Latest news with #Islanders'
Hamilton Spectator
3 hours ago
- General
- Hamilton Spectator
Managing Japanese beetles, invasive plants in P.E.I. gardens
The summer weather is here and so are the many pests that loiter and invade the natural environment in P.E.I. Chase Guindon, co-ordinating operator for P.E.I. Invasive Species Council, told The Guardian in a phone interview on July 17 about the common insects and plants found around Islanders' home and how to deal with them. These beetles are known to cause annoyance and problems to people's yards in the summer, Guindon said. 'A few years ago, we thought Charlottetown was the nucleus for it, but it's fairly common across P.E.I. now. Especially in gardens and things like that,' he said. The beetles are known to feed on the foliage of plants and damage them, which can sometimes lead to killing the entire plant, Guindon added. To mitigate these beetles around people's backyards, residents have been hanging liquid-sprayed bags around their gardens to trap them, he said. But Guindon said it's a catch-22 situation. While the traps can be effective against keeping those beetles off of people's plants, they can also act as a beacon to those bugs, he said. 'If people are going to use them, we recommend putting them far away from people's plants because it will attract more to their yard,' Guindon said. Effective use of beneficial nematodes can mitigate these Japanese beetles by parasitizing them, he said. 'It can be purchased online, and it kills the larvae itself. Which is ideal because traps are just capturing the beetles likely after they've already laid eggs,' Guindon said. This ground cover invasive plant is one very common to P.E.I., said Guindon. 'But once it gets into woodlands, it just causes serious damage to the understory of a forest, prevents forest regeneration, limits biodiversity and creates an unhealthy forest,' he said. Along with periwinkle, goutweed is also a common invasive plant that is found on P.E.I., Guindon added. 'It's got green leaves with white edges that make it stand out and likely a popular plant for people to buy and purchase as well,' he said. In dealing with these common invasive plants, they are similar because both are ground cover plants, Guindon said. As both plants are known to convey a dense, deep underground root network, simply pulling on them will not get rid of them, he said. To mitigate the further spread and growth of these invasive species, Guindon said homeowners should first gather as much above-ground material as possible. As the roots still remain underground, covering the ground with a tarp after the picking process is effective for wearing down those nutrients yet stored in the root system, he added. It is the best practice for people to not let invasive species reproduce, Guindon said. 'If it is going to seed, clip those seeds and put them in the trash so they're not spread by either wind or wildlife, where it is going to cause those ecological issues,' he said. Yutaro Sasaki is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter, a position funded by the federal government. He can be reached at ysasaki@ and followed on X @PEyutarosasaki . Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Alex Bowen shares Love Island nostalgia and insights on evolving the hit ITV show
EXCLUSIVE: Alex Bowen, who appeared on Love Island in 2016, has been watching the latest series of the ITV dating show closely - and he has some thoughts It's been nearly a decade since Alex Bowen set foot in the iconic Love Island villa—but the 33-year-old reality star is still as invested in the hit ITV dating show as ever. Alex, who rose to fame on Love Island's second series back in 2016, has been watching the current series closely—and he's got thoughts. Speaking exclusively to Mirror Online, the former Islander shared his nostalgia, behind-the-scenes memories, and what the show needs to do to keep viewers hooked. 'It's crazy to think it's been nearly ten years since I was in the villa,' Alex admits. 'I always feel nostalgic watching the show. So much has changed over the years, but that core feeling—the excitement, the drama, the relationships—it's all still there.' Now happily married to fellow Love Island alum Olivia Bowen, with whom he shares a son, Alex's life has moved well beyond the villa. But as someone who found genuine love on the show, he's passionate about what the format still gets right—and what it could do better. Since their time on Love Island, Alex and Olivia's relationship has blossomed into one of Love Island's biggest success stories. The couple married in 2018 and are now expecting their second child together. They already share a son called Abel, who was born in 2022. 'I think it's a really exciting series!' he says of the 2025 edition. 'Love Island have already shown so many fun twists and turns, and they introduced quite a few bombshells really early on. It feels like a fresh take, which has been great to see.' One change Alex welcomes is the producers' plan to start filming mealtimes—an area viewers have traditionally not seen. 'Back when I was in there, we used to make our own breakfast,' he recalls. 'Lunch and dinner were brought in, and we weren't allowed to talk about villa drama while eating, in case cameras missed something good. Showing that now could definitely give fans more insight into the Islanders' personalities.' As for villa life off-camera, Alex has some amusing memories—including the challenge of keeping track of laundry. 'We had laundry baskets for each person—but I used to lose my stuff all the time,' he laughs. 'We'd end up wearing each other's clothes without even realising!' Despite the evolution of the series, Alex believes Love Island's success lies in sticking to what it does best. 'If it's not broken, don't fix it,' he says. 'People love Love Island for the excitement, the drama, and of course, the romance. The key is giving Islanders more time in the villa. Sometimes they get dumped too early, and we don't get a chance to see their journey or who they could connect with.' He also backs the idea of bringing back past Islanders—particularly those who didn't get their full moment. 'There are so many great people from earlier series who didn't get enough time. It'd be amazing to see them back. They'd be more mature now, and it would bring a nice balance to the villa.'
