Versatile French actor best known for her film roles in Catch Me If You Can, Every Man for Himself and Downton Abbey

In a prolific and versatile career of nearly 100 films, the French actor Nathalie Baye, who has died aged 77, was recognised for her ability to adapt to any part she chose to play. Her many and varied roles included an alcoholic police officer, a prostitute, a beautician, wrestler, supermarket cashier, telephone operator and, more recently, a marchioness in the second Downton Abbey film, as well as a cameo role in the hit French television series Dix pour Cent.

Discovered in the 1970s by the New Wave director François Truffaut, then cast by Jean-Luc Godard and, later, Steven Spielberg in his 2002 film Catch Me If You Can (starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks), Baye worked with some of cinema’s most recognised and respected figures.

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Former Little Mix singer offers £10,000 reward for information about Land Rover taken from Essex driveway

The musician Jesy Nelson, a former member of the band Little Mix, has pleaded for help after her car, which contained essential medical equipment for her children, was stolen from her driveway in Essex.

The black Land Rover is believed to have been taken at about 3am on Sunday in Brentwood.

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A 1,200-year dataset shows the ‘peak bloom’ is arriving earlier. Global heating is unsettling nature’s rhythms – and their cultural meaning

A picture posted on social media last April by Prof Yasuyuki Aono of a spreadsheet, with its blank row for 2026, carries a quiet poignancy. Prof Aono died before he got to fill in this year’s entry for when the cherry blossom fully bloomed in Kyoto. The academic had spent decades reconstructing dates of flowering that go back to the ninth century. His work illuminated how a botanical event long associated with the Japanese idea of mono no aware – a sadness at the passing of things – is shifting because of the climate crisis.

The “peak bloom” now occurs around two weeks earlier than in previous centuries. In the 1820s full bloom arrived in mid-April. In 2023 the full-flowering date was 25 March. An earlier blooming indicates warmer springs – and Prof Aono’s data provides a warning signal that Japan’s “sakura front” comes sooner each year.

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LEUSDEN (ANP) - Ruim zeshonderd mensen, onder wie twee oud-gevangenen en de nabestaanden van voormalige gevangenen, hebben zondag de overdracht van Kamp Amersfoort herdacht. Dat gebeurde precies 81 jaar nadat de Duitse bezetters de controle over het straf- en doorgangskamp hadden overgedragen aan het Rode Kruis. Kort daarna, op 5 mei, volgde de Duitse capitulatie.

In het concentratiekamp zaten tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog circa 47.000 mensen gevangen. Er heerste "een mensonterend regime van honger, mishandeling, dwangarbeid en dreiging van executies en transport", zoals het Nationaal Monument Kamp Amersfoort het omschrijft. Honderden mensen werden er geëxecuteerd, of kwamen om door de ontberingen.

Aan de herdenking namen veel internationale gasten deel, onder wie de ambassadeur van Oostenrijk, vertegenwoordigers van de ambassades van de Verenigde Staten, Duitsland en Roemenië, commissaris van de Koning Hans Oosters, diverse burgemeesters en leden van het Rode Kruis en andere organisaties.

SHREVEPORT (ANP) - Door een schietpartij in het Amerikaanse Shreveport, Louisiana, zijn acht kinderen gedood. Dat meldt de politie aan de lokale nieuwszender KSLA News 12. Twee vrouwen zijn bij de schietpartij gewond geraakt.

Volgens de politie vond de schietpartij in de privésfeer plaats. De verdachte probeerde te vluchten en werd na een achtervolging door de politie doodgeschoten.

Geen marathon deze zondag in Rotterdam, maar wél een Hyrox. Voor de derde keer is Rotterdam Ahoy deze week het podium voor de inmiddels zeer populaire fitnesscompetitie. Zondag testen de deelnemers voor de laatste keer hun kracht en uithoudingsvermogen in een parcours van hardlopen en verschillende fitnessoefeningen.

Een motorrijder is op de Hekelingseweg in Spijkenisse op een auto gebotst en hierbij gewond geraakt. Het slachtoffer is per ambulance naar het ziekenhuis vervoerd.

Ahead of December's release of Avengers: Doomsday, Disney has unveiled "Infinity Vision," reports Kotaku, which they describe as "a new theater-going experience that will be certain to transform your pedestrian $15 night out into an exotic $43 one." (Though those prices appear to be estimates...)

Disney's announcement calls it "a new certification for premium large format (PLF) theaters," helping ticket-buyers find "a huge screen with the sharpest, clearest color and sound," including laser projection "for superior brightness and clarity ") and "premium audio formats for fully immersive sound".

Light on specifics, Disney says they will be certifying premium large format theaters for the Infinity Vision experience, highlighting laser projection and immersive audio quality. The new program will begin in the summer for a theater run of 2019's Avengers: Endgame ahead of Doomsday's holiday release.

Now you might be thinking: Giant screen? Booming audio? That sounds an awful lot like IMAX. The most consumer-recognized premium movie-going screen is the coveted throne for big blockbuster events, from Avatar to One Battle After Another. Unfortunately for Doomsday, IMAX screens are already booked for the holiday season by Dune: Part Three, the anticipated return to Arrakis, where Timothée Chalamet's Muad'Dib will begin to go worm-mode. Locked out of the popular choice for doubling your ticket price, Disney appears to have made up a new one...

Disney says they aim to certify 75 theaters in the United States and 300 internationally for the Infinity Vision program.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

De suikeroom van NEC hoeft naar eigen zeggen niets aan zijn club te verdienen. Gelukkig mag hij bij huldigingen de beker omhooghouden. En anders volgend jaar.