By CHARLOTTE DEAN, ASSOCIATE SHOWBIZ EDITOR

Published: 10:07 BST, 3 July 2026 | Updated: 10:11 BST, 3 July 2026

Emma Corrin and Dan Levy bumped into celebrity pal Simone Ashley while shopping on London’s Bond Street together on Wednesday afternoon.

The Bridgerton star, 31, was out walking her spaniel Myla when she had a chance encounter with the Schitt’s Creek actor, 42, and the The Crown star, 30.

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Emma and Dan were wearing matching outfits, both sporting black T-shirts with blue jeans for their shopping trip, where they picked up items from Celine.

Dan styled his look with a baseball cap by the brand Separate Bath & Toilet which had the word Tatsuya on the front, a Japanese given name that translates to achieve, dragon, or good health, depending on the kanji characters used to write it.

Emma was wearing a black sweatshirt wrapped around their waist with a pair of black flats, shielding their eyes from the sun with a pair of shades.

Dan and Emma are close pals and photographed holidaying together in Italy in 2023 and he has spoken publicly about Emma being part of his ‘chosen family.’ 

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Emma Corrin and Dan Levy bumped into celebrity pal Simone Ashley while shopping on London’s Bond Street together on Wednesday afternoon

The Bridgerton star, 31, was out walking her spaniel Myla when she had a chance encounter with the Schitt’s Creek actor, 42, and the The Crown star, 30

He has also said they bonded over the unusual experience of becoming internationally famous very quickly following the success of The Crown. 

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He told David magazine: ‘Emma Corrin is a very close friend of mine, and they went through something very similar with The Crown over the pandemic as well, where suddenly everyone knew who they were, and yet we were all indoors. 

‘So we’re still kind of thawing to this new version of our lives. You can’t complain about it, obviously, because it’s off the back of great success and opportunity, but it is certainly disorienting and so weird’

They worked together on Dan’s 2023 film Good Grief, where Emma has brief cameo as a young performance artist. They don’t share significant screen time.

It is likely the two pals known Simone from working in the same industry.

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Simone opted for casual summer chic on her outing, wearing a pair of lace shorts with an oversized T-shirt and checked Vans.

The group all fawned over Myla, with Dan and Emma reaching down to stroke the dog. 

After getting her big break in Netflix‘s Sex Education in 2019, Simone went on to break down cultural barriers as she secured the lead in series two of Bridgerton. 

After getting her big break in Netflix’s Sex Education in 2019, Simone went on to break down cultural barriers as she secured the lead in series two of Bridgerton (pictured recently) 

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Simone recently took to Instagram to share a slew of snaps, also posing in a yellow two-piece

She most recently played her dream role as Miranda Priestley’s new assistant Amari in the highly-anticipated sequel The Devil Wears Prada 2. 

Born to first-generation immigrants from India, Simone’s parents pursued more traditional careers, her mother an accountant and her father a pharmacist. 

She admits that having grown up in a ‘household full of Indian academics’, her ‘incredibly protective’ parents were not initially keen about her pursuing a creative career, telling Veylexthat she’s found it ‘stifling at times.

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‘It made me want to escape and do things my own way. I’ve always been a bit rebellious in that sense,’ she said. 

But it soon became clear to Simone her passions lay elsewhere after she started singing lessons aged six and realised she wished to pursue the arts.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Saturday’s afternoon knockout round game between France and Paraguay in Philadelphia could be this World Cup tournament’s hottest, posing dangers to the region as well as athletes and tens of thousands of fans in the open-air stadium.

A heat wave is expected to continue across the eastern and central U.S. through the end of the week, with peak heat indexes — which combine air temperature with humidity — between 100 F to 115 F (37.78 C to 46.11 C), according to the National Weather Service. High night temperatures will bring little relief and records could be broken.

Earlier this week, French players cooled off from temperatures that hit 90 F (32.22 C) with field sprinklers during their match against Sweden in New Jersey.

