If 2022 is the year of the movie star thanks to Tom Cruise’s resurgent form, then Brad Pitt makes for a convincing rival.
Because the largely entertaining action flick Bullet Train rolls along on the power of Pitt’s megawatt charisma – and sometimes on that alone.
The David Leitch-directed action comedy has a lot going for it, an unapologetically rambunctious tone, slick stunts and combat sequences and a colourful, pizzazzy visual aesthetic that pops.
But it’s also messy, swerving from euphoric highs to sloppy lows with its uneven pacing sometimes speeding at the breakneck pace of a, well, bullet train, while other times it feels as if it’s moving about as fast as a sloth on land.
Pitt stars as Ladybug, a relatively mild-mannered assassin who’s only just getting back into the game. Armed with his bucket hat, his winning smile and a heavy dose of skepticism, Ladybug boards a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto for his assignments from him, a supposedly simple snatch and grab job.
His target is a briefcase containing lots and lots of money.
But nothing is simple in the guns-for-hire business, especially when Ladybug is convinced he’s the unluckiest person on Earth.
As bad luck – or a vast, overly complicated scheme – would have it, Ladybug isn’t the only assassin on the train. Far from it. This particular train is a convergence point for several killers, all with equally adorable codenames.
There’s The Prince (Joey King), a ruthless killer who uses her appearance of British schoolgirl-in-distress to great effect, Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry), two assassin brothers with matching checked coats, The Wolf (Benito A. Martinez Ocasio), an assassin with vengeance on his mind and The Hornet (Zazie Beetz), a poison specialist.
And they all want either the case or someone connected to it, which makes Ladybug’s simple task rather complicated.
That’s Bullet Train‘s main failing – just how convoluted the plot is. It labors to contrive all these complications involving myriad killers, hidden agendas and a boss-level target (Michael Shannon), and it struggles to keep its flow.
Just as you’re pulled into the visceral joys of a stylish, high-octane action sequence, you’re being asked to simultaneously keep track of the increasingly knotty plot. Wait, what’s that guy’s beef with this dude again?
There are some genuinely great “phwaor” moments, including a scene-stealing turn from legendary Japanese actor and martial artist Hiroyuki Sanada, who plays The Elder, another – you guessed it – assassin.
Or the legitimately endearing, continued references to Thomas the Tank Enginewith which Lemon is obsessed, and becomes something of a fun touchpoint in various scenes.
And the fight sequences are creative, imaginative and well-staged – and they punch. But that’s what you would expect from Leitch, who spent many years as Pitt’s stunt double before moving into directing with John Wick, Atomic Blonde and Dead Pool 2.
Given the caliber of Leitch’s history, plus an exciting cast and a riotous vibe, Bullet Train should’ve been a fantastic movie if it had been tighter, or even more brazen with its bloodshed.
It’s certainly not John Wick on a train. If it had been, it would’ve been a less shambolic experience.
“At the end of a match like that, when it’s that close, you feel like, ‘Yeeeeeaaah!’ Donna said. “But my heart just sunk. I’m happy we won but gutted we’re the ones who put them out of the tournament. It doesn’t feel good. I hope it never happens again.”
Squash at this pace isn’t for the faint-hearted. Certainly not for the claustrophobic. As London broadsheet The Times headlined a story after a particularly fiery match at Glasgow in 2014: “Fear and Loathing in Glass Cages.”
This match was tinged with controversy, just as Donna’s women’s double fixture with Rachel Grinham had been earlier in the day when they lost on the final point of the third set when the referee didn’t award a controversial let call.
On that occasion, Grinham threw her racquet into the glass background and stormed off devastated.
Against her husband, she got the rub of the green in the final points of the third set.
Doubles squash is a funny beast. It’s only played every four years at Commonwealth Games with the court widened and the tin at the front lowered.
Players clamor all over each other and the interpretation of what constitutes a “let” (when the point is replayed) and a “stroke” (when a point is awarded) after a player gets in the way of the ball they’ve just struck is confusing.
“They do give some shocking decisions,” Donna said. “But I’ve had just as many go against me. I don’t think the last no-let they got was a no-let, but Rachael and I lost 11-10 on a no-let that should never have been a no-let this morning. We are briefed on what it should be, but it’s a mixed bag. The best we could do is play the ball as much as we could, so we couldn’t let the refs a chance to get involved.”
