LONDON (AP) — The galaxy-hopping hero of “Doctor Who” has survived many narrow escapes and reinventions over more than six decades.
But is time finally up for the BBC science fiction series that has entertained generations of fans?
The British broadcaster has canceled a Christmas special previously announced for later this year, and showrunner Russell T. Davies has confirmed his exit.
Davies had been due to write the Christmas episode, announced when the last season ended in May 2025.
The BBC said Wednesday that it, Davies and production company Bad Wolf “have collectively decided not to go ahead” with the Christmas episode. The broadcaster said it was determined “to push forward to invest in the long-term future of the show.”
It said it would put out a tender for production companies to work on the series. A deal between the BBC and Disney+ to co-produce and distribute the show ended in 2025 after two seasons.
First broadcast in 1963, “Doctor Who” follows the adventures of a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels in the Tardis, a time-and-space machine that from the outside resembles a mid-20th century British police telephone box.
Its longevity is due in part to its premise: the central character can regenerate into a new body when the old one wears out, so the show can outlive any individual star. More than a dozen actors have played the role, most recently Ncuti Gatwa.
Davies, who revived the show in 2005 after a 16-year hiatus and returned as showrunner in 2022, said the Christmas episode had not been written and no actor had been approached to play the central role of the Doctor.
Davies, who has also written dramas including “Queer as Folk,” “It’s a Sin” and the recent “Tip Toe,” said the show’s future was “unpredictable” in an Instagram post.
“You’ll have to wait a bit longer for new Doctor Who … but you’ll be waiting for MORE Doctor Who than a one-off. So it’s worth it!” Davies wrote. “It’s all up for grabs, which is so Doctor Who — exciting and unpredictable and new! Here comes the future.”
FILE -Ncuti Gatwa, from left, Russell T Davies, and Millie Gibson pose for a portrait to promote "Doctor Who" during Comic-Con International on July 26, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
President Donald Trump on Thursday said the U.S. would hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT,” threatening in a social media post to “assume total control” of Iran’s oil and gas industries, including the key Kharg Island, in the “not too distant future.”
The U.S and Iran traded strikes for a second day, pushing the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war.
It was the third time this week that back-and-forth strikes have rattled the Middle East. The first involved attacks between Iran and Israel, followed by the two rounds of fire between the U.S. and Iran, which hit countries in the region that host American bases.
Here's the latest:
American strikes on Iran that lasted into Thursday morning appeared more intense and widespread than the day before.
Tehran released little information on the extent of the damage and said it fired back at Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, as it had the previous day.
It was the third time this week that back-and-forth strikes have rattled the Middle East. The first involved attacks between Iran and Israel, followed by the two rounds of fire between the U.S. and Iran, which hit countries in the region that host American bases.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that the U.S. attacks had “effectively rendered the ceasefire ... meaningless,” without saying it was abandoning it.
Kharg Island — located on the other side of the Persian Gulf from U.S. bases in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — is the beating heart of Iran’s oil industry, through which 90% of its exports pass. It’s important because Iran’s coastline is mostly too shallow for tanker ships to dock.
It was unclear how serious Trump was about his threat to seize it.
“My preference has always been to take Kharg Island,” Trump said in an interview Thursday on Fox News. “I don’t know that America has the stomach for it to be honest.”
American troops would be vulnerable on Kharg Island because of its close proximity — about 33 kilometers (21 miles) — to the Iranian mainland, from which missiles, drones and artillery could be fired.
Trump indicated in the interview that he remains averse to sending U.S. forces into Iran. “We could walk in there tomorrow. We could take soldiers — I don’t want to have boots on the ground. But if I wanted to we could put a small group of soldiers and take over the place.”
Cuba’s representative to the United Nations, Ernesto Soberón, reacted Thursday to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s visit the previous day to the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay in eastern Cuba.
“The future of #Cuba —a sovereign and independent country— belongs solely and exclusively to the Cuban people and government”, Soberón wrote in a social media post.
“Anyone who believes that Cuba’s future lies in other hands is completely and utterly mistaken,” added the diplomat, who accompanied his message with a photograph of Hegseth in front of his troops, officially released by the United States.
Hegseth’s visit to the eastern portion of the island, which is controlled by the United States, comes at a time of heightened tension between Washington and Havana.
The opening of the Canadian-U.S. bridge across the Detroit River that President Trump previously threatened to block has been delayed due to “outstanding issues.”
In a statement released Thursday ahead of a Friday ribbon-cutting ceremony at the bridge, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority says “Canada and the United States have agreed to delay the opening of the bridge, taking the necessary time to resolve any outstanding issues.”
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The number of Americans filing for unemployment aid for the week ending June 6 rose by 4,000 to 229,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s the most since early February, before the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran, but still considered a healthy level. It’s also more than the 216,000 new applications forecast by analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet.
Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.
The four-week moving average of jobless claims, which softens some of the weekly volatility, rose by 4,250 to 219,000.
