The comedian Michael McIntyre was spotted in the week going about his business in London’s West End – not by fans – but by a police helicopter. The uniformed clowns posted their “capture” on Twitter, leading to much comment about lack of privacy.
Just like good looks and reliable knee joints, literature is squandered on the youthful. I'm not saying children shouldn't read. They clearly should. Reading keeps them gloriously quiet beside the hotel pool while I'm drinking martinis, but I realise now that all fiction read as a child should be re-read as an adult.
A new commission, set up by the Government to examine the case for restrictions to the Freedom of Information Act, indicates that the right to know is under major attack.
Award-winning investigative reporter Elena Milashina, who writes for the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, received death threats that she believes are, “a real contract for my murder.” She also believes that she is the target of an online smear campaign by the Chechen political elite after derogatory comments were made about her online. Milashina has fled Chechnya in fear for her safety.
As hostilities intensify between England and Australia for control of the Ashes, an altogether different cricketing clash is set to take place over the Irish Sea.
The curvaceous Aquatics Centre she created for the London Olympics in 2012 was described as “magnificent”, winning over doubters despite its expense. But Zaha Hadid’s plans for an even more ambitious Games venue have been left in tatters after Japan pulled the plug on its controversial national stadium.
With all the leaks and the numerous "interim" deals, the nuclear deal—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—made with Iran on July 14 contained few surprises. The deal makes Iran a threshold nuclear-weapons regime for its duration and smooths the path to an overt nuclear-weapons capacity afterward. In the meantime, it has given Iran extra resources for the export of terrorism. And that's just if Iran keeps the deal.
Whether you're off surfing or scuba-diving this summer, don't miss a good photo opp just because you're submerged
With a stroke of directorial genius, Wes Anderson made Fantastic Mr Fox a narcissistic newspaper columnist when he adapted Roald Dahl’s story into an animated film. “I have this thing where I need everyone to think I’m the greatest, the quote-unquote fantastic Mr Fox,” says the star vulpine hack, smirking with mock-modesty in the voice of (who else?) George Clooney. In this neck of the woods, foxes reliably make headlines, even when – as happened three days ago – the anti-hunting law remains... Читать дальше...
No meal can be sad, said the critic Mikhail Bakhtin. But then he never dined with me. In anticipation of a meal – supposing we are with the ideal companion at the best table in the perfect restaurant – we might indeed postpone sadness. And maybe even halfway through we will remain in tolerably high spirits, with dessert still to come. But as we near the end of eating we begin to feel anticipatory twinges of anticlimax. Soon it will be over and we’ll be wondering why we expected so much. Soon we’ll... Читать дальше...
Yeah! Or as today’s schoolchildren would say: yay! It is – for many, the rest may have to wait a few more days – that Alice Cooper moment again... School’s out for summer. The papers are wailing about Black Saturday and tailbacks on the M4, but those on the backseats are most certainly not.
When television tackles distressing issues, there is often information at the end of the programme on who to contact if you feel upset and need to talk further. The Samaritans are often cited.
A teenage girl has posted the perfect response to a boy’s claim he was “too big” to use a condom.
What does it getting married mean to you? For some, it's a white dress and a chance to throw a big party. For others, it's a private commitment to someone they love. For a tragic and unfortunate number, marriage can be forced, arranged, unhappy ( ).
<p>Victoria Lehmann, sexual therapist and adviser for The Sexual Advice Association, looks at when it becomes a real problem</p>
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is defined as the inability to maintain an erection sufficient for sexual activity. Up to 52% of men between the ages of 40-70 will have experience some ED and it is age related. However, many young men today are also experiencing erectile problems. Stress, relationship concerns, too much alcohol, smoking, illicit drugs, a late night or being worried are just some of the cause of erectile difficulties.
In defence of his employer, extravagantly paid TV presenter Graham Norton told The Telegraph yesterday: "I think they should switch off the BBC for two months.
Have members of the Labour Party learnt nothing from history? If the polls are correct and Jeremy Corbyn is indeed ahead, then there is a real danger of a repeat of 1980, when Michael Foot, who was also popular with the left of the party, become Labour leader and was subsequently thrashed by Margaret Thatcher after three torrid years of vilification by the Tory press. We have seen how badly a less left-wing leader was treated by that same press during the recent election campaign.
Somebody at the House of Commons has a sense of humour, or history, or quite possibly both: when the SNP’s new MPs were settling into their new digs at Westminster, some were amused to discover that a bust of Charles Stewart Parnell had been situated in their whips’ office.
You don’t often see Boris Johnson looking deflated, not even when suspended over the Thames on a zip wire. But the mayor of London looked distinctly out of sorts this week when acknowledging that the water cannon he had bought for the police to use in the event of civic disorder might have to stay in their hangar. The Home Secretary, Theresa May, had refused to authorise their deployment, citing a host of reasons why she judged them unacceptable.
Spread your wings not for New Orleans but for the Menier Chocolate Factory and this utterly delightful Off-Broadway show. Pangs of nostalgia overlap with shivers of pleasure at the unexpected as you listen to over thirty Burt Bacharach classics given an exhilaratingly fresh new spin in the updated arrangements of 27 year old Kyle Riabko.
As Labour picks its new leader, large parts of the press are convinced that the party needs to be more right-wing to win. But there’s one problem: party members aren’t interested.
There will be no outpouring of public sympathy for Tobias Ellwood, the 48-year-old £89,435-a-year junior Foreign Office minister who complained in a letter to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority that “I never expected to be watching the pennies at my age and yet this is what I now have to do. I was in the armed forces where, had I stayed in, I would be earning far more than I am now.”
It is a matter of cold, hard fact that hundreds, if not thousands, of British girls and women are pushed into forced marriages every year – and that there has only ever been one prosecution for this offence. Each summer, children disappear from classrooms never to return to this country, sent away against their will to a foreign land and a life of misery. Betrayed by their own parents, other family members and friends, they are treated like property and have to submit to vile abuse.
A controversial new trend in “sugar dating” has recently gained attention again. Sold as somewhere between a business relationship and dating, the practice involves young, attractive, predominantly female “sugar babies” – many of them students – exchanging their companionship for financial support from older, wealthy predominantly male “sugar daddies” or “mommies”. Expectations and boundaries for both people are outlined upfront, and if they proceed to an ongoing relationship it becomes known as an “arrangement”. Читать дальше...