Either way, it doesn’t matter now. Donna didn’t just win the match but also a bet: Greg must cook dinner for the couple for the next month.
“I don’t know if I want him to make dinner,” she said with a laugh. “I should’ve bet that if I win he has to shave off his mullet and mustache from him. That would’ve felt good. I might have to put up with him being in a terrible mood for a while.
“To be fair to him, after I had a tough loss this morning, he was still there for me. He’s still the main person that’s there for me, and I’m there for him. We’re not signing the divorce papers after today. We’re still all right.”
wet and wild
youve heard of Bondi Rescue, but what about Canal Rescue?
Thankfully for the good people of Birmingham, and the legions of sports fans who have converged on this city in recent days, there are water rescue types to save anyone who happens to fall in the 35 miles or so of canals in this fair city.
None of the canals have fences to stop people staggering into the water.
Just by chance, your humble correspondent happened to be drinking a shandy at a pub along one of the canals on Friday afternoon when we spotted the “water rescue” boat flying past.
We shouted at them to come back and tell us how many people they must pull out of the water.
New Zealand beach volleyball players try to fish their ball out of a Birmingham canal during a photoshoot.Credit:AP
“About one or two every Saturday night,” one canal lifesaver told us. “More since the Games started because a lot of people seem to have alcohol in their system.”
Straight Outta Brumpton is determined to not become a statistic on this assignment. That said, we have three days to go.
It’s just not cricket
There’s a lot of debate about which sports should be included in the program at the 2026 Commonwealth Games when they are held in regional Victoria.
There are serious discussions under way about a men’s competition in the Twenty20 cricket, after women’s teams were included at this Games.
Australia’s cricketers celebrate during their win over Pakistan at Edgbaston this week.Credit:Getty
Personally, I think we have enough cricket played throughout the year. It shouldn’t be included at all. But we have some alternative suggestions: snooker, darts, poker, poker machines, five-leg multies, greyhound racing, caber toss, Scotch egg eating, bagging our sports editor.
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THE QUOTE
“Um, yeah. I don’t know what to say. I’m really…yeah.” – England’s 17-year-old Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix‘s giggling reaction after winning gold in the women’s diving 10m platform when asked by the BBC how she felt.
THUMBS UP George Miller – the 75-year-old Scottish for lawn bowler, not the Academy Award-winning director of Mad Max – became the oldest Commonwealth Games gold medalist in history when he claimed the mixed pairs B2/B3 title.
THUMBS DOWN
Andrew Parsons, the president of the International Paralympic Committee, has categorically ruled out any notion of the Para program being merged with the program at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Boo! The integration of the two has been a real winner here in Brum.
Get all the latest news from the Birmingham Commonwealth Gameshere. We’ll be live blogging the action from 4pm-10am daily.
Queensland Police have revealed new details about the shooting in a rural town that left three members of the same family dead and another critically injured.
Married couple Mervyn and Maree Schwarz, 71 and 59, and their son Graham Tinge, 35, were gunned down at their cattle farm property in Bogie, about 35 minutes from Bowen in the state’s north on Thursday morning.
Their other son, Ross, was shot in the abdomen and bleeding heavily but managed to flee the scene in a ute where he alerted police about the shooting.
Mackay Detective Inspector Tom Armitt revealed in press conference on Friday that the alleged offender and the victims had organized to meet the night before the shooting.
“What we do know is that all parties are neighbours, some conversation has occurred between the parties and resulted in a meeting up at the parties’ boundary line earlier that morning when the incident occurred,” he said.
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“We understand that there was a conversation the night before that was the reason they met the next morning.
“What I can say is that there was an invitation for them to go there and discuss.”
Police said the distance from the properties is a long 45-minute drive and is a three kilometer drive from the gate to the front of the house.
Ross underwent surgery at MacKay Base Hospital on Thursday night and has been well enough to speak with police.
A 59-year-old male neighbor of the Schwarz’s is being held in custody with charges expected to be laid late on Friday afternoon.
“He will be remaining in our custody and we expect to lay criminal charges in relation to the matter some time later on this afternoon,” Superintendent Armitt said.
