death

Crisis has damaged more than 16,000 homes and caused widespread electricity cuts.

Torrential flooding has continued to sweep parts of central and southeastern Mexico, raising the death toll to at least 44 people in less than a week.

Heavy downpours caused by two tropical storms have triggered landslides and flooding across five states, including Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo, Queretaro and San Luis Potosi, the government said in a statement on Sunday.

Floods have killed 18 people in Veracruz state, 16 in Hidalgo, nine in Puebla and one in Queretaro, the statement said.

Mexico’s El Universal newspaper put the death toll even higher — at 48 — and reported that dozens remain missing.

Around 320,000 people have experienced power outages, and at least 16,000 homes have been damaged, according to authorities, who fear that more landslides and overflowing rivers could exacerbate the damage.

‘We will not leave anyone’

President Claudia Sheinbaum said the military has been mobilised to help with rescue operations and aid distributions. “We will not leave anyone without support,” she said in a post on X.

Photos posted by the military showed people being evacuated by soldiers with life rafts, homes flooded with mud, and rescue workers trudging through waist-high waters.

Mexico has been hit by particularly heavy rains this year, and Mexico City recorded its rainiest June in more than two decades.

Authorities have attributed the latest deadly downpours to the remnants of Hurricane Priscilla and Tropical Rainstorm Raymond, both of which dumped heavy rains on Mexico’s west.

The remnants of Raymond, with wind gusts now at 45km/hr (28mph), were expected to hit the southern part of Baja California on Sunday.

A NON-LEAGUE club has demolished the wall that was struck by former Arsenal star Billy Vigar leading to his tragic death.

The Chichester City ace collided with the pitchside barrier during the Isthmian Premier Division game at Wingate and Finchley last month.

2

2

Vigar, 21, was placed into an induced coma following the accident after he hit his head against the wall.

The game was suspended just 15 minutes in and was abandoned completely after he had been airlifted to hospital.

He had suffered a serious brain injury, and an operation was unable to save his life.

He sadly died just days later on September 25.

Following the tragedy, the FA insisted that it would carry out a safety review of perimeter walls in the National League.

But officials at Wingate and Finchley have already made steps to increase safety around the pitch at the Maurice Rebak Stadium.

The Daily Mail has reported that work has been commissioned to make improvements.

The ground did comply with current regulations, but the club has now demolished the wall completely.

It follows on from a petition calling on brick walls around pitches to be banned reached over 4,000 signatures.

On the immediate review, a FA spokesperson said: “[It woudl] include looking at ways we can assist National League system clubs to identify and implement additional measures at their stadiums that they determine will help to mitigate any potential safety risks.”

Meanwhile, the PFA called for an investigation and demanded that players should “not be put at unnecessary and avoidable risk”.

Vigar, from Worthing, West Sussex, spent his youth career with Arsenal after joining at age 14 and signed a professional contract in July 2022.

He worked his way up to the U21 team in North London, alongside loan spells with Derby County U21 and Eastbourne.

He left the club permanently in 2024 after being unable to progress to the senior team, joining Hastings United in the Non-League Premier before his move to Chichester.

Full statement from Arsenal

Everyone at Arsenal Football Club is deeply sorry to hear of the tragic passing of Chichester City forward and former Arsenal academy player, Billy Vigar.

Billy joined our academy on schoolboy terms aged 14, after being scouted at his hometown club Hove Rivervale FC and excelled as a striker at Hale End, scoring 17 goals in his debut season.

In 2020, his performances earned him a scholarship and joined us full-time for the 2020/21 season, his intake including current players Charles Sagoe Jr, Remy Mitchell and others such as Omari Hutchinson, Charlie Patino and Brook Norton-Cuffy.

Quick, powerful and fiercely determined, his first season as a scholar was blighted by a serious hamstring injury, but he made up for it in his second, scoring four goals in 18 under-18 appearances and signed professional terms for the club at the end of that 2021/22 season.

Billy went on to appear for us in the PL2 and EFL Trophy and proved to be an asset across the forward positions and even deputised in defence – his versatility illustrating his commitment to the coaching staff and his team.

He enjoyed loan spells at Derby County and Eastbourne Borough and at the end of the 2023/24 season,  headed back to his native south coast, signing for Hastings United – prior to a move to Chichester just last month.

As well as his significant talent, Billy will always be remembered for his love of the game, pride at representing our football club – he once called the day he was spotted by our scouts as ’the most Important of his life’ – and a character beloved by teammates and coaches alike.

Our deepest condolences go out to the Vigar family and his many friends at this extremely difficult time.

Diane Keaton, the actor who made film history — and won an Oscar — as the title character in Woody Allen’s beloved 1977 romantic comedy “Annie Hall,” died Saturday. She was 79. Tributes poured in from those who worked with and admired Keaton, including Bette Midler, Kate Hudson, Steve Martin and Josh Gad.

Here are some notable social media posts:

Bette Midler, the actor, singer and comedian who starred with Keaton and Goldie Hawn in the 1996 comedy “The First Wives Club,” about three divorced women who seek revenge on their ex-husbands: “The brilliant, beautiful, extraordinary Diane Keaton has died. I cannot tell you how unbearably sad this makes me. She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she was …oh, la, lala!”

Kate Hudson: “We love you so much Diane ❤️🕊️”

Steve Martin, who co-starred as Keaton’s husband in the “Father of the Bride” films, reposted an exchange between Keaton and Martin Short:

Short: “Who’s sexier, me or Steve Martin?

Keaton: “I mean, you’re both idiots.”

Martin then commented on the post: “Don’t know who first posted this, but it sums up our delightful relationship with Diane.”

Josh Gad: “What a monumental loss. Diane Keaton in many ways defined my love of movies. From Annie Hall to the Godfather films, from First Wives Club to Baby Boom, from Father of the Bride to Something’s Gotta Give, here resume was nothing short of iconic and hall of fame worthy. I was very fortunate to work with her many years ago on an unproduced HBO pilot and what I found was one of the most humble, ruthlessly funny, and unbelievably talented human beings I’ve ever come across. In many ways, this year will be defined by the loss of a Hollywood we will never again see. There simply are no replacements for a Gene Hackman or a Robert Redford or a Diane Keaton. They were the mavericks who helped redefine movies for a generation. … My heart goes out to Diane’s entire family during this impossible moment. RIP”

Kimberly Williams-Paisley, the actor, author and director who played Keaton’s daughter in the “Father of the Bride” films: “Diane, working with you will always be one of the highlights of my life. You are one of a kind, and it was thrilling to be in your orbit for a time. Thank you for your kindness, your generosity, your talent, and above all, your laughter. 🙏🏻🕊️💔❤️❤️❤️”

Rosie O’Donnell: “oh this breaks my heart – love to her children- what style what grace – she will be missed #ripdianekeaton”

Octavia Spencer: “Today we lost a true original. @diane_keaton wasn’t just an actress: she was a force. a woman who showed us that being yourself is the most powerful thing you can be. From Annie Hall to Something’s Gotta Give, she made every role unforgettable. But beyond the screen, she brought joy, laughter, and style that was all her own… Thank you, Diane, for reminding us that authenticity never goes out of fashion.”

Elizabeth Banks: “She was beloved in her industry. Every one of us idolizes her. Her influence on culture, fashion, art and women can’t be overstated. She was a delight. I am proud I have a career that allowed me to meet her and breathe her air.”

Viola Davis: “No!! No!!! No!! God, not yet, NO!!! Man… you defined womanhood. The pathos, humor, levity, your ever-present youthfulness and vulnerability — you tattooed your SOUL into every role, making it impossible to imagine anyone else inhabiting them. You were undeniably, unapologetically YOU!!! Loved you. Man… rest well. God bless your family, and I know angels are flying you home”

A Texas court has issued a stay of execution for Robert Roberson, a man whose 2003 murder conviction has raised serious questions about the validity of “shaken baby syndrome” as a medical diagnosis.

Thursday’s decision arrived with only a week remaining until Roberson’s scheduled execution date on October 16.

Roberson, a 58-year-old autistic man, was accused of having killed his two-year-old daughter Nikki Michelle Curtis in January 2002, after he brought her to a hospital emergency room unconscious.

He has maintained that Nikki had been sick and fell from her bed overnight. But prosecutors argued that her head trauma must have been caused by “shaken baby syndrome”, a diagnosis popularised in the late 1990s as evidence of physical abuse in infants and toddlers.

But that diagnosis has been increasingly rejected, as doctors and medical researchers point out that the symptoms of “shaken baby syndrome” — namely, bleeding or swelling in the eyes or brain — can be caused by other conditions.

Roberson’s defence team has argued that Nikki suffered from chronic pneumonia in the lead-up to her death, and the medications she was given, including codeine, contributed to her death.

