plot

BBC fans think they’ve spotted a budding relationship on the cards for two fan-favourites.

Casualty viewers believe a romance is unfolding.

The latest episode of the BBC show was full of drama as fans saw the continued fallout of Stevie Nash’s (Elinor Lawless) relationship with junior doctor Matty Linlaker (Aron Julius).

While she is yet to find out her fate at the Holby ED, viewers also saw a relationship come to an abrupt end when Cam Mickelthwaite (Barney Walsh) broke it off with Indie Jankowski (Naomi Wakszlak).

However, as one relationship ends, it seems as though another could be on the cards for two Casualty fan-favourites.

During the programme, Siobhan McKenzie (Melanie Hill) tried to get some of the patients waiting to be seen to leave due to the overcrowding.

Showing them that the black water they’d ingested was nothing to worry about, as someone had put activated charcoal into the water tanks, her demonstration worked as people started to leave.

Jan Jenning (Di Botcher) pointed out that people had started to go to Siobhan before she highlighted a black mark she had on her mouth. When Siobhan failed to wipe it away, Jan sprang into action and took it off for her.

She replied: “Oh, it’s like nobody loved you, as my mother would say!”

When Siobhan asked if she’d managed to get the mark away, BBC fans noticed Jan lingering a little too long as she stared at her intensely.

People on social media were quick to comment on the interaction, as many think a romance is on the cards.

One person on X said: “Jan and Siobhan need to get together.” Another commented: “Is anyone else excited for Jan and Shiv.”

While another person shared: “Jan fancies Siobhan.” A fourth tweeted: “Jan’s eyes. Is she seeing Siobhan in a new light?”

On Reddit, someone else wrote: “Jan and Siobhan? I can see the two maybe getting into a relationship or sharing a drunken kiss, especially with the scenes they shared lately.”

Someone agreed, replying: “I’m not sure if they’re gonna do a full relationship, but like you, I think they’re definitely gearing up for some kind of fling. I hope Siobhan does some happier storylines soon poor woman can’t catch a break.”

Casualty is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

There’s something delightful about plays about grand divas in crisis.

The prima donna in extremis in Pearl Cleage’s “Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous,” which is having its Los Angeles premiere at the Geffen Playhouse, has an air of Bette Davis extravagance to her. When Anna Campbell (Charlayne Woodard) struts around her elegant hotel suite in Atlanta, she can’t resist delivering one of Davis’ signature lines: “What a dump!”

She’s not at all dissatisfied with the accommodations. She’s just frustrated that the weather isn’t cooperating with her upcoming outdoor performance and agitated that this might be a bad omen for her big American comeback.

More than 30 years ago, Anna and her manager and trusted companion, Betsy Samson (a formidable Denise Burse), fled to Europe on the heels of a highbrow scandal. Anna made waves when she performed “Naked Wilson,” a protest piece that had her delivering male monologues from August Wilson’s plays while standing stark naked before a divided audience.

The idea was to call attention to the way women have been de-centered in the male canon, but some felt it was sacrilege to subject Wilson’s work to a feminist stunt. Acting opportunities dried up, and Anna high-tailed it to Amsterdam, where her histrionic grandeur was put to good use in European classics.

Charlayne Woodard in “Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous” at Geffen Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Woodard brings Anna to life with a smokey voice, a statuesque presence and an arch demeanor. When her arms are in flamboyant motion, she leaves the impression of a seductive windmill that might slice you to bits if you come too close.

The sumptuous production, directed by LaTanya Richardson Jackson with solidarity for Cleage’s characters, provides a marvelous showcase for Woodward to slink around on Beowulf Boritt’s glamorous five-star set in costume designer Emilio Sosa’s inspired Pucci-esque outfits. Her Anna doesn’t do much but give attitude. Ah, but what delicious attitude she gives!

Cleage’s play, it must be said, is hamstrung with exposition. More time is devoted to setting up the dramatic situation than to activating it. Author of “Blues for an Alabama Sky,” a 1995 abortion drama still ahead of its time, Cleage is telling a backstage story that’s clearly close to home. She’s also spinning an intergenerational tale of Black women groping past their initial distrust to a deeper understanding of what they have in common.

The intentions are noble and the themes are handled with admirable complexity, but the writing is sluggish. The plot is like an old car whose engine just refuses to start on a cold winter morning.

Anna has returned to Atlanta to headline a festival that is rebooting her “Naked Wilson” piece. She’s worried about disrobing at her age, but it turns out that she’s only being honored for her work. A much younger and far less experienced performer has been cast in the part that made her a cause célèbre.

Denise Burse, from left, Deborah Joy Winans, Charlayne Woodard and Olivia Washington in “Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous” at Geffen Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Precious Watson (Olivia Washington), who goes by Pete, has not only never performed in a Wilson play but she’s never even seen one on stage. She’s a stripper whose only real dramatic experience has come from the adult entertainment industry. (Don’t call her a porn star, not because she’s ashamed of the films she made but because she’s too modest about her screen credits.)

Anna, her hauteur hardening like a protective shell, is aghast. She’s also fearful about her future. She’s run out of money, and this festival was to have launched her return to the U.S.

Betty, whose fate is tied to Anna’s, has been dangling the prospect of a national tour. But when Kate Hughes (an appealingly grounded Deborah Joy Winans), the producer of the festival, hears of this idea, she thinks it’s completely unrealistic.

“I love Anna,” she tells Betty. “ I’m honoring Anna, but there just isn’t an audience for the kind of presentation you’re talking about.”

Time marches on, and one era’s sensational renegade becomes a footnote in the next. But Anna can’t believe that all she holds sacred — study, discipline, seriousness, commitment — is of little value in the social media world.

Deborah Joy Winans, left, and Denise Burse in “Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous” at Geffen Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Pete (whom Washington plays with impressive self-possession) doesn’t seem at all bothered about what she doesn’t know. Anna keeps prefacing her remarks with the words “no offense,” but Pete can’t help being offended by her pointed disdain. Their standoff energizes the play, but this jolt of momentum comes a little too late.

“Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous” is not just the title. It’s also a plot summary. The gorgeous part is the richness of Cleage’s characters, radiantly realized by all four actors under Jackson’s warm direction.

Cleage gives the women plenty of substance, though her novelistic mode — more telling than showing — deprives her drama of style. The elegant staging tries to compensate, but the performers have to rely a little too heavily on their own charms to make up the difference in a play that swerves unexpectedly at the end into a cutesy fairy tale.

A plan to attack the UFC America 250 event at the White House on June 14 with explosive drones was thwarted by the FBI, according to federal records. Exactly how capable those involved were of actually pulling it off remains unclear. However, the alleged plot amplifies concerns that TWZ has been documenting for years about threats posed by drones to critical facilities in the homeland and how they continue to change the national security picture at home and abroad.

The long-standing potential for a drone attack on the White House was something we recently discussed last month in an examination of President Donald Trump’s plans to fortify the under-construction ballroom. More on that later in this story.

The plot involved a group of individuals who wanted to “attack the UFC event and involved staging a ‘demonstration’ on the north side of the White House,” CBS News reported, citing the court filings. “The group would then fly drones ‘laden with unspecified explosive devices which would detonate over the north side of the UFC arena,’” according to the filing in the case of one of the five people arrested, 19-year-old Tycen Proper.

