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Conor Gallagher celebrates after his double earned Chelsea victory over his former loan club, Crystal Palace. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian This must have felt like a punch in the guts for Roy Hodgson. In his 200th match in charge, Crystal Palace succumbed to a 13th successive Premier League defeat by Chelsea after two goals from Conor Gallagher sealed a dramatic late comeback for Mauricio Pochettino’s side. It was the cruellest blow for a manager who has already suffered so much this season as his team have struggled with injuries and a poor run of form that now stretches to two wins in their last 14 matches. But while things will not get any easier for Hodgson as his under-pressure team prepare for a trip to Everton, a club they have not beaten in their last seven attempts and currently occupy the final relegation spot, it was a different story for Pochettino’s team as they wrapped up the points in stoppage time with a third from Enzo Fernández. That capped an unbelievable turnaround after a first half that saw Chelsea plumb new depths having failed to muster a single shot on target despite dominating the ball and conceding the opening goal to a thunderbolt from Jefferson Lerma. At least they can always rely on Gallagher – who scored eight times while on loan at Palace and now has four in six appearances against them. Hodgson had described Palace’s current predicament as “the toughest period of my career for one reason, and that is that the fans have turned so much against us”. So a series of banners being held by home supporters as the teams kicked off, one of which took aim at “weak club culture and direction”, was not exactly what he needed. The major criticism of the 76-year-old has been his unwillingness to give Palace’s young players an opportunity but on this occasion, Matheus França and Adam Wharton epitomised their fighting spirit on their full debuts that got the crowd on their side. Pochettino opted to start Cole Palmer as a false 9 with Nicolas Jackson operating down the left flank, while Gallagher was back at the ground where he enjoyed such success on loan two seasons ago. Not that it seemed to make much difference to Chelsea’s spluttering attack as neither side looked capable of raising the temperature on a chilly night in south London. Thirteen of Palace’s 26 league goals this season have been scored or created by the injured Eberechi Eze or Michael Olise but Wharton showed his ability on his first full start since joining from Blackburn with a raking ball that almost played in ­Jean-Philippe Mateta. The French forward should have done better when he robbed the ball off Axel Disasi from a Chelsea throw-in but could only direct his shot straight at Djordje Petrovic. Conor Gallagher’s stoppage-time strike gives Chelsea the lead. Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Action Images/Reuters If ever a game needed a lift then this was it and Lerma duly obliged. Tyrick Mitchell’s resilience made it all possible after a brilliant double tackle on Noni Madueke and Moisés Caicedo, although Chelsea were aggrieved that Lerma had fouled the Ecuador midfielder before hammering the ball into the net from 25 yards out. Selhurst Park erupted in a rare moment of celebration against their London rivals after a losing run that stretches back to a 2-1 win here in October 2017 courtesy of a winning goal from Wilfried Zaha. He is long gone these days of course but despite their patched-up side, it was Palace who continued to pose more of a threat as a nonplussed Pochettino watched his side create nothing. Almost 80% of possession had yielded precisely one shot – skewed wide by Gallagher – by half-time. It could have been worse for Chelsea had the referee, Michael Oliver, ruled against Thiago Silva after he appeared to shove Daniel Muñoz over inside the area. Both sets of fans joined in with a rendition of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds during a delay to the start of the second half due to technical issues for Oliver. It seemed to spark Chelsea’s players into life as within 90 seconds, Gallagher had slammed home Malo Gusto’s cross to equalise and suddenly everything was all right again. Sort of. With the half-time substitute Christopher Nkunku to the fore, Chelsea showed renewed attacking purpose as Palmer dragged his effort wide from another Gusto cross. Mateta saw his effort from a França through ball blocked by Silva following a late lunge from the veteran Brazilian that signalled the end of his night’s work. Petrovic had to be alert to tip França’s shot from outside the area around his post, while Palmer could not beat Dean Henderson from a tight angle after an excellent interchange with Gusto. Mateta was denied a penalty late on after going down under a challenge from Levi Colwill before Gallagher struck with his hammer blow from Palmer’s pass in the first minute of stoppage time and Fernández sent Chelsea’s jubilant fans celebrating into the night. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/feb/12/crystal-palace-chelsea-premier-league-match-report

