Georgina Gibson, 19, who has trained at Harrogate Gymnastics for the past decade, has been awarded a multi-year athletic scholarship to study and compete at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA).

She will study kinesiology while continuing her career in women’s artistic gymnastics in the United States.

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Georgina said: “I feel so honoured to receive a full scholarship to compete in the sport I have loved since I was five.

“Some people might feel nervous about moving to the other side of the world, especially somewhere as cold as Alaska, but there is no place I would rather choose.

“It feels like the perfect fit, not only because of the scenery, but because of the culture of the gymnastics team and the university’s academic reputation.

“When I first set out to achieve this goal three years ago, it felt like an enormous task, but I was never told I couldn’t do it. I was shown that it was possible if I was willing to work hard.”

Georgina began gymnastics at age five and joined Harrogate Gymnastics in 2016 – competing twice at the British Championships and five times at the English Championships, alongside training 20 hours a week.

Her parents, Richard and Hayley Gibson, said they are ‘truly proud of what Georgina has achieved’.

They said: “Her journey in gymnastics, like so many, has been a mixture of cheers and tears, but the one constant has been her determination to succeed.

“We knew selection would be tough and that very few places would be available for British gymnasts, but Georgina simply never gave up.

“In typical G style, she managed to secure an offer from the university she had chosen as her number one choice. Although we will miss her, we are so excited for what lies ahead.”

“We would also like to thank Chloe Carey and all the coaches at Harrogate Gymnastics for the dedication they have shown and the environment they have created.

“Since joining the club in 2016, Georgina has never once said she did not want to go to training. That says everything about the club’s culture.”

Chloe Carey, founder of Harrogate Gymnastics, said: “We are incredibly proud of Georgina. This scholarship is a fantastic achievement and reflects years of hard work, commitment and passion for the sport.

“To see a gymnast who has trained with us for 10 years preparing to continue her gymnastics career in Alaska is something the whole club can celebrate. It is a huge step for Georgina, both academically and athletically, and we are excited to see what she goes on to achieve.”

Georgina credits much of her success to the support of coaches, friends, and family, adding: “There is no club I would rather have grown up in and I will always be grateful for everything Harrogate Gymnastics has given me.”

Georgina is due to depart for the US next Sunday (August 16).

Passengers have been warned to check before they travel tomorrow morning as disruption continues

Rail passengers across Greater Manchester have been warned of another day of chaos on Friday after an electricity supply failure has caused major disruption.

Train services first started facing ‘major disruption’ throughout on Thursday (August 6), with services across Greater Manchester cancelled and delayed.

The issues are widespread and are currently affecting Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, London Northwestern Railway, Northern, TransPennine Express, Transport for Wales.

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An electricity supply failure at a communications centre is the cause of the disruption, National Rail has said. The outage occurred shortly before 2pm in Manchester and has impacted signalling, it added.

In an update issued on Thursday evening, National Rail has warned that major disruption is now expected until the end of the day tomorrow.

It said: “It is not yet known how services will run tomorrow, Friday 7 August. Please do check back. As soon as we have information, we will keep you updated.

“Engineers are working hard to restore the issue and we are hopeful that train services will return to normal tomorrow. However, due to a number of trains being in the location, there will be some disruption to services on Friday morning.

“Major disruption is expected until the end of the day on Friday 7 August.”

Northern has also warned that there will be continued disruption into tomorrow morning on Friday due to a number of trains being in the wrong location.

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It added that customers are strongly advised to avoid travelling before 10:00 on Friday morning and that you should check before you travel as some services may not be able to run at all.

It said: “Due to the ongoing major signalling problems in the Manchester area, many Northern routes are suspended.

“For the remainder of today (Thursday) we will not be able to run any service on any routes into Manchester Victoria, and also between Preston, Bolton, Wigan, Liverpool and Manchester.

“Engineers are working hard to restore the signalling and we are hopeful that train services will return to normal tomorrow. However, due to a number of trains being in the wrong location, there will be some disruption to services on Friday morning.

“Customers are strongly advised to avoid travelling before 10:00 on Friday morning if possible. Please CHECK BEFORE YOU TRAVEL. Some services will be amended and may not be able to run at all.”

In a social media post on X on Thursday night, Manchester Piccadilly’s account also warned of disruption on Friday morning. The post read: “Thank you for your patience today. Delays and cancellations are likely tomorrow morning following the power outage that affected signalling in Manchester.”

