Emily Ratajkowski couldn’t keep her hands off boyfriend Romain Gavras this week as they were snapped packing on the PDA in Rome. 

The couple held hands and passionately kissed in the street while on their way to a romantic lunch date. 

Emily looked completely with Romain – who has a history of seducing beautiful women. 

The French director, 45, has a net worth $5million (£4million). He was born in Paris but his work on movies has seen him travel the world.

Romain, who is the son of Greek-French film director Costa-Gavras, has received rave reviews for his work, with his second film The World Is Yours screened at the Directors’ Fortnight during the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. 

Another film, Athena, had its premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival.

The French director, 45, was born in Paris but his work has seen him travel the world. Romain, who is the son of Greek-French film director Costa-Gavras, has received rave reviews 

Romain was first linked to Emily last November, when they were spotted kissing in New York City, with the couple going Instagram official in February

His latest film Sacrifice premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. 

The movie, which marks his English-language debut, stars Anya Taylor-Joy as a crazed zealot who plans to sacrifice three important people in order to save the world from destruction. 

The star-studded cast also includes Chris Evans, Vincent Cassell, Salma Hayek, John Malkovich, Charli XCX, comedian Sam Richardson and rapper Yung Lean. 

Romain has also directed several music videos, earning himself a Grammy nomination in 2013 for Jay-Z, Kanye West and Frank Ocean’s hit No Church in the Wild.

He also won a MTV Video Music Award in 2012 for M.I.A.’s Bad Girls. 

Romain was first linked to Emily last November, when they were spotted kissing in New York City, with the couple going Instagram official in February. 

It marks Emily’s longest romantic relationship since her divorcé from movie producer Sebastian Bear-McClard in 2022.

Prior to dating Emily, Romain was in a relationship with singer Dua Lipa. 

The couple split in 2023 after eight months of dating.

A source said at the time: ‘Dua and Romain have gone their separate ways after a summer of love. She has blinkers on when it comes to her career and the pair ended the relationship before things turned sour.’

Prior to dating Emily, Romain was in a relationship with singer Dua Lipa. The couple split in 2024 after eight months on dating, reportedly over Dua’s hectic work schedule 

Dua appeared to reference the split a few months later in an interview where she stated: ‘I’ve had breakups in my life where I felt like the only kind of breakup you could have was when things just ended really badly. 

‘Things ending in a nice way was such a new thing.… It taught me a lot.’

Dua then met British actor Callum Turner, with the pair recently marrying. 

Romain has also dated The Voice Australia judge Rita Ora. 

The pair began dating in 2020 and enjoyed a whirlwind romance  that saw them jet off on exotic holidays in Ibiza and Corfu.

There were even engagement rumours sparked when Rita was seen wearing a huge rock on a her finger.

However, it hasn’t meant to be and the couple broke up during the Covid lockdowns. 

A spokesman for Romain told the Daily Mail at the time: ‘Rita and Romain split up months ago because of difficulties with their respective work commitments. They remain close friends.’

While a source close to Rita said: ‘Rita and Romain tried to make it work but they both agreed it wasn’t meant to be. 

‘They remain close but it was simply impossible to maintain a relationship where they barely saw each other.

‘And given both their busy schedules for 2021, the writing was very much on the wall towards the end of last year.’

Rita is now married to New Zealand film-maker Taika Waititi. 

Romain has also dated The Voice Australia judge Rita Ora. The pair began dating in 2020 and enjoyed a whirlwind romance that saw them jet off on exotic holidays in Ibiza and Corfu

Despite his high-profile dating history, Romain has not spoken out about his exes, yet he did hint at past troubles when he referred to love being ‘conflict’. 

He was on the promo tour for his film Athena, which follows three siblings whose lives are thrown into chaos after the tragic death of their youngest brother in unexplained circumstances. 

When asked why he was drawn towards the ‘spectacle of violence and conflict,’ Romain told Flaunt: ‘All drama is conflict, you know? 

Even if it’s a love story – it’s always about conflict. At the moment, I’m actually trying to self-analyze as to why I am drawn to this type of imagery, and I think it’s to do with what I was raised on.  

