young

Christian Pulisic was supposed to be in St. Louis on Tuesday, preparing to play in the national soccer team’s Gold Cup semifinal with Guatemala. Instead he was standing under a freeway overpass in Culver City playing with a bunch of kids.

“This is kind of what I was, you know, born to do,” the former and perhaps future captain of the national team said. “Having this platform and being here to inspire, hopefully, the next generation and do this for kids, it’s special.”

Pulisic, 26, isn’t far removed from being a kid himself, one who grew up learning the game on mini fields not too different from the one he was opening Tuesday. But for Pulisic soccer is no longer a child’s game, it’s a business. And that has taken a lot of fun out of it.

So when Pulisic, the national team’s active leader in both appearances (78) and goals (35), decided to pass up this summer’s Gold Cup, the last major competition before next year’s World Cup, he was widely pilloried as selfish and egotistical by former national team players including Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard and Landon Donovan.

American Christian Pulisic is grabbed by Bolivia’s Hector Cuellar as they chase the ball during a Copa America match in Arlington, Texas, on June 23, 2024.

(Julio Cortez / Associated Press)

“I just can’t fathom turning down the privilege of representing my country,” added Alexi Lalas, who played on two World Cup teams for the U.S.

However, Pulisic says he was simply exhausted.

He played a career-high 3,650 minutes in all competition for AC Milan last season, leading the team with 11 goals and nine assists in Serie A play while appearing in 118 games for club and country in the last 22 months. He needed a break to rest both body and mind before the World Cup, when he’ll be the focus of a U.S. team playing the tournament at home for the first time in 32 years.

So after consulting with U.S. Soccer and national team coach Mauricio Pochettino, he took it, offering to play in two June friendlies — an offer Pochettino declined — but turning down an invitation to play in the Gold Cup.

The reaction was swift and hurtful, with many critics accusing Pulisic of turning his back on his country.

“To question my commitment, especially towards the national team, in my opinion that’s way out of line,” Pulisic said in his defense on a Golazo Network podcast last month.

“I don’t regret my decision. I think it’s the right thing for me.”

AC Milan’s Christian Pulisic celebrates with teammate Tijjani Reijnders after Reijnders scored against Como in Milan, Italy, on March 15.

(Antonio Calanni / Associated Press)

Given a chance to expand on that Tuesday, Pulisic declined.

“I said what I needed to say. I don’t think it’s something that I want to harp on,” he said.

But events like Tuesday’s clearly rekindle his passion for soccer by reminding him of what the game still looks like through a child’s eyes.

“To see the joy that it brings to kids’ faces and to give them a free space to just come and play and enjoy the game like I used to when I was a kid, that’s what it’s all about,” he said. “When I was around their age, that’s when I really grew the love for the game.”

His father, Mark, was a former indoor soccer player and longtime coach, so Pulisic spent much of his childhood in places just like the one in Culver City. Getting back to those basics after what has been one of the most trying months of his professional career has been a breath of fresh air and it showed because Pulisic, whose smiles are rare and generally sarcastic, was wearing a wide and sincere one Tuesday.

The play space he was visiting is the second Christian Pulisic Stomping Grounds facility in the U.S., one developed in conjunction with the global sports brand Puma. The first Stomping Ground opened two years ago in Miami and there are plans to build a third in Texas.

Wedged into an industrial area crowded with storage facilities and warehouses beneath an on-ramp to the 405 Freeway, the space, home to the Culver City Football Club, was refurbished to include mini indoor and outdoor turf fields, a putting green and a life-size chess set.

The costly update was nice, said Krist Colocho, president and chief executive of the Culver City Football Club. But having the captain of the men’s national team come to christen the site, then engage some three dozen players, ages 9 to 13, in training drills, was priceless.

“There’s no words for it,” he said. “The top player in the U.S.? It’s amazing. To get to play with him? That’s a cherry on top.”

The nonprofit club, Colocho said, is dedicated to ending the pay-for-play model that has made soccer too expensive for many kids. The Pulisic-Puma partnership will help with that.

“This is a start,” he said. “Coming from a background where soccer is difficult to afford, this is going to be one of those stepping [stones] that we work with.”

AC Milan’s Christian Pulisic celebrates after scoring against Cagliari in Milan, Italy, on May 11, 2024.

(Antonio Calanni / Associated Press)

Outside Pulisic backed toward a mini goal as 6-year-old Arih Akwafei charged forward, pushed the ball around Pulisic and tucked it into the net, then celebrated as only a 6-year-old can.

“It was fun doing everything and using our bodies to try to play soccer with him to see if he was good or not,” Arih said, gulping air between words in an effort to control her excitement. “I scored on him.”

Cameron Carr, 9, agreed.

“It’s a very big deal,” he said of Pulisic’s visit.

Asked whether he’d be happier if Pulisic was in St. Louis practicing with the national team, as so many critics had demanded, Cameron grew confused. To him the answer was as obvious as the question was stupid.

“I’m very happy that he’s taking his time to meet with us kids when he could be training,” he said.

‘Kayum was my friend for years,” recalls Abubakar Finiin. “But when I met his grandad in Bangladesh, it just felt like I understood his whole story. I knew so much more about him as a person.”

This moment of connection captures the essence of Kids of the Colony, a grassroots travel series on YouTube created by three childhood friends from Islington: Abubakar, Kayum Miah and Zakariya Hajjaj, all 23. In a series of chatty vlogs that thrive on their offbeat humour and close friendship, the trio provide a rich travelogue of culture and identity as they explore the countries of their parents’ birth.

The idea came to Abubakar while contemplating his next steps after graduating from Oxford University in 2023. “I just thought about the places that we came from,” he says, reflecting on the layered identity of growing up in London with ties elsewhere. Abubakar is Somali, Kayum is Bengali and Zakariya is of Moroccan and English descent.

“My uni life was so different from my home life. I wanted to do something positive that inspires people,” Abubakar says. After his pitches to media production companies were ignored, he turned to his school friends. “We were already planning to travel that summer, so I asked Kayum and Zakariya if they wanted to go to Bangladesh.”

“I was in love with the idea from the jump,” Zakariya says. “I’m a guy who loves travelling – especially if my friends are there.”

It was also a no-brainer for Kayum: “I couldn’t let you [Abubakar] go to Bangladesh on your own.”

Despite lacking a studio or a big budget, they gathered some friends to help them film. “Travel YouTube is such a huge mini-genre,” says Abubakar. “But it felt weird that people only go to the markets with a GoPro and try to haggle prices. You can’t go to a country and not show the culture or local traditions.”

Their rules were simple: no resorts, no tourist traps and no fancy restaurants – just real life, as lived by the people who call these places home.

“It’s always important for us to have someone that’s connected to that country on the trip,” Abubakar adds. “I think that’s what differentiates us.”

Their first trip was to Bangladesh, where Kayum’s family is from. Serving as an unofficial tour guide, he took them to try on a lungi (traditional men’s skirt) and sample street food from Sylhet, in the country’s north-east. They swam in a fukri, a large communal pond dug by locals, and marvelled at cows wandering freely along the roads.

“A lot of Abubakar and Zakariya’s first-time experiences were new to me, too,” says Kayum, despite having spent his summer holidays in Bangladesh. “But seeing their reactions to things I viewed as normal, like the cows, was hilarious.”

