- NewsPA Entertainment
Sophie Rundle says Gentleman Jack nude scenes not just for 'titillation'
She plays the lover of Suranne Jones' character in BBC period drama Gentleman Jack.
NewsYahoo Celebrity UKStacey Dooley clarifies comments after branding Nigel Farage 'attractive' on live TV
Dooley made comments while appearing the Andrew Marr Show this morning alongside journalist Sarah Vine and Ella Whelan of Spiked.
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EU will not renegotiate Brexit deal with new UK PM, says Irish foreign minister
Simon Coveney described political events at Westminster as 'extraordinary'.
- Storyful
Floodwaters Spill Across Highway in Rusk, Texas
Roads in Rusk, East Texas, were flooded on May 18 as severe storms knocked out power across Rusk County, according to reports from KLTV. This footage of flooding along a highway was filmed by Kyle Wehrenberg, who said it was “some of the most intense flash flooding” he had witnessed. Credit: Kyle Wehrenberg via Storyful
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Emiliano Sala 'left alone like a dog', says father
Argentinian footballer Emiliano Sala had just joined Cardiff City from French club Nantes for £15 million when the plane crashed into the Channel.
NewsYahoo Celebrity UKGeri denies Spice Girls tour is on the brink, tells naysayers to 'f*** off'
Ginger Spice insists there is no rift within the band as they prepare to kick off their Spice World 2019 reunion tour in Dublin on Friday.
- motor1
10 supercars with boot space to spare
From the new McLaren GT to the Ferrari GTC4Lusso, here are 10 supercars with usable boot space.
- NewsEvening Standard
Who sits on the Iron Throne at the end in Game of Thrones?
There are spoilers ahead for the shocking series finale of Game of Thrones - including who actually sits upon the infamous throne (metaphorically, at least). Unfortunately, her nephew/lover Jon Snow did her in before she could take her rightful place. Instead, the final dragon, Drogon, burned the throne and then took his mother away from King’s Landing.
- NewsThe Guardian
Jeremy Kyle Show: why take so long to end this daily humiliation?
The Jeremy Kyle Show was axed following the death of participant Steve Dymond. Photograph: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock In 2013, more than 1 million people watched a 17-year-old girl being called a “crackhead” and a “silly anorexic slapper” by her sister on national television while a well-known TV presenter informed them that the girl had “slept with 33 men”. The girl then took and failed a lie-detector test – a controversial device which measures blood pressure, breathing patterns and sweat – while crying and in distress. But who wouldn’t be, with all this being broadcast to the nation on the Jeremy Kyle Show? One concerned viewer complained to Ofcom and the media regulator found that the show had breached the broadcasting code, a rare event in its 14-year run. Last week, it was axed by ITV after a participant, Steve Dymond, was found dead a week after he also failed a lie-detector test in front of a live audience. The decision came just two days after the show was suspended; yet, it seems fair to ask what took ITV so long to cancel a show that a judge called “human bear-baiting” as long ago as 2007. The precise causes of Dymond’s tragic death are still unknown – indeed Dymond’s fiancee, Jane Callaghan, told the Sunday Mirror his apparent suicide was unrelated to the show. Yet his death has prompted a parliamentary inquiry and an Ofcom review of television’s duty of care to participants. Last week, ITV’s chief executive, Carolyn McCall, said that “now is the right time for the show to end”, and by acting so quickly ITV undoubtedly wanted to reflect the seriousness of a death which shocked a TV industry used to employing “no one died” as a glib phrase for times of stress. It is also keen to stop harm spreading to other, more valuable shows such as Love Island. This may be difficult, not least because regulatory and political concerns started to build years ago. In launching his parliamentary review last week, the MP Damian Collins referred to the recent suicides of the former Love Island contestants Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Gradon (though both were at least 18 months after appearing on the show). Regulators suggest complaints from the public about alleged bullying or harassment have also been steadily increasing since the ruling on the 17-year-old in 2014 and the launch of Love Island. It may come as a surprise to those who could hardly bear to watch Kyle for its gratuitous manipulation of obviously vulnerable