Blog

South Korean R&B and K-pop singer Wheesung has been found dead, according to reports. He was 43.

The body of the singer, born Choi Whee-sung, was discovered at his home in Seoul on Monday, local police confirmed to The New York Times and South Korea’s Yonhap News. Authorities told the outlets there were no signs of foul play. A cause of death has not been determined, but a Seoul Gwangjin Police officer told the Times they were investigating the potential of a drug overdose.

USA TODAY has reached out to South Korean police for comment.

Wheesung, who also went by the stage name Realslow, released his first solo album, “Like A Movie,” in 2002, and his second album, “It’s Real,” was released the following year.

He released nearly a dozen studio albums and EPs during his career and starred in musicals, including stints as Zorro in “Zorro” and as Elvis in “All Shook Up.”

“Artist Wheesung has left us. He was found in cardiac arrest at his residence and was later pronounced dead,” his agency, Tajoy Entertainment, told Yonhap News in a statement, adding staff were “in deep sorrow.”

In 2021, Wheesung was convicted of habitual propofol use, an anesthetic sedative. He received a one-year prison sentence and a two-year suspension, according to the outlets, causing his career to be tarnished.

His death follows that of the South Korean actress Kim Sae-ron, who was reportedly found dead at her home by a friend and presumed to have died by suicide. She was 24.

The friend, who was going to meet the actress, discovered her and called police, Yonhap News Agency and The Korea Times reported. Police found no foul play or note left by Kim, according to the outlets.

The South Korean star was known for her roles in movies like “A Brand New Life” and “The Man from Nowhere.” She most recently appeared in the Netflix series “Bloodhounds,” which debuted in 2023.

In 2022, her acting career took a hit after she was involved in a drunk driving incident. In a statement on Instagram at the time, Kim apologized for making a “big mistake in a drunken state,” according to a translation from the Korean entertainment website Soompi.

“I have no excuses for this unfortunate incident and I feel so ashamed and disappointed in myself for the mistake I made,” she said at the time. “I will deeply reflect and reflect again to ensure that something like this never happens again. I’m sorry.”

This story has been updated to include additional information.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental and/or substance use disorders, you can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s free and confidential treatment referral and information service at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). It’s available 24/7 in English and Spanish (TTY: 1-800-487-4889).

Contributing: Brendan Morrow

---

A 2023 CBC investigation tracked down the Massachusetts birth certificate for the 84-year-old singer, who previously marketed herself as a “Cree singer-songwriter.”

Oscar-winning singer Buffy Sainte-Marie has had two more awards rescinded amid revelations about her heritage and nationality.

Canada’s prestigious Juno Awards, which recognize musical achievements, and the Polaris Music Prize on Friday announced their respective decisions to revoke the recognitions they’ve bestowed upon the singer over the decades, citing the 84-year-old’s recent confirmation that she is an American citizen, rather than Canadian.

This statement to the Canadian Press, which was issued March 4 in response to the termination of her appointment to the Order of Canada earlier this year, said she had “made it completely clear” she was not Canadian when she was awarded the honor in 1997.

USA TODAY has reached out to Sainte-Marie’s representatives for comment.

Buffy Sainte-Marie removed from Canadian Music Hall of Fame after ‘confirmation that she is not Canadian’

In the aftermath of the statement, the Polaris Music Prize said in a March 7 blog post, “Buffy Sainte-Marie released an updated statement confirming she is an American citizen and holds a U.S. passport. … Based on Sainte-Marie’s statement, Buffy does not meet Polaris Music Prize’s rules and regulations.

“Given Buffy’s statement regarding her citizenship, Polaris Music Prize will be rescinding all awards including her 2015 Polaris Music Prize and 2020 Heritage Prize.”

Polaris “requires all nominees to be Canadian citizens or permanent residents, with proof of status provided through government-issued documentation, including passports, birth certificates, permanent resident cards, and/or Secure Certificates of Indian Status,” the post explained.

It added, “We understand that not all Indigenous people have access to government-issued paperwork, and we acknowledge that this does not diminish their identity or connection to their communities and should not impact their ability to be nominated for the Polaris Music Prize.”

