Gene Wilder fans are in uproar after Netflix revealed that an AI recreation of the late actor’s voice is being used for their new competition show, Wonka’s The Golden Ticket.

The streaming service bills the show, which is set to be released September 23, as a “one-of-a-kind reality competition” where “lucky players step inside Wonka’s Chocolate Factory to face unpredictable games, tests and temptations.”

A new trailer for the series features an AI-generated voiceover created to sound like Wilder, who famously starred as Wonka in the much-loved 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Wilder died in 2016 at the age of 83.

In the teaser clip, a recreation of Wilder’s voice can be heard saying: “For the first time in decades, I’m opening my beloved chocolate factory… A whole new generation of real life golden ticket holders will compete for a life-changing prize, or say a most unfortunate goodbye.”

The reveal of the AI-generated voice has failed to spark wonder with fans of Wilder or the 1971 film. One wrote on X: “Gene is rolling in his grave.”

Another opined that the AI voice “almost sounds like gene wilder, but not really and is a plastic substitute that people will eat up because the robots have made them stupid, This is an obscenity.”

A third added: “Someone should have voiced this better, the ai voice lacks emotion, no soul no depth.”

While another wrote: “WORST VERSION OF HIS VOICE! WTAF… you couldn’t go with more than one take from the AI bot?! I could probably piece together an amalgamation of just things genes said in movies and get a smoother more natural dialogue feels… he said ‘extraordinary’ entirely WRONG… rip Gene.”

Wilder quit feature films in 1991, decades before his death.

In his final interview, the actor said he left Hollywood behind because he “didn’t want to do the kind of junk I was seeing.”

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“I didn’t want to do 3D, for instance,” he continued. “I didn’t want to do ones where it’s just bombing and loud and swearing. So much swearing going on. If someone says ‘Ah, go f*** yourself,’ well, if it came from a meaningful place, I’d understand it. But if you go to some movies, can’t they just stop and talk, just talk, instead of swearing? That put me off a lot.”

Tim Burton’s version of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was also dismissed by Wilder.

“I think it’s an insult,” he said of the reboot. “Johnny Depp, I think, is a good actor, but I don’t care for that director. He’s a talented man, but I don’t care for him doing stuff like he did.”

Though he also gave memorable performances in several Mel Brooks comedies, Wilder is perhaps best remembered for his outlandish turn as Wonka, typified by this classic, nightmarish tunnel boat ride scene.

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The Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) Unicorn Centre in Hemlington, Middlesbrough, will hold its Unicorn Day on Sunday, 12 July, from 10am to 3pm.

The event promises unicorn-themed activities, fundraising stalls, and a look around the centre.

Unicorn (Image: Supplied)

Gabrielle Finn, chair of trustees, said: “Unicorns are so popular with children, and we will have plenty around the centre to meet and ride.

“Running a riding centre as large as ours is a massive financial undertaking and events like this play a huge part.

“We hope lots of people will come along to find out more about what we do, and support our fundraising.”

Children aged five to 12 can enjoy a unicorn pony ride in a magical indoor woodland glade for £15, with rides requiring pre-booking.

Throughout the day, visitors can take part in a hobby horse competition in the outdoor arena, browse craft stalls, and try their luck at the raffle or tombola.

Refreshments will also be available.

The centre welcomes donations of bottles or prizes for the raffle and tombola in advance of the event. Entry is free.

It is located on Stainton Way in Hemlington, beside the Cleveland Police Headquarters.

The centre is part of the national Riding for the Disabled Association and is supported by Team GB Olympic medallist Nicola Wilson, who serves as patron.

For more information, or to book a pony ride, call 01642 576222.

He appeared as Gail Platt’s long-lost father, Ted Page, on Coronation Street between 2008 and 2010.

In one storyline on the ITV soap, he memorably gave his unlucky-in-love daughter away at her wedding to Joe McIntyre.

