote: “Part two of seeing Paul Mescal, Got to keep one of the cards they were playing with.”

Fans flocked to the comments in disbelief over the pair’s unexpected appearance, one user penned: “NO WAY.”

A second added: “Is that really them ??? when was this omg.”

A worker of the pub revealed that she’s even served the star before, they wrote: “ I work at this pub and I’ve served him before (crying laughing emoji).”

The couple were first linked in June 2024 when they were snapped having a romantic dinner date at celebrity haunt BRAT Restaurant in London. 

They were spotted again this year having picnics and drinks in a park in June, before they were snapped getting close at Glastonbury ahead of Gracie’s set, that same month.

It comes after Oscar-nominated actor Paul was ordered to lose some muscle and put on some fat for his next big role.

Paul will be playing Sir Paul McCartney in the upcoming Beatles biopic – and The Sun revealed that the hunky Gladiator II star has been told to go on a Normal People diet.

An insider said: “Obviously there weren’t really gyms around in the Sixties. 

“The Beatles weren’t dead-lifting between gigs. 

“Macca was always pretty lean and flexible — he has always been really into yoga — but this is a very different aesthetic to that of a burly gladiator, and Paul has been keeping his body pretty ripped, even after filming stopped.

“Sir Paul McCartney is also famously a vegetarian, whereas Paul mainly lives on a high protein steak, chicken and eggs diet. 

“There also weren’t whey protein shakes back in the Beatles’ day.”

The new rule is based on the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT), which measures heat stress in direct sunlight. It involves observing temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle, and cloud cover.

If the WBGT reaches 30.1C or higher during the first two sets of a best-of-three match, either player can request a break of 10 minutes to cool off.

Under the supervision of ATP medical staff, players can hydrate, change clothing, shower and receive coaching.

Play will be suspended when the WBGT exceeds 32.2C.

“The new heat rule provides a structured, medically supported approach to managing extreme heat, with the objective of safeguarding player health, while also improving conditions for spectators, officials, ball persons and tournament staff,” the statement added.

Following Monday afternoon’s practice at Howard Jones Field, USC coach Lincoln Riley addressed the media for the first time since the Trojans’ victory over crosstown rival UCLA on Nov. 29.

USC (9-3), ranked No. 16 in the AP poll, is preparing to play Texas Christian (9-4) on Dec. 30 in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. USC finished 7-2 in its second season in the Big Ten and won four of its last five games, the only setback during that stretch being a 42-27 loss to Oregon, which is the No. 5 seed in the College Football Playoff.

Riley announced that safety Kamari Ramsey, receivers Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane, tight end Lake McRee and linebacker Eric Gentry will not play in the Alamo Bowl. Lane declared for the NFL draft on Monday.

“Anthony Lucas and Bishop Fitzgerald want to play in the game but are dealing with injuries and trying to get back … we’ll see how that goes,” Riley said. “Kilian O’Connor and Elijah Paige and Jahkeem Stewart all had surgery and will be ready to roll.”

Asked about signing the No. 1 recruiting class for 2026, Riley said: “It was a great day. We tried to keep the focus on building next year’s team. The amount of guys that we signed is a big portion of it and as we start to look ahead … half of our day and maybe even more is pointing towards next year and coming years. Meanwhile, obviously getting ready for this bowl game. It was a lot of hard work to add talent and people who care about this place and starting to put next year’s team together has been exciting here these last few weeks.”

Riley has a 35-27 record in his four seasons at USC and is hoping to improve his bowl record to 3-1. He guided the Trojans to wins in the 2023 Holiday Bowl and 2024 Las Vegas Bowl.

Riley watched the CIF state Open Division bowl game between Santa Margarita (coached by former Trojans quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer) and De La Salle on Saturday and was impressed by the performance of USC commit Trent Mosley, who had 11 catches for 183 yards and two touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in the Eagles’ 47-13 win.

