years

The Channel 4 star has continued to bag huge television and film roles

The Inbetweeners star Henry Lloyd-Hughes looks almost unrecognisable almost 20 years after he found fame on the hit comedy.

Fans will remember the British actor, 41, for playing school bully Mark Donovan in the now-iconic series. For those who missed it, the E4 drama aired for three seasons between 2008 and 2010.

It followed the wild adventures of pupil Will (played by Simon Bird) and his group of friends: Simon (Joe Thomas), Jay (James Buckley) and Neil (Blake Harrison). Donovan was known for picking on the main characters, and infamously snapped a picture of Will in the toilet on his first day of school.

We watched the schoolmates’ last adventure together over a decade ago, and Netflix is bringing them back for a third feature-length film. But whatever happened to villain Donovan?

Lloyd-Hughes, the actor behind the teenager, is almost unrecognisable these days. He has remained in the industry, just like most of his co-stars.

The London-born performer recently appeared in Netflix’s The Thursday Murder Club, opposite the likes of Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan. He has also enjoyed roles in Killing Eve and Steven Spielberg’s new thriller, Disclosure Day.

Although casual viewers may not instantly recognise the actor as a “grown up,” devoted fans can pick him out of a crowd even after all these years.

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Lloyd-Hughes shared the story of a sweet run-in with a fan back in 2021. “This is not a humblebrag but I was giving blood this morning. Obviously you’ve got to wear a mask,” he told Square Mile.

He went on to reveal that a nurse came over to him and said: “Excuse me, I’d like to ask a question. Have you ever done any acting?” To which he replied: “Yeah, sometimes.”

The healthcare worker then asked: “Are you The Inbetweeners?” Lloyd-Hughes went on to explain: “It was a middle-aged to elderly Indian man who recognised me.

“I was not expecting, when I was wearing a school uniform, filming for like £5 a week, that ten years later or whatever I’d be getting recognised. Even behind a mask!”

The Inbetweeners series is available to stream on Channel 4’s on-demand service. The Inbetweeners 3 will stream on Netflix.

A HUGE new underground attraction will open next year in a popular European city with immersive experiences and thousands of fossils.

The new Natural History Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark will open on March 6, 2027 after a huge project.

The biggest part of the £200million project is eight new galleries all underground.

The eight new exhibitions will be Universe, Earth, Life, Denmark, Arctic, Biodiversity, Humans, and Ocean Hall.

Light gets to the underground galleries through skylights and is designed to “engage all the senses”, according to the architect Lene Tranberg.

The new museum will connect the Botanical Garden – which sits above the galleries – the historic buildings and the new architecture.

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Inside the underground galleries, visitors can expect a concrete interior with curved staircases.

The museum is home to 14million items which have been collected over 400 years, such as fossils.

Included in the collection are a number of dinosaurs including a 17-metre-long Diplodocus skeleton and T-Rex skeletons.

Visitors can also try out interactive touchscreen tables where you can rotate and zoom in on 3D scans of specimens.

Plans for the new part of the museum were first revealed 17 years ago with building works starting back in 2019.

The original targeted opening date was in 2014, however this was delayed due to planning permissions and funding issues.

Christine Wiberg-Lyng, Foundation Director, Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond said: “The new buildings create a sensory and inviting setting that supports the museum’s core purpose.”

In the Botanical Garden, you will find a living museum with 13,000 plant species, alpine rock gardens and walking trails.

There’s then also the Palm House and Butterfly House which is inside a Victorian cast-iron glasshouse built in 1874.

Tickets to the Botanical Garden are free and tickets to the museum cost £13.22 per adult and £5.75 per child aged between three and 17-years-old.

A MUCH-LOVED ride has closed at Disneyland Paris ahead of a huge makeover.

Crush’s Coaster at Disney Adventure World is now closed until summer 2027 as it undergoes its biggest upgrade in 20 years.

The coaster, which takes riders through the East Australian Current, will have technical elements replaced as well as sections of the track.

In the second phase of the refurbishment, the coaster will be tested to ensure it functions properly before reopening.

Of course, the upgrade will refresh the ride’s show elements as well, such as repainting and repairs.

Crush’s Coaster was last closed in 2015 for six months but this project will be the biggest in the ride’s history.

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Many people have taken to social media to express their excitement about the upgrade: “I’m happy about the refurb but I’ve booked for November. Massively underrated ride.”

Another person added: “Glad to see this happening.”

There are a number of other closures taking place at the theme park including Peter Pan’s flight, which is closed until September 19.

Pirate’s Beach is currently closed and will be until October 23 for a safety inspection as well as replacement of the ground padding.

Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups will be closed between September 21 and October 2 to repaint the floor.

La Tanière du Dragon will close on October 5 until the middle of the month for servicing.

AFTER more than a decade, a huge new museum which is more like the ultimate attraction for Star Wars and Indiana Jones fans is set to open.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, created by filmmaker George Lucas, is set to open on September 22 in Los Angeles, America.

Inside the new 28,000sqm museum, visitors will be able to explore items that Lucas has collected over the past five decades, including art, costumes, movie props and memorabilia.

In fact, the museum will be home to more than 1,300 objects in 30 galleries across five floors.

Of course, there will be plenty for Star Wars fans in the museum including sculptures of Yoda and Grogu as well as vehicles from the films.

Visitors can head to two cinematic theatres as well.

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Away from Lucas’ own creations, there will be art by Frida Kahlo as well as rare comics by Frank Miller and Cowboy Bebop anime.

There are some early sketches by Van Gogh and Picasso too

And Banksy has contributed artwork to the museum as well.

Visitors will also be able to catch an insight into Lucas’ early life too, with his student films on show.

The museum itself also looks like a spaceship, with curved white walls.

Outside the museum, there are large green open spaces, with more than 200 trees and a waterfall-like fountain.

If you get hungry, there’s the Skywalker Grill as well, offering all-day dining including seafood, grilled dishes, pasta and desserts.

The restaurant also has an outdoor terrace.

The museum will be open from 10am to 5pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10am to 9pm on Fridays, 9am to 9pm on Saturdays, 9am to 5pm on Sundays and is closed on Tuesdays.

Adult tickets cost $25 (£18.50) per person and children’s tickets (up to 17-years-old) are free.

The statistics are sobering — so sobering that Defense Department officials refuse to confirm, deny or discuss them.

From Feb. 28 through July, the first five months of the war with Iraq, U.S. forces burned through almost 60% of the nation’s advanced defensive missiles — the Patriot and THAAD interceptors that protect American troops.

When the war began, the Pentagon had almost 2,800 Patriot and THAAD missiles in its worldwide inventory, according to a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an independent think tank. By the end of July, that number had dropped to about 1,100, CSIS reported. Almost two-thirds of the Patriots and almost 40% of the longer-range THAAD were gone.

“This is a generational annihilation of our theater missile defense capability,” said Tom Karako, director of CSIS’s Missile Defense Project. “There’s no way you can look at this and not see it’s a setback.”

The White House and the Pentagon have not challenged the CSIS figures, although they have issued sweeping denials that any shortage exists.

“We have far more munitions than anyone in the world, and far more than we need,” President Trump said in July.

That’s true, but misleading. The U.S. military still holds vast inventories of short-range offensive missiles. But the sophisticated defensive missiles that protect U.S. troops no longer are abundant — as even Trump has acknowledged.

“We have certain types of munitions [of which] we have unlimited, virtual unlimited supply,” he said last month. “We have others where it’s a little bit tighter.”

The result is a squeeze that has prompted U.S. commanders to husband Patriot and THAAD interceptors as scarce assets.

For much of August, when a frayed de facto ceasefire was in effect, U.S. forces did not respond with high-end missiles when Iran attacked oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

But when Iran launched rockets against U.S. bases in Jordan last week, Patriots reportedly were used to knock the incoming missiles down. (The Pentagon has declined to confirm or deny those reports.)

The U.S. weapons arsenal “no longer has the capacity to deter a Chinese attack against Taiwan,” the Council on Foreign Relations warned in a report last month. Defense planners share the same concern over a potential Russian assault on the Baltic states.

