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The far-right host Tucker Carlson has left Fox News, it was abruptly announced on Monday. Tucker Carlson fired on Murdoch’s orders over discrimination lawsuit, report says – as it happened Read more “Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the network said in a statement. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.” The statement said the last episode of Carlson’s program was Friday. Beginning on Monday, the 8pm ET slot will be hosted by a rotation of personalities until the selection of a new permanent host, the network said. Carlson’s departure appeared sudden. As of Monday morning, Fox was still previewing his show that evening, where he was set to interview the Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy. Carlson’s last show, on Friday, ended with the host eating pizza and saying, “We’ll be back on Monday.” Justin Wells, Carlson’s executive producer, is also leaving the network, Semafor reported. The decision to oust Carlson came from Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old Fox owner, and was connected to a lawsuit filed by Abby Grossberg, a former senior booking producer on Carlson’s show who claims she faced sexism and a hostile work environment, the Los Angeles Times reported. Murdoch was also concerned by Carlson’s embrace of the idea that the January 6 attack on Congress was instigated by the government. On Sunday, CBS 60 Minutes broadcast a segment on Ray Epps, a Texas man Carlson has falsely accused of being an FBI plant at the Capitol. The Fox host Harris Faulkner addressed Carlson’s departure on air on Monday morning, saying the network and Carlson had “mutually” agreed to separate. “We want to thank Tucker Carlson for his service to the network,” she said. Carlson is leaving less than a week after Fox settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5m. Filings in the case featured scores of vulgar text messages from Carlson in which he said he “hated [Donald] Trump passionately” and called Sidney Powell, a lawyer for the former president who was spreading false election information, a liar. “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” he wrote in one text message in January 2021. “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane,” he wrote in another text message in 2020. Carlson’s exit was also related to negative comments about Fox management revealed in the Dominion case, the Washington Post reported, citing a person familiar with Fox thinking. “Do the executives understand how much credibility and trust we’ve lost with our audience?” Carlson wrote in one text to his producer. “We’re playing with fire, for real,” he wrote in another message just after election day, when Fox made an early call for Joe Biden. “Those [CENSORED]s are destroying our credibility,” he wrote. A spokesperson for Dominion declined to comment. Fox faces a similar $2.7bn defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic, another voting equipment company. Carlson joined Fox as a contributor in 2009 and became one of its biggest stars after getting his own show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, in 2016. Last year, he became the most-watched host, averaging 3.32 million total viewers, according to the Washington Post. He also had the most viewers in the sought-after 25-54 demographic. In his climb to the top of the Fox ratings, Carlson relied on xenophobia and stoked white fears about America’s changing demographics. “Mr Carlson has constructed what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news – and also, by some measures, the most successful,” the New York Times wrote last year. “Though he frequently declares himself an enemy of prejudice … his show teaches loathing and fear. Night after night, hour by hour, Mr Carlson warns his viewers that they inhabit a civilization under siege.” Carlson has embraced the “great replacement theory”: the idea Jews and Democrats want to replace white people with non-white voters. After the murder of George Floyd by police officers in 2020, he belittled Black Lives Matter protesters as “criminal mobs”. He has also downplayed the January 6 attack, recently airing selectively edited footage as he tried to frame the insurrection as peaceful. He has decried a so-called crisis of manliness, airing a special that promoted using tanning therapy on testicles. Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters for America, a left-leaning media watchdog, predicted that other hosts would pick up Carlson’s vitriol. “Tucker served as the bridge between Fox News and the most extreme parts of the rightwing base – laundering anti-trans paranoia, Infowars nonsense, election lies and venomous rhetoric including the great replacement conspiracy theory nightly,” Carusone said. “The Fox News audience is primed and ready to believe whatever lies and vitriol the next eight o’clock hour host comes ready to spew. Ahead of Carlson’s departure, Fox has already been leaning into toxic hate as a business model by elevating extremists like Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro who now stand ready to try to capture Tucker’s audience.” Grossberg, the former producer now suing Carlson, alleges that on her first day of work, pictures of the California Democrat Nancy Pelosi in a plunging bathing suit were placed on her computer screen and around her workspace. Grossberg also describes a newsroom-wide discussion over whether the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, or her Republican opponent, Tudor Dixon, was more attractive and which one staffers would rather have sex with. Grossberg also alleges she was coerced into giving misleading testimony in the Dominion lawsuit. She also released evidence she said Fox had to turn over in the discovery process. Fox denies Grossberg’s allegations. Grossberg’s attorney did not return a request for comment on Carlson’s departure. [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/apr/24/tucker-carlson-leaving-fox-news]

