returns

She’d been out for over a year, her long, arduous recovery from a season-ending knee injury kept almost completely under wraps. But as JuJu Watkins took her place in front of a microphone for the first time since returning to practice this summer, the USC superstar could barely contain her gratitude.

Asked Monday what the best part about being back has been so far, a big smile crept across Watkins’ face.

“Honestly everything,” Watkins said. “Like I don’t even know, the smallest stuff just gets me excited.”

Watkins’ return is a momentous mile marker for a team that has serious national title aspirations this season. Her status remains uncertain, and reporters in attendance Monday were told not to inquire further about Watkins’ specific recovery timeline. But Watkins did say that she’s already been able to scrimmage during USC’s summer practice and that she’s “feeling back like myself.”

“It’s just been a long time coming,” Watkins said. “I’ve just been working out and grinding every day so that I could be in position, so to see all of that hard work pay off right now, it’s really fulfilling.”

Watkins was a two-time consensus All-American and the Associated Press Player of the Year in 2025, when her knee buckled that March during a breakaway in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The injury, a torn ACL, wouldn’t just derail a possible title run for USC that season, but also upend the Trojans’ trajectory for the next one.

Facing one of the toughest schedules in the nation, USC missed Watkins dearly. The Trojans finished their frustrating campaign 18-14 before losing in the Round of 32.

As she sat out, Watkins said she struggled to keep still. Patience didn’t necessarily come naturally. She found herself leaning on others, she said, like Dallas Wings point guard Paige Bueckers, who went through her own ACL recovery.

“She was constantly checking up on me, sending me texts, encouraging me,” Watkins said of Bueckers. ‘I really appreciated that.”

Coaches suggested she pour that energy into her teammates. So she took solace in doing the little things, like arranging the locker room chairs during pre-game.

“Just to watch her take something that was so difficult and pour herself into everything that went into last year was something I’ll never forget,” coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I really do take a lot of inspiration from it.”

The silver lining, coming out of a season without their superstar, was the emergence of freshman Jazzy Davidson, who came to USC to play alongside Watkins. Instead, she ended up winning National Freshman of the Year and becoming a rising star in her own right,

This month, Watkins and Davidson were finally able to take the floor together, just as Gottlieb had once envisioned. She’d waited quite a while for that pairing, she reminded Monday. But Davidson, she thinks, will be all the better for having survived her freshman season without Watkins.

“You just come back with a different level of confidence,” Gottlieb said. “I hope she brings with her every experience she had because who had more experience than Jazzy in terms of a freshman year where she handled so much?”

Now, with Watkins back and Davidson set to take another step forward, there won’t be so much pressure on the Trojans’ newest top recruit.

Saniyah Hall marks the third straight No. 1 overall prospect to sign with Gottlieb and USC, but she steps into a decidedly different scenario than the other two did. In addition to Watkins and Davidson, the Trojans also brought in two other top freshmen in Sitaya Fagan and Sara Okeke, as well as two priority portal adds in Ryann Bennett and Pania Davis.

“With the talent that’s on the team,” Hall said, “I think it could be something that’s very special.”

That starts with Watkins, who, in spite of a year away, apparently hasn’t skipped a beat in her return.

“I feel like she’s back like she never left,” guard Kennedy Smith said.

The Netflix crime drama has been hailed as “perfect” and “the best series ever”

Fans of crime dramas on the hunt for their next binge-worthy series should give this Netflix show a go.

Crooks follows the chaotic exploits of Charly (played by Frederick Lau), a man desperately trying to rescue his kidnapped family after his murky past comes back to haunt him, reports the Express.

Charly is forced, alongside getaway driver Joseph (Christoph Krutzler), to attempt the theft of a priceless gold coin.

When the heist unravels spectacularly, Charly and Joseph find themselves hurtling across the Continent in a bid to save his family, coming up against organised crime outfits from Berlin to Vienna to Marseilles. Netflix described Crooks as “an adventurous and action-packed road trip across three national borders begins”.

The series has earned widespread acclaim on IMDb, with one viewer awarding it a perfect 10/10 review, declaring: “The Story is Perfect.”

They concluded: “I haven’t had such an intense series experience in a long time. For me, it’s easily one of the best series I’ve ever watched.”

A second reviewer gave Crooks 9/10, calling it an “excellent series” that “keeps you engaged”.

They added: “The series captivates with its compelling narrative, keeping viewers glued to their screens.”

While a third viewer hailed Crooks a “fantastic series” in their own 9/10 review, explaining: “Brilliant show – elements of Dogs of Berlin with a Guy Ritchie edge.

“Very well done and hits the mark of a gangland action drama, but with an under thread of a real friendship story with a very human touch.”

A fourth viewer titled their review: “Entertaining thriller with action and suspense.”

They elaborated: “Crooks is a good crime, action show which lulls you into binge watching all eight episodes without much thought. Thoroughly enjoyable!”.

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Crooks initially arrived back in 2024, with Season 2 recently dropping on Netflix this April.

Season 2 unfolds in Thailand as Crooks expands internationally.

This time around, Charly finds himself compelled to steal the same gold coin from the government, which is threatening to jail him and his family for a crime he didn’t commit.

Crooks Season 2 is streaming on Netflix now.

President says his country will readmit genuine nationals but insists Europe must first verify deportees’ identities.