Concerns about extreme heat during the games in the U.S., Canada and Mexico have been growing for months, with some scientists saying that FIFA’s heat safety guidelines are “inadequate” and “impossible to justify,” even for heat acclimatized players. For spectators, that could mean games are slower and less intense.

The world has warmed roughly 1.26 F (0.7 C) in the last three decades since the U.S. last hosted the World Cup, according to the climate monitoring group Berkeley Earth. Global temperature increases intensify and make heat waves and other severe weather more common.

The humid heat engulfing the country, as well as parts of Canada, would’ve been “virtually impossible” without climate change, scientists with the World Weather Attribution said Friday.

The 2022 World Cup tournament in Qatar was moved from summer to winter because of the extreme heat threat, and last year, temperatures soared at the Club World Cup. The soccer players’ global union warned that extreme heat would likely be a bigger problem at this and the next World Cups.

One of the hottest World Cup games was in 1994 in Orlando, Florida, when temperatures hit 110 F (43.33 C).

Heat is a leading killer of athletes

Heat hits people from both their surroundings as well as while their bodies warm during exercise. That makes it harder to cool down when it’s really hot and humid, said Bharat Venkat, director of the Heat Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“So when you’re exerting yourself on a particularly hot day, the likelihood of experiencing heat related illness or even death is much higher,” he said.

Intense exercise on a sizzling day can lead to extreme fatigue, impaired performance, headache, irritability, nausea, dizziness, cramping and dehydration, all symptoms of exertional heat illness.

Exertional heat stroke requires immediate medical attention and is the third leading cause of death in athletes.

When the wet bulb globe temperature — which includes temperature, humidity, cloud cover and wind — reaches above about 95 F (35 C), people lose their ability to cool off quickly, said Ryan Calsbeek, professor of biological sciences at Dartmouth College, and “the physiological mechanisms just break down.”

Heat-induced confusion could also influence a player’s decisions and could determine a match’s outcome, he said.

Are FIFA’s heat safety rules enough?

Mandatory three-minute hydration breaks midway through each half are to protect players, and referees, from extreme heat illness. But they’ve sparked criticism from different groups: some say they’re interrupting the game’s flow and give coaches a chance to shift momentum in their team’s favor, while some scientists have said the breaks should be longer to allow players to meaningfully cool and rehydrate when heat is extreme.

Matches outdoors during peak heat hours have also been limited, and those expected in warmer windows are prioritized for covered stadiums, FIFA said.

FIFA’s guidelines say a match could be postponed if the wet bulb globe temperature reaches 89.60 F (32 C). But that temperature is “so extreme that in the military, at our basic training facilities in America, if it reaches 32, it’s black flag and all training has to be canceled and stopped,” said Douglas Casa, CEO of the University of Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Institute.

Temperatures are forecast over 100 F (37.78 C) during Saturday’s game in Philadelphia. The player’s union FIFPRO, as well as the American College of Sports Medicine, has called for matches to be delayed at 82.40 F (28 C) for safety.

Players can train for heat stress during exercise

Guilherme Passos monitors and prepares Brazil’s national team for extreme heat as a sport scientist at the Brazilian Football Federation.

He’s helped the team acclimate to the U.S. heat. “If you expose them straight to the hottest time of the day you can lose a bit of training quality,” he said. They use saunas or hot baths as they heat train during the competition.

When Brazil hosted the World Cup in 2014, Passos said, players covered less distance and reduced high-speed running, and instead increased their technical and tactical precision.

“Soccer players are a really unique mix of athletic attributes,” said Calsbeek. “They have to have extreme endurance and explosive speed. And then on top of that, they have to make really critical decisions. All of those different facets of the sport will be affected by the temperature.”

But soccer players aren’t the only ones at risk. Many soccer fans are drinking alcohol and watching the World Cup. In heat, doing that is risky. Cities and stadiums have increased access to shade, cooling areas and water, and medical personnel are stationed in FIFA Fan Festivals and around stadiums.