When the drones exploded, “the group then planned to force attendees of the UFC event and ‘high value targets’ to evacuate to the south,” Proper’s affidavit read. The suspect told investigators that the plan was for group members to “act as snipers and additional shooters,” shooting fight attendees and the “high value targets” as they fled from the explosions.

The affidavit said the “high value targets” were “wealthy people” and politicians, CBS noted. 

Proper allegedly told investigators the goal of the attack was to “jumpstart” a revolution in the U.S. He was interviewed from a hospital, according to the document, where he was admitted on an emergency basis due to “homicidal ideations.”

In addition to Proper, Bryan Omar Roa, 24, of Calimesa, California; Michael Alan Thomas, 32, of Pinon Hills, California; Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, of Kidder, Missouri; and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, of Omaha, Nebraska were also charged, according to the Justice Department.

Fox News was the first to report details about the plot.

TWZ cannot independently verify any of these details at this time and it remains publicly unclear what capabilities, training, funding and equipment the suspects had to actually carry out a complex attack like the one described. Proper’s mother said her son “began interacting with a group online that was comprised of individuals who claimed to be ex-military and Christian-based,” according to the court documents. They espoused anti-government and anti-Semitic sentiments.

At the very least, it would have taken unique skills and some level of discipline, coordination and operational security to pull off this kind of a plot. It would have also required funding and time. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies disrupt attack plans long before they get close to becoming operational, and many of those have a low chance they could actually been implemented as dreamed-up. That does not mean the individuals involved or their plans are not still a significant threat. In this case, there is no information available on whether anyone involved had the means and ability to stage an attack like the one described.

Regardless, it is important to note it would be a challenge to stop people simply from bringing weaponized uncrewed aircraft into range of the White House without law enforcement having prior knowledge. Actually employing those drones as weapons successfully is another story. Still, the danger of such an attack looms large and is growing by the day.

As we have frequently highlighted, two incidents last year highlight the alarming danger of near-field drone attacks that raised lingering concerns in the U.S.

On June 1, 2025, Ukraine launched drones hidden in trucks at air bases across Russia, causing severe damage to its strategic aviation fleet. Weeks later, Israel fired drones from deep inside Iran at the country’s air defenses during the 12-Day War.

TWZ raised concerns about just these kinds of attacks for years long before the ones in Russia and Iran took place.

The following video shows one of the Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian bombers during Operation Spider Web.

In both Russia and Iran, the drones were set up undetected deep in enemy territory during armed conflict against military targets. The plot on the White House, as characterized in the court documents, is of course different on many levels and was to be planned and executed by citizens, not sponsored by another nation at war with its neighbor. At the same time, both presents a host of challenges to defend against, many of which overlap.

Given the presence of the president, his family and thousands of VIP guests on the White House lawn at the time, as well as the event’s extremely high-profile nature, UFC Freedom 250 was “designated a Special Event Assessment Review 1 event, like the Super Bowl, Indianapolis 500, Kentucky Derby and college football games, according to the Department of Homeland Security,” ABC News reported last week.

Security was also tightened at the Ellipse outside the White House, where thousands more watched the event on large screens.

The increased precautions included concern about drones, said Tara McLeese, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Washington Field Office.

Federal law prohibits flying drones in the airspace over the National Capital Region, so McLeese advised fans ahead of the event to “leave their drones at home.”

“We will have law enforcement drones for overwatch, but just to make it simple for the public, if they see a drone, we want them to report that,” she said, according to ABC.

The Secret Service declined to talk about its concerns over drone threats, instead pointing us to its post on X.

Protective intelligence cases are on the rise, and our teams work tirelessly behind the scenes to investigate threats, identify those responsible, and ensure accountability. Statement from Director Curran on the events of this past weekend: pic.twitter.com/Oca3QVLg9o

— U.S. Secret Service Office of Communications (@SecretSvcSpox) June 16, 2026

While we don’t know the extent of the counter-drone measures deployed by the FBI, Secret Service or even the military, they certainly included devices to detect and, if needed, jam the signals of threatening drones. However, as the war in Ukraine and Israel’s push into Lebanon have proven, the efficacy of these methods is far from assured. This is especially so since the introduction of drones controlled via fiber optic cables, which mitigate the effects of radio frequency passive detection and active jamming with a direct hardwired link between a drone and its operator.

Meanwhile, as we noted in our story about Trump using the ballroom he is building as a kind of defensive fortification, using traditional kinetic protection from drones and other aerial threats in and around the White House is limited and risky. The advent of interceptor drones, many that are hit-to-kill or use electromagnetic pulses and other low collateral damage means instead of explosive warheads, is starting to mitigate some of those concerns.

From the story about Trump’s ballroom:

“Clearly, the drone issue is a massive one and has been for many years. This structure will serve as a secure place to do daily business if needed. Based on Trump’s comments, it will also act as a critical active defense node with its roof hosting air defenses, and apparently ones that are capable of at least a limited degree of area defense, not just highly-localized point defense. This is where drones could come into play. Drone interceptors (drones that intercept other drones) are well suited for the unique challenges of defending the White House and the Mall area as a whole, where collateral damage is a huge concern. Some of these systems use warheads, while others do not, physically smashing into their targets or blasting them with electrical pulses and other non-traditional effects instead. Drone interceptor capabilities are expanding rapidly now, equipping forward bases and warships. They proved critical in defending U.S. interests against Iranian attacks during the recent war. In Ukraine, they have proven indispensable in countering waves of Russian Shaheds.”

Directed energy, such as lasers and high-power microwave weapons are another potential countermeasure, but these systems remain somewhat in their infancy and have very short range. Above all else, using them in dense urban areas, especially those with nearby low-flying air traffic, can be extremely problematic. They are not widely deployed for the counter drone role in the United States and won’t be in the near term.

It’s also worth remembering that the alleged plan did not necessarily rely on the accuracy of the drones or the damage they could inflict. The goal was to induce panic by their very presence and drive people into a field of fire to be attacked by snipers.

Even if counter-drone measures were able to provide a relatively robust protective bubble over UFC 250 at the White House, the plot as described in the documents further highlights the vulnerability large events have from even the lowliest of drone attack attempts.

The U.S. at the moment is protecting several facilities across the country with huge crowds during the World Cup soccer tournament at a time of heightened global tensions. Countering drone attacks was a central component of pre-event security measures as well as ongoing efforts.

This all comes as the U.S. is working to increase authorities to allow the military and law enforcement to better protect against drone threats.

We were the first to report numerous unauthorized drone flights over U.S. military facilities and other sensitive areas. The defensive capabilities have been constrained by a labyrinth of often confusing legal and regulatory hurdles. Incursions by cartels along the U.S.-Mexico border have sharpened the need for reforms, some of which are underway.

As we reported back in February, in advance of the U.S. hosting the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games, the Trump administration pushed to expand counter-drone authorities. Congress granted that when it passed the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Officials have already taken action against drone operators using these new authorities. Last week, FBI Los Angeles said it seized drones and issued citations to pilots near SoFi Stadium for alleged violations of temporary flight restrictions during last Friday’s World Cup match, The Los Angeles Times reported. The bureau “shared photos showing confiscated drones as well as an image of a drone operator being cited,” the newspaper noted. “However, it did not specify how many drones were taken or how many pilots were issued citations. It also did not provide details on the technology used to locate or track the drone operators.”

