'Unlawful' process behind Greater Manchester's bus franchising plans, court hears

– Pippa, KentYour letter arrived in my inbox on the same day that I was covering the whole issue of so-called ‘fat shaming’ on TV – so I’m bang up to date with the subject.One in four people in England are overweight, but research has shown that even the words ‘obese’ or ‘obesity’ can make them feel shame. Far from galvanising them into losing weight, it has the opposite effect.

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money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk she said: “I've always had really painful periods, to the point where I'm literally crippled over in pain most months.“I went to the GP and got diagnosed with endometriosis. I’d tried everything - from simple things such as paracetamol to taking 2-3 hot baths per day to ease the pain.”Beki said she found an unlikely solution to finally ease her pain.“After doing some research online, there was a link between painful periods and the chemicals in certain sanitary towels and tampons,” she said.“I saw some people had tried reusable sanitary towels and saw a massive difference in their cycles.

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Jake Paul was quick to goad Jorge Masvidal after the UFC fighter was defeated by Colby Covington.Masvidal put Covington to the canvas in the fourth round at UFC 272 on Saturday but Covington emerged victorious by unanimous decision, with Paul taking to social media to mock his foe.Paul tweeted to the beaten competitor: "First of all Masvidal you ain’t rich."The YouTube star was referring to Masvidal’s own fiery comments he had made following Paul’s rematch with Tyron Woodley in December, a bout in which Paul said got 650,000 pay-per-view buys.Masvidal said at the time: “"B**** boy can’t afford the big boys. "Never again do I want to hear my name associated with the fake.

giant rats and her street has become a hotspot for drug dealers.The woman from Finglas, Dublin has claimed that she cannot sleep properly because she can hear rats scratching in her room during the night.She fears that she cannot spend any more nights in her own home as she worries that one of her three little children might end up touching rat droppings or a discarded needle left outside their home.Speaking to Dublin Live, the mum who chose to remain anonymous said: "We are infested with rats, damp and mould. There are small children in this building from three years up to eight years of age."There's nowhere for the children to play. We live facing the drug clinic, and when you are walking out your door to bring your children to school, you have people from the clinic coming up to you asking you 'are you looking for stuff' in front of your small children."There are people smoking crack outside my front door when I'm bringing my child to school.

£9.2 billion wealth because she has grand schemes to eliminate extreme poverty.Melanie Perkins, 35, co founder and CEO of graphic design platform Canva, said "who needs all that money?" as she and her co-founder/husband Cliff Obrecht made the amazing choice.Perkins, who started out selling spray-on tattoos at fairs, currently owns 30% of the company, which is valued at around £30 billion.The businesswoman has signed up to Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge, planning to give away her wealth during her lifetime through charitable donations and other endeavours. In a pledge letter, Melanie wrote: “We have this wildly optimistic belief that there is enough money, goodwill, and good intentions in the world to solve most of the world's problems, “We feel like it's not just a massive opportunity, but an important responsibility, and we want to spend our lifetime working towards that.“Who needs all that money? Personally?”On their pledge, Obrecht told The Australian: “Mel and I are committed to giving away all our money to make the world a better place.To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up for one of our newsletters here.“I think with running such a large company with such a significant valuation now, it's an obligation on us to use that to be a force for good and make the world a better place, rather than just hoard s**t."“We live pretty modestly, and we don't really see the need to just accrue wealth.“The priority for the company is education, because we really feel educating underprivileged people gives them the opportunity to break the cycle.”Perkins and Obrecht met whilst studying at the University of Western Australia and started out selling spray tattoos at local fairs.

Leonard Cohen is the latest artist whose song rights have been bought, after his estate reached a deal with the Hipgnosis Songs Fund for an undisclosed sum.According to Rolling Stone, the deal includes all 278 songs that Cohen wrote, including his most popular songs ‘Hallelujah’, ‘Suzanne’, ‘So Long, Marianne’, ‘First We Take Manhattan’ and more.The investment company obtained the “songwriter’s share” of 127 songs from Cohen’s Stranger Music catalogue, which covers the period of the inception of late musician’s career through to the year 2000; derivative works pushes the total to 211 songs.Hipgnosis also acquired the ownership of 100 per cent of the copyrights, “publisher’s share” and “songwriter’s share” of royalties of the latter part of his catalogue, spanning from 2001 to his death in 2016.“To now be the custodians and managers of Leonard Cohen’s incomparable songs is a wonderful yet very serious responsibility that we approach with excitement and fully understand the importance of,” Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis said in a statement.“Leonard wrote words and songs that have changed our lives, none more so obvious than ‘Hallelujah’ but there are so many more that we look forward to reminding the world of on a daily basis.

The Power Of The Dog, calling it “very odd”.Cumberbatch was referencing criticism of the film from Sam Elliott, who recently referred to the film as a “piece of shit”.Speaking as part of BAFTA’s Film Sessions on Friday (March 4), Cumberbatch discussed why it’s necessary to portray characters like Phil Burbank, who he plays in the movie, in order to “look under the hood” of these type of characters and “see what their struggle is and why that’s there in the first place”.Going on to reference Elliott’s criticism directly, he added (via Digital Spy): “I’m trying very hard not to say anything about a very odd reaction that happened the other day on a radio podcast over here.He added that he didn’t want to “stir over the ashes” of the comment, as “I haven’t heard it so it’s unfair for me to comment in detail on it,” but that “someone really took offence to the West being portrayed in this way.”Cumberbatch then went back to his character in the film: “These people still exist in our world. Whether it’s on our doorstep or whether it’s down the road or whether it’s someone we meet in a bar or pub or on the sports field, there is aggression and anger and frustration and an inability to control or know who you are in that moment that causes damage to that person and, as we know, damage to those around them.“There’s no harm in looking at a character to get to the root causes of that.