He also revealed the Schwarzs’ had purchased the property “some time” in the last 12 months while the 59-year-old was a long-term resident of the area.
Police took five people who were on the property at the time of the incident into custody overnight with all but the alleged shooter released.
Emergency services received a call around 9am on Thursday by the lone survivor who had driven about 40 kilometers away from the crime scene.
Superintendent Tom Armitt said there was confusion about where the shooting had occurred with the call coming from a far distance away but praised the officers who placed themselves in danger during the response.
“At that particular time we had a report that three persons had been shot. I believed that they had been killed but we needed confirmation on that,” he said.
“At that particular time whilst we had made requests of our CERT team to come and make clearances and armed clearances at those properties we needed to push forward with police to determine the safety of the people on the ground.
“We had a small team of police who drove forward into the crime scene at that time not knowing if the armed offender was present putting their lives at grave danger especially when the report was that people had been shot with a rifle.
“They were in danger of being shot at any distance whilst approaching the crime scene so that was slow and meticulous work and extremely brave from the officers who were involved at that time.”
Police are yet to determine a motive for the incident with investigations into the incident ongoing.
Anyone in the area with information who has knowledge, information of any issues in the area, or spoke with either family, should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Flash flooding at Death Valley national park closed all roads into the park, buried cars and stranded about 1,000 people on Friday.
A deluge brought “nearly an entire year’s worth of rain in one morning” into the famously hot and dry park in the California desert. At least 1.7in (4.3cm) of rain fell in the Furnace Creek area; the park’s average annual rainfall is 1.9in (4.8cm).
About 60 vehicles were buried in debris and about 500 visitors and 500 park workers were stranded, park officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries and the California transport department estimated it would take four to six hours to open a road that would allow park visitors to leave.
It was the second major flooding event at the park this week. Some roads were closed on Monday after they were inundated with mud and debris from flash floods that also hit western Nevada and northern Arizona hard.
The rain started around 2am, said John Sirlin, a photographer for an Arizona-based adventure company who witnessed the flooding as he perched on a hillside boulder where he was trying to take pictures of lightning as the storm approached.
Video and photos posted by Sirlin on social media showed fast flowing water, toppled palm trees and cars trapped by debris.
Major flash flooding in Death Valley National Park this morning. Approximately two dozen vehicles trapped in mud and rock debris at the Inn at Death Valley. Took nearly 6 hours to get out. #cawx#stormhourpic.twitter.com/3rDFUgY7ws
“It was more extreme than anything I’ve seen there,” said Sirlin, who lives in Chandler, Arizona, and has been visiting the park since 2016. He is the lead guide for Incredible Weather Adventures and said he started chasing storms in Minnesota and the high plains in the 1990s.
“I’ve never seen it to the point where entire trees and boulders were washing down. The noise from some of the rocks coming down the mountain was just incredible,” he said in a phone interview on Friday afternoon.
“A lot of washes were flowing several feet deep. There are rocks probably 3 or 4 feet covering the road,” he said.
Sirlin said it took him about 6 hours to drive about 35 miles (56 kilometers) out of the park from near the Inn at Death Valley.
“There were at least two dozen cars that got smashed and stuck in there,” he said, adding that he didn’t see anyone injured “or any high water rescues”.
During Friday’s rainstorms, the “flood waters pushed dumpster containers into parked cars, which caused cars to collide into one another. Additionally, many facilities are flooded including hotel rooms and business offices,” the park statement said.
A water system that provides it for park residents and offices also failed after a line broke that was being repaired, the statement said.
A flood advisory remained in effect into the evening, the National Weather Service said.
It’s not secret british royal family has one of the world’s most expensive and extensive collection of jewels.
Many of the family’s best pieces came from Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, whose legacy will forever be linked to her incredible jewels.
Today some of her grandest tiaras, necklaces, earrings and rings are worn by the other women to follow in her footsteps including the monarch, allowing the beloved royal to be remembered by generations to come.
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, photographed at Windsor Castle on July 8, 1941. (Getty)
In days gone by month of August would see the royal family come together to celebrate the Queen Mother’s birthday – August 4 – so in honor of the former Queen Consort here are some of her most iconic royal jewels and who they can be seen on now.
