Vicky Pattison’s dance partner Kai Widdrington has poked fun at her for looking like ‘David Brent from The Office’ when she attempted to do a sultry Samba shake
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Kai Widdrington has teased Vicky Pattison for her Samba shake(Image: PA)
Vicky Pattison is trying to swot up on the Samba – after looking “like David Brent” with her first attempts at being sexy for Strictly Come Dancing this week.
Appearing on her own podcast with her pro partner Kai Widdrington, the pair spoke about training this week and on their new dance routine they are learning.
Kai, 30, said: “Vicky gave me a demonstration. And I’d like to say that she was playing up to the cameras, but I don’t think she was. I said ‘give me your best Samba shake’. It was giving David Brent from The Office. I just wanted her to never do that again so we could find the shake.”
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Thankfully things are improving and he added: “She’s actually good. Yeah, I’m not duping her this week. She said to me today, after we did the routine, she was like, I actually like this one, which I never thought I’d hear. She seems to be, like, growing in confidence.”
Vicky, 37, responded saying: “As a woman, I’ve spent the last 30 years of my life trying to make my bits not shake when I move. Like, all my lumps and bumps have been, like, just sucked so nothing’s moving.
“And like, now all of a sudden you’re being told to make them move. Yeah. Like, that’s very unnatural for me, and I like me, things where they belong. I don’t want them shaking all over the shop.”
The samba routine follows last week’s Charleston which Vicky admits was a “disaster” where they managed 25 out of 40 and received some criticism from judges.
But the final performance was much better than things could have been if viewers had seen their final rehearsals.
Vicky explained: “Saturday was just like a disaster from start to finish. You know me little headdress thing, obviously I had a wig as well. Yeah. So they put that on. We were dancing at the dress rehearsal. And obviously there’s a move where my head goes down and comes up, and the head piece just totally detached from the wig and fell over me face.
“And I kept trying to shove it up, and it just kept falling back over my eyes. Kai’s going ‘continue carry on’. And, honestly, I was so stressed out and angry, I tried to stop.”
“And then when I was finished, that is in the official dress rehearsal, Tess goes ‘Oh, you had a bit of stress there with your head piece there’. I said, me f**king wig fell off.”
The full interview with Vicky and Kai is on the latest episode of the Get A Grip Podcast, out now.
Celebrity Traitors is currently airing on BBC and BBC iPlayer and the celeb contestants are trying their best to win £100,000 for their chosen charity
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Ruth is known for her acting career(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry)
Ruth Codd had an unconventional rise to fame and several huge acting roles before joining the first series of Celebrity Traitors. The Irish actress is currently starring on the iconic BBC show where she is trying to win £100,000 for her chosen charity.
The star was very vocal during Wednesday night’s episode where she accused Jonathan Ross of being a Traitor – which, as viewers will know, she was right about. However, she thinks her days are numbered on the programme as she said she has put a target on her back as the next celebrity to get “murdered”.
She has become a stand-out contestant on Celebrity Traitors but she didn’t have a conventional rise to fame at first. Ruth is best known for her Netflix role in thrilling series The Midnight Club.
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Despite this being her first professional role, Ruth already had a large following on TikTok beforehand. She managed to gain a huge 670,000 followers before appearing on our TV screens, meaning she already had a collection of fans for a completely different reason other than acting.
Ruth was able to gain her followers during the coronavirus pandemic when she was laid off from her job as a barber. She would use her social media account to post makeup and hair tutorial videos.
It was thought her TikTok videos that Netflix producers discovered Ruth and approached her to be on The Midnight Club. She posted videos as a comedic nun and on disability awareness which kickstarted her acting career.
Ruth has starred as Anya in The Midnight Club and Juno Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher, both on Netflix. She has also appeared in an episode of horror series Creepshow and the second series of ITV comedy The Dry.
