thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--This Is What Life Is Really Like When You Weigh Over 400 Pounds

HuffPost UK Courtesy of the author
I am an ‘infinifat’ person. I prefer this term than the medically meaningless, and offensive, ‘morbidly obese’ most would use to describe my body. At almost 44, I have spent nearly three decades weighing over 300lbs. My lowest adult weight was 325lbs in June of 2000. It took extreme food restriction, plus a lot of walking (I lived in New York City) to get me to that number (from a starting point of 380lbs roughly 18 months earlier). There was also a lot of weight cycling (aka yo-yo dieting) during that time.
My behaviours were far from healthy, despite my weight loss being lauded (by the people who even noticed it) as evidence that I was working to be healthier. Ha! Not so much. I was working to be thin, and if you don’t think there’s a difference, you are deeply mistaken. Thinness at any cost will not make a person healthy, but that’s exactly what society wants from fat people.
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In the nine months that followed that one-off sighting of 325 on my scale, I gained 75lbs back. I am currently at 445lbs.
That was just one example of my many years of dieting “successes.” I will never be thin, and I am so done with being asked stupid, insulting, ridiculous, invasive questions about life in a fat body, as though I am an object of lurid fascination.
In an attempt to ‘shame’ me into a smaller body, I’ve been told that I’ll drop dead from a heart attack any moment now (I’ve been hearing that one since I was 15). Bodies that look like mine are apparently a bigger threat than even terrorism! Do they think we’ll all explode? I say this with a certain amount of laughter mixed with derision, but it’s also incredibly alarming to know that a surgeon general of the United States would make such a statement.
I’ve been directly told to just kill myself in order to spare the taxpayers the cost of caring for me and to spare my loved ones – assuming anyone could love me, har har! That insult happened in the comments on a YouTube video I was in. And if you’re thinking don’t read the comments, I urge you to read what the anonymous writer Your Fat Friend has to say about that – especially if you’re thin.
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And sure, much of the time this shaming is couched in ‘concern’ for our health. Yet, it frequently comes from people who have proven repeatedly that they do not give a damn about the health of someone who looks like me – people who, in fact, are perfectly happy to shatter our physical and mental health to try to make us smaller (looking at you, Jillian Michaels), especially when doing so makes them rich and famous.
“Bodies that look like mine are apparently a bigger threat than even terrorism! Do they think we’ll all explode? I say this with a certain amount of laughter mixed with derision, but it’s also incredibly alarming to know that a Surgeon General of the United States would make such a statement.”
It’s so important for voices like mine to have an outlet. The shame is constant. It comes from everywhere. Family. Friends. The nightly news. Doctors. Trolls on the internet. People with powerful platforms like Oprah (yes, even if she’s claiming “healthy” to be the new “skinny” as she shills for Weight Watchers).
This shame is without equivocation, harming me and those who, like me, live in very fat bodies. These are our homes. Does anyone really think it’s healthy to be told over and over and over again that you’re essentially on the verge of death every moment of every day?
In early 2007, I thought about starting another diet, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. Instead, with the help of an eating disorder therapist, I embraced Intuitive Eating, an eating plan that is based on what your body intuitively knows is good for it. I am ashamed to say that if that therapist had looked like me, I doubt I’d have trusted her, but she was thin, and she was telling me it was okay that I wasn’t – that it was okay to love myself just the way that I was. I wish it hadn’t taken validation from a person who had never been fat to get me to realise this.
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Suddenly, my world had changed. I was so ready, after so many years of hating myself, to just feel neutral about my body for once. It wasn’t even that hard for me to embrace it at the time. I took it for granted – something that would later come back to haunt me.
In 2016, while on vacation with my husband (we’ve been married almost 16 years. I am fat and I am loved, despite hearing for years no one could possibly love me looking like I do), I fell. We were eating in a very small cafe. People were crowding in the vestibule as they waited for tables to open. I grew increasingly anxious about having to navigate through a crowd, both from the perspective of being somewhat claustrophobic and because moving my fat body through a crowd is never fun; I don’t think most people enjoy trying to push our way through a crowd – it’s worse because I dare to take up space by simply existing.
Courtesy of Juliet James A selfie of Juliet James taken at the Kacey Musgraves show at Red Rocks Amphitheater in June 2019.
My husband sensed my growing anxiety, so we quickly finished lunch and got up to leave the restaurant. I had failed to remember the steep step into the building from the sidewalk and in my haste to get out I stumbled down it. I held on to the door, foolishly trying to remain upright. It is bad enough to fall in public. It is worse when you’re roughly 520lbs and wearing a bright kelly green shirt.
I’m pretty sure I was in shock. It’s believed I tore my right bicep by holding on to the door – “believed” because an MRI or other scans were not an option at my size. I knew this, so I didn’t bother to go to the emergency room. When we got home, I had major bruises, and my arm hurt like hell. I went to my primary care doctor, who advised me to rest my arm for 16 weeks, use ice and take anti-inflammatory drugs. After that, it was going to be as good as it would get. I still regularly have muscle spasms from even minor movement in that area.
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Sixteen years earlier, while working at a New York City daycare centre, I fell on the job. That time I braced my fall with my left hand. Seriously, don’t try to brace a fall unless you’re on the side of a mountain or something. I partially dislocated my shoulder. This was an on-the-job injury, meaning workers’ compensation had to be involved. It took them five weeks to approve physical therapy, but by then permanent damage had been done. Ten years later, I somehow managed to dislocate it again – in my sleep (what can I say, I’m talented). The permanent damage means my range of motion in that arm is extremely limited – and it makes further dislocations more likely.
I’ve written extensively about these injuries and my fear of future health issues going undiagnosed because, despite the rampant “concern” for the “health” of fat people, we are still denied access to care afforded to our thinner peers. These fears were entirely valid, as fat people die regularly from diseases that go undiagnosed.
For instance, around this same time, my grandmother was being treated for cancer. She had to get repeated PET scans, among other tests. As an infinifat person, these tests are off limits to me. What if I got cancer? Suddenly, I felt trapped. Not by my body so much as by a medical community that would not provide me access to quality care and that would then shame me for my injuries or illnesses that came about as a result of that lack of access.
No matter what injury or condition I was struggling with, I knew traditional dieting wouldn’t help me; it never had, and I always gained back more than I lost.
Courtesy of Thomas James Juliet James "glamping" in Moab, Utah, to celebrate her 15th wedding anniversary in April 2019.
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In March of 2018, I had a vertical sleeve gastrectomy. During that surgery, roughly 80% of a fat person’s stomach is amputated in an effort to make them smaller. And while, yes, I was able to regain some mobility I’d lost over the years, most of the time, I still wish I hadn’t done it. The reality is, I am far less healthy now than I was before my surgery. My mental health has suffered. As it turns out, though we were never warned of this during any of the pre-op counseling, there’s a significant increase in mental health issues among patients who undergo bariatric surgery, including self-harm and suicide.
Post-op, you can forget about Intuitive Eating. How can you eat intuitively when you’re literally never hungry? Or, when after months of starving it, your body decides to fight back, and you’re ravenous? While my surgeon made a weight “goal” number for me to hit following the surgery, it was unrealistic. I knew better than to believe these predictions. But what about his patients who don’t?
When you see my body, you’ll have questions. How did she get so fat? What does she eat? How does she wipe? Can she have sex? Who’d want to have sex with her anyway? You’ll make assumptions about me. She must eat all day long, non-stop. Bet she loves McDonald’s. She doesn’t care about herself. She must be so sad. She’s clearly miserable.
If you see me daring to live my life on Instagram, where I share travel adventures and my love of makeup pretty regularly, you might think, another fatty glorifying obesity! Trust me; whatever you’re thinking, I can almost guarantee I’ve thought it or worse about myself. Well, aside from the truly absurd things (like the glorifying obesity B.S.).
“If you see me daring to live my life on Instagram, where I share travel adventures and my love of makeup pretty regularly, you might think, 'another fatty glorifying obesity!' Trust me; whatever you’re thinking, I can almost guarantee I’ve thought it or worse about myself.”
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Fortunately, I’m strong enough to not listen to this type of trolling. I was bullied as a kid, too, but the way my brain is hardwired, it never really bothered me much. This is something I view as a privilege. It’s not a skill. It’s just the way I think. Not everyone has this privilege. Sometimes, I’ve intentionally engaged trolls just to distract them from another, possibly more vulnerable, target, but just because I can handle it doesn’t mean it’s fun. Spoiler alert: It’s not.
I am deeply, profoundly tired. I’ve spent almost three decades hearing how I am a ticking time bomb, told all the time I’d be dead by 30 (which later changed to 50 once I passed 30). I was hospitalised for seven weeks at 15 for non-purging bulimia. I’ve been suicidal. I’ve been 100% able to accept my body, and I’ve been unable to accept it at all. Right now, I’m somewhere in between, but it’s irrelevant because it’s the only body I will ever have.
I just want to be happy, but no matter how wonderful my life is, I can’t be. Not completely. Not when the world refuses to bend. When it views me, and those who look like me, as a problem that needs to be not just fixed, but outright eradicated. When eating disorder behaviours are lauded as ‘self-control’ or ‘discipline’, and caloric content info is in 20-point fonts on the fronts of boxes. I have to turn nutrition labels away in the cabinet to prevent a lapse into moralising my own food choices or lapsing into eating disorder behaviours I’ve worked so hard to conquer.
My body size is not going to change in any significant way. However, my life, and the lives of other fat people, could change. If only the world would accept that bodies come in a variety of sizes, our lives could be so much better.
Infinifats like me make up a pretty small percentage of the population, but we’re here; we’re not going anywhere. We fall in love, we get our hearts broken, we have great sex, we have bad sex, we laugh, we cry... in other words, we’re just like people in much smaller bodies, and we deserve the same privileges afforded to others: access to attractive clothing, comfortable seating, and good medical care (including imaging). We deserve basic human dignity and respect, and we do not owe you explanations for our bodies.
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So yeah, I’m tired, but I am determined to spend whatever of my incessantly ticking time bomb of a life I have left to try to fix the real problem: fatphobia.
Juliet James is a queer, bisexual, fat writer on mental health, eating disorders and being fat in a thin-centric culture. Follow her Twitter under the username @IAmJulietJames. This article first appeared on HuffPost US Personal.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--Guess Who Is The Most Savage Critic Of Johnson’s New Immigration System?

