When curlers need snookers: Team GB fight on at Winter Olympics after day of drama
These are strained days at the curling arena, where the chances of the two British teams are teetering like a bus full of bullion that’s backed over the lip of a cliff,Both the men and women ended up in a position where they need to win every game they play and hope other results go their way to have any chance of making the semi-finals,Curling is one of the very few sports left being contested at the Winter Olympics in which the British fancy their chances, and Team GB’s hopes of getting anywhere near their medal target will turn on the curl of the stones in the next few days,Hang on a minute lads, anyone got a bright idea? “Play better,” the British skip Bruce Mouat told his team,The Brits had three matches between them on Wednesday.
It started just before nine in the morning with the first instalment of a double bill against USA – the women, then the men playing them – and was finished just before nine in the evening, with the conclusion of the women’s match against Japan,Team GB needed to win all three of them, and they did, in 12 hours of excruciating slow‑mo sport, as tense as the seat of a skip’s pants as they slide down the ice to deliver the hammer,There were some extraordinary moments in among it, the best of them Becky Morrison’s 15th, and very final stone, of the 10th end against USA,Morrison’s team were trailing 7-6, USA had the hammer and a stone sitting flush on the button,There was only one possible shot Morrison could play to save the day, an improbable hit-and-roll which ricocheted off a stone sitting way out to the left, shot across the ice and knocked the USA stone off and stopped dead.
It was a two-point swing, and the stunned USA team were still talking about it hours later.Minnesota Fats couldn’t have worked the angles any better.“It’s up there with the best stones I’ve ever thrown, for sure, especially considering the situation,” Morrison said.“One of the best stones I’ve ever seen,” her teammate Sophie Sinclair said.Their third, Jen Dodds, said: “What a way to finish the game.
I’ve got a bit of adrenaline going, because it was so amazing to watch.That is a very high tariff shot.You’re aiming at a third of the stone, and it’s way out there on a line you don’t really play often, in the 10th end of an Olympic Games, to keep your chances alive.”And the fun was only just beginning.The British men beat USA 9-2 after just six ends.
The problem was they don’t just need to win; they need the Norwegian and Italian teams to lose, too.Whenever Mouat and his teammates weren’t focused entirely on their own game, they had both eyes on what was happening on rinks either side.It was like the final day of the Premier League, only they were playing all the games in the same stadium.When Britain were two up against USA, Norway were trailing the Swiss by the same margin, but Italy were leading Canada by three.Then when the British were leading by six, Canada had come back to one‑down in their match against Italy, but all of a sudden the Norwegians had equalised with Switzerland.
Somehow at the end of it all, everything fell the right way.Canada came back to beat Italy 8-3, and the Swiss pulled ahead again to beat Norway 10-4.Now, the British have to spend Thursday morning watching while Norway play Canada, and Italy play Switzerland.As long as one of Norway or Italy lose, GB will go through.And if you followed that here’s a Rubik’s Cube for you to do.
“I’ll be literally refreshing my phone every 20 seconds,” said Hammy McMillan, who will be following it from the athletes’ village.The British women will be back at the rink.They beat Japan 9-3 in the evening, and now need to defeat Italy on Friday afternoon.Mouat, crawling ever so slowly towards the back of that wobbling bus, says only: “I’m actually oddly calm.I feel like things are going to go our way.