Passengers have been vocal about how the disruption has inconvenienced them on social media, with some speaking of their journeys across Greater Manchester today (August 6).

One user said: “It was an absolute nightmare. Trains stopped just after 2pm no replacement busses people told to get busses up to Bolton and try get to their destinations heading towards Preston.”

Another commented: “Took me 5 and a half hours to get back from York to Chadderton. Managed as far as Leeds then offloaded. It was very disorganised.

“Nobody knew what was happening. No-one to ask and had to keep changing platforms to try and get a train going in the right direction. Eventually managed to get a train to Rochdale to be then offloaded at Hebden Bridge.

“I managed to find a local lady that told us where we could get a bus to Rochdale. Waited an hour for that, then a tram from Rochdale. A lot of people had to travel further and will be stranded.”

Written by the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) winner and illustrated by Paige Keiser, the picture book follows “a sweet grandparent-grandchild pair on a dazzling day as they play, splash and contemplate life’s most important truths”, according to the official synopsis.

Our one-time Premier, Elizabeth the Brief, otherwise known as Liz Truss, has now become the great Apostle of Freedom of Speech.

On the British TV station GB News, she has been calling fervently for such freedom. And not only there. In the US she has a growing audience of libertarian admirers.

But what would her new fans do if they discovered that she had imposed a draconian and endless penalty on a British citizen, for saying things she disliked? How would they react if they found she is now uninterested in his deepening plight?

Let’s get this quite straight. In the US, the First Amendment to the Constitution would bar any government from punishing anyone from speaking freely. There’s more. Ms Truss now says explicitly that she wants a First Amendment here.

In June, she appeared, all smiles in a frilly shirt, on GB News, and argued that very case. You can still watch her doing so on YouTube. She said free expression had been undermined by legislation and institutions, that people should be able to express views without fear of state silencing, and that power had shifted too far from elected politicians to courts.

Is that so? What then of the British individual, Graham Phillips, 47, now exiled and impoverished thanks to a decision taken by Ms Truss, who, as Foreign Secretary, used her powers to sanction him? It is an amazing case.

Real, harsh, state cruelty is surely something from the distant past, or from fiction – Banishment For Life, The Man In The Iron Mask, Exile or, of course, Franz Kafka’s sinister story about a man pursued day and night by dark officials for an unnamed crime. Surely that’s all buried in the past, or at least limited to despotisms such as Russia?

What then of the British individual, Graham Phillips, 47, now exiled and impoverished thanks to a decision taken by Ms Truss, who, as Foreign Secretary , used her powers to sanction him?

How glad we all should be that such things have come to an end. Yet they have recently made a modest comeback, in Britain of all places. And they have done so on the say-so of freedom-loving Liz Truss.

Let me tell you about Mr Phillips, the man she punished, now the Exile of Mariupol. British born, he used to be a junior civil servant before moving to Ukraine in 2010, where he first taught English and then worked as a journalist. When the war broke out, his largely pro-Russian video-blogging saw him kicked out of the country.

He now lives in a semi-derelict building in Mariupol, a war-ravaged city in Russian-occupied Ukraine, which is visited almost nightly by bomber drones. He lives largely on the charity of neighbours.

He is not, in my view, a very nice man, and I do not like him. Yet, as the great US Supreme Court Judge Felix Frankfurter once said: ‘The safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people.’

Mr Phillips has done some wrong and stupid things and has expressed some foolish opinions. For me, his worst action was his cruel interrogation of a badly wounded Ukrainian prisoner of war, shown on his video blog.

Others have condemned his interview of Aiden Aslin, a British citizen who had been fighting with Ukrainian armed forces and was captured by the Russians. It has been suggested that the interview was a breach of the Geneva Conventions. But no action has been brought against Mr Phillips on those grounds.

He has been convicted of no crime. No police officer has arrested him. He has never been charged with an offence against our laws. No jury has found him guilty.

Yet in July 2022 Liz Truss sanctioned him for what she saw as his Putinist propaganda. The official wording says that his offence was to ‘produce and publish media material’. It’s a direct penalty for writing, speaking and publishing – normal in totalitarian states but not here.

The decree complains that this material ‘supports and promotes actions and policies which destabilise Ukraine and undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence of Ukraine’. Who knew a few video blogs had such power? Ukraine remains remarkably stable.

