A hit BBC One drama is returning to our screens in just a few days on Netflix 15 years on from its TV debut, with Sheridan Smith, Olivia Coleman, Stephen Graham and others starring
Sheridan Smith stars in series two of Accused with Robert Sheehan
With summer officially over, it’s time to curl up in front of the sofa with a series to binge – and now thanks to Netflix, a hit BBC drama will be back on our screens after over a decade. Netflix subscribers can expect a number of new shows and movies to arrive on the streamer this month, from Charlie Sheen’s new documentary to period drama House of Guinness.
However, as well as brand new shows, viewers will get another chance to watch BBC One anthology drama Accused 15 years after it made its TV debut. Created by Time writer Jimmy McGovern, the legal drama follows a different character on trial in each episode and how they came to be accused.
The first series stars the likes of Christopher Eccleston, Mackenzie Crook, Tina O’Brien, Peter Capaldi and Naomi Harris across six hard-hitting episodes. It was followed up by a second series two years later in 2012, with Sean Bean, Stephen Graham, Olivia Colman, Sheridan Smith and Anna Maxwell Martin among the stars joining the cast.
Accused went on to be nominated for a BAFTA TV Award in 2011, with Juliet Stevenson receiving nod for her performance in episode three. While she didn’t win, the show picked up Best Drama Series and Best Actor for Christopher Eccleston at the International Emmy Awards in 2011.
Two years later, Olivia Colman won Best Supporting Actress for her role in series two at the BAFTA TV Awards and the Royal Television Society Programme Awards, while Sean Bean won Best Actor at the International Emmys. The series is set to land on Netflix on 10 September in the UK.
Series one tells six different stories – the first starring Christopher Eccleston as a lapsed Catholic plumber who takes a gamble after coming under financial pressure, while the second follows British army soldier (played by Benjamin Smith) who is pushed to his limits after witnessing the death of a colleague.
The third episode sees a primary school teacher (Juliet Stevenson) stand trial for committing a terrible crime after the loss of her son. The next episode stars Andy Serkis as a taxi driver with a gambling problem who commits a crime of passion, while episode five sees Marc Warren play a loving dad who was involved in a violent crime.
Accused’s final episode stars Naomi Harris as a working mum who goes up against her estranged husband (Warren Brown) in court.
Viewers took to social media to praise the drama back when it first aired in 2010, with one writing; “That was a great piece of drama #Accused #BBC.” Another said: “Loving ‘accused’ on the bbc. ecclestone is incredible.”
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Washington has approved the transfer of thousands of Extended Range Attack Munitions (ERAM) to Ukraine, which will provide the country with a powerful new and relatively low-cost standoff strike capability, it has been reported. However, it’s unclear whether Kyiv will be able to use the new weapon to strike targets deep within Russia, with unnamed U.S. officials telling the Wall Street Journal that such targets are off-limits, at least for the U.S.-donated Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).
According to the WSJ, the Trump administration last week approved the sale of 3,350 ERAM missiles to Ukraine. The weapons, which have a range between 150-280 miles and are stated to be air-launched, at least initially, should start to arrive in around six weeks. “Several” unnamed U.S. officials told the same publication that ERAM use would require prior approval from the Pentagon, due to the fact that it could strike targets relatively deep within Russia.
Artwork the U.S. Air Force has put out in the past depicting a general notional missile design. U.S. Air Force
The ERAM package is said to be worth around $850 million, including undisclosed other items, with most of the funds for this coming from Ukraine’s European allies. The deal was delayed until after U.S. President Donald Trump’s summit meetings with Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
Then, in July last year, the service disclosed that Ukraine was the intended recipient of ERAM, a precision-guided air-launched standoff munition that it was poised to start developing. A request for proposals (RFP) called for proposals from 16 companies, without naming them.
US approves sale of 3,350 ERAM missiles with a range of up to 450 km to Ukraine – WSJ
Delivery expected in six weeks. Targets must be coordinated with the Pentagon.
Included among those 16 companies, are CoAspire and Zone 5 Technologies. Of these, Zone 5 is also involved in the U.S. Air Force’s Enterprise Test Vehicle (ETV). Under this program, the service has picked four companies to build prototypes of a relatively low-cost and readily producible missile, with the aim of informing future cruise missile concepts. This is far from the first project of this kind to explore similar and related technologies. It’s not clear if the Zone 5 offering for ETAM is the same as that for ETV.
A rendering of the ETV design from the Zone 5 company. Zone 5 via DIU
As for CoAspire, as well as ERAM, this firm is actively involved in a jointly funded U.S. Air Force and Navy project called the Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile (RAACM), which has been described in very similar terms to ETV.
Two candidate weapon prototypes competing for the US Air Force’s Extended-Range Attack Munition program 👇. Both Coaspire and Zone 5 Technologies were awarded contracts late last year in support of the #ERAM program. Both are expected to enter testing this year. https://t.co/9cGBuB9z3spic.twitter.com/gc3ZDtX54m
Once again, we don’t know at this point the exact relationship between the company’s ERAM and RAACM offerings, let alone whether either of CoAspire or Zone 5 will be building missiles for the Ukrainian contract. There are many other possibilities here, not least more than a dozen companies that we don’t know about and that were issued an RFP. Looking at the same kind of space more broadly, it is clearly a growth area among defense contractors, both well-established ones like Lockheed Martin and relative newcomers such as Anduril and Kratos.
The RFP said that ERAM would be “pivotal for accelerating Ukraine’s capability to meet warfighter needs efficiently and effectively, and provides an affordable mass weapon to be produced at scale.” The Air Force added: “The Government is seeking to prototype and adapt commercial autonomous modular open-architecture vehicle [sic] that can deliver affordable long-range effects. The resultant prototype will provide a platform that is mass producible.”
ERAM will provide the Ukrainian Air Force with an important new capacity to strike targets beyond the reach of many of the weapons currently in its arsenal, including Western-supplied precision-guided bombs. It would make Ukraine better able to hold at risk a range of Russian targets far from the front lines — command-and-control facilities, logistics hubs, military-industrial capacity, and airfields, for example — helping offset Russian advantages in terms of manpower, weaponry, and resources.
Previously, Ukraine received Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) and Small Diameter Bombs (SDB) from the United States, as well as French-made Hammer guided bombs. All of which can hit targets out to distances of around 40 to 45 miles, depending on the release envelope and other factors. Ukraine has also received smaller numbers of Storm Shadow cruise missiles from the United Kingdom and Italy, and functionally identical SCALP-EGs from France that have maximum ranges of around 300 miles.
A Ukrainian Su-24 carrying a SCALP-EG cruise missile. Ukrainian Ministry of Defense
As well as its range parameters, some other specifications for the ERAM were disclosed in the RFI. In particular, the missile will be in the 500-pound class required and will have “a top speed of no less than Mach 0.6.” The weapon is required to have a “blast/fragmentation type with at least some degree of penetrating capability and unspecified variable fuze settings.”
“The ERAM’s internal navigation system has to be ‘capable of operating in a GPS degraded environment,’” the RFI continues. “The weapon also needs to have a ‘terminal Accuracy’ of ‘CEP 50 w/in 10m’ (meaning the weapon hits within 10 meters, or around 33 feet, of the specified impact point at least 50 percent of the time) in ‘both in non-EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) and high EMI environments (includes GPS degraded).’”
Russian forces have reportedly been using electronic warfare systems to good effect against GPS-assisted guidance packages used on a variety of air and ground-launched munitions that Ukraine has received from the United States and other Western partners. The ability of standoff precision-guided munitions to still operate effectively in the face of heavy electronic warfare jamming is also an area of considerable interest to the U.S. military.