‘I was mostly fed with Greek tragedy and Greek myths, and they’re extremely violent, and full of strong iconography…

‘For me, every conflict has the same patterns, and whether it’s now, or from past, it is essentially the same. It’s always a movement towards chaos, because rage blinds everything; rage blinds reason.’

Violent criminals are being freed on bail to commit murder amid the prison overcrowding crisis, the country’s top police officer warned.

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he was ‘flabbergasted’ at the growing number of suspects charged with gun and knife crimes who are being let back on to the streets.

Sir Mark said he expected to see a rise in violent crime, with some offenders still being freed on bail on their fourth offence of being caught with a weapon.

In explosive testimony to the London Policing Board, the Scotland Yard chief revealed that more than 30 people charged with serious firearms offences in London alone were currently on bail.

And the Mail can reveal that there are now a staggering 3,000 electronic tag breaches by bailed suspects every week across England and Wales.

In nine out of ten cases, the courts re-release them on bail, which will embolden serial offenders, police chiefs fear.

Victims’ advocates said the creaking criminal justice system was now creating serious implications for public safety.

It comes as thousands of criminals are set to be let out early under Labour’s controversial Sentencing Act aimed at tackling overcrowding.

In explosive testimony to the London Policing Board, Sir Mark revealed that more than 30 people charged with serious firearms offences in London alone were currently on bail rather than remaining in custody (file pic)

Sir Mark said: ‘This isn’t a theoretical risk. We are seeing stabbings and in one or two cases homicides committed by people who would previously have been on remand in custody. This is really troubling.’

In the last six months alone, the number of bailed suspects breaching their electronic tag conditions has rocketed by nearly 50 per cent in London alone, from 2,977 in January to 4,408 in July.

Breaches can include going on the run, contacting a victim, flouting a curfew, attempting to remove a tag or going to a prohibited area.

The Met Commissioner added: ‘In more than 95 per cent of those cases we arrest them, put them before the courts and nothing changes, so that looks like nugatory [futile] effort.’

In some instances, those released on bail are going on to carry out murders. 

Sir Mark warned falls in knife crime were ‘starting to turn’ as a result of ‘compromised’ offender control, adding: ‘I’m really worried about that.

‘We are seeing rapidly reducing imprisonment for people sentenced for knife crime offences, even repeat knife carriers.

‘At the start of the process far fewer are being remanded in custody, so routinely now we are seeing people charged again, and again, and again with carrying knives and they are being bailed again, and again, and again, and that really concerns me.’ 

At the weekend, a repeat knife offender on bail was caught trying to smuggle an 18-inch sword into the Notting Hill Carnival in his fourth blade offence that year.

Sir Mark said: ‘He is on bail and has two knife referral orders and tries to take something that looks like a small sword into Notting Hill Carnival and he is bailed again. 

‘That is deeply concerning to me – the message that sends and that fundamentally undermines offender control. We are now seeing it on firearms offences as well and I’m flabbergasted by this.

‘There are 34 cases of people being charged with firearms offences in London pending trial who are on bail, in nine of those cases they have fired shots in confrontations and they are on bail.’

Police chiefs fear Labour’s soft justice reforms will make matters worse as short sentences are ditched, meaning fewer offenders will be jailed, and police will have to monitor thousands of criminals released early.

Jason Hogg, Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, agreed that soft-touch bail conditions were a symptom of a ‘criminal justice system in crisis’. 

He said: ‘Already the whole Sentencing Act hasn’t properly kicked in and I’m receiving reports it’s more difficult to remand people to custody. 

‘We have about 4,000 breaches of court bail each week. And in over 90 per cent of those, the conditions aren’t changed.’

The warning comes after a series of cases where suspects freed on bail have gone on to commit murders.

Victims’ Commissioner Claire Waxman said: ‘What started as a prison capacity crisis has evolved into a whole-system challenge for criminal justice, with implications for public safety, victim confidence and the effective operation of prisons, probation, policing, courts and victim services.’