Mogadishu, Somalia – The European Union has imposed visa restrictions on Somali citizens, escalating a dispute with Mogadishu over the return of Somalis living in Europe illegally.

The bloc’s member states approved the measures on Thursday, acting on a report that Somalia was not doing enough to take back nationals who had been refused the right to stay.

Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud pushed back, saying his government would readmit its citizens, but said that many returnees were not Somali nationals.

“We haven’t rejected our people; they own this country. And we cannot reject them,” the president said at an Independence Day event on Thursday, adding that Somalia had “questions about how those people would be returned.”

People across the Horn of Africa share a similar appearance, he said, and some present themselves as Somali to claim asylum in Europe. He pointed to past cases in which individuals sent back as Somalis turned out not to be, including some who “don’t know the Somali language.”

“If they are Somali, then we’ll take them. If they aren’t, we’ll help you find out where they are from, and you can send them there,” Mohamud said.

The pressures driving people to leave are rooted in decades of upheaval.

Somalia is still rebuilding after the collapse of its central government in 1991 and the long civil war that followed.

Recovery efforts have been stifled by the ongoing armed rebellion of al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked armed group that has waged deadly attacks since 2006.

Those conditions have pushed many young Somalis to attempt the dangerous journey to Europe, often through Libya, where migrants have faced detention, extortion and violence.

The prime minister regularly handled such cases, Mohamud said, adding that Somali embassies had been instructed to help citizens return.

Magnus Brunner, the bloc’s migration commissioner, said countries of origin had to meet their commitments “otherwise, there can be consequences.”

A European Commission assessment concluded that Somalia’s cooperation on readmission was insufficient.

Under the new rules, member states can no longer issue multiple-entry visas to Somalis, and the fee waiver for holders of diplomatic passports has been removed. The standard processing time for visa applications has also been extended from 15 to 45 days.

The suspension has no fixed end date and is intended as leverage to push Mogadishu towards closer cooperation.

Somalia now joins a short list of countries hit with such measures.

The EU imposed similar restrictions on The Gambia in 2021 and Ethiopia in 2024, lifting the Ethiopian curbs in May after deciding cooperation had improved.

The visa restrictions add to a run of setbacks for Somali travellers.

The United States imposed a sweeping travel ban in 2025, after President Donald Trump returned to office, covering citizens of a dozen countries, including Somalia.

The policy drew attention this month when Omar Abdulkadir Artan, named Africa’s referee of the year in 2025, was denied entry to the US and couldn’t officiate at the World Cup, despite holding a valid visa.

The standoff comes as the EU tightens its wider approach to migration, pursuing return centres beyond its borders and faster deportations for people refused the right to stay.

Katelyn Ohashi has gone viral for her gymnastics routines.

She has won two ESPY Awards.

She’s a former national champion and All-American who earned 11 perfect scores of 10 during her time at UCLA.

She once took first place in the all-round at an elite national competition, with the now-legendary Simone Biles finishing as runner-up.

But Ohashi apparently has some unfinished business in the sport, as the 29-year-old athlete announced her return to elite gymnastics Tuesday on Instagram.

“After a few years of contemplating whether I wanted to continue chasing a dream I had as a little kid, I have decided to go for it,” Ohashi wrote. “I’m taking it one day at a time; one skill, one event, one dream. I don’t have any regrets in my career and I want to be able to continue saying that no matter what happens. So here goes nothing!”

Katelyn Ohashi accepts the trophy for best play during the 2019 ESPY Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

(Kevin Winter / Getty Images)

Ohashi thanks Pacific Reign Gymnastics, a U.S. national training center in Woodinville, Wash., “for taking a chance on me.” Her post also includes a video of herself at the gym performing a couple of floor skills — with her signature broad smile across her face. The clip uses the same audio of a phone buzzing and ringing as the video Serena Williams posted earlier this month to announce her return to competitive tennis.

Also on Tuesday, Pacific Reign posted on Instagram several photos of Ohashi working out at its facility, along with the caption, “Queen Kate trains to reign.” The gym also announced on its Instagram Story that Ohashi would compete Saturday at the American Classic event in Minneapolis.

Little else is known about Ohashi’s comeback plans. The Times reached out to an agency that represents the gymnast but received no immediate response. Pacific Reign referred questions pertaining to Ohashi to the same agency.

Born in Seattle, Ohashi made her senior elite gymnastics debut at the 2013 American Cup, where she outscored U.S. teammate Biles for all-around gold. Later that year, Biles would win the first of her record six world championships in the all-around.

Ohashi became a fan favorite while competing for the Bruins from 2015 to 2018. She earned nine perfect scores on the floor and two on the beam, with video from a January 2019 floor routine reportedly garnering 240 million views across various platforms (including a repost from future Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris).

UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi’s viral floor routine.

The same routine won Ohashi two 2019 ESPY Awards, for best play and best viral moment.

In 2018, Ohashi was the co-national champion in the floor exercise and helped the Bruins win their seventh and most recent NCAA title. The 10-time All-American last competed in the 2019 national championships, where she placed third on the beam and helped UCLA finish third in the team competition.

“We can’t wait to see you back on the floor, Kate!” UCLA gymnastics posted Wednesday morning on X.

Ohashi was a featured performer in Biles’ “Gold Over America” gymnastics tours in 2021 and 2024.

PERRIE Edwards is already booked and busy following her stunning wedding to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The former Little Mix songstress, 32, and her footballer husband tied the knot in an intimate ceremony less than a week ago after after nine years of dating.

