Olly Murs walked off stage just 20 minutes into his gig last night – due to struggles with his voice.
The singer, who came runner-up in The X Factor in 2009, left the Ovo Hydro venue in Glasgow six songs into his set. He later posted a video in his Instagram stories, in which he explained it was the first time in 15 years he had abandoned a gig.
The singer, who is best known for his four top-six UK singles, including Troublemaker with Flo Rida in 2012, acknowledged that he had voice issues. Due to the weekend performances in Manchester, Birmingham, and London, he announced to fans that he wanted to see a doctor that night.
Glasgow, I’m so sorry tonight, he said in full. I regret having to leave the show six songs later. This is the first time I’ve done it in 15 years. Although vocal performance is typically acceptable when you can sort of get through it, I left tonight believing my voice was excellent.
Because I wouldn’t have appeared otherwise, I probably felt a little rundown, but I didn’t think I could do the show. I’m so sorry to leave after six songs. I’ve never done this for 15 years.
He continued, “I was sounding rubbish and it’s unfair for you guys to spend all that money to come see me,” as you can hear from my voice. You and I both deserve the best performances. I’m so sorry, dearly, from the bottom of my heart.
READ MORE: Olly Murs met with boos from crowd as he makes admission and asks ‘shall I go’
It was the second time Olly had cancelled a show at Glasgow’s Hydro arena as last year he dramatically pulled out of supporting Take That minutes before doors opened. The dad was also forced to cancel two UK gigs last month. The star took to his social media to tell his fans that his Hull and Brighton gigs would not be going ahead.
The singer, who was born in Witham, Essex, first gained notoriety on The X Factor’s sixth season. His self-titled debut album, which came out the year after, was awarded double platinum. In 2022, Olly’s most recent album, Marry Me, was released.
Olly said, “I hate that I have to write this andamp; I really sorry to let you guys down, but unfortunately, we are having to reschedule our next two shows in Brighton &, Hull,” when he announced the cancellation of the Hull and Brighton events.
According to US Department of State spokesperson Tammy Bruce, the country is “calling on the Government of Sudan to cease all use of chemical weapons and uphold its obligations” under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
According to Bruce, sanctions will be imposed on the US Congress on or around June 6 after the State Department’s decision has been made public.
Sudan exports to the US will be restricted, as will access to US government lines of credit be impeded. Sudanese government forces did not provide any additional information in its statement regarding when and where they used the chemical weapons.
The government’s forces used chemical weapons on at least two occasions against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in remote areas of Sudan, according to a report from The New York Times in January. Unnamed US officials, who claimed the weapon may have been chlorine gas, which can cause severe respiratory pain and death, were cited in the report.
Since April 2023, Sudan’s army and the RSF have been at odds with one another because of a power conflict.
In Sudan, thousands of people have died and 13 million have been displaced as a result of the conflict, which has also led to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world and a famine.
The US has also previously criticized the RSF and its allies for carrying out genocide, and sanctioned senior figures like General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the organization’s head.
In Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 118-103 with the help of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 38 points and Jalen Williams had 26.
Going into Game 3 on Saturday in Minneapolis, the Thunder are 2-0 up in the best-of-seven series.
Gilgeous-Alexander has scored 30 or more points in five games straight and was given the trophy prior to Thursday’s game.
With just one turnover, he added eight assists and three steals, which tied his career playoff-high.
The win was led by Chet Holmgren by 22 points.
Anthony Edwards of Minnesota finished with 32 points on only one of nine three-point attempts. He also collected six assists and nine rebounds.
In Game 2, Julius Randle, who helped Minnesota a first-half lead with a string of three-pointers, finished with just six points. He did not play in the fourth quarter and only made two of his 11 attempts from the floor, skipping all three of his three three-point attempts.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 17 points and Naz Reid added 10 points and eight rebounds.
With only more than three minutes left, the Timberwolves jumped out to within 10 points after leading by as much as 24 at the end of the third quarter.