A government spokesman said that since Labour took office ‘knife crime has fallen by 11 per cent and knife homicides by 26 per cent’. 

The spokesman added: ‘Bail decisions are a matter for the independent judiciary.’

On Thursday, Donald Trump repeated claims that parts of London were no-go areas as a result of immigration. 

The President also used the GB News interview to renew criticism of London Mayor, Lord Khan of Tooting.

Mr Trump said: ‘London’s a much different place. You have a terrible mayor. He’s a nasty guy, nasty person.

‘You have areas in Paris and London where the police don’t want to go in them, there’s no law and order. They’re afraid to go in them.’

But a source close to Lord Khan said: ‘Sadiq is still living rent free in Trump’s head. The guy is obsessed with him.’

– READ MORE: Kemi Badenoch warns ‘conflict is coming’ as she vows to use major benefit clampdown to get Britain war ready – and tells Burnham to call an election if he can’t do the same

Kelly Hashemi was told she was suffering from perimenopause symptoms but a private scan showed she had stage three ovarian cancer

A “loving” mum died from ovarian cancer after being told her symptoms were caused by perimenopause, her devastated husband has revealed.

Kelly Hashemi began suffering from mid-cycle bleeding, bloating and anxiety in her late thirties and repeatedly sought help from medical professionals. But it was only after she paid for a private scan that she discovered she had stage three ovarian cancer.

The popular primary school teacher underwent two gruelling operations in a desperate fight against the disease. Tragically, she died in July last year aged just 41, Chronicle Live reports.

Now her husband Arya, 42, is taking on this month’s Great North Run to honour her memory and raise funds for St Bede’s Hospice in Gateshead, where Kelly spent her final months. His fundraiser has already attracted more than £5,500 in donations, which you can also donate to via this link.

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The father-of-one explained: “If you catch ovarian cancer early it’s treatable but if you catch it late it’s a death sentence. It’s a really difficult cancer to deal with once it gets hold.

“Kelly was always extremely community-minded. She would have done her job for free. She had so much passion for teaching and gave every bit of her for the children she taught.

“She was a huge environmentalist, a vegetarian and she took her health really seriously. She was the most patient and loving mother. She just had endless love and energy and patience.

“We attempted to live near her primary school and when we were walking around you’d hear ‘Mrs Hashemi we love you”. I felt like I was walking around with a rock star. I was so proud of her. I was so proud that I was her husband. She was really special.”

Kelly and Arya, parents to 13-year-old Tabitha, shared their family home in the Low Fell area of Gateshead. Kelly received her ovarian cancer diagnosis in July 2022 following a privately-funded scan.

Arya, a practising lawyer, recalled: “Things didn’t feel right. She kept saying this is something else. When she received her diagnosis the doctor said ‘We have caught this at a late stage, you are going to die from this’.

“It was something that she never came to terms with. A simple blood test or simple scans would have picked this up earlier and there was a refusal to do that.”

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Arya revealed that Kelly underwent extensive surgery and spent a fortnight in intensive care, followed by several months of rehabilitation before beginning chemotherapy.

He said: “The surgery was enormous. They operated from her throat to the top of her pubic bone. She had to have a full hysterectomy and part of her liver, bladder and diaphragm removed. It was really, really painful rehabilitation. It was a really bleak time.”

In September 2024, Kelly was asked to work in early years at Newcastle High School for Girls, where she spent roughly seven weeks before a scan confirmed her cancer had returned. She was told that with further surgery she could have a year to live and without it she would have a few months.

“She decided to have the surgery again to have some more time with Tabitha and she had that surgery early November”, Arya recalled. “She lost her bowel and it made no difference, the cancer just kept growing.”

Kelly was admitted to St Bede’s Hospice, based within the Queen Elizabeth Hospital grounds. After spending three months receiving care there, she died in July 2025.

Arya, who now lives in Fenham, Newcastle, with Tabitha, explained: “Her biggest worry was not seeing her daughter grow. Kelly was super prepared and she wrote me lists of things I must do.

