Luke Littler is chasing a third consecutive title but was made to work for his place in the New Zealand Masters quarter-finals.
The world champion, who has just won the World Matchplay and Australian Masters in succession, was far from his best in beating Kiwi Mark Cleaver 6-4.
Luke Humphries also progressed as he looks to defend his title in Auckland, but described his form as “depressing” after a 6-3 win over Haupai Puha.
England’s Littler, 18, won the first three legs of his match but was pegged back at 4-4 by Cleaver after some sloppy darts before recovering to clinch victory.
“It wasn’t easy up there. Mark’s not the quickest player so I just tried to get into some sort of rhythm, ” said Littler.
‘Form is depressing’ – Humphries
PDC/Photosport
Humphries admitted he is not happy with how he is playing after also failing to score a maximum and averaging just 89.47 in his first-round win.
“I think the last two months it has been hard work,” the Englishman said on ITV X.
“I am out of sorts, out of form, and struggling to find something. Since [winning] the Premier League final I have not been in the form I would have liked.
“It is depressing because I feel like something is there but it’s not coming out.
“It’s really tough to not perform at the level you can. I am finding myself not playing very well at the moment – but I can bounce back.
“I don’t think I have had one good game of darts in two months. Everyone knows that and everyone can see that.
“That doesn’t stop me coming back tomorrow and being the world number one that everyone knows.”
Humphries beat Damon Heta in the final to triumph last year and they will face each other again after the Australian thrashed Dean Hyland 6-1.
Top seed Stephen Bunting, aiming to add to his victories at the Bahrain Darts Masters and Nordic Darts Masters earlier this year, progressed past Ben Robb 6-3.
As The Devil Wears Prada sequel is underway, we’re getting some serious hair inspiration from the one and only Emily Charlton – whose sleek hair is giving major power moves
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As Devil Wears Prada 2 is in the works – one trend coming in hot from the newest film is copper hair. The fashion world is getting excited for some new outfit inspirations and looks from the New York set and Emily Charlton has you covered.
With her sharp wit, it’s only right to be matched with an even sharper style – and her hair has always made a statement. From Runway to Paris, Miranda’s rival is coming in hot.
Donning a sleek and scuplted bob from the original film, this time Emily is sporting a bolder more modern hairstyle that has been teased in the sequel. Her hair is always part of the power play – sharp, glossy and polished and now you can match her signature copper shine with Schwarzkopf Oleo Intense Copper Red 7-77 (£5.79).
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Emily’s hair is a modern take on her classic firey bob(Image: INTERNET)
It’s truly the perfect match for Emily’s vibrant, contemporary copper red. Powered by HaptIQ Technology, this formula strengthens and protects while delivering long-lasting, high-shine colour, perfect for that power-lunch-to-front-row serve.
Or if you prefer her tone of red in the original Devil Wears Prada you can also remake her iconic original look with the classic chic copper brown shade with the Schwarzkopf Oleo Intense Light Copper Brown 5-77 which is more of a rich, timeless copper brown that channels Emily’s original elegance. The perfect hue for those who favour subtle sophistication with a warm, polished glow.
The easy to use dye is under £6(Image: INTERNET)
Both of these shades promise long-lasting colour with Schwarzkopf’s Permanent Oil Colouration technology that infuses the colour pigments deeply into the hair fibre, for strong and healthy-looking hair with rich and long-lasting colour.
With a mask containing four caring oils to provide ultimate nourishment after colouration and restore strength for healthy-looking hair, this permanent Oleo Intense brown hair dye leaves the hair feeling soft, silky, and shiny. Fans hail how easy it is to apply, as one person said: “Gorgeous rich colour that’s left my hair so soft and shiny. Very easy to apply with no messy drips and also no strong or unpleasant smells like some hair dyes have. I’d not used this colour before but wanted to add some richer tones to my brunette and absolutely love the final outcome.”
