thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Friendly Emails From Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Do Not Make Them Liars

Mary had been texting and talking on the phone with the man for about a year. Now, on the verge of meeting him for the first time, she felt a mix of nerves and excitement. He was 31, a decade older than her. After a few months of messages back and forth, they’d started talking about sex. She was a virgin, but he was never pushy.
But when Mary arrived at the man’s Washington, DC apartment in December 2017, she says, he immediately began to kiss her aggressively. She told him she wanted to leave, but according to Mary, he pushed her up against a wall and said she owed him sex. Then, she says, he pushed her onto his bed and raped her while she lay there, frozen.
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After the assault, he told Mary she looked beautiful, and she called an Uber home. Then she did something that surprises her to this day: She texted her abuser to say that she had a great time, and would be free later in the week. Though they never saw each other again, they kept in touch over the next month.
As Mary processed what had happened, she considered filing a police report, but the thought of those messages stopped her. She thought about her texts being read aloud in a courtroom, and how they would make everyone doubt her credibility.
“I could see it playing out so clearly in my head,” Mary, who asked that her real name not appear in this story, told HuffPost in an email, “and felt there was no point in putting myself and my family through that.”
Mary is now watching her worst fears play out on a national stage, as disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault trial has entered its second week. Donna Rotunno, his defence attorney, has suggested she will cite “friendly” emails from the two women involved in the case as evidence that their allegations of forced oral sex and rape are false. She will likely make the argument that it’s not possible for a true rape victim to write a message to her abuser like “Miss you big guy,” or “I love you, always do. But I hate feeling like a booty call. :)” She’ll likely ask jurors if Mimi Haleyi, a former production assistant, could really have been assaulted if she tried to see Weinstein a few months later, especially if she signed her messages with “Lots of love.”
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Prosecutors are likely to call on an expert witness to explain how trauma affects a person’s behaviour. But the seemingly affectionate emails could persuade jurors that Weinstein’s accusers are liars. Many people think abuse victims always fight off their attackers, cut off contact and report the abuse immediately, not that they send smiley faces and wait years to report the assault. But in reality, psychologists and victim advocates say, it’s common for survivors to stay in touch with their abusers. And until jurors understand why, victims will never have a fair day in court.
Why Victims Send Friendly Texts
There’s a false stereotype that people who commit sexual assault are always strangers who sneak up on their victims in dark alleys. But more than 80% of sexual assault survivors know their abusers. Victims often feel a sense of cognitive dissonance when trying to process how the person who violated them also told them they were pretty, listened to their problems or took care of them.
Abusers will also deliberately confuse or gaslight their victims after an assault by giving them compliments, asking to see them again or acting like nothing happened, said Veronique Valliere, a Pennsylvania-based psychologist who specialises in sexual assault.
Survivors often minimise the abuse or blame themselves to try to preserve the good aspects of their relationship with the abuser, Valliere said. This phenomenon is most pronounced in children who are sexually assaulted by family members. A kid in that position might subconsciously suppress the abuse in order to survive, since they rely on the perpetrator for food, shelter and love, said Jennifer Freyd, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon. (Freyd coined the term “betrayal blindness” to describe this behaviour.) The same reaction can happen between two adults, especially in relationships that involve uneven power dynamics.
Weinstein was one of Hollywood’s most powerful moguls, a man who could easily make or break anyone’s career in the entertainment business. The 100 or more women he allegedly abused, many of them aspiring actresses or models, “couldn’t afford to alienate” him, said Freyd, who is not involved in the case. She said ambitious survivors might have suppressed the abuse, consciously or unconsciously, because confronting Weinstein could have led to their dreams being destroyed.
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They might also have been scared for their safety. Most people have heard of the “fight or flight” response to danger. But other reactions can include “freeze” and “fawn,” according to TL Robinson, who recently launched a company to help victims connect with one another after an assault. To “fawn,” Robinson said, “is a way to try and manage the effects of the danger (or trauma) by minimising its severity.”
The two women in Weinstein’s court case have not explained why they sent him friendly messages after the alleged assaults. But psychologists told HuffPost it could have been an attempt to deescalate the situation and maintain a good working relationship with Weinstein, especially since women are conditioned all their lives to be nice.
Anne, a survivor who asked to be identified by her middle name, said that the day after she was sexually assaulted in 2009, she sent her abuser “some lame jokey text” because she had left in the middle of the night and didn’t want to come across as “rude or bitchy.”
Anne also thought texting the man could wallpaper over her bad feelings. She was 18 at the time, and initially blamed herself for what had happened.
“I wanted to replace the interaction with new, better memories,” she said. “It was a wound and I thought I could just fill it up.”
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It’s common for survivors to internalise certain myths about rape, and to feel responsible for what happened to them. After James (not his real name) was raped at age 17, he texted his abuser to apologise for what had happened. Though he had begged his perpetrator to stop, at the time James blamed himself for being drunk, flirting with the guy and going to his home.
Some of Weinstein’s accusers might have gone through a similar process of self-blame, said Joan Cook, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. She said that rather than responding with anger, they might have asked themselves: “Everyone knew about Harvey, why didn’t I know about Harvey?” Or: “Did I smile at him that one time?”
Controlling The Narrative Of Her Assault
Mary desperately wanted her first time having sex to be special. Sending her abuser messages about having a “great time” was a way of trying to persuade herself it had been.
“The thought that my first sexual experience had been rape was too much to bear,” she told HuffPost, “so I did everything I could to convince myself it was normal, including continuing to talk to him.”
But when she started suffering from panic attacks and depression a month after the assault, she began to admit something bad had happened to her. She blocked her abuser’s number and stopped using Tinder. She became paranoid around men. She’s now in a committed relationship, but on December 11, 2018 ― the anniversary of her assault ― she could barely get out of bed, and the same thing happened the following year.
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Mary doesn’t think the legal system would have brought her justice, since most people still don’t understand how trauma can affect a survivor’s behaviour. But she hopes the jurors in Weinstein’s case will see the accusers’ text messages as further proof of his power over them, not as evidence they are lying.
“It would be great to see someone as powerful as him go down,” she said. “I think it would bring hope to other survivors.”
Rape Crisis services for women and girls who have been raped or have experienced sexual violence - 0808 802 9999


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Discarded Plastic And Uneaten Food: The Shameful Story Of Waste On Planes