Just as important to Ukraine are the significant numbers of missiles involved: the 3,350 ERAM rounds will go some way to helping offset the huge advances in Russian long-range precision weapons capabilities, especially the Shahed/Geran one-way attack drones. At this point in the conflict, sheer capacity is becoming critical to Ukraine to keep pressure on Russia via long-range strikes.
It’s unclear what aircraft the ERAM missile will be launched from, but Ukraine has adapted its Soviet-era MiG-29 Fulcrum, Su-24 Fencer, and Su-27 Flanker tactical jets to deliver Western-supplied precision ordnance. The MiG-29 and Su-27 have also been fitted with specialized pylons and tablet-based cockpit interfaces that make it easier to employ GPS-guided weapons. The Ukrainian Air Force has also received second-hand F-16s, which would be another possible candidate. It should also be noted that while publicly released answers to questions from prospective ERAM vendors have specifically discussed launch from aircraft, this might be just one mode of launch for what is already shaping up to be a highly modular weapon.
An ADM-160 Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD) fitted to a Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 Flanker fighter. The decoy is carried on the same specially adapted underwing pylon that is used for various Western-supplied guided munitions. Ukrainian Air Force screencap
Last year, Lt. Gen. Serhii Naev, commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said that unspecified air-to-ground missiles with ranges of between 186 to 310 miles were expected to be provided to arm the F-16. While it’s possible he may have been referring to ERAM, there are other possibilities, as TWZexplored at the time.
A Ukrainian Air Force F-16 returns at low altitude after attacking Russian military positions in the direction of occupied Kurakhove, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on Feb. 17, 2025. Photo by Andriy Dubchak/Frontliner/Getty Images Andriy Dubchak/Frontliner
Another key aspect of the original RFI was the requirement that 1,000 examples of the new missile could be built within two years, for an average production output of around 42 per month.
This also relates to increasing U.S. military interest in weapons, especially those with standoff range, that can be rapidly developed and then their production capacity and stockpiles scaled up, something that is seen as vital when it comes to planning around a potential future high-end conflict with China.
With that in mind, ERAM should also be a very useful real-world learning opportunity for the United States.
Most immediately, though, the ERAM missile helps meet Ukrainian demand for weapons that can engage targets deeper behind the front lines, reducing the launch aircraft’s exposure to highly capable Russian air defenses. Potentially, depending on its propulsion system and flight profile, Ukrainian pilots might be able to launch ERAM from lower altitudes, further improving their chances of survival, and still hit targets at extended distances. For now, these details about the weapon remain unknown.
A mock-up of the Powered Joint Direct Attack Munition (PJDAM), which is broadly in line with the announced ERAM requirements. Joseph Trevithick
Then there is the consideration about what kinds of targets the Pentagon will allow Ukraine to go after with ERAM.
Citing two unnamed U.S. officials, the WSJ reports that, “for months,” the U.S. Department of Defense has prohibited Ukraine from using long-range missiles to strike targets deep within Russia. Since late spring, the report continues, Ukraine has been blocked from using ATACMS against targets in Russia.
On at least one occasion, a Ukrainian request to use ATACMS against a target on Russian territory was rejected, the two officials said.
In his final year in office, President Joe Biden finally authorized Ukraine to use ATACMS to strike objectives in Russia, starting with the Kursk region, where Kyiv launched a ground advance into Russia, before extending that authorization into other areas, according to reports. There remains some confusion here, however, since the U.S. State Department has also said that its policy on Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons had not changed.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 26, 2024, in Washington, DC. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images Win McNamee
The apparent policy change by the Trump administration seems to be connected to efforts to bring the Kremlin into peace talks and find a resolution to the conflict.
Amid the latest reports on weapons restrictions, Zelensky has talked up Ukraine’s ability to strike targets in Russia using domestically produced weapons.
“At present, honestly, we are using our long-range weapons of domestic production,” Zelensky said, during a press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. “And lately, we have not been discussing such matters with the U.S.,” he added.
Zelensky’s words follow the public unveiling of the locally produced Flamingo ground-launched long-range cruise missile last week. This weapon has a reported range of 1,864 miles (3,000 kilometers) and a powerful warhead, making it a much farther-reaching and more destructive weapon than any missile or one-way-attack drone available to Ukraine now.
Efrem Lukatsky, head of the AP photo service, published a very interesting teaser: “Ukrainian-made over 3,000 km range Flamingo missiles, which were launched into serial production, are seen in a workshop of one of the country’s leading Fire Point defence company in an… pic.twitter.com/i1qvFDgaW4
Since then, Ukraine has shown off another long-range cruise missile from domestic production. This is the so-called Long Neptune, an extended-range version of the land-attack version of the Neptune anti-ship missile. Ukraine famously used Neptune missiles to sink the Russian Navy’s Slava class cruiser Moskva in 2022 and reportedly began developing a new land-attack version in 2023.
In the past, the maximum stated range of the anti-ship version of Neptune has been said to be around 190 miles (300 kilometers). A Ukrainian defense official told TWZ that the original land-attack version could have a range of up to 225 miles (360 kilometers). With its extended body having capacity for additional fuel, Zelensky has said the range of the Long Neptune is in the region of 620 miles (1,000 kilometers). Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president says that the new version has already been tested in combat.
A first official look at Ukraine’s other operational land attack cruise missile; the Long Neptune.
The Neptune LACM reportedly has a range of roughly 1000km, and has already seen combat this year. pic.twitter.com/cPHJ5sjZlu
For the time being, it’s unclear to what degree Ukraine will be able to use ERAM missiles against targets deeper inside Russia.
Even without that possibility, however, the new weapon will be of value to Ukraine, and its relevance also extends to the U.S. military.
In addition, while the Air Force says ERAM is ostensibly for Ukraine, it is not hard to see how the service or other branches of the U.S. military might also be interested in this weapon.
Already, the Pentagon is looking to develop and field weapons in this class, and domestic interest in the ERAM would not be surprising.
In the immediate future, the lower-cost, easier-to-produce ERAM should provide a significant boost to the Ukrainian Air Force. Looking further ahead, weapons like this may well be critical to the U.S. military’s potential to wage war against higher-end adversaries.
The streaming video giant on Monday announced when it will open its first shopping, dining and entertainment complexes to the public.
The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company will open its first Netflix House in the Philadelphia area on Nov. 12. The company’s Philadelphia area location is located at King of Prussia shopping center, while its second Netflix House at Galleria Dallas will open on Dec. 11. A third location in Las Vegas will open in 2027.
The more than 100,000 square-foot space will offer fan experiences, merchandise and food inspired by Netflix content, in an effort to capitalize on its popular shows, movies and franchises.
For example, fans will be able to take selfies with Queen Charlotte, see screenings of “KPop Demon Hunters” and enjoy Netflix-themed food and cocktails, the company said in a statement.
The Netflix House complexes will be free for people to enter. Some fan experiences, such as Top 9 Mini Golf and immersive VR games in the Philadelphia location, will cost money.
Netflix House is part of the company’s push to expand further into in-person entertainment. The firm hosted balls similar to those featured on Regency era romance “Bridgerton” and worked with retailers and brands to sell clothing and other merchandise inspired by “Squid Game” and “Stranger Things.”
Such experiences also serve as marketing for the shows and movies.