That same day, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences said in a news release: “Following a thorough review, consultations with the CARAS Indigenous Music Advisory Committee, and in light of recent information, including Ms. Sainte-Marie’s confirmation that she is not Canadian, CARAS will revoke Buffy Sainte-Marie’s JUNO Awards and Canadian Music Hall of Fame induction in accordance with its eligibility requirements.”

The statement added, “Buffy Sainte-Marie has been a strong supporter and advocate for Canadian music, and we acknowledge the past contributions she has made to our organization. However, CARAS’ mandate is to educate, develop, celebrate, and honour Canadian artists.”

Buffy Sainte-Marie previously highlighted alleged Cree ancestry

In her statement last month to the Canadian Press, Sainte-Marie said that when she was a young adult she was adopted by a Cree family in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. She also said she has “lived with uncertainty” about her heritage.

In the past Sainte-Marie was described on her website — which touted her “Indigenous leadership” — as a “Cree singer-songwriter.” Her website’s bio in 2023 also claimed “she became the only Indigenous person to win an Oscar” at the time with her 1983 Academy Awards recognition for best original song (“Up Where We Belong” from “An Officer and a Gentleman.”)

These statements have since been removed from her website.

2023 investigation found Sainte-Marie was born to white parents in Massachusetts; singer says she was adopted

In October 2023, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation published an investigation that uncovered her birth certificate, which showed a birthplace of Stoneham, Massachusetts. According to the CBC, she was born Beverly Jean Santamaria on Feb. 20, 191, to a white couple, Albert and Winifred Santamaria, whom she’s claimed were her adoptive parents.

“For many years, Sainte-Marie claimed she was born on the Piapot First Nation” located within Saskatchewan, the report said. But Sainte-Marie’s lawyer, Josephine de Whytell, told the outlet in a statement at the time, “At no point has Buffy Sainte-Marie personally misrepresented her ancestry or any details about her personal history to the public.”

In the 2018 novel “Buffy Sainte-Marie: An Authorized Biography,” for which Joni Mitchell wrote the forward, Sainte-Marie explained her understanding of her Native heritage to author Andrea Warner.

“I was told that I was adopted. I was told that I was just born ‘on the wrong side of the blanket.’ In other words, one of my parents was my parent and one wasn’t. I was told that we were part-Indian, but nobody knew anything about it,” the book quotes her as saying, according to the CBC.

Emile and Clara Piapot of the Piapot First Nation adopted Sainte-Marie into their family in the early ’60s, several family members confirmed in the CBC’s report, saying, this “holds far more weight than any paper documentation or colonial recordkeeping ever could.”

Buffy Sainte-Marie: ‘I am proud of my Indigenous-American identity’

For 60 years, I’ve shared my story with the world as honestly as I know how. I am humbled my truth is one so many others have connected with. Unfortunately, some wish to question my truth. So here it is – as I know it. From me to you. Big love, Buffy

Posted by Buffy Sainte-Marie on Thursday, October 26, 2023

The day before the CBC investigation was published, Sainte-Marie took to social media to share both a video and a lengthy statement about the “deeply hurtful allegations” that were set to come out.

“I am proud of my Indigenous-American identity, and the deep ties I have to Canada and my Piapot family. What I know about my Indigenous ancestry I learned from my growing up mother, who was part Mi’kmaq, and my own research later in life,” she wrote on Oct. 26, 2023. “My mother told me many things, including that I was adopted and that I was Native.”

Sainte-Marie wrote that she has struggled to pinpoint her ancestry and said her “Indigenous identity is rooted in a deep connection to a community which has had a profound role in shaping my life and my work.”

“For a long time, I tried to discover information about my background. Through that research what became clear, and what I’ve always been honest about, is that I don’t know where I’m from or who my birth parents were, and I will never know,” she wrote. “Which is why, to be questioned in this way today is painful, both for me, and for my two families I love so dearly.”

All of your fave Mormon influencers that made #MomTok more than a hashtag will return for Season 2 of the popular reality TV series “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”

The Hulu show unpacks the drama and subsequent chaos that ensued in 2022, when highly influential “MomTok” influencer Taylor Frankie Paul, who has more than 5 million followers on TikTok, told viewers that members of her tight-knit Mormon friend group were engaging in “soft-swinging,” a practice in which couples are said to share sexual partners without going “all the way.”