The Thunder, however, had to come as far as Minnesota could before they could because they had to respond inconsequentially.
In the third inning, Oklahoma City again increased the pressure on defense.
Six minutes into the fourth quarter, the Thunder extended their lead to 24 before the final whistle by missing seven consecutive shots and making five turnovers.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who had a difficult start in Game 1, was much more effective in Game 2, going a long way to missing a shot in Game 2 with less than five minutes to go.
After attempting just 13 shots on Tuesday in a 114-88 loss, Edwards said he needed to shoot more in Game 2. On Thursday, he started the offensive aggressively, making 10 shots in the first quarter and adding three assists.
With only more than two minutes left in the half, the Timberwolves had a strong second-half lead.
During a 7-2 run to give the Thunder an eight-point lead into halftime, Gilgeous-Alexander scored all of their points. In the closing seconds of his game, he drew a foul on Jaden McDaniels and made two free throws.
Despite only shooting four of their 20 from beyond the arc in the first half, the Thunder held a 58-50 lead at the break.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister, has recently had an unusually busy schedule with an unrecognized government.
He has hosted his counterpart from Pakistan, spoken on the phone with India’s foreign minister, and jetted to Iran and China. He also had a second encounter with the Pakistani foreign minister in Beijing. He joined Pakistani and Chinese delegations for trilateral discussions on Wednesday.
This, even though the ruling Taliban have historically had tense relations with most of these countries, and currently have taut ties with Pakistan, a one-time ally with whom trust is at an all-time low.
Analysts claim that this diplomatic overdrive suggests that the movement is far from a pariah on the global stage even though neither the UN nor any of its member states formally acknowledge the Taliban.
Why, then, are several nations in the Afghan region preparing to negotiate diplomatically with the Taliban while avoiding formal recognition?
We unpack the Taliban’s latest high-level regional engagements and look at why India, Pakistan and Iran are all trying to befriend Afghanistan’s rulers, four years after they marched on Kabul and grabbed power.
A timeline of recent diplomatic contacts between Afghanistan and the United States:
Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, Qatar, described the organization as a “reality of today’s Afghanistan” because it “controls all of the country’s territory and borders.”
“The regional countries know this fact and, as such, they engage with the Islamic Emirate at various levels, which is a pragmatic and rational approach in my view”, he told Al Jazeera, referring to the name by which the Taliban refers to the current Afghan state.
He continued, arguing that formal recognition of the Taliban government “must not be further delayed.” “We believe that we can find solutions to problems through engagement,” he continued.
Our region should adhere to the statement, “Our region has its own goals and interests.”
It’s a unlikely partnership. The Indian government refused to cooperate with the Afghan group during its initial rule, which was then only recognized by Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
India, which had supported the earlier Soviet-backed government of Mohammad Najibullah, shut down its embassy in Kabul once the Taliban came to power: It viewed the Taliban as a proxy of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, which had supported the mujahideen against Moscow.
Instead, New Delhi backed the Northern Alliance, an anti-Taliban opposition group.
India reopened its Kabul embassy in 2001 following the Taliban’s defeat, and the country invested more than $3 billion in projects in infrastructure, health, education, and water, according to its Ministry of External Affairs.
However, the Taliban and its allies, including the Haqqani group, have frequently launched deadly attacks on the country’s embassy and consulates.
New Delhi evacuated its embassy and once more refused to acknowledge the group after the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. However, unlike during the Taliban’s first stint in power, India built diplomatic contacts with the group – first behind closed doors, then, increasingly, publicly.
According to analysts, India understood that its regional rival, Pakistan, had given in to its own influence in Afghanistan by refusing to engage with the Taliban earlier.
India reopened its embassy in Kabul in June 2022, less than a year after the Taliban’s return to power, by putting together a team of “technical experts” to oversee it. In November 2024, the Taliban appointed an acting consul at the Afghan consulate in Mumbai.
