Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC has hired former Citigroup Inc. and Natixis SA bankers to key positions in

TV star Jonnie Irwin has admitted that he “never thought” he’d be alive to see his 50th birthday, which is next week. Irwin, 49, who is best known for presenting property TV shows A Place in the Sun and Escape to the Country, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2022. In January, Irwin threw an early 50th birthday party, ahead of the actual date next week, with a huge part with 170 friends and family. But in a new interview, the presenter has said he will be jetting off on holiday to Spain with his family for his actual birthday. “I never thought I’d be here,” Irwin told The Sun. “I’m really looking forward to some time with [wife] Jess and the boys.” Irwin shares three young sons with his wife, Jessica Holmes. He has been praised for his transparency about his condition, and his experiences with various cancer treatments. Since his diagnosis, Irwin has followed a strict diet and spends one to two hours a day in an O2Worx hyperbaric oxygen tent. Some studies have shown that flooding the body with oxygen does not promote tumour growth and has been linked to preventing cancer growth. In July this year, Irwin discussed his “really good” experience with palliative care, which focuses on improving the quality of life for anyone facing a life-threatening condition. Irwin said that he has been in palliative care since the day he received his terminal cancer diagnosis. He was first diagnosed with lung cancer in August 2020, but only publicly shared the news in November 2022 after the cancer spread to his brain. His hospice experience was a “delight”, Irwin said, challenging his initial perception that such facilities were “very much a boiling hot room full of people who looked frail and towards the end of their days”. In September, the presenter made his long-awaited return to TV when he hosted a new episode of Escape to the Country on BBC One. Looking back at his time in a hospice six months ago, Irwin said he was “on the cusp of death”. “Lying in the hospice, I thought I’d had it,” he told The Sun. ​​“But at my weakest point I thought, ‘This is it, this is the beginning of the end.’” ​​Irwin returned home and resumed his strict diet, drinking protein shakes and spending time in the oxygen tent to attempt to curb the growth of his cancer. “I won’t let cancer define me,” Irwin told the publication from his newly renovated home in Newcastle. “A friend of mine told me, ‘Your body achieves what your mind achieves’, and I want to live by that.” Read More Jonnie Irwin jokes he’s ‘whacked’ after attending The Streets gig in Newcastle Billy Connolly shares health update on Parkinson’s disease: ‘Every day gets stranger’ What are the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and how can it be treated? Billy Connolly shares health update on Parkinson’s disease: ‘Every day gets stranger’ What are the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and how can it be treated? Tracey Emin says she ‘totally accepted death’ following cancer diagnosis

By Tom Polansek WICHITA, Kansas Farmers in Kansas, the biggest U.S. producer of wheat used to make bread,

PARIS (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron will hold a new government emergency meeting later on Friday after riots erupted for

Filled Broadway seats reached pre-pandemic levels in the 2022-2023 season — which is the first full season of shows since Covid first forced theaters to shutter, The Broadway League announced Tuesday.

AJ Smith-Shawver, who started the season in Single-A, is making his first MLB start with the Braves on Friday. But what should fans expect?Just a couple of months ago, AJ Smith-Shawver was an exciting Atlanta Braves prospect taking the mound for Single-A Rome. On Friday, June 9, he'll take ...