“I would say to her ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do this without you’. She would say ‘You just have to put one foot in front of the other’. I wake up every morning and say ‘One foot in front of the other’.

“Our daughter is such a special kid. She’s incredibly resilient and determined. She uses school and sport as her form or recovery from this. She represents the region in hockey and netball. I just drive her across the country for the sports. We sit in the car next to each other for hours and we talk about her mum a lot.”

On September 13, Arya will participate in the Great North Run as a tribute to his late wife. His online fundraising campaign for the hospice has already raised more than £5,500 in contributions. Arya said: “She had such fear about going into the hospice and losing her dignity and independence. Every single one of their team went over and above, showering her with love, and all of her fears just disappeared.

“They were so kind and compassionate to her. It was an absolute lifeline to me and my family.

I have stuck religiously to my training plan. I’m scared but I’m very excited about doing it. I know it’s going to be really emotional. It was something Kelly did. She always talked about it as being one of the greatest things she’d ever done. It’s a really nice tribute to Kelly.”

Arya said Tabitha has been supportive of his fundraising efforts. He said: “She thinks I’m mad getting up at five in the morning to do my practice runs but she keeps telling me she’s really proud of me which is all the motivation I need.”

Arya has urged anybody who is concerned about their health to push for help. He said: “I think the only person who really knows if something is wrong if yourself. If something feels wrong fight your corner. No one is going to advocate for you, you have to advocate for yourself.”

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Jasmine Ferguson has been missing since Tuesday.

A body has been found in a wooded area near a Stenhousemuir street following the desperate search for a missing 16-year-old girl.

Police Scotland were called at around 4.15pm on Thursday, September 3, following the discovery of a body in woodland near McLachlan Street.

Formal identification has yet to take place but officers have confirmed that the family of Jasmine Ferguson, who had been reported missing from the town two days ago, are aware of the discovery.

The youngster was last seen at around 2.30pm on Tuesday, September 1, in the Lamond View area of Stenhousemuir.

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Officers from Police Scotland have stated that the death is not believed to be suspicious and a report will be sent to the Procurator Fiscal in due course.

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Technological progress has taken more than its fair share of the workload from humans over the years. Washing machines clean our clothes, tractors plough the fields and computers sort out the admin.

Meanwhile, economic growth and redistribution of wealth means most workers in industrialised countries do not need to spend most of their waking hours on gainful employment. The 12 hour working day that was common during the 19th century has been largely reduced.

So will developments in AI help us gain even more free time?

Not necessarily. In fact, AI might actually cause working hours to increase.

One reason for this has to do with the effects of AI on people’s bargaining power in the workplace. If workers are fearful that their jobs might be lost to automation, research shows they may be inclined to increase their efforts as a way of signalling to employers that their labour is still valuable.

My research on the rat race suggests that this kind of response is to be expected.

Employers must continuously decide whom to hire, promote or dismiss. In making such decisions, employers seek to reward productivity. But productivity is often hard to measure, so employers rely on alternatives metrics such as the amount of time spent working.

Checking whether a work station is still occupied after everyone else has gone home is much easier than assessing the accuracy of a complex project. And from a worker’s point of view, increasing the time they spend at work seems like an effective way of setting themselves apart from other (apparently less motivated) workers.

But when everyone pursues this strategy, it becomes self-defeating. No one gains a positional advantage, while everyone works more.

The introduction of AI to workplaces can turbocharge this dynamic. Existing AI tools have already automated some tasks, like data entry, creating an expectation that entire roles will be redundant soon.

Against this backdrop, the rat race becomes more cut throat. Workers reasonably expect large scale restructurings of their companies and seek to make sure that they will retain their jobs in the process. Researchers recently found evidence for this, noting that workers in AI exposed industries like financial services and IT are literally switching off their office lights later than those in less exposed industries.

Another problem is that employers can overestimate the extent to which AI boosts workers’ productivity. The availability of AI tools to improve efficiency creates an expectation among employers that workers can do more than they could before in the same amount of time. However, when these expectations are overblown, they can lead to additional work intensification or longer work hours.

