BELOVED British rock legend, Alex Ligertwood, who helped shape the sound of Santana has died aged 79.

His daughter, Merci, shared the heartbreaking news on Saturday following his death just weeks after taking the stage for the final time.

The Brogan Agency confirmed a day later that the star “passed peacefully in his sleep with his doggy Bobo by his side” at his longtime home in Santa Monica.

Tributes have already begun pouring in for the iconic frontman, whose powerhouse vocals defined an era.

Guitarist Brandon Paul, who toured alongside him in recent years as part of “Icons of Classic Rock,” led the emotional tributes – hailing him as “a world-class professional.”

He said: “His voice was a force of nature – soulful, from the heart, and legendary every single night. Beyond the music, he was an amazing human being and a dear friend.”

Brandon added: “Having a vocalist who worked with icons like Carlos Santana and Jeff Beck compliment my guitar playing is something I will carry with me forever.”

The singer worked as Santana’s lead vocalist on five separate occasions between 1979 and 1994, lending his unmistakable voice to classic albums including Marathon, Zebop!, Shango and Sacred Fire: Live in South America.

He also brought some of the band’s biggest hits roaring to life on stage, including “Winning,” “Hold On,” and “All I Ever Wanted.”

More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online

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JACKSON, Miss. — At 16, Edward Blackmon Jr. was arrested during a demonstration for voting rights in his Mississippi hometown. He was loaded with schoolmates into a truck once used to haul chickens and left in the summer heat before spending three nights in an overcrowded jail cell without a bed.

It was a moment that set him on a path to become a civil rights lawyer and one of the first Black lawmakers elected in the state since Reconstruction.

Blackmon was part of a generation of Black Americans across the South who fought in courtrooms and in the streets to dismantle barriers to voting and achieve political representation in a region scarred by the legacy of slavery and its aftermath.

One of the crown jewels of that struggle, the Voting Rights Act, was hollowed out by a Supreme Court ruling last week. The court’s conservative majority said states should not rely on racial demographics when drawing congressional districts, a ruling that opened the door to transforming how political power is distributed and making it harder for minorities to get elected.

The majority opinion described racism as a problem of the past. Others saw the decision as another example of its resurgence — “a defibrillator to the heart of Jim Crow,” as one Louisiana politician put it.

Blackmon’s son, Bradford, a 37-year-old state senator in Mississippi, said how the political lines are drawn “shapes who has a real chance before anyone ever votes.”

“It’s just sad that we made progress and then they are always trying to roll it back when it shows that minorities are making more progress than I would guess that those in charge think that they’re allowed to make,” he said.

The elder Blackmon, now 78, said he was resigned to the reality that the fight of his youth is not over.

“It’s just another cycle — an ongoing struggle without a foreseeable ending,” he said.

A legacy at risk

The case, involving a challenge to Louisiana’s congressional map, clarified how the Voting Rights Act can be used to contest district lines that may weaken the voting power of Black residents.

For many Black Americans, the decision was a death knell for a cherished pillar of the Civil Rights Movement. Before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Black voters in the Deep South had no guarantee of equal access to the ballot. Within a year of its passage, more than 250,000 Black Americans had gained the right to vote. By 2024, nearly 22 million Black voters were registered nationwide, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The United States is now witnessing the unraveling of nearly a century of organizing, civil disobedience and personal sacrifice by ordinary people who helped build Black political power to heights unseen since Reconstruction. Veterans of the voting rights movement — people who confronted police violence alongside John Lewis on the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma, Ala., or rallied with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — are seeing those hard-won victories stripped away from their descendants.

“I’m the first generation of Americans born with equal rights,” said Jonathan Jackson, a Democratic congressman from Illinois who is the 60-year-old son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the late civil rights leader. He said the idea that his children could grow up with fewer protections was “surreal and devastating.”

For Charles Mauldin, who was beaten by law enforcement as a teenager on Bloody Sunday, the ruling reflects a skirmish that was never as settled as some hoped.

“I’m disappointed but not surprised,” said Mauldin, 78, of Birmingham, Ala. “They’ve been chipping away at the 1965 Voting Rights Act for the last 60 years.”

