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Dakota Johnson reveals long-hidden bond with Madonna

Dakota Johnson reveals her ‘weird’ friendship with Madonna

Dakota Johnson finally opened up about her long-hidden connection with Madonna.

In a recent chat with E! News, the 35-year-old actress revealed her bond with Madonna that goes back decades.

This came after a photo of Dakota with Madonna, Dave Chappelle, and music manager Guy Oseary taken at a birthday party for Tom Cruise’s agent went viral last month.

Dakota confessed that her friendship with Madonna is not new. “We’ve been like weird friends for a while. I really love her.”

The Fifty Shades of Grey star described the Queen of Pop as magnetic, noting, “She has an energy to be near that is so beautiful and so wild. It’s just like cool that she even wants to talk to me.”

They connected first time when Madonna starred alongside Dakota’s former stepfather, Antonio Banderas, in Evita back in 1996

“I met her when I was really young because she did a movie with my stepfather, and then I got to know her later ‘cause we were gonna work together on something and we’ve always kind of circled each other,” Dakota explained.

Though Dakota’s mother, Melanie Griffith, parted ways from Banderas in 2014, she has kept close ties with Madonna.

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August 21, 2025
Hull Royal Infirmary epilepsy nurses see their work go nationwide

Work by a team of nurses at Hull Royal Infirmary has been adopted by a national epilepsy charity to help young people.

Epilepsy Action has published a series of leaflets aimed at teenagers, parents of children with additional needs and people who require documents that are easy to read.

The content is based on booklets created by children’s epilepsy nurses Fiona Lead, Nicky Heenan, Carys Amies and Chris Bennett, who are all based at the Hull hospital.

“The content for the booklets took us about a year to develop [and] another year to tweak, and we’ve been using them for the past three years to provide structure and consistency [in our] epilepsy clinics,” said Ms Lead.

The leaflets are intended to support young people as they make the move from child-focused, paediatric care to adult neurology or epilepsy services.

Ms Lead said studies showed the move from children’s services to adult services could be very challenging for young people with a long-term health condition.

“It’s common to see a big dip in their overall health and for young people and their families to feel like they’ve been abandoned, but providing a structured transition programme is widely acknowledged to help avoid some of these issues,” she said.

“To have our content form the basis of nationwide resources for families and young people, we jumped at the chance.

“It was a real compliment, and it’s great to know that the work we have done here in Hull, influenced by the many children, families and young people that we care for, is now helping to inform and support thousands of other families across the country who are living with epilepsy.”

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August 21, 2025
Tencent Games Debuts AI Creation Tool, VISVISE, Redefining Game Art Production
COLOGNE, Germany, Aug. 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Tencent Games at gamescom 2025 announced the global debut of VISVISE, an end-to-end AI game creation suite, which can dramatically cut down game art design time from days or even months, down to minutes. With capabilities spanning animation and modeling to the creation of intelligent NPCs, or managing digital assets, VISVISE provides game developers and designers with a complete AIGC-powered toolset to accelerate workflows.

Unlocking the Power of AI-Enabled Productivity for Game Art Design

Developers experiencing VISVISE at the booth

Zeng Zijiao presenting VISVISE applications and results at Devcom

Debuting internationally today and being demonstrated for the first time at gamescom 2025, VISVISE’s platform rapidly streamlines the game art design workflow across the entire art creation pipeline, enabling developers to rapidly skin and animate characters within just minutes.

In fact, according to industry averages, rigging and skinning a single game character will take designers between 1 and 3.5 days, while a skeletal animation might normally require between 3 and 7 days. However, this process can be reduced to just 10 seconds with VISVISE. This results in an eightfold improvement in character skinning throughput and transforms animation into a fully automated process of “keyframe generation + intelligent in-betweening.”

VISVISE’s AI-Driven 3D Character Animation: From Challenges to Scaled Deployment

Revealing the mechanics of VISVISE during the Devcom Game Developer Conference, held alongside gamescom in Cologne, Tencent Games VISVISE expert Zijiao Zeng, delivered a keynote titled AI Redefining 3D Animation Production — End-to-End Innovation in Character Animation.”