The streamer could eventually have 50 or 60 Netflix House locations globally, said Netflix Co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos last year at the WSJ Tech Live conference.
A pest expert issued an urgent warning for people travelling home from their summer holidays
The pest expert says to check the inside and outside of your luggage (stock photo)(Image: Getty)
With the end of the summer holidays in sight, many holidaymakers will be packing up their bags and preparing to head home. While people might put lots of care into their packing, it’s common to spend less time unpacking – and simply dump the contents of your suitcase straight in the wash.
It’s always a good idea to chuck your clothes in the wash as soon as you get home. However, there is another important step everyone’s being advised to complete when they unpack their luggage.
A pest specialist is urging holidaymakers to check their suitcases carefully in case of any unwanted guests. James Rhoades, who owns ThermoPest, has warned that bed bugs flourish in warm, humid conditions and that summer travellers could unknowingly introduce the pests into their home when returning from a trip.
Explaining why summer is associated with a heightened risk, James said: “During hot weather, bed bugs become more active and need to feed more frequently. They get all their hydration from blood, so a warm, humid summer gives them the perfect opportunity to bite. With people wearing lighter sleepwear or using thinner sheets, there’s less of a barrier between the bugs and their food source – us.
“There’s also typically a rise in cases after holiday periods, as bed bugs can easily be brought back hidden in suitcases or laundry. Once inside, they spread quickly, so early detection and prevention are key.”
The expert issued a warning for people travelling home from holidays (stock photo)(Image: Getty)
Thankfully, there are steps people can take to minimise the risk when they arrive at their holiday and when they return home. James says people should ‘be vigilant’ when travelling.
He explains: “Hotels, guest houses, and short-term rentals can become hotspots for bed bugs during peak travel periods. Before unpacking, check the seams of the mattress, headboard, and upholstered furniture for telltale signs such as tiny rust-coloured spots or shed skins.
“Keep luggage elevated on racks rather than placing it directly on the floor to reduce the chance of bed bugs crawling into your belongings. You could also store clothes in sealed bags inside your suitcase for added protection and to make it harder for bugs to hitch a ride home.”
It’s helpful to unpack directly into the washing machine (stock photo)(Image: Getty)
When it is time to return home, it’s recommended that you unpack your clothes straight into the machine and carefully inspect your suitcase. James explains: “Returning home is one of the most common times for bed bugs to be introduced into your living space. As soon as you arrive back, unpack directly into the washing machine and wash everything on a hot cycle.
“Visually inspect your suitcase inside and out, paying close attention to pockets, seams, and linings for any signs of bed bugs such as dark spots, shed skins, or live insects. If you travel frequently, making this a routine step can help you spot potential issues early before they spread.”
THERE is a reckoning coming. The people of Britain have had enough.
A new poll by Find Out Now has Reform UK winning a majority of 140 seats at the nextgeneral election. The big poll-of-polls gives us a 10-point lead. People are fed up. And one thing they are fed up with the most is illegal immigration.
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Reform Party MP Lee AndersonCredit: Getty
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Demonstrators gather during an anti-immigration protest outside the New Bridge Hotel in NewcastleCredit: Getty
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Nigel Farage will unveil Reform’s deportation plan on TuesdayCredit: Alamy
I went along to watch a protest outside the Britannia Hotel in London’s Canary Wharf, now a luxury hostel for asylum seekers, and felt for myself how high feelings are running.
Protesters like the famous Pink Ladies don’t want these illegal immigrants in their communities. Does anybody? Who voted for this madness?
That’s why our party, Reform UK, is backing more peaceful protests and asking people to demand that their local councils take action to empty the migrant hotels. But we can’t stop there.
We need to detain and deport illegal immigrants. Then I think they’re going to stop coming, and we can get back to some sort of peace and normality.
It’s no wonder people are angry. Just look at the shocking numbers that came out this past week.
We learned that, in the year up to June 2025, 110,000 more migrants applied for asylum in Britain –that’s the highest number since records began. More than 50,000 illegal immigrants have landed on our beaches since Labour were elected last July.
At the end of June, 32,100 asylum seekers were housed in hotels at taxpayers’ expense – up another 8 per cent since Keir Starmer moved into 10 Downing Street.
Over that same year, the Labour government spent £4.76 billion managing the asylum mess that they and their Tory predecessors have created.
This outrageous sum is the equivalent of hiring 86,500 more police officers, or 16 million winter fuel payments for British pensioners at the higher rate.
If I were a young male over the Channel in a migrant camp, I’d be thinking to myself it doesn’t matter where I’m from or what I’ve done in the past, get on a small boat to Britain and within 24 hours I could be in a four-star hotel, three meals a day, wifi, mobile phone, free to roam the streets and do pretty much whatever you want, because the authorities haven’t got the foggiest who you are.
Small boat crossings under Labour are on brink of hitting 50,000 – one illegal migrant every 11 mins since the election
What have we done as a nation? We see it in the news every week now, that an asylum seeker has been either charged or found guilty of disgusting attacks on women and girls.
The door’s open, we’ve invited these people in, some of them serious wrong ‘uns, and treated them like honoured guests.
But the tide is starting to turn. Last week the decent people of Epping in Essex won a big victory for us all, when the high court ruled that asylum seekers must leave the town’s Bell Hotel.
Parents and concerned residents had been protesting outside the hotel since an illegal migrant housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
They were slandered as “far-right” lunatics by Labour and the BBC, and attacked by leftie “Antifa” thugs who we saw being bussed in by the police! But they bravely stood up and won, despite home secretary Yvette Cooper shamefully hiring expensive lawyers to attack them in court.
People around the country are now protesting outside migrant hotels and telling their councils to take action. Nigel Farage was the first to call for more peaceful protests, and the councils that Reform won in the May elections will do everything in their power to follow Epping’s lead.
Now we need to go further. Next week, Reform UK will announce our proposals for mass deportations that will finally stop the boats and tackle the crisis.
And we are very clear that, to make this happen, the UK will need to quit the European Convention on Human Rights, which lets liberal foreign judges override the sovereignty of our parliament on immigration law.
National emergency
This is a national emergency. Labour’s latest scheme, to move migrants from hotels into homes into our communities, can only make matters worse.
But let’s not forget that the last Conservative government started the problem. So it’s a bit rich for them to start attacking migrant hotels now.
When I was a Tory MP, I spoke up asking the government to detain illegal immigrants in secure camps ready for deportation. Instead, they housed them in hotels.
I was constantly told to shut up by the “One Nation” lot of Conservative MPs. This is of their making, and they should all apologise right now.
Reform Uk stands foursquare with the people protesting peacefully across Britain. And we will defend free speech against the authorities that want to lock up anybody who speaks out.
On a protest in my constituency of Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, some women in their sixties and seventies came up to me and said Lee, are we really far-right? And I said no, you’re just right.
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Migrants board a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English ChannelCredit: AFP
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A demonstrator holds a placard during a counter protestCredit: AFP
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Demonstrators during an anti-immigration protest in NewcastleCredit: Getty
Like most Americans, including White House reporters apparently, I’ve tuned out Donald Trump’s incessant Big Lie that he won the 2020 presidential election — “by a lot.” That means his nonsense about rigged voting and Democrats’ cheating goes mostly unchallenged, and he continues to undermine faith in U.S. elections. After all, it’s not like anyone can shut him up.
Still, it’s time to quit tuning out. Whether a reporter on the beat or a citizen in conversation anywhere, pay attention and push back against Trump’s un-American blather. Because in recent days the power-drunk president has in various ways telegraphed that his Big Lie isn’t just about a past election but a pretext for what he could do to disrupt the next one, the 2026 midterm elections for Congress.
