Chair of City of London’s planning and transportation committee, Tom Sleigh, said: “This was never a choice between the Tower of London and jobs. The City was here first. William the Conqueror started his tower in 1078 in the corner of a city already a thousand years old, and the two have grown side by side ever since. Independent inspectors have now tested the plan and agreed: the Tower is protected and the City has room to grow.”

Prince William made a surprising admission about his taste in films after admitting that he loves a “dark and deep” plot- with Christopher Nolan being one of his favourite film makers

Prince William has shared what one of his favourite films is, and it tells us a lot about his personality. When we see snippets of Prince William, it is often through the lenses of a photographer while he is on royal engagements with his wife, Princess Kate.

More recently, however, Royals have been featured and interviewed in a more candid way, with William recently appearing on Travis and Jason Kelce’s New Heights Podcast and Reach PLC’s very own Claret & Blue Aston Villa Podcast. Recently, The future king was interviewed by Thomas Duke, a British influencer, and interviewer best known for his social media channel Stepping Through Film.

The pair sat down for a chat in a cinema as Tom asked the Prince of Wales what film meant to him.

Prince William said: “I love my film. I’m obsessed. I mean, frankly, we could talk for hours about film. I love it, but it’s trying to find enough time in the day to watch a film, that’s the problem.

“What I love is that when you’ve watched a really good film, that feeling of watching it the first time, you never get that again with that same film. Each film I find is very different to how you had that first experience.”

The first director the pair talked about was Christopher Nolan, with Prince William admitting that he “absolutely loved” his films, and gushed about watching Oppenheimer last summer.

He said: “I thought it was fantastic. I love the way his characters kind of brew a bit, and he has always a slight, darker edge to his characters, which I really like.

“I think sometimes some of the films can be a bit too frivolous or a bit too sort of shallow. And like the way Christopher goes into more depth and more darkness in all his films.”

What is one of Prince William’s favourite films?

Tom then asked Prince William about the first Christopher Nolan film he ever watched, and his answers gave royal fans a real insight into his personality.

He said: “The one that left the most impression on me early on was Batman: The Dark Knight. I absolutely loved that. For me, I thought he completely revolutionized the Batman franchise for another generation.

“I liked the dark edginess of it, and I thought, Heath Ledger, sadly, [had] an incredible performance as the Joker. Just the whole undertones of the film were fantastic.

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“It brought enough of the action, it brought the sort of intensity, it brought the complete believable world that is Gotham City back to life, which I thought was fantastic.”

Royal fans were keen to comment on William’s film choice after a clip of the interview was shared by Tom on TikTok/

One person said: “We got Prince William reviewing The Dark Knight before GTA VI.”

A second said: “Wild I live in the same reality where Prince William loves Batman lol, never thought I’d find anything in common with a royal haha.”

A third added: “Just two regular guys talking about one of the best Batman films? hell yeah.”

The provider is looking for kind, compassionate applicants who want to make a positive difference to the lives of elderly people across the Fylde Coast, with flexible opportunities that include daytime, evening and weekend shifts, depending on the specific role.

How Angels Private Home Care’s Value-Based Support Is Supporting Ongoing Growth

Owner, Consultant Geriatrician and Registered Manager Dr Jayaharan from Angels Private Home Care says; “It’s been amazing to watch our business go from strength to strength, and we believe this is down to our independence, where the quality of care and the happiness of every single colleague is so central. 

“Our approach is wholly personal, and carers always make the effort to understand each person’s circumstances, routines, preferences and needs, ensuring we provide the best possible support. 

“To enable us to keep pace with demand, we’re advertising for candidates who share our commitment to reliability and warmth, and we recognise that, while experience might be necessary for some more senior roles, compassion, patience and character are just as important, with full training provided.”

