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- Up to 100 feared dead in Kentucky after tornadoes tear through US states
- Friend, lover, fixer? Ghislaine Maxwell prosecutors home in on nature of Epstein relationship
- ‘I was always curious’: Indian woman, 104, fulfils dream of learning to read
- UK and Jersey issue more licences to French fishing boats in post-Brexit row
- Treasury defends ‘impromptu’ drinks party after Sunak’s autumn budget
- Banksy designs T-shirts to raise funds for ‘Colston Four’ accused of Bristol statue damage
- No ho ho: Italian church apologises over bishop’s claim about Santa Claus
- French court finds UK man guilty of murder for running over his wife
- Covid live: Omicron could cause 75,000 deaths in England; booster ‘significantly reduces’ risk of symptoms
- From hippos to hamsters: how Covid is affecting creatures great and small
- Why uncontrolled HIV may be behind the emergence of Omicron
- ‘There’s always been an affinity between Christmas and ghosts’: Mark Gatiss on the joy of festive frights
- Carrie-Anne Moss: ‘There was a scene in the first Matrix with me in stilettos. I could barely stand straight’
- Charlie Watts remembered by Dave Green
- David Baddiel and his daughter on his social media addiction: ‘it can reward and punish you’
- Supermodel Karen Elson on fashion’s toxic truth: ‘I survived harassment, body shaming and bullying – and I’m one of the lucky ones’
- Blind date: ‘After my rugby stories, she may not want to meet my friends’
- ‘Gushing oil and roaring fires’: 30 years on Kuwait is still scarred by catastrophic pollution
- Why TV crews are falling over each other to film drama in ‘Bristolywood’
- Trump’s ultimate yes man: how Devin Nunes embraced the role he was long accused of playing
- I’m all for New Zealand giving tobacco a kicking – but don’t criminalise smoking | Eleanor Margolis
- ‘I didn't find the exam difficult’: Indian woman learns to read and write at 104 – video
| Up to 100 feared dead in Kentucky after tornadoes tear through US states Posted: 11 Dec 2021 06:48 AM PST State governor says dozens at factory thought to have been killed, with other incidents reported in Arkansas and Illinois Up to 100 people are feared to have been killed after a devastating outbreak of tornadoes ripped through Kentucky and other US states on Friday night and early Saturday morning. The governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, said the state had "experienced some of the worst tornado damage we've seen in a long time". There were reports of at least six fatalities, with officials warning this could rise be much higher as at least 30 tornadoes were reported across six states. Continue reading... |
| Friend, lover, fixer? Ghislaine Maxwell prosecutors home in on nature of Epstein relationship Posted: 10 Dec 2021 11:00 PM PST Federal sex-trafficking trial has shed more light on pair's ties, and how their lives seemed intimately interwoven Ghislaine Maxwell has long been accused of luring teenage girls into Jeffrey Epstein's orbit for him to sexually abuse, but whatever motive for allegedly doing so has long remained a mystery. The answer hinges somewhat on the nature of their relationship. Did Maxwell serve as the late financier's consigliere, or act as his girlfriend and procurer? Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading... |
| ‘I was always curious’: Indian woman, 104, fulfils dream of learning to read Posted: 11 Dec 2021 12:00 AM PST Daily newspaper is new joy for Kuttiyamma, who began taking lessons from her neighbour a year ago For almost a century, Kuttiyamma's daily routine had been much the same. Rising early at home in the village of Thiruvanchoor in Kerala, the 104-year-old would begin her day's work of cooking, cleaning and feeding the cows and chickens. But now, every morning, there's something new to get up for. She eagerly awaits the paperboy to deliver Malayala Manorama, the local newspaper. Continue reading... |
| UK and Jersey issue more licences to French fishing boats in post-Brexit row Posted: 11 Dec 2021 07:09 AM PST British government says move agreed during talks before Friday midnight deadline set by Brussels The UK and Jersey governments have issued further licences to French fishing boats to trawl British waters in an apparent attempt to ease cross-Channel tensions. The Brussels-imposed deadline of midnight on Friday for solving the post-Brexit fishing row passed without an agreement being announced. Continue reading... |
| Treasury defends ‘impromptu’ drinks party after Sunak’s autumn budget Posted: 11 Dec 2021 03:42 AM PST Staff celebrated chancellor's autumn spending review with wine and beer during lockdown, while pubs and bars were shuttered The Treasury has been forced to defend officials holding an "impromptu" drinks party to celebrate Rishi Sunak's autumn spending review during lockdown. A spokesperson insisted it was a "small number" of staff who celebrated around their desks, despite reports putting the number closer to two dozen civil servants at the event. Continue reading... |
