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Jonny Lee Miller joins ‘The Crown’ Season 5, portraying U.K. Prime Minister John Major

Jonny Lee Miller has been cast in  Netflix’s “The Crown” portraying British politician John Major, who led the country from 1990 to 1997. News of Miller’s casting was announced on The Crown‘s Twitter account.

Miller joins a lineup including Imelda Staunton taking over from Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth, Lesley Manville swapping shoes with Helena Bonham-Carter as Princess Margaret, Dominic West replacing O’Connor as Prince Charles, Elizabeth Debicki replacing Corrin’s Princess Diana and Jonathan Pryce taking over from Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip.

Season 5 of The Crown is due to begin shooting next month.

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Jamie Lynn Spears breaks her silence to show support for sister Britney Spears

Just days after Britney Spears made an emotional plea to a Los Angeles judge to terminate her conservatorship, her younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears broke her silence, saying that she wants nothing but happiness for her sister and that she always has and “always will” support Britney.

Jamie Lynn said in the video message shared Monday to her Instagram stories, “I just want to take a second to address a few things. The only reason I hadn’t before is because I felt like until my sister was able to speak for herself and say what she felt she needed to say publicly that it wasn’t my place and it wasn’t the right thing to do. But now that she’s very clearly spoken and said what she needed to say, I feel like I can follow her lead and say what I feeI I need to say.”

Jamie Lynn continued by saying she had made a “very conscious choice” to “only participate” in Britney’s life as a sister, adding “my sister knows I love and support her… I’m not my family. I’m my own person. And I’m speaking for myself.”  Jamie Lynn also said she’s “very proud” of Britney for speaking up and that she has always supported her and her happiness: “Maybe I didn’t support the way the public would like me to with a hashtag on a public platform but I can assure you that I support my sister long before there was a hashtag and I’ll support her long after.”

The statement from Jamie Lynn comes less than a week after Britney spoke publicly during a court hearing, addressing her conservatorship and how she hopes it is terminated.

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President Biden orders U.S. airstrikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq-Syria border region

President Joe Biden has directed airstrikes on Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region in response to unmanned aerial vehicle attacks.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement

Sunday that U.S. military forces conducted the “defensive precision airstrikes” against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the region on Sunday evening. Kirby, who stressed the U.S. strikes were legal and in self-defense, said, “the targets were selected because these facilities are utilized by Iran-backed militias that are engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq. Specifically, the U.S. strikes targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq, both of which lie close to the border between those countries. Several Iran-backed militia groups, including Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS), used these facilities.”

The airstrikes come at a time of heightened tension between the U.S. and Iran, as the two nations hold talks on returning Tehran to the 2015 nuclear deal. Biden declined to comment to reporters on the latest airstrikes after returning to the White House Sunday evening from a weekend at Camp David, telling reporters: “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

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Death toll rises to nine in Florida condo collapse as search continues

Nine people have been confirmed dead in the aftermath of the collapse of a 12-story condominium complex in Surfside, Florida three days ago.

Miami-Dade Mayor Danielle Levine Cava announced during a Sunday morning news conference in Seaside, that four additional bodies had been recovered from the rubble and one person had died at a hospital after four bodies had previously been recovered from the scene. The remains of four had been identified early Sunday, according to Miami Dade Fire Rescue, and Levine Cava said they have notified next of kin.

At least 152 people remained unaccounted for and 134 others were accounted for as crews continue to search after more than half the building, about 55 units, collapsed. Levine Cava added that families of those announced dead or unaccounted for will be allowed to visit the site, ad said officials are having “very frank conversations” with the families about the possibility of finding no more survivors.

Crews have been searching through the rubble since the sudden collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers in Surfside, about 3 miles north of Miami Beach. The City of Miami Beach declared a state of emergency on Sunday noting that Champlain Towers is “steps away from the city’s northernmost border” with Surfside. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said residents in the condominium’s sister building would be provided support to relocate in light of the collapse.

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Country Daypop

Trisha Yearwood and Brooke Eden sing “She’s In Love With The Girl” at the Grand Ole Opry

During a broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry, Trisha Yearwood declared “love is love” and joined country artist, and open member of the LGBTQIA+ community, Brooke Eden on the Opry stage. The two artists then performed Yearwood’s “She’s In Love With The Boy” but with a shift in the lyrics to fit Eden’s love story with her partner Hilary Hoover.