“People are going to be dehydrated, super excited, and not wanting to leave the match,” said Calsbeek. “We’re likely to see, in those extreme temperatures, spectators pay the price as well.”

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

The two men had been embroiled in a long-standing noise feud

A retired jeweller has been convicted of murdering his neighbour after a long‑running noise dispute in their sheltered housing complex took a fatal turn Christmas Day.

James Hughes, 67, from north Wales, attacked Harold ‘Harry’ Turner, 68, striking him repeatedly with his walking stick and pinning him to the ground, an incident he recorded in full on a Dictaphone, with the recording being used as a key part of the prosecution’s evidence to convict the pensioner, WalesOnline reports.

Mr Turner, who suffered from significant health problems, had confronted and threatened Hughes minutes earlier at the Old Palace Flats in St Asaph on Christmas morning last year. Hughes denied murder and manslaughter but was found guilty last month and refused to attend his sentencing hearing.

Hughes was sentenced at Caernarfon Crown Court on Thursday (July 2), as the court heard how Mr Turner and Hughes were neighbours in the block and shared an animosity that had simmered for some time.

Mr Turner had made several noise complaints relating to Hughes, which included banging on walls and rails and disturbances at night.

“During the night of Christmas Eve and into Christmas morning, Mr Turner was angry and distressed,” described Judge Nicklin, sentencing.

“At 5.15am on Christmas morning, he left a voicemail for the defendant saying: ‘I want you to f*** off, that’s what I want. I’m going to make you f*** off, and I am going to get you. You’re mine, you’re f***** with the wrong person. Good night, sleep tight.’

“There is further evidence of threatening conduct by Mr Turner that morning. Neil Jones recorded footage in which Mr Turner used abusive and threatening language, threatening to knock the defendant out, and said: ‘If you go for it, I’ll go for you any time.’

“The defendant called North Wales Police twice that morning; once at 8.47am, when he said Mr Turner had been banging on his door since 11pm and had been shouting and arguing, and at 9.04am when the defendant called again and played the call handler the voicemail message left by Mr Turner.”

The judge continued: “At 11.03am Mr Turner left a voicemail on the community house manager’s phone saying he was at the end of his tether and at breaking point and he was going to hurt somebody. Later that morning a physical altercation between the defendant and Mr Turner occurred outside the defendant’s flat.

“I proceed on the basis that Mr Turner began that physical altercation, and that is significant. The defendant did not go looking for violence that day. The confrontation took place outside the defendant’s flat after he had called the police and after threats had been made by Mr Turner.

“By way of the jury’s verdict, either he did not believe the force he used was necessary, or the force he used was not reasonable in the circumstances. The central piece of evidence was the dictaphone recording which captured Mr Turner saying: ‘Get off me, I can’t breathe.’

“The defendant refused to get off him and said: ‘What a f****** shame, do you want me to hurt you again? You can f****** die for all I care, I don’t give a f***.’”

Hughes returned to his home after the incident, the court was told. He turned on the radio and made himself a hot drink before calling his nephew later that day, with the dictaphone still recording him.

On the device, Hughes could be heard telling his nephew: “I think I may have killed someone.”

When Hughes eventually called for an ambulance, he told emergency call handlers that he thought Mr Turner may have had a heart attack. He said: “I hit him with my stick and he fell and he banged himself against the window.”

A post-mortem examination found Mr Turner died as a result of asphyxia and had suffered blunt force trauma to his face and head.

Hughes was the victim of serious crime in South Africa on multiple occasions and was not in good physical condition, Gordon Cole KC said of his client in mitigation. He added that Hughes had called the polcie twice on Christmas morning, seeking help.

Mr Cole said his client, who had no previous convictions, would “serve the remaining years of his life in prison” due to his health. Judge Nicklin sentenced Hughes to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 13 years. A total of 185 days spent on remand in custody will be deducted from his sentence.

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The judge added that, while Mr Turner’s murder had not been planned, Hughes did ignore his neighbour’s pleas to get off him. The judge said Hughes’ response had instead been “angry, callous and cruel”.

