Jonathan Majors told TMZ that he’s “heartbroken” over the news that Robert Downey Jr.‘s Doctor Doom will be the new villain of the next two “Avengers” movies, effectively replacing Majors’ Kang the Conquerer.

Majors was dropped by Marvel in December on the same day he was found guilty of two misdemeanor counts of harassment and assault. His villain, Kang, was set up as the new Thanos of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and was set to feature prominently in “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,” which has now been scrapped and replaced by the Downey-starring “Avengers: Doomsday.”

“Yeah, heartbroken. Of course,” Majors answered when TMZ asked him if he was hurt by the new direction Marvel was taking. “I love Kang. Doctor Doom is wicked, though.”

TMZ then noted that Downey was being given a chance to lead more Marvel movies despite his own history of legal troubles. Downey was arrested in 1996 for possession of heroin, cocaine and an unloaded gun and given three years of probation. He faced numerous other legal issues in the years that followed, which made some Marvel executives apprehensive to cast him as Tony Stark in 2008’s “Iron Man.”

“I think it’s fair that Mr. Downey is being and has been greeted with patience and curiosity and love … and [he’s] being allowed to work [his] art and be creative at that level,” Majors said about how Downey was afforded a comeback despite legal troubles. “I didn’t really get that.”

Would Majors want to return to the MCU as Kang? “Hell yeah! Hell yeah! I love him. I love Kang,” he said. “If that’s what the fans want, and that’s what Marvel wants then let’s roll. Hell yeah.”

Majors was arrested on March 25, 2023 for assault and harassment charges after his then girlfriend Grace Jabbari accused him of assaulting her in the backseat of a private car after she took his phone to read a text message he’d received from another woman. Jabbari alleged that Majors forcefully retrieved his phone from her, causing an “excruciating” injury to her right middle finger, and when she exited the car, Majors hit her on the back of her head and then tried to force her back into the car, causing a cut behind her right ear.

In Majors’ trial verdict, Majors was also found not guilty of one count of intentional assault in the third degree and one count of aggravated harassment in the second degree. After his arrest, Majors was dropped by his talent manager, Entertainment 360, and his publicity firm, the Lede Company.

Downey’s return to the MCU was announced at Comic-Con earlier this month. He will star as Doctor Doom in 2026’s “Avengers: Doomsday” and 2017’s “Avengers: Secret Wars.”

The Israel Defense Forces revealed Wednesday four reasons why it killed Fuad Shukr, the Hezbollah commander responsible for a drone strike that left 12 children and teens dead over the weekend in northern Israel. 

Shukr served as a senior adviser to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at the time of his death in an IDF strike on Tuesday in southern Beirut. The IDF says its fighter jets “eliminated the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s most senior military commander [Shukr]” in Lebanon’s capital city. 

Here’s why Israel’s military says it took out Shukr: 

Shukr was Nasrallah’s ‘right-hand man’ 

The IDF says Shukr, who joined Hezbollah in 1985, rose up the ranks of the terrorist group to obtain a position close to its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. 

IDF KILLS HEZBOLLAH COMMANDER BEHIND BRUTAL ATTACK ON CHILDREN’S SOCCER FIELD 

“He planned Hezbollah terrorist attacks for 30 years and has Israeli, American, French and other civilians’ blood on his hands,” the IDF said Wednesday. 

The Israeli military added that within Hezbollah, Shukr was its “senior advisor for strategic affairs and wartime operations.” 

Shukr has been terrorizing Israelis with rocket and drone attacks 

The IDF alleges that for the past ten months – since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, 2023 – Shukr has been “orchestrating rocket and UAV attacks” against Israelis. 

The attacks, they say, have forced “60,000 civilians in northern Israel to evacuate their homes.” 

MILITARY OFFICIAL SAYS NO US INVOLVEMENT IN STRIKE OF SENIOR HAMAS LEADER IN TEHRAN 

A worker walks by debris as a backhoe removes rubble from a building that was damaged by an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday evening in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. (AP/Hussein Malla)

The Israeli military has been engaged in frequent skirmishes along its northern border with Lebanon. 

