Queen Elizabeth II's defiant words that proved the 94-year-old monarch was still in charge
'We are not amused' is a statement commonly attributed to Queen Victoria, and while there is no evidence she ever said this, it has come to characterise the popular perception of the Victorians as stern and austere people.
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The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Divorced mum ordered to pay her ex-husband half the £160,000 cost of his trans surgery in legal first
A DIVORCED mum has been ordered to stump up £80,000 for her ex-husband's gender swap surgery - even though it tore their marriage apart. The furious 60-year-old mum-of-two split from her husband after he revealed he wanted to start hormone therapy in 2022. The couple, who married in 2002, led a "very international lifestyle living in several countries in different continents and purchasing properties in various countries". But a judge at Brighton Family Court ruled that splitting the cost of his transition was 'reasonable' because it was a 'need' not a 'whim'. The wife claimed her husband's decision to transition led to the breakdown of the their marriage. And so, she said it was unfair for her to pay £80,000 for the procedure. Her 58-year-old ex claimed his wife "always knew" he was trans, and told the court: 'Denying my request is like saying someone who had cancer should not have the surgery.' He also claimed he couldn't afford child support - despite blowing £14,000 of shared funds in a single month on 'clothing, nails, jewellery and restaurants.' In 2024 the husband, who was retraining as a masseuse, splashed £160,000 on the transition – using cash from the couple's £3million joint pot, even though they'd been separated for two years. The court battle racked up an eye-watering £1million in legal fees. His ex-wife 'was adamant that she was not aware the respondent wished to transition until the end of the marriage'. She began divorce proceedings after her husband announced he wanted to live as a lesbian woman instead. The judge admitted the husband 'showed no understanding' of how his choice affected others - but still ruled the funds must come from shared assets. He displayed a "striking lack of empathy", the judge said. The husband had declared: 'You marry a trans person. You live with a trans person. You benefit from a trans person.' 1
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
The tortured Ukrainian veteran turning shrapnel into a war museum
Instead of an entrance hall, 'Grandpa's' war museum makes use of the dusty, weed-strewn pavement by the side of the road. A Russian tank, an armoured personnel carrier and a howitzer barrel are displayed to lure in visitors heading east from the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad. On the floor lie a row of Kinzhal and Kalibr cruise missiles with their tips pointed out at the passing cars. These are only a handful of the treasures collected by the museum's founder and proprietor, 67-year-old Anatoly 'Grandpa' Tokarev, a former reconnaissance commander in the Ukrainian army. 'That was the first Kalibr that hit Pavlohrad,' says Mr Tokarev, pointing at a flower pot shaped from the missile's base and painted with licks of fire. 'We went out and collected it as a souvenir.' Formed on the site of a roadside cafe, 'Grandpa's' may lack the prestige of the Imperial War Museum, but it is shaped by the same desire to honour the memory of the dead and inform the next generation, as far as possible, of what they went through. In Mr Tokarev, it has an overseer as resourceful and dedicated as any of the great collectors who set up the Natural History Museum, Ashmolean or Getty. In its way, his own body could be an exhibit: both his legs were broken, and one shot through, during a month-long stint being tortured by the FSB after he was captured in Russian-occupied Ukraine in 2014. Before leading The Telegraph on an impromptu tour of the facility, he hands everyone a bottle of water and a cup of machine coffee. The day is hot, and a Ukrainian flag hangs limply on its pole. 'Have that first, then we'll talk,' he says. When Mr Tokarev retired from the military in 2016, he set up a cafe here along with his wife, a sniper in the Ukrainian army. But over time, the business began to irk them. Customers would come in to chat and unwind, seemingly unbothered by the war that continued, with tit-for-tat exchanges of artillery fire, less than 100 miles away to the east. 'My wife saw people relaxing, drinking and everything else. She said: 'Enough'. And, in 2019, we decided to make the museum,' says Mr Tokarev. Some of the first exhibits were items he had squirrelled away in service. But his deep connection with the Ukrainian military provided a small army of helpers, scouts and sources to broaden the collection. Since the full-scale invasion in February 2022, the archive has mushroomed. Russia's war has left traces across the country, from Shahed drones to stingers, mortars to mines, howitzers to hand grenades. It has also left a trail of death, which Mr Tokarev endeavours to chart in his own way. On the pavement outside the museum stands a cross fashioned from 350kg of shrapnel, bearing the dog tags of local Pavlohrad soldiers who died before 2019. A falling bombshell has been welded to the front. Behind it, on the wall of the museum, are memorial plaques for around 400 more soldiers, many of whom Mr Tokarev knew personally. 'He was a martial arts expert,' he says, pointing to one young man's picture. 'He died when the Russians took Kherson,' he adds by another. A large portion of the wall lies blank, waiting for the next death to be painstakingly confirmed. 