One of the more moving, yet humorous, moments comes when they chat with Kayum’s grandfather, a man who insists he’s 120, though no one can confirm this. “It was amazing to see my friends merge with my family in my homeland, especially when my nieces and nephews played football with us,” Kayum says. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

The second series took them to Somaliland, where Abubakar has roots. There, they served shaah (spiced tea) in a local cafe, caught fish in the northern port city of Berbera, and joined the Eid prayer with thousands of others at the national stadium in the capital, Hargeisa. In one episode, they’re invited to try martial arts at a local taekwondo studio. Kayum, who had never stepped inside a dojo before, was struck by the energy. “They didn’t have much funding – they were just doing it themselves,” he says. “But inside, there was so much talent.”

Then came the trio’s favourite moment – sharing an urn of camel milk. “Everyone started dropping like flies – there was very little footage the day after that,” Abubakar laughs, recalling how everyone but him got sick. The chaotic aftermath of Zakariya and Kayum splayed out on sofas, of course, made it into the vlog. “It was so funny to me that I drank it and just had immunity.”

Though not yet featured on their channel, the boys also visited Morocco, Zakariya’s home country. In one TikTok clip, they’re serenaded by a street performer whom they dub the “Moroccan Shakira”, somewhat questionably. “We’re planning to revisit and film another series,” Zakariya tells me.

Since uploading their first video in November 2023, Kids of the Colony has attracted a loyal audience. Their Instagram following has passed 35,000, their TikTok has racked up more than one million likes when combined with Abubakar’s own page. Their fans include everyone from NBA star Kyrie Irving to Amelia Dimoldenberg of YouTube’s celebrity interview show Chicken Shop Date. “We’ve had people recognising us in public and teachers telling us [on social media] that they’ve been showing our videos in geography classes,” Kayum says.

“We wanted to create a fun family show where parents can watch and remember their childhood,” Abubakar explains.

The desire to represent their roots and reframe negative perceptions is reflected in their channel name, which was coined by Abubakar after learning about third-culture kids – individuals who grow up in a culture different from their parents’. He says he wanted to come up with his own version: “[The name] references children of immigrants from ex-colonies. But when we come together, we can create a colony of our own – like ants – to be a nice and powerful force.”

After filming in each others’ countries of origin, Zakariya is keen to keep going: “I want to go to every country. I love travelling, so this gives me more of a reason.” Meanwhile, Kayum sees the show as a chance to reclaim misrepresented parts of the world: “I’d love to visit Palestine. I want to go to places that get the worst media coverage.”

While they’re still self-funding, all working and using their savings to pay for the filming and travel, the trio feel the investment has been worth it: “So many things are happening from us coming together, so it feels very good to see the results,” says Kayum.

“We grew up in working-class families,” Abubakar says, “but through film, writing and the arts, children of immigrants are trying to forge an identity. We hope our platform celebrates that identity.”

As Kayum puts it: “It’s about preserving culture.”

And in doing so, Kids of the Colony reshapes the narrative around where we get to travel and whose stories are documented.

Nerys Middleton says people often assume she’s in her thirties, but claims it’s not just down to looks but how she acts that keeps her young

Nerys Middleton has surprised many as a fashion influencer, often being mistaken for someone in her 30s despite being 52. She told What’s the Jam: “It annoys me when people say, ‘You don’t look 52’ and I think, no, I shouldn’t – I work hard to look the way I do. You have to.”

The mum-of-one attributes her youthful appearance not just to physical looks but also to keeping youthful habits. Which make her seem younger than her contemporaries.

Nerys claims that having younger friends and sticking to what they act like is a major factor: “People tell me they think I’m in my 30s because of the way I am. I hang around with people in their 30s, so they talk about what 30‑year‑olds talk about, like Love Island.”

Religiously adhering to her beauty routine, including daily SPF 50 and avoiding sun exposure, Nerys spends roughly £400 monthly on vitamins, skincare, and various beauty procedures, such as CO2 laser treatments. With Botox treatments since the age of 29.

Nerys also has a disciplined lifestyle by avoiding alcohol, smoking, and junk food. But above all, she believes her young mindset is what’s preserving her youth. She added: “If you think old, you become old.

“Most of my friends I met through work are younger than me and we get on because I have a young mindset. I spend a lot of time with young friends. We go on holidays, we go clubbing in Budapest. I wouldn’t go away with people my own age; they don’t like going out and partying.

“I think it’s not just about looks, it’s how you act. Because I’ve got younger friends, we talk about younger things and I spend a lot of time with them.”

When it comes to fashion, Nerys is mindful to steer clear of the “old-fashioned” trends she observed her mum adopting as she aged, such as short haircuts and floral prints. However, she’s also cautious about adhering too closely to what 20 year olds are wearing.

She added: “Try and keep make-up to a minimum and see what trends are out there; see what other women are wearing. But don’t follow like a sheep, try and think of trends yourself.

“Stay away from ripped jeans and ethnic shorts because they make you look like you’re trying too hard. It’s the balance in between. You can either look frumpy or look trashy.

“I’m trying to tell people about this balance that’s in the middle that can make you look classy, sophisticated and young.”

EXCLUSIVE: BBC bosses are risking a fallout with legendary rocker Neil Young, 79, just days before his Glastonbury gig over potential coverage of his performance on Saturday

BBC bosses risk falling foul of rock legend Neil Young just days before his Glastonbury gig. The Heart of Gold singer, 79, is one of the biggest names on the bill but it is still unclear how much of his Saturday performance will be on TV. Young is still wrangling with the BBC about coverage. Insiders suspect he will agree to letting just a handful of songs go out on TV or BBC iPlayer. Whether they will be live or part of an edited highlights package is still unclear. A BBC schedule of live sets released to the public omits Neil Young, while mentioning headliners such as Charli xcx and Doechii who play other stages on Saturday.

Bosses will have to tread carefully after the star pulled out of the festival earlier this year citing concerns about the BBC’s “corporate control”. He said in January: “We were told that BBC was now a partner in Glastonbury and wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in.

“It seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way I remember it being.”

A BBC spokeswoman said: “We aim to bring audiences as many performances as possible from the Pyramid Stage, and our schedules and plans continue to be finalised, right up to and during the festival.”

Young has made principled stands recently. He blocked his music from Spotify for two years, saying a podcaster on the platform had spread vaccine misinformation.

This year, he has also refused to let Ticketmaster use dynamic pricing for his forthcoming tour. When Young played Glastonbury in 2009 only five songs were televised.

Speaking at the time Mark Cooper, then executive producer of the BBC’s Glastonbury coverage, said: “Neil Young’s career has been conducted on his own terms.

“They believe in the live event and retaining its mystery and that of their artist. They have decided to make one song available online over the weekend to give a flavour of his set. That’s Rockin’ in the Free World and that’s their decision.

“You probably won’t find too many Neil Young performances available freely on TV or online.”

Elsewhere in the Glastonbury controversy, Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for Kneecap to be pulled from the line-up. The band was due to perform in the 2025 festival, but the PM doesn’t think it would be appropriate due to recent events.

He made the statement after Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh appeared in court as he was charged with a terror offence. The incident was relating to the musician allegedly displaying a flag and making remarks in support of the proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah at a concert in November last year.

Liam Ó hAnnaidh goes by the stage name Mo Chara and was bailed until later in the summer, which means he is able to play at Glastonbury. The festival will kick off on June 25 up until June 30.

When asked by The Sun if he thinks Kneecap should perform at the annual festival, Starmer said: “No, I don’t. I think we need to come down really clearly on this.

“I won’t say too much, because there’s a court case on, but I don’t think that’s appropriate.” The band are scheduled to perform on the West Holts Stage on Saturday.

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READ MORE: ‘I’ve used £19.50 Elizabeth Arden cream since I was 40 – no one can believe I’m 80’

Chelsea striker Liam Delap and Arsenal defender Myles Lewis-Skelly are among six nominees for the PFA Young Player of the Year award.