“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” Season 1 leaned into the controversy, casting a group of Mormon #MomTok influencers most affected by the scandal. This season, Miranda McWhorter will threaten to destroy all the progress the group has made to move on.

“The scandalous world of Mormon #MomTok is back and bigger than ever! When an original swinger from their infamous sex scandal makes a surprise return, friendships threaten to unravel as secrets, lies, and allegations explode,” reads Hulu’s Season 2 logline. “In a battle for the soul of #MomTok, will betrayal shatter the sisterhood, or will the truth set them free?”

Hulu shared the premiere date and teaser for the upcoming season on Monday. Here’s what we know so far about Season 2 of the “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

When does the ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Season 2 premiere?

Season 2 of the “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” premieres on Thursday, May 15, on Hulu.

Watch ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Season 2 teaser

‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Season 2 cast

All of your Mormon #MomTok favs, including the creator of the hashtag, are slated to return for Season 2.

• Taylor Frankie Paul also known as @taylorfrankiepaul on TikTok. The 30-year-old is the creator of the #MomTok hashtag and center of the scandal. She was married to and had two children with Tate Paul before the two divorced. She is now dating and has a baby with Dakota Mortensen.
• Demi Engemann also known as @demilucymay on TikTok. Engemann has one child with her first husband and is now married to Bret Engemann, who is 17 years her senior and has two sons of his own.
• Jennifer Affleck also known as @jenniferaffleckk. Affleck is married to Zac Affleck, who is a cousin of Ben Affleck, and has two children.
• Jessi Ngatikaura also known as @_justjessiiii on TikTok. Ngatikaura is married to Jordan Ngatikaura and has two children and a stepson.
• Layla Taylor also known as @laylaleannetaylor on TikTok. Taylor is a divorced mom of two. Taylor and ex-husband Clayton Wessel parted ways in 2023, Us Weekly reported.
• Mayci Neeley also known as @maycineeley on TikTok. Neeley is a mom of two, IVF advocate and is married to Jacob Neeley, who is the father of her youngest child.
• Mikayla Mathews also known as @mikaylamatthews on TikTok. Mathews got married at age 16 to a 21-year-old Jace Terry and is a mother of three.
• Whitney Leavitt also known as @whitneyleavitt on TikTok. Leavitt is a married mother of other two with a third on the way. Her husband, Conner, was infamously caught using Tinder during their marriage.

Dive deeper: These modern day Mormons are getting real about sex. But can they conquer reality TV?

How to watch ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Season 2

“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” is a Hulu exclusive. All Season 2 episodes will be watchable at the time of the premiere.

All Season 1 episodes are available on Hulu if you’re interested in a re-watch before the Season 2 premiere.

Hulu offers plans ranging from $9.99 a month to $18.99 a month for normal streaming services, and $82.99 a month to $95.99 a month for with streaming and live television. New users can also sign up for a free trial.

More: Kim Kardashian says Khloé ‘gave me her life savings’ to help fund first divorce

We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.

Contributing: Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY

Former talk show host Wendy Williams has been transported to a New York City hospital following a welfare check by the New York Police Department.

The NYPD “responded to a welfare check” at the senior living facility where she lives on Monday, a spokesperson said in a statement to USA TODAY. It continued: “EMS responded and transported a 60 year old female to an area hospital for evaluation.”

USA TODAY has reached out to Williams’ guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, for comment.

Morrissey has said, through her lawyers, in court filings that “The Wendy Williams Show” star is “cognitively impaired and permanently incapacitated” due to the primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia with which she was diagnosed in 2023. However, in recent months, Williams, 60, has disputed the diagnoses in interviews.

Speaking with the Breakfast Club in January, Williams said she is “not cognitively impaired” and that she is “trapped in a conservatorship.” She added, “I feel like I am in prison.”

Wendy Williams’ interview: Talk show host is ‘not cognitively impaired,’ she says

Last month, Morrissey revealed in a court document addressing comments that Williams “has recently made, as reported in the media, concerning both her own mental capacity” and a lawsuit Morrissey filed against Lifetime last year over the documentary “Where is Wendy Williams?”

Williams would be undergoing a “new medical evaluation” of her condition, Morrisey wrote, noting the former TV star “has now repeatedly stated publicly that she disagrees with her FTD diagnosis.” However, Morrissey added this is a “symptom that is not uncommon for patients with FTD who have impaired awareness even regarding their own impairments.”