In Thursday’s decision, the judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed to pause his execution in light of a similar case being overturned in 2024.

Judge Bert Richardson contrasted the shifting nature of the medical research with the finality of execution in his concurring opinion.

“There is a delicate balance and tension in our criminal justice system between the finality of judgment and its accuracy based on our ever-advancing scientific understanding,” Judge Richardson wrote.

“A death sentence is clearly final and, once carried out, hindsight is useless. Thus, when moving forward in such a way, we should require the highest standards of accuracy so that we can act with a reliable degree of certainty.”

But the court limited its judgement to reopening Roberson’s petition for habeas corpus, which questions the constitutionality of a person’s imprisonment.

It declined to reconsider Roberson’s case as a whole. That prompted some of the judges on the court to issue a partial dissent.

Judge David Schenck, for instance, argued that “a new trial is necessary and mandated by our Constitution”, given the new evidence that has emerged in the two decades since Roberson was sentenced to death.

“The merits of Roberson’s claims and the cumulative effect of the evidence Roberson presents — in his fifth application as well as his previous and subsequent applications — would be more properly and more swiftly assessed at this point by a jury in a new trial,” Schenck said.

He added that a new trial would also offer the state of Texas “an opportunity to present this case on its merits”.

Still, some judges on the panel said they were opposed to reopening the case, arguing that the shift in medical consensus did not rule out an act of violence in Nikki’s death.

“Arguably credible and reliable scientific evidence still exists to suggest that shaking a child can cause serious injury or death,” Judge Kevin Yeary wrote in his opinion.

This is not the first time that Roberson’s case has been delayed. He has spent nearly 23 years on death row and was also slated to be executed a year ago, in October 2024.

But that execution date was scuttled in an extraordinary series of events. With his execution scheduled for October 17 of that year, a bipartisan group of legislators in the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence agreed to issue a subpoena for Roberson on October 21 — effectively setting up a battle between the legislature’s will and the court’s.

The subpoen sparked a court case about the separation of powers in Texas: A witness could not answer a legislative subpoena if the justice system executed him first.

Further, the members of the Texas House committee had argued that a 2013 state law barring the use of “junk science” in court cases had failed to be applied in Roberson’s case.

The case reached the Texas Supreme Court, which halted Roberson’s execution while the matter was resolved. Execution dates are set with at least 90 days’ notice in Texas, resulting in a prolonged pause.

On July 16, after appeals from Roberson’s defence team, a new execution date was set for this month.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, has accused critics of Roberson’s sentence of “interfering with the capital punishment proceedings” and has repeatedly pledged to push forward with the execution.

But even those involved in Roberson’s original capital murder trial have sought to see his sentence overturned.

Brian Wharton, the lead investigator in Roberson’s case, had once testified in favour of the prosecution. But last year, he told the Texas House committee that he supported Roberson’s appeal, given the new evidence that has come to light.

“He is an innocent man, and we are very close to killing him for something he did not do,” Wharton said.

On Thursday, one of the jurors who helped convict Roberson also published an opinion column in the Houston Chronicle, asserting that she was “wrong” to side with the prosecution.

“If we on the jury knew then what I know now — about the new evidence of Nikki’s missed pneumonia, how her breathing would have been affected by the Phenergan and codeine doctors gave her that last week, the signs of sepsis, and all the things that were wrong with the version of shaken baby syndrome used in the case — we would have had a lot more to discuss,” Terre Compton wrote.

“Based on all that has come out since the trial, I am 100% certain that Robert Roberson did not murder his child.”

Texas has executed 596 people since 1982, the most of any state.

A WIDOW is set to sue a utilities station operator after her husband was electrocuted while pruning hedges.

Gardener Blair Campbell, 35, was carrying out work on an ivy-covered bush when he accidentally came into contact with a substation wire in October 2022.

1

The dad-of-two was airlifted to hospital following the horror but tragically died shortly after.

An inquest at Cheshire Coroner’s Court found that Blair from electrocution.

The victim’s widow, Tina, says she is yet to receive any apology from SP Energy Networks – part of Scottish Power – who operated the station.

She now says she will sue the company to get damages for her husband’s death.

Tina, who lives in Mobberley with her two children, said she had received no apology or compensation from Scottish Power.

She said: “There was not a lot we could do prior to the inquest. Because of the complexity of the case and involvement by HSE and the police that delayed things and we had to wait two years for the inquest.

“My solicitors have been in touch since the inquest with Scottish Power sending paperwork, but basically there has been silence.

“As a result my solicitors have had to put the matter back into the courts.

“I believe that Scottish Power now has 28 days to respond after they were put on notice of our intentions.

“If that fails we will have to apply for a court date, which is unlikely to be before autumn next year. This would drag it out for another 12 months.

“The inquest was over three days with a jury and the conclusion was that they (the power company) ‘more than likely contributed to the death of Blair’ due to the lack of maintenance.”

The inquest was told Blair ran firm, Blue Kiwi Gardens and Maintenance, after moving to the UK from New Zealand to be with Tina.

On October 3, 2022, he had gone to work to prune the hedge when he suffered the fatal shock.

Thick ivy on the bush had covered warning signs about the substation – meaning Blair was unaware of the danger underneath.

The court was told that before Blair’s death, numerous reports had been made about a need to remove the ivy that were not acted on.

SP Energy Networks, which maintains the substation, has now made changes to its health and safety policy.

More than four years after the family of deceased Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs filed a wrongful death suit against the Angels, jury selection will begin Monday in Orange County Superior Court.

Skaggs’ widow Carli Skaggs and parents Debra Hetman and Darrell Skaggs stated in a court filing that they seek at least $210 million in lost earnings and damages. A lawyer for the Angels said in a pretrial hearing that the plaintiffs now seek a judgment of $1 billion, although the lead attorney representing the family said the number is an exaggeration.

The trial is expected to last several weeks. Pretrial discovery included more than 50 depositions and the witness list contains nearly 80 names.

Lawyers for the Skaggs family aim to establish that the Angels were responsible for the death of the 27-year-old left-handed pitcher on July 1, 2019, after he snorted crushed pills that contained fentanyl in a hotel room during a team road trip in Texas.

An autopsy concluded Skaggs accidentally died of asphyxia after aspirating his own vomit while under the influence of fentanyl, oxycodone and alcohol.

Angels communications director Eric Kay provided Skaggs with counterfeit oxycodone pills that turned out to be laced with fentanyl and is serving 22 years in federal prison for his role in the death. Skaggs’ lawyers will try to prove that other Angels employees knew Kay was providing opioids to Skaggs.

“The Angels owed Tyler Skaggs a duty to provide a safe place to work and play baseball,” the lawsuit said. “The Angels breached their duty when they allowed Kay, a drug addict, complete access to Tyler. The Angels also breached their duty when they allowed Kay to provide Tyler with dangerous illegal drugs. The Angels should have known Kay was dealing drugs to players. Tyler died as a result of the Angels’ breach of their duties.”

The Skaggs family planned to call numerous current and former Angels players as witnesses, including future Hall of Famers Mike Trout and Albert Pujols as well as pitcher Andrew Heaney — Skaggs’ best friend on the team — in an attempt to show that Skaggs was a fully functioning major league pitcher and not an addict.

Pretrial filings and hearings indicated that the Angels were attempting to show that Skaggs was a longtime drug user who acquired pills from sources other than Kay. Skaggs’ mother, Debbie Hetman, testified during Kay’s 2022 criminal trial that her son admitted he had an “issue” with oxycodone as far back as 2013.

Hetman said her son quit “cold turkey” but she testified the addiction remained enough of a concern that Skaggs wasn’t prescribed opioids after undergoing Tommy John surgery in August 2014.

Judge H. Shaina Colover dashed a key Angels defense strategy when she ruled that Kay’s criminal conviction could not be disputed during the civil trial. Angels attorney Todd Theodora contended that new evidence indicated Skaggs died of a “cardiac arrhythmia, second to the fact that Tyler had 10 to 15 drinks in him, coupled with the oxycodone, for which Angels baseball is not responsible.”

Theodora said that if the Angels could prove Kay was not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, neither Kay nor the team would be culpable in Skaggs’ death. Colover, however, ruled that Kay’s “conviction, based on applicable law and facts, was final.” Kay’s appeal was denied in federal court in November 2023.

Pretrial depositions of Angels players and support personnel provided a rare glimpse into the rowdy, often profane culture of a major league clubhouse.

Angels clubhouse attendants testified that Kay participated in stunts such as purposely taking an 85-mph fastball off his knee in the batting cage, having a pitcher throw a football at his face from short range, eating a bug and eating pimples off the back of Trout.

