By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Bada Bing! Kristin Davis is serving some delicious television lore.

During a recent episode of her “Are You A Charlotte?” podcast, Davis recalled when her former show, “Sex and the City,” shared studio space in the early days with another popular HBO series, “The Sopranos.”

Davis, who played Charlotte on “Sex and the City” and has reprised the role for the spinoff “And Just Like That…,” revealed that while the two shows were neighbors during production at Silvercup Studios in Queens, New York, the neighborliness only went so far.

“Remember that middle area of Silvercup, because it had been the bread factory, so it wasn’t really a proper studio?” Davis asked her podcast guest Allen Coulter, who directed episodes of both “The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City.”

“The different stages would have a common area of hallways, and ‘The Sopranos’ would have their craft services, which was like going to the best Italian restaurant that you could possibly imagine,” she said. “And our craft services was really, really… not that.”

As polite as her upbeat character, Davis added, “No offense to anyone who made it.”

“But we would just be like, ‘How can we get over there and get the food?’ And they would guard that food, do you know what I mean?” she said. “They’d be like, ‘No. You can’t come over here.’ And we’d be like, ‘Please, can we have some meatballs?’”

“On hour 15, you’re really wanting the ‘Sopranos’ meatballs, but you can’t have them,” Davis quipped.

Coulter jokingly apologized, “The mob was keeping you away from the food.”

“I remember we were shooting a scene at the Bada Bing, you know, the so-called backroom of the Bada Bing, where they’re all having lunch and pasta and stuff. When shooting an eating scene, and this would be true of ‘Sex and the City,’ you always have a spit bucket,” Coulter recalled, explaining that actors don’t typically finish food in a dining scene. “So we’re shooting that and I go over and I was looking at the guys and the guys had the spit bucket up on the table there, but it’s completely clean. I said, ‘What’s the deal there?’ They said, ‘They just eat everything.’”

Coulter said they if they did four takes on “The Sopranos,” that meant the actors in that scene ate four meals.

The beloved show starring James Gandolfini as a mob boss in therapy ran from 1999 to 2007. “Sex and the CIty,” starring Sarah Jessica Parker as a sex columnist navigating life and love in the Big Apple, aired from 1998 to 2004.

Gandolfini died in 2013 at age 51.

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By Jack Guy, CNN

(CNN) — Barcelona’s cruise-ship port is to close two of its terminals, as part of efforts to fight the city’s overtourism problem.

The closure, which will bring the number of operational terminals down to to five when it takes effect next year, is part of an agreement with Barcelona’s city council, announced in a statement from the council Friday.

The agreement also provides funding for a study to evaluate how cruise-ship passengers move around the city, which the council says is a first step in developing sustainable mobility plan.

In addition, the agreement will involve the modernization of port infrastructure to make cruise operations more sustainable – for example, by allowing ships to connect to a green onshore power supply while they are docked, meaning their engines can be switched off, cutting emissions.

Overall, the plan will involve 185 million euros ($216 million) in public-private investment, according to the council statement.

It is part of wider efforts to deal with the pressures of overtourism in the city, where local opposition to mass tourism has been rising in recent years, including a now-famous protest in July 2024 in which visitors were squirted with water pistols.

Barcelona’s popularity among tourists has led to complaints from residents about overcrowding and a lack of affordable housing as apartments are given over to short-term holiday lets.

In 2024, the Port of Barcelona, the biggest cruise port in Europe, reported 1.6 million cruise ship passengers “in transit.”

The majority come ashore when their ships dock in the morning, tour the city, and return by late afternoon to sail for their next destination, the Barcelona Tourism Consortium press office said in March.

The resulting crowds, at places like La Rambla street and in the adjacent Gothic quarter, the oldest part of town, are partly to blame for the ire among Barcelona’s residents.

Friday’s agreement is the latest in a series of efforts to reduce the impact of cruise tourism.

In October 2023, Barcelona closed its northern port terminal to cruise traffic, after an agreement with the local authorities to move ships further out of town.

That move followed a 2018 agreement between the port authorities and the city council to “move cruise activity away from urban areas… making them more sustainable,” the port authorities said in a statement at the time.

Also as a result of the 2018 agreement, the port closed another cruise terminal, the Maremagnum, and the area is now home to restaurants, bars, a sailing club and marina, an aquarium and a shopping mall.

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CNN —

Israeli tanks on Monday rolled into a part of central Gaza that has not previously seen ground operations in the 21-month war, according to Israeli media, aid agencies and witnesses.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declined to comment on its operations. However, Israel Army Radio said the operation had begun. It said the IDF’s Golani Brigade had “begun a ground maneuver in the southern Deir al-Balah area,” which had been preceded by aerial and artillery strikes last night.