The comment I get most is: “It’s like having a cup of tea with a friend”’ … Jackson. Photograph: Anna Jackson A new start after 60 Life and style A new start after 60: I turned my homely lifestyle into a global phenomenon Kate Jackson’s cosy, creative existence in rural Northumberland has spawned a YouTube channel, two websites, an online shop – and financial independence One sunny day in 2017, Kate Jackson, then 61, took a wooden wool-spinning wheel into her garden. She propped her iPad against a brick, pressed record and started talking as she spun – about crafts, the countryside, her menagerie of animals (cats, chickens, bees and Eileen the goose). Jackson enjoyed watching videos about gardening and quilting on YouTube, so one day she thought: how hard can it be? “I made a resolve to upload once a week.” She called her channel The Last Homely House, “which is a place to feel comfortable, secure and welcomed. That’s what I wanted my channel to be.” It now has 123,000 subscribers. Last May, Jackson – who lives in rural Northumberland – set up a sister channel, called The Last Homely Garden. She has an online shop, nearly 40,000 Instagram followers, and even a fan-run Facebook group. She has become the linchpin of a thriving online community. Thirteen years ago, after an unexpected divorce and with her three children adults, Jackson found herself living alone. “It was not a future I’d planned,” she says. “I found it hard to reimagine myself.” She left her career as a midwife to focus on selling homemade crafts and teaching workshops, “but I was struggling financially”. Around this period, her best friend was diagnosed with, and then died from, motor neurone disease. “It was a dark time,” she says. Jackson escaped to New Zealand, where she travelled the country by bus. “I came back healed,” she says; ready to embrace a solo life and find peace in her home. By the time her village had decent broadband installed in 2017, she was ready to share her little world of artisan pastimes online. In Jackson’s videos, she chats while cooking, sewing, sorting fabrics. Sometimes, she will film a tutorial – but it’s always relaxed. Recently, she has been teaching her daughter-in-law, Anna, how to make a quilt. Jackson eschews polish; she doesn’t like scripting videos and never wears makeup. During one cooking video, she dropped the recipe for the dish she was making in the pan, but kept the mishap in the edit. Her audience loved it, she says. “The comment I get most often is: ‘It’s like sitting having a cup of tea with a friend.’” Most of her viewers are older American women, who adore this glimpse into English country life. But it’s more than that. “My daughter Martha said: ‘You’re a woman who lives on her own, rurally, and you’re fine.’ Quite often, people are on their own through divorce or death, and it overwhelms them. Whereas I enjoy my solitude and love being able to make my own decisions. I’m showing people it’s all right.” Her fans collectively call themselves “The Lime Green Sofa”, a concept from lockdown where Jackson imagined her viewers cosied together on an infinite settee. American fans made sofa badges to identify one another at a craft festival. In the UK, Jackson has had people professing their fandom, even “bursting into tears and hugging me. It’s always really friendly and lovely. But a little bit weird.” Jackson at work. Photograph: Anna Jackson While she withholds her exact location, people have also managed to turn up on her doorstep. Online, there are “intrusive questions”. Jackson shares a lot. “But there has to be a point at which you say: ‘No, I’m not going to share this.’” Not least as it protects the privacy of her children and grandchildren. The Last Homely House has become a family endeavour in other ways, though. Her children and their partners are all creative and get involved by doing bits of work on the channel. They create illustrations, run the online shop, edit videos and photos, and sometimes appear on screen. “Seeing how invested they are in what I’m doing has been an absolute joy,” Jackson says. “It’s a collaboration between the people I love most in my life.” The channel’s success means Jackson is very busy, but she loves how she spends her time. This year will involve collaborations with YouTubers she once considered heroes, as well as visits to material factories. Success also brings security: “I’m financially independent in a way that never seemed possible when I was down, wondering when I’d sell my next quilt.” Sometimes she wishes she had started sooner. “But I had to have gone through all those difficult life stages,” she says. “I wouldn’t have appealed to the same people if I’d been younger. I’m doing the right thing, at the right time.” https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/feb/12/a-new-start-after-60-i-turned-my-homely-lifestyle-into-a-global-phenomenon