Alongside that, he played SS Officer Ernst Vogel in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, sharing scenes with Harrison Ford and Sean Connery.

RIP to the charming Michael Byrne who played Corrie’s (lovely, gay) Ted Page. pic.twitter.com/kkTam7Ezw7

— Stuart Beck (@StuartBeckMP) June 30, 2026

Other supporting roles included Gellert Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Smythe in Braveheart, Major Schroeder in Force 10 from Navarone and Admiral Kelly in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.

A few people took to social media to pay tribute to Byrne, as one wrote on X: “So sad to hear about the death of Michael Byrne who played the glorious Gay Ted in #Corrie.”

In response, one person said: “Oh, he was always so lovely! Those eyes!”

A third posted: “RIP to the charming Michael Byrne who played Corrie’s (lovely, gay) Ted Page.”

The superb Michael Byrne has left us 💔 pic.twitter.com/8DxQ4bJFX9

— Lily May Sherratt (@IreneWildthyme) June 30, 2026

The veteran actor is survived by his former wife Carole, who cared for him towards the end of his life, alongside their daughters, Tara and Bryony, and three grandchildren, Tom, Chloe and Jasmine.

The life and career of Michael Byrne

Michael Byrne was born in Hampstead, London, the son of Helen Byrne, a single mother and cook from Kilkenny, Ireland.

Byrne attended the Anna Freud nursery and Burgess Hill school in Hampstead, and trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama (supported by the Freud Institute), The Guardian reports.

He met his future wife, Carole Nimmons, when he toured Ireland with the Arena theatre company in 1962, marrying her in 1965.

Byrne appeared in many small roles on stage at first, as part of Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company.

He moved on to major roles at the Royal Court and West End and began to make appearances in numerous TV shows and films.

Film credits included Apt Pupil, The Eagle Has Landed, A Bridge Too Far, The Medusa Touch, The Saint, The Sum of All Fears and Gangs of New York.

Meanwhile, TV shows included Casualty, A Touch of Frost and Sharpe.

What are your favourite memories of Michael Byrne on screen? Let us know in the comments.

He took part in the challenge with Bishopthorpe Palace staff to raise funds for York Carers Centre.

The challenge is part of a wider goal to raise £1,000 through a series of charity events.

A member of staff at Bishopthorpe Palace said: “Many people do not recognise themselves as carers, but see themselves as family members, friends and neighbours, doing what needs to be done for someone close to them.

“However, juggling this with work and family life, sometimes without the right information or support, can be really challenging and that is why organisations like York Carers Centre are so important.”

The Palace team was inspired to support the charity after learning of a colleague’s personal experience with York Carers Centre.

Events so far have included a staff brunch, with each fundraiser bringing staff together outside of their usual roles and helping to build stronger relationships across teams.

Fundraising activities will continue in the coming months, and organisers hope not only to reach their £1,000 target but also to raise greater awareness of the vital work unpaid carers do across York.

Donations can be made via the palace’s JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/page/york-carers-centre-1.

A recall has been made for products from Tesco Finest and Lidl’s Deluxe range over the possible presence of listeria monocytogenes

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Leading supermarkets Tesco and Lidl have pulled products from their shelves due to the potential presence of listeria monocytogenes.

Both retailers have issued recalls affecting items from their premium own-brand ranges.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has recalled ham products from Tesco Finest and Lidl’s Deluxe range owing to the possible health risk.

Ham products manufactured under the Brady Family brand are also included in the announcement.

All products affected by the recall:

• Brady Family Wood Smokes Real Irish Ham 6 Slices – pack size 80g – batch code 235417.
• Brady Family Hand Crumbed Real Irish Ham 6 Slices – pack size 80g – batch code 235880 and 235765.
• Lidl’s Deluxe Triple Oak Smoked Carved Irish Ham 5 slices – pack size 130g – batch code 235461.
• Deluxe Honey Roast Carved Irish Ham 5 Slices – pack size 130g – batch code 235473.
• Tesco Finest Crumbed Shaved Ham 16 slices – pack size 120g – batch code 235412.

