Prince Michael of Kent ‘selling access’ to the Putinistas
The Zoom call began just after 10am. The bearded face on the computer screen from Kensington Palace was His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent and on the cream sofa in Cirencester was his close friend and business associate the Marquess of Reading. Making up the quartet on the screen were two executives from a South Korean company that was seeking to hire the prince to help its gold investment business. What the prince and the marquess didn’t know was that the executives were undercover reporters. As the Zoom meeting
Source:The Times
May 08, 2021 17:07 UTC
Late Cardiff City equaliser relegates Rotherham United
Rotherham players react to the late Cardiff equaliser that sent them downAfter the most demanding and relentlessly testing of seasons, fate delivered one last kick in the teeth to Rotherham United and their redoubtable manager, Paul Warne, when an equaliser by Cardiff City’s Marlon Pack condemned the Yorkshire club to relegation. It came in the 88th minute of their final game, a match they had dominated and were within two minutes of winning after a magnificent early goal from Lewis Wing. SponsoredWith Derby County failing to beat Sheffield Wednesday, had any Rotherham player managed to block Pack’s shot from the edge of the penalty area — just as they had intercepted so many others — Warne’s team would have stayed up. More significantly, perhaps, had the visitors taken any of the half a dozen chances to
Source:The Times
May 08, 2021 17:03 UTC
Clinical Leeds United kill off Tottenham Hotspur’s top-four hopes
The rain had stopped but Leeds United most certainly had not, two minutes into added time, as Hugo Lloris was forced to make the last of several outstanding saves, low to his left, to deny the relentless Stuart Dallas. The Tottenham Hotspur captain then stood up and looked forlornly at the defenders who had again left him so exposed. Spurs have not looked like a Champions League team for some time now and this defeat all but ended their hopes of a place among Europe’s elite next season. SponsoredOn the evening of May 8 two years ago, Spurs were readying themselves for a final in that competition after a dramatic semi-final, second-leg win away to Ajax. At the same time, Leeds were entering the Sky
Source:The Times
May 08, 2021 13:58 UTC
Man City 1-2 Chelsea highlights Aguero penalty miss costs Blues as Premier League title wait goes on
The wait for the Premier League title goes on for Manchester City after they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea. The miss would prove to be costly as a renewed Chelsea came out fighting in the second-half and City struggled to cope with their threat down the flanks. Both goals came down the right-wing as Cesar Azpilicueta teed up Hakim Ziyech to fire in from the edge of the box. Then, deep into added time, Timo Werner made his way into the box and played the ball to Marcos Alonso, who lifted the ball over Ederson. It's a defeat that will sting for City and it doesn't bode well for the Champions League final, even if it was a much changed side.
Source:The Times
May 08, 2021 12:28 UTC
Graham Potter hoping to keep Danny Welbeck at Brighton
Graham Potter believes Danny Welbeck is loving life at Brighton and is hopeful of keeping the former England forward at the Amex Stadium. The 30-year-old helped put Albion on the brink of Premier League safety with a fine individual effort to seal last weekend’s 2-0 win over Leeds. “On the pitch he’s got actions that are high-end Premier League level,” said Potter. He’s enjoying his football and in training he looks like he’s an 18-year-old, just influencing the game, influencing training, enjoying himself, I think that’s the most important thing. “That’s our motivation, to get back-to-back Premier League wins, to finish the job ourselves, to improve our points tally,” he said.
Source:Express
May 08, 2021 12:22 UTC
Real, Barca and Juve stand firm over ESL amid ‘intolerable pressure’ from UEFA
Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus have hit back at UEFA after the governing body announced that the three remaining founders involved in the European Super League would face “appropriate action” for their part in the plans. Inter Milan, AC Milan and Atletico Madrid also withdrew and on Friday the nine clubs that renounced the Super League declared their commitment to UEFA and its competitions at continental and domestic level. The statement continued: “We are fully aware of the diversity of reactions to the Super League initiative and, consequently, of the need to reflect on the reasons for some of them. We are ready to reconsider the proposed approach, as necessary. “We regret to see that our friends and founding partners of the Super League project have now found themselves in such inconsistent and contradictory position when signing a number of commitments to UEFA yesterday.
Source:Express
May 08, 2021 09:56 UTC
‘It’s like a place of healing’: the growth of America’s food forests
When the Guardian visits the Urban Food Forest at Browns Mill there are around a dozen volunteers working on a warm morning. Food forests are part of the broader food justice and urban agriculture movement and are distinct from community gardens in various ways. The Dr George Washington Carver edible park in Asheville, North Carolina, was the first public food forest to open in the US, back in 1997. Elise Evans, a long-time volunteer and former board president of Food Forest Collective, the nonprofit that manages the Beacon Food Forest, shared that the forest has helped in many ways with food insecurity. Anyone can do this in their ecosystem and we’re showing them how that can be done.”The Beacon Food Forest in Seattle is mostly an open harvest site.
