Latest news with #OwenWilliams
Daily Mirror
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
World's 'most dangerous' country in the world - and it's not one you'd expect
The Foreign Office advises against all travel to war-torn Yemen - and it's not hard to see why. It is a no-go zone for Brits with no embassy services and no evacuation procedures in place. Yemen has earned the ominous title of the world's most treacherous country in 2025, outstripping even war-ravaged Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya in terms of danger. The UK Foreign Office issues a stark warning for those considering a trip to the country: "Support for British people is severely limited in Yemen. British Embassy services in Sana'a are suspended, and all diplomatic and consular staff have been withdrawn. The UK government cannot help British nationals leaving Yemen. There are no evacuation procedures in place." According to the World Population Review's analysis, Yemen - which shares borders with Saudi Arabia and Oman - has surpassed Sudan, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Syria to claim the top spot. Owen Williams, a Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey Analyst at Sibylline Strategic Risk Group, offers insight into the country's precarious situation: "Yemen is often considered one of the most hazardous countries in the world due to the protracted civil war, widespread food shortages, military interventions, and a collapse of public infrastructure." Mr Williams explains that the instability is in part due to the Houthi rebels' insurgency against the internationally recognised government. The group's slogan, the sarkha, is a chilling call to arms: "God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse on the Jews, victory to Islam." Since ousting the previous government in 2014, the group, which remains unlisted as a terrorist organisation in the UK, has taken control of much of northwest Yemen, including the capital Sana'a. The ongoing clash between the government and insurgents has plunged the nation into a severe humanitarian crisis. Mr Williams pointed out that "Yemen was already in a difficult position before the onset of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023", but the regional tensions have since intensified. He explained: "Following the October 7 attacks, as a member of Iran's Axis of Resistance, the Houthis began to target shipping in the Red Sea with drones and missiles, as well as launching attacks against Israel. "This resulted in a US-Coalition intervention in Yemen, with many airstrikes targeting Houthi facilities and key infrastructure. These reached a peak in May 2025, when the US attacked a migrant detention facility. While the US has agreed a ceasefire with the Houthis, the risk of Israeli airstrikes persists." The group's maritime assaults, often from small vessels, have caused global shipping firms to divert their routes, leading ships to navigate around South Africa instead. Mr Williams has issued a stark warning to Brits against travelling to Yemen, highlighting that despite "there has likely been reduced media coverage of the situation in Yemen in recent years", Westerners remain highly susceptible to danger and abduction. One of the very few remaining tourist destinations in Yemen is Socotra, an archipelago that is unlike anywhere else. Sat 200 miles off the coast of mainland Yemen, close to the Horn of Africa, it is home to a unique array of plants and wildlife. UNESCO recognises Socotra Island as a site of universal importance due to its biodiversity, with nearly 40 percent of its plant species being exclusive to the island. The surrounding islands, including Socotra, are also notable for their land and sea bird breeding spots and unique coral reefs, which are home to over 700 species of coastal fish. While Socotora is covered by the Foreign Office's advice—meaning visitors travelling there do so at their own peril and risk having their insurance invalidated—the archipelago has a very low crime rate and has been little impacted by the 11-year war that continues to rage on the mainland. The main difficulty for those dreaming of visiting is how to get there. Janet Newenham is a professional traveller who has spent years visiting some of the world's most inaccessible places. Since visiting Iraq several years ago, Janet has organised small group trips for women to some of these places. Including, in February, to Socotora. "It's a paradise island off the coast of Yemen. People in the extreme travel community know about it, but a lot of people don't," Janet told the Mirror. "It's hard to get to. There are two flights a week from Abu Dhabi, but you can't book them in a normal way. You have to book them through WhatsApp. It's through Emirates Aviation, and it's a humanitarian charter flight. You have to WhatsApp them and then send a bank transfer. "It was absolutely incredible. I never knew there were places like that in Yemen. It has bright blue water, white sand beaches, and dragon's blood trees. You won't find them anywhere else in the world."