Working nine ‘til…?

Finally, the adoption of AI causes significant frictions. Established routines are overhauled, existing roles change and new roles are created. Workers must be trained in the use of AI tools and must learn to work alongside them.

But what makes this particularly challenging is that existing AI tools are continuously being improved and new tools developed at a rapid pace. All of this places additional demands on workers’ time.

It may be sobering to contemplate that AI might not improve our lives by relieving us from toil. Overwork and burnout might even increase over the coming years.

But that situation is by no means inevitable or unavoidable – especially if future control over AI’s design and implementation is not left to employers and large AI firms.

It is possible in theory to design and implement AI in ways that improve workers’ skills, enhancing their areas of expertise, making their work more valuable and thereby enhancing their bargaining power with employers. An empowered workforce would be able to bargain for favourable working conditions, including working time patterns that fit with people’s lives and preferences.

And if developers were to prioritise augmentation and empowerment, AI could be the ultimate tool that helps to tackle widespread resentment and disenchantment with our working lives.

We still know “remarkably little” about what happens when microplastics enter our body

New research reveals that patients diagnosed with lung cancer are found to have more microplastic in their body than other people.

Microplastics are plastic pieces less than five millimetres long that are produced as a result of the breakdown of larger plastic items. They are produced by single-use food packaging, plastic water bottles, vehicle tires, fibres from our carpets and even our clothing.

Once created, plastic never breaks down in the way that natural materials do and, instead, it slowly breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. As a result, these pervasive pollutants have made their way into the most unexpected of places.

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Scientists have now discovered that patients with lung cancer are more likely to have microplastics in their lungs and to have larger quantities of the tiny plastic particles in their lungs than other people.

Their findings add to growing evidence that microplastics are entering our bodies via the air we breathe and suggests that there could be a link between microplastics and lung disease.

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Study leader Dr Ilias Dimeas said: “Microplastics have become an unavoidable part of our environment, but we still know remarkably little about what happens once they enter the human body. We don’t yet know what the background levels of microplastics in the lungs are, how much they vary from person to person, or whether they contribute to disease.

“If we are breathing these particles in every day, we need to understand where they end up and whether they could be linked to disease.”

The study looked at 100 people who were having a bronchoscopy to investigate lung symptoms at University Hospital of Larissa in Thessaly, Greece. The procedure involves a thin, flexible bronchoscope being fed into the lungs, which allows a doctor to see inside the lungs and take samples as needed.

Each patient provided a lung-wash sample, where saline solution is used to “wash out” a section of the lung, collecting cells and other material. In half of patients, researchers also took a small sample of lung tissue.

Each sample was analysed for the presence of microplastics and a selection were tested to see which types of plastics were present. Of the 100 patients, 50 were subsequently diagnosed with lung cancer while 50 were not.

Across all samples, the researchers identified a total of 232 microplastic particles. Overall, 70% of patients had detectable microplastics in at least one sample – either the lung wash, tissue or both.

When the lung wash and tissue samples from each patient were analysed together, patients with lung cancer were more likely to have detectable microplastics and had a higher overall microplastic burden than those without cancer.

Patients with lung cancer were also more likely to have detectable microplastics in their lung wash samples – 66% compared to 46% – and had a higher microplastic burden than patients without lung cancer.

Analysis of the microplastics showed that polypropylene and polyethylene were the most common types of plastic. They are widely used in everyday products such as packaging, textiles, household materials and consumer goods.

Dr Dimeas said: “Our results suggest that inhaled microplastics can be found in the human lung more frequently than many people may realise. This adds to the growing evidence that reducing environmental plastic pollution may have benefits that extend beyond ecosystems and into human health.

“This type of study doesn’t tell us why we found more microplastics in the samples from lung cancer patients. Microplastics could contribute to inflammation or other biological processes that may contribute to diseases like cancer, but it is also possible that diseased lungs simply retain particles differently than healthy lungs.

“What it does show is that microplastics were found more often and in greater numbers in patients with lung cancer, which raises important questions for future research.”