Who holds power now

In Louisiana, younger Black politicians say the high court’s ruling could reshape not just who wins elections, but whether candidates can compete at all, particularly in down-ballot races that often serve as steppingstones to higher office.

Davante Lewis, a 34-year-old Democrat who serves on the state’s utility regulatory board, said he expects districts could be redrawn in ways that make it harder for candidates like him to win.

“They can target my communities … to ensure that I can’t get to an elected office,” said Lewis, one of several plaintiffs in the Louisiana gerrymandering case that went to the Supreme Court.

Jamie Davis, a Black farmer in northeast Louisiana and a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, said the decision risks discouraging voters already skeptical that their voices matter.

“I want to be optimistic, but how can you be optimistic when voter turnout in the past election cycles has been really low?” Davis said.

Tennessee is among the states bracing for new redistricting efforts. State Rep. Justin Pearson, who represents Memphis and is running for Congress, said people who struggled to pass the Voting Rights Act are “shocked and devastated that they’re having to relitigate the same fights that they fought 60 years ago.”

But he also predicted that efforts to reduce Black representation could “reinvigorate a civil rights movement in the South that demands equal representation, that demands fairness, that demands justice and equality.”

Supporters of the Supreme Court ruling said it reinforces a race-neutral approach to redistricting, and they say political lines should not be drawn primarily based on race.

Democratic Mississippi state Rep. Bryant Clark said that view ignores how race and party align in the state. In Mississippi, where most Black voters are Democrats and most white voters are Republicans, he said the two are often indistinguishable.

“It’s just a roundabout way to basically legalize racially discriminatory redistricting in the state,” Clark said.

In 1967, his father, Robert Clark Jr., became the first Black lawmaker elected to the Mississippi Legislature since Reconstruction.

With Black residents making up about 38% of Mississippi’s population, Edward Blackmon Jr. said the current maps allow Black voters to elect candidates in some districts while keeping Republican majorities intact across much of the state.

He said lawmakers have little incentive to change that balance because moving Black voters into more districts would make those seats less reliably conservative and force candidates to compete for a broader electorate.

“Where do you think the population goes? They don’t just disappear,” Blackmon said. “What incumbent wants that type of district right now?”

Fight continues

Blackmon was raised in Canton, “when Jim Crow was in full bloom.”

Black children attended separate schools, and during cotton-picking season, classes let out early as rickety trucks with wooden sides arrived to take students to the fields, where they spent hours working.

At home, he watched those inequalities play out in quieter ways.

His father, a World War II veteran who left the sharecropping farm where Blackmon’s grandfather had worked, struggled to find steady work in Mississippi after returning from military service and becoming involved in civil rights organizing. He eventually left for New York to make a living — part of a generation of Black veterans who faced barriers to jobs and opportunities their white counterparts received.

Blackmon remembers sitting nearby as his father and other community leaders gathered on the porch, talking late into the night about forming a local NAACP chapter.

“It was embedded in my memory and experience that it was worth the struggle,” he said.

When the Voting Rights Act passed, it did not immediately change those realities. In places like Canton, federal officials set up registration tables on downtown streets so Black residents could sign up to vote without facing harassment or intimidation from local authorities.

In the years that followed, Blackmon and other lawyers used the law to challenge at-large election systems that prevented Black communities from electing candidates of their choice. Cities and counties were forced to redraw maps into single-member districts.

When those districts still diluted Black voting strength, activists returned to court.

“Without the Voting Rights Act, Mississippi would look so much different than it looks now,” Blackmon said.

Willingham, Brook, Bates and Amy write for the Associated Press and reported from Boston, New Orleans, Jackson and Atlanta, respectively. AP writers Kristin Hall and Travis Loller in Nashville and Safiyah Riddle and Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Ala., contributed to this report.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Before Cherie DeVaux won a Breeders’ Cup race, before one of her horses won an Eclipse Award, before she became the answer to a Siri question — “Who was the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby?” — she faced the same problem as every new trainer.

She needed horses.

