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The Guardian
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Drag artist Bimini at Glastonbury: ‘How do you police who's going to the toilet?'
It's midday on Friday at Glastonbury – a fairly early call time for a nocturnal drag superstar, but Bimini is already putting the world to rights. The DJ, musician, model, podcaster, author and activist (to name just a few of their other job titles) is taking to the stage for the first of three Guardian Live Q&As this weekend, interviewed by journalist Zoe Williams. And don't worry, all your important style conundrums are being answered: 'Crocs, yes or no?' 'Yeah!' Bimini enthuses. 'They're comfortable footwear at a festival.' It's unclear whether they've packed any for later on, as they kick their heel into the air, revealing 16-in PVC stilettos. The 2025 festival style trend? 'Skimpy,' they say, without missing a beat (they're wearing a union jack corset and teensy leather hot pants). With the all-important fashion business out of the way, the conversation – dotted with questions from Guardian readers – covers anxiety, allyship and why policing body autonomy is 'horrible'. Talk inevitably turns to the recent trans bathroom ban. 'Trans people just want to live their lives,' Bimini says, though they are hoping for more unity: 'What needs to happen is more conversations where we come together and find a solution.' That includes 'honest conversations with trans people, actually allowing trans people to speak about their existence,' they continue. 'They're mocked or ridiculed and I don't think it's a fair representation.' Right now, Bimini tells the crowd, we're in a 'hostile' place, 'and we need to either get really angry and start a revolution or take acid and love each other'. 'That's what's so beautiful about coming to Glastonbury. It feels like utopia, right? Although you probably couldn't live here for ever because you'd be knackered.' They have memories of performing here in 2017, as part of the NYC Downlow's drag coterie; it felt like a simpler time. 'There was still a lot of hope and acceptance. Homophobia and transphobia wasn't as high as it is now.' Even so, they add, Brexit was a catalyst for echo chambers. It 'leads to ideas of, oh, there are other people that think like me, and then that slowly starts to build up, and we get to the place where we're the most divided we've been in a long time'. But back to Glastonbury. On a brighter note, they say, 'I think this year is just about having fun, being radical with it, and standing up for what you believe.' And besides, adds Bimini, 'I've always got something to say'. As Thomas George Graeme Hibbitts, growing up in Norfolk, they always had the acerbic, surreal sense of humour that they're known for. 'Bimini is just a bit more fun to look at.' They studied journalism, as well as international relations, at university, 'so I was always quite into current affairs,' they explain. But drag allowed them to bring that on to the stage and 'I was able to explore politics and perform'. In response to a reader's question about a recent social media post, in which they wrote about a time when they'd fallen out of love with performing, Bimini opened up about their mental health struggles in the aftermath of starring on season two of RuPaul's Drag Race. 'I felt a lot of pressure. There were a lot of different people around me telling me what I should do and how I should be.' They were thrust into 'a different world that wouldn't normally have accepted me. I got caught up and I became a bit depressed.' They're also feeling weary about the politics side of things. 'I've never understood how human rights is a discourse in itself,' they say. 'Surely if there's a war going on and people are trying to flee, we try to help them as much as we can.' Instead, they say, the UK government is doing the opposite: 'It's disgusting.' Bimini refuses to stop being outspoken about what they believe in. For a recent show, they were told to remove the line 'Free Palestine' from one of their songs. In response, Bimini refused to let their song be used: 'I'm not doing it.' Making and playing music, however, has revitalised them. 'I've been making an electro-punk album,' they say, as well as officially remixing Anastacia's 2000 smash I'm Outta Love and getting back into DJing (they're playing two sets across Glasto weekend). Plus, we've nearly at the end of another Pride month. 'This year is so important because we need to come together for the trans community. We need to come together for the migrants, disabled people, anyone that is a minority that doesn't feel like they are being looked after.' As well as inclusivity, they urge collective action: 'We need to fight.' They attended the recent lobby outside parliament to protest against the UK government's bathroom ban. 'What's worrying is the policing of bathrooms. How do you police who's going to the toilet? Is someone checking your genitals? I just think everyone needs to piss in peace.'
