Archive May 15, 2025

Chris Brown arrested at Manchester hotel over alleged bottle attack

By in Entertainment News, News

US rapper Chris Brown was arrested at a five-star hotel in the early hours of this morning over an alleged bottle attack at a London nightclub. Met Police detectives arrested the 36-year-old American musician just after 2am at The Lowry Hotel in Manchester.

Brown was held on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm to music producer Abe Diaw at trendy Tape nightclub in Mayfair, Central London, in February 2023. Brown flew into Manchester Airport on a private jet yesterday afternoon. After discovering he was in the country, Met detectives then travelled to Manchester where they arrested him.

He was taken into custody and is thought to have been taken to a local police station for questioning. A Met spokesman said: “A 36-year-old man was arrested at a hotel in Manchester shortly after 02:00hrs on Thursday, 15 May on suspicion of grievous bodily harm. He has been taken into custody where he remains.

“The arrest relates to an incident at a venue in Hanover Square on 19 February 2023. The investigation is being led by detectives from the Central West Area Basic Command Unit.’’






He was arrested at a Manchester hotel
(
Hollandse Hoogte/REX/Shutterstock)

Mr Diaw alleges R&B star Brown launched an unprovoked attack on him at around 3am while the star and his entourage were at a Dirty Martini club night held at the trendy Tape nightclub.

He claims Brown smashed him over the head with a bottle and then punched and kicked him as he lay on the floor. At the time he said: “He hit me over the head two or three times. My knee collapsed as well.”

Mr Diaw had to be taken to hospital, needing crutches to walk when he was discharged. The alleged attack occurred while songwriter Brown was on a worldwide tour and playing in the UK. Brown is due to okay 10 more dates in Britain next month but the tour could be thrown into chaos by the police investigation.






The alleged incident is said to have taken place at Tape nightclub in London


The alleged incident is said to have taken place at Tape nightclub in London
(
Tik Tok)

Diaw has launched a civil claim against Brown for $16 million (£12 million) in damages for injuries and losses suffered as a result of the alleged attack.

The two-time Grammy winner was planning to jet off around the world for his Breezy Bowl XX Tour – a celebration of his 20 year career.

During the tour, Brown was set to play at the Co-Op Live stadium in Manchester before performing again at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

Then, the singer hoped to perform a huge show at Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium in London before heading to Birmingham, Glasgow and Dublin.

After announcing the tour in March, Brown took to Instagram writing: “CELEBRATING 20 years of CB. So excited to be able to share this moment with the world and my amazing fans.






Mr Diaw alleges R&B star Brown, pictured, launched an unprovoked attack on him at around 3am


Mr Diaw alleges R&B star Brown, pictured, launched an unprovoked attack on him at around 3am
(
Tik Tok)

“I CANT WAIT TO SEE ALL YALLS BEAUTIFUL FACES. IMA TAKE YALL THREW THESE ERAS BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY GIVE YALL MY HEART AND SOUL.”

The tour would follow his highly successful string of concerts in 2024, which supported his album entitled 11:11. Brown generated $82.3 million (£64 million) from his 11:11 concerts after selling a staggering 446,000 tickets.

The star is known for rubbing shoulders with other high profile celebrities including partying with Tommy Fury and Conor McGregor.

Why are PSG and Mbappe facing each other in court?

By in News, Sports News
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Raphael Jucobin
BBC Sport in Paris

When Kylian Mbappe finally left Paris St-Germain last summer, many expected both parties to move swiftly on after one of football’s longest-running transfer sagas finally came to its conclusion.

An ongoing legal dispute, though, has continued to sour relations between the forward and his hometown club for the best part of a year.

Specifically, the Real Madrid striker is claiming 55m euros (£46.3m) in unpaid wages from the Ligue 1 champions.

This sum, plus tax obligations, was frozen from the club’s accounts by a Paris court following a request by Mbappe’s legal team last month.