Fortunately for her, this was 2018 and she had just married David Ingordo, a leading bloodstock agent. Surely he’d bring her some top horses and DeVaux would be on her way.

Except … it took DeVaux 11 months to win her first race.

Cherie DeVaux, trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo, celebrates with her husband, David Ingordo, on Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

(Andy Lyons / Getty Images)

“That was 100% my fault,” Ingordo said. “We gathered up some horses of our own; we were totally self-funded. And the collection of horses I gathered up were yaks and llamas and sheep. They weren’t related to the equine species.

“I told her, ‘You should have divorced me for the effing horses I put in there.’”

Ingordo was telling this story Sunday, standing in the morning chill outside Barn 37 at Churchill Downs, where dozens of cameras and a few reporters were there to record every word his wife had to say, 12 hours after she made history.

“Good thing I don’t have social anxiety,” DeVaux quipped as she stepped in front of the throng.

She reported Golden Tempo, munching on some hay in his stall maybe 50 feet behind her, was doing well, two hours before he took a 70-mile van ride to DeVaux’s base at Keeneland. A decision on whether he will continue east next week to Laurel Park, temporary home of the May 16 Preakness, won’t be made for several days.

DeVaux said she celebrated with family late Saturday night, eventually getting to sleep at 1:30 a.m. and allowing herself to “sleep in a bit,” not rising until a whole four hours later. There were more than 800 text messages on her phone and she was thinking about what she was going to pack for a flight to New York, where she’s scheduled to appear at 7:30 a.m. Monday on NBC’s “Today.”

“I don’t know if the enormity of this has sunk in yet,” she said.

But DeVaux, 44, has never forgotten where she came from. She grew up in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., which is known for thoroughbred racing, but her family was involved in harness racing and she never wanted to be a trainer anyway. She was in college when most of her family moved to Florida, and she stayed behind to finish school. She needed a job to help pay tuition, and her mom told her there was a racetrack across the street “and all you have to do is walk the horses.”

Cherie DeVaux, trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo, is surrounded by media in the winner’s circle Saturday in Louisville, Ky.

(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

DeVaux’s plan was to go to medical school, but when an advisor said she had to take a class in organic chemistry, “I just looked at her and said: ‘No, I’m going to go work on the racetrack.’ She’s like: ‘Are you sure?’ and I was like, ‘I’m just going to see how it works.’”

Her first job was with Chuck Simon, who had worked for her father. She was 22 when she showed up at Churchill Downs.

“I was a wild child,” DeVaux said Saturday night. “Chuck saw I was going the wrong way and took me under his wing and made me be an assistant trainer, begrudgingly, because I was really enjoying the party life. But he kind of wrangled me in.

“He would be so proud. I am here because of him. Because he pushed me. He pushed my boundaries. He gave me direction when I needed it. And he was always proud of me. But I just think this definitely would have put him over the top.”

Holding one of the roses that came with Golden Tempo’s victory, she added, “And I can’t wait to drop one of these off at our old barn here.”

She did just that Saturday night before leaving the track.

Cherie DeVaux, trainer of Golden Tempo, looks on during morning workouts ahead of the Kentucky Derby on April 27 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

“It was really emotional,” she said Sunday of her stop at Barn 14. “You know, you walk up, and all the memories flood back of being there, and … it’s an honor to get to be able to do something, you know? It’s just a rose, but it meant a lot. That was where I first unloaded my car, and I thought, ‘OK, let’s do this.’”

DeVaux then worked several years for Chad Brown before making the decision to go out on her own. She said Ingordo told her to give it three years and if it didn’t work, she could do something else.

But Ingordo, who has been working in racing since he was 15, spending time with trainers such as Bobby Frankel and Bruce Headley and later his stepfather, John Shirreffs, said he knew it would work.

“I always say that talent and class are evident in horses and people very quickly,” Ingordo said. “And, you know, I’d watch Cherie and see her, and I knew her from her previous job. And I could watch … the one trainer’s name might have been on the headlines, but I saw who was doing the work. And I told her, ‘You’re too talented to be an assistant. And it’d be a waste if you don’t try it.’”