Los Angeles Times
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘The Summer I Turned Pretty' and ‘Love Island' won't stand for cyberbullies. Why is social media so toxic?
'The Summer I Turned Pretty' is the second series in as many months to directly warn its audience about cyberbullying. Posting on its official social media accounts, the Prime Video series issued a 'PSA for the Summer community': 'We have a ZERO tolerance policy for bullying and hate speech. If you engage in any of the following you will be banned.' Fans were cautioned against 'hate speech or bullying,' 'targeting our cast or crew' and 'harassing or doxxing members of the community.' This comes on the heels of 'Love Island USA' releasing similar warnings. Last month, host Ariana Madix called out 'fan' behavior on the series' recap show, 'Aftersun.' 'Don't be contacting people's families. Don't be doxxing people. Don't be going on Islanders' pages and saying rude things,' she said. The show's social accounts subsequently followed up with the message: 'Please just remember they're real people — so let's be kind and spread the love!' So this is where we are. Online discourse has become so toxic that television series are forced to address it in their publicity campaigns. It's difficult to know whether to applaud or weep. Maybe both. Certainly having television creators, and their social media teams, address a decades-long problem directly and proactively is far preferable to the more traditional entertainment industry approach. You know, waiting until some unfortunate actor or contestant is buried under an avalanche of hate speech before appearing shocked and horrified that such a thing could happen among (fill in the blank) fan base. (We will never forget, Kelly Marie Tran!) Whether these warnings will be duplicated or prove effective remains to be seen. Studies suggest that cyberbullies who have their posts removed are less likely to repost and perhaps being called out by shows they watch will give some 'fans' pause before they vent their spleen online. It is still maddening that after years of research on the prevalence and dangers of cyberbullying, we are apparently relying on 'Love Island' and 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' as a first line of defense against behavior that has been proved to cause suicide, self-harm and a host of mental illnesses. Obviously, something is very wrong. With the medium and its message. When the internet became widely available, it promised to be an endless library of art and information. Instead, its most popular feature was easy (and often quite unintentional) access to porn. So should we have been surprised when fan sites and social media platforms, built to allow free, unfettered and quite often anonymous discourse, became equally at risk for humanity's less sterling qualities? Should it have been a revelation that certain film and television fans would behave badly when something occurred in their beloved universe that they did not like? Have you ever been to Dodger Stadium? Nothing about the impulses or language of cyberbullying is new. Hate mail has existed since writing was invented —poison pen letters caused a criminal crisis in the early 20th century — and celebrities have always been in danger of the 'build 'em up and tear 'em down' fan flex. What's new (or new-ish) are the platforms that encourage such things. Poison pen letters are illegal. Poisonous posts are part of the social media business plan. Yes, those who hate-post should take personal responsibility and our culture, like our politics, has grown more divisive and, frankly, mean. Social media at best allows and at worst encourages us to post things we might never say to a person standing in front of us. Commentary as blood sport. Looking back, there was such heartbreaking optimism about the role social media would play in art, particularly television. Creators could actively engage with fans in real time and deepen audience commitment. A viral video or a clever Twitter campaign could save marketing departments millions. And celebrities could post their own 'in real life' pictures, potentially thwarting the paparazzi, as well as stories, statements and confessionals, thereby avoiding the need for interviews over which they had far less control. DIY publicity and deeply personal fan engagement — what could go wrong? DIY publicity and deeply personal fan engagement, that's what. Say what you will about the old days when artists had to rely on legacy media for publicity — if readers had something bad to say, they shared it with the publication, which had standards about what letters would be made public. Direct contact with public figures was quite difficult — even fan mail was read and sorted by publicity departments and secretaries. Now most everyone is accessible on one platform or another and there are very few standards. Having leveraged the unpaid labor of millions to create profitable platforms, social media owners are not interested in providing basic consumer protection. Using the most facile definition of free speech — which is the right to voice opinions without government interference or punishment, not the right to post any hateful or incendiary thought you have — Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and other platform owners have consistently refused or pushed back against any demands of meaningful regulation. Instead they rely on other users. The self-policing of social media is real and often effective, but it is far too arbitrary to act as a substitute for media regulation and mob rule is not something we should embrace. The simple answer is 'don't look' — avoid the comments section or get off social media altogether. Which would be great advice if it were not so patently ridiculous. Intentionally or not, we have made social media a powerful force in this country. Particularly in the entertainment industry, where careers are made on YouTube, TikTok influencers are cultural arbiters and the number of one's Instagram followers can determine whether they get the job or not. It's easy to say 'ignore the haters' and virtually impossible for most of us to do. More importantly, it puts the responsibility on the wrong people, like telling a woman to just ignore a boss or colleague who makes crude comments about her appearance. It's been decades since Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and all the other platforms could be viewed as simply fun forums on which to share vacation snaps. They deliver the news, shape our politics, market our businesses and create our culture. They are not public spaces; they belong to media companies that are owned and controlled by individuals just like any other media company. So yeah, it's great that 'Love Island' and 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' have taken steps to try to prevent online hate. But their warnings only illuminate the elephant in the room. A billion-dollar industry is failing to protect the very people who built it in the first place.
Cosmopolitan
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Cosmopolitan
Party Crashers: The Unifying Beauty of the ‘Love Island USA' Watch Party
I've always rejected the notion that Love Island USA is 'mindless TV.' I'm too familiar with the highly analytical post-episode breakdowns on TikTok and the r/LoveIslandUSA subreddit to accept that. But at my first watch party for the show, my belief in its substance—and its power—solidified. The Ainsworth, an elevated sports bar in New York City, hosts a viewing event for the show almost nightly, because they're smart. Thanks to the show's groundbreaking success this year, bars have been hosting similar events across the country. But I finally decided it was past time to dive into the watch party action myself after seeing a truly euphoric viral video of a sports bar reacting to season 7's Nic and Olandria's first real kiss. That's how I found myself at the Ainsworth, sipping on a themed 'Hurricane Huda' cocktail, and surrounded by fans enraptured by one of season 7's final episodes. Maybe it was the very serious exchange I had with a stranger at the bar about different Islanders' attachment styles, or the diagnostic commentary I heard around the room during Huda and Chris's tense exchange about PDA. But if watching my favorite reality show on stadium-sized TVs taught me anything, it's that sports fanatics cherish the bar viewing experience for very good reason. Season 7 of Love Island USA has been its most divisive one yet. There have been problematic old social media posts from cast members resurfaced, controversial Islander oustings, and a constant rotation of online witch hunts calling every Islanders' morality into question at one point or another. Hence, the internet discussions dissecting every beat of the show's on/offscreen action have gotten a bit overwhelming. But when you're watching the show with fellow Love Island fans in person, the world of online discourse and stan wars feels so distant, no matter whether your takes align or not. And I found that to be the beauty of the watch party. It represents neutral territory. I witnessed true community that Tuesday, with two of my colleagues in tow. I usually prefer to watch Love Island USA in solitude. Like the dutiful fan I am, I tap in right at 9:00 pm five nights a week (I'm a proud Saturday Aftersun skipper). I tuck into bed with my laptop's glow as my only source of light. Then, for 60-90 minutes, I concentrate on outrageously beautiful singles searching for love. I love this routine. I can catch all of each episode's subtle details and pore over contentious debates on my feeds and in my group chats in silence. But as fun as that's been, it was way more delightful to wax poetic about my love for Nicolandria with a table of girls I'll likely never speak to again. Or, if you're my coworker Jess, to eavesdrop on a passionate bathroom discussion about Huda's self-destructive behaviors. ('I get it, I always have crash outs, but she's going to lose a good man for that,' said one sympathetic woman from the stall.) This season has been my favorite reality show's most popular one (it cleared one billion minutes viewed within its first week). And that's definitely a result of last season's momentum, and maybe even its controversies. But getting to witness that cultural impact in the flesh (and out of the depths of a subreddit) made it all the easier to love. I watched a crowd erupt into cheers while Amaya and Bryan started hooking