The Strathmore Rose tiara
Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon married Albert, Duke of York, in 1923 and the event brought her the “first real experience of owning and wearing jewelery of real distinction”, author Hugh Roberts writes in The Queen’s Diamonds.
Among her numerous wedding presents were some notable jewels, including a diamond tiara in the form of a rose garland gifted by Elizabeth’s father Lord Strathmore.
It became known as the Strathmore Rose tiara.
Queen Elizabeth wearing the Strathmore Rose tiara in the mid-late 1920s (exact date unknown). (Getty)
She wore the tiara many times while Duchess of York, including for an official portrait and on her wedding day.
Featuring a garland of roses in rose-cut diamonds, mounted in silver and gold, the tiara was likely made in the late 1800s. It is designed to be worn across the forehead in a bandeau style – popular during the 1920s – but can also be worn on top of the head in the more traditional manner.
The flowers can be removed and worn as brooches and were occasionally swapped for sapphires.
Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon leaves her home for her wedding to the Duke of York, the future King George VI in 1923. (Getty)
As Queen Elizabeth, she wore the tiara many times during her husband’s reign and kept the piece until her death in 2002.
It is now in Queen Elizabeth II’s personal collection, but has not been worn by any members of the royal family since.
As Duchess of York, Elizabeth preferred simple jewels such as brooches and pearl necklaces.
The Strathmore Rose tiara, owned by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. (Getty)
But it would be her husband’s succession to King upon the abdication of his brother that would see Elizabeth, the Duchess of York, gain an even more impressive jewelery collection as her tastes matched those of a Queen Consort.
Cartier Halo tiara
This tiara was purchased by the Duke of York on November 18, 1936, three weeks before succeeded his brother as King George VI, and worn by his wife while she was still a duchess.
Made by Cartier, the tiara was designed in the popular ‘halo’ style to suit the hairstyles of the 1930s and set with 739 brilliant-cut diamonds and 149 baton-cut diamonds.
Queen Elizabeth gave the tiara to her daughter, then Princess Elizabeth, as an 18th birthday present in 1944.
The Duchess of Cambridge wearing the Cartier halo tiara on her wedding day, April 29, 2011. (Getty)
It was later loaned to Princess Margaret in the 1950s and borrowed by Princess Anne in the 1970s.
When the Queen Mother passed away in 2002, the tiara became part of the Queen’s collection.
Her Majesty loaned the Halo tiara to Kate Middleton when she married Prince William on April 29, 2011, at Westminster Abbey.
But it has not been worn by the now Duchess of Cambridge since.
Art Deco diamond ring
The Queen Mother owned many large rings and her engagement ring was a large sapphire stunner.
But she often swapped her rings around, sometimes wearing a pearl ring in its place.
Another ring occasionally worn by the Queen Mother on her wedding finger was an Art-Deco emerald-cut ring.
Camilla, now the Duchess of Cornwall, shows off her engagement ring during a party at Windsor Castle. (WireImage)
That piece was left to Prince Charles who later presented it to Camilla when he proposed.
The platinum ring features a five-carat emerald cut diamond with three baguette cut diamonds on both sides.
READMORE:How rivalry with Diana saw Camilla respond with rubies
Author Tina Brown writes in her book The Palace Papers that “the Queen signed off on Charles choosing Camilla’s engagement ring from one of the Queen Mother’s collection” adding it was “more valuable than the engagement ring given to Diana”.
But, “his grandmother would have turned in her grave at Windsor Castle if she had known who was destined to wear her emerald-cut diamond bequest.”
Following their wedding in 2005, the Duchess of Cornwall wears the ring with her Welsh gold wedding band.
Sapphire fringe earrings
Since marrying into the royal family the Duchess of Cambridge has worn several heirloom jewels and a favorite of hers appears to be the Queen Mother’s sapphire fringe earrings.
Most recently they were seen on Kate at Westminster Abbey when she hosted the Royal Carols: Together At Christmas concert.
The Duchess of Cambridge arrives at Buckingham Palace for a gala dinner for US President Donald Trump on June 3, 2019, wearing the Queen Mother’s sapphire and diamond fringe earrings. (Getty)
The earrings were first worn on the duchess in 2015 at an event inside the Victoria and Albert museum.
