Name: The obesity crisis. Age: Very modern. Appearance: Seriously fat. Yes, I gather that two-thirds of the UK population are overweight and a quarter are obese. I think that’s true, but you are talking about the human obesity crisis, aren’t you? I am. Which one are you talking about? The hedgehog obesity crisis. Hahaha! What…
Author: THEJOHNANTONIOBLOG
Theresa May rebuffs fresh calls to resign
Theresa May has no intention of setting out a fresh timetable for her departure, Downing Street has signalled, with a spokesman insisting she is determined to “get Brexit done”. The spokesman dismissed calls from Conservative backbenchers for the prime minister to step down, saying she had already “made a very generous and bold offer” to…
Israel says it will not allow in activists targeting Eurovision
Israel has said it will block activists who plan to disrupt the Eurovision Song Contest from entering the country, as anxiety mounts that the event, watched by a global TV audience, will become a focus for protests against the country’s treatment of the Palestinians. The world’s longest-running televised song competition will take place on 14-18…
‘Sonrise at Windsor’: what the papers said about the royal baby
News of the royal baby filled the front pages of several papers on Tuesday – and many, many pages beyond. While there were no new pictures of the Duchess of Sussex or the baby, the Mail, Mirror and Express heroically still managed to devote 23, 11 and 11 pages of coverage respectively to the birth…
‘We’re living in emergency times’: nature writer Barry Lopez’s dire warning
While Extinction Revolution was gearing up for another impressive protest, Barry Lopez was considering a pair of sparrows mating atop a cantilevered sign on New York’s Upper East Side. It wasn’t the most momentous of couplings, hardly the millions-strong gathering of geese he witnessed in his award-winning book Arctic Dreams or as moving as his…
I have just discovered my brother secretly wears women’s underwear. What should I do?
I am trying to wrap my head around the fact that my younger brother wears bras and knickers. He doesn’t know that I know. This came up 25 years ago when some of my knickers were found in a suitcase hidden in a closet. Now he is 40 and I just found out he wears…
Woody Allen movie dropped by Amazon to get European release
A Rainy Day in New York, the film completed by Woody Allen in 2018 but left in limbo after backers Amazon Studios terminated its agreement with him, is set for release in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. According to Variety, distributors Lucky Red have purchased rights to the film in Italy and plan to release…
Kevin Smith: how we made Clerks
Kevin Smith, director I worked in six convenience stores in New Jersey from 1989 to 1993, which is where Clerks came from. It was an appealing, easy job, like being a bartender: it puts you nominally in charge and people have to socialise with you. Seeing Richard Linklater’s Slacker on my 21st birthday showed me…
Humanity must save insects to save ourselves, leading scientist warns
Click:EGP Ice Mint Nicotine Pouches Humanity must save insects, if not for their sake, then for ourselves, a leading entomologist has warned. “Insects are the glue in nature and there is no doubt that both the [numbers] and diversity of insects are declining,” said Prof Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. “At…
Mural of journalist Lyra McKee unveiled in Belfast
A mural of the journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Derry last month, has been unveiled in her home city of Belfast. The image, created by Emma Blake and 21 other artists, covers much of the city’s Kent Street as part of the Hit the North street art festival. The picture is painted…