It did work. Slowly at first, but business picked up and DeVaux started winning bigger races. Her breakthrough came in 2023 when she had the likes of More Than Looks, Vahva and She Feels Pretty. The latter provided her first Grade 1 win in the 2023 Natalma at Woodbine, and the next year all three of those horses captured Grade 1 races, including More Than Looks in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar. Last year, She Feels Pretty won two more Grade 1s and was voted the Eclipse Award as top female turf horse.

She has a life away from the track as well, as much as any trainer can have. Ingordo has full custody of a 15-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, and he said, “Meeting Cherie was not only good for me, it’s been great for my daughter.”

As for making history, Ingordo said it wasn’t anything they talked about, and DeVaux “doesn’t sit there and go, ‘I’m a woman, hear me roar.’

“But at the same time,” he said, “she’s very cognizant of the fact this is a very male-dominated business throughout history. It’s probably a little chauvinist at times, if not more.

“And for her to do this. … You know, she’s not a one-hit wonder. The top 25 should be her domain, somewhere in there, for a long time.”

Passengers have been left stranded at airports without their luggage after the immediate closure of a major airline cancelling all flights with no customer service

Passengers have been left stuck without their bags after the closure of a major airline.

One of America’s largest low-budget carriers, Spirit Airlines, announced its closure “effective immediately”.

The airline said in a statement: “All Spirit flights have been cancelled and Spirit guests should not go to the airport.”

As a result, customers could not get connecting flights and have been left stranded at airports across the country, with some passengers unsure where there bags are located.

On Sunday, a day after the airline closed, some passengers are still waiting at the airport for their luggage.

One passenger explained they ‘don’t know what to do’ as they have been left waiting for more news on the whereabouts of their belongings.

The traveller told NBC6 “I cannot fly because I don’t have my bags with me, so I’m just stuck here.”

Grace Florez was heading from North Carolina to Colombia but got stuck in Fort Lauderdale after her connection was cancelled.

She still doesn’t know where her bags are nearly two days later.

“It’s difficult, and it’s frustrating,” she said. “I just go with the flow. I don’t stress myself, but I need to work tomorrow.”

As the airline has been left with no customer service, she is left with no answers.

“I’m clueless,” she said. “I hope they are somewhere back there. I don’t know what to do. Other than waiting.”

May 2 (Asia Today) — China has begun tightening regulations on its fast-growing drone industry, prompting concerns that the government may be undermining one of its most competitive global sectors.

Recent reports from Chinese media outlets, including the New Beijing News, indicate that China holds a commanding position in the global drone market, with an estimated market share of at least 70%. Industry leader DJI dominates both domestic and international markets, facing limited competition even as Taiwan makes inroads in Europe.

Despite this strong position, new regulations took effect Thursday in Beijing, effectively designating much of the capital as a no-drone zone. Under the new municipal ordinance on unmanned aerial vehicle management, the transport, sale, rental and operation of drones within the city have been broadly restricted.

The measures have already led to store closures. DJI flagship outlets in areas such as the 798 Art District in Beijing’s Chaoyang district have shut down, in some cases under pressure from authorities.

Officials say the move reflects growing concerns over national security and public safety, as drones are increasingly viewed as potential threats in sensitive areas. Beijing has previously imposed temporary flight bans on low, slow and small aerial objects during major political events, a policy that now appears to be expanding into a more permanent framework.

Analysts say the Beijing regulations could serve as a model for broader nationwide controls. If expanded, such measures may significantly weaken China’s dominance in the global drone industry and could even erode its competitive edge.

Industry insiders have expressed concern that excessive regulation could harm a key growth sector, with some privately warning that China risks damaging its own technological leadership.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260502010000045

Iran says the Strait of Hormuz will never return to the status quo that existed before the US and Israel launched their war. A draft Iranian law would permanently ban Israeli vessels and deny transit to nations deemed ‘hostile’ by their alliance with the US.

Gray skies didn’t prevent L.A.’s arts community from getting fancy in support of the Hammer Museum’s annual Gala in the Garden. Adorned in fur coats, colorful sunglasses and patterned ties, artists and celebrities including Owen Wilson, Rufus Wainwright, Lauren Halsey and Catherine Opie joined to celebrate gala honorees Betye Saar and television writer and producer Darren Star.