In 2024 Ruth finished in third place on E4’s Celebrity Cooking School before starring in her first film, the live adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon. Ruth has her right leg amputated below the knee in 2023 due to complications from a serious foot injury she got while playing football in 2015.
She now uses a prosthetic leg and has learned to walk on it. Speaking to The Irish Examiner, Ruth said: “It never healed correctly so until I was 23, I was on and off crutches, getting loads of operations.
“Because of nerve damage and chronic pain, I chose to get it amputated. It took eight years of my life, constantly going in and out of hospital. For years, I didn’t see it getting any better. I was stuck in a really bad mindset and I was p**sed off at life.”
She added: “When I made the decision to amputate it, things finally started to turn around. It was a relief. I could get on with my life.”
Palestinian American Ruwa Romman is running for Governor of Georgia, vying to become the first Muslim to hold such a position in the US. She says her community-first agenda is an answer to politicians who put pro-Israel policies above voters’ interests.
Vernon Kay has gushed over his daughter online as he celebrates her 21st birthday, telling Phoebe she is ‘the best any parent could ask for’ alongside a family portrait
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Proud dad Vernon Kay took the opportunity to gush over his daughter(Image: PA)
BBC Radio 2 star Vernon Kay has taken to social media to wish his eldest daughter Phoebe a very happy 21st birthday in a rare family snap with his beautiful wife Tess Daly.
In the photo, all three of them are beaming for the camera while dressed to the nines. Phoebe can be seen wearing a glamorous glittering silver dress, while her mum opted for an off-the-shoulder gold and white number.
Vernon, 51, rose to the occasion with a white shirt, smart black trousers and a matching black bowtie. The image highlighted just how much Phoebe looks like her famous mother.
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The presenter’s post also included a series of snaps of himself with Phoebe as a baby and teenager. Vernon, 51, captioned the post saying: “HAPPY BIRTHDAY @phoebekay 21 Today!! The celebrations are gonna be epic!! You’re the best any parent could ask for.”
Followers flocked to the comments to congratulate the dad, with one writing: “You are not old enough to have a daughter of that age! But congratulations to you, Tess and most of all Phoebe!”
Another chimed in: “Oh the genes! Sending positive happy birthday vibes to your lovely daughter.” Meanwhile, a third added: “Aaah beautiful photos, stunning family, have a very special day all of you.”
The birthday celebrations coincide with an exciting weekend for Vernon, who is set to be honoured with the prestigious Variety Club Silver Heart Award 2025 for Outstanding Contribution to Radio on Sunday night.
The award recognises his two decades of work at the BBC, including his popular weekday mid-morning show on Radio 2, which he took over from Ken Bruce in 2023.
Vernon’s radio journey began on Radio 1 in 2004, where he hosted his own show until 2012. He then moved to commercial station Radio X in 2015 before returning to the BBC in 2021.
Despite his extensive experience on the radio, Vernon has had to tread carefully in recent weeks after inadvertently spoiling a major moment on Dress the Nation.
While on air, he admitted: “I’m going to avoid Traitors, I’m going to avoid it because people watch it on catch-up don’t they? So I’m not going to talk about it on the radio.”
The presenter explained that viewers can be very particular about spoilers: “I gave away the winner of Dress the Nation on Sunday, [I] congratulated the winner, oh my gosh, I got a tonne of grief.”
Away from work, Vernon seems to be enjoying his family life with his wife Tess and their daughters. The couple met in the early 2000s while Tess was hosting SMTV Live and Vernon was working on Channel 4’s T4.
They got married in 2003 and went on to have two daughters, Phoebe and Amber. Tess cheekily described their early romance as “pretty explosive” in a chat with Fabulous magazine.
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Six years ago, Vernon secretly organised a vow renewal in the South of France, and surprised Tess with multiple wardrobe choices and a heartfelt card to commemorate their second wedding day.
Russia is increasing air attacks to compensate for its failure to crack Ukrainian defences on the ground, according to Kyiv.
