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Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Daily Mirror
'Mysterious' UK island with 'tiny' population, no cars and a dark past
This island has a population of around 28 people, making it one of the UK's least densely populated islands. Tucked away off the UK coast lies a little-known island that feels like a step back in time. With no cars, a handful of residents, and an atmosphere of untouched charm, this hidden gem has earned a spot on Wanderlust Magazine's must-visit list for summer. Ranking amongst the top 30 of Britain's secret places to visit, Laundy Island in Devon stands out for its captivating appeal. The travel experts wrote: "This island feels like a lump of the Hebrides mysteriously dumped in the south-west. "It is a wild, beautiful and almost treeless place, with a tiny resident population, no cars, a lot of sheep, cattle and ponies, and kilometres of footpaths. The chief attraction is the cliffside breeding puffins (best seen from April to July), but the chance to get away from it all ensures that few visitors only come here once." Why visit? If you're looking for peace and serenity, this is the place to visit. Lundy is the largest island in the Bristol Channel, located 12 miles off the coast of Devon, England. The secluded island boasts an average residential population of 28 people, including a warden, an island manager, a farmer, a shopkeeper, maintenance and housekeeping staff, and a kitchen team in the Marisco Tavern, reported Bideford Council. The Landmark Trust said: "Just off the coast of Devon, surrounded by the clear waters of the Atlantic, Lundy Island is a world apart. "A haven for divers, climbers and birdwatchers, Lundy is an island of contrasts with spectacular coastal scenery and sheltered valleys, rich in wildflowers and wildlife. And at the end of the day, swap tales of your adventures in the friendly Marisco Tavern." Lundy Island's dark history This seemingly quiet island is rich in history and has a turbulent past, once serving as a haven for rebels and pirates. In 1235, nobleman William de Marisco was linked to the murder of a royal messenger, and three years later, a failed assassination attempt on King Henry III was traced to his family. William sought refuge on Lundy Island, where he constructed a stronghold at the site now known as Bulls' Paradise. In 1242, he was seized along with 16 of his followers, transported to London, and executed for treason. By 1250, King Henry III reinforced the island's importance by building a castle there. Fast forward a few centuries to 1627, and Barbary pirates, also known as the Salé Rovers, took control of Lundy, utilising it as a base to plunder ships and coastal towns, kidnapping locals for ransom or enslavement. Five years later, under the reign of King Charles I, the Royal Navy regained control of the island. During the English Civil War, Lundy was the last Royalist stronghold, surrendering in 1647. How to visit There are only two modes of transport that can get you to Lundy Island. From April to October, visitors can reach the island via the Landmark Trust's own ship, the MS Oldenburg. The ship departs from both Bideford and Ilfracombe around three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, with an extra day added on Wednesday during July and August, reported Bideford council. According to Lundy Trust, return tickets for the 2025 period cost: £97 for adults £51 for children under 16 £23 for infants under four Day return tickets are cheaper: £54 for adults £28 for children under 16 Infants under four travel free of charge. A family ticket for two adults and two children is £125. However, the MS Oldenburg is out of service during the winter months. Between October and March, a scheduled helicopter service from Hartland Point provides access to the island. Tickets cost £174 for adults, £96 for children under 16, and £26 for infants under two. Flights operate on Mondays and Fridays between 12 noon and 2pm, departing from a field near the Beacon at the top of Hartland Point. Visitors have the option to stay overnight in one of the 23 different accommodations available. Prices start at £168 for a four-night stay in a small cottage or you can opt to stay in the Lundy Vestry, which was constructed by Reverend Hudson Heaven in 1896. A four-night stay in the St Helens church will set you back just over £300.