Central to the contention is the French forward’s ill-fated contract extension in 2022 – which notably involved him posing alongside club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi on the Parc des Princes pitch, brandishing a shirt with “2025” on the back.

More specifically, however, the Frenchman had signed a two-year deal with an optional extra season – a crucial detail which would only later emerge publicly.

A year later, a letter from Mbappe indicating that he had no intention of triggering that option surfaced.

Faced with the prospect of losing their 180m euro (£165.7m) signing on a free transfer, PSG presented the forward with two options: either leaving as early as that summer, or coming to an agreement that would soften the financial blow to the club at the end of the season – once he inevitably fulfilled his long-held ambition of joining Real Madrid.

The forward was duly placed on the market, and notably rejected a lucrative offer from Saudi Arabia.

“If he wants to leave, then the door is open,” Al-Khelaifi would declare at boss Luis Enrique’s unveiling in early July.

As the start of the 2023-24 campaign approached, Mbappe found himself in the “loft”, French football’s term describing the group of players left to train away from the rest of the first team during a transfer window, effectively pushing them towards the exit door.

The practice is oft-criticised, not least by the French players’ union, but is nonetheless authorised under France’s Charter for Professional Football, which stipulates that the marginalised players must be brought back into the fold come the end of the summer.

The Champions League finalists claim that, at the dawn of that campaign, Mbappe agreed to forgo a total of 55m euros (£46.3m) in bonuses from the deal he signed the previous summer.

This agreement, according to the club, was reached verbally over a meeting with several club representatives, in the form of a “gentlemen’s agreement” which subsequently allowed for Mbappe’s return to the first team after being left out of the squad for the pre-season tour of Japan and the season opener.

Mbappe himself would make reference to an agreement in the wake of the Trophee des Champions match against Toulouse in January 2024 – at which point he was free to sign a pre-contract elsewhere.

In the mixed zone he told journalists that, despite still being undecided on his future, “the agreement I reached with the president [Nasser Al-Khelaifi] last summer protects all the parties, regardless of my decision”.

The France captain eventually announced his departure towards the close of the 2023-24 campaign.

Kylian Mbappe tifoGetty Images

‘An era-defining week awaits PSG’

The striker’s legal team, however, now assert that the “gentleman’s agreement” is invalid as the additional clause was never signed.

As a result, they are claiming Mbappe is owed 55m euros – a sum made up of the final third of his signing-on fee and three months’ worth of wages which were unpaid.

They argue that a written contractual amendment would have had to be signed and submitted to the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) – the governing body for France’s two professional divisions – for the change to be valid, and that no “tangible proof” of an agreement has been presented.

Mbappe brought the case to the LFP, whose disciplinary commission initially issued a non-binding ruling that PSG were to pay the sum.

It later deemed itself to have no jurisdiction over the matter because of an ongoing civil court case, which the player’s team claims was only launched by PSG against the LFP “in order to avoid disciplinary action”.

In February, the French Football Federation (FFF) dismissed Mbappe’s subsequent appeal on the same grounds.

Speaking to BBC Sport, a lawyer with knowledge of PSG’s case explains that the LFP’s decision came from the fact that it could make a judgement based on the original contract – “but what’s being debated is whether it was amended”.

In December, following the LFP’s latest decision, a club spokesperson reiterated that Mbappe had “made clear public and private commitments that the club simply asks to be honoured”, and that PSG remained hopeful of “an amicable solution”.

The club also claimed that Mbappe refused the LFP’s offer for mediation.

Last month, Mbappe’s lawyers held a press conference to announce they had “gone on the attack”, having notably obtained the seizure of the 55m euros from PSG’s accounts through a court decision.

They also indicated that they were filing a complaint claiming PSG put pressure on Mbappe to renew, which the club denies, and that they had sent a letter to the FFF asking them to notify Uefa on the situation.

In a hearing on Monday, after PSG contested the precautionary seizure, the club announced that a counterclaim for 98m euros (£82.6m) in damages would be brought forward as part of their wider case.