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Aye, robot?
When Priti Patel set out her points-based immigration system to MPs today, it felt very much like a work in progress, a provisional scheme to be tweaked later. The Home Secretary said “we will continue to refine” the new system and that today was “just the start of our phased approach”.
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Boris Johnson promised an ‘oven ready’ Brexit, but many in business may believe Patel’s proposals were merely a half-baked, undercooked mess that gives microwave food a bad name. And despite having had more than three years to work up this system, the Tories have produced a plan that to many looks more rushed than right.
And once again, in a singularly un-Tory approach that the party’s MPs are getting used to, politics seems to trump economics and business needs come way down the list of government priorities. Yet the most significant immigration announcement that Patel has made since taking office does not concern the detail of her points-based system that she outlined last week and confirmed to the Commons today.
Rather, it is her and the PM’s decision - approved by the Cabinet last month - on the timing, not just the nature, of the scheme. Their huge joint judgement call has been to accelerate the timetable so that a brand-new system is in place by the end of this year, ditching May’s previous plan to introduce it by the start of 2023.
May had wanted to give business a longer period to make the transition away from cheap, ‘unskilled’ EU Labour. But Johnson, and Patel, believe that the political priority is to show to Brexit voters that the UK really is ‘taking back control’ of its borders sooner rather than later. For some Tory Brexiteers, the idea of a further two-year wait (after the transition period ends on December 31 2020) was just more dither and delay that the PM had promised to banish in the election campaign.
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The need to get a new system out there, however provisional, was the imperative. The downside, as seen today, is that the points-based system is both unready and untested. For business, the main fear is that they simply won’t have enough time to prepare for the changes.
Patel today told bosses to invest in automation, to improve their productivity and to pay workers more. Yet many firms think they just don’t have the time to do all of that (if any of it were possible and still to stay afloat) with barely 10 months to the new era. It was Patel who sounded robotic, saying a dozen times during her Commons statement that she wanted “the brightest and the best” to come to the UK.
And although Patel won the strong backing of many Brexiteer grandees (Sir John Redwood, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Owen Paterson and David Davis), there were hints of nervousness from those with agricultural seats and farmers to keep happy. The home secretary tried to assuage farmers’ fears by agreeing to quadruple the numbers of migrants allowed under the season agricultural workers pilot, from 2,500 to 10,000.
Yet as the SNP’s Stewart Hosie pointed out, that figure it comes nowhere close to the 80,000-100,000 seasonal workers some (including the National Farmers Union) estimate are required across the UK. “How many thousands of tonnes of food and vegetables need to rot in the fields before she is dragged back here to apologise for this dog-whistle nonsense and to rip it up?” Hosie asked.
Patel simply shrugged off the question, repeating her mantra that business “in all sectors” had to “invest in technology to increase wages and to increase productivity”. But her real answer seemed to be that even a few thousand tonnes of wasted fruit and veg was a price worth paying to reassure Leave voters migration was being tackled.
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Now, some farmers warned last year that the robot technology just isn’t ready yet to let them pick veg like beans. Last summer, a shortage of workers meant several farmers had to shut down early. A fruit farm fruit farm in Herefordshire said it had wasted 87,000 punnets of raspberries in just a fortnight because of a lack of staff, and that’s even before the points-based system was detailed.
And seasonal agricultural workers are in some ways the easy bit, some business leaders say. The tourism and hospitality trade - a lifeline in many coastal towns that voted Brexit - is a much bigger sector of the economy. As is the care sector which was created in the first place by cuts in funds to councils which meant town halls had to close state-run care homes across the land.
Perhaps the problem was neatly summed up by the words of this parliamentarian. “Think of the waitress who served you coffee today, the cleaners working late tonight, the care worker who will help your grandmother start the day tomorrow or the farm worker who has been out in the rain to put fresh vegetables on your table,” they said. “Do we value these people and the work they do? We should, but the message from the Home Office is it doesn’t.
“It envisages a post-Brexit immigration policy where so-called low-skilled people, who have fewer formal qualifications and are on lower incomes, will not be allowed into our country. Instead the Home Office types only want the ‘brightest and the best’, people like them who went to university and are on a big salary.”
That politician was not a Labour shadow minister. It was not some urban metrosexual. It was a former strawberry farmer, leading Brexiteer and Tory MP. His name is George Eustice and he made that savage attack on the Home Office plans (in the Evening Standard) last spring. Eustice is now the Environment Secretary. He had a Commons statement of his own today (on flooding) straight after Patel’s, so sadly he didn’t have the chance to repeat his remarks to his cabinet colleague to her face.
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Quote Of The Day
“With climate change, we really are just toying with this.”
Craig Whittaker, Tory MP for Calder Valley, urges ministers to take strategic action on flood prevention
Monday Cheat Sheet
Cabinet secretary Sir Mark Sedwill sent a note to all Whitehall staff declaring that “candour, confidentiality and courtesy between Ministers, special advisers and civil servants are crucial to the trust and confidence on which good governance depends”. Many suspected that word ‘courtesy’ was a hint at the forceful conduct of Priti Patel and Dominic Cummings of late.
Yorkshire Tea has urged people to “be kind” after its staff had to field “furious accusations and boycott calls” when chancellor Rishi Sunak posted about the firm’s famous brew.
Downing Street said the UK is “well prepared” to deal with coronavirus cases and the risk to individuals “remains low”. Some 99% of those tested in the UK had proved negative.
The first ballots in the Labour party leadership and deputy leadership election were due to go out but were delayed. Members and supporters are being advised they may not get emails or postal ballots until Wednesday or even later. “Emails are being issued in batches due to the size of the electorate, and we expect it will take most of this week to send them all,” the party said.
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What I’m Reading
How Stephen Miller Manipulates Trump On Immigration - New Yorker
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--The Truth Behind Philip Morris International's Smoke-Free Future

By Madlen Davies, Ben Stockton, Matthew Chapman and Tamasin Cave, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