Time Out
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
100 years of art deco: The world's greatest art deco buildings
This year marks the centenary of a landmark Paris exhibition: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts), in 1925. The term 'art deco' is a snappy derivation of its title. Deco – characterised by clean lines, bold geometric shapes and jazzy colours – was seen as thrustingly modern. And it had a global appeal: the Paris fair hosted exhibitors from 20 countries. I would argue that the movement had its roots in the 1910s (it was influenced by cubist art from the decade) and hit its peak in the 1920s and 30s. It manifested in all areas of culture, from homeware and jewellery to fashion and cars, but most famously in architecture. The style was rampantly eclectic, plucking inspiration from Aztec, Mayan, Egyptian, ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Deco got a second wind in the 1930s, with its equally popular, more sleek and pared-down iteration – streamline moderne. Arguably, art deco wasn't as ground-breaking as modernism – its decorative quality and figurative elements are unmistakably of their time. But the style's more avant-garde elements – its clean lines and simplicity – still feel contemporary and, tellingly, young designers are inspired by deco architecture today. Selecting the best examples of deco architecture is a tough call, but here's an expert's pick of nine of the finest examples from around the world. Dominic Lutyens is journalist and author specialising in architecture and design. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines and check out our latest travel guides written by local experts. 1. The Daily Express Building, London This Grade II*-listed building with a 1932 design by Ellis & Clarke, revised later by Owen Williams, is in the streamline moderne style. Its tiered façade with rounded corners is mainly made of Vitrolite (robust, opaque black glass), adorned only by gleaming, slimline chrome bands forming a subtle grid. Yet its lobby is sumptuously decorated: it was created by Robert Atkinson, who commissioned deco designer Betty Joel to dream up its steel furniture, while the walls are embellished with glistening gold and silver murals by sculptor Eric Aumonier. 2. The Chrysler Building, New York City Of Manhattan's early twentieth-century skyscrapers, the Chrysler Building is the most iconic and recognisably deco, thanks to its tower crowned by typically Deco sunburst motifs bubbling skywards. In my view, the sunburst pattern recalls radio waves, signalling modernity and technological progress. The building was designed by William Van Alen for Walter P Chrysler, head of the Chrysler Corporation, and was completed in 1930. While it may look simple, the tower is elaborately decorated, studded with eagle-shaped gargoyles and details inspired by Chrysler radiator caps. 3. Alex Theatre, Los Angeles Deco cinemas in the interwar years hugely popularised this aesthetic, given the new movie palaces mass appeal. The Alexander Theatre (later abbreviated to Alex Theatre) opened in 1925 as a venue for vaudeville performances and silent movies. Today it's a performing arts centre. It's very showy – aptly, given its proximity to Tinseltown. An obelisk, neon-lit by night, looms above the entrance. The ticket office leads to the lobby via a large, open-air forecourt inspired by Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, a route that adds drama to the space. 4. Art Deco Historic District, Miami Thanks to Barbara Baer Capitman and her son, John – co-founders in 1975 of the Miami Design Preservation League – long-neglected deco architecture on South Beach was extensively renovated. This area contains the world's highest concentration of deco buildings (hotels, homes and shops), mostly built in the streamline moderne style, many in ice-cream pastels. Local architect Lawrence Murray Dixon dreamt up many of its hotels, such as the curvilinear Marlin of 1939 that boasts a façade in powder blue and buttermilk yellow. 