Other 2020 election liars are paying a big price, literally. Just this week, right-wing Newsmax agreed to pay $67 million to Dominion Voting Systems, on top of $40 million in March to Smartmatic, to settle defamation lawsuits based on Newsmax’s false reporting (echoing Trump) that the companies rigged voting machines for Joe Biden. Newsmax’s penalty is of course dwarfed by the $787 million that Fox News paid to Dominion in 2023; in a pending trial, Smartmatic seeks $2.7 billion from Fox.
All the while, the president of the United States continues to spout the same slop, all but immune to legal action, as he sets the stage for 2026.
On Friday, after Trump’s bro-fest summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, Trump happily recounted to Fox’s Sean Hannity in Alaska that the two presidents digressed to discuss the 2020 U.S. election and — what do you know? — Putin, the KGB-trained master manipulator and well-known arbiter of honest elections (not) supposedly assured Trump that, yes, he actually won big but the election was rigged against him.
As an aside here, recall that Hannity and other Fox network stars privately trashed Trump’s 2020 election lie, according to filings in the Dominion lawsuit, and that Hannity testified under oath: “I did not believe it for one second.” Yet in Anchorage, Hannity nodded along as Trump told him that Putin said Trump won in 2020 “by so much,“ but “your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting. … It’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.”
Assuming Putin said what Trump claims, the Russian was playing to Trump’s longstanding, groundless gripes not only against the 2020 election but against voting by mail, which Democratic voters use much more than Republicans do. And Trump, ever the Kremlin’s useful idiot, took his cue: First thing on Monday morning, he declared in a long, error-filled and much-capitalized social media diatribe that he’d “lead a movement” to ban mail ballots and voting machines.
Trump repeated Putin’s falsehood that the United States is “the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting. All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED.” But in fact, dozens of countries use mail ballots and, as with other forms of voting, research, along with the courts, has found that fraud is vanishingly rare.
The president’s stance on mail ballots is like his position on a ceasefire in Ukraine: He was for it before he was against it (and he was for both things before getting ensnared in Putin’s web on Friday). In 2024, bending to Republican officials’ pleadings that he drop his opposition to mail ballots, Trump urged supporters to vote by mail — as he typically, and hypocritically, does — and even recorded a video promotion.
Now that Trump is back to opposing mail ballots, in Monday morning’s social media rant he yet again contradicted the plain words of the Constitution to claim powers he doesn’t have, that he can order states to get rid of mail ballots and voting machines. “Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes,” he wrote. “They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them.”
Here’s the Constitution on that: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.”
It’s just more proof that both times Trump took the oath of office to uphold the Constitution and “see that the laws are faithfully executed,” he lied then, too.
The president has since repeated that he, with Republican allies, will “do everything possible” to end mail ballots. And he’s saying the quiet part out loud: Without mail-in voting, he told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, “you’re not gonna have many Democrats get elected. That’s bigger than anything having to do with redistricting.”
There you have it. Trump’s “movement” against mail ballots, along with his push for red states to redraw congressional district lines to elect more Republicans, is all part of how he’s trying rig elections in 2026, in what is expected to be a bad year for his party given his unpopularity. And it’s all predicated on the Big Lie about nonexistent Democratic election cheating.
There are other warning signs: Trump’s military takeover of the District of Columbia. (Every day brings another announcement of a Republican governor sending National Guard troops.) His occupation of Los Angeles. Repeated threats to send troops to other big, blue cities. All on specious grounds and over the objections of elected local and state leaders.
It’s wholly imaginable, then, that on trumped-up claims (pun absolutely intended) about potential election fraud, Trump would militarize Democratic vote-heavy cities in time for next year’s elections. At a minimum, that would surely intimidate some would-be voters. At worst, well, I don’t even want to speculate about the worst.
When Trump entered presidential politics a decade ago, it took a while for journalists to get comfortable applying the L-word: Liar. But he earned it. Now he’s all but inviting us to expand the nomenclature to include autocrat, dictator or even the F-bomb, fascist.
The documentary will feature footage of Ozzy Osbourne, wife Sharon and their children over the past three years
It was just six weeks ago when legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne performed in front of thousands of adoring metalheads for the final time in his home city of Birmingham.
Seventeen days later, the Black Sabbath singer and heavy metal pioneer died at his home surrounded by his family, aged 76.
His death sparked an outpouring of grief from fans, friends and artists across the world – an indication of his enduring influence, which started with Black Sabbath’s formation in the late 1960s.
According to producer Expectation, the film will be a “moving and inspirational account” of the last chapter of Ozzy’s life.
It was filmed over three years and has been told through “unique and intimate access” to the whole family, including Ozzy, wife Sharon, son Jack and daughter Kelly.
The documentary will feature what makers described as the “extraordinary rollercoaster” of the Osbournes’ lives as Sharon and Ozzy tried to realise a long-held dream to move back to the UK.
It was originally announced as a series, Home to Roost, in 2022, but the project evolved as Ozzy’s health continued to deteriorate.
Ross Halfin
Ozzy Osbourne died 17 days after his final performance
What will we see during the film?
The singer will be shown “heroically” battling to get fit enough to perform on stage again, as the family deal with the consequences of his ill-health, the BBC said.
There will be “love, laughter and tears”, as well as unforgettable family moments, typical of the Osbournes.
It will also show the family accept the reality of their situation, encapsulated by Kelly’s words: “Iron Man wasn’t really made of iron.”
Producers said it would serve as a “remarkably candid and uplifting tribute” to one of the world’s “true icons”.
What do the BBC and film-makers say?
Clare Sillery, BBC head of documentary commissioning, said the team was “honoured” to film the Osbournes during this period of their lives.
She said the film showed the “enduring spirit” that made Ozzy a global icon.
“We hope it brings comfort and joy to Ozzy’s fans and viewers as they remember and celebrate his extraordinary life,” she added.
PA Media
Kelly, Ozzy, Sharon and Jack Osbourne, pictured here in 2007, will all appear in the film
Ben Wicks and Colin Barr, executive producers at Expectation, said the film was an “inspiring and poignant” account of Ozzy fulfilling his dream to perform on stage one last time.
They said: “Ozzy was loved by millions around the world not just for his music, but for his sense of mischief and his honesty, all of which we saw plenty of in the final years of his life.
“But one thing shone through even more brightly to us and that was Ozzy’s intense love for his exceptional family who were by his side through it all.”
Where can I watch it and what time is it on?
The one-hour film will air on BBC One on Monday at 21:00 BST and will also be available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
A group of between 30 to 50 critically ill and injured Palestinian children will be evacuated from Gaza to the UK for medical treatment in the coming weeks, the BBC understands.
They would be the first children brought to the UK for treatment as part of a government operation being coordinated by the Foreign Office, Home Office and Department of Health.
The children will be selected by the World Health Organization and will travel with family members via a third country, where biometric data will be collected.
It comes after some MPs wrote a letter to the government urging them to bring sick and injured children from Gaza to the UK “without delay”.
Some Gazan children have already been brought privately to the UK for medical treatment through an initiative by the organisation Project Pure Hope (PPH), but the government has so far not evacuated any through its own scheme during the conflict.
Earlier in August, the government said that plans to bring more children to the UK for medical treatment were being carried out “at pace”.
It is unclear which third country the children will transit through on their way to the UK, exactly how many children will be involved or whether further groups will follow.