The conservative Heritage Foundation has forecast that the Pentagon’s inventory of missiles would run out “within the first week of a Taiwan conflict.”

In Europe, a U.S. defense official told the Associated Press last month that the shortfall was “beyond critical.” If Russia attacked a NATO country, the official said, U.S. forces in the area would “take punch after punch in the mouth.”

The core question is whether the United States has so few missiles that it cannot credibly deter China or Russia from attacking their neighbors.

“You’ve got to be strong enough to send a clear message that our enemies should not try anything because we’re a credible force,” said Leon Panetta, President Obama’s former defense secretary. “Now we’re losing a lot of that credibility — and that’s dangerous.”

Knowing that U.S. forces have been left without thousands of weapons needed to deter conflict, Karako said, could in itself be provocative. “It could tempt an aggressor to do something, knowing that we have fewer [missiles] to thwart them.”

The obvious remedy is to build more interceptors — a process Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered even before the war began. But ramping up missile production won’t immediately replenish the stockpile.

Before the Iran war, defense contractors were producing only about 620 Patriots and 96 THAAD each year — fewer than half the number expended during a few weeks this spring.

At current production rates, it will take at least three years to return the Patriot inventory to its prewar level, and at least four years for THAAD, CSIS reported.

Defense experts warn that the stocks need to be even larger than they were before the war to credibly deter China or Russia.

Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and principal author of the CSIS estimates, says most analysts believe it will take years after replenishing the stocks expended in the Persian Gulf to build a credible deterrent against China.

The Pentagon has enough munitions, both offensive and defensive, to continue fighting the campaign against Iran, he added — but some of those less-sophisticated weapons can be used only at shorter ranges, which means placing more troops in harm’s way.

Cancian said the CSIS figures were based on publicly available Pentagon budget and acquisition documents, updated in some cases from recent press reports — but not from leaks of classified information.

The roots of the missile shortage began long before the war with Iran. Trump and Hegseth are not the only ones to blame, although their belief that Iran would quickly capitulate appears to have been a major factor.

Nor did former President Biden cause the shortage, as Trump has claimed Biden gave several hundred Patriots to Ukraine, but the shortfall is far larger than that.

The underlying problem, defense experts say, is that the United States designed its missile defense programs for a world in which only a few major powers like China and Russia posed serious threats.

But the landscape of military technology has changed. Missiles and drones have become cheaper and easier to acquire, and countries like Iran can strike targets at great distances without making a huge investment in weaponry.

That’s a transformational change — and the Pentagon has been behind the curve, argues Michael C. Horowitz, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “This is the kind of situation in which great-power militaries like the United States struggle,” he said.

So the Trump administration faces several challenges. It needs to replenish its depleted stores of advanced defensive missiles — a process that has only just begun, and which Congress has not yet funded. Meanwhile, Horowitz and others argue, it also needs to build less expensive missile and drone systems to fill the multiyear gap before Patriot and THAAD inventories can be restored.

The Pentagon has begun that process, deploying several relatively inexpensive anti-drone missile systems.

Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year included $7.7 billion for low-cost missile and drone programs, but 13 months later, more than 90% of the money remains unspent, Horowitz said.

WASHINGTON — Elizabeth Hanford Dole, a former Cabinet secretary and the wife of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, received speaking fees from 1991 through 1994 in excess of $875,000–much of it from groups with a stake in policy matters pending before Congress, records show.

The fees have enhanced substantially the couple’s joint income, which totaled about $600,000 in 1994, according to income-tax returns and annual financial disclosure statements. Mrs. Dole, a national figure in her own right, last fall took a temporary leave as president of the American Red Cross to support her husband’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

Sen. Dole has filed income-disclosure statements with the Senate for the last four years saying that all of Mrs. Dole’s speaking fees were contributed to a Red Cross charity account–except for “taxes, a contribution to a retirement fund and speech-writing expenses.”

However, a Times analysis of the records shows that the Doles have retained a substantial part of Mrs. Dole’s speaking fees:

From 1991 through 1994, the Doles kept $147,663 in cash from Mrs. Dole’s fees–after speech-writing costs and federal income taxes were paid.

An additional $243,830 was placed in Mrs. Dole’s retirement account, as the senator stated in his financial disclosure forms. The couple contributed $405,513, or 46%, of the fees to the Red Cross charity account for troubled youths during 1991 through 1994. But only in 1993 did Mrs. Dole donate all of her speaking fees to the charity–minus taxes, expenses and a contribution to her private retirement fund.

In 1994, the most recent year for which financial records are available, the Doles kept $47,421 in cash from Mrs. Dole’s $184,775 in speaking fees and placed $63,505 into Mrs. Dole’s retirement account.

Dole Comment

Asked for comment, aides to Dole did not dispute The Times’ findings. Reading from a prepared response Thursday night, Dole campaign spokeswoman Christina Martin said:

“We are not aware of a reason to amend the senator’s [financial disclosure] statements at this time. Sen. Dole has filed amendments in the past and would do so again, should a review prove such a step is necessary. The senator is a firm believer in full disclosure, as is demonstrated by his release [last week] of tax returns dating back 29 years.”

The annual disclosure forms signed by Sen. Dole warn that civil and criminal sanctions can be imposed if a senator “knowingly and willfully” makes a false statement.

Nelson Warfield, Dole’s chief spokesman, said the senator is not influenced by Elizabeth Dole’s acceptance of speaking fees from groups with business pending before Congress.

“No one gains Bob Dole’s favor by hiring his wife,” Warfield said. “In the senator’s words, he hasn’t the foggiest idea who she speaks to.”

Clearly, Mrs. Dole’s career in Washington makes her a sought-after guest speaker. Before joining the Red Cross in 1991, she was an appointee of five presidents–serving as a member of the Federal Trade Commission in the 1970s and as secretary of labor and secretary of transportation in the 1980s. Mrs. Dole, a lawyer, has won praise for her leadership of the Red Cross–and she did not accept the $200,000 salary paid by the organization during her first year as president.

Business Dealings

Yet in an election year when the past transactions of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton continue to loom as a problem for the president, attention also is focusing on the business dealings of the wife of the senator from Kansas, who polls show is the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

Mrs. Dole referred questions posed by The Times to Warfield, the presidential campaign spokesman.

“Mrs. Dole has an extraordinary record of public service which spans over 20 years,” Warfield said. “This is in itself the reason so many people request her as a speaker.”

Mrs. Dole, who married the senator in 1975, typically has accepted speaking engagements for fees ranging from $12,000 to $35,000. Now 59, she employs the services of a booking agency and often speaks on the need for volunteerism or the shape of America’s labor force.

As a member of the executive branch during the ‘70s and ‘80s, Mrs. Dole did not accept speaking fees. She did receive $100,026 of the payments in 1988–when she temporarily left federal office to assist Sen. Dole’s presidential campaign. Sen. Dole, meanwhile, accepted fees totaling $1.4 million from 1981-91. In addition to his Senate compensation, tax records show that Sen. Dole during those years contributed $337,328 to a private pension plan–a nest egg paid for by his speaking fees.

Moreover, although Sen. Dole professes no knowledge of the groups to which his wife has spoken–many of them should be familiar to him.

At least 16 of the groups that retained Mrs. Dole to speak from 1991 through 1994 maintain lobbying offices in or near Washington and have business pending before the federal government. Records also show that four of the groups that paid to hear her earlier had hired Sen. Dole–before congressional rules in 1993 began cracking down on the controversial practice of senators and House members accepting such payments.

One of the biggest groups is the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Assn.–a Washington trade group that represents the largest makers of prescription-brand drugs. The organization lobbies Congress on a range of issues related to drugs and medical devices–and worked to defeat President and Mrs. Clinton’s proposed overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

Both of the Doles have accepted speaking fees from the drug manufacturers’ group. In 1992 the group paid for all travel expenses, including three nights of winter lodging in South Florida, for Sen. and Mrs. Dole. On that trip the senator accepted a $2,000 fee–the maximum then allowed under Senate rules.