When Mr Phillips tried to fight this, the High Court explicitly accepted that the sanctions interfered with his human rights under Article 10 (freedom of expression), Article 8 (private/family life), and Article 1 of Protocol 1 (property). But the judge ruled that this was proportionate and lawful in pursuit of the legitimate aim of ‘protecting UK national security and supporting Ukraine’. So much for ‘human rights’, when they matter.

And so the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has punished him with great severity.

He is forbidden by law to earn money, or to pay for anything. His bank account is frozen. We are all likewise forbidden by law to pay him any money.

He cannot return to England because he cannot buy a plane ticket, which – together with Ukraine and the European Union both banning him from entering their airspace – means he’s trapped in Mariupol.

What would Liz Truss’s applauding US audiences make of her action in exiling Mr Phillips for expressing an opinion she personally did not like? And what does she say about all this now?

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Likewise, he is banned from paying any bills, such as the council tax due on his London home – a debt that Islington Council demands he pay. In the most recent act of this farce, his UK bank says that it will not take payment instructions from him unless he comes to England and gives them in person. For obvious reasons, he cannot do this, lest he breaks the law.

Just the other day, some rather brave and generous lawyers, acting without fee, argued that the council should cease their pursuit. We await the judgment. But if the court rules against him, it is not clear what will happen to his home. If he were a convicted prisoner, sitting in jail for a crime of violence or dishonesty, which he isn’t, he would be exempt from that very same council tax.

Nor is there an apparent end to his sentence. No limit was fixed or has ever been stated. And there is no obvious lawful way of ending it.

He is, as far I can discover, the only person in the world being punished in this way. All the other people sanctioned by their own states have second passports and can dodge the effects by living out of their reach.

At the time of the sanctioning, Ms Truss was a militantly pro-Ukraine Foreign Secretary, once posing in Moscow in a fetching fur hat, despite it being quite warm weather. Soon afterwards, she famously became Prime Minister, and soon after that, even more famously, she became Not Prime Minister.

In the turmoil of her life since then, has she somehow forgotten that day in July 2022 when she approved the decree sending Graham Phillips into a bottomless chasm of unfreedom, because of some opinions he had expressed about the Russia-Ukraine war?

What would Liz Truss’s applauding US audiences make of her action in exiling Mr Phillips for expressing an opinion she personally did not like? And what does she say about all this now?

Well, like so many in the political realm, she does not speak directly to people such as me, and instead I have to rely on her Representative on Earth, known as ‘sources’.

Those sources say that Ms Truss, so talkative about liberty on public platforms, has no comment to make beyond referring me to the Foreign Office – whose stonewalling responses on this matter I have already many times experienced.

So much for Ms Truss, the born-again libertarian.

The dry weather has had a ‘catastrophic’ effect on the farm

A farmer says the dry weather is having a “catastrophic” effect on produce – with the lack of rain causing a “massive cost” to the farm. England has experienced its driest July on record, with only 1.99mm of rainfall this month.

The dry weather is hitting farms hard, with the lack of rain meaning grass is not growing in fields and animals aren’t able to feed on what they normally would. One farm feeling the effects of the dry weather is Moor Farm in Newborough, near Peterborough.

Owner Judith Jacobs said the dry weather has had a “catastrophic” effect. Judith said: “This is the driest weather since 1976 I believe, and I remember that being a very dry summer. The current impact on us is in various directions. Everywhere is brown and tinder dry – hardly any green or fresh grass.

As a result, the farm is having to feed their sheep more. Judith is feeding the sheep mixed wheat and roughage, as well as hay and straw as sheep need a high fibre diet. Judith said this is causing a “massive cost” to the farm.

She added: “For example the cows. Cows are ruminant, so they’ve got four stomachs and they live on forage. There is nothing for them in our fields, so for some of them, we are feeding them hay, straw and again, round wheat. That’s eking into our profits because at this time of year, they should be eating grass.”

The farm has around 200 cows. Due to them not having enough room for all of the cows, they’ve had to transfer 50 of them to the RSPB washes for additional grazing. “This is an additional cost that I wouldn’t normally have if it wasn’t such dry weather,” said Judith.

Judith is also having to give the cows some of the winter feed. She said: “That’s a double-edge sword. We haven’t been able to make feed for a normal winter. We are probably at 60 per cent of our stored forage and we’re already feeding that. So it’s a negative.”

The dry weather has also meant there have been more field fires across Cambridgeshire. Moor Farm has recently experienced three deliberate fires on its land.