Given the challenge of returning children to Gaza, it is understood some may enter the asylum system after completing treatment.
More than 50,000 children have been killed or injured since the war in Gaza begun in October 2023, according to the UN charity Unicef.
Since the start of the war, the UK has provided funds so that injured Gazans can be treated by hospitals in the region and has also been working with Jordan to airdrop aid into the territory.
The Home Office previously said biometric checks would be carried out before children and carers before they travel.
Severely ill Palestinians have been evacuated from Gaza to other countries since the start of the war, including more than 180 adults and children to Italy.
The UN has warned of widespread malnutrition in Gaza, with experts backed by the organisation warning in a report last month that the “worst-case scenario” of famine is playing out in Gaza.
Israel has insisted there are no restrictions on aid deliveries into Gaza, and has accused the UN and other aid agencies of failing to deliver it.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli military operation began, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel launched its offensive in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
A man who lives in Italy has given a heads up about something important tourists should know if they are visiting this week. Italy attracts flocks of tourists at this time of year
A man who was in Turkey on holiday has shared a word of warning – but other people have said that they disagree with his assessment of the country and its prices
The holidaymaker told people ‘not to bother’ going to Turkey (stock image)(Image: Whitworth Images via Getty Images)
Turkey remains amongst the most favoured holiday destinations for Brits, with an impressive 4.4 million UK tourists flocking to the nation in 2024. Time Out reported this positioned Turkey as the eighth most sought-after tourist hotspot for UK holidaymakers, trailing behind destinations such as Spain, France, and Greece, though visitor numbers continue climbing annually.
Nevertheless, if you’re considering Turkey as your next getaway, one Welsh bloke has a stark warning: “Don’t bother”. The individual, who shares content on TikTok as @northwalesboii, revealed he’d travelled to Turkey for his summer break only to be left thoroughly disheartened by one particular aspect.
In his clip, the tourist grumbled that everything had become “too expensive”, urging potential visitors that if they’re determined to experience Turkey, they’d better be ready to pack “a lot of money”.
He didn’t specify his Turkish location, though some of the nation’s premier attractions include the capital Istanbul, alongside Cappadocia, Antalya, and seaside destinations like Marmaris.
The holidaymaker declared: “Just to let you know, if you’re coming on holiday to Turkey, bring a lot of money. You will spend it. Everything has gone up.”
Warning: The below video contains strong language.
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“It never used to be so expensive; it used to be so dirt cheap to come here. To eat out, to drink out.
Not no more. It is f***ing expensive.”
Opinions were divided among those commenting on the video. Some concurred that prices had indeed risen, with numerous individuals recounting their recent holiday experiences of being charged 400 Turkish Lira for a beer, equating to roughly £7.30.
One commenter remarked: “I go three times a year, and you are correct, it’s gotten expensive. It will go up again. Next year, we’re looking at different places.”
Yet, there were those who maintained that their latest trips were “cheaper than the UK”.
A user countered: “Don’t know what part you went to. We have just got back from Antalya, had a great time, and it was cheaper than the UK. “
Another chimed in: “I don’t know where you guys are going, but it’s really cheap in Turkey. I do a lot of shopping and the food is cheap as well. “
By 2024, travellers were warning that unchecked inflation might render Turkey a “ghost town” within a few years, with one person lamenting that tourist spots were “becoming like London prices.”
He expressed at the time: “I’m sat in this place now – for a burger it’s £12. For a water it’s £2 – it’s becoming like London prices.
“My sister, and her little family, said they’re not going to come back again. “”I’ve seen some posts on here where people are saying, give it a few more years, and Turkey’s going to be dead.”
A top Kremlin foreign policy aide said Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will meet “in the coming days.” The White House has not confirmed such a meeting and a day earlier said a summit including Ukraine’s president was on the table.
Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov says a Trump-Putin meeting could happen as soon as next week.
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are preparing to meet “in the coming days”, a Kremlin official has said, as a United States deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in its war on Ukraine or face economic penalties approaches.
Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said on Thursday that a Trump-Putin meeting could happen as early as next week. A location has been chosen, he added, though it would be revealed at a later stage.
“At the request of the American side, both parties have effectively agreed to hold a high-level bilateral meeting in the coming days,” Ushakov told reporters.
The announcement follows Trump’s remarks on Wednesday that he was hopeful of holding a joint meeting with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “very soon”. Trump has warned Moscow that unless a ceasefire is reached by Friday, it will face broader sanctions.
Ushakov said the prospect of a three-way summit came up during talks in Moscow with Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, who met Putin for the fifth time earlier this week. Russia offered no official comment on the potential trilateral meeting.
Zelenskyy signalled support for such a summit, writing on X that “Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side”. He added that discussions had included “two bilateral and one trilateral” format, insisting Europe must be involved in efforts to end the war.
Despite multiple visits to Moscow by Witkoff since Trump entered office in January after promising to end the war, no breakthrough has materialised. Trump acknowledged the lack of progress, saying: “I don’t call it a breakthrough … we have been working at this for a long time. There are thousands of young people dying … I’m here to get the thing over with.”
The Kremlin described Witkoff’s latest discussions as “constructive” and said both sides had exchanged “signals”, though it provided few specifics. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy confirmed he had spoken with Trump about the meeting, alongside European leaders.
Expectations remain low that a peace deal will be reached before Trump’s deadline. Russia continues to launch air strikes across Ukraine, and Moscow’s conditions for ending the war, such as Kyiv’s demilitarisation, neutrality and renunciation of NATO membership, remain non-starters for Ukraine and its Western allies.
Putin also demands Ukrainian withdrawal from Russian-occupied regions, the formal recognition of Crimea, and the lifting of international sanctions. Kyiv has consistently rejected those terms.
Meanwhile, the White House has approved an additional $200m military aid package for Ukraine, including support for drone manufacturing. And in a separate move, Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday imposing 25 percent tariffs on Indian imports over its ongoing purchases of Russian oil.
The hit Broadway musical “Hamilton” is making its way to the big screen on Sept. 5.
Lin-Manuel Miranda announced the theatrical release date for the Tony Award-winning musical Tuesday night during an interview on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
“We always wanted to release it theatrically, but then the pandemic hit and so we decided to release it on streaming, so that everyone could see it at home whenever they wanted,” Miranda said on the show. “[Soon] you will be able to see ‘Hamilton’ in movie theaters nationwide and in Puerto Rico.”
The show’s cinematic release marks a major milestone: It’s been nearly 10 years since the off-Broadway premiere of “Hamilton,” which was based on the life of Alexander Hamilton, a founding father of the United States. Created by Miranda, who also composed the music, lyrics and book, the hip-hop- and R&B-inflected musical used source material from “Alexander Hamilton,” a 2004 biography written by Ron Chernow. The musical went on to win 11 Tony Awards, including best musical, and the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2016.
The film was shot in June 2016, during a live performance at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway, and features much of the original cast. This includes Miranda as Alexander Hamilton; Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr; Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler and Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton.
The film was originally slated for release in movie theaters in October 2021. Disney paid $75 million for worldwide movie rights in 2020 and released it later that year exclusively on its streaming platform; the film went on to win two Emmy Awards in 2021.
The “Hamilton” anniversary is being celebrated in more ways than one. Prior to Miranda’s “Tonight Show” interview, Madame Tussauds New York unveiled a wax figure of Miranda dressed as Alexander Hamilton at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
Two special performances of the hit musical will also take place at the same theater today. Every actor who has performed on the Broadway musical since its opening has been invited, according to the Associated Press.