In 1993 the drug makers invited Mrs. Dole back to Florida–and paid her a speaking fee of $20,000 plus travel expenses. Her appearance came at the same time the pharmaceutical group was working against parts of the Clintons’ health care proposal.

On the same weekend that Mrs. Dole addressed the group’s board of directors, the executives approved “an immediate, comprehensive mobilization of company employees, retirees, shareholders and suppliers to operate telephone banks” to challenge one aspect of the Clintons’ health care reform proposal, according to an executive summary prepared by the association.

“The effort,” said the summary, “was to encourage people to call or write members of Congress with the message that government price controls on prescription drugs would chill the development of new lifesaving, cost-effective medicines.”

Warfield, the Dole campaign spokesman, declined to comment specifically on Mrs. Dole’s speaking fee from the pharmaceutical association or other groups. Jeffrey C. Warren, spokesman for the pharmaceutical group, said Mrs. Dole “was an attraction on her own, because of her own achievements.” Warren said that the group hired Sen. Dole to speak in 1992 because of his knowledge of politics and “where things are going.”

Representatives of most of the groups that hired Mrs. Dole said that they chose her because of her experience. Some, however, also said that they retained Mrs. Dole because of her connection to one of the most powerful figures in Washington–her husband.

“That certainly makes her a little more interesting, definitely,” said Pat Areno, an executive for the Building Owners & Managers Assn., which paid Mrs. Dole $20,000, plus expenses, to speak at a conference in San Diego in June 1994. “You can’t ignore that it’s a factor. That is certainly part of her draw and her appeal.”

A spokeswoman for the American Health Care Assn., which lobbies Congress on behalf of nursing-home owners, said that the group paid Mrs. Dole $20,000 to speak in 1991, irrespective of Sen. Dole’s status.

“I suppose her connection with the senator helps create a visibility and makes her attractive, in that sense,” said the spokeswoman, Linda Keegan. “It really isn’t what motivated us to bring her in as a speaker.” The association in 1988 paid Sen. Dole $2,000 to speak.

Other Groups’ Fees

Fees from other groups with business before Congress that have retained Mrs. Dole to speak include:

* The National Electrical Contractors Assn.–$20,000, plus all of Mrs. Dole’s expenses for attending the group’s May 1993 event at a coastal Georgia resort. The group is lobbying to loosen worker safety and health requirements and to abolish the Davis-Bacon Act, which forces contractors on public projects to hire more expensive, union labor. Mrs. Dole’s speech “focused more on her Red Cross activities,” according to John M. Grau, chief executive of the contractors group.

* The accounting firm of Ernst & Young–$16,000, plus Mrs. Dole’s expenses for attending a 1991 gathering in Chicago. Ernst & Young at the time was facing congressional scrutiny and criminal investigations related to its auditing of some savings and loans, including Lincoln Savings & Loan, that failed in the 1980s at a cost to taxpayers of millions of dollars. Without admitting wrongdoing, Ernst & Young in 1992 settled charges of inadequate auditing at the S&Ls; by paying the government $400 million.

The firm since 1992 has lobbied for legislation that would limit the liability of accounting firms in their work for corporations and financial institutions. The legislation was enacted recently when the Senate and House overrode a veto by President Clinton. Sen. Dole was among those who supported the legislation, which was part of the congressional Republicans’ “contract with America.”

The Ernst & Young executive who arranged Mrs. Dole’s 1991 appearance has left the firm, according to Patrice Yngracia, a spokeswoman, who would not identify the former employee. Yngracia said that Mrs. Dole spoke to a group of “hospitality” industry executives who were clients of Ernst & Young.

* The American Logistics Assn.–$20,000 in 1993. The Washington-based association represents Fortune 500 companies and smaller firms that sell food and recreation facilities for the U.S. military. “Our goal is to defend this military resale system as it exists,” said Donald E. Ledwig, the group’s president. Ledwig said that Mrs. Dole spoke on the need for volunteerism. Arrangements for her speech, he said, were made before he joined the organization.

Travel Agent Speech

Another example of how the interests of Mrs. Dole’s speaking-fee clients can intersect her husband’s role as a senator involves a dispute between the nation’s major airlines and the travel-agent industry.

In November 1994, the American Society of Travel Agents arranged to have Mrs. Dole address the group’s international conference, in Lisbon, Portugal. The group paid a speaking fee of $35,000 and covered all of Mrs. Dole’s air fare and lodging.

In February 1995, several major airlines struck a blow to the travel-agent industry by announcing that they would strictly cap commissions paid to agents for booking domestic flights. American Society of Travel Agents lobbyists reacted immediately–seeking support in Congress and enforcement of antitrust law by the Justice Department.

On Feb. 22, 1995, Sen. Dole called for the Justice Department to examine the matter.

“There are more than 350,000 travel agents in the United States who will be adversely affected by the airlines’ decision. . . ,” Dole wrote in a letter to Assistant Atty. Gen. Anne K. Bingaman. “It is clear that the timing and substance of the airlines’ decision deserve a careful review by the antitrust division.”

Dole’s letter, obtained by The Times, was co-signed by Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), chairman of the antitrust subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Gina Talamona, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said that the antitrust division is monitoring the dispute.

A spokesman for the travel agents’ association, Steve Loucks, said that Mrs. Dole spoke for about 20 minutes in Lisbon. He said that her services were “sponsored” by a member of the association, MasterCard.

Loucks said that Mrs. Dole was retained because of her background in federal policy, adding:

“Certainly, being the wife of, at that time, the minority leader of the Senate made her a very attractive property to bring in to Lisbon.”

George Rainsford is returning to Casualty tonight as fan favourite Dr Ethan Hardy for the BBC medical drama’s 40th anniversary three years after his last apperance

A former Casualty actor has admitted he was “ready to have a break” after nine years working on the medical drama.

George Rainsford is putting his scrubs back on and resuming his role as Dr Ethan Hardy for the BBC show’s huge 40th anniversary, which airs tonight (Saturday, September 5).

The actor played the popular doctor for almost a decade before leaving the BBC medical drama in 2023. Fans will know George’s charatcer Ethan was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease and left the E.D. three years ago to spend more time with his son, Bodhi.

Speaking exclusively to Betway about his exit, George explained: “At the time, I definitely wanted that time away. I was ready to have a break. It’s a fantastic place to work.

“I loved how generous they were with all the storylines I had over the years, and I loved everybody there but it’s filmed in Cardiff, and I’m not based there, so I needed to spend a bit more time at home. When you’re an actor, sometimes you want to challenge yourself and see what else is out there.

“After nine years, that feeling had gotten a bit stronger. I was keen to go back and do theatre for a bit and see what other screen work was out there.

“I’m glad we were able to have the conversation with the producers that it wasn’t final because I really enjoyed going back and I do think there would be a storyline there but at the same time, I was ready for a little break”

Since leaving Casualty, Jimmy has appeared in seven episodes of popular BBC period drama Call the Midwife as Jimmy Wilson and more recently played the role of Miles is movie Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger.

Ethan isn’t the only familar face returning to Casualty this week with Derek Thompson also reprising his iconic role as nurse Charlie Fairhead. Fans last saw him during his final appearance in March 2024, where he retired after 38 years in the NHS.

Although bosses haven’t shared too many details of Ethan and Charlie’s involvement in the 40th anniversary, they have said: “The gripping, anniversary event centres on a high-stakes major incident that throws Holby into chaos.

“Lives hang in the balance and the ED team are pushed to their limits in a tense and emotionally charged story that brings together some of the show’s most beloved characters.

“As the fallout continues, a major rescue operation unfolds, forcing impossible life-or-death decisions and testing the courage, resilience and leadership of those at the heart of the hospital.

“As Dylan Keogh (William Beck) battles personal tragedy while leading his team through their darkest hour, Stevie Nash (Elinor Lawless) and Flynn Byron (Olly Rix) find themselves fighting for survival in a race against time.”