Sunday World
17-07-2025
- Sunday World
Volunteer locked in with lions at zoo still waiting on compo
Voluntary zoo worker's case yet to be resolved by Belfast City Council There had been speculation in recent days that the council had finally reached a settlement with the unpaid worker who was left face to face with a Barbary lion after being accidentally locked in the lions' cage. It has been almost a year since the incident and it is understood the negotiation for damages and compensation has been complicated with issues surrounding the zoo's insurance and the victim's aftercare in the wake of the traumatic incident. At the time the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) confirmed it was working with Belfast Zoo after incident. An immediate investigation was launched which centred on how such a glaring error could have happened, an error that put the victim's life at risk. At the time a spokesperson for BIAZA, which represents the best zoos and aquariums in the world, said it was aware of the incident, and was actively engaging with Belfast City Council. 'The zoo has informed BIAZA that Belfast City Council, which owns and operates the zoo, is undertaking an investigation,' they added. The professional body is a member of both the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria. It collaborates with its members to further conservation science, natural history, and environmental education and animal welfare around the world. According to a source familiar with details of the incident, the person involved was initially in the enclosure alongside a member of staff. 'The lions were originally kept in their den while (the individual) was in the enclosure with a more experienced staff member,' he said. They said that the experienced employee then left the paddock. The gate was locked and the animals were free to move around — meaning the person was 'locked in' with the lions with 'nowhere to go'. The lion enclosure Belfast Zoo is home to a pride of Barbary lions which includes one male lion named Qays and two females, Fidda and Theibba. The breed is one of the largest sub-species and is extinct in the wild. The last picture of a wild Barbary lion, favoured by the Romans in the amphitheatres of the empire, was taken in the mountains Morrocco in 1925. 'This big cat measures one metre in height at the shoulder and up to three and a half metres in length,' the zoo's website states. 'Average weight can be up to 230 kilograms.' Sources close to the Zoo told the Sunday World that a settlement was close but this week in response to a query from the Sunday World , the council confirmed the issue was 'unresolved'. Belfast City Council, which owns the facility, previously confirmed a probe was under way. 'Council is aware of an incident at the lion enclosure at Belfast Zoo earlier this month,' a spokesperson said. 'We take the safety of all our staff, visitors and animals very seriously, and an investigation is under way into the circumstances of this incident. 'We cannot comment further while this is ongoing.' Belfast Zoo participates in the Department for Communities' JobStart Scheme which is designed to allow unemployed 50 to 64-year-olds a chance to gain skills and experience in the workplace. It also runs a number of apprenticeship programmes — it is understood the person involved was participating in one of these initiatives.
Los Angeles Times
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
In Amy Bloom's exquisite ‘I'll Be Right Here,' Colette plays a key supporting role
Amy Bloom's exquisite 'I'll Be Right Here' is a slim volume spanning close to a century. While it's tempting to label the novel a family epic, that description would fail to capture how Bloom reconstitutes 'family' on the page, or how her chapters ricochet forward and backward from decade to decade or year to year, shifting perspective not only from character to character, but from first- to third-person point of view. These transitions, while initially dizzying, coalesce into a rhythm that feels fresh and exciting. Together they suggest that memory conflates the past, present and future, until at the end, our lives can be viewed as a richly textured tapestry of experience and recollection, threaded together by the people we've loved. The novel opens with a tableau: Siblings Alma and Anne tend to their longtime friend, who's dying. They tenderly hold Gazala's hands in a room that 'smells like roses and orange peel.' Honey — once Anne's sister-in-law and now her wife — massages Gazala's thin feet with neroli oil. 'Anne pulls up the shade. The day is beautiful. Gazala turns her face away from the light, and Alma pulls the shade back down.' Samir 'presses his hand over his mouth so that he will not cry out at the sight of his dying sister.' Later in the novel, these five will come to be dubbed 'the Greats' by their grandchildren. The scene is a foreshadow, and signals that the novel will compress time, dwelling on certain details or events, while allotting mere lines to other pivotal moments, or allowing them to occur offstage, in passing. At first this is disorienting, but Bloom's bold plot choices challenge and enrich. In 1930 Paris, a young Gazala and her adopted older brother, Samir, await the return of their father from his job at a local patisserie, when they hope to sample 'cinnamon montecaos, seeping oil into the twist of paper,' or perhaps a makroud he's baked himself. In their cold, tiny apartment, Samir lays Gazala 'on top of his legs to warm us both, and then, as the light fails, our father comes home.' The Benamars are Algerians, 'descended from superior Muslims and Christians both, and a rabbi,' their father, M., tells