Tim Mead, the Angels longtime vice president of communication and Kay’s supervisor, acknowledged as much in his deposition, saying, “If you try to describe a clubhouse or a locker room in professional sports, or even college, and probably even the military in terms, and try to equate it to how we see — how this law firm is run or a corporation is run, you know, unfortunately, there’s not lot of comparison…. There’s a lot of fun, there’s a lot of release.”

And a lot of painkillers. Former Angels players Matt Harvey, C.J. Cron, Mike Morin and Cam Bedrosian testified at Kay’s trial that he distributed blue 30 milligram oxycodone pills to them at Angel Stadium. Skaggs, testimony revealed, was a particularly frequent customer.

Testimony established that Kay was also a longtime user of oxycodone and that the Angels knew it. In a filing, the Skaggs family showed evidence that Angels team physician Craig Milhouse prescribed Kay Hydrocodone 15 times from 2009 to 2012. The Skaggs family also plans to call Trout, who according to the deposition of former Angels clubhouse attendant Kris Constanti, offered to pay for Kay’s drug rehabilitation in 2018.

Skaggs was a top prospect coming out of Santa Monica High in 2009, and the Angels made him their first-round draft pick. He was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks a year later and made his major league debut with them in 2012.

Traded back to the Angels in 2014, Skaggs made the starting rotation, where he remained when not battling injuries until his death. His numbers were rather ordinary, a 28-38 win-loss record with a 4.41 earned-run average in 96 career starts, but his lawyers pointed to his youth and the escalating salaries given to starting pitchers in asking for a jury award of at least $210 million and as much as $785 million.

Skaggs earned $9.2 million — including $3.7 million in 2019 — and would have become a free agent after the 2020 season. Effective starting pitchers at a similar age and comparable performance can command multi-year contracts of $100 million or more.

Skaggs’ death prompted MLB to begin testing for opioids and cocaine in 2020, but only players who do not cooperate with their treatment plans are subject to discipline. Marijuana was removed from the list of drugs of abuse and is treated the same as alcohol.

MLB emergency medical procedures now require that naloxone be stored in clubhouses, weight rooms, dugouts and umpire dressing rooms at all ballparks. Naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, is an antidote for opioid poisoning.

Ed Gein may not be America’s most infamous serial killer — he’s eclipsed by the likes of Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer in the public imagination — but his macabre crimes were fodder for several classic horror movies that are permanently imprinted on American minds.

Gein, a Midwestern farmer pushed by personal tragedy into pathological criminality, is the focus of the third season of “Monster,” Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s crime anthology series. The show’s debut season centered on Dahmer (played by Evan Peters) and its sophomore season focused on the Menendez brothers (Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch).

Charlie Hunnam leads the show’s third installment, “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” premiering Friday on Netflix, as the titular “Butcher of Plainfield.”

“Serial killer. Grave robber. Psycho. In the frozen fields of 1950s rural Wisconsin, a friendly, mild-mannered recluse named Eddie Gein lived quietly on a decaying farm — hiding a house of horrors so gruesome it would redefine the American nightmare,” reads the show’s official logline.

“Driven by isolation, psychosis and an all-consuming obsession with his mother, Gein’s perverse crimes birthed a new kind of monster that would haunt Hollywood for decades.”

Gein’s enmeshment with his mother inspired the character Norman Bates, the bumbling motelier and murderer of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960). The killer’s habit of fashioning costumes and furniture out of human skin is shared by his fictional counterparts Buffalo Bill (“The Silence of the Lambs”) and Leatherface (“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.”)

But who was the real Ed Gein, and what moved him to commit the crimes that have fascinated horror directors for decades?

Early trauma

Born in 1906, Gein was raised on an isolated farm in Plainfield, Wis., by an alcoholic father and an ultrareligious mother, whom he adored and defended until her death in 1945.

In “Ed Gein,” a 2001 film based closely on Gein’s life, the killer’s mother teaches her sons that all women (except her) are promiscuous evildoers and restricts her sons’ contact with the outside world. While Gein’s father’s abuse is explicit, his mother’s is insidious — and arguably more deleterious to the young Gein.

“As the film portrays him, Ed Gein never had a chance,” former Times critic Kevin Thomas wrote in 2001.

In his 1989 true crime book “Deviant,” Harold Schechter characterizes the young Gein as a social outcast, resentful of almost everyone but his mother.

“Cut off from all social contacts, completely separated from the life of the community, condemned to an existence of crushing poverty in a remote and desolate region with two tormented and inimical parents, Eddie — never emotionally strong to begin with — was retreating farther and farther into a private world of fantasy,” Schechter writes.

An Oedipus complex

Gein’s father George died in 1940 of heart failure. Gein’s older brother Henry died four years later, reportedly from the same cause — though many believe Henry was actually Gein’s first victim. Then in 1945, the death of Gein’s mother Augusta reportedly triggered the soon-to-be killer’s spiral into psychosis.

The 2023 docuseries “Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein” features medical records from 1957, the year Gein, then 51, was arrested. According to these records, Gein began grave digging in the aftermath of his mother’s death. He often took the bodies back to his shed; other times, he mutilated the bodies at their grave sites.

“When questioned as to his reasons for doing this, he stated that he thought it was because he wanted a remembrance of his mother,” the records read. Gein also confessed that, “for a period of time after his mother’s death, he felt that he could arouse the dead by an act of will power. He claimed to have tried to arouse his dead mother by an act of will power and was disappointed when he was unsuccessful.”

The corpses proved to be insufficient surrogates for Gein, who later devolved into murdering middle-aged women who reminded him of his mother. His first victim, 51-year-old tavern owner Mary Hogan, disappeared in 1954, and his second, 58-year-old hardware store owner Bernice Worden, was killed in 1957.

As chronicled in “Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein,” Worden’s son Frank alerted authorities to her disappearance after he found shell casings and a trail of blood at their family hardware store. He also found a receipt for antifreeze, which Gein had inquired about the day before Worden went missing.

Upon entering Gein’s farm shed, authorities found Worden’s naked corpse hanging and mutilated “like some game animal that’s been dressed out after the kill,” “Deviant” author Schechter said in the documentary. They also found human skulls fashioned into soup bowls; lampshades and costumes made from human skin; and mutilated female body parts, among other nightmare fuel.

In a recording made on the night of Gein’s arrest and finally unearthed in 2023 — the same ones Hunnam used to inform his voice as Gein for “Monster” — the killer described his gruesome acts as “taken from reading about news magazines and them things. Taking the flesh off, like a head hunter.”

Forensic psychiatrist N.G. Berrill, who was interviewed in the Gein docuseries, said Gein was likely referencing midcentury pulp magazines that laid out the atrocities carried out by the Nazis during World War II. Ilse Koch, the wife of a Nazi commander, had a lampshade made from the skin of murdered inmates.

“The fact is, when you see all the bodies piled up and you see people as disposable, you understand that people were experimented with, if you’re inclined emotionally or psychologically to that type of thinking, even if you don’t want to admit it, it grabs your attention in sort of the wrong way,” Berrill said.

Gein ultimately confessed to murdering Hogan and Worden and robbing more than 40 graves, though he denied cannibalism and necrophilia claims. While initially convicted of first-degree murder in Worden’s death, he was eventually declared not guilty by reason of insanity — diagnosed as schizophrenic — and was institutionalized until his death due to complications from cancer in 1984.

The small-town horror story heard around the world

Gein’s crimes shocked his community and the country.

“He’s a kind of meek, unremarkable man who could have been your neighbor. And there’s something eerie about that, that is disruptive to our collective ideas of, ‘What is a monster?’” said Jooyoung Lee, a serial homicide researcher at the University of Toronto, in “Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein.”

Some people’s fascination with Gein even verged into fandom, according to Hamish McAlpine, producer of the 2000 film “Ed Gein.”

“Apparently there are 182 websites devoted to Ed Gein,” McAlpine told The Times in 2001. “There is even an Ed Gein fan club. You can buy Ed Gein memorabilia. You can buy a bust of Ed Gein, Ed Gein ashtrays and even Ed Gein calendars.”

Echoes of Gein in Hollywood

Gein’s simmering psychosis coupled with the barbarity of his crimes made him an ideal horror archetype.

Gein was the inspiration for Robert Bloch’s novel “Psycho,” which Alfred Hitchcock adapted into the 1960 film of the same name. In Hitchcock’s movie, Bates, like Gein, exhibits severe attachment to his mother. Bates murders his victims due to a form of dissociative identity disorder that drives him according to her will.

“A boy’s best friend is his mother,” Bates famously says in the film.

Gein is among the serial killers who “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991) director Jonathan Demme said inspired his film’s villain Buffalo Bill, who, like Gein, skinned his victims.