The bureau did not say if the operators of these drones had nefarious intent or whether they were armed, though neither of those are prerequisites for violating the no-drone-zone rules.

The FBI’s Counter Drone Enforcement Team has been busy around last night’s #WorldCup game and related events ensuring drone pilots aren’t violating @FAA Temporary Flight Restrictions. But some were, and as promised, they were cited and had their drones seized. Meanwhile,… pic.twitter.com/s0vy75E73E

— FBI Los Angeles (@FBILosAngeles) June 13, 2026

While the actual ability of the alleged perpetrators to pull off the combined drone and sniper attack on the White House like what’s described remains unknown, the threats to the homeland from uncrewed aircraft are only growing by the day, as are nefarious actors’ experience and creativity with the technology.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

What does it mean to lack ambition in a country that worships wealth? It means you are a capitalist wallflower, a laggard with a serious character flaw. No field of endeavor is immune from this attitude, the art world least of all. But artists with a desire for riches and fame must not declare their intentions so brazenly. At a time when the plastic arts are about as marginalized as they ever have been, and media buzz is generated by dead painters whose works sell for enormous sums at auction, creation in and of itself has little value unless it is lashed to something marketable.

With his new novel “Contrapposto,” Dave Eggers has written a big-hearted, deeply moving story about the choices artists make, or don’t make, to square up their own notions of success and happiness. The book is dual bildungsroman, following two friends across the long span of their lives from adolescence to their 70s, as they fall in and out of each other’s lives, make their way in the world, and fumble around for meaning and purpose in their art.

The protagonist in “Contrapposto” is Rob “Cricket” Dibb, an underclass Midwestern kid, raised by a single mother in a North Indiana suburb that’s about as nowheresville as it gets for budding artists with dreams of glory. Cricket doesn’t dream big. He’s just trying to endure without bodily harm, seeking refuge from his mother’s abusive boyfriend in the basement with his grandfather Silas, who teaches him about jazz and the beauty of a glorious sunset. He draws so he doesn’t have to think. Immersion in art is his escape hatch from the dreariness of his pinched world: “The drawing meant nothing, would never mean anything to anyone, but it was true to how he saw it. His hand had recorded what he saw and felt about this thing. He was an ugly, common creature who could occasionally freeze time. That was enough.”

Cricket’s apprenticeship is decidedly informal. No full scholarship rides to Bard or Pratt for him; instead he saves up to enroll himself in a life drawing class in Chicago, where he discovers the beauty of applying rigor and rules to his work, how to break down pictures into the geometry of circles and squares, planes and angles. “He measured proportions and improved,” writes Eggers. “He grew more confident with each pass on his drawing, and realized … that much of the rightness of the drawing, of any drawing, came through time and diligence and discernment.”

He meets his slightly older schoolmate Olympia, one of Eggers’ most beguiling creations, when she implores him to scrawl scatological bathroom graffiti on a playground structure in Old-English typography. Unlike Cricket, Olympia is earnest and sincere about her art in the way that only a young person untainted by cynicism can be. She claims to inhabit the soul of Albert Camus, and flings around aphorisms about art that fly over Cricket’s head. She is an aesthete, someone who likes to go to the race track just to revel in the colors on display there. She wants to create an art scene in their little world. “You know all the great art movements have friends at their core, right?,” she tells Cricket. “A lot of time they’re jammed together by some critics and the artists reject the name and the association. But think about Patti Smith and Sam Shepard. Did you know they dated for a while?”

Cricket is beguiled by her, and Olympia in turn is taken in by Cricket’s talent. When the local library pulls a few of Cricket’s semi-nude life drawing portraits down for fear of offending their patrons, Olympia becomes his advocate and champion. In contrast to Cricket, who skates along with no end plan, Olympia is a committed careerist, an artist who insists on a captive audience to justify her work. She wants to earn money as an artist; Cricket just wants to be left alone. This push and pull between the two frame Eggers’ novel across the six decades of his narrative.

One of many joys of “Contrapposto” is observing Cricket’s artistic awakening via the mentors who guide him into his artistic consciousness. Marcus Carpenter, a wizened sage in battered work boots (one imagines him as the art world analogue to the late novelist Jim Harrison), is the moral conscience of the novel, fighting the good fight for personal expression and railing against the “new, paradoxical tyranny wherein those without technical skill terrorize those who possess it.” Carpenter plucks Cricket from arts college and its meaningless pontificating to his “atelier in the corn,” a ramshackle Victorian where Cricket learns how to transmute what he sees with color and light. “The talented have talent,” Carpenter tells Cricket during one of his endearing rants. “The untalented have theories.”

From there, Cicket’s life is a crooked line. He doesn’t abandon art, but he can’t summon the urge to sell himself or his work, to graft his joy in making things onto the caprices of the marketplace. As Eggers jumps through time, we find Cricket working as an intern in an art gallery, an arid, lifeless space where nothing inspiring can possibly exist. As a young man he works as a ship-breaker in Turkey; in middle-age, we find him in a coastal town in Cambodia, making replicas of great paintings for tourists. Olympia, his elusive love and sporadic muse, flits in and out of his life as she works her way up the tiers of the art world’s ziggurat. She gently berates him for his timidity: “This is how artists have power. We sell work. You’re implying there’s nobility in powerlessness. That’s been an idiotic trope for too long — that participating in the business side of it taints you. Do you know how dumb that is? That artists have to be these fragile little wood nymphs that are too precious to touch the money?”

As “Contrapposto” arrives at its beautiful, life-affirming conclusion, we are left pondering the significance of artistic endeavor in a world that commodifies everything, including our bodies and brains. At a time when even the greatest achievements are debased in a culture that gives equal weight to meretricious novelty, is it even worth the trouble? Eggers’ brilliant novel has the answer: Follow your bliss. In the final analysis, it is all that matters.

Weingarten is the author of “Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown.”

An Emmerdale star is set to say goodbye to the long-running ITV soap after a number of controversial storylines for their character

An Emmerdale star is leaving the ITV soap after a controversial storyline. Caroline Harker is stepping away from her role as the evil Dr Caitlin Todd after a year on the show.

The actress, 59, has enjoyed playing the character, with viewers intensely watching her character become embroiled in bullying scenes. Dr Todd has been seen tormenting Jacob Gallagher at work, while she has also blackmailed Charity Dingle.

But the lines kept getting closer to the edge and the doctor is set to be involved in a sexual assault storyline. The tough-to-watch scenes will see her assault Charity, but will prove to be some of her last on the Dales.

A source told The Sun: “Caroline has loved her time at Emmerdale but it’s time to move on. She always knew playing such an evil character came with a shelf life but she’s leaving with many fond memories.”

They added: “Caroline only came in on a short term contract, and knew she would never stay long-term.”

Her exit date and storyline is not yet clear, but she is far from the only star to be leaving. Olivia Bromley, Nick Miles and Bradley Johnson will all also be heading for the exit later this year.

Emmerdale producer Laura Shaw recently dropped hints about some upsetting scenes ahead for Vinny Dingle, played by Bradley. And it’s clear the actor’s seven years on the soap is going to come to an end in dramatic fashion.

It’s claimed Vinny’s traumatic past, including the abuse he suffered at the hands of his violent father Paul, will be revisited. It’s said this will apparently be triggered by the arrival of his partner Lewis Barton’s father Kev Townsend.