Army Radio said that “at this stage, the maneuver involves only one brigade, and it is expected to continue for several weeks.”

On Sunday, the Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate an area of nearly 6 square kilometers (2.3 square miles) and dropped thousands of leaflets in Deir al-Balah.

The IDF Arabic language spokesperson said the military “continues to operate with great force to destroy the enemy’s capabilities and terrorist infrastructure in the area. It is expanding its activities in this area, operating in areas where it has not operated before.”

Israeli media has reported that the IDF has been reluctant in the past to carry out ground operations in Deir al-Balah for fear of further endangering surviving hostages, who may be held there.

The Hostages Families Forum said Monday that it was alarmed by reports the assault had begun and demanded the government explain why “the offensive in the Deir al-Balah area does not put the hostages at serious risk.”

The NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), which has staff in the Deir al-Balah area, said Israeli forces had launched “a ground and air assault” Monday.

MAP’s Communications Officer in Gaza, Mai Elawawda, said the situation was “extremely critical.”

“Shelling is taking place all around our office, and military vehicles are just 400 meters away from our colleagues and their families,” Elawawda said.

CNN spoke with people leaving the area Monday, against a background of explosions and artillery fire. Several said there had been intense fire and airstrikes overnight.

“We were surprised to see the tanks coming towards us directly. There was no prior warning,” said Umm Ali al-Qayed, who added that she had left a tent without any belongings.

“I am a mother of four martyrs and I have been displaced three times,” she added.

Mohammed Abu Amous, who was also leaving, told CNN: “They told us to leave. All night the artillery and strikes are falling on top of us.”

Against a backdrop of persistent explosions, Attef Abu Mousa pointed to a tarpaulin sheet he was carrying. “This tent I have put up and down 13 times. Tonight was very difficult.”

Abdallah Awar said his family had left with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. “Starvation, famine, killing, and displacement, and children dying in front of our own eyes, enough is enough,” he said.

“We ask the world to help us, we ask Hamas to stop this farce.”

The United Nations said the evacuation order had “dealt yet another devastating blow to the already fragile lifelines keeping people alive across the Gaza Strip.”

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Monday that an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 people were in the area at the time, many of whom were already in displacement sites.

The newly-designated area for evacuation includes several humanitarian warehouses, medical facilities and critical water facilities, OCHA said, warning that “any damage to this infrastructure will have life-threatening consequences.”

With this latest order, “the area of Gaza under displacement orders or within Israeli-militarized zones has risen to 87.8 per cent, leaving 2.1 million civilians squeezed into a fragmented 12 per cent of the Strip, where essential services have collapsed,” OCHA added.

“It will limit the ability of the UN and our partners to move safely and effectively within Gaza, choking humanitarian access when it is needed most,” the UN body said.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

By Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW (Reuters) -A Russian factory, described by its director as the world’s biggest maker of strike drones, has been shown on the Russian army’s TV channel with teenagers helping make kamikaze drones to attack Ukraine.

The footage, in a documentary film broadcast by the Zvezda channel on Sunday, showed hundreds of large black completed Geran-2 suicide drones in rows inside the secretive facility, which has been targeted by Ukrainian long-range drones.

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Ukraine says Russia has used the Geran drones to terrorise and kill civilians in locations including the capital Kyiv, where residents often shelter in metro stations during attacks.

Russia says its drone and missile strikes target only military or military-related targets and denies deliberately targeting civilians, more than 13,000 of whom have been killed in Ukraine since the war began in 2022, the United Nations says.

Zvezda said the Alabuga factory, in Russia’s Tatarstan region, invited school pupils to study at a college the factory runs nearby once they had completed ninth grade (aged 14-15) so that they could study drone manufacturing there and then work at the factory when they had finished college.

Young workers, including teenagers, were shown with their faces blurred out, studying computer screens or making and testing individual components, or assembling drones.

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Timur Shagivaleyev, the factory’s general director, did not disclose detailed production figures. But he told Zvezda the initial plan had been to produce “several thousand Geran-2 drones” and that the factory was now producing nine times more than that. He did not say what period the figures referred to.

A Russian think tank close to the government last month suggested Russia’s drone production had jumped by 16.9% in May compared to the previous month after President Vladimir Putin called for output to be stepped up.

Putin said in April that more than 1.5 million drones of various types had been produced last year, but that Russian troops fighting on the front line in Ukraine needed more.

HUGE-SCALE USE OF DRONES

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Both sides have deployed drones on a huge scale, using them to spot and hit targets not only on the battlefield but way beyond the front lines.

Zvezda said the Alabuga factory had its own drone testing ground and showed rows of parked U.S. RAM pickup trucks carrying Geran-2 drones.