The crowd screamed as Calvin Harris began his set at 2019’s Djakarta Warehouse Project, one of Asia’s biggest dance music festivals. The floor pulsed. As each song built, fans jumped up and down, climbed on each other’s shoulders or swayed as they filmed the DJ on their phones.
Opposite the main stage was a sleek building made of solid glass and red lights, with everything a festivalgoer needed to relax: sofas, televisions, Playstations – and cigarettes for sale. The Marlboro Penthouse gave Philip Morris International (PMI), the world’s biggest multinational tobacco company, an opportunity to promote its cigarettes to 90,000 young attendees.
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Throughout the festival there were bright Marlboro signs over bars and benches where people sat smoking. There was a Marlboro “Discover Room” with interactive red, blue and yellow booths, echoing cigarette-pack branding, and an arcade game. The festival’s shops sold only Marlboro-branded cigarettes and the company employed attractive saleswomen to roam around promoting the products.
Thousands of festival-goers were met with bright Marlboro signs and promotions at the Djakarta Warehouse Project. Instagram
That heavy promotion was curious, as three years earlier, PMI’s chief executive had made a claim so surprising it had made headlines all over the world. He had announced a new ambition for his company: to phase out cigarettes entirely.
In 2017 PMI officially laid out its vision for a “smoke-free” future. André Calantzopoulos, the previously camera-shy chief executive, started giving interviews about his company’s “transformation”. He wanted to switch smokers to PMI’s new range of cigarette alternatives, which he said would improve public health.
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“The multi-billion dollar tobacco industry will do everything they can to stay in business” - Dr Vinayak Prasad, WHO
Two years ago PMI said it could stop selling cigarettes by 2030 in the UK. A global campaign called “Unsmoke Your World”, promoting the idea that anyone could become an “Unsmoker”, was released a year later. PMI could be “part of the solution” to smoking, executives said. It hired advertising, PR and lobbying companies to promote a narrative of a new purpose-led, responsible business.
Yet careful scrutiny of its activities and internal documents by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals that much of the campaign is spin rather than substance – just as the recent advertising of Marlboro cigarettes to young Indonesians would suggest.
The Unsmoke mission is a marketing campaign for PMI’s new range of cigarette alternatives and a blatant attempt to rehabilitate the company’s image so it can once again seek to influence policy and regulations. Arguably, it has succeeded: although smoking rates have fallen in the past decade, PMI’s profits and share price have increased.
Some experts fear that if the company’s narrative is taken at face value PMI will continue to sell billions of cigarettes worldwide while promoting itself as “part of the solution” to smoking. It could lure a new generation into addiction with its new products, whose long-term health risks are unknown, and discourage people who might have quit altogether from doing so.
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“The multi-billion dollar tobacco industry will do everything they can to stay in business,” said Dr Vinayak Prasad, head of the World Health Organisation’s tobacco control division. He believes that what they are saying is far from reality.
“If they really want to be a part of the solution, they should go tobacco-free, not smoke-free. If they are genuine about a tobacco-free society, they will readily embrace anything to reduce the demand for all forms of tobacco products.”
Dr Moira Gilchrist, a vice-president of PMI, told the Bureau: “Our vision is that one day smoke-free products will replace cigarettes. The sooner the world transitions away from cigarettes, the sooner we can stop making them.”
A user tries an Iqos product in Japan ASSOCIATED PRESS
The era of Iqos
Calantzopoulos makes a point of using PMI’s flagship product, a sleek gadget that looks like a cross between an iPhone and an expensive pen. It is called Iqos, which is widely believed to be an acronym for “I Quit Ordinary Smoking” – although this is consistently denied by the company – and is now available in 52 countries worldwide.
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It looks like an e-cigarette, or vape, but there is a key difference: it contains tobacco, where e-cigarettes only hold a nicotine solution. PMI has developed sticks of tobacco, called Heatsticks or Heets, which are inserted into the Iqos device and warmed to 350 degrees Celsius (much lower than the 800 degrees of a burning cigarette) until tendrils of aerosol are released. This mimics the rituals of smoking and gives users a satisfying kick of nicotine while inhaling fewer carcinogens.
Calantzopoulos, a Greek electrical engineer who has spent 35 years working for PMI, says he was smoking a pack a day until he switched to Iqos, his personal journey neatly echoing that of his company.
PMI calls Iqos a heated tobacco or “heat-not-burn” device; it is part of a new class of products sitting between vapes and traditional cigarettes.
There is a consensus that switching to vaping offers the best health benefits to smokers after quitting or using patches, gum or prescription drugs that lower cravings. Heated tobacco products release fewer harmful chemicals than cigarette smoke, but more than e-cigarettes do. Neither product has been around long enough for experts to be sure that reducing the levels of toxic chemicals also reduces overall rates of disease.
Some studies have also found that Iqos emits higher levels than cigarettes of other chemicals, but not the ones known to be dangerous. Although these are not toxic in the short term, it is not known if they could have health effects over a longer period of use.
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PMI said its testing on Iqos showed the concentrations of these chemicals “are below the level of toxicological concern”.
Iqos shops are sleek, with big museum-table cases. Google
Some question why, if PMI wants to be “part of the solution” to smoking, it chose to heavily promote a heated tobacco product rather than an e-cigarette, when the potential health benefits of the latter are widely considered greater.
The answer comes down to economics, said Erik Bloomquist, a tobacco industry analyst. PMI could more easily adapt its cigarette manufacturing to make Heatsticks, while the profit margins for many e-cigarettes, especially those where users change the liquids and heating coils themselves, are miniscule.
Iqos was first launched in Japan, where e-cigarettes are banned, and within four years gained nearly 16% of its overall tobacco market. Experts believe its introduction has led to falling cigarette sales. Iqos has also been a hit in South Korea, Russia and Italy.
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PMI say that 10 million smokers have switched to Iqos since it was launched. Calantzopoulos’s new ambition is to switch 40 million smokers from cigarettes to PMI’s alternative products by 2025. He describes the situation as a win-win: better for the smoker, and better for PMI, which can get better profit margins from Iqos if it is subject to lower taxes than cigarettes.
The company’s executives are working hard all around the world trying to persuade governments not to tax Iqos like a cigarette, to the chagrin of the World Health Organization (WHO), which has advised against such a concession.
PMI said Iqos helps smokers who find vapes unappealing give up cigarettes. “What is most important is that adult smokers have access to a product that they are able to switch to and completely quit smoking cigarettes.” The company said it lobbied governments “because products like e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products should not be banned”.
Calantzopoulos will be wary of the backlash faced by Juul, the maker of America’s most popular e-cigarette, over accusations its early marketing appealed to teenagers. The company denies it ever targeted children but has since faced congressional hearings, federal investigations and hundreds of lawsuits.
It is against this backdrop that Calantzopoulos maintains he only wants Iqos targeted at the world’s 1.1 billion adult smokers. However, a small Italian study found nearly half of people who had tried the product had never smoked.
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PMI appears to have at times recruited occasional or social smokers to promote its devices. “I don’t smoke often, maybe only when I am at a party or having a glass of wine with some friends, but I was interested to find out about this device because it didn’t seem like just another electronic cigarette,” Gabriele Gzimailaite, a London fashion blogger told her readers in November 2017.
Gzimailaite, who has 120,000 Instagram followers, had been flown out to Milan by PMI for an Iqos party, where she posed against an Iqos-branded wall and posted pictures of the device.
Four months later PMI paid for her stay at the luxurious Rosewood Hotel in London, which has launched Iqos-friendly rooms. Gzimailaite posted a picture of herself posing in a marble bubble bath, drinking a glass of rosé with her black Iqos and a magazine at her side.
Calantzopoulos’ promise not to target non-smokers or teenagers is disingenuous, activists say. They argue that if PMI convinced its existing customers to switch to Iqos without attracting new ones, as it claims it wants to do, the company would go out of business within a generation.
“The main purpose is to prevent smokers who could be quitters to stay consumers of their products,” said Pascal Diethelm, president of Oxysuisse, a Swiss NGO dedicated to tobacco prevention. But even that could not sustain the company indefinitely – those smokers will die. PMI needs young people to create a new market, he said.
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He points to investor presentations which appear to show PMI using the “theory of diffusion of innovation”. This is where there are “early adopters” of a product, who tend to be richer and more privileged than the rest of the population. As this group adopts the product they serve as influencers on the rest of the market, including young people. Diethelm believes this is why Iqos is being marketed as a luxury, hi-tech, aspirational product.
Peter Kovalev via Getty Images
A visit to an Iqos shop does nothing to dispel this belief. It looks like an Apple store, with big museum table-cases displaying the latest devices. Colourful products are displayed in a rainbow on the wall, and young, hipster shop assistants stand ready to help.
While smoking rates fell in Japan after the introduction of Iqos, public health experts are concerned that not all smokers will switch completely from cigarettes. Independent studies and PMI’s own research show that many people tend to carry on smoking while using the device, negating the health benefits.
“Iqos probably falls halfway in between e-cigarettes and cigarettes on a toxic exposure scale,” said Richard O’Connor, professor of oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. “So basically there would be no real benefit to somebody who uses both products at the same time.” PMI did not dispute this.
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Behind the smoke screen
Despite the PR push, PMI’s stated aim of phasing out cigarettes is not matched in a number of its business practices.
Its revenues from alternative products shot up from 0.2% in 2015 to almost 20% in 2019, but the vast majority still came from cigarettes. The company sold more than 740bn cigarettes worldwide in 2018 and is only reducing its production by a few percentage points a year.
Calantzopoulos has also repeatedly reassured investors that PMI wants to remain a leader in cigarettes and will not give up market share to its competitors.
“If you want to shift the market and you control most of that market, you could easily do it. They might lose a few share points on their stock, but I think it would be a much more rigorous demonstration that they really are changing.” - Richard O’Connor, professor of oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Since it announced its aim to stop selling cigarettes, it has acquired a new cigarette company, launched a new brand, and added enticing new flavours such as Splash Mega Purple and Fusion Summer. It has also launched legal action against anti-smoking policies in countries like the Philippines, and has carried on advertising cigarettes in countries that permit it.
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Some pupils in Indonesia can see PMI’s cigarette advertising mere steps from their schools’ gates. Young people attending festivals in Buenos Aires are offered PMI cigarettes in promotions with beer. Children visiting corner shops in Mexico can see Marlboro’s “fusion” cigarettes next to sweets.
“There’s a certain disingenuousness to the whole thing,” said O’Connor, who until recently sat on the US Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee advising the FDA. He believes the company could easily switch many more people away from cigarettes if it wanted to.
“They can stop marketing cigarettes and market the heck out of Iqos and actively encourage people to use it. If you want to shift the market and you control most of that market, you could easily do it. They might lose a few share points on their stock, but I think it would be a much more rigorous demonstration that they really are changing.”
From pariah to ‘part of the solution’
Tobacco is still the leading cause of preventable death around the world, killing eight million people a year and harming millions more. There is now indisputable evidence that smoking causes multiple types of cancer, heart disease and respiratory illnesses, killing up to half of those who light up.
In 2003 an international WHO treaty was launched and widely adopted, mandating countries to adopt tried-and-tested policies to stop smoking. krisanapong detraphiphat via Getty Images
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In 2006 Judge Gladys Kessler issued an extensive and damning set of findings during a landmark judgement against Philip Morris US, from which PMI later split. She cited evidence of the company’s decades-long campaign to hide the hazardous effects of smoking and secondhand smoke. Philip Morris had lied about the addictiveness of nicotine; manipulated nicotine levels to keep people addicted; misled the public about the health benefits of “low tar” or “light” cigarettes and marketed cigarettes to teenagers.
Philip Morris had “marketed and sold their lethal product with zeal, with deception, with a single-minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted,” she said.
By the start of the 21st century PMI and the other tobacco companies were seen as pariahs in most industrialised countries, where social norms around smoking were changing. In 2003 an international WHO treaty was launched and widely adopted, mandating countries to adopt tried-and-tested policies to stop smoking. These included restricting contact with the industry and resisting its attempts to interfere in policy, entrenching tobacco companies’ status as distrusted outsiders.
“I think they [tobacco companies] could just see that the summit of the power and untouchable space that they inhabited for a very long time was not guaranteed for them anymore,” said Professor Johanna Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at John Hopkins University.
By 2014, when Iqos launched in Japan, PMI knew it needed to change its image. Internal documents uncovered by Reuters in 2017 reveal it feared measures such as litigation and bans on political contributions, charitable donations and tobacco industry market research.
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It launched a 10-year plan called “Normalisation”. Its new objective was to “establish PMI as a trusted and indispensable partner, leading its sector and bringing solutions to the table”.
To achieve this it would “be ‘for’ something”, establishing a “forward-looking, motivational and credible” purpose statement.
It would also “balance the debate” by exposing the “double standards” of anti-tobacco campaigners and amplifying the voices of people who favoured harm reduction – those supportive of offering smokers alternative products.
PMI planned to foster relationships with politicians, international organisations, NGOs, academics, scientists, researchers and the media, to promote its new purpose and products.
In the UK PMI hired Pagefield, a PR company, to help to launch Iqos. In a blog post, the company describes the work as a good example of “helping distrusted companies gain acceptance”. Pagefield described the success of its strategy: “purpose was put before product and that made for a more captivating story”.
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PMI's Andre Calantzopoulos made a public pledge to quit selling cigarettes. NurPhoto via Getty Images
Normalisation in action
The normalisation strategy appears to be in full swing in the UK. After Iqos was launched, PMI executives appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and BBC Hard Talk describing the company’s transformation. It bought newspaper adverts and paid for events. It even funded a new website by Vice, Change Incorporated, that would publish articles on ending smoking, and sponsored Gay Star News’s health section.
As promised, it also forged relationships with politicians. In July 2018 it hosted a session in Westminster on how the company could work with MPs to “deliver a smoke-free future” with the Scottish MP Ross Thomson. It put up a stand at the Conservative party conference every year from 2017 to 2019, promoting its campaign to British politicians and their teams.
Despite its flagship product not being an e-cigarette, it was a founding member of the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), which funds an all-party parliamentary group on vaping, giving it access to British politicians.
PMI has always tried to rehabilitate its image, but its move into cigarette alternatives gave it a more persuasive message, said Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the campaigning public health charity Action on Smoking and Health.
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“The coal industry spent an awful long time saying it supports green measures when what it was doing in practice was very different, the same is true for PMI,” she said. “We need to continue to protect public health policies. You can’t partner with the industry or allow the industry to determine the policy agenda because commercial vested interests mean shareholders’ needs will always take priority.”
PMI’s PR offensive took place on several different battlegrounds. In 2017 it announced it was setting up an independent organisation, the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, to pay for research on ending the smoking epidemic – and it would hand over $80m (£61m) a year for 12 years to this new non-profit. In a massive publicity coup a former WHO executive, Derek Yach, was hired to lead it.
The WHO itself publicly refused to engage with the Foundation, identifying it as an organisation that “further[s] the interests of the tobacco industry”. It told governments and the public health community to follow its lead. It was soon being described in some quarters as a front group for PMI.
The Foundation says it “funds research, promotes innovation, and supports collaborative initiatives to accelerate progress in reducing harm and deaths from smoking”. Its health research grants have been largely focused on harm reduction, not ending smoking, in line with PMI’s needs to normalise and legitimise cigarette alternatives like Iqos. Some of the recipients of its grants have links with the tobacco industry.
An analysis by the University of Bath of the Foundation’s latest published tax returns reveals that it spent more on hiring PR and communications agencies than scientific research. The university is a research partner of STOP, the global tobacco control campaign. Tess Legg, co-author of the Bath report, believes that the Foundation is not simply a scientific research organisation.
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“The Foundation is promoting PMI’s rhetoric on harm reduction, next generation products and the role the tobacco industry wants to play in science and policy-making, but often without the reader or the listener being aware that these messages are funded by the tobacco industry,” she said.
The Foundation said its 2019 tax returns would show it is now spending most of its budget on research. A spokesman added: “There is no tobacco industry influence on the Foundation’s work.”
Visitors look at an Iqos range in Tokyo. ASSOCIATED PRESS
‘This changes everything’
The April 2019 launch of Iqos in Tirana, Albania, drew a fashionable crowd. Guests walked down a white carpet flanked by palm trees and lit by spotlights until inside an Iqos-branded tunnel they were met by hostesses in futuristic dresses. Hands emerged from velvet curtains to hand them champagne.
TV screens on the wall played videos of erupting flames. “Stop burning, start heating,” the text read as a gold Heatstick slipped smoothly into the Iqos device.
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There have been similar launches for Iqos products all around the world, some headlined by Jason Derulo or Jamiroquai. PMI has also sponsored Iqos-branded parties for Playboy magazine in Germany and Cosmopolitan magazine in Russia.
In the UK, where advertising of both the device and Heatsticks is banned, marketing is limited to PMI’s website, Iqos shops and displays in vape shops. But where regulations are looser, PMI is advertising Iqos far more aggressively.
“If governments don’t respond strongly and directly, Philip Morris International will use Iqos to renormalise tobacco use and reach a whole generation of young people who otherwise never would have smoked” - Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
Its campaign features social media influencers, events, collaborations, glass-fronted shops and an army of brand ambassadors, according to a report compiled by Stanford University. “The advertising tries to portray Iqos as aspirational, high tech, healthy, fashion-conscious, clean, fun and link it with fashion, travel, leisure and relaxation. Some adverts imply Iqos helps make people more successful in romance by improving their kisses and their teeth, as well as being a good way to show love to family and friends,” Professor Robert Jackler, who led the research, said.
Instagram posts show Iqos with coffee, alcohol and food. Young, attractive, professional people are shown laughing, socialising or looking happy with their devices. Some ads show Iqos with surfers and runners, implying it is a product to suit healthy, outdoors-y lifestyles.
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Elsewhere, Stanford researchers uncovered examples of explicit health claims, including a post from Iqos’s Instagram page in Japan that promoted it as a way to avoid lung cancer, emphysema and heart attacks when compared with smoking, which an expert said is not backed up by evidence. PMI disputes some of Stanford’s findings.
In the US and UK PMI cannot legally claim Iqos can help quit smoking or lower the risk of disease. The UK Department of Health wrote to PMI in 2018 to tell the company to stop sending posters advertising the device to convenience stores.
PMI was forced to suspend its own social media influencer campaign when it emerged in May last year that the company had hired models who were under 25, against its own internal guidelines. But the Stanford researchers have uncovered an Armenian account that featured attractive young influencers posting about Iqos.
The researchers also found Instagram posts that seemed to target even younger teenagers. Instagram posts from Ukraine and Armenia showed young-looking girls posing with pastel-coloured Iqos devices. Others posed the devices against a backdrop of ice creams, palm trees and seashells.
“It has used the exact same strategy and the exact same images it used to make Marlboro the most popular cigarettes for kids worldwide,” Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, said.
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“If governments don’t respond strongly and directly, Philip Morris International will use Iqos to renormalise tobacco use and reach a whole generation of young people who otherwise never would have smoked.”
‘Smoke-free’
Dr Reto Auer, a doctor and researcher at the universities of Bern and Lausanne, bought an Iqos after seeing adverts that said it did not produce smoke. He smoked it in the office as his colleagues watched, noticing black charring on the Heatstick and that it smelt like burnt tobacco.
“Within the UK there are Iqos shops in London, Manchester, Bristol and Cardiff, but none in Hull, Burnley or Mansfield where PMI’s research shows smoking rates are highest.”
Suspicious that the charring suggested incomplete burning, called pyrolysis, his team set up a study to determine whether Iqos produced smoke or not. Their conclusion? It did.
“Basically what the Iqos is is a portable toaster,” he said. “If you leave your bread long enough, it will become black. At what point do you say your toast is burnt? Is that bread vapour that comes out of your toaster? No, we call it smoke.”
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Auer and his team believe PMI is “dancing around” the definition of smoke to avoid indoor smoking bans. In Japan, while smoking is banned indoors, Iqos is not; there are “no smoking, Iqos only” signs. “If you have only the Iqos indoors, and all other cigarettes outside, then you have no competitors,” Auer said.
In countries including Japan, Romania, Ukraine, Vietnam, Russia, Czechia, and Spain, PMI has created its own cafés and lounges, where menus pair coffees with particular flavours of Heatstick. It has launched a global network of “Iqos-friendly spaces”; bars, hotels, restaurants or public areas like beaches where people can freely puff on their Iqos.
Mapping Iqos’s launches reveals a pattern. Iqos has mainly been promoted in countries that have introduced smoking or tobacco advertising bans and where cigarette sales were falling, according to Bath’s analysis. “They needed something else to make profit in the future in those countries because people were stopping smoking,” said Karen Evans-Reeves, co-author of the report.
Within the UK there are Iqos shops in London, Manchester, Bristol and Cardiff, but none in Hull, Burnley or Mansfield where PMI’s research shows smoking rates are highest.
Dr Gilchrist, a vice-president of PMI, said: “For PMI, the long-term business opportunity is to convert adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke cigarettes to better alternatives.
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“A campaign coordinated by American special interest groups, all of whom are seemingly funded by the same source — Bloomberg Philanthropies — are dedicated to just one mission. Under the guise of promoting public health, they are working to rob adults who smoke of their right to choose scientifically substantiated better alternatives to continued smoking.”
The Bureau’s Smoke Screen project, scrutinising the tobacco industry which kills millions a year, is funded by an NGO, Vital Strategies, which is in turn funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Bureau is a not-for-profit predominantly funded by grants from dozens of foundations and fully discloses all of its funders. Neither Vital Strategies nor Bloomberg Philanthropies has any say over the Bureau’s journalism.
Iqos has yet to be launched in Indonesia, PMI’s biggest market for cigarettes. There, more than two thirds of men and nearly one in five teenagers smoke. People in their 30s are dying of heart-related diseases linked to tobacco. Videos of toddlers addicted to cigarettes appear regularly.
Calantzopoulos’s desire to phase out cigarettes may be genuine, but he is hamstrung by an obligation to maximise profit for shareholders, which rules out suspending cigarette advertising or sales.
Perhaps Indonesia’s smokers will eventually all quit or switch to alternatives. Under the neon lights of the Marlboro Penthouse, that day seems a long way off.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--Donald Trump Mangles Name Of India's Most Beloved Cricketer At Rally During State Visit