This has been “time consuming and costly” for the farm as well. Judith added: “[They make us] very nervous, because it’s income, our machinery and also our time.”

There was recently a fire in Peakirk that the farm helped to put out. Judith said: “That was raging towards Peakirk and Glinton. It’s a very stressful situation as you would imagine and it’s costly. We pay wages to our staff, so that’s a lot of hours.”

Judith is encouraging people to be vigilant when in the countryside to prevent the risk of a fire. She added: “For the general public, I would advise them if you’re going to the countryside, use it wisely. Do not drop litter, definitely don’t smoke. And if you see a fire, either deal with it or ring 999.”

The Friday letters page wonders what happens if Gears Of War: E-Day and Fable flop, as one reader hopes Dino Crisis will be the next Capcom reboot after Onimusha.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

As seen on TV
At last we have a bit of warning for a GTA 6 annoucement. It would’ve been nice if they said what the Netflix show is going to be, but I assume, like you said, that it’s going to be a bunch of celebs, who are also in the game as voiceovers, saying how great it is and then a fair bit of gameplay footage. If it’s an hour long, then maybe 20 minutes? I’d be disappointed if it was less than that.

My guess is that they will talk about GTA Online 2, or whatever it ends up being, even if it’s not available at launch. I think they don’t want it at launch though. They didn’t for Red Dead Redemption 2, even though they probably could’ve had it, because I think they want people to play the story first.

They want people to get used to the controls and everything, but I think it’s more that they know if they have online from the start nobody will ever bother playing the story. Take-Two probably want to get the microtransactions rolling ASAP, but Rockstar are proud of their single-player modes, and I think they’ll want to give it time to shine.
Cranston

No choice
Not that I had any doubt but, that that sticker on the box of PlayStation 5 consoles makes it certain that they’re never giving up on being all-digital. They’ve made the decision, they’re not interested in what we think, and they’re not going to do what we want.

So what are the choices? Put up with it and do everything they want or… get a PC or Switch 2. There really isn’t anything else that even counts as an option. I know I don’t really want to do either of those things but then I’m also not all that interesting Wolverine or Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, so maybe I wouldn’t be losing that much.

But it’s all a bad situation and I massively resent Sony for not only doing it but for the way they’ve handled it, which is basically to just dump the decision on us and then leave. Like GC said, there’s no conversation going on here.
Gardor

65 million years in the waiting
I so hope that Onimusha: Way Of The Sword is a hit. I’m looking forward to it, and I liked the originals, but the most important thing is that it’s the best route to getting a comeback for Dino Crisis. Capcom has been beating round the bush on it for years now and even trolling fans with Exoprimal. But if they resurrect Onimusha then Dino Crisis is the obvious next step, there can’t be anything else that makes sense.

Well, we need a new Devil May Cry, obviously, but something must be going on with that. It’s already popular so I assume they’ve just had some trouble in development or something. But they’re obviously worried about pulling the trigger on Dino Crisis and I do believe Onimusha could convince them.
Elvis

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Slow progress
Think I’m close to the end of Wasteland 3 and it’s been mostly fun apart from the odd glitch. It might have taken me four years to get this far but I wouldn’t mind a continuation of the series.

Has there been any news of a sequel? 3 was a big (easier) improvement over 2, which was very old school and is like the fourth to continue this trajectory, being better again.
Bobwallett
PS: I’ve re-bought several of my PlayStation 4 games on Xbox, so I’d like to offer them to the readers that haven’t played them. Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War, Far Cry 5, and Far Cry Primal. All on PlayStation 4.

GC: Wasteland 4 seems unlikely, given none of the games have been major hits. Developer inXile is rumoured to be working on a Fallout ‘adjacent’ game, which makes sense given the original Wasteland was the spiritual predecessor to that series.

Never again
As a follow-up to the Microsoft account pairing in Halo: Campaign Evolved, I tried numerous times to create a new Hotmail account on my laptop and phone and it has now blocked me saying ‘suspicious activity’, after it said the website was down. I tried to use someone else’s Hotmail, but it now seems linked to my account whenever I put in that stupid link they give you, so I have had to reset my security which means a 30 day wait. Unreal.