She later wore them at a gala inside Buckingham Palace in June 2019 hosted in honor of then-US President Donald Trump’s visit to the UK.
They are set in an Art Deco design with a diamond fringe suspended from a sapphire and diamond cluster and they move delicately while being worn.
The Duchess of Cambridge at Westminster Abbey in December 2019. (Samir Hussein/WireImage)
The earrings are likely a favorite of Kate’s as they pair so well with her sapphire engagement ring, which previously belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales.
The Queen Mother started wearing the earrings in the 1960s but the sapphires may have come from a suite of jewels gifted by Queen Mary for her wedding in 1943.
Greville festoon necklace and Greville tiara
Made by Cartier, the Greville Festoon necklace was bequeathed to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in 1942 from wealthy society figure Margaret Greville, a collection that included 60 pieces.
The necklace features five rows of diamonds, though she often wore it with just three rows for a less dramatic look.
The necklace was one of the biggest the Queen Mother’s collection, before it passed to her daughter the Queen in 2002.
The Duchess of Cornwall wears the Greville festoon necklace and Greville tiara in Uganda in November 2007. (Getty)
Her Majesty has since loaned it to the Duchess of Cornwall, along with another of Mrs Greville’s bequests – a tiara which became known as the Greville tiara.
It features many diamonds set in a geometrical honeycomb design and became one of the Queen Mother’s most frequently worn tiaras.
READMORE:How the Romanovs started the tradition of gifting Fabergé eggs
The tiara was made by Boucheron in the 1920s but remodeled by Cartier in 1953 at the request of the Queen Mother.
It is one of just three tiaras worn by the Duchess of Cornwall. Her access from her to others, and the royal family’s larger jewel collection, will increase when she becomes Queen Consort.
maple leaf brooch
Queen Elizabeth’s jewelery collection grew as her husband the King gifted her with more lavish pieces which, as Hugh Roberts explains, was even more important after the abdication to “uphold the dignity and continuity of the monarchy”.
Made by Asprey & Co in 1939, the Maple leaf brooch was given to Queen Elizabeth by King George VI on their State Visit to Canada in 1939.
The Duchess of Cambridge wearing the Queen Mother’s diamond maple leaf brooch in Canada on July 8, 2011. (Getty)
Like all the Queen Mother’s jewels, the brooch was inherited by her daughter who often wore it to visit Canada – the most visited Commonwealth country by Her Majesty.
The Queen later loaned the brooch to the Duchess of Cambridge for her royal tour to Canada with Prince William in 2011.
lotus flower tiara
The Duchess of Cambridge wore another of the Queen Mother’s tiaras that was a present from her husband.
But the Lotus flower tiara wasn’t always a headpiece.
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, wearing the Lotus Flower tiara, in a portrait taken in 1927. (Getty)
The Queen Mother had the tiara made from a necklace gifted by her husband for their wedding.
Garrard, who made the original necklace, used the gemstones to create the tiara which became one of the Queen’s favorite pieces in the early years of her marriage.
READMORE:‘Princess Charlene’s royal reinvention should be applauded’
Queen Elizabeth wore the tiara many times during her husband’s reign before it was passed on to her younger daughter, Princess Margaret who was another frequent wearer of the piece.
The Duchess of Cambridge wears the Lotus tiara at Buckingham Palace on October 20, 2015. (Dominic Lipinski/WPA Pool/Getty Images)
The tiara can be worn with either diamond or pearl toppers.
The Duchess of Cambridge wore the Lotus Flower tiara for a state banquet at Buckingham Palace in October 2015 for the Chinese president.
it’s just one of three tiaras worn by Kate since the royal wedding.
Scallop-shell brooch
This beautiful piece is formed as a scallop-shell and features pavé-set diamonds around a single pearl.
The brooch was bequeathed to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, by Winifred Hope and it then passed into the collection of Queen Elizabeth II.
Queen Elizabeth II wears her mother’s Scallop-Shell brooch at Royal Ascot on June 22, 2019. (Getty)
The Queen has worn by the brooch many times including at the wedding of Zara and Mike Tindall at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland, on July 30, 2011.
coronation necklace
To mark his coronation in 1937, King George VI gave his wife a necklace made of 40 diamonds which came to be known as Queen Elizabeth’s coronation necklace.