Bournemouth full-back Milos Kerkez, former Cherries defender Dean Huijsen, Arsenal winger Ethan Nwaneri and Aston Villa midfielder Morgan Rogers make up the shortlist.

Delap, who joined Chelsea from Ipswich in a £30m deal earlier this month, scored 12 goals in the Premier League last season as the Tractor Boys were relegated to the Championship.

Lewis-Skelly enjoyed a breakthrough campaign for Arsenal and scored on his England debut earlier this year against Albania.

Team-mate Nwaneri, 17, scored nine times in 37 appearances for the Gunners last term.

Spain international defender Huijsen earned a move to Real Madrid for his stellar performances for Bournemouth last season, while Hungarian full-back Kerkez is attracting attention from Premier League champions Liverpool after his fine performances for the Cherries.

Rogers contributed 14 goals and 15 assists as Aston Villa narrowly missed out on Champions League qualification.

The winner of the award will be announced on 19 August at a ceremony in Manchester.

June 19 (UPI) — The U.S. government and a Florida agency are working to arrange evacuation flights and cruise ship departures for Americans who want to leave Israel.

That includes participants in Birthright Israel, which is a free, 10-day heritage trip to Israel offered to young Jewish adults between the ages of 18-26.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Wednesday his embassy is working to get Americans out of Israel.

“Urgent notice! American citizens wanting to leave Israel-US Embassy in Israel @usembassyjlm is working on evacuation flights & cruise ship departures,” Huckabee wrote on his personal X account and later reposted on official accounts. “You must enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). You will be alerted w/ updates.”

The State Department later said that it has “no announcement about assisting private U.S. citizens to depart at this time.”

The situation is complicated by the closure of Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv. Jordan’s airports are open for commercial flights after being shut on Friday and Saturday.

On Tuesday, Americans participating in Birthright Israel boarded buses and sailed on the Crown Iris, a luxury Israeli cruise ship operated by Mano Maritime, to Cyprus. After the 13-hour voyage, they were flown to Tampa, Fla., on four jets chartered by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

In October 2023, DeSantis’ office flew nearly 700 Americans from Israel to Florida after Hamas attacked the Middle Eastern country.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management wrote on Facebook Sunday that it is “actively coordinating efforts to assist Americans seeking evacuation from the hostile situation in Israel.”

Sierra Dean, a spokesperson for the governor, said stranded Americans can fill out an emergency evacuation form from Grey Bull Rescue, a Tampa nonprofit that helps rescue citizens in conflict zones. Project Dynamo, a nonprofit also in Tampa, has teams on the ground in Israel and Jordan to assist.

Birthright Israel, a nonprofit, said it will pay for all its participants’ transportation costs.

When the airstrikes began, Birthright had about 2,800 young adult participants in Israel with 20,000 planning to go there this summer. Trips were canceled after the Israel-Hamas war, but were resumed in January 2023.

“Today we witnessed the true spirit of Birthright Israel – not only as an educational journey, but as a global family committed to the safety and well-being of every participant,” the organization’s CEO, Gidi Mark, said in a statement to The Times of Israel.

“This was a complex and emotional operation, carried out under immense pressure, and we are proud to have brought 1,500 young adults safely to Cyprus. Our team continues to work around the clock to secure solutions for the remaining participants still in Israel.”

Birthright participants were instructed to keep the voyage a secret by their group leaders.

“We’ve spent the last week going to bomb shelters every single night and barely getting any sleep,” Cantor Josh Goldberg told WPEC-TV. “So at least we all got to sleep on the boat.”

About 1,300 Birthright participants were still in Israel.

On a recent walk through the charred and twisted remains and scraped-flat plateau of the Pacific Palisades, local historian Randy Young paused a couple of hundred yards into the mouth of Temescal Canyon, above Sunset Boulevard, to let the eerie randomness of the January flames sink in. So much was erased in so little time, leaving the lasting impression, whether from afar or close-up, of a wasteland — a place almost wiped off the map.

But here, in the narrows of the canyon, where Temescal Creek tickled the roots of sycamores and cooled the air beneath the heavy branches of valley oaks, Young lighted up with the enthusiasm of an amateur botanist.

“The oak trees took all of the fire’s embers. They caught them like catcher’s mitts,” said Young, who grew up in adjacent Rustic Canyon and until recently lived in a Palisades apartment near Temescal.

The 1920s Chautauqua Conference Grounds in what became Pacific Palisades included a grocery and meat market.

(Pacific Palisades Historical Society)

Those trees, and the green (and thus less flammable) edges of the creek, helped to save a row of small, wooden cottages and a cluster of wood-shingled, pitched-roof buildings that were the remains of the 77-acre Chautauqua Assembly Camp, once the thriving nucleus of a 1920s effort to shape the Palisades as a spiritual and intellectual lodestar on the California Coast. The Chautauqua movement — founded in 1874 at Lake Chautauqua, N.Y., to better train Sunday-school teachers — swept the country in the late 19th century, blossoming into a network of assemblies drawing rural and working-class Americans hungry for education, culture and social progress. While short-lived, the local camp would form the blueprint for Pacific Palisades to this day.

Young, who has co-written books about the Palisades and its surrounding communities, stepped onto the short boardwalk fronting a modest wooden structure. “This was the grocery store and meat market,” he noted. Rounding the slope at the back, he pointed to an old Adirondack-style dining hall — now called Cheadle Hall but originally Woodland Hall — its simple post-and-beam and wood wainscoting preserved from the early 1920s. He also spoke of what had been lost over the decades: Across the glade had stood a barnlike, three-tiered auditorium. Nearby, he said, had been a log-cabin library. Up and down the canyon were dozens of river-rock cottages and timbered casitas, and 200 canvas tents raised on wooden platforms.

South of Sunset Boulevard (then known as Marquez Road), on a site that now includes Palisades Charter High School, was the Institute Camp, containing an amphitheater carved out of a natural bowl, where thousands of summertime campers would hear the likes of Leo Tolstoy’s son, Illya, speaking on “The True Russia,” or Bakersfield-born Lawrence Tibbett, who would become one of the country’s greatest baritones, perform selections from his Metropolitan Opera repertoire. The Institute Camp also housed the Founders Oak, a tree that marked the site of the community’s 1922 founding ceremony, and lots for independent groups, like the WE Boys and Jesus our Companion (J.O.C.), Methodist-affiliated clubs who made a former Mission Revival home into the Aldersgate Lodge (925 Haverford Ave.) in 1928.

A 1922 Thanksgiving gathering fills rows of the since-destroyed amphitheater set under oaks and sycamores in Temescal Canyon.

(Pacific Palisades Historical Society)

In the sylvan canyon, the Palisades Chautauqua offered a bewildering array of ways to lift oneself up: hiking and calisthenics, elocution and oratory, homemaking and child psychology, music, history, politics, literature and theater. Tinged with piety, these were, in their own words, “high class, jazz-free resort facilities.”

The official dedication of the Palisades Chautauqua on Aug. 6, 1922, would be the last of its kind in the country. It was spearheaded by Rev. Charles Holmes Scott, a Methodist minister and educational reformer who dreamed of creating the “Chautauqua of the West.” The influence of the movement was so central to the Palisades’ identity that in 1926, one of its main thoroughfares — Chautauqua Boulevard — was named in its honor.

Scott, inspired by the Chautauqua tradition’s ideals of self-transformation, envisioned Pacific Palisades as a place where character would matter more than commerce. “Banks and railroads and money is always with us. But the character and integrity of our men and women is something money cannot buy. We will prove the worth of man,” Scott declared. Residents signed 99-year leases to ensure the community’s cooperative nature. The leasehold model was also meant to prevent speculation, fund cultural facilities and events, and uphold moral standards. Alcohol, billboards and architectural extravagance were all prohibited — as was, alas, anyone who wasn’t Protestant or white.