Ethnic Chinese candidates running for office aim to challenge stereotypes that linger from Soeharto era. Indonesia's election campaign season lasted for two months [Randy Mulyanto/Al Jazeera] Jakarta, Indonesia – Indonesia will see almost 10,000 people, including some from the country’s ethnic Chinese minority, competing in Wednesday’s general elections to become one of 580 lawmakers in the national parliament. According to Indonesia’s General Elections Commission (KPU), there are 9,917 candidates representing 18 political parties across 38 provinces. Among those running are Indonesians of Chinese descent, who accounted for about 2.8 million of Indonesia’s then-237 million people, in the 2010 national census. The more recent census in 2020 did not list its ethnicities. For Chinese Indonesians, democracy has afforded them political rights that were once restricted. During more than 30 years under the rule of Soeharto, who resigned following mass protests in 1998, Chinese Indonesians were not allowed to publicly celebrate the Lunar New Year and assimilation policies were introduced to make them more “Indonesian”, effectively turning them into second-class citizens. Many turned to business and the private sector to earn a living after they were limited from government positions. “Politics is not for everyone,” said Taufiq Tanasaldy, a senior lecturer in Indonesian and Asian studies at the University of Tasmania. “Particularly for the Chinese who had endured decades of discriminatory policies under the Soeharto regime.” Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese minority can now celebrate the Lunar New Year and are no longer a target of official assimilation policies [Randy Mulyanto/Al Jazeera] But Taufiq said interest had “grown post-Soeharto due to political reforms and policies aimed at eradicating discriminatory practices”, referring to equal opportunities for ethnic Chinese to run for office and vote for their preferred candidates. “The elections or appointments of several Chinese individuals to national and regional politics sparked this growing interest. The visibility of their initial ‘success’ has been important to the Chinese community,” he told Al Jazeera. Among the prominent Chinese who have gone into politics is former Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, po[CENSORED]rly known as Ahok. He was later jailed for blasphemy over comments made on the campaign trail and has adopted a lower profile since his release. “Representation has been steady, certainly not getting worse,” Taufiq said. But for many Chinese Indonesian voters, Taufiq said, “parties with nationalist platforms are more attractive compared to those championing sectarian values … particularly at the national level”. With more than 270 million people, Indonesia has almost 205 million eligible voters participating in the 2024 poll. The general elections are set to take place just four days after the Lunar New Year. February 14 is also Ash Wednesday, a holy day for Indonesians who are Catholic. Despite representation, the current system of proportional representation could disadvantage some candidates who now have to campaign directly for seats. R Siti Zuhro, a research professor of political science at Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), says the open-list made it “very difficult to compete” for some candidates compared with the previous system where votes went to the party rather than the individual candidates. “It is more dependent on the legislative candidate [to do the work] – either their effort or money – in carrying out tactical strategies, not the party,” she told Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera spoke to three Chinese Indonesians who are running for the national parliament. Fuidy Luckman, PKB Fuidy Luckman is a candidate for the Muslim-based National Awakening Party (PKB) which supports Anies Baswedan and Muhaimin Iskandar for president and vice president, as Muhaimin is its current chairperson. One of PKB’s founding figures was Indonesia’s late president Abdurrahman Wahid, po[CENSORED]rly known as Gus Dur, who lifted the ban on public Lunar New Year celebrations while in office in 2000. Fuidy Luckman in his office in North Jakarta. He says Chinese Indonesians should not be afraid to get involved in politics [Randy Mulyanto/Al Jazeera] Originally from Singkawang in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, 61-year-old Fuidy moved to Jakarta for university in 1983 and has lived there ever since. He campaigned in some of the poorest parts of the sprawling capital, meeting residents and also posting videos on TikTok and Instagram. Fuidy, who owns a company in the wood industry in Jakarta, urged Chinese Indonesians to come out and vote and take part in Indonesia’s “festival of democracy”. “We ethnic Chinese do not need to feel allergic to politics because we live in Indonesia,” he told Al Jazeera. “Do not ask to be recognised as Indonesians when we instead put aside the [democratic] processes.” If he gets elected, Fuidy wants to pursue programmes related to “justice” and “equality” – focusing on more affordable education and healthcare. Mery Sutedjo, Partai Buruh Mery Sutedjo joined Partai Buruh (Labour Party), whose founders include Indonesia’s various national trade union confederations. The party is headed by labour activist Said Iqbal and has not officially supported any presidential candidate. Mery, who runs a housing construction company, says she found Partai Buruh to be the right platform to push for better social welfare and law enforcement for the Indonesian working