Tag: book
What if the 1991 Lone Wolf videogame was actually a choose-your-own-adventure book?
The eight best autumn break bargains for adults to book kid-free holidays
BACK-to-school time may be sad news for the kids – but for those without little ones there are some cracking holiday bargains up for grabs.
Sophie Swietochowski picks out great-value autumn breaks for adults to indulge in, from late-summer sun breaks to all-inclusive coastal packages and those bucket-list cruises.
Mexico’s Riviera Maya offers spa treatments and excursions as part of the all-inclusive deal[/caption]
Mexico
IF you have saved up and are looking to splurge it on one blow-out trip, there is no way you will be disappointed at the 5H Unico 20°87° on Mexico’s Riviera Maya.
This really is all-inclusive. Not only are delicious Mexican food and cocktails included, but also some spa treatments and excursions, such as snorkelling, swimming with the dolphins and island boat tours.
You will be staying in an ultra-lavish Alcoba swim-up room – so you don’t need to leave your room to take a dip – and it also comes with a private terrace.
Most read in Beach holidays
Seven nights’ all-inclusive costs from £1,794pp, with flights from Gatwick on selected dates in September.
See ba.com/unico or call 0344 493 0124.
Tampa Bay, Florida
Tampa Bay is a great city for food lovers and is still hot late in the year[/caption]
TEMPERATURES still reach 26C in November around Tampa Bay.
Foodies will love the 4H Epicurean Hotel, which has some of the area’s best restaurants within walking distance.
It features stylish, minimalist rooms as well as an Elemis spa.
Most read in The Sun
But best of all are the regular cooking classes and shows held in the hotel’s theatre, where you will learn to whip up works of art on a plate.
Four nights’ room-only costs from £803pp, including flights from Gatwick on selected dates in November. See ba.com/tampa.
Marmaris, Turkey
Marmaris offers a winning combination of luxury accommodation and a lively resort[/caption]
YOU will get 5H luxury for a fraction of the price with this Thomas Cook all-inclusive package.
The Elegance Hotels International, on the seafront in the lively resort city of Marmaris – the Turkish Riviera – has it all, from waterfront restaurants to a casino.
Rooms are spacious, but you will be spending most of your time soaking up rays on the jetty or getting stuck into the many watersports on offer.
One week’s all-inclusive is from £461pp, including flights from Luton on October 11. See thomascook.com.
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is the former home of Queen Victoria[/caption]
SOME parts of the Isle of Wight are so rugged you forget where you are. And you won’t have to spend a fortune to holiday there.
Travel is all sorted on this coach trip with pick-up points across the country.
Plus, you get a free Heritage train ride on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway and entry to Osborne House, the former home of Queen Victoria.
The five-day break costs from £289pp, departing on dates in October, with return coach travel and accommodation. See justgoholidays.com.
Norway Cruise
Spend a week on a cruise around Norway to see the fjords[/caption]
DEPARTING from Tilbury, Essex, this Ambassador Cruises voyage will take you to the icy cliffs of Norway to see the country’s breathtaking fjords.
You will spend seven nights on the 14-deck Ambience, which has two pools, casino, library, shopping gallery and wellness centre, plus a three-tiered theatre for top-notch performances.
From £489pp on full-board basis, departing from Tilbury on October 16 and with port calls at Eidfjord, Bergen, Flam and Haugesund. See icelolly.com.
Corfu, Greece
The food is particularly great at the 4H Tui Blue Atlantica Nissaki Beach in Corfu[/caption]
IF you’ve ditched the kids for a couple’s getaway, go all out at the 4H Tui Blue Atlantica Nissaki Beach in Corfu and indulge in a week of spas, pebble beaches and gourmet Greek food.
The secluded, adults-only resort has two pools backed by vast olive groves.
The food is great. But for something special, book a table for dinner at the poolside Culinarium, where you look out at mountains against the night sky.
Seven nights’ all-inclusive is from £518pp, including Birmingham flights on October 16. See tui.co.uk.
Tenerife
You can book a week in Tenerife for less than £500 per person[/caption]
READY to jump on a plane right away? Fly before the end of the month and get a week in Tenerife for less than £500.
With views of Taoro Park, the 4H Puerto Palace is just 800 metres from the beach, with its stretch of sand flanked by palm trees.
The hilly Orotava Valley is a 20-minute drive away, and home to vineyards and some banana plantations.
Seven nights’ B&B is from £479pp, including flights from Gatwick on dates in September.
Book by September 20. See britishairways.com/tenerife.
Madeira
Madeira is a unique island with late breaks at just over £500[/caption]
THE tropical archipelago of Madeira, Portugal, has exceptional wineries, rugged cliff trails and natural swimming pools formed by volcanic rock.
Head to the 4H Allegro Madeira, five minutes’ walk from a seafront lido with saltwater pools and cliffside sundecks.
Or try the farmers’ market up the road, for locally made goodies.
Then visit the hotel’s spa, which has a Turkish bath.
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Seven nights’ B&B costs £523pp, including flights from Luton on October 11.
Book by September 30. See travelrepublic.co.uk.
Jimi Hendrix: new live album and book due to mark his 80th birthday
We’re in store for a (Slight Return) to the archive
The post Jimi Hendrix: new live album and book due to mark his 80th birthday appeared first on UNCUT.
Millions of Brits can book Covid boosters from Monday as NHS rolls out fresh jabs
FOUR million Brits can book Covid boosters from Monday as the NHS kicks off the Omicron jabs rollout.
Invites for over-75s, vulnerable people and health and care workers are in the post and online booking opens next week.
A total of 26million Brits will be offered an Omicron jab as an autumn booster[/caption]
Public top-ups will start on September 12 and invites for over-50s will follow.
Virus cases fell by a quarter last week to the lowest level since May.
