Venice Review: Steve James’ ‘A Compassionate Spy’

A consortium led by Banijay chairman Stéphane Courbit is leading the race to acquire French broadcaster M6, according to reports, with shares in the Bertelsmann-owned network spiking on news of several planned offers.

great white shark was enjoying a holiday with her family who were on the beach when she was killed, it is believed.Restaurant owner Kimon Bisogno, 39, had taken a break from the pizza house she ran in Cape Town, South Africa, to visit a luxury resort with her daughter, Luna, five, and the "love-of-her-life" Diego Milesi, 40.Just before 8am yesterday (Sunday, September 25), Kimon was casually wading through the water at Plettenberg Bay when a beastly great white shark darted towards her under the cover of a wave.READ MORE: Woman mauled to death by great white shark on morning swim in shallow watersWitnesses said Kimon had only been waist-deep when the water around her suddenly “turned red” and a frenzied evacuation from the sea was launched by fellow screaming swimmers.The inshore craft from the National Sea Rescue Institute was launched and was quickly on the scene and found Kimon’s blood-soaked body floating in the surf about 50 yards out from where she was attacked.The instant attack was so brutal that nothing could be done to save the young mum as the lifeboat men pulled her badly bitten body onto a stretcher and returned to base.Her body was handed over to the police and forensic pathologists will carry out a post mortem and an inquest will be held and in the meantime her family have been offered trauma counselling.Normally great white shark victims quickly of blood loss when their arteries are severed by the razor-sharp teeth and many as a result suffer from heart attacks.It was the second death in the same idyllic resort in just three months and the third in 11 years and the beach was closed down and shark warning signs erected.Last night close friend Carmin Commins said on Facebook: “I have scrolled through your

NASA is set to intentionally slam a spacecraft into an asteroid today in a crucial mission that could make history and play a key role in the protection of Earth from space objects. The mission, which is called Double Asteroid Redirect Mission (DART), hopes to alter the path of an asteroid called Dimorphos, which is around 500 feet in diameter and orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos.

Loose Women star Coleen Nolan has given her co-star Kaye Adams a racy tip for her strictly performances.Kaye took to the stage on Saturday for her debut and appeared to chat about her dance on Monday's (26 September) episode of Loose Women.Coleen told Kaye that she needs to "believe she is sexy" as Kaye began to tell the ladies how Strictly has "taken her out of her comfort zone."Kaye performed the Tango to Abba’s Voulez-Vous and scored a 6 from strict judge Craig Revel Horwood who gave the pair his highest score of the night.This is a live TV story and is being constantly updated.

M&S.For those with their minds in the gutter, you may have already cracked onto what we are trying to get at.READ MORE: B&M dog ornament looks ruder than intended – leaving dirty-minded Brits in stitchesBut, if not, let us shed some light.The pink farm animal character is pretty much the face of the retailer.With merchandise a plenty, along with the iconic gummy sweet favourites, Percy is pretty much a household name by now.However, the innocent pig has been the reasoning behind a lot of cackling Brits.In a photo posted to Twitter account No Context Brits, a M&S staff member dressed up as the smiley faced character. Greeting customers at the store front, Percy gave passer-by's a welcoming wave.

Maisie Smith was branded "f****** terrible" by one of the instructors on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins after a stunt went horribly wrong.During Sunday's (September 25) episode of the Channel 4 programme, the celebrities were put through more gruelling challenges and were forced to dive backwards into the ocean.Rudy Reyes, Jason Fox and Mark Billingham were watching the celebrities as they attempted the terrifying stunt which saw them fall several feet before hitting the pitch black water.READ MORE: Celebrity SAS fans fume over lack of screentime for Maisie Smith and Ashley Cain The former EastEnders actress, 21, came away with two black eyes after hitting the water in what looked to be an incredibly painful fall. Speaking about the stunt, she previously told The Sun: "I literally got black eyes from where I fell in the water on my face.

READ MORE: Fire engulfs Nascar driver's car as he blames "crappy ass parts" for inferno"He flipped me off so I started Mike Tyson-ing his head. End of the day, we were really, really good," he told Racing America. "The car was really fast.

Northumberland.The brain child of the Duchess of Northumberland, Jane Percy, the play space will be themed around elves, fairies, dwarves and goblins.The project, called Lilidorei, will be a fairytale wonderland for kids to get stuck into. READ MORE: Disney announces new cruise ship 'Treasure' inspired by Jasmine and Aladdin And, it’s planned to be the biggest play structure in the world…Magical creatures like pixies and dwarves will live within their nine clan houses across the 40-acre land of The Alnwick Garden.This means little ones can explore fairy grottos, goblin hideaways and plenty of slides to scoot down.There are also treehouses, climbing areas and more…Food and drink will be available at a stall so kids can tuck into hot chocolate as they escape every day life for the world of magic.Due to be completed in early 2023, Lilidorei will add 50 new jobs to the garden as well as hundreds more in the wider community.And, it’s hoped that Lilidorei will get children away from the screens of smartphones or iPads for a while.Plus, the park will offer “Free Fridays” during term time allowing primary schoolchildren in the county and its surroundings areas to visit the attraction for free.The magical village will be lit up with Christmas trees and fairy lights among the nine houses that will sit in a forest clearing.The Duchess of Northumberland said: "Lilidorei has lived in my imagination for the past 12 years and I am delighted to bring my creative vision to life.“The saddest thing is when scientists disprove theories, and we are told that the Loch Ness Monster doesn’t exist or that the tooth fairy isn’t real or that Santa is make-believe."Lilidorei turns all this upside down. It exists and it is captivating.