Casualty’s 40th anniversary specials will air on Saturday, September 5 from 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer

Cathy Engelbert will retire as WNBA commissioner at the end of the year, ending a tenure of seven-plus years that saw both tremendous growth and some turmoil for the league.

“In 2019, I had the privilege of being appointed the league’s first commissioner and to lead a league with enormous potential yet untapped awareness and significant undervaluation,” Engelbert said in a statement released by the WNBA. “Over the years, it has been amazing to watch WNBA players thrive and lead the massive cultural surge around women’s sports.”

Engelbert, 61, told the Associated Press that she has been considering retirement for months and wasn’t pressured into making the decision by NBA or WNBA stakeholders. She added that she will help with finding the next commissioner and with the transition period that follows.

“We’ll run a real succession process in the remaining four months,” Engelbert told AP. “If we don’t find someone, I’ll stay on.”

During Engelbert’s tenure, the WNBA has experienced record TV ratings and robust attendance, with a lucrative media rights deal being finalized this year and plans in place for expansion to 18 teams by 2030. An influx of talented and popular young players — including Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers — helped along those lines.

Engelbert also helped the league and its players’ union agree on a new collective bargaining agreement this spring, resulting in the first million-dollar salaries for WNBA players.

Still, the negotiations leading up to the CBA were strained at times. Other issues surrounding the league — including player safety, the eligibility of transgender players, and the inconsistency of on-court officials — have caused some to question Engelbert’s leadership ability.

“Cathy has presided over the WNBA through the most significant period of growth in the league’s 30-year history,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in the WNBA’s news release. “We are grateful for Cathy’s leadership and unwavering commitment to the advancement of women’s basketball.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Social media star Amelia Dimoldenberg is making way for a new chapter, ending her beloved celebrity interview series “Chicken Shop Date” after more than a decade.

The British personality, who has disarmed A-list celebrities with her deadpan delivery and brought her distinct interview style to the Oscars red carpet, announced on Thursday that the final episodes of “Chicken Shop Date” are imminent and that new work is on the horizon. “I never thought I’d stop Chicken Shop Date, I thought maybe it would be a part of me forever, and in some way it always will,” Dimoldenberg, 32, said in her Instagram announcement, “but I feel like it’s now time to move on from this adventure and onto a new one.”

Dimoldenberg began “Chicken Shop Date” as a teenager. It first manifested as a column in a youth publication before the host eventually took it to YouTube in 2014. In the years since moving to the online platform, Dimoldenberg became a viral sensation, sitting down for chats and chicken with stars including Cher, Keke Palmer, Charli XCX, Jennifer Lawrence and Andrew Garfield. She has published and produced, via her production company Dimz Inc., more than 100 episodes, with the series’ final installments on the way.

In her Instagram caption, the host reflected on her celebrity subjects over the years.

“I’ve spent my entire twenties sitting across from the most incredible people, people I’d always dreamt of meeting,” she wrote. “All of them charmed me (some more than others) and I definitely charmed them.”

She also wrote that “Chicken Shop Date” has been her “very own romcom” and also reflected on the show’s journey which has made her a staple on the awards circuit. She returned to the Oscars earlier this year to oversee its red carpet coverage.

“The beauty of my interviews is that they look so off the cuff,” she told The Times ahead of the ceremony earlier this year. “I think that’s what people like about me: I’m not going to be doing an in-depth look at their career or ask a very sincere question, but I will have done all my research so that I can ask them something that’s related to their movie or themes of their work or their interests that maybe catches them off guard. I don’t have to take the style of other reporters; I can do it in my own way.”

In the comments section, fellow social media stars and interviewers “Hot Ones” host Sean Evans and Ziwe celebrated Dimoldenberg. “Legendary run Amelia, I’ll be first in line for whatever’s next,” Evans wrote. Dimoldenberg and Evans appeared on each other’s shows in a crossover event in 2023.

Long Lost Family is back with a new emotional episode on Thursday, where three brothers are reunited with a long-lost sister

A Long Lost Family guest makes an astonishing discovery on Thursday’s episode.

The emotional ITV series, hosted by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, sees the hosts strive to reunite family members who have never met, including twins separated at birth and young mothers who had to give up their babies.

In an exclusive clip obtained by the Mirror of Thursday’s episode, it sees guest Marie looking for her birth father. Marie is a train conductor working for Greater Anglia railways. She lives in Norfolk where she has lived her whole life.

It comes as Thursday’s episode also sees a guest called Avril, 77, reunited with her daughter after 60 years despite being told she’d never find her.

Marie grew up with her grandparents after her 17-year-old mother couldn’t look after her. She had a good childhood in a busy household as her grandparents had six children still living at home when they took on Marie.

The guest had some contact with her mother growing up but she was largely absent from her life. When Marie was 16, she wanted to know more about her birth father and confronted her mother. Marie recalls: “I just blurted it all out: ‘Where’s my dad?’, I wanted to know about my father!”

Marie was surprised to learn her birth father’s name and the fact he had visited her in hospital when she was born. In another shock, Marie discovered that her birth father had chosen her name. She admits: “That really touched me. Must have cared for me to do that.”

Over her life, Marie has often wondered about her birth father, wondering where he is and did he have more children, meaning she could have long-lost siblings. Marie emotional admits: “Even on the train, even at work, I’m constantly looking at people all the time wondering are they related to me.”

Sadly, Long Lost Family’s intermediaries are unable to find any trace of James in the UK but after uncovering his birth certificate they discover that before meeting Marie’s mother, James had been married and had three sons – Anthony, Paul and Ian.

The team manage to locate the brothers living in the same county as Marie, Norfolk. While Anthony wishes to meet Marie, he does not want to appear on camera, so Nicky goes to meet with Paul and Ian, who admit they didn’t really know their father or know where he is after years of trying to find him.

In an exclusive clip of the moment, it sees Nicky tell Paul and Ian about Marie, explaining that she works as a train conductor for Greater Anglia railways and lives in Norfolk too.

This discovery leaves the siblings floored especially as one of the brothers remarks: “I get the train to go to work in the mornings”, confirming it’s Greater Anglia railways. He adds: “So she could well be on that train taking my ticket, amazing.”

The brother is then shown a photograph of Marie, who he instantly recognises, as he exclaims: “Wow. I recognise her on the train. Yeah. Now I see the face, yeah. That’s amazing.”

He adds: “A couple of weeks ago, I actually had a slightly longer conversation with her. Yeah, talking about how they’re changing the timetables. I’ve always wanted to have a sister” to which Nicky sweetly replies: “Well you’ve got one and you never knew it!”

To which the guest admits: “No, 60 years I didn’t know. I live so close as well, all under our doorstep.”

The other sibling then reveals he recognises Marie from the train too, saying: “I think I may have done, I may have walked past, that’s uncanny! Looking forward to seeing her.”

Viewers will have to wait and see how Marie takes the news, and of course, the heartwarming and emotional reunion.

Long Lost Family returns at 9pm to ITV and ITVX on Thursday 3rd September

BOSTON — Climate change has been the backdrop to Charles Hughes’ entire life, from kindergarten lessons about disappearing habitats to wildfire smoke billowing through the air he breathed while growing up in Colorado. But now that he’s a college student in Massachusetts, he said global warming is rarely a top issue.

“Honestly, it doesn’t come up as much,” said Hughes, who chairs the state’s chapter of the College Democrats.

What a difference six years makes.

During President Trump’s first term and especially during the Democratic primaries to determine who would run against him in 2020, Democrats spoke constantly about climate change. They used it to rally young voters such as Hughes, fueling protests and sweeping demands to remake the economy with proposals like the Green New Deal.

But there has been a national shift in the conversation that is sharp enough for some researchers to coin the term “climate hushing” to describe it. The Searchlight Institute, a Democratic think tank, urged the party to stop mentioning climate change because it is not a priority for voters. The Sunrise Movement, a left-wing group that pushed global warming as a top issue for young people, switched its mission last fall to a broader mandate of fighting the Republican president.