“This was a senseless murder which was borne out of a dispute between two retired neighbours,” Detective Chief Inspector Eleri Thomas, of North Wales Police, said following Hughes’ sentencing.

“Through his persistent, antagonistic actions, James Hughes drove Mr Turner to a confrontation at the door of his flat, and despite Mr Turner’s pleas that he couldn’t breathe, Hughes continued to sit on his chest and proceeded to strike his head with his walking stick.

“His recording of the attack and subsequent conversations afterwards were damning as to his guilt, and whilst Mr Turner’s family may never be able fully comprehend why this tragic incident happened, I hope we have provided them with some form of justice and closure today.”

Organisation sets out how it is transforming and modernising the way taxpayers interact with its services, while also making tax easier to understand and simpler to engage with.

Lanarkshire residents are among the millions of taxpayers choosing to go digital and check their pay via the HMRC app.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has revealed the service was used almost 100 million times last year.

Publishing its Transformation Roadmap – Update, HMRC is setting out how it is transforming and modernising the way taxpayers interact with its services, while also making tax easier to understand and simpler to engage with.

The department highlights how its top-ranked app has been used by 7.6 million people in 2025 to 2026 – up 28 per cent on the previous year, with user experience improved in recent months.

HMRC has an ambitious target to reach 10 million users by April 2027.

That means one-in-seven Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxpayers have now used HMRC app to check their pay before it lands in their bank accounts, allowing them to plan and understand their finances better.

The HMRC app is driving the digital-first agenda.

It allows customers to check their pay before pay day and check their National Insurance number, tax code, income and benefits, and users can make Self Assessment payments, track letters, get tax estimates and more.

The number of letters HMRC has issued to customers has reduced by 15 million in the last 3 years and call waiting times have almost halved over the last two years, down to an average of around 12-and-a-half minutes.

The department has committed to reducing the number of postal letters issued by up to 75 per cent by 2028 to 2029, saving £50 million a year and giving customers faster, simpler ways to manage their tax.

More than 350,000 sole traders and landlords have already signed up to MTD for Income Tax.

Launched in April 2026, it is the most significant change to how many customers interact with the tax system in 30 years.

JP Marks, HMRC’s chief executive and first permanent secretary, said: “This roadmap updates on the progress we have made in year one of HMRC’s transformation and openly sets out our plans for the future.

“We are determined to go further, transforming digital customer experiences and strengthening our foundations for a more modern and secure tax, customs and valuation system.

“We are answering phones faster, collecting more debt, with tax receipts and HMRC yield up at record levels, with more to come.

“We remain focussed on delivering an improved service for our customers and bringing in the revenue that underpins the vital public services on which we all depend, and I hope this roadmap helps explain the progress we have made, and our next steps.”

The roadmap update also highlights how HMRC is investing in AI technologies to identify non-compliance earlier and more precisely.

Several private sector organisations are currently on a 12-month programme to test AI-driven solutions to tackle non-compliance and help close the tax gap.

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This weekend marks 250 years since the Second Continental Congress, representing the 13 American colonies, assembled in Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence. The country had already been at war for more than a year and would continue its armed struggle against Britain for another seven. But on July 4 1776, the United States of America was born.

The ideas that found expression in the Declaration were not new. Tensions between the British crown and its American colonies had been percolating for years. And the philosophical ideas behind America’s revolutionary fervour were also finding expression in Europe, particularly in France and Britain.

As Tom Cutterham, a professor of American history at the University of Birmingham, writes, the sort of ideas that inspired America’s revolutionary thinkers had for some years “been closely tied to questions about corruption, oligarchy and executive tyranny in Britain itself”. He points to the likes of Thomas Paine, John Wilkes, Granville Sharp and Catharine Macaulay who were writing passionate arguments against British despotism.

Macaulay argued that the authority of a monarch rests on a contract between ruler and ruled which, if broken by the monarch, is void. It’s an idea which is said to have inspired Benjamin Franklin’s contribution to the Declaration of Independence. Cutterham tells the stories of the Britons who supported America’s struggle to throw off its colonial masters.