But it appears Perrie is already getting back to work, and was pictured dressed up behind the scenes at the Isle of Wight Festival yesterday.

The singer got up on stage and performed for a buzzing crowd while wearing an all black skintight outfit.

Though she couldn’t help but take a moment to gush about her wedding to everyone, sharing how she is utterly “obsessed” with being able to call Alex her husband now.

Perrie and Alex jetted off to Portugal for their big day alongside friends and family.

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Perrie Edwards stuns in her THIRD wedding dress at Portugal wedding

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Insiders said the pair married in a low-key ceremony before hosting their closest family friends at the posh Parrilla Natural restaurant.

The pair said their vows in the Igreja Matriz de Estoi church in the village of Estoi in Faro, close to where they own a villa.

Perrie, who had six bridesmaids including her sister Caitlyn wore a long-sleeved, lace gown, while Alex looked smart in a tux.

Her bandmate Jade Thirlwall missed the celebrations as she was booked to perform at Primavera Sound Festival on the same day.

A source said: “Perrie and Alex’s wedding day could not have been more special.

“It was intimate and emotional.

“Perrie and Alex’s son Axel had a special role to play in the ceremony. It was adorable to see.

“She looked absolutely radiant and Alex didn’t stop smiling. It was a truly beautiful day.”

In the days after the wedding Perrie debuted two more wedding dresses in Portugal, including a gorgeous sparkly mini dress with a detachable jacket.

Former Little Mix bandmate Jesy Nelson is said to have not received an invitation.


A FREE UK beach festival dubbed a “giant family playground” returns this weekend to an iconic seaside town.

Tens of thousands of visitors are expected to descend on the beachfront to enjoy a programme of live music and workshops.

A huge, free beach festival is set to return this weekend (June 20 to June 21) with tens of thousands of visitors expected to attend.

The First Light Festival takes place annually in Lowestoft, Suffolk, and features more than 200 performances across 24 stages.

The creative festival also offers visitors a wide-ranging programme of workshops, wellbeing sessions, crafting, dance, science, storytelling and family adventures for a fun-filled weekend.

Taking place over the summer solstice, the festival is a celebration of the first sunrise of midsummer.

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This year, visitors will be able to attend a “special Indian Sunrise raga” at dawn on Sunday, June 21.

The festival covers an expansive area of the South Beach, spreading along the seafront, promenade and nearby Kensington Gardens and East Point Pavilion.

Converting the seafront into a “giant family playground”, festival-goers will enjoy events such as dance parties, science discoveries and circus skills workshops.

There are also camping options for those looking to stay overnight, including a glamping experience in well-equipped campervans.

Visitors are able to enter the First Light Festival for free and without a ticket.

However, after 9.30 pm, any festival-goers looking to attend one of the Sundown Events happening on Saturday night after the free programme of beach events ends will need to purchase a ticket.

The festivities began on Friday, June 19, with a selection of live theatre and music events to kick off the celebrations, and there are many more activities to get involved in as the weekend progresses.

A huge Big Bang Boogie parade takes place on Saturday, June 20, starting at the East Point Pavilion at 11 am and travelling along the seafront towards the main Sunlight Stage.

Other activities include a grounded movement ring, rocketry experience, and a traditional Punch and Judy show.

Visitors can also explore a selection of dance workshops, aerial displays and even get to see objects from the Natural History Museum.

Returning for its sixth year, the festival also has a huge impact on the town itself.

Chairman of Lowestoft Vision business improvement district, Danny Steel, told the BBC that the midsummer festival was “massive” for Lowestoft.

He explained: “We get about 30,000 people come to the First Light Festival over the weekend, and if all of those people spend £35 in Lowestoft, that’s £1m extra into the Lowestoft economy.”

Chief executive officer of the First Light Festival, Genevieve Christie, said the festival is about “coming together” as a community and gives people the chance to “experience things in real life”.

The festival also aims to put Lowestoft on the map as a holiday destination.

She explained: “All of our work is about raising the profile of Lowestoft, actually as a place to come on holiday, to be a tourist.

“We’ll be looking forward to 2028, when we’ll be operating the new cultural centre in Lowestoft, and our whole idea there is to bring the spirit of the festival into the town.”

When dozens of farmers bade farewell to their family members on the morning of Friday, June 12, and headed out in different directions to work on their farms, 17 of them were not lucky enough to return home alive. The farmers were killed after terrorists invaded their fields in the Maradun Local Government Area (LGA) of Zamfara, North West Nigeria.

Locals say 13 other farmers were injured during the attack, with three of them referred to the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) in Sokoto. A survivor of the attack, who identified himself only as Bello, told HumAngle that he was on his farm in the outskirts of Gora in the Maradun LGA, at around 9 a.m., when he heard the first gunshot. He said he thought it was one of the Yan Sakai local security guards, but it became clear that it was a terrorist attack when the gunshot sounded a second time. Yan Sakai security volunteers are young people carrying weapons to protect residents from terrorist attacks. 

Bello recalled that he was lying face down while others fled. As the gunfire persisted, he managed to pull himself to the other side of the road before running home. “I was lucky, my farm is right on the side of the road; most of those killed had their farms a little bit away from the road,” he said.