That killer quirk also made its way into “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” which sees the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface sporting a mask made of human flesh. The indie horror film’s director, Tobe Hooper, said that as a child he heard Gein’s story from his relatives who lived in Wisconsin.

“They told us the story about this man who lived in the next town from them, about 27 miles or so, who was digging up graves and using the bones and skin in his house,” Hooper said in a 2015 interview with director Barend de Voogd.

“That was all I knew about it. They didn’t mention his name,” Hooper said. “But to me he was like a real boogeyman. That stayed in my mind.”

A DEVASTATED family ripped apart by the death of their beloved son in the Idaho murder tragedy was forced to quickly move on from unimaginable heartbreak in less than five months for the sake of their surviving children. 

Ethan Chapin, 20, was a triplet and one of Bryan Kohberger’s four victims in the sickening University of Idaho knife attack in November 2022.

4

4

4

Brave mom, Stacy, opened up her heart to The U.S. Sun at Crimecon last month about the nightmare of dealing with her beloved, fun-loving son being murdered with the world at his feet. 

She stressed that even though sick Kohberger will rot behind bars for the rest of his life after eventually pleading guilty to the savage killings of Ethan, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle, her family aren’t interested in the reasons why. 

But Stacy, who has thrown herself into vitally important advocacy work in the wake of her son’s shocking death, has revealed there was no time for her and husband Jim to wallow in misery. 

With Ethan’s brother and sister, Maizie and Hunter, who were on campus on that fateful evening, recently completing their own studies, the couple made the decision to somehow come to terms with the tragedy and move on for the sake of the remaining triplets’ future.

She says a heart-heart with Jim over a cup of morning coffee helped them realize that the best way forward was to “just get up and live life.”

They will never forget their beloved son, who they joked was minoring in Bud Light Lime and Taco Bell.

But with his brother and sister needing their parents more than ever to deal with the aftermath of Ethan’s senseless killing, Stacy and Jim vowed to honor his memory by ensuring Maizie and Hunter have their unconditional attention and support. 

“We just decided that you can lose yourself in grief, “ Stacy told The U.S. Sun.

“We had to do that for Ethan’s siblings. They didn’t deserve parents who had potentially gone in the tank or lost themselves. 

“We made a decision on a day in March of 2023 that we couldn’t change the outcome, and we had to still live our life and be great parents to Maizie and Hunter, giving them the best life they deserved.”

BRAVE FACE

The Chapin’s were the only family to abstain from attending Kohberger’s sentencing hearing earlier this summer.

They didn’t want to subject themselves to any more pain. 

Once the deranged Washington State graduate admitted to his heinous crimes, that at least removed the prospect of Ethan’s brother and sister having to take the stand and retrace the moments leading up to the sickening murders in a potential retrial.

Kohberger has never revealed why he cut short the lives of the four students. 

Stacy admits she won’t waste any time wondering why. 

The agony remains and will never leave her. Seeing her children recover from the nightmare and thrive, however, fills her and husband with hope.

“I would be lying if I didn’t say there are still tough moments,” Stacy continued. 

“But even now, every day feels like we’re a little bit closer to our new normal, whatever that looks like. Our kids are doing great. 

“They’ve also persevered in a way that amazes me as a mom. They were there that day. They all went to college together; they spent every second together.

“The fact that they went back to school and graduated and are now looking at their careers. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Kohberger avoided the death penalty upon pleading guilty on July 23 and was hit with four consecutive life sentences. 

The full details of Bryan Kohberger’s sentence

On July 23, 2025, Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Bryan Kohberger to the following:

• Count 1: Burglary – 10 years fixed, zero years in determinate. $50,000 fine.
• Count 2: First-degree murder of Madison Mogen: Fixed term of life in prison without the possibility of parole. $50,000 fine and civil penalty of $5,000 payable to the family of the victim.
• Count 3: First-degree murder of Kaylee Goncalves: Fixed term of life in prison without the possibility of parole. $50,000 fine and civil penalty of $5,000 payable to the family of the victim.
• Count 4: First-degree murder of Xana Kernodle: Fixed term of life in prison without the possibility of parole. $50,000 fine and civil penalty of $5,000 payable to the family of the victim.
• Count 5: First-degree murder of Ethan Chapin: Fixed term of life in prison without the possibility of parole. $50,000 fine and civil penalty of $5,000 payable to the family of the victim.

The sentencings will run consecutively to one another.

ALWAYS REMEMBERED

While the Chapins stayed away from court, Ethan was on their mind. Stacy posted an emotional message on social media declaring her late son would “forever” be in their hearts.

His name will also shine on through Ethan’s Smile Foundation, which was established by the family to honor his memory. 

It aims to showcase “his love of life, people and new adventures” by providing scholarships for fellow students to “follow their dreams.”

“Ethan’s love for life was boundless. With a booming laugh and infectious smile, he spread joy to all who were fortunate enough to know him. Ethan was our storyteller, hard worker, and friend-maker,” Stacy and Jim declared on the foundation website.

‍“In the wake of his absence, the foundation was born—a tribute to Ethan’s unwavering passion for life. Our mission is simple yet profound: to carry forward the legacy of Ethan by providing scholarships that enable others to follow their dreams.

‍“In every corner we venture, in every heart we touch, we strive to keep the spirit of Ethan alive, reminding ourselves and others of the adventures and kindness that life has to offer.”

Stacy has also begun to foster a strong relationship with cutting-edge forensics company Othram, who helped accelerate the process of proving Kohberger’s guilt.

The Texas based specialists were able to extract DNA from the tan leather knife sheaf which was found in the room of Goncalves following the killings.

Investigators believe she was the first victim, with Kohberger leaving it behind after her friends came back to check on her wellbeing. 

“Myself and Jim are a team,” Stacy concluded. “To have closure means the world to us.”

4

Kimberly Hébert Gregory, who was best known as the brash principal in HBO’s “Vice Principals,” has died. She was 52.

A cause of death was not immediately reported.

Gregory’s former husband, Chester Gregory, confirmed her death in an Instagram post.

“You Were Brilliance Embodied, A Black Woman Whose Mind Lit Every Room, Whose Presence Carried Both Fire And Grace,” he wrote. “So Much More Than Ex-Wife, You Were My Friend. Our Son, The Song We Wrote Together, Is The Living Echo Of Your Light.”

Walton Goggins, the “White Lotus” breakout who co-starred with Gregory in “Vice Principals,” the HBO series which premiered in 2016 and lasted for two seasons, was among several performers who paid tribute on social media.

“We lost one of the best yesterday… one of the best I’ve ever worked with,” Goggins wrote in his Instagram post. “I had the honor… the good fortune of getting to know, getting to spend months working with this Queen on Vice Principals.”

Others who remembered Gregory included Kym Whitley, Leslie Odom Jr. and Jason Ritter

Gregory’s character on “Vice Principals,” Dr. Belinda Brown, butted heads with rival high school vice principals Neal Gamby (show co-creator Danny McBride) and Lee Russell (Goggins).

In his review of “Vice Principals,” Los Angeles Times’ Robert Lloyd wrote, “[Gregory’s] character is an invitation to political incorrectness — when told she graduated from Berkeley, Neal responds, ‘I’m pretty affirmative how she got in’ — but that attitude is more a side dish here than an entree; despite their conniving, these characters are lunkheads at worst.”

Her other credits included TV’s “The Chi” and “All Rise.”

HOLIDAY booze cruises promise a carefree escape with sun, sea and endless partying – but beneath the decks and pounding music lies a darker reality.

For Nakita Colville, a pirate-themed boat trip in Turkey turned to tragedy when her father, Peter, suddenly died while swimming – but instead of rushing back to shore, staff told his shell-shocked daughter, “he’s dead, he’s gone”, covered his body with a towel, and told guests they would go ahead with a planned foam party.

13

13

13

In her first exclusive interview since her father’s heartbreaking death just nine weeks ago, on July 27, she told The Sun how “unbothered and clueless” staff on board just stood there watching as her dad died in front of his children and grandchildren.

She also warned that this wouldn’t be the last tragedy at sea onboard unregulated party boats with shoddy safety standards.

She tells The Sun: “I don’t think people are aware of how dangerous it can be until something like this happens to your family.

“Unless things change, I don’t think this will be the last death.”

Despite thousands of tourists signing up for boat parties and trips every year, what was once a thrill-filled novelty is now a high-risk activity, where the line between fun and danger is perilously thin. 

And the risks are compounded once you step outside UK waters, where regulations can be patchy and enforcement inconsistent – and lax safety measures, unlimited drink offers, and drugs circulating on board create a perfect storm.

On one booze-filled stag-do party cruise in Lisbon, laddish “banter” led to the tragic death of city worker Nishanthan Gnanathas.

Thrown from a yacht into the River Tagus in November 2019, Nish – best man and beloved friend – hit his head on a balustrade before crashing into the icy water. 