Attendees for the matinee were already selected via a lottery process and the evening performance is an invite-only fundraiser for the Immigrants: We Get the Job Done Coalition — a host of 14 immigrant service organizations that uplift immigrant communities across the country.
Tickets for the film are now available for purchase.
Aug. 6 (UPI) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday that the U.S. automaker is working on an improved full-self driving, or FSD, model that may be ready to roll soon.
“Tesla is training a new FSD model with ~10X params and a big improvement to video compression loss,” he posted to X. “Probably ready for public release end of next month if testing goes well.”
“Params” refers to a larger parameter size, which has to do with its artificial intelligence. An increase in parameters usually means that the AI is a larger model that is more capable and has been trained on more data. In a self-driving car, this means its AI can better use its cameras and sensors to recognize its surroundings and better navigate.
Tesla has been scrutinized in the past by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which in October of last year announced its Office of Defects Investigation was examining the records related to the use of Tesla’s self-driving systems.
According to the ODI, it identified four reports of a Tesla vehicle crashing after entering an area of “reduced roadway visibility conditions.” Each crash occurred with the FSD function engaged, in conditions like fog, sun glare or airborne dust.
The ODI reported that a pedestrian was fatally struck by a Tesla using its FSD, and another person was injured in a separate incident.
Tesla stock price has been down nearly 19% year-to-date as of Tuesday.
A sprawling social club centering on racquet sports — the ubiquitous pickleball and rising padel, a blend of tennis and squash — is making its way to downtown L.A. next summer.
With the cheeky name Ballers, the club will be housed in the former Macy’s building at The Bloc, which spans 100,000 square feet. It will be equipped with 18 pickleball courts and four padel courts — marking the first pickleball and padel courts to open in the DTLA area, according to the founders. The club will also feature five golf simulators, two soccer pitches, a high-end retail shop, two full bars, a restaurant and a recovery zone outfitted with a sauna and cold plunge area.
Membership packages for the social sports club will start at $99 per month and come with perks such as advanced booking windows, access to the recovery lounge and invites to exclusive events. Nonmembers will still be welcome to enjoy the social spaces and book courts for fees between $15 to $25 per hour.
“[We wanted] to bring the country club to the city in an elevated, fun way,” said Ballers CEO David Gutstadt.
Ballers L.A. will be the third Ballers location — the first will debut in Philadelphia later this month and the second will open in Boston later this year. The founders, who are behind hospitality projects like the Fitler Club and Equinox Hotels, have plans to expand to 50 locations across the country within the next seven to 10 years. Ballers has received financial backing from an all-star roster of professional athletes including tennis icons Andre Agassi, Kim Clijsters and Sloane Stephens, pickleball champion Connor Garnett and 76ers star Tyrese Maxey.
Earlier this year, Macy’s at the Bloc was deemed one of the retailer’s “underproductive” locations and closed its doors, leaving downtown L.A. without a department store for the first time in over 150 years. This evolution of the space follows a trend of retail stores transforming into “experiential” spaces — companies are tapping into consumers’ hunger for communal experiences and new hobbies. In 2023, indoor pickleball venue Pickle Pop opened in Santa Monica, in part to try to revive ailing Third Street Promenade.
When designing Ballers’ Los Angeles club, co-founder and chief creative officer Amanda Potter said it was important that the venue be accessible in location and price so that anyone could visit and try the racquet sports.
In addition to sports offerings, the venue will feature a restaurant and two full bars.
(Ballers)
While the popularity of pickleball has skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic, Potter said not everyone is familiar with it, citing a 2023 study by the Association of Pickleball Professionals which found that less than 10 percent of Angelenos had tried the sport that year. “It’s a sport that people are still getting acquainted with, so we don’t want to have that barrier to people trying our sports by saying it’s members-only,” Potter said.
Garnett, who started playing pickleball about three years ago, said he was eager to become involved with the Ballers’ project.
“You don’t have to be great at pickleball to come out here,” he said. “You don’t have to be great at padel. It’s just really an inclusive way to get people active and on their feet.”
While there is no set opening date for Ballers L.A., the founders say it will launch in the late summer of 2026.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seen here with President Donald Trump during a G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, on June 16, 2025. The two leaders are expected to talk trade in the next coming days, according to an Ottawa official. Photo via G7/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 4 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada are expected in the coming days to talk trade, according to Ottawa’s U.S.-Canada trade minister.
“I would expect the prime minister will have a conversation with the president in the coming days,” Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said during an interview with CBS‘ Face The Nationon Sunday, after Trump on Thursday increased tariffs on goods from the Great White North not under the U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade agreement from 25% to 35% amid trade negotiations between the two countries.
Relations between the once strong partners have frayed under the Trump administration, which has repeatedly imposed tariffs on Canada as punishment over alleged fentanyl making its way into the United States over their shared border and in an attempt to right what the U.S. president sees as an unfair trade relationship. Trump has also publicly toyed with the idea of annexing Canada.
Canada has responded with retaliatory tariffs of its own, while also seeking to strengthen relationships elsewhere and lessening its dependency on the United States. It has also rebutted the accusation that it is contributing to the United States’ opioid crisis, as Carney pointed out in a statement Friday that it accounts for only 1% of U.S. fentanyl imports while implementing policies to continue reducing that amount.
“We were obviously disappointed by that decision,” LeBlanc said Sunday, referring to the imposition of additional tariffs on Thursday amid ongoing trade negotiations. “We believe there’s a great deal of common ground between the United States and Canada in terms of building two strong economies that work well together. That’s been the history of the 40-year free trade agreement that goes back to [U.S. President Roland] Reagan.”
Trump imposed tariffs of 10% on dozens of nations that had not worked out trade deals with the U.S. president beforehand. Canada was in the middle of talks with the United States when the new levies were announced.
LeBlanc added that they are “pleased” the United States is “respecting” the terms of the USMCA as the tariffs do not affect goods that fall under that agreement.
“That’s vital, we think, to the cost of living and affordability, certainly in the United States,” he said.
He was speaking to Face The Nation from Moncton, N.B., but had been in Washington working on a deal, and he left Washington “with a better understanding of the American concerns in the trading relationship.”
“So, we’re prepared to stick around and do the work needed,” he said.
As a deep-pocketed producer, David Ellison helped breathe new life into Paramount franchises including “Mission: Impossible,” “Star Trek” and “Top Gun.”
But can the high-flying son of a billionaire make a full-fledged media company airworthy again? Can he use Silicon Valley money and movie business know-how to restore the legacy of one of the entertainment industry’s original studios, following a deal clinched through an act of political appeasement?
Those are the questions Hollywood talent, studio rivals and insiders will be asking as Ellison takes the controls of the new Paramount, after regulators finally approved the long-awaited $8-billion merger with his Santa Monica production company Skydance Media. The deal — two years in the making, and approved by the FCC only after a $16-million settlement with Trump and promises to mindwipe any trace of DEI from the company — is expected to close Aug. 7.
After that, Ellison, backed in large part by his father, Oracle Corp. co-founder Larry Ellison, will bring in his own team to face the daunting challenges.
Chris McCarthy, the architect of Paramount’s recent streaming strategy, is out. Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon head Brian Robbins is also expected to exit while CBS chief George Cheeks is staying. The incoming management team includes former NBCUniversal Chief Executive Jeff Shell, who is currently a heavyweight at Ellison’s bidding partner RedBird Capital.
