Stripped away

A brave dad took control of a woman claiming to be a terrorist on a flight full of families. The woman terrified Jet2 passengers when she allegedly stripped down to her underwear and tried to storm the plane’s cockpit twice while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’. She reportedly said there ‘would be an explosion’ and asked the children she was with if they were ‘ready to die’. The suspect, believed to be in her 30s, also reportedly said her parents were part of the infamous terror group ISIS. Phillip O’Brien, 35, was one of the passengers on the flight travelling from Cyprus to Manchester. He was with six members of his family, including his wife and three children. ‘As you can imagine everyone was s****ing themselves,’ he told The Mirror . Phillip, who used to work in security as a teenager, asked staff why no one had ‘put [the woman] to the floor’. When the crew said they were not ‘able to’ Phillip said: ‘Well I am.’ The drainage firm boss then got hold of her and … [Read more...] about Dad restrains woman who stripped on flight and told him about ‘explosion’

Paul Pogba flew his barber over from the UK to Italy to get his hair cut - and you can be sure it wasn't a short back and sides job. Celebrating his new life in Turin, the midfielder even performed a little jig with the former Manchester United star looking in high spirits. That is despite the fact that the 29-year-old is currently injured - an issue that could threaten his World Cup with France. Nevertheless, Pogba is looking sharp and it only took his barber a trip to Italy to get one of his favourite clients his unique haircut. Celebrity hairstylist A-Star Barbers is used to trimming the biggest stars' mops but Pogba requires closer surgery. READ MORE: Roy Keane clip resurfaces showing Utd icon's 'true leadership' after Harry Maguire gaffe His new haircut sports a close trim with intricate patterns sheered onto his scalp. And the Frenchman looked over the moon after the finishing touches were complete. Breaking out into dance and feeling his new haircut, Pogba … [Read more...] about Paul Pogba dances away from haircut after flying barber from UK to Italy

Sir Keir Starmer’s proposed energy price cap freeze could end up costing the same amount as the Government’s coronavirus furlough scheme, the boss of a leading think tank has said. The Labour leader unveiled a plan on Sunday to freeze the cap on electricity and gas prices at its current level of £1,971 for six months from October. It would shield households from the predicted rise to £3,600 this autumn and beyond that in the New Year. Sir Keir’s plan would last for six months, but on Monday morning he appeared to suggest that the freeze could remain in place for longer. Labour said it would cost £29 billion for six months and Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, pointed out that if it was in place for a year it would cost roughly the same as the furlough scheme. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which was in place from March 2020 to September 2021, cost the Government approximately £70 billion. Mr Johnson told the BBC Radio 4 … [Read more...] about Keir Starmer’s plan to freeze energy price cap ‘could cost as much as Covid furlough scheme’

If there's one thing that this Government is really good at, it is doing nothing. They have turned it into an art form – a meeting here, a conflab there, briefed details of a hastily-arranged emergency summit designed to show purpose yet utterly devoid of substance. Seeing to do rather than actually doing is how Boris Johnson’s administration will be remembered. If the race to succeed him is anything to go by, it is a style of leadership that may persist. Nowhere is this troubling approach more evident than the response to the energy crisis. The latest predictions for bills are frightening for those on low incomes: £4,267 a year by January, which is £650 more expensive than previously thought; and more than £4,400 annually by April, according to analysts at Cornwall Insight. Meanwhile UK households owe £1.3bn to their energy suppliers, three times higher than a year ago, with six million households more than £200 in debt on average, according to Uswitch, and winter is still … [Read more...] about Lib Dem plan to solve the energy crisis is radical – but at least they have one

F rench President Emmanuel Macron has accused Russia of using energy as a “weapon of war” as the chief executive of oil and gas giant Shell warned gas rationing in Europe this winter was possible. Mr Macron yesterday told citizens to "prepare for a scenario where we have to manage completely without Russian gas." "The summer, early autumn will be very hard," he said. "Russia is using energy, like it is using food, as a weapon of war." He said the government would prepare a "sobriety plan" to conserve energy, which would start with turning off public lights at night when they aren't useful. "We need a general mobilisation," Mr Macron said in a televised address for Bastille Day. Ben van Beurden, chief executive of Shell, echoed the French president’s remarks, saying Russia had shown it is “able and willing to weaponise energy supplies.” Mr van Beurden said Moscow had “surprised” the market and told governments to be prepared for the Kremlin to restrict gas further. “For a … [Read more...] about Macron says Putin using gas as ‘weapon of war’ amid rationing fears

There is something unreal about the Tory leadership battle. It feels like a general election, with the two remaining candidates remorselessly slagging each other off in briefings, hustings and on broadcast media ; indeed, it gets some of the same profile in terms of the airtime and column inches devoted to it. But actually — as Liz Truss seems rather more readily to appreciate than her opponent — it is much more like a beauty pageant than an election, with the judges confined to a small but far from electorally representative group of Tory Party activists. It is these people the candidates have to convince; the Foreign Secretary’s pitch appears to be much more in keeping with that end than that of Rishi Sunak, who would have been the choice of the parliamentary party had it been the method of selection. Ms Truss says what she thinks the grass roots want to hear, which is return to the smaller state, lower tax, self help, non-interventionist agenda of Conservative rule before … [Read more...] about Liz Truss will probably beat Rishi Sunak, but lose the next general election

What the hell did you think would happen? For the better part of two years, we paid people to stay home , and covered the cost by printing money. In other words, for two years, the amount of goods and services being produced fell, while the amount of money in circulation rose. You don’t need a degree in economics to know that more money chasing fewer products means inflation. Most of us grasp the concept of a postponed reckoning. If you took two years off work, and maintained your income by borrowing, you’d be a lot worse off. We all understand that with reference to our own lives. So why do we struggle to extend the same reasoning to our nation’s finances? Perhaps because it is human to prefer sweet falsehoods to bitter truths. It would be lovely if there really were a way to get back to growth and stable money without significant cuts. And, politics being politics, various fools and opportunists are now stepping forward to claim that this can somehow be done. First, there are … [Read more...] about Britain is in crisis because of the arrogance and delusions of the lockdown fanatics

In the midst of the Conservative leadership debates, with clear dividing lines on the economy dominating, the ghost at the feast turned up – Gordon Brown. When our former prime minister pontificated on the cost of living and the need for greater levels of support, the price cap and nationalisation, you could sense a smile of relief on the face of the establishment. This is because Liz Truss has rattled their complacency and demanded a changed approach to the orthodox policies which now risk stagflation. The establishment's smirk is there because as you look at their desired response to the spiralling cost of living - higher interest rates and higher taxation - you rapidly conclude that Brown actually never went away. His orthodoxy is still that of the establishment, particularly the Treasury and the Bank of England . The man who said he had brought an end to the cycle of boom and bust, only to deliver perhaps the biggest bust of all in 2008, has very much been at the heart of … [Read more...] about Gordon Brown created the ruinous Treasury orthodoxy that is wrecking Britain

It was a request that raised eyebrows, even in the Tesla fan community: “Is there anyone in the Bay Area with a child who can run in front of my car on Full Self-Driving Beta to make a point? I promise I won't run them over.” The request on Twitter came from a Tesla owner angered by a video published online. A group called the Dawn Project had put a Tesla onto a test track, and then switched it into what the company calls “full self-driving” mode (FSD) . It was then set on a collision course with a static mannequin of a small child. The car hit the mannequin every time. Even with seven seconds notice, “an attentive human driver cannot fail to notice a stationary child in the middle of a clear roadway,” the study noted. “Tesla’s FSD software does fail this simple task, repeatedly and with deadly results.” The angry Tesla fan was convinced the Dawn Project was wrong and made the request for a sacrificial child to recreate the experiment at home, only with a live guinea pig. … [Read more...] about Self-driving zealots should not put cars above people

Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out, Wordle can stump even the best of us at times. And Monday's Wordle #422, has left quite a few people scratching their heads. Thankfully, Newsweek is here to give a helping hand to the pros, rookies and everyone in between looking to solve the puzzle and keep their streak going. Every day, Wordle players must guess a five-letter word using a color-coded system that shows how close they are to getting the right answer. Therefore, when a letter is in the right position it will turn green. Any letters that are in the word but have been placed in the wrong position will turn yellow. Letters that aren't in the word will become gray. Josh Wardle originally created the game for his puzzle-loving partner, Palak Shah, but it soon took the world by storm. In October 2021, Wardle officially released the game to the public, and it became a smash hit worldwide. It gained such widespread success that The New York Times … [Read more...] about Today’s “Wordle” word #422 answer, hints and clues—Monday, August 15