But medics fear the winter will be rough as people spend more time indoors and immunity wears off.
The vaccines have been updated for the first time since 2020 in a bid to fend off Omicron and future variants.
Amanda Pritchard, CEO of NHS England, said: “We know that this winter will be challenging, with a likely resurgence in both Covid and flu for the first time ever.
“The best way to protect yourselves and your loved ones is to get the next generation Covid vaccine as well as your annual flu jab.”
Read more on Covid-19
The Office for National Statistics said Covid infections dropped 26 per cent last week to a total of 1.07million across the UK.
It is a third of the summer peak, of 3.7m in July, and means just one in every 60 people has the bug.
Kara Steel, stats buff at the ONS, said: “The number of people with Covid-19 in England is now estimated to be under one million for the first time since early June.”
A total of 26m Brits will be offered another booster this autumn.
Most read in Health
It will be the fourth dose for most and the fifth for those with very weak immune systems.
Vaccinators will visit care homes and housebound people next week to dish out the first doses.
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The new Moderna vaccines, which are made to target Omicron specifically, will offer better protection and slow transmission more effectively.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: “An autumn booster will top up the immunity of those most vulnerable to Covid ahead of the winter, to help us continue to live with this virus without restrictions.”
Tom Fletcher to release album alongside new children’s book
Jihadi bride Shamima Begum ‘was smuggled into Syria by western spy’ & UK ‘helped cover it up’, book claims
JIHADI bride Shamima Begum was smuggled into Syria by an intelligence agent for Canada, a book has claimed.
Shamima was 15 when she and two other East London schoolgirls fled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in 2015.
The man who smuggled Shamima and her two friends in 2015 was a spy for Canada who smuggled Britons into Islamic-State controlled areas[/caption]
Now, it appears that a spy for Canada, Mohammed Al Rasheed, had shared Shamima’s passport details with Canada, while helping to smuggle her to ISIS territory, according to a book titled The Secret History of the Five Eyes.
Five Eyes is the name of an intelligence sharing alliance between the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
In the book, journalist Richard Kerbaj alleges that Canada previously admitted to having Al Rasheed on its payroll while he was an agent for ISIS, before reportedly asking the UK to help cover up its role.
Double agent Al Rasheed was providing information to Canadian intelligence while smuggling people – including Britons – for ISIS, a senior intelligence officer at an agency which is part of the global coalition against the terror group, told the BBC.
READ MORE ON SHAMIMA BEGUM
A file obtained by the Beeb included information gathered by law enforcement and intelligence, as well as material recovered from Al Rasheed’s hard drives.
In an incredible twist, Al Rasheed told authorities that he had been collecting information of the people he had helped smuggle into Syria because he was handing it over to the Canadian embassy in neighbouring Jordan.
In 2015, Al Rasheed met Shamima, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-old Amira Abase when they arrived at the main bus station in the Turkish capital, Istanbul, before taking them to IS-controlled Syria.
The smuggler was arrested two days after Shamima and her friends arrived in Syria.
At the time, the BBC revealed that Al Rasheed had told Turkish authorities he had shared a copy of Shamima’s passport with Canada.
By the time Canada had received Shamima’s passport details from the Metropolitan Police who had launched its search, the teenager was already in the war-torn country.
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Shamima was moved around Syria through ISIS’ network, run by the organisation’s de-factor capital, Raqqa.
It appears that Al Rasheed was part of the Turkish side of the network, and had been facilitating the smuggling of British men, women and children for eight months before he was caught.
“He organised the entire trip from Turkey to Syria… I don’t think anyone would have been able to make it to Syria without the help of smugglers,” Shamima told the BBC in an upcoming podcast.
“He had helped a lot of people come in… We were just doing everything he was telling us to do because he knew everything, we didn’t know anything.”
The BBC discovered Al Rasheed had taken photos of the passports and ID documents of people he was smuggling.
The man also secretly filmed them on his mobile phone, the BBC said. This information was allegedly shared with Canada.
Meanwhile, the smuggler also collected information about the Islamic State, including Western IS fighters’ houses, IP addresses and took screenshots of the discussions he was having with fighters, the BBC revealed.
When interrogated about his actions, Al Rasheed explained that he was recruited as an agent by Canada when he applied for asylum at its embassy in Jordan in 2013.
“They told me they were going to grant me my Canadian citizenship if I collect information about the activities of ISIS,” Al Rasheed is quoted as saying.
Canada and the UK have both declined to comment and have denied conspiring to cover up their role in the alleged scandal.
A Canadian Secret Intelligence Service spokesperson told the BBC he could not “publicly comment on or confirm or deny the specifics of CSIS investigations, operational interests, methodologies or activities”.
A British Government spokesman said: “It is our long-standing policy that we do not comment on operational intelligence or security matters.”
Shamima — whose British citizenship was stripped from her in 2019 — now lives at a Syrian refugee camp in Rojava.
The region is self-governed and not under the control of the Syrian regime.
Read More on The Sun
Friends said the former extremist has little faith in the justice system there — and remains desperate to return to Britain.
Begum tried to restore her British citizenship last year.
Shamima lost her British citizenship in 2019[/caption]
Virginia judge shuts down demand to ban book sales to minors
A Virginia judge has dismissed an unusual case that could have banned selling two books to children in the state. Following a hearing on Tuesday, Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge Pamela Baskervill found that Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir and Sarah Maas’ A Court of Mist and Fury failed to meet the standard for obscenity under Virginia law — and, more consequentially, that the obscenity law itself was unconstitutional.
Republican State Delegate Tim Anderson and former congressional candidate Tommy Altman instigated the dispute earlier this year, exploiting a little-used rule that allows anyone to launch obscenity proceedings in the state. Altman and Anderson objected to what they characterized as sexually explicit material in both…