Varied care-based roles are often available, which can include:

• Flexible shift patterns and part-time openings
• Positions for non-drivers who can travel reliably
• Roles for those applying for entry-level care vacancies
• Opportunities to progress into senior carer or coordinator positions

Angels Private Home Care offers successful applicants competitive rates of pay, paid holiday leave, professional training and an established support structure, while becoming part of an experienced, valued local care team.

What applicants for vacancies with Angels Private Home Care might expect

The business’s doctor-led home care model overseen by Dr Jayaharan. His specialism in elderly care and decades of expertise working within the NHS, ensure that Angels Private Home Care is backed by clinical knowledge and professionalism.

For care teams and new applicants, as well as for families and loved ones looking for at-home care, this provides assurance that care support is fully reviewed and regularly assessed, particularly for people with complex or changing needs.

This model may be especially relevant for families in the local area, given that Lytham St Annes has among the oldest populations across all towns, villages and cities in England, according to Office for National Statistics data published by the Lancashire Telegraph.

Carers may provide general visiting care, companionship support and personal care, but the service also includes more specialist care, such as for people living with dementia, Parkinson’s and cancer, families needing short-term and respite support, and stroke rehabilitation care.

Prospective candidates have the opportunity to work directly with people in their own homes, while being supported by the Angels Private Home Care network, and often develop relationships within the community that have an enormous impact on the day-to-day lives of elderly people.

Dr Jayaharan says; “Our care team is simply amazing, and one of the reasons we stand out is that we’re supported by a specialist team with genuine clinical expertise, giving us the resources and skills to provide support with a wide range of conditions and circumstances.

“Angels Private Home Care is a truly family-run company, and we encourage anyone interested in a career in home care, or with the personal attributes we’ve mentioned, to get in touch to discuss whether we have an appropriate vacancy that matches their availability.”

Contact:
01253 834003
info@angelsprivatehomecare.co.uk
angelsprivatehomecare.co.uk
Jubilee House, East Beach, Lytham St Anne’s FY8 5FT

About Angels Private Home Care 
Angels Private Home Care is a family-run, doctor-led home care provider supporting elderly people across Lytham St Annes and surrounding areas. Overseen by a Consultant Geriatrician, the service combines personalised at-home support with clinical expertise to help people stay safe, comfortable and independent at home.

(Image: Angels Private Home Care)

Fans who are successful will be sent a unique, non-transferable code to access one of the nine onsale windows.

Fans will be informed directly which of the onsale windows they can access, and at what time, and all ticket sales will take place on Ticketmaster.

Those unique codes which grant fans access to the ticket sales will be sent between Thursday, September 24, and Sunday, September 27.

This means that fans could still be receiving their unique codes to access the sale once the windows have already opened. Fans should keep an eye on their emails from Thursday, anytime until Sunday.

This onsale is exclusively available to fans who registered and were randomly selected to receive a unique access code. Instructions on how to access the onsale will be included in the code email sent to selected fans by oasis@openstageit.com.

For UK shows including Celtic Park, Etihad Stadium, and Knebworth, there will be three onsale windows every day for three days. The timings for today are as follows:

Friday, 25 September

• The first ticket sale on Friday, 25 September will take place at 9am and will end at 12pm.
• The second ticket sale on Friday, 25 September will take place at 1pm and will end at 3pm.
• The third tickets sale on Friday, 25 September will take place at 5pm and end at 8pm.

For Ireland shows at Slane Castle, there will be three sales across Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

• The first and only ticket sale on Friday, 25 September will take place at 9am and will end at 5pm

Munich, Barcelona and Rome are the following times:

• The first and only ticket sale on Friday, 25 September will take place at 12pm and will end at 8pm.

Amsterdam shows are the following time on Friday:

• The first and only ticket sale on Friday, 25 September will take place at 8am and will end at 4pm

You can find out more HERE.

Styling itself a sanctuary for those who ‘have plenty to say but nothing to prove’, it’s found favour with everyone from Angelina Jolie to Noel Gallagher – as well as Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and their mother, Fergie.

