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Valentín Lavín Romero, who was from the Green party, an ally of the ruling leftwing Morena party, was wounded at the end of January when hitmen shot him at a petrol station on a motorway.

This time the hitmen entered the town hall of Temoac, near Mexico City, in the middle of the day before shooting Lavín Romero dead and escaping on a motorbike.

Authorities are yet to identify a motive or suspects, but the Morelos prosecutor’s office vowed to “exhaust all lines of investigation”.

Almost 100 mayors have been murdered in Mexico since 2006, when the then president, Felipe Calderón, deployed the military to take on Mexico’s organised crime groups, ultimately causing drug-related violence to rise.

The municipal level of government is the least protected layer of the state and where criminal groups seek deals with authorities to strengthen their hold over the local territory and its businesses.

Local media reported Lavín Romero himself allegedly had ties to local crime groups. His mother-in-law, a former treasurer for the municipal government, was arrested in September 2025 for alleged ties to a criminal group known as Los Aparicio and involvement in kidnappings.

In March, the People’s Front in Defence of Land and Water, an activist group, demanded authorities investigate Lavín Romero for his alleged involvement in the murders of two activists, Samir Flores and Sandra Rosa Camacho Flores.

In May – three months after the first attempt on his life – a banner was left in the centre of Temoac, seemingly by a criminal group, accusing Lavín Romero of protecting its rivals and demanding he fall in line with their interests.

His assassination comes as Mexico’s federal government takes steps to unpick the corruption networks between municipal authorities and criminal groups as part of Operation Swarm, under which 85 officials have been arrested across three states, including Morelos.

According to official data, the homicide rate in Mexico has fallen by roughly half over the past year, although security analysts say the true reduction is likely smaller, while more than 130,000 people are registered as missing. %!s()

If you've been keeping an eye on the rumor mill, you're expecting to see every major handset maker follow Samsung's lead. Google is thought to be adding at least $100 onto the price of the new Pixel handsets. That wouldn't be ideal, but if you care enough about getting a brand new phone and can afford it, it won't be the end of the world. Especially if it's split across the length of your contract, burying the bad news across the next 12 or 24 months.

Meanwhile, Apple's outgoing CEO Tim Cook has already laid the groundwork for iPhones to get more expensive, too. Not long after uncharacteristically saying the company couldn't hold prices at their current level, it bumped up the prices on almost all of its product lines. It doesn't take a genius to know that similar rises will be applied to the new iPhones when they launch this fall.

There's a wild theory that Apple is going to split the launch of the iPhones 18 in two as part of this price strategy. It proposes that the (rumored) ultra-flagship iPhone Fold will debut alongside the more lucrative Pro models, with their higher price and higher markup, in the fall. Only after the holiday buying season would the regular iPhone 18 make its debut, perhaps alongside an even more "affordable" iPhone 18e.

The industry-wide price rises have certainly been tough to swallow, and it's clear it's made a lot of people reconsider purchases. It's not as if this is limited to the technology industry, either, as the US Department of Labor says the price of energy has risen by 15.7 percent in the last 12 months.

As budgets get stretched, it's clear people are hoping to make do with what they've got.

There's already hints that the rises are having a chilling effect. In May 2026, Valve withdrew the entry-level Steam Deck, which was priced at $399. The mid-range and premium tier models, meanwhile, saw their prices rise from $549 and $649 to $789 and $949, respectively. A BoilingSteam report believes the price increases caused sales of the popular gaming handheld to drop by a whopping 82 percent.

Similarly, 9to5Mac polled its readers on how the price rises would affect their behavior, with 38 percent saying they would hold onto their hardware for longer. Industry analysts IDC believe the rises will cause a hefty drop in sales across the rest of the year and across 2027. Similarly, it says the smartphone industry should expect to see a "record low" as the memory crunch bites.

So while a $100 price increase certainly isn't the gift we'd all like to see, it could have been a hell of a lot worse. It may just shake out that the monthly cost of all these phones, which was already more than some people would be willing to pay, is even more out of reach. %!s()

Written by Albertini and Simone Ranucci, “Armony” tells the story of an unconventional but loving family. At its center is Armony (Mastandrea), a solitary, 55-year-old truck driver who is forced to care for his 6-year-old niece, Carlotta (Cherchi), after his sister’s disappearance.

Finding help from Pamela, an older transgender woman (played by the late Pamela Schettino in her final performance), and Jenny (Clara Tramontano), his young, pregnant neighbor, a chosen family soon forms. Their fragile happiness is threatened, however, when social services move to take Carlotta away, forcing Armony to confront a difficult journey to fight for legal custody.

The cast also includes Nando Paone, Elena Lietti, Francesca Antonelli and Ornella Muti.

“’Armony’ won us over with its intimate portrayal of the characters and its authenticity,” says Xenix’s Cyrille Thurston.

The Locarno premiere will certainly boost the film’s prospects in the country, she adds.

“We are convinced that word-of-mouth will have a positive effect and that visitors to the Piazza Grande will recommend the film to others.”