In their court submission, the club’s lawyers asserted that the counterclaim was prompted by Mbappe’s “deceptive behaviour during negotiations to revise his contract”.

The striker’s team, meanwhile, reiterated that despite the counterclaim there was “no legal basis for deferring payment of the sum due”.

“The aim is not to recover the 98m euros, but rather to show that if he owes us money, his claim is unfounded,” PSG lawyer Renaud Semerdjian told the AFP.

For the club, the standoff also represents a reversal in the days where player power reigned supreme – the new-look (albeit still as spendthrift) PSG styles itself as a project built around a collective unit rather than individual talents.

Mbappe’s team, meanwhile, claimed in their April press conference that it was PSG who had put him under pressure to re-sign back in 2023 through “scandalous and indecent practices”, and that they would be joining the players’ union in its legal action against the “lofts”.

A decision on the seizing of the club’s accounts is expected on 26 May – the same day as a separate hearing on the wider case, in which the French football authorities initially dismissed Mbappe’s appeals.

While the 26-year-old will have wrapped up his maiden season in Spain the previous evening, Paris St-Germain will be in the midst of a week bookended by the Coupe de France and Champions League finals.

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Rihanna is back in the studio as she teases release of first song in three years

By in Entertainment News, News

Music star and Fenty icon Rihanna announced she’s releasing a new song called Friends of Mine, three years after she dropped Life Me Up for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Rihanna back in the studio as she teases release of first song in three years(Image: Paramount Pictures)

Rihanna delighted fans after revealing she returned to the studio for her first new song after three years. The 37-year-old, who announced she’s expecting her third child with A$AP Rocky after showcasing her bump at the Met Gala, is releasing Friends of Mine on Friday for the new Smurfs film.

Her last drop was on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever with Lift Me Up. Rihanna stars as Smurfette in the upcoming Smurfs movie, which also stars John Goodman as Papa Smurf, Nick Offerman as Ken, Sandra Oh as Moxie, Nick Kroll as Brainy Smurf. Other stars in the movie include James Corden, Xolo Maridueña and Kurt Russell.

Rihanna
Rihanna is releasing a new song for the Smurfs soundtrack(Image: Paramount Pictures)

Riri shared the trailer on her social media page, and it showed a small snippet of the upbeat song, which is part of the movie’s soundtrack.

The Bajan singer captioned the post: “New #SmurfsMovie trailer featuring Friend Of Mine from the Smurfs soundtrack out Friday. pre-save now.”

Fans loved that she was releasing new music, but expressed their disappointment that it wasn’t in the form of a new album. One user wrote: “When we said we wanted new music, this isn’t what we meant. ig we’ll take what we can get.”

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Rihanna on the Met Gala carpet 2025
It comes as Rihanna announced her third pregnancy(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

“Saw her in the recording studio and almost screamed, and then…” one person commented and another fan yearning for new music added: “I thought she was about to bless us with music—’cause lately, my soul’s been out here starving like it’s on a diet of broken headphones and bad vibes.”

After Rihanna confirmed her pregnancy, the Umbrella singer was asked if the album, affectionately nicknamed ‘R9’, would be ‘put on pause even longer’. Rihanna responded to Entertainment Tonight: “No, maybe a couple of videos.”

Fans have been eagerly awaiting this album for nine years, but RiRi hinted that plans are still on track. She cheekily added: “I can sing!”

Rihanna, already mum to sons RZA, two, and Riot, 21 months, with Rocky, also shared that she isn’t feeling ‘too overwhelmed’ by her pregnancy, despite an initial shock. She said: “I’m good! I’m shockingly feeling ok, and not too overwhelmed at the moment. At first it was kinda like, ‘Ahhh!'”

Meanwhile, fans are still waiting for the successor to 2016’s Anti. While the details about the album remain scarce, Rihanna gave a sneak peek into what fans might expect from the record in February.

Speaking to Harper’s BAZAAR magazine, she revealed: “I’ve been in the studio the whole eight years. But it didn’t hit me. I was searching for it. I went through phases of what I wanted to do. ‘This kind of album, not that album’.”