But the doors at the most sumptuous of Mayfair’s new ‘super-luxury’ clubs, Maison Estelle, were slammed shut yesterday – at the insistence of the Metropolitan Police.

Alerting members, who pay an annual £4,250 subscription, the club says that the closure results from ‘a serious public safety matter’, explaining that it will remain closed for ‘a few weeks’.

Only days ago, Kim Kardashian, resplendent in a crystal-strewn crop top and a skirt that flared into a mermaid hem, had dinner at Maison Estelle with friends.

The club’s founders, hospitality entrepreneur Sharan Pasricha and his wife, Eiesha Mittal, daughter of billionaire Sunil Mittal, do everything they can ensure that members can relax, offering them three restaurants, ten bars and a nightclub, all contained within the handsome 1772 townhouse. But perhaps Maison Estelle has been allowing its patrons to let off a little too much steam.

I can disclose that yesterday, at a meeting with the Metropolitan Police and Westminster City Council, the club learned that its licence would be suspended for 28 days.

The doors at the most sumptuous of Mayfair’s new ‘super-luxury’ clubs, Maison Estelle, were slammed shut yesterday – at the insistence of the Metropolitan Police

A spokesman for Maison Estelle assures me that ‘the safety of our staff, our members and their guests will always come first’.

A Met spokesman tells me: ‘The Metropolitan Police Service applied to Westminster Council to review the licence of a venue in Mayfair on the basis that the premises is allegedly associated with serious crime, or serious disorder, or both. A private hearing took place today and the venue’s alcohol licence was suspended with immediate effect.

‘A further hearing will be held in due course.’

Chat shows? Cara can do them standing on her head

Cara Delevingne is a successful model and actress, as well as an aspiring pop singer.

But Dame Joan Collins’s goddaughter is determined to prove that there’s no end to her talents.

During an interview with US television host Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, Cara, 34, performed a headstand.

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She explained that the gymnastic feat is among her pre-show rituals.

‘I do a couple of different things like yoga, breathwork, somatic stuff to get me into my body,’ she said. ‘The other thing is a headstand.’

Cara then proceeded to flip upside down all while wearing smart grey pinstripe trousers and a white shirt and a tie.

Prince William’s former private secretary Miguel Head has revealed he’s leaving his ‘dream life’ in the US with his husband after quitting Facebook owner Meta – and returning to Britain.

‘It’s no secret that Meta isn’t an easy or always likeable place,’ says Miguel, who spent a decade working for the Royal Family. He has left his job as director of public affairs at Meta’s Reality Labs in San Francisco. ‘[Meta chief] Mark Zuckerberg’s strange AI dream (basically, we’re all going to be less fulfilled in our working lives but it’s OK because we can all become creative artist types by using AI) inadvertently fuelled my desire to get out.’

He’s now going to study for a master’s degree at King’s College London.

Bellucci watches her daughter bewitch Milan fans

She’s inherited Monica Bellucci’s looks and French actor Vincent Cassel’s star power. Now, Deva Cassel is determined to forge her own path in fashion.

The 22-year-old almost brought the catwalk to a halt, right, as she sashayed down the runway for Dior during Milan Fashion Week in a bridal look by British designer Jonathan Anderson.

And watching proudly from the front row was her mother, 61 (left, with Deva), who starred in Bond film Spectre.

Deva made her modelling debut aged 15 with Dolce & Gabbana.

‘For me, posing is always an extraordinary experience, I can transform myself in an instant,’ she has said.

Next month, Deva will be seen on cinema screens in The Phantom Of The Opera.

It’s not unusual for one of Sir Tom Jones’s friends to lend him a helping hand. Broadcaster Jools Holland has offered the singer, 86, a slot on his music show after he was ditched as a judge on ITV’s The Voice. ‘It’s dreadful,’ Jools, 68, tells me at the Boisdale Music Awards. ‘There are a lot of older artists who are still brilliant. I spoke to Tom on the phone about it. He said, “They can’t insure me.”’ [Referring to his New Year’s Eve show] Jools adds: ‘I said, “You should come over to Hootenanny – nobody’s ever been insured on there!”’ 