Skydance Chief Creative Officer Dana Goldberg will run the film studio, and former Netflix executive Cindy Holland will play a major role at the new company. Also joining is Sony Pictures movie executive Josh Greenstein.
This may be a different team from the one that labored under outgoing controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, but it’ll be contending with most of the same problems.
Paramount is dogged by issues buffeting all legacy media companies, including the decline of traditional TV ratings, the post-COVID-19 realignment of the theatrical box office and the escalating costs of sports rights, as my colleague Stephen Battaglio and I reported last week. Those difficulties were exacerbated at Paramount by chronic underinvestment and years of shambolic leadership, as corporate governance experts have long pointed out.
Ellison has direct experience with movies, having produced many of them, including some of Paramount’s biggest hits (as well as some notable flops). He’s less steeped in running TV channels and streaming services, which have urgent needs. The scion is also coming in to make good on a promise to investors: to find $2 billion in cost cutting, which will mean layoffs and disruption.
Paramount+ has been growing, thanks in part to the NFL, CBS shows and a run of original hits including “Landman,” “1923” and “Tulsa King.” But the service has lost money for years, and the app is clunky. (It’s expected to reach full-year U.S. profitability in 2025.) McCarthy spent big bucks on talent, including Taylor Sheridan and the creators of “South Park,” enough to make Matt Stone and Trey Parker billionaires, according to Forbes.
Analysts say the service will need substantial investment in content and technology to make it competitive while also partnering with other companies to increase its reach through discounted bundles and other initiatives.
The new owners will have to decide what to do with the cable channel business, which includes such eroding brands as MTV, BET and Comedy Central.
Many observers tend to assume Ellison will eventually spin those off, following the lead of NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery. In a sadly comical reminder of what can happen with a merger gone wrong, David Zaslav’s Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday announced that the two companies resulting from its pending breakup will be called — wait for it — Warner Bros. and Discovery Global.
TD Cowen analyst Doug Cruetz, in a recent note to clients, speculated that Ellison didn’t buy the Paramount assets just to “break it up for parts.”
We’ll see.
Another looming and potentially costly issue is the NFL’s relationship with CBS Sports. The change of control will trigger an early renegotiation of Paramount’s contract with the league once the transaction closes. That’s important because the NFL has significant leverage in dealmaking, considering that its games account for the vast majority of most-watched programming on television.
Ellison has promised to bring technological enhancements to Paramount. That would mean a more functional app for Paramount+ and an improved personalized recommendation system. It might mean using tech to make movies cheaper and faster. A year ago, Ellison noted a partnership between Skydance Animation and Oracle to build a so-called studio in the cloud. What technology can’t do is pick the movies people want to see, and that’s where the new leadership group will have to prove themselves.
But the biggest hurdle will be overcoming the stain covering the deal itself after the concessions required to get it over the finish line.
Paramount paid a substantial sum to make peace with President Trump, who had sued the company over CBS News’ “60 Minutes” interview with his 2024 election rival, then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The case was frivolous, 1st Amendment experts said. But the Redstone family and the Ellisons were desperate to get the deal done. As a result, the new company is starting off on a crooked foundation, as one Hollywood insider put it to me.
Stephen Colbert, speaking on “The Late Show,” called Paramount’s settlement a “big fat bribe.” Days later, he learned that his show would be ending in May. Even assuming the company told the truth in saying that the cancellation was a purely financial decision (i.e., the show was too expensive and it was losing money), the optics were bad.
Comedians responded the way comedians do. The “South Park” team, having secured a $1.5 billion deal to bring the long-running animated series to Paramount+, opened their 27th season with, effectively, a pair of middle fingers raised to Trump and their parent company.
The show depicted a flapping-headed cartoon Trump in bed with Satan, similar to its past portrayal of Saddam Hussein, and ended with an AI-generated PSA showing the president wandering the desert and stripping naked, revealing tiny, talking genitalia.
The Trump settlement cast a pall over whatever plans Ellison has. CBS News lost key figures in part due to Paramount’s push to reach a peace accord with the president (Tanya Simon being named to run “60 Minutes” is seen as a relief). But whatever you say about the corporate behind-the-scenes machinations that took place to make the deal happen, you can’t say the artists have lost their spine.
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In a return to form for Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel Studios, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” opened with a robust $118 million in the U.S. and Canada and $218 million globally, according to studio estimates, slightly outperforming prerelease projections.
This comes after middling results and poor reviews for “Captain America: Brave New World” and tepid sales (but better reviews) for “Thunderbolts*.” Last summer’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” was a $1.34-billion hit.
Like Deadpool and Wolverine, the Fantastic Four — known as Marvel’s first family — came to Disney through the company’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox entertainment assets. Fox made three “Fantastic Four” movies, all bad. “First Steps” earned mostly positive reviews from critics and fans (88% on Rotten Tomatoes; “A-” from CinemaScore).
The $218-million global opening weekend was similar to that of James Gunn’s DC reboot “Superman,” released earlier this month. That film just crossed the $500 million box office milestone, with a strong $289 million domestically and a less-impressive $213 million overseas.
Theaters have been on a winning streak this summer. So far this year, ticket sales are up 12% from 2024, according to Comscore. But the rest of the season looks thin. Next weekend features Paramount’s “The Naked Gun,” Universal’s animated “Bad Guys 2” and Neon’s Sundance horror breakout “Together,” starring real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie.
Finally …
One marker of a great artist is the number and diversity of musicians who take inspiration from their work. And Ozzy Osbourne, the Black Sabbath frontman who died last week, had plenty of admirers who covered his songs.
The Times’ Mikael Wood already rounded up the Prince of Darkness’ 10 essential tracks. Here are some of the best covers, with help from Rolling Stone and Loudwire.
Late in Italian writer-director Giovanni Tortorici’s pop-up book of a coming-of-age movie “Diciannove (Nineteen),” there’s a great scene in which his arrogant, neurotic protagonist, Leonardo (Manfredi Marini), a student of classical Italian literature in Siena, is visiting a cousin (Zackari Delmas) attending university in Milan. As the two commiserate over crazy adventures, the chatter turns to disagreements and griping (culture, language, kids today, drugs aren’t fun anymore) and suddenly they sound like middle-aged men bemoaning why anything ever had to change.
The cusp of 20 is a laughably unformed time to be convinced of anything, but what Tortorici’s higgledy-piggledy debut feature makes breathlessly clear is that when you’re in the middle of it, youth is a candy-colored tornado of temptations and responsibilities. You’re the star of your own solipsistic, hallucinatory epic, even if what you imagine for yourself might be a straightforward affair with a clear-cut message about the meaning of life.
“Diciannove” hums with the dissonance of repression plus expression in Leonardo’s consequential 19th year. If you notice a similarity to the playful moods and textures of Tortorici’s countryman Luca Guadagnino, there’s a reason: The “Call Me by Your Name” filmmaker produced his protégé Tortorici’s autobiographical debut feature and a lineage of tenderness and vivacity in evoking the emotional waves of adolescence is more than evident.
We meet Leonardo as a nosebleed-suffering, dreamy-eyed Palermo teen with a haranguing mom. He’s headed to business school in London, where his older sister Arianna (Vittoria Planeta) also lives. But once there, after a round of hard-partying with her friends and the sense that he’s replaced one hypercritical family member for another, he makes a last-minute decision to change the course of his educational life and enroll as a literature student back in Italy.