Morrissey “believes that it would be prudent for (Williams) to undergo a new medical evaluation that will involve comprehensive neurological and psychological testing by a specialist in the field,” the filing stated.

Williams might appear on “The View” later this week, per a social media post from one of the producers of her talk show, Suzanne Bass.

“Prepping a very special friend for her appearance @theviewabc to air this Friday. #freewendy,” Bass captioned a Sunday Instagram post that included a video of her seemingly on the phone with Williams.

---

“PolG disease has been described as really one of the most progressive forms of mitochondrial disease,” said Philip Yeske. “Leading to rapid decline in function, and then resulting in death.”

Prince Frederik of Luxembourg died from a genetic disease called PolG, but experts hope his passing could bring more awareness to the rare condition that impacted his life.

Prince Frederik, 22, died from a mitochondrial disease known as PolG, his father, Prince Robert of Luxembourg, announced on the website of his son’s foundation, the POLG Foundation.

“Frederik knows that he is my Superhero, as he is to all of our family, and to so very many good friends and now in great part thanks to his POLG Foundation, to so very many people the world over,” Prince Robert said.

“My only hope is out of this tragic loss of life that we can really use it as a springboard for advancing the therapeutics that will address this huge unmet medical need in the mitochondrial disease space,” said Philip Yeske, the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation’s (UMDF) Science and Alliance Officer. UMDF has worked with the POLG Foundation, which Prince Frederik created “with the singular goal of finding that cure.”

But what is PolG Disease and how common is it? Here’s everything people should know about what the royal family’s website calls one of the “cruelest” mitochondrial diseases.

More: Prince Frederik, son of Prince Robert of Luxembourg, dies of rare POLG disease at 22

What is PolG disease?

PolG disease is a genetic disease caused by mutations that occur in the POLG gene in the mitochondria of a person’s cell, according to the UMDF. It’s one of the most commonly inherited mitochondrial diseases.

“PolG disease has been described as really one of the most progressive forms of mitochondrial disease,” said Yeske. “Leading to rapid decline in function, and then resulting in death.”

PolG is one of many other rare disorders classified as mitochondrial diseases.

Over 400 mitochondrial diseases, including PolG, have been identified, according to Yeske.

How does PolG affect people?

The PolG gene, when it does not have a mutation, is responsible for replicating the mitochondrial genome, according to a 2022 study published by the National Library of Medicine.

The mitochondria is commonly known as the “powerhouse of the cell,” and it provides the energy the cells in a person’s body need to survive and function.

However, a gene mutation in the mitocondria’s DNA, like the one caused by PolG, can impact the mitochondria and keep it from performing as it normally would.

What part of the body is impacted by PolG?

The disease affects multiple organs of the body, primarily the following, according to the foundation:

The disease could also impact a person’s vision due to the involvement of affected brain structures.

PolG also affects neurological function and impacts people’s ability to balance, talk, and walk, and it causes seizures and more, according to Yeske.

People with PolG “likely end up bedridden and unable to function in so many of those activities of daily living that are important to all of us,” he said.

Who is affected by PolG disorders?

PolG is a genetic disorder inherited from both parents and can manifest itself in people from infancy to late adulthood, according to the study published by the library.

The disease is on a spectrum, according to Yeske, with Alpers-Huttenlocher syndrome being the most severe and usually manifesting during early childhood.

Childhood myocerebrohepatopathy spectrum, another PolG-related disorder, also appears during the first three years of a person’s life, according to the study.

People given a more general diagnosis of PolG are usually diagnosed in adolescence and adulthood, according to Yeske.

Detecting mitochondrial diseases

Multiple symptoms could manifest in a person with a mitochondrial disease, but genetic testing for a POLG mutation is needed to confirm the diagnosis, according to UMDF.

Brain scans using a CT scan or MRI can spot changes in the brain from PolG Disease, and EEGs can also be used in diagnosis.

The disease “manifests in a lot of different symptoms for our patients,” said Yeske.

Muscle weakness and exercise intolerance could be a result of a mitochondrial disease, and one’s kidneys, liver, or heart could be affected, according to Yeske. When multiple issues with different parts of the body start to arise, it could be a sign of a mitochondrial disease.