Dressage star Charlotte Dujardin suffered a one-year ban for whipping a horse, but the incident, for which she apologised profusely, has not reined in her earnings.

The three-times Olympic gold medallist has reported £5.2 million in riches at Charlotte Dujardin Ltd, the private company into which she channels her money. Figures filed at Companies House disclose £6.1 million in assets before bills, £2.6 million up on 2025.

In the wake of her ban, just before the 2024 Olympics, she said: ‘This has undoubtedly been one of the darkest and most difficult periods of my life.’

Students at a number of major UK universities are being advised on how to apply for benefits from the day their courses end amid rising concerns young people are being fast-tracked for a life on handouts.

The guidance from the top educational institutions in some cases urges graduates to apply for universal credit even if they are living with their parents or have a job ‘lined up in a few weeks’.

While another told students to apply for benefits even before their courses have finished to make sure they do not ‘delay’ their claim.

The advice comes amid the worst youth employment crisis in decades with university leavers battling it out for a measly 8,383 graduate job vacancies this July – a 45 per cent drop in job adverts since last year.

The number of graduate jobs is now even lower than it was in May 2020 during the height of the coronavirus lockdown. 

On top of this, official figures show that unemployment among 16-to-24-year-olds had risen from 16.2 per cent to 16.4 per cent in the three months to July, the highest level in more than a decade.     

It has been claimed that rather than equipping their students with the skills needed to tackle the difficult job market, students are instead being placed on a ‘fast-track’ to a life on benefits.

At King’s College London (KCL), one of the country’s top Russell Group universities, students have been told in a blog about life after studies that they ‘shouldn’t feel bad’ about claiming benefits such as universal credit and jobseeker’s allowance (JSA).

Meanwhile, up in Scotland, the University of Stirling advises claims may be made ‘from the day after your official course end date’ (file image)

Loughborough University provided a date in June when graduates would be eligible to apply for benefits

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‘As a graduate, these benefits are in place to help you transition from full-time study to work, even if you are living at home or have [a] job lined up in a few weeks. This is an important safety net, which you should claim just in case anything changes,’ the advice added.

Loughborough University provided a date in June when graduates would be eligible to apply for benefits.

Their ‘money after university’ advice page said: ‘If you are not immediately starting paid work, you may wish to apply for universal credit.

‘Universal credit can be claimed from the day after your course finishes […] You can start to make an application a week or two before, as it takes some time to complete the process,’ it added: ‘As a general rule, do not delay in making any claim for benefits.’

Meanwhile, up in Scotland, the University of Stirling advises claims may be made ‘from the day after your official course end date’.

The university writes: ‘You may need to claim universal credit once you are no longer a student whilst you seek employment or wait to start further study.’

To try and tackle the youth unemployment crisis, Andy Burnham has promised a new government programme to help young people into work.

Through the Jobs Guarantee scheme 18-to-24-year-olds on universal credit and out of work for 18 months will be offered a direct route into work.

Roles on offer are matched to the individual’s skillset, with the government fully funding up to 25 hours of paid work for six months to get individuals into the labour market.

It is hoped that more than 90,000 young people will be supported by the scheme in the next three years.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said: ‘Young people want to get on in life but for too long too many have been denied that opportunity. The Jobs Guarantee helps change that.

‘Seeing the first young people start their roles brings to life what this scheme is about: real jobs, proper wages, and a genuine route into a career.

‘As we roll this out to tens of thousands more young people across the country, we’re backing the next generation to succeed and backing British businesses to grow with the talent they need.’

A spokesperson for King’s College London said: ‘We are proud of our world-leading employment rates for graduates, 86 per cent of whom are in highly skilled employment or study 15 months after graduation. 

‘For a small number of our students who do not have savings or alternative means of support, we offer advice on how to seek additional assistance whilst they look for work – as is our duty of care.’