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Boarding a plane, you settle into a seat, perhaps pulling a blanket and pillow from plastic wrapping to get more comfortable. You take the flimsy plastic headphones offered by the flight attendant, accept some juice in a plastic bottle, with a plastic glass and stirrer, and settle in to pick at the in-flight meal, arranged in an assortment of plastic containers, using the plastic cutlery you’ve unwrapped from its plastic packet.
It’s a familiar scene for those who fly, especially on long-haul flights, and it’s a big environmental problem.
“The sheer amount of waste that comes from inside the planes is staggering,” says David (not his real name), a flight attendant for a regional carrier owned by American Airlines. “Plastic cups, cans and boxed juices, some of them opened and maybe one cup poured from them then thrown out, plastic wrappers for snacks, cocktail straws, napkins ... and none of it recycled,” he tells HuffPost. “This all comes on top of the environmental impact the flight alone has.”
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RUBEN RAMOS via Getty Images A in-flight meal on board a flight from Europe to America in economy class.
As more people are becoming aware of aviation’s intensive carbon footprint ― it’s responsible for 2% of global human-caused carbon emissions ― a growing number have started to question whether they should be flying at all. The “flight shame” movement, bubbling up from the Nordic countries, is gaining strength across the world as it becomes more common for people to say they are cutting back on flying, with some quitting altogether.
But even as flygskam (Swedish for flight shame) becomes a recognisable term, global passenger numbers are not falling. Around 4.3 billion passengers flew in 2018, up 6.1% from the previous year, and around 4.5 billion passengers flew in 2019. Passenger numbers will nearly double by 2037, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts.
And as more people fly, the sheer scale of the waste they produce on board is becoming its own environmental disaster.
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In 2018, airlines generated around 6.7 million tons of cabin waste according to IATA. A study at London’s Heathrow Airport in 2012 and 2013 found the average passenger generated 3.1 pounds of waste across long- and short-haul flights.
Wicki58 via Getty Images Leftovers of airline food in a large waste container from in-flight service.
Plastic is a big part of this waste stream, and a staggering problem globally. Only around 9% of the 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste we have produced has been recycled. Plastic waste pollutes our water, air and food, and has been found everywhere from the deepest parts of the ocean, to pristine mountain air, to a whale’s stomach.
There’s also food waste. Between 20% to 30% of the total waste is untouched food and drink, according to IATA. The remnants of a plane load of people’s unappetising onboard meals pretty much always goes the same way as everything else: into the trash cart, destined for landfill or incineration.
“That’s the upsetting part about flying,” Megan Epler Wood, director of the International Sustainable Tourism Initiative at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, tells HuffPost ― appropriately enough from a layover in Miami. “They’re just throwing everything into one bag. And there’s no effort to separate, which means you know they’re not recycling because they can’t. Once the plastic or anything else becomes contaminated, it can’t be recycled.”
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People often overlook the fact that waste is also a climate issue, says Epler Wood, pointing to the emissions it takes to produce the plastic, food and other items that end up as cabin waste. “All of that has actually not been factored in to the overall question of how much greenhouse gas is being emitted [when flying].”
“In training we asked about recycling and were laughed at.” - David, a flight attendant
David says despite being an employee on the front line of this waste, even bringing it up with his employer is hard. “In training we asked about recycling and were laughed at, probably because of the pressure we have as flight attendants to turn these flights around so quickly. How do I have time to recycle when I have 27 minutes to get everyone off and the next flight boarded?”
Airlines are trying to make changes. But it’s slow.
Some airlines are taking steps to tackle the onboard waste problem. Australian carrier Qantas launched what it claimed was the first “zero waste” commercial flight in May 2019, between Sydney and Adelaide. All the waste produced onboard was either recycled, reused or composted. Plastic items were swapped out for reusable or compostable materials and stewards separated all the waste they collected.
In Europe, Air France has pledged to cut out 210 million pieces of plastic (such as cutlery, cups and drink stirrers) used on flights and to eliminate 1,300 tons of single-use plastics annually. Plastic products will be swapped out for alternatives including paper cups, bio-based cutlery and wooden stirrers. And, with European Union financing, Spanish airline Iberia co-launched the Zero Cabin Waste project aiming to recover 80% of the waste generated in flight cabins. As part of that, last May the airline brought in more than 500 trolleys with compartments to allow waste to be collected separately.
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In the U.S., Alaska Airlines has pledged to reduce the in-flight waste per passenger going to landfill by 70% by 2020. On June 5, 2019, United Airlines flew what it called “the most eco-friendly commercial flight of its kind in the history of aviation,” which included zero cabin waste. And JetBlue has initiated an onboard recycling program to sort and recycle bottles and cans served on domestic flights.
A spokesperson for American Airlines, which owns the carrier David works for, told HuffPost it has had an aluminium recycling plan since 1989 and that “we have eliminated all plastic straws, instead offering a stir stick made of sustainable, environmentally friendly bamboo.” The airline says it’s currently looking for other cost-neutral biodegradable materials.
ASSOCIATED PRESS JetBlue's efforts to reduce in-flight waste include a recycling program to sort and recycle bottles and cans served on domestic flights.
But many of the moves are slow and ad hoc, in no small part because plastic has the advantage of being both light and cheap.
There’s a strong demand from airlines for new materials, says Jon Godson, the assistant director for environment best practices at IATA, but finding them is far from simple.
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London-based design company PriestmanGoode, which has been working with the aviation sector for two decades, has designed an economy meal tray out of edible, biodegradable and compostable materials such as coffee grounds, algae, bamboo and rice husk.
“The idea is to show that there are alternatives that we can explore,” Anna Meyer, the company’s head of communications, says of the concept design currently on display at the London Design Museum. But, she says, “the reality is there isn’t a simple solution, there isn’t a single material that can replace everything.”
PriestmanGoode. The economy meal tray designed by PriestmanGoode is made from materials including coffee grounds and husks, wheat bran, banana leaf and coconut wood.
It would be best not to have disposable items at all, says Godson, but materials like glass and metal cutlery, for example, are heavier, meaning a plane will burn more fuel and emit more carbon dioxide. They would also require washing which means detergents and possibly more pollution. “We want to ensure that the sustainability benefits [of any replacement materials] are proven,” Godson says.
It’s not just a problem for airlines to solve
To make a real difference, the systems also need to be in place for dealing with these waste flows, whatever the material. That means it’s not just about what happens on airplanes, but what happens at airports.
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“It’s really up to the airports, because if the airlines have nowhere to put the waste, there is almost nothing they can do,” Epler Wood noted.
And it’s a very mixed bag when it comes to airports’ progress on waste. “San Francisco has done the best job,” she says. “They have a zero-waste policy that’s been in place longer than other airports and have the facilities in place to make sure they’re lowering the waste.” The airport aims to be the world’s first zero-waste airport by 2021. This will mean diverting 90% of waste from landfill and incineration by using materials that can be recycled or composted.
She also cites Hong Kong, which has pledged to be the greenest airport in the world. The airport has an on-site anaerobic food digester which can convert food waste to energy. It has also implemented a series of measures aimed at reducing cabin waste including conducting in-flight waste separation trials.
Regulation, however, can present a big obstacle. Some countries, especially those with a big agricultural sector including the U.S. and the U.K., treat waste coming in from international flights as hazardous and mandate that it be incinerated or buried deep in landfills. The aim is to prevent the spread of diseases affecting animals.
IATA has warned that without better regulation, cabin waste levels could double over the next decade.
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“There’s a strong incentive for us to reduce the waste in the first place,” says Godson. “I think that’s critical. But when it comes to reuse and recycling, then we smack straight into animal health regulations around the world.” It’s often easiest to classify everything on the flight as hazardous, he adds.
“We’ve seen many airlines that have replaced single-use plastics, with more sustainable solutions such as bamboo, paper, cardboard cutlery, the whole variety of different biodegradable options, only to see that material incinerated on landing.”
Alphotographic via Getty Images The waste from a meal on an Emirates flight.
Individuals can reduce their waste — but we can’t solve this crisis Is there anything can individuals do? We can bring reusable water bottles, coffee cups and even utensils with us. IATA recommends not putting waste in seat pockets, refusing food and beverages you know you don’t want and pre-ordering meals when possible.
David even had one passenger who took her own bottles off the plane so she could recycle them ― but, he says, she is very much in the minority. “When people come on those planes, they do not think about the trash that they generate, and when you look at the conditions the cabin is left in when people get off the plane … trash is all over the floor, shoved into the pockets, and they don’t think about it.”
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There’s plenty of academic evidence that people who recycle at home don’t even think to do it when they travel, says Epler Wood. “And I see that all the time … even with what I would call highly enlightened citizens.”
Regardless, individual actions can’t solve what is a systemic problem requiring systemic answers. “We’re stuck in a system where we are going to take the aircraft that suits our needs for our particular trip. And we’re going to use the airport that we need to use,” says Epler Wood.
David says, as things are, he feels powerless and desperately hopes that if more people are aware of the problem of cabin waste, airlines might be pushed to do more.
“Planes are not going away, and taking a flight is one of the largest contributors to a person’s carbon footprint. Recycling and reducing the amount of plastics on the planes would help reduce that footprint for every passenger on board. I know it would help me feel a little less bad for just passing the trash along knowing it will just end up in a landfill.”
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--How Susie Wolff Plans To Get More Girls Into The Racing World