I really wish I had stuck to my guns knowing about all this beforehand and not bought it, rather than try to jump through Microsoft’s hoops. Lesson well and truly learnt.
Simon

Games of the year
Surprised to see Big Walk reviewing so well. I thought the trailers made it look pretty bad, but then you mentioned they weren’t very good in your review, which I appreciate. We all know GTA 6 is going to top the list by the end of the year, whether it deserves to or not (and it might, I’m not saying it won’t) so it’s a bit of a shame that’s going to overshadow all the other great games that have been released this year.

This has definitely been a great year for games and we’re barely halfway through, which is kind of ironic giving the layoffs and publishers acting so awful all the time. I’m genuinely surprised that anyone can even make anything decent under those conditions, but then a lot of the best ones are Japanese or indie.

I wonder what’s going to happen when Gears Of War: E-Day flops or what will happen if Fable doesn’t do well either. Halo has already stumbled this year but if more of Xbox’s big names go down then I think that’s when they’re going to pull the plug on it all.

You can’t say multiformat is the way to go when PlayStation owners already don’t care about Halo. Forza Horizon 6 should do much better but where’s the advertising for it? If Microsoft hasn’t cancelled it, it sure seems like they’re trying to pretend they have.

Or alternatively, what if E-Day does really well as an Xbox exclusive? Does that mean everything else will be in the future? I really couldn’t guess how things are going to go at the moment, everything seems so messed up.
Grackle

Essential viewing
Is this 21st August extended look the long-awaited Trailer 3 for GTA 6 or is it three minutes of what we have seen and 57 minutes of them talking about how good and how excited they are about the game?

And also, with this being on Netflix they must of paid a good chuck of cash for them to show it. Got a feeling this won’t be leaked early, will cost Take-Two a bomb if it does.
David

GC: You have the date wrong, It’s August 27.

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Dangerous days
I really enjoyed your article about the video games industry being controlled by monsters. It was very thought provoking and well written, although I wouldn’t expect anything less from you guys and let’s be honest this ain’t your first rodeo, so you knew it was a good article.

It did make me think about the gaming crash of 1983, where everything was oversaturated to the point games where being made in someone’s bedroom with a deadline of two weeks to get it out.

There were too many options and not enough quality, which is what ultimately made the floor fall out beneath them.

Although to jump to their defence, back then it was a really new form of media and everyone was just trying to find their feet and companies were trying to make as much money as possible (so nothing new there). Mistakes were made and it proved quite fatal for many games companies.

Fast forward to today and we are right on the other end of that rainbow, where games take a long time to make. I’ve never really had a problem with this as such, as Shigeru Miyamoto famously once said ‘a delayed game might eventually become good, but a rushed game will forever be bad’.

Very few companies take any risks these days. The money is in the big budget triple-A games and it’s starting to look like a future of yearly iterations of football and NFL along with a bit of Call Of Duty and every 15 years or so a Grand Theft Auto set in a city they’ve already done multiple times.

I don’t know what the answer is, but it does look like history is repeating itself in the sense that gaming seems hell bent on imploding on itself.

I would love to hear from someone who was programming games back in the early ‘80s and what they have learned since then and if they could go back, what would they say to their younger self to make themselves stand out?

Hopefully one of those guys is on here and does a Reader’s Feature, as that would be an awesome read.

I hate to be all doom and gloom, but it is really starting to look very bleak as far as console gaming is concerned.

It’s not all bad though. I travel on a bus to and from work every day and the number of people playing games on their phones is staggering.

In essence these people are gamers and as keen as the next person who likes games. The difference is their joy of gaming is very accessible, cheap and fun.

Next gen consoles are rumoured to be over £1,000 that’s a lot of money to fork out just to play yearly updates of football games, Call Of Duty, and the odd Grand Theft Auto on a console that is probably not a major graphical leap over its predecessor.

That’s not accessibility, that’s a VIP lounge that is serving the same drinks as the bar but at a higher price.

One thing is for sure, it will be very interesting where this takes us. Who knows, in another 40 years all us gamers will be looking back thinking ‘those games companies got it so wrong’ but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
freeway 77

Inbox also-rans
I own an Evercade Super Pocket Taito edition. I’ve just received an email from Evercade regarding their upcoming Doom cart. Any idea on how the controls will map onto the Super Pocket? I love Doom but can’t envisage how it will translate.
Coinslot-

GC: The Super Pocket has trigger buttons on the back, doesn’t it? It should be fine, after all Doom ran on the SNES and Game Boy Advance.