For over ten years, rural terrorism has become widespread and persisted in Zamfara and other northwestern states. In many ungovernable areas, farmers are compelled to pay a farming tax before they are permitted to work on their fields as the wet season arrives. The armed groups also require farmers to make payments running into millions to cultivate their crops. Even after paying, not all communities are granted access to their farmlands. Many communities have been displaced, and food stores have been torched because residents failed to pay the required farming tax.

HumAngle recently reported that about 40 leaders of a farming community were abducted at a peace deal meeting with a terrorist leader in a village in the Maradun LGA. The community leaders were lured into a meeting to discuss how much they would pay to a terror group, only for them to be abducted by the leader of the criminal syndicate. In a separate report, we also documented how farmers were being displaced after paying millions of naira as farming tax to terrorists in Zamfara.

“There were a lot of motorcycles with bandits on top, shooting sporadically, but I managed to escape. The bandits [terrorists] must have divided into groups because there were gunshots from all corners,” Bello said.

The chairman of the Maradun LGA, Sanusi Dosara, stated that the recent devastating attack reflects the ongoing efforts of terrorists to disrupt farming activities in the state. Since early June, there has been an increase in attacks aimed at farmers in Zamfara. 

Prior to the latest incident, two farmers were killed while tending to their fields near the Kaya community, not far from Gora in Maradun. Earlier, eight farmers were killed in an attack in Gima village, located in Anka LGA. According to locals, the farmers who lost their lives in the Gima assault were: Sani Kanen Tidurogo, Salisu Kadda, Bello Kyabe, Ibrahim na Yakubu Ziti, Yusuf Malan Rabi, Masaudu Sani Adake, Abdulmajid Sani, and Adamu Dungo.

“The terrorists are intentional about what they want,” Abdulmudallib Anka, a resident, told HumAngle. His house in Anka is filled with internally displaced persons from Gima and other villages. “The day of that attack, the terrorists circled a group of farmers working on their farms before they started shooting sporadically.”

Abdulmudallib noted that the recurring attacks have shown the terrorists are ready to continue their onslaught against the civilian population, so as to stop them from gaining access to their farms. There have also been reports of attacks in which farmers were killed in the communities of Kaura Namoda, Tsafe, Zurmi, and Birnin Magaji LGAs over the past few days.

Sulaiman Abdullahi, a youth leader in Birnin Magaji, said the situation has forced several farmers to stop going to the farm.

“Early June, farmers were attacked outside Tungar Danjuma and Gidan Kyafda, which led to the death of about six farmers with several others injured,” Sulaiman said. “That same day, farmlands on the Birnin Magaji – Kaura Namoda road were also attacked around 1 p.m.”

In Zurmi LGA, the terrorists struck on June 7 and invaded the outskirts of the town, along the road to Kaura Namoda, killing two farmers working on their farms. 

CHICAGO — Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani stepped into the Rate Field batter’s box for the first time this series on Saturday, greeted by a smattering of boos from White Sox fans.

He took his first swing at the second pitch of the game. And he sent it into the right-field stands. A no-doubter, proclaiming that his availability was no longer in doubt.

Ohtani returned to the lineup for the Dodgers’ 7-1 win against the White Sox on Saturday, after exiting the Dodgers’ game Thursday against the Pittsburgh Pirates and missing Friday against the White Sox because of inflammation in his left knee.

“I felt good waking up in the morning,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton after going one for three with a home runs and three walks Saturday. “I feel good now. So I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to stay healthy, and should be good to go [Sunday] as well.”

Ohtani also tested his knee playing catch before the game Saturday. And the Dodgers will continue to monitor him as he prepares to take the mound Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Rays at Dodger Stadium.

“It wasn’t 100% today,” Ohtani said. “But with the next three, four days, I feel pretty confident, with enough recovery, that I should be able to make the next start.”

Even Ohtani said he hasn’t been able to pinpoint the cause of the swelling. But he has a theory.

“All I can really know for sure is that I think my mechanics weren’t quite great in terms of my pitching side,” he said, “so I believe that had something to do with this.”

Even before Ohtani’s knee swelled the Dodgers planned to have him pitch the day before their Thursday off day.

They switched Ohtani and left-hander Justin Wrobleski in the rotation order, having Wrobleski pitch Thursday on regular rest.

That remains the plan, even after Wrobleski was hit in the leg by a comebacker during his start Thursday. He left the game after that play in the fifth inning with a bruised right hamstring.

The Dodgers considered bringing in a spot starter, manager Dave Roberts said, in order to keep the full rotation on extra rest.

Shohei Ohtani leads off the game with a home run to spark the Dodgers to a 7-1 win over the White Sox on Saturday.

(Matt Marton / Associated Press)

“But considering how Wrobo’s start went short, feels good after it, we feel the four days’ rest will be fine for him,” Roberts said. “And then where Shohei is at, we feel good about just leaving it status quo.”

Ohtani returned Saturday without restrictions in his designated hitter role — except one request from his manager, after a couple days of parsing whether a steal attempt that was snuffed out by a foul ball had contributed to Ohtani’s injury.

Though they didn’t find a clear cause for the injury, Roberts made it clear Saturday: “There will be no basestealing.”

Anticipation. Rumors. Anxiously scanning the horizon, hoping that a brilliant force will leave the masses forever changed. Yes, a new Steven Spielberg movie about close encounters with extraterrestrials is landing — and misses the mark.