| Banksy designs T-shirts to raise funds for ‘Colston Four’ accused of Bristol statue damage Posted: 10 Dec 2021 09:13 PM PST Anonymous artist says sales proceeds will go to the four people accused of Edward Colston statue damage 'so they can go for a pint' Banksy says he has made T-shirts that he will be selling to support four people facing trial accused of criminal damage over the toppling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston. The anonymous artist posted on Instagram pictures of limited-edition grey souvenir T-shirts, which will go on sale on Saturday in Bristol. Continue reading... |
| No ho ho: Italian church apologises over bishop’s claim about Santa Claus Posted: 10 Dec 2021 08:22 PM PST Antonio Stagliano was trying to focus on the story of Saint Nicholas when he told children Santa did not exist, says church in Sicily
A Roman Catholic diocese in Sicily has publicly apologised to outraged parents after its bishop told a group of children that Santa Claus doesn't exist. Bishop Antonio Stagliano didn't mean the comments, and was trying to underline the true meaning of Christmas and the story of Saint Nicholas, a bishop who gave gifts to the poor and was persecuted by a Roman emperor, said the Rev Alessandro Paolino, the communications director for the diocese of Noto. Continue reading... |
| French court finds UK man guilty of murder for running over his wife Posted: 11 Dec 2021 05:35 AM PST Former Tory Councillor David Turtle has been sentenced to 14 years in jail after driving into his wife outside their home in France A former Tory councillor has been convicted of killing his wife by deliberately running over her in his Mercedes at their home in France. David Turtle, 67, was found guilty of murder by a French court and sentenced to 14 years in jail. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 11 Dec 2021 07:51 AM PST UK health officials urge those eligible to get third vaccine dose; Taiwan and Mauritius detect first cases of new variant What's the truth about lockdown-busting parties at No 10? Don't ask Shagatha Christie, writes Marina Hyde in her column this week. Here are some extracts: There was simply no other place a Johnson government would ever end up but mired in rampant lies, chaos, negligence, financial sponging and the live evisceration of public service. To the Conservatives and media outriders somehow only now discovering this about their guy, I think we have to say: you ordered this. Now eat it. Regrettably, though, space constraints must end our recap of the week here. But on it all goes, as Omicron closes in. We'll play out with a reminder that in a pandemic that has so far killed 146,000 of the Britons who these people are supposed to be in politics to serve, the absolutely vital public health message has now TWICE been most fatally undermined by people who worked at the very heart of No 10 with Boris Johnson. That is absolutely a disgrace, and absolutely not a coincidence. Continue reading... |
| From hippos to hamsters: how Covid is affecting creatures great and small Posted: 11 Dec 2021 01:00 AM PST Scientists are racing to assess the spread of the virus in wild and domestic animals, and the threat it could pose to us A year ago humanity embarked on a project to vaccinate every person against Covid-19. But in recent months a shadow vaccination campaign has also been taking place. From giraffes to snow leopards, gorillas to sea lions, zoos around the world have been inoculating their animals with an experimental Covid vaccine as an insurance policy against what they fear could be a similarly fatal illness for certain mammals. Meanwhile, veterinary scientists have been scrambling to understand the scale of Covid-19 infection in our furry household companions, and what the consequences could be for their health – and our own. Continue reading... |
| Why uncontrolled HIV may be behind the emergence of Omicron Posted: 11 Dec 2021 12:00 AM PST Analysis: experts say weakened immune systems may give rise to new Covid variants – so HIV prevention could be key to stopping coronavirus Where did Omicron come from? By all accounts it is a weird variant. Though highly mutated, it descended not from one of the other variants of concern, such as Alpha, Beta or Delta, but from coronavirus that was circulating maybe 18 months ago. So where has it been all this time? And why is it only wreaking havoc now? Researchers are exploring a number of hunches. One is that Omicron arose in a remote region of southern Africa but failed to spread until now. Another is that it evolved in infected animals, such as rats, and then crossed back into humans. But a third explanation is gaining ground as more data come to light, that Omicron arose in a person with a weakened immune system: someone having cancer treatment perhaps, an organ transplant patient or someone with uncontrolled HIV. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 11 Dec 2021 07:33 AM PST The writer and actor puts the ghoul into yule with screen and stage roles reprising haunting classics from Charles Dickens and MR James Close the curtains. Light the fire. Then prepare to be terrified; it's Christmas. For although the word "cosy" may be closely tied to festivities at this time of year, so it seems is the word "ghost". In northern Europe people understandably cope with the shorter days and darker evenings by drawing in around a roaring hearth, metaphorical or otherwise. Light and warmth: it makes sense. But what kind of stories are told while friends and families gather together? The answer, of course, is the spookier, the better. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 11 Dec 2021 01:00 AM PST Twenty years after first playing kick-ass hacker Trinity in The Matrix, Moss is returning to the role in The Matrix: Resurrections. Thankfully, she wasn't asked to wear heels this time … When The Matrix asks us all to take the red pill again on 22 December, Carrie-Anne Moss, 54, will return to the role that made her famous. Moss first played Trinity, a motorbike-riding, badass, PVC-clad hacker, in 1999, and despite the character not surviving the original trilogy, she is back, along with her co-star Keanu Reeves, for the fourth instalment, The Matrix Resurrections, directed by Lana Wachowski, this time without her sister Lilly. Moss, who was born in Canada, started her career as a model and had several small parts on television and in films before The Matrix struck gold. She played Marvel's first on-screen lesbian character, Jeri Hogarth, in the Netflix series Jessica Jones, and away from the acting world, she runs a "labour of love" lifestyle site called Annapurna Living. She lives with her husband and three children in the countryside in California, which means she does not see the current trend for Matrix-inspired fashion such as big stompy boots and tiny sunglasses out on the streets. Was returning to the world of The Matrix a tough decision? |
| Charlie Watts remembered by Dave Green Posted: 11 Dec 2021 06:00 AM PST 2 June 1941 – 24 August 2021 I first met Charlie Watts in 1946, when I was four and he was five. We moved into new prefabs built after the war in Wembley Park – we were number 22, he was number 23 – and our mums hit it off pretty much straight away. We were very close, Charlie and me, throughout our lives. There was one point after he joined the Stones when we didn't see each other for years, but when we did eventually reconnect, we picked up where we left off. Our relationship never really changed. From an early age we were both interested in jazz. It was a mutual thing. I used to listen to records in Charlie's bedroom, discovering musicians such as Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton. Later, when his dad bought him a drum kit and I got a double bass, we'd only been playing for a few months when we heard that a jazz band was doing auditions for a drummer and bass player. We did the audition and as we were the only ones that turned up we got the gig with the Jo Jones Seven and started doing weekly sessions at the Masons Arms pub in Edgware. Continue reading... |
| David Baddiel and his daughter on his social media addiction: ‘it can reward and punish you’ Posted: 11 Dec 2021 04:00 AM PST Despite the abuse and anger, the comedian spent hours a day online. But then his daughter Dolly became dangerously drawn in. Was it time for a rethink? Over the past 30 years, I have read and heard David Baddiel's thoughts on many subjects, including sex, masturbation, religion, antisemitism, football fandom, football hooliganism, his mother's sex life and his father's dementia. "I am quite unfiltered," he agrees, "mainly because I am almost psychotically comfortable in my own skin." But today I have found the one subject that makes him squirm. How much time does he spend on social media a day? "Oh, um, too much," he says, his usual candour suddenly gone. What's his daily screen time according to his phone? "It says four hours, which is a bit frightening." Continue reading... |
| Posted: 11 Dec 2021 12:00 AM PST She has been at the top of the industry for decades. Now she's speaking out about the dark reality of life behind the scenes When Karen Elson was a young hopeful trying to make it in Paris, a model scout took her to a nightclub. After long days on the Métro trekking to castings that came to nothing, and evenings alone in a run-down apartment, she was excited to be out having fun. The music was good and the scout, to whom her agent had introduced her, kept the drinks coming. She started to feel tipsy. A friend of the scout's arrived, and the pair started massaging her shoulders, making sexual suggestions. "I was 16 and I'd never kissed a boy," she recalls. "It was my first experience of sexual – well, sexual anything, and this was sexual harassment. They both had their hands on me." She told them she wanted to go home, and left to find a taxi, but they followed her into it, kissing her neck on the back seat. When they reached her street, she jumped out, slammed the taxi door and ran inside. The next day she told another model what had happened, and the scout found out. "His reaction was to corner me in the model agency and say: 'I'll fucking get you kicked out of Paris if you ever fucking say anything ever again.'" Continue reading... |
| Blind date: ‘After my rugby stories, she may not want to meet my friends’ Posted: 10 Dec 2021 10:00 PM PST April, 27, heritage project officer, meets Jake, 27, company director April on Jake What were you hoping for? |