Curious to know how many people reading this have a PS5 Pro. I haven’t met anyone in real-life who has one, and the ones that might have all say it’s too expensive.
Greeney

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You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

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MORE: Games Inbox: Why are Call Of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 so popular?

MORE: Games Inbox: Will single-player video games go extinct?

MORE: Games Inbox: Will the Xbox reset work for Microsoft?

The Trump administration’s push to delay a ban on intoxicating hemp products could have a big benefit to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ son-in-law, according to new reports.

Last fall, President Donald Trump signed a spending bill to end the longest shutdown in history, which included a ban on hemp products containing certain amounts of THC, the main intoxicating compound found in cannabis. Now, the White House seems to have reversed course, reportedly pushing lawmakers on Capitol Hill to delay the very ban Trump enacted.

While the White House maintains that its new stance on the issue is in the interest of the American people, reports from The New York Times and MS NOW suggest that the move would allegedly benefit Wiles’ son-in-law, Bret Worley.

Worley, who married Wiles’ younger daughter Caroline in June, is the CEO of MC Nutraceuticals, a global supplier of hemp products. His company has been reportedly pushing industry allies to pressure lawmakers to delay the ban on hemp products, which is set to take effect on November 12.

In a new stopgap spending measure to avoid another shutdown at the end of September, senators added a provision delaying the implementation of the hemp product ban to December 11, reports say. The measure will be up for a vote this week.

“The Chief of Staff has never lobbied in favor of this or any other position on hemp with Capitol Hill,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to the media.

“The only interest guiding the Trump administration’s decision-making is the best interest of the American people, and the Administration continues to explore a Gold Science Standard-based framework on hemp to expand treatment options for American veterans and patients,” Desai said.

The Independent has reached out to the White House and Worley for comment.

As the spending measure was announced Sunday, MC Nutraceuticals said in an email to prospective buyers that the hemp industry now had “a seat at the table,” according to the Times.

Senator Ted Budd, a North Carolina Republican, has pushed against the delay of the hemp product ban, writing on X Monday, “I’m offering an amendment to the CR [continuing resolution] to strip out an extension of the hemp loophole to ensure unregulated, dangerous intoxicants are not sold, especially to kids.”

The Food and Drug Administration wrote in an October 2024 notice that it was concerned about products containing delta-8 THC “in forms such as candy, chips, cereals and other foods that appeal to children.”

Budd told MS NOW that the White House’s new stance on the ban is “absolutely ridiculous.”

“We fixed this thing last year. We fixed it last November. They’ve had nine months to work on this, so why, all of a sudden, pop up for some seemingly innocent delay?” he said.

But Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican, said the delay was worth it if it meant avoiding another shutdown. Last fall’s shutdown caused major airport disruptions due to staff shortages as agencies lacked the funds to pay government workers.

“I prefer that we don’t extend it, but I can live with a monthlong extension in exchange for keeping the government open,” Capito told the Times.

The Sopranos star Vincent Pastore was laid to rest on Thursday in New Rochelle, New York at a funeral attended by a number of his co-stars on the series.

Steven and Maureen Van Zandt, Kathrine Narducci, Michael Rispoli and Al Sapienza were among the cast members on hand at the invite-only memorial at the Holy Family Church, as well as A Bronx Tale’s Chazz Palminteri, according to TMZ.

The funeral service for the actor, who portrayed Salvatore ‘Big Pussy’ Bonpensiero on the HBO series, had a closed casket, following his death at 80 on August 1.

Steven Van Zandt, who was one of the pallbearers, told The New York Post that Pastore ‘was one of a kind, and we’ll miss him very much.’ 

The actor and musician, who plays guitar for Bruce Springsteen‘s E Street Band, told the outlet that he had been in touch with the late actor ‘quite often.’

Van Zandt said that he and his spouse Maureen chatted with Pastore the day prior to his passing.

Steven and Maureen Van Zandt were among the cast members on hand at the invite-only memorial held on Thursday

‘We just happened to call him two days ago,’ said Steven Van Zandt, who played the role of Silvio Dante on the series. ‘The day before he died, we luckily just happened to call him.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to representatives for Van Zandt for further comment on the story. 

Pastore’s daughter Renee Pastore remembered his generous nature in a moving speech she delivered at the memorial, according to The Post.

‘He was a man who lived out his dreams… but he knew how lucky he was,’ Renee told a crowd of around 150 people on hand at the service. ‘I think that’s why he tried to share as much of it with as many people as possible.’

