List of All Articles with Tag 'l'

Barry Manilow has announced his last ever concerts in the UK.

Scouting For Girls frontman Roy Stride says it would be his "dream" to keep playing shows and making music to the day he dies.

Look, none of us is above pettiness, especially when it comes to family arguments. But one man’s sisters took things to a whole new level, as he revealed in a radio call-in. The brother, named Callum, told New Zealand’s ZM show that his siblings once convinced his parents he was dead. And his poor mum and dad only learned the truth when he called them for a catch-up... six months later. Hosts Carl Fletcher, Vaughan Smith and Hayley Sproull listened to the story with dropped jaws, branding it the “best” they’d ever heard. The trio were quick to probe Callum on the details of the crazy deception, and he duly obliged. "My sisters were in a bit of a tiff with my parents at the time and they weren't really getting along,” he explained. "I was living in Wellington while they were in Christchurch. And my older sister actually called my parents up and told them that I’d died." His sisters then apparently claimed that the funeral had already taken place and their parents hadn’t been invited because his ex-girlfriend’s mum and dad “didn’t want them there”. (Makes sense.) At this point, a stunned Smith interjected: ”I'm going to say this, and in the nicest possible way – your sister sounds like a crazy b**h. "No offence. Your sister sounds like a top-level, red flag, crazy b***h!" @fvhzm Callum wins the award for the greatest sentence ever said on-air in ZM history ? The hosts then posed the million-dollar question: how had Callum not spoken to his parents for half a year? He responded matter-of-factly: "I was just busy with life and work and then I was like, wait, I haven't heard from my parents in a while. I wonder what's going on?” He then revealed that he “gave them a call up” and, shocked, they responded: “You're alive?” Asked how they reacted upon hearing the voice of their presumed late son, Callum admitted they were “beside themselves”. “My mum was absolutely in tears and my dad was kind of just gobsmacked – he was just like 'what the f**k is going on?'” he recounted. But, he later said that they were “over the moon” when he went down to visit them that same weekend to “reassure them” that he was, indeed, alive. Naturally, the presenters asked how it was possible that his parents just accepted the news of his death without trying to verify it. "They were kind of like just running around, calling up all our other family – seeing if they had heard anything, from what I was told," he explained. "And then they didn't really know anything to go off so my parents kind of just presumed 'yeah he died'." The presenters then debated whether you would call someone up if you’d heard they’d died. “If somebody said that your friend is dead, you’re not going to pick up the phone and call them, are you? You’re just going to be like, oh, well, yeah, they’re dead,” Fletcher said. But Smith insisted that he would get drunk and call their voicemail just to hear their voice. After the personal reflections, the hosts asked Callum how he’d “died” according to his sisters – whether it had been a car accident or some other unfortunate event. But no, they apparently told his parents that he’d been stabbed. "Wait wait wait. So you are murdered?” Smith laughed delightedly. "You're not dead by your own hand or dead in an accident, someone murdered you?” He then asked Callum if he was “the sort of person who would have been stabbed?", to which he replied: "I was not in some gangs but I will say, at the point in time, it wouldn't have been unpeculiar for me to get stabbed." The caller went on to insist that he didn’t know why his sisters “hate” him, and he also revealed that his parents no longer speak to them. “We've nearly been doing this for 20 years,” Smith said. “This is the wildest phone call I've ever had.” ZM Radio shared the excerpt from the episode to TikTok and it racked up more than 1.5 million views and 167,000 likes in a week. However, the plot thickened when a commentator claiming to be Callum’s sister wrote: “I can confirm I never told my parents he was dead.” She said there had been a stabbing in the city of Porirua at the time, and no one had heard from Callum “for a few months” and so she contacted him to check he was ok. And when she found out he was, “she was happy”. She then suggested her family had a number of issues and that she “tried to stay away” from them. Urged to call into the radio show and “get this straightened out”, she replied: “Is it really even worth it? In order to do that I would need to air everyone's dirty laundry. It would turn from comical to sad very quickly.” Besides, she said, she didn’t really “mind” his on-air account, conceding: “The story was a good laugh.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

Paris's Grevin museum promises to address concerns over the skin tone of its life-sized figure.