The use-by date on all of these products is July 16.

In-store notices will be displayed at the point of sale.

Shoppers have been urged not to consume the affected items and to dispose of them immediately.

Listeria monocytogenes can cause mild flu-like symptoms, or gastrointestinal issues such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea.

Cold meats carry a particularly high risk of listeria contamination. Other susceptible foods include smoked and cured fish, shellfish and soft mould-ripened cheeses such as camembert and brie.

The NHS website states that the majority of those infected with the bacteria experience no symptoms, or only mild signs such as a high temperature, vomiting, aches and pains, chills or diarrhoea.

Those considered at higher risk include pregnant women, newborn babies and patients with weakened immune systems.

The risk also increases with age.

Parents are urged to dial 999 or visit A&E should children develop more severe symptoms, including a severe headache and stiff neck, discomfort looking at bright lights, seizures, sudden confusion or sleepiness, and a rash that does not fade when a glass is rolled over it.

Most infections from the bacteria can be managed at home with rest and plenty of fluids.

“Starmer’s gift to Burnham”, external, is what The i Paper calls the £4.7bn pound black hole in the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (DIP).

An ally of Andy Burnham is quoted in the Guardian likening the situation to an “unexploded bomb, external” – but sources say the Makerfield MP will not try to renegotiate the plan if he enters No 10.

“Indefensible, external” is the Daily Mail headline, with the paper accusing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of having “passed the buck” to Burnham.

The Times claims Burnham may now have to raise taxes or cut spending, external in his hypothetical first budget. The paper quotes the former head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, who says it’s “striking” the money has not been found.

In the Daily Express, external, the campaign group, Migration Watch UK, suggests the money could be available “at the stroke of a pen” if £5bn worth of immigration grants were axed.

The Metro, external leads on what it calls the “collateral damage” from the defence plan after the prime minister said road projects would have to be delayed or scrapped. The paper’s headline alludes to the famous World War One recruitment campaign. “Britain needs you…”, it says, “to queue”.

The Daily Mirror reports that the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, earned £270,000 for doing just 12 hours work as a brand ambassador for a gold bullion dealer, external. “Same gold Farage” is the paper’s headline, as it points out the figure is nearly eight times the average salary in his constituency of Clacton. A spokesperson for Farage said his work for Direct Bullion “has previously been declared”.

Pictures of Serena Williams on her Wimbledon comeback make the front and back pages. The Daily Telegraph, external shows her waving to the centre court crowd. “Serena falls at first hurdle” declares the Times, external, while the Guardian, external says there was “no fairytale”.

And the Daily Star reports that Britain’s oldest curry house, Veeraswamy on Regent Street in London, is working on a plan to stay open despite fears it could be closed forever. “Curry on, external” is the message from the Star’s editorial, urging all those involved to “keep korma for now”.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The ultratraditionalist Society of St. Pius X is planning to defy Pope Leo XIV by consecrating four bishops without his consent. The move incurs an automatic excommunication for the bishops involved, and amounts to a “schismatic act” — or a willful rupture of unity in the Catholic Church.

The ceremony marks the first major crisis for Leo, who has prioritized church unity and healing tensions with traditionalists that worsened during the Pope Francis pontificate.

A group founded in dissent

The society, known by its acronym SSPX, was founded in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Among other things, the 1960s church meetings revolutionized the Catholic Church’s relations with other Christians, Jews and people of other faiths, and allowed Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than Latin.

In 1975, the SSPX founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, was suspended and the society was suppressed by the Vatican.

In 1988, Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without papal consent. The Vatican promptly excommunicated Lefebvre and the four other bishops, and the group today still has no legal status in the church.