The coroner’s conclusion was stark – what happened was “horseplay that went tragically wrong”.

Dr Fiona Wilcox recorded a conclusion of misadventure, saying: “This was an absolutely tragic accident that could not have been reasonably anticipated.”

Maritime police chief Malaquais Dominguez said “it was a stupid joke between friends”.

“He was pushed and he went overboard. He disappeared in the water. I have no doubt they will live with this terrible moment for the rest of their lives,” Dominguez said. 

The story echoes the growing unease around stag and party-boat culture abroad – where cheap alcohol, bravado, and ritualised pranks can lead to tragedy.

In Amsterdam, Neil Stewart’s fiancée arranged a surprise weekend in the Dutch capital – and told her it was “the happiest time of his life”.

But by the end of a night on a party boat, Stewart was dead, swallowed by the inky waters of the Noordzeekanaal after what witnesses believe began as a prank on board.

The Newcastle coroner’s inquest heard Stewart had taken cocaine and cannabis before boarding the boat for the Bounce Til I Die event. 

Post-mortem tests later confirmed both in his system, along with traces of cannabis from a “space cake” eaten earlier in a café.

A witness said she saw Stewart “deliberately jump” from the smoking deck and initially thought it was “a silly prank” – especially as he seemed to be laughing in the water before he drowned, and Stewart’s body was recovered two weeks later.

13

13

13

‘Pirate ship’ tragedy

On July 27, grandfather Peter Colville, 60, from Woking, died on board a pirate-themed boat trip in Alanya, Turkey.

Daughter Nakita, 27, told how her father and nine other family members, including children, had boarded the boat.

The “luxury pirate ship” promised entertainment, DJs and a foam party, along with two swim stops for guests to go snorkelling.

The family paid over £200 for tickets to board the “luxurious six-deck yacht” – called Legend Big Kral – at an excursion centre.

Everyone was enjoying the music, blue seas and stunning views of the Mediterranean as the boat, carrying some 600 passengers according to Nakita, set sail.

Unless things change, I don’t think this will be the last death

Nakita Colville

Nakita, an admin assistant, said: “My dad is very safety-conscious, and I remember as we walked onto the boat, he said it was strange they didn’t seem to tick off names, hand out wristbands or get waivers signed.

“At that point, we just brushed it off – we never could have known what was to come.”

The first swim stop came and went, with most of Nakita’s family getting into the water, including property maintenance boss Peter – who was an avid snorkeller. 

13

13

Nakita recalled feeling strange that only the children were given life jackets.

So, being a weaker swimmer, when the second swim stop came at Cleopatra Beach, she opted not to go back in.

But confident swimmer Peter, and Nakita’s brother-in-law, Ben Diamond, 35, were keen to get back in the water again.

The pair were happy snorkelling together one minute – and the next, Nakita heard screams of panic.

She says: “I looked into the water and saw my dad’s face, floating, and people scrambling to get him out of the water.

“My sister and I ran down – and she screamed, ‘Oh my God, he is going purple’.”

Nakita said guests dragged Peter, a dad-of-seven and grandfather-of-six, onto the deck, and one began administering CPR.

As Nakita’s family – along with countless other guests – crowded around, “screaming and horrified”, she claims “unbothered and clueless” staff on board “just stood there watching”.

She alleged staff on board repeated, “he’s dead, he’s gone” before a member of the team suggested covering Peter’s body with a towel – before the coastguard even arrived.

Nakita says: “There didn’t seem to be any system in place to deal with an emergency situation. There didn’t seem to be a plan.

“He was laid on the deck – and then nothing. No proper procedure, no clearing the deck of onlookers, no immediate CPR. They stood there with their arms crossed, clueless.

“Some seemed like they weren’t bothered, some of the younger staff members looked like they felt bad that they didn’t know what to do. 

“It didn’t feel like they were adequately first-aid trained. It was the guests giving my dad CPR.”

13

13

13

She claims she asked staff if the boat carried a defibrillator and was told by a crew member that they didn’t have one as they “couldn’t keep it charged”.

She said: “I found that strange, as they had electricity for the DJ decks and foam machines.”

According to UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency advice, all ships should undertake a risk assessment, but “as a general guide, vessels in regular operation carrying in excess of 100 persons” should carry a defib.

But many holiday booze cruises operate in foreign ports with looser safety standards, overcrowded decks, and minimal oversight. 

Life jackets may be scarce, crew training is often insufficient, and emergency procedures can be a little more than a box-ticking exercise. 

Nakita said the event was so traumatising that her mother and Peter’s wife, Rosalind Colville, 53, collapsed from shock.

And Nakita says it was also guests on board helping Rosalind by bringing her water and getting her a chair – rather than staff.

I was told the remaining guests were told ‘sorry for the delay’ and they carried on with the party. Apparently it was disturbing – nobody else on board even wanted to party after what they had just witnessed

Nakita Colville

Nakita says: “My sister and I were just holding my dad’s hand, screaming.

“As far as we knew, or he knew, he was healthy – we have no idea what happened.

“He was smart – if he had been, or felt, unwell, he wouldn’t have got in the water.

“They had covered him with a towel before the coastguard even arrived.”

When they did finally arrive 40 minutes later, Peter was taken to hospital.

The family were asked whether they wished to remain on the boat for the rest of the trip, or get off and go to hospital with him.

The family – including two of his grandchildren – were taken off the boat, and at the hospital Peter was confirmed dead.

Nakita says she learned from other guests at their hotel, who were also on board the boat, that after her family left, the party continued.

She claims she learned the crew even hosted a foam party for the remaining traumatised passengers.

She said: “I was told the remaining guests were told ‘sorry for the delay’ and they carried on with the party.

“Apparently, it was disturbing – nobody else on board even wanted to party after what they had just witnessed.”

Nakita had to break the news by phone to her four brothers and their families back home.

Postmortems were conducted in Turkey and back in the UK when his body was brought home.

Nakita said neither could find a cause of death, so investigations are ongoing as the family tries to grieve the loss of their beloved father and grandfather.

One Tripadvisor review from the day of the tragedy read: “The way it was handled by the crew was nothing short of horrifying.

“It is unsafe, unprofessional, and the crew is neither trained nor emotionally capable of handling emergencies – or tragedies.”

There didn’t seem to be any system in place to deal with an emergency situation. There didn’t seem to be a plan

Nakita Colville

But Nakita fears tourists don’t realise the risks associated with excursions like this one.

She says: “With these trips, even if safety measures are in place, there are always risks.

“Thinking back, I don’t think there were enough crew members for the number of people on the boat, and to be able to watch all the people swimming in the water.

“We can’t say it was the company’s fault that he died, but maybe he could have been saved.”

Legend Big Kral did not respond to a request for a comment, but a representative did contact Nakita directly after her original story was shared. 

They claimed that all ten staff members were first aid trained. 

Nakita says the representative also claimed that Peter passed of a heart attack – a fact which has not been confirmed yet by two post-mortems. Coroners say it is still being investigated. 

For many Brits, holiday booze cruises start as a fantasy: sun, cheap drinks and a chance to let loose, far away from the office or family life. 

But increasingly, these trips are leaving more than just a hangover in their wake. 

13

13

Authorities say they are using heavy equipment to look for the 49 people who remain missing.

The death toll from the collapse of a boarding school in Indonesia’s East Java province has risen to 14, according to officials, as rescuers battle to recover dozens of students believed still buried under the rubble.

Hundreds of students, most of them teenage boys, were inside the Al-Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in the town of Sidoarjo when it collapsed on Monday, initially killing at least five students and injuring about 100.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) chief Suharyanto told reporters on Saturday that rescuers found nine bodies on Friday, raising the death toll to 14.

“As of today, we are still searching for 49 people who are still missing,” said Suharyanto, who goes by one name, as reported by broadcaster Kompas TV.

More victims could be found, Suharyanto said, as rescuers moved to use heavy machinery to clear locations where the victims were believed to be buried underneath the rubble.

“After the last victim was found last night, we are focusing on a massive cleanup, with heavy equipment entering the collapsed areas,” he said.

Suharyanto said victim identification had been complicated by the fact that most of the victims were under 18 and did not have government identity cards or fingerprint records.

“Some of the bodies were too badly damaged to be recognised visually,” he said.

The total number of victims recorded is 167, of which 104 have been found and are safe, said Abdul Muhari, head of the Disaster Data, Information and Communication Centre at the BNPB.

Fourteen survivors are receiving hospital treatment, while 89 have been discharged. One has been transferred to another hospital, added Muhari.

The school collapse was so violent that it sent tremors across the neighbourhood, according to residents.

Investigators have been looking into the cause of the collapse, but initial signs pointed to substandard construction, experts have said.