class, including blue-collar and white-collar workers. Born in Medan in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, the 54-year-old moved to Jakarta more than 30 years ago for university and is hoping to win one of the capital’s seats in the national parliament. As part of her campaign strategy, Mery hands out her business cards to people she meets and introduces herself. She has also asked for her family, friends and business contacts for their support. “I hope there’s an opportunity and possibility for people like me – for an ordinary female Chinese minority without political experience and background to run for office,” she told Al Jazeera. Mery Sutedjo is running for the Indonesian Labour Party [Handout/Mary Sutedjo] Redi Nusantara, Perindo A candidate with the Perindo Party, Redi Nusantara is running in Indonesia’s Central Java province. Perindo is backing the presidential pair of Ganjar Pranowo and Mahfud MD. It backed outgoing President Joko Widodo when the leader won his second term in 2019. The 55-year-old, who owns a factory making metal racks for cabling, wants to attract more foreign investments into Indonesia and develop a tax regime that encourages manufacturers to use domestic products rather than imported components that arrive in the country through special economic zones. Originally from the provincial capital Semarang, Redi is targeting the country’s ethnic Chinese and business communities, as well as first-time voters. He is also hoping to change the minds of those who might be planning to abstain from voting. Redi also appeared on video podcasts, talking about entrepreneurship. He encourages Chinese Indonesians – especially the younger generation – to enter national politics and “fix it from within”. “For all of us ethnic Chinese, especially young people, we must understand Indonesian politics,” Redi told Al Jazeera. “Because if we, the Chinese community, do not understand the parliament, we will always be the cash cow of the Indonesian economy,” he said, hoping increased political participation will help change the lingering stereotype that ethnic Chinese care only about doing business. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/13/fix-it-from-within-more-chinese-indonesians-chase-seats-in-parliament

Nick movie: TWISTERS Time: Universal Pictures Netflix / Amazon / HBO: N/A Duration of the movie: Trailer:

Music title: One Direction - Night Changes Signer: One Direction Release date: 2014/11/21 Official YouTube link:

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A Cadillac spokesperson confirmed to Car and Driver that the forthcoming electric Escalade will get a stretched version, which should be the biggest one yet. Cadillac confirmed to Car and Driver that it is planning an even longer version of the electric Escalade iQ called the iQL. The automaker wouldn't say when it will arrive, but we expect it to debut at some point this year. The Escalade iQ is already only three inches shorter than the gas-powered long-wheelbase Escalade ESV. The imposing electric Cadillac Escalade iQ is set to grow even larger. Today at the 2024 Chicago auto show, a Cadillac representative confirmed to Car and Driver that the luxury automaker will add a longer Escalade iQL model to the full-size luxury SUV's lineup. No timeline was provided, with Cadillac saying to keep our eyes out for more information soon. Longer Escalade EV Coming The long-wheelbase Escalade iQL should debut at some point this year, and sales may even kick off in 2024. However, we wouldn't expect the iQL to hit dealerships until after the standard Escalade iQ goes on sale sometime this summer. Visually, we don't expect many changes, as the iQL should follow a similar formula to the long-wheelbase gas-powered Escalade ESV. The standard Escalade iQ is already a behemoth, stretching 224.3 inches long with a 136.2-inch wheelbase. That's over a foot longer overall than a standard gas-guzzling Escalade, which has a 120.9-inch wheelbase and is just three inches shy of the Escalade ESV. The standard iQ's wheelbase is also about two inches longer than that of the ESV, so the Escalade iQL should be truly colossal when it hits the road. More information is expected to arrive later this year, so keep an eye on this space. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a46687553/cadillac-escalade-iql-ev-confirmed/

England’s Chloe Kelly was out for 11 months with an ACL injury sustained in 2021. Photograph: Carl Recine/Reuters As the po[CENSORED]rity of women’s football continues to grow, so does the incidence of serious knee injury. What is going on and can the risk be reduced? From the agonising scream of England international Jordan Nobbs, which echoed around Everton’s Southport home as she crumpled to the ground in 2018, to the news last month that Sam Kerr will be out for the remainder of the season after injuring herself during a Chelsea training camp in Morocco, knee injuries – specifically to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) – are dominating headlines in the world of women’s football. Women players are up to eight times more likely to be struck by an ACL injury than men – as many as 37 players are thought to have missed