people, that ITV’s decision to bring an ex-girlfriend in to tempt the boyfriend of Dani Dyer on last year’s Love Island prompted far more complaints. More than 2,600 viewers objected, compared with only one complaint about the 17-year-old being insulted by one of the best-paid men on television. Love Island accounts for just 1% of all ITV adult viewing, half the total for the almost daily Kyle show. (It does account for half of all 16-34s during its slot, however, which partly explains ITV’s determination to ringfence it from Kyle.) Ofcom’s report on the earlier complaint helps understand why the Kyle show was only subject to 11 investigations. It ruled against ITV only in the matter of failing to “assist in avoiding or minimising offence”. The teenager’s distress was not seen as a problem, partly because she knew what she was signing up for and “had no complaint about how she had been treated”. Yet complaints about the treatment of other reality TV contributors since had risen to such an extent that last month Ofcom’s content board decided to consider extending duty-of-care rules. Regulators and broadcasters alike know that change following the review is more or less inevitable. Earlier this year ITV changed its procedures to make producers proactively check on contributors rather than wait for a call. Their concern, however, is that there will be no cut-off point for this after-care of the suddenly famous left at the mercy of social media and more. Broadcasters argue they are in an impossible situation given the loss of audience to web rivals such as YouTube, which are allowed to show appalling things without so much as a nod to regulatory standards. Yet surely public service television should be held up to higher standards. And it can never win a race with the web to provide the most voyeuristic, violent or otherwise upsetting content. Which is partly why dropping the Jeremy Kyle Show was easier for ITV than would appear. Its audience, older and less affluent than for its other reality shows, had started to decline anyway. In 2017, average daily viewing figures were 1.2 million, according to Enders Analysis, 20% higher than this year. The brand has become toxic – witness the number of guests and employees who went public to talk about being egged on, traumatised and then in effect abandoned. For ITV, born out of northern working-class roots and keen to attract aspirational viewers, it was off message, parading an underclass as feckless dolts willing to be shamed for 15 minutes of fame. Viewers failed to complain because they felt participants must know what they sign up for. Yet reality TV is a brilliant invention, giving ordinary people a chance to have their say, and maybe even become stars. It would be wrong to tar all with the same brush. There has been an attempt to suggest that the timing of Dymond’s death, at the start of the nationally designated Mental Health Awareness Week, was significant. If increased awareness of mental health teaches us anything, it’s surely that people should not be manipulated in the name of entertainment. This is a lesson for all broadcasters. Perhaps the dropping of the Kyle show less than a year after the last Jerry Springer Show aired in the US will mark a cultural turning point. Yet this is unlikely. Springer will launch Judge Jerry this autumn, a reality court show. God help us. Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org Black’s Trump card I’ve always thought the power of a press baron was in his (or, very rarely, her) power to destroy reputations, not flatter them. And then, like the ghost of hot metal past, along comes Conrad Black. The former owner of the Telegraph and Spectator had previously emerged from his prison sentence for siphoning off millions of dollars from the sale of newspapers to write a book called Donald J Trump: a President Like No Other. Then there were the newspaper columns with headlines such as “The genius of Trump”, “Trump is already the most successful US president since Reagan”, and “Trump invokes sacred duty to raise up America’s magnificence”. Such grandiloquence deserves credit, and last week it was rewarded when the US president pardoned his No 1 fan. In my next media column: “Ma’am, you’re wonderful, and now can I become a dame?”
- NewsEvening Standard
Google Huawei ban: Phone maker 'blocked from using apps such as Gmail and Maps on its phones'
Google has blocked Chinese communications company Huawei from using apps such as Maps and Gmail on its phones, it has been reported. Huawei is one of a number of phone manufacturers who use the Google-developed Android operating systems on its phones and tablets.