Speaking to Inside Soap magazine, Laura explained that Vinny is set to struggle to form a bond with Kev. She said: “What we need to remember is the relationship that Vinny had with his own father, Paul, who was quite abusive.

“It brings a lot back for Vinny because Kev is slightly wild, edgy and can be unpredictable. Vinny’s quite nervous about Lewis having a relationship with Kev, because he reminds him of Paul.”

Meanwhile, another report stated Nick’s character Jimmy would be killed off in devastating scenes. The news left fans outraged.

It was claimed the cuts have come as there are now less episodes. As for Bradley, it was claimed that his co-stars were left shocked by the news he was being “axed” from the show, with him being a very popular cast member.

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads.

THEY are set to release their new album Foreign Tongues in July — and it seems The Rolling Stones could also be heading to foreign shores.

After abandoning plans to hit the road on a UK and European tour this summer, I can reveal that Start Me Up hitmakers Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood are now looking into playing five nights in Buenos Aires, Argentina, next year.

A source told me: “The band are discussing options for a residency.

“They love the thrill of doing a huge stadium tour around the globe, but the physical demands are immense.

“A residency would mean they can still bring their best to the fans, without the toll that comes with travelling.”

This summer would have been the rockers’ first string of live performances since their Hackney Diamonds tour in the States in 2024 — which sold almost one million tickets.

WRIGHT OFF

Mark Wright feeling ‘eclipsed’ by wife Michelle following TV gig snubs

SWEATY SESH

Kelly Brook turns up the heat in leopard bikini in sweaty holiday gym session

A US music critic has said that Keith told bandmates Mick and Ronnie he couldn’t commit to their UK and European trek’s planned shows.

The band will release their new 14-track album on July 10 after recording it at Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, West London, over four intense weeks.

It features a cover of the song You Know I’m No Good by Amy Winehouse, who Mick performed with at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2007, four years before she died aged 27.

The track Hit Me In The Head includes old recordings in LA with the late Stones drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021, aged 80.

In April, the band released album track Rough And Twisted on vinyl under pseudonym, The Cockroaches.

Earlier this month, at the launch in New York, Mick confirmed the newrecord spans a number of genres, saying: “We have the ability to do ballads, country and dance music.”

He added: “It’s not stuck in one ­particular style.”

I can’t wait to hear it.

FROM 10 TO THE ONE

DECEMBER 10 are the latest Gen-Z heartthrobs ­– but Danny Bretherton is set to break fans’ hearts, as I can reveal he is dating influencer Tallulah Metcalfe.

The singer has even introduced her to his family in Chorley, Lancs.

A source said: “Danny has been spending lots of time with Tallulah. He is very family-orientated so taking her to meet his family was a big deal.”

This month, Tallulah shared a TikTok of her and Danny dancing in the street to his band’s song Infinity (123), captioned: “Look who I bumped into.”

Seems Danny has a new No1.

BIOPIC BOYLE

SUSAN BOYLE is working on a biopic, I have heard.

The film will chart her rise to global fame from her humble beginnings in Scotland to appearing on Britain’s Got Talent in 2009.

It comes as the singer is planning a comeback with new music.

A source confirmed: “Susan is working on a film and is hoping that a streamer will snap it up.”

I wonder who SuBo, above, has in mind to play her?

Raising awareness

ROXY HORNER is turning her hand to documentaries.

The model, who married comic Jack Whitehall last month, is believed to be in talks with a company to make a film about living with Type 1 diabetes, which she was diagnosed with in 2021.

A source said: “Roxy has been amazing at raising awareness of living with the chronic condition.

“She now wants to delve deeper and speak to experts.”

Shakira’s miami mini break

SHAKIRA looked her very zest as she stepped out in a bright orange outfit.

The Colombian singer flaunted her toned legs in a mini dress at Miami Swim Week.

She was attending an event on Thursday for her haircare brand Isima.

We’ll soon be humming Shakira’s track Dai Dai, the official anthem for the 2026 Fifa World Cup that she made with Burna Boy.

KELLY SET FOR MIGHTY COMEBACK

KELLY OSBOURNE is preparing for her first performance since dad Ozzy died last year.

The TV presenter and singer will join headliners Scissor Sisters at Mighty Hoopla festival in South London’s Brockwell Park today.

A source said: “Kelly is excited to get back on stage and doing it with the Scissor Sisters is a huge honour.”

Black Sabbath legend Ozzy passed away last July, with Kelly and her mum Sharon Osbourne honouring him at The Brit Awards.

Kelly and Sharon accepted the Lifetime Achievement gong for Ozzy at Manchester’s Co-Op Live arena in February.

Speaking to Biz on Sunday’s Emily at the ceremony, Kelly said: “A Lifetime Achievement award is such an honour, I couldn’t think of anyone else more deserving.

“It’s bittersweet.”

I am sure Ozzy would be proud of Kelly today.

Heidi hi, Nat & Nic

HALF of All Saints performed as Appleton at the Mighty Hoopla yesterday.

Nicole and Natalie Appleton took to the stage at the festival in Brockwell Park, South East London, in their typical cool girl style of tracksuits.

Nicole said: “Guys, you have to realise it’s been quite a long time that Nat and I have sung as Appleton.

“But we are so emotional that it’s our first festival.”

Nicole, left, and Natalie, right, were joined by their pal and ex-Sugababes member Heidi Range, centre, for a surprise performance.

Gene, Nicole’s son with ex Liam Gallagher, watched from the side of the stage along with Nat’s hubby, Liam Howlett from The Prodigy.

The duo release Ready To Begin next month, and their Appleton EP will be out in September.

Welcome back, ladies.

It’s go for pro with ex

HE failed to find The One on Channel 4’s Celebs Go Dating, but it seems Professor Green is back with his ex Karima McAdams.

I am told the couple who have five-year-old son Slimane, have been taking things slowly after their split in 2024.

Karima shared an Instagram snap of the lad with Pro Green – real name Stephen Manderson – referring to the chart star as her “partner”.

Explaining her little boy had a suspected wrist fracture after falling from a zipwire, she said: “Son is coming back in plaster and partner medium rare.”
Looks like the rapper is back in the game . . . 

A brand new comedy series is coming soon to Channel 4 with a familiar face as its star

A Last One Laughing star’s new comedy series is now just days away.

Channel 4 will soon start airing Make That Movie, which is the brainchild of Australian comedian Sam Campbell. Viewers may recognise the funnyman from his stint on the latest season of Prime Video’s Last One Laughing.

The deadpan comedian sailed through to the Season 2 finale, outlasting the show’s returning champion, Bob Mortimer. He went toe-to-toe with David Mitchell in the final episode, with neither comedian breaking as they fed each other buffet food.

It resulted in an unprecedented tie-breaker in which the person who made the most people laugh over the course of the series was awarded the crown, meaning David scooped the win while Sam was awarded the runner-up title.

Sam is set to return to TV screens again in just a few days with his brand new comedy series, but what is it about, when is it released, and who is in it? Here’s everything you need to know.

What is Make That Movie about?

The six-part Channel 4 comedy series follows a director called Sam (played by Sam Campbell) who attempts to make feature films based on the weird and wonderful ideas of everyday people. He goes on a trip around the country seeking out people to share their ideas with him, before attempting to make their movies in just three days.