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Susie Wolff’s eyes are drilling into mine. We’re sitting in the Monaco office of Venturi Racing, the steep cliff holding up the famous royal palace visible in the window behind her. Needing to sit still for a few moments for the HuffPost UK camera, Wolff has spontaneously challenged me to a staring contest.
She’s poised, a slight smile on her mouth. I crumble in about two seconds, and blink furiously as my opponent bursts into laughter.
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This is a woman whose steely focus has driven her through life, from karting as a small girl, to Formula One tracks, to leading a Formula E team.
Wolff tells a well-worn anecdote about her first go-karting race, which she didn’t much enjoy after being jostled about on the track. Her father laid out two options: to pack up and go home or to get back on the track and hit the other racers as hard as they were hitting her. And to go faster.
“I think you can all guess which option I went for,” she says with a grin. Go faster she did. Quite often faster than all the boys, much to their surprise.
While you can’t tell the gender of a racing driver when everyone has their helmets on, Wolff was given her fair share of pink helmets and cars, making her a target on the track for boys frustrated to be losing to a girl.
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HuffPost UK "I never remember thinking, "I'm the only girl." I always remembered just going racing and trying to win."
After coming up through the karting world, Wolff began her professional career in the Formula Renault UK Championship. She landed on the winner’s podium three times, a few times alongside future F1 superstar Lewis Hamilton. She was twice nominated for British Young Driver of the Year Award, an accolade she also shares with Hamilton.
But the realities of being the only woman on track were starting to bite. One moment sticks with Wolff when she qualified for the World Championships. She had finished in 15th place, a good result, but she wasn’t on the podium.
When she heard her name through the loudspeakers, there was confusion on her team as to why she was being called. She ran to the award ceremony, only to be pulled on to stage to accept an award for ‘Best Female in the World’.
“I remember being really embarrassed because I think there was only three or four girls in the whole competition and I wasn’t there to be the best female, I was there to try and win,” says Wolff. “That was the first time I recognised: ‘Oh I’m different. They see me as something different.’”
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But she didn’t let the extra attention – and criticism – get to her. Wolff moved into Formula 3, then drove for Mercedes-Benz in DMT, the German touring car series where she competed for six years before the Williams Formula One team came calling. She was named as a development driver for the team and in 2014 it was announced she’d be driving two free practice sessions at the British and German Grands Prix. It had been 22 years since a woman had driven a Formula One car. All eyes were on Wolff.
“I recognised there was a lot riding on it. I recognised also that there were many people kind of let’s say, expecting me to fail or maybe even wanting me to fail. But I was just so proud to be in a Formula One car and so thankful for the opportunity that I saw it more as my chance to show what I could do as opposed to being too nervous about what was possible.”
Wolff had to stop after one lap due to technical issues with the car, a disappointing turn of events after the build up and one which she gently brushed off in the many interviews she was asked to give after her lap.
But in 2015, Wolff decided to retire from F1.
Charles Coates via Getty Images Susie Wolff during practice for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in 2015
“I could sense that my dream was slipping away and I very much wanted to stop at the peak of my career, not slide down the other side,” she says of that moment. “So it was actually a very easy decision to make. I’m someone that relies on my gut feeling a lot. And my gut feeling said: “It’s time to stop now.”
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Even someone with so many accomplishments under her belt had a moment of feeling lost. “The aftermath wasn’t so easy because I’d spent my life racing, I was a racing driver, and suddenly my whole identity had been stripped away.
She remembers attending a gala with her husband – Toto Wolff, former racer, now CEO of the Mercedes team – a few months after her retirement. “A gentleman asked me: ‘So what do you do?’ And I suddenly thought, ‘Well, what do I do? I’m not a racing driver.’ And that really led me on a path to discovery.”
That path led her to Formula E. The world of electric motorsports is in its sixth year, with major manufacturers bringing their teams to compete on city tracks around the world. The 10 teams each have two drivers and compete in identically set-up, electric battery-powered race cars. There are hopes that the innovation driven forward by the competition will trickle down to the big commercial motor manufacturers and that tech developed at Formula E could be in your electric car in a few years. As well as this eco-conscious push, Formula E is already more diverse than its established older brother F1.
Wolff launched ‘Dare To Be Different’, which joined with the FIA’s Girls On Track in its goal of bringing more girls into the world of motorsport – not just in the driver’s seat but in all areas of racing, from engineering to media training.
“I was at the Formula One in Abu Dhabi, there’s 20 drivers on the grids, but there’s around, I mean, take a rough guess, 4,000 to 6,000 people just to make that event happen. So we don’t need to be focused just on getting women on the race track. It’s definitely an area we definitely have to work of increasing the talent pool, but we’ve got to make our sport as a whole more diverse.”
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Wolff shies away from saying girls need only women role models – rather that seeing someone who has drive, who has passion, is important, regardless of their gender. She does hope future competitors will be free of the limitations that marked out her experience in the motorsport world when she was a driver.
“I hope that they have more role models that they can look up to and that they can learn from. And I hope that there’s more of them, because I think when the environment becomes more diverse, it becomes easier.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--I Was On My Seventh Foster Home. Then A Family I Barely Knew Took Me In

HuffPost UK Courtesy of The Moth
I was twelve years old, and I was in my third foster home. And my very first foster father had just called.
He called to say that he was very sorry to hear about my mother. But what he didn’t know was that nobody had told me she was dead.
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I was in foster homes because my parents drank. They weren’t bad people; I always felt loved. But when they weren’t drinking, they were better parents. And they were drinking more and more frequently.
Eventually people started to notice. I never noticed, because I didn’t have another childhood to compare it to. So when I got taken out of my home, I was very confused and upset.
When I found out that she had died, I just got empty – hollowed out. And then when no one else called to say that she had died, I started to get really angry.
You know, like, burn-the-world angry.
And being a kid, a black kid, in foster homes in Maine, and burn-the-world angry, there’s not a lot of foster homes that wanna hang on to you for very long.
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I started going through ’em pretty quick. I learned the magic number was five. If you get to five foster homes, you’re marked. You’re trouble.
So you can’t get placement, and you are homeless. And then you go into shelters. You can only stay in a shelter for thirty days, and then you’re on to the next, and on to the next.
This is affectionately called the “shelter shuffle.”
The education you get in the shelter is nothing to mention. When I was a little boy, I remember my father telling me that, because I am black, I will have to be twice as smart as the smartest white man in the room to get recognised half as much.
So education was always a very important thing to me. I knew I had to straighten out. When I was fourteen, and I got my seventh foster home, I knew I had to hang on to this for dear life, no matter the cost.
“When I was a little boy, I remember my father telling me that, because I am black, I will have to be twice as smart as the smartest white man in the room to get recognised half as much.”
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I get to my seventh foster home. The caseworker drops me off. I bring all my stuff into the room, my room, which was in the basement (they’re almost always in the basement).
And I’m really nervous, because I don’t wanna mess this up. So I go up onto the porch, and I light a cigarette.
The foster father comes out, and then it hits me that maybe this man, that the state has put in charge of me, might have something to say about this. But he doesn’t. Instead he leans on the railing with me and lights his own cigarette.
I think, This is beautiful. This is just me and him, watching the sun set over the pines. Beautiful, beautiful.
He turns to me, and he says, “Yep. I never had no problem with coloureds.”
And I think, Well, with an attitude like that, how could you?
So this man, it turns out, wasn’t the prince you might think. There was another foster child there, and he was twelve years old, and he had foetal alcohol syndrome, and this man liked to torture him. The man also had a dog who was old and dying, and he liked to kick the dog.
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It wasn’t going well, and it becomes this frustration where this is your life, and you can’t do anything about it. I can’t help the kid. I can’t help the dog. I can’t help myself.
It’s like you’re starving to death, and there’s one source of food, and it’s this apple down between these rocks. You can reach your hand in and grab it, but you can’t pull it out while holding it. And this is your life.
But on the bus to school, there was this cute little brunette named Jenny, sitting by herself, nose in a book. And that was usually what I would do. So one day I asked her if she wanted to be loners together.
She laughed. And I have to tell you that it is so great to have somebody in your life who laughs.
“I was abandoned, and completely alone, and nobody had my back. This was when the panic set in.”
So I’m talking to her on the bus every day, and pretty soon we’re talking every night on the phone. And that’s going really well, but back at the foster home, things are getting worse and worse and worse. There’s this family get-together, and during dinner the foster father blows up at me, and he calls me a black bastard in front of everybody in the room.
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It wasn’t the first time I’d heard a racial slur out of his mouth. But it wasn’t that. It was the rage in his voice. And the fact that there was a roomful of people, and when I looked at every pair of eyes in the room, they all just went to the floor.
I was abandoned, and completely alone, and nobody had my back. This was when the panic set in. Where it was finally too hard to stay. I had to go.
So the next morning my caseworker drops me off at the shelter. And at this point I’m completely accepting of this, because I’m not gonna get an eighth foster home. It’s very clear I’m not gonna make it three more years at this place, so this is the best I’m gonna do.
But I take my allotted phone time at night, and I still call Jenny. I don’t tell her where I am, because I just lost my one chance to go to college. And because I move so much, I’ve lost every friend I’ve ever had, including her.
She just doesn’t know it yet.
And as long as I can keep her on the phone, she won’t.
But eventually, it slips out. And I can’t remember what she said. I just remember getting empty again and hanging up.
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I wait the next week to call her, and almost immediately she hands the phone to her father. Now, at this point I’ve had a lot of conversations in my life about “Don’t call the house again,” “Don’t come by here,” “You’re a bad influence.” But that’s not the conversation I have.
What he says to me is, “Would you like to come live with us?”
Now, when I tell you that, you need to understand that my relationship with Jenny had been only on the phone or on the bus. She’d never been to my house. I’d never been to hers. And her father, who I’m talking to right now, had never even met me.
He’d never seen my face. The first contact we’re having is right now, on the phone.
So when he asked me if I wanna do this, my visceral gut reaction is, Hell no. Because I have actual blood relatives that did not take me in when I went into foster care. No family had ever done me any good.
But my father raised me from a very young age to know it’s okay to be scared but not to ever be stupid.
So I said, “Yes.”
My caseworker drops me off at Jenny’s, and it is a huge, beautiful place. Everybody there has huge, beautiful smiles. Her father, her mother. Her four siblings.
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A bigger bunch of overachievers in your life you have never seen. None of them had seen an A-minus, ever. And this was the time when I realised that, for the first time in my life, I am in way over my head. Because prior to this, everything had been about survival. But this was gonna have to be about betterment, and achievement.
While this is all happening, my father is trying to prove to the state that he’s got his act together, and eventually we get to a place where we get a supervised visit.
Now, supervised visit means this: it’s him and me and a caseworker in a very stale, fluorescently-lit office. And I am petrified, because I’ve always lived by these little credos that my father has taught me.
But there’s a part of me that thinks, Uh, I might have made this up just to get through. Maybe he’s the drunk jerk that they think he is. But I need him to be the man that I think he is.
“A bigger bunch of overachievers in your life you have never seen. None of them had seen an A-minus, ever.”
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I get in there. And he’s the man I think he is.
So eventually we get a visit where he gets to come to Jenny’s. And he comes, and they are naturally protective of me and a little trepidatious about this.
They have an old piano, and I mention, “My father plays the piano.”
What I don’t say is that my father is a world-class jazz pianist. So when he sits down to play the piano, the only thing more beautiful than the sound coming out, is the sound of all of the family’s jaws hitting the floor at once.
And in what was a really surreal moment for them, he becomes real to them as well. And they begin to champion me and him getting together, and after a while I go back to live with him.
Eventually I go to college. And the other day, I was talking to Jenny about this very thing, and I told her that the thing that sticks with me about it is that I was a really angry kid. I wasn’t a good kid. These people took me in. And by no means did I pay them back with kindness when I was there. I was still very, very angry.
And it hangs on me that I didn’t treat them as well as they treated me.
Jenny said, “I don’t remember you being a bad kid. I think you’re being too hard on yourself.”
And I can’t tell if she’s right, and I am being too hard on myself, or if she’s just as kind as somebody raised by her parents should be.
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Samuel James is a world-touring musician and the creator of kittyCritic, a music/comedy web series. You can listen to Samuel’s story on The Moth website, and purchase their latest book, Occasional Magic, here.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-19--Labour Putting John Bercow Forward For A Peerage, Report Says