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Donald Trump mangled his pronunciation of India’s most beloved cricketer in a series of stumbles on the first day of his state visit to the country.
The US president was addressing more than 100,000 people at the start of a 36-hour visit to the country, when he spoke about India’s love of the game in the world’s largest cricket stadium.
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But in referencing Sachin Tendulkar, who racked up 100 centuries in Tests and One Day Internationals for India before retiring in 2013, Trump mispronounced the Little Master’s first name.
“This is the country where your people cheer on some of the world’s greatest cricket players, from Sachin Tendulkar to Virat Kohli,” he said, pronouncing the batsman’s name ‘Soo-chin’ rather than ‘Sat-chin’.
The crowd did not seem to mind, loudly cheering the mention of their hero.
Something about Donald Trump's pronunciation of Sachin Tendulkar tells me he isn't a huge cricket fan pic.twitter.com/stFhq46MLx — Andy Silke (@andysilke) February 24, 2020
In his speech, Trump also cited a famous 19th century Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda, but it came out as ’Vivekamumund’, to the delight of the crowd, many of whom wore Trump masks and ‘Namaste (hello) Trump’ hats.
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Trump further tried to praise his host, prime minister Narendra Modi, for achieving high office despite his humble origins as a tea seller, or ‘chai wala’.
“The life of prime minister Modi underscores the limitless promise of this great nation. He started out by his father’s side as a ‘chee wala’, a tea-seller,” Trump said, drawing laughter, cheers and jokes on Twitter.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--Yorkshire Tea Responds Brilliantly After Backlash Over Chancellor Tweet