“He was someone we targeted very early on,” Riley said. “I thought he was super impressive and it was important. He’s one of the best receivers in the country. He’s proven that and he just played out of his mind. It’s a great family and he’s a really smart kid.”

Asked what advice he gives to players who are deciding what to do next in their careers, Riley said: “Yes, it’s an important decision. The guys that make the right decision no matter what it is get a leg up on the rest of their lives. Consequently, a wrong decision can be catastrophic. That’s the world we all live in. I just try to educate them on their options. I don’t like telling guys you should do this or you shouldn’t do that. It’s more about, here’s this option, this is what it would look like, here’s what you need to consider. Sometimes the decision’s pretty clear one way or another, other times it’s not. I try to give them as much guidance as I possibly can.”

Given that USC will be missing quite a few players who were key contributors throughout the season, Riley is not ruling out the possibility of younger players seeing action against TCU.

“There’s gonna be guys all over the place who are going to have opportunities,” Riley said. “All sides of the ball, all position groups, maybe it’s some of the guys you saw a little bit during the season and in some instances you’ll see guys get some burn in this game that haven’t played at all or very little. Bowl games are great, but days like this are the most valuable part of it because we’re just pouring reps into all of these guys, it’s super competitive and the energy level is just different. All these guys feel it’s their time.”

Riley admitted he and his staff had to make hard decisions based on the incoming freshmen, a majority of whom are spring enrollees.

“It’s huge, it’s a high, high number that are going to be here and it’s important,” he said. “We’ve had to make a bunch of roster decisions in the last couple of weeks. We have a large number of players who have already signed and some of the decisions we had to make were based on knowing what we have coming in, and when you sign as many as we did, you’re going to have tough decisions to make.”

MICKEY ROURKE is trying to get his movie career back on track – despite his Celebrity Big Brother disgrace.

The veteran Hollywood star was booted off the ITV reality show earlier this year for his “unacceptable behaviour.”

But luckily for Mickey his name has been linked to two big-screen biopics.

One is about the life of Black Sabbath legend Ozzy Osbourne while another will be on US country legend Johnny Cash.

One of my Hollywood insiders said Mickey’s name had repeatedly come up in meetings about the films when discussions turned to casting the older versions of the music legends.

They told me: “Producers here don’t even know about the Celebrity Big Brother thing, Mickey is golden in the States.

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“This town also loves an underdog, and movie bosses think Mickey still has an Oscar-worthy performance they can wring out of him.

“He was a top actor back in the day — he would have been on a par with James Dean and Marlon Brando if he hadn’t taken wrong turns and gone down a bad path.

If the evil overlords of Hollywood give us the green light we could be filming in the spring

Jack Osbourne

“There are scripts in the pipeline on Ozzy and Johnny, and Mickey’s name has come up in meetings about both projects.

“They want to portray Ozzy’s final days before that amazing show at Villa Park, and they want a performance like Mickey gave in The Wrestler.

“They’re confident he could do it.”

It’s understood streaming giants Amazon MGM and Apple are interested in both projects, with big-name directors in the frame to oversee it — including Martin Scorsese.

Ozzy’s son Jack Osbourne first told me they were working on a film about his dad’s life before Ozzy’s homecoming show back in July.

Jack said: “We do have the film on the way. We have a lot of good forward momentum on the Ozzy biopic.

“We have a director attached now and the script is done and Sony Studios is going to be producing it.

“We are really excited about it so maybe we will do the premiere here in Birmingham.

“If the evil overlords of Hollywood give us the green light we could be filming in the spring so maybe it will be out summer 2027 — fingers crossed.”

I’m sure Mickey will be crossing his toes, as well as his fingers, that he gets the part.

JAMIE LEE: IT’S FREAKIER ONLINE

HER long-awaited sequel to 2003’s Freaky Friday – imaginatively titled Freakier Friday – went down a storm with fans.

And Hollywood legend Jamie Lee Curtis says she knows exactly why we are seeing a resurgence in sequels and prequels.

Speaking to comedian Geoff Norcott on this Times Radio show, Jamie said: “Nostalgia is very hot right now.