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Ketamine addiction making teenagers wet the bed, says UK’s first specialist clinic
Children are using incontinence pads and urinating in buckets next to their bed at night due to bladder problems caused by ketamine addiction, according to the first specialist NHS clinic dealing with the issue.Medics at Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool have opened the first ketamine clinic for young people in the UK in response to a surge in urology problems linked to addiction of the drug.“Some of our patients start wetting the bed or find going to the bathroom at night is actually too hard, so they’ll either choose incontinence products or a bucket by the bed,” said Harriet Corbett, a consultant paediatric urologist at the clinic.“I hate to say it, but a lot of them get to the point where they’re not fussed about where they go, because the need to go overrides their desire to find somewhere private. And I suspect more of them are incontinent than are willing to tell us
Death tax? Property tax? Four ideas that could offset inheritance inequality in Australia
The $5.4tn intergenerational wealth transfer predicted to occur within the next two decades is a major challenge for Australian governments. Economists have warned it could entrench and exacerbate inequality, and make the economy less productive. So what can be done about it?“In the end, that comes down to tax,” says the former deputy reserve bank governor Guy Debelle. “Taxation is how you redistribute
The disturbing rise of Clavicular: how a looksmaxxer turned his ‘horror story’ into fame
His gonzo argot of ‘mogging’ and ‘jestermaxxing’ masks a malign chauvinist philosophy, and his audience keeps growingHow’s your “jestermaxxing” game? Have you been “brutally frame-mogged” lately? If you’ve been finding this kind of online discourse even more impenetrable than usual, a 20-year-old content creator calling himself Clavicular is probably to blame.Born Braden Peters, Clavicular is a manosphere-adjacent influencer who has recently broken containment for a string of high-profile controversies, including livestreaming himself apparently running over a pedestrian with his Tesla Cybertruck and being filmed chanting the lyrics to Kanye West’s Heil Hitler in a nightclub with the self-styled “misogynist influencer” Andrew Tate and the white nationalist commentator Nick Fuentes.Before taking up with what some feel are among the worst men alive, Clavicular was known only as a “looksmaxxer”, a young man intent on optimising his physical attractiveness by frequently extreme measures (such as steroids, surgery and, er, taking a hammer to his jaw).Yet Clavicular’s gonzo live streams and absurd lingo have seen him escape his subcultural silo, landing him a modelling gig at New York fashion week and a profile in the New York Times.So where has he come from? And what does his rise mean for humanity?Peters came to prominence last year on the streaming platform Kick (like Twitch, but more laissez-faire with content moderation), where he now has nearly 180,000 followers
Ministers may slow youth minimum wage rise amid UK unemployment fears
Ministers are considering a slower rise in the minimum wage for younger workers, amid fears over rising youth unemployment.Labour had promised in its manifesto to equalise national minimum wage rates by the time of the next election, saying it was unfair younger workers were paid less. Government sources said equalisation remained the aim but the rise could come more slowly.At the current rates, those between 18 and 20 are paid a minimum of £10 an hour, rising to £12.21 an hour for those over 21
UK shoppers warned over spread of harmful and illegal skin lightening kits
Illegal skin lightening products are being sold in an increasingly wide range of UK outlets, including butchers, specialist food shops and small grocery stores, trading standards officers have warned.The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) is warning that many of the products contain substances that are banned because of the serious risks they pose to health, including skin damage, infections and pregnancy complications.Officers say that, as well as online, they are finding them more frequently in Asian and Arab stores, plus specialist butchers and grocery stores for other diverse communities, whom the products are primarily targeted at.Tendy Lindsay, former chair of the CTSI, said: “As a Black woman and a longstanding advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion, I want to be absolutely clear: the sale of illegal skin lightening products is not only dangerous, it is unlawful.“Many of these products contain banned substances such as high levels of hydroquinone, mercury or potent corticosteroids
Brazilian butt lifts should be banned in UK amid ‘wild west’ industry, MPs say
Brazilian butt lifts should be banned in the UK, MPs have said, as a report found a lack of regulation had led to a “wild west” of cosmetic procedures being carried out in garden sheds, hotel rooms and public toilets.The women and equalities committee (WEC) said high risk procedures such as non-surgical buttock augmentation should be outlawed immediately, and a licensing system for lower risk treatments was urgently needed. People with no training can carry out potentially harmful procedures, putting the public at risk, the group of MPs added.A nine-month inquiry by the committee also found ministers were not moving quickly enough to tackle the risks posed to Britons and recommended they “accelerate regulatory action”. The lack of timely action was “fostering complacency in self-regulation” within the industry, they cautioned
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