While a second noted: “Application was smooth, no harsh smell, and my hair felt soft and conditioned afterwards—not stripped or dry. Would I recommend it as a regular go-to? Maybe not for lifting or big changes—but for grey coverage in a pinch? Absolutely. It’s a lot better than you’d expect from a boxed colour.”
Her classic sculpted hair was the original power move for her(Image: INTERNET)
Clariol also offer a similar shade with the Nice’n Easy Crème in shade Medium Reddish Brown (£5.98) and the oil infused hair dye delivering soft and shiny results that’s gentle on hair and scalp. While Revlon offer more of a bolder shade with the Revlon Tinte Colorsilk Medium Auburn (£5.19).
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Nourishing, ammonia-free hair dye formula is enriched with Keratin and Silk Amino Acids for healthier hair and Revlon’s 3D gel colour technology offers a natural, rich and radiant colour.
The White Lotus and Sex Education star Aimee Lou Wood has been pictured getting into the festive mood as she is filming for Marks & Spencer’s new Christmas advert
Aimee Lou Wood has been snapped on the set of the upcoming Marks & Spencer Christmas advert(Image: Raw/Click/GoffPhotos.com)
Aimee Lou Wood has been pictured on a picturesque set of a Christmassy street filled with festive decorations and the streets lined with snow as she takes on her latest filming project.
The White Lotus and Sex Education star, 31, is currently filming for the new Marks & Spencer Christmas advert, and will need to channel her acting skills for imaging the climate is much chillier than the current scorching August heatwave. The upmarket food and lifestyle shop’s Christmas adverts have become somewhat of a staple around the festive period – rivalling the likes of John Lewis, Aldi and other brands with its Christmas campaigns.
And it seems M&S are pulling out all the stops once again and have this time recruited actress Aimee to be at the helm of this year’s festive offering.
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Aimee has been snapped amongst a stylish cast of actors for the ad(Image: Raw/Click/GoffPhotos.com)
Photos show Aimee shunning the scorching heatwave and imagining a chillier climate as she is dressed in a faux-fur, cheetah print inspired jacket with a collar and long sleeves. The gorgeous jacket is paired with some fashionable, black wide leg trousers and heeled boots with a pointed toe.
Aimee had her long brunette locks styled down and in soft waves with a middle parting to frame her face. The actress looks to be getting into the festive spirit on set as she’s seen pulling a funny face and pumping her hands up to the sky – in clear excitement over her next filming project.
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The Sex Education actress seemed in good spirits on the set(Image: GoffPhotos.com)
In other snaps, Aimee appears to be taking a break from wearing the thick furry jacket in the middle of the August heatwave as she folds it over her arms while standing with other actors on set.
Aimee was embracing the cameras snapping photos of her on the set as she was seen holding two peace signs up and confidently pouting as a photographer snapped away.
A stunning street has been given a festive makeover in the middle of August(Image: GoffPhotos.com)
Other snaps see her with hair and stylist specialists to ensure her look for the highly-anticipated festive ad is seamless.
Meanwhile, a broader view of the magical set gives us an early idea on what to expect from this year’s advert. A festive, traditional high street is laden with massive baubles, traditional lamp posts decorated with snow and festive wreaths while a number of snowy trees are also pictured on the set.
Aimee pouted and playfully flashed the peace sign at the camera(Image: Raw/Click/GoffPhotos.com)
Finally, a shop is decorated with green busy garlands, bows and festive green wreaths while the floor is covered in a layer of snow.
The stunning actress rose to fame on Netflix’s hit series, Sex Education, where she played the loveable Aimee Gibbs. She went on to become a massive star with a legion of loyal fans.
Fans were over the moon when she was announced as a main cast member for series three of The White Lotus. She played Walton Goggins’ young girlfriend, Chelsea, and became a huge hit with international audiences.
She also stars in Netflix’s Toxic Town and co-created BBC’s upcoming series, Film Club.