Many woke up dazed in the Ukraine’s Hroza on Friday – with the village in the northeast of the country having lost a fifth of residents in the devastation caused by a Russian missile strike the previous day. Ihor Klymenko, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine has said the village only had 330 residents – and that at least 52 had been killed in the assault. He added that every family had at least one person they knew at the wake for Ukrainian soldier Andrii Kozyr inside the cafe (and grocery shop) that was wrecked by the missile. That wake followed a funeral that had been an attempt to rebury a father who had been killed in Russian-occupied territory last year. Now candles mark the spot where the lives of those mourners were lost. Residents have said that the cafe, Hrozivske, had been closed for much of the time since Russia’s invasion began in February last year, and that the wake had marked one of the first major events of its reopening. The strike that followed is one of the deadliest of the war. Alina, 23 – who only wanted to be known by her first name – moved to the village after marrying a local three years ago. Alina says herself and her husband were due to be at the memorial, but their car engine faltered and they couldn’t make it in time. “We were meant to be there. We were meant to be dead,” she says. Now all she feels is anger at the missile strike. “They were just normal people living a normal life,” she says of those who died. “Most of them were farmers, working with wheat and barley.” The village, in the Kharkiv region, was founded in 1922, and its name translates as “thunderstorm”. It was first occupied by Russian forces in February 2022 and was liberated by Ukrainian forces that September. Alina says that when the village was occupied by Moscow’s forces, mostly older people stayed behind as the younger residents fled. When the village was due to celebrate its centennial anniversary last year, she says that residents spent the time hiding in their cellars. “We felt enormous joy when Russian forces left,” she continues. “It was great to be Ukraine again. [Now] I have no words for what’s happened.” Hroza had 501 inhabitants before the invasion according to local journalist Iryna Antoniuk, who is a correspondent with the My-Ukraina [We Are Ukraine] TV Channel. She says that half of the 300 or so who remained in the village had been in attendance at the wake. In a morning visit to the village, less than 24 hours after the attack Ms Antoniuk says “you can still smell the blood” among the wreckage. “It’s a tiny little village,” says Ms Antoniuk. “This building that was hit, was in the very centre, so it’s so noticeable. Immediately, when you enter the village, you notice it. People have started bringing flowers now to pay tribute.” Workers at the local cemetery cut down trees and mowed grass to prepare graves for those killed. They are to be buried not far from the soldier Kozyr, whose wake they were attending. Residents also gathered to mourn in groups in the village centre, which was largely deserted except for people picking up humanitarian aid, including materials to repair their damaged houses. Dr Robert Dale, Senior Lecturer of Russian History at Newcastle University says: “Hroza... has seen much bombardment during the Russian offensive. “This is a location that as a borderland area has long been a site of conflict, and at the sharp end of wars. The Kharkiv region suffered very badly in the ‘Russian’ Civil War, the Holodomor, and the area changed hands repeatedly in the Second World War... Perhaps one reason for why Hroza seems to have so little recorded history is that these rural regions have been ravaged throughout the twentieth century.” He added: “The Kharkiv region’s proximity to the Russian border means that it has born much of the brunt of... this conflict.” The Hroza victims made up most of the 54 civilians killed in the country over the previous 24 hours, Ukraine's presidential office said Friday. The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, said he was "shocked and saddened" by the attack. In a sign of the continuing assault Ukrainians face in the Kharkiv region. On Friday morning, Ukrainian officials said another two Russian missiles had killed a 10-year-old boy and his grandmother in the city of Kharkiv itself. Emergency crews pulled the boy's body from the rubble of a building. He was wearing pyjamas with a Spider Man design. The strike also killed the boy's grandmother and wounded an 11-month-old child, the interior minister Klymenko said. The regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said that in all, 30 people were wounded. Rescue operations were continuing. Officials said preliminary information indicated that the Kremlin's forces used two Iskander missiles in the attack, the same as in the strike on Hroza. The attack may have only lasted seconds, but Alina says she will feel the hurt for a long time. “I knew every single person that has died. They were our buddies, our friends, our family and neighbours,” she says. Read More Nobel Peace Prize awarded to jailed Iranian women’s rights ‘freedom fighter’ Narges Mohammadi Ukraine-Russia war – live: Latest missile strike by Putin’s forces kills boy and his grandmother in Kharkiv Berlin exists on the border of freedom and chaos – it’s why I keep coming back

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Russian prosecutors on Wednesday demanded an eight-year prison sentence for artist Alexandra Skochilenko, who last year swapped supermarket price tags for statements criticising Moscow's military...