“I know it’s not going to be anything that anybody expects. And it’s not going to be commercial or radio, digestible. It’s going to be where my artistry deserves to be right now. I feel like I’ve finally cracked it, girl!”

Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

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Son files criminal complaint over alleged blackmail plot

By in News, Sports News
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Tottenham captain Son Heung-min has filed a criminal complaint with the South Korean police for being the victim of an alleged blackmail plot after it was reported that a woman threatened him with a false pregnancy claim.

Gangnam Police Station in southern Seoul said it had detained a woman in her 20s and a man in his 40s on suspicion of extortion and attempted extortion, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

The woman is alleged to have approached Son last year, claiming she was carrying his child. She reportedly demanded money to stay silent.

The man then allegedly followed up with him in March, trying to get money.

Tottenham face Manchester United in the Europa League final in Bilbao on Wednesday.

South Korea forward Son has scored 173 goals in 451 games for Spurs since joining from Bayer Leverkusen in 2015.

“Son & Football Limited has filed a criminal complaint for blackmail against individuals who threatened the player by claiming they would spread false information,” his agency said.

“The police are currently investigating the matter, and we will provide updates as soon as the investigation concludes.

Related topics

  • Premier League
  • Tottenham Hotspur
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Last One Laughing’s future decided by Amazon as host Jimmy Carr speaks out

By in Entertainment News, News

Last One Laughing had fans all over the country in stitches when it aired earlier this year, and now Jimmy Carr has spoken out about the hit Prime Video Show’s future

Jimmy Carr breaks silence on LOL’s future (Image: PR HANDOUT)

Prime Video’s Last One Laughing was a hit when it came out earlier this year. It saw 8 Out of 10 Cats star Jimmy Carr assembled ten of the UK’s top comedians in one room with one impossible challenge: Don’t laugh.

However, in a twist, the host set them a challenge of making each other laugh, although they couldn’t chuckle themselves. Although the comedian’s couldn’t laugh – the audiences were left in stitches.

The first series saw comedians Richard Ayoade and Bob Mortimer in the final, and it looks like fans can look forward to yet another hilarious final as the show has been recommissioned for a second series.

LOL series 1
The first series was a hit with audiences(Image: Amazon MGM Studios)

Speaking about the future of the show, Jimmy said: “I’m absolutely delighted that Last One Laughing is coming back for a second series. I think what’s happened is someone high up at Amazon has clicked ‘subscribe & save’ on Prime Video and, hey presto, we’re back in business.

“I’m so pleased people had as much fun watching the first season as we had making it. Can’t wait to bask in the reflected glory of the next 10 comedy legends taking on the challenge.”

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The second series will see Jimmy returning to the hosting seat alongside a new line-up of comedians which will be announced in due course. Filming is due to take place later this year with the series launching in 2026 on Prime Video worldwide.

Jimmy Carr
Jimmy Carr will be back to host the new series(Image: Getty Images)

Last One Laughing UK is the latest adaptation of the successful Amazon Original series from Japan entitled Documental, created by and starring Hitoshi Matsumoto and owned by Yoshimoto Kogyo and has been a hit around the globe.

So much so that the format became the most watched title of all time on Prime Video in France, Germany and Italy, and had hugely successful local versions in over 20 territories.

Last year’s final saw Richard and Bob climb onto Merry-go-round ponies while Bob read from his joke book. However, Richard soon realised that he had made a grave error by allowing Bob to perform jokes.

“What I now realise I’d done was essentially sign up to be in goal and just have someone take penalty after penalty after penalty,” he said. “I had nothing and he was on a horse opposite me with a pocket full of material,” the IT Crowd star said.

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It was Bob who eventually took the win, with fans claiming the show was the “best piece of comedy they’d ever seen.” They’re sure to gain a whole load of new laughs with series 2!

Until then, fans can catch up with series 1 over on Prime Video.