In the video recording, shared by the Grande Ole Opry on social media, you can hear Yearwood and Eden sing the iconic song together.  Fans on Twitter shared their excitement for the historic moment, and Brooke Eden herself tweeted that the night was “a dream.”

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Luke Bryan reveals trailer for new docuserie ‘My Dirt Road Diary’

Luke Bryan is previewing his upcoming IMDb TV Original docuseries titled Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary. The trailer for the five-part docuseries offers a glimpse into Bryan’s life through original home videos, interviews, and personal footage. Bryan’s wife Caroline Boyer is also included in the trailer for the docuseries.

The docuseries also touches on the tragedies Bryan and his family have had to endure over the years, including the loss of his older brother Chris, older sister Kelly, and brother-in-law Ben Lee Cheshire.

Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary will premiere on Friday, Aug. 6, exclusively on IMDb TV, Amazon’s premium free streaming service.

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Glenn Close to star in Season 2 of Apple TV+ series ‘Tehran’

Glenn Close has joined the cast of Apple TV+ thrilled Tehran for Season 2. The 74-year-old actress will play Marjan Montazeri, a British woman living in Tehran.

Close joins series stars Niv Sultan, Shaun Toub and Shervin Alenabi. The first season followed Tamar Rabinyan (Sultan), a young Mossad agent undercover in Tehran.

According to Variety, production on Season 2 will begin soon and reportedly film in Greece. Season 2 is scheduled to air in 2022.

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Fast & Furious 9 (‘F9’) tops North American box office with $70M this weekend

Fast and Furious 9 (“F9″), was the No. 1 movie in North America over the weeekend, earning $70 million in receipts.  Variety said that F9 was the biggest premiere of any movie in the United States and Canada since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker debuted with $177.4 million.

Coming in at No. 2 this weekend with $6.2 million is A Quiet Place Part II, followed by The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard at No. 3 with $4.88 million, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway at No. 4 with $4.85 million and Cruella at No. 5 with $3.7 million.  Several of the films in the Top 10 are also available on streaming platforms, in order to reach as many people as possible during the coronavirus pandemic, which kept many cinemas closed for nearly a year.

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Florida building collapse: 3 dead, as many as 99 missing as search continues

At least three people are dead and as many as 99 are unaccounted for after a 12-story residential building partially collapsed early on Thursday in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

The collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach, was reported around 1:30 a.m. A massive search and rescue operation was launched before dawn and crews are still carefully combing through the wreckage and remaining structure in hopes of finding survivors.

As of press time, crews have rescued 35 people who were trapped in the building and two others from beneath the rubble, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah. Officials said 102 people have been accounted for. Miami-Dade county officials say it’s been difficult determining how many people were in that section of the complex partly because there isn’t an on-scene management company that keeps track. The condominium is a mix of full-time residents, seasonal residents, renters and short-term visitors, so authorities have been relying largely on neighbors and word of mouth. The oceanfront condominium has 136 units, and approximately 55 of them collapsed along the northeast corridor.

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President Biden and bipartisan senators agree to $1.2 trillion framework infrastructure deal

President Joe Biden and a bipartisan group of senators announced on Thursday that they’d reached a framework $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal. Speaking in the White House driveway, Biden said, “They have my word, and I’ll stick with what they proposed, and they’ve given me their word as well — and where I come from, that’s good enough for me. We made serious compromises on both ends. They did not — and I understand their position — the Republicans did not want to go along with the human infrastructure that I talk about, and we’ll see what happens in the reconciliation bill and the budget process. If we get some compromise there and if we can’t, see if I can attract all Democrats to the position where they can move it on the dual track.”

Biden said that while the deal isn’t exactly what he wanted, nor is it exactly what Republicans wanted, the fact that they did reach a bipartisan consensus makes their agreement all the more significant. The deal would see $1.2 trillion in spending over eight years, including $579 billion in new spending over the first five years.

However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday there “ain’t” going to be an infrastructure bill in the House unless the Senate passes a broader reconciliation bill that includes progressive priorities. Pelosi said: “We will not take up a bill in the House until the Senate passes the bipartisan bill and a reconciliation bill.  If there is no bipartisan bill, then we’ll just go when the Senate passes a reconciliation bill.  Plain and simple. In fact, I used the word ‘ain’t.’ There ain’t going to be an infrastructure bill unless we have the reconciliation bill passed by the United States Senate.”  She did add that she’s “hopeful” for bipartisanship.

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