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Labour is nominating former Commons speaker John Bercow for a peerage, according to reports.
Sources in the opposition party did not deny the claim to the PA news agency, and declined to comment on the situation.
Such a move would be remarkable given that Bercow was a Tory MP, before being elevated to presiding over the main Parliamentary chamber.
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Bercow drew fire from a number of prominent Brexiteers over the past few years as he was accused on helping support a Remain agenda in the Commons.
It was reported that Tory high command was so angered by Bercow’s stance that it took the highly unusual decision not to offer a retiring Commons speaker a place in the House of Lords.
Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves the Labour Party offices in London, Monday Jan. 6, 2020, after a meeting of the party's National Executive Committee. The opposition Labour Party will announce its new leader on April 4. (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP) ASSOCIATED PRESS
However, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has stepped in and nominated Bercow for a peerage, according to the Sunday Times.
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The newspaper also stated that Corbyn had also put forward former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, with whom he had an often tense working relationship, for a peerage.
Corbyn’s former key aide and chief of staff Karie Murphy has also been nominated for a place in the upper house, according to the report.
Labour sources would not comment on any of the claims.
The newspaper said that the trio appear on an eight-strong list of dissolution honours nominations put forward by the Labour chief, who will quit his post in April after leading the party to two successive general election defeats.
Vetting will begin on the nominations soon, the newspaper said.
A very reasonable view don’t you think? https://t.co/8SQFxSQ7DA — Siobhain McDonagh MP (@Siobhain_Mc) January 18, 2020
A nomination for Murphy could also prove controversial given the inquiry into alleged instances of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
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Labour MP, and longstanding critic of Corbyn, Siobhain McDonagh, endorsed a Tweet by the group Hope Not Hate, which stated: “No one who is a subject in the EHRC investigation should be ennobled before the full EHRC report is released.”
Referring to the Tweet, McDonagh said: “A very reasonable view don’t you think?”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Will No Longer Use HRH Titles

Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Samir Hussein via Getty Images
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will no longer use their HRH titles or receive public funds for royal duties, the couple have announced as talks about their future in the royal family concluded. They will also repay £2.4 million of taxpayer’s money spent on renovating their Berkshire home, Frogmore Cottage.
The Queen said in a statement: “Following many months of conversations and more recent discussions, I am pleased that together we have found a constructive and supportive way forward for my grandson and his family. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved members of my family.”
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Buckingham Palace said under the new arrangement agreed with Harry and Meghan they are “required to step back from royal duties” and will no longer receive public funds for them.
The couple will become known as Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, from the spring.
Although they will not use their HRH titles, they will still retain them. Harry, who was born a prince of Wales, will remain a prince.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced on 8 January they were stepping back from senior royal duties and plan to divide their time between the the UK and North America.
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The couple’s unexpected announcement prompted speculation about the reasons behind their decision. The pair have faced years of scrutiny from parts of the media – and racist abuse from the public, especially online.
Meghan Markle is currently taking legal action against the Mail on Sunday and its parent company, Associated Newspapers. The newspaper is accused of unlawfully publishing one of Meghan’s private letters to her father. The Mail on Sunday argues publishing the letter was justified and says there is a “huge and legitimate” public interest in the “personal relationships” of the royals.
Earlier this week, a study for HuffPost UK by analysts at the University of Sunderland revealed hundreds of racist and sexist tweets aimed at Meghan following the couple’s decision to step back.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Police Investigating 'At Highest Level' As Reports Of Two Incidents Near Harry Dunn RAF Base Emerge

Footage of a vehicle on the wrong side of the road near an RAF base has prompted urgent discussions in light of the death of Harry Dunn in a separate incident nearby.
The video of the near miss near RAF Croughton emerged as police revealed details of a separate incident in which a police vehicle was struck by a car being driven on the wrong side of the road in October.
The video, reported to Northamptonshire Police on Saturday, shows a blue BMW having to brake sharply on a country road near the base.
A force spokesman said chief constable Nick Adderley had personally taken control of the incident “in light of the ongoing investigation in Northamptonshire”.
RAF Croughton became the focus of an international controversy after Dunn was killed in a head-on collision with a car yards away on August 27 last year.
Anne Sacoolas, 42, the wife of a US intelligence official, claimed diplomatic immunity after the collision and was able to return to her home country.
The US State Department said a UK extradition request for Sacoolas was highly inappropriate and would be an abuse.
Before reports of the latest incident surfaced, business secretary Andrea Leadsom, the constituency MP for Dunn’s family, wrote to the commander of the base to ask for an invitation to visit.
Dunn’s parents Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn are looking for assurances that safety measures are in place to make sure there are no similar incidents in the future.
Confirming the force had been given the footage, a spokesman said: “We can confirm we have received a report of this incident.
“It falls in the Thames Valley area, but the Chief Constable (of Northamptonshire Police) has seen the footage.
“The incident is currently being discussed at the highest level in light of the ongoing investigation in Northamptonshire.”
In a statement published to Twitter, Northamptonshire Police’s chief constable Nick Adderley said the force had been made aware of the incident, and also said he had been made aware of another incident in Northampton in October, in which a police vehicle had been struck by a vehicle driving on the wrong side of the road.
He wrote: “I want to be absolutely clear on the fact that these incidents just cannot keep happening. We know all too well in the case of young Harry, just how devastating they can be.
“Therefore, the PFCC and I have today requested a urgent meeting with the base commander at RAF Croughton to discuss safety on the roads around the base and I expect this meeting to take place next week.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Keir Starmer Says 'Decent' Voters Do Not Care If Next Labour Leader Is From London

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Keir Starmer has rejected the suggestion Labour’s next leader has to come from the north of England, as a poll suggested he has extended his lead over chief rival Rebecca Long-Bailey in the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn.
The shadow Brexit secretary, who is the MP for Holborn and St Pancras in London, told the first public hustings of the campaign on Saturday that “nobody” in constituencies that voted Leave had ever raised where he lived as an issue.
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“If you are decent enough to come and have a conversation people are decent enough to give you a hearing in my view,” he said. “Not one person has said ‘you’re a Londoner’.”
Starmer said people care about “what have you got to say, not where are you are from”.
But Long-Bailey, the favourite of the current leadership, told the event in Liverpool in front of 500 Labour members that the next leader should come from the north.
“I am biased,” the MP for Salford and Eccles in Manchester said. “I’d say yes.”
“It’s about your principles, but it certainly helps. And it certainly helps having grown-up and lived in an area that has been affected and become quite angry about the centralisation of politics and financial power in London and the south east,” she said.
“We’ve got to have someone that understands that. That can tell them quite clearly, we will shift power.”
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Labour lost seats across its northern heartlands at the election - the so called red wall - leading some in the party to demand the next leader must come from the region.
The second YouGov poll of the contest has suggested Starmer will beat Long-Bailey 63% to 37% once the other candidates are knocked out of the race.
But there is a long way to go in the contest and the winner will not be declared until April 4.
And a separate poll conducted by Survation last week suggested Long-Bailey would win 42% of first preference votes to Starmer’s 37%.
All the candidates at the hustings on Saturday, which also included Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips and Emily Thornberry, issued a plea for party unity.
The rules of the event also prohibited the candidates from interrupting each other. And there was no obvious knock-out blow.
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Long-Bailey told the audience divided parties do not win elections. Calling for everyone to “reunify and rebuild”, she said: “We have to be honest that over the last four years we haven’t been united.”
Phillips, a prominent critic of Corbyn, said the “name calling within the party has been horrendous” and called for Labour to build a “broad team”.
Thornberry said Labour members should stop fighting each other and concentrate on fighting the Tories.
She also warned being leader of the Labour Party in opposition was “the worst job in the world” in part due to the media. “In the end we have to wade through an awful lot of shit,” she said.
Starmer agreed there had been “too much division”, adding: “We are unstoppable when we are united.”
During the hustings, Phillips also said the Labour Party’s handling of anti-Semitism had meant it had lost the “moral high ground” to fight racism.
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She added: “Jewish people were scared of Labour winning the election.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--'Why Do We Need Camo In Space?' US Space Force Mocked For New Woodland Camouflage Uniform