Charli XCX finally made her Saturday Night Live debut last night (March 5) – watch her performances of ‘Beg For You‘ and ‘Baby‘ below.The singer was originally set to appear with Caroline Polachek and Christine And The Queens on the long-running show last December, but her appearance was cancelled at the last minute due to COVID restrictions leading to “limited crew,” leaving her “devastated and heartbroken”.On last night’s episode, hosted by Oscar Isaac, Charli performed versions of two songs from her forthcoming album ‘Crash’, which is set to come out later this month (March 18).Watch the pair of performances below:After the recent release of ‘Baby’, Charli responded to critics of her new single, saying in a series of tweets that she’s unaffected by negative comments and is “living my best life”.One fan called her “mother”, to which she said: “If u wanna throw around midlife crisis fucking throw it at me. I’m getting older, I’m getting hotter, my tits are stunning, I’m in great shape, I’m dancing, I’m progressing and I’m living my best life – and that the tea.”The fan in question had written: “These charli singles so far….

Sting has shared a powerful performance of his 1985 track ‘Russians’ in support of the Ukraine – you can watch it below.Originally released during the Cold War period, the song expressed a hope that both the US and Soviet Union would find some kind of common humanity before destroying the world through nuclear warfare.Now, with the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the song has once again, sadly, found relevance, and Sting has posted a video of himself performing it in aid of Help Ukraine, an initiative that sends medicine and humanitarian aid to a warehouse on the Ukrainian border in Poland.“I’ve only rarely sung this song in the many years since it was written, because I never thought it would be relevant again,” he says at the beginning of the performance. “But, in the light of one man’s bloody and woefully misguided decision to invade a peaceful, unthreatening neighbour, the song is, once again, a plea for our common humanity.“For the brave Ukrainians fighting against this brutal tyranny and also the many Russians who are protesting this outrage despite the threat of arrest and imprisonment – We, all of us, love our children.

Harry Potter star, who played Lavender Brown, is pregnant with her fourth child, and has become increasingly unwell after testing positive for Covid a couple of weeks ago.The actress took to Instagram to share a picture of her legs from a hospital bed.She penned in view of her 209,000 followers: "Triage, once again……"Anyone else had covid in the 3rd trimester & had it hit them like a tonne of bricks for weeks?"She added: "Also - has anyone taken the anti-nausea drug and it made them feel worse?"A post shared by JeSsIe CaVE (@jessiecave)Many social media users took to the comments to wish the actress a speedy recovery and share their concern.Devonmurrayofficial said: "Jessie, I’m so sorry you’re going through this now.

EastEnders favourites have often changed their appearance after leaving the soap and moving on to other avenues in their careers, but some notable stars have had complete transformations. From the abusive Trevor Morgan, played by Alex Ferns, to Danny Dyer's evil Aunt Babe, played by Annette Badland some actors are unrecognisable from their days working on Albert Square. Fans will also remember Bradley Branning actor Charlie Clements became a fan-favourite on the BBC soap, but soon after his character's dramatic death the star opted to leave fame behind altogether.

Saturday Night Takeaway fans were left baffled on Saturday night as Ant and Dec apologised to viewers for “rude words” on their hit ITV show. The popular hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, both 46, apologised to the viewers of their family show for naughty language used.

She went on to praise her home country and all it has done for refugees and immigrants from war-torn countries. “Very kindly and very humanely, Sweden has done the right thing by allowing in immigrants and refugees from poor and war-torn countries,” Ulrika wrote. But she added that they are sadly beginning to “buckle”. The presenter explained that she will never relent, despite being made to feel that she has to “earn” her passport. “So, I now have to effectively earn my Swedish passport by stating every time I’ve visited my home country.“But no matter how hard they try to make me give it up, I will never relent. I was born Swedish and wish to die Swedish.“So, over my dead body, Sweden.

Laura Hamilton, 39, has suffered fresh heartache after having to move house yet again yesterday following her split from her estranged husband Alex Goward. The star took to Instagram this morning to reveal her filming plans in Spain for A Place In The Sun had also been derailed due to an unfortunate health issue.The property expert shared a photo of herself holding a lateral flow test up to the camera, showing she had tested positive for Covid.Laura wrote alongside it in view of her 153,000 followers: “Was supposed to fly to Spain today to film!”The mum-of-two then issued an apology to her team from the Channel 4 show.She added: “Sorry to let my team down @aplaceinthesunofficial.”It comes after Laura detailed the hectic time she has been having, needing to move again as her house is about to become "uninhabitable".She penned on her Instagram Stories yesterday afternoon: "On the move again!"Next week my house will inhabitable so today is...

Shane Warne died at the age of 52 after a suspected heart attack while in Thailand.The sports star's long-time manager James Erskine has now provided a heartbreaking update on how his family are doing after such a devastating loss.Shane was married to Simone Callahan from 1995 to 2005, with the couple having three children together.They welcomed Jackson, 23, Brooke, 24, and Summer, 20, before their split.James told the Nine Network's Today morning show in Australia: "The three children are in complete shock."I spoke to them yesterday and... Jackson just said, 'We expect him to walk in the door.This is like a bad dream'."He continued: "Keith, Shane's father, is a pretty strong individual, but like everybody, he's just shattered, they can't believe what's happened."Shane's son Jackson recently spoke to Men's Health about the strong relationship he shared with his father.He said: "I can always remember just smiling."So, I think he did a great job.

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