Then, in January, Muttaqi and Vikram Misri, both Indian Foreign Ministers, flew to Dubai for a meeting, marking the highest level of direct contact between New Delhi and the Taliban thus far.
The New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation’s deputy director, Kabir Taneja, claims that India was never going to have a choice if it didn’t deal with “whatever political reality sets in Kabul.”
“No one is pleased per se that the reality is the Taliban”, Taneja told Al Jazeera. Since the Taliban took control, India’s “decades-long” efforts to foster goodwill with the Afghan people have not been completely undone.
The Darul Uloom Deoband seminary, which is the Taliban’s ideological center, is located in India, he added. “These are ties with the country and its actors that cannot be vanquished, and have to be dealt with realistically and practically”, he added.
Pakistan, one of the Taliban’s most prominent supporters, saw its relationship with the organization decline recently.
Since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, Pakistan has seen a surge in violent attacks, which Islamabad attributes to armed groups, such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Pakistan denies that the Taliban government has any right to keep them in Afghanistan and that the TTP has access to Afghan territory.
The Pakistan Taliban, which first emerged in 2007 as part of the US-led “war on terror,” has for a while long violently upheld Islamabad’s authority. Though distinct from the Afghan Taliban, the two are seen as ideologically aligned.
Rabia Akhtar, director of the University of Lahore’s Center for Security, Strategy, and Policy Research, claims that Dar’s visit to Kabul and subsequent communication with Muttaqi represent a “tactical, ad hoc thaw” rather than a significant change in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations.
Islamabad became more and more concerned about the possibility that New Delhi might use its territory against Pakistan during the recent India-Pakistan crisis, she suggested.  , “This has increased Islamabad’s urgency to secure its western border”, Akhtar told Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s earlier this year decision to expel Afghan refugees, many of whom have lived there their entire lives, and frequent border closures that cause disruption to trade are also sources of tension in the relationship.
According to Akhtar, the refugees question may be a significant factor in how international relations develop in the future.
“While Pakistan has pushed for repatriation of undocumented Afghans, Kabul views such deportations as punitive”, she said. That’s a good sign if the dialogue shows that both sides are aware that conflict is unsustainable, especially in the face of shifting regional patterns and economic pressures.
A “blame game,” according to Shaheen of the Taliban, is not in anyone’s interests, and Kabul wants good relations with Islamabad to be “reciprocated.”
“We have taken practical steps as far as it concerns us”, he said, noting that Afghanistan had started building checkpoints “along the line adjacent to Pakistan in order to prevent any one from crossing”.
Their security forces are in charge of their internal security, not us, they say.
At the trilateral talks in Beijing on Wednesday, China claimed that Islamabad and Kabul had agreed in principle to improve diplomatic ties and that they would send their respective ambassadors as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, Akhtar does not expect the “core mistrust” between the two neighbours, particularly over alleged TTP sanctuaries, to “go away any time soon”.
Instead of focusing on structural reconciliation, Akhtar argued, “We should look at this shift as part of Pakistan’s broader crisis management system after the India-Pak crisis.”
Like India, Tehran refused to recognise the Taliban when it was first in power, while backing the Northern Alliance, especially after the 1998 killing of Iranian diplomats in Mazar-i-Sharif by Taliban fighters.
On its eastern border, Iran amassed tens of thousands of soldiers, almost waging a war with the Taliban.
Iran was said to be quietly engaging with the Taliban and offering only limited assistance in an effort to counteract American influence and defend its own strategic interests in the wake of the US’s extensive military presence in the region following 9/11.
Since the Taliban took back reins of the country nearly four years ago, Iran again showed willingness to build ties with rulers in Kabul on a number of security, humanitarian and trade-related matters, analysts say.
According to Shaheen, the Taliban’s representative in Doha, both Iran and India previously believed the organization to be “under the influence of Pakistan.”