The Daily Mail has approached Loughborough University and the University of Stirling for a comment.  

A breakthrough brain cancer test can give patients a diagnosis in less than two hours – slashing the agonising wait for answers and allowing treatment to begin sooner.

The NHS is piloting the rapid genetic test, which can identify the exact type of tumour in hours rather than the weeks it can currently take.

NHS medical director Professor Frankie Swords hailed the technology as a ‘huge leap forward for patients’ that could ‘completely transform’ brain tumour diagnosis.

The cutting-edge test analyses the DNA of a small tumour sample taken during a biopsy or even surgery – meaning patients could get an answer while they are still on the operating table.

Crucially, the result could help surgeons decide how much of the tumour they can safely remove without damaging healthy brain tissue.

It could also mean chemotherapy or radiotherapy starts sooner and give patients faster access to clinical trials, some of which require the exact genetic make-up of a tumour before they can take part.

Around 13,000 people are diagnosed with a brain tumour in the UK each year. They are among the hardest cancers to treat, with just one in ten patients surviving more than five years.

This bleak outlook makes it the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40.  

There are more than 100 types of brain tumour, ranging from slow growing to aggressive, each of which respond differently to treatment.  

Professor Swords said: ‘For people with suspected brain tumours, getting the right diagnosis quickly can feel like a race against time, while waiting weeks for answers can be agonising for them and their families.

‘This remarkable rapid test has the potential to completely transform how we diagnose brain tumours, with results reaching patients in a matter of days rather than weeks.

‘This is a huge leap forward for patients – a faster diagnosis means they can start the right treatment or access clinical trials sooner, while for some patients it could mean surgeons can make potentially life-changing decisions about their surgery while on the operating table.’

Yvette Cooper, Health and Social Care Secretary, said: ‘This is an incredible breakthrough in the technology available to tackle brain tumours, providing vital genetic information to surgeons within a matter of hours or days, and helping them to provide the most effective treatment to patients faster than ever.

‘It is also a tribute to the UK’s world-leading life sciences sector – and our strength in genomics – that NHS patients are routinely among the first in the world to benefit from these kind of innovations.

‘Through the skill of our NHS staff, and the investment provided by our National Cancer Plan, we will transform the care provided to patients with brain tumours, and give every individual the best chance of successful treatment.’

The standard process for diagnosing brain tumours currently involves doing MRI and CT scans and then extracting a tumour sample which is taken away, tested, and examined under a microscope in a pathology lab, which can take weeks to definitively diagnose the type of tumour. 

The NHS England pilot builds on the successful pilot already under way in Nottingham and Birmingham and will initially take the technology into five specialist centres before expanding further across England.

The rapid genomic test was developed by scientists and medics at the University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.

In a recent operation at Nottingham University Hospitals, a tumour sample was taken in theatre and tested in the same hospital during the operation.

The sequencing itself took around 20 minutes, with a result fed back to the surgical team less than two hours after the sample reached the laboratory – while surgery was still under way.

One patient already to have benefited is Steve Palmer, 55, from Nottingham, who was diagnosed with a grade 4 glioblastoma after collapsing at the gym – despite suffering no previous symptoms.

His tumour was tested while surgeons were operating, with the sequencing itself taking around 20 minutes and an initial result fed back to the surgical team less than two hours after the sample reached the laboratory.

Mr Palmer told the BBC that getting the result so rapidly had spared him weeks of uncertainty.

‘Getting that quick diagnosis removed weeks of anxiety,’ he said.

‘It wasn’t the result I wanted to hear but it means I can get on with the next phase of treatment and recovery, and get on with fighting whatever it is I’ve got to fight.’

The first phase of the pilot will introduce the testing across University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Additional genomic laboratory sites in Bristol, Oxford, Leeds and Manchester will join in the second phase.

The Real Rooneys was released on Disney+ this week, giving a candid insight into one of the UK’s most famous families. 