Britney Spears revealed she was "glad" to have lost the lead role in The Notebook to Rachel McAdams, prompting casting director Matthew Barry to share her audition tape with The Daily Mail. In the two-minute long video, Spears says, whilst her eyes well up with tears, "I prayed for you to die in the war, really. Well, not die. I would have felt completely horrible if you would've died. But I kinda didn't want you to be alive anymore because I couldn't bear the thought of you being with somebody else, or of us never seeing each other again. So I gotta go, okay?" Barry told The Daily Mail the pop star "wasn't just good, she was phenomenal." "It was a tough decision," he continued, reflecting on Spears' audition. "Britney blew us all away. Our jaws were on the floor. I was blown away. Absolutely blown away. She brought her A-game that day." Since the sharing of Spears' audition, people have praised her acting but ultimately agreed that it should have been McAdams that got the part. "Love Britney down and she looked adorable but Rachel McAdams was just born for the role", the top comment under the tape read: "I mean [obviously] Rachel is perfect in this role, but I'm actually really impressed with [Britney's] audition", wrote another. This sentiment was prevalent throughout the reactions to Spears' tape. "Rachel was perfect and iconic for the role. HOWEVER... seeing this I now understand why Britney was considered for the role", one user shared. It seems Spears agrees that role should have gone to McAdams, writing in her upcoming memoir The Woman in Me "Even though it would have been fun to reconnect with Ryan Gosling after our time on The Mickey Mouse Club, I'm glad I didn't do it," she writes. "If I had, instead of working on my album 'In the Zone' I'd have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night." Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A British cargo ship has reportedly sunk off the coast of Germany following a collision, with several people missing as rescuers search for survivors. Two cargo ships crashed into each other in the North Sea, according to German authorities. The ships, Polesie and Verity, collided in the early morning about 14 nautical miles south-west of the island of Helgoland, Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said. One of the ships, the British-flagged Verity, apparently sank, while the Polesie remains waterborne with its 22 passengers. One person was rescued from the water and is being given medical treatment, while rescue parties are searching for several more people who remain unaccounted for. The search operation currently includes a rescue cruiser, police boats, sensor aircraft and a helicopter among other vessels. The emergency command said the British ship was headed from Bremen, Germany, to the English port of Immingham. More follows on this breaking news story Read More ‘All that is missing is a whip’: How Home Office ignored migrant worker abuses on farms Ukrainian priest arrested for stealing ancient gold jewellery worth £52m 10 Brits killed in Israel-Gaza conflict as six suspected hostages held by Hamas

SYDNEY Australia's top central banker on Tuesday warned there were risks inflation would prove more stubborn than expected

Some of the first images of freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz show the frail 85-year-old grandmother walking to a waiting ambulance, more than two weeks after she was snatched by Hamas militants from her home in kibbutz Nir Oz.

A priest from Ukraine’s Orthodox Church has been arrested along with four others for stealing £52m of illegally obtained ancient jewellery. The items consisted of 11 gold artefacts, including a belt, earrings and necklaces. They were smuggled out of Ukraine in 2016 and had allegedly been put up for sale in Madrid. The gold is believed to be from the eighth and fourth centuries BC and to be a part of Ukraine’s national heritage. Spanish police on Monday said they had made the arrests in connection with the case and had confiscated all the items. According to authorities, the valuable items went missing from public display between 2009 and 2013 at an undisclosed museum in Kyiv. The pieces were then transported out of Ukraine with the aid of forged documents falsely claiming affiliation with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Spanish law enforcement officers managed to seize an ornate gold belt in 2021, while the remaining artefacts were confiscated in recent weeks after attempts to sell them in the Spanish capital. The police operation involved cooperation from various countries, including Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, North Macedonia and Ukraine. Police said the arrests were made in recent weeks after attempts were allegedly made to sell the valuable items in Madrid. The arrested individuals include two Ukrainians, one of whom is a member of the clergy and three Spaniards. The artefacts are currently undergoing examination by Spain’s National Archaeological Museum and the country’s Cultural Heritage Institute. The Scythians who dominated eastern Europe, including what is present-day Ukraine, were known for their metal work and artefacts and jewellery from the era are among Ukraine’s best-known historical heritage. In a separate incident, Ukrainian authorities recovered 14 archaeological items allegedly stolen from areas occupied by Russia. A Russian man was arrested after attempting to smuggle them into the US. Read More Ukraine-Russia war - live: Putin pushes more soldiers to frontline despite failing offensive Headteacher who helped young Ukrainian refugees to be honoured at Windsor Castle Ukraine destroys all Russia-launched drones and cruise missile in overnight attacks

Heimstaden Bostad AB, one of Europe’s biggest residential landlords, says property valuations are now showing signs of stabilization

Vladimir Putin has pushed more troops to the frontline in Avdiivka, Ukraine, despite a failing offensive which has incurred heavy losses. The reinforcements are set to arrive after Russian soldiers have become bogged down there in recent weeks, the ISW reported, citing Russian military bloggers. Russian assaults in Avdiivka have contributed to “a 90 per cent increase in Russian casualties”, the Ukrainian ministry of defence claimed. It comes as Ukrainian authorities ordered a mandatory evacuation of 802 children from 23 settlements in Kherson, according to the Reintegration Ministry. The children with their parents or legal guardians will leave the Beryslav, Kakhovka, and Kherson districts for safer regions, the ministry said on Telegram. Meanwhile, Russia has amassed “150,000-190,000 permanent casualties” in the war with Ukraine, the UK defence ministry said. In other developments, six people have been killed in a Russian missile attack that hit a postal distribution centre in Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials have said, as Kherson has seen a record number of bomb attacks in the past 24 hours. Read More Spanish police say they have confiscated ancient gold jewelry worth millions taken from Ukraine Ukraine destroys all Russia-launched drones and cruise missile in overnight attacks Ukrainian and Russian forces clashed 82 times in a single day

Barclays Plc is planning to cut costs after the banking giant’s trading division missed estimates in the third