During the presentation, Zeng revealed two key core technologies, VISVISE GoSkinning and VISVISE MotionBlink, which collectively make up VISVISE’s tools for game art developers.
- VISVISE GoSkinning – leverages a universal AI model to automatically adapt to different skeletal structures. Achieving around 85% automation, GoSkinning uses a two-step process of bone chain prediction and weight refinement, while its proprietary “Skirt AI” addresses complex garment deformation issues.
- VISVISE MotionBlink – Part of the animation production pipeline, VISVISE MotionBlink uses a self-regressive diffusion architecture to rapidly generate keyframes. Combined with a pre-trained CVAE and contrastive learning to produce smooth motion transitions that rival optical motion capture, common issues such as foot sliding and jitter are eliminated.
Notably, these AIGC tools’ mark on game development pipelines is clear and undeniable. GoSkinning reduces full outfit skinning to minutes, a process that traditionally requires days, while MotionBlink generates 10 seconds of animations in seconds, compressing production timelines significantly.

Validated by Research, VISVISE is Leaving its Mark on Future of Game Art Production

With more than 20 papers accepted at conferences like the prestigious SIGGRAPH, VISVISE’s research foundations and peer recognition has been validated at premier academic institutions and underscores its technical rigor and global applicability.

And its mark is indelible even at gamescom, where developers lauded VISVISE’s plug-in architecture, enabling AI tools to be integrated into existing pipelines without workflow disruption. This seamless compatibility directly answers the industry’s need for both high-quality assets and rapid iteration.

“VISVISE fundamentally reshapes how we approach animation,” observed a German game artist after testing the MotionBlink system at gamescom. “It liberates us from technical execution to focus purely on creative vision.“

Not surprisingly, VISVISE’s tools have already been adopted for games including PUBG MOBILE, and Wuthering Waves, while GoSkinning has already been implemented in the development of more than 90 games.

VISVISE channels Tencent’s more than 20 years of game expertise into an industrial-grade pipeline. With new AI tools rolling out progressively to global studios, developers gain an optimized framework for creative innovation.

SOURCE Tencent Games
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August 21, 2025
Europe’s New Front Line in Hepatitis Fight

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) launched a new toolkit on August 7, 2025, ahead of Prisoners’ Justice Day on 10 August.

The launch of the European Toolkit for the Elimination of Viral Hepatitis in Prisons (EuroHePP) aims to support local efforts to eliminate viral hepatitis in prison settings in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal on Good Health and Well-Being.

The EuroHePP provides practical guidance on preventing, evaluating, and treating hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in prisons. Tackling viral hepatitis in these prison settings is essential to reach the UN target of eliminating hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.

Individuals in prison experience a higher incidence of viral hepatitis than the general population, making them a key group for targeted prevention and treatment of the disease. In Europe, individuals entering prisons are also more likely to have a history of injecting drug use, a major risk factor for HBV and HCV transmission.

Sharing of injecting equipment and other risk factors, such as unsafe tattooing or body piercing practices, sharing of razors, and unprotected sex, make prisons a priority setting for targeted viral hepatitis prevention and treatment interventions.

The toolkit was developed in collaboration with European experts and practitioners.

The toolkit comprises four key sections: background, strategy development, strategy implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

It includes links to relevant public health guidance and practical tools to understand the context and define and implement an elimination strategy in prisons. Examples from prisons in Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and Luxembourg are provided to illustrate the models of care.

Using this toolkit, the EUDA and ECDC provide practical, evidence-based information for those working in prison healthcare on how to establish interventions to prevent and control viral hepatitis in these settings.

The information is also likely to be relevant to other audiences, including policymakers, security staff, people living in prisons, peer support workers, and voluntary workers.

Further support for people working in prison healthcare will be available in the form of dedicated training sessions provided by the EUDA and ECDC in the coming months to facilitate the effective implementation of the toolkit and scaling up of services.

Addressing Inequity

The project highlights the principle of equivalence of care recognised in European and international law, which states that individuals in prison should receive the same healthcare as those in the community. As the ECDC stated: “People deprived of their liberty must not also be deprived of their right to health.”

A dossier titled Invisible Populations in Epidemiologia & Prevenzione, the journal of the Italian Association of Epidemiology, shows that infectious diseases remain a leading cause of preventable death in prisons.

This research, led by Erica De Vita, MD, a resident in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, highlights how prison conditions, such as overcrowding, poor sanitation, rapid turnover, and fragile health, make inmates particularly vulnerable. These factors create a high-risk setting for the spread of infections, including hepatitis B, influenza, human papillomavirus, COVID-19, and pneumococcal disease.

The article describes the RISE-Vac project, Reaching the hard-to-reach: increasing access and vaccine uptake among prison populations in Europe, coordinated by the University of Pisa. The project ended in November 2024 after working in six countries: Italy, the UK, France, Germany, Cyprus, and Moldova.

Key outcomes included the establishment of vaccination clinics in prisons, such as in Milan, combined with awareness campaigns and health empowerment programs.

The project also studied vaccine hesitancy among inmates and staff, showing that health literacy is crucial for improving vaccine acceptance and vaccination coverage.

Public Health Impact

The scope of the new European “toolbox” goes beyond the prison walls. Short sentences and repeated incarcerations mean that the same group of people often move between prison and the community.

Therefore, addressing health problems, such as viral hepatitis, in prison settings can also deliver health benefits to the wider community by reducing the overall disease burden and preventing future transmission of infections.

According to ECDC experts in Stockholm, Sweden, the new toolkit is well-structured, adaptable, and evidence-based. They emphasised the need for political and organisational courage to make it central to public health efforts to fight viral hepatitis in prisons.

This story was translated from Univadis Italy.

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August 21, 2025
Punchy dramas and breakthrough talent lead BBC NI autumn schedule
Pat Redmond

Tall Tales & Murder is billed as a comedic crime drama set in Dublin

Punchy real life dramas, engaging historical documentaries and breakthrough talent in front of and behind the camera dominates BBC Northern Ireland’s autumn schedule.

The writer and creator of smash hit Love/Hate returns with six-part drama Tall Tales & Murder starring Packy Lee and Aiden Gillen.

Titanic Sinks Tonight is a four-part documentary series detailing the sinking of the Belfast-built ship through visual effects and first person testimonies.

Fronted by Steph McGovern, Farm 999 is a co-commission with BBC Daytime and follows police, fire and ambulance services as they attend emergency situations in rural communities.

Hit police drama Blue Lights is also scheduled to return to BBC One for its third season in the autumn.

Titanic Sinks Tonight is a four-part documentary

The slate include 24 hours of scripted drama, documentaries and lifestyle programmes, many of them made by independent production companies.

Eddie Doyle, BBC Northern Ireland’s head of commissioning, said the upcoming programmes were a “testament to the storytelling and creative talent of this place”.

“This high-quality new season of programming will provide a distinctive collection of exciting scripted content, returning favourites, landmark documentaries and a rich blend of lifestyle and factual series.”

Tall Tales & Murder, written and created by Stuart Carolan and Chris Addison, known for his work in The Thick of It and on the US TV series  Veep, is based on the eight-book Dublin Trilogy by Caimh McDonnell.

Set in the Irish capital, the series began filming in the Republic of Ireland in June.

Another dramatisation of a novel is Leonard and Hungry Paul, based on Rónán Hessian’s best-selling book.
Three short films will also be broadcast on BBC One NI and on BBC iPlayer.

They are part of the Green Lit initiative – a collaboration between BBC Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen supporting emerging writing, production, directing and acting talent from Northern Ireland.

Mr Doyle said the projects were bold and exciting.

The standalone 15-minute scripted projects are:

Rewarding from Conker Pictures written by Matthew McDevitt, featuring Seána Kerslake and Vittorio Angelone

Helpless from Fabel Productions written by Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearney, starring Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Éanna Hardwicke and George Robinson

Mourning Glory (working title) produced by Fíbín Films written by Shane McNaughton, featuring Nigel O’Neill and Amy Huberman
Niamh McNeill, Rachel McIlhagga and Chloe Crozier are MMA fighters in Ballymena

There is also a full roster of factual programming.

Journalist Darragh MacIntyre returns to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to delve deeper into the case of a British soldier killed during the Troubles.

Made with Bafta-winning director Alison Millar, The Disappearance Of Captain Nairac is a feature-length documentary exploring the young officer’s life and death.

The 29-year-old Grenadier Guards officer was working undercover when he was abducted outside a pub in south Armagh in May 1977. His remains have never been found.

Girl Fight enters a mixed-martial arts (MMA) gym in Ballymena where female fighters pursue their dreams both inside and outside the combat sports cage.

While Surgery in the Sun hears from the growing number of people choosing to travel to Turkey for cosmetic surgery.

Hope Street will return for its fifth series

There are returning favourites like Hope Street, which will celebrate its 50th episode, with two new faces set to join the cast in Port Devine.

Interiors expert Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is also back in Northern Ireland, taking viewers around the homes hoping to be crowned House of the Year.

And once people have gotten their design inspiration, they can turn their attention to their gardens.

In new series Greatest Gardens, award-winning garden designer Diarmuid Gavin and plant expert Carol Klein will be joined each week by celebrity gardening enthusiasts.
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August 21, 2025
Redditch mum writes song about baby loss

Bridie Adams

BBC News, West Midlands

Tammy Gooding

BBC Hereford & Worcester

Olivia Dewar

Olivia Dewar lost her baby Soulie in August last year, just two days after she was born

A woman whose newborn daughter died has written a song on what would have been her first birthday, to help other parents in a similar position to feel less alone.

Olivia Dewar’s daughter Soulie was born in August last year, but had no brain activity and lived for just two days.

Now, Ms Dewar has written A Mother’s Love about her grief, as a means of also helping her cope with her own loss.

Posting it on her TikTok account, which has more than 200,000 followers, she said she wanted to be a voice for other mothers who had experienced baby loss.

The song was produced by her brother Ben and has captured everything Ms Dewar wanted to achieve with it.

“It felt like the perfect way to honour [Soulie],” Ms Dewar said.

“I was trawling the internet trying to find a song that encapsulated everything that I felt and I couldn’t find it, so I just thought, ‘I’m going to have to write it’.”

Olivia Dewar

Baby Soulie was born with no brain activity and survived for just two days, after being starved of oxygen because Ms Dewar suffered high blood pressure towards the end of her pregnancy

Referring to helping other grieving parents, she said: “Unfortunately this is something that not only happened to me but happens to a lot of women and it’s not talked about enough,” she said.

“It was absolutely horrendous, heartbreaking, and no other mother should ever have to go through that.”

Ms Dewar had suffered with high blood pressure at the end of her pregnancy, which led to Soulie being been starved of oxygen.

“The thing is with blood pressure is, it sort of can go undiagnosed and also you don’t feel unwell, so you’re not aware unless you understand to look out for the signs,” she said.

“There’s more women who have been through something like this than we think,” Ms Dewar added.

“You never ever think it is going to happen to you until it does.”

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August 21, 2025
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August 21, 2025
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August 21, 2025
Aubrey Plaza describes grief over husband Jeff Baena’s death, likens it to an ‘ocean of awfulness’ – Firstpost

She likens her grief to an image from an Apple TV+ horror movie starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy.

Aubrey Plaza has described her grief over husband Jeff Baena’s death, likening it to “a giant ocean of awfulness.”

