Wednesday, July 08, 2026

‘Misaligned’: Controversial AI-generated 'actress' Tilly Norwood to make feature film debut

By David Mouriquand

Published on 07/07/2026 - EURONEWS

The divisive digital “performer” is about to star in the upcoming Particle6 project titled 'Misaligned'. Get ready to roll your eyes when you read the plot synopsis.

The AI nightmare continues as Particle 6, the UK-based company which gave the world the controversial AI-generated “actress” Tilly Norwood, is officially developing its first AI feature film – starring, of course, Norwood.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Tilly Norwood, she was created last year and dubbed the first AI “actor” by Particle6 and AI “talent” studio Xicoia CEO Eline van der Velden.

Norwood came under fire from Hollywood, with actors' union SAG-AFTRA issuing the following statement last year: “It’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers - without permission or compensation.”

They added: “It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience. It doesn’t solve any “problem” - it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”

In March, Norwood also made her music video debut as part of the Tillyverse, with Euronews Culture describing her song ‘Take The Lead’ as “audio poison”, adding that the track has a lyrical “petulance to it, progressively revealing itself as an insipid but alarming piece of AI propaganda.”

Now, we have Misaligned to look forward to...

Tilly Norwood in 'Take The Lead' music video YouTube screenshot

Billed as a “coming-of-age story infused with existential AI chaos,” according to a news release from Particle6, the film will see Norwood play an AI being who is encouraged by a “seductive rogue bot from the dark web” to start developing “desires, impulses and ambitions of her own.”

“The more terrifyingly human she becomes, the more famous she gets, and, significantly, Tilly begins to develop shame that her very being has been built on the whole of humanity,” states the synopsis.

“The film will absolutely be funny, chaotic and self-aware - very Tilly,” Eline van der Velden said in the press release. “But underneath it, there’s something deeper about identity, performance and our very human fears around AI. And yes, art will most definitely be imitating life.”

In addition to the AI “performer,” Misaligned will feature a hybrid production team of real-life writers, editors and directors, whom Particle6 has “retrained and upskilled”.

“Our work this year has proven something we suspected all along,” van der Velden explained. “AI can support premium narrative filmmaking, but only with substantial amounts of human craft, skill, judgement and time. That’s not a limitation of the technology. That’s the point."

She added: "The filmmakers who thrive in the next decade will be the ones who bring decades of storytelling instinct to these new tools, and ‘Misaligned’ is where we put that to work at feature scale.

No release date for Misaligned has been announced. However, if it’s anything like her first single ‘Take The Lead’, not only will it be another irritating reminder that there are those who take pleasure in devaluing real human artistry, but it will also serve a valuable memo for cinemagoers.

Whatever dross you've disliked on screen recently, things can – and are about to – get a whole lot worse.

Wildfires rage in Portugal and Spain as authorities in Greece warn of toxic smoke

By Gavin Blackburn

Published on 06/07/2026 - EURONEWS

The blazes come after a heatwave in June during which thousands of excess deaths were registered and which would have been "virtually impossible" without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group said.

Wildfires raged across southern Europe on Monday, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes and prompting officials to ban spectators from a stage of the Tour de France cycling race.

Hundreds of firefighters are battling blazes that have devastated more than 190 square kilometres of land, an area more than twice the size of Manhattan, across Portugal, Spain, France and Greece.

And temperatures are on the rise again, predicted to reach 40C in parts of a region still suffering the aftermath of a recent record-breaking heatwave.

In southwestern France near the city of Perpignan, 700 hundred firefighters backed by special aircraft battled to control a "gigantic" blaze spreading in a hard-to-reach remote area, with more than 10,000 local residents evacuated.

Fanned by wind, intense heat and exceptionally dry air, the fire has nearly tripled in size since early Sunday, devouring 46 square kilometres and leaving a firefighter and a resident injured, local authorities said.

A view of a burnt building from a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, 5 July, 2026 AP Photo

"The fire came within 300 metres of the houses. We were taken aback by how fast it spread, it was staggering, bordering on panic," said Patrice, a 53-year-old resident of the village of Trevillach, who did not wish to give his surname.

"We started seeing smoke around 10:30 pm, then it kept coming closer and closer. Someone from the town hall knocked on our door around 1:00 am to tell us to leave," said Charlotte Pignol, 30, who was among the first to be evacuated from her home early on Sunday.

The blazes come shortly after a heatwave in June, one of Europe's worst, during which thousands of excess deaths were registered and which would have been "virtually impossible" without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said.

With the mercury set to rise again in the coming days, authorities expressed alarm that the annual summer wildfire season had started a month early.

