New Zealand’s Geordie Beamish falls on the last lap of his 3,000m steeplechase heat but recovers to finish second and qualify for the final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
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Lulu has opened up about her complicated relationship with intimacy, admitting she was “afraid of sex” while rising to fame in the 1960s.
The singer, now 76, looks back on her early years in a candid extract from her upcoming memoir If Only You Knew, which will be released on September 25 to coincide with her latest tour.
In it, she explains how her upbringing and family dynamics left her uncomfortable around the subject of sex around the time when she became a household name after the success of her 1964 hit Shout.
“I wasn’t a fan. I was a musician. But, the truth is, I was also afraid of sex,” she wrote. “It had never been openly discussed in my home and Betty [her mother] had made it seem almost shameful, one of the many threads that coursed through the black rage between my parents.
“I wanted love, I wanted romance. I was just scared of the reality, so I spent my time wrapped up in fantasy, in love with the idea of love.”
Despite her fears, Lulu makes it clear she never went through negative experiences in the bedroom. She says her fear stemmed from the taboo surrounding sex during her teenage years.
She wrote: “There was one area in particular which made me feel very self-conscious: sex. It felt like a black hole pulling every-one around me in while I floated around in deep space watching them get swallowed up, which fed my feeling of being a step apart.”
She added that while she had boyfriends – including Alex Bell from her band The Luvvers and Herman’s Hermits frontman Peter Noone – she kept things PG.
“None of it went much further than a goodnight kiss because I’d skipped so much school that human biology had completely passed me by,” she said.
“And, in those days, we didn’t do the teenage conversations that you see in Hollywood films today which might have started to reveal its secrets. I didn’t have a clue.”
Her memoir also touches on her youthful crush on Eric Clapton, admitting she once threw a party for the chance to see him. “My crush on Eric, however, still burned strong and I remained desperate to see him.
“So, one night, I threw a party and invited everyone – the Beatles, the Who, the Animals and Cat Stevens – hoping he’d come too,” she confessed.
“Nervously waiting for him to arrive, I kept an eye on the door until he finally walked in… But, late that night, we ended up outside smoking and, heart palpitating, I tried to act cool.”
On a professional level, Lulu has recently been busy championing mental health awareness. Earlier this year she launched Lulu’s Mental Health Trust, which recently held its first sponsored walk.
She told The Mirror: “The process of writing my memoir opened my eyes to the role that mental health has played in my life. When I was first coming into the industry we didn’t talk about it! But it’s so important, and I want to give back.”
He was the stuff nightmares were made of and scared the life out of a generation of children in the late nineties when he portrayed an evil school principal with terrifying green eyes.
Despite his horribly menacing portrayal of the spooky school leader with a lust for power in CBBC’s The Demon Headmaster and his numerous other roles throughout his lengthy career as serious authority figures, Terrence Hardiman was known to be a true gent in real life.
A highly respected talent in the British entertainment industry, he starred in many hit shows such as Prime Suspect, Casualty and Doctor Who. He also toured with the Royal Shakespeare Company in principal roles but his extensive acting experience and success didn’t mean he had lost his humility.
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He was offered a cameo to reprise his part in The Demon Headmaster when it returned to screens over 20 years after he first sent shivers down the spines of the nation’s kids and he humbly spoke of his nerves beforehand. “I thought, well, it’s 22 years since I played that part on television,” he told the RadioTimes in 2019.
“Are people going to say, ‘What the devil is he doing that for? Doesn’t anyone else want him to do anything else?’ No, it wasn’t quite like that, but I was slightly nervous about meeting new people. I didn’t want them to start saying, ‘Why have we got this old chap in again?’.”
Assuring fans he wouldn’t be scaring them too much, he revealed he would just be making a cameo as the head who loved to be mean and control his pupils. “I just make an appearance for a while,” he explained. “So it’s not about me. It’s the new lot and that’s lovely. I’m not there for long. So I won’t frighten you for too long!”
The return to the BBC series came just a few years before Terrence’s death which was announced in May 2023, aged 86. He was described as a “beloved client and much-loved stage and screen actor” by his agent in a statement at the time. His passing sparked many tributes from his legions of fans who he both delighted and petrified in equal measure.
“Goddammit, we’ve lost Terence Hardiman. I honestly can’t think of anyone who could have played the Demon Headmaster better,” one fan wrote on Twitter as the news broke.
“To this day I struggle to think of a more terrifying figure from my childhood,” another added, referring to Hardiman’s iconic portrayal of the wicked headmaster who hid his eerie eyes behind dark glasses which he only took off to hypnotise his victims as he demanded, “Look into my eyes”.
A third added: “Terribly sad news of Terrence Hardiman passing away. He was supremely terrifying in The Demon Headmaster, but I had the pleasure of meeting him once at one of my school’s fetes, It took a bit of convincing to go up to him, but he was absolutely wonderful and kind. RIP.”
Another mourning fan mused how the actor was so synonymous with the part that many didn’t even know his real name. “Sad news, as he was a big part of my childhood,” they began. “But also, I can’t believe how this is the way 90% of people my age are finding out the name of the actor who played The Demon Headmaster.”
Based on the children’s books by Gillian Cross of the same name, the children’s drama premiered on CBBC in 1996 and ran until 1998. The 2019 sequel starred Nicholas Gleaves as the titular character.
Born in 1937 in Forest Gate, Newham, London, Terence studied English at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he got the acting bug. He would go on to become an icon to a generation of kids and performed for The Marlowe Society and the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club, alongside many of his future screen co-stars such as Derek Jacobi who he starred in the long running historical murder series Cadfael with.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made his first visit to the troubled Manipur state where at least 260 people have been killed in ethnic clashes in two years.
Manipur in the northeast has been bitterly divided since May 2023, when violence broke out between the mainly Hindu Meitei majority and the largely Christian Kuki community.
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The violence has also displaced tens of thousands of people who are still living in makeshift camps set up by the government.
“In order to bring life back on track in Manipur, the government of India is making all possible efforts,” Modi told a gathering of thousands in Churachandpur, a Kuki-dominated town, on Saturday.
“I promise you today that I’m with you. The government of India is with the people of Manipur,” Modi said, while also appealing “to all groups to take the path of peace for realising their dreams.”
Modi was also scheduled to address a rally at Imphal, the Meitei-dominated capital of the state.
The Hindu nationalist leader last visited the state, bordering Myanmar and 1,700km (1,050 miles) from New Delhi, in 2022. He inaugurated development projects worth more than $960m, including five highways and a new police headquarters.
Manipur’s former chief minister, N Biren Singh, from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), resigned in February after criticism that he failed to stop the bloodshed there. The state of nearly three million people has since been ruled directly from New Delhi.
Tensions between Meiteis and Kukis, rooted in competition for land and government jobs, have long simmered in the region. Rights groups accuse political leaders of fuelling the divisions for their own gain.
Modi’s visit to Manipur is part of a three-day tour that also includes Assam, which borders Bangladesh, and Bihar, India’s third-most populous state with at least 130 million people.
Bihar is a key electoral battleground ahead of polls slated for October or November, the only state in India’s northern Hindi-speaking heartland where Modi’s BJP has never ruled alone.
Police operatives in Benue State have arrested three suspected armed robbers and recovered 34 handsets, three HP laptops, and two MP3 players from them.
Spokesperson of the Benue State Police Command, Udeme Edet, disclosed in a statement in Makurdi on Friday.
She said the suspects were arrested during a stop-and-search operation.
Edet gave the names of the suspects as Mujahid Mohammed, 21 years; Yahaya Abdullahi, 21 years; and Kalipha Mohammad, 28 years, who were all residents of Mararaba and Nyanya, Abuja.
The police spokesperson stated that the suspects were arrested on August 31st at Orokam Junction along Obollo Afor Road.
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“On 31st August 2025 at about 1705 hrs, while operatives of the Orokam Police Division were on stop-and-search duty at Orokam Junction by Obollo Afor Road, they intercepted and arrested three suspects,” the statement read.
“The suspects confessed to belonging to a gang of armed robbers who were terrorising the Orokam community in Benue and other communities in Enugu State.
“They also confessed to having robbed six flats at the Umukasi Area and ten flats at the St Theresa Area of Nsukka in Enugu State.
“They further averred that their ringleader, one Abba Mohammed, age 27, who is at large, escaped with their weapons in the course of their arrest,” she added.
Edet stated that the Benue police command was working with those of Enugu and Gombe to apprehend the suspect at large.
She announced that the command was carrying out further investigation to identify the owners of the recovered items.
“The Benue Commissioner of Police (CP) Emenari Ifeanyi has commended the swift action of the patrol team and reaffirmed the command’s commitment to rid the state of criminal elements.
Joey Essex is never one to shy away from sharing his extravagant lifestyle. And so it comes as no surprise that he was quick to post a series of pictures from his latest summer break to Ibiza on social media.
But his most recent jaunt to the Spanish party island comes just days after it emerged that he has racked up an eye-watering amount of debt.
In an exclusive by the Mirror, it was revealed that he had amassed £1.3million of debt through his performing arts company after he “failed ” to repay a £780,000 loan from his company Joey Essex Management Ltd.
Documents which had been obtained by the Mirror show that liquidators have been left unsure if he will pay back the director’s loan, despite signing a Declaration of Solvency in August last year.
At the time, the document stated: “I have formed the opinion that this company will be able to pay its debts in full together with interest at the official rate within 12 months.”
But his director’s loan is not the only financial strain for the former reality TV star turned boxing champion.
According to reports, he has other debts of £497,246. He reportedly owes £442,303 to HMRC which is for outstanding VAT, PAYE, corporation tax and court costs.
The former TOWIE star was taken to court last year due to his outstanding debts and was served with a “winding up petition.”
So you’d think that the TV personality would be more humble when it comes to splashing the cash.
Posting to his Instagram stories, in one picture Joey is seen sat with a pal drinking a beer.
Dressed in all black with matching shades, Joey, who recently won his boxing debut, looked relaxed and content.
In another picture, he shared with fans the enviable sea view.
And it seems he is also sharing his trip with his new girlfriend Leila Soper. The couple were spotted kissing while frolicking in the sea.
With their arms around each other, the pair seemed oblivious to those around them.
Leila is the daughter of British racing driver Steve Soper.
Leila is a photographer and her career focuses on editorial and fashion photography.
Away from his budding relationship, Joey’s financial strain also includes £39,942 to Coutts bank and £15,000 to Companies House.
Joey is reportedly the company’s only director as well as shareholder and the company was set up in 2011. This is the same year he joined TOWIE.
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