Renee continued, ‘Whether that was a big tip, always in cash, or by shaking hands with every cop on every corner.’

She suggested mourners ‘to pass on what he has given to you’ in her father’s memory.

‘Give your waiter a giant tip in cash,’ Renee said. ‘Maybe it’s a reminder to stop and talk to the bus driver, or a police officer, or make the lady behind the coffee counter laugh. That’s how we remember him. That’s a big honor.’

Pastore’s coffin had an American flag covering it, as he was a Vietnam veteran who had been in the navy from 1964 to 1967, according to the outlet. 

Van Zandt, who played the role of Silvio Dante on the series, was pictured with another mourner 

Mourners were seen exiting the church on the somber summer day 

Hugs were exchanged after the service in which the late actor was remembered 

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Pastore’s daughter Renee Pastore remembered his generous nature in a moving speech she delivered at the memorial

A crowd of around 150 people had been on hand at the service, according to The Post 

Mourners were seen saying their final farewell to the famed actor on Thursday

The late actor was seen in a memorial shot following his passing on Saturday 

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A massive wreath from Jerome Florist had been on display, sources told TMZ. 

Both Steven and Maureen Van Zandt had taken to X with statements in memory of Pastore amid news of his passing.

Steven wrote, ‘Another irreplaceable brother gone. It never gets any easier. Travel well Vincenzo.’

Maureen said she was ‘devastated at the loss of our beloved Vincent Pastore,’ adding, ‘He was my big brother, my acting, producing and teaching partner, my director and most importantly, my dear friend.

‘Talked to him a couple of days ago. Told him I loved him. And I always will. Heart is broken.’

Heroes Wayne Taylor, from Bishop Auckland, and Ian Pascoe, from Peterlee, died after going into the water at Seaton Carew beach on July 12.

The pair went into the sea after two children, who were playing at the time, got into difficulty – and while the kids were rescued safely, the men sadly did not resurface. 

Inquests into the death of Mr Taylor, 38, and Mr Pascoe, 62, at Teesside Coroners’ Court were opened on Tuesday, July 28, and heard the medical cause of death for both men was drowning. 

Paul Appleton, Area Coroner for Teesside and Hartlepool, read out a statement describing how police were called at 3.45pm by a woman reporting that her child had been swept out to sea. 

The statement, from Coroners Officer Vicky Robinson, said: “On July 12, police received a 999 call stating that the person’s child had been swept up to sea and that their husband had entered the water to rescue him. Her husband is Mr Taylor.

Wayne Taylor has been named in a fundraiser online as one of the men who has died trying to save two children from the sea (Image: GO FUND ME)

“On arrival at the scene police were notified that two children had been playing in the water when one had been swept under by a wave and was in distress.

“Mr Taylor and Mr Pascoe had then entered the water to attempt rescue of the child. The child was rescued with the assistance of a further adult.”

Coroner Appleton described how Mr Taylor and Mr Pascoe were believed to have been “taken by the water and have not emerged following the rescue of the child”. 

Following the rescue, the pair were “barely noticeable to the naked eye” at around 50 to 75 metres from the shoreline, the inquests heard.

Tragically, neither man resurfaced, and both were recovered from the water.

Despite the best efforts of medical teams from the North East Ambulance Service, they were pronounced dead at Hartlepool Lifeboat Station. 

The provisional medical cause of death for both men was listed as drowning. 

Ian Pascoe, 62, from Peterlee, sadly lost his life on Sunday, July 12, after going into the water at Seaton Carew.  (Image: CLEVELAND POLICE)

The Coroner gave several directions following the inquests, and sought confirmation over whether the stretch of beach concerned has lifeguard coverage and the days or dates when lifeguards would ordinarily be in attendance at this location. 

Mr Pascoe’s family previously described him as a much-loved dad, husband, brother and grandad and described their loss as “immeasurable”.

They thanked emergency services and those who helped: “Ian will forever remain in our hearts. He was deeply loved, and the loss we feel is immeasurable.

Police at Seaton Carew beach (Image: North News & Pictures Ltd)

“We will miss him always and carry his memory with us for the rest of our lives. We respectfully ask for privacy as our family grieves and comes to terms with our loss.”

Mr Taylor’s family also thanked those who had helped: “We are extremely grateful for all the support we have received.

“We are still struggling to come to terms with what has happened and would ask for privacy and time as a family to begin to process these tragic events.”