5. Eros Cinema, Mumbai Deco architecture flourished in India, particularly in Mumbai. The country's burgeoning middle classes lapped up Western influences, commissioning residences, hotels and movie theatres in a deco style that nevertheless incorporated indigenous motifs, such as stylised peacocks. Businessman Shiavax Cawasji Cambata commissioned architect Shorabji Bhedwar to design the monumental Eros Cinema on Marine Drive in 1935. Its stepped façade pairs smooth ivory walls with the rich earthy brown of red Agra sandstone. Its opulent foyer has a boldly patterned black and white marble floor and Classical and Indian friezes. 6. Eltham Palace, London Originally built in the fourteenth century, Eltham Palace in southeast London was badly damaged during the Civil War. In 1933, Stephen Courtauld (a scion of the textile family) and his wife, Virginia, restored its medieval hall and added a new extension with a show-stoppingly glamorous deco interior, overseen by architects Seely & Paget. Designer Rolf Engström created its domed circular entrance hall. A black and gold door in the dining room is adorned with images of exotic beasts, including the couple's pet ring-tailed lemur, called Mah-Jongg. Virginia's breathtakingly ritzy bathroom had an onyx bath backed by a shimmering gold mosaic. 7. Palais de Tokyo, Paris This vast, complex building in Paris's 16th arrondissement comprises two wings connected by a colonnade, interlinked with a plaza, a rectangular pool and a fountain. It was designed for the 1937 International Art and Technical Exhibition by architects Jean-Claude Dondel, André Aubert, Paul Viard and Marcel Dastugue, and now houses twentieth-century and contemporary art. The imposing building with soaring columns is redolent of bombastic, nationalistic 1930s architecture but its predominantly stark aesthetic is softened by large ornate friezes of languid human figures by Alfred Auguste Janniot. 8. Central Fire Station, Auckland Auckland has a high quota of arresting deco buildings, including its Central Fire Station, designed by Daniel Boys Patterson and completed in 1944. As befits the building's functional character, the fire station is in the streamline moderne style – as were the residential units housing its live-in staff. This being a deco building, functionalism coexists with high style: its geometric façade is decorated with elegant fluted columns and zigzags, all painted a quintessentially deco eau-de-nil shade. 9. The Hoover Building, London This flamboyant Grade II*-listed building in West London borders the A40, and was designed by architects Wallis, Gilbert and Partners for The Hoover Company. It housed the vacuum cleaner maker's HQ and factory, and opened in 1933. Poet John Betjeman identified the flamboyant decoration on its exterior as Mayan and Aztec-influenced – such ornamentation was intended to be uplifting for employees. Said architect Thomas Wallis paternalistically: 'A little money spent in… decoration, especially colour, is not money wasted. It has a psychological effect on the worker.'
Leader Live
01-05-2025
- Business
- Leader Live
Award title for Banana Ben's Play Centre in Wrexham
Taking the title after weeks of voting from our top 10, is Banana Ben's Play Centre & Café, in Wrexham. Up against competition across the region, the play centre on Central Retail Park was opened just over five years ago by friends Owen Williams and Daniel Haycocks. Banana Ben's staff celebrate the win. (Image: Banana Ben's) anana Ben's Play Centre & Café, Central Retail Park, Wrexham. They were inspired to start the venture after feeling a lack of something in places they visited with their own children. Owen explained the business came about after feeling a lack of something in places they visited with their own children He added: "We thought we could do it better, add something. Read more: "We have the role play rooms for children to use their imaginations, make-believe play. "And we have good coffee and a nice cafe for parents and children." On hearing the news of Banana Ben's win, the business duo said: "We are honoured to win Best Family Indoor Entertainment 2025 venue! "We are so grateful to our customers for voting for us. It had given us even more motivation to work harder to bring lots of events and theme days to keep the fun going!" The pair also opened a second Banana Ben's on Flint Retail Park in March.