The cat campaign had been going on for years. My sisters and I didn’t believe we had a hope of winning. Our parents weren’t keen on cats, or dogs, or Scallywag, the sharp-toothed hamster who lived in a cage in the dining room, making occasional bids for freedom and keeping us all in a state of high anxiety. But things would be different with a cat. We would shower it with love, and wrap a giant pink satin bow around its neck. We’d call it Duchess or Splendour or Fluffy, and treat it like a Girl’s World doll, albeit one made entirely out of hair. We talked about our imaginary cat all the time. This is probably why our parents relented. However, we suspected we were not going to get the cat of our dreams when Mum told us she had a surprise: “We’re going to meet a farm cat! He’s the runt of the litter, the other cats have been bullying him, and he needs a home. He’s called Humphrey.” Humphrey! He sounded dull. I could picture him clearing his throat, peering over his bifocals, asking the other cats to please keep it down. Still, he was a victim, and we would love him. All he needed was affection! It did not occur to us that Humphrey might scorn our love. That he would see six wide-eyed, beaming faces and bolt for the garden. He demonstrated his utter contempt for humanity by pooing in our slippers. Humphrey offered zero return on our emotional investment. But over the months and years, it became clear that it didn’t matter whether Humphrey loved us or not because we loved him. It was an exhausted, exasperated kind of love – but whenever I heard his soft paws padding and scratching, I felt my heart start to swell. As my sisters and I muddled through our teen years, needy, insecure, desperate to be loved, we wondered whether we ought to Be More Humphrey. He didn’t roll over, purring and exposing himself to anyone who showed him the slightest scrap of interest. He trusted that love would always exist for him. He lived a long and unremarkable life, from 1995 to 2014. I miss him still. I would have liked more cuddles and cleaner slippers, but I’m grateful for everything he taught me. Don’t try so hard. You don’t need to constantly hustle for affection and approval. People will love us, whether we like it or not. [https://www.theguardian.com/global/2023/apr/24/the-pet-ill-never-forget-humphrey-the-cat-pooed-in-our-slippers-and-taught-me-about-love]

Comments made by former shadow minister Diane Abbott in a letter were antisemitic, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said. Ms Abbott was suspended as a Labour MP after suggesting Jewish, Irish and Traveller people were not subject to racism "all their lives". She later apologised and withdrew the remarks, written in a letter to the Observer newspaper. Sir Keir condemned the letter and said he acted swiftly to suspend Ms Abbott. Sir Keir said that the swiftness with which the MP had had the whip removed demonstrated "how far the Labour party has changed" and that Labour has "zero tolerance" of antisemitism. When pressed repeatedly on whether Ms Abbott's comments showed prejudice towards Jewish people, Sir Keir said: "In my view, what she said was to be condemned, it was antisemitic." Diane Abbott suspended as Labour MP after racism letter But Sir Keir would not be drawn on whether Ms Abbott should be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate in the next election, saying "there's an investigation going on". On Sunday, Labour said the chief whip - who is responsible for party management of MPs - had suspended Ms Abbott pending an investigation. Suspending the whip means Ms Abbott will not be allowed to represent Labour in the House of Commons, where she will now sit as an independent MP. Earlier Pat McFadden, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said "it will be for the chief whip and the leader to decide what happens next". Shadow Commons leader Thangam Debbonaire told the BBC's Politics Live programme she found it "hard to see" Ms Abbott returning as a Labour MP. Sir Keir vowed to "root out" antisemitism within Labour after complaints of Jewish prejudice dogged the party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. Under Mr Corbyn's leadership, concerns that antisemitism was on the rise culminated in the party being investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and being found to have acted unlawfully. Mr Corbyn is still suspended from the parliamentary party after comments he made that suggested the scale of the problem had been overstated. The EHRC said in February that it was now satisfied with Labour's action on the issue. Ms Abbott has been an MP since 1987, was the first black woman elected to Parliament and served as Mr Corbyn's shadow home secretary. In her letter to the Observer, she wrote that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people "undoubtedly experience prejudice", which she said is "similar to racism". She continued: "It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice. "But they are not all their lives subject to racism. "In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus. "In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote. "And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships." She had been responding to a comment piece in the Guardian questioning the view that racism "only affects people of colour". Ms Abbott's letter prompted a backlash, including from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which described it as "disgraceful" and her apology "entirely unconvincing". In her apology, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington said "errors" arose in an initial draft that was sent. She added: "But there is no excuse, and I wish to apologise for any anguish caused. "Racism takes many forms, and it is completely undeniable that Jewish people have suffered its monstrous effects, as have Irish people, Travellers and many others." [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-65374104]

Live Performance Title: WhoMadeWho @ Coachella 2023 Signer Name: Coachella Live Performance Location: - Official YouTube Link:

The editor of a German magazine that published an artificial intelligence-generated 'interview' with Michael Schumacher has been sacked. The magazine's publisher has apologised to the Formula 1 legend's family. Schumacher, a seven-time world champion, suffered severe head injuries in a skiing accident in December 2013 and has not been seen in public since. Die Aktuelle ran a front cover with a headline of "Michael Schumacher, the first interview". A strapline underneath a smiling picture of Schumacher read "it sounded deceptively real", and it emerged in the article that the supposed quotes had been produced by AI. The article was produced using an AI programme called charatcter.ai, which artificially generated Schumacher 'quotes' about his health and family. "I can with the help of my team actually stand by myself and even slowly walk a few steps," read the Schumacher 'quotes'. "My wife and my children were a blessing to me and without them I would not have managed it. Naturally they are also very sad, how it has all happened. "They support me and are standing firmly at my side." Schumacher's family said on Friday that they plan to take legal action against the magazine and over the weekend its publisher issued an apology. "This tasteless and misleading article should never have appeared. It in no way meets the standards of journalism that we - and our readers - expect," said Bianca Pohlmann, managing director of Funke media group. "As a result of the publication of this article, immediate personnel consequences will be drawn. "Die Aktuelle editor-in-chief Anne Hoffmann, who has held journalistic responsibility for the paper since 2009, will be relieved of her duties as of today." Following his skiing accident, Schumacher was placed into an induced coma and was brought home in September 2014, with his medical condition since kept private by his family. Schumacher, 54, won two of his F1 world drivers' titles with Benetton in 1994 and 1995, while he claimed five in a row for Ferrari from 2000 to 2004. His seven F1 titles is a record shared jointly with Lewis Hamilton, while Schumacher achieved 91 race wins over his career, a record Hamilton surpassed in 2020. The German originally retired from racing in 2006 but returned in 2010 before again retiring two years later. Schumacher's son Mick used to drive for Haas in F1 and is currently a reserve driver for Mercedes. In a 2021 Netflix documentary, Schumacher's wife Corinna said: "We live together at home. We do therapy. We do everything we can to make Michael better and to make sure he's comfortable, and to simply make him feel our family, our bond. "We're trying to carry on as a family, the way Michael liked it and still does. And we are getting on with our lives. "'Private is private', as he always said. It's very important to me that he can continue to enjoy his private life as much as possible. Michael always protected us, and now we are protecting Michael." [https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/65361193]

Diane Abbott has been suspended as a Labour MP pending an investigation into a letter she wrote about racism to the Observer, the party has said. The politician said "many types of white people with points of difference" can experience prejudice, in a letter published on Sunday. But they are not subject to racism "all their lives", she said. She later tweeted to say she was withdrawing her remarks and apologised "for any anguish caused". Labour said the comments were "deeply offensive and wrong". Suspending the whip means Ms Abbott will not be allowed to represent Labour in the House of Commons, where she will now sit as an independent MP. The BBC has approached Ms Abbott for comment. In the letter, she wrote that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people "undoubtedly experience prejudice", which she said is "similar to racism". She continued: "It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice. "But they are not all their lives subject to racism. "In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus. "In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote. "And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships." She had been responding to a comment piece in the Guardian questioning the view that racism "only affects people of colour". Ms Abbott's letter prompted a backlash, including from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which described it as "disgraceful" and her apology "entirely unconvincing". The group had urged Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to remove the whip. In her apology, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington said "errors" arose in an initial draft that was sent. She continued: "But there is no excuse, and I wish to apologise for any anguish caused. "Racism takes many forms, and it is completely undeniable that Jewish people have suffered its monstrous effects, as have Irish people, Travellers and many others." Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who is Jewish, called the letter "deeply offensive and deeply distressing". She backed the suspension of the whip, tweeting: "No excuses. No delays. "The comments will be investigated and she has been immediately suspended." The Jewish Labour Movement - an organisation of Labour-supporting Jewish members - said it "regretfully" supported the party's decision. It tweeted: "Diane Abbott is one of the most respected people in the Labour Party as an activist who overcame racism and prejudice to become Britain's first black woman MP. "We should be unified in our struggle against racism, not divided against one another. "A hierarchy of racism only divides communities and assists the racists." The recent history of the Labour Party means that any comment which seems to downplay the experiences of Jewish people is toxic, especially when it comes from a prominent figure associated with the Jeremy Corbyn era. Under his leadership, concerns that antisemitism was on the rise culminated in the party being investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and being found to have acted unlawfully. Mr Corbyn is still suspended from the parliamentary party after comments he made that suggested the scale of the problem had been overstated. Ms Abbott served as shadow home secretary in Mr Corbyn's cabinet between 2016 to 2020. The Jewish Voice for Labour group, which has consistently supported Mr Corbyn, said Ms Abbott's letter should have been "drafted with more care", but added it was "no ground for suspension from the Labour Party". It added that Ms Abbott's suspension "is yet a further attack on our freedom to debate very important issues in the Labour party. Her original letter was not antisemitic and the way some critics have rounded on her as if it were is cynical and unhelpful". A spokesperson for Friends, Families and Travellers said: "Diane Abbott's letter accurately demonstrates the constant erasure of Irish Traveller, Romany Gypsy and Roma people's daily experiences of racism and discrimination. "The letter is utterly inexcusable, and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms. "We welcome the Labour Party's swift response and call on all parties and government to review their anti-racism strategies, to ensure everyone can live free from racist hate." A Labour Party spokesman said: "The Labour Party completely condemns these comments, which are deeply offensive and wrong. "The chief whip has suspended the Labour whip from Diane Abbott pending an investigation." The party declined to comment on when an investigation would begin, or who would lead it. Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan called the comments "simply unacceptable" during St George's day celebrations at Trafalgar Square in London. He said: "There is no place in our society, let alone the Labour Party, for anybody with these comments - Labour Party, Keir Starmer has done the right thing by suspending Diane Abbott. "It's really important that everyone understands that there is no hierarchy when it comes to racism. Racism is racism - whether it's against Jewish people, travellers or anybody else". Sir Keir promised tough action to "root out" antisemitism when he became leader in 2020. It took years before the EHRC said in February that it was now satisfied with Labour's action on the issue. [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-65365978]

