Tom Hardy: 'I would have sold my mum for crack' | Tom Hardy

 Posted on June 6, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  313 words  |  Valentine Belue

Tom Hardy This article is more than 8 years oldTom Hardy: 'I would have sold my mum for crack'This article is more than 8 years oldThe actor has spoken about his addictions to alcohol and crack in a new interview As his biggest lead role yet is set to be launched, Tom Hardy has opened up about his struggle with drugs. According to Yahoo! New Zealand, the star of Mad Max: Fury Road spoke about his addictions to both alcohol and drugs, stating: “I would have sold my mother for a rock of crack. [Read More]

Andy Coulson knew about phone hacking, ex-colleague told MPs | Andy Coulson

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  484 words  |  Valentine Belue

Andy Coulson This article is more than 12 years oldAndy Coulson knew about phone hacking, ex-colleague told MPsThis article is more than 12 years oldFormer News of the World executive said ex-editor probably told others to use illegal techniqueAndy Coulson was aware that phone hacking was taking place at Rupert Murdoch's newspaper empire and "told others to do it", a former executive at the News of the World told MPs. [Read More]

Corrie comes out of the closet | LGBTQ+ rights

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1094 words  |  Valentine Belue

LGBTQ+ rightsCorrie comes out of the closetIt has taken 42 years, but now Britain's campest soap has its first gay characters. Paul Flynn reportsCoronation Street has never been the straightest of soaps. A succession of tragi-comic heroines with snagged tights and razzy shampoo-and-sets have spiked their stilettoes into the Street, lending it a back-alley, camp appeal. Some of its elder statesmen - Fred "I say" Elliott and Norris, the Kabin's busybody - appear to have stumbled on their heterosexuality by accident. [Read More]

Jessie Js cultural revolution: how a Middle-Grade Pop Monster saved China

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1222 words  |  Kary Bruening

Lost in showbizJessie JHer triumph on the country’s TV talent show wasn’t all about winning or the money. It was about enabling her to show the Chinese ‘a western performer and hear music some had never heard before’Well, it was the power ballad heard around the world – by which I mean heard in a variety of Asian emerging markets, but not the UK. Anyway, Jessie J has won a Chinese TV singing competition! [Read More]

On Women by Susan Sontag review some sister she was

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  900 words  |  Valentine Belue

The ObserverEssaysReviewThis new collection of 70s journalism exposes a sexist and wrongheaded essayist with an unwarranted reputation In her introduction to this pocket-sized new collection of journalism by the American writer Susan Sontag, the academic Merve Emre begins with a reassurance to (younger, I assume) readers that there’s nothing to be afraid of here. “A certain anxiety besieges the critic asked to introduce a volume of earlier writings on women, lest she should find the ideas expressed in them interesting only as relics of a distant, less enlightened past,” she declares, eyeing the smelling salts she presumably keeps about her desk for times just like these. [Read More]

River recap: season one, episode six 'Solve this, Magoo, the end is in sight' | River

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  7 minutes  |  1327 words  |  Valentine Belue

River: episode by episodeRiverRiver recap: season one, episode six – 'Solve this, Magoo, the end is in sight'The final episode brings resolution and revelations for Abi Morgan’s detective as we learn the truth about Stevie’s murder Spoiler alert: this recap contains details about the sixth episode of River, showing on BBC1 on Tuesday nights. This is it, the end of the road. Or River. Who was Stevie really? What was she investigating and will River find the peace he seeks? [Read More]

The best of PG Wodehouse

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  634 words  |  Aldo Pusey

1000 novels everyone must readPG WodehouseSomething Fresh (1915) Piccadilly Jim (1918) Thank You Jeeves (1934) Heavy Weather (1933) The Code of the Woosters (1938) Joy in the Morning (1947) Few 20th-century writers seem more quintessentially of their moment than PG Wodehouse, whose name guarantees an escape into a lost world of upper-class Edwardian frivolity: pig-loving earls, inscrutable butlers and, of course, the "mentally negligible" Bertie Wooster and his manservant, Jeeves. [Read More]

The indigenous tree climber who saved a burning sequoia and became a living legend | California

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  19 minutes  |  4029 words  |  Kary Bruening

Charlie Castro was part of the last generation born and raised in Yosemite national park.In his 42 years with the National Park Service, Charlie Castro was among the few people trusted to scale the giant trees. Now 89, he has watched as fire has transformed the American west by Allison Griner in Three Rivers, California, with photographs by Jennifer EmerlingFrom the helicopter, Charlie Castro could gaze down into the heart of the tree, a hollowed-out cavity alive with raging red flame. [Read More]

TikTok killer Mahek Bukhari to appeal against her conviction | Leicester

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  504 words  |  Jenniffer Sheldon

Leicester This article is more than 4 months oldTikTok killer Mahek Bukhari to appeal against her convictionThis article is more than 4 months oldFormer influencer was sentenced to 31 years and eight months in jail for her role in deaths of two men Mahek Bukhari, the former TikTok influencer found guilty of a double murder, will attempt to appeal against her conviction. The 24-year-old was sentenced to 31 years and eight months in prison for her role in the deaths of two men, who were killed when their car was rammed off the road during a high-speed chase outside Leicester. [Read More]

What happened when Walmart left | West Virginia

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  16 minutes  |  3346 words  |  Kary Bruening

Wanda Church, who worked for Walmart for 10 years before losing her job when the superstore folded in McDowell County. Photograph: Jeff SwensenIn West Virginia, the people of McDowell County can’t get jobs, and recently lost their biggest employer – the local Walmart store. They describe the devastating loss of jobs, community and access to fresh food by Ed Pilkington in McDowell County, West VirginiaWhen Walmart left town, it didn’t linger over the goodbyes. [Read More]