While Sam appears to play himself, the series is a scripted comedy show and not real life. Alongside Sam in the cast are Michell and Webb Are Not Helping star Lara Ricote as runner Jess, and Am I Being Unreasonable’s Helen Bauer, who plays sound engineer Pat.

Meanwhile Aaron Chen (Fisk) plays intimacy coordinator Sebastian and This Country’s David Hargreaves takes on the role of cinematographer Winnie.

The series is directed and co-written by Joe Pelling who may already be known to some as the director of nightmarish comedy-horror puppet show, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared.

Make That Movie’s release date and time

The very first 30-minute episode will air on Channel 4 on Thursday, May 28 at 10pm. The second episode will be broadcast immediately after at 10.30pm.

Announcing its release date, Sam posted: “This show is on channel 4. 28th of May ~ so pretty soon in fact. We hope it wets so many people’s whistles. Hopefully not a dry whistle left in the whole world. Hopefully. Please watch.”

A flurry of excited fans were quick to comment, with one penning: “I don’t understand any of this but that’s okay, I trust Sam,” in reference to Sam’s surreal comedy style.

“Nathan Fielder has been real quite since this dropped,” joked another. “Can’t wait for this dynamite series!” a third fan remarked.

Make That Movie begins on Channel 4 on May 28 at 10pm.

As Eileen Wang and her supporters tell it, the former Arcadia mayor was led astray by a man she trusted and loved.

After chasing her political ambitions in the San Gabriel Valley suburb, Wang, 58, won a City Council seat in 2022 with the help of a campaign advisor who was also her romantic partner. Two years later, he was charged by federal authorities with secretly working on behalf of the Chinese government.

Wang, a naturalized U.S. citizen, distanced herself from her ex and remained in office, becoming mayor earlier this year. The scandal had mostly quieted — until Monday, on the eve of President Trump’s planned trip to Beijing, when a plea deal was unsealed revealing Wang’s own murky role as an agent for China.

A man walks past an empty space where a photograph of former Mayor Eileen Wang was removed in the lobby of Arcadia City Hall.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Now, Wang has become a national political talking point, with critics painting her as a calculating foreign agent who sought to infiltrate the American government and undermine democracy.

Katie Miller, wife of top Trump advisor Stephen Miller, blasted Wang on social media site X as a “spy.”

“This is pure China trying to influence U.S. politics and U.S. elections,” Katie Miller said on Fox News.

Back home, some of Wang’s former colleagues in local government say they repeatedly tried to raise alarms about her.

“There were red flags everywhere,” said Sharon Kwan, an Arcadia city council member and former mayor.

Wang admitted in her plea agreement to posting and editing web content at the request of the Chinese government — without disclosing her ties to U.S. authorities, as the law requires. She ran afoul of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, a federal statute that experts said has seen ramped up enforcement over the last decade, particularly in cases involving China.

But those familiar with the law — and international espionage — said it does not appear that Wang was engaged in spycraft as it is commonly understood.

Dennis Wilder, a former senior U.S. intelligence official and professor at Georgetown University, said that, in the CIA, Wang would be referred to as “an agent of influence.”

“She’s not a spy in the Jason Bourne sense,” Wilder said, referring to the fictional American agent. “She’s not out there recruiting sources and that sort of thing. That’s not the role that they want for her. But they see this other role as extremely important.”

A man exits Arcadia City Hall on Tuesday.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

A run for city council

Wang moved to the U.S. around 30 years ago, in part, she told The Times in 2024, because she wanted “freedom for speech, freedom [for] thinking.”

Her mother was a Chinese medicine and acupuncture doctor and her father was a physician in Sichuan province before working at USC, she said. Authorities have not detailed how she immigrated or her path to citizenship. She landed in Arcadia, she said, lured by what the school district in the affluent city of 54,000 could offer her two young boys.

She ran an after-school program and was involved in some community organizations, but said she did not move in political circles until shortly before her 2022 run for city council. She switched her party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, which, she said, spoke more to the needs of voters in her district, where many share her Chinese roots.

“I walk about 140 days,” she said of her campaign, adding that she hit every door in her district five times. “I never stop.”

Yaoning “Mike” Sun, Wang’s former fiance, managed her campaign.

Arcadia City Councilmember Sharon Kwan stands outside the front entrance of the San Gabriel Valley suburb’s City Hall. “This is not something where we can just dismiss and pretend nothing happened,” said Kwan regarding the case against ex-mayor Eileen Wang.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Kwan, who was elected to the city council at the same time, recalled Sun as a constant presence at city meetings and events, “always with the camera.”

“Always recording, always promoting her,” Kwan said. “She was like a celebrity to him.”

Two years after Wang took office, in December 2024, federal authorities arrested Sun on suspicion of acting as an illegal agent of China.

Prosecutors accused Sun in a criminal complaint of working with another man to cultivate Wang as a political asset for the People’s Republic of China or PRC. Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles identified the other man as John Chen, describing him in a sentencing memorandum as “a high-level member of the PRC intelligence apparatus,” who had “met personally” with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Chen instructed Sun to submit reports on Wang, referred to throughout the complaint as “Individual 1,” to Chinese officials, including one the federal complaint said they referred to as the “Big Boss.” A draft of the report allegedly included a request for $80,000 to “support pro-PRC activities in the United States.” Sun was also told to tout Wang’s relationship with an unnamed U.S. congressperson, the complaint said.

Both men eventually pleaded guilty to working as unregistered agents of China, with Sun sentenced this year to four years in prison. Chen was sentenced to 20 months.

Wang spoke with Chen on the day she was elected and three more times over the next few months, according to the complaint in Sun’s case.

“You are doing a good job, I hope you can continue the good work, make Chinese people proud,” Chen told Wang, in a conversation on Jan. 23, 2023, according to the complaint in Sun’s case.

Chen and Sun also coordinated a trip to China in 2023 for Wang to meet with “leadership,” which would include stops in six different places, according to the complaint. It’s unclear whom Wang met with on the trip.

The fallout

After Sun’s arrest, Wang denied to several people that they had been engaged to marry. She said during a council meeting that their relationship ended in spring 2024.

Jolene Cadenbach, a pastor in Arcadia, said Wang confided in her that “she had been lied to” by Sun.

“I think he did a con job on her,” Cadenbach said.

The recent plea agreement gave the wrong impression about Wang, the pastor said.

“It made her sound like she was some kind of spy and it wasn’t like that at all,” she said. Wang was only following Sun’s orders, she added: “He told her to put up this site, she did it. She didn’t really investigate it.”

In a statement, Wang’s lawyers said she “apologizes and is sorry for the mistakes she has made in her personal life.” They said “she genuinely loves this city and is devoted to the people and the community within it,” but “her trust and love for apparently the wrong person… ultimately led her astray.”

Arcadia resident Sonia Martin sits on the porch of her home. Martin said she had long expressed concerns about the city’s former mayor, Eileen Wang.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

After Sun was charged in 2024, Sonia Martin and other Arcadia residents showed up at council meetings carrying protest signs. Martin said she expected Wang to be pushed out. Instead, she said, most council members appeared to unite behind Wang.

“They wanted to have this feeling of, like, everything’s great here. We’re all warm. Look at us, it’s kumbaya,” Martin said.

Kwan said she repeatedly tried to bring up the concerns of constituents to her fellow council members but was brushed off.