The dilemma I am a 44-year-old single woman, working in a pensionable job that I would rather not work in. I own my own home outright. In the past I did have issues with substance misuse, but I got help to overcome that and have been clean and sober for more than four years. But my history of addiction is part of my private identity – meaning few know about it. Since becoming sober I’ve let go of any friends I knew back then for various reasons. I don’t have the patience or trust to get too close to anyone. I find relationships hard work. I’ve now been single for more than two years. The longest relationship I’ve had only lasted a year before the roof came off and the man left as quickly as he got here. One ex-partner stays in contact. I resent him for leaving, especially as I wanted to have children. Being childless is a huge soul hurt. It feels as if I sabotage my own life. I can’t relax, give in and let people in. I don’t like myself or my body. I never thought I’d end up single, alone, no close friends and no family of my own, bar ageing parents. I don’t know how to get over this or to pull myself together and build an alternative life that brings me fulfilment and meaning. Philippa’s answer I feel a bit scared of you, because I sense anger when I read your email. I wonder if I’d be scared of you in real life, too? I wonder if your impatience leaks out and does a good job of keeping people on guard? Often when we have a default mood like anger, it is doing the job of keeping another mood repressed. If this is you, I wonder what the hidden emotion is. Sadness? Fear? It is hard to change a mindset, but it is possible. When I’m over-generalising, I categorise people into two mindsets: rigid and flexible. Flexible is when you are more likely to respond to people and events in the present with the evidence in front of you. Rigid is where you only see the present through the lens of the past. If you are rigid, it’s because something big happened to you – or possibly to your parents – that caused them or you to make up a rule that has been set in stone to help them or you survive the big thing that happened in the past. The rules may be something like: keep yourself to yourself; no one can be trusted; relationships are too hard; everything bad that happens to me is someone else’s fault. Such a rule or rules might be true at times or may have even saved you once, but they will not hold true for every situation in your life and if you cling to them, you will narrow down the opportunities you do have for a good life. If you are rigid, you don’t have to become more flexible all at once, you can do a tiny bit at a time. You could write a few words in the middle of a piece of paper that represent your comfort zone, then draw a line around that. Then pencil another circle leaving space to draw or write things that would represent the smallest step away from your comfort zone. Then, in your daily life, practise doing things, thinking things, challenging yourself to go over that line. When that becomes comfortable you can rub out that first circle you drew to enlarge the comfort zone, draw a bigger circle around the enlarged comfort zone, and keep going. Reading your email, I’d guess that the things outside your comfort zone that you could work to include may be: being kinder in how you think about yourself and your body; giving others the benefit of the doubt a bit more; daring to unpack what you are angry about; looking at the feelings of vulnerability beneath your anger; finding strength in your vulnerability; staying with your feelings of wanting to hide away and becoming more comfortable with them rather than acting on them. You are going to be good at this because you’ve done it before – you got sober. That meant practising with a new way of life. You can do it again, only this time you are practising letting go of the rules that are holding you back. You have recognised that you are sabotaging yourself, this is excellent, because unless you have that awareness, unless you know what you are doing, you would not know what to change. You want a child. This suggests to me that you do have love to give. First, practise giving love and encouragement to yourself, dare to give yourself hope that you can become more flexible, less rigid and let people in. You need people. I’m not saying let in a whole football team, but try Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous, maybe online at first, and see if you can make a friend there by daring to share, like you shared with me. [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/apr/23/ask-philippa-perry-i-find-relationships-really-hard-how-can-i-let-people-in]

Video title: Funny Fails? Fails of the Week 😂 Funny Videos #484 Content creator ( Youtuber ) : Jin Funny Official YT video:

Droughts in continental Europe are a possible cause for sightings of a Mediterranean bird in Britain and Ireland, say ornithologists. Black-crowned night herons have been spotted on Scotland's remote St Kilda archipelago, as well as County Wexford in Ireland and Dorset in England. The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) said the numbers were potentially unprecedented but not unexpected. It said warmer climate species have been appearing for a number of years. A BTO spokesman said climate change had created a "push and pull situation". Hotter conditions have made it tougher for some species in their native territories, while warmer weather in the UK and Ireland has made it easier for the birds to establish themselves there. BTO said some Mediterranean birds, such as little egret, were now breeding in parts of the UK. The Scottish Ornithologists' Club has said there could be a total of eight black-crowned herons in Scotland. It said the highest previous number was 12 in 1987. The birds are native to temperate and tropical regions of the world. In Europe, they are found in Mediterranean areas but also Germany, Poland and Czech Republic. BirdGuides said severe drought conditions in Spain and southern France could be possibly behind the recent influx. It has received reports of the herons from Scotland, England and Ireland, including seven at Drinagh in County Wexford and two at Iford in Dorset. Wildlife rangers have been among those to spot the birds in St Kilda. Three adults and a juvenile have been seen so far on the main island of Hirta. [https://news.yahoo.com/black-crowned-night-herons-spotted-133606621.html]