“Because people are feeling so freaked out by what’s happening that you cling, you cling to nostalgia to make you feel safe.”

Jamie, whose new film Ella McCay is out now, went on to slam cancel culture and attacks on free speech.

She added: “We’re all trying to figure out, what can we say? What can’t we say?

“The echo chamber is awful. Social media is awful. You say something that you believe in, you get hammered for it. I mean, hardcore.

“It’s hard to hold on to both the frustration you’re feeling but the sense of optimism and hope.

“I feel hope because I believe that the hatred is imploding, and I think we’re seeing it.”

IT’S STAR SHREK

THE life of a Bizarre reporter isn’t all red carpets and bubbly – sometimes you end up in a swamp with an ogre and a talking donkey.

Our Jack was invited backstage at the latest adaptation of Shrek: The Musical at Colchester’s Charter Hall to meet the cast before they kicked off their near sold-out run at the venue.

With Red Dwarf’s Danny John Jules as Donkey and CITV’s Chris Edgerley as Lord Farquaad, the show is based on the hit 2001 film starring Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy.

Shrek and Princess Fiona are played by Joseph Rawlings and Rachel Jerram.

A refreshing change from the annual festive panto, the cast delivered a brilliant version of the big screen hit with a seriously impressive set to match.

Shout out to Ceris Hine as the perfectly executed Gingy, delivering our favourite Gingerbread Man performance of the year.

Chatting backstage about playing the pint-sized villain, Chris explained how spending the show on his knees left him in agony at times.

He said: “I’m a lot taller than Farquaad so I’m knee-padded up to the hilt but it’s worth it.

“Halfway through rehearsals we had to add extra padding as it was hurting too much.

“Hopefully the audience will have as much fun as we do.”

Unlike the fairytale dictator, this musical certainly doesn’t come up short.

JAMIE’S SO FESTIVE

Jamie Cullum: The Pianoman At Christmas @ Royal Albert Hall, London

★★★★★

THERE’S nothing more festive than a trip to London’s Royal Albert Hall at Christmas – although a Jamie Cullum show there beats anything else to get you in the spirit.

Inspired by his criminally underrated 2020 album The Pianoman At Christmas, his two-hour seasonal spectacle, backed by a big band – “this is what expensive musicians sound like,” he half-joked – was an absolute treat.

And soon there will be more. He said of himself and wife Sophie Dahl : “We are trying to write the film of the Pianoman At Christmas.

“I told her I was going to announce it tonight so now we have to finish it.”

His voice is as smooth as a pricey whiskey and sounded just as great doing his original numbers as it did with family favourites Frosty The Snowman and Jingle Bells.

And as for Hang Your Lights, it deserves to be a modern Christmas classic.

Forget the turkey and mistletoe, Jamie Cullum’s annual festive show should be a staple of everyone’s Christmas.

HOWELL DAVIES

LILY’S SKIT ON STRANGER FLINGS

DAVID HARBOUR has another TV show to avoid, after his ex-wife Lily Allen called up Dakota Johnson to bring her infamous “Madeline” to life on Saturday Night Live.

During the show, Lily performed her explosive track Tennis – with Dakoka playing the “other woman” Madeline.

At the end of Lily’s performance, Dakota brought Madeline to life and appeared to reveal for the first time what this other woman may have told Lily about allegedly getting with David behind her back.

Dakota said: “I hate that you’re in so much pain right now.

“I really don’t want to be the cause of any upset.

“He told me that you were aware this was going on and that he had your full consent.

“’If he’s lying about that, then please let me know.

“Because I have my own feelings about dishonesty. Lies are not something that I want to get caught up in.”

Dakota then planted a kiss on Lily’s cheek as she said: “Love and light, Madeline.”

The actor known for playing Mr Bean and Blackadder has a gentler role this Christmas on Netflix

Iconic comedian and actor Rowan Atkinson says he is finally playing a character he doesn’t hate. Atkinson, 70, plays the role of Trevor Bingley for the second time in new Christmas Netflix series Man vs Baby.