Aimee took a break from wearing the warm furry jacket in between filming(Image: Raw/Click/GoffPhotos.com)
The Stockport-born star has been open about her life and previously opened up on learning to love herself while overcoming issues with low self esteem.
While Aimee was still at school, her parents split up, and her mother’s new partner paid for her to attend a fancy private school. However, she was the target of bullies and it further dented her confidence.
Despite her difficulties, however, Aimee found solace in acting, studying for a drama A Level at Cheadle Hume School before studying at the Oxford School of Drama, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
Barely two years after graduating in 2017, she got the role in Sex Education and the rest was history. She even scooped up the British Academy Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance.
In a 2020 interview with Glamour, Aimee shared how she had suffered from body dysmorphia all her life, revealing: “When I think back now, I was so harsh to myself. I actually wrote on my mirror when I was younger, “fat,” in lipstick so that every day I’d go to it and go, “Okay, just remind yourself that that’s what you are.”
Despite struggling with confidence issues, she threw herself into Sex Education’s explicit scenes and made her first topless appearance.
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She said of her decision: “With the masturbation montage, even with all the unflattering angles I thought, ‘Think of the young girls that are going to be watching this and going, ‘Oh thank God, that’s what I do,’ or, ‘we don’t always look perfect’.
This week’s visit to Lebanon of senior Iranian politician Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, is seen as an attempt to smooth any feathers ruffled by rhetoric from Tehran about Hezbollah’s disarmament.
In early August, the Lebanese government, under pressure from the United States, announced that it would seek to disarm Hezbollah, long considered a principal ally of Tehran, by the end of the year.
The group reacted angrily to the call to disarm with its secretary-general, Naim Qassem, denouncing the idea on Friday and saying the Lebanese government “does not have the right to question the resistance’s legitimacy”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview last week: “We support any decision the group makes, but we do not intervene.”
“This is not the first time they’ve tried to strip Hezbollah of its weapons,” he said. “The reason is clear: The power of resistance has proven itself in the field.”
His comments were received angrily in Beirut. Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji – who is from the anti-Hezbollah, right-wing Lebanese Forces party – said Araghchi’s statement is “firmly rejected and condemned”.
“Such statements undermine Lebanon’s sovereignty, unity and stability and constitute an unacceptable interference in its internal matters and sovereign decisions,” Rajji said.
Hezbollah and Iran have emerged bruised from separate conflicts with Israel in November and June, respectively. Now, Beirut’s instruction for Hezbollah to disarm risks further undermining the relevance of the group at a critical time, analysts said.
Who decides?
Many analysts believe the decision on whether to retain or relinquish its arms may not be Hezbollah’s alone.
”Hezbollah does not have complete freedom of action in this regard,” HA Hellyer of the Royal United Services Institute told Al Jazeera, referencing the group’s close ties with Iran.
“But it doesn’t act simply as a proxy for Tehran and is in the midst of a rather challenging period of its existence, especially given the surrounding geopolitics of the region,” he said of the regional upheavals since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023 and launched subsequent assaults on Lebanon and Syria.
Those assaults inflicted significant damage on Lebanon, principally in the southern Beirut suburbs and southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah’s support base is located.
Lebanon was already locked into an economic crisis before Israel’s war, and the World Bank estimated in May that it would now need $11bn to rebuild. The central government would be responsible for distributing that money, giving it some influence over Hezbollah.
A woman holds a flyer of late Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah, right, and his successor Hashem Safieddine, both killed by Israel [File: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP]
“Tehran will be very opposed to Hezbollah disarming,” Hellyer said. “But if Hezbollah decides it needs to, to preserve its political position, Tehran can’t veto.”
He also suggested that Tehran may see some of its allied groups in Iraq, which Larijani visited before Beirut, more favourably now, especially since the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in December severed its land supply routes to Lebanon.
“Hezbollah is, of course, very important to Iran, but I think the Iraqi militia groups are becoming more so, particularly after the loss of Assad,” Hellyer said.
