The producers behind the “Spider-Man” and “Harry Potter” film franchises will oversee the next James Bond movie, Amazon MGM Studios announced Tuesday.The appointment of Amy Pascal and David Heyman is the first step in Amazon’s plan to relaunch the British spy franchise, after taking full creative control last month.The producers are expected to play a major role in deciding who will replace actor Daniel Craig as the super-suave MI6 agent, as well as choosing the next film’s director and production schedule.Amazon MGM Studios film chief Courtenay Valenti said the pair would “deliver to global audiences storytelling that upholds the impeccable legacy of this beloved character.”Pascal, who previously ran major Hollywood studio Sony Pictures, is best-known for her work on various “Spider-Man” films, including the recent live-action movies starring Tom Holland.She is no stranger to the Bond franchise. During her tenure, Sony Pictures released 007 films “Casino Royale,” “Quantum of Solace” and “Skyfall.”Heyman, who is British, produced all eight film adaptations of J.K Rowling’s “Harry Potter” books.His other credits include “Gravity,” “Barbie,” and the “Paddington” films.The announcement will only fuel the swirling speculation about who will next play James Bond, one of the most famous characters in the history of cinema.Craig’s final outing, “No Time to Die” — the 25th James Bond film — was released in 2021 and earned $775 million.Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Henry Cavill and Theo James are among those currently considered frontrunners.In 2022, Amazon bought storied Hollywood studio MGM, which held distribution rights to Bond’s extensive back catalog.But it was not until last month that the company struck a deal with longtime Bond producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, to obtain full creative control. The deal was closed Monday.The franchise had been closely guarded by the Broccoli family since 1962’s “Dr. No.” They famously insisted on preserving the integrity of the Bond character and brand, resisting spin-offs and licensing that many industry experts expect to see following Amazon’s takeover.”James Bond is one of the most iconic characters in the history of cinema,” Pascal and Heyman said in a joint statement.”We are humbled to follow in the footsteps of Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson who made so many extraordinary films and honored and excited to keep the spirit of Bond very much alive as he embarks on his next adventure.”

President Donald Trump and top US intelligence officials raced Tuesday to stem a growing scandal after a journalist was accidentally added to a group chat about air strikes on Yemen’s Huthi rebels in a stunning security breach.Trump brushed off the leak as a “glitch,” while the CIA director and the White House intelligence chief both claimed during a Senate hearing that no classified information was divulged in the conversation on the Signal messaging app.The president also defended his National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who added Atlantic’s magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat by mistake ahead of the airstrikes.Trump told broadcaster NBC that the breach was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.” Waltz “has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” he added.Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe — who were both reported to be in the chat — both endured a stormy Senate Intelligence Committee hearing over the leak.”There was no classified material that was shared,” Gabbard, who has previously caused controversy with comments sympathetic to Russia and Syria, told the committee.She refused however to comment on whether Signal had been installed on her personal phone.Ratcliffe confirmed he was involved in the Signal group and had the app installed on his work computer, but said the communications were “entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information.”- ‘Sloppy, careless, incompetent’ -Democrats on the committee called on Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign.Senator Mark Warner blasted what he called “sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior.”Journalist Goldberg said that Hegseth sent information in the Signal chat about the Yemen strikes including targets, weapons and timing ahead of the strikes on March 15.He said he was added to the group chat two days before the Yemen strikes but did not publish sensitive information on the attacks.Hegseth, a former Fox News host with no experience running a huge organization like the Pentagon, launched the fightback by saying that “nobody was texting war plans.”The White House then went into full damage control mode on Tuesday, attacking Goldberg and describing the story as a “coordinated effort” to distract from Trump’s achievements.”Don’t let enemies of America get away with these lies,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said on X, describing the row as a “witch hunt.”Trump and his aides have repeatedly used the same term to dismiss an investigation into whether the Republican’s 2016 election campaign colluded with Moscow.Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X on Tuesday that “no ‘war plans’ were discussed” and “no classified material was sent to the thread.”She also attacked Goldberg as being “well-known for his sensationalist spin.”- ‘European free-loading’ -But the report has sparked concerns over the use of a commercial app instead of secure government communications — and about whether US adversaries may have been able to hack in.Trump’s special Ukraine and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin when he was included in the group, CBS News reported.The report also revealed potentially embarrassing details of what top White House officials think about key allies.A person identified as Vance expressed doubts about carrying out the strikes, saying he hated “bailing Europe out again,” as countries there were more affected by Huthi attacks on shipping than the United States.Contributors identified as Hegseth and Waltz both sent messages arguing that only Washington had the capability to carry out the strikes, with the Pentagon chief saying he shared Vance’s “loathing of European free-loading” and calling the Europeans “pathetic.”The Huthi rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the United States.They have launched scores of drone and missile attacks at ships passing Yemen in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden during the Gaza war, saying they were carried out in solidarity with Palestinians.

Top US intelligence officials faced heated questions by Democratic senators on Tuesday over the spectacular security breach which saw a journalist included in a chat group discussion about airstrikes in Yemen.The Senate Intelligence Committee hearing was nominally about an annual report on national security threats, but Democrats used the opportunity to hammer officials — two of whom were reported to be in the group chat — over the mounting row.Pressed by Democratic Vice Chair Mark Warner over how military plans could be posted in Signal, a publicly-available instant messaging app known for its encryption, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard repeatedly denied that classified material had been shared. But she refused to go into further detail or confirm her presence in the group.Warner criticized her reticence and urged her to share the content of the chat, if indeed no classified information had been divulged.The breach was revealed Monday in an article by Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic magazine, who said he had given detailed plans on rebel Huthi targets in Yemen just hours before they were launched.Others in the chat appeared to include Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. Goldberg was initially skeptical but said he realized the chat was real when reports of strikes in Yemen emerged on the timeline that had been shared in the group, and at that point left.He chose not to reveal the contents of all the messages for fear of compromising security and potentially endangering American forces in the Middle East. But the existence of a group in which top Trump officials were discussing military planning in an unofficial chat app has raised widespread concerns about managing sensitive intelligence.The White House confirmed the authenticity of the group chat, but also asserted that no classified information had been revealed. Unlike Gabbard, CIA chief John Ratcliffe confirmed his presence in the chat to senators Tuesday, but defended the decision to use Signal for the discussion.Warner appeared unconvinced. “If this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired,” he said, branding the incident “one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information.”Democratic Senator Ron Wyden called for the resignations of Waltz and Hegseth.The former is said to have been behind the inadvertent addition of Goldberg into the group, while the latter is said to have shared the plans for the strikes on the Huthis.