The shift was encapsulated by the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts on Tuesday as the incumbent, Ed Markey, 80, fended off a challenge from U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, 47. Markey still talked about sponsoring the Green New Deal, but focused more on other issues to burnish his left-wing bona fides and prove to voters that he is not too old for the job.

It was the latest example of how climate change has been eclipsed by issues such as affordability, U.S. support for Israel and, above all, how to confront Trump.

“Six years ago, Green New Deal was every phrase out of Ed Markey’s mouth every chance he got,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a veteran Democratic strategist in Massachusetts. That wasn’t the case this cycle. “It’s about who’s best to fight. Period, full stop. Everything falls under that.”

‘People are increasingly freaked out about other issues’

Even if the political discussion on climate change has quieted, the planet has not. Scientists say there is an increasing chance that by the end of the year, 2026 could be the hottest year on record, or at least come close. A strengthening El Nino is forecast to be off the charts, spiking global temperatures.

Some advocates expect the issue to return to center stage if Democrats retake the U.S. House in November and climate-sparked disasters dominate the winter.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, a prominent Democratic voice on climate change, said in an interview that ignoring the issue is a major strategic “blunder.”

“Climate change has moved from the science department into the economics department,” he said. “It’s now battering people’s home insurance, property values, pocketbook concerns. So I think it’s a very powerful argument.”

Trump has falsely claimed climate change is “a hoax,” and his administration has undone policies one by one that would make it less damaging in the future.

The Sunrise Movement, founded in 2017 to mobilize young voters over climate issues, announced in October that it was shifting to a broader fight against “fascism.” The group’s executive director, Aru Shiney-Ajay, said that was a prescient move because of reports that federal agents infiltrated protest meetings during Trump’s immigration raids in Minneapolis.

“We just live in a significantly more authoritarian country. Because of that, a lot of the Democratic primaries are about more existential questions,” Shiney-Ajay, whose network generally backs left-wing Democrats, said in an interview. “It has felt less like people care less about climate and more like people are increasingly freaked out about other issues.”

About 6 in 10 Democrats say climate change is “a very big problem” for the country, according to a Pew Research Center poll from April. That is roughly the same as in 2016. Still, climate has often taken a back seat to other issues in Democratic voters’ priorities, such as inflation, healthcare affordability and the role of money in politics.

Affordability concerns have dominated the political debate this year.

McKenzie Wilson of Blue Rose Research, a Democratic data firm, said voters have called for sweeping changes in response to economic discontent, demonstrating a level of anger not seen in years.

“In that kind of environment it’s hard to think about long-term, existential problems,” Wilson said. “If we don’t talk and focus our attention on the number one thing the electorate wants to talk about, as we saw in 2024, we’re not going to be connecting with the electorate.”

‘Don’t say climate change’

That view was summed up by the Searchlight Institute, a Democratic think tank that last year released a provocative suggestion: “The First Rule About Solving Climate Change: Don’t Say Climate Change.”

It contended that voters saw it as such an intimidating, complex issue that Democrats were more likely to win by focusing on other subjects — thus enabling them to regain power and tackle the crisis that they were not talking about.

Leah Stokes, a political scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of “The Carbon Wave,” a book about Democratic President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, said it was “galling” when politicians made the issue less of a priority.

“The climate crisis is accelerating and we can’t really not talk about it for like a decade, because the planet will be even more on fire if we do that,” she said.

Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, agreed with those concerns.

“What happens over the course of the next decade will profoundly shape the habitability of the planet for literally thousands of years to come,” he said.

Some are making climate an affordability issue

Climate has come up as part of the national backlash to data centers, but it is only one part of the conversation about the projects’ impact. Many climate advocates are adjusting how they talk about the issue, stressing how green energy can lower prices and ease insurance costs.

“What we’re seeing right now is, whether you’re advocating for healthcare reform or climate action or some niche tech issue, everything is filtered through some cost frame,” said Jared Leopold, a veteran Democratic strategist who has long focused on climate change.

That is how the Green New Deal came up at a recent debate between Markey and Moulton, when a voter asked how each candidate would reduce energy prices. Notably, the questioner asked about increasing nuclear or gas generation, not clean energy, to deal with cost. Markey turned the opportunity into a slam against the president.

“There was a plan in place in order to have a strong, clean affordable energy future for our commonwealth,” Markey said, “and Trump attacked it.”

Tatishe Nteta, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said that is how Markey has used climate change this election — to signal his willingness to fight Trump as well as his alliance with the left flank of the Democratic Party, which has run up a series of primary wins this year. But other issues have become even more useful in doing that.

“The definition in where you’re at in terms of a progressive candidate and a progressive elected official is your viewpoint on Israel,” Nteta said. “You’re not hearing this in most races, that I’m the candidate who’s going to protect and save our planet.”

Massachusetts’ summer has been the hottest that Eileen Cefail can recall in the 30 years she has worked in the Roofers Local 33 office. “The roofers are tough as nails, and they work so hard, and their work is so grueling,” she said. “This heat has been horrendous for them.”

Cefail is backing Markey in the primary, but climate, she said, was not the main reason.

“He’s always been a union guy,” Cefail said. “He’s just for the labor.”

Riccardi, McDermott and Willingham write for the Associated Press. Riccardi reported from Denver and McDermott from Providence, R.I. Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

Tunis, Tunisia – More than 15 years after Tunisians rose up to topple longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, familiar grievances are again being heard on the streets from north to south.

A slogan from the 2011 revolution is being heard again: “employment, freedom and national dignity”.

This time, those demands are being fuelled by water cuts, electricity outages, rising prices, medicine shortages and a struggle to make ends meet, problems increasingly affecting Tunisians across social and economic divides.

But the anger is unfolding in a very different political environment.

The discontent comes as Tunisia marks five years since President Kais Saied suspended parliament, dismissed the government and began ruling by decree, moves he described as necessary to end years of political paralysis and corruption.

Many Tunisians welcomed the move at the time, frustrated with a political system that had failed to address the country’s economic problems after the 2011 revolution.

Five years later, many of those grievances remain while the political space for challenging those in power has narrowed sharply.

Old demands, new anger

The decade that followed Ben Ali’s ouster brought competitive elections and greater space for political parties and civil society, but it also brought frequent government changes, political disputes and little improvement in the lives of many Tunisians.

Unemployment remained high, particularly among young people and in the country’s interior. Public services remained weak while rising prices continued to put pressure on household incomes. By the end of 2020, unemployment stood at 17.4 percent, according to the World Bank.

Tunisia also faced serious security threats, including attacks and political assassinations, adding to economic pressures and hitting sectors such as tourism.

Those frustrations helped Saied build support as an outsider promising to break with the traditional political establishment and what many Tunisians saw as a dysfunctional system.

On July 25, 2021, Saied suspended the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, dismissed Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and lifted parliamentary immunity. He said he was acting to address a national crisis.

His opponents described the move as a coup.

Saied later dissolved parliament and oversaw the adoption of a new constitution in 2022 that significantly strengthened presidential powers.

Since then, opposition figures, journalists, lawyers and activists have been jailed or prosecuted in cases that rights groups describe as politically motivated. Civil society has faced increasing restrictions while critics have said institutional checks on presidential power have been weakened. Human Rights Watch, for example, has described the “conspiracy case” as part of a broader crackdown on dissent.

What is the “conspiracy case”?

The case centres on allegations by Tunisian authorities that opposition politicians, lawyers, activists and other public figures were involved in a conspiracy against state security and sought to destabilise the country and undermine the government. The defendants included figures from different parts of the political spectrum.

In April 2025, a Tunis court sentenced 37 defendants to prison terms ranging from four to 66 years. Human Rights Watch described the case as politically motivated and criticised the trial for failing to provide adequate due-process protections.

On November 27, 2025, a Tunis appeals court upheld convictions against 34 of the 37 defendants, sentencing them to between five and 45 years in prison, and acquitted three.

Human Rights Watch and other rights groups continued to criticise the proceedings and describe the case as part of a wider crackdown on dissent.

The authorities reject those accusations and maintain that the defendants were prosecuted for serious offences against state security.

But the political transformation has yet to produce the economic turnaround Saied promised.