The Guardian
05-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Sabotage and secret identities: Russia's spy network
Shaun Walker is the Guardian's central and eastern Europe correspondent and author of The Illegals: Russia's Most Audacious Spies and the Plot to Infiltrate the West. He tells Helen Pidd about the history of Russia's 'Illegals' programme, and how Russian intelligence operates in western countries today. 'It's become much harder for Russia to send its operatives abroad,' Shaun tells Helen. 'What we're seeing, with those traditional programmes like the illegals and assassins, is a new campaign of sabotage across Europe that actually doesn't require Russia's spies even to leave Russian territory and uses proxies to carry out the act.' They also discuss the impact on the children of Russian illegals. You can read Shaun's Long Read about one of those stories, 'I am not who you think I am': how a deep-cover KGB spy recruited his own son. Shaun will be speaking alongside Christo Grozev and Daniela Richterova at a Guardian Live event on Thursday 22 May 2025. You can buy tickets here. Support the Guardian today:
The Guardian
09-04-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Guardian and Observer voucher, subscription card and home delivery subscription services
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Details of variations9 April 2025: amendments to reflect Tortoise Media as the owner and publisher of The Observer from 22 April 2025. Tortoise Media contact details added to clause 11.
The Guardian
28-03-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Wes Streeting's plan to fix the NHS
The government has put improving the NHS at the heart of its plans, but will it be able to deliver on its promises? And how long could it take to turn the health service around? Pippa Crerar asked health secretary Wes Streeting at a special Guardian Live event. In a wide-ranging discussion, he also took questions on others issues including assisted dying, transgender rights and the war in Gaza. To purchase the full event video on demand, go to the
The Independent
26-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
‘Unjustifiable' Israeli attacks must end, warns Streeting after Netanyahu breaks Gaza ceasefire
A senior UK government minister has condemned Israeli attacks against Palestinians that 'cannot be justified as self-defence', warning: 'It has got to stop.' Speaking a week after Israel shattered a two-month ceasefire in Gaza with some of its deadliest strikes since the early months of the war, the UK health secretary Wes Streeting said he found Israel's decision to do so 'soul-destroying'. Gaza health authorities say nearly 700 people – mostly women and children – have been killed in the past week, with the reported Palestinian death toll now surpassing 50,000 since the war was sparked by Hamas's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023. Insisting that the Labour government has used 'every diplomatic lever available' to them since assuming power in July to try to bring an end to the 'bloody war', Mr Streeting told a Guardian Live event on Tuesday night that he still feels 'powerless'. 'I find it soul-destroying seeing the breakdown of the ceasefire and the impact we are seeing on innocent human lives,' he was reported as saying. Mr Streeting continued: 'I was looking back at some photos just this morning of a place called Susya in the West Bank, which has been under threat of demolition by the Israelis for many years and now is on the frontline of settler violence. 'This is completely unjustifiable. It is completely intolerable. It doesn't serve in Israel's self interest. It cannot be justified as self-defence, and it has got to stop.' He added: 'It's very frustrating, let me tell you, being a member of the cabinet the United Kingdom and still feeling powerless in the face of this appalling conflict which does nothing for Israelis or Palestinians.' Announcing the resumption of Israeli military action on 18 March, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the deadly strikes reported to have killed more than 400 Palestinians that day were 'only the beginning'. Following the breakdown of the ceasefire, Britain's foreign secretary David Lammy warned that the decision had resulted in an 'appalling loss of life' and possibly 'the deadliest single day for Palestinians since the war began'. And Mr Lammy warned that it was 'difficult to see' how Israel's denial of humanitarian assistance to Gaza civilians 'can be compatible with international humanitarian law' – but stopped short of repeating his previous remarks that there had been a 'breach of international law'. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 in a cross-border attack on 7 October 2023.