“So if you’re having problems with your eyes, and your heart, and your brain, that starts to point to something fundamental, like a mitochondrial problem,” said Yeske. “And not just a specific problem to an eye disorder or a heart disorder.”

Children with a mitochondrial disease may miss growth milestones, like speaking or walking by a certain age.

To view a list of other symptoms related to PolG, click here.

How is the disease treated?

The disease is also managed by treating the symptoms of PolG, but it cannot be cured.

So, patients might be given medication that treats seizures, pain medication, muscle relaxants, physical therapy and more, according to UMDF.

No cure, but early diagnosis helps

Prince Frederik is “very representative of so many in our community that just ran out of time” while waiting for a cure, said Yeske.

Patients and their loved ones can be overwhelmed by a PolG diagnosis, “because of what we have available to us today,” said Yeske.

But, despite the lack of therapies for the cure, Yeske, who also lost his first daughter when she was 1 year old to a mitochondrial disease, is still hopeful.

UMDF is “working as fast as possible to get those approved therapies that could improve [PolG patient’s] quality of life [and] hopefully extend life,” said Yeske. “These are all on the radar for what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Spreading awareness of mitochondrial diseases is important so people can receive treatment as soon as possible, according to Yeske. It can also lead to more studies and lead a way to a cure.

Receiving an early diagnosis helps in giving patients the care they need.

“Having a confirmed genetic diagnosis is the gateway to having access to therapies that are approved but also just getting better clinical care from their patient because the doctors now better understand and know that there’s a therapy available to them,” said Yeske.

Wind is whipping across the water in London’s Canada Dock and Asif Khan is telling me, with great enthusiasm and extravagant gestures, about the “deal porters” who once worked here, carrying timber across narrow plankways. “They were called ‘Blondins’, after the tightrope walker,” he says. “Timber would arrive from the Canadian forests and the deal porters would unload it and carry it from the ships to be stacked, almost dancing across the water. They had a particular way of walking to allow the planks to bounce on their shoulders, and they had to pace in a certain way to keep in rhythm with the movement of these long planks.”

We are looking at a lipstick-red bridge that appears to meander across a dock that looks very different to the days when it was rammed with ships from across the Atlantic. Now penned in by a shabby shopping centre, a striking and well-used library and some generic housing towers, the water is being turned into a sanctuary for a handful of waterfowl nesting in the reed beds.

The bridge is terrific, a vivid slash of complex carpentry made to appear elegantly simple. “It has an echo of the red of the Canadian flag,” says Khan, its designer. It also has a kind of loping gait, striding across the water like the porters once did.

Tall, open and energetic, Khan is an architect and designer whose time appears to be arriving. He is also working at another historic port area, Canning Dock in Liverpool, where, along with US artist Theaster Gates, he is creating a “place of contemplation” to invite reflection on the slave trade. The dry dock was once the place where slave ships were repaired: a real, painfully tangible link to one of the industries that made the city wealthy.

Back in his east London office, he shows me a model of a striated mound. “People were asking whether it was just a random shape,” he says. “It’s actually the exact volume of the inside of a hull of a slave ship.”

Dad said the public space with the fountains at the Barbican used to remind him of the Gardens of Shalimar in Lahore

Between these two very different dockside projects you can divine Khan’s approach: he can liven up a commercial landscape with wit and elegance, and he can equally make a modest but meaningful intervention into one of Britain’s most charged locations. 

Khan is simultaneously working at entirely different scales. The day before I visit his office, a former carpet shop in Hackney, I see him at the Barbican Centre, where his practice (alongside architectural firm Allies and Morrison and engineers Buro Happold) is launching a public consultation about a major reworking of the huge City of London cultural complex. When he talks about the project he shifts up a gear.

“When we were kids, my dad would bring us here every weekend,” he says. “We never went into the concerts or anything, just used the public space, like it was our living room.” He gestures out towards the landscaped piazza: “Dad said the public space with the fountains used to remind him of the Gardens of Shalimar in Lahore.”