Unfulfilled promises

Many of Tunisia’s economic problems predate Saied. Years of underinvestment, financial pressures and ageing infrastructure have left public utilities and other state services struggling to meet demand.

But those failures have become harder to separate from Saied’s record because he came to power promising that a stronger state could overcome the weaknesses of the old political system.

This summer, temperatures approached 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of Tunisia, pushing electricity demand to record levels. Kairouan reached 49.8C (121.6F) on Thursday, according to the Tunisian Observatory for Weather and Climate. The Tunisian Company of Electricity and Gas introduced rotating power cuts in several regions, and the outages affected water-pumping stations in some areas.

Some people reported going days without running water. Bottled water shortages added to the pressure. Long queues formed outside shops and water trucks delivering supplies to some areas.

For Rebh, a 40-year-old cleaner from Tunis, the demands are not about luxuries but about being able to afford and access the basics of everyday life.

“People are tired. They are choosing to cross the sea and die [trying to reach Europe] instead. I hope we can stand together and find a solution now,” she told Al Jazeera. “We are not asking for the impossible. This is about water and electricity. We want to live as humans. We are feeling dead while we’re still alive.”

For many Tunisians, the shortages are part of a broader squeeze on purchasing power that has made it increasingly difficult to afford basic necessities.

The extreme heat has also put pressure on an already strained health system as doctors warned of increased pressure on emergency departments.

The point, however, is not that Saied created Tunisia’s economic problems. He did not.

The question is whether the more centralised system he built has delivered the more effective government he promised.

A shrinking space for dissent

For journalist Manel Derbali, the change has been visible not only in the media but in the wider public space.

After the 2011 revolution, she said, Tunisians gained a new ability to speak openly and access information. Despite the protests and political turmoil of the period, journalists felt they were not alone in challenging those in power.

“After years of censorship and police repression, everything opened up. The journalist felt that the street was with you in one way or another,” Derbali said.

She said journalists also had channels to raise concerns about their working conditions and make proposals to officials, including through parliament and ministries, while access to decision-makers remained possible.

“After July 25, all of these spaces became closed,” she said.

Derbali said journalists now struggle to obtain even basic responses from government institutions with official bodies sometimes leaving requests unanswered for months.

“Unfortunately, history is repeating itself, and we have returned to relying on citizens’ videos to investigate and verify information,” she said.

Her account reflects a broader concern among critics of Saied that the institutions and public spaces that emerged after the revolution have been steadily weakened.

Could economic anger become political?

The current protests are not limited to Tunisia’s traditional opposition.

The Nafas movement, which has organised recent demonstrations in Tunis, seeks to bring together political parties and independent figures beyond the country’s established opposition to Saied. Its protests have also attracted citizens who had not previously taken part in political demonstrations.

Rabii Qassem, a member of the Nafas collective, said comparisons between the past five years and the decade after the revolution should not be reduced to whether Tunisia was simply better or worse before Saied.

“I’m not saying that Tunisia between 2011 and 2021 was paradise,” he said. “There were very serious crises: unemployment, corruption, economic fragility, political conflicts and a failure to achieve a large part of the revolution’s goals.”

But according to Qassem, that period also brought gains, including greater freedom of expression and protest, a stronger civil society, a more diverse media and elections that allowed for peaceful transfers of power.

“After July 25, the economic and social problems that already existed were not solved,” he said. “They were joined by a decline in political checks and balances, freedoms and the space for civil society.”

For Qassem, many of the demands raised in 2011 remain unresolved.

“Where is employment? Where is the water? Where are the public services? Where is the dignity?” he asked.

He said economic hardship and political repression have been increasingly feeding into each other as people struggling with rising prices and deteriorating services have also found fewer avenues to express their frustration.

That does not mean Tunisia is experiencing another 2011.

Many Tunisians remain wary of the political parties and politicians who dominated the decade after Ben Ali while Saied continues to have supporters who blame that period for years of economic stagnation and political instability.

Nor does every person angry about a water cut, electricity outage or rising price necessarily oppose the president.

But the protests show how economic and political grievances can increasingly overlap.

Before 2021, Tunisians could blame a democratic political system they saw as ineffective for failing to improve their lives.

After 2021, Saied dismantled much of that system and promised that a stronger presidency would deliver better government.

Five years later, many of the same grievances remain.

The difference is that the avenues for challenging them have become narrower.

“Employment, freedom and national dignity” was a demand of the revolution that ended Ben Ali’s rule.

Fifteen years later, Tunisians are again asking for jobs, basic services and greater freedoms – but now from a president who came to power promising to address the failures of the system that followed the revolution.

A much-loved BBC favourite is making a surprise return to screens after spending a lengthy break away

A much-loved face is returning to the BBC.

Master woodworker Norman Wilkinson is set to make a surprise return to television today after a lengthy break from the programme.

Sarah Moore revealed that her former co-star Norman will be back on screen when the new series returns on Monday (August 31) afternoon.

Speaking alongside fellow co-star Jacqui Joseph, Sarah was asked about her standout moments from the upcoming series, during which she revealed that Norman’s comeback was one of the things she was most excited about.

She explained that he had been away from the programme for “like eight, nine series”, despite being a firm favourite with viewers.

She said: “I think the standout item was Norman, who was off our screens for like eight, nine series. And he was absolutely the favourite of so many people who watched the series, and we couldn’t really comment on why he wasn’t on it anymore or anything like that.”

Now, however, Norman has returned to the show for a very different kind of project. According to Sarah, he was brought back to carry out an impressive transformation involving an old organ.

“But he came back to do an amazing transformation of an organ, a sort of small church organ,” she explained. Sarah admitted she was delighted to see him back and praised the work he had done on the unusual piece.

“I think it’s just so lovely that he’s back on, he made a great job of it. So I think people would be really pleased to see him.” She went on to describe the finished creation as one of the standout pieces from the new series. Sarah said: “The standout moment was Norman; he did such a solid job.”

The restoration involved transforming a smashed-up 1920s organ into a bespoke writing desk, with Sarah particularly impressed by how timeless the finished item looked.

“It just looks like the kind of furniture that you know in 200 years’ time people will be using it,” she said. “And it was a beautiful desk made out of an organ, and people won’t even know that it was ever anything else. It’s just such a great makeover.”

Norman’s return is set to be one of the talking points of the new series, particularly after such a long absence from the programme. He will appear in the first episode of the 19th series.

Money for Nothing broadcasts Monday – Thursday at 2pm on BBC One and is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Fans of reality singing contests will be thrilled to learn that plans are reportedly in motion to revive The X Factor in the UK – after the show last aired on ITV back in 2019

The X Factor is set to make a return to the UK, it was claimed tonight. A report has suggested that the iconic talent show could be revived by ITV as soon as next year – after being off the air for nearly seven years.

The long-running singing competition originally aired from 2004 until 2019 and threw a number of unknown acts into the international spotlight – as well as boosting the profiles of the roster of judges. At it’s peak, The X Factor pulled in huge audiences just shy of 20 million viewers.

And TV stars were made out of music producer Sharon Osbourne, boy band fanatic Louis Walsh, Girls Aloud star Cheryl Tweedy, and music mogul Simon Cowell. The show made stars out of Leona Lewis, One Direction and Little Mix – and was a cash cow for ITV.

However, by 2019, interest in the series had waned and the show was axed following a celebrity version of the series that struggled to attract more than 3 million viewers.

Now broadcast bosses are reportedly mulling bringing back the previous hit show – and in a shock move, it appears that 66-year-old Cowell might not be heavily involved and the panel of judges will consist of younger music experts.

It is reported that the network is keen to have a hit after sinking millions into fresh TV formats, including Graham Norton’s The Neighbhourhood and Stephen ­Mangan’s The Fortune Hotel, which underperformed.

A source told The Sun: “Rather than creating more flop formats they have the opportunity to give The X Factor, a sure-fire hit, a modern makeover.

“They can explore a younger, fresher panel, with new faces and have Cowell behind the scenes. The plan is for the show’s return to take on a new life and be updated to envelop social media generation.