The rescue operation was complex because vibrations in one place could affect other areas, officials said.

But the families of the missing agreed on Thursday for heavy equipment to be used, after the 72-hour “golden period” for the best chance of survival came to an end.

The rescue operation was complicated by an earthquake that struck overnight on Tuesday, briefly halting the search.

OZZY Osbourne joked that his final days may have been agonising but “at least I wasn’t Sting”.

The Black Sabbath rocker made the dig in his new documentary, set to be released nearly three months after he died aged 76 in July.

3

3

Throughout their careers, Ozzy and The Police’s Sting, 74, were embroiled in a war of words.

During the filming of his hit reality series The Osbourne’s, Ozzy was filmed making a number of insults about the singer.

And at the Grammys in 2003, Sting asked to speak to Ozzy’s daughter, Kelly, to patch things up.

At the time, wife Sharon said: “We all bumped into each other on the red carpet and we all said how ridiculous it was and how words can hurt so many people.

“We’re all adults and all apologised and it was great.”

In the new doc, Ozzy speaks about his health, including battling sepsis and cracked vertebrae.

He said: “I am really f***ed up with this body of mine and as soon as I want to do anything.

“I went to the doctor and there’s a blood clot. My leg is about to fall off.

“But I can’t complain. 
I was actually rocking until I was 70 and then a trap door opened.

“I didn’t think I was going to live past 40. 


3

“But if my life’s coming to an end, I really can’t complain, I’ve had a great life.

“But, hey, it could have been worse. I could be Sting.”

Despite being in pain, he travelled from LA for his final show on July 5 at Aston Villa’s stadium, in Birmingham.

Ozzy said: “The problem now is getting to England. But I’ve got to be there.

I used to take pills for fun. 
Now I take them to stay alive

“As I am getting on, 
it’s worse. It’s crippling me. I can’t walk, I can’t bend down. I’ll be sitting in a chair.”

“That’s the thing about getting older, I used to take pills for fun. Now I take them to stay alive.”

In a separate documentary for the BBC, called Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home, the rocker posed with Sharon and his dogs.

He said: “LA is one thing but the English summer is fantastic.

“It’s a new thing for us both. I’m looking forward to getting this gig over, hanging my mic up and spending some time with you.”

Sharon added: “I just want to live a life. Find a little bubble somewhere and just live out our life together.”

Ozzy died on July 22, just weeks after his farewell gig.

• Ozzy Osbourne: No Escape From Now, will be released on Paramount+ on October 7.

Barpeta/Guwahati, Assam, India – For more than 15 years, truck driver Imam Hussain found solace in singer Zubeen Garg’s voice and music as he drove his vehicle on quiet and lonely nights along the Himalayan hills and plains of the northeastern Indian state of Assam.

It was a period in which Bengali-speaking Muslims – the community 42-year-old Hussein belongs to – increasingly came under attack in Assam. They’ve been accused of being outsiders – even infiltrators – in their own home.

Amid soaring Hindu-Muslim tensions, the music of Garg – a Hindu – served as a rare unifier. “His music was my inner peace,” said Hussain.

On September 19, Garg died by drowning near Lazarus Island in Singapore, where he was scheduled to perform at the Northeast India Festival, an event that celebrates the art and culture of the Indian region.

The sudden death of the 52-year-old artist, who enjoyed a cult-like status among millions of his fans in and outside Assam, triggered a massive outpouring of grief that further cemented his stature as a public figure whose appeal spanned divisions that have otherwise fractured the state. The singer’s wife, Garima Saikia Garg, issued a statement, saying her husband “suffered a seizure attack” while swimming in the sea.

While Hussain was mourning Garg’s death, so was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is accused by critics of fanning Hindu-Muslim divisions nationally and in Assam.

“He will be remembered for his rich contribution to music,” Modi said in a condolence message. “His renditions were very popular among people across all walks of life.”

Assam’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who belongs to Modi’s party, said the state “lost one of its favourite sons”.

“Zubeen’s voice had an unmatched ability to energise people, and his music spoke directly to our minds and souls. He has left a void that will never be filled,” Sarma said.

The Assam government declared four days of state mourning as Sarma flew to the capital, New Delhi, to receive Garg’s body when it returned from Singapore.

A polarised backdrop

Two days later, on September 21, tens of thousands of Garg’s fans gathered outside the main airport in Guwahati, Assam’s biggest city. They waited as state officials received Garg’s body after it landed.

Then, they marched behind a convoy carrying the body to a stadium some 30 kilometres (19 miles) away for public viewing, singing some of his most famous songs in unison. Some held his posters, while others walked teary-eyed with candles in their hands. After four days of state mourning, Garg was cremated on September 23 with full state honours and a 21-gun salute.

Those scenes of unity were a break from the religious and linguistic fractures that have deepened in Assam in recent years.

The fault lines between the Indigenous Assamese-speaking and the mostly migrant Bengali-speaking communities in Assam aren’t new: They go back nearly two centuries, when the British brought large numbers of Bengali-speaking Hindus from Bengal to run the colonial bureaucracy, creating resentment among the Indigenous Assamese who feared the outsiders would take their jobs and occupy lands.

A second wave of migration of Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims to Assam started in 1947 with India’s independence and the formation of Pakistan, which included the territory that in 1971 declared itself the independent nation of Bangladesh. Millions of people migrated from Bangladesh to Assam in these years, triggering backlash from the Indigenous Assamese, which often turned violent.

Those ethnic and religious tensions continue to dominate Assam’s politics even today as suspicions over the identity and citizenship of mainly Bengali-speaking Muslims – pejoratively called “miya” – deepen, with thousands of them declared “Bangladeshi infiltrators” and many of them sent to detention camps or forced to cross over to Bangladesh by Indian security forces.

Garg was composing his music against this polarised backdrop, responding to the communal fissures with his verses and voice.

On many occasions, the singer described himself as an atheist and a “social leftist” as he distanced himself from the state’s mainstream parties, the centrist Congress and the right-wing BJP.

He was also a vocal critic of India’s deeply entrenched caste system.

In an undated video now viral after his death, a person on stage is seen teasing Garg for not wearing the sacred thread worn by other Brahmins, who sit at the top of Hinduism’s complex caste hierarchy.

Garg shot back, saying, “I am just a human. I have no caste, no religion, and no God.”

In another instance, Garg in 2018 encouraged famous female Assamese Olympian, Hima Das, to consume beef in order to “gain strength” to compete in international and national sports events. Many Hindus belonging to privileged castes revere the cow, and its slaughter and consumption are banned in several Indian states. It is unclear whether Das accepted Garg’s advice.

He was also at the forefront of a 2019 campaign against India’s controversial new citizenship law, which made religion a basis for expediting citizenship for immigrants from neighbouring nations, excluding Muslims. The law led to nationwide protests against Modi’s government, while the United Nations called it “fundamentally discriminatory” and urged a review.

Assamese social media creator Dr Medusssa told Al Jazeera that as anti-Muslim hate permeated Assamese society, Garg’s public positions stood out, turning him into an emblem of Hindu-Muslim harmony.

“It is precisely because of Zubeen’s persona of being inclusive, and how he represented marginalised communities through his songs, that his legacy is being claimed by all,” said Medusssa, who requested to be identified by her social media name.

“He refused to belong to any particular community. He was for all.”

For Akhil Ranjan Dutta, a political scientist at Gauhati University in Assam, the celebration of Garg by Modi and Sarma – despite the dissident artist’s opposition to Hindu majoritarianism – is partly due to the way the singer approached the politics of dissent.

“While he [Garg] would openly criticise the policies and the actions of the federal and state-level BJP governments, he would seldom attack BJP leaders [personally],” Dutta told Al Jazeera. “This makes it easier for the BJP to appropriate his legacy as not mourning him would otherwise put them under public scrutiny.”

Another political commentator who did not wish to be named – fearing reprisal from the government – was more blunt in his view of Garg’s ability to bridge political divisions.

While Garg was dismissive about the BJP as a political party, “he would not rattle their nerves by criticising their anti-Muslim policies or the attacks on Muslims very openly”, the commentator said. “That way, the Hindu nationalist party never feel too alienated by him.”

‘Artistic tour de force’

Born in 1972 to Assamese writer Mohini Mohan Borthakur and singer Ily Borhakur in Assam’s Jorhat town, Garg began singing at the age of three and was soon regarded as a child prodigy by his teachers. He moved to Guwahati to build his career as a singer and got his first major breakthrough in 1992 with the release of his debut Assamese album, Anamika.

It was the beginning of an illustrious career that saw Garg singing more than 38,000 songs in dozens of languages and dialects. He also sang several songs for Bollywood films, bursting into the national scene in 2006 with his Hindi hit, Ya Ali, for the film Gangster: A Love Story.