Barry Humphries, the Australian comedian and actor best known for his creations Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, has died aged 89. In a seven-decade career spanning theatre, television, books and film, Humphries was famed for his absurdist, discomfiting and transgressive humour, poking fun at Australian culture with his cast of personas, some of which would rank among the best-loved comedic creations of all time: Dame Edna Everage, the gaudy, waspish housewife from Moonee Ponds; Sir Les Patterson, the vulgar and boozy Australian cultural attaché; the fundamentally decent and senile Sandy Stone; and archetypal Aussie bloke Barry McKenzie. Everage, in particular, took on a life of her own, landing several talkshows, an appearance on Saturday Night Live and a recurring role on the 1990s drama Ally McBeal. Humphries described Everage and Patterson in particular as “wonderful outlets. I’m very careful myself about what I might say. Edna and Sir Les, on the other hand, can point to the nudity of the emperor.” A statement from his family read: “He was completely himself until the very end, never losing his brilliant mind, his unique wit and generosity of spirit. “With over 70 years on the stage, he was an entertainer to his core, touring up until the last year of his life and planning more shows that will sadly never be. His audiences were precious to him, and he never took them for granted. Although he may be best remembered for his work in theatre, he was a painter, author, poet, and a collector and lover of art in all its forms. “He was also a loving and devoted husband, father, grandfather, and a friend and confidant to many. His passing leaves a void in so many lives. The characters he created, which brought laughter to millions, will live on.” Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said: “For 89 years, Barry Humphries entertained us through a galaxy of personas, from Dame Edna to Sandy Stone. But the brightest star in that galaxy was always Barry. A great wit, satirist, writer and an absolute one-of-kind, he was both gifted and a gift. May he rest in peace.” Born John Barry Humphries in Kew, Melbourne, in 1934, as a child he loved dress-ups and acting. The eldest child of working-class parents, his “boring” childhood in the leafy suburb of Camberwell was spent “disguising myself as different characters”. “I also found that entertaining people gave me a great feeling of release,” he wrote, “making people laugh was a very good way of befriending them. People couldn’t hit you if they were laughing.” As a teenager he became a lover of literature, theatre and art, all feeding into his first sustained character, Dr Aaron Azimuth, a cloaked dandy and dadaist. He attended Melbourne University but never graduated, leaving to make his theatrical debut at Melbourne’s Union theatre in 1953. Humphries’ lifelong fascination with dadaism manifested early on in a series of unsettling performances amid ordinary life that would become legendary: one involved Humphries, disguised as a Frenchman, boarding a Melbourne tram to beat an accomplice who was pretending to be blind, to the horror and disgust of passengers; on aeroplanes he would empty a tin of Heinz Russian salad into a sick bag, before pretending to vomit and eat it. In another, he would hide a serving of roast beef and a glass of champagne in a bin; then, dressed as a tramp, he would rummage through the rubbish and sit down to his meal in front of perplexed onlookers. “I was trying to bring theatre into real life,” he said. In 1955, while on a tour bus driving around rural Victoria in the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Twelfth Night, he began to develop a character that would dominate his whole career: Edna Everage. With her lavender bouffant and winged glasses, the sharp-tongued housewife was a parody of the priggish streak Humphries saw in his parents’ generation, particularly his mother. “I recognised the intrinsic bittersweet comedy of suburban life,” he later wrote. [https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/apr/22/barry-humphries-dies-australian-comedian-death-dead-dame-edna-everage-sir-les-patterson]