Despite that original schismatic act, the group has continued to grow and today poses a threat to the Holy See since it represents a parallel, ultra-Catholic, pre-Vatican II church. The SSPX counts two bishops, 751 priests, 264 seminarians training in five seminaries, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates and 250 religious sisters representing 50 nationalities, according to SSPX statistics.

An automatic excommunication for a schismatic act

Under the church’s in-house canon law, consecrating a bishop without papal consent incurs an automatic excommunication for both the people administering the consecration and the bishops receiving it.

The Vatican doesn’t have to declare the excommunications or issue a decree: It happens automatically. But some experts believe the Holy See will want to respond publicly in some form since the SSPX is making such a public show of the consecrations.

Excommunication is the harshest penalty under canon law. It is considered “medicinal” in nature, meant to teach those who incur it that “what you did was wrong and you must repent for what you have done,” said the Rev. Robert Gahl of the Catholic University of America.

“The medicine may be bitter tasting, meaning that there’s a harsh feature of it because it’s a penalty, but it’s meant to bring about a change in the one who receives it,” he said.

The excommunication, however, doesn’t affect the validity of the consecration itself: SSPX bishops, like their priests, are validly but illicitly ordained.

Leo could extend the excommunications to others attending the event, including rank and file Catholics, but few expect he will.

Pope Francis makes SSPX concessions amid crackdown

Despite his general distrust of traditionalists and a broader crackdown on the old Latin Mass, Pope Francis actually went out of his way to offer concessions to the SSPX.

In 2015, he decreed that Catholics could validly go to confession with SSPX priests, essentially recognizing as legitimate the absolutions granted to Catholics who confessed their sins to SSPX priests.

Francis had made the concession as a one-year gesture during his Jubilee of Mercy, but he then extended it indefinitely. He also made a provision to allow SSPX priests to celebrate marriages legitimately.

Experts say Leo could revoke some of the concessions that Francis granted the SSPX as part of the Holy See’s response to the new consecrations.

Pope Benedict XVI tries to reconcile

First as cardinal and then as pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI worked to heal the SSPX schism and bring the group back under Rome’s wing.

He made two major concessions as part of his outreach. In 2007, he relaxed restrictions on celebrating the traditional Latin Mass throughout the Catholic Church. And in 2009, he removed the excommunications of the four SSPX bishops.

The gesture, however, became an acute embarrassment for him and sparked a crisis with Jewish leaders because one of the four, Bishop Richard Williamson, was a known Holocaust-denier.

And in a television interview that aired on Swiss television just before the pope’s decree was made public, Williamson said he didn’t believe Jews were killed in gas chambers during World War II.

But a Holocaust-denying bishop causes embarrassment

Benedict later acknowledged a simple internet search would have turned up Williamson’s views.

Williamson later ran afoul of the SSPX, which expelled him in 2012 for insubordination. He had ignored a deadline to “declare his submission” to its authority and had called for the society’s superior to resign, the group said at the time.

Williamson, who was ordained a priest by Lefebvre in 1976 and had taught in the society’s seminaries in Europe, the U.S. and Argentina, died in 2025.

Relations with other traditionalists

Despite his concessions to the SSPX, Francis enraged many Catholic traditionalists by reversing Benedict’s relaxation on celebrating the old Latin Mass for the broader Catholic Church. Francis cracked down on its spread, arguing it had become a source of division in the church.

While the SSPX is one fringe group out of communion with Rome, plenty of other traditionalists are in full communion with the Holy See.

Leo, as part of his effort at promoting unity, allowed a prominent American cardinal to celebrate an old Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica last year.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

An adorable newborn boy wearing only a diaper was pulled from earthquake rubble in Venezuela as authorities continue to look for survivors following the natural disaster.

Heartwarming footage revealed the moment 18–day–old Juan David and his mother, Dayana Patino, were saved from the destruction caused by the double earthquake that rocked the South American country. 

Rescue workers could be seen swaddling the baby and placing the mother on a stretcher in the footage of their rescue. 