last year’s World Cup because of it. The now retired 2019 Ballon d’Or winner, Megan Rapinoe, suffered three ACL injuries during her career; former Chelsea player and England international Claire Rafferty has had two and there are many players currently out of action, including Gabby George and Aoife Mannion. England captain Leah Williamson, who only last month returned to playing, said: “It felt like somebody had sliced both sides of my knee and hit a hammer through the middle of it.” The increase in interest in women’s football has seen a rise in professionalism and also meant a rise in the demands put on players’ bodies. International players have not had a summer break since 2020. Since then, they have had the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Euros in 2022, and World Cup in 2023. Now, for some teams, there is the Paris Olympics this summer, the Euros in 2025 and then a break in 2026 before the 2027 World Cup. “Was it one game too many?” said England’s Beth Mead in the documentary Step by Step. “When I’ve looked into it, I’ve gone from 2,000-odd minutes to 4,000-odd minutes in a season. Which is a steep jump. We want the game to go to that level but it’s keeping our bodies up to that level to do that as well.” It’s like putting a pumpkin on a chopstick – if you wobble the pumpkin around, the chopstick is going to break The ACL connects the femur in the thigh to the tibia and is one of the ligaments that stabilises the knee joint. In sport, it is commonly torn in off-ball incidents, through twisting or landing on one leg. With a minimum recovery time of around nine months, and many players taking at least a year to return to the pitch, it is one of the worst injuries a player can suffer. “When you land on a single leg, you have one support mechanism,” says Gillian Weir, who is a senior biomechanist for the New York Yankees and carried out her PhD research on ACL injuries. “It’s like putting a pumpkin on a chopstick, if you wobble the pumpkin around, the chopstick is going to break. “A lot of research since 2005 has focused on how the trunk – the upper body – contributes,” says Weir. “There are fundamental studies in motor control that look at how we control reorientation/redirection of movement when we are just walking and avoiding an object or people, even when we’re just walking and stopping. When you’re walking down a corridor and someone’s coming towards you and you have to all of a sudden stop, or step out of the way, the way you control your trunk is very different from when you know you’re going to stop or move. The same thing happens on the field when team sport athletes are running at high speeds and responding to opposing players, their teammates and the ball.” Weir’s research was carried out in collaboration with the Australian women’s hockey team, who suffered four ACL injuries ahead of the Olympics in 2012, and looked to develop training intervention that was biomechanically informed. Agonising … Jordan Nobbs receives medical attention in 2021. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images “What I did is come up with every exercise in resistance and plyometric training, which involves short intensive bursts of activity, that targets the four key pillars of injury prevention. The first one was dynamic trunk control – essentially preventing someone from collapsing over their leg. The second was dynamic knee valgus – you see that when the knee kind of buckles in when you watch a replay of an ACL injury. The third was knee flexion – if you land with a straighter leg, it inherently puts the ACL on a higher stretch and so there’s more strain on the ACL and the less force you need to actually rupture it. And then the fourth looked at calf muscle strength, as there’s been research showing that if you have higher muscle forces in your calf muscles, that helps stabilise the knee joint, because you have muscle coming around one side, top support, and then you have your quads the other way.” Weir gave the exercises to former Australian hockey player and two-time Olympic gold medallist Kate Starre, who was, at the time, the Australian women’s hockey team’s high-performance manager. The players would do four 20-minute sessions a week. Before they began, they went to the University of Western Australia’s sports biomechanics lab to run tests on their movements during planned and unplanned sidestepping (the movement that athletes perform to quickly change direction in sport, a task that alongside single leg landing accounts for up to 60% of ACL injuries, but can be safely performed in a lab setting). One test involved a runway and, at a certain point, a screen would tell them to go right, left or straight ahead, in an attempt to mimic random in-game scenarios. That helped them identify players with poor trunk control or bad knee flexion and their sessions would be personalised to focus on those weaknesses. The results from the two-year injury prevention training programme were impressive. They saw a reduction in ACL and lower limb injuries. In fact, there were zero ACL injuries across the two years among the 26-player group. Female footballers wear boots that have followed a ‘pink it and shrink it’ process – boots designed for men’s feet that have just been made smaller There is no one reason players suffer ACL injuries. Biomechanical intervention can help reduce the risk of suffering an injury, but physiology and hormonal changes during menstruation have all been put forward as having the potential to increase the chance of injury. Football boots designed for men’s feet are an issue, too: most female footballers wear boots that have followed what has been dubbed a “pink it and shrink it” process – wearing boots designed for men’s feet that have just been made smaller – and are forced to add insoles or cut holes to widen them at the heel. ACL injuries are as much of an issue at a grassroots level, with quality of playing surfaces a particular problem. There is also the possibility of a psychological element, as highlighted by Mead: her ACL injury was suffered the weekend after she found out the health of her mother, June, who was battling terminal ovarian cancer, had deteriorated. “We think the psychological [aspect] was a big part for me. I had found out that my mum wasn’t doing very well,” she said in Step by Step. Her partner, Vivianne Miedema, also suffered an ACL injury the following month after finding out some more bad news about Mead’s mother. There isn’t necessarily a link, but if your mind is elsewhere, if you are not fully focused on your movements, then it is logical to draw the conclusion that your risk of injury could increase. Perhaps the most significant contribution to the spate of ACL injuries in recent years is the impact of increased professionalism and number of games players are being asked to play as a result. Male players play as many matches, if not more, but their bodies have been conditioned in elite environments with the best strength and conditioning coaching since they were, in some cases, five or six years old. By contrast, for the overwhelming majority of female players, being a professional athlete is a relatively new experience and their bodies have not been as well conditioned for its demands. As Williamson put it: “Ultimately, I think the way you’re taking women’s football right now, you won’t be able to increase the ticket prices or get bigger crowds in the stadiums, because you won’t have players to watch.” Uefa, European football’s governing body, has announced a new scheme to better understand ACL injuries; meanwhile the European Club Association has been researching the impact of female-specific football boots. But if these types of initiatives don’t also look at scheduling, squad sizes, mental health, the development of elite strength and conditioning facilities for clubs and academies, then sport will always be reactive to the problem rather than proactively tackling its causes to reduce injury risks. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/feb/10/it-felt-like-somebody-had-hit-a-hammer-through-my-knee-the-crisis-of-acl-injuries-in-womens-football

Giovanna Fletcher: ‘My guiltiest pleasure? Chips and curry sauce.’ Photograph: James Robinson/Camera Press The author and podcaster on young love, chips and curry sauce, and her husband’s selective hearing Born in Essex, Giovanna Fletcher, 39, studied at drama school. She made her fiction debut in 2013 with Billy and Me, writes young adult fiction with her husband, musician Tom Fletcher, and in 2017 published the nonfiction book Happy Mum, Happy Baby, which became an award-winning podcast. In 2020 she won I’m a Celebrity and her theatre credits include 2.22 A Ghost Story and Ivanov. She is starring in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at the Peacock theatre, London, until 23 March. She and Tom have three children and live in Hertfordshire. Which living person do you most admire and why? Judi Dench – not only is she super talented but she is also really humble. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? My need to be liked. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Self-importance. What was your most embarrassing moment? At the TV Baftas last year I was wearing these heels that had stiff bows on the front. One heel locked into the other bow and I went arse over tit. Aside from a property, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought? Art: a James McQueen piece that says, “It’s all shits and giggles until someone giggles and shits.” It’s in our bathroom. Describe yourself in three words Prepared, focused, a bit silly. What makes you unhappy? My kids being unhappy. What do you most dislike about your appearance? I’ve got little piggy toes. What scares you about getting older? Forgetting things. Who is your celebrity crush? In 1997 it was David Beckham. He was in the paper all the time and I’d put his photo on the wall. I’d cut Victoria out. What did you want to be when you were growing up? An actress. I started when I was 13 at theatre school. My first assembly, Tom and I were sat next to each other. What is the worst thing anyone’s ever said to you? A friend and I were talking about eating disorders and he said: “Well, we never have to worry about you not eating.” What is your guiltiest pleasure? Chips and curry sauce. What or who is the greatest love of your life? Thomas Fletcher. We dated for two days when we were 13, then he dumped me. In year 11, we dated for the whole year, then I dumped him at 16. We both dated other people but got back together at 18, 20 years ago. What does love feel like? Love is comfort and warmth, being accepted as you are. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Um, like, treacle, sweetheart, pickle. If not yourself, who would you most like to be? In my husband’s brain for a bit to see if he hears me, or is it selective hearing? How often do you have sex? Probably not enough. What keeps you awake at night? Worrying about my kids, self-doubt and creaky noises. Would you rather have more sex, money or fame? Sex. How would you like to be remembered? As a nice person who did all she could to make a positive change in the world. Tell us a secret My favourite band is Bananarama. What is the most important lesson life has taught you? Block out the noise and trust your gut. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/feb/10/giovanna-fletcher-interview

Japanese media report that pod of orcas became trapped in ice close to Rausu on Shiretoko peninsula Japanese media report that pod of orcas became trapPod of orcas trapped in drift ice off Japanese coast – videoed in ice close to Rausu on Shiretoko peninsula Concern is growing for the welfare of a pod of orcas that appear to have become trapped in drift ice off the coast of Hokkaido in northern Japan. Footage aired by the public broadcaster NHK on Tuesday showed at least 10 orcas poking out of a small gap in the surface of the water about 1 km off the coast of Rausu on the Shiretoko peninsula – a Unesco world heritage site famed for its abundant wildlife. The town said the thick ice had made it impossible for the coast guard, which had been alerted by a fisher, to attempt to free the mammals. “We have no choice but to wait for the ice to break up and for them to escape that way,” a Rausu official told NHK. Seiichiro Tsuchiya, a marine life expert who filmed the stricken animals using a drone, told the broadcaster he noticed the pod while conducting research into the local sea lion po[CENSORED]tion. “I saw about 13 killer whales with their heads sticking out of a hole in the ice,” he said. “They seemed to be struggling to breathe, and it looked like they included three or four calves.” The largest cetaceans can spend long periods underwater, but orcas generally stay submerged for only several minutes at a time. The sea off eastern Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island, is blanketed in drift ice every winter. The quantity of ice has decreased in recent years because of rising sea temperatures caused by the climate crisis. Officials said a lack of wind in this week meant the ice sheets had barely moved. It is not the first time that orcas have got into difficulty in the area. In 2005, several of the whales died after becoming trapped in sea ice off Rausu, a po[CENSORED]r whale-watching spot in the summer. Shiretoko – “land’s end” – is the lowest point in the northern hemisphere in which it is possible to observe Arctic sea ice. The ice’s origins lie 1,000km away in the freezing waters of the Amur River in the Russian Far East. As they make their way south across the Sea of Okhotsk, crystals turn into sheets that rub against one another to form thick slabs of blue-white ice. Archaeologists believe that thousands of years ago the ice covered an area large enough to migrate on foot from mainland Asia to Hokkaido. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/06/concern-for-killer-whales-trapped-in-drift-ice-off-the-coast-of-hokkaido-in-japan

At least 10 children among the dead as fears of an Israeli ground assault intensify in southern Gaza. A child finds his way through the rubble of a building hit by Israeli bombardment in Rafah [Mahmud Hams/AFP] The Israeli military has killed at least 28 Palestinians in strikes on Rafah immediately after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled that an invasion of the city in southern Gaza may be close. Three air raids on residential homes in the Rafah area killed at least 28 people overnight into Saturday, according to a health official and The Associated Press journalists who saw the bodies arriving at hospitals. As with many previous Israeli air raids, each attack reportedly killed multiple members of three families, including a total of 10 children, the youngest of whom was only three months old. This came hours after Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians from Rafah in preparation for a ground invasion to accompany the air attacks. Netanyahu did not provide details or a timeline, but his announcement only exacerbated widespread panic among over half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million po[CENSORED]tion who are now packed into Rafah. Many of them had been displaced several times before as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza. The Israeli leader has said clearing Rafah of the purported four Hamas battalions who are in the area would be necessary on his path to “total victory” over the group. Reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands said, “At the same time, he said any massive army