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Yorkshire Tea has urged people to “be kind” after its staff had to field “furious accusations and boycott calls” when chancellor Rishi Sunak posted about the firm’s famous brew.
In a series of tweets on Monday, the firm has stressed to followers it was not “asked or involved” when the Tory minister posted an image of himself with a 1,040-bag pack of Yorkshire Tea on Friday afternoon.
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Chancellor Rishi Sunak likes Yorkshire Tea Rishi Sunak
“Lots of people got angry with us all the same,” it adds, saying staff were taken aback by the “nastiness” and “furious accusations” directed at the company.
The chancellor had said he was taking a break to make a cuppa for the team and there was “nothing like a good Yorkshire brew”.
Quick Budget prep break making tea for the team. Nothing like a good Yorkshire brew. pic.twitter.com/zhoQM9Ksho — Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) February 21, 2020
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Yorkshire Tea said it was “nothing to do with us” and “people of all political stripes like our brew”.
But scores of boycott threats followed, the company said today, adding: “We’ve spent the last three days answering furious accusations and boycott calls.
“For some, our tea just being drunk by someone they don’t like means it’s forever tainted, and they’ve made sure we know it.
“It’s been pretty shocking to see the determination some have had to drag us into a political mudfight. But it’s been lovely to see others speak up for us - we’re so grateful to everyone who’s done that in a civil way (and gutted to see some use it as a reason for more nastiness).”
The company also underlined that Jeremy Corbyn had posed with Yorkshire Tea before.
The person who manages the firm’s social media went on to say criticism of the firm “got a bit much” and urged people to “please remember there’s a human on the other end” when they post.
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So it's been a rough weekend.
On Friday, the Chancellor shared a photo of our tea. Politicians do that sometimes (Jeremy Corbyn did it in 2017). We weren't asked or involved - and we said so the same day. Lots of people got angry with us all the same. pic.twitter.com/7uVmKDf7Jd — Yorkshire Tea (@YorkshireTea) February 24, 2020
We've spent the last three days answering furious accusations and boycott calls. For some, our tea just being drunk by someone they don't like means it's forever tainted, and they've made sure we know it. — Yorkshire Tea (@YorkshireTea) February 24, 2020
It's been pretty shocking to see the determination some have had to drag us into a political mudfight. But it's been lovely to see others speak up for us - we're so grateful to everyone who's done that in a civil way (and gutted to see some use it as a reason for more nastiness). — Yorkshire Tea (@YorkshireTea) February 24, 2020
Speaking directly now, as the person who's been answering these tweets, I know it could have been much worse. It's easier to be on the receiving end of this as a brand than as an individual. There's more emotional distance and I've had a team to support me when it got a bit much. — Yorkshire Tea (@YorkshireTea) February 24, 2020
But for anyone about to vent their rage online, even to a company - please remember there's a human on the other end of it, and try to be kind. — Yorkshire Tea (@YorkshireTea) February 24, 2020
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The minister, who represents Yorkshire’s Richmond, will deliver his first budget on March 11 after he was swiftly promoted by the prime minister when Sajid Javid resigned in the reshuffle earlier this month.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--Five Before-And-After Pictures That Show The Damage Done By February's Floods

For more than a fortnight parts of Britain have been facing severe flooding and storm damage, with some rivers reaching unprecedented highs.
The waters have risen so far in parts of the country that familiar streets and landscapes have been left unrecognisable.
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From kayakers setting out on a racecourse to deserted high streets, these five pictures show just how much damage has been wrought by back-to-back storms and weeks of downpours:
Worcester Racecourse as it normally appears (left), and the scene on February 23. Google Images / PA Images Jacob King
On Monday there were still two severe flood warnings in place in England alone, with 108 regular flood warnings and more than 200 flood alerts – and conditions are not expected to improve in the short term.
Rainfall is expected to continue hitting areas along the rivers Severn, Wye, Ouse and Trent, while two severe danger-to-life flood warnings were issued for Ironbridge and Shrewsbury in Shropshire, both along the Severn.
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The Salopian Bar in Shrewsbury (pictured far left) pictured in summer (left) and on February 24, 2020 (right). Google Maps / Jacob King_PA Images via Getty Images)
The torrents are contributing to record-high river levels and England has endured more than 141% of its average February rainfall so far, said the Environment Agency.
Authorities have warned that the country needs to prepare “for more frequent periods of extreme weather like this” as a result of climate change.
The Met Office has forecast a week of widespread showery weather, while a warning for ice covering Scotland, Northern Ireland and much of northern England remains in force until 10am on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Downing Street defended prime minister Boris Johnson’s continued absence from flooded areas, with officials insisting it was important not to “distract” from the ongoing effort to deal with the problem.
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The King's Arms, known as 'the pub that floods' in York (picture on the right taken on February 23). Google Maps / Danny Lawson_PA Images via Getty Images
The PM had been receiving “regular updates” about the situation while environment secretary George Eustice is “rightly” leading the government’s response, said No.10.
Caroline Douglass, director of incident management at the EA, said: “Flooding has a long-lasting and devastating impact on people’s lives.
“River levels remain high and communities along the river Severn, in particular Shrewsbury, Bewdley and Ironbridge, should be ready for potential flooding.
West End, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire on a normal day, versus on February 9, 2020 Google Images / The Afghan Rug Shop/Reuters
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“Groundwater levels across parts of Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Sussex are continuing to rise and will lead to more flooding impacts later in the week.
“We have seen our third weekend of exceptional river levels and stormy weather; with the effects of climate change, we need to prepare for more frequent periods of extreme weather like this.
“People need to be aware of their flood risk, sign up to flood warnings, make a flood plan and not to drive or walk through flood water.”
The Duke of Edinburgh Family Inn in Newgale, Pembrokeshire. The picture on the right was taken on February 15, 2020 Google Images / Rebecca Naden/Reuters


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty Of Rape And Sexual Assault