A threat and a provocation
Hezbollah has long been considered the most powerful nonstate armed actor in the Middle East, a valuable ally for Iran and a nemesis for Israel.
“Hezbollah has always been a threat and a provocation, depending on where you’re standing,“ said Nicholas Blanford, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and an authority on Hezbollah.
“It’s still both, though to a much lesser degree,” he added, noting the damage the group sustained from Israel’s attacks and the assassinations of its leadership in the build-up to and during Israel’s war on Lebanon in October and November.
“It’s clear that Iran wants Hezbollah to remain as it is and, as far as we can tell, is helping it reorganise its ranks.
“It’s also clear from their statements that Hezbollah has no intention of giving up its arms. Even relatively moderate figures within the group are comparing doing so to suicide.”
In his speech on Friday, Qassem’s rejection was unequivocal: “The resistance will not disarm so long as the aggression continues and the occupation persists.
“If necessary, we will fight a Karbala’i battle to confront this Israeli-American project, no matter the costs, and we are certain we will win,” he said, referencing the Battle of Karbala, venerated by Shia Muslims as a foundational battle against tyranny and oppression.
Qassem seemed to exclude the Lebanese military from his ire, warning the government: “Do not embroil the national army in this conflict. … It has a spotless record and does not want [this].”
Inside the tent
Larijani’s visit on Wednesday was seen as a potential opportunity for Beirut to open up new lines of communication with one of the region’s most significant actors, Tehran, and potentially determine what Iran might be willing to consider in return for Hezbollah’s future disarmament.
During the war on Lebanon, Israel inflicted the most damage in areas where Hezbollah’s supporters live, in the south of the country and the capital, like the southern town of Shebaa, shown on November 27, 2024 [Ramiz Dallah/Anadolu]
“It’s not possible for Lebanon to break relations between the Shia community and Iran, any more than it could the Sunni community and Saudi Arabia,” Michael Young of the Carnegie Middle East Center said.
“Iran is a major regional actor. It has a strong relationship with one of [the two] largest communities in the country,” he said of Lebanon’s large Shia community.
“You can’t cut ties. It doesn’t make sense. You want Iranians inside the tent, not outside.”
Given the precarity of Lebanon’s position, balanced between the US support it relies upon and the regional alliances it needs, Young suggested that Lebanese lawmakers nevertheless seek an opportunity to secure some sort of middle ground while accepting that some in Beirut may not be willing to countenance any negotiations with Iran.
“It’s important for the Lebanese to see if there are openings in the Iranian position,” Young continued, casting Larijani’s visit as a potential opportunity for the Lebanese government to influence Iran’s position on Hezbollah’s future.
Global talks to develop a landmark treaty to tackle plastic pollution have once again failed to reach an agreement, despite efforts late into the night to strike a deal.
Delegates at a closing meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) in Geneva on Friday spoke of their dismay at the failure to break a deadlock at the sixth round of talks in under three years, as countries remained deeply divided over the scope of any treaty.
“South Africa is disappointed that it was not possible for this session to agree a legally binding treaty and positions remain far apart,” its delegate told a closing meeting.
Cuba’s delegate said that negotiators had “missed a historic opportunity but we have to keep going and act urgently”, the AFP news agency reported.
“The planet, and present and future generations need this treaty.”
Landmark treaty sought
More than 1,000 delegates from at least 180 countries had gathered in the Swiss city for the latest meeting of the INC, a group established by the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2022 with the mandate to develop the world’s first legally binding global treaty to tackle plastic pollution.
The negotiations in Geneva were intended to be the last round of talks that would produce a deal – although the same was said of the previous round of talks held in Busan, South Korea, late last year.
Delegates had been working to a deadline of Thursday to reach a deal, and held frantic last-minute negotiations into the early hours of Friday to try to strike common ground before talks collapsed.
Countries remain divided between those seeking significant action, such as imposing caps on producing new plastic, and those, mostly oil-producing states, who want the deal to concentrate on waste management.