The piece was worn to the coronation along with Queen Victoria’s coronation necklace and later in her official coronation portraits and other important photographs in 1939 and 1948.
Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, wears the Queen Mother’s Coronation necklace on her 60th birthday in 2007. (PA/Hugo Burnand/Clarence House)
The coronation necklace was later inherited by the Queen and loaned to the Duchess of Cornwall.
Camilla wore the piece to celebrate her 60th birthday but had the necklace shortened from its 14 stones to just nine.
The Duchess of Cornwall could choose to wear the necklace again at the coronation of her husband, Charles.
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The most spectacular brooches worn by Queen Elizabeth II
NRL legend Cameron Smith believes Nathan Cleary’s lengthy ban leading into finals will provide “a blessing in disguise” for the Panthers.
Cleary flipped Penrith’s season on its head when he was sent off for a dangerous lifting tackle on Eels playmaker Dylan Brown last Friday.
The New South Wales Origin star copped a five-match suspension and won’t return for the competition leaders before the finals.
Five-eighth Jarome Luai is also out set for a lengthy stint on the sidelines, after suffering an MCL injury against the Sharks.
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Without the two experienced playmakers leading the team around the park, the Panthers will have to rely on some relatively inexperienced combinations until the finals.
Penrith have turned Jaeman Salmon and Sean O’Sullivan for Saturday’s clash with Canberra, with the Panthers currently six competition points clear of second with five games to play.
But Smith said the break for the duo can become a positive for the reigning NRL premiers.
“I think it can work in their favour,” Smith said on SEN’s The Captain’s Run on Thursday.
“I actually think that giving this football side an opportunity side to play a month or five weeks without Cleary in particular and Jerome Luai, their two main men, it’s their go-to men in attack, I actually think when they return they’ll both be fresh.
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“Nathan Cleary, he’s going to have fresh legs, he’s going to be fresh mentality. He hasn’t had to get up for games for five weeks.
“You could see as soon as he made that tackle he knew he’d let the team down, and the club and the fans. He’s going to come out in that final series and think ‘I’ve got to repay this footy club and my fans for missing five weeks’.
“This footy side can benefit so much from these two guys not being there and guys like Api Koroisau and Isaah Yeo… they’re going to have to shoulder more responsibility now with the way the football team plays.
“I just think they’re going to be a stronger footy side again.”
Penrith have one hand on the minor premiership just over a month out from finals, but they could quickly lose that grip with a couple of losses on the bounce.
The Cowboys are their closest rivals in the race for pole position, but the Sharks are also an outside chance – but are four games back and they have a significantly worse points difference.
Open your eyes! Roosters Scold Walker | 00:31
North Queensland host the Panthers in the final round of the regular season, and although it’s unlikely, it’s possible that the two teams clash with the minor premiership on the line.
It’s potentially a season defining a few weeks for the Panthers, who are looking to defend their NRL crown.
“Let’s just say the top four doesn’t change, they take on Melbourne. If they finish first, they’ll be taking on the Storm,” he added.
“The biggest difference this year is they’ll play their first game at home. They’ll be playing at Penrith.
“Whereas last year and I know it was a neutral ground for the Sydney sides, but they played the Rabbitohs up in Townsville and got beaten. They’re a different footy side at home.
“They’ve lost one game there in a thousand years.”
Parramatta are another side who will be without a key player for a majority of their remaining regular season games.
Star playmaker Mitchell Moses has been ruled out with a finger injury, and will spend at least a couple of weeks watching on from the sidelines.
The Eels could potentially drop out of the top eight if they have a bad month, with the Raiders just four-point behind them.
“(Moses) He’s leading the competition for try assists. He’s got 20 try assists, so now with him out, plus his goal kicking, so now they need to find someone to produce points for them.
“They’re going to have to find some points somewhere. Whether Gutho stands up a little bit more, I think Jake Arthur may be playing in the halves this week.
John Seccombe had regularly checked his skin and even had small cancers on his face removed, but nothing prepared him for the moment when the right side of his face went numb.
Key points:
Farmers older than 65 have a high risk of developing melanomas
8,032 people were diagnosed with melanomas in 2021
The number is expected to grow to more than 11,000 by 2030
He was a fair-skinned boy who grew up on a farm.
Later in life, he managed a cattle station and a feedlot at Gurly Station, south of Moree in north west New South Wales, before becoming the chair of Casino Food Co-op, the largest meat co-op in the country.
He was aware of the danger of skin cancers, regularly went to the dermatologist, and had a squamous cell carcinoma removed in his 30s.
But the disease returned, and this time, it was a “rampant” cancer that was heading into his brain stem, crushing a facial nerve.
According to his doctors, it was a death sentence.
“I had to under go radiation for two years, at the end of that it was still growing and they gave me 12 months to live and said ‘go home and hug your children’,” Mr Seccombe said.
Skin cancer death rates for farmers over 65 are double that of other Australians.(Supplied: John Seccombe)
That was 22 years ago.
Mr Seccombe was saved by radical experimental surgery that involved three operations on his face.
“I had to have three lots of craniotomies, where they enter your face through the skull base,” he said.
“They removed as much damaged tissue as they could but it left my right eye left in a precarious position so I had to have another one, removed my eye, and I basically lost the right side of my face.”
Check your skin
Melanomas can be extremely serious, but there are ways of identifying them.(Supplied: Melanoma Patients Association)
Mr Seccombe is now living on a farm on the north coast of New South Wales and is the chairman of Melanoma Patients Australia, a charitable organization that advocates and supports people diagnosed with melanoma.
He is urging men in regional and rural areas to check their own skin.
That is because the statistics in those parts of Australia, often a long way from the beach, are shocking.
The death rates in farmers over 65 from skin cancer are more than double the rate of other Australians, while the total disease burden rate in remote Australia is 1.4 times as high as in major cities.
And it is expected to get worse.
About 8,000 Australians in regional areas were diagnosed with melanoma last year, and that is forecast to rise to over 11,000 annually by 2030.
That is because the population is ageing, and men are twice as likely as women to die of melanoma due to complacency about sun safety, according to the Cancer Council.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — One person has died after a crash on I-96 Friday evening, according to Michigan State Police.
The crash happened around 4:45 pm on eastbound I-96 south of 28th Street, according to the Kent County Sheriff’s Office.
MSP said that a black Jeep was traveling east on I-96 when it rear-ended a blue BMW, which was then pushed into a third vehicle.
A passenger in the BMW was taken to the hospital where they were later pronounced dead. The driver of the BMW was also taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
The driver of the jeep was not injured, but two children who were riding in the Jeep were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, troopers said. The people in the third vehicle were not injured, state police said.
Eastbound I-96 was closed at 28th Street immediately following the crash, but it has since reopened.
In March 2021, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle felt shockwaves around the world after appearing in a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey. The explosive chat saw the couple make a series of claims about the monarchy. According to Princess Diana’s former protection officer Ken Wharfe, Harry found the Oprah interview “difficult” to appear in. Mr Wharfe explained Harry’s “telling” feelings during the bombshell interview.
I have noted that, during that time, Charles had a “much bigger operation” and a “lot of support”, whereas “Diana didn’t have that”.
Because of this, he added: “She decided, well look, I’m not getting that support, I want to tell you the truth, and that’s what happened with [Andrew] Morton, and that’s what happened with [Martin] Bashir.”
During the Oprah interview, the Sussexes accused an unnamed royal – not the Queen or Prince Philip – of making a racist comment about their son Archie.
And following previous reports it was the other way around, Meghan claimed Kate made her cry ahead of her royal wedding in 2018.
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During the two-hour-long interview, the Duchess also shared that she had suffered with her mental health during her time in The Firm.
She revealed that she had experienced “suicidal thoughts” and alleged that she was denied help during her private struggle.
Prince Harry also laid bare his rifts with his older brother Prince William and father Prince Charles.
When Lisa Blair first set sail around the world a decade ago, the last thing she expected to see at 40 degrees south, deep in the Southern Ocean, was a bird perched on a drifting styrofoam box.
Looking out and noticing the sheer volume of rubbish and pollution spread throughout the water was heartbreaking. How could the consequences of human impact be seen so far from human beings?
With a passion to draw attention to the harmful impacts of climate change, combined with a love for sailing, Blair embarked on a record-breaking, unaccompanied, unaided and unremitted circumnavigation of Antarctica in February, aboard her eye-catching, technicoloured racing yacht.
Solo sailor Lisa Blair returns to Sydney Harbor after her record-breaking journey around Antartica. (Brook Mitchell)
“I’ve been sailing now for 12 years. I started sailing when I was 25 and I’m 37 now. I’ve seen quite a dramatic change, just in the time that I’ve been sailing from the lack of abundance of wildlife that you now see, to the fact that the weather patterns are so much more unstable because the seasons aren’t following the calendar anymore,” Blair tells Wide World of Sports.
“I really wanted to use the action of doing records and the accompanying media coverage as a platform to create awareness for taking action against climate change and empower individuals because everyone I spoke to always felt like it was so big a problem – climate change and pollution – that their little bit wasn’t going to make a difference.
“So, I founded the name ‘Climate Action Now’ and renamed my boat in 2015, and for the last eight years I’ve been running this campaign.
“What I do is I go out and collect post-it notes from people in the public, each post-it note being an environmental action or something that a person is already doing to create a better future. We then gather them up and turn them into a digital design.
“I’ve sailed this design over 50,000 nautical miles around Antarctica twice, around Australia and into global media coverage. The goal is to inspire people that as individuals we all have the power to create change – it just starts with one action. If you get one million people taking one action then you’re creating the impact that we’re looking for.”
Blair’s boat “Climate Action Now” is covered in post-it notes detailing positive actions individuals can take to reduce emissions in everyday life. (Supplied)
With a dramatic dismasting off the coast of South Africa spoiling her first attempt in 2017, the second time around, Blair wanted to do more than just sail the record for exposure, graciously extending a hand to the scientific community.
“With around Antarctica being such a data-sparse area of our oceans, I stepped it up another level and I put my hand up to the scientific community globally and said, ‘Hey, crazy sailor here. I’m going to be in Antarctica , where you have almost no data for three months. What can I do for you that’s going to be of the most scientific value?'”
Partnering with several marine organizations and citizen science programs, Blair ran a non-stop microplastics sampler on board, collecting more than 180 microplastic samples. This coincided with an ocean-health monitoring system used to determine baseline data similar to existing models of the Southern Ocean.
Blair also turned her boat into a mobile weather station to help with forecasting and logged all of her depths while sailing to assist in mapping the ocean floor, all while deploying eight weather-drifter buoys and an Argo research float.
“I was very busy while I was out there,” Blair says.
After 92 days, 18 hours, 21 minutes and 20 seconds at sea, Blair sailed into the record books on May 27, having smashed the overall speed record held by Russian voyager Fedor Konyukhov for an incredible 10 days.
Asked what she did differently to shave off more than a week’s worth of travel, Blair says her attention never wearied.
“When you’re on a record you’ve got a time crunch, so you’ve got to always catch the weather shifts, you’ve got to be constantly on alert. So, if you’re not sleeping or eating, you ‘re doing maintenance on the boat, you’re doing the scientific undertakings, you’re doing emails,’ she says.
Lisa Blair was the first woman in history to sail alone around Antarctica. (Brook Mitchell)
“I had this philosophy that I didn’t need to sail super, super fast all the time, I just needed to sail 0.2 of a knot faster than him (Konyukhov) over the 16,000 nautical miles we were sailing and I’d beat the record. And I was at times able to sail considerably more than that.”
Blair also put the feat down to being physically prepared, and disciplined when staring down long periods of lethargy, ailment and sleep deprivation.
“It’s a 50ft racing yacht, so doing anything on board is quite difficult. Everything is manual, so hoisting the sail can sometimes take 20-30 minutes to pull up just because it’s simply so heavy,” she says.
“Also, when I’m close to land or known hazards, I don’t sleep longer than 20 minutes at a time, and when I get further afield I might increase that up to 40 minutes, but on both of my circumnavigations around Antarctica , I don’t think I slept for more than an hour and a half in a single sleep the entire time.
“That, in toe with the equipment on board the boat starting to deteriorate as you get halfway around because you’re doing a lifetime’s worth of work to it… it ends up being what I think is one of the hardest endurance sports out there. “
With both feet now firmly back on Australian soil, the Sydney sailing instructor will change course to her next epic record attempt.
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