up in the Hideaway, and I was reminded that this show, while not mindless, is technically meant to be fun. Looking back, there were so many moments this season I would've much rather watched on a stadium-sized TV with near-strangers instead of alone. The totally unexpected Jeremiah dumping. The first time Amaya mispronounced the word 'opportunity.' Definitely Nic and Olandria's kiss in Soul Ties. But because I missed out, I tried the next best thing and called my fellow party attendees into our own confessional booth for some season 7 reflecting. Most shocking moment? I was surprised Clarke and Taylor didn't stay! They had a relatively good relationship, even though she's not a favorite. I really don't think Chelley had any business calling Huda and Chris out for being a thing when she was clearly pursuing Ace! Hot take? Nic and Olandria should get married and live together forever. I want them to build a family! Hot take? Hannah and Charlie should've been together. Charlie shouldn't have left. Hot take? They should've stood for Jalen to stay instead of Huda. She should've gone home, and I don't believe in her redemption arc. Hot take? Why is Chelley with Ace? She could do better! He triggers me, he reminds me of every asshole in high school ever. Most shocking moment? When they had to read everything that they hate about each other in front of each other! That was pretty brutal, but as a Bravo viewer, I loved it. Also, the fact that I've been seeing TikTok edits comparing Nic and Olandria to Elphaba and Fiyero from Wicked. Like, oh shit, was Cierra Glinda? Hot take? I'm so concerned with what they're eating every day. I need a day in the life. Are they eating? Is there central AC? Why are they never in the pool? Hot take? Huda and Chris should win! They're starting to grow on me. I didn't like Huda at first, but I think she's just misunderstood. People call day and night asking for reservations and asking if we're showing the show. It's exploded. Last Thursday, we had a line out the door; it was like a sporting event. We had to blow these parties up with specialized cocktails. We have 57 screens here, so it creates the right experience for people to enjoy it. I started watching the show last season, I love it. Favorite Islanders? Amaya and Bryan all the way. You can't not love her. Favorite Islander? I love Chris. He's exactly who Huda needed. I've been loving the Huda redemption arc. Favorite Islander? My favorite guy is Pepe, I think he's a man. My favorite girl is Iris. She's an unproblematic queen. Favorite Islander? I've loved Nic since the beginning. I know he's made some messy choices, but he's been my number one Favorite Islander? Amaya! I like Nic individually, but I don't know how I feel about Nicolandria. I used to be a stan, but I feel like Nic's very lustful. He's looking better already, though. That's the Black Wife Effect. Most shocking moment? The Cierra exit gagged me the most. Not because I didn't think it needed to happen, but I didn't think it would happen at this point in the show. Also, the Jeremiah dumping was crazy. That was driven by pure hateration. Favorite Islander? I love Pepe. He's funny, he's charming, he's sexy…I could go on. Hot take? …I kind of like Taylor and Clarke. I get that Taylor moved funny with Olandria, but he and Clarke don't deserve all of the hate they're getting. Favorite Islanders? Nic and Olandria!
Pink Villa
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Who Was Eliminated in Love Island USA Season 7 Episode 34? All You Need to Know
After weeks of love, betrayals, and tense public votes, Love Island USA Season 7 is officially down to its final four couples. Episode 34 brought both an emotional reunion with the Islanders' families and a brutal final elimination that left fans stunned. Yet beneath the smiles, tension lingered: America's votes would soon reveal which couple failed to capture enough hearts. By episode's end, one couple learned that their villa romance had run its course. Families arrive, but the celebration doesn't last long With just one episode to go before the finale, the remaining Islanders—Amaya & Bryan, Iris & Pepe, Huda & Chris, Olandria & Nic, and Chelley & Ace—were surprised with a visit from their loved ones. The families gave their candid opinions about the relationships, offering validation or raising doubts. The segment was emotional, with several Islanders shedding tears over the reunions and the affirmations they needed to keep going. But the joy quickly gave way to nerves. Host Ariana Madix gathered the group for one final announcement before the winners could be decided. One couple, based on public votes, would be dumped from the island immediately. Chelley and Ace eliminated before the finale Despite being one of the longest-standing couples in the villa, Chelley Bissainthe and Ace Greene were eliminated in a shocking twist. Though their relationship developed later than others, their loyalty and chemistry kept them strong through challenges and re-couplings. Many viewers expected them to make it to the end. However, America voted them out just shy of the finale, sending them home as the last eliminated couple of Season 7. Now, only four couples remain to compete for the 100,000 dollar grand prize.