“Armony” is the first Albertini film to be distributed by Xenix, which regularly releases Italian titles in Switzerland, among them Nanni Moretti’s upcoming “It Will Happen Tonight.”

In making his latest film, Albertini sought to explore family ties through the lens of loneliness and “how an unexpected event can rekindle a sense of responsibility.”

The story also reflects the economic hardships afflicting parts of Italian society, the director adds.

“This is undoubtedly a deeply rooted aspect in the areas where the film is set. As happens in many parts of Italy, the problem of finding work or decent housing is compounded by personal and family vulnerabilities. And yet, it is precisely in the darkest moments that, if one finds the strength to look at one’s reality from a different perspective, the desire to fight back can emerge. This leads people to open themselves up to new paths that, until then, had seemed unsuitable for them or beyond their reach, especially when the most intimate and family bonds come into play.

“At first, Armony chooses to live a life that is almost on the margins, held back by the fear of confronting the outside world and, above all, by a deep fear of bonding and surrendering to affection,” Albertini explains.

The film was mainly shot on location in Fiumara, near Fiumicino, a coastal area on the outskirts of Rome “that nevertheless feels profoundly distant from today’s reality,” the director told Variety.

“This location allowed Armony to immerse himself in a context completely unknown to him, visually amplifying his sense of estrangement. The fact that the setting has remained unchanged over the years made it possible to capture a territory untouched by modernization, a microcosm suspended in time. At the same time, Fiumara’s enclosed layout visually conveys the idea of a closed space. This made it possible to stage, in an almost tangible way, the protagonist’s tension, constantly watched by eyes scrutinizing him from within a tightly knit community.”

The idea behind “Armony” “comes from a true story that happened to someone very dear to me,” Albertini says. “It is from this intimate fragment of life that I developed the entire evolution of the story. At the center of the narrative is the theme of parenthood, explored through the eyes of someone who chooses to give it up out of sheer fear and inadequacy. And yet, when fate brings us together with someone in a completely unexpected way, our defenses collapse. From that unexpected encounter comes a genuine spark, capable of turning the story into a journey into the human soul.”

In the role of Armony, Mastandrea was ideally suited to bring life to the character, Albertini added.

“The character of Armony had been conceived a long time ago, but I could not quite find its true shape. Valerio was able to grasp its most intimate and hidden nuances, making every gesture feel natural and removing any trace of staged performance. Thanks to this work, Armony fits perfectly into the story.” %!s()

"It was a step in the right direction," the union wrote in a BlueSky post about this initial sit-down. "We were able to make the case that workers' voices need to be heard and that we can collaborate to achieve this. We managed to secure a roadmap for a speedy negotiation process."

That negotiation process is all part of the union's push for Rockstar to voluntarily recognise them, with the company having requested these negotiations before they agree to do so. If, for whatever reason, voluntary recognition isn't forthcoming, the union can go the route of submitting their application to the UK's Department for Business and Trade's Central Arbitration Committee, which can grant them statutory recognition.

— RSGWU (@rsgworkersunion.bsky.social) 22 July 2026 at 16:03

As of right now, the union are looking to agree on a specific bargaining unit, that being the list of workers the union can represent. Once they've been recognised, the plan is to push for Rockstar to get rid of crunch practices, introduce transparency on pay, bring back flexible working, and commit to not using AI or laying off staff.

The union's formation has come as Rockstar battle former staff fired last year in court, over what the company claimed was due to the leaking of "confidential information" via a public forum, while the IWGB have accused Rockstar of union busting. The final trial of those legal wranglings is set to get underway in September. %!s()

“The most important thing we want to emphasise is that this is not a cancellation,” the duo said in their email. “It is a postponement. The momentum behind ‘Burlesque The Musical’ has never been stronger.”

The U.K. tour, which stars Faye Brooks as Tess (played by Cher in the film) and Gracie O’Brien as Aguilera’s character Ali, has also been pushed back. It was set to launch this Saturday, July 25 in Woking but as of Wednesday the crew were still waiting for the sets to be delivered.

“Everyone’s still very much in the dark, including the crew and venue staff,” a source told Variety yesterday. “No trailers have arrived with set, so no fit up has happened in the first venue. Some venue casuals have had shifts cancelled as a result (with payment). Director and cast are rehearsing on an empty stage.”

A rep for “Burlesque the Musical” has now confirmed to Variety the Woking dates are being pushed back to November and the tour will start in Sunderland, which was supposed to be its second stop, in August.

In a statement sent out after Variety’s story was published, the rep said the decision was made “to give our creative team the time needed to deliver the spectacular production of Burlesque the Musical audiences adore.”

“The producers have confirmed that the tour is fully financed and on a secure footing, as verified by third parties, allowing the company to focus entirely on delivering the highest-quality production possible for audiences nationwide.”

The show originally opened in Manchester in 2024, overseen by its original writer Steven Antin. Runs followed in Glasgow and London’s West End.

A European tour was planned for next year.

More to come… %!s()