The event highlighted how the Westwood-based museum inspires creatives and harnesses community for the city’s artists. Under pink and yellow lights, guests enjoyed cocktails while admiring the museum’s galleries. Guests, including Los Angles County Museum of Art Director and Chief Executive Michael Govan and the Hammer’s Director Emerita Ann Philbin, reunited with old friends and colleagues, making the event feel like a family affair.

All were unified in their admiration of the night’s guests of honor.

At 99, Saar is among L.A.’s most esteemed and accomplished living artists. Her career has spanned more than seven decades, with an early focus on rejecting white feminism and reclaiming the Black female body. Civil rights activist Angela Davis traced the start of the Black women’s movement to the creation of Saar’s 1972 assemblage piece, “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima.”

During onstage comments at the gala, Getty Research Institute presidential scholar Sandra Jackson-Dumont discussed the massive impact Saar has had on the art world.

“It measures in the artist who found their voice because you insisted that your voice mattered. It’s in the institutions that shifted because you demanded that they see us,” Jackson-Dumont said while introducing Saar to the stage. “You take what the world cast aside and breathe spirit into it, insisting that the overlooked can speak, that the discarded can testify, that the everyday can dream.”

Ann Philbin, from left, director emerita, Hammer Museum, Kohshin Finley and Lauren Halsey attend the Hammer Museum’s 2026 Gala in the Garden.

(Stefanie Keenan / Getty Images for Hammer Museum)

The event also served as an early celebration for Saar’s 100th birthday in July, with Jackson-Dumont calling her birthday “100 years of vision. 100 years of courage.”

“[It’s] not 100 years of working, of making art, but 100 years of living with eyes wide open, heart attuned, spirit unbound, we stand in awe,” Jackson-Dumont said.

Saar took to the stage amid a resounding standing ovation, and when she spoke, the crowd’s gaze remained intently on her. While Saar kept her remarks short, she talked about the importance of art in everyday life.

“So many people do not realize how important art is, how it affects everything we do. Even bad things, because you can take art and make it good,” Saar said. “I want to thank you for coming to this event because by you being here, it encourages a lot of other people who are not here to love art and to use art and to know how important art is in this foreign life.”

Netflix co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos introduced Star, who created groundbreaking series including “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Sex and the City,” “Younger” and “Emily in Paris,” which defined pop culture references for generations of television viewers.

Sarandos called it a “privilege” to work with Star, explaining that his work has an “enduring staying power” and that “there has never been a storyline that is too bats— crazy for Darren.”

“Darren is simply one of the most talented showrunners of his generation, with his finger on the pulse of pop culture for more than three decades,” Sarandos said. “He influences the clothes we wear, the way we cut our hair, the music we listen to and the dreams we dream.”

Star, who has long served on the Hammer’s board of directors, celebrated his honor by explaining what he loves about the museum, including its Alice Waters’ restaurant Lulu, and the environment the space provides for Los Angeles creatives.

The view from above the courtyard at the Hammer Museum’s 2026 Gala in the Garden, which honored artist Beye Saar and television writer and producer Darren Star.

(Charley Gallay / Getty Images for Hammer Museum)

“The Hammer creates a wonderful community. We come together because we all love art, love Los Angeles and love this museum,” Star said. “I’m grateful to be part of this family and the city’s extraordinary artistic life.”

The gala was the second under the leadership of Hammer Museum Director Zoë Ryan, who succeeded longtime director Ann Philbin in January 2025. Former Los Angeles City Council President Joel Wachs called Ryan a “true scholar, open-minded, unflappable.”

“I believe she is exactly the kind of strong leader this institution needs in these really difficult, complicated and turbulent times,” Wachs said during his opening remarks. “And if anyone can be counted upon, I believe it’s her that will vigorously defend against the grave dangers and vicious attacks on freedom of expression that both museums and universities currently face.”

During her speech Ryan said the Hammer is “cherished” by the Los Angeles community, and that she intends to keep providing a space for creatives in the city.