Patino was cleaning her apartment on the eighth floor of a building in the northern region of La Guaira when the earthquakes hit, according to the BBC. Their building was completely destroyed. 

Patino said her newborn baby gave her the ‘motivation to be awake and alert.’

‘As long as he was alive, I was going to be alive,’ she told BBC while recovering at a clinic in Caracas.

The mother also revealed how she would touch her son’s nose while underneath the rubble ‘for proof that he was still breathing.’

The shirtless dad was seen outside the wreckage and later holding his baby son after he was pulled out

Dayana Patino and her baby boy, Juan David, being tended to at a clinic in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. They were trapped underneath the rubble when earthquakes hit on Wednesday

Juan David only sustained minor injuries, while Patino suffered injuries to both of her legs, according to the outlet.

Patino said the moment she became trapped felt like she was ‘flying.’

After that, she explained: ‘I felt like I was sinking in water and dirt, and then I fell into the pit where I remained.’

She held onto her son when disaster struck. She now realizes that she doesn’t know how she ‘didn’t let go’ during the ordeal.

‘I don’t know how I kept so calm because my left leg was trapped under concrete,’ Patino told the outlet.

She said she could not move and added that her temple was ‘pressed against a rock.’

Though Patino immediately started screaming for help, she soon realized that it was futile and decided to not waste her energy.

She was only able to see see a ‘pinprick of light that looked like the moon’ amid all the destruction.

As of Monday, at least 1,719 people were confirmed to have died as a result of the earthquakes in northern Venezuela

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However, that figure is expected to keep rising as more bodies are recovered from the wreckage and subsequently identified by authorities

The final death toll from the disaster could be more than 10,000, according to a projection shared by the US Geological Survey

Patino was finally rescued when she heard her brother calling her name and she yelled out from underneath the wreckage.

‘I screamed “Here I am” with all my might, and he said “I found you, and I promise you that I won’t leave until I get you out,”‘ Patino said.

Patino’s husband, Gerson Trujillo, explained he had just arrived home when the earthquakes struck and feared for his family’s life.

Gerson, who can be seen in the footage of the heroic rescue, said his wife and son being rescued was a ‘miracle.’

‘It was indescribable,’ he told the BBC. ‘I thought they were dead. And when I saw my son I felt like I was born again.’

‘I couldn’t believe it, he added. ‘I felt the life come back to me.

The footage showed Gerson, shirtless and tearing up as he held his newly–saved baby boy.

Authorities said that at least 5,034 people were injured were injured from the earthquakes. Approximately 15,900 have been displaced or affected by the disaster

Roughly 680,000 children are estimated to need help as a result of the disaster

The World Health Organization has warned that outbreaks of illnesses are possible in the area after the earthquake due to a shortage of health workers and preexisting low vaccinations

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Venezuelan authorities had confirmed 1,719 deaths due to the earthquakes as of Monday, according to the United Nations.

The first earthquake was a magnitude 7.2, followed by a magnitude 7.5 about one minute later. 

The death toll is expected to keep rising, as bodies are still being found and accounted for.

In total, the final figure could be more than 10,000, according to a projection shared by the US Geological Survey cited by The New York Times.

At least 5,034 people were injured, while nearly 15,900 were displaced or affected by the disaster.

The World Health Organization has warned that outbreaks of measles, diphtheria, yellow fever, dengue, malaria and other illnesses are possible.

That is both because of the destruction caused by the earthquake, leading to the deaths of health care workers, as well as the preexisting low vaccination coverage.

About 680,000 children are estimated to need help because of the devastating earthquakes in northern Venezuela.

Mario Rea was issued an Osman warning following detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland passed intelligence to Strathclyde Police.

An ex-boxing promoter who was a trusted lieutenant in a gangland killer’s crime mob was locked up for six years last week. Mario Rea, 47, was a sidekick on the streets for Robert “Birdman” O’Hara, 48, while he was behind bars for the murder of a rival.