A military camouflage uniform bearing a US Space Force nametape and US Space Command shoulder patch. Handout / Reuters
The newly-formed US Space Force has proudly unveiled its new uniform online, and it’s probably fair to say it hasn’t gone down too well.
The new military service was formally unveiled by Donald Trump at an event in December 2019, during which the US president described space as “the world’s newest war-fighting domain”.
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A total of $40m (£30.7) has been ploughed into the project, and in the early hours of Saturday morning the new force revealed the uniform to be worn by the very first servicemen and women.
Apart from a badge declaring ‘US Space Force’ on the front, and an American flag and ‘United States Space Command’ badge on the arm, the uniform is similar to that worn by those serving in the army.
And therein lay the problem for some.
It wasn’t long before Twitter users raised their concerns about the uniform – namely that a woodland camouflage print (a tried and tested method of camouflage on earth) might not be all that useful in space, famously devoid of woodlands (or any trees at all, for that matter):
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And it you didn't realize how dumb this Space Force thing is already, check out the new garb. You won't be able to see them at all in the jungle that is space. https://t.co/bgl3NYYXhy — MK Genest 🌊 (@MKGenest) January 18, 2020
Sorry for the question but why do we need camo in space? — Dylan Taylor (@SpaceAdvisor) January 18, 2020
I know this is hard to understand, but on the left there is a picture of camouflage and on the right there is a picture of space. Study these carefully until you can see the difference. pic.twitter.com/7HhAeHRyrm — JRehling (@JRehling) January 18, 2020
Impracticalities aside, the unveiling of the uniform left some who had been hoping for a more theatrical look a little disappointed:
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If this not the #SpaceForce uniform i don’t want it pic.twitter.com/DsgY3oWqPK — p!mpolas🏁 (@PiccNiccc) January 18, 2020
Why, exactly, couldn't the #SpaceForce uniforms have simply been black for the blackness of space, with an undershirt indicating in what capacity you work, simple insignia... oh, wait. Well, I guess Trump's Space Force is too afraid to copy those "liberals" in Hollywood! pic.twitter.com/7TgS7QFuUt — MLZ (@MLZambrana) January 18, 2020
Helpful as always, Twitter users wasted no time in suggesting their own (possibly lower-tech, but who are we to say) uniform alternatives:
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Now THIS is what #SpaceForce should be wearing. The strongest of camouflage pic.twitter.com/cnvVaNs4ou — KylosBitchBoy (@ColtonSJ_) January 18, 2020


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-19--'Get Your Mops & Buckets Ready!' — Trump's Infuriating Answer To Rising Seas

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Donald Trump has offered a definitively low-tech – and maddening – ‘solution’ to rising sea levels amid global warming: “Get your mops and buckets ready!”
He came up with the snide, unhelpful suggestion in a tweet as he criticised ongoing discussions about the possibility of constructing a sea wall to protect New York City, where low-lying areas have already experienced increased flooding from the encroaching ocean. The president called it an “environmentally unfriendly idea” that will “look terrible”.
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A massive 200 Billion Dollar Sea Wall, built around New York to protect it from rare storms, is a costly, foolish & environmentally unfriendly idea that, when needed, probably won’t work anyway. It will also look terrible. Sorry, you’ll just have to get your mops & buckets ready! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2020
The proposal by the Army Corps of Engineers for New York would create a six-mile-long barrier of man-made islands with retractable gates. The cost would not be $200b (£153.6b), as Trump falsely claimed, but $119b (£91.4b), and it would be constructed over 25 years. A finalised proposal isn’t expected to be presented to Congress until at least 2022. Some experts fear the massive proposal is already too little too late.
Critics were absolutely gobsmacked by Trump’s mocking comeback — particularly because the president has his own “environmentally unfriendly” wall that “looks terrible.” The “environmentally unfriendly” president has also won approval to construct two sea walls at his Turnberry golf resort in Ireland to keep the ocean at bay amid climate change, which Trump has called a “hoax,” but now says is “serious.”
Imagine being this proud of being this ignorant. — Angela Belcamino (@AngelaBelcamino) January 18, 2020
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What if we get Mexico to pay for it? — Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) January 18, 2020
I'll leave this here for no reason. pic.twitter.com/V78SgZGjS3 — Chidi® (@ChidiNwatu) January 18, 2020
A massive 200 billion dollar sea wall may not even be enough to protect New York residents from massive storms like Sandy and the tragic reality of climate change and rising sea levels. If Trump thinks a sea wall is environmentally unfriendly, climate change is truly apocalyptic. — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) January 18, 2020
Shorter: Trump admits wall won't work. — Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) January 18, 2020
What will mops and buckets do when you are under 10 feet of water? You haven’t thought this through, have you? Glad you will be in Florida, which also is under threat from a rising sea. — mj caswell (@mjcaswell) January 19, 2020


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-19--Grammys Loses Sponsorship Deal Over Removal Of First Female Boss

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A champagne brand has pulled out of sponsoring the upcoming Grammys, after the Recording Academy removed their first ever female boss from her post less than two weeks before this year’s ceremony.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Recording Academy president Deborah Dugan had been placed on “administrative leave”, following an allegation of misconduct.
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The news was confirmed on Thursday, 10 days before this year’s Grammys, with Dugan’s lawyer later issuing a statement suggesting the public had not heard the full story.
“What has been reported is not nearly the story that needs to be told,” the statement read. “When our ability to speak is not restrained by a 28-page contract and legal threats, we will expose what happens when you ‘step up’ at the Recording Academy, a public nonprofit.”
Deborah Dugan Jamie McCarthy via Getty Images
Since then, Champagne Billecart-Salmon has announced they are withdrawing their sponsorship of the Grammys, specifically naming the removal of Deborah Dugan as their reason.
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Geoffrey Loisel of Champagne Billecart-Salmon said (via Billboard): “I have worked with Deb Dugan for many years going back to when she was CEO of (Red).
“She is a person with high ethical standards and has always been the utmost professional in our business dealings. Given what has been reported in the news reports, I feel very uncomfortable continuing to support the Grammys at this time. As a result, Champagne Billecart-Salmon is pulling its sponsorship.”
This year's Grammys will take place in less than two weeks MJ Photos/Shutterstock
Dugan was appointed the president of the Recording Academy after Neil Portnow left the post.
His exit came after a wave of controversy, which saw him suggest in 2018 that female artists needed to “step up” if they wanted to be nominated for Grammys, following a particularly male-heavy year.
This year’s Grammys are set to take place in Los Angeles on Sunday 26 January, with Alicia Keys on hosting duties for the second year in a row.
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Just behind her are fellow rising stars Lil Nas X and Billie Eilish, both of whom are on six nominations.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-19--Backlash As Corbyn Nominates Key Aide Karie Murphy For A Peerage