“At the heart of the Hammer is a deep commitment to giving space to artists, bold and experimental ideas, and supporting audiences as a catalyst for change through dialogue and exchange — all much needed in this country right now.”

Wu made a scintillating start to the evening, having resumed at 4-4 after an afternoon session that was briefly interrupted by a female spectator jumping over the front-row barrier before referee Rob Spencer and security intervened to remove her.

Breaks of 82 and 103 gave him a two-frame advantage and while Murphy, who had earlier recovered from 3-0 down, hit back with a 72 it appeared as though he was struggling to stem the flow of his opponent.

Murphy, 43, who is aiming to set a new record for the longest gap between first and second titles, openly admitted that Wu had blasted him off the table at the Masters in January – albeit in a best-of-11 contest.

And having never won a match on his two visits to the Crucible prior to this year, Wu has so far has answered every question posed of him in the longer format.

May 3 (UPI) — Oil exports from the United States have increased by more than 30% the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran started and the Strait of Hormuz was blockaded in response.

The Port of Corpus Christie has overtaken the ports in Saudi Arabia and Iraq in the last few weeks as the two Persian Gulf ports have been cut off from the rest of the world since the Strait has been blockaded.

Over the past two months, the United States has sold more than 250 million barrels of oil to foreign buyers as exports have increased by 30%, from 3.9 million barrels per day in February to 5.2 million barrels per day in April, Bloomberg and CNBC reported.

Experts have warned, however, that domestic oil inventories are depleting stockpiles and there is a question of how long the country will be able to continue replacing oil on the market that is stuck in the Strait.

Although selling oil is good for business, oil producers are struggling to keep up with the demand and it is possible that selling so much could have an add-on effect of pushing gas prices for American consumers even higher than they have gone since the war started.

“Ships are coming to take our oil, but once significant volumes of are leaving the United States, it can be expected that balances will tighten,” Clayton Seigle, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Bloomberg.

“We are digging ourselves a hole in terms of spending down inventories,” he said.

Roughly 20% of global oil supplies pass through the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s shutting of it has caused gas and fuel prices to skyrocket over the last two months, including massive effects on the airline industry, which has seen seen the price of jet fuel double since before the war.

Oil from the United States, Latin America and West Africa could for a short time be a substitute for Middle Eastern oil for countries in Asia, which has been hurt the most, but it is not ideal, Matt Smith, director of commodity research at Kpler, told CNBC.

“Asian markets are buying whatever they can get their hands on, so they’re taking a lot of light sweet [American] crude [oil],” Smith said, but their refineries are optimized for the heavier oil produced in the Middle East.

“It’a hole that can’t be plugged,” Smith told CNBC. “The answer has to be ensuring secure supply from the Middle East.”

[kicker]

Palestinian journalists in Gaza marked World Press Freedom Day by honouring colleagues killed and targeted by Israel, as the territory becomes the deadliest place ever recorded for media workers. Pope Leo XIV called for greater protection of reporters ‘pursuing the truth’, especially in war zones.

He’s been in work since leaving drama school a decade ago but Callum Woodhouse has had enough of ‘posh’ – and is ready to play a villain

He’s known for his roles as witty and warm-hearted Leslie Durrell in The Durrells and happy-go-lucky Tristan Farnham in All Creatures Great and Small.

But actor Callum Woodhouse is now delighted to have landed a “wildly different” role in new psychological drama The Fortune, in which he can “show a bit of versatility” as a baddie for the first time.

Callum, 32, told the Mirror: “The Durrells and All Creatures are two shows I am incredibly proud of and two characters I am incredibly proud of – but there is not much villainy, and in both I am playing posh characters.”

READ MORE: Celebrity Traitors line-up confirmed as BBC names all 21 stars

Having grown-up in Stockton-on-Tees, Co Durham, he relished the chance to use his own voice to play dark and brooding Anthony Worrall. “In The Fortune, I’m speaking in my own northern accent for the first time, and I am essentially playing a villain,” he explained, adding that playing Tristan had become “a little routine” after doing it for so long.