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The disgraced former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein faces up to 25 years behind bars after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault charges on Monday.
The 67-year-old was found guilty of the third degree rape of Jessica Mann, a onetime aspiring actor, and the first degree sexual assault of Miriam “Mimi” Haleyi.
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The New York jury acquitted Weinstein on two counts of predatory sexual assault, which carried a potential life sentence, and first degree rape of Mann. They took five days to reach a verdict.
In the minutes after the verdict was read in court, Weinstein was seen talking to his lead lawyer Donna Rotunno. He appeared expressionless, Reuters reports.
He now faces sentencing but Justice James Burke ordered Weinstein to be held in custody until then and he was put in handcuffs by officers in court.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said at a news conference: “It’s a new day because Weinstein has finally been held accountable.”
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He praised the jurors, saying: “Your verdict turned a page in our criminal justice system.
“To the survivors: I owe and we owe an immense debt of courage to you.”
Harvey Weinstein arrives at a Manhattan courthouse as jury deliberations continue in his rape trial on Monday ASSOCIATED PRESS
The trial represented a milestone in the Me Too era, spanning six weeks of often emotional witness testimony and gruelling cross-examination.
Weinstein pleaded not guilty to the five charges he faced, which stemmed from two incidents: Mann said Weinstein raped her in 2013, and former production assistant Haleyi said he sexually assaulted her in 2006.
Several other women, including former Sopranos actor Annabella Sciorra, also took the stand to demonstrate a pattern of misbehaviour.
Weinstein himself did not take the stand on advice from his attorneys, although he told reporters outside the courtroom that he would have liked to.
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"I'm Harvey Weinstein-- you know what I can do."
Weinstein, whose signature throughout forty years of allegations was lack of accountability, has been declared guilty on two counts. — jodikantor (@jodikantor) February 24, 2020
Jurors required clarification on how to assess the charges shortly after convening to begin deliberations on Tuesday last week, and on Wednesday appeared to hone in on Haleyi’s and Sciorra’s accusations, asking to review materials and testimony.
But by Friday, they still appeared deadlocked on the most serious charges.
Dame Heather Rabbatts, chair of Time’s Up UK, has said that Harvey Weinstein’s conviction “marks a new era of justice” for victims of sexual misconduct.
In a statement to the PA news agency, she said: “This trial – and the jury’s decision today – marks a new era of justice, not just for the Silence Breakers, who spoke out at great personal risk, but for all survivors of harassment, abuse and assault at work.
“We owe a debt of gratitude to the survivors for their bravery and resolve as they faced Harvey Weinstein in court. We continue to believe them – all of them – and continue to be in solidarity with them.”
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Since October 2017, when a pair of bombshell reports in The New York Times and The New Yorker detailed an array of disturbing accusations against the producer, more than 80 women – actors Asia Argento, Rose McGowan, Gwyneth Paltrow and Lupita Nyong’o among their ranks – came forward accusing him of sexual abuse.
But statutes of limitations and other factors prevented the vast majority from pursuing legal action.
The New York trial kicked off dramatically on January 6, when prosecutors in Los Angeles announced their own sex crime charges against Weinstein the same day he showed up to court in Manhattan using a walker for his supposed back pain.
The very next day, Weinstein managed to outrage New York state Supreme Court justice James Burke, who presided over the trial, by bringing four mobile phones into the courtroom in a flagrant violation of Burke’s no-phone rule.
Over 80 women have publicly accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, assault, or rape. Today is for them and the hundreds more who felt safer staying silent. https://t.co/0A8xk1u2mV — Molly Knight (@molly_knight) February 24, 2020
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Testimony in the case was often graphic. At certain points, though, the former mogul appeared to nod off in his seat.
Asked why, Weinstein merely scoffed and said: “Oh, please.”
Both of his main accusers, Haleyi and Mann, took the stand. Haleyi said she met Weinstein at a film premiere and later approached him looking for work. He gave her a job through The Weinstein Company, his now-defunct production outfit, working on the reality TV show Project Runway.
Haleyi said it was shortly before a July 2006 trip to Los Angeles, paid for by Weinstein’s company, that he assaulted her. He invited her to his Manhattan townhouse, pulled a tampon from her body and forcibly performed oral sex, she said.
“I just said: ‘No, no, I don’t want this to happen. This is not going to happen,’” she told the court.
Seven years later, Weinstein allegedly raped Mann, who told the jury she was still relatively new to Hollywood when she met Weinstein at a Los Angeles party, having been raised in a rural part of Washington state.
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During an initial meeting, Mann ended up giving Weinstein a massage so that “he wouldn’t have to touch her,” prosecutor Meghan Hast told jurors.
Harvey Weinstein arrives at the courthouse during jury deliberations in his rape trial on Monday ASSOCIATED PRESS
The producer then dangled movie roles to keep Mann in his orbit. In March 2013, after she invited him to a breakfast meeting at a hotel where she was staying – a Doubletree in midtown Manhattan – he came up to her room, injected himself with an erection medication and raped her.
Jurors were even shown photographs of the disgraced producer’s naked body in order to back up Mann’s descriptions of Weinstein’s “deformed” penis.
Both women said they continued to communicate with the producer afterward for the sake of their careers. Mann’s experience was particularly challenging for prosecutors, though, because her relationship with Weinstein included some consensual sex, which can make it more difficult to prove a rape accusation in a traditional courtroom setting.
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Lead prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon portrayed Weinstein’s contact with his accusers as a way of maintaining control over them, “so that they wouldn’t one day walk out of the shadows and call him exactly what he was: an abusive rapist”.
“He was wrong,” Illuzzi-Orbon said in her closing argument.
We no longer have to use “alleged rapist” for Harvey Weinstein. Now it’s just rapist. He has officially been found guilty. May justice finally be served. #MeToo — Dr. Jennifer Cassidy (@OxfordDiplomat) February 24, 2020
Weinstein’s attorneys, meanwhile, had tried to paint both Haleyi and Mann as liars and unreliable attention-seekers in their cross-examinations.
At one point, Mann broke down in tears after a defence lawyer asked her to read aloud an email she’d sent to an ex-boyfriend describing Weinstein as fatherly, writing that he “always offered to help in ways that my parents didn’t”.
The note revealed that Mann had been sexually abused years before she met the producer, at which point she began to sob. Burke adjourned for the day when the witness appeared to have a panic attack.
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Outside of the courtroom, the defence whipped up a battle for public opinion. But Weinstein’s sole female attorney, Donna Rotunno, largely sparked outrage for making harsh and unfair judgements about women who are victims of sexual assault.
Essentially blaming such victims for making bad choices, she told a New York Times reporter: “I would never put myself in that position,” adding that she “never drank too much” or “put myself in any vulnerable circumstance, ever.”
At trial, the defence team produced emails Haleyi and Mann each sent Weinstein at various points after they said they were assaulted, attempting to show the relationship between Weinstein and his accusers was genial, even “loving”.
Gratitude to the brave women who’ve testified and to the jury for seeing through the dirty tactics of the defense .we will change the laws in the future so that rape victims are heard and not discredited and so that it’s easier for people to report their rapes — Rosanna Arquette🌎✌🏼 (@RoArquette) February 24, 2020
Advocates for sexual assault survivors, however, say it is not uncommon for women to stay in friendly contact with an abuser or to struggle to break off contact, particularly when the abuser holds a position of power over them.
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To bolster their image of Weinstein as a serial abuser, prosecutors called four other women to the stand to share their own stories.
Sciorra told the courtroom that Weinstein managed to get past her doorman, barge into her New York apartment and rape her in late 1993 or early 1994.
“I was punching him, I was kicking him, I was trying to get him away from me,” she testified. Actor Rosie Perez backed up her story, recalling a conversation she had with Sciorra shortly after the incident.
Tarale Wulff, a former waitress and aspiring actress, said Weinstein masturbated in front of her in a stairwell at her workplace in 2005.
Lauren Young, who wanted to be a model but was writing a screenplay, said Weinstein pulled a similar stunt in 2012 after pulling down her dress and groping her breasts.
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Dawn Dunning, another aspiring actress, said Weinstein once slid his hand under her skirt and put his fingers in her vagina during a 2004 business meeting.
“This is how the industry works. How do you think other actresses got ahead?” she said Weinstein once told her.
Before being cast out of Hollywood, Weinstein was a prolific film producer with credits including Shakespeare in Love, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Inglourious Basterds, among many other titles.
Over the past three years – with his production company shuttered and his reputation shredded – he has been forced into a muted life.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson Dies At Age 101

NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson , whose calculations helped America’s first human spaceflight in 1961, has died at the age of 101, the space agency said on Monday.
“At NASA we will never forget her courage and leadership and the milestones we could not have reached without her,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. “We will continue building on her legacy and work tirelessly to increase opportunities for everyone who has something to contribute toward the ongoing work of raising the bar of human potential.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--30 Injured As Car Driven Into Crowd At German Carnival

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More than 50 people were injured when a car was driven into a crowd at a carnival procession in Germany.
The driver, a 29-year-old German citizen who lived locally, was arrested at the scene in Volkmarsen, near Kassel, police said. He is being investigated on suspicion of attempted homicide but has a serious head injury and has not yet been able to face questioning.
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German police said on Tuesday that 35 people, including 18 children, were in hospital, while another 17 had been released. Some had life-threatening injuries.
Fire brigades work close to the site where a car drove into a carnival procession in Volkmarsen near Kassel, central Germany. ELMAR SCHULTEN via Getty Images
A spokesperson for Frankfurt prosecutors, Alexander Badle, said: “The investigation, especially into the circumstances of the crime, continues.
“In particular, no information can yet be provided about a motive. The investigation is exploring all avenues.”
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Peter Beuth, the interior minister for the state of Hesse, added: “This is a terrible act committed against people who simply wanted to celebrate carnival.” He declined to comment on reports that a second person had been detained.
Beuth added that among the injured were children who had come to watch the parade and collect sweets that are traditionally thrown into the crowds at the celebrations.
Chancellor Angela Merkel sent her condolences to those injured in the crash, wishing them a speedy and full recovery.
Emergency responders set up a makeshift clinic in a town pharmacy to treat casualties with minor injuries, the regional Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper reported.
Witnesses said the car drove around a barrier blocking off traffic from the parade, according to the paper.
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Video from the scene showed a silver Mercedes with local licence plates on a pavement, its front windscreen badly smashed and bonnet dented, and its hazard lights blinking, while emergency crews walked by.
Forensic experts could be seen taking photos and measurements around the car, walking around fragments of carnival costumes that littered the ground.
The crash came during the height of nationwide celebrations, with the biggest parades in Cologne, Dusseldorf and Mainz.
All other carnival parades in the central state of Hesse were ended on Monday as a precaution.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--Queer As Folk: Revisiting The Cult Show As It Celebrates A Milestone Birthday

