Spider-Man beat the Avengers at the box office. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” broke the “Avengers: Endgame” record for the biggest North American opening weekend with $360 million in ticket sales from theaters in the U.S. and Canada, Sony Pictures said Monday.

Sony on Sunday projected that “Spider-Man” would net an estimated $355 million in its first weekend playing in 4,487 theaters, just barely missing the 2019 “Avengers: Endgame” record of $357 million. But the fourth Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland had a stronger than expected Sunday and ultimately came in ahead.

Tom Rothman, the chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group said in a statement, “records are made to be broken, but we will take great pride in this one, for as long as we hold it.”

Before “Avengers: Endgame,” no movie had opened over $300 million domestically. The previous record holders were “Avengers: Infinity War,” which launched with $257 million in 2018, and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($247 million in 2015). In December 2021, during the pandemic, the third Holland Spider-Man movie “No Way Home,” earned a place on the list with a $260 million debut on its way to $1.9 billion globally.

The high-earning combination of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey,” which share actors Holland, Zendaya and Jon Bernthal, also propelled a record weekend overall for movie theaters in the U.S. and Canada.

According to Rentrak, the domestic box office overall is up over 15% from last year with over $6.2 billion in ticket sales to date.

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Two town centre shops at Newborough in Scarborough have applied to sell alcohol from the early morning, seven days a week, with councillors set to debate the plans at a meeting next week.

If the premises licence applications are approved, the One Stop at 50 – 53 Newborough would be allowed to sell alcohol and stay open from 7am to 10pm, Monday to Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Food Plus at 54 – 55, Newborough would also be allowed to stay open and sell alcohol from 7am to 11pm, daily.

However, concerns have been raised by local residents about the impact on other businesses, customers, and members of the public if the licences are granted.

One objector said: “The area risks becoming an area dominated by off-licence alcohol availability and that is not in the interests of the local community.

“It would increase the risk of alcohol-related nuisance, street drinking, littering, loitering, anti-social behaviour, proxy purchasing, underage access to alcohol and pressure on the surrounding businesses and public areas.”

Google Maps Distance Between The Two Businesses On Newborough Seeking 7am Premises Licences. Google Maps

The objector, who owns nearby commercial premises, has expressed concerns about alcohol-related nuisance and street drinking.

The objector said: “The grant of these applications would, in my view, undermine the licensing objectives, particularly the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, the prevention of public nuisance, and the protection of children from harm.”

At a meeting on Monday, August 10, members of North Yorkshire Council’s statutory licensing sub-committee will discuss the proposal.

The committee can grant the licences as applied for, subject to any conditions, grant the licences subject to any additional conditions that members consider appropriate, or reject the whole or part of the applications.

The objector has urged councillors to introduce various additional conditions if the licences are granted.

Newborough, Scarborough. Google Maps.

These include restricting alcohol sales to between 10am and 9pm, prohibiting the sale of single cans or bottles, and banning the sale of beer, lager, or cider above 5.5 per cent ABV, except for “genuine premium or specialist imported products sold as part of a multipack”.

The objector also suggested that spirits should be kept behind the counter or in a locked display cabinet, and that the premises should operate a Challenge 25 policy at all times.

Residents and members of the public are invited to attend the committee meeting at Scarborough Town Hall, starting at 10.30am.

(Image: Newsquest)

Elizabeth Emanuel, who with her husband, designed the wedding dress worn by Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1981, has a new challenge

The designer of Princess Diana’s wedding dress has created a replica of the late princess’s 40-foot veil – more than four decades after the original went missing.

Elizabeth Emanuel has recreated the iconic embroidered veil, which she originally designed with her husband David for Diana’s wedding to the then Prince Charles at St Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981.

In the decades after the royal wedding, Diana’s famous wedding gown has been on display for visitors of both Kensington Palace in London and the late princess’s ancestral home of Althorp House in Northamptonshire, however her veil has always been missing from the exhibits.

Now, Ms Emanuel has been commissioned by Renae Plant, the founder of the Princess Diana Museum, to bring the veil back to life on the 45th anniversary of the royal wedding.

Taking to Instagram, Ms Emanuel shared some unseen photographs of seamstresses and embroiderers working on crafting the original bridal gown in her small studio in Mayfair back in 1981.