Jeremy Corbyn with his former chief of staff Karie Murphy PA Archive/PA Images
Make sense of politics. Sign up to the Waugh Zone and get the political day in a nutshell.
Jeremy Corbyn’s controversial nomination of his key aide Karie Murphy for elevation to the House of Lords has been met by a growing backlash among senior Labour figures.
Leadership candidate Jess Phillips and deputy leadership candidate Rosena Allin-Khan said Murphy should not be given a peerage while the party is facing investigation over alleged anti-Semitism by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
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That view was echoed by the anti-racism charity Hope Not Hate, while the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) said Murphy’s nomination was “deeply inappropriate” and must be rescinded.
The JLM said it had written to the Lords appointment commission to raise concerns about Murphy relating to concerns about disciplinary processes and “botched handling of anti-Semitism” in the party.
The Jewish Labour Movement’s statement on the reports that Jeremy Corbyn has nominated Karie Murphy for a peerage. pic.twitter.com/VaOUht1esU — Jewish Labour Movement (@JewishLabour) January 18, 2020
The commission’s role is to advise the prime minister if it has concerns about the propriety of nominees for a peerage, including whether they have good standing with public regulatory authorities.
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Phillips told Pieenar’s Politics on BBC Radio 5 Live: “The code of conduct for the Labour leadership competition tells me that I’m not allowed to speak about any members of staff who don’t have a right to reply.
“So I shall just slightly sidestep talking about Karie Murphy, but I don’t think that anybody should given a peerage who is currently under investigation by the EHRC.”
Asked about Murphy’s nomination, Allin-Khan told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “What I do know is that she is currently being investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
“Hope Not Hate said that anyone who is being investigated by the EHRC shouldn’t be recommended for a peerage, so I think that does need to be taken seriously.”
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When asked if the nomination would make her “uncomfortable” Allin-Khan said: “I would like to see the outcome of the EHRC report.”
"What I do know is she's currently being investigated by the EHRC".@DrRosena responds to a report in the Sunday Times that Jeremy Corbyn has nominated his former chief of staff Karie Murphy for a peerage. The EHRC are investigating Labour over antisemitism allegations.#Ridge pic.twitter.com/qZCGndHw9S — Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) January 19, 2020
Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell meanwhile accused Corbyn, who will be replaced by a new leader on April 4, of rewarding Murphy for a “great strategic failure” for presiding over Labour’s catastrophic election defeat from party headquarters.
Karie Murphy to the House of Lords. A reward for a great strategic failure. Yet one more so called left winger who cannot wait to be the establishment. I’m sure @RLong_Bailey with her hatred of the House of Lords will condemn. And we await the anti Semitism report with interest — ALASTAIR CAMPBELL (@campbellclaret) January 18, 2020
Corbyn ally and Labour chair Ian Lavery defended Murphy, tweeting: “The abuse, bullying and harassment Karie Murphy receives is quite frankly appalling.
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“She is a ferocious fighter for the working class and the most vulnerable!!”
The abuse bullying and harassment Karie Murphy receives is quite frankly appalling.
She is a ferocious fighter for the working class and the most vulnerable!!
This sums her up 👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/SOdTTJAbLR — Ian Lavery MP (@IanLaveryMP) January 19, 2020


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-19--Lily Allen Tells Laurence Fox 'Stick To Acting Mate' After Divisive Question Time Appearance

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Lily Allen has hit out at “luvvie” Laurence Fox, urging the former Lewis star to “stick to acting” after he faced a backlash over his opinions about white privilege.
Earlier this week, Laurence’s appearance on Question Time was received poorly by many viewers, after he suggested that to call him a “white privileged male” was in itself racist.
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This came during a conversation about the media’s treatment of Meghan Markle, which he was insistent was not rooted in racism.
“It’s not racism. We’re the most tolerant, lovely country in Europe. It’s so easy to just throw your charge of racism at everybody and it’s starting to get boring now,” he moaned.
Laurence Fox David Fisher/Shutterstock
Since then, he’s doubled down on his opinions, which included posting a quote by Martin Luther King on his Twitter page, which was heavily criticised on social media:
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This is the position I took last night and I live by in life. If you can improve on it, I’m all ears.
Or you can keep screeching “Racist!” at me and I can carry on having a jolly good giggle at your expense.
The tide is turning. pic.twitter.com/fFJzkzvFsY — LAURENCE FOX (@LozzaFox) January 17, 2020
Among his public critics was singer Lily Allen, who shared a post on her Instagram story, saying she was “sick to death of luvvies like Laurence Fox going on TV and forcing their opinions on everybody else”.
Lily Allen Mike Marsland via Getty Images
She wrote: “He’ll never have to deal with what normal people have had to deal with in his gated community. BBC should be ashamed, this is not what we pay our TV license for.
“Stick to acting mate. Instead of ranting about things you don’t know anything about.”
Laurence quickly dismissed her post, sharing a screengrab on his own Twitter page with the message: “Lily Allen is the most stunningist and bravery artist in the whole wide world.”
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Lily Allen is the most stunningist and bravery artist in the whole wide world.#stunningandbrave pic.twitter.com/CAKFcyMDba — LAURENCE FOX (@LozzaFox) January 18, 2020
Although she’s known for posting her opinions about all matter of subjects on Twitter, Lily stepped down from the social media site last year, claiming she was concerned the site had “given a voice to the far-right”.
She said: “I deleted Twitter because I really believe that these platforms have given a voice to the far right, and they use them to spread disinformation and lies, which win them elections and ruin people’s lives. If they didn’t exist we wouldn’t be here.
“I want to delete my Instagram too but I’m just not there yet. I so wish I was.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-19--Why Are Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Dropping Their HRH Titles?

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After a 11 days of uncertainty, it’s been confirmed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will drop their royal titles, and withdraw even further from their current lives as senior royals than first thought.
Harry and Meghan’s initial shock announcement, made little more than a week ago, originally suggested that they wanted to remain as working royals – although not prominent members – and become financially independent.
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But almost as soon as the statement was released, royal experts and commentators pointed out that the dual approach may in fact be fraught with difficulties.
Earning money from lucrative contracts and still remaining active members of the monarchy would have been problematic due to a potential conflict of interest, especially as they are now free to strike whatever commercial deals they wish.
Rumours of future work have already been circulated – including a potential project for Meghan with Disney.
Despite their newfound freedom from royal protocol however, they have maintained they will “continue to uphold the values of Her Majesty.”
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The couple will continue to be referred to as the Sussexes – Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex – but will no longer be referred to as His or Her Royal Highness, as they are no longer working royals.
Harry and Meghan said in their statement, issued on their behalf by Buckingham Palace, that under the agreement they understood they were “required” to step back from royal duties.
BBC royal correspondent Daniela Relph told BBC Radio 5 Live: “When they first issued that statement about what they wanted, they talked about forging this progressive role within the royal family, about stepping back from royal duties.
“This isn’t stepping back, it’s stepping away entirely.”
The deal is a hard “Megixt” for the couple – as the issue has been dubbed by the media – and a source told PA news agency “you can’t be half in and half out”.
It has been agreed that the royals will no longer use their official titles. Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters
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What are the couple giving up?
Harry will have to give up his Commonwealth role and three military appointments – the most prominent of which is being captain general of the Royal Marines
But after a blessing from the Queen to do so, the duke will continue to work with his charities and organisations like Sentebale – his Africa-based charity supporting youngsters with HIV – and the duchess will also continue supporting her charitable causes.
It has been announced that the couple will no longer receive public funds, and will repay the £2.4m spent on refurbishing their Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage.
All the new arrangements are due to come into effect in the spring, and will be reviewed by Buckingham Palace in 12 months.
The announcement marks the conclusion of talks about their future with senior members of the family and royal aides, which Saturday’s statement from Buckingham Palace confirmed had been ongoing for “months”.
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What has the Queen said?
The Queen issued an emotional statement on Saturday evening, saying she recognised the “challenges” they had faced over the past year, and added: “I want to thank them for all their dedicated work across this country, the Commonwealth and beyond, and am particularly proud of how Meghan has so quickly become one of the family.
“It is my whole family’s hope that today’s agreement allows them to start building a happy and peaceful new life.”
The couple’s spokesperson issued a statement on their behalf saying: “As agreed in this new arrangement, they understand that they are required to step back from royal duties, including official military appointments.
“They will no longer receive public funds for royal duties.
“With the Queen’s blessing, the Sussexes will continue to maintain their private patronages and associations.
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“While they can no longer formally represent the Queen, the Sussexes have made clear that everything they do will continue to uphold the values of Her Majesty.”
The Queen’s statement included a personal tribute to the Sussexes with the monarch unusually using the first names of her grandson and his family in a public message.
She said: “Following many months of conversations and more recent discussions, I am pleased that together we have found a constructive and supportive way forward for my grandson and his family.
“Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved members of my family.
“I recognise the challenges they have experienced as a result of intense scrutiny over the last two years and support their wish for a more independent life.
“I want to thank them for all their dedicated work across this country, the Commonwealth and beyond, and am particularly proud of how Meghan has so quickly become one of the family.”
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What happens now?
Meghan and Harry have already begun a transition phase of living in Canada and the UK. The duchess is in the Commonwealth country with son Archie where the Sussexes spent six weeks over the festive period.
The move was agreed by the Queen, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge following the Sussexes unprecedented statement released earlier this month saying they wanted to step back as senior royals, become financially independent and live in the UK and North America.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-19--The Masked Singer Bosses Reveal How One Claustrophobic Celeb Suffered With Their Costume