“ITV has shown with programmes like Love Island and I’m A Celebrity . . . that social media is where they can inject massive viewing figures. The X Factor was one of the most iconic shows in TV history and created dozens of stars and household names who are still riding high today.”

The source went on to claim that Talkback Thames, which produced the series, was in talks with ITV bosses about bringing the show back – and that those involved as keen for the series to be a success again. The Mirror has contacted representatives at ITV and Talkback Thames for comment.

Simon Cowell has previously expressed enthusiasm over the concept of the X Factor being exhumed by TV bosses in the UK. The show currently exists in a number of European countries – including Malta and Hungary.

He told the Tales from the Celebrity Trenches podcast: “Yeah, we talk about it a lot. Do you bring it back as X Factor or do you bring it back as the Z Factor?

“There’s still no question, the power of TV in terms of getting people to know an artist. It’s so important if you’re not writing your own material. The truth is there’s something about being on a big screen. You hear about these artists who break online, but so rarely.

“Truth is, I guess, thank God, people like being on TV.”

ITV has enjoyed some success in reviving former TV shows after they were off the air for a relatively short time. The channel brought back Big Brother in 2023 – just five years after it had been axed by Channel 5. The show pulled in it’s highest ratings in a decade when revived – attracting over 2.5 million viewers when it aired on ITV2.

However, ratings had dropped to less than one million by the time the 2025 season aired. The show is set to return next month for the fourth season in the ITV run – which will be the 23rd season of the show since it first aired back in the year 2000.

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For the last month, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Lakers have filled the headlines and airwaves, but not for the reasons either would like.

The Lakers were sold by Mark Walter in mid-August, just over a year after he bought the team.

The sale came about two weeks after the Wall Street Journal reported in late July that the U.S. attorney’s office and securities regulators were investigating Walter’s business and insurance empire regarding $16 billion to $21 billion in possibly fraudulent loans.

In June of last year, 66-year-old Walter and one of his holding companies, TWG Global, purchased a controlling interest in the Lakers for $10 billion, only to sell the franchise to Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger for $12.5 billion this month.

Bloomberg reported that Walter’s sale of the Lakers was done to eliminate some of the billions in outstanding loans that has drawn the ire of federal regulators.

Since then, questions have swirled about whether Walter will put other assets on the market in his fundraising bid, including the Dodgers, which he purchased as chief executive of Chicago investment firm Guggenheim Partners for $2.15 billion in 2012. Sources close to Walter say he’s not likely to sell.

To better understand this tangled story, we spoke with Times sports reporter Steve Henson about why he thinks Walter won’t put the Dodgers up for sale.

What are federal investigators examining

Business reporter Laurence Darmiento wrote Aug. 5 that the heart of the federal investigation swirls around related-party transactions.

These dealings are “between entities with business or personal ties, including loans, sales and other transactions that can have legitimate reasons but pose potential conflicts of interest and typically require extra scrutiny,” Darmiento wrote.

More than $1 billion in financing to buy the Dodgers in 2012 came from insurance companies managed by Guggenheim Partners. The purchase was later vetted by state insurance regulators.

More on the related-party transactions

Investigators are checking whether billions of dollars’ worth of similar loans made by Walter’s companies were properly disclosed and that insurance companies were not over-leveraged.

Approximately $21 billion in loans not disclosed to state insurance regulators were made by two Delaware insurers Walter owns, according to ratings agency Fitch. The loans reportedly were made to companies with ties to Walter or his TWG Global holdings company.

The issue with these loans is they raise suspicions, according to Bruce Dubinsky, a forensic accountant who spoke with Darmiento. Dubinsky worked on the Enron and Madoff cases.

Dubinsky said that from an audit standpoint, these types of transactions “are always more suspect to fraud” and manipulation since repayments can be delayed indefinitely.

The insurance industry’s tight regulations for money collected from premiums exists so that money is available for future claims. Regulators believe related-party transaction are a threat to that guarantee.

TWG Global has rejected any allegations of wrongdoing.

Why is Walter fighting to keep the Dodgers

Henson teamed with Times colleagues to write about Walter’s chances of hanging on to the Dodgers amid this federal probe and whether new owners Bob Iger and Josh Kushner overpaid for the Lakers.

Henson reported that Walter owns a broad series of sports interests: English soccer Premier League team Chelsea, the Los Angeles Sparks WNBA team, the Cadillac Formula 1 racing team; a premier women’s tennis competition, the Billie Jean King Cup, and the entire Professional Women’s Hockey League.

He already sold the Lakers and Henson noted that there have been reports he’s putting his shares of Chelsea on the market.

So, why keep the Dodgers?

“No MLB team has ever been run as boldly as this team,” Henson said. “And the revenue from the Dodgers is relentless, from ticket sales, to international merchandise and including friendly [player] salary deferments that help keep money in-house.”

Since Walter and Co.’s takeover, the Dodgers have won three of the last six World Series and 12 division titles after he and partners rescued the franchise from bankruptcy.

Walter noted that a sale of the Lakers, a franchise he’d barely owned for more than a year, was easier than one he’s already helmed for nearly 15 years.

“His identity is totally wrapped up with the Dodgers and this success saga,” Henson said. “It’s dear to his heart and having them to sell them would just tear him up.”

Amid all of this speculation, the boys in blue are attempting to become the first National League team (and third overall) to win three consecutive World Series titles this year.

The week’s biggest stories

(Carolyn Cole/Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

Trump administration policies and pushback

Artist and concert news

A final tribute

Television, advertising entertainment news

More news

Editor’s pick

More picks

Things to do

(Melody Xu/Los Angeles Times)

Today’s recipe

The San Juan Islands off Washington state has a much-loved clam chowder served at La Conner Brewing Co. in the tiny picturesque town of La Conner, Wash. The dish is spicy enough and not so thick with cream or flour and is a standout in the clam chowder world, according to Times reader Mary Ann Mollenkamp.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Jack Dolan, investigative reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

The former BBC child star is leading a completely different life away from the spotlight

The Queen’s Nose star Victoria Shalet looks almost unrecognisable over 30 years since she rose to fame.

Fans of the nineties show will remember the actress playing Harmony in the children’s programme, which was based on Dick King-Smith’s novel of the same name.

It followed Harmony, a 12-year-old who was gifted a magical 50p coin by her uncle Ginger. The coin had powers to grant wishes when Queen Elizabeth II’s nose was rubbed.

Leading actress Victoria starred on the show from its debut in 1995 until season four, when the story took a new direction without her character.

But her career didn’t end there, Victoria went on to appear in TV shows like The Quest and Midsomer Murders.

The London-born performer also had memorable movie roles in the 1995 horror Haunted and 2003 drama Eroica. But even Victoria’s biggest fans would struggle to recognise the actress now, almost 15 years since her last role.

The 44-year-old is now a psychotherapist for individuals and couples, working in areas including abuse, grief and child-related issues.

Victoria recalls her past life on her website, writing: “Before becoming a psychotherapist, I spent over two decades working as an actor in film, television, theatre, and radio.

“This immersive experience of observing and portraying the human condition deepened my curiosity about why we do what we do—and how our internal world shapes our behaviour and relationships.”

She has previously opened up about leaving the industry, confessing that she simply lost her spark for performing.

Speaking to Glamour, she explained: “From the age of six, I was acting, but I got to my early twenties and realised my heart just wasn’t in it.

“Then I had some therapy myself and it really did make me re-evaluate what I wanted from life. I did a foundation year in counselling and knew I wanted to take it further.”

Victoria went on to describe the moment everything changed, sharing: “The crunch came when I was accepted onto a training course that would qualify me to be a therapist.

“On the same day, I got a call-back from an audition to be a regular in Holby City. When I didn’t get the part, I saw it as a sign that I had to give up acting altogether to do the three-year course. I had to make a choice and I’ve never regretted it.”

Old episodes of The Queen’s Nose are currently available to watch on YouTube

A HISTORIC ride at one of the UK’s top theme parks is set to reopen.