The next year, Garg won the national award for composing songs for the non-feature film, Echoes of Silence. Affectionately known as Zubeen Da among other sobriquets, he later ventured into acting and direction.

But more than Garg’s body of work, says Angshuman Choudhury, a joint doctoral candidate at the National University of Singapore and King’s College London, what made him a musical phenomenon was his refusal to conform to the archetype of a “tamed” and “cultured Assamese artist”.

The state’s popular culture, for the most part, according to Choudhury, was shaped until the 1990s by artists like musician Bhupen Hazarika and singer Janyata Hazarika, who “respected norms of social civility, never deviated from the script, and lacked the audacity to be that iconoclast that Garg was”.

“Garg, on the other hand, was an artistic tour de force in Assam. He disrupted and distorted the very image of a public performer and artist,” says Choudhury, whose doctoral research focuses on the ethnicity and politics of northeast India.

“He would use verbal expletives while on stage, sing under intoxication, and on many occasions, show overt defiance against established norms and culture.”

For instance, he once refused to perform at an event to mark Bihu – arguably Assam’s most important festival – after the organisers said that he could not sing in Hindi.

Prithiraj Borah, a sociologist from Assam who teaches at the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research in Hyderabad, said that Garg’s art also touched deeper, emotional and philosophical questions.

“Zubeen’s songs did not merely entertain,” he told Al Jazeera. “They also addressed the depths of what it means to be human, to love, to suffer, and to find meaning in an often-absurd world.”

Borah cites Garg’s song, Pakhi Pakhi Ei Mon (My heart is like a feather), in which he explored themes of freedom and captivity.

“The feather becomes a metaphor for the human condition, caught between the desire for liberty and the reality of various constraints,” Borah said.

Accessible to all

Abrar Nadim, a health officer in Assam’s Barpeta district, says he has memorised most of Garg’s songs since he was four.

“His song, Aei Mayar Dhorat [In this world of earthly pleasures] brought me closure to spirituality,” said Nadim, 30, as he stood next to a garlanded poster of Garg, while wearing black in mourning.

“The song describes temporary happiness in this world where corrupt people enjoy even after committing acts of injustice, corruption, and oppression, but little remains in the end.”

Maitrayee Patar, a prominent Assamese songwriter and poet, who had collaborated with the singer, including as recently as in 2023, said Garg, as an artist, “exuded a humanitarian side that was raw and relatable to all”.

“He disregarded political correctness and refused to align himself with majoritarian politics or any political parties, which made [him] come across as an artist loved by all,” Patar told Al Jazeera.

As clips from Garg’s songs and old interviews flood Assam’s social media, Hussain, the Bengali-Muslim truck driver in Guwahati, says his staunch rejection of hate politics and his humility in treating everyone as equal made him accessible to all.

Garg was Hindu. But after his death, students in madrasas – Islamic schools – were seen playing his songs, while Muslim leaders held prayers in his honour and recited the Quran before his photos – grieving practices not typically allowed by Islamic tenets.

“He [Garg] sang jikir – devotional folk songs sung by the Assamese-speaking Muslim community – to honour us,” Nadim said. “So there is nothing wrong if we pray for him by singing his songs.”

Back in Guwahati, truck driver Hussain recalled how Garg “never vilified” Bengali-speaking Muslims, as he wore a T-shirt bearing Garg’s photo.

Hussain hummed Garg’s iconic 2007 hit, Maya (Illusion) – a song in which the singer likens chasing a love interest to an illusion. The soothing melody, Hussein said, reminded him of the void left by the Garg’s death.

In Garg’s music, the idea of an Assam for Hindus and Muslims, Assamese speakers and Bengali speakers alike, was not an illusion.

Joshua Allen, the dancer who took home the crown on the fourth season of “So You Think You Can Dance,” has died after he was struck by a train in Fort Worth.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s database confirmed that Allen died early Tuesday morning at a local hospital. His manner of death and cause of death are pending, the database says. Allen was 36.

Police responded Tuesday around 1 a.m. to railroad tracks near the intersection of Millbrook Lane and Nuffield Lane, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. Officers found Allen, who had been struck by a train, and took him to a nearby hospital where he died, police told the outlet. Police did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment Wednesday.

Christina Price, who represented Allen, also confirmed his death, saying in a statement that “what stood out most about Joshua was his heart.”

“He had a natural gift for movement — no formal training, yet he could watch something once and his body just knew how to do it,” Price added.”Beyond his talent, he gave back, teaching kids in Texas through dance workshops.”

Allen’s family member confirmed the entertainer’s death to TMZ, which first broke the news. The family member did not disclose his cause of death and asked fans for “privacy and prayers.”

The Texas-based dancer auditioned for “So You Think You Can Dance” in 2008, impressing judges with his fluid movements, controlled popping and locking and springy leaps. Throughout the season, he proved his ability to take on a variety of dance styles ranging from contemporary to Bollywood. He remained a strong competitor, eventually besting fellow contestants for the grand prize.

Allen notably bested Stephen “Twitch” Boss, who died by suicide in December 2022. Boss was 40. Allen mourned Boss on Instagram, writing “NO WORDS will ever be enough to explain the LOVE I have for you Stephen.” At the time, he recalled connecting with Boss prior to their auditions and wrote, “This isn’t goodbye more so I’ll see you later.”

Price, who also represented Boss, said his death “weighed heavily on Allen” and that “it’s heartbreaking to now be grieving Joshua as well.”

After his “So You Think You Can Dance” days, Allen’s work included a McDonald’s commercial, a role in the debut season of “American Horror Story” and appearances in “Freak Dance,” “Step Up 3D,” and the 2011 “Footloose” remake, according to IMDb. He was also an instructor for several dance competitions.

Allen faced legal troubles in summer 2016, when he was accused of attacking his girlfriend at a coffee shop. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office charged him with two felony counts of willfully injuring his girlfriend, one felony assault with a deadly weapon and four misdemeanors related to battery, vandalism and violating a protective order, according to TMZ. Allen was poised to be a mentor on Season 13 of “SYTYCD,” but longtime host Cat Deeley announced his departure from the series on-air amid his domestic violence case.

He pleaded no contest in August 2016 and was sentenced to one year in jail.

ROME — Pope Leo XIV has intervened for the first time in an abortion dispute roiling the U.S. Catholic Church by raising the seeming contradiction over what it really means to be “pro-life.”

Leo, a Chicago native, was asked late Tuesday about plans by Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich to give a lifetime achievement award to Illinois Senator Dick Durbin for his work helping immigrants. The plans drew objection from some conservative U.S. bishops given the powerful Democratic senator’s support for abortion rights.

Leo called first of all for respect for both sides, but he also pointed out the seeming contradiction in such debates.

“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” Leo said. “Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

Leo spoke hours before Cupich announced that Durbin had declined the award.

Church teaching forbids abortion but it also opposes capital punishment as “inadmissible” under all circumstances. U.S. bishops and the Vatican have strongly called for humane treatment of migrants, citing the Biblical command to “welcome the stranger.”

Pope Leo says mutual respect is needed

Leo said he wasn’t familiar with the details of the dispute over the Durbin award, but said it was nevertheless important to look at the senator’s overall record and noted Durbin’s four-decade tenure. Responding to a question in English from the U.S. Catholic broadcaster EWTN News, he said there were many ethical issues that constitute the teaching of the Catholic Church.

“I don’t know if anyone has all the truth on them but I would ask first and foremost that there be greater respect for one another and that we search together both as human beings, in that case as American citizens or citizens of the state of Illinois, as well as Catholics to say we need to you know really look closely at all of these ethical issues and to find the way forward in this church. Church teaching on each one of those issues is very clear,” he said.

Cupich was a close adviser to Pope Francis, who strongly upheld church teaching opposing abortion but also criticized the politicizing of the abortion debate by U.S. bishops. Some bishops had called for denying Communion to Catholic politicians who supported abortion rights, including former President Joe Biden.

Biden met on several occasions with Francis and told reporters in 2021 that Francis had told him to continue receiving Communion. During a visit to Rome that year he received the sacrament during Mass at a church in Francis’ diocese.

Durbin was barred from receiving Communion in his home diocese of Springfield in 2004. Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki has continued the prohibition and was one of the U.S. bishops who strongly objected to Cupich’s decision to honor the senator. Cupich claims Durbin as a member of the Chicago Archdiocese, where Durbin also has a home.

Senator Durbin declines his award

In his statement announcing that Durbin would decline the award, Cupich lamented that the polarization in the U.S. has created a situation where U.S. Catholics “find themselves politically homeless” since neither the Republican nor the Democratic party fully encapsulates the breadth of Catholic teaching.

