LONDON (AP) — Anthony Head, the suave, smooth-voiced British actor known for roles in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Ted Lasso,” has died, his family said Friday. He was 72.

Head’s daughters, actors Emily and Daisy Head, told the Press Association news agency that the actor passed away due to complications from pneumonia.

The stage and TV performer became well known to British audiences in the 1980s as one half of a will-they, won’t-they romantic couple in a series of ads for Nescafe Gold Blend instant coffee. The ads were later re-shot for a U.S. audience for Taster’s Choice.

Head achieved wider fame as librarian Rupert Giles, mentor to the title character in the cult-favorite supernatural series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” which ran from 1997 to 2003.

He most recently played Rupert Mannion, the villainous ex-husband of Hannah Waddingham’s character Rebecca, in “Ted Lasso.”

“Our grief is far greater than the hole he has left behind, but we know his legacy will live on, in the shows he was a part of, and in the audiences that love them,” his daughters said. “How lucky we are to know we are able to watch him doing what he loved, even when he is no longer with us.”

Head was born in London on Feb. 20, 1954 to Seafield Head, a documentary filmmaker, and Helen Shingler, an actor. His older brother, Murray, is also an actor.

Other notable roles included playing Geoffrey Howe, the deputy to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, played by Meryl Streep, in the Oscar-winning “The Iron Lady.”

Head portrayed a prime minister himself in the sketch comedy show “Little Britain,” as well as King Uther Pendragon, the father of Prince Arthur, in the “Merlin” TV series. He also appeared in “Motherland,” Manchild,” and “Silent Witness,” along with acting in many plays, musicals, and recording music as a singer.

He was predeceased by his longtime partner, animal welfare activist Sarah Fisher, 61, in 2025.

Flavio Cobolli is through to the French Open final after fellow Italian Matteo Arnaldi withdrew minutes before their semi-final with a virus.

The good friends were supposed to meet in the last four at 18:00 BST on Friday for a place in a first Grand Slam final.

However, Arnaldi’s withdrawal was announced just 20 minutes before the players were due to step on Court Philippe Chatrier.

It puts world number 14 Cobolli straight through to Sunday’s Roland Garros showpiece, where he will face second seed and title favourite Alexander Zverev.

Arnaldi had spent 19 hours and 42 minutes on court en route to the semi-finals in Paris – the longest anyone has played on their way to the last four of a major since 1991.

A high school graduation ceremony in central California descended into a brawl on Tuesday, leading to five arrests after a fight spilled onto the field.

The altercation occurred during the commencement for Kings Canyon Unified School District’s alternative education programs, held at the Reedley High School football stadium.

A nearly three-minute cellphone video obtained by ABC30 captured the moment the violence began, just as graduates’ names were being read over the loudspeaker.

The footage begins with two young men in their caps and gowns suddenly trading punches on the field. Within seconds, two others jump in, escalating the confrontation. A fifth person, also a graduate, then steps in, visibly attempting to separate them and break up the fight.

As the fighting intensifies, the students’ graduation sashes can be seen falling off their bodies. From the stands, an onlooker can be heard yelling in dismay, “At a graduation?”

The situation quickly deteriorated further as attendees from the crowd rushed onto the field. The video shows a woman in a brown shirt entering the scuffle, throwing a punch and then losing her balance and falling over.

Two police officers are then seen running onto the scene, joining school district administrators who moved to separate the students. Five people were escorted off the stadium field in custody.

Among those arrested was 19-year-old Adam Velasquez.

His family told ABC30 that the incident was completely unrelated to any gang activity. According to his relatives, Velasquez was waiting in line to receive his diploma when another graduate made an unprovoked, insulting remark about Velasquez’s brother, who was killed several years ago.

The family said Velasquez had worked hard to earn his diploma to make his family proud, but that his emotions got the best of him in the moment. Because of the arrest, Velasquez was unable to walk across the stage or receive his diploma. His family added that they did not justify his behavior and understood that there were consequences for his actions.

The disruption left an impression on the community as families gathered at the high school theater the following evening for a separate graduation ceremony.

“You got to respect everybody here,” Curtis Wood, a parent and resident of nearby Orange Cove, told the publication. “It’s a family event. Whatever issues you have, whatever is going on, leave it at the door.”

Wood called the behavior entirely inappropriate for an event meant to honor the students.

“We got women here, we got kids here,” he said. “Everybody’s here. This is their time. It’s about them succeeding.”

In a statement released after the incident, the Kings Canyon Unified School District stated that the ceremony was able to resume after the disruption was contained.