They now realize that this is not the case. In view of this ground reality, they have adopted a new realistic and pragmatic approach, which is good for everyone”, he said.
The meeting between Muttaqi and Pezeshkian, according to Ibraheem Bahiss, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, doesn’t “signify an imminent official recognition.” Given its “key interests” in Afghanistan, he claimed, “pragmatic considerations” have prompted Iran to engage with the Taliban.
“Security-wise, Tehran wants allies in containing the ISIS]ISIL] local chapter. He told Al Jazeera that Tehran has also been trying to improve trade relations with Afghanistan, which is currently one of its major trading partners.
At least 94 people were killed in the twin suicide bombings in Kerman in January 2024, making it one of Iran’s deadliest attacks in decades. The Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), an Afghanistan-based offshoot of ISIL, claimed responsibility.
ISKP has carried out numerous high-profile attacks throughout Afghanistan in response to the Taliban’s rule in recent years.
In addition to the “transboundary water flowing from the Helmand River,” Bahiss added that Tehran also needed a “willing partner” to deal with Iran’s estimated 780, 000 Afghan refugees.
In May 2023, tensions between the two neighbours flared, leading to border clashes in which two Iranian border guards and one Taliban fighter were killed.
Milky toners are a bit of a buzzword right now in the beauty world, but in my opinion, the ones I’ve tried actually live up to their hype. From BYOMA’s Hydrating Milky Toner, £11.99, to Curel’s Moisture Facial Milk and Beauty of Joseon’s Glow Replenishing Rice Milk, I’ve trialled my fair share.
And now K-Beauty brand Erborian has just launched its new Skin-Therapy Milky Serum. A biphase milky texture thats ideal for us who have normal to oily skin. I was intrigued by this as its a serum rather than a toner, and on the fact that it promises to target seven areas of the skin with just one tiny bottle. I’m not a massive fan of layering hundreds of different products on my face, so having a one-and-done product really appeals to me.
This milky serum is packed with 17 potent ingredients, including glow-giving Yuzu, soothing Centella Asiatica, and Ginseng, making it ideal for those with oily skin or those who prefer a barely there feeling. Additionally, it contains Allantoin and skin-plumping Hyaluronic Acid and 10% PHA to gently exfoliate, clear pores, and smooth texture, along with soothing any redness.
I was stopped on the street to ask for my skincare while using a milky toner that claimed glass skin.
READ MORE: “My secret to glowing, luminous skin all summer long is Sol de Janeiro’s new shimmer cream.
I’ve already a huge Erborian fan. One of my all-time favorites skin tints is the CC Red Correct with Centella Asiatica, which is also my current go-to base product. While my everyday makeup bag also has room for the Super BB Concealer.
So I was very excited to test out this new launch. Firstly, I love the packaging, the glass bottle makes the serum feel really premium and the pipette makes the product so easy to use (makes sure to shake well before use as its a biphase texture). Secondly, I really enjoy the consistency, it feels oiler than serums I’ve tried in the past, but this makes the product glide so smoothly onto the skin and leaves the skin with that immediate radiance. The serum claims to have visible results after the first night, and I was pretty skeptical about this as I find a lot of brands claim that without actually having any instant results. But after using this serum for one night, I found that my skin felt hydrated, plumper and looked visibly glowy (in a trendy glass skin way, not a sweaty way). My sister even commented that my skin looked so bright and awake on our 7am morning walk.
Erborian advises using this as a nighttime only treatment, ideally on its own (though a moisturiser on top would be fine). I don’t like layering lots of products, especially if I have to get to bed early, as I suggested above, which is ideal for me.
I’ve been using this product for a while, but I’ve found no fault with it. I do have oilier skin, so this is perfect for me. However, if your skin is more dry, you might not feel as hydrated as you would like. If so, I suggest trying the same range of Skin Therapy Oil Serum. It is more suited for dry or extremely dry skin because of its richer, oil-based texture.