“Russia has started a new wave of air terror against Ukraine – against our cities and civilian infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NATO’s 71st Parliamentary Assembly on October 13.
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Zelenskyy spoke days after Russia launched an overnight strike against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure involving 465 drones and 19 missiles.
A boy with a bicycle looks on near buildings damaged during a Russian drone and missile strike in the town of Brovary, outside of Kyiv, October 10, 2025 [Alina Smutko/Reuters]
Ukraine said it downed 405 of the drones and 15 missiles. The remainder deprived three-quarters of a million Ukrainians of electricity for the day, wounded 20 people and killed a seven-year-old boy.
Zelenskyy said cold autumn weather had reduced the effectiveness of Ukraine’s air defences by 20-30 percent, claiming Russia “deliberately waited” for this.
On Wednesday, Russian drones again knocked out power in some parts of Ukraine and struck a thermal power plant, according to Naftogaz, Ukraine’s gas utility.
Russia ‘increased the number of air attack means’
On the battlefront, too, Russia was turning to the air.
“In a month, the enemy has increased the number of air attack means used by 1.3 times,” wrote Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii on his Telegram channel on Saturday.
Syrskii generally refers to Russian first-person view (FPV) drones and air-launched glide bombs, which Russia uses at the front in addition to artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.
But Russia was increasingly using its long-range Shahed drones – the type it deploys against cities – to hit targets at the front as well, said the Kyiv Independent after speaking with analysts.
Shaheds are more precise than glide bombs, and Russia was “likely looking to conserve KAB guided aerial bombs where possible to prepare for a long war ahead”, said the newspaper.
An Orthodox priest blesses Russian conscripts called up for military service during a ceremony marking the departure for garrisons from a recruitment centre in Saint Petersburg, Russia, October 15, 2025 [Anton Vaganov/Reuters]
Russia’s tactics prompted a flurry of consultations with allies.
On the day of the massive air strike, Zelenskyy said he spoke with United States President Donald Trump about the damage to Ukraine’s energy sector and what the nation needs to protect it. During the week, he also spoke with the leaders of Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and France, and the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas.
Zelenskyy said he is short of air defences and has asked allies to increase provisions to protect 203 key facilities in Ukraine.
At Wednesday’s meeting of the Defence Contact Group for Ukraine, Germany pledged 2.3 billion euros ($2.7bn) in new weapons and air defence systems, including interceptors for Patriot launchers and two more IRIS-T systems.
Poland offered electricity exports, generators and the services of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to bolster Ukraine’s energy supply.
Zelenskyy dispatched Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko to the US to lay the groundwork for his meeting with Trump on Friday.
Russia’s fight for Donetsk
On the ground, Zelenskyy said this week that Russia had planned to capture the entirety of the Donetsk region this autumn. About a quarter of it remains in Ukraine’s hands.
The hammer has fallen hardest on Pokrovsk, once a city of 60,000 people. Russia has failed to take it by direct assault and by conducting an enveloping manoeuvre through Dobropillia to its north.
Syrskii said a Ukrainian counteroffensive at Dobropillia had retaken 181sq km (70sq miles) of territory since the end of August.
The Dobropillia counteroffensive caused 12,000 Russian casualties, including 7,000 deaths, and upset Russia’s plans to conquer Donetsk this autumn, Zelenskyy claimed.
Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the death toll estimated by Ukraine.
Ukraine’s operation “disrupted all the plans that the Russians communicated to the American side, claiming they would supposedly occupy the Donbas – most of it – specifically by November. Initially, they said September, then pushed the deadline to November”, said Zelenskyy.
Russia’s determination to capture Donetsk was evident in the fact that it had returned to high-casualty mechanised assaults on October 6, 9 and 13, said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, having largely stopped reinforced company-sized mechanised assaults in late 2024.
All three assaults came in the Dobropillia direction and were defeated with high losses to men and armour.