The actor spoke on the podcast ‘’Good Hang with Amy Poehler,” telling her former “Parks and Recreation” costar in her most detailed public remarks to date that it’s been a daily struggle to overcome her grief. Writer-director Baena’s January death at age 47 was ruled a suicide.

“Overall, I’m here and I’m functioning,” Plaza tells Poehler at the outset of their interview after being asked how she is coping. “I feel really grateful to be moving through the world. I think I’m OK. But it’s like a daily struggle, obviously.”

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She likens her grief to an image from an Apple TV+ horror movie starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy.

“Did you see that movie ‘The Gorge?’” Plaza asks Poehler. “In the movie, there’s a cliff on one side and then there’s a cliff on the other side, and there’s a gorge in between, and its filled with all these monster people trying to get them,” Plaza says. “And I swear when I watched it I was like, ‘That feels like what my grief is like,’ or what grief could be like … where it’s like at all times, there’s a giant ocean of awfulness that’s right there and I can see it.”

Plaza adds: “And sometimes I just want to dive into it, and just be in it, and sometimes I just look at it. And then sometimes I try to get away from it. But it’s just always there, and the monster people are trying to get me, like Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy.”

Baena was a writer and director who frequently collaborated with Plaza. He cowrote David O. Russell’s 2004 film “I Heart Huckabees” and wrote and directed five of his own films. Plaza starred in his 2014 directorial debut, the zombie comedy “Life After Beth.”

After largely remaining silent since Baena’s death, Plaza is now promoting her new film, “Honey Don’t!” The dark comedy from director Ethan Coen has Margaret Qualley as a private investigator looking into nefarious goings-on in Bakersfield, California.

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August 21, 2025
Haddon solar farm a risk to parachutists, claims councillor

Joanna Taylor

BBC News, Cambridgeshire

Getty Images

Wessex Solar Energy has applied to install 40,000 solar panels on farmland

A proposed 25-hectare (62-acre) solar farm could spell “serious trouble” for parachutists if the government allows it to be built near an airfield, a councillor said.

Steve McAdam, an independent member on Huntingdonshire District Council, said plans to install 40,000 panels close to Haddon, near Peterborough, could prove hazardous to users at nearby Sibson Aerodrome.

Earlier this week the council’s planning committee unanimously agreed to oppose the site, ahead of a final decision by the Planning Inspectorate.

In its plans, Wessex Solar Energy said “full consideration” had been given to aviation safety.

McAdam said he parachuted as a hobby before his retirement, including while serving with the RAF in Singapore in 1970.

He said he was concerned about the plans “as a former parachutist”, because the idea of having to perform an emergency landing over a solar farm was “terrifying”.

Sibson Aerodrome, which is home to organisations including the UK Parachuting and Skydiving Centre and Peterborough Flying School, is situated about five miles (8km) north of the proposed solar farm.

“If you landed accidentally in the middle of a solar farm, you could do serious damage to yourself,” McAdam said.

“When you come down on a parachute, you’re travelling at around 15 feet per second. You couldn’t do a parachute landing roll or anything like that in the middle of a solar farm.”

McAdam added that parachutes could be controlled with steering toggles, but sudden changes in wind direction could put people in “serious trouble”.

Huntingdon Town Council

Steve McAdam said he was concerned parachutists could be injured if forced to land over a solar farm

Peterborough Flying School has objected to the proposal on the basis of glint and glare, as well as possibly affecting emergency landings following aircraft engine failure.

The UK Parachuting and Skydiving Centre has been approached for comment.

An initial plan to build 65,000 panels was rejected by the Planning Inspectorate in November, with it stating in its conclusion that there was “insufficient demonstration that the proposal would cause no harm to the safe functioning of aircraft”.

However, the latest planning documents submitted on behalf of Wessex Solar Energy said “full consideration” had been given to aviation safety, including carrying out glint and glare assessments.

The company said its plans would “make a significant contribution to the fight against the emission of greenhouse gases”, with the development being able to power 7,600 homes.

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August 21, 2025