“Everybody was just so silent,” Kwan said. “This is not something where we can just dismiss and pretend nothing happened.”

The job of mayor rotates among Arcadia City Council members, and when it was Kwan’s turn last April, she warned during her swearing-in speech that constituents “must remain vigilant against influence of foreign governments, including efforts by the Chinese Communist Party, that may seek to shape local policy for the interests that do not align with our residents.”

Since Wang’s plea agreement became public, some have scoffed at the notion that Chinese spies would establish an outpost in Arcadia, or that the web posts she made before becoming mayor amounted to any sort of meaningful propaganda campaign.

But according to Sun’s plea agreement, local office was just the start. Prosecutors said Sun’s 2023 report for Chinese officials boasted that “during the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, I orchestrated and organized my team to win the election for city council.” He called Wang a “new political star.”

Wilder, the former U.S. intelligence official, said that sounded like a familiar strategy.

“Maybe she would end up in Congress some day or at the state government level. They invest in these folks hoping they move up the political food chain,” the Georgetown professor said. “That is part of the Chinese long game.”

‘San Gabriel Valley deserves better’

In her plea agreement, Wang admitted that from late 2020 through at least 2022, she worked with Sun to run a website called U.S. News Center that branded itself as a news source for Chinese Americans.

Wang and Sun “executed directives” from Chinese government officials, posting requested articles and reporting back with screenshots showing how many people viewed the stories, the agreement says.

Prosecutors also say Wang edited articles at the request of officials and shared information showing the reach of the posts.

“Thank you leader,” she wrote on Aug. 20, 2021, after being complimented for a post that was viewed more than 15,000 times, according to the plea agreement.

Wang never disclosed that the Chinese government had directed her to post the content, according to court documents.

That sort of low-level violation of the law is not supposed to trigger federal charges unless, according to a February 2025 memo by then-Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to Justice Department prosecutors, the case involved “conduct similar to more traditional espionage.” The Trump administration has pursued other high-profile foreign agent cases recently, with prosecutors winning a conviction Wednesday of a man charged with running a covert police station in Manhattan and keeping tabs on political dissidents.

When news broke of the charges and plea deal involving Wang, current and former city officials said they were not surprised.

A wall of photographs of former Arcadia mayors hang inside Arcadia City Hall. Eileen Wang is shown second from left on the bottom row. Wang admitted in court filings this week to working as an unregistered agent for China.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

“The warning signs around Eileen Wang were public for more than a year before this plea, agreement, and too many people in positions of influence defended and supported her,” April Verlato, a former mayor of Arcadia, said in a statement. “Our electeds should have represented what was best for the community and held her accountable. The San Gabriel Valley deserves better.”

Paul Cheng, mayor pro tem of Arcadia, said the council didn’t move earlier to oust Wang because a majority of its members wanted to let the federal investigation run its course.

“The public always says, ‘Why didn’t you investigate her when her boyfriend was arrested? Why didn’t you do something?’” he said.

Pedestrians walk along a sidewalk next to Huntington Drive in downtown Arcadia on Wednesday.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

But, he emphasized, “council members are not federal investigators.”

“We are not supposed to get involved,” said Cheng, an attorney. “It would make the situation 10 times worse.”

Cheng spoke highly of Wang, painting her as a committed civil servant with a passion for veterans, first responders and diversifying the businesses on Baldwin Avenue, the city’s main corridor.

“She probably attended the most events compared to all of us,” he said. “People have tried getting me to say she’s a horrible person, but I can only say what I saw, which was I thought she did a good job on council.”

EastEnders’ Ronni Ancona has warned that a “deeply malevolent” storyline will become “so much darker” for Honey and Billy as Bea “blacks out with anger” and “spirals”

EastEnders‘ Honey Mitchell is about to be put in danger, as creepy Bea Pollard finally snaps. According to star Ronni Ancona, Bea’s life in Walford is about to come crashing down, leading to a “deeply malevolent” atmosphere that will get “so much darker” for Honey.

Over the past few months, Bea has wormed her way into Honey’s (Emma Barton) life. She’s living in Honey’s house, buying the exact same clothes as her friend and has even taken out a credit card in her name.

As Honey and her husband Billy (Perry Fenwick) become more and more suspicious of Bea, Ronni says that her character is set to “spiral” – and it won’t be good for Honey.

READ MORE: EastEnders star reveals devastating death of family member in heartbreaking tributeREAD MORE: Soap star’s heartbreak as beloved mum dies four years after comedian dad

“It’s going to get so much darker for Honey and Billy. I would say that Bea increasingly spirals, and she becomes more dangerous as a result,” Ronni says.

She adds: “I think Bea almost blacks out with anger. There is something in her that switches when she is triggered, and at that point her actions become deeply malevolent.

“I think there’s a really interesting point here that she is very desperate. She knows time is running out for her, and I think that fuels her. It’s like a warped sense of self-preservation. I think she is horribly lonely, and I think it’s catastrophically damaging for her. She sees in Honey a chance of something real, and she’s not ready to give it up.”

Honey is set to find out about the credit card Bea has gotten and the enormous debt it has put Honey in. Ronni explains that Bea will initially try to get herself off the hook, but ultimately has to admit that what she did was wrong. Honey is just about to give in when Billy arrives home and orders Bea to leave.

Bea hasn’t liked Billy for a while, and some wondered if she had nefarious plans to replace him in Honey’s life. But Ronni has insisted that while Bea “loves Honey too much”, it’s not romantic and Bea’s dislike of Billy actually comes from how he can “see through her”.

“She finds him coarse, and she doesn’t respect him,” Ronni says. “I think initially she did, because she didn’t want to replace Billy; she wanted to be part of that family unit, and that’s all she wanted. But, I think the tide changed towards Billy for Bea when she realised he was not going to let that happen.

“He’s now in Bea’s way and all of this had added to fuel to her situation with Billy. In addition, the biggest thing for Bea is she knows that Billy can see right through her. That’s why she can’t stand Billy. Billy is a perfectly nice, hard-working guy who just wants a simple life with his family, but he can see through her, and therefore he’s a problem. “

But what about Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt)? For the past couple of weeks, Bea and Ian have been dating, and she has thrown herself into getting him elected as a councillor for Walford. She seems intent on being his Mrs, but Ian is not so invested in the relationship.

Ronni says: “I tragically think she is alarmingly ecstatic about the very small steps in her relationship. This is quite Bea. She is a comic, tragic character, but her strange, warped optimism knows no bounds. Bea has this element of being an excited child, and she’s a bit of a dreamer like a Blanche Dubois character, and I think she has always imagined herself in a position and situation like this. It suits her just perfectly. Even though she’s gone through such terrible times, and is constantly rejected, this is a little clink of light.”

So how will she react when the newly minted Councillor Beale breaks up with her? “Bea switches so quickly. She’s mercurial, and she can’t seem to regulate her emotions. Bea suddenly gets very angry very quickly instead of processing the situation.

“She suddenly becomes vengeful about the situation with Ian. I do think Ian is a little hasty in his rejection of Bea. Evidently, I’ve heard that Bea is the only person who has been rejected, soundly, by every person in Walford!”

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The African island nation also expels French embassy personnel over acts linked to the destabilisation investigation.

Madagascar has detained a French serviceman over an alleged plot to destabilise the island and also declared an agent at the French embassy persona non grata over acts linked to the destabilisation investigation.