If this sounds fanciful, particularly on another steely grey London day, Khan tells me about how Geoffry Powell, one of the architects of the Barbican, was born in Bangalore and how during the Barbican’s design another of its architects, Christoph Bon, was shown around the work of Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa. The Barbican is a large project, an attempt to strip back some of the later additions and accretions to the brutalist complex, which opened in 1982, and create a clarity more redolent of the original intent.

Khan’s own parents were Indian, his father having been born in what is now Pakistan, his mother in Tanzania. Both found careers as social workers. We touch on a few themes around Islam (he made a work for the Islamic Arts Biennale currently running in Saudi Arabia) and I ask about his faith. “I’m a bad Muslim,” he says, a little sheepishly. “When we won the Barbican project I brought my dad to a concert here. It was a way of paying him back, appreciating what he’d done for us. I wouldn’t have taken this job if it wasn’t for that. It means a lot to me.”

For a profession in which designers often don’t get to build big until they are in their early fifties, Khan, at 45, is still young. He started early. He had only just graduated from London’s Architectural Association (to which he won a scholarship) when he was commissioned to design a tiny café on Littlehampton’s West Beach in 2008, a neat box with a concrete base and a front window that opened outwards like the front of a doll’s house. 

He made headlines with his eye-catching design for his Coca-Cola Beatbox Pavilion at the London Olympics in 2012 (designed with Pernilla Ohrstedt). A jumble of red and white cushioned panels clustered together to make an interactive sound installation, it responded to touch with anything from the noise of tennis shoes squeaking on a court to human heartbeats.

The supremely theatrical installation led to a slew of pop-up spectaculars, culminating in the carbon fibre arch portals to the Dubai Expo (2020). These looked drawn as much as built, constructed of superfine black lines to create the effect of a lattice or, according to Khan, an echo of the pierced mashrabiya shutters on houses in many parts of the Arab world.

If he became known for these kinds of spectacles, his current workload seems more concerned with a more permanent, embedded architecture. About to open is the Tselinny Centre of Contemporary Culture in Almaty, Kazakhstan, a conversion of a huge former Soviet cinema. “The clients wanted to demolish the building,” he tells me, “but I said, no, this is something really important.”

The revived building is announced by a facade that resembles the underside of a mushroom, a surface of curving fins softening the socialist realist rigidity. Khan compares it to a cloud, referring to Kazakh mythology of the place where earth and sky and water meet. Echoes of the Soviet era have been retained, including a large mural that is being restored. It will be Khan’s first major public building and it looks, from the photos of it in a snowy landscape, like an intriguing thing.

But it’s another project, back near the Barbican, that will expose Khan to a wider British public. The Museum of London’s new building at Smithfield has been a huge undertaking, a conversion of part of the old meat market, an excavation of a cavernous and complex subterranean realm that encompasses train lines, service tunnels and astonishing cliffs of Victorian brick engineering.

There’s about a thousand years of slaughter in this place, so the question is, ‘How do you disarm it?’

Working with architects Stanton Williams, Khan is designing the entry and events space in the General Market, which is being left raw and ready rather than over-designed and over-proscribed. That will then be surrounded by a parade of 47 shops on the outside, reviving what was once dozens of retail butchers to the street, recreating a much more active frontage. Khan is keen to talk about these. “No museum has ever done anything like this,” he says. 

“There’s about a thousand years of slaughter in this place, so the question is, ‘How do you disarm it?’ It is a place with a very masculine aura, but we need to ask what else it could be, without sanitising it.” I suggest that the meat market next door closing will make the project something very different: put it in danger of becoming something like Covent Garden, a place for tourists. “For me that history is in the streets,” he replies, “and in the air. We need to reactivate it. So there’ll be an all-night café to keep that nocturnal experience. 

“The shopfronts,” he says “will create 200m of high street, so that the place can become a coral reef rather than an institution, something alive which allows culture to grow around it and something that is part of the city, that can accommodate change. What is a 21st-century museum? Maybe this is it.”

Find out about our latest stories first — follow FT Weekend on Instagram and X, and sign up to receive the FT Weekend newsletter every Saturday morning

Princess Kate is back at the royal family’s Commonwealth Day service for the first time since 2023.

Kate attended the service at London’s Westminster Abbey on Monday after missing it in 2024 amid her cancer battle. She stepped out for the event with her husband, Prince William, and was seated next to King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Kate wore a red dress, accessorized with a matching bow and hat, and completed the look with a necklace that Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana previously wore. She wore the same necklace during a state visit by the emir of Qatar in December.