The Guardian
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Saying you're in a jangle-pop band is a red flag': the Tubs talk speed, squalor and their glorious second album
'Most of the songs were written in the midst of a breakdown,' says Owen Williams, lead singer with indie rock group the Tubs. 'My long-term relationship had ended, so I was drunk constantly and being kind of obsessive about the people I was dating.' Williams doesn't really need to tell me that he was in a difficult place while writing his band's second album, Cotton Crown – the evidence is in the lyrics. Tubs songs might jangle deceptively with intricate riffs and Teenage Fanclub-style harmonies, but the words are loaded with self-laceration. Manipulative, irritating, sycophantic, unreliable: these are just some of the ways Williams portrays himself on record. The 32-year-old seems none of those things when I meet him at a Wetherspoon's in the band's native south-east London where, over a succession of pints, he cheerfully explains how the Tubs has always been a vehicle to 'do a hatchet job' on himself. 'Sometimes I actually end up painting myself as a lot more unlikable than I am,' he admits. 'But I've always liked lyrics that can be brutal.' Williams's life was in the doldrums when the band recorded their 2023 debut Dead Meat. His previous group, noise-rock outfit Joanna Gruesome, had split in 2017 and new projects – including an attempt to publish a novel – had all fizzled out. Williams says he had 'zero expectations' that anyone outside his circle would care about the Tubs, whom he formed with fellow Joanna Gruesome members Max Warren and George Nicholls, and who are these days completed by drummer Taylor Stewart, along with occasional guest vocals from Lan McArdle, also formerly of Joanna Gruesome. 'We just turned up and bashed that first album out,' says Williams. 'We didn't actually put much effort into it.' Whether that's true or not (and with its unusual hooks and harmonies, Dead Meat certainly didn't sound bashed out), Williams is adamant that they've tried a lot harder on its follow-up. Cotton Crown is full of songs about Williams's relationship woes, told with bleak humour. ('Took a bit of what I think was speed,' is certainly one way of beginning a love song.) But what really sets it apart from its predecessor is the inclusion of final track Strange, which deals with the death of Charlotte Greig, Williams's mother, by suicide in 2014. Williams says he had been trying unsatisfactorily to write about his mother for years until he stumbled on a way in: writing not about her death directly so much as the social awkwardness and bizarre situations that he faced in the immediate aftermath. 'Sometimes when everyone's high / They ask me what it's like / If I'm all right,' he sings. 'I say it makes me more interesting / Then they laugh / And then it's all fine.' Most jolting of all is the way he recalls finding out the method she used to kill herself by reading an article in WalesOnline. Williams has a keen, almost novelistic eye for the minutiae of day-to-day interactions – sending up both himself and the well-meaning folk who tried to console him. 'At the wake someone took my hand / Said that I should write a song about this,' sings Williams at the song's end. 'Well, whoever the hell you were / I'm sorry, I guess this is it.' 'I don't think you can really touch on what it's actually like [to lose your mother],' he says. 'It's too big. But in a perverse sort of way, writing about it from this angle has given it some kind of emotional heft.' Williams's mother was a writer and musician, too. Her beautiful debut album, 1998's Night Visiting Songs, was a mix of original tracks and reimagined folk standards that was the focus of a Guardian profile in 2023. Williams grew up in a home full of various touring folk musicians, and his love of the genre clearly influenced his vocal style, which is often compared to that of a young Richard Thompson. The sleeve for Cotton Crown also features his mother – she's photographed in a graveyard, breastfeeding Williams as a baby. The picture was originally used in a vinyl release of hers which Williams has carried around with him from home to home. 'It felt appropriate to use it because the fact I was having a breakdown was very linked to her. She's kind of in the background of all the songs on the record, not just Strange,' he says. It is, he admits, yet another peculiar aspect of her death that her image is now acting as a kind of promotional tool for his album. 'Now that the vinyls have started arriving at my house, it does feel a bit much. Sometimes I think: should I have done that?' Another thing Williams has refused to shy away from in his songwriting is the reality of living with poor mental health. His struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder were laid bare on earlier songs such as Round the Bend. Cotton Crown continues the excavations: on Narcissist, he sings about wanting to hook up with a potential sociopath in order to distract himself from more existential thoughts. He hopes his lyrics act as an antidote to the romanticisation of mental illness. 'Everyone has sympathy for [people with] mental illness in a kind of abstract way,' says Williams. 