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The Masked Singer bosses have revealed the show’s elaborate costumes proved difficult for one celebrity in particular.
ITV’s new star-studded singing competition, which airs on Saturday nights, sees a number of famous faces competing while hiding their identities from viewers in over-the-top outfits.
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And in a new interview with The Sun, executive producers Derek McLean and Daniel Nettleton revealed that the celeb performing as Queen Bee suffers from “crippling claustrophobia”, which was triggered when she first tried her outfit on.
They also revealed that, inspired by the character costumes at Disneyland, they imposed limits on how long the stars were allowed to wear their costumes for.
The stars of The Masked Singer Vincent Dolman/ITV/Shutterstock
“The stars were only allowed in their costumes for 20 minutes,” Derek said. “We took inspiration from Disney. That’s how long Minnie and Mickey Mouse can be in their costumes before going doolally.”
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He added that the team had to be “quite strict” about their 20-minute rule, noting: “You don’t want celebrities in costumes going crazy all over the place.”
Although the identities of the remaining eight celebrities are being kept tightly under wraps, fans do have their own theories, with many speculating that Queen Bee is actually former Girls Aloud singer Nicola Roberts.
Queen Bee previously spoke about being an activist and “law-maker”, which many interpreted as a reference to Nicola having campaigned for sunbeds to be made illegal for under-16s, while the character was also seen carrying a drum, a potential nod to the singer’s solo track Beat Of My Drum.
So far, four celebrities have been unmasked, the latest of which was revealed to be footballer Teddy Sherringham in this week’s episode.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-19--Netflix Boss Confirms Hopes To Sign Deal With Prince Harry And Meghan Markle

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Netflix’s chief content officer has confirmed he’s hoping he can lure Prince Harry and Meghan Markle into a new deal once they have officially stepped down from their duties as senior royals.
Earlier this month, the royal couple made headlines the world over when they announced their plans to “step back as ‘senior’ members of the royal family and work to become financially independent”.
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While it has already been reported that Meghan has signed a deal to do voiceover work with the Walt Disney Company, Ted Sarandos has said he hopes he can convince them to do work with streaming service Netflix too.
“Who wouldn’t be interested?” he told PA at an event in Los Angeles, when asked about whether a deal with Meghan and Harry was on his wishlist. “Yes, sure.”
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Chris Jackson via Getty Images
According to Deadline, Meghan has agreed to do work with Disney, in exchange for a donation to the elephant charity, Elephants Without Borders.
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Last week, video footage of Harry speaking to Disney chief Robert Iger about his wife’s talents as a voice over artist while they were at the premiere of The Lion King in July resurfaced on social media.
Last July, Prince Harry was caught on camera touting his wife for a voiceover job to @Disney's chairman Robert Iger at the Lion King premiere.
Read more on the #royalcrisis 👉 https://t.co/opMRdcd9lH pic.twitter.com/H8UB1xNprU — Sky News (@SkyNews) January 13, 2020
Barack and Michelle Obama have their own deal with Netflix, which was signed in 2018.
The Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, is behind the documentary American Factory, which is nominated for an Academy Award at this year’s Oscars.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-19--House Of Lords Could Move To York Under Boris Johnson's Plans

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Boris Johnson could move the House of Lords to York, a senior Tory has confirmed.
Party chairman James Cleverly said moving the upper chamber out of London was “one of a range of things” the government was looking into to ensure voters “feel properly connected” to politics.
The government has already identified disused government-owned land near York railway station as a potential site for a new Lords chamber, the Sunday Times reported.
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Birmingham is also in the running as a location as the prime minister looks to cement the Tories’ election gains in former Labour areas in the north and Midlands.
"We might, it's one of a range of things we are looking into." @JamesCleverly tells @SophyRidgeSky the House of Lords might be permanently moved to the north of England, saying a "whole range of options" are being looked at.
Follow #Ridge live: https://t.co/BzsNffg7Rl pic.twitter.com/SUXFiK3ygO — Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) January 19, 2020
When asked about reported proposals to move the House of Lords outside of London, Cleverly told Sophy Ridge on Sunday on Sky News: “What we are looking at is a whole range of options about making sure every part of the UK feels properly connected [to] politics.”
“When the PM stood up the day after the election and said this is going to be the people’s government he meant it. That meant connecting people with government and politics.
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“The referendum in 2016 wasn’t just about our relationship with the EU, it was about millions of people and their relationship with politics as a whole.”
When pressed to say if the move would happen, he replied: “We might. It’s one of a range of things that we are looking into. But fundamentally what this is about is about demonstrating that we are going to do things differently.”
The potential location of the new Lords will be determined by a constitutional review to be launched in the coming months, the Sunday Times reported.
The government is also said to be considering plans to replace the unelected Lords with at least a partially elected chamber representing Britain’s nations and regions.
Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said moving the Lords will have less impact if “a bunch of London establishment” figures are sent to the north, only to return to the south on weekends.
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He said: “Moving the second chamber, or any part of the Whitehall bubble, may have a positive impact on changing the mindset of those who make our laws and spending decisions - with centralised decision making having served us so poorly in perpetuating a significant north-south divide.
“With some notable exceptions, the revising chamber massively under represents the north. If the government sends a bunch of the London establishment to York, the best connected of any northern city to the south, they probably won’t appreciate the productivity challenges her much more than before as they will undoubtably head back south every weekend.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-19--Cheryl Vows To 'Get Todrick Hall Back' After 'Shady' Dig At Liam Payne Romance

The Greatest Dancer star Cheryl Tweedy has vowed to “get Todrick Hall back” after her fellow dance captain made a joke about her past romance with Liam Payne in this week’s show.
During Saturday night’s episode, the four panellists – including returning star Cheryl and newcomer Todrick – were impressed by a performance from a young tap dancer.
After the audition, Oti Mabuse said that she wanted to have a baby daughter, specifically so she could grow up and marry the young performer, but her comment put Todrick in mind of something else.
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“Well maybe you could date him a few years after he was on the show, that’s been done before,” he told Oti, prompting a big laugh from the Strictly Come Dancing star, and daggers from Cheryl.
Cheryl and Todrick on The Greatest Dancer BBC
“The shade!” Cheryl responded, before vowing to “get him back” later in the series.
Todrick was, of course, referencing Cheryl’s past relationship with former One Direction singer Liam Payne, who first auditioned for The X Factor at the age of 14, when Cheryl was still a judge, and even threw a wink in her direction.
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Although he went home fairly early, he returned two years later, which is when he ended up being put into the group One Direction, and boyband history was made.
Following One Direction’s split, it was heavily rumoured that Cheryl and Liam were secretly dating, and have since had a son together, Bear, who is approaching two years old.
Cheryl and Liam at the Brit Awards in 2018, four months before their split Karwai Tang via Getty Images
The two went their separate ways in July 2018, but have since sung each other’s praises as they continue to co-parent their son.
The Greatest Dancer airs every Saturday night on BBC One.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-19--Boy, 10, Stabbed In Leicester While Out With Mother

Police have launched an urgent search for a man after a 10-year-old boy was stabbed in Leicester on Saturday.
The boy, who was with his mother at the time, was approached by the man and attacked at around 5.20pm in Belper Street, in the Belgrave area of the city.
The man then fled on foot from the scene.
A member of the public called emergency services and the child was taken to the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham where his condition is described as non-life-threatening.
His mother was not injured in the incident.
The suspect has been described by officers as a light-skinned Asian man, in his mid-20s, around 5ft 10ins tall, of a chubby build, and wearing a brown coloured jacket.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-19--'F*ggot, Fairy, Gay Tw*t' – The Shocking Homophobia Faced By Grassroots Footballers