“Disclosure Day” is a story of truth and feared consequences. A personality-free cybersecurity expert, Daniel (Josh O’Connor), is on the run with evidence of little gray men arriving on our planet to a rude reception. The aliens are kind. Our species is barbaric. Wittily bruising us with that fact, Spielberg opens with a POV of a wrestler kicking the audience in the face. Welcome to Earth.

Elsewhere in America, a weathergirl named Margaret (Emily Blunt) breezes into her Kansas City studio, babbling up until the minute the news camera turns on, a bravura sequence that channels her restlessness, the station’s tempo and the film’s alarm that this ditz has just this morning been stricken with preternatural powers. (The cinematography and editing are by Janusz Kaminski and Sarah Broshar.) Locally, Margaret is known for announcing hailstorms with a sexy shimmy. Suddenly, she’s fluent in Russian, Korean and telepathy. Although she and her boyfriend, Jackson (Wyatt Russell), are a bad match, she’s giving everyone else life advice like an intergalactic Dear Abby.

When Margaret starts spouting alien-ese — spasms of gutteral clicks — on live TV, she and Jackson rush to the hospital for a brain scan followed by several suspicious men who claim to be with the FBI. Russell’s befuddled Jackson is as useless as a traffic cone but Blunt’s Margaret is a gas before the movie makes her go all glassy-eyed and solemn. Yet, the movie is less inspired by why she was chosen or how she feels about it than in dragging us back in time to the moment when it happened, which isn’t that interesting except for its resemblance to a Disney princess having a psychotic break. The CG animals and aliens look stiff, other than a nifty close-up of an eyeball. (Later, I did like how one alien appears to be wearing sportswear.)

Chasing both Daniel and Margaret around the Midwest is a deep-state company called Wardex that wants to steal back the proof in Daniel’s backpack, a heap of hard drives with footage of 70-plus years of extraterrestrial visitations. It’s a treat to see Spielberg enjoying staging this conspiratorial gossip in different film stocks, from the black-and-white noir of 1947 Roswell to the clinical security-camera look of today. Whatever Wardex does on a day-to-day basis is unclear (we just see video screens and lab equipment). But it acts all-powerful, seeming to know more about outer-space tech than its overseers at the Department of Defense.

The script is by David Koepp of the paranoid thriller “Black Bag” and Spielberg’s 2005 version of “War of the Worlds,” yet, this plot strand about private enterprise isn’t science fiction. Last year, in the unrelated UFO documentary “The Age of Disclosure,” current Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted that companies have a stronger institutional memory of “exotic materials” than any presidential administration: “The people in government who know where it came from originally — they’re long gone and their successors have no idea that it was there at all.” To add nationalistic insult to injury, the head of Wardex isn’t even American. He’s a Brit played by Colin Firth.

If anything, “Disclosure Day” isn’t paranoid enough. Clutching a mysterious tool the shape of a mouse coffin, Firth’s villain tracks Daniel’s location by mentally transplanting himself into another person’s body, changing the color of their pupils to his own icy blue. His gadget also makes his targets super sweaty. This laborious alien tactic leads to a few fun scenes but frankly feels old-fashioned when the omnipresent surveillance that Spielberg himself warned about nearly 25 years ago in “Minority Report” is now here with recording devices constantly tracking our faces, voices and movements just so we don’t have to dial phones, fetch sandwiches or talk to human drivers. Although his movie urged us against this 24/7 spyware future, we have since embraced the convenience.

I bring this up because “Disclosure Day’s” driving question is how humanity will react to life-altering information. (Not that the plot has much momentum — too many scenes end with the belief that ducking 10 feet out of view makes you invisible, with an antagonist simply giving up.) Daniel insists on total honesty: “People have a right to know the truth,” he says. His girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) doubts 8 billion people can handle his alien revelations. A Catholic, she’s alarmed that extraterrestrial intelligence could replace the concept of God, naively claiming that “religion holds society together.” Since when?

There’s some wan comedy in an early scene where these new-ish lovers debate the ethics of secrecy while revealing the skeletons they’ve been hiding from each other. Both have pasts you wouldn’t put on a Tinder profile. The script is glancingly empathetic to Jane’s moral turmoil but like Daniel, the film has made up its mind before the movie started. Narratively and logistically, Daniel’s whistleblowing escape limps along with a lack of suspense. Wardex doesn’t even bother to preemptively discredit Daniel in the public’s eye, which, given the two sentences of backstory we know about his character, would be easy.

Nattering in the background are broadcasts about the impending threat of global war at the hands of the United States, Russia and North Korea. Given that scary possibility, the risk that Daniel’s reveal could tip over the world order doesn’t seem that bad. Honestly, I’m dubious of the film’s certainty that folks even have the bandwidth to care about such news, let alone agree on what they’re seeing. The serious journalism Margaret aspires to do is splintering under our distrust of who controls the megaphones. Last month’s infodump of an Armed Forces report listing 209 sightings of unidentified objects was announced with a presidential tweet that “the people can decide for themselves.” I didn’t bother to click. Did you?

Getting information about these space invaders out leaves no time for taking the marvel of their existence in. Decades after Spielberg unveiled his signature shot — a face amazed at wonders we can’t see — he seems wearied by his awareness that today’s moment of revelation would look like a person staring down at their phone. When lens flares continually beam right at the screen, the whole movie feels like enlightenment under duress.