It also showed one of them launching a drone.

In May, Russia paraded combat drones that its forces use in the war in Ukraine on Moscow’s Red Square in what state TV said was a first.

The design of the Geran-2, which has a known range of at least 1,500 km (932 miles), originated in Iran where an earlier version was made. They have been used to target Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

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Zvezda set the documentary to upbeat music, part of its mission to keep Russians interested in and supportive of the war.

The factory is part of the so-called Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which is near the town of Yelabuga, which is over 1,000 km from the border with Ukraine.

(Editing by Timothy Heritage)

By Laura Sharman, Daria Tarasova-Markina, Victoria Butenko and Christian Edwards, CNN

(CNN) — New waves of deadly Russian missiles pounded Ukraine overnight Sunday while long range drone attacks by Kyiv sparked travel chaos at Moscow’s airports.

Residents of Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities faced another sleepless night on Sunday as Russia launched 450 missiles and drones overnight into Monday, Ukraine’s Air Force said.

The majority were shot down but 23 struck across three locations and debris from intercepted missiles landed in 12 areas, it added.

Nationwide air raid warnings were issued in most regions of Ukraine, with local authorities reporting at least two people killed and 16 wounded in the past 24 hours.

“Russian strikes are always an assault on humanity – in Kyiv, a kindergarten caught fire, along with residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

In Kyiv, the alert was raised at 11 p.m. Sunday local time and remained in place for eight hours, with one killed and six wounded, police said.

‘They are monsters’

Standing in the rubble of his burned-out apartment in the capital on Monday morning, Oleksandr Berdychevskyi, 38, recalled how the city was rocked by explosions overnight.

“There were three explosions. I was in bed when I heard the fourth. The door blew open and shards of glass landed on me,” he told CNN. “The balcony was on fire. I ran to the front door, but it was jammed,” he added, saying he was only able to break it down because he felt so full of adrenaline.

Berdychevskyi said all his documents and cash savings were destroyed in the fire, leaving him with just 2,000 hryvnias (about $50) in his wallet.

Cursing Russia as she sifted through the ashes, his mother, Liliya Berdichevska, could not stop crying. “They are monsters. Just monsters. How lucky that my granddaughter wasn’t home and that my son is alive,” she told CNN.

Elsewhere in Kyiv, Kateryna, who only gave her first name, was among residents who rushed into Lukianivska subway station for shelter, in the city’s northwest, where the entrance was damaged in the strikes.

“It was very scary when the attack happened,” she told Reuters, sitting on the station escalator with her husband and pet dog which the couple carried over shards and splinters in the aftermath of the strike.

“There was lots of smoke and dust, we all got very scared. There was a little panic but, because life has taught us how to behave, we’ve all gotten used to it. We cared for each other and for the animals too,” she said.

Fires broke out on the roof across several buildings and a supermarket in the city’s southeastern Darnytskyi district.

Fires were also reported in the more central districts of Shevchenkivskyi and Dniprovskiy, affecting two residential buildings and a shopping mall, with debris falling on a kindergarten in Dniprovskiy.

In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, city mayor Ihor Terekhov reported 12 hits including one that ignited a blaze near a multistory residential building in the Kyivskyi district to the north.

Elsewhere in the city, windows were blown out and there was damage to a road, tram tracks and electric wires.

This latest attack includes cruise and ballistic missiles as well as powerful advanced Kinzhal missiles, which are difficult to intercept, Ukraine’s Air Force confirmed.

Russia has intensified its overnight strikes in recent weeks, targeting cities far from the frontline. Earlier this month it launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine involving 728 attack and decoy drones and 13 missiles, Ukraine’s Air Force said.

Kyiv’s forces have also continued to find ways of striking deep inside Russia.

Over the weekend, thousands of passengers were forced to queue or sleep on the floor due to flight delays and cancelations at major Moscow airports sparked by long-range drone attacks, as seen in videos from Russian media.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the military downed 49 drones between Friday evening and Monday morning, with no injuries or significant damage.

Dozens more were intercepted in west and southwest regions including Kursk, Rostov, Bryansk, Kaluga, Tula and Lipetsk, the Russian defense ministry confirmed.

In his daily address on Saturday, Zelensky called for talks with Russia this week, to push forward ceasefire negotiations amid growing US pressure on Moscow to reach a deal.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was “ready to move quickly” on achieving a peace deal with Ukraine, but its “main goal” was to achieve its “objectives.”

The last round of ceasefire talks in Istanbul ended swiftly in early June, with Russian and Ukrainian delegates meeting for barely over an hour before calling it quits.

Russia put forward maximalist territorial demands as part of preconditions for a ceasefire. Ukraine has previously refused to consider any territorial concessions in exchange for peace.

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