You’ll regret it if you don’t You’ll be lonely. Nobody will look after you when you get old. You’ll miss out on life’s greatest joy. You won’t ever be truly fulfilled. Your life will be meaningless and shallow. Everyone will pity you. If you choose not to have children then you’ll end up regretting it forever. Pretty much every woman who has ever been on the fence about having kids has heard variations of the above. Either from other people or from a little voice inside their own head. There is, to state the bleeding obvious, an intense societal pressure for women to become mothers. But do people actually regret not having children? New research suggests they don’t. Last summer researchers from Michigan State University found that one in five adults in the state, or about 1.7 million people, didn’t want to have children. This was followed up with another study, published earlier this month, which looked more deeply at people who are childfree by choice. Turns out they’re all pretty happy with their decisions. “[W]e found no evidence that older child-free adults experience any more life regret than older parents,” Jennifer Watling Neal, the co-author of the study, said in a statement. “In fact, older parents were slightly more likely to want to change something about their life.” This isn’t the first study to suggest that it’s the people who have kids who might be the ones who end up regretting their life choices. YouGov data from 2021 found that one in 12 British parents (8%) say they currently regret having kids. Younger parents aged 25 to 34 (one imagines the most sleep-deprived group) were the most likely to feel regretful, while those aged 55+ were the least regretful. Similarly, a 2013 Gallup survey found that around 7% of American parents older than 45 wouldn’t have any kids if they “had to do it over again”. And parents seem remarkably unhappy in Germany: a 2016 YouGov study found 19% of German mothers and 20% of fathers say that if they could decide again, they would not want to have any more children. Saying that you regret having kids is still massively taboo but, in recent years, it has become a more prominent topic of conversation and the subject of regular newspaper features. There’s a Facebook group called “I Regret Having Children” which has 59,000 followers and an increasing amount of scholarship on the subject. In 2015 Israeli sociologist Orna Donath caused a number of headlines with a book called Regretting Motherhood: A Study, based on interviews with 23 women. You’ll notice that a lot of the coverage on parental regret is really about maternal regret. That’s largely because men are not deemed quite as freakish if they don’t want kids. And it’s also, of course, because much of parenting still falls to women in heterosexual relationships – parenting is a hell of a lot easier when you’re not doing the bulk of it. Which goes to the heart of the issue: parental regret, for the most part, isn’t caused by people spawning little monsters and hating their kids, it’s caused by social structures which make raising children difficult and eye-wateringly expensive. It’s a cliche but it’s true: it takes a village to raise a kid. But instead of villages most of us have nuclear families and childcare which costs as much as a mortgage. Ultimately the takeaway from all this isn’t that having kids is good or bad–it’s that there is no one way to live a happy and fulfilled life. Parenthood isn’t for everyone and it should always be a choice. And yet Republicans across the US are doing everything they can to take that choice away. Syphilis rates are exploding among women In 2014, more than 90% of US cases were diagnosed in men; by 2021, women accounted for about a quarter of new syphilis cases. “The reasons for syphilis’s rising rates in women are complex,” Keren Landman writes in Vox. However, a drop in funding for safety-net sexual health services and sexual health education play a role. As does declining access to maternal health care, an important tool in catching and treating infections. By some accounts, nearly 7 million women of childbearing age in the US have low or no access to maternity care. New study suggests Black women should be screened earlier for breast cancer Black women have a 4% lower incidence rate of breast cancer than White women, but a 40% higher breast cancer death rate. South Korea is testing out an AI-based gender detector Last year a man murdered a female colleague he’d been stalking for years. The day before he was due to be sentenced for stalking and threatening the 28-year-old he snuck into the women’s bathroom at Seoul’s Sindang metro station and stabbed her. The horrifying murder triggered accusations that South Korean authorities were failing to take violence against women seriously. In response the Seoul Metro has now decided to pilot an AI-based gender detector to spot men entering or leaving women’s bathrooms. The system is reportedly able to “distinguish gender based on body shape, clothing, belongings and behavioral patterns”. There are so many problems with this idea I don’t even know where to start. Suffice it to say AI isn’t going to solve gender-based violence, it’s going to take social change. ‘Patriarchy has no gender’: film-maker Nina Menkes dissects the male gaze Menkes’s new documentary looks at how “films that many people consider to be their favourites reinforce a way of seeing women that’s detrimental to our lives”. The week in pawtriarchy A cat-killing competition for kids has been cancelled in New Zealand, following a large backlash. Yep, you read that right. New Zealand, which I once thought of as a sane and gentle place, was trying to get kids to compete to kill cats. Only feral cats, mind you: the North Canterbury Hunting Competition, which raises money for a local school and pond, said that anyone who killed a pet cat would be expelled. Feral cats pose a problem to biodiversity and native wildlife in New Zealand but turning kids into killers seems like a very strange way to deal with the problem. Though there is precedent: last year 40 New Zealand schoolchildren took part in a rat-catching competition and one five-year-old managed to catch and kill 60 rats over the course of the three months. Do not mess with a child from New Zealand! [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/22/adult-happiness-kids-children-childfree]