LGBTQ footballers are being subjected to sickening homophobic abuse from rival fans and players – and say the FA isn’t doing enough to hold people accountable.
Players facing offensive language and even violence on the pitch say the national governing body is not “fit for purpose” and is letting bigots get away with behaviour that wouldn’t be tolerated anywhere else.
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The disgusting words thrown at footballers include “f*ggot”, “fairy”, “gay tw*t” and “nonce”.
What’s more, those on the ground say the problem is getting worse despite the FA’s lip service to tackling homophobia in recent years. One man suggested the prime minister’s own offensive language about gay people, or even Brexit, could be emboldening people who would otherwise keep quiet.
James Cole, 36, has played for LGBTQ-inclusive team Village Manchester Football Club for six years as a midfielder and right-back. Earlier this season, he heard an opposition player refer to his team as “a bunch of f*ggots”. Last week, an opposition supporter told one of his colleagues: “F*ck off, you gay tw*t.”
Players from Village Manchester Football Club, which describes itself as 'gay and inclusive' VMFC
“Homophobia often seems to go hand-in-hand with violent conduct, in my experience,” he told HuffPost UK.
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Of the most recent incident, he said: “The game started off in quite an aggressive atmosphere, with one of the opposition players threatening that someone would get an elbow if they weren’t careful, then it escalated from there.”
The only communication received from the Football Association centrally, Cole said, has been a one-line email asking if VMFC members would be willing to participate in a tribunal – should one be held.
“We do this as a hobby – it’s something that is supposed to be fun and supposed to be enjoyed,” he said.
“When you hear something like that, it makes you feel upset, it makes you feel small. It reminds you of the sort of thing you heard all the way through school and it makes it very difficult to focus on a game of football.
“I wouldn’t accept this in the workplace, and I know for a fact if I told my boss I was experiencing homophobia at work, it would be dealt with there and then. For it to take 12 weeks [for the FA] to even look at an issue just doesn’t work – that’s basically half a season for us, as we only play 24 games.
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“One of the FA’s key roles is to ensure its players are protected from abuse. As it stands at the moment, I don’t feel protected at all. If I knew the team responsible would be facing a tribunal in the next two weeks, say, I would feel much more confident in the process.”
Rainbow laces worn by Leicester City's James Maddison in support of the Stonewall Rainbow Laces campaign in December 2019 Andrew Boyers / Reuters
When scores of Premier League players first filed onto pitches across the country wearing rainbow laces in their boots, it seemed the battle against discrimination had turned a corner.
The FA makes clear on its website that discrimination – be it racism, sexism or homophobia – is not tolerated on or around the football pitch.
But VMFC treasurer and photographer Steve Joyce is among those who say the problem is getting worse.
“Three years ago, this hardly ever happened,” he told HuffPost UK. “There were seasons where there was none whatsoever. Then two years ago there was one or two minor incidents and then last year it was half a dozen.”
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He added: “It depends what you want to put that down to. Is it Brexit and the xenophobia that that brought about? Is it because we’ve got a prime minister who’s said racist and homophobic comments? People think it’s OK to do it – that’s my interpretation.”
Village Manchester Football Club ahead of Saturday's match against Chadderton Park Firsts VMFC
Recalling an incident last year when he had been targeted personally by an opposition player, he said: “The opposition team was great, but they just had one guy who was a thug and he was mouthing off at everyone.
“He was actually violent towards one of our players, pulled him down to the ground by his hair, and he was mouthing off homophobic words to all and sundry, including me at the side of the pitch while I was taking pictures.
“His teenage son was doing the same at the side of the pitch.
“The opposition club threw him out immediately afterwards but denied the homophobia. They couldn’t deny physical abuse on our players because everyone saw it but they could deny the homophobia because they were at the opposite side of the pitch and didn’t hear it.”
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The most recent incident was on January 11 during a match against Chadderton Park Firsts at Crossley Playing Fields in Chadderton, Oldham. An opposition supporter was heard – and recorded – shouting homophobic abuse.
Joyce added: “Someone posted on our Facebook page recently asking why gay people think they’re special and need their own teams.
“Half our club is straight these days. And when I ask these straight lads why, it’s because they like the diversity ethos of the club, they like the fact we welcome everyone and we’re not laddish and loutish – it is all about just getting on and playing football in a well-organised team and a well-organised club.”
Like Cole and Joyce, VMFC chair James McNaught wants wants FA chiefs to take more robust action against the perpetrators and introduce tougher sanctions for those found to have discriminated against LGBT+ players and fans.
In a Facebook post after the January 11 match, he wrote: “When anybody asks you why teams like mine exist – where anybody can play football in a safe space – tell them it’s because there are uneducated louts out there who think it’s OK to treat people differently.”
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Village Manchester FC players in training Twitter
The situation is depressingly similar elsewhere in the country. Skye Stewart, chair of LGBT-inclusive Black Country Fusion FC, has also made a number of complaints on behalf of the teams she runs.
Participating in Wolverhampton-based Sunday leagues, Stewart, a trans woman, claims many of her players have received homophobic and transphobic abuse and that she herself was subjected to transphobia from a referee a few weeks ago.
“He refused to acknowledge me as a woman and kept referring to me as ‘he’, she said.
“An official complaint has been made. But in many cases, the first step in an investigation is to ask the referee if they heard the abuse. If they haven’t, quite often it falls on deaf ears and it’s difficult to have it taken any further.”
While both teams say their local football associations – Manchester FA and Staffordshire FA – have been supportive, holding regular meetings about their concerns, VMFC has released an official statement calling on the national FA to overhaul its complaints processes.
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The full statement released by VMFC. HuffPost UK
“We would 100% agree with the sentiments in the statement from VMFC and fully support what they are asking the FA to do,” Stewart said.
“In recent months there seems to have been a real spike in the number of homophobic and racist incidents in grassroots football and we don’t know why.”
Some of Black Country Fusion FC's players Twitter
The teams’ words are likely to be something of an embarrassment to the FA, which on Friday launched a campaign stating there was “no place for discrimination" in grassroots football.
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In a promotional video for the "Tell Us, We'll Tackle It" project, giant capital letters spelling out the word "discrimination" have been placed inside a goal, preventing players from scoring.
Joyce was quick to point out that the local branch, Manchester FA, has its hands tied by the national procedures for dealing with discrimination, and responsibility should rest on the FA as a whole.
“The FA need to take discrimination seriously – a minor incident on the pitch is a hate crime,” he said. “People might think it’s quite minor, throwing names around, but it does affect people, and when you get several players verbally attacking several other players in quite a toxic atmosphere, it does affect people.
“We want the FA to improve its processes – they’re not fit for purpose. They take too long. The second issue is when someone has an accusation against them, they’re just allowed to keep playing. So that process can take six months where the accused can just carry on playing football as normal.
“We think where a referee has actually heard the abuse, that player should be instantly suspended. There should be zero tolerance.
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“Our view is that once someone is found guilty of discriminatory abuse, [the current penalties are] just not good enough. The fines are quite small, the bans are for a few matches, sometimes they have to go on anti-discrimination course but not always – six months down the line, you can’t even remember what happened and they get a slap on the wrist. It’s just not good enough.”
He added: “The referees also need more training. We know there are referees who hear abuse and pretend they don’t because they’re intimidated by the opposition, quite frankly.”
But Joyce ended with a positive note: by and large, clubs like VMFC offer an inclusive space where people can play football in a safe environment.
“The big point for us is we’re a safe place for people of any sexuality, age or race,” he said. “We’re a welcoming place so people shouldn’t think this is a weekly occurrence and they’re going to get abused.
“It does happen and the club is responding to that, but on the whole it’s a great club to come to and play football because it’s very diverse.”
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An FA spokesperson said its Manchester branch was investigating the incident involving VMFC on January 11, but that it could not disclose any further details about an ongoing disciplinary case.
“The FA and CFAs [community football associations] strongly condemn all forms of discrimination,” he said, “and encourage any participants and spectators who believe that they have been the subject of, or witness to, discriminatory abuse to report it through the appropriate channels: the FA, CFA network or our partners at Kick It Out.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-19--Love Island: Mike Boateng Police Investigation Reports Denied By His Family

The family of Love Island contestant Mike Boateng has blasted the media over “false” allegations published about him in the press.
On Sunday, The Sun published a story suggesting that, prior to entering Love Island, the former police officer was the subject of an investigation by Greater Manchester Police.
The tabloid claimed Mike was accused of “inappropriate behaviour” last year, which is still being investigated, though his family has said in a lengthy statement that the reports are “completely false”.
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In a statement posted shortly before the story in question was published, they said: “We have been informed as a family that certain publications shall release stories of Mike over the next few days regarding his time at Greater Manchester Police. These stories… are false.”
Mike on his first day in the villa ITV/Shutterstock
Going on to accuse the press of “harassment”, they continued: “In an attempt to add credibility to these stories they have turned up at our family home and harassed our mother in the early hours of the morning.
“We believe there is a clear attempt to tarnish Mike’s character.
“Greater Manchester Police have unfortunately chosen not to deny any of the false stories, which will be published in the next few days. They had previously agreed with us that they would not comment to the press, which is why no stories have been released to date.
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“GMP have now changed their stance and are releasing a blanket statement which does not outright deny the stories which shall be published.”
In a statement to The Sun, a Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said: “Allegations were made regarding an officer in 2019 which are currently under investigation by the Professional Standards Branch.
“It is inappropriate to comment further whilst the investigation is ongoing.”
The tabloid also noted that Mike “denies the allegations against him”.
Mike pictured shortly before his Love Island entrance Joel Anderson/ITV/Shutterstock
Mike’s family went on to suggest the press reports were “such a familiar routine with the British press, and how eager they are to see Black men fail”.
They continued: “It is a shame that the media in the UK constantly choose to portray Black men in a negative light, thus perpetuating negative stereotypes, which are not representative of most Black men across the country.”
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HuffPost UK has contacted ITV for comment.
Mike is currently coupled up with fellow Islander Leanne ITV/Shutterstock
Mike entered the Love Island villa on the first day of this year’s series, and quickly coupled up with fellow contestant Leanne Amaning, and the pair have stayed together ever since.