The Palisades Assn., under Scott’s guidance, purchased nearly 2,000 acres of mesa, foothills and coastline. Pasadena landscape architect Clarence Day drew up the first plans, establishing a new axis, Via de la Paz, or Way of Peace, eventually home to Pacific Palisades United Methodist Community Church (1930) and terminating at a neoclassical, Napoleonic-scaled Peace Temple, atop Peace Hill. He laid out two tracts: Founders Tract I, a tight-knit grid of streets (now known as the Alphabet Streets) for modest homes above Sunset Boulevard, and the curving Founders Tract II, closer to the coast with larger lots for more affluent residents.

Soon after, Day was replaced by the renowned Olmsted Brothers, who refined the layout to follow natural contours, planted thousands of trees and designed a stately civic center in which they wanted to include a library, hotel, lake, a park with a concert grove and a far larger, permanent auditorium. Only one major element of that center was realized: Clifton Nourse’s Churrigueresque-style Business Block building at Swarthmore and Sunset, completed in 1924.

Residents gather on Peace Hill on Easter Sunday in 1922.

(Pacific Palisades Historical Society)

By the end of 1923, it seemed as if the Palisades was destined to become a boom town, with 1,725 people making down payments totaling more than $1.5 million on 99-year renewable leases. In early 1924, demand slumped, never to revive. To preserve the dream, in 1926 Scott abandoned the lease-only model and began selling lots. That same year the association borrowed heavily to purchase 226 more ocean-view acres from the estate of railway magnate Collis P. Huntington, installing underground utilities and ornamental street lighting in an area that would become known as the Huntington Palisades. Debt soared from $800,000 in 1925 to $3.5 million by the end of 1926.

As the 1929 stock market crash hit and revenue dried up in the Great Depression, the association collapsed. Its assets were sold off. Grand plans, like the Civic Center and the Peace Temple, were abandoned. The dream withered.

“There wasn’t a moment where they said ‘we’re stopping,’” Young said. “It just sort of petered out.”

Yet fragments endured, stubbornly. In 1943, the Presbyterian Synod purchased the Chautauqua site and operated it as a retreat. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, local activists fought off a plan to extend Reseda Boulevard right through Temescal Canyon (though buildings like the library and assembly hall had already been torn down in anticipation of the roadway). In 1994, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy acquired the land. Today, it survives as the city-run Temescal Gateway Park, its board-and-batten cabins and rustic halls weathered but largely intact.

The Business Block — since January a fire-blackened shell awaiting its undetermined fate — narrowly escaped demolition in the 1980s when a developer proposed replacing it with a concrete and glass mall. A preservationist campaign under the slogan “Don’t Mall the Palisades” saved the structure.

But by then, the character of the Palisades had begun to shift. Faint echoes of the quiet, rustic past remained, but modest bungalows had given way to mansions. The artists, radicals and missionaries were largely gone.

“It’s not Chautauqua anymore — it’s Château Taco Bell,” Young quipped, of much of the area’s soulless new built forms.

Today, thanks to the fire’s brutality, the original Chautauqua sites offer something unusual: a landscape where past and present momentarily coexist. Slate roofs held firm. Ancient oak groves performed better than modern landscaping. For Young, the fires stripped away modern gloss to reveal what continues to matter.

“When you go through a fire,” he said, “you get down to the basics.” He added: “The fires brought us back to 1928.”

Pacific Palisades is one of a long list of failed California utopias. Like Llano del Rio, the socialist settlement in the Antelope Valley, or the Kaweah Colony, a cooperative in the Sierra foothills, it was a high-minded gamble dashed on the shoals of capitalism and human nature. The idealistic outpost lingers, etched into the land, embossed in the Palisades’ deeper memory. The dream may no longer be intact, but its traces are still legible.

PEOPLE smugglers are using women and children as human shields in a diversion tactic to get past French police – before mostly men make it onto a dinghy.

Families with young babies and kids were put at the front of the queue of migrants entering the vast beach from the sand dunes in Gravelines, near Calais, yesterday with young men trailing behind.

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The diversionary tactics meant the 40 police officers, armed and waiting with pepper spray and tear gas, remained calm and did not use force against the group straight away to avoid injuring the children.

Instead, officers kettled the group and successfully marched them off back into the sand dunes.

But, when the time was right and the police thought they had taken the group off the beach, a group of mostly men suddenly sprinted off into the sand dunes before making a break for it back onto the beach.

Most of the migrants with children did not return to the beach.

It comes after senior Labour minister Darren Jones was slammed after suggesting on BBC’s Question Time that the majority of migrants entering by small boats that he had seen were women and children.

A dramatic cat and mouse game followed yesterday with tear gas being fired over Gravelines beach in an attempt to keep migrants away from the sea.

But they failed to stop a nearby dinghy from picking up the migrants and it left for British shores with mostly men on board.

It comes after official figures showed that more than 919 people crossed the Channel in small boats on Friday on 14 dinghies – averaging around 66 people per boat.

It has taken the provisional annual total to 16,183, which is 42 per cent higher than the same point last year and 79 per cent up on the same date in 2023.

The highest daily number so far this year was 1,195 on May 31.

Meredith Hayden, a New York-based social media influencer and cookbook author, didn’t start out wanting to create comforting content.

But that’s exactly what resonated with audiences.

She went viral a few years ago by posting about her “day in the life” as a private chef in the Hamptons. Now she has a large following on YouTube for her Wishbone Kitchen brand and her “Dinner With Friends” video series, where she shows herself setting up relaxing dinner parties, making French-style hot chocolate and re-creating a cozy coffee shop at home.

You might see her online wearing pajamas or in bed with her dog while talking to the camera. She doesn’t edit out the parts where she messes up the recipe, saying her fans appreciate the flubs. Hayden, who recently completed a tour for “The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook,” said she isn’t necessarily going for a vibe, at least not intentionally, despite the clear Ina Garten influence.

“This is really just how I live my life,” Hayden, 29, said by phone. “I am glad it comes across as comforting, because I’m definitely someone who gravitates more towards ‘comfort content’ myself.”

“I’m not planning on watching ‘Severance,’” she added, saying she gravitates toward more wholesome, grounded content, such as home makeover shows of the non-competitive variety.

That personal preference aligns with a broader trend among young adult viewers, according to recent data from United Talent Agency, the Beverly Hills representation firm. The company’s data and insights group, UTA IQ, compiled stats suggesting that many younger consumers are leaning toward material that soothes the nerves and acts as a warm blanket, rather than ratcheting up the anxiety.

“Comfort content” is like popping a Lorazepam (though not in the excessive dose Parker Posey’s character takes in “The White Lotus”) or CBD gummy at the end of the day. The trend is playing out across TV, streaming, literature and social media, said UTA IQ executive Abby Bailey.

She sees it in the rise of #CleanTok videos (totaling 49 billion views last year), in which people do mundane household chores, as well as robust streaming viewership of nostalgic low-intensity sitcoms including “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and the successful February debut of a new CBS soap opera, “Beyond the Gates.”

“Somber themes, intellectual depth, cultural satires — those have always defined prestige entertainment, and it’s left many to discount the value and the viewership of this more lighthearted, comforting programming,” Bailey told The Times. “But as audiences are prioritizing their well-being and taking brain-breaks from the weight of the world, the definition of what’s capital ‘I’ important in entertainment is shifting.”

The changing attitudes are particularly noticeable in the young adult entertainment space, which several years ago was dominated by postapocalyptic teen dramas such as “The Hunger Games” and the “Divergent” series.