Like thousands of other 18-year-olds across England, Isobel Calnan-Faint is able to cast her vote for the first time on 4 May. Despite having strong concerns for the area in which she lives and her own future, she feels disengaged from politics. She is not alone. "I've not been brought up with politics ever; it is not something people in my house talk about," says Isobel. The 18-year-old has already ruled out voting next month. Isobel, who is studying travel and tourism, was one of a number of students at Stansted Airport College in Essex who shared their views ahead of the local elections. Asked how those seeking election might reach her, Isobel, who lives across the border in Hertfordshire, says there is only really one way - they have to reach her through her social media feeds. "Maybe they need more coverage on social media because that is the main thing I do and use in my free time. I don't think I have ever seen anything about it [the elections]. "They would need to be on Instagram, TikTok, SnapChat, those sort of things." And yet one of Isobel's key concerns - the prospect of home ownership - is an area closely tied up with local councils in their role as planning authorities. "Ideally I would have liked to move out when I am about 20," she says. "That is not going to happen. "Perhaps in 10 years, but I think it will have to be with somebody else, using two incomes. "I will vote in the future when I know more about it." Jordan Cumberbatch, 18, is studying aviation operations and wants to be a pilot. Like Isobel, he feels disconnected from politics. "People my age are not really too interested in politics and we don't really focus on it," he says. "We rely on social media for information. "I will vote, but at the moment I am not sure who I will be voting for. "I don't think there is anything specific that I would want them to say; it is more about whether they will fulfil what they say they will do." He is, however, certain about the major issue facing people at large - the cost of living. "It is not the best at the moment," he says. "I am hoping to get a place of my own sometime next year, but I don't think it is that easy at the moment." Sean Foster, 19, is studying aeronautical engineering and says he is currently a floating voter. "I will be doing my best to look at what the different candidates offer and what appeals to me most," he says. "I don't think I hear much from the local authority - maybe they could find different ways to communicate with the younger generation." Key issues for Sean include the price and availability of housing and the environment. "I want to make sure that everybody is OK and has money they can spend and a place to live," he says. "I know housing is very expensive at the moment and things are not easy for first-time buyers, so getting those prices down would be a good thing. "I want politicians to do whatever they can to make it easier for first-time buyers to get on to the property ladder and into the housing market. "More support is always good. "For the foreseeable future I will be staying at home." He says is also interested in other areas of politics. "The environment is important to me - it is the place in which we live and it is our responsibility to protect it for future generations," he says. "I know there are lot of initiatives in place to make the aviation industry more environmentally-friendly." Ross Waddingham, 18, lives in the the Bishop's Stortford area near Stanstead and wants to be aeronautical engineer. "I don't really know much about politics - they don't make it easy for younger people to understand," he says. "It all just goes over my head. "I think they [politicians] only care about the older audience. "If I don't know what I am doing, then I won't vote; if I see something that is worth my time, then I will vote for it." A keen car owner, his chief concern is potholes which, he says, are a major issue where he lives. "Roads are a nightmare," he says. "All they do it put a highlight around the hole - it doesn't actually get fixed for a long time until multiple people report it." Would a firm stance tackling road defects earn Ross's vote? "Funnily enough it would - I just don't want to pay for new tyres really," he says. Bella Farey, who is studying aviation operations, is not happy. Poised to turn 18 in June, she has missed out on voting this year by a matter of weeks. "I am disappointed that I am missing out. I feel like there's a lot of change that needs to happen, especially around where I live," she says. "It would be nice to have more things for younger people to do where I live so that their behaviour has an outlet. "There's a real issue with housing - I think the prices are astronomical for young people and they don't seem to be coming down any time soon. "I think the voting age should be lowered - it strikes me as weird that you can drive a car at 17, but not vote for things that affect your country." She is adamant she will be voting at the first opportunity after she turns 18 in 2024. [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-65310441]

The GMC Hummer EV pickup truck will no longer be available only as the fully loaded Edition 1, which continues into the 2023 model year. That's because it's now joined by the lower EV3X trim level, which brings with it a higher manufacturer-estimated driving range of 355 miles (26 more than the Edition 1). XXX Hummer EVs The new Hummer EV3X pickup features the same three-motor electric powertrain as the Edition 1. However, the XXX comes standard with 22-inch wheels mounted on 35-inch all-terrain tires. It's also available with the Extreme Off-Road package that includes 18-inch wheels on 35-inch mud-terrain tires as well as extra skid plates and other off-road-oriented add-ons. Equipped with the Extreme Off-Road package, the Hummer EV3X's estimated range drops to 329 miles per charge—same as the Edition 1, which features similar equipment. Both of those beefed-up versions are rated to tow 7500 pounds, whereas the standard EV3X has an 8500-pound max towing capacity. The EV3X is also part of the 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV lineup. It's essentially the same deal as with the pickup truck, except the electric SUV's tri-motor setup isn't as powerful, and it has EPA-estimated ranges that are lower. Riding on the standard 22-inch wheel-and-tire combo, the Edition 1 and EV3X are expected to provide 314 miles per charge. Opting for the Extreme Off-Road package shaves 16 miles off of that estimate, dropping its range to 298 miles. [https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a43668745/2023-gmc-hummer-ev-estimated-range-355-miles/]

Nick Movie: White Men Can’t Jump Time: 21/04/2023 Netflix / Amazon / HBO?: Netfli : HULU Duration of the movie: - Trailer:

Artist: Bob Dylan Real Name: Bob Dylan Birth Date /Place: Robert Allen Zimmerman in 1941, Duluth Minnesota. Age: 72 Social status (Single / Married): Single Artist Picture: Musical Genres: songriter / musician Awards: -nobel prise Top 3 Songs (Names): - Other Information: ob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in 1941, Duluth Minnesota. He came from a close-knit Jewish family who had emigrated from Ukraine at the turn of the century. Always interested in music from an early age, Bob Dylan initially explored po[CENSORED]r rock n roll in the late 1950s. However, he also became interested in American folk music. He fused elements of both but developed a distinctive style favouring downbeat, reflective pieces which engaged with serious themes. He was particularly inspired by the music of folk legend Woody Guthrie. Although though highly regarded as a musical performer on vocals, guitar and harmonica, it is as a songwriter that Bob Dylan became best known. To Bob Dylan music was more than just entertainment it was about life; music could also be a vehicle for expressing social protest.

