Jungle Cruise sequel plans have derailed, per lead stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt.

During his appearance on The Awardist podcast for Dwayne’s Oscars 2026 campaign, the Smashing Machine star and his co-star Emily Blunt were asked about the sequel.

“I don’t think so,” replied both.

While the film made $220 million at the global box office right after the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill, Disney doesn’t wan’t to make the sequel.

“I think when Disney came under new leadership, they just shifted coming out of COVID,” the Jumanji star explained. “COVID shifted our business in a lot of ways. I think they looked at that property and thought, we did it once, not sure if we should revisit it again. Despite whether or not our chemistry was great.”

The Oppenhiemer actress added, “they did not want to set sail again, and that’s fine.”

Disney’s current CEO Bob Iger previously led the company from 2005 to 2020. He was replaced by Bob Chapek from 2020-2022 and then returned to the role.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt have reunited for The Smashing Machine, which is a biopic of MMA fighter Mark Kerr. Johnson plays Mark while Blunt plays his wife Dawn Staples. 

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Interior on Friday approved the deployment of the Pakistan Army and the civil armed forces for the by-elections scheduled for November 23.

In its order, the ministry stated that the deployment was approved at the request of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The civil armed forces will be deployed as second-tier responders, with the status of standby/quick reaction force mode only, the ministry added.

The Pakistan Army will be deployed as the “third-tier responders (in-situ Quick Reaction Force Mode)”.

The interior ministry stated that the deployment of the armed forces aimed to support the ECP in ensuring the “peaceful conduct of the by-elections to be held on November 23, 2025”.

The ministry said that the troops have been “empowered by [the] Federal Government to exercise the powers under Section 4 and 5 of [the] Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 for the duration of employment”.

ECP is set to hold by-elections for as many as six National Assembly seats and seven provincial seats of Punjab.

The development came a day after the ECP took notice of remarks made by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi during a political gathering.

The ECP, in letters to secretaries of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Interior on Thursday, stated that CM Afridi “threatened” district administration, police officers, and ECP officials ahead of the by-election in Haripur.

“Regrettably, he [KP CM] used offensive language which amounts to harassing and unduly influencing them which may prevent them [officials] from effective performance of their duties,” the letter reads.

Hours after the letters, the KP chief minister said his remarks had been “taken out of context”.

“I was not campaigning for anybody. I said yesterday that there should be no rigging,” he added.

This is a developing story and is being updated with further details.

Megan Thee Stallion has given an emotional testimony in her defamation case against Milagro Gramz.

The Mamushi singer told a court she feels “defeated” and struggles with mental health issues because of a sexually explicit deepfake video the blogger is alleged to have encouraged followers to watch.

The Grammy-winning artist took the witness stand in her lawsuit against Gramz, who is accused of being a “mouthpiece” a “puppet” and a “paid surrogate” for rapper Tory Lanez during and after his high-profile criminal trial.

Gramz is accused of encouraging Megan’s thousands of followers on X and Instagram to view an unauthorised, sexually explicit deepfake video of the star that had been circulating on social media.

“I feel like, to this day, I feel a little, like, defeated,” Megan testified, often shedding tears as she talked about the artificial intelligence porn bearing her image.

Meanwhile, Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was convicted of shooting Megan in the foot after the pair left a Los Angeles party in 2020 and has been sentenced to 10 years.

Megan Thee Stallion, whose real name is Megan Pete, accused Gramz in the civil trial of seeking to “denigrate, belittle, insult, and spread false statements” about her on her online social media platforms, “for no other reason than to bully, harass and punish Ms Pete for Mr Peterson’s conviction and to tarnish her reputation, causing emotional distress.”