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America at 250: the Britons who supported the War of Independence

This weekend’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday comes at a time of deep division in the US. There are even two separate organisations planning rival events. One – America250 – was set up in 2016 by the US congress and signed into law by Barack Obama. The other – Freedom250 – was launched in 2025 by the current president, Donald Trump. The former was specifically established as a bipartisan committee, while its hard to see that latter as anything but a partisan expression of the president’s vision of America.

The situation mirrors the debate raging in the US over American history itself, writes Andrea Loux Jarman, an expert in US constitutional law at Bournemouth University. As Jarman notes, early on in Trump’s second presidency, he issued an executive order, Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, which targeted what the administration likes to call “woke history”.

Part of this has involved removing or rewriting information panels in museums which, the order says: “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times)”. Instead educational information should “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people”.

Needless to say information in museums and galleries about the horrors of slavery are among the “woke history” on the Trump administration’s target list. It’s a row which is likely to find its way to the Supreme Court before it can be resolved, writes Jarman.

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As the United States turns 250 there is bitter rivalry over who gets to tell the country’s story

With this ideological struggle in mind, it’s vital that the celebrations do not overlook the huge contribution that African Americans have made to their country’s history, writes Jenny Woodley, a specialist in American history at Nottingham Trent University.

Even as the founding fathers were honing the ideas that would overthrow British rule, in 1772 an enslaved woman named Phillis Wheatley published a poem that compared her enslavement to “the iron chain, Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand
Had made, and with it meant t’enslave the land”.

Nearly two centuries later, in his I Have a Dream speech, Martin Luther King Jr called the Declaration of Independence a “promissory note” that guaranteed all people their inalienable rights. He said the bank of justice was not bankrupt and it was time for all Americans to “cash this check”.

But as the US celebrates 250 years since this promissory note was issued, “the ‘bank of justice’ is looking increasingly short of funds”, writes Woodley. She says it’s vital this celebration is one that is shared by all Americans, or – to borrow from the US constitution: “We the people”.

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USA at 250: the Black American struggle for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

It’s commonplace to read of American democracy as “an experiment” or a “work in progress”. For many of us, just how fragile that work remains was illustrated by the events of January 6 2021, when a mob stormed the US capital in an attempt to prevent Congress from ratifying the results of the 2020 election, which Trump still insists was fraudulently stolen by his opponents.

Happily democracy prevailed that day. But over its 250 years there have a number of occasions when the US has been deeply divided and democracy itself was thought to be imperilled. Historian Sarah Trott, of York St John University, recounts five of the most dangerous moments for the American experiment.

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America at 250: five times the US constitution has come under threat

Ukraine on the offensive

For more than four years Ukraine has endured a war of aggression from its much larger neighbour Russia. And, despite the Russian expectation that Ukraine would capitulate in less than a week after Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has so far proved resilient in the face of whatever Russia has thrown at it.

And in recent weeks the mood music coming out of both Moscow and Kyiv has changed significantly. Mounting Russian casualties, shortages of food and fuel and an apparent deadlock on the frontlines are taking their toll on Russian morale.

Meanwhile the success of Ukraine’s drone warfare and its ability to strike at targets deep inside Russia have enabled it to chalk up some important successes. This is especially the case in Crimea, writes Jennifer Mathers, who explains why the peninsula, often referred to as the “jewel in the crown” of Putin’s vision for a pacified Ukraine, is of such significance in this war.

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State of emergency in Crimea as Ukraine focuses pressure on ‘jewel in Putin’s crown’

But four years of war have taken a huge toll on civilian life in Ukraine, especially for those families who have been divided by the conflict. Irina Kuznetsova, who researches the impacts of displacement for people in Ukraine’s war-torn regions, details the obstacles faced by separated Ukrainian families.

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Ukrainian families have been torn apart by the war – reunifying them is no easy task

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