He added: “We have already begun more laboratory experiments to better understand the types of plastics involved and how they may interact with lung cells.”

Professor Barbara Hoffmann, chair of the ERS Advocacy Council, said the findings show that microplastics are “infiltrating” many parts of the human body.

Prof Hoffmann, who is based at the University of Düsseldorf, Germany, said: “Lung cancer is the most common type of cancer worldwide. It’s also the leading cause of cancer deaths, with around 2.5 million cases and 1.8 million deaths annually.

“Smoking remains by far the biggest cause of lung cancer. Air pollution is now also known to cause lung cancer and contribute to many other lung diseases, such as asthma and COPD.”

She added: “Research on the health effects of microplastics is still at a very early stage, but we are starting to realise that these tiny pieces of plastic are infiltrating many parts of the body.

“This study adds to evidence that we are breathing microplastics in via the air and they are lodging in our lungs. We need more research to fully understand their potential role in lung diseases, including cancer.

“In the meantime, we advocate for the fundamental human right to breathe clean air, and this includes air that is not polluted with microplastics.”

There was widespread bemusement when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex turned up in Jamaica in 2024 to attend a film premiere honouring reggae legend Bob Marley.

Not only did Prince Harry and Meghan have nothing to do with the film but they were photographed on the night with the Jamaican prime minister, Andrew Holness, who had vowed to push ahead with plans to ditch King Charles as head of state.

To add insult to injury, the King was preparing for hospital treatment for an enlarged prostate at the time.

The couple were there as guests of the film’s producer, Paramount Pictures chief executive Brian Robbins, and it appears that the courtship may have paid dividends.

For I can disclose that Robbins’s streaming channel, Paramount+, has bought the rights to Cookie Queens, a documentary of which Harry and Meghan are executive producers.

Paramount+ is a major rival to Netflix, to which the couple were signed when they flew to Jamaica.

Their five-year deal with Netflix, which was said to be worth about $100 million (£75 million), ended in 2025. At that point, the Sussexes announced that they had signed a ‘multi-year, first-look deal’ with Netflix, which would give the US streaming giant a first option on proposals from their Archewell production company.

They said it disproved claims that they were going to part company completely with Netflix.

Cookie Queens, which follows ambitious young Girl Scouts competing to sell the most biscuits, was given its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Meghan, herself a former Girl Scout, said she was drawn to the project after seeing early footage.

However, it fared so badly on its opening weekend in US cinemas that it was beaten by a compilation of cat videos.

Ex-son-in-law of ‘City Superwoman’ reveals new love

Mercury Prize-winning singer Benjamin Clementine with Hollywood actress Lana Parrilla 

Following the collapse of his marriage to ‘City Superwoman’ Dame Helena Morrissey’s musician daughter Flo earlier this year, Benjamin Clementine has found love again.

I can reveal that the Mercury Prize-winning singer, 37, is going out with Hollywood actress Lana Parrilla, 49, who stars in the hit US fantasy series Once Upon A Time with Jamie Dornan and Robert Carlyle.

The couple made their red-carpet debut this week at the series two premiere of The Gentlemen, in which Benjamin plays a former soldier.

‘They started seeing each other earlier this year,’ confirms a source close to the couple. ‘Benjamin is serious about her and he’s already introduced her to his children. He’s very happy.’

I reported the musician’s split from Flo, 31 – the mother of his two children – in January, when she confirmed that they had divorced after seven years of marriage.

How The Gentlemen has given Maya a taste for gangster roles

Maya Jama seemed keen to prove her mettle at the premiere of The Gentlemen this week

Maya Jama hopes that her debut acting role as tweed-wearing criminal associate Aisha in Guy Ritchie’s Netflix hit series The Gentlemen will be the start of a beautiful new career.

‘I really hope to do more gangster films and TV,’ the Love Island host tells me at the party after the premiere at Guildhall in the City of London.

Maya, 31, who recently split up with Manchester City footballer Ruben Dias, seemed keen to prove her mettle at the party, where she could be seen walloping a punch bag that was on display for guests who included fellow stars Joely Richardson, Theo James, Ray Winstone and Kaya Scodelario.