More than half (58%) of U.S. adults ages 18 to 30 say TV shows and movies depicting young adults have become too dark and heavy, according to UTA IQ’s April poll of more than 1,000 people. More than 70% said they want to see lighter and more joyful TV shows with young people.

That’s not to say that the upcoming season of the dark and sexually explicit “Euphoria” won’t be successful or that the next “Hunger Games” film won’t work at the box office. That type of content still has its place, even as tastes evolve. But studios and streamers appear to be noticing the audience’s shifting habits.

Examples are popping up in the young adult space on streaming services, including Tubi’s 2024 sports romance movie “Sidelined: The QB & Me,” which is getting a sequel. The Netflix teen drama “My Life With the Walter Boys” was recently renewed for a third season, ahead of its Season 2 premiere.

There are plenty of other opportunities now for young people to take mental breaks on the couch, from the rise of “cozy gaming” to the crossover appeal of “healing fiction,” a genre of whimsical books from Japan and Korea that have taken off elsewhere. Olympic diver Tom Daley, who went viral when he was photographed knitting between his events in Tokyo, created a competition show called “Game of Wool” that will debut on Channel 4 in the U.K.

Some millennial parents have turned to gentler, less overstimulating TV shows from decades ago — think “Arthur” and “Clifford the Big Red Dog” — to co-view with their young children.

Comfort content is certainly nothing new. The term brings to mind the idyllic autumnal walkways of Stars Hollow, the fictional small town from “Gilmore Girls,” as well as just about anything on the Hallmark Channel, which has enough of a following to justify its own $8-a-month subscription streaming service.

But there may be a reason the category is finding renewed purchase in trying times. Bailey hears that theme from consumers who just aren’t in the mood for any more nail-biters. “Time and time again, I get people saying, ‘I just can’t bring myself to watch anything serious,’” Bailey said. “‘Like, all I want to do is watch Bravo.’”

Stuff we wrote

Studio splitsville

As expected, Warner Bros. Discovery will split into two companies, separating its streaming and studios businesses from the struggling television networks business, the New York-based media giant said Monday.

The Streaming & Studios company will consist of the film and TV studios as well as HBO and HBO Max. The Global Networks company (which is taking on much of the debt) will have CNN, Discovery and other channels.

The divorce is aimed to be completed by mid-2026. Afterward, Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav will be CEO of the streaming and studios group, while Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels will run the networks.

The firm previously foreshadowed this move by restructuring its operations along similar lines.

Warner Bros. Discovery thus joins Comcast’s NBCUniversal, which is sweeping basic cable networks, including MSNBC and USA, into a new separate entity called Versant. It’s widely speculated that Paramount Global — if and when the Skydance deal happens — will also eventually unload declining legacy networks.

The breakups reflect an ongoing reality — linear television is in big trouble. The struggles of the cable bundle have continued to weigh on studio finances, with customers moving rapidly to on-demand services.

Indeed, if anyone thought the entertainment business’ bloodletting was over after last year’s series of layoffs, Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. Discovery disabused them of that notion in recent days.

Disney slashed several hundred employees on June 2. An actual number was not disclosed, but the cuts are significant, coming after Bob Iger embarked on a plan to reduce staff by 8,000 two years ago following his return as chief executive.

The latest layoffs hit film and television marketing teams, television publicity, casting and development as well as corporate financial operations. The cuts happen to land as the company is celebrating huge box office results from “Lilo & Stitch.”

The new downsizing comes amid Disney’s efforts to pare down its production pipeline after binge-spending during the streaming wars. The reduction corresponds to Disney’s efforts to focus on quality over quantity while also cutting costs.

A couple days after Disney’s layoffs, Warner Bros. Discovery cut staff from its cable television channels business. Those Warner Bros. Discovery reductions were smaller in scale (eliminating fewer than 100 roles), but the message to the industry couldn’t be clearer. Comcast’s NBCUniversal has also undergone layoffs.

The question is: What comes next? Many expect the cast-off Warner and NBCUniversal networks to merge at some point, with Paramount channels perhaps joining them one day.

Finally …

Listen: Turnstile’s new album “Never Enough” is out. Also, The Beths have a new tune. Sabrina Carpenter’s latest has already been declared the “song of the summer.”

NIGEL Farage will offer young people the chance to take up trades such as welding and robotics as part of his re-industrialisation plans.

The Reform UK leader will accuse Labour of forgetting their heartlands by offering a bright future to youths if they gain power.

Farage has vowed to set up regional technical colleges in Wales teaching plumbing, electrical trades and industrial automation in a careers blitz if they win power there next year.

The intervention is part of a major drive to win next year’s elections there as he blames Labour’s “twenty-six years of failure” on a visit there today.

The move comes as the party chief vows to abandon the government’s Net Zero drive if he reaches power by re-opening coal mines.

The party chief intends to give the green light to digging for British coal rather than importing it to help make home-grown steel.

Ministers have set out their plans for not granting any more coal licences insisting that phasing out is crucial to tackling climate change.

But during a major speech today, he will talk about how Wales produced 60 million tons of coal exporting half of it.

He will also hail the country’s heritage, he will address Port Talbot steelworks which were once the largest steel plant in Europe.

The party chief will use a major speech in the Principality setting out his plans to re-industrialise the country in areas betrayed by Labour.

He will take aim at Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘year of failure” since coming to power and saying the game is up for blaming the Tories for the woes of Wales.

Mr Farage will also highlight how de-industrialisation there means GDP per head is £10,000 less than the UK.

1

The Pop Idol winner discovered on this week’s episode of BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are? that he is related to King Edward I and William the Conquerer – so Mirror man Matt decided to dig into his ancestors too

As if Will Young didn’t already have reason to be smug, the Pop Idol and two-time Brit Award winner now has something else he can boast about – he’s related to royalty.

Specifically, King Edward I, his 20-times great-grandfather. Oh, and William the Conquerer too.

The singer found out about his kingly lineage filming this week’s episode of BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are? And he’s not the only celebrity who, besides being blessed with success, can also add royal blood to their claims to fame.

Josh Widdecombe is another, having learned he’s also directly descended from Edward I. Before him there was Danny Dyer, who discovered his ancestors include King Edward III, William the Conquerer and French king Louis IX.

Then there’s Matthew Pinsent – four-time Olympic gold medallist and, it turns out, also related to Edward I, William the Conqueror and one of Henry VIII’s wives.

What is it about being a celebrity, I wondered, that makes you more likely to have royal relatives? Knowing Will was going to be the latest to fill me with jealousy, I set out to find out if mere mortals like me had any remotely interesting ancestors.

In my case, the chances of even finding anyone slightly aristocratic in my family tree seemed pretty bleak. Will was already born with a silver spoon in his mouth, a boarding school boy whose dad was a company director and whose grandad was an RAF flight lieutenant.

Most of the relatives I knew about, on the other hand, were proud yet poor Nottinghamshire coal miners and their wives.

Still, I set up an account on FindMyPast and added the names of the relatives I knew about over the last 150 years. As the site suggested potential matches based on birth, marriage, baptism and census records, I gradually worked my way back around 12 generations to the mid-1600s.

Alas, what I discovered only confirmed my suspicions. My family were paupers, not princes – grafters who toiled for centuries in coal mines, stables, forges and along canals.

My great-grandfather, I discovered, was a coal miner loader who had worked his way up to coal hewer – hacking coal from the mine bed by hand, hundreds of metres underground – just like his father and grandfather before him.

READ MORE: Chaos of 10-week British heatwave that gives huge warning ahead of summer 2025

Earlier still were nailmakers, boatmen, stonemasons and stablemen. Almost all lived and died in Derbyshire, Yorkshire or Lancashire. We were clearly the servants, not the masters. I had more in common with Baldrick than Blackadder.