operation in Rafah can’t take place without the evacuation of civilians from the combat zone. He’s told the military and security establishment to come up with plans that do both.” “This is causing immense concern around the world. We’ve had the United States saying it can’t condone any operation there that doesn’t put in place a proper humanitarian plan. We’ve got the United Nations saying any forced displacement of the 1.4 million people there is out of line,” he said. Washington and other allies, as well as rights organisations, have warned Israel that invading Rafah would lead to “disaster” and the United Nations has continued to express concern over devastating consequences for civilians. “Where are they supposed to go? How are they supposed to stay safe?” asked the UN’s humanitarian affairs and relief chief Martin Griffiths on Saturday. Meanwhile, intense fighting continues to rage in areas across Gaza, with Khan Younis in the south still a main focus of Israeli ground and air attacks. The area’s largest medical facility, Nasser Hospital, is still under siege by Israeli forces who have killed dozens in the surrounding areas using among other things sniper fire and attack drones. About 300 overexerted medical personnel, 450 patients and some 10,000 displaced people are believed to be sheltering in the hospital, unable to leave because of Israeli fire and lack of safety elsewhere. Israel’s invasion of Gaza has killed at least about 28,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, with thousands more missing, likely remaining under rubble. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/10/israeli-military-kills-28-after-netanyahu-signals-rafah-invasion-plan

Relatives find body of Hind Rajab who had begged rescuers to send help after being trapped by Israeli military fire. Hind Rajab was missing since January 29 when the Israeli army opened fire on a car she was in, killing her relatives in Gaza [Courtesy of Ghada Ageel] The body of a six-year-old Palestinian girl, missing for 12 days after an Israeli tank targeted their family car in Gaza, has been found along with the bodies of two medics dispatched to look for them. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the family of the girl, Hind Rajab, confirmed on Saturday that all seven people inside the car were killed, with the Palestinian relief organisation saying it lost crew members Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun in the Israeli attack on civilians in Gaza City. Family members found Hind’s body along with those of her uncle and aunt and their three children near a roundabout in the city’s Tal al-Hawa suburb, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Another of Hind’s uncles, Sameeh Hamadeh, said the car was peppered with bullet holes. “The occupation deliberately targeted the ambulance upon its arrival at the scene, where it was found just metres away from the vehicle containing the trapped child Hind,” said the PRCS statement. “Despite prior coordination to allow the ambulance to reach the location to rescue the child, Hind, the occupation deliberately targeted the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance crew.” Earlier this month, the PRCS published an audio file in which Hind could be heard pleading on the phone with a member of the rescue team. All members of her family are believed to have been killed before her, leaving her terrified in the car with the dead bodies of her loved ones. “I’m so scared, please come. Please call someone to come and take me,” she was heard crying desperately in the call that PRCS said lasted three hours in an effort to calm the frightened child. The Israeli army had earlier said it was not aware of the incident. The PRCS had started a count of the number of hours since it lost contact with Hind and the crew in trying to attract attention to the plight of Palestinian healthcare workers, who persist under constant attacks by the Israeli army. In an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic shortly after the family was targeted, Hind’s mother said she had managed to speak to her and an older cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamadeh, who was with Hind in the car. “They are shooting at us. The tank is next to us,” Layan said in a recording released at the time. Then a barrage of shooting was heard, followed by screams, before the line cut out. The plight of Hind, revealed in the harrowing audio clips, underlined the impossible conditions for civilians in the face of Israel’s four-month assault on Gaza, which many governments have termed a “genocide”. Israel’s military has killed nearly 28,000 people – mostly women and children – since October 7 when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing more than 1,100 people and taking 253 captives, according to Israeli tallies. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/10/body-of-6-year-old-killed-in-deliberate-israeli-fire-found-after-12-days

Nick movie: A Quiet Place Time: Paramount Pictures Netflix / Amazon / HBO: N/A Duration of the movie: 1min - 38sec. Trailer:

Music title: R. City - Locked Away ft. Adam Levine Signer: Adam Levine Release date: 2015/08/14 Official YouTube link: