An inspirational story from Venezuela where the much revered Jose Abreu, founder of a renowned music programme that changed the lives of thousands of poor children, has died. He started El Sistema (the system) in 1975 in a garage with just 11 musicians which eventually grew to 300 choirs and orchestras, inspiring similar … Read more
Amongst the jostle for contenders for the after-Jeremy Corbyn slot if he does depart in 2019/2020 are Emily Thornberry, Keir Starmer and Angela Raynor. The two women face up uphill struggle since the Labour Party has never had a female leader, except by default when a Deputy briefly stepped up briefly. And … Read more
The Austin Texas bomber, Mark Anthony Conditt, was responsible, police believe, for a 19-day spell of five explosions that killed two people and injured five more. He then blew himself up. Net sources put the date of his birth as 16 June 1994. He was home schooled in a “conservative, strictly religious” family; attended … Read more
The inseparable duo of Ant & Dec, the hugely popular Brit TV hosts for Saturday Night Takeaway and I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, has taken a knock after Ant McParlin was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of drunk driving after a car crash. He went into rehab last year … Read more
Round and round the mulberry bush and so the tension mounts. Will Trump fire Mueller now that he is daring to go where no man has before, into the Trump business finances; or fire Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General, to insert a more pliable yes-man to do the dirty for him? … Read more
Is Trump descending into a sinkhole of his own digging or beginning to find his feet and rule as he pleases? He blindsides senior staff by impromptu decisions on trade, NK and Russia, losing an economic adviser along the way, firing the Secretary of State who wouldn’t toe his line and now about … Read more
Ken Dodd, the zany, buck-toothed Liverpudlian comedian with a feather tickle stick in hand, has died. “The last standing true vaudevillian – a force of nature, a whirlwind, an ambulant torrent of surreal invention, physical and verbal, whose Liverpudlian cheek masked the melancholy of an authentic clown.” “A typical Dodd routine was finely … Read more
Stephen Hawking the theoretical physicist and cosmologist who became one of the best-known scientists in the world has died. He suffered from a rare, early onset variety of Lou Gehrig’s disease but despite loss of physical functions and his voice he continued working till the end. His fame came from his work tying … Read more
The Kremlin is “highly likely” to be behind the attack on a former Russian spy in the UK, PM Theresa May has confirmed. She revealed that the nerve agent used on Sergei Skripal and his daughter was a “military-grade” gas almost certainly created in Russia, part of a group of nerve agents … Read more
The Skripal attempted assassinations have brought the Sergei Magnitsky affair back into the headlines, as well as Deutsche Bank scandal, money-laundering suspect Russian funds into the New York property market, which may impact on the Mueller Investigation. Magnitsky was a Russian lawyer, imprisoned after reporting officials for major fraud and died as … Read more