But just as I was about to give up, I stumbled on something unexpected. In the late 1500s, Derbyshire man William Gilbert, my 13th great-grandfather, married Anne Clere – and into a well-known family.

The Cleres, it turned out, were an ancient family from Norfolk whose patriarch, Sir Robert Clere, was the High Sheriff of Norfolk and known for his great wealth.

Anne’s father, Sir Edward Clere, was an MP, but apparently not a very articulate one when speaking in the House of Commons. One diarist wrote how he made “”a staggering [stumbling] speech… I could not understand what reason he made.”

He was knighted in 1578 after having Queen Elizabeth I stay over at his home in Thetford, Norfolk, when he entertained her with a theatrical performance and jousting.

Fascinated that my family was at least good friends with royalty, I kept digging. Edward’s father was Sir John Clere, an MP and naval commander who drowned in August 1557 when his fleet tried to conquer the Orkney Islands, but was beaten back to sea by 3,000 angry islanders.

But it was her mother, Alice Boleyn, my 14th great-grandmother, whose name jumped out at me. Sure enough, as I followed the tree, her niece was none other than Anne Boleyn, Queen of England until she was beheaded in 1533 by Henry VIII – and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I.

I was astounded – that makes me Elizabeth I’s first cousin, 16 times removed.

On the other side of the Clere family, however, things were taking a more sinister – but no less fascinating – turn.

Sir John Clere’s wife, Anne Tyrell, also had royal connections, it turned out, but ones that probably changed the line of succession forever.

On her father’s side, her grandfather was Sir James Tyrell, a trusted servant of Richard III, who allegedly confessed to the murders of the Princes in the Tower under Richard’s orders.

James is also portrayed in Shakespeare’s Richard III. I was astounded – I studied the play at school and had no idea I was reading about my 17th great-grandfather.

Treason and treachery, it seems, ran in the family. His father William was beheaded on Tower Hill in 1462 for plotting against King Edward IV.

William’s father, Sir John Tyrell of Heron, was High Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire and knight of Essex, and three times Speaker of the House of Commons. That my 19th great-grandfather basically once ruled Essex is something I won’t be letting people forget in Stansted, where I now live.

But it was also through Anne Tyrell’s mother’s side that I found something even more astonishing. As I followed her line, the names began to get more and more aristocratic, through the Willoughbys, De Welles, Greystokes and Longsprees, until I found…. My 26th great-grandfather, King Henry II.

His father was Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou and his grandfather, King Henry I. And Henry’s father? No other than William the Conquerer – my 29th great-grandfather.

And perhaps even more bizarrely, that would make Will Young my 9th cousin, 9 times removed. I’ll be inviting him round for tea next week.

Genealogists will tell me to calm down – apparently there are about five million people who are descended from William the Conquerer. Establishing myself as the true heir to the British throne could certainly be tricky.

But just being as special as Will, Danny Dyer and Matthew Pinsent is enough for me. And not bad for the son of Nottinghamshire nailmakers, stablemen and coal miners.

How to trace your family tree on Findmypast:

Register for a free Findmypast account and create your tree.

Add your own information, then details about your parents, grandparents and other relatives that you know. You don’t need every detail such as date or place of birth, but the more you have the better.

Findmypast then searches its records and provides hints about your ancestors, helping you expand your tree. To access the records you’ll need to pay a subscription.

Most of the records go back to the 1700s, but family trees created by other people can help you trace back even further.

Use the internet to search some of the key names – you might find more clues and other historical connections.

Numbers of children requiring hospitalisation for complications due to severe malnutrition rising as WHO warns ‘health system is collapsing’.

More than 2,700 children below the age of five in Gaza have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition, marking a steep increase in the number of children suffering from the serious medical condition since screening in February, the United Nations reports.

Of almost 47,000 under-fives screened for malnutrition in the second half of May, 5.8 percent (or 2,733 children) were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition, “almost triple the proportion of children diagnosed with malnutrition” three months earlier, the UN said on Thursday.

The number of children with severe acute malnutrition requiring admission to hospital also increased by around double in May compared with earlier months, according to the report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

According to data from the Nutrition Cluster cited by OCHA, more than 16,500 children below the age of five have been detected and treated for severe acute malnutrition in Gaza since January, including 141 children with complications requiring hospitalisation.

Despite the increase in children suffering serious malnutrition and requiring hospitalisation, “there are currently only four stabilisation centres for the treatment of [severe acute malnutrition] with medical complications in the Gaza Strip,” the OCHA report states.

“Stabilisation centres in North Gaza and Rafah have been forced to suspend operations, leaving children in these areas without access to lifesaving treatment,” it adds.

The UN’s latest warning on the health of young children in Gaza comes as the Palestinian territory’s entire population deals with starvation, and the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the enclave’s “health system is collapsing”.

Issuing an appeal for the “urgent protection” of two of Gaza’s last remaining hospitals, the WHO said the “Nasser Medical Complex, the most important referral hospital left in Gaza, and Al-Amal Hospital are at risk of becoming non-functional”.

“The relentless and systematic decimation of hospitals in Gaza has been going on for too long. It must end immediately,” the WHO said in a statement.

“WHO calls for urgent protection of Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital to ensure they remain accessible, functional and safe from attacks and hostilities,” it said.

“Patients seeking refuge and care to save their lives must not risk losing them trying to reach hospitals.”

UN experts, medical officials in Gaza, as well as medical charities, have long accused Israeli forces of deliberately targeting health workers and medical facilities in Gaza in what has been described as a deliberate attempt to make conditions of life unliveable for the Palestinian population in the Strip.

WHO calls for urgent protection of Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital in the Gaza Strip

WHO warns that the #Gaza Strip’s health system is collapsing, with Nasser Medical Complex, the most important referral hospital left in Gaza, and Al-Amal Hospital at risk of becoming… pic.twitter.com/Rd3ZjASuBp

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) June 5, 2025

California’s two most prominent Democrats remain mum on their future plans, but former Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Gavin Newsom both took time to tend to their political personas in Compton Thursday, attending separate events at local schools.

As hundreds of graduating seniors crossed the stage in their blue and white regalia early that morning at Compton High School, many paused to shake hands and take selfies with an honored guest on the dais: the former vice president herself, who’d made a surprise appearance after being invited by a graduating student.

Several hours later, Newsom read to young students at Compton’s Clinton Elementary School before standing with local leaders in front of a cheery, cartoon mural to launch a new state literacy plan. The issue is one of deep importance to the governor, whose own educational career was often defined by his dyslexia.

The adjacent appearances, which occurred a few miles apart, were “coincidental,” Newsom said. But they come at a moment when both the high-octane Democrats are in a political limbo of sorts.

The pair are viewed as potential 2028 presidential candidates, but the California political world is also waiting on tenterhooks to see if Harris enters California’s 2026 race for governor – a move that would almost certainly preclude a 2028 presidential bid. Harris is expected to make a decision by summer, and her entrance would upend the already crowded race.

With just 19 months left in his second and final term, the lame duck governor is scrambling to cement his gubernatorial legacy while also positioning himself as a pragmatic leader capable of steering his national party out of the wilderness. Harris, meanwhile, must decide if she actually wants to govern a famously unwieldy state and, if she does, whether California voters feel the same.

Both Harris and Newsom were notably absent at the state party convention last weekend, as thousands of party delegates, activists, donors and labor leaders convened in Anaheim.