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The reaction when I tell people that I’ve never watched Queer As Folk is invariably one of shock, followed immediately by: “Oh… you’ll love it.”
Despite never having actually seen Queer As Folk, I still know a lot about the show and its impact – namely that it broke new ground in the 90s in terms of queer representation on British TV (and globally, with the show going on to inspire a US spin-off), that it centres around a group of gay friends in Manchester and that there’s a questionable age-gap romance.
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Oh, and there’s rimming in it.
So, as the show celebrated its milestone 21st birthday, it felt like an appropriate time to finally give it a whirl, and watch at least one episode of the show that paved the way for so many other LGBTQ-centric films and TV series that I’ve watched and loved over the years.
So, was every gay man who’s ever told me that I’d “love it” right? Sort of.
Charlie Hunnam, Aiden Gillen and Craig Kelly in Queer As Folk Channel 4
The first thing I have to say after diving straight into the first episode of Queer As Folk is that they were not messing around when it came to those sex scenes. In the past, I’ve heard countless references to the show’s graphic content (including that aforementioned rimming scene), but always assumed people were just talking in comparison to today’s standards.
Not the case at all, as it turns out. Were Queer As Folk to debut in 2020, I’m confident it would still have certain viewers clutching their pearls, and I daren’t imagine what the Daily Mail comments section would have to say about the more explicit moments.
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And as for the infamous rimming scene, the only other time I ever recall the act being mentioned in a scripted series is that Sex And The City episode where Miranda is disgusted by it, then gets into it, but refuses to do it back to the man she’s seeing.
More recent shows like Netflix smash Sex Education, much-loved US series Looking and the Australian comedy Please Like Me have done their bit in terms of depicting other taboo areas of sex between men on screen, but none have “gone there” when it comes to rimming quite as much as Queer As Folk, which is pretty impressive given it came out more than 20 years ago, and the moment in question happens about 15 minutes in.
Speaking of the show’s history, I have to also say that compared to other British shows of its time, Queer As Folk has aged pretty well.
Even in moments that are so deeply rooted in 1999 – Vince chatting about a former conquest who had “every episode of Juliet Bravo on tape”, references to VHS pornography and, indeed, a gym-fit man apparently being a gay scene anomaly – are actually charming, and feel like they’re just painting a deeper picture of when the show is set, rather than making you cringe with their out-datedness.
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And on the subject of nostalgia, the character of teenager Nathan (played brilliantly by a very young Charlie Hunnam) no doubt served as a reminder to so many viewers in 1999 of their first experiences out in an exclusively LGBTQ area - in this case, Manchester’s Canal Street.
Like the character, I was 15 the first time I went out on Newcastle’s gay scene, and seeing Nathan’s combination of feeling nervous and intimidated mixed with relief is something that was very familiar to me.
There’s a lot of conversation about how the LGBTQ scene has changed since the time of Queer As Folk – largely put down to the invention of social media, the prevalence of dating and hook-up apps and the need for greater representations of all queer identities – but the naivety of Nathan (“what do you like?” “I like watching telly”), is something I imagine will be relatable to anyone who has ever had to step out of their comfort zone as a young person to find their own tribe.
But there is, of course, one element of the show which I’m not sure holds up in 2020, and that’s the fact – as mentioned already – Nathan is only 15 years old. Whereas Stuart, who takes him home on his first night out on the gay scene is… well, he’s not 15, is he? In fact, he’s a new father, and his friends’ reaction to the news he’s just had sex with a teenager is “you both had a child on the same night”.
Nathan gets dropped off at school in the first episode of Queer As Folk Channel 4
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Stuart is also completely nonplussed to discover his new pal is actually not just underage but hasn’t even started his GCSEs yet. Neither are his friends, apparently, with Vincent even driving Nathan into school the following morning.
I’ll admit that I only watched the first episode, but from the preview of what was to come, it looked like there was a lot more to come from Stuart and Nathan’s “romance”, and for that reason alone, I’m honestly not sure quite how comfortable I’d be pursuing the show any further.
Queer As Folk obviously broke new ground in terms of queer representation on screen and telling stories of LGBTQ people, and for those who enjoyed it first time around, when there were so few shows like it, it must hold fond and important memories.
Similarly, I’m aware that Nathan’s experience as a teenager is one that a lot of people will relate to, and his is a story worth telling.
But I must admit, the impression I get of what’s to come in the rest of the series is not that Stuart is going to be held accountable for his inappropriate (and illegal) actions any time soon (seriously, not a single one of his friends had anything to say about how etnically – and indeed legally – dubious his actions had been).
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And so I must admit, I’m happy that in 2020, there are a greater variety of queer stories out there besides ones that centre around a love story that makes me so uneasy.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--Why Julian Assange Is In Court After Nearly A Decade In Exile

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared in court on Monday for the first day of an extradition hearing that could see him sent to the US to face espionage charges.
Assange has been in the UK since 2010. For seven years, he claimed asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy, but he was arrested in April.
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Controversially, he remains in custody. This is why.
Who is Julian Assange, and what is WikiLeaks?
Assange, 48, from Townsville, Australia, founded the website WikiLeaks in 2006.
The organisation describes itself as “a multi-national media organi[s]ation and associated library” which “specialises in the analysis and publication of large datasets of censored or otherwise restricted official materials involving war, spying and corruption”.
It is stated on the website that WikiLeaks has published more than 10m documents and associated analysis – the best known being the trove of documents published in 2010 that consisted of confidential documents from the US military.
Assange is accused of working with the former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to leak the documents.
The leak made headlines worldwide when it revealed footage that showed US soldiers shooting 18 civilians dead from a helicopter in Iraq.
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Prior to WikiLeaks, Assange and a friend had been accused of hacking activities as long ago as 1995 – for which he was fined several thousand Australian dollars and managed to avoid a prison term on the condition that he did not reoffend.
He went on to work as a researcher, mostly into the subversive elements of the early internet, and undertook a course in physics and maths at Melbourne University.
Why is he in prison now?
In the simplest terms, Assange is currently being held on remand – that is, awaiting trial – in Belmarsh prison, where he has been since September 2019.
But he was in fact already in jail, having just finished a 50-week sentence for breaching bail conditions by claiming refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Assange was first arrested in the UK back in 2010, when Sweden issued an international arrest warrant because two women had made allegations of rape and sexual assault. He has always claimed that sex in both cases was consensual.
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He was released on bail as the investigation continued. But fearing that Sweden could extradite him to the US if he entered the justice system, he sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London – where he would remain for seven years.
The preliminary rape investigation was dropped in 2017 because Swedish authorities were unable to proceed for as long as Assange remained inside the embassy. It was reopened again in May 2019 when Ecuador’s government abruptly withdrew his asylum status.
But just six months later, the sexual assault and rape claims against Assange were dropped, with Sweden’s deputy chief prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson saying the memories of witnesses had faded almost a decade on – even though the complainant’s evidence was still deemed credible and reliable. Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for breaking his bail conditions and was due to be released on September 22, but was told he would be kept in custody ahead of a US extradition hearing due to concerns about him absconding once again. Which brings us more or less up to date, as the hearing began on Monday.
What is this hearing about?
Assange is appearing at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday for the start of his extradition hearing, during which lawyers for the US authorities will put forward their arguments for why he should be sent to America. It is pretty much the scenario he had tried for so long to avoid while seeking refuge in the embassy.
The US wants to try Assange on espionage charges – 18 in total – relating to the publication of the US documents in 2010. These charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.
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Monday’s appearance marks the start of a week of legal arguments, before the hearing is adjourned. Three weeks of evidence are then scheduled to begin on May 18.
The decision, which is not expected until months later, is likely to be appealed against by the losing side, whatever the outcome.
Why is his extradition so controversial?
US authorities claim the information published by WikiLeaks in 2010 put American lives in danger. But those in support of Assange say he is a journalist who was working in the public interest and that his extradition would contradict both free speech rights and freedom of the press.
Hundreds of people – including Assange’s father and celebrities such as designer Vivienne Westwood and Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters – gathered in central London on Saturday to demand his release.
More than 40 international legal experts have written to prime minister Boris Johnson demanding the “rule of law be upheld”, claiming he has not had proper access to his legal team.
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The letter was handed in to 10 Downing Street on Saturday and also urged the British legal community to act “urgently” to secure Assange’s release.
Supporters of the WikiLeaks founder also appeared outside the court in Woolwich on Monday morning with placards bearing the messages: “Don’t shoot the messenger, free Assange” and: “Free Julian Assange, Nobel Peace Prize nominee.”
One of his supporters, Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis, said Assange was in a “very dark place” due to spending more than 20 hours a day in solitary confinement, and called for the extradition to be stopped “in the interests of 300 years of modernity, 300 years of trying to establish human rights and civil liberties in the west and around the world”.
Didn’t Donald Trump offer to pardon him, anyway?
The suggestion that Trump offered to pardon Assange first emerged during a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on February 19.
Assange’s barrister Edward Fitzgerald QC highlighted evidence alleging former US Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher had been to see Assange in August 2017, while he was still in the Ecuadorian embassy.
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Fitzgerald said Assange was told Trump would offer a pardon – if Assange agreed to say that Russia had not been involved in the leak of Democratic National Committee emails.
Unsurprisingly, almost as soon as the claims were heard, they were strongly refuted by the White House, with press secretary Stephanie Grisham telling reporters: “This is absolutely and completely false.”
The president “barely knows Dana Rohrabacher other than he’s an ex-congressman. He’s never spoken to him on this subject or almost any subject,” she said.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--Italy Cancels More Sporting Matches As Coronavirus Claims Sixth Victim In North Of Country

