Author: The Guardian

Bob, 76, PortisheadOccupation Retired, former IT directorVoting record Conservative in the last general election, but stood as an independent councillor, believing independents are better on local issuesAmuse bouche Has a model railway, but is more interested in cars and motorsportZuhura, 40, OxfordOccupation Campaign directorVoting record Labour, Labour, LabourAmuse bouche Lived on a boat for seven years with a cat called Captain FishfingersFor startersBob Zuhura was a very pleasant lady, she wasn’t in any way aggressive or argumentative.Zuhura Bob was a nice, pleasant, ordinary person. I thought he would be quite patronising and smarmy, and he wasn’t either of those things.Bob I don’t normally eat at midday, so…

As James Maddison digests the shocking news and comes to terms with the fact that Gareth Southgate has dropped him from England’s Euro 2024 squad, it’s hard not to remember how things were different before. preparation for major events.The Tottenham Hotspur midfielder is the player everyone wants Southgate to pick ahead of the 2022 Winter World Cup in Qatar. Then at Leicester City, Maddison was at the peak of his powers, with his 22 Premier League goals in one year trailing only Harry Kane, Kevin De Bruyne and Son Heung-min.Will Southgate call him? He has made one appearance for Maddison…

In 2012, Kristi was living in Santa Barbara, California, running an on-demand pilates streaming service. She’d recently started dating an anatomy teacher who was based in Florida. When he invited her to join him in St Andrews, Scotland, where he would be teaching a dissection course, she jumped at the chance for a holiday. “He was really good friends with the course manager and his partner, Jane,” Kristi says. “I’d heard a lot about them and was nervous to meet them.”Jane, who lived in Bath and worked as a primary school teacher, was also joining her partner on the Scottish…

yesuliya Levchenko arrived apologetically, although it was not necessary at all. She was traveling through Kiev after watching her sister Polina, a high jumper, compete in a local competition, and the reason she was half an hour late was annoyingly familiar. An air raid siren disrupted proceedings and, as usual, athletes had to take shelter until the skies were deemed safe enough. She still achieved a personal best, she smiles, as she recalls Polina accompanying her to this quiet café on the city’s Left Bank.This is a daily snapshot of the challenges Ukrainian athletes have to overcome as they try…

The UK’s statistics watchdog has opened an investigation into remarks made by Rishi Sunak about the economy “going gangbusters” amid concerns that politicians could misuse economic data in the run-up to the election.Sir Robert Chote, chair of the UK Statistics Authority, will examine whether the prime minister repeated comments that were “taken out of context” and exaggerated the Conservative party’s economic record.The phrase “going gangbusters” was used by an official at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) during a briefing about the economy with journalists before becoming the basis of a Daily Mail front page story last month. A week…

IIf Alex de Minaur is looking for reasons for optimism as he tries to overcome the disappointment of narrowly missing out on a maiden Grand Slam semi-final berth at Roland Garros, he may be looking to history.The Australian fell to Germany’s Alexander Zverev 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in a grueling quarter-final on Wednesday night in Germany. It was especially difficult for him as the man was eliminated in the slow and breezy race. De Minaur missed set point in the second set, but over the next few days the 25-year-old will swap dirt for grass, first to relax with some…

Being an aunty is a deranged kind of love.When I first became an aunty, I marched into the neonatal intensive care unit (do not do this) and picked up my niece’s tiny body, declaring her the most perfect being in history. A more accurate and objective description may have been “jaundiced rat creature”.I was slack-jawed and captivated by the bundle of joy – the colour of a chicken Twistie – and it dawned on me that I had a brand new identity. I was now an aunty. What did it mean? Was I now endowed with a wisdom to impart…

All-rounder Marcus Stoinis produced one of the best performances of his international career to help Australia beat Oman by 39 runs in the 2020 World Cup opener.Stoinis did it with bat and ball, helping Australia escape from a sluggish start at Bridgetown.The 34-year-old became the third player in T20 World Cup history to score 50 runs and take at least three wickets – after Dwayne Bravo (West Indies) and Shane Watson ( Australia) after.Australia struggled early on after Oman captain Aqib Ilyas sent out the batsmen but managed to score 164-5 in 20 overs at the crease Incredible results.Stoinis smashed…

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said a man’s death in Mexico was caused by a strain of bird flu called H5N2 that has never before been found in a human.The WHO said Wednesday it wasn’t clear how the person became infected. “Although the source of exposure to the virus in this case is currently unknown, A(H5N2) viruses have been reported in poultry in Mexico,” it said in a statement.Scientists are on alert for changes in the virus that could signal that bird flu is adapting to spread more easily among humans.But the UN agency said Wednesday said the current…

Russia plans to send warships into the Caribbean this summer as part of naval exercises that could include port calls in Cuba and possibly a stop in Venezuela, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.”We expect Russia to intensify maritime and air activities near the United States this summer as part of Russia’s regular military exercises. These operations will culminate in Russia’s global naval exercises this fall,” the official said.The official told a small group of reporters that the United States did not consider the move involving a relatively small number of ships and aircraft to be a threat, but…