California Governor Gavin Newsom presents his Golden State Literacy Plan at Clinton Elementary School in Compton on Thursday.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Newsom was a famously loyal surrogate to then-President Biden. But in recent months with his “This Is Gavin Newsom” podcast and its long list of Democratic bête noire guests, the governor has worked to publicly differentiate his own brand from that of his bedraggled party, one controversial interview at a time.

Meanwhile, Newsom — who previously scoffed at the speculation and said he wasn’t considering a bid for the White House, despite his manifest ambitions — is more openly acknowledging that he could run for the country’s top job in the future.

“I might,” Newsom said in an interview last month. “I don’t know, but I have to have a burning why, and I have to have a compelling vision that distinguishes myself from anybody else. Without that, without both, and, I don’t deserve to even be in the conversation.”

Newsom demurred Thursday when asked whether he thought Harris would run for governor.

“Look, I got someone right behind me running for governor, so I’m going to be very careful here,” Newsom said to laughter, as California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond — who announced his 2026 gubernatorial bid back in September 2023 — smiled behind him.

Harris attended the Compton High graduation at the invitation of Compton Unified School District Student Board Member MyShay Causey, a student athlete and graduating senior. She did not speak at the ceremony, though she received an honorary diploma.

Staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report.

CNN’s chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt, whose 2021 story on a military contractor led to a defamation suit loss in court, announced Monday he is leaving the network.

“Tough to say goodbye but it’s been an honor to work among the very best in the business,” Marquardt wrote on X. “Profound thank you to my comrades on the National Security team & the phenomenal teammates I’ve worked with in the US and abroad.”

Earlier this year, a Florida jury awarded $5 million to former CIA operative Zachary Young after a jury found he was defamed in a November 2021 report by Marquardt on how Afghans were being charged thousands of dollars to be evacuated after the U.S. military withdrawal from their country.

After deliberations began on punitive damages, CNN attorneys reached an undisclosed settlement with Young.

A CNN representative declined to comment on Marquardt’s departure, calling it a personnel matter. One network insider who was not authorized to comment publicly said there was a feeling among many people at CNN that Marquardt had to go after the loss in court.

Marquardt has served as CNN’s chief national security correspondent since 2017. He was previously a foreign correspondent for ABC News.

Young lives in Vienna and has his business based in Florida. He was seeking $14,500 for getting people out of Afghanistan after the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal. He claimed his services were limited to corporate sponsors.

The business was described in Marqurdt’s report alongside interviews with Afghans who spoke about desperate efforts by people to escape, but they had no connection to Young.

Young’s suit said his inclusion in the story, which used the term “black market” in an on-screen banner, implied that his activity was criminal, even though Marquardt’s segment made no such charge. “Black market” was also used in the introduction of the report when it first ran on “The Lead With Jake Tapper,” other CNN programs and the network’s website and social media accounts.

CNN lawyers argued that the term “black market” was used to describe an unregulated activity, even though the dictionary definition describes it as illegal.

Young claimed the story destroyed his reputation and ability to earn a living — driving his annual income from $350,000 to zero — and caused severe emotional and psychological distress.

Amanda Holden is gracing our screens for Britain’s Got Talent and her new Netflix show. But away from TV fame, she has shared her beauty secrets and life at her ‘dream home’

Amanda Holden is back on our screens for Britain’s Got Talent as the final of the show fast approaches. But away from her hectic work life, including her new Netflix series, Cheat: Unfinished Business, which was released earlier this year, the TV presenter enjoys a slower pace back in her Surrey mansion.

The 54-year-old has been happily married to her music producer husband Chris Hughes for almost two decades, after they met in the United States. Together, they share two daughters, Lexi, 19, and 13-year-old Hollie.

Over the years, the Heart presenter has retained her bombshell status by keeping fit and up to date with the latest beauty treatments. She even revealed her favourite trick for staying youthful.

As she graces our screens, we’ve taken a glimpse into her lavish life – from her best beauty hacks to eye-watering net worth and family home life.

READ MORE: Britain’s Got Talent’s Susan Boyle makes ’emotional’ confession after six year break

Secret to ‘ever-evolving’ marriage

Amanda and Chris first met in the United States in 2003, and got married five years later at St Margaret’s Church in Somerset, followed by a reception at Babington House.

Despite being together for over two decades, she recently revealed why their relationship still feels so fresh. The mum of two explained how happy she is to be in a “lovely, secure relationship”.

She told Hello: “We have ups and downs like everyone else. But when I was looking at the pain and suffering that some of the people we were working with were going through, I felt so grateful that I had somebody in my life with no complications.”

The Britain’s Got Talent judge added: “My husband and I always have this joke where we go: ‘God, our relationship still feels so fresh. Twenty-two years does feel like a long time, but it still feels new to me. I think that’s because it’s ever-evolving.”

Facial she swears by

The TV star has revealed the £700 beauty treatment she swears has reversed her age. It involves sitting down for an hour to get micro-needling, and it’s not for the faint-hearted.

The process includes 24 coated pins which need to be penetrated into the subdermal tissue and coagulate the fat to remodel the face. She boasted about the “incredible” treatment on Instagram and said: “I’ve had collagen wave facials to smooth out my skin ever since @nilamholmes made it available at @dermaspa_mk. It has always given me an incredible lift.

“The other week before filming started on the @bgt live shows, Nilam suggested I try a new natural treatment called Morpheus8! The results have been absolutely amazing. I’ve noticed a real plumpness to my skin and it’s much tighter!”

Huge net worth

The glam radio presenter is not only back on Britain’s Got Talent, but is also co-presenting a new dating show with Married at First Sight star, Paul Bronson. Together, they invite estranged couples to have a second chance at love on Netflix.

With her multi-layered career continuing to grow, Amanda now has an impressive net worth of around £3.6 million. While her husband appears to have a net worth of £4.5 million.

She previously spoke about how Chris offers her stability and said: “He’s rubbish at romance, but he’s there for the solid things, such as keeping my car clean and making sure I relax. He’s a proper bloke who looks after me. I’m a strong, opinionated woman, but he helps steer the Mandy ship.”

‘Dream home’

Amanda and Chris reside in the charming village of Cobham in their lavish Surrey mansion, which is thought to be worth around £7 million. Describing her home, she previously told Mail Online: “This is my dream home. My entire life I have wanted the dream home, and you know you do the stepping up and now I’ve finally got it.”

Amanda also shared with The Mirror: “I am house proud, but I’ve got two kids, two dogs and a cat, so it’s a family house. Everything is washable and wipeable. It’s so open plan my littlest can cycle her bike around.

“I don’t have carpets on the ground floor and this is disgusting but I was doing an interview a while ago and my puppy pooed on the floor during the chat. But you don’t worry if you have wooden floors. Two words: wipe clean.”

READ MORE: Amanda Holden wears ‘Aperol Spritz’ orange mini dress she raves is ‘gorgeous’ and it’s in stock

Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – In a quiet laser clinic in Indian-administered Kashmir’s biggest city, Srinagar, Sameer Wani sits with his arm stretched out, his eyes following the fading ink on his skin.

The word “Azadi” (freedom in Urdu), once a bold symbol of rebellion against India’s rule, slowly disappears under the sting of the laser. What was once a mark of defiance has become a burden he no longer wants to carry.

As Sameer, 28, watches the ink vanish, his mind drifts to a day he will never forget. He was riding his motorbike with a friend when Indian security forces stopped them at a checkpoint.

During the frisking, one of the officers pointed to the tattoo on his arm and asked, “What is this?”

Sameer’s heart raced. “I was lucky he couldn’t read Urdu,” he tells Al Jazeera, his voice tinged with the memory. “It was a close call. I knew right then that this tattoo could get me into serious trouble.”