Cut to picturesque Siena and cue the baroque score. In this ancient Tuscan city, Leonardo is awakened by his writerly ambitions, a swoony love for medieval Italian authors like Dante and an intellectual disdain for the 20th century. But it also turns him into a lonely, rigidly neoclassicist oddball who scorns his professors, prefers books to his flighty peers and still can’t seem to take care of himself. Sealing himself off in a stuffy, antiquated notion of personal morality only makes the trappings of real life (desire, depression, cleanliness, online enticements) harder to deal with, leading his journey of self-discovery to some internally and externally messy places.
And some messy filmmaking too, even if that’s the point of this elegantly shapeless headspace travelogue. With unapologetic brio, Tortorici, cinematographer Massimiliano Kuveiller and editor Marco Costa empty out their tool kit of angles, splits, tracks, smudges, zooms, smashes, jumps, needle drops, montages and text cards. Though never disorienting or obnoxious (à la “Euphoria”), it can get tiring: a restlessness of spirit and technique that occasionally separates us from this lost antihero when we crave a closer connection to him. Especially since first-time actor Marini is stellar casting. There’s an easygoing inscrutability to his demeanor and his sad, mischievous eyes compel our curiosity — he’ll never let you think you’ve watched a thousand coming-of-age movies.
Tortorici doesn’t give his searcher a tidy ending. There’s a hilarious psychoanalysis by a wealthy aesthete (Sergio Benvenuto) who sees right through his posturing. But the night air beckons. As Leonardo walks away from us at the end after serving up a rascally smile (in a very “400 Blows”-ish freeze frame), Tortorici has him stumble briefly on the cobblestones, and somehow it feels like the wit of “Diciannove” in a split second of screen time: Youth means missteps, so why dwell on them?
‘Diciannove’
In Italian, with subtitles
Not rated
Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes
Playing: Opens Friday, July 25 at Laemmle Monica, Laemmle Glendale
In an unassuming building in Stratford, east London, British start-up Better Dairy is making cheese that has never seen an udder, which it argues tastes like the real thing.
It is one of a handful of companies around the world hoping to bring lab-grown cheese to our dinner tables in the next few years.
But there has been a trend away from meat-free foods recently, according to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).
The statutory research organisation says that plant-based cheese sales across the UK declined 25.6% in the first quarter of 2025, while sales of cow’s cheese grew by 3%.
One reason for this, the AHDB tells the BBC, might be because the number of vegans in Britain is small – just 1% of the population (the Vegan Society puts it at 3%), far fewer than the amount of dairy cheese eaters – and has slightly declined lately.
The Vegan Society insists that the meat-free food market remains “competitive” and steady.
Those Vegan Cowboys
Hille van der Kaa touts a “silent revolution”, swapping cheeses people don’t often think about
Other reasons may be concerns about health and price. A recent government survey found that that food being ultra-processed – a key challenge with vegan cheese – was the second-greatest concern for consumers, the first being cost. Plant-based cheese is generally more expensive than cow’s cheese, the AHDB says.
So are these efforts a recipe for success or disaster? Some think the coming years present an opportunity.
In the Netherlands, Those Vegan Cowboys expects to bring its cheeses to the US later this year, and Europe in three to four years due to regulatory hurdles. This is because lab-made cheeses count as a “novel food” and so need EU approval to go on sale.
Its chief executive, Hille van der Kaa, admits the appetite for vegan cheese is low right now, but her company is targeting a “silent revolution” by swapping cheeses people don’t often think about.
“If you buy frozen pizza, you don’t really think of what kind of cheese is on that,” she explains. “So it’s quite easy to swap.”
Meanwhile, French firm Standing Ovation plans on launching in the US next year, and in the UK and Europe in 2027.
And back in Stratford, London-based Better Dairy hasn’t launched its lab-grown cheese yet because it would cost too much right now.
But chief executive Jevan Nagarajah plans to launch in three or four years, when he hopes the price will be closer to those seen in a cheesemonger, before getting it down to the sorts seen in a supermarket.
Jevan Nagarajah sees vegan hard cheeses as having the greatest “quality gap” to the real thing
So does it taste any good?
Better Dairy invited me – a committed carnivore and dairy devotee – to its lab to poke holes in this new cheese.
Currently, the company is only making cheddar because it sees vegan hard cheeses as having the biggest “quality gap” to dairy cheeses. It has made blue cheese, mozzarella and soft cheese, but argues the proteins in dairy don’t make as big a difference in taste.
The process starts with yeast that has been genetically modified to produce casein, the key protein in milk, instead of alcohol. Jevan says this is the same technique used to produce insulin without having to harvest it from pigs.
Other companies also use bacteria or fungi to produce casein.
Once the casein is made through this precision fermentation, it is mixed with plant-based fat and the other components of milk needed for cheese, and then the traditional cheese-making process ensues.
Having tried Better Dairy’s three-month, six-month and 12-month aged cheddars, I can say they tasted closer to the real thing than anything else I’ve tried. The younger cheese was perhaps a bit more rubbery than usual, and the older ones more obviously salty. On a burger, the cheese melted well.
On a burger, Better Dairy’s cheddar was visibly melty
Jevan accepts there’s room to improve. He says the cheese I tried was made in his lab, but in future wants artisanal cheesemakers to use the firm’s non-dairy “milk” in their own labs to improve the taste.
As the company cannot use dairy fats, it has had to “optimise” plant-derived fats to make them taste better.
“If you’ve experienced plant-based cheeses, a lot of them have off flavours, and typically it comes from trying to use nut-based or coconut fats – and they impart flavours that aren’t normally in there,” Better Dairy scientist Kate Royle says.
Meanwhile, Those Vegan Cowboys is still focusing on easy-to-replace cheeses, like those on pizzas and burgers, while Standing Ovation says its casein can make a range of cheeses including camembert.
Will these new cheeses find their match?
It’ll be a tall order. Of those who bought vegan cheese on the market in the past year, 40% did not buy it again, according to an AHDB survey – suggesting taste may be a turn-off.
Damian Watson from the Vegan Society points out that resemblance to the real thing may not even be a good thing.
“Some vegans want the taste and texture of their food to be like meat, fish or dairy, and others want something completely different,” he tells me.
And Judith Bryans, chief executive of industry body Dairy UK, thinks the status quo will remain strong.
“There’s no evidence to suggest that the addition of lab-grown products would take away from the existing market, and it remains to be seen where these products would fit in from a consumer perception and price point of view,” she tells the BBC.
Studio Lazareff/Antoine Repesse
Yvan Chardonnens hopes to launch his cheeses in the UK in 2027
But both Better Dairy and Those Vegan Cowboys tout partnerships with cheese producers to scale up production and keep costs down, while Standing Ovation has already struck a partnership with Bel (makers of BabyBel).
Standing Ovation’s CEO Yvan Chardonnens characterises the recent unpopularity as a first wave in the vegan “analogues” of cheese faltering because of quality, while he hopes that will improve in the next phase.
Besides the current concerns about a shrinking vegan market, taste, quality and price, the issue of ultra-processed foods is one that these companies may have to grapple with.
They argue a lack of lactose, no cholesterol and lower amounts of saturated fats in lab-made cheese can boost its health benefits – and that any cheese is processed.
Precision fermentation may also allow producers to strip out many ultra-processed elements of current vegan cheeses.
Hille suggests it’s a question of perception. People have a “romanticised view” of dairy farming, she says, despite it now being “totally industrialised” – a point backed by AHDB polling, which found 71% of consumers see dairy as natural.
“I wouldn’t say that’s really a traditional, natural type of food,” Hille argues.
“We do have an important task to show people how cheese is made nowadays.”