“The Russians are now tasked with urgently taking Pokrovsk – at any cost,” Zelenskyy said, and some analysts suggested they may be swinging to the south of Pokrovsk instead.
Russia has not been wholly without success. During the week of October 9-15, it claimed to have seized four villages in Donetsk, and settlements in Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk.
In Kharkiv, Zelenskyy said, Ukrainian forces were pushing Russian troops out of some positions in the city of Kupiansk, in whose northwestern outskirts they have taken positions.
Despite this, Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday evacuated hundreds of families from 27 villages in the Kupiansk area, citing the security situation.
Ukraine’s strikes and Tomahawks
Ukraine continued a successful campaign to choke off Russian fuel production.
Its drones struck Lukoil’s Korobkovsky Gas Processing Plant in the Volgograd region of Russia on October 9.
“The plant is part of the fuel supply system for the domestic market of the Russian Federation, as well as for export,” said Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation.
On Monday, Ukraine struck the oil depot at the port of Feodosia in Crimea, confirmed the region’s occupation head, Sergey Aksyonov. It is used to supply Russian occupying troops in Crimea, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv with fuel by rail.
Russian opposition news outlet Astra said the strikes damaged 11 fuel tanks, including eight 5,000-10,000-tonne diesel tanks and two petrol tanks.
Geolocated footage confirmed the attack, as well as strikes on two electricity substations in Feodosia and Simferopol, also in Crimea.
“This is absolutely fair that Ukraine strikes back with precise, targeted attacks,” said Zelenskyy.
The Financial Times reported on Sunday that Ukraine has not been conducting these operations alone.
Several US and Ukrainian officials told the daily that Washington has been providing intelligence for the targeting of Russian refineries for months.
(Al Jazeera)
“The shift came after a phone call between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in July, when the FT reported the US president asked whether Ukraine could strike Moscow if Washington provided long-range weapons,” wrote the paper.
The sources said the US was involved in target selection, timing and route planning to evade Russian air defences.
Ukraine has so far mostly used its domestically produced drones, and Zelenskyy last month asked Trump to provide US Tomahawk cruise missiles, with a range of up to 2,500km (1,550 miles)
The issue is to be among those discussed between Trump and Zelenskyy on Friday.
Russia’s deputy chairman of its National Security Council warned against the deployment of Tomahawks, which are nuclear-capable.
Cross River State Governor, Bassey Otu, has rewarded Miracle Usani, a member of Nigeria’s victorious Super Falcons team that clinched the 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) title, with ₦50 million and a plot of land in Calabar.
He also offered her an appointment as the state’s sports ambassador.
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The governor announced the reward during a reception held in his office in Calabar, describing Usani’s feat as a source of pride for Cross River, Nigeria, and the African continent.
Governor Bassey Otu commended her determination, talent, and the inspiration she represents for young women across the state.
He commended her determination, talent, and the inspiration she represents for young women across the state.
“Your courage and performance have brought honour to our state,” Governor Otu said.
“You’ve shown that what a man can do, a woman can do—even better. You are a symbol of excellence and resilience,” he added.
Otu reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to reviving the state’s sports sector, noting that sports have evolved beyond recreation into a viable economic and developmental tool.
He urged other young people to draw inspiration from Usani’s success, adding that “stories like hers show that the future is bright”.
Presenting the gifts, the governor said, “We have approved ₦50 million and a plot of land in Calabar for you. You are now on our VVIP protocol list and will serve as Sports Ambassador of Cross River State.”
Humble Beginnings
Usani, who plays for Edo Queens FC, expressed gratitude to Governor Otu for the recognition, recalling her humble beginnings and the challenges she faced breaking into football.
“My journey wasn’t easy. I played football with boys because there were no female teams where I grew up.
“People discouraged me, but I remained focused. Today, I’m proud to represent Nigeria and Cross River on the world stage,” she said.