Dozens of flowers and handwritten messages were left at the seafront following the tragic incident, which prompted an outpouring of sympathy for the “heroes”.

Davey Short and Andy Ellington were also praised for helping rescue the children.

A fundraiser launched to support both Mr Taylor and Mr Pascoe’s families raised more than £15,000 before closing on July 19, with the proceeds set to be shared between them.

Hartlepool Borough Council has since said it would carry out a full review of water safety arrangements at Seaton Carew and across the borough’s coastline.

“Tony,” the Anthony Bourdain biopic, is a coming-of-age tale for a modern culinary giant. Set over just a summer, it’s also clearly an appetizer. And like all first courses, it leaves you with a nice first taste — but still hungry.

Director and co-writer Matt Johnson has frustratingly taken liberties with a formative period in Bourdain’s life, but still only manages to tell the story of how a callow lad became somewhat of a less callow lad after toiling in a restaurant kitchen on Cape Cod in 1975.

In “Tony,” the world-weary, forever romantic, noodle-slurping Bourdain that we would fall in love with decades later via travel shows like “Parts Unknown” stays firmly out of grasp. What’s perhaps most frustrating is that this could have been a fine movie without Bourdain at its center at all. Who doesn’t like a good coming of age? Why did it have to be Bourdain if Bourdain never gets to be Bourdain?

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Dominic Sessa plays the teenage chef-traveler as an angular misfit, his tall frame hunched, peering at people through a mop of unruly curls, his chin forever jutted downward — a surly Bob Dylan in kitchen whites. We rarely see moments of joy flash on his face, even for lust or food. He never unlocks. Even a beautifully documented moment in Bourdain’s life — when the sea that summer was filled with stripers, triggering a mass fishing frenzy at night — doesn’t trigger awe.

Bourdain spent two chapters talking about this time in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in his star-making 2000 memoir, “Kitchen Confidential,” and he would return in TV episodes of “A Cook’s Tour” and “Parts Unknown.” It was certainly an important time in the young Bourdain’s life, but hang too much on it and the hanger apparently collapses.

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The new movie opens with a quote from “Kitchen Confidential”: “I was — to be frank — a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, badly in need of a good ass-kicking.” He got that as he went from dishwasher to plating shrimp cocktails and learning the insult-based, testosterone-filled ways of the kitchen.

Bourdain would develop two love affairs during this fateful summer: One, a delight for the kitchen — the pressure, the camaraderie, the artist’s heart, the pirate’s adoration of heat and knives — and, another, hard drugs. “This is where I bought my first bag of heroin,” he says in “Parts Unknown.” But, like a collapsing soufflé, it fails at that first task — never showing us how this wannabe writer with a Velcro wallet in a Stooges T-shirt pivoted to become a global culinary raconteur. And it never depicts Bourdain’s own heroin use.

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Antonio Banderas steps into the role of the mentor, but it’s a fuzzy image. His character is spiritual, punctual and deeply religious, yet silently overseeing a very misogynistic, racist and drug-addled workforce. Our film’s Bourdain will inspire him to reach higher by adding a lobster thermidor to the menu, one of those tired devices by which the mentee becomes the mentor. (The gorgeous Banderas fails to fully capture the book’s mentor with a “gin-blossomed face” and “boozer’s gut.”)

What’s most frustrating is we never feel Bourdain’s muse come alive. He doesn’t, over the course of more than 100 minutes, become an evangelist for cuisine or its power to heal, celebrate and embrace. He acknowledges — from “Kitchen Confidential,” in a childhood chapter — that oysters tasted “of the future” — but the rat in “Ratatouille” had better passion.

There are lovely moments, like when shucked oysters are used to flirt or when chef Eric Ripert, a longtime friend of Bourdain, makes a cameo, or whenever actor Emilia Jones as Bourdain’s love interest appears. Leo Woodall also does a fantastic turn as Bourdain’s kitchen and drug pal, Sal.

Focusing on a slice of time from a cultural icon — most recently done for The Boss in “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” — is a now-savvy alternative to the cradle-to-grave biopic. But “Tony” fails as an origin story. The cook is off.

“Tony,” an A24 release that debuts in theaters in Los Angeles and New York on Aug. 7 and expands on Aug. 21, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “pervasive language, drug use and sexual content/nudity.” Running time: 106 minutes. Two stars out of four.