“I’ve done seven years as Tristan and you find the character again immediately. Whereas coming up with Anthony, a nasty character from the north, I almost had to re-learn how to act in my own accent. Getting to flex those nasty muscles for acting, which I haven’t really done since drama school – it was a lot of fun playing someone so wildly different.”

Callum, whose dad was boss of an oil firm and mother a nurse, went to Stockton Sixth Form before completing a three-year drama course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He landed the role in ITV’s The Durrells, in which Keeley Hawes played his mother, before he graduated in 2015. “It was a lovely feeling to be leaving knowing this amazing job was there,” he said afterwards. Believing acting to be a hard world to break into, his parents had encouraged him to keep his options open. “It was a bit of a losing battle, though,” he once admitted. “I’ve really honestly never had a Plan B. They have always wanted me to have as many ‘strings to my bow’ just in case it didn’t work out – but it was all or nothing, so thank God it’s worked out so far.”

The Fortune, expected to start on 5 next month, boasts a wealth of top talent including Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson and Harry Potter’s Matthew Lewis – who has also appeared in All Creatures Great and Small. They play a couple, Amanda and Jimmy, whose world is blown apart when she inherits a fortune from a man she’s neither met nor heard of before. The gripping series, due to air this summer, explores the notion of a person’s past not being what they think it is.

New Tricks favourite Denis Lawson plays Martin Worrall, the head of a family which is bound in past secrets – and Callum is his son, Anthony, often to be seen clutching a rifle (not unlike Leslie Durrell). Amanda’s life starts to disintegrate as she becomes embroiled in the world of the Worrall Family.

Other cast include The Thick of It’s Rebecca Front as Martin’s wife Fiona, Wild at Heart’s Stephen Hopkinson as farm worker Boots Maddison and Upstart Crow’s Paula Wilcox as Amanda’s mother Linda.

After playing Leslie Durrell for four series, it ended up being a role Callum found “quite upsetting” because, in real life, Lesie never achieved the success of his siblings. “It’s quite upsetting, because I grew really attached to Leslie, and I wanted him to succeed, and I wanted him to have good things happen to him.”

But he didn’t have the same problem as cheerful vet Tristan. “He always ended up managing to turn a negative into a positive – he was just so perpetually upbeat and happy. It was a very uplifting experience to play Tristan.”

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

A look at The Times’ top 25 high school baseball rankings for the Southland after the 11th week of the season:

Rk. School (Rec.); Comment; ranking last week

1. NORCO (23-3); Cougars are Big VIII League champions; 1

2. HARVARD-WESTLAKE (21-5); James Tronstein has reached eight home runs; 2

3. ST. JOHN BOSCO (22-5); Trinity League champions are starting to peak; 3

4. ORANGE LUTHERAN (20-4); Gary Morse, Cooper Sides are good one-two pitching duo; 4

5. HUNTINGTON BEACH (20-6-1); Complete game from Jared Grindlinger shows he’s playoff ready; 5

6. CORONA (19-6); Second-place finish in Big VIII League; 6

7. SIERRA CANYON (21-5); Sophomore Theo Swafford has come on strong as a hitter; 7

8. SHERMAN OAKS NOTRE DAME (18-8); Knights clinched Mission League playoff spot; 8

9. AYALA (22-2); Palomares League champions; 9

10. CYPRESS (20-6); Crestview League champions; 10

11. LA MIRADA (21-6); Gateway League champions;11

12. OAKS CHRISTIAN (21-6); Co-Marmonte League champions; 13

13 GAHR (16-9-1); Bryce Morrison hitting .453; 15

14. NEWPORT HARBOR (19-9); Got a win vs. Huntington Beach; 17

15. CORONA SANTIAGO (18-10); Swept Corona Centennial to finish third in Big VIII League; 18

16. ROYAL (21-3-1); One-game lead in Coastal Canyon League; 12

17. AQUINAS (19-8); Ambassador League champions; 19

18. TEMECULA VALLEY (23-4); UCLA commit Taden Krogsgaard is coming through; 23

19. SANTA MARGARITA (15-13); Lost three games to JSerra; 14

20. BISHOP ALEMANY (17-9); Finish with two-game series vs. Sierra Canyon; 16

21. MATER DEI (13-11); Monarchs have three-game series vs. Orange Lutheran; 20

22. VILLA PARK (17-8-1); Second place in Crestview League; 21

23. ETIWANDA (17-7); Baseline League champions; NR

24. WESTLAKE (18-8); Shared Marmonte League title with Oaks Christian; 24

25. GANESHA (19-2-1); Have three games this week; 25

May 3 (UPI) — Iran said on Sunday that it is reviewing the United States’ response to its most recent peace proposal, a 14-point plan that was reviewed by President Donald Trump on Saturday night.

The response was delivered to Iranian negotiators on Sunday, Iranian state media outlets PressTV and Tasnim reported, with officials clarifying some reports on the plan they said have been incorrect.

The 14-point plan is entirely focused on bringing an end to the two-month-old conflict, with no provisions about nuclear materials or other weapons, Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in an interview.

When asked about Iran’s new plan on Saturday, Trump expressed doubt that it would meet U.S. requirements but said that he would be reviewing its exact language last night.

“The plan we have presented is centered on ending the war,” Baghaei said. “There are absolutely no details regarding the country’s nuclear issues in this proposal.”

The basics of Iran’s proposal are focused on ending hostilities and then opening a 30-day period for intense negotiation of other issues, including the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from areas around the country, lifting the U.S. naval blockade and ending the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, Tasnim reported.

But Baghaei said that reports of a suspension of nuclear activities or U.S.-Iran cooperation on clearing mines from the Strait of Hormuz are not true.

“These are among the things that I believe are fabricated by the imagination of some media outlets,” Baghaei said. “We are not currently engaged in any negotiations over the nuclear issue and decisions about the future will be made in due course.”

Iranian officials said that the U.S. proposal had included a two-month cease-fire, which Iran countered with a 30-day period to resolve issues and to actually end the war.

Secret Service agent at White House correspondents’ dinner was ‘definitively’ hit by suspect’s bullet, prosecutor says.

Authorities in the United States have said that the suspect accused of attempting to kill President Donald Trump was the one who shot a Secret Service agent at the White House correspondents’ dinner last month.

Officials initially did not provide details on how the agent – who was wearing a bulletproof vest – was injured. On Sunday, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro told CNN that investigators have confirmed that the agent was shot by the alleged gunman, Cole Tomas Allen.

“It is definitively his bullet. He hit at that Secret Service agent. He had every intention to kill him and anyone who got in his way, on his way to killing the president of the United States,” Pirro said.

“This was a premeditated, violent act, calculated to take down the president, and anyone who was in the line of fire.”

She added that a pellet that came from the suspect’s shotgun was “intertwined with the fiber” of the agent’s protective vest.

The determination could lead to additional legal charges against the 31-year-old suspect. It also rules out speculation that the agent may have been struck by so-called “friendly fire”.

The Justice Department announced three charges against Allen last week – attempting to assassinate Trump, the transportation of a firearm across states with intent to commit a felony and the discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.

A sentence of life in prison faces anyone convicted of attempted assassination.

Last week, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Allen had travelled via train from his home near Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington, DC.

He arrived in the US capital on April 24, the day before the dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel, and checked in.

According to Blanche, during the dinner, Allen approached a security checkpoint on the terrace of the hotel, one level above the ballroom where Trump was.

“He ran through the magnetometer holding a long gun. As he did so, US Secret Service personnel assigned to the checkpoint heard a loud gunshot,” Blanche said.

“One Secret Service officer was shot in the chest, but was wearing a ballistic vest that worked. This heroic officer, who was hit, fired five times at Allen, who was not shot, but fell to the ground and was promptly arrested.”

Officials have said Allen was carrying a shotgun, a semiautomatic pistol and three knives.

The shooting, considered to be the third assassination attempt against Trump since 2024, has shaken US politics. The White House has accused the US president’s Democratic rivals of inspiring political violence with their verbal attacks on the administration.

But Trump himself is known for personal attacks against opponents, and critics have accused him of using the shooting to censor his rivals.