- NewsThe Independent
Julian Assange's belongings 'to be confiscated' by US authorities
Julian Assange’s belongings from his time living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London will be seized by US prosecutors in the UK on Monday, according to WikiLeaks.Ecuadorian officials are travelling to London to allow US prosecutors to “help themselves” to items at the embassy – including legal papers, medical records and electronic equipment – the organisation has claimed.WikiLeaks said neither Assange’s lawyers nor United Nations officials were allowed to be present for the handover of possessions. The material is said to include two of Assange’s manuscripts.His lawyers said an illegal seizure of property had been requested by the US, describing the country as “the agent of political persecution” against the WikiLeaks founder.Assange was dragged out of the embassy last month and is serving a 50-week prison sentence for bail violations. He faces an extradition request from the US after authorities there charged him with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, said: “On Monday Ecuador will perform a puppet show at the Embassy of Ecuador in London for their masters in Washington, just in time to expand their extradition case before the UK deadline on 14 June.“The Trump administration is inducing its allies to behave like it’s the Wild West,” she added.Baltasar Garzon, international legal coordinator for the defence of Assange and WikiLeaks, said: “It is extremely worrying that Ecuador has proceeded with the search and seizure of property, documents, information and other material belonging to the defence of Julian Assange, which Ecuador arbitrarily confiscated, so that these can be handed over to the agent of political persecution against him, the United States.“It is an unprecedented attack on the rights of the defence, freedom of expression and access to information exposing massive human rights abuses and corruption. We call on international protection institutions to intervene to put a stop to this persecution.”Ben Brandon, the lawyer representing the US at a recent extradition hearing, said there were computer room chats showing real-time discussions between Chelsea Manning and Assange over an attempt to gain access to classified US documents.Earlier this week Swedish prosecutors announced they would reopen a 2010 rape case against the WikiLeaks founder.Additional reporting by PA
- NewsThe Telegraph
Brooks Koepka: New York crowd's choking jibes helped me to win USPGA
Brooks Koepka has revealed how the crowd turning against him in the USPGA Championship on Sunday helped snap him out of the slump that saw him bogey four holes in succession and thereby almost make history by conceding the biggest lead in the majors.
- NewsPA Ready News UK
European election poll puts Scottish Tories and Labour in joint fourth
Just one in five Scottish voters will back Labour or the Tories in the European election according to a new poll.
- NewsDigital Spy
Rocketman star responds to Bohemian Rhapsody comparisons
"Our movie is a different animal."
- NewsThe Telegraph
European elections 2019: Full list of MEP candidates
Here is a full list of the official candidates for the European elections which take place on May 23rd.
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Sturgeon could push for IndyRef2 even if Brexit does not happen
Nicola Sturgeon told Andrew Marr than the UK staying in the EU would not necessarily stop her plans for another Scottish independence referendum
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Harry and Meghan celebrate first wedding anniversary with photo montage
The social media post is accompanied by the song This Little Light Of Mine which was chosen by the couple for their recessional on their wedding day.
NewsReutersCroatian town to showcase Mercedes love affair with monument
A town in southern Croatia whose citizens are obsessed with Mercedes-Benz cars plans to build a monument to the German car that symbolises success for its rural inhabitants. About half of the 16,000 registered cars in Imotski, which is close to the border with Bosnia, are Mercedes cars, according to Ivan Topic Nota, the main promoter of the plan to build the Mercedes monument. When they came for a visit or decided to move back, driving a Mercedes-Benz was seen as a sign of success.
