A NEWLY-SINGLE Love Island hunk has been spotted on a date with his bombshell ex – just weeks after splitting from his girlfriend.
Ciaran Davies and Nicole Samuel made it to the Love Island final during last summer’s series.
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But their villa romance was rocked when Casa Amor bombshell Ellie Jackson arrived and revealed she and Ciaran had been messaging on the outside.
Ciaran later claimed he and Ellie had met briefly on a night out before Love Island.
But The Sun can reveal that, following his shock split from Nicole last month, he and Ellie have reconnected.
An insider told us: “They have recently refollowed each other on Instagram and have been getting to know each other on a more romantic level since his split with Nicole.
“They have been spotted around his local town of Bridgend together and looked cosy as they grabbed a coffee.”
And it seems that Nicole is also ready to move on from her relationship with Ciaran.
The Sun told last week how All Stars bosses approached Nicole to enter the villa as a last-minute bombshell – and she was considering it.
A source said: “She doesn’t have long to decide and is still unsure about it but is heavily considering it, given the amount of people she knows in the villa and the fact she’s newly-single.”
Nicole and Ciaran’s split blindsided fans as it came just weeks after she opened up about starting a family with him.
She told heat: “If I didn’t think we were going to get married and have babies one day, we wouldn’t be together, so I’d say that’s definitely on the cards in the future. Ci would be an amazing dad.”
But a rep for the pair told us last month: “Over the last couple of days Nicole and Ciaran have made the mutual decision to part ways.
“They have left the relationship on amicable terms, and will remain good friends going forward.”
A NEW Chinese fusion facility may be where the world’s first “artificial sun” is born – but could also be used to develop deadly nuclear weapons.
Experts have said a huge laser fusion research centre is being built in the southwestern city of Mianyang that could have different uses.
The lab will be even bigger than the US’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Northern Carolina.
Satellite images show four “arms” of the building sticking out that will be home to laser bays, and a central chamber where hydrogen will fuse together.
William Alberque, a nuclear policy analyst, said: “Any country with an NIF-type facility can and probably will be increasing their confidence and improving existing weapons designs, and facilitating the design of future bomb designs without testing.”
In November 2020, US arms official Marshall Billingslea released satellite images he said showed China’s build-up of nuclear weapons support facilities.
It included images of a cleared plot of land in Mianyang labelled “new research or production areas since 2010”.
That plot is the same site as the fusion research centre, called the Laser Fusion Major Device Laboratory, according to Reuters.
China has also been trying to build an “artificial sun” that would be a source of unlimited energy for the Earth.
It would require a highly-specialised facility, and that could be what this new lab in Mianyang is destined for.
Scientists achieved a breakthrough last week when they sustained a plasma temperature of more than 100 million degrees for 1,066 seconds – almost 18 minutes – smashing the previous record of 403 seconds.
This major leap happened in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak reactor in Hefei, eastern China.
The physicists used a system designed to mimic the fusion reactions at the core of the sun by using hydrogen and deuterium gases as fuel.
They say that to make nuclear fusion a viable source of energy on Earth we will need sustained plasma temperatures hotter than the sun.
The temperature at the core of the sun is estimated to be around 15 million degrees Celsius.
Song Yuntao, EAST’s director, said: “To achieve self-sustaining plasma and enable fusion power plants to generate electricity continuously, a fusion device must operate highly efficiently in a stable state for thousands of seconds.”
Building a reactor capable of handling sustained nuclear fusion is an enormous challenge for scientists.
It would need super-fortified walls made of special materials that can survive out-of-this-world conditions, South China Morning Post reports.
Zhou Haishan, a professor at Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, said: “Developing wall materials that are both resilient and resistant to damage is extremely difficult.
“To test such materials, we need advanced simulation environments.”
NUCLEAR fusion is the process when two atomic nuclei combine to form a single heavier one.
This process causes the release of a massive amounts of energy.
Fusion reactions happen when matter is in a state called plasma.
This is hot, charged gas made of positive ions and free-moving electrons – and is different from from solids, liquids or gases.
The sun, along with all other stars, is powered by this reaction.
To fuse inside the sun sun, nuclei need to collide with each other at extremely high temperatures – around ten million degrees Celsius.
The high temperature provides them with enough energy to overcome the electrical repulsion between them.
When the nuclei get very close to each other, the attractive nuclear force between them will outweigh the electrical repulsion and allow them to fuse.
For this to happen, the nuclei must also be confined within a small space to increase the chances of collision.
In the sun, the extreme pressure produced by its immense gravity creates the conditions for fusion to happen.
Scientists have also managed to create the conditions to allow nuclear fusion on earth.
BOOKIES are already counting the cost of Willie Mullins ‘dominating’ at this weekend’s Dublin Racing Festival – with a huge five-timer on the cards.
The all-conquering handler is readying some of his biggest stars for the two-day feature at Leopardstown, which Nicky Henderson jokingly calls ‘the Willie Mullins Festival’.
The DRF throws up huge clues for March’s Cheltenham Festival, with Galopin Des Champs one of those to double up at both last year.