Baby joy for Matt and Eilidh 

Former Reform candidate Matt Goodwin and his girlfriend Eilidh Hargreaves, who is pregnant

He didn’t manage to capture Gorton and Denton for Reform UK earlier this year, but Matt Goodwin has cause to celebrate.

The best-selling author’s girlfriend, Eilidh Hargreaves, is expecting a baby. ‘It’s wonderful news,’ says Eilidh, who admits the timing was, however, ‘comically bad’ because she had just resigned from her role as features director at Tatler magazine.

‘I just quit my dream job and have given up my salary,’ she says. ‘I do not have a trust fund.’

Eilidh has launched an online newsletter, High Society Diary. Surely not a rival to Eden Confidential?

If it wasn’t for 6ft 8in Greg Davies, Stephen Merchant would be the tallest comedian in Britain.

There is no doubt, however, that he’s one of the richest.

Merchant, who’s 6ft 7in, made more than £10 million last year. Newly published accounts for television production company, SJJM Ltd, disclose that it has amassed more than £41million.

Merchant, 51, created The Office, Extras, and Life’s Too Short with Ricky Gervais.

The Bayeux Tapestry, which was viewed at the British Museum this week by King Charles and French President Emmanuel Macron, shouldn’t have that name, claims television historian Janina Ramirez. ‘It is not a tapestry but rather an embroidery, and it was made in England, most probably by nuns at Barking Abbey.

‘It should be known as a “mistresspiece” rather than a “masterpiece”, as every stitch we see was made by women.’

Harry Potter star Miriam Margolyes has written four books, which have all failed to arouse any interest at home. 

‘My partner Heather [Sutherland] doesn’t read my books,’ the 85-year-old actress says of the Australian historian, 83. ‘She hasn’t read any of them. She’s an international scholar, and highly intelligent. My books are not for highly intelligent people, so they wouldn’t be part of her reading material.’ 

A judge has again told the deadlocked jury in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial to keep trying to reach a verdict after a dramatic sixth day of deliberations in a case that has gripped America.

Tensions flared in court after the jury forewoman sent the judge a note saying one juror would not follow the court’s instructions on reasonable doubt.

The defence team asked for the holdout to be removed, a request that was denied by the judge.

Clancy, 36, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her three children – Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan – at her Massachusetts family home on 24 January 2023.

Warning: This article contains distressing details

The former labour and delivery nurse does not deny strangling her two sons and daughter in the basement of their house.

But her lawyer argues she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time, and could not distinguish right from wrong.

The jury of nine women and three men in Plymouth has deliberated for some 35 hours without a verdict.

The panel has twice previously sent the judge notes saying it could not come to a unanimous decision, but Thursday was the first hint of rancour in the deliberation room.

Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, said in court that the jury forewoman had sent another note, this one complaining to Judge William Sullivan that a juror was refusing to listen to the law on reasonable doubt.

Reddington and prosecutor Jennifer Sprague had an animated discussion with the judge in court.

Reporters in the room could not hear the exchange, but the BBC saw exasperated facial expressions and gestures from Clancy’s attorney.

Then Judge Sullivan brought in each juror individually and questioned them.

He reminded the panel they must unanimously believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty in order to convict her of a crime.

The first HD-2D Final Fantasy game may be retro-inspired but it’s very far from being shallow nostalgia bait, even if Cloud Strife is in it.

For fans of classic – that is, old school – Japanese role-players, Square Enix’s creation and application of its HD-2D technology has been very welcome. It allows the company to take venerable 2D games and breathe new graphical life into them, keeping the original isometric viewpoints and 2D characters but dropping them into lush-looking 3D worlds.