"Climate change is here, we are living the consequences and it is only the start of July," said French fire service Colonel Eric Belgioino as he appealed to people near the Pyrenees inferno to take precautions to avoid starting fires.

"The season is going to be long for the soldiers fighting fires. You have to help us," he pleaded.

A woman reacts during a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, 5 July, 2026 AP Photo

Poisonous cloud

Meanwhile in Greece, flames set off by a forest fire tore through two factories in Thessaloniki in the north of the country over the weekend, forcing authorities to evacuate the surrounding area and to warn households to keep their windows closed.

In Spain, a fire near the northeastern Costa Brava coast burned more than 2,200 hectares in two days and firefighters said their efforts would be "complicated" by rising temperatures and the many "smoking hotspots" within the fire's perimeter.

Thick smoke rises above Filothei settlement during a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, 5 July, 2026 AP Photo

In Portugal, emergency services said they had controlled "80 percent" of a wildfire that has devastated some 13,000 hectares of forest and scrub land in the north of the country.

Elsewhere, major fires also destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest, vineyards and scrub land on the Croatian island of Hvar and at Tale in Albania, authorities said.

Regions across Portugal, Spain and southern France have stepped up heat alerts for the coming days.

On Monday the latest heatwave was expected to move north, with forecasters saying it could last until next weekend.

EU sends help

The EU said on Monday it was deploying four water-bombing planes to help firefighters battling a major wildfire in southern France.

"They will arrive today from Cyprus and Sweden to support French firefighters around Perpignan," EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on social media.

French officials announced that Monday's third stage of the Tour de France cycling race through the Pyrenees would take place without spectators who normally line the routes of the competition.

The stage, which on Monday will see cyclists ride from Spain into France, "will be limited to the passage of the riders only and the vehicles essential to organizing the race" on French territory, the regional prefect Pierre Regnault de la Mothe told reporters.

"The public is asked not to go near the route or to the finish area," he said.

"In other words, and I regret having to say this, it will be, in France at least, a stage of the Tour de France without spectators."

'Defining image of the era of American history': July 4 Patriot Front photo goes viral

By David Mouriquand

Published on 06/07/2026 - EUROHEWS

The Fourth of July, marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, left behind a disturbing photograph depicting a young Black woman in a Washington Metro carriage, surrounded by masked white supremacists. Many have called for the Reuters photo to receive the Pulitzer Prize.

A Reuters photograph taken during this weekend’s 250th Independence Day celebrations in the US has become one of the most viral and discussed images on social media this ye

The image, taken by Cheney Orr on 4 July, depicts a Black woman sitting quietly inside a Washington Metro train. She is surrounded by dozens of masked members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front, who were on their way to a march in downtown Washington D.C.

The image is captioned: "A commuter sits as members of the group Patriot Front ride the metro on the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence in Washington, D.C., July 4, 2026."

Further images were taken of the racist group marching through Capitol Hill with upside down American flags and Confederate banners. They also wore caps bearing 13 stars – representing the original 13 colonies that approved the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776.

However, Orr’s photo is the one that has been described as the "defining image of the era of American history we live in".

The post above has been widely shared and gone viral, prompting thousands of reactions.

Countless comments have described it as an eerily powerful representation of the racial tensions and political divisions under Donald Trump, while some users have compared Orr’s chilling image to Rosa Parks - the civil rights figure who refused to move from her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in defiance of Jim Crow racial segregation laws in 1955.

“Anyone else get flashbacks to the image of Rosa Parks on that bus?”

Several social media users have called for the photo to receive the Pulitzer Prize, while many highlighted the discrepancy between celebrating the “Greatest Country on Earth” and how little things have evolved over time – and how the US has regressed.

Check out some of the comments below:

“The image is striking because it reveals a simple truth: those who promote intimidation hide behind masks, while ordinary citizens have no reason to. Patriotism is not measured by the size of the flag someone carries or the volume of the slogans they chant. It is measured by whether a person defends the founding promise that all people are created equal. The true test of patriotism is not silence in the face of hatred. It is the courage to stand against it.”

“Different decade. Different faces. Same message: Black existence is still treated by some as something to monitor, intimidate, or control. America celebrates 250 years of liberty. Black Americans have spent much of those 250 years fighting to make those words apply to us too. Different time. Same struggle.”

Claims that the image was staged or AI-generated are unsubstantiated.

The white supremacist militia Patriot Front is based in Texas. It emerged in 2017 and says it is loyal to the “American nation”.

The Center for the Study of Extremism at George Washington University describes it as “a white nationalist and fascist organization that promotes the idea of a homogenous, white ethnostate in the United States. The group advocates for the preservation of white European culture, viewing multiculturalism, immigration, and diversity as existential threats to its vision of America.”

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment