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How the celebrity-backed legal action against one of Britain’s most powerful newspapers fell apart
On 26 January 2015, Hugh Grant entertained an unusual guest at an exclusive venue in one of London’s most affluent neighbourhoods. A few weeks earlier, the disgraced former tabloid journalist Graham Johnson had been contemplating starting the year behind bars. Now, he found himself opposite the Hollywood actor in the rather more comfortable surroundings of the KX Gym in Chelsea, which doubles as a private members’ club where fees cost more than £600 a month.
It was on that day, 11 years ago, that one of the seeds of Prince Harry’s doomed court battle with the publisher of the Daily Mail was sown.
Continue reading...Sun, 12 Jul 2026 07:29:01 GMT
The meal is like being handed a succession of phones showing memes you don’t understand
A couple of months ago, Nigel Ng, the Malaysian comedian better known as his alter ego, Uncle Roger, opened his first UK restaurant in the heart of London’s Chinatown. He’s a man who has built a global YouTube following of more than 10 million subscribers via pithy, endearing videos on how, for example, to make exemplary fried rice, not to mention why Jamie Oliver’s take on that classic dish turns his stomach. Big numbers such as “more than 10 million” make investors very excited, not least because 10 million viewers might potentially equal 10 million bums on seats eating “Chinatown fried rice”, which at Kawan comes with crispy XO chilli and Cantonese lap cheong, and costs £15.90 a bowl. What’s 10 million multiplied by £15.90? OMG! £159,000,000!! Everyone’s a winner. Let’s open a novelty restaurant! It is wonky business logic such as this that has led to Kawan.
On a Thursday lunchtime, six weeks after opening and with Roger having long since had his photo taken on the steps and already departed, Kawan is largely deserted, other than its poor staff, who are pleasant as heck, but who have about them the air of stewards rearranging the Titanic’s sun loungers. There are precisely zero avid Gen Zers queuing to spend their money on the “firecracker rolls”, and no Gen X parents handing over their hard-earned to please their Uncle Roger-addicted offspring with the barbecued pork “aji-no-bun”. What few customers there are, meanwhile, are mostly couples in their mid-40s peering at the “choco-orange ribs” glazed with orange and chocolate, then wok-seared, and “inspired by Uncle Guga”, who is, apparently, one of Roger’s collaborators. That’s just one problem with creating a restaurant out of in-jokes: it’s like being handed a succession of phones showing memes you don’t understand. Or, worse, memes that you thought were funny nine months ago, but are now photocopied in the parish newsletter.
Continue reading...Sun, 12 Jul 2026 05:00:10 GMT
I love busting out a French subjunctive in pursuit of better restaurant service, so it’s a joy to discover there’s a neuroscientific upside to being multilingual
It’s hard to pick a favourite PG Wodehouse line, but the one I’m perhaps most fond of is this: “Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to speak French.”
It’s funny, but it also succinctly captures something that I have long felt about language acquisition, which is that in order to truly embrace learning another tongue, you have to be prepared to look foolish and vulnerable. (Why that can be so difficult for the English – a monoglot minority on a largely bilingual planet – is another article entirely.) More people will perhaps be prepared to endure that humbling process now, as new research has found that learning another language can slow ageing in the brain by up to 13 years. Multilingualism, it is thought, promotes brain connectivity and slows its decline with age.
Continue reading...Sun, 12 Jul 2026 05:00:10 GMT
From Hollywood movies to confessional memoirs, three-person relationships are everywhere. But is it really possible to keep everyone satisfied? Happy trios, bruised couples and rejected lovers tell all
Priscilla can pinpoint the moment she realised that her throuple was falling apart. Her fiancee, Kiara, had started kissing their shared girlfriend, Olivia, in a way that went on for just a little too long. One night, after the three of them had gone out for a romantic dinner in Savannah, Georgia, where they live, Olivia and Kiara started kissing in the front seats of the family car and it seemed as if they were never going to stop. About 10 minutes in, Priscilla tried to reach out and touch her fiancee’s shoulder, but her seat belt was buckled. Unbuckling and leaning forward felt intrusive. And, anyway, Kiara and Olivia seemed to have forgotten all about her. Watching the kiss unfold, squashed into the back with all the baby seats and toys, Priscilla thought about how by rights it was her turn to sit up front. She was always in the back seat. She felt a flicker of something competitive. “I worried, am I desired less than her?” she recalls now. “Will I be replaced?”
In the early days, Priscilla felt giddy with the excitement of being in a throuple. She and Kiara had been together for eight years, and adding a third person to their relationship felt like a way of exploring non‑monogamy without losing one another, because every new romantic experience would be shared. Olivia was an old friend, so Priscilla and Kiara’s children were comfortable with her. When the kids were in bed, they would walk to the beach holding hands as a three, to watch the sunset. At night, they would curl up to sleep together, and form a kind of cuddle chain. Priscilla would cuddle Olivia, and Olivia would cuddle Kiara.
Continue reading...Sun, 12 Jul 2026 05:00:09 GMT
Militaries have been missing a trick as female recruits to receive sex-specific training to unlock their potential
In a giant state-of-the-art gym at the British army’s Kendrew Barracks in the East Midlands, Amy responds immediately when asked about her favourite aspect of military training. “Putting on my bergan and getting out there,” she replies, referring to the heavy-duty, 25kg military rucksack all recruits must learn to carry. “I really like putting myself in the hurt locker.”
During gruelling commando training the 24-year-old lines up against men often a foot taller, with 50% more upper body strength and 30% more muscle mass. It doesn’t seem to bother her.
Continue reading...Sun, 12 Jul 2026 07:00:11 GMT
Excited to be away from home for the first time, we spent a riotous week partying, while the owner and his elderly parents understandably – and often audibly – seethed
Twenty British 16-year-olds rent a remote Sicilian villa for a week of partying and late-night binge drinking. It sounds like a holiday host’s nightmare. Well, anyone’s nightmare. Add in the fact that the host was staying on site with his elderly Italian parents, as the teenagers partied on without a care for their own welfare or anyone else’s. This wasn’t a holiday from hell for my teenage self, but I’m pretty sure it was for our hosts.
It was 2013 and, for many of us, it was the first time we had been away just with friends. Let loose from familial constraints, it was easy to get carried away. I arrived a few days later than the others but was the main contact with our host, Pablo. This meant that, before I even set foot in the villa, I received a string of messages threatening to kick us out. The police had apparently already been called after two late nights of nonstop boozing.
Continue reading...Sun, 12 Jul 2026 04:00:08 GMT
Thomas Tuchel’s message was that it was time for England to thrive at the business end of the World Cup; the most exciting part. His players had to release the handbrake and go for it. They must not have any regrets against a Norway team that most of England expected them to beat. English arrogance? Or cold, hard realism?
Happily for Tuchel, he had a player in Jude Bellingham who took him at his word. Every one of them. Bellingham had shone previously at this tournament but he moved to another level here when it mattered the most.
Continue reading...Sat, 11 Jul 2026 23:47:01 GMT
Ambassadors for Gencore Global directed followers to Telegram channels promoting steroids, prescription medicines and experimental peptides
‘I felt dizzy’: body builder recalls how drug abuse caught up with him
UK becoming ‘wild west’ for experimental peptides, expert warns
Fitness influencers who publicly represent a global wellness brand are involved in running an illegal steroid market on social media, the Guardian can reveal.
Gencore Global presents itself as a UK-based health and wellness company and has recently appeared at FitXpo North West, a fitness event in Greater Manchester. It has also sponsored a racehorse, launched a UK combat sports and influencer boxing promotion, and is set to attend the National Running Show in Birmingham next year.
Continue reading...Sun, 12 Jul 2026 09:00:13 GMT
Suspect arrested in South Yorkshire after ex-politician was found dead at her Devon home on Thursday
A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Ann Widdecombe, police said.
The suspect, who is a white British national, was arrested at an address in the South Yorkshire area on Saturday evening and is in police custody.
Continue reading...Sat, 11 Jul 2026 22:46:26 GMT
Chancellor says PM-in-waiting needs ‘worked through plan’, in what could be one of her final interviews in No 11
Rachel Reeves has urged Andy Burnham to arrive in Downing Street with a “worked through plan”, saying the incoming prime minister will be tested quickly by a range of incoming “shocks and challenges”.
In what could be one of the first female chancellor’s final major interviews while in No 11, Reeves said Burnham should remain focused on the priorities that first brought him into politics.
Continue reading...Sun, 12 Jul 2026 09:25:00 GMT