Until now, the technology has been applied to the Octopath Traveler and Dragon Quest franchises (as well as the recent The Adventures Of Elliott) but Final Fantasy fans have long wondered what it would be like if some of the early games from that franchise received the HD-2D treatment. Well, they need wonder no more, because Final Fantasy Resonance, the first HD-2D Final Fantasy game, is due to be released on October 22 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

It may sound like an original Final Fantasy game – and it feels like one in gameplay terms – but Resonance is loosely based on one of the more obscure elements of the franchise, the free-to-play 2015 mobile game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. It’s a strange connection, that you don’t need to know anything about to place Resonance, but if that’s what’s given Square Enix the confidence to experiment then so be it.

Despite the complications inherent in its origins, Resonance is coherent, distinctive, and polished. We managed to play it for the best part of an hour at Gamescom, on Switch 2, a console that has always felt a particularly well-suited platform on which to play HD-2D games.

Our play-through consisted of about 10 minutes of random overworld exploration, followed by the whole of a dungeon, including its final boss battle. We had been given a fair bit of help, in the form of a decent stock of typical Final Fantasy potions and restorative items, plus a full battle group consisting of four characters.

That wouldn’t necessarily have been a given at that point in the game, since Resonance features two main playable characters, Rain and Lasswell, but has a feature called Visions, which allows you to add other characters from the franchise to your battle party. Which explains why our party included Cloud Strife himself, who proved useful since he has the ability to automatically sense enemies’ elemental weaknesses (although the traditional Assess ability is also present in the game).

In a brief potter around the overworld, which looked superb in the distinctive HD-2D style, the first element of Resonance which stood out was its turn-based battle system. That’s old school turn-based as well, with no sign of the ATB (Active Time Battle) mechanism from the more modern games, which means you know exactly when team members are able to make their moves.

Despite that retro element you’re still able to do pretty much anything that you can in any other mainline Final Fantasy game: select abilities or items, cast spells, summon when allowed, and even launch resonances. These are attacks that are unique to characters and depend on their pre-defined character class. Resonances can only be triggered later on, in longer battles, so they were somewhat akin to limit breaks, although limit breaks are also present – and indeed proved quite decisive in some of the more epic battles.

Having had a taste of the overworld, we descended into a dungeon named the Wind Shrine. Instantly, Resonance demonstrated the range of its visuals, with some highly polished cut scenes, cleverly mixing 2D and 3D animations.

The Wind Shrine itself proved to be a classic Final Fantasy dungeon, involving a certain amount of environmental puzzling: a pretty labyrinthine built on many levels, with lifts and horizontally-moving blocks to trigger. As is customary in Final Fantasy dungeons, it was dotted with random enemies and contained plenty of obscure corners and cul-de-sacs in which chests could be found, yielding mainly crystals and the odd weapon.

According to Square Enix, Resonance’s storyline contains plenty of Final Fantasy staples, including the likes of crystals, airships, espers (which can be summoned in battles) and moogles.

Having negotiated our way through the Wind Shrine’s labyrinth (a process which took about 35 minutes, including the odd exploratory deviation) and equipped a couple of our characters with superior weapons which we found, it was time to take on the boss, a pretty fearsome Wind Demon. Even after we discovered his weaknesses we had to rely on the use of the odd phoenix down and curative spell (we also had some group-curing mist potions in our inventory).

Eventually, through judicious use of limit breaks and resonance attacks, along with making hay when we managed to stagger him and the minions he regularly summoned, we prevailed after a good 10 or so minutes, triggering another lavish cut scene.

Despite its retro undercurrent, with the HD-2D visuals and turn-based battling, Final Fantasy Resonance fells surprisingly modern in terms of its gameplay. Its battle system offers more or less the full range of options to which we have become accustomed in the 3D Final Fantasy games, and is certainly way more sophisticated than the battle systems in other HD-2D games, like the Octopath Traveler games and Dragon Quest remakes.

Plus, it looks superb, with a typically vibrant colour palette, as seen in other HD-2D games, and some pretty lush cut scenes. Naturally, a short demo left question marks concerning how big its world might be and how long it might take to finish, and we got very little insight into what the story is about.

But what we played left us feeling confident that it will be a worthy addition to the Final Fantasy catalogue, and one which is especially suited for playing on the go on the Switch or Switch 2. We’ll bring you a definitive verdict when it arrives in October.

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