This was also King Charles III’s return to the Commonwealth Day service. He did not attend in 2024 while he, too, was battling cancer.

Princess Kate says her cancer is in remission: ‘It is a relief’

Last year’s Commonwealth Day, in March 2024, occurred while Kate was still recovering after being hospitalized for planned abdominal surgery in January. Buckingham Palace had said that the Princess of Wales would not return to public duties until after Easter, in late March.

Soon after Kate’s absence from the service, it was announced that she had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy.

Kate stepped away from the public eye amid her treatment but gradually began to return starting in June, when she appeared at the Trooping the Colour. By September, Kate announced that she had finished chemotherapy.

“I must continue to take each day as it comes,” she said in a video at the time. “I am, however, looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can. Despite all that’s gone before, I enter this new phase of recovery with a renewed sense of hope and appreciation of life.”

Princess Kate finishes chemotherapy, says she’s ‘doing what I can to stay cancer-free’

In January, Kate shared an update and revealed that her cancer was in remission.

“It is a relief to now be in remission and I remain focused on recovery,” she said on social media.

“As anyone who has experienced a cancer diagnosis will know, it takes time to adjust to a new normal. I am however looking forward to a fulfilling year ahead. There is much to look forward to. Thank you to everyone for your continued support.”

Love was in the air at the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday, and we’re not just talking about the score.

Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner were spotted in the audience of the tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California.

Photos and videos showed the Oscar-nominated “Dune” actor, 29, and the “Kardashians” star, 27, kissing and holding hands while watching the game. Jenner’s sister, Kendall Jenner, was also in attendance.

Kylie Jenner wore a red crop top and sunglasses, while Chalamet sported an Adidas jacket with a white and blue collared shirt underneath. The two were previously spotted together at the US Open in 2023, which helped fuel relationship rumors.

It was the latest public outing for the couple, who attended the Academy Awards together earlier this month. Jenner skipped the red carpet but could be seen in the audience seated next to the actor, who was nominated for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” and sharing kisses with him.

The Oscars broadcast also showed Jenner laughing along during an opening bit where Adam Sandler approached Chalamet and said his name in a comedic voice, a callback to the Golden Globe Awards.

Chalamet and Jenner, who sparked dating rumors in 2023, previously attended the Golden Globes together in January, again sitting together. The Kylie Cosmetics founder was seen applauding after host Nikki Glaser said the actor was “so good” in “A Complete Unknown.” She also smiled and laughed when Glaser joked that Tilda Swinton was nominated “for her role as Timothée Chalamet” and told the actor he has the “most gorgeous eyelashes on your upper lip.”

Kylie Jenner cuddles up with Timothée Chalemet inside 2025 Oscars: See photos

Jenner did not, however, attend February’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, where Chalamet won best actor. That ceremony took place shortly after the death of Jenner’s friend and hairstylist, Jesus Guerrero.

Kylie Jenner, Timothée Chalamet pack on the PDA at Golden Globes (again)

Chalamet generally avoids discussing his relationship with Jenner in interviews and on red carpets. During his SAG speech, he thanked his mother and shared his ambition to “be one of the greats,” saying the best actor award offered him “a little more ammo to keep going.”

Contributing: Taylor Ardrey and Saman Shafiq

Comedian Druski and football wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. have been named in an amended “gang rape” lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs.

In the lawsuit, initially filed in October, Ashley Parham accused Combs, 55, of sexual assault and battery, abuse, false imprisonment and kidnapping. The amended complaint, filed Friday, names Druski (born Drew Desbordes), Beckham, blogger Jacquelyn “Jaguar” Wright, Combs’ mother, Janice Combs, and eight others as co-defendants.

Parham claimed to have virtually met Combs in February 2018 when she met a man – now identified as Shane Pearce – at a bar who started a FaceTime call with the Bad Boy Records founder. She goes on to allege that after she claimed in the call that Combs had a hand in rapper Tupac Shakur’s 1996 killing, Pearce “set her up” to be assaulted by Combs the following month. The alleged assault took place in the Pearce apartment in Orinda, California — a city outside of Oakland — on March 23, 2018, she said.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sued by woman claiming he ‘violently gang raped’ her in 2018

During the alleged assault, Parham claims Druski, previously identified as John Doe, was instructed to assault her by Combs. She alleged the internet personality “doused” her in lubricant and jumped on top of her, “knocking the wind out” of her “due to his enormous size.” She claims Combs masturbated while recording the assault. She also accuses Pearce and Beckham of taking turns assaulting her during the ordeal.