Live Performance Title: JULIANA - Omwana LIVE Performance Signer Name: Juliana Live Performance Location: / Official YouTube Link:

Music Title: Klep - Judas Kiss (Official Video) Signer: Klep Release Date: 22/04/2023 Official Youtube Link: :

Dominic Raab has resigned as deputy prime minister after a bullying inquiry found he acted in an "intimidating" and "aggressive" way towards officials. The inquiry, by a senior lawyer, was set up by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after eight formal complaints about Mr Raab's behaviour as a minister. The lawyer made multiple findings that fit a description of bullying in a report submitted to Mr Sunak. Mr Raab said the inquiry was "flawed and sets a dangerous precedent". The senior Conservative MP said he would quit the government if the inquiry by senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC made any finding of bullying against him whatsoever. The bullying complaints, which involved 24 people, relate to Mr Raab's previous periods as justice secretary and foreign secretary under Boris Johnson, and his time as Brexit secretary under Theresa May. Mr Tolley's report concluded Mr Raab had engaged in an "abuse or misuse of power" when foreign secretary, and "acted in a manner which was intimidating" towards officials at the Ministry of Justice. In a resignation letter to Mr Sunak, Mr Raab said the inquiry "dismissed all but two of the claims levelled against me". He said he feared the inquiry would "encourage spurious complaints against ministers, and have a chilling effect on those driving change on behalf of your government - and ultimately the British people". In a letter to Mr Raab, Mr Sunak said his former deputy had kept his word after "rightly" undertaking to resign if the report made any finding of bullying whatsoever. But the prime minister said he thought there had been "shortcomings" in the process and had asked civil servants to look at how complaints are handled. The prime minister's spokesperson said Mr Sunak did not regret appointing Mr Raab to be his deputy. The resignation of Mr Raab - one of Mr Sunak's key supporters during the Conservative leadership contest last year - triggered a mini-reshuffle of Mr Sunak's top team. Mr Sunak has promoted two of his closest allies - Oliver Dowden as deputy prime minister, and Alex Chalk justice secretary - to fill the posts left vacant by Mr Raab. Mr Raab's political fate had been hanging in the balance for about 24 hours after the prime minister received the report from Mr Tolley on Thursday morning. Mr Raab's resignation is the third departure of a cabinet minister since Mr Sunak became prime minister. A Downing Street source said Mr Sunak did not urge Mr Raab to resign. Labour has accused Mr Sunak of being weak for failing to sack Mr Raab. "We've had 13 years of Tory PMs trying to dodge the rules and defend their mates," a Labour source said. "Enough is enough." The Liberal Democrats said Mr Raab's resignation should trigger a by-election for his Esher and Walton seat, in Surrey, calling him "unfit to represent his constituents in Parliament". Tolley's findings In his conclusions, Mr Tolley said he found a description of bullying had been met, when Mr Raab was foreign secretary and justice secretary. The High Court in 2021 defined bullying, and confirmed that harassment, bullying and discrimination was not consistent with the Ministerial Code and was not to be tolerated, as Mr Tolley points out in his report. Mr Tolley said Mr Raab had "acted in a way which was intimidating, in the sense of unreasonably and persistently aggressive conduct in the context of a work meeting", and that his behaviour involved "an abuse or misuse of power in a way that undermines or humiliates". Mr Tolley also said, at meetings with policy officials, Mr Raab "acted in a manner which was intimidating, in the sense of going further than was necessary or appropriate in delivering critical feedback". Mr Raab was "also insulting, in the sense of making unconstructive critical comments about the quality of work done (whether or not as a matter of substance any criticism was justified)", Mr Tolley said. He said Mr Raab "did not intend by the conduct described to upset or humiliate", nor did he "target anyone for a specific type of treatment". Coming out fighting Mr Raab pulled no punches in his resignation letter. He made that clear that, while he accepted the outcome of the inquiry, he did not agree with the findings against him. He said ministers "must be able to give direct critical feedback on briefings and submissions to senior officials, in order to set the standards and drive the reform the public expect of us". While he apologised for any "unintended" stress caused, he attributed this to the "pace, standards and challenge" he brought to the Ministry of Justice. "In setting the threshold for bullying so low, this inquiry has set a dangerous precedent," Mr Raab wrote. His main argument appears to be that ministers need to be able to give direct critical feedback, and exercise direct oversight, over their civil servant officials. One question now is whether he decides to take any further action. He has punchily accused some civil servants of "systematic leaking of skewed and fabricated claims" and claimed a senior official initiated a "coercive removal" of some of his private secretaries last year. Someone who advised Mr Raab in a senior role in one department told the BBC his resignation letter contained "one of the best examples of a 'non-apology' from a minister in recent years". The person said Mr Raab's version of being the deputy prime minister "is one that should be learnt from and ultimately consigned to the history books". A senior Tory MP and former Cabinet minister said: "Has Dominic Raab been hard done by? Certainly. Is he the victim of a civil service union ambush? Probably." The FDA, a union that represents civil servants, has called for an independent inquiry in to ministerial bullying following the Raab investigation. FDA General Secretary Dave Penman said Mr Raab's resignation was a "damning indictment" of the process for enforcing ministerial standards within government. [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-65333983]