By Andrew Chung (Reuters) -When liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman to join the U.S. Supreme

The man at the center of a right-wing conspiracy theory surrounding January 6 and the attack on the US Capitol has filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News and Tucker Carlson for amplifying a “fantastical” story alleging he is an undercover federal agent who incited a riot. A lawsuit from Ray Epps follows a cease-and-desist letter sent to the network earlier this year, demanding that Carlson retract his “false and defamatory” statements about him and deliver a “formal on-air apology” for the “lies” he promoted. “Fox’s role in creating and disseminating destructive conspiracy theories has already been well documented,” according to the lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court on 12 July. Mr Epps and his wife Robyn – who both voted for Donald Trump and were “loyal” viewers of Fox and its now-former most-watched personality – were subject to campaign of “falsehoods” that “have destroyed Ray’s and Robyn’s lives,” according to the complaint, which seeks unspecified damages. The lawsuit follows a historic $787m settlement between Fox and Dominion Voting Systems, which accused the network of spreading false statements about its business in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. Fox also has settled a lawsuit from a former producer for Carlson for $12m after she accused the company of “fostering a toxic workplace” where “truth remains a fugitive”. Though he joined the crowd on January 6, Mr Epps did not enter the Capitol, and he has not been charged with a crime – fuelling accusations from Carlson and others that federal prosecutors are protecting him. On his now-former program, Carlson said there is “no rational explanation” why this “mysterious figure” who “helped stage-manage the insurrection” had not yet been charged. “Fox repeatedly published defamatory falsehoods about Epps, including by broadcasting and rebroadcasting defamatory statements by Tucker Carlson who devoted over two dozen segments to Epps and by republishing those falsehoods” across Fox platforms, according to the lawsuit. Those claims have also been echoed by Republican members of Congress making Mr Epps the subject of legislative hearings – including on the day of the lawsuit’s filing, as House Republicans grilled FBI director Christopher Wray about alleged federal agents at the scene of the attack. “I will say this notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous and is a disservice to our brave, hardworking dedicated men and women,” Mr Wray said in his sworn testimony to the House Judiciary Committee. More than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the riots, including more than a dozen people who have been found guilty on treason-related charges for conspiring their attack and 350 people who were convicted of assaulting or resisting law enforcement. Mr Epps also was interviewed by the House select committee investigating the events surrounding and leading up to the Capitol attack. Following Carlson’s on-air statements and a wave of allegations surrounding Mr Epps across social media, the couple received threatening messages, including death threats and a plastic bag with a bullet casing inside and voicemails threatening to burn their house down, according to the complaint, which includes several examples of harassing emails, letters and text messages. The couple was reportedly forced to move out of their home and into an RV. “Epps was not a federal agent. He was a loyal Fox viewer and Trump supporter,” the lawsuit states. Had the US Department of Justice charged him with a crime, Carlson “would have hailed Epps a hero,” according to the filing. ”After destroying Epps’s reputation and livelihood, Fox will move on to its next story, while Ray and Robyn live in a 350-square foot RV and face harassment and fear true harm,” the lawsuit alleges. “Fox must be held accountable.” The Independent has requested comment from Fox. Carlson, in his first interview since his exit from the network in the wake of the Dominion settlement, said he doesn’t know why he was fired. The network announced that Carlson “agreed to part ways” days after Fox agreed to the settlement with the voting machine company over bogus claims that Carlson privately disputed but amplified on air. Fox Corporation also reached a $12m settlement a lawsuit from Abby Grossberg, a former producer for Tucker Carlson Tonight, who alleged a culture of misogyny at the network in a federal complaint that depicted an environment where women are routinely verbally violated “by a poisonous and entrenched patriarchy.” This is a developing story Read More Everything we know about Ray Epps, the man conservatives blame for the Capitol riot Tucker Carlson’s Twitter show is haemorrhaging viewers with 85% drop from first episode, reports say Tucker Carlson doesn’t know why he was fired from Fox FBI director shoots down ‘ludicrous’ January 6 conspiracy theory