Source:The Guardian
May 08, 2021 08:26 UTC
David Hare: Covid-hit UK theatre needs a John Osborne-inspired revolution
British theatre must take inspiration from John Osborne and make itself essential to a mass audience if it is to thrive in a post-Covid world, according to David Hare, who says the artform is in need of a “revolution”. Hare, who was heavily influenced by Osborne’s acerbic brand of social realism, said British theatre once again needed to find voices that reached beyond its usual audience, as Osborne did. John Osborne, English playwright, screenwriter and actor. “I think it’s very timely because we are, as it were, inevitably about to reinvent the British theatre,” he said. No, it hasn’t happened in the British theatre for a very long time,” he said.
Source:The Guardian
May 08, 2021 06:00 UTC
A mother’s happy day: military spouse deported by Trump returns to family
On Saturday Juarez will rejoin her family in Florida as one of the first beneficiaries of a humanitarian program set up by Joe Biden’s administration to reunify parents Trump separated from their children. Also unclear is how many military families were affected by what Biden has called the “human tragedy” of separations during the four years Trump was in office. Juarez self-deported in 2018 after Trump implemented his no-tolerance approach, and before authorities could enforce a removal order issued against her. When the coronavirus pandemic struck, Juarez said, her jobs teaching English slowed up and Estela returned to Florida. Estela, Juarez said, is documenting the family’s story in a forthcoming book titled Until Someone Listens.
Source:The Guardian
May 08, 2021 06:00 UTC
Colorado’s ‘rebel’ farmers – ‘I’d like to see industrial farming go extinct’
Regenerative farming prioritises soil health, biodiversity and ecological restoration, and forgoes most conventional industrial agriculture practices, including pesticides, synthetic fertilisers, or feeding pigs and cows genetically modified food such as corn and soy. Since 2017, he and his wife, Meghan, 31, have run Cedar Springs, a 16-hectare (40-acre) permaculture-focused farm and homestead. “Once you become a soil farmer, you realise that without that soil – that soil microbiology, that living soil – we can’t do anything. It’s a huge commitment.”Cows grazing on the lush pasture at Jake Takiff’s Cedar Springs farm in Colorado. He does not expect everyone who found Cedar Springs during the pandemic to become regular customers.
Source:The Guardian
May 08, 2021 05:26 UTC
Montana governor signs bill banning transgender students from sports teams
Montana’s governor has signed a bill that bans transgender athletes from competing on school and university sports teams that correspond with their gender. But there is no research suggesting that trans girls have an unfair advantage in school sports. Rate called the Montana law “patently unconstitutional”. “This bill unfairly targets trans youth and puts millions of federal education dollars at risk. Gianforte said last week that he had met with transgender people and athletes while considering whether to sign the bill.
Source:The Guardian
May 08, 2021 00:00 UTC
Hayley Hasselhoff, Playboy and the plus-size power list
For two countries that supposedly share a common language, the cultural chasm between Britain and America can be colossal, with much more than an ocean separating us. Chief among these differences, Hayley Hasselhoff and I agree, is underwear. Specifically bras. I’ve done the reverse, recently returning to London after more than ten years in New York. Having both extensively sampled the boulder-holders on offer on both sides of the Atlantic, we concur
Source:The Times
May 07, 2021 23:01 UTC
The Times Saturday Quiz: May 8, 2021
1 Which English city is served by an airport with the code BHX? Sponsored3 Austrian pop singer Edith “Ditta” Einzinger shared her stage name with which 1955 Vladimir Nabokov novel? 5 Norwegian skrei is a “super lean” type of which white fish? 7 What Shropshire new town is named after a Scottish civil engineer who died in 1834? 8 In which Welsh city did the world’s oldest record shop, Spillers Records, open in 1894?
Source:The Times
May 07, 2021 23:01 UTC
Confidence in Chinese coronavirus vaccine falls as UAE Covid cases remain high
More than half of all adults in the UAE have had two jabsThe vaccination programme in the United Arab Emirates has failed to quash its coronavirus outbreak, raising fears about the efficacy of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine it is mostly using. The UAE has vied with Israel for having the highest proportion of the population vaccinated. SponsoredHowever, cases remain higher than they were last year. While Dubai has come under fire for its rapid reopening — few restrictions remain, other than venue capacity limits and mandatory masks — experts believe the UAE’s widespread use of the Sinopharm vaccine could also be to blame. Last night the World Health Organisation approved Sinopharm for emergency use despite this week saying it had “very low confidence” in data provided
Source:The Times
May 07, 2021 23:01 UTC
‘Oops, I booked a £4k seat upgrade on a flight’
I desperately need your help to unravel a problem that I am having over a simple request to upgrade a seat on a Virgin Atlantic flight. Because of an error I have paid £4,100 on top of the cost of my flight booking, which was £1,500. In early April this year my wife and I booked a holiday to Barbados through Lastminute. Not long after booking, I called Lastminute to upgrade our seats from Economy Light to Economy Delight and had an email with a quote for the cost of the upgrade. But when I received a confirmation email, I was horrified to find that I was being charged £4,100
Source:The Times
May 07, 2021 23:01 UTC