Where are the aliens from and why are they here? Who knows. “Disclosure Day” speeds around frantically, talking constantly and explaining little. Back in 1977, Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” was a popcorn masterpiece of withheld information. Its quiet assurance that experts had a handle on flying saucers and a plan to meet them felt comforting. Here, Colman Domingo’s renegade intelligence operative also refuses to tell anyone anything, but all the unspoken beats just feel like plot holes. Mostly, his character builds what looks like a Hollywood set to reveal a truth he already suspects. That’s what Spielberg is doing too, but a film needs a sense of curiosity.

Instead, the wows come from good stagings of ordinary action: a car crash, a gripped crucifix, a hideout crowded with jostling, thrumming musical instruments. There’s a great train-track crossing sequence that’s also a vicious callback to Richard Dreyfuss’ epiphany in “Close Encounters.” Yet, I wanted to see more of the old Spielberg, the one who expressed awe in moments of silence rather than relentless motion.

That Spielberg has come full circle to his lifelong obsession with the sky had me convinced that this might be a secret sequel to “Close Encounters” beyond the droll joke that both Dreyfuss’ Roy and Blunt’s Margaret are shacked up with unsupportive blonds. They do share a universe; you’ll see a glimpse of what could pass for an outtake from Devils Tower, a.k.a. Mashed Potato Mountain, on one of Daniel’s hard drives. Still, I left underwhelmed. I didn’t need Dreyfuss to step off a spaceship gangplank and say, “I’m back.” I just needed “Disclosure Day” to have the same spark of intelligent life.

The One Show has welcomed back one of its hosts after she was absent due to illness

One of the presenters on The One Show has returned to the sofa after taking time off ill.

Alex Jones is usually a staple on the BBC programme but was absent on Monday and Tuesday this week, with JB Gill stepping in and hosting alongside her regular co-presenter, Roman Kemp.

However, the TV star was back on Wednesday (June 3), fronting the show alongside Angellica Bell.

Alex’s return was confirmed on Instagram ahead of the show, with Angellica exclaiming: “Good news, everyone. Alex is back!”

“Are you feeling better?” she asked the presenter.

“I am,” replied Alex. “I am slightly croaky, but we’ll get through it,” she added.

As the show started, she told Angellica that she had “nearly recovered” after being unwell, adding: “Glad to be here.”

The pair then turned to announcing the guests who would be on the show – Dara Ó Briain and Shania Twain.

Alex has been hosting the BBC programme for several years, and is one of the show’s best known presenters. The star, who has three children with her husband Charlie, has been a presenter on the programme since 2010, hosting with stars such as Matt Baker, Ronan Keating and Roman.

Speaking last year, she told the BBC: “I feel incredibly proud to have been on the iconic sofa for all these years. It certainly doesn’t feel like 15 years, and it still feels fresh, as the show keeps evolving. I feel like we keep coming back better and better.

“I started as a young girl and I feel like I’ve grown up with our viewers. They have seen me through all my big life moments like getting engaged and married, to having children. Our viewers are like extended family by now!”

She went on: “I think the reason is it really strikes a chord with people because we sit right at the heart of the nation. Our job, essentially, is to reflect what’s going on. All the small daily bits and pieces, but also the big events that affect the country.”

The One Show airs at 7pm on BBC One on weekdays.

Los Angeles Unified School District incumbents — Rocio Rivas, Kelly Gonez and Nick Melvoin — surged strongly ahead in early returns Tuesday night for three seats on the Board of Education.

The first reported results were trending toward one-sided outcomes because the major political forces of recent years declined to do battle against each other: The teachers union supported Rivas, who represents a largely Eastside district; a charter-friendly retired businessman supported Melvoin, whose district is centered on the Westside. And the largest union representing nonteaching employees all but avoided the fray.

The third incumbent, Gonez, was the only candidate on the ballot in District 6, and faced one write-in challenger, Jose Sagredo. Thus, Gonez is poised to continue to represent a district centered in the east San Fernando Valley for a third and final term.

With no challengers boosted by high special-interest funding, the three incumbents had a virtually unobstructed campaign path.

If the early returns hold as expected, the Los Angeles Board of Education will continue to lean against charter schools and would stand in general agreement on most policies — including assertive support for immigrants and a continued holding pattern on the future of Supt. Alberto Carvalho, who remains on administrative leave as a federal investigation proceeds.

District 4, Westside

Well ahead in District 4 was two-term incumbent Melvoin. His challenger was Ankur Patel.

The funding advantage in Melvoin’s campaign was sizable through just before election day: Melvoin, $378,803; Patel: $22,662.

In addition, Melvoin benefited from an independent expenditure of $367,093 on his behalf by retired businessman Bill Bloomfield, who has been a major funder in recent campaigns, typically for candidates who also are acceptable to charter-school advocates.

Charters are privately operated public schools, most of which are nonunion. About 1 in 5 L.A. public-school students is enrolled in an independent charter operating within L.A. Unified.

District 2, downtown and Eastside

Also with a huge funding advantage was Rocio Rivas, who was headed toward a second term in District 2.

LAUSD Board Vice President Rocio Rivas was headed toward a second term in District 2. Her major funding source was $889,469 in an independent-expenditure campaign on her behalf, nearly all of it from the United Teachers Los Angeles union.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Rivas’ own campaign raised $66,218. But the major funding source was $889,469 in an independent-expenditure campaign on her behalf, nearly all of it from the United Teachers Los Angeles union. The union also spent more than $4,000 in communications to its members about the election.