When he was younger, he said, the tattoo was a “sign of strength, of standing up for something”.

“But now I see it was a mistake. It doesn’t represent who I am any more. It’s not worth carrying the risk, and it’s not worth holding on to something that could hurt my future.”

Sameer is one of many young Kashmiris choosing to erase tattoos that once reflected their political beliefs, emotional struggles or identity. Once worn with pride, the tattoos are now being removed in growing numbers across the region – quietly and without fanfare.

While a trend to remove tattoos was already under way, the urgency has deepened since India and Pakistan – who have fought three wars over Kashmir since emerging as independent nations in 1947 – came to the brink of yet another war following the killing of 26 people in the scenic resort town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir last month.

New Delhi accuses Islamabad of backing an armed rebellion that erupted on the Indian side in 1989. Pakistan rejects the allegation, saying it only provides moral diplomatic support to Kashmir’s separatist movement.

Two weeks after Pahalgam, India, on May 7, launched predawn drone and missile attacks on what it called “terror camps” inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir – the most extensive cross-border missile strikes since their war in 1971. For the next three days, the world held its breath as the South Asian nuclear powers exchanged fire until United States President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between them on May 10.

However, peace remains fragile in Indian-administered Kashmir, where a crackdown by Indian forces has left the region gripped by fear. Homes of suspected rebels have been destroyed, others have been raided, and more than 1,500 people have been arrested since the Pahalgam attack, many under preventive detention laws.

‘We feel it on our skin’

In such a tense atmosphere, many Kashmiri youth say they feel exposed – and more vulnerable to scrutiny over even the most personal forms of expression.

“Every time something happens between India and Pakistan, we feel it on our skin – literally,” Rayees Wani, 26, a resident of Shopian district, tells Al Jazeera.

“I have a tattoo of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s name on my arm, and after the Pahalgam attack, I started getting strange looks at checkpoints,” he said, referring to the separatist leader who passed away at the age of 91 in 2021. The Hurriyat is an alliance of pro-freedom groups in Indian-administered Kashmir.

“Even my friends ask me uncomfortable questions. The media, police, and even the neighbours start looking at you differently,” Rayees added.

“I just wish people understood that a tattoo doesn’t define someone’s loyalty or character. We are just trying to live, not explain ourselves every day. I want to erase this as soon as possible.”

Arsalan, 19, from Pulwama recently booked a tattoo removal session. He did not share his last name over fears of reprisal from the authorities.

“People with visible tattoos – especially those hinting at past political affiliations – are suddenly worried they could be profiled, questioned – or worse,” he said.

To be sure, tattoo culture itself isn’t fading in Kashmir. Tattoo studios are still busy, especially with clients aged between 22 and 40, many of whom wait for hours to get inked. But the trend has shifted; instead of political or religious tattoos, people now prefer minimalistic designs, nature-inspired patterns, names or meaningful quotes in stylish fonts.

Some Kashmiris trying to get rid of tattoos say that’s part of their personal evolution and growth.

“For me, it was about being brave,” Irfan Yaqoob from Baramulla district told Al Jazeera. Now 36, Yaqoob got a slain rebel’s name tattooed on his left arm when he was a teenager.

“Back then, it felt like a symbol of courage. But now, when I look at it, I realise how much I have changed. Life has moved on, and so have I. I have a family, a job, and different priorities. I don’t want my past to define me or create trouble in the present. That’s why I decided to get it removed. It’s not about shame. It’s about growth,” he said.

Many reasons to remove tattoos

It isn’t just the security forces that are driving this move among many Kashmiris to get rid of tattoos.

For some, tattoos became painful reminders of a turbulent past. For others, they turned into obstacles, especially when they tried to move ahead professionally or wanted to align the inscription on their bodies with their personal beliefs.

Anas Mir, who also lives in Srinagar, had a tattoo of a sword with “Azadi” written over it. He got it removed a few weeks ago.

“People don’t clearly say why they are removing tattoos. I removed mine only because of pressure from my family,” the 25-year-old said.

“It’s my choice what kind of tattoo I want. No one should judge me for it. If someone had an AK-47 or a political tattoo, that was their choice. The authorities or government shouldn’t interfere. And yes, tattoo trends also change with time,” he added, referring to the Russian-made Avtomat Kalashnikova assault rifles, arguably the most popular firearm in the world.

One of the key reasons behind people removing tattoos is religion. In a Muslim-majority region, tattoos, especially those carrying religious or political messages, could often conflict with the faith’s teachings.

Faheem, 24, had a Quranic verse tattooed on his back when he was 17.

“At that time, I thought it was an act of faith,” he told Al Jazeera, without revealing his last name over security fears. “But later, I realised that tattoos – especially with holy verses – are not encouraged [in Islam]. It started to bother me deeply. I felt guilty every time I offered namaz [prayers] or went to the mosque. That regret stayed with me. Getting it removed was my way of making peace with myself and with my faith.”

Many others said they shared the feeling. Some visit religious scholars to ask whether having tattoos affects their prayers or faith. While most are advised not to dwell on past actions, they are encouraged to take steps that bring them closer to their beliefs.

“It’s not about blaming anyone,” said Ali Mohammad, a religious scholar in Srinagar. “It’s about growth and understanding. When someone realises that something they did in the past doesn’t align with their beliefs any more, and they take steps to correct it, that’s a sign of maturity, not shame.”

Another key factor driving tattoo removals is job security. In Kashmir, government jobs are seen as stable and prestigious. But having a tattoo, especially one with political references, can create problems during recruitment or background checks.

Talib, who disclosed his first name only, had a tattoo of a Quranic verse shaped like an AK-47 rifle on his forearm. When he applied for a government position, a family friend in law enforcement hinted it might be an issue.

“He didn’t say it directly, but I could tell he was worried,” said the 25-year-old. “Since then, I have been avoiding half-sleeve shirts. I got many rejections and no one ever gave a clear reason, but deep down, I knew the tattoo was a problem. It felt like a wall between me and my future.”

As the demand for tattoo removal rises, clinics in Srinagar and other parts of Indian-administered Kashmir are seeing a steady increase in clients. Laser sessions, once rare, are now booked weeks in advance.

Mubashir Bashir, a well-known tattoo artist in Srinagar who also runs a tattoo removal service, said: “After a popular singer’s death in 2022, the trend of AK-47 tattoos exploded,” Bashir said. Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala, whose music often glorified guns, was killed in May 2022. Police blamed his death on an inter-gang rivalry.

“But now, especially after the Pahalgam attack, we are seeing more people coming in to erase those tattoos. The fear is real,” Mubashir said.

He estimated that tens of thousands of tattoos have been removed in the region over the past seven years, since 2019, when India abrogated Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status and launched a major crackdown, arresting thousands of civilians. “Some say the tattoo no longer represents them. Others mention problems at work or while travelling,” Mubashir said.

Laser tattoo removal isn’t easy. It requires multiple sessions, costs thousands of rupees and can be painful. Even after successful removal, faint scars or marks often remain. But for many Kashmiris, the pain is worth it.

Sameer, whose “Azadi” tattoo is almost gone, remembers the emotional weight of the process. “I didn’t cry when I got the tattoo,” he says. “But I cried when I started removing it. It felt like I was letting go of a part of myself.”

Still, Sameer believes it was the right choice. “It’s not about shame,” he says. “I respect who I was. But I want to grow. I want to live without looking over my shoulder.”

As he finishes another laser session, a faint scar is all that is left of the word that is Kashmir’s war-cry for freedom.

“I will never forget what that tattoo meant to me when I was 18,” Sameer says as he rolls down his sleeve. “But now, I want to be someone new. I want a life where I don’t carry old shadows.”