Hollywood star Idris Elba has announced he wants to retire from acting to pursue a career behind the camera. The Wire star, 53, was speaking at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, when he announced his ambition to pivot towards being a director full-time. “I’m hoping that my fan base as an actor isn’t mad at me,” he told reporters, “but eventually I want to transfer to be a director fully.” The Luther protagonist added, “I’ve been acting for a long time. I love it still, but I think directing allows me to flex slightly different muscles and just be a part of the set in a different way. I really enjoy it.” And the Golden Globe winner—who also frequently DJs at festivals and nightclubs around the world—also revealed an ambition beyond the entertainment industry altogether. “There is a possibility that I may go to school and just study human science, not political science, because I think humans respond to humans regardless of whether it’s politics or sports,” the star said. “It’s about humans.” The statement pours cold water on hopes he could become the next James Bond, after spending years on the shortlist of Daniel Craig replacements.
United Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft spotted flying on final approach for landing at London Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner wide body passenger airplane has the registration tail number N26970 and is powered by 2x GE Genx-1b74/75 jet engines. United is a major US airline carrier with headquarters and main hub base at Chicago, USA with a fleet of 967 planes ranking on of the largest airlines in the world, member of Star Alliance aviation group. The airliner arrives from Los Angeles LAX as flight UA923. London, England, UK on September 2024 NurPhoto/Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Furious international travelers are saying they will skip the World Cup and even forego visiting family members in the U.S. if the Trump administration’s new border screening rules take effect. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol published a notice Wednesday saying that even visitors who don’t need a visa and are otherwise authorized to travel on the ESTA visa waiver program must submit new, detailed personal information. That includes all of their social media activity for the past five years; names, dates of birth, places of birth, and five years’ worth of phone numbers for all immediate family members; and biometric data including iris scans and DNA samples. Australians who had originally planned to travel to the U.S. for next year’s World Cup said they’re canceling their visits in response to the “horrifying” and “draconian” new rules. Others said they wouldn’t visit family in the U.S., and would meet relatives in Canada or Mexico instead. Even some dual citizens said they wouldn’t visit family members back home, because their spouses and children weren’t U.S. citizens. “It’s not worth the risk,” one said.
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Leah Lewis and David Del Rio in March 2025. Maya Dehlin Spach/WireImage
CBS has reopened its investigation into sexual assault allegations against Matlock actor David Del Rio, interviewing him and his attorney again in late November, according to Us Weekly. The renewed inquiry centers on a claim made by his co-star, Leah Lewis, 29, who reported the alleged assault to the network on Oct. 2. That same day, Del Rio, 38, who played Billy Martinez on the legal drama, was abruptly “fired and escorted” off set, Deadline reported. Del Rio has not publicly addressed the allegation. Still, he has retained high-profile defense attorney Shawn Holley, whose past clients include Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, and Lindsay Lohan. The controversy has also spilled into Del Rio’s personal life. His wife, Katherine Del Rio, posted—and later deleted—a statement on Instagram defending her husband and sharply criticizing Lewis, calling her “the most disturbing human being I have ever met.” According to US Weekly, friends and family of Del Rio say his wife plans to stand by him as the investigation plays out. `
A widely recognized voice in animation and video games has died, according to his family. Jim Ward, known for roles across children’s television and major gaming franchises, died from complications related to advanced Alzheimer’s, his wife, Janice, told TMZ. He was 66. She said he died at 10:45 a.m. while receiving care at Silverado Beverly Place Memory Care in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Fans knew his voice from The Fairly OddParents, where he played Doug Dimmadome and Chet Ubetcha. His work in video games spanned decades, beginning in 1993 with Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin. His credits included Resident Evil 4, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Call of Duty. He also voiced Captain Qwark in the Ratchet and Clank series until 2021. His final video game appearance was in Quake Champions, released in 2022. No further details were provided by his family.
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Trump’s Billionaire Buddies Take His Person of the Year Crown
President Donald Trump has lost his Time Person of the Year crown to a band of his billionaire pals. Trump was selected in 2024 for the historic acknowledgment after winning his second term in the White House. Now he’s been ousted by a selection of tycoons dubbed “the architects” of the breakthrough year for artificial intelligence. Included in the lineup are Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, OpenAI founder Sam Altman, AMD boss Lisa Su, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, Meta leader Mark Zuckerberg, X’s Elon Musk, and Google’s Demis Hassabis. Announcing the winners, Time said, “This year, the debate about how to wield AI responsibly gave way to a sprint to deploy it as fast as possible. But the risk-averse are no longer in the driver’s seat... humanity is now flying down the highway, all gas no brakes, toward a highly automated and highly uncertain future.” Person of the Year has featured in Time since 1927, 95 years before Altman released ChatGPT in 2022 and 98 years before the program reached 800 million users a week. Musk and Zuckerberg have been regular faces in the court of Trump, although Musk is now out in the cold after an explosive breakdown in relations over policy differences.