'But that doesn't really work in an intimate relationship or friendship. Sometimes people who are mentally ill are really fucking annoying. Anxious people are annoying! Especially if you have something like OCD and you're constantly asking for reassurance about some catastrophic fear that you've become obsessed with.' Williams paints an equally unforgiving picture of being a musician in the modern world – one in which nobody makes any money any more, and any glamour associated with indie rock has long since vanished: 'When you're dating, telling someone you're in a jangle-pop band is basically a red flag these days,' he says, laughing. It has to be said, few would be tempted to sign up for the rock'n'roll lifestyle after listening to Dead Meat's title track, in which Williams explores the previously untapped subject of simultaneously running out of beans and the steroid cream you use to treat a stubborn groin rash. What the Tubs document so well is that period in life in between young adulthood and middle-age, when the party lifestyle starts to seem less carefree, and adult issues are more prone to intrusion. In this sense it shares a similarity with Charli xcx's Brat, albeit a much scruffier Brat that grew up listening to early REM and Hüsker Dü. Williams laughs off the comparison but says that he has noticed that the songs do strike a particular chord with men in their 30s. 'Guys over the last decade have maybe felt this pressure to be living more virtuously,' he says. 'And some of them have said that our music makes them feel like they don't have to be this super-virtuous, perfect person – but they also don't have to be a misogynistic arsehole either. There's, like, a third way.' That way is a throwback to pre-social media times, before everybody felt monitored and the music business became slickly professionalised. 'I think other bands practise a lot more than we do,' says Williams. 'We might run through the set once and be like, 'Can we go to the pub now?'' As for playing live – at present Williams says they can only handle that by getting extremely drunk beforehand. 'It's maybe a bit unsustainable. The drinking in the band can be quite exhausting. We always feel like every show is a big deal, and we probably overcompensate for that.' Not all chaos is good chaos. On the eve of their sold out gig at Moth Club in London last December, their bassist Max was hit by a car and hospitalised, meaning it had to be cancelled. 'We immediately started treating it like a joke, posting pictures from his hospital bed,' says Williams. 'Then he went to ICU with blood clots on his lungs. It was quite dicey. I was thinking – if he dies, will we have to take those Instagram posts down?' Fortunately Max pulled through, although he's still in a wheelchair. The same month also saw the departure of Nicholls, whose spidery, Johnny Marr-like guitar lines elevated the songs (for all Williams's claims of minimal rehearsing, the band can undoubtedly play). Nicholls is off to focus on his career lecturing at Goldsmiths, University of London, but Williams is adamant that the Tubs are only just getting started. In fact they've already written album number three, which apparently has a northern soul-infused sound. Creativity comes easily to Williams – he writes songs and stories constantly. And despite the struggles and the squalor of being a musician in 2025, he concedes that it's a pretty good life overall. 'It's not like I need to buy clothes or whatever it is that people buy,' he says. 'All I need to get by is food and pints.' And so with that in mind, we get another round in. The Tubs tour the UK and Ireland until 5 April. Cotton Crown is out now In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at You can contact the mental health charity Mind by calling 0300 123 3393 or visiting
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Take a sneak peek behind the scenes at new town centre bar opening this weekend
A NEW bar opening in the town centre this weekend has offered a sneak peek as to what customers can expect. A behind-the-scenes look has been released for McCoy's Racing Lounge and Bar, which will be opening its doors for the first time tomorrow, Saturday. Based at The Hive on Sankey Street, the venue will be open for business from 10am. McCoy's Racing Bar and Lounge is open on Saturday (Image: McCoy's) Horse Racing will be shown all day across 14 TVs, as well as other sporting events, making it a go-to bar for sports and a drink. It will also have a pool table, two dart boards, and a jukebox, with karaoke and live music also in the offering. After a social media poll, Owen Williams decided to name his new venture Nukes Sports Bar, as a nod to Warrington's teenage darts world champion Luke Littler. McCoy's Racing Bar and Lounge is open on Saturday (Image: McCoy's) But shortly after he revealed the new name, he received a letter from lawyers alleged to be acting on behalf of Luke Littler Darts about a potential infringement. The bar posted on its Facebook page: "We are sure this isn't Luke himself, and he would be proud to have a bar recognising his achievements. "Unfortunately, we may have to change our name before it has even begun." The name of the bar has now been changed following another social media vote to McCoy's Racing Lounge and Bar. It also hopes to be the cheapest independent bar in Warrington, with draught beer starting from £2.50. McCoy's Racing Lounge and Bar has also already joined the Warrington 501 Darts League.