- NewsThe Guardian
Ask the chemist for a paper bag
Preston North End 1888-1889 – winners of a league and cup double and unbeaten all season. Photograph: Getty ImagesI collect my small but regular prescription from Lloyds. A year ago I wrote to the company requesting a change from plastic to paper bags (Boots berated for putting prescriptions in plastic bags, 18 May). I received a polite acknowledgment, and since then my prescription is always ready for me in a paper bag. I advise environmentally aware Boots customers to try this approach. Rose Harvie Dumbarton• I commend your starch wrapper for the weekend magazines. Can we expect Ottolenghi’s first ever boil-in-the-bag recipe in weeks to come? Guy Smith Langport, Somerset• The turban’s been on trend since way before the 1950s (Sikhs call headpiece sold by Gucci disrespectful mimicry, 18 May). 1920s flappers? Garbo, Dietrich in the 1930s? Every land girl in the 1940s, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford? And what about all those aristo portraits of the 18th and 19th centuries? I’m pretty sure some of Jane Austen’s characters would have worn turbans. Liz Cleere Saffron Walden, Essex• The key question about the Jeremy Kyle Show (Journal, 16 May) should be why such shows are so enduringly popular. What is it about us humans that enjoys the spectacle of our fellow humans publicly humiliating each other? Dr Hyla Holden Bath• Manchester City have been magnificent in achieving their domestic treble, but don’t forget the Old Invincibles – Preston North End in 1888-89, who not only won cup and league but did so undefeated. George Peacock Ely, Cambridgeshire• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters• Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition
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US billionaire stuns students by agreeing to pay off all loans
A billionaire technology investor has stunned graduates at a US college by announcing he will pay off all their student loans estimated at 40 million dollars (£31m).Robert F Smith made the announcement while addressing nearly 400 graduating students at the all-male historically black Moreton College in Atlanta, Georgia.Mr Smith is the founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in software, data and technology-driven companies."On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we're gonna put a little fuel in your bus," the investor and philanthropist told graduates in his morning address."This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans."The announcement immediately drew stunned looks from faculty and students alike. Then the graduates broke into the biggest cheers of the morning. Morehouse said it is the single largest gift to the college.Mr Smith, who received an honorary doctorate from Morehouse during the ceremony, had already announced a 1.5 million dollar (£1.2m) gift to the school. The pledge to eliminate student debt for the class of 2019 is estimated to be 40 million dollars.Mr Smith said he expected the recipients to "pay it forward" and said he hoped that "every class has the same opportunity going forward"."Because we are enough to take care of our own community," Mr Smith said. "We are enough to ensure that we have all the opportunities of the American dream. And we will show it to each other through our actions and through our words and through our deeds."In the weeks before graduating from Morehouse on Sunday, 22-year-old finance major Aaron Mitchom drew up a spreadsheet to calculate how long it would take him to pay back his 200,000 dollars in student loans - 25 years at half his monthly salary, according to his calculations.In an instant, that number vanished. Mr Mitchom, sitting in the crowd, wept."I can delete that spreadsheet," he said in an interview after the ceremony. "I don't have to live off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was shocked. My heart dropped. We all cried. In the moment it was like a burden had been taken off."His mother, Tina Mitchom, was also shocked. Eight family members, including Mr Mitchom's 76-year-old grandmother, took turns over four years co-signing on the loans that got him across the finish line."It takes a village," she said. "It now means he can start paying it forward and start closing this gap a lot sooner, giving back to the college and thinking about a succession plan" for his younger siblings.Morehouse College president David A Thomas said the gift would have a profound effect on the students' futures."Many of my students are interested in going into teaching, for example, but leave with an amount of student debt that makes that untenable," Mr Thomas said. "In some ways, it was a liberation gift for these young men that just opened up their choices."
- NewsThe Guardian
Access to abortion is a basic human right
Pro-choice protest in front of the Alabama State House in Montgomery, Alabama, on 16 May. Photograph: Christopher Aluka Berry/Reuters Last week the state of Alabama signed into law a bill that prevents women accessing safe abortion services, even in cases of rape and incest (Report, 16 May). Doctors who perform abortion will face up to 99 years in jail. We expect our government to condemn this law in the harshest possible terms and to uphold the determination by the UN that access to abortion is a human right. We expect our government to stand strong with those who will tirelessly fight this injustice by raising this issue at the highest possible levels. We know that sanctions do not deter women from seeking abortion, but drive them to unsafe treatments or force them to travel to other places. But the voice of the UK is diminished and its authority undermined by the even more draconian abortion laws in Northern Ireland, which criminalise women as well as doctors. It is time for this government to act, to legislate for safe abortion services in Northern Ireland and to denounce this unjust movement, spreading across America, which will cost women and girls their lives. Professor