More than 250 people have been quarantined in South Carolina amid a measles outbreak driven by low vaccination rates, experts say. In upstate South Carolina, 111 people have been diagnosed with the disease, of which 105 are thought to be unvaccinated. The Washington Post reports that 20 of the 111 cases involve children under the age of five. Linda Bell, an epidemiologist at the state Department of Public Health, said in a news briefing that 27 new cases had presented in six days, while 254 people had been placed into quarantine. Sixteen of the cases came from a single congregation at the Way of Truth Church in the northern city of Inman. She said that the state’s vaccination coverage is “lower than hoped for.” Responding to questions from the press, Bell said, “Accelerating is an accurate term. That is a spike in cases we are concerned about.” It represents a worrying new chapter in the outbreak that blighted the southwest and midwest this year, despite measles having been eliminated in the U.S. in 2000.
Dramatic footage shows the moment an experienced skydiver was forced to cut himself loose from his parachute after it became tangled on a plane’s wing. The parachutist was the first of 17 jumping from a Cessna Caravan at 15,000 feet, when the handle of his reserve chute snagged onto the aircraft, dragging him from the plane and leaving him suspended in mid-air. While dangling from the wing, the skydiver managed to use a hook knife to sever his lines, sending him into freefall before he was able to deploy his backup chute and land safely with only minor injuries. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau released the video as part of its findings into what went wrong over Mission Beach, about 90 miles from Cairns, on Sept. 20. The disruption also caused another jumper to fall prematurely from the aircraft, although they also landed unharmed. “This type of situation, where a reserve parachute is entangled with the aircraft, is unique and extreme,” said Australian Parachute Federation (APF) chief executive Stephen Porter. “Fortunately, in this case, the parachutist had a functioning main parachute as an option.” Porter praised the skydiver’s “calmness and ability to assess the situation” for the good outcome, and credited the pilot’s ability to “calmly assess the situation and make quick decisions under pressure.”
A 47-year-old man was killed at an airport after being hit by a snowplow, according to People. He died after being struck by a Ford F550 snowplow at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, People reported, citing a statement from Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesperson Jeff Lea. The man, whose name has not been released, is understood to have been an employee at aviation catering company LSG Sky Chefs. Lea said the plow struck him at about 6.45 p.m. near Terminal Two. Medics, he said, were unable to save him. The vehicle was being driven by a 25-year-old contracted by Sky Chefs, who “remained on scene cooperating with law enforcement,” Lea said. “Driver impairment is not believed to be a factor.” It came on a bitter day where around 200 flights were delayed at the airport, and temperatures were below 30 degrees. Parallel investigations are being carried out by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office and the Minnesota State Patrol Airport Police Department. According to CBS News, a LSG Sky Chefs spokesperson said, “This loss affects all of us—especially those who worked closely with him every day.”
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Star Wars Painting Auction Heritage Auctions/Heritage Auctions
A 1977 painting that introduced the world to Star Wars sold for $3.875 million at an auction, becoming the most expensive piece of memorabilia in the franchise’s history. Tom Jung’s acrylic and airbrushed painting, later repurposed as the film’s iconic movie poster, first appeared on billboards, theater programs, and in newspaper ads in the weeks before the film’s initial release, serving as the general public’s first glimpse into George Lucas’ now-legendary space opera. “For most of America, this was the first time they got a glimpse of the galaxy far, far away,” said Charles Eptin of Heritage Auctions. “Anyone who’s seen these movies or the marketing materials around it—you see this piece, your heart starts racing.” He called the painting a “cultural artifact” and a piece of American history. The painting initially belonged to Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz, who passed it to his daughter, who later put it up for auction with a starting bid of $1 million. The buyer chose to keep their identity private. Before the sale, the most expensive piece of Star Wars memorabilia was Darth Vader’s lightsaber, which sold for $3.6 million at an auction in August, which also included a whip used by Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade.
Rising Dem Star Wages War With Top ICE Barbie Goon
Zohran Mamdani didn’t mince words when asked about Kristi Noem or her ICE-agent cronies. In an interview with MS Now (MSNBC) on Wednesday, the New York City mayor-elect hit back at the Homeland Security Secretary’s claim that he may have “violated the Constitution” by releasing a video informing migrants of their rights when approached by ICE agents. “I’m proud to inform people of their rights, and I can’t think of a more American thing to do than to speak about the protections that we all have under the law,” the Democratic Socialist said.Mamdani, 34, also said he was “prepared for any consequence” that came with “standing up [for] New Yorkers,” including arrest. He added that he would make it his goal to ensure that Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino—who has spearheaded volatile immigration raids in Chicago and other American cities—won’t make it to the Big Apple’s subway stations. “My responsibility is to do the work necessary to ensure that doesn’t take place... What I also told the president, is we have the NYPD here. We trust the NYPD to deliver that public safety, we do not need ICE and the National Guard to make that same case.” Noem’s veiled threat comes weeks after Donald Trump lavished praise on Mamdani during an Oval Office meeting. The Daily Beast has reached out to the Homeland Security Department for comment.