Rea admitted playing a key role in O’Hara’s drugs empire while the gangster directed operations from behind bars.

He used dirty cash to bankroll the lavish lifestyles of O’Hara’s partner and daughter of luxury flats, fast cars as well as designer clothes and watches.

He had earlier pled guilty to two charges of being involved in serious organised crime as well as another under the Proceeds of Crime Act. The High Court in Glasgow heard the gang was snared after a large-scale police probe in 2021.

No stranger to the criminal underbelly Rea’s gangland connections previously saw him targeted by IRA hitmen.

In 2012, just weeks after major drugs and money laundering charges against Rea and his twin brother Carlo were dropped due to insufficient evidence.

But detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland passed intelligence to Strathclyde Police that the self-styled property mogul had become the target of a murder plot.

Rea was issued a formal “threat to life” notice, known as an Osman warning, after an alleged Real IRA-linked gang had dispatched an assassin from Northern Ireland to Scotland.

It was claimed the gang, linked to jailed tobacco smuggler Aidan Grew, believed Rea had duped them over a tobacco deal.

MI5 officers believe Grew is a senior member of the Real IRA, who carried out the 1998 Omagh bombing which killed 29 people.

PSNI insider said: “The gang believe Rea duped them over a tobacco deal. The threat was taken very seriously.”

Another source in Northern Ireland said: “A hitman from Crossmaglen in County Armagh was sent to look at his house in Bothwell. They were either going to shoot him or throw a grenade in.”

At the time, sources claimed a suspected hitman had travelled from Crossmaglen in County Armagh to carry out reconnaissance on Rea’s home in Bothwell, South Lanarkshire.

It was alleged the plan was either to shoot him or launch a grenade attack on the property.

The intelligence emerged amid wider fears for Rea’s safety after he was also reported to have narrowly escaped an attempted attack by rivals linked to Glasgow’s Lyons crime clan.

The Rea twins were blamed for battering crime clan member Eddie Lyons Jr at a party in Coatbridge.

He was trailed by two hitmen before screeching away in a 4×4 to escape the thugs.

The death threats emerged after Mario, his twin Carlo and their associates faced a major probe by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency.

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Mario, Carlo Rea and several associates had faced allegations of drug trafficking and money laundering after being arrested in 2008.

However, prosecutors abandoned the case before trial, citing insufficient evidence.

Away from the criminal investigation, Mario Rea was also handed a seven-year ban from serving as a company director after failing to account for more than £1.3 million that passed through the accounts of a property development company he ran with his brother.

Investigators had also examined the brothers’ extensive property interests across Lanarkshire and their links to several ambitious housing developments.

More than a decade later, Rea returned to court — this time admitting his role in one of Scotland’s highest-profile organised crime investigations.

Last week, Lord Arthurson sentenced him to six years in prison after he pleaded guilty to two charges of involvement in serious organised crime and an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The prosecution said Operation Gadget exposed how O’Hara continued to direct an “industrial scale” drugs empire from prison using illicit mobile phones.

O’Hara was serving a life sentence at the time having been convicted in 2005 for the murder of Paul McDowall in Glasgow‘s Possilpark.

Rea was found to have played a central role on the outside, helping manage criminal finances, arranging luxury homes for O’Hara’s family and handling almost £80,000 in criminal money through his bank account.

The court heard Rea also exchanged messages relating to drug deals and was linked to wider trafficking involving more than £2 million worth of cocaine, heroin and cannabis uncovered during a separate investigation.

Passing sentence, Lord Arthurson accepted Rea claimed he felt unable to leave the crime group but said he had nevertheless willingly assisted an organised crime network.

He told Rea: “You acted for an organised crime group assisting the principal… you facilitated the lifestyles of family members of him.”

The judge added that Rea had been involved in drug trafficking on an “industrial scale”.

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