Wayne and Coleen Rooney invited the cameras into their home for a year to document the highs and lows of their marriage, family life and work endeavours, with Coleen promising to show a side of themselves the public have never seen. 

And she certainly lived up to her promise, with viewers in shock at just how candid the pair were. 

Disney+ and Amazon had a bidding war for months to have the rights for the show, with Disney+ winning the race with the massive £10million fee.

Sources close to the project say Coleen will be paid £5million with the remainder going to production company Lorton Entertainment, which made her previous show, Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story.

So was it worth it? The Daily Mail reveals the most surprising moments from The Real Rooneys. 

Coleen and Wayne’s showdowns 

Coleen revealed she considered ‘separating’ from ‘careless’ husband Wayne on a number of occasions following a series of explosive rows on the series.

The former England footballer and the I’m A Celebrity star admitted they can go days without talking to each other. 

‘There are times when I think the answer to everything is to see what it’s like if we are separated,’ said Coleen candidly in a one-to-camera interview after a row with Wayne while on holiday. 

The confession came after Coleen and Wayne shared an insight into their marital tiffs in the series, when the footballer confessed: ‘We haven’t spoke for four days, this is the first time we’ve talked,’ as they sat on their sofa to speak to the cameras.

Coleen replied: ‘I’m hoping a break will help us to reconnect. A really nice weekend away for us to have some time together. That’s if I don’t kill him first.’

Throughout the series, Coleen continued to ask Wayne for more help around the house as she juggles work and motherhood. 

‘I really need Wayne to help a lot more around the house, which could cause a lot of arguments,’ she admitted. ‘Wayne is a good dad but he is a bit carefree and a bit careless. It does cause a few arguments.’ 

In another clip, Coleen broke down in tears as she told a friend on a walk: ‘I’m juggling a lot and the house is not happy, I keep trying to do it and it’s just not.’ 

Speaking about Coleen’s childhood, her mother Colette McLoughlin shared: ‘When she was three, Coleen got really sick and turned out it was encephalitis’ 

Colette shared: ”Her brain was swelling, she couldn’t talk, she couldn’t walk, she couldn’t speak, she was stumbling her words. When we got to  hospital she ended up in a coma…’

Wayne’s in touch with his emotions 

While one might expect a competitive sportsman to put on a macho front, Wayne revealed he’s in touch with his emotions. 

The former Manchester United star was asked if he would shed a tear if his eldest son Kai won a scholarship to the same club, following in his footsteps. 

Wayne then responded: ‘Probably. I cry at everything anyway. I’ve cried over some mad things, Coronation Street, X Factor, when Barry got pushed off the hill by Janine in EastEnders, I’m pretty sure I was crying.’

Coleen’s near-death moment 

Speaking about Coleen’s childhood, her mother Colette McLoughlin shared: ‘When she was three, Coleen got really sick and turned out it was encephalitis. 

‘Her brain was swelling, she couldn’t talk, she couldn’t walk, she couldn’t speak, she was stumbling her words. When we got to Alder Hey hospital she ended up in a coma…’

Choking back tears, Colette went on: ‘I’m gonna get upset… 24 hours [were] touch and go.

‘She had to learn to walk again, all her coordination had gone. But I’m so grateful because she was alive. We wanted to give something back.’ 

The Rooneys did not go into further detail about Coleen’s recovery, but encephalitis is treatable and often curable. Recovery depends heavily on the underlying cause, how fast treatment begins, and the severity of the infection.

Colette then revealed she and husband Tony provided foster and respite care for children with special needs and disabilities after being inspired to give back following Coleen’s near-death experience.

Despite admitting it’s a challenge raising sons Kai, 16, Klay, 13, Kit, ten, and Cass, eight, Wayne has insisted that he and Coleen will never a hire a nanny to help them out

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Wayne refuses to hire a nanny 

With Wayne having just been sacked as manager of Plymouth Argyle he explained: ‘I think Coleen going back to work is good for her, rather than just being here and looking after the kids and me as well.

