Vicky Beeching is a star of the Christian music scene. But that scene has turned against her since she told the world she was gay. In this exclusive interview, Vicky takes on a member of the evangelical church who says she has 'given in to temptation'.
Police say three people were ‘seriously assaulted with glassware’ during the incident
The two Brits are set to finally meet this summer
Ministers insisted local health bosses should still vaccinate in the correct order, as thousands queued for jabs in Bolton, where the Indian COVID variant is prevalent.
The guidance for funerals and weddings will change again on Monday as restrictions ease. Newlyweds in England will be able to share their big day with up to 30 friends and family but some traditional activities such as dancing are advised against. While funerals will be able to allow more people to attend and pay their respects.
Andrew Marr has suggested his frustration over BBC impartiality could soon lead him to leave the corporation so he can speak his mind about politics. In a frank public admission, the broadcaster predicted that the coming decade would be even more “turbulent” than the last, testing his resolve to stay neutral on major stories. The 61-year-old, who still presents the BBC’s flagship political show on Sundays, refused to be drawn on what issues he felt may cause the rift with his employer in future. His comments are among his most forthright on his relationship with the corporation, which is going through a period of transition under a new director general, Tim Davie. Last year, Mr Marr said he found the impartiality requirements at the BBC “very frustrating” but insisted he did still “really believe” in its work. He went further, however, in an interview at Aye Write, Glasgow’s book festival, which was broadcast online on Sunday. Asked by his interviewer, the journalist Ruth Wishart, whether he ever felt "a desperate urge to come out of the closet" over his political views, Mr Marr replied: "Yes, absolutely.” He refused to elaborate on his personal politics, saying: “I cannot tell you now because I will lose my job.” Mr Marr continued: "There are many privileges of working at the BBC, including the size of the audience and all of that, but the biggest single frustration by far is losing your own voice, not being able to speak in your own voice. "What I could say safely is that I think we are going to go through a period of politics - the next 10 or 20 years - much more turbulent and much more interesting and testing and challenging than anything we have seen in the last 10 years, which have been big enough. "I think it will be very, very hard for people like me to carry on being completely neutral and completely sotto voce all the way through that. "At some point, I want to get out and use my own voice again. How and when, I have no idea." Mr Marr gave no further hint about the source of his mounting frustration with politics, but had reflected earlier in the interview on his flirtation with Marxism when he was a student. His interest in radical left-wing ideas even earned him the nickname Red Andy, but he told the interviewer that he never fully embraced Marxist theories. Mr Marr said the work of Karl Marx was still a “useful tool when you’re trying to understand the world”, but added: “He had absolutely no real sense of politics.” He went on to say of capitalism: “My view is that the market is something in which we live all the time, it’s almost the water we swim in and it’s given us all the things we take for granted around ourselves. “It’s a great machine for inventiveness and ingenuity, but it presents two really serious problems. "One is dirt, it produces filth and pollution. The second is that it produces huge and unacceptable levels of inequality. To me, the job of politics is to clear up the dirt and reduce the inequality.” Mr Marr was appointed as the BBC’s political editor in 2000 before going into presenting programmes including The Andrew Marr Show, which has run since 2005. Aye Write continues from Friday 21 May to Sunday 23 May 2021. The full digital programme is available at www.ayewrite.com.
Workers will not be ‘accomplices’ to the strikes on Gaza, says union
Don’t travel to amber list countries, says No 10 despite no ban. PM’s spokesperson declines to say why holidays to places such as Spain are allowed to remain on sale
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Robert Jenrick says “there is no excuse whatsoever for the disgusting scenes of anti-Semitism we’ve witnessed in London this weekend.” Four men were arrested in the capital after police investigated video appearing to show anti-Semitic language being shouted from a convoy of cars.
‘Catastrophic’: Sierra Leone sells rainforest for Chinese fish plantControversial deal with China would be ‘disastrous’ for fishing and protected rainforest, say opponents The beach earmarked for development fringes the Western Area Peninsula national park, home to endangered species including pangolins. Photograph: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty
The ‘This Morning’ presenter’s affordable look is bringing some much-needed colour to our screens
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle appear in the trailer for the Duke of Sussex’s star-studded mental health documentary series The Me You Can’t See, which he created with Oprah Winfrey. The trailer for the series - which sees a number of names including Harry and Winfrey open up about their mental health struggles - dropped on Monday ahead of its premiere this Friday, May 21, on AppleTV+. Harry and Oprah are producers of the series - which was shot by four-time BAFTA Award-winning director Asif Kapadia who was behind Amy, the film about singer Amy Winehouse.
Singer Perrie Edwards explained why Mollie King's group didn't get a shout out.