These figures compare with $2,525 raised by challenger Raquel Zamora, who reported spending $5,089.

In Rivas’ successful 2022 run, her main funding opponent was Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, which backed Maria Brenes for an open seat. Historically, Local 99 has not been inclined to oppose an incumbent, which Rivas has become. And, true to history, Local 99 has endorsed Rivas, but without spending money on her behalf.

An end to charter school wars

More broadly, this election cycle marks the end to a generation of bitterly contested Los Angeles school board races that became the most expensive in the country, with the L.A. teachers union and charter school advocates slugging it out to advance their vision for public education.

Charter school supporters — who had poured tens of million of dollars into races to elect board members sympathetic to their cause — largely stepped aside, a reflection of their diminished resources and evolving strategy.

The bottom line is that, if current vote-count trends hold, the board will be unchanged for the next two years.

This situation is less than ideal for charter schools. Charters with a mixed record face a tough review when they come up for renewal — about once every five years. Charter opponents want the board majority to move more aggressively to shut down charters when possible and to force them off district campuses — where, under state law, they have a legal right to operate.

Big board decisions looming

Big decisions before the board include how to manage a projected structural deficient — with union leaders calling the dire predictions an accounting mirage.

Meanwhile, Supt. Alberto Carvalho remains in limbo after a February FBI raid of his home and office. The investigation relates at least in part to a failed district chatbot project.

Carvalho maintains his innocence and would like to return to work. The board, however, has turned the reins over temporarily to acting Supt. Andres Chait.

This election cycle marks the end to a generation of bitterly contested Los Angeles school board races that became the most expensive in the country, with the L.A. teachers union and charter school advocates slugging it out to advance their vision for public education. Above, LAUSD headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles County’s half-cent sales tax to fund healthcare services was trailing Tuesday, with early returns showing a majority of voters rejecting the measure.

The tax — a half-penny of every dollar spent in the county — is meant to prop up local hospitals and clinics that are hemorrhaging funding after recent federal cuts.

The sales tax, which needs a simple majority to pass, would take effect Oct. 1 and last five years. Officials say it would pull in $1 billion annually to help plug the budget holes hitting local hospitals and clinics.

L.A. County health officials anticipate the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Trump last summer, will slash more than $2 billion from the county’s health services budget within the next three years. Due to eligibility changes, the county will no longer be able to get reimbursements for many Californians who have lost Medi-Cal.

The measure was championed by a coalition of healthcare advocates called Restore Healthcare for Angelenos who warned that mass layoffs and emergency room closures could be imminent if new funding didn’t come fast. The Department of Public Health recently closed seven clinics — a grim sign, supporters said, of service cuts to come.

Voters haven’t rejected a sales tax hike since 2012, when a transportation measure fell just short with 66.1% support. It needed 66.7% to pass.

A majority of county supervisors had supported the new tax proposal, voting 4 to 1 this February to put it on the ballot. But the measure faced significant opposition from local cities, with opponents arguing the sales tax hike would unfairly burden the poorest county residents and encourage people to spend their dollars across the county line.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger, the board’s lone opponent of the tax, said she was concerned it was a “general” tax, meaning the money wouldn’t be earmarked for healthcare costs. Instead, she argued, politicians would have final say over how the money gets spent.

The supervisors have created a plan for spending the tax money, with the largest chunk of the money meant to cover the costs for patients without insurance. The measure also asked voters to sign off on a nine-member oversight committee.

The county currently has a base sales tax rate of 9.75%, and cities impose local taxes on top of that.

AFTER returning to Instagram Katie Price has found herself with one less loyal follower – her husband Lee Andrews.

Katie was previously left fuming after her account with a whopping 2.6 million followers was removed from the platform.

The ban came at a tumultuous time for the former glamour model, following a man hunt for Lee, who is currently thought to be jailed in Dubai’s Al Awir prison.

But after regaining access to her page earlier today, she was met with a mystery.

Katie’s conman hubby Lee has hit the unfollow button on the star, something that usually points towards trouble in paradise.

Lee now follows nobody over on the app.

NO SHAME

I was first to interview Lee Andrews — his reaction proves he’s out for himself

PRICEY IS BACK

Katie Price RETURNS to Instagram after being locked out & investigated

Things between the pair have certainly been a rollercoaster these past few weeks as she claimed to have told him he was the “most hated man in Britain” over the phone.

The reality TV legend told fans last week that she and Lee had a two-minute phone call from which he dialled in from a prison call box.

Lee claimed he’d been detained on suspicion of spying but that lie was quickly debunked.

Authorities confirmed to us he was NOT being held over spying charges and we understand he’s behind bars over claims relating to a private, civil matter.

Lee, who has “three phones” and bragged about being an “arms dealer,” is due for release today but must pay a four-figure fine.

The self-confessed “businessman” has certainly fuelled speculation on his relationship with Katie after savagely unfollowing her.

She was furious with Lee when he “made her look a d**k” after failing to show up for their joint GMB interview but this could be the ultimate betrayl.

Podcast host Katie had her Instagram account taken away over the weekend due to her flashing her boob in one post, alongside a flurry of promotions for CBD products.

Meta, the company behind the social media giant, removed her entire profile as it investigated.

Execs are understood to have analysed her posts and stories, and found no wrongdoing, hence why her profile has now returned.