them. He delights in tall tales of a Barbary lion that has escaped Northern Africa and now roams the streets of Paris. Years elapse in the course of a few pages, and it's 1942 in Nazi-occupied France. One night before bed, M. Benamar shreds the silk lining from a pair of worn gabardine pants to craft a belt for his daughter. Then,'he lies down on the big mattress he shares with Samir and turns his face to the wall.' He never awakens. Now orphans — we don't know exactly how old they are — the pair must conceal that they are on their own. Samir lines up a job where their father worked, while the owner's wife finds Gazala a position as companion to a renowned writer, offering her 'up to Mme. Colette like a canape.' Colette (yes, that one!) suffers from arthritis, and is mostly bedridden. She hides her Jewish husband upstairs, while entertaining guests below. Gazala observes that her benefactor's 'eyes are slanted under the folds of her brows, kohl-rimmed cat's eyes in a dead-white face, powder in every fold and crack.' Soon, the sister and brother's paths diverge, and Gazala makes her way to New York City. It's 1947. Through Colette, Gazala has found work at a shop on Second Avenue, and sleeps in the storeroom above. Enter Anne and Alma Cohen, teenage sisters who take an instant liking to Gazala and her French accent; in short order, they've embraced her as a third sibling. Months later, there is a knock on the bakery door, and it's Samir, returned from abroad, in search of Gazala. For the rest of their lives, the nonblood-related siblings will conceal that they are lovers. Going forward, the plot zigs and zags, dipping in and out of each character's life. It's 2010 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where Samir and Gazala have lived together in a rambling old house for decades, maintaining appearances by keeping separate bedrooms. They are old, and Samir 'brushes her silver hair away from his lips.' She tells him she doesn't mind that he smells of the shallots in their garden. It's 1968, and Anne, by now a wife, mother and lawyer, has fallen in love with her husband Richard's sister, Honey. We glimpse their first sexual encounter after years of simmering emotions. Alma — who receives minimal attention from her author — marries a bighearted chicken farmer named Izzy, and later grieves the early loss of her husband, and the absence of children. As they grow older, the circle consisting of Gazala, Samir, Anne, Alma and Honey will grow to include Lily, Anne's daughter, and eventually Lily's daughter, Harry. Gazala and Samir take in Bea, whose parents were killed in a car accident; she becomes the daughter they never had. This bespoke family will support each of its members through all that is to come. It's 2015 in Poughkeepsie, and Gazala's gauzy figures float through her fading consciousness. Beneath the tree outside her window — 'huge and flaming gold' — sits her father, reading the paper. 'Madame pours mint tea into the red glasses.' The other Greats are gathered round. One last memory, the most cherished of all: It's 1984 and Gazala and Samir are in their 50s. He proposes a vacation in Oaxaca. 'Let's go as we are,' he whispers. At their hotel, 'they sit beneath the arches, admiring the yellow sun, the blue sky, the green leaves on the trees, all as bright as a children's drawing.' There, they freely express their love for each other. As Bloom has demonstrated throughout her stellar literary career, which began in 1993 with the publication of her acclaimed story collection, 'Come to Me,' she can train her eye on any person, place or object and render it sublime. Her prose is so finely wrought it shimmers. Again and again she has returned to love as her primary subject, each time finding new depth and dimension, requiring us to put aside our expectations and go where the pages take us. As readers, we're in the most adept of hands. Haber is a writer, editor and publishing strategist. She was director of Oprah's Book Club and books editor for O, the Oprah Magazine.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Yahoo
Why can't we stop feeding monkeys? Experts explain the reasons behind a dangerous habit
We've seen it happen. For example, a visit to the Ouzoud waterfalls in Morocco's High Atlas led to an encounter with a group of nearby tourists feeding chips – supplied by the tour guide – to some waiting Barbary macaques. Pointing to a nearby sign that read 'do not feed the monkeys' was met with complaints about spoiling their fun. Scenes like this play out across the globe. Feeding wild primates is common in many countries. Scientists have spent years studying its effects on primate behaviour. But much less attention has been paid to the other side of the interaction – the people doing the feeding. Our recent research explores not just the effects on animals, but why people feed monkeys in the first place. Understanding that is essential if we want to change behaviour and keep both humans and primates safe. Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK's latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences. As tourism expands and infrastructure develops, humans and primates are living in closer quarters than ever before. Some species like macaques and baboons readily adapt to living in developed areas by foraging in rubbish bins and dumps. Habitat loss also plays a major role. The wide scale destruction of primate habitat means they come to rely on human food waste or people feeding them. In some tourism hot spots, feeding the primates, known as 'provisioning', is deliberate but regulated, ensuring tourists see the monkeys but cannot feed them. In others, tourists feed even endangered species freely, with little oversight. That's when problems arise. Uncontrolled feeding brings animals and humans into unusually close contact, and not always in welcome ways. Primates can become aggressive, resulting in bites, scratches and potential disease transmission. They may enter homes and shops, damage property, or intimidate people. Some primates even learn to beg or to steal valuables, returning them only when a food bribe is offered in exchange. When food sources suddenly disappear, this type of behaviour can escalate. For example, during the pandemic, some macaque populations in Thailand made headlines as 'gangs' that caused chaos when tourists stopped visiting. When animals are seen as a public nuisance, calls for culling or relocation often follow. Read more: Nutrition is another issue. The types of foods given to primates are usually calorie-rich and highly processed. Excess consumption of these foods can make primates obese or lead to chronic disease like diabetes. The extra calories allow some species to reproduce every year, leading to larger group sizes and compounding human-wildlife conflict. Feeding of packaged foods also results in large amounts of plastic and other litter left behind by people. New roads contribute to this problem by offering opportunities to vendors to sell food to road users. The resulting food waste can attract monkeys to the roadside where passing motorists throw them more food. This puts both people and primates at risk of road accidents. Some societies have fed monkeys for centuries and these interactions can be neutral or positive. However, many instances of people feeding primates causes negative interactions, so understanding why people feed monkeys is vital. As primate experts, we deal with the negative effects of uncontrolled monkey feeding all the time and know the complexities of this common human behaviour. Our recent review of the relevant research coupled with our own field experiences found a surprising range of motivations for why people feed primates. We found that feeding primates could be a religious obligation, a way to perform a good deed or obtain good fortune. It may be helpful in managing a person's mental health. Many people feed primates for emotional reasons like pity, or to feel a connection to the animals. At some sites, residents have a vested interest in the continued practice of monkey feeding as it provides them with an income. Tour guides often receive higher tips when they can provide close animal encounters. Bus and taxi drivers can benefit from taking tourists to sites where they can observe and feed wild primates. Read more: Attempting to stop people from feeding primates is difficult as most perceive it as an enjoyable and carefree activity. Campaigns must be carefully designed and relevant to the local context. This includes understanding why people are feeding primates in the first place. As scientists we need to better communicate the negative effects of feeding primates to a wider audience. We also need to prevent it from becoming an accepted activity, particularly in areas that could prove dangerous to both people and primates, such as roadsides. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. But talking to people who feed primates to understand why they do it is fundamental for designing effective management strategies in future. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Sian Waters is affiliated with the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group's Section for Human-Primate Interactions (SHPI) and receives funding from Artis Zoo, Amsterdam, NL Ouwehand Zoo Foundation NL Re:Wild Tracie McKinney is affiliated with the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group's Section for Human-Primate Interactions (SHPI).
Metro
11-06-2025
- Business
- Metro
'Last major hurdle' of Brexit resolved by UK over Gibraltar and Spain
The UK and EU have reached a agreement over the future of Gibraltar, solving what the government described as the 'last major unresolved issue from Brexit'. People travelling between the tiny British territory – located on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula – and neighbouring Spain will not need to be checked under the deal. It was called a 'historic agreement' by Gibraltarian chief minister Fabian Picardo, while British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said a 'practical solution' had been secured. The Foreign Office has 'ensured Gibraltar's interests – as part of the UK family – are at the heart of this agreement', Lammy added. Half the people who work in the territory, famous for its monumental rock and Barbary apes, cross the border between Spain and Gibraltar every day. Picardo said it is now 'time to finalise the Treaty' agreed by the UK and EU following Brexit, which left the issue of the territory to be solved another day. Craig Munro breaks down Westminster chaos into easy to follow insight, walking you through what the latest policies mean to you. Sign up here. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the deal, writing on X: 'It safeguards the integrity of Schengen and the Single Market, while ensuring stability, legal certainty and prosperity for the region.' Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ Or you can submit your videos and pictures here. For more stories like this, check our news page. Follow on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here. MORE: Rachel Reeves: Ending asylum hotels by 2029 'will save taxpayer £1,000,000,000' MORE: Rough sleeping to be decriminalised with 1824 law finally scrapped MORE: Sizewell C nuclear plant gets £14,200,000,000 green light from government