Deputy Prosecutor Nomenarinera Mihamintsoa Ramanantsoa said in a video statement released late on ⁠Tuesday that the former French national serviceman, Guy Baret, had been placed ⁠in pretrial detention at Tsiafahy maximum-security prison.

A Malagasy army officer, Colonel Patrick Rakotomamonjy, and other alleged accomplices were also implicated, he said.

According to Ramanantsoa, prosecutors have charged the suspects with spreading false information to disturb public order, plotting to sabotage infrastructure including power lines and ⁠thermal plants operated by state utility Jirama, harbouring wanted individuals, and criminal conspiracy. Authorities said the group had planned actions initially set for April 18.

Rakotomamonjy is awaiting ‌presentation ‌before an investigating judge. Two other suspects were placed under judicial supervision, with prosecutors saying they did not appear to be the masterminds of the conspiracy

Madagascar is a former French colony that retains close political links to France and has had a history of instability in recent decades.

The country’s military ruler, President Michael Randrianirina, seized power in October last year, after a wave of youth-led protests against his ‌predecessor, Andry Rajoelina.

France helped Rajoelina flee in October as protests over lack of water and energy escalated and ultimately forced him from power.

France said Wednesday that it had summoned the charge d’affaires of the Madagascan embassy in Paris “to vigorously protest” the expulsion of the diplomatic official.

“He was informed that France categorically rejected any accusation of destabilising the Refoundation regime of the Republic of Madagascar,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said, adding that the official had been summoned on Tuesday.

“Such accusations are not only unfounded, but also incomprehensible.”

The Madagascar Foreign Ministry said French Ambassador Arnaud Guillois had been summoned and informed ‌of the decision over the embassy agent. It did not identify the agent or specify the acts in question.

WIENER NEUSTADT, Austria — A man accused of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and plotting to attack one of superstar singer Taylor Swift’s concerts in Vienna nearly two years ago pleaded guilty as his trial began on Tuesday, his lawyer said.

The plot was thwarted, but Austrian authorities still canceled Swift’s three performances in August 2024. The singer’s fans, known as Swifties, who had flown to Austria from across the globe to attend a performance of her record-setting Eras Tour were devastated, but rallied to turn Vienna into a citywide trading post for friendship bracelets and singalongs.

The defendant, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen known only as Beran A. in line with Austrian privacy rules, faced charges including terrorist offenses and membership in a terrorist organization. He could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, and has been in custody since August 2024.

The Vienna plot drew comparisons to a 2017 attack by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people. The bomb detonated at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving, becoming the deadliest extremist attack in the United Kingdom in recent years.

Defendant regrets his actions

Anna Mair, his defense attorney, said her client pleaded guilty to the charges related to the concert plot.

“Of course, he deeply regrets it all,” Mair said outside the court, adding that “he says it was the biggest mistake of his life.”

Austrian media reported that he also pleaded guilty to being a member of a terrorist organization.

Beran A. is facing trial alongside Arda K., whose full name also has not been made public. They, along with a third man, planned to carry out simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates during Ramadan in 2024 in the name of the Islamic State group. Beran A. and Arda K. never carried out their attacks.

Only Beran A. was charged in connection with the concert plot. He pleaded not guilty to the charges related to the plot for simultaneous attacks.

He allegedly planned to target onlookers gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium — up to 30,000 each night, with another 65,000 inside the venue — with knives or homemade explosives. The suspect hoped to “kill as many people as possible,” authorities said in 2024. The U.S. provided intelligence that fed into the decision to cancel the concerts.

Beran A. also allegedly networked with other members of the Islamic State group ahead of the planned attack. Prosecutors say they discussed purchasing weapons and making bombs, and that the defendant also sought to illegally buy weapons in the days ahead of the performance. In addition, he swore allegiance to the militant group.

Authorities searched his apartment on Aug. 7, 2024, and found bomb-making materials. The concerts were scheduled to begin the next day.

“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating,” Swift wrote in a statement posted to Instagram two weeks later. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”

A representative for Swift did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

The trial is being held in Wiener Neustadt, about an hour south of Vienna. The proceedings are set to continue May 12.

Three attacks planned in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE

Prosecutors have also filed terrorism-related charges against Arda K. in the trial in connection with the plan for simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The third man in that plot, Hasan E., allegedly stabbed a security guard with a knife at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on March 11, 2024. He was arrested and remains in pretrial detention in Saudi Arabia, Austrian prosecutors said.

Beran A. and Arda K. did not carry out their plans in Turkey and the UAE. Beran A. returned to Vienna and then allegedly began plotting to attack a Swift concert there.

Jenne, Schrader and Dazio write for the Associated Press. Dazio reported from Berlin. AP writer Daniel Niemann in Cologne, Germany, contributed to this report.

In the first of several significant flashbacks in “Over Your Dead Body,” Samara Weaving’s unhappy Lisa complains to a friend about a hunting trip her equally miserable husband Dan (Jason Segel) is taking her on. “You know how much I hate guns,” Lisa fumes. “So dangerous.” Turns out, she’s actually telling two lies, which is par for the course for this twisty yet underwhelming dark comedy that views marriage as both a hyperviolent blood sport and a battle to the death.

Based on Norwegian filmmaker Tommy Wirkola’s 2021 “The Trip,” “Over Your Dead Body” concerns a couple whose wedded bliss has faded along with their professional prospects. Dan directed a moderately successful sci-fi film several years ago but is now stuck shooting cheesy pop-up ads. Meanwhile, Lisa’s nascent acting career is flailing. As the movie begins, Dan conspicuously informs his production team that he and his wife are going hiking in the middle of nowhere — something, he insists, the risk-taking Lisa wants to do, despite how perilous that might be. What we soon realize is that he’s creating cover for his nefarious plan, which is to kill Lisa at his family’s forest cottage, making it look like she disappeared without a trace in the woods.

But director Jorma Taccone eventually reveals that it’s not just Dan who has murder on his mind. That first flashback rewinds to Lisa’s simultaneous scheming, claiming to those close to her that Dan longs to go hunting — when, in fact, she’s secretly brought a rifle so that the authorities will assume he accidentally shot himself. (Whatever fears she once harbored about firearms are, clearly, no longer an issue, if they ever were.) Dan is offended when he uncovers her plot: Why would she want to kill him? At least he’s justified, he believes, having caught Lisa in an affair with her scene partner.

More surprises are in store as Dan and Lisa engage in a deadly standoff in the cabin, only to discover that they’re not alone. Another flashback details how two convicted killers, Todd (Keith Jardine) and Pete (Timothy Olyphant), escaped from a local penitentiary with the help of Pete’s girlfriend, prison guard Allegra (Juliette Lewis), and are seeking refuge at the cottage. Suddenly, the feuding married couple must work together to stay alive.

One-third of the comedy troupe the Lonely Island, Taccone previously directed the big-screen adaptation of the “Saturday Night Live” sketch “MacGruber” and co-directed the endlessly rewatchable mockumentary “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.” For “Over Your Dead Body,” he teams with producer David Leitch, whose 87North shingle specializes in R-rated action-comedies like “Nobody” and “Violent Night.” Taccone’s irreverent, slyly shocking style would seem a good match for a story in which the pain of romantic discontent is paired with myriad scenes in which a variety of weapons wreak grisly havoc, including lawnmowers, sports cars, gardening equipment and a sock with a pool ball in it.

But despite Segel and Weaver’s best efforts, they can’t make this bickering duo deliciously awful, the characters proving more grating than hilariously combustible. And when Pete and his cohorts arrive, they’re too broadly quirky to be either menacing or hysterical, although Olyphant’s long-suffering leader has some nice moments slowly processing how dumb Todd and Allegra are.

Other than one queasy homage to “Deliverance,” the film’s handling of the showdown between this drab married couple and the cartoonish criminals is rarely gripping. Instead, “Over Your Dead Body” delivers over-the-top fight sequences emphasizing grimaces and gross-out laughs. People aren’t simply shot in the head — the bullet transforms it into a gooey slab of meat. Fingers get sliced off, stakes are driven through hands and a foot is reduced to bloody tatters. Taccone handles all this with gleeful excessiveness but once you’ve seen one pulverized face, you’ve seen them all.

A droll irony is intended to unfold alongside the rising body count. Dan and Lisa embarked on this getaway to murder one another, but they’ll end up rekindling their love. To be sure, Segel and Weaving are much more winning once their characters start warming to one another. Still, the film feels like a missed opportunity for Weaving, who became a scream queen in the “Ready or Not” films. In those movies, as an unsuspecting bride thrust into a life-or-death situation, she appealingly balanced a convincing physical performance with an understated comedic streak, her beleaguered character enduring one absurdity after another.

Weaving finds herself in a somewhat similar role in “Over Your Dead Body” and this uneven action-comedy is anchored by her had-it-up-to-here performance, which provides a witty insight into marriage that the film otherwise ignores. It’s bad enough that Lisa has to deal with Dan’s insecurity — now she’s got to tangle with some dopey crooks? Women have to do everything in a relationship.

Emmerdale’s Moira Dingle actress Natalie J Robb has hinted her character could take a deadly revenge on evil Joe Tate in a gun showdown, and she ‘could kill him’

There’s dramatic scenes on the way on Emmerdale as Joe Tate is finally rumbled by Moira Dingle.

Robert Sugden confesses his part in Moira being arrested over Celia Daniels’ drugs and human trafficking crimes. When he explains what really happened, Moira finds out Joe was blackmailing him and Victoria Sugden.

But she’s left even more rage-filled when she realises Joe is a huge part of the reason she’s been in prison over a double murder she did not commit. Preparing to take revenge, it all leads to a gun showdown at Home Farm.

Will Moira end up in prison again though if she takes a deadly revenge on Joe? Actress Natalie J Robb has revealed what fans can expect from the moment, and what the future holds for Joe…

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Robert tells Moira the truth about planting the documents. How does she react?

Robert starts to feel guilty because he finds out that it’s Moira’s birthday and everybody has kind of forgotten about it. She says that it doesn’t matter and then he gets really guilty about it.

Moira starts to get a little bit suspicious and thinks: ‘What’s going on here? This is odd’. He gives her some pictures that Holly did, and things like that, which he found in the attic.

And then he just says something and she says: ‘How did you know about that?’ Because he wouldn’t have known where the documents were hidden. Then of course she gets it out of him and he confesses that it was him and she goes ballistic.

She’s really hurt actually, because she doesn’t expect that of him. She actually thought he’d turned a corner and changed as a person. Then he admits that it was down to Joe Tate – that he forced him – and why he had to protect Victoria and it was down to Joe Tate.

Moira plots revenge doesn’t she…

I’m fuming then, so I go back to the house to tell Cain but he’s having a bit of an argument with Sam. He’s just not in the mood so I think, good old Moira style, she gets her shotgun and goes to visit Joe Tate.

And literally at that point, she’s going round there to kill him. She has the shotgun, she makes him sit down and try to confess. He’s trying to play dumb but she knows it’s down to him.

Then more people get involved. Obviously she doesn’t kill him. But she swears to him at this point that she will make it her priority to make his life a living hell. Or a non-living one…

Why does she decide not to tell Cain about Robert?

She thinks if he finds out, he’s going to go ballistic and do something stupid. She’s just got out of prison, the last thing she wants is for him to go to prison.

But that’s going to eat him up because he knows what she’s been doing for Robert as well. And the fact that he’s in my farm, it’s just a hard pill to swallow. But I’m trying to prevent something terrible happening and protect the marriage as well, because we’re dealing with something that’s a lot bigger than money.

When she has the shotgun, does it not enter her head that she might end up back in prison?

I don’t think she cares at that point. In that split second, she’s so angry because he’s [Cain] had to deal with the cancer on his own. He’s [Joe] kept me away from my children and she thinks: ‘Really? Are you really that horrible and that cruel? Are you really that greedy? It’s all about power’.

It’s a bit like the world we’re living in now, all about power and it’s not actually about being humane to people. And at that point she’s definitely going there to kill him and she nearly does.

Can you tease what’s to come for Joe?

Well I think he’s going to be under her radar, it might just be quietly. He might try to worm her round. But we don’t know how that’s going to pan out with the writing and which route they’re going to go.

But when I was filming the scenes, it was pretty certain that she was going to get him back in some way or another. And she does, she does team up with people to get him to suffer in a similar way, but that would be by him losing everything, so that he has no power. So we’ll see.

Would you like Moira and Kim to become friends after their recent heart-to-heart at the prison?

It’s nice that they don’t get on but they have that mutual respect for each other. You really see how Kim knows what that farm meant to Moira. And for her to do that for him, it really opens Kim’s eyes. Like: ‘Oh right, okay, it’s a proper love’.

She really respects that and it’s about family roots and values. So there’s that respect for each other. I think that’ll always be there in the background now but they’ll still have fights – probably because of Joe to be honest, he’ll be the main factor!

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Russia’s FSB accused the woman, found with a bomb in her backpack, of taking part in a plot hatched by Ukraine.

Russian authorities say they have thwarted a Ukraine-linked bomb plot against security services and arrested a German woman found with a makeshift bomb in her backpack.

Russia’s FSB security agency said the unnamed woman was detained on Monday in the southern city of Pyatigorsk.

In a statement cited by Russia’s state-run TASS news agency, the FSB said it had “prevented a terrorist attack planned by the Kyiv regime against a law enforcement facility in the Stavropol region, involving a German citizen born in 1969”.

It said the woman had been recruited by a citizen from a Central Asian country, who was working on orders from Ukraine. That man was found and arrested near the targeted site.

According to the FSB, the device contained an explosive charge equivalent to 1.5kg (3 pounds) of TNT and was intended to be detonated remotely. The agency said the blast was ultimately prevented by electronic jamming.

Video of the purported arrest published by Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency showed armed Russian security agents approach the woman as she was face down in a car park.

Another video showed masked plainclothes agents pulling a man into a station, followed by a controlled explosion of the backpack.

Russia’s previous allegations

Russia has arrested dozens of people throughout the four-year war, mostly its own citizens, on allegations of working for Ukraine to carry out sabotage attacks.

Russia has previously accused Ukraine of working with Islamic fundamentalists to carry out attacks inside Russia, without providing evidence.

Officials initially alleged that the perpetrators of a 2024 massacre at a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow that killed 150 people were ISIL (ISIS) members in coordination with Ukraine.

ISIL claimed responsibility for that attack, making no reference of any Ukrainian involvement, for which no evidence was presented by Moscow and which Kyiv denies.