“Despite this incident, the focus of the evening remained on celebrating our graduates and their accomplishments,” the school district’s statement read. “Thanks to the security measures in place and the quick response from Reedley Police, district staff, and site administrators, the situation was resolved promptly and the graduation ceremony continued with minimal disruption.”

Police are at the scene of a three-car traffic collision which is causing severe delays for motorists.

The incident has taken place on the A465 between Skewen and Llandarcy.

It happened at around 1.10pm and the occupants of the vehicles are currently being assessed for any injuries.

The incident is currently ongoing.

Live updates:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military is still waiting for clarity from the Pentagon following President Donald Trump’s back-and-forth on troop levels in Europe, upending the lives of military personnel and potentially costing taxpayers millions of dollars, two U.S. defense officials told The Associated Press.

NATO allies were bewildered in May when Trump said he would send 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland just weeks after ordering the same number pulled from Europe, following a spat with Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the Iran war. The Trump administration says troop reductions in Europe have long been planned and coordinated with allies.

The Republican president announced on social media two weeks ago that he was sending troops to Poland — the same day the Pentagon had officially ordered the cancellation of a rotation of soldiers heading there, one of the defense officials said.

The unit’s equipment was already on the way. Sending it cost the military $32 million, said U.S. Transportation Command, the military agency largely responsible for moving troops and gear across the globe.

The abrupt changes are forcing the military to “retroactively engineer” a policy in line with the president’s latest pronouncement, the official said. Both officials were briefed on the decisions and, along with others, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.

The uncertainty is not only rattling European allies worried about the message being sent to Russia, but it also risks hurting morale among American troops — some of whom had their rotations canceled shortly before departure — and comes as the Army budget is already strained.

Changes to troop deployments to Poland add up

The rotational deployment to Poland of 4,000 troops from the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based in Fort Hood, Texas, was canceled in a memo sent to the military at the beginning of May. European allies found out mid-month.

Some of those troops were told shortly before traveling not to get on a flight to Poland, while those who had been sent ahead — initially around 1,000 troops — are still waiting for confirmation they are being sent back, a U.S. military official said.

The military also is still waiting for details from the Pentagon on how to satisfy Trump’s order to send 5,000 troops to Poland, that official said. The working assumption is that they will come from units already in Europe, rather than an additional deployment from the U.S., the official said.

U.S. Transportation Command had chartered a ship to take the team’s equipment from Texas to Poland and transport a departing unit’s gear back to America. The incoming team’s portion of the cost was $32 million, including chartering the ship and loading and unloading the gear.

Because the ship was chartered to take one unit to Europe and bring another back, it is hard to say if that amount would have been saved had the decision to halt the deployment been made before the new team had already begun moving overseas.

However, the military official said the unscheduled move of personnel and equipment back from Europe is most likely not a cost the Pentagon budgeted for and would be an additional expense.

Total costs of canceling the rotation are hard to quantify because of many factors, said Joe Costa, a former senior Pentagon official who now focuses on challenges faced by the U.S. military as director of the Atlantic Council’s Forward Defense program.

They most likely stem from returning equipment and troops sent ahead of the deployment and would probably be on the low end of the rotation’s overall cost, Costa said. The greater impact is on the readiness of troops who were trained for one mission and may be deployed on another, he said.

U.S. military contracts with private companies to transport troops and equipment contain cancellation clauses that often add extra fees if a deployment is called off, said John Deni, a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council who has studied such costs.

“The question is what additional costs were incurred by deciding to send them back prematurely, changing the arrangements, changing the plan?” said Deni, a former U.S. military adviser and planner who focused on forces in Europe.

It is not clear if the Pentagon can recoup those costs or those associated with moving the unit to Europe. The Defense Department did not answer questions about the costs of changing the deployment plans, and the White House referred a request for comment to the department.

Pentagon officials have repeatedly said they planned to lower troop levels to have Europe shoulder more of its own defense and that the decision was part of a “comprehensive, multilayered process.”

Last month’s memo also led to the cancellation of a deployment to Germany of a battalion trained in firing long-range rockets and missiles.

Pulling troops stationed in Germany would be more expensive

When Trump first threatened to remove 5,000 troops from Europe, Pentagon officials initially suggested pulling back the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which is based permanently in Germany, the defense official said.

Instead, officials decided to cancel the rotation of the other unit to Poland. Then Trump threw that plan into confusion as well.

Pulling the troops stationed in Germany could cost in the low billions because there is no dedicated space and infrastructure in the U.S. to accommodate them and their families, Costa said.

“The other option is basically breaking up the unit,” Costa said. “They move the equipment in different places. They move the people to different places. That carries significant readiness costs because now you’re artificially jamming pieces of units into places where they don’t necessarily belong.”