Shukr was responsible for the Majdal Shams ‘massacre’ 

The IDF says Shukr was the planner for this past weekend’s deadly Hezbollah rocket attack in the northern Israeli village of Majdal Shams. 

The scenes there on Sunday were ones of sadness, shock and devastation as the residents of the mostly Druze village buried the young victims of the Hezbollah strike that killed at least 12 and injured some 29 others — mostly ages between 10 and 20 as many of them innocently played soccer on Saturday. 

Shukr was ‘involved in integrating and developing precision-guided missiles’ 

The IDF says Shukr was instrumental in developing precision-guided missiles. 

Hezbollah supporters watch a speech given by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon, on June 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

“These missiles have the potential to threaten the lives of millions of Israeli civilians,” it added. 

Fox News’ Andrea Vacchiano, Benjamin Weinthal and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

A new trial production line of the electric version of Fiat’s Grande Panda car was inaugurated in Kragujevac last Monday.

Built at the factory known for producing the Italian brand’s vehicles since it was rebranded under Fiat Chrysler — now Stellantis — in 2008, it’s set to become the first-ever electric car to be mass-produced in Serbia, with production expected to begin this October.

Its launch follows a deal on lithium reached with the EU in early July in Belgrade that could reduce Europe’s dependency on China and push Serbia, which has close ties to Moscow and Beijing, closer to Brussels.

That deal, however, has been fiercely criticised by environmentalists and opposition groups in Serbia, who argue it would cause irreversible damage to the environment while bringing little benefit to its citizens.

According to the 2023 US Geological Survey, Serbia is estimated to have around 1.2 million tonnes of lithium reserves, a critical mineral for making electric batteries, as the transition to zero-emission vehicles accelerates.

For Fiat’s Grande Panda vehicle, the Stellantis group said it took two years to adapt the Kragujevac plant so it could produce EVs.

The Grande Panda comes with distinctive LED lights and an interior made using up-cycled materials.

After rolling off the production line in Kragujevac, the cars will be delivered to showrooms in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares says his company is ready to rise to the challenge from Chinese EV makers. “We at Stellantis are ready for the fight,” he says.

“We are going to demonstrate to them that we are hard-working. We are going to demonstrate to them that we have the right technology. We are going to demonstrate to them that we are a very fierce competitor.”

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić was at the inauguration of the new trial production line.

“I congratulate you on this big day. I congratulate everyone in Serbia. I am proud of our Serbia, proud of Fiat, and proud of Stellantis,” he says.

“I am proud of our cooperation, which is not always simple and easy, and we love that fighting spirit that we saw here today. We will not lack that, and we will fight and work hard in order to catch the most developed countries of Europe and the world.”

The Stellantis group, which sold 1.35 million vehicles worldwide last year, recently reported net profits down by half in the first half of the year due largely to lower sales and restructuring costs.

Created in 2021 from the merger of Fiat-Chrysler with PSA Peugeot, the Franco-Italian multinational reported net profits of €5.6 billion in the period, down 48% compared with €11bn in the same period last year.

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Thousands in Serbia protest lithium deal

Meanwhile, on Monday, thousands of people rallied in several towns in Serbia to protest a lithium excavation project the Balkan country’s government recently signed with the European Union.

The protests were held simultaneously in the western town of Šabac and the central towns of Kraljevo, Aranđelovac, Ljig, and Barajevo.

They followed similar gatherings in other Serbian towns in the past few weeks. The biggest lithium reserve in Serbia lies in a western valley that is rich in fertile land and water.

The multinational Rio Tinto company had started an exploration project in the area several years ago, which sparked huge opposition, forcing its suspension.

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Earlier this month, however, Serbia’s constitutional court overturned the government’s previous decision to cancel a $2.4bn (€2.21bn) mining project launched by the British-Australian mining company in the Jadar Valley, paving the way for its revival.

Vučić has said that any excavation would not start before 2028 and that the government would seek firm environmental guarantees before allowing the digging.