She wrote: “Hard to believe it’s been 45 years since the royal Wedding! The behind the scenes photos bring back so many memories.”

Speaking to People magazine about the remarkable recreation of the veil, Ms Emanuel explained that adding the accessory to future displays will help ensure the ‘whole magic’ of Diana’s wedding look continues to live on in her memory.

She told the publication: “’That’s why I call it the Veil of Light. You can see the twinkle, and it radiates. The dress isn’t as complete without the veil.”

The designer added that once the veil is added to the whole look, the wedding dress “looks lighter, and has this airy, delicate feel to it which you don’t necessarily appreciate when you see the dress without all of that. It is an integral part of the design.”

To ensure the new veil is as accurate as possible to the original, Ms Emanuel worked alongside London-based embroidery house Hand & Lock, who produced the first veil in 1981, and has also unearthed the initial measurements they used.

45 years on from the royal wedding, which was watched by 750 million people in 74 countries, Ms Plant is set to take the collection on tour in Autumn, allowing members of the public to catch a rare glimpse of the recreated piece for the first time.

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David and Elizabeth Emanuel went to extraordinary lengths to keep the design of Diana’s iconic wedding gown under wraps until the big day. The pair even destroyed their sketches immediately after showing them to Diana, ensuring they could never end up in the wrong hands. And should the design somehow be leaked, they crafted a second backup dress as a precaution.

David previously told People magazine: “At the time we wanted to make absolutely sure that the dress was a surprise. We didn’t try it on Diana. We never even discussed it. We wanted to make sure that we had something there; it was for our own peace of mind, really.”

Diana never actually set eyes on the second dress, which was crafted from identical fabric to the first and also featured ruffles around the neck.

South Cambridgeshire District Council ordered the unapproved mobile homes at Southgate Caravan Park to be removed – but a government inspector sided with the site owner

An inspector has allowed the owner of a Cambridge Traveller site to keep extra mobile homes put up without permission after an appeal against the council.

Planning permission was granted in 2008 for 24 mobile homes and two chalets to be sited at Southgate Caravan Park off Fen Road for use solely by Travellers.

South Cambridgeshire District Council issued an enforcement notice in February alleging that more mobile homes had been added and others subdivided. Amos Webb appealed to the Planning Inspectorate with a hearing held on July 14.

The council also said that nine of the mobile homes were “used by persons of several ethnicities and did not identify as Gypsies or Travellers”.

Mr Webb disputed this and said he had made sure all residents were from the Gypsy or Traveller community by checking they “could speak Roma”.

Inspector M Madge said there was no “substantive evidence” to show that only Gypsies or Travellers have used the site.

Mr Webb also appealed on the grounds that the “time that action could be taken had passed”. This was accepted for two of the mobile buildings as they could be shown to have been there for 10 years or more “without significant interruption”.

A building alleged by the council to be an “additional unit of accommodation” was found by the inspector to instead be used as a garage. It can be seen in aerial photographs dating back as far as April 2015.

Another mobile unit was also in photographs from this period. Mr Webb said it was used to provide “additional sleeping and showering facilities”. The council argued this was used as a separate home as it was fenced off from the surrounding pitches.

Inspector Madge said it was “not clear what purpose this mobile home serves” but “it would not be unreasonable to conclude it contains all the required facilities for day-to-day domestic existence”.

There were multiple mobile homes “substantially larger” than the others which the council alleged were sub-divided. The inspector said Mr Webb did not provide any “substantive evidence” to disprove this.

The inspector said these larger units were only visible in aerial images as far back as May 2017, less than the 10-year cutoff. Three more mobile homes were seen to have been placed on the land somewhere between June 2023 and March 2025.

The inspector said that the extra units do not “significantly reduce” outside space and, “seen against a backdrop of mobile homes”, do not “have any adverse effect on the character and appearance of the countryside”.

Though planning permission was only given for 26 homes, they said each pitch “is of a sufficient size to accommodate a mobile home along with associated vehicles, touring caravans and outside amenity space for residents.”

Inspector Madge accepted Mr Webb’s argument that, “as families grow”, residents on the pitches needed extra accommodation or dayrooms and that these extra units “would make a positive contribution” to “facilitating the traditional lifestyle of the authorised users of the caravan site”.