‘And that’s coincided with me not having a 9-5 job so I’m here with the kids.’ 

As the camera cut to the three youngest boys running wild, Wayne sighed: ‘It’s tough. There’s chaos, fighting, arguing. Every day’s a challenge with them…  I’m chilled until I need to snap.’ 

Yet despite the chaos going on around them, Wayne explained that he refused to bring in any outside help. 

Wayne explained: ”People ask why don’t we have a nanny. “You can afford to have a nanny help you”, but they’re OUR kids. 

‘It’s tough for anyone who has four kids but you want to bring them up. You want to be around them. 

‘It’s tough but enjoyable. You have some great moments, great memories with the kids and I wouldn’t change it.’

Coleen loses her kids in their house 

During the series, the couple gave a detailed tour of their £20million palatial Cheshire home, dubbed The Morrisons Mansion, which they built from the ground up in 2022 upon 50 acres of farmland. 

Speaking about their family home, which they live in with sons Kai, 16, Klay, 13, Kit, ten, and Cass, eight, Coleen said: ‘This house is everything that I have dreamed of since I was a little girl.’

As a montage of the house’s many rooms flashed up, she continued: ‘You know when you’re a child and you draw a house, everything’s symmetrical. The door in the middle and the same both sides…’

She then chimed in: ‘It’s a massive house but there’s a lot of rooms within the house so I do lose my kids!

‘Even though it’s mine and Wayne’s dream home everything was planned around the four kids.’ 

Wayne added: ‘Since we built this house I’ve been away working so it’s great now I’ve got time at home with the kids. 

‘It’s still mad to me to this day where we’re living now to where we grew up. Me and Coleen, two kids from Croxteth. How are we living here?’

The couple gave a detailed tour of their £20million palatial Cheshire home, dubbed The Morrisons Mansion, with Coleen revealing it’s so big that she has lost her children inside 

Wayne’s a history buff 

While his critics often mocked him for being unintelligent, Wayne proved to be quite the wordsmith in The Real Rooneys. 

Eldest son Kai was quick to come to his defence after Wayne was praised for his punditry, questioning: ‘Why’s it surprising he’s a good pundit?’

Kai added: ‘He’s smarter than you think. He always just whips out some random facts about history or something and doesn’t start thinking about it.’ 

Coleen said of her husband’s intelligence: ‘Wayne was capable at school but didn’t try. He only had football on his mind. 

‘If Wayne put effort into his schoolwork he would’ve come away with results.’ 

Stream The Real Rooneys on Disney+ now. 

The onging summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping has been billed as a “high-stakes” meeting which the US president says will have a major focus on artificial intelligence (AI).

Trump told a gathering of world leaders at the US general assembly on Tuesday that, “whoever wins superintelligence wins … and we’re leading now over China by a lot”. Quite how this will help build rapport between the two leaders is anyone’s guess.

Leaving aside for now the US president’s decision to unilaterally rename (as is his wont) what everyone else calls artificial intelligence, there’s no doubt that what the world needs now is for Xi and Trump to do what they can to avoid an AI arms race.

Nicholas Wheeler and Marcus Holmes, whose research focus is on face-to-face diplomacy, believe the scale of this challenge recalls the summits between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s. At that stage it was nuclear proliferation which was scaring people on both sides of the cold war. Fresh in Soviet minds were the Nato exercises which gamed out a scenario in which the Soviet Union invaded eastern Europe, to which the response was a nuclear retaliation.

Meeting in Geneva in November 1985, the two leaders – Reagan the dyed-in-the-wool anti-communist and Gorbachev, the passionate Marxist-Leninist – somehow developed a rapport which fostered an effective working relationship. As Wheeler and Holmes recount, the pair were able to appreciate that both of their countries shared a very real fear of nuclear proliferation.