Pulling or pausing deployments also can hurt morale among soldiers and families because they plan for them months and years in advance, Deni said. The uncertainty can be disruptive.

“That’s often the last thing you want to do to military families,” Deni said.

It is still unclear what will happen to U.S. troops stationed in Europe, the two officials said. Options include moving military units assigned to Germany to Poland, but that could take several years and cost more, the military official said.

Troop changes happen during an Army budget shortfall

The moves come as the Army is facing a budget shortfall, which the service’s top uniformed officer, Gen. Christopher LaNeve, recently acknowledged to Congress.

Estimates put the deficit somewhere between $2 billion and $6 billion, according to an Army official who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive defense matters. One impact has been cutting training courses for soldiers nationwide, which ABC News earlier reported.

In a statement, the Army said it has issued guidance to its commands to “make tough and sound resource decisions that optimize and prioritize resources toward their most critical requirements, to include major training and readiness events.”

The Army official also noted that the service has been tasked with missions like the National Guard deployment in Washington, a bolstered presence along the U.S.-Mexico border and its part in the Iran war — all of which have strained its budget.

The Department of Homeland Security expects to reimburse the Army for its role in the border mission.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told lawmakers at a May 15 hearing that he was “optimistic” there would progress on those payments “within a week or two.” But to date, the Army has not been reimbursed.

“We want those backfilled payments,” Driscoll said then.

The U.S. military in Europe also is scaling back support for non-combat related training and ruthlessly prioritizing critical functions, the military official said.

___

Burrows reported from London.

After the sentencing hearing, Malkinson said: “I am insulted that this violent, depraved individual – who was content to let me suffer two decades of vilification and more than 17 years wrongly imprisoned for his crime – has received a softer sentence than was imposed on me, an innocent man.

The US president has attacked a House of Representatives vote to curb his authority on military action against Iran calling it “meaningless” and “unpatriotic”.

The Republican-led House passed a resolution to rein in Trump’s ability to keep attacking Iran, unless Congress declares war or approves the use of military force.

“Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

“Who would do such an unpatriotic thing. They know where the negotiations stand.”

He accused his rivals of acting out of personal animosity. “The Democrats are fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome. They would rather have our Country fail than give me another, of many, victories,” he added.

“The four Republicans, that’s a whole other story – They’re GRANDSTANDERS! They should be ashamed of themselves. MAGA!!!”

Residents packed out Townley Memorial Hall to voice their opposition to the proposed East West Rail train cleaning centre near Fulbourn, as many said the whole project “needs cancelling”

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Cambridgeshire Live readers have expressed robust opinions about proposals for a Cambridge Eastern Train Care Centre near Fulbourn, with many questioning the scheme, its positioning and its timing.

Local residents filled their village hall to voice their opposition to a proposed train cleaning facility. East West Rail (EWR) has identified a site near Fulbourn “as the most likely location” for the new centre, which has faced widespread resistance in the village.

A public meeting took place on Sunday (May 31) where residents filled Townley Memorial Hall to discuss the proposals and strategies to challenge them. James Colyer, one of the organisers, said the turnout was “beyond expectations” and the mood among residents was very clear.

The 46-year-old said: “This was literally just sprung upon us – potential site or not – and in a town of this many people we only have a limited amount of space.

“The feeling across the whole village, across Wilbraham, Teversham and all the surrounding villages is all the same. This is just utterly preposterous, utterly – utterly preposterous and will bring about the destruction of the area.”

One of our readers, Garyblowpants comments: “The whole thing needs cancelling. It will turn out to be a complete disaster like HS2. Way over budget, delivered decades late and completely out of date if it is ever finished. Cancel it now!”

Timturb0 adds: “Local complaints about disruption and ‘limited space’ in Fulbourn come across as classic petty NIMBY resistance — short-sighted and stubbornly unwilling to accept shared national responsibility. Residents packed the hall to label the plans ‘utterly preposterous’ and ‘devastating’ after they were supposedly ‘sprung upon us,’ yet this ignores the facts.

“The proposed Cambridge Eastern Train Care Centre sits right on the edge of Fulbourn on pre-existing fields along Wilbraham Road. With thoughtful design, it will cause limited long-term interruption to village life while delivering essential infrastructure. Britain is growing rapidly, almost entirely due to high net migration, adding millions more people who need housing, jobs, and reliable transport — especially in the Oxford-Cambridge arc. East West Rail and this depot are vital to provide frequent, dependable services, cut wasted empty mileage, ease road congestion, and support economic growth. Blocking it harms everyone.