They granted planning permission for the additional mobile home units – under the condition they cannot be used as independent homes “to prevent overcrowding”.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A court case opened Monday challenging South Africa’s controversial new law that allows the government to seize private land, which has been at the heart of strained relations with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Expropriation Act was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa last year as part of the government’s efforts to address the effects of land dispossession and economic inequality through decades of white minority rule in South Africa that ended in 1994.

Trump has said the law will be used to target white farmers for land seizures and has cited it as a reason why the U.S. has withdrawn all financial aid to South Africa and imposed high trade tariffs on the country. The government denies this, and says the law will be aimed at making unused land productive.

The Democratic Alliance, a political party which is now part of the country’s unity government, has joined with lobby groups to challenge the law in the Western Cape High Court. Lawyers for the groups argued Monday that the law violates the South African Constitution’s protections of private property and prohibitions of expropriation of land without compensation.

Proceedings in the case are scheduled to run through the end of the week, but is unclear how long judges will take to deliver a ruling, which could take weeks or months.

The law allows the South African government to expropriate land from private parties if it’s in the public interest, and it allows for expropriation without compensation if negotiations for a reasonable settlement have failed. The government says the law does not allow land to be taken arbitrarily.

Others parties to the case include the Institute for Race Relations, which argues the law does not adequately protect land owners’ property rights and the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum.

Afrikaner farmers are descended from Dutch and other European colonial settlers who first came to the country more than 300 years ago. The Trump administration has offered asylum to Afrikaners who claim persecution.

Opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin, who criticized Russia’s war in Ukraine and tried to challenge President Vladimir Putin in the 2024 election, said Monday he has left Russia, a move that follows a crackdown that barred him from a race for parliament this year.

Nadezhdin, 63, shared a video on Telegram, showing him standing in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

“Good news: I’m alive and free. Unfortunately, not in Russia for the time being,” he said, adding that he needs “to look around and figure out life going forward.”

In July, a Russian court fined Nadezhdin about $13 for displaying “extremist symbols,” charges that he rejected as absurd. The accusations stemmed from a 2023 online video that briefly showed a picture of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, convicted of extremism in a case widely seen as politically motivated.

Earlier that month, Nadezhdin also was designated a “foreign agent” — a label that brings additional government scrutiny as well as stigmatizing connotations in Russia.

That and a fine on an extremism-related charge barred him from running in September’s parliamentary vote, which is expected to be tightly controlled by the Kremlin.

The ruling United Russia party is seeking to preserve its dominance in the lower house of parliament in a race against the Communist Party and a couple of other parties that vote in sync with the Kremlin on key issues. The campaign comes amid signs of growing public fatigue with the war in Ukraine as fuel shortages and economic pain increase, an environment that reduces the authorities’ tolerance for even token opposition.

In January 2024, Nadezhdin collected thousands of signatures in his run for president as he openly called for an end to the war in Ukraine. But he was kept off the March 2024 ballot after Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that more than 9,000 signatures submitted by his campaign were invalid — enough to disqualify him. Putin faced only token opposition in the election and easily gained a fifth term.

A veteran politician, Nadezhdin worked in the government in the 1990s when he was an adviser to Sergei Kiriyenko, now a top Putin aide. He also served as a lawmaker and more recently became a member of a municipal council. He was one of the few high-profile Putin critics still living in Russia.

Earlier this year, Nadezhdin declared his bid to run for the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, and vowed to continue his symbolic campaign even after the Justice Ministry branded him with the “foreign agent” designation.

Emergency services were called to the A172, between Thirsk Road and Little Busby, earlier today (August 3) following a crash. 

North Yorkshire Police said the road is expected to be closed for some time – with AA Traffic News now showing slow traffic on either side of the closure. 

It is not yet known whether anyone has been injured in the incident or taken to hospital.

A force spokesperson said: “We are currently dealing with a two-vehicle road traffic collision between Thirsk Road and Little Busby.

“The road is expected to be closed for some time. Motorists are advised to find alternative routes in the meantime. Reference: NYP-03082026-0290.” 

The Yorkshire Ambulance Service has been contacted for more information.