Lesley Regan President, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists • Saturday’s guide to sex and intimacy doesn’t mention conception, or its concomitant, contraception. Reasonable enough, given the small proportion of heterosexual couplings that are intended to create a new life relative to those intended to create mutual sexual fulfilment. But the role of men in causing pregnancies, both desired and unwanted, means we do indeed have the responsibility to provide the support for pro-choice activities Gaby Hinsliff urges on us in the same issue (Journal, 18 May). Polling in Britain shows that the current legal provision of abortion and the principles on which it is based are regularly supported by over 80% of the population, which must mean a big majority of men support it. And as Emma Brockes says (Journal, 17 May), crackdowns on women’s autonomy always bear more heavily on poorer families, and the reason a pregnancy is unwanted is often that the family simply can’t afford another mouth to feed. Family men in these circumstances don’t all live down to the stereotype and will be supportive of the woman’s choice. Involving us in the campaigning can only strengthen that support. Nik Wood London • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters • Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition
- NewsThe Independent
Parents of student who died in suicide over anxiety attacks to sue Bristol University
The parents of a student who took her own life because she was too anxious to make a public presentation are taking legal action against her university.Natasha Abrahart, 20, who was studying physics at the University of Bristol, had been due to have an oral assessment on the day she was found dead last year.She had told tutors she suffered anxiety and panic attacks over the oral presentations, and had been prescribed an antidepressant.Robert and Margaret Abrahart say their daughter was terrified of being kicked out of the university because her anxiety forced her to avoid oral exams, for which she was docked marks.“As a result our bright, capable daughter faced failing academically for the first time in her life,” the couple said in a statement to her inquest.They believe Bristol University staff should have allowed her work to be assessed without her having to face a public verbal exam.“We are taking the legal action because Bristol are not listening to us. They do not accept there is a problem,” Mr Abrahart, a retired university associate professor, told The Sunday Times.Ms Abrahart was the tenth of 12 students to take their own life at the University of Bristol since October 2016.Her social anxiety was so severe that she could not bear to give a presentation to fellow students and staff in a lecture theatre as part of her degree.A senior lecturer told the inquest no changes had been made to Ms Abrahart’s planned oral assessment.Her parents say the university should have known her condition made it excruciatingly difficult for her to talk in front of other people and that it had six months to make other arrangements.The inquest ruled she died partly as a result of neglect by mental health services after there were delays in her being seen and her medication was not properly reviewed.The coroner found a “gross failure” to provide care by Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, which “significantly underestimated” her condition.Mr and Mrs Abrahart said the trust had not apologised but had paid damages.Julie Kerry, director of nursing at the trust, said: “We are deeply sorry for Natasha’s death and... offer our sincere condolences to her family.“We fully accept the findings of the coroner, and recognise that we did not act in accordance to best practice in all of the care provided to Natasha.”A university spokeswoman said: “Staff tried very hard to help Natasha, both with her studies and with her mental health needs. This was acknowledged in the inquest, with the coroner finding no fault with the university.”And a statement said staff were “very sad that these efforts could not help prevent her tragic death".It added: “We have introduced a whole-institution approach to mental health and wellbeing with additional investment in the support we provide our students in their accommodation, in academic schools and through central support services.”Margaret Abrahart said: “I get really angry when they give these bland statements claiming they did everything they could to help. It doesn’t tally with what we’ve heard.“It’s almost as though the death of a student, the life of a student doesn’t matter. It’s more important that they portray the right image.”
- NewsRFI
Blast near Giza pyramids injures 17, mainly tourists
An explosion outside the Egyptian capital Cairo has hit a tourist bus, injuring 17 people near the Grand Museum.Egyptian security services said the explosion, near the still unopened museum, appeared to have injured tourists.South Africans and Egyptians were among those hurt when the explosive device, though to have been a roadside bomb, went off, damaging the tourist vehicle.Eyewitness images show scattered debris on the road. Witnesses have described hearing a very loud explosion.There were no reports of deaths.In December, three tourists from Vietnam and their Egyptian guide were killed by a roadside explosion less than 4 kms from the site of today's attack.Egypt's tourism sector has suffered for years due to a series of deadly attacks targeting holidaymakers following the turmoil of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.Egypt is due to host the Africa Cup of Nations football competition in a month's time, from 21 June to 20 July.
- Storyful
Storms Flood Highway in Rusk County, Texas
Roads in Rusk, East Texas, were flooded on May 18 as severe storms knocked out power across Rusk County, according to reports from KLTV. This footage was filmed by storm chaser Andrew Colantoni, who said it was filmed on Highway 69 in Rusk. Credit: Andrew Colantoni via Storyful