Blackpool‘s Pleasure Beach Resort has confirmed that its River Caves ride will reopen after a period of “reimagination”.

The classic water ride first opened in 1905 and is much-loved by families visiting the theme park.

Amanda Jean Thompson OBE, the managing director of Pleasure Beach Resort said: “Hopefully the River Caves will be reopening next year.

“One of the reasons why we had to close when we closed, is because we were hemorrhaging so much water from the ride.

“First of all we’ve got to find where all the leaks are.

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“That’s what we are working on right now.”

She then added details about how the ride will change, commenting: “What I can tell you is what will remain – the Egyptian scene will remain but it and the Angkor Wat scene, which is so integral to Aviktas will remain, but rethemed and redone.

“There will be new scenes of new travels and all different areas of where my grandparents travelled to and my parents travelled to.

“The River Caves are basically the story of where my grandparents travelled to in the close period of the park.

“I think the Blue Grotto may stay because I particularly like that area.”

She joked: “The rest will be new and remains top secret for now, because I keep changing my mind.”

“Will definitely be in the Far East for one section and Latin America for another section.”

“The boats are being done now, and one is currently being redesigned now – we are making them smaller and much more comfortable.”

It comes after visits photographed staff working on the ride the week including refitting wheels before the rides final drop.

River Caves closed back in early 2024 due to technical complications.

Since, little details have been shared about whether the ride would reopen and when.

She also confirmed there’s a new ice show in the making as well.

THE OLDEST scientific attraction in Britain is set to close for more than two years – as it undergoes a multi-million pound renovation.

Visitors have just over two months to make the most of the site before it temporarily shuts.

The Royal Observatory Greenwich has confirmed it will close all buildings from November 2, as part of its “First Light” renovation project.

Following the closures, the 351 year-old site will begin its £77million renovation to transform the area with new galleries, displays and conserving the observatory‘s most historic sections.

Changes set to come include an upgraded visitor entrance, a new lift tower to the Great Equatorial Telescope, and a “revitalised” landscape.

A spokesperson for Royal Observatory Greenwich told News Shopper: “The First Light project represents the most significant transformation of the Royal Observatory in recent years and will secure the future of this internationally important site.

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“Although visitors will not be able to access the observatory buildings during the redevelopment, we are committed to ensuring people can continue to engage with astronomy through a wide range of activities and events taking place.”

In place of the main observatory, a temporary planetarium and the Astronomers Take Over gallery will open at the National Maritime Museum.

The attraction is expected to remain closed until 2028 while works are being carried out.

The project, known as First Light, claims it will bring the story of the “historic site to life” and “make science and astronomy accessible to everyone”.

The landmark project was funded with the help of The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The Peter Harrison Planetarium at the site is currently already closed, having shut on September 5 last year.

Emmerdale star Nick Miles, who played Jimmy King on the ITV soap for more than two decades, has addressed final scenes which saw the beloved character killed off in a crash

Nick Miles has addressed his exit from Emmerdale – just hours after his character was killed off in explosive scenes. The actor, 63, has played Jimmy King on the long-running soap since 2004, but departed the Yorkshire-based serial in scenes that aired on Thursday evening.

Viewers will know that, in recent times, Jimmy and wife Nicola had been looking to the future, and had even planned to renew their wedding vows. Jimmy had not disclosed to Nicola about his financial troubles though, but tragedy struck when he crashed crashed into the wedding marquee where Joe Tate and Dawn Taylor were having a heart-to-heart.

No explanation has been offered yet as to what caused the fatal crash but actor Nick, who previously starred in The Bill, has spoken out about the sudden departure.

Asked by co-star Nicola Wheeler, who plays his on-screen wife, in a video that appeared on Emmerdale’s official Instagram why his character had to go, he simply reasoned: “Everybody I know who read that script, the first thing they said was that it made me cry.”

Nicola was with him in his final moments, telling Jimmy she loved him and holding his hand, as he imagined their vow renewal. With Jimmy gone, Nicola wept before fleeing the marquee just as it exploded.

Just moments before, everything played out as Nicola raced into the marquee to find her husband, was in a bad way and suggested he might not be making it out.

In heart-wrenching scenes, Jimmy shared his love for his wife, but sadly he succumbed to his injuries and died in the car. Moments later the marquee looked as though it was about to be engulfed in flames.

Fans were certainly not impressed with the shock death, with one writing: “He deserved better.” Another said: “I’m still in bits what an episode. Bravo to the cast,” as a third added: “I can’t get over the episode. I was in tears.”

Another fan commented: “I hate that they are getting rid of [name].” A further post read: “He deserved something more epic,” as a final fan said: “You’ve done [name] dirty!”

Other fans confessed they couldn’t believe the show was getting rid of the character. Another fan said they were “fuming” given the character had been a apart of the show for so long.”

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX. *

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IT’S your last chance to visit a major tourist attraction in the UK – unless you can wait until 2028.

Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens dates back to 1879, now home to four floors of local history, science and art as well as an impressive glass-domed tropical greenhouse.

However on August 29, the free-to-visit attraction will close its doors for two years for a huge renovation project.

The £13.6million project will include new entrances and a ‘shop window’ style exhibit.

This will allow it to show off items like its Nissan car that was the first off the production line at the Sunderland factory in 1986.

New rooms will be created too such as The Growing Space, with a tree-like canopy that will be used as a place for activities, and other exhibition spaces will be added.

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The tropical gardens which sit alongside the museum will get new lighting and seating areas as well as new plant species.

Currently inside the greenhouse are over 2,000 plants as well as man-made streams and ponds with colourful Koi fish.

There’s also a treetop walkway to see through the canopy and spot Mowbray Park through the glass.

Amongst the tropical plants is a permanent collection of life-sized dinosaur models and fossils.

During the works, the dinosaurs will be stored away safely, as will Wallace the Lion – a taxidermy lion from 1868.

During the closure, a new Culture House will open on September 12, where some museum activities will take place.

Other events that would have usually been held in the attraction will go-head at other places across the city.

Councillor Ciera Hudspith, cabinet member for culture, tourism and heritage at Sunderland City Council, said: “This once-in-a-generation transformation is about creating a museum that is fit for the future, while protecting its heritage and collections for generations to come.

“While we know people will be sad to see the museum temporarily close, this marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for one of our best-loved attractions.”

Ciera continued: “We’re also really excited to take museum activities out into communities across our city while the redevelopment work is underway.”

If you want to find out more about the museums around England – here’s a full list of 200 that are completely free.

This train track claimed the lives of hundreds of people during its 24 years of construction.

Burrowing beneath a towering mountain range in Massachusetts is a railway tunnel with a long and blood soaked history. The Hoosac Tunnel travels between North Adams in the west to the town of Florida, Massachusetts in the east. It was constructed in 1851 and finally finished in 1975.

However, during its 24 years of construction, this railway tunnel claimed the lives of around 200 men, giving it the terrifying nickname of ‘the Bloody Pit’. Men were killed by explosions, falling rocks and accidents with ladders and scaffolding, leading to a strike in 1865 where workers burned buildings in protest of the horrific working conditions.

Over the year following the strike, a further 14 men were killed or injured at work in the tunnel.

On October 17, 1867, the tunnel saw the deadliest accident of its 24 years in construction.

Workers were digging a 1,028 foot long vertical exhaust shaft when a candle ignited the fumes that had leaked from a lamp.

An explosion ripped through the shaft, setting the hoist alight. It collapsed into the shaft, trapping 13 men working at the base of the shaft inside the darkness.

The pumps were destroyed, and the shaft began to fill with water.

In a desperate attempt to save the men trapped below, a worker was lowered into the shaft the following day but was overcome by fumes and reported no survivors once he reached the surface again.

Horrifyingly, when workers reached the bottom of the shaft months later they found that at least some of the men had survived long enough to build a raft to escape the rising flood waters before they suffocated.

The men died due to a lack of oxygen as fires burned through the air.

Despite the tragedies that befall construction, the tunnel was finally completed and used by both passenger and freight trains.

Today, the tunnel still stands but is only used for freight trains.