Christian Eriksen has made an encouraging start to life at Manchester United.

Qatar, which has laws that criminalise homosexuality, will host the football World Cup later this year. But, English Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham claims he has been told Qatar police will not arrest LGBTQI fans for holding hands or kissing in public at the World Cup. The country has faced questions about its human rights records, treatment of migrant workers and homophobic laws ahead of the World Cup. Homosexuality in Qatar  is illegal.

Remember fairy hair (aka hair tinsel) from last Christmas? The cute trend has been given an autumnal update for 2022 in the form of a pumpkin spice colour colourway – and the look incredibly wearable. If you haven’t heard of fairy hair, it’s basically when strips of super-fine tinsel get attached to the roots of your hair via a bead, a tape or a glue method.The result should be thin, glitzy threads that blend seamlessly into your own hair to give it a light-reflecting and subtly glittery look. Gorgeous.

Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield to apologise for "pushing in to the queue" while the Queen was lying-in-state, instead of making "pathetic excuses".The outspoken personality addressed the queue scandal while demanding a "proper apology" from the duo, calling for them to be replaced by Eamonn Holmes and his wife Ruth Langsford if they don't.The podcast host told how he is having "so much fun" watching the row unfold, as well as the way "This Morning are trying to justify their stars pushing into the queue to file past Her Majesty."He went on: "What an earth did Schofield and Willoughby think they were going to achieve when everything is filmed and on record?"James added that the notion of the duo calling themselves journalists had him "rolling around on the floor."The star went on to call for the return of the popular duo Eamonn and Ruth to make a return to the daytime ITV show if Holly and Phil don't "apologise properly".James continued: "This toothsome couple have promoted themselves as the perfect TV pairing and let's face it: from that lofty point you can only fall."I don't expect they'll lose their careers over this but maybe they could just try being straight with us, apologise properly and not attempt to get out of it with these pathetic excuses."Otherwise, bring back Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes."Frankly, I preferred them anyway," he wrote in his column for the Daily Express.The pair recently came under fire after being accused of jumping the queue to see the Queen lying in state.The presenters and ITV have since explained they held press accreditation as they were went to Westminster Hall for work.But now a source involved in the press list has claimed that Holly and Phil’s names were not actually on

King Charles III gave royal fans a wave as he ventured out in Balmoral with Camilla, Queen Consort. The new King, 73, and his wife, 75, made their way to a Sunday Service on the estate, both still wearing black as the royal mourning period carried on until today, a week after Queen Elizabeth II 's funeral.

The Royal family initially hoped the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’ 2020 departure from royal duties would prove the 'solution' for future generations of non-working Royals - before talks derailed. The claims are derived from an extract of royal reporter Valentine Low’s new book, Courtiers: the Hidden Power Behind the Crown, which has been serialised in The Times and sheds new light on what happened behind the scenes during Megxit. Over several days in January 2020, the book reports.

Feeding toddlers and children can be hard work, but celebrity baby and child nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed is the go-to guru on how to get kids eating well. She's worked with many celebrity new parents, from Joe Wicks and Millie Mackintosh, to Stacey Solomon, Rochelle Humes and Lucy Mecklenburgh. And now Charlotte's penned a new book sharing her hard-earned tips with parents everywhere - and you're even invited to a free masterclass she's hosting this week.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Just before director Christopher Nolan’s upcoming “Oppenheimer” plants a fixed image of Ted Hall in the popular imagination, along comes Steve James’s sensitive, studious documentary “A Compassionate Spy” to preemptively set any records straight. Unpacking the life and work of the prodigious teenage Manhattan Project physicist who passed key information about the endeavor to the Soviet Union — cuing an adulthood dogged by suspicion and secrecy — the film demonstrates its director’s characteristic nose for strong material and knack for gripping, straightforward storytelling. If the filmmaking is more televisual than in James’s best work, with its flourishes limited to some unnecessary dramatized passages, that should be no impediment to “A Compassionate Spy” commanding a sizable audience on multiple platforms. 

As a child growing up in the United States, you’re taught that betraying the country is a terrible act, punishable by death. Every morning, in most public schools, you’re forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, which overtly puts your patriotism at the forefront of the day’s events.

Manori Ravindran International Editor High-profile espionage cases in the post-war period often invoke the grisly fate of the Rosenbergs, the first U.S. citizens to be convicted and executed by electric chair for sharing atomic secrets with the Soviet Union in peace time. But in the new documentary “A Compassionate Spy,” filmmaker Steve James tells the incredible story of Manhattan Project scientist Ted Hall, who shared classified nuclear secrets with Russia — and got away with it. The Participant and Kartemquin Films-produced documentary, which has its world premiere in Venice on Sept. 2, is one of a number of films at this year’s festival that tackle the topic of nuclear disaster: Projects from Noah Baumbach’s feature adaptation of Don DeLillo’s “White Noise” through to Oliver Stone’s on-the-nose documentary “Nuclear” all contemplate some aspect of our nuclear past and future.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Laura Poitras’ “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Steve James’ “A Compassionate Spy” and Evgeny Afineevsky’s “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” are among 11 documentaries making their world premieres at the Venice Film Festival this year, with Poitras’ competition title vying for a Golden Lion — a rare feat for a doc at a major international film festival. The growing number of high-profile non-fiction films in and out of competition at Venice suggests that major European film festivals have finally accepted documentaries as viable, cinematic art.While docs at the Toronto International Film Festival and major U.S. fests, including Sundance, Telluride and South by Southwest, have long been the belles of the ball, the most prominent international festivals, including Venice, Cannes and Berlin, have been slow to embrace non-fiction content, especially in competition.