The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending May 30 jumped by 24,000 to 1.8 million, slightly more than analysts predicted.
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The president on Thursday said the U.S. would hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT,” threatening in a social media post to “assume total control” of Iran’s oil and gas industries, including the key Kharg Island, in the “not too distant future.”
The post came after the U.S and Iran traded strikes for a second day, pushing the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war. The American attack, which lasted into Thursday morning in Iran, appeared more intense and wider than the day before.
Iran released little information on the extent of the damage and said it fired back at Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, as it had a day before.
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A massive coastal development project linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump, is facing growing resistance from protesters in Albania.
Thousands of protesters are taking to the streets in nightly protests, blowing whistles and holding up cardboard cut-outs of flamingos — one of the protected migratory bird species that could see their habitats threatened by the proposed luxury resort.
The government says the development on the Adriatic coast would be transformational for the former communist nation as it seeks to enter the high-end tourism market and pushes for European Union membership.
But the venture, spanning an abandoned island and a nearby stretch of seafront on Albania’s southern coast, has drawn opposition from environmental campaigners and critics of longtime Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.
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A federal judge on Wednesday rejected a government watchdog’s request for a court order temporarily blocking the Trump administration from forging ahead with a new $1.776 billion settlement fund for compensating people who claim to be victims of a weaponized government.
But the judge ended a hearing by issuing a “fair warning” to Trump’s administration: “Don’t play possum with this court,” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon told a government attorney.
Leon ruled from the bench in favor of the administration, which argued that the watchdog’s lawsuit is moot because acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress earlier this month that the government is scrapping its plans for the fund. Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, said he accepts Blanche’s representation for now.
The judge’s refusal to issue a temporary restraining order isn’t the final word on the fate of the government’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” Leon said he will consider a separate request by the plaintiffs — Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington — for a preliminary injunction that would block payouts from the fund on a more permanent basis.
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A rare lapse in a law that allows the U.S. to gather intelligence abroad is growing more likely after Trump resisted calls from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill to immediately name a permanent head of the nation’s intelligence agencies.
Trump has doubled down on his temporary pick for director of national intelligence, Federal Housing Finance Regulator Bill Pulte, even though he has little experience for the job. Democrats say they won’t support the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, unless the president withdraws Pulte’s appointment and nominates a permanent replacement.
The House will try early Thursday to approve a short-term FISA extension, but passage is unlikely. The Senate may follow suit, hoping to prevent what could be an unprecedented lapse in the surveillance tool.
The impasse could soon result in limitations on what intelligence the U.S. government can collect abroad just as World Cup games begin in cities around the country and ahead of celebrations for the nation’s 250th anniversary. The law expires on Friday at midnight.
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Trump’s planned UFC fight on the White House’s South Lawn has required a monumental effort from more than seven federal agencies, hundreds of staff working onsite daily and at least $60 million, according to a legal filing that offers a glimpse into the preparations.
The event is part of the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, and is scheduled for the weekend with the main attraction — seven mixed martial arts matches — on Sunday.
That is, if a judge doesn’t halt the proceedings, which is sought by two Virginia residents in a federal lawsuit against the National Park Service, which oversees the South Lawn.
The agency filed a rebuff of the request Tuesday in court, and, in it, laid out the operations for the event.
“Well over $60 million and tens of thousands of hours of labor have been expended,” the document read, adding that the money came from the UFC and groups affiliated with it.
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Trump Wednesday showed how he had learned to stop worrying about inflation and simply, in his own words, “love” it.
Asked about the new report that the consumer price index in May had jumped 4.2% over the last year, the president took a surprisingly optimistic tack with the challenging news. Trump didn’t dismiss the affordability issue as a “hoax” that was started by Democrats, as he has done previously. Nor did he claim that he was bringing down the cost of living.
Instead, after the government said that inflation spiked to the highest level since April 2023, Trump praised the numbers.
“You know what I really love?” Trump said. “I love the inflation.”
It was an unexpected take given that voters ahead of the November midterm elections have ranked the economy as a top concern — and have given Trump low marks on that issue. Within minutes of his on-camera comment, Democrats quickly rushed to promote it on social media.
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The U.S and Iran traded strikes for a second day, pushing the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war.
The American attack, which lasted into Thursday morning in Iran, appeared more intense and wider than the day before, but Tehran released little information on the extent of the damage. An Indian official said a U.S. attack on an oil tanker allegedly trying to violate Washington’s blockade on Iranian ports killed three Indian mariners, underscoring the danger to seafarers.
It was the third time this week that back-and-forth strikes have rattled the Middle East. The first involved attacks between Iran and Israel, followed by the two rounds of fire between the U.S. and Iran, which hit countries in the region that host American bases.
The new exchange of fire came as efforts to negotiate an end to the war appeared stuck, with Trump warning that Tehran would “pay the price” for stalled negotiations.
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The arena for the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House is photographed Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump signs a bill funding immigration enforcement in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