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And it is the superstar stayer who headlines Mullins’ team of awesome talent for the weekend.
He is one of five odds-on shots the bookies are desperate to get turned over, with the acca on all five paying just under 10-1.
Galopin Des Champs is 4-6 to win a third Irish Gold Cup – before he aims to make it a hat0trick in the Cheltenham Festival feature too.
While he is the big act, it’s JP McManus’ Majborough who looks to kick off the five-timer in the Irish Arkle.
He is 4-7 to win the key 2m chase for novices – ahead of what should be a titanic clash with Sir Gino at Cheltenham.
Elsewhere, Ballyburn’s hopes of landing the Brown Advisory at the Festival were boosted with the news that Harry Redknapp’s Grade 1-winning star The Jukebox Man is out.
Sun Racing columnist Ben Pauling confirmed the big second-fav will sadly miss the rest of the season through injury.
First, though, is the Ladbrokes Novice Chase, for which the firm make him 4-7 fav.
Mullins will be relying on Lossiemouth and Gaelic Warrior to bring home the bacon elsewhere.
Alex Apati of Ladbrokes said: “Willie Mullins completely dominates the betting for this year’s Dublin Racing Festival.
“And the likes of Galopin Des Champs and Gaelic Warrior are only expected to shorten further in the betting between now and the weekend.”
Willie Mullins’ odds-on favourites at Dublin Racing Festival
Majborough to win the Irish Arkle Chase – 4-7
Galopin Des Champs to win the Irish Gold Cup – 4-6
Ballyburn to win the Ladbrokes Novice Chase – 4-7
Gaelic Warrior to win the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase – 4-6
Lossiemouth to win the Irish Champion Hurdle – 4-7
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BALACLAVA-CLAD “travellers” are accused of terrorising a town by ripping up gardens, setting animals on fire and raiding shops.
Around 300 people attended a public meeting last night to complain over police inaction after they were left “terrified” by a weekend of “shocking” criminal activity, which also saw the group of men allegedly threaten firefighters.
A convoy of up to 30 cars carrying dozens of men, one with a pick axe handle, are said to have tore around in the Cambridgeshire Fens on Saturday, ripping up farmers’ fields, ruining crops, speeding through villages and intimidating the locals, who have been left “traumatised”.
The men also damaged fire engines and attacked fire crew, who were taking part in a training exercise in Chatteris – with Cambridgeshire Police “ignoring” all 999 calls.
Farmers and residents gave harrowing stories at the meeting at Manea British Legion Club, which was called by MP Steve Barclay and Manea councillor Charlie Marks.
It was attended by Cambridgeshire’s Chief Constable Nick Dean, who heard from dozens of residents, who said they had been left unprotected despite making 999 calls for help.
One resident told police they needed to improve their response in the future, warning: “You get this wrong and you will have another Tony Martin on your hands.”
Martin was a farmer from Norfolk, England, who shot a burglar dead in his home in August 1999.
Farmer Matthew Latter, from Sutton Gault, Chatteris, said he was forced to barricade himself and his young family in their home after more than 70 masked men smashed their way through gates, and moved concrete blocks to access his land.
He said they suffered three-and-a-half hours of mayhem on the land around their home as he made numerous calls to police.
He added: “We had at least 70 people literally take over our farm from 1.30pm to 4pm. There were 13 4x4s.
“I called the police three times, I gave the What3Words coordinates of exactly where they were but we didn’t have any response – absolutely zero.
“My seven-year-old daughter was crying and was utterly terrified.”
Another woman said she called 999 as the petrol station at Witcham Toll was being robbed, but was told to call back on 101 as it was not an emergency.
Leo Butler, from Chatteris, said he had never seen anything like it and added: “What I would like to know is where were the police – there were no helicopters, no police cars, not one police officer – nothing.
“If the police aren’t going to confront these people somebody’s got to.”
Robert Sears, a former Conservative councillor, added “I haven’t seen lawlessness like this anywhere in the world” after he was confronted by 25 muddy 4x4s driving towards him.
Councillor Marks, who witnessed some of the criminality in Manea, said it was pure luck that no one had been killed or seriously injured.
“We could have been mourning a member of our village today,” he said.
The lawless activity began in Wimblington, then the cars zoomed around the Fens, with vehicles mounting pavements and speeding at more than 60mph in 30mph zones.
Chief Constable Dean told the meeting he had gone with his “gut feeling” over the allocation of extra resources and commented that “I perhaps got it wrong in hindsight”.
A Cambridgeshire police spokesperson said: “We are appealing for information, dashcam footage or CCTV following a number of incidents of hare coursing, yesterday causing thousands of pounds’ worth of damage to crops as well as putting lives at risk with dangerous driving.
“Up to 25 vehicles were seen, some in convoy, in various parts of the county, These included Fordham, Ely, Prickwillow, Littleport, Welney, Chatteris, Manea, Wimblington and Doddington.
“We understand the impact this has had on the community and we are investigating.”
Have you been affected by this incident? Email ryan.merrifield@thesun.co.uk