This understanding enabled them to collaborate on a series of nuclear deals which pulled the world back from the precipice. The hope is that Trump and Xi, arguably the world’s two most powerful men, can reach the same sort of understanding.

À lire aussi :
Trump and Xi face an AI security dilemma – but face-to-face diplomacy could be a start in mitigating it

Power play

The word “arguably” was used deliberately in the previous paragraph. As the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, noted in his final keynote address in the general assembly this week, the nature of power – and the way it is wielded – is becoming increasingly fluid in the 21st century.

Not only is it shifting in a geopolitical sense, but also from nation states to private corporations – and, worryingly, from humans to machines. And this shifting power will have an enormous influence on the key challenges facing the world, from war to inequality to the climate emergency and artificial intelligence.

Stefan Wolff and Martin Waelisch, experts in international security, caution that the US president’s speech suggested that an understanding of power that appears limited to achieving narrow victories is more likely to exacerbate, rather than mitigate, these problems.

À lire aussi :
UN chief says world’s biggest problem is the changing way power is used – Donald Trump’s speech confirms his diagnosis

A new form of governance

To another international governance group – and in advance of the UK taking the chair of the G20 in December, we ask the question: is this another glorified talking shop which rarely achieves anything? Gordon Brown, who was prime minister when the UK last chaired the group would point to its response to the global financial crisis. But the question mark remains.

A lot of this is to do with the need for the group to reach consensus, meaning its decisions, communiqués and leaders’ declarations require agreement from all participating member states to be officially adopted.

This is entirely the wrong approach, writes Henrietta Moore, the founder and director of the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity. She and her colleagues have developed a new framework for global cooperation called The New Alignment. This calls for issues such as climate change, sovereign debt and technology to be tackled in a way that engages the key players that can make a difference.

Or as she puts it here: “Begin with the problem, and ask what outcome is needed. Then consider which countries, institutions, businesses and communities have the capabilities to deliver that desired outcome”. That way, while consensus remains valuable, it’s no longer a precondition for progress.

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G20 needs a new approach to tackle the changing world order

Election special

Three election results to comment on, of which two could be accurately described as being shocks and one utterly predictable. Taking the latter first, it surprised nobody when in the elections for the Russian parliament, United Russia – the party of Vladimir Putin, won its usual landslide.

Business as usual then. But there was some features of the election campaign, which Putin billed as a referendum on the war in Ukraine, that bear further investigation, as Jennifer Mathers reports.

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No surprise as Putin’s party wins election billed as ‘referendum’ on war in Ukraine

Meanwhile two more German states held elections last weekend. In one, for the state of Berlin, the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) were beaten into second place by the party on the left, Die Linke. In the other, for the rural eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, it failed to register sufficient support to merit winning a seat, attracting just 4.9% of the vote.

Here the big winner was the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), with 38.2% of the vote. This falls short of the outright majority it would need to form government writes Ed Turner of Aston University. But the results will pile yet more pressure on the already embattled German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, whose political survival now hangs in the balance.

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Two more election defeats pile pressure on German chancellor Friedrich Merz

The rise of the far-right has been a matter of some concern for anyone observing German politics in recent years. Since the end of the second world war, the fear of extremism in Germany has been such that the political system has operated a firewall, or Brandmauer, by which mainstream parties agree never to form a coalition which would help an extremist party – in recent years specifically the AfD – gain power.

Another attempted safety valve has been a ban on neo-Nazi symbols, violation of which carries stiff penalties of up to three years in prison.

But there’s no denying the rise in popularity of right-wing politics in recent years and supporters of various extremist movement have developed their own ways to self-identify which aim to circumvent this ban.

These can include wearing certain brands of clothes, displaying various Nordic runes or using coded emojis in online communication, write Tom Birkett, Felix Lummer and Timothy Liam Waters of University College Cork, whose study makes for fascinating reading.

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How the emojis and fashion choices of Germany’s far-right supporters get around the ban on Nazi symbolism