He defended honoring Durbin for his pro-immigration stance, and said the planned Nov. 3 award ceremony could have been an occasion to engage him and other political leaders with the hope of pressing the church’s view on other issues, including abortion.

“It could be an invitation to Catholics who tirelessly promote the dignity of the unborn, the elderly, and the sick to extend the circle of protection to immigrants facing in this present moment an existential threat to their lives and the lives of their families,” Cupich wrote.

Paprocki, for his part, thanked Durbin for declining the award. “I ask that all Catholics continue to pray for our church, our country, and for the human dignity of all people to be respected in all stages of life including the unborn and immigrants,” Paprocki said in a Facebook post.

The dispute came as President Donald Trump’s administration maintains a surge of immigration enforcement in the Chicago area.

Winfield writes for the Associated Press.

Los Angeles County agreed to pay $20 million Tuesday to the family of Noah Cuatro, a 4-year-old Palmdale boy who was tortured to death by his parents in 2019.

The case brought intense scrutiny of the county’s child welfare system after it was revealed that the Department of Children and Family Services had failed to remove Noah from his parents despite a court order.

DCFS had been given 10 days to get Noah away from his parents and seen by a doctor after multiple reports of neglect and abuse, The Times previously reported. The department ignored the order.

He died less than two months later, right before his fifth birthday. His parents later pleaded no contest to murder and torture charges.

“He always begged me not to send him to his parents,” said Eva Hernandez, Noah’s great-grandmother. “I tried to explain to him so many times, but he didn’t understand. He’d take his little hands and look into my eyes and say, ‘Don’t make me go there.’”

Eva Hernandez cries while remembering her great-grandson Noah Cuatro as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors prepares to approve a $20-million settlement to his family.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Hernandez sued DCFS in 2020, alleging the department had failed her grandson and should have intervened to keep him safe. Cuatro had been under the supervision of the agency from the time he was born because his mother had been accused of fracturing his half sister’s skull.

The child welfare department said since Noah’s death they’ve hired thousands of social workers to decrease caseloads and retrained social workers on interviewing techniques and use of forensic exams.

“It is DCFS’ hope that this resolution gives Noah’s family a sense of peace,” the department said in a statement. “DCFS remains committed to learning from the past, improving its work, and operating with transparency.”

At the time of his death, Noah remained under supervision by DCFS despite more than a dozen reports to the child abuse hotline and police from callers who believed that he and his siblings were being abused.

Attorney Brian Claypool, who represented Cuatro’s family in the lawsuit, said Noah’s death was a direct result of the county failing to follow the court order to remove him from his parents. A Superior Court judge had agreed to remove him after a social worker filed a 26-page request with the court, citing evidence of abuse.

“The county really blew it with the removal order. There’s no excuse for them not to have picked up Noah,” Claypool said. “The most shocking, upsetting part of this case is when I took the deposition of the social worker in the case and the two supervisors, none of the individuals read the petition of all the abuse that was submitted to the court. That was inexcusable.”

Eva Hernandez holds a photo of her great-grandson Noah Cuatro.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Noah’s parents initially called 911 on July 5, 2019, saying their son had drowned in a swimming pool of their apartment complex, but authorities grew suspicious after finding the boy unconscious and dry in the apartment. Doctors later found bruises across his body and signs of “mottling” around his neck.

County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Palmdale, called his death a “heartbreaking tragedy.”

“While nothing can undo the harm he suffered, today’s $20 million settlement awarded to his surviving siblings and grandmother provides some measure of support as they continue to heal,” she said in a statement. “Noah’s life was not in vain. His case has reinforced the need for ongoing review of child welfare cases, stronger partnerships with our schools, and a stabilized DCFS workforce to better protect children in the Antelope Valley. Noah leaves behind a legacy — he will not be forgotten.”

His great-grandmother, Hernandez, said she still thinks of him every day.

“I know that he’s not suffering anymore,” she said.

Kelly Clarkson has returned to The Kelly Clarkson Show just over a month after her ex-husband and father of her two children died at the age of 48

Kelly Clarkson has returned to her TV show stateside a month after the death of her ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock. The former American Idol winner, 43, took time out from presenting The Kelly Clarkson Show after the tragic news of Brandon’s death in August.

Brandon, who was married to Kelly for almost seven years their split in 2022, died from melanoma on August 7. He was aged just 48. The duo shared two children together, River Rose, 11, and nine-year-old Remy. Brandon also had two children from a previous relationship.

Now, returning to her role on the show, Kelly showed her usual mix of humour and emotion. While she didn’t directly touch on her former husband’s death, the occasion was emotional.

READ MORE: Love Island’s Megan Forte Clarke reveals baby plans with Conor after ITV stintREAD MORE: Inside Soap Awards winners in full as Coronation Street takes home major gong

During the show, Kelly spoke with Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell. The Hollywood pair were on the show to promote their new film A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. The trio bonded over ‘the highs and lows of parenthood’.

Earlier this month, Reba McEntire opened up about how her grandchildren, Brandon and Kelly’s children, are doing following his tragic death. She was speaking while on the red carpet at the Emmys.

“The kids are doing well, they’re all bonding together and hanging out with each other, and taking it one day at a time,” she confessed. “We know God’s got this.”

Brandon, who was a talent manager, died after living with melanoma for over three years. A rep for his family announced the death at the time via a prepared statement.

It read: “It is with great sadness that we share the news that Brandon Blackstock has passed away. Brandon bravely battled cancer for more than three years.

“He passed away peacefully and was surrounded by family. We thank you for your thoughts and prayers and ask everyone to respect the family’s privacy during this very difficult time.”

Brandon’s daughter Savannah recently admitted she “never imagined” she would lose her father. The sad message posted on Instagram shared her pain. The 23-year-old, who is expecting her third child, wrote on the social media platform: “So far, 2025 has been a year full of ‘Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.’

“As we’re ending Quarter 3 I’ve found myself looking back at all of the love and support my husband and I have had through the lows and heartbreak.

“Seeing my dad sick and losing him was something I never imagined or could have possibly prepared myself for, let alone young and pregnant.

“We have had an overwhelming amount of love and support poured onto us over the past 6 months and we are eternally grateful.”

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

READ MORE: Vodafone is offering up to £400 off the new iPhone 17 Pro – here’s how to get it

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN has paid tribute to former World Nineball Pool champion Mika Immonen.

Immonen passed away at the age of 52 on Sunday after a long battle with cancer.

2

2

Tributes poured in for the Iceman, who became a legend on the pool circuit.

O’Sullivan has now opened up about his bond with Immonen, who would stay at his house during his time in the UK.

The Rocket took to Instagram to say: “So sad to hear of the passing of my friend Mika, someone I did not see enough of but thought a great deal of.

“Stayed at my house on times in UK and enjoyed our runs in the forest, one of the greatest pool players of the generation, an honour to share a pool table with him but also the personal times together I will never forget.

“Sadly missed, devastated today.”

Immonen became the only Finnish star to win the World Nineball Championship in 2001.

He also won back-to-back US Open Pool Championship titles in 2008 and 2009.

The Iceman established himself as a pool icon with his appearances at the Mosconi Cup over the years.

He represented Team Europe on 15 occasions – the second-most of any European.

Immonen was named MVP for his performance in the 2008 competition.

The death of ex-Arsenal youth player Billy Vigar was “entirely preventable”, says former Bath City striker Alex Fletcher.

Vigar, 21, died on Thursday after sustaining a “significant brain injury” while playing for Chichester City the previous Saturday.

It is thought the injury was caused when he collided with a concrete wall, but the club has not confirmed this.

Fletcher retired from football at the age of 25 after crashing into concrete advertising hoardings during a National League South game for Bath City.

The now 26-year-old was placed in a coma after emergency surgery and did not play for 10 months. He has since taken a role in the brain health department within the Professional Footballers’ Association to advocate for enhanced player safety in football grounds.

“This was an entirely preventable situation,” Fletcher told BBC Breakfast.

“It brought a lot of emotions flooding back for me but my overriding emotion was frustration that the calls for change haven’t been listened to by the FA.

“I’m afraid this will not be the last [death] if action isn’t taken.”

The Football Association said it will carry out an immediate safety review of perimeter walls at football grounds in the National League system following Vigar’s death.

“This will include looking at ways we can assist National League system clubs to identify and implement additional measures at their stadiums that they determine will help to mitigate any potential safety risks,” its statement said.

However, Fletcher said there must be urgent action.

“I think it’s too little, too late,” said Fletcher.

“I think if you asked Billy’s family they would say, is it going to bring their son back?

“It’s something that needs to happen urgently because there are hundreds of football matches being played across the country at all levels where this kind of incident could occur again.

“It’s billed as a freak accident [but] it’s an accident waiting to happen, quite frankly.”

The FA has been contacted for comment.