Новости за 30.08.2015

Akram Khan, one of the most-acclaimed choreographers in the UK, has called for the Government to put dance in the curriculum saying it is as important as studying maths or medicine.

Mo Farah still cannot lay claim to be the greatest British athlete of all time, according to newly elected IAAF president Seb Coe.

The former Olympic sprint relay champion Darren Campbell has called on Britain’s relay runners to have their National Lottery funding cut following their Beijing mishap here on Saturday. It was the latest in a catalogue of calamities by the men’s 4x100m relay squad, who have either been disqualified or failed to finish at the last four global championships.

Martyn Rooney joked he was tempted to call his son Bird’s Nest after anchoring home Britain to a bronze medal on a climactic final night at the World Championships here in Beijing yesterday.

Just moments before he was officially handed the IAAF presidency, Lord Coe had said athletics was “more than a discussion about test tubes, blood and urine”.

Of all the groups who are the least likely to vote for Jeremy Corbyn, I would put the grey vote at the very top of the list (Andrew Grice, 29 August). We baby boomers are the group who lived through the Cold War and saw first-hand what hard-left policies were like in the Communist bloc.

OK, it was the “silly season”. But one story dominated the PR industry during August: “Sweaty-gate”. Despite its silly name and silly-sounding theme (a medical condition which apparently causes excess sweating) the essence of this story – “PR fakery” – has serious implications for both PRs and journalists.

Amsterdam is a 45-minute plane ride from Gatwick. It’s far enough away that one can’t feel as dirty as all Britain must surely feel after Downton Dave “tipped the staff” by handing out 26 new Tory peerages. As I wrote recently:  why aren’t we angrier?

For those whose fondest dream is of Mr Tony Blair’s elevation to the ranks of Catholic saints, happy news of his first authenticated miracle. His latest Labour leadership musings came this weekend, when he dismissed support for Jeremy Corbyn as an “Alice in Wonderland fantasy”, but it is to his first intervention that we return today.

Letters pages in print newspapers often stand as models of polite and enlightened debate. Readers might avow the wisdom of a columnist or explain where a writer has missed a trick.

In bed on Sunday morning, reading the papers, I say to the dear man next to me: “These days the politics of identity are as important as the politics of politics.”

I don’t think that the nurse meant to sound accusatory when she saw me the other day and asked, “do you live here?” Still, I assured her that I do have my own flat, in case she thought I’d taken up residence at the care home full time. But to be honest, I don’t really know where I live any more.

Eritrea is routinely called “Africa’s North Korea” for its repression, restrictions on daily life and routine use of torture to crush the slightest signs of defiance.

A-grade brains are made of more than cheesy chips and cold baked beans. IndyBest finds recipes for uni-friendly grub

When do you get a free pass to rape a woman? Because we’ve all been scratching our heads about the answer to this one, Chrissie Hynde has given us some valuable guidelines in a Sunday Times Magazine interview. ‘You know, if you don’t want to entice a rapist, don’t wear high heels so you can’t run from him,’ the former rock and roll star told her (presumably horrified) interviewer. If a woman is being ‘lairy’ and ‘provocative’ in the street after a few drinks, she added, then ‘who else’s fault can it be’ if she ends up getting raped? Читать дальше...

The Great Wall of China, the walls of Rome and every medieval city, the Siegfried Line, the Maginot Line, the Atlantic Wall; nations – empires, dictatorships, democracies – have used every mountain chain and river to keep out foreign armies. And now we Europeans treat the poor and huddled masses, the truly innocent of Syria and Iraq, Afghanistan and Ethiopia, as if they are foreign invaders determined to plunder and subjugate our sovereignty, our heimat, our green and pleasant land.

The UK along with the other world powers reached agreement last month with Iran to curb elements of its nuclear programme. With the gold rush mentality infecting Germany, Italy, Austria, France and Switzerland to secure billion dollar deals, their investments are far from risk-free and may create an unseemly backlash.

The disastrous miscalculation made by the United States in signing a military agreement with Turkey at the expense of the Kurds becomes daily more apparent. In return for the use of Incirlik Air Base just north of the Syrian border, the US betrayed the Syrian Kurds who have so far been its most effective ally against Islamic State (Isis, also known as Daesh). In return for this deal signed on 22 July, the US got greater military cooperation from Turkey, but it swiftly emerged that Ankara’s real target was the Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

Life is a funny thing sometimes. One minute, you’re 16 years old, in a three bedroom house in Texas with 18 other New Orleanians, watching your childhood home wallow under the floodwaters as every possible screen available broadcasts breaking footage of Hurricane Katrina. Then the next, you’re 26 years old and you live in the UK, and you’re working in the newsroom of a well-known fashion magazine, it’s been ten years since that moment and that storm - that defining point - is both literally and metaphorically thousands of miles away. Читать дальше...

Conventional wisdom has long held that sex sells in advertising. Advertisers often use sexual ads under the assumption that they attract attention and, therefore, are an effective way to promote products and services. Many continue to pursue this strategy for brands ranging from intimate wear (Victoria’s Secret) to fast food (such as Carl’s Jr).

Tributes have been paid to Kyle Jean-Baptiste, the first African-American and youngest person to play the role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables on Broadway who has died after falling from a fire escape. He was 21.

Tributes have been paid to Kyle Jean-Baptiste, the first African-American and youngest person to play the role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables on Broadway who has died after falling from a fire escape. He was 21.

I predict a riot

The problems with invasive species, broadly speaking, are twofold. First, they come over here, all unruly and without any respect for our native ways. They use up resources, contribute nothing and lower property prices. The other problem is that when you complain about them, you can start to sound a bit racist.

It is Friday afternoon coffee break in the offices of the stationery-supply company based just off Harrow high street in north-west London, and the talk among the sales force has, naturally, turned to the coming weekend. Most of them, it turns out, will be blamelessly engaged in their gardens, helping their wives with the shopping or watching their children play sport. Not so Andy, who, investigation reveals, is currently booked to spend Saturday afternoon at a music festival in Hertfordshire... Читать дальше...