The so-called High Ambition Coalition, a large informal bloc which includes the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as many Latin American and African countries, has pushed for the treaty to introduce curbs on plastic production and the phasing out of toxic chemicals.
But a camp of oil-producing states calling itself the Like-Minded Group – including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Russia, Iran, and Malaysia – argues that the treaty should be much more limited in scope.
Luis Vayas Valdivieso, chair of the negotiating committee, wrote and presented two drafts of a treaty text, but the delegates did not agree on either as the basis for negotiations.
Luis Vayas Valdivieso chairs an INC session in Geneva [File: Martial Trezzini/EPA]
Anger and disappointment
France’s Ecological Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said she was “angry” and “disappointed” by the outcome, the AFP news agency reported, adding that a small number of countries “guided by short-term financial interests” had stood in the way of an important treaty.
Palau, speaking for a group of 39 small island developing states, expressed its frustration at “repeatedly returning home with insufficient progress to show our people”.
“It is unjust for [our countries] to face the brunt of yet another global environmental crisis we contribute minimally to.”
The next steps for the negotiations were not immediately clear. Vayas said on Friday as the delegates reconvened that no further action has yet been proposed on the latest draft. He banged a gavel made of recycled plastic bottle tops and said the session was adjourned, to be resumed at a later date.
Some delegates expressed interest in a seventh round of talks in the future, despite their disappointment in the outcome.
Game of Thrones actress, Roxanne McKee is engaged days after announcing her baby news. The 45-year-old, who also starred in Hollyoaks, playing Louise Summers, announced her latest joyous update on Instagram.
In a sweet video on her Stories, the actress showed off a stunning sparkler while revealing that she’d had a ‘crush’ on her husband-to-be since she was 13 and was elated that he’d ‘finally proposed’.
In the gorgeous clip, Roxanne flashed a smile a mile wide next to her fiancé as she shared her latest life update. It comes after the actress took to social media earlier this week, revealing she was pregnant with her first child.
Roxanne McKee shared the happy news with fans ( Instagram)
Taking to Instagram, sharing a snap of herself cradling her baby bump, Roxanne posed for a mirror selfie, sporting Calvin Klein underwear.
In a second picture in the reel she is seen kissing her partner on the cheek. And a third shows her holding hands with her man as he takes a photo of the pair in a window, with Roxanne’s baby blossoming bump clear to see.
She captioned her upload: “Joint project,” with red love heart emojis.
Congratulations! ( Instagram)
Responding, the actress’ famous pals sent their congratulations, with fellow Hollyoaks legend Claire Cooper, known best to fans as feisty Jacqui McQueen, commenting: “I AM so crazy happy about this news … this is just GLORIOUS”.
Meanwhile, Barry Sloane, who played the secret McQueen (and serial killer) Niall Rafferty, said: “Huge Congratulations!!!” And a third McQueen, Leah Hackett who played Tina, added: “Congratulations beautiful.”
In Hollyoaks, Roxanne’s character was brutally killed off in 2008. In hair-raising scenes, she was strangled to death by her fiancé, Warren Fox, played by Jamie Lomas. The death occurred on the couple’s wedding day after she had found out her man had murdered her estranged husband Sean Kennedy, in true ‘Oaks style.
Such happy news! ( @roxanne_mckee/Instagram)
At the time of her exit, Roxanne told Digital Spy: “I have enjoyed my time at Hollyoaks immensely and I’m going to really miss everyone at Lime Pictures. I have learned so much and will take away with me many happy memories – not just from everyone I have worked with but from Liverpool as a city too, which has become my second home.
“I know I will shed a few tears on the day I leave but I am so excited about what the future holds.”
Following her Hollyoaks exit, Roxanne bagged roles on the likes of Lip Service, HBO’s fantasy epic Game of Thrones, and Syfy’s apocalyptic supernatural drama Dominion