Druski, Odell Beckham Jr., Diddy respond to allegations: ‘Truly outlandish’

In a statement shared to social media and echoed by his reps to USA TODAY, Druski, 30, called the claim false.

“This allegation is a fabricated lie,” he wrote on X Sunday. “I wasn’t a public figure in 2018 — I was broke living with my mom without any connections to the entertainment industry at the time of this allegation, so the inclusion of my name is truly outlandish.”

He continued: “My heart breaks for actual victims of abuse, but I’m fully confident that the evidence will expose this falsehood and the individuals who are maliciously trying to game the legal system to pedal false narratives.”

Beckham, 32, replied to Druski’s post: “Boy I’ll tell u what. This world makes absolutely no sense. I am covered by God. He will prevail. … That name will be cleared. (It’s) stupid.”

USA TODAY has reached out to Beckham’s reps for comment.

“This new complaint – brought by an attorney who has already been sued for defaming Mr. Combs – demonstrates the depraved lengths plaintiffs will travel to garner headlines in pursuit of a payday,” said Combs’ team, who is suing one of the lawyers who filed Parham’s lawsuit, in a statement to USA TODAY Monday. “Mr. Combs was nowhere near Orinda, California on the day Ms. Parham claims she was assaulted there.”

Parham claims after the assault, in an effort to convince her not to report the incident, a person identified as “Big Homie CC” showed her footage on his phone of her sister’s home and that Combs called his mother, Janice, 84, who yelled at Parham to “not hurt her son” despite Parham telling the woman that she was “violently raped.” Janice Combs seemed unfazed, according to the lawsuit.

Police call Ashley Parham’s Diddy lawsuit claims ‘unfounded’

Parham then describes an argument that ensued between Big Homie CC and Combs after the Revolt TV founder allegedly said “he had gotten off from bigger crimes than this and referred to Tupac again,” with the other man “asking (Combs) to repeat what he said.”

Parham claims CC pulled a gun, and that she tried to grab it, but it went off. She alleges Combs then ran off, with Parham chasing after him with a knife she previously acquired after her assault, leading to a fight in which Parham grazed Combs’ abdomen. She says she escaped, and after shots were fired in her direction, she took cover in a neighbor’s home, who called the police.

In a statement, the sheriff’s office said: “A report was taken on March 23, 2018. We take these cases seriously, and detectives thoroughly investigated the accusations. It was later determined the claims were unfounded.”

She claims she told the neighbor about the assault, but that the neighbor didn’t know who Combs was. She alleges that a man showed up at the home “posing” as an officer from the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, who gave the neighbor an envelope that she assumes included money. However, she says the sheriff’s office took a police report that day and has “refused to release any information related to the complaint.”

Parham says in light of the alleged transaction, she returned to Pearce’s apartment for her belongings and, because she was “catatonic and in the state of shock,” decided to sleep at Pearce’s home at his urging. Once she woke up, she says he gave her the rest of her belongings, and she left. She says she went to the hospital, where she received a rape kit and X-rays. Her treatment team called Walnut Creek Police, she claims, and she says she gave a report but did not name Combs. She says she filed a report to the Orinda Police Department the following month, again not naming Combs.

Last July, Parham says she called the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office to amend her complaint amid mounting lawsuits against the embattled media mogul, but aside from a call back from a detective, she says she received no response.

Kristina Khorram, whom Combs previously described as “my right hand” at Combs Enterprises, is also among the co-defendants accused of assisting Combs’ “predatory sexual behavior and proclivities by setting up (Parham) to be sexually assaulted and raped by Defendant Diddy as well as assisting in covering up the crime thereafter.”

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline offers free, confidential, 24/7 support to survivors and their loved ones in English and Spanish at: 800.656.HOPE (4673) and Hotline.RAINN.org and en Español RAINN.org/es.

Contributing: KiMi Robinson