Police stops cars trying to enter or leave the cordoned area in Casalpusterlengo, northern Italy, on Sunday ASSOCIATED PRESS
Italy has postponed two further sports fixtures as authorities battle to contain the coronavirus outbreak in the north of the country, which has so far killed six people, according to reports.
Teams were due to compete against Welsh club Ospreys and Irish side Ulster on Saturday in the annual Guinness PRO14 rugby union matches.
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But on Monday it was announced they would not go ahead.
Some 50,000 people in Italy are affected by a lockdown in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto.
Prior to Monday’s developments, authorities had already placed restrictions on public gatherings and sporting events there and in Emilia-Romagna.
A Women’s Six Nations game and four Serie A football fixtures were postponed over the weekend.
And Venice’s famed carnival events were cancelled as the number of infected people in the country soared past 200 – the largest number in Europe and the third highest global tally, behind China and South Korea. The sixth death was reported by the Italian state broadcaster RAI but has yet to be confirmed.
The carnival, which draws tens of thousands of visitors to the lagoon city, would have run until Tuesday.
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In addition, fixtures in Italy’s national rugby championship – Top 12 – and all domestic rugby activities have also been postponed ahead of next weekend.
Monday’s announcement means Ospreys will no longer play Zebre at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in Parma on Saturday. Nor will Ulster face Benetton at the Stadio Monigo in Treviso later the same day.
“To ensure the safety of our players and spectators, PRO14 Rugby fully supports the preventative measures taken in Italy and will adhere to the directives from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and local authorities,” read a statement on the PRO14 website.
“The current restrictions are in place until March 1 and PRO14 Rugby will remain in contact with the FIR [Italian Union], Zebre Rugby Club, Benetton Rugby and World Rugby to monitor [the] situation on a daily basis.”
Contingency-planning around the rescheduling of the Round 13 games – Zebre Rugby Club v Ospreys and Benetton v Ulster – are currently underway. — PRO14 RUGBY (@PRO14Official) February 24, 2020
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Milan-San Remo, one of the biggest one-day races in the cycling calendar, could also be in doubt.
Mark Cavendish is among the riders targeting the “monument”, scheduled for March 21.
Mauro Vegni, race director for RCS – which organises the event – told Eurosport: “Our hope is that they can stop or slow down the rate of contagion and we can come back to a normal situation. This is for all Italy and Italian people before we think of the races.
“We’re involved with several events coming up. We’re still optimistic with regard to the first two races – Strade-Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico – if nothing more happens of course, but Milan-San Remo is in a different situation. That’s because it involves an area in Lombardy that has quite a lot of problems at the moment.
“We’ve still got three weeks to go and we hope that the situation gets better. Otherwise it’s difficult to think about a Plan B to be honest.
“If the area of Lombardy remains in the same situation, where the race starts in Milan, I think we must fear that the national health administration and the Italian Olympic committee might ask us to cancel Milan-San Remo.”
The latest WHO report has listed 78 countries with confirmed cases of coronavirus.
Concern was also on the rise in neighbouring Austria, which halted all rail traffic to and from Italy for several hours after suspicion that a train at its southern border with Italy had two passengers possibly infected with the virus on board, authorities said.
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The Foreign Office has not advised Britons against travel to Italy, but has updated its website with factual information about the situation there.
There are no figures as yet as to whether any Britons are affected by the lockdown and are stuck in Italy.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--A Saharan Sandstorm Has Turned The Canary Islands Red And Stranded Brits

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British tourists are slowly returning home after a Saharan sandstorm blowing across the Canary Islands over the weekend turned the popular holiday destination into a Mars-like dystopian landscape.
Red clouds of sand grounded planes flying into and out of the Spanish archipelago’s airports. Departures from Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma and North Tenerife were able to take off on Monday morning, but those departing from South Tenerife continued to be grounded.
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People ride on a fairground attraction in a cloud of red dust in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Earlier, customer service staff at the airports told the PA news agency they had remained open for passengers – despite there being no flights to board.
Passengers wait at Tenerife South Reina Sofia Airport. DESIREE MARTIN via Getty Images
Passengers posted photographs of people sitting on the floor waiting for more information.
A passenger covers his nose and mouth in a cloud of red dust at the airport in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Greg Horsman, 29, was on holiday with his girlfriend and friends on a Tui cruise and was due to fly home to Manchester on Saturday evening.
But they were forced to stay in Gran Canaria for another two nights due to the storm.
A couple walk across a bridge in a cloud of red dust in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. ASSOCIATED PRESS
He told PA: “It’s frustrating. We’re just ready to be home.”
Two people in carnival dress walk across a bridge in a cloud of red dust in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Graham Whiteman, 30, arrived at Las Palmas airport at 5pm on Saturday night, but discovered his Tui flight back to Doncaster – which he was due to be on with his fiancee and her family – had been cancelled.
He said: “We were told we needed to check the boards for updates.
“We didn’t get any and then at 1.30am we found a Tui rep, who then sorted us out with a hotel room on the other side of the island at 4am.
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“We got an email at 7.58am saying a coach would be leaving the hotel at 8.30am to take us to the airport and we’ve been here ever since.”
A passenger plane finally takes off from the Santa Cruz de Tenerife airport on Monday morning. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tim Crew, 69, had booked a holiday to Lanzarote with his family after cancelling their previous holiday to Hong Kong and Thailand because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Their BA flight out of Gatwick Airport on Sunday has been cancelled and the family has been booked into a hotel.
He said: “It’s one of those things, really. If no one had talked to us and if there had been obvious problems and culpability, I’d probably be quite annoyed.
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“But everyone’s done the right thing. The pilot came out a few times and told us in person and apologised, saying they had no more news at the moment and they were going to send us to a hotel.
“It’s not great – it’s not how I planned it [and] it’s not what I want – but these things happen.”
Two people in carnival dress stand beneath a cloud of red dust in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. ASSOCIATED PRESS
A spokesperson for Tui said: “We would like to sincerely apologise to customers for the disruption caused by the adverse and changeable weather conditions in the Canary Islands on February 22 and February 23.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--Body Of Boy, 13, Pulled From Flood-Hit River Near Bishop Auckland

The River Wear in Durham Wikicommons
The body of a teenage boy, believed to be aged 13, has been pulled from a river.
The discovery was made by Durham Police in the River Wear, near Bishop Auckland, on Monday.
“A multi-agency search operation was launched last night following reports that a person had gone into the river near Toronto Bridge,” a spokesperson for the force said.
“Sadly, the body of a teenager was found in the river this morning. Formal identification has yet to take place, but it is believed to be the body of a 13-year-old boy.
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“His family have been informed and our thoughts are with them at this tragic time.”
Police said the death is not being treated as suspicious and a file will be prepared for the coroner.
“We would like to thank our colleagues from Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team, County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service, National Police Air Service (NPAS) and the coastguard for their assistance during the search,” the force added.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--Boris Johnson Has 'Full Confidence' In Priti Patel Amid Bullying Claims

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Boris Johnson has “full confidence” in Priti Patel, the prime minister’s official spokesman has said, amid reports the home secretary bullied staff.
The Sunday Times reported claims the home secretary targeted staff and is distrusted by intelligence chiefs, with MI5 officials allegedly withholding information from her.
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She has also been accused of trying to force out Sir Philip Rutnam, the most senior civil servant in her department, with the two said to have been involved in “blazing rows”.
The government issued a statement on Sunday night after the claims surfaced, saying it was “deeply concerned” by the “false allegations”, while an ally of Patel’s said the home secretary was “absolutely livid”.
The PM’s official spokesperson said on Monday Johnson backed his minister but refused to be drawn specifically on Putnam.
“The prime minister has full confidence in the home secretary and the vital work that she is doing to make our streets safer and to take back control of the UK’s borders,” the spokesperson said.
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But asked whether Johnson had full confidence in the top Home Office civil servant, the spokesperson added: “The prime minister has full confidence in the civil service which is working very hard to deliver on the government’s priorities.”
The Sunday Times claimed the home secretary has not been receiving the same security and intelligence briefings as her predecessors because MI5 officials do not trust her.
A government spokesman said Patel and MI5 had “a strong and close working relationship, and baseless claims to the contrary are both wrong and against the public interest”.
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It has been reported that Patel is demanding an inquiry after the reports.
Security minister James Brokenshire, meanwhile, described the reports as “absolute nonsense”.
He said there was “huge frustration” across the Home Office around some of the “false assertions that have been made publicly”.
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“I don’t accept those assertions that have been seen in the press about the home secretary,” he told Sky News.
“Yes, she is demanding, but in that role you have to be because you are dealing with some of the most sensitive, some of the most challenging things that you have to deal with across government.
“I think the home secretary is absolutely focused on the public good, the agenda that we’ve set around policing, on immigration and indeed around counter-terrorism and security.”
There are thought to be increasing tensions between the civil service and the government over recruitment and treatment of staff, with the PM’s aide Dominic Cummings thought to be central.
The Cabinet Office is recruiting a new civil servant to oversee HR policy for government ministers’ special advisers.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-24--Michael Bloomberg Confirms He Used Prison Labour To Make 2020 Campaign Calls

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Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been exploiting prison labour to make calls on behalf of his campaign, The Intercept reported on Wednesday.
The Bloomberg campaign contracted a call centre company named ProCom through a third-party vendor to conduct the calls, according to the report. ProCom operates call centres in New Jersey and Oklahoma, and two of its Oklahoma centres operate out of prisons.
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A source told The Intercept that some people incarcerated at the Dr Eddie Warrior Correctional Center, a minimum-security women’s prison in Oklahoma that houses one of the call centres, have made calls for the Bloomberg 2020 campaign.
“The people were required to end their calls by disclosing that the calls were paid for by the Bloomberg campaign,” reporter John Washington wrote. “They did not disclose, however, that they were calling from behind bars.”
Bloomberg confirmed the report in a statement Tuesday but said he knew nothing about prison labourers being used to make calls on his behalf. He said he “immediately” ended the campaign’s relationship with ProCom and the vendor that acquired their services.
Bloomberg campaign responds to that Intercept story. pic.twitter.com/CYdbcNwZev — Asma Khalid (@asmamk) December 24, 2019
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Bloomberg is among the pool of remaining candidates vying for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, but he has failed to gain much traction since announcing his candidacy in November.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-28--What Will The Friends Reunion Look Like? | Good Vibes Only

What Will The Friends Reunion Look Like? | Good Vibes Only
This week in the world of entertainment, the cast of Friends confirm they are officially reuniting for a one-time HBO special, Love Is Blind is the ridiculous concept dating show to jump on now Love Island is over, Pixar’s Onward will feature their first LGBT+ character and Disney Plus is coming the UK… with some important things missing.