Athens, Greece – Bashir is a Syrian Muslim who has lived in Greece since 2014. He married a fellow Syrian in the country, and three months ago, they had a son. After years of picking olives and oranges, learning Greek and a trade in metalwork, and finally buying his own equipment to start work as an independent trader, Bashir felt his life was finally coming together.

Two months ago, the authorities handed him a piece of paper asking him to restate his reasons for coming to Greece and why he should now return to Syria.

Bashir, who requested to withhold his surname, had been granted asylum in Greece in 2015 because of the civil war then raging in Syria. The war ended in December 2024, and Bashir became one of 1,200 Syrians whose asylum cases were reopened in February.

“It’s a catastrophe,” he told Al Jazeera. “I don’t understand how this can happen. If they decide I should leave the country, should my family stay here?”

Bashir’s lawyer said only men are currently receiving such notices – and not just from Syria but Afghanistan, another country whose civil war is deemed to have ended, with the Taliban’s sweeping victory in August 2021.

But neither Syria nor Afghanistan is necessarily safe to return to, said the lawyer, Angeliki Theodoropoulou.

“We believe this has to do with the European Union’s stance towards Syria and Afghanistan, and with the fact that there are quite a few voluntary returns, which encourages authorities to say, ‘Let’s see if these people can return’,” Theodoropoulou told Al Jazeera.

She said the entire regime of international protection was being tightened for these two nationalities. “We’re also seeing asylum being given in very few cases, and a lot of rejections,” she said.

“We don’t understand on what criteria they decided Syria is safe,” Bashir said.

Earlier this year, renewed clashes erupted between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), while Israel has continued attacks on the country sporadically.

Bilal said he feels uncomfortable about the idea of living in Syria for cultural and political reasons, having spent 15 years away.

“Many of the refugees here are like me,” he said.

Jihad, who requested to withhold his surname, has similar concerns but for the opposite reason. He has lived in Greece legally since 2001 and runs a small clothes shop. When the regime of Bashar al-Assad fell, the rest of his family also fled, because he and his family were Assad supporters.

He fears that he would be mistreated in Syria over his views.

“If they just look at my Facebook page or look at things I wrote in the past, they will send me to jail for sure,” Jihad said. “I’m afraid even to go to the embassy. I have never held a gun, I have never killed anyone, I just have an opinion.”

Both men have clean criminal records, pay taxes and social security contributions, and have nurtured families in Greece. Both say they would flee to another country rather than return to Syria. So why is Greece considering their eviction?

Greece’s turn to exclusion

Greek Migration Minister Thanos Plevris announced in February that he had ordered a reopening of any asylum cases that could be revoked. As a temporary status, it can be.

Last year, Greece revoked the asylum of almost 200 people, compared with 400 in the previous decade. Dozens more cases are under review this year. And there appears to be a religious element to the policy.

Greece suspended asylum applications for mainly Muslim asylum seekers arriving from Libya for three months last year. Most of the people whose asylum is being revoked are from majority-Muslim countries.

At a recent parliamentary committee hearing, Plevris stated clearly that Greece prefers non-Muslim migrant workers.

“There are countries with which we don’t have common values, and that’s mainly because of religion, let’s be clear, it’s because of hardcore Islam,” Plevris said. “So, you have to pick countries that are religiously neutral or Christian. We’re talking to Georgia, the Philippines, Armenia, India.”

Greece has been tightening its migration policy in other ways as well.

In September 2025, it adopted what Plevris described as “the strictest returns policy in the whole EU”, empowering the government to imprison people who refuse to be deported. Rejected asylum applicants can be fitted with ankle monitors and given just two weeks to remove themselves voluntarily. If they don’t, they face a 5,000-euro fine ($5,870) and two to five years’ confinement in closed camps.

In February, the governing conservative New Democracy party passed a law stipulating that if any aid worker is charged with helping to smuggle asylum seekers into Greece, their entire aid organisation can be delisted from the ministry’s registry. That means they could lose their funding and access to refugee camps, and could shut down.

The broader context

Europe is undergoing a transition as it prepares to put into force an Asylum and Migration Pact next month. The pact demands a hard-border policy and a returns policy for rejected asylum seekers, both of which each member state must manage itself.

“We’re at a pivotal point in time. We’re about to see the implementation of the European pact. This will fundamentally change the way that migration works,” Kristin Fabbe, chair in Business and Comparative Politics at the European University Institute, recently told a Delphi Economic Forum event in Athens.

The largest bottleneck, she said, “is that Europe has not yet figured out how to do returns at scale … in order to reform asylum and reform migration, you have to execute returns at scale, and the data show that that has been impossible”.

Greece, an EU front-line state, already has 938,000 legally resident migrants in a population of 10.3 million, a relatively high number. Of these, more than 137,000 are recipients of asylum or international protection.

As the Middle East and North Africa region remains unstable, the government is worried about the potential scale of future refugee flows.

More than a million asylum seekers crossed the Greek borders in 2015. In the years that followed, certain EU members took on thousands of asylum cases from Greece and Italy in a show of solidarity, and tens of thousands more asylum recipients in Greece moved to other EU states. Those states have agreed to keep them, but that would not necessarily happen again under the pact.

Observers say this explains Greece’s hardline attitude.

Commenting on the political mood in Europe, Fabbe said, “The legality, the sanctity of the [returns] solutions is being challenged, but I think we’re going to see the proliferation of those solutions and new institutional mechanisms.”