| ‘Gushing oil and roaring fires’: 30 years on Kuwait is still scarred by catastrophic pollution Posted: 11 Dec 2021 02:00 AM PST Oilwells set alight by Iraqi forces in 1991 were put out within months, but insidious pollution still mars the desert For 10 months in Kuwait, everything was upside down. Daytime was full of darkness from the thick smoke, and nights were bright from the distant glow of burning oilwells. When Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, ordered the occupation of Kuwait in August 1990 in an attempt to gain control of the lucrative oil supply of the Middle East and pay off a huge debt accrued from Kuwait, he was fairly quickly forced into retreat by a US coalition which began an intensive bombing campaign. Continue reading... |
| Why TV crews are falling over each other to film drama in ‘Bristolywood’ Posted: 11 Dec 2021 07:00 AM PST The city's picturesque past and vibrant present have made it a magnet for high-end productions An adrenaline-pumping knife chase through graffiti-sprayed lanes takes place in the comedy-thriller The Outlaws, while class tensions simmer at a lavish student ball in the legal drama Showtrial. The city providing the backdrop and inspiration for both these series is Bristol – a location now so popular with film and TV makers that crews are actually falling over themselves in the streets. The city council has been inundated with requests to film in the city's dank alleys, high-rises and grand Georgian squares since the beginning of the year, according to Bristol Film Office, which is part of the city council. It has seen a 225% increase in drama production on pre-pandemic levels. In the first quarter of 2019/20 there were four major drama productions under way in Bristol – but this more than tripled to 13 in the first quarter of 2020/21. Since January, 15 high-end TV dramas have been filmed in the city. Continue reading... |
| Trump’s ultimate yes man: how Devin Nunes embraced the role he was long accused of playing Posted: 11 Dec 2021 03:00 AM PST Congressman poised to helm Trump's media company is poster child for the notion that, in today's politics, extreme partisanship pays For the first and perhaps the only time in his pugnacious political career, the California congressman and noted Trump apologist Devin Nunes is inspiring some kind of unanimity across party lines. When news broke on Monday that Nunes was retiring from Congress to become chief executive of the fledgling Trump Media & Technology Group, nobody on the left or the right doubted he'd landed where he belonged. After 19 years as a reliably rock-ribbed Republican legislator, Nunes told his supporters that he wasn't giving up on fighting his political enemies, just "pursuing it by other means" – and for once those enemies took him at his word. Continue reading... |
| I’m all for New Zealand giving tobacco a kicking – but don’t criminalise smoking | Eleanor Margolis Posted: 11 Dec 2021 02:00 AM PST Making substances illegal has never worked, simply because it fails to address the reasons why people use them I once lived with a militant vegetarian who had grown up near an abattoir. With a thousand-yard stare, he'd talk about how its bloody runoff would seep into his local playground. He hadn't touched meat since those days. You often hear this sort of thing from vegetarians and vegans: that if you looked at what went on inside (or even outside) a slaughterhouse, you'd switch to Quorn full-time. In a similar vein, if you want to quit smoking, I recommend watching someone go through lung cancer. I could never look someone in the eye and tell them smoking isn't both immensely pleasurable and cool-looking. What I would say is this: my mum was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2017. Over just a few months I watched her shrivel, become obscured by tangles of medical tubing, and begin to suffocate to death as her lungs filled with fluid. She died that same year, and it was a relief to know that her unimaginable suffering was over. I apologise if this description has either put a damper on your next fag break, or stressed you into taking a fag break when you didn't even have one planned. As a former smoker, I can understand either scenario. Eleanor Margolis is a columnist for the i newspaper and Diva Continue reading... |
| ‘I didn't find the exam difficult’: Indian woman learns to read and write at 104 – video Posted: 11 Dec 2021 02:31 AM PST A 104-year-old woman has fulfilled her dream to learn to read. After starting in April, Kuttiyamma achieved 89% in literacy and 100% in mathematics in the Kerala state primary literacy exam last month, the oldest woman to do so. Kuttiyamma had been curious about reading and would often try to make out the alphabet herself, but when she was born in a village to a low-caste rural family, there was no education. Her neighbour Rehana John, a 34-year-old literacy trainer, persuaded her to start to learn to read. Previously, John's oldest student had been 85 Continue reading... |
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