“Suggesting ‘put it somewhere else’ is the same weak excuse that stalls infrastructure nationwide. A growing, diverse Britain demands openness to change and practical trade-offs. No village can freeze in time while the country absorbs large-scale immigration and expands.

“The way forward: insist on strong mitigation like noise barriers and screening, plus local benefits such as jobs and better services — but drop the stubborn delay tactics. Britain needs to build. Embracing necessary edge-of-village sites like this is the responsible, forward-looking response to our demographic reality.”

Calumen Nomen says: “East-West Rail is anything but vital. There is no viable business case for it (that’s why EWR won’t publish one), the environmental degradation is on a colossal scale and goes through much BMV (Grade 1) agricultural land.

“And the Infrastructure and Projects Authority said that ‘successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable. There are major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable. The project may need re-scoping and/or its overall viability reassessed.’ And then, of course, there’s the perverse decision to build ‘Britain’s biggest New Town’ and then by-pass it completely by this new rail-track. Oh -and we have a falling birth-rate. This is not a ‘growing Britain’.”

Camssurvivor thinks: “With British Rail being nationalised again, I expect a drop in passenger numbers. Private competition increased business by 50 per cent. Indifference in the public sector is highly likely to lead to negative outcomes.”

Rhodabike says: “Quite right, the residents are objecting. A project of this scale is not appropriate for a residential area. There’s no reason whatsoever why it has to be built next to houses.”

Would you welcome the proposed train cleaning centre? Comment below or HERE to have your say.

Waymo, the self-driving car division of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has announced plans to repurpose old batteries from its robotaxi fleet to use them for renewable energy storage.

Thousands of degraded batteries from Waymo’s autonomous taxis will provide storage for power grids in California and Texas following a “strategic supply agreement” with US-based B2U Storage Solutions.

The partnership will see excess energy from wind and solar installations stored in the batteries, which can then be used to provide hundreds of megawatt-hours back to the local grid when needed.

“Our shared fleet of EVs provide a massive opportunity to support the growth of clean energy on the electricity grid while expanding the circular economy,” said Adam Lenz, head of sustainability and environment at Waymo.

“Through this partnership, we can repurpose our batteries for local grid storage and ensure our batteries continue to provide economic and environmental value to the community long after they’ve retired from the road.”

EV batteries typically last between 15 to 20 years before their capacity degrades to around 70-80 per cent, making their driving range no longer practical for a vehicle.

A so-called ‘second life’ is increasingly common for these batteries, as they still hold a massive amount of charge and can be used to store excess solar or wind energy for homes, buildings or grids.

This second-life stage can increase the batteries’ lifespans by up to a decade before they need to be recycled.

B2U’s facility in Lancaster, California, already uses more than 1,300 repurposed EV batteries, according to the company.

“This agreement marks a significant milestone in B2U’s mission to provide integrated repurposing services to the automotive industry,” said B2U CEO Freeman Hall.

“By extending the use of these batteries as grid storage, we are monetising the full potential of EV batteries, now providing crucial stability to the power grid as energy demand continues to grow.”

​Plans to turn a garage into a hair salon have been approved at Sandpiper Close in Crossgates, Scarborough, despite numerous objections from residents.

​It follows the retrospective conversion of a garage into a hair salon which was approved last month at another address at Crossgates, a five-minute walk away.

​According to plans, the hair salon will operate from 9am – 5pm on weekdays, and 9am to midday on Saturdays.

​No objections were made by Seamer Parish Council or the Highway Authority.

​However, three objections were made by members of the public.

Sandpiper Close, Crossgates. Courtesy Of Applicant.

​Concerns were raised about an increase in traffic movements, potential parking problems, and safety concerns as “pedestrians walk on the road”.

​The Highway Authority said it did not expect the development to lead to a significant increase in vehicle movements.

​There are currently two parking spaces serving the house and two additional parking spaces will be created with the proposal to accommodate clients.

​The applicant said: “I will operate a one-seat salon with controlled client appointments that will be made so that there is no overlap of appointment times, which will prevent parking overlap.

​“An appropriate parking space is available on the existing driveway for these appointments. All products used in the salon will be disposed of safely to comply with any environmental health regulations.”

​Planning officers noted that the salon would operate during daytime hours, and “it is therefore considered to not significantly increase the existing level of activity within the area whilst not compromising the surrounding amenities”.

​They added that the hours of operation were appropriate for the scale of business and residential setting and would be secured by condition.

​A planning report concluded: “With appropriate conditions in place limiting the intensity of use, and by reason of the character and nature of the use proposed, Officers consider that the development can be accommodated in a residential setting.”

​The application was approved by North Yorkshire Council, subject to conditions, on Thursday, June 4.

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