Hapless Bingley, is supposed to have left the stressful world of housesitting for the quieter life of a school caretaker. But he ends up with a penthouse to look after for Christmas and a baby dubbed ‘Baby Jesus’ to burp after a series of mix ups.

Atkinson said: “Trevor Bingley, in his basic form, is arguably one of the nicest people I’ve ever played. Because I think most people I’ve played are sort of deeply unpleasant, really, you know, Mr. Bean is a selfish, self serving, anarchic child. Blackadder, is a sort of sarcastic and sardonic and basically negative force, I think.

“Even Johnny English is a sort of vain, sort of charmless. I think actually, Trevor has turned out to be one of my more pleasant, amenable creations. I quite like playing the nice guy which I haven’t done very often.”

Speaking at the series premiere in London, Atkinson went on to say he wouldn’t even have dinner with Mr Bean or Blackadder who would “have a sarcastic remark for everything”. Atkinson also revealed ‘Baby Jesus’, the other star of the series, is actually played by four babies, two twins for the close ups and two ‘stunt babies’ for other crawling scenes as they can only ‘work’ for 45 minutes at a time.

He joked: “There’s not much chat between takes with the co-star. But you go with the flow.”

“They are great looking, aren’t they?” He added. “I say ‘they’ because when you’re trying to use babies in film, you go for twins, and our twins were great. But, yes, you’re right – the babies are scene-stealers, that’s their very nature.

“It’s that strange thing when you’re watching a baby, because you know that they’re not acting, they’re just being themselves and reacting to the situation surrounding them. As such, they’re completely unpredictable, but also completely engaging, because you know they’re giving an inherent truth that you’re not getting from an adult performer.”

Atkinson himself is a father-of-three, having had two children – Ben and Lily – with his first wife Sunetra Sastry some times ago and a third child Isla, 8, from his current relationship with second wife Louise, who he married in 2014. And he says being a real life dad helped him for the role, despite him having to play at being terrible with a tot.

“Well, experience helps! He said. “It’s a bit like when I played Maigret for ITV a few years ago, the French detective. An important aspect of Maigret was that he smokes a pipe all the time which is an incredibly unfashionable thing to do in this day and age. But it wasn’t unfashionable or uncommon in the 1950s which is when the drama was set and also when I was a student – that’s a terrible admission!

“And it’s the same thing with holding a baby. If you’ve done it in real life, you look realistic doing it on screen. I’m pretty comfortable holding a baby.”

The series launches today(THURS) and whilst there are no plans yet for a third season, as this caper follows Man vs Bee from 2022 with the same lead character, it seems like a possibility. Atkinson won’t be making the decision based on any reviews though or critical acclaim, as he only cares it viewers like it as family entertainment this Christmas.

Sounding bullish he said: “I haven’t read a review or critique of anything I’ve done since the 20th century so I don’t know what reviewers, pundits and critics think of what I do, because the only thing that interests me is how many people watch this, and would they like to watch more? That’s the litmus test, and the sign of success, to me.”

* Four part series Man vs Baby launches on Netflix on Thursday December 11.

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Former Wales full-back Leigh Halfpenny has signed a new contract with Cardiff and is set to return to action this weekend.

The 36-year-old signed a short-term deal at the start of the season, initially as a kicking coach, with the intention of returning to play once he recovered from a calf injury.

Halfpenny, who will turn 37 just before Christmas, has now agreed a contract to continue at the Arms Park as a player-coach.

He is fit for selection and available for Saturday’s Challenge Cup home match with Ulster (20:00 GMT) in which he could play in a Cardiff side for the first time in more than 11 years.

If Halfpenny is selected, it will be 4,347 days since his previous appearance for the Blue and Blacks, having left the club for Toulon in 2014.

“We are blessed to have some quality full-backs at the club, but to add Leigh’s experience to the mix is brilliant,” said Cardiff Rugby coach Corniel van Zyl.