
Hold My Hand focuses exclusively on signers – who can be refreshingly blunt and extremely revealing. Heroda and Hermon Berhane, the deaf identical twin presenters, say it reveals their community in a way never seen before
It may not be the first TV programme to describe itself as being “more than just a dating show”, but Hold My Hand is undoubtedly the first to focus exclusively on British Sign Language.
“We’ve been waiting to get a show of our own for such a long time,” says Heroda Berhane, one half of the deaf identical twin presenting duo, Hermon and Heroda. “People have never seen our culture, our identity, the way we discuss the things. So it’s a dating show, yes, but it’s not just about dating; it’s also revealing our identity and our culture, and that has never been seen before.”
Continue reading...The pedal is pressed hard to the metal for this very stylish high-stakes armed robbery thriller starring Chris Hemsworth
Bart Layton is the British film-maker who previously gave us American Animals, a true-crime docudrama about the theft of rare books. That film’s title would also have applied perfectly well to this new one, an LA crime thriller adapted from a novella by Don Winslow. It is a little in the style of Michael Mann, though without the military hardware and the overhead shots of SUVs moving in swift convoy that would make it a full Mann homage.
Layton does without the distinctive indirect mannerisms and meta-commentaries of his earlier movies, but he applies his pedal to the metal for what is an enjoyable and very stylish high-stakes armed robbery film about a thief who is highly controlled, super-cool, super-groomed, and naturally looking for the “walkaway money” of the time-honoured one last job.
Continue reading...Gen Z fell in love with him on the small screen, but with the release of Emerald Fennell’s steamy new adaptation of Wuthering Heights, the Aussie actor’s star is set to shine even brighter
Jacob Elordi is Heathcliff. The 28-year-old Australian actor has scarcely been out of the headlines since his controversial casting in Emerald Fennell’s imminent adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Now, in the week of the film’s release, he’s being hailed as “the hottest man on the planet”, tipped as a future Oscar winner and household name. Not even mixed early reviews seem to be slowing the momentum.
Truly, these heights must seem wuthering to the boy from Brisbane who fell in love with acting after being cast as The Cat in The Hat. “As soon as I was singing and dancing with the big hat on, I knew that that was what I wanted to do,” Elordi said last December. But who is he, and what’s behind his rapid rise?
Continue reading...In interviews with community leaders, lawyers, security specialists and bereaved relatives, the Guardian pieces together how an operation targeting a criminal gang left 122 people dead last October
Warning: contains graphic images
Visual investigation: how Rio’s deadliest police raid unfolded
The Long Wave newsletter: ‘It doesn’t shock that it’s Black people getting killed’
Juliana Conceição startled awake as the first shots of an infamous day were fired in the Complexo da Penha, the labyrinthine Rio favela where she was born and raised.
It was 4.30am on 28 October. Thousands of police had surrounded the community’s barricaded entrances and were preparing to swarm up its streets on foot and in black armoured personnel carriers with firing ports and bullet-cracked ballistic windows.
Continue reading...Our expert shares saucy gifts for every experience level and relationship status – from feather ticklers to Fairtrade massage bars
I won’t beat around the bush (although I will suggest some devices that can do that for you very efficiently): Valentine’s Day is coming up, so you may well be looking for some saucy gift suggestions for your other half.
As an award-winning expert who’s worked in the sexual wellbeing and pleasure sector for more than two decades, I’ve trialled thousands of vibrators and stimulators, lotions and potions, and a whole A-Z of BDSM bits and bobs. In fact, I have an entire loft room in my house dedicated to storing all my X-rated testers, samples and prototypes. I’m a trustworthy source when it comes to sauciness, so here are my top Valentine’s gift suggestions, whether mild or wild – all tried and tested. From a turmeric latte massage bar to a crotchless teddy, let’s get stuck in.
Continue reading...Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Mark Langdon and Jacob Steinberg as Tottenham Hotspur lose at home to Newcastle
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On the podcast today; another defeat for Spurs. Thomas Frank was still in his job at the time of recording. Not any more.
Continue reading...Harriet Harman leads calls for an appointment that would ‘turbocharge’ a ‘complete culture change’ at No 10
Furious female Labour MPs have told Keir Starmer to appoint a woman as his de facto deputy to oversee a “complete culture change” in Downing Street after a series of scandals they say have exposed a No 10 “boy’s club”.
Harriet Harman, one of the party’s most senior figures, urged Starmer to revive the role of first secretary of state, a post previously occupied by Peter Mandelson under Gordon Brown. But she insisted the role must be held by a woman to “transform the political culture in government around women and girls”.
Continue reading...Jewish activists interrupt speech at synagogue and accuse party of paving way for persecution of other minorities
Jewish activists have heckled Nigel Farage at the launch of a Jewish members’ organisation for Reform UK and accused the party of planning to use the new group as cover for persecuting other minorities.
Farage spoke at the inaugural event on Tuesday night of the Reform Jewish Alliance (RJA), which he said would help the party target up to 15 parliamentary seats.
Continue reading...Head of Crown Prosecution Service for England and Wales says he is working with Thames Valley and Met forces
Prosecutors are “in close contact” with police over investigations into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson’s links with Jeffrey Epstein, England and Wales’s most senior criminal prosecutor has said.
Thames Valley police has said it is reviewing allegations that the child sex offender Epstein provided Mountbatten-Windsor with a woman to have sex with at Royal Lodge in 2010, as well as that the former prince shared confidential reports from his role as a government trade envoy with the disgraced financier.
Continue reading...Continued global heating could set irreversible course by triggering climate tipping points, but most people unaware
The world is closer than thought to a “point of no return” after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped, scientists have said.
Continued global heating could trigger climate tipping points, leading to a cascade of further tipping points and feedback loops, they said. This would lock the world into a new and hellish “hothouse Earth” climate far worse than the 2-3C temperature rise the world is on track to reach. The climate would also be very different to the benign conditions of the past 11,000 years, during which the whole of human civilisation developed.
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