'I hire people to make the plaques. It's a never-ending process, unfortunately,' he says. Children's drawings have been stuck to one side of a corridor. Entrance to the museum is free, and several busloads of school pupils arrive per week. In the drawings, there are pillboxes, helicopters, machine guns and stickmen soldiers, all sketched with the diligent madness of the under-10s. 'Every morning I see soldiers outside school,' one boy has written, 'I pray you will be alive when the war ends.' 'The most important thing is that I teach the children never to forget these guys who died, and always to stand up for them,' says Mr Tokarev, whose gruff demeanour, bright-blue eyes and sometimes cryptic way of speaking make him almost like a character from a children's book himself. To be sure, the curiosity of youth runs through his veins. 'War is always changing and always the same,' he says, showing off a rack of uniforms, including Nazi, Ukrainian and Russian, in one dingy corner of the museum. He is reluctant to move into the next room without ensuring his guests have appreciated an old Cossack sword, which he draws from its sheath to wield. Then there is a pack of playing cards featuring the Russian elite, with Putin as the six of spades and General Sergei Shoigu as the ace of clubs. Would he like to kill them all? 'Well, they'll get themselves killed,' Mr Tokarev says. 'The thing is, if you kill them, nothing will change. 89 per cent of the population in Russia is completely brainwashed.' To this day, Mr Tokarev keeps in touch with members of the Salty Hedgehogs, the reconnaissance group in which he served and whose logo his T-shirt bears. At one point, he brings up a desperate text message on his phone from a soldier facing encirclement. 'We helped get them out,' he says, not long after proffering a signed flag given to him as a gift by General Valeriy Zaluzhny, the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army. Some things he refuses to divulge. Why is his left hand missing its fingertips? How did he get hold of a decoy Shahed? Or a British-made NLAW missile? 'I asked nicely,' is all he will say of how his collection came to include a border post from the invaded Russian region of Kursk. On the way out, Mr Tokarev beckons to a small garden. Shrapnel has been turned into thin sculptures of flowers. As the sun sets, he insists he has never paid for a single weapon on show, nor the fresh haul of wrecked metal that lies in an alleyway. But the collection as a whole is priceless. 'My museum,' he says, 'is worth more than my life.'
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
Homeowner told to tear down extension that looks like ‘stadium executive box'
A homeowner has been ordered to tear down an extension to a 125-year-old property in Worcester. Neighbours called Rozia Hussain's dormer on the front of the property a 'monstrosity' and compared it to a 'football stadium executive box' after she renovated her mid-terraced home. The house was bought for £100,000 in 2003, according to records, and pictures show the outside was in a shabby condition with peeling paint and chipped brick work. Over the last four years, the three-bedroom house on Wyld's Lane has undergone a complete makeover and is now worth up to £320,000, according to Rightmove. A wall and intercom system has been installed at the front of the house while a large dormer was built on top of the two-storey house. Mrs Hussain now faces having to demolish the dormer after Worcester city council rejected her retrospective planning application. The council stated: 'By virtue of its size, design and position, the addition of the large box dormer to the front of the property results in detrimental impact and creates significant harm to the character and appearance of the existing property and wider street scene in which it sits. 'The dormer at Wyld's Lane is much more visually intrusive than the approved, well-designed, more subtle addition.' Mrs Hussain, who owns a newsagents in the city, said: 'I don't know anything about the planning application being rejected. 'I don't think it looks too big.' Neighbours have criticised the extension, with one comparing it to 'an executive box you get at Premier League football grounds'. They added: 'I mean the extension is very big. It looks like an executive box you get at Premier League football grounds. 'When my friend visited he asked what the monstrosity was on one of the houses so it's clearly noticeable to people.' The neighbour has applied for a similar dormer on their own house a few years ago, but it was refused. 'The reason the council gave was because it would not be in keeping with the area or sympathetic to the age and heritage of the property,' they added. 'In my view I just think that it would be grossly unfair if this woman was allowed to have a large dormer on her property when I was not.' Another said neighbours were 'concerned because it looks right onto their properties'. They added: 'I think the house looks much better now. It was in a terrible state a few years ago but it now looks modern and clean. 'The dormer doesn't really bother me but I think some people are concerned because it looks right onto their properties.' Mrs Hussain has three months to tear down the dormer or face enforcement action. A city spokeman said: 'An enforcement notice was served on June 17 that comes into effect on July 17. 'This requires the applicant to remove the dormer and restore the roof or adapt the current dormer so that it complies with the planning permission given. They have three months to carry out the works.' They added that the applicant has 'until July 17 to appeal against the notice'.