Six per cent of Americans believe they could beat up a grizzly bear in unarmed combat but almost a third think they would lose in a fight against a rat or house cat, a new survey has found. YouGov research found just 72 per cent of US men and women thought they would triumph in a clash with the rodent, while 69 per cent thought they would get the better of a domesticated feline. 61 per cent of Americans claimed they would best a goose. In findings that make a mockery of the pioneering spirit of the old West, less than half of those surveyed (49 per cent) thought they could beat a medium sized dog. That drops to just 23 per cent if the animal opponent was a large dog. Americans are least likely to think they could win against a grizzly bear, with just 6 per cent claiming they would emerge victorious. Only 8 per cent of those surveyed said they could beat a lion, gorilla or elephant in a fight. The poll of 1,224 adults found that one in five US men thought they could knock out a chimpanzee or king cobra. There was no gender difference between men and women when it came to rating their personal chances in mano to animal combat. Both are equally unlikely to think they could win in a fight with lions, gorillas or bears. Differences do start to emerge between the sexes when it comes to battling wolves and kangaroos. About 17 per cent of American men fancy their chances against the boxing marsupials and wolves but only 11 per cent of women. The gender gap is biggest when it comes to fighting with medium-sized dogs and geese. 60 per cent of men said they would beat the dog, compared to just 39 per cent of women. 71 per cent of men asked were convinced they could trounce a goose compared to just 51 per cent of women. YouGov also asked people which animal would win in a series of random head-to-head fights. Elephants had a win rate of 74 per cent, just beating the rhinoceros into second place by a fraction of a percentage. An unarmed human had a ratio of just 17 per cent, only three per cent above the goose, which came last in battle of the 34 beasts. The grizzly bear was third with 73 per cent while tigers (70), hippos (69), lions (68) and crocodiles (67) also scored well against their rivals. Which animal do you think you could you beat in a fight? Tell us in the comments below!
Matthew Lohmeier has been relieved from his post at Space Force after allegedly criticising the US Military for being “Marxist”
Earl Spencer has expressed concern over the BBC pulling the plug on broadcasting a Panorama investigation into how its own reporter Martin Bashir secured an exclusive interview with his sister Diana, Princess of Wales. The investigation by Panorama, which was scheduled to be broadcast tonight, is understood to be highly critical of Bashir. It was removed from the schedules over claims of a “duty of care” to Bashir. The BBC is insistent that the programme has only been delayed although there are concerns it may never be aired. Reacting to the news that the episode has been postponed, Earl Spencer wrote on Twitter: “Well there’s a surprise. What’s next? My guess: a rush by the BBC Director General to get Lord Dyson’s report out, before its expected publication date on Friday, so he can claim, with apparent regret: ‘Sadly this Panorama is now no longer relevant’.” It is alleged that Bashir mocked up two faked bank statements to deceive the Earl into introducing him to Diana. In the first major test of his leadership of the corporation, Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, ordered Panorama be taken off air ahead of the publication of a report into Bashir’s conduct and amid allegations of a BBC cover-up. Bashir was working for Panorama in 1995 when he secured the scoop interview with the Princess of Wales in which she complained that “there were three of us in this marriage” in reference to Prince Charles’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. The Panorama investigation, by John Ware, the veteran journalist, was commissioned by the BBC at the end of last year to effectively look into itself. Distinct from the Panorama inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the interview and allegations of a subsequent cover-up, Mr Davie commissioned an independent investigation led by Lord Dyson, the former Master of the Rolls. He handed his report to Lord Davie last Friday evening. The Telegraph understands that the director-general, on the same day, ordered that the Panorama programme be dropped. Bashir, 58, told the BBC last month that he was resigning as its religion editor after undergoing a quadruple heart bypass operation last year and a further operation shortly after informing managers of his intention to quit. However, Bashir has also been made aware of criticism being levelled at him by Lord Dyson, having been told in advance as part of the legal process prior to the report’s publication. The BBC declined to comment.
Singapore warned on Sunday that the new coronavirus variants, such as the one first detected in India, were affecting more children, as the city-state prepares to shut most schools from this week and draws up plans to vaccinate youngsters. "Some of these (virus) mutations are much more virulent, and they seem to attack the younger children," said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing. None of the children who have contracted the virus are seriously ill and a few have mild symptoms, he added.
The child was delivered early via Caesarean section
Joe Biden feels political ground shift as Israel-Gaza conflict rages onAnalysis: US president may find himself increasingly isolated in his resolute defence of Israel Joe Biden’s stance on Israel has not shifted in his many decades in politics. Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India reported a further decline in new coronavirus cases on Monday but daily deaths remained above 4,000 and experts said the data was unreliable due to a lack of testing in rural areas where the virus is spreading fast. For months now, nowhere in the world has been hit harder than India by the pandemic, as a new strain of the virus fuelled a surge in infections that has risen to more than 400,000 daily. Even with a downturn over the past few days, experts said there was no certainty that infections had peaked, with alarm growing both at home and abroad over the highly contagious B.1.617 variant first found in India.
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