Idris Elba joins Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for launch of new anti-knife crime coalition

Published

1 month ago

September 9, 2024

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Idris Elba will join the prime minister to launch a new anti-knife crime coalition in Downing Street on Monday.

The actor and musician, 52, will attend what is set to be the first annual knife crime summit with Sir Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on Monday morning.

As an anti-knife crime campaigner, he will help bring together community groups and victims’ families who have first-hand experience that can be used to change policy.

With the help of the coalition, which will include his Elba Hope Foundation, the government hopes to halve knife crime over the next 10 years.

It is currently in the process of banning ninja swords and strengthening the law on online knife sales.

As well as community leaders and grassroots organisations, the coalition will include tech companies, sports groups, and representatives from the NHS, education sector, and the police, the government said.

Ahead of the summit, Elba described the coalition as a “positive step toward rehabilitating our communities from the inside out”.

Earlier this year, he met the King to discuss more ways to reduce youth violence – particularly through the King’s Trust.

When the Luther star was a teenager, he received a £1,500 grant from what was then the Prince’s Trust to attend the National Youth Music Theatre.

In January, he launched his own initiative, Don’t Stop Your Future, when he called for an immediate ban on zombie knives to speed up the previous government’s plans for one later this year.

Review into online knife sales

As the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Keir says he “saw first-hand the devastating impact knife crime has on young people and their families”.

Describing it as a “national crisis that we will tackle head-on” he reiterated Labour’s promise to halve offences over the next decade.

A rapid review into how knives are sold and delivered to under-18s online is being led by Commander Stephen Clayman, the national policing lead for knife crime.

As part of the new coalition, he will report back to the home secretary by the end of the year.

He warned that “knives are far too easily accessible” and that he hopes to work with “government, retailer and the third sector to find ways we can bring meaningful, long-term change”.

Home Secretary Ms Cooper described the coalition as “crucial” and promised: “We will not sit back while precious lives are being lost and young people’s futures destroyed.”

The launch of the coalition and summit is part of the government’s 10-year plan on knife crime and builds on the Home Office’s Young Futures programme, which is working to offer young people a path away from violence.

Entertainment

Jenna Fischer: US Office star reveals ‘aggressive’ cancer diagnosis

Published

10 hours ago

October 9, 2024

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Jenna Fischer: US Office star reveals 'aggressive' cancer diagnosis

Jenna Fischer, who played Pam Beesly in the US Office, has revealed she was diagnosed with an “aggressive” breast cancer in December last year.

The 50-year-old shared a photo of herself in her “patchy pixie” haircut to mark breast cancer awareness month.

“After completing surgery, chemotherapy and radiation I am now cancer free,” she wrote on Instagram.

Fischer said problems were flagged during a routine mammogram, where inconclusive results due to dense tissue led her doctor to order an ultrasound.

“They found something in my left breast,” she said. “A biopsy was ordered. Then, on December 1, 2023, I learned I had Stage 1 Triple Positive Breast Cancer.”

The actress noted the cancer is “aggressive… but highly responsive to treatment,” and said she underwent a lumpectomy.

“Luckily my cancer was caught early and it hadn’t spread,” Fischer said, before adding she had 12 rounds of weekly chemotherapy from February and had three weeks of radiation treatment in June.

“While I continue to be treated with infusions of Herceptin and a daily dose of Tamoxifen, I’m happy to say I’m feeling great.”

She urged her followers to get their annual mammograms, adding: “My tumour was so small it could not be felt on a physical exam.

“If I had waited six months longer, things could have been much worse. It could have spread… Consider this your kick in the butt to get it done.”

Read more from Sky News:
What we know about Hurricane Milton
Al Pacino reveals he nearly died

Angela Kinsey, who played Angela Martin in The Office and co-hosts the Office Ladies podcast with Fischer, commented on the post: “I love you and I’m so glad you’re sharing. I got your back, always.

Ellie Kemper, who also starred in The Office as Erin Hannon, commented: “We love you, Jenna. Thank you for sharing and for inspiring.”

And Olivia Munn, known for her roles in New Girl, The Newsroom and X-Men: Apocalypse, who revealed her own breast cancer diagnosis earlier this year, said: “You already know how much I love you and how incredibly proud of you I am.

“But I just want to say it again; I love you and by sharing your story you’re helping so many women and saving so many lives. You’re just the best.”

Entertainment

Miranda Hart announces marriage after ‘tough few years’

Published

16 hours ago

October 9, 2024

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Miranda Hart announces marriage after 'tough few years'

Miranda Hart has shared she’s become a “young bride at 51” after marrying her “best friend”.

The actress and comedian announced the news on The One Show while promoting her new book, I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You.

Hart also said she had had “a tough few years” after being diagnosed with Lyme disease, telling Alex Jones and Alex Scott “I’ve mainly been in bed,” but added it “hasn’t been all doom and gloom… someone put a ring on it”.

“I got married at 51, and it’s just so lovely,” she told the BBC programme.

Hart, who starred in her self-titled sitcom from 2009 to 2015, added she met her husband during the COVID-19 pandemic and while battling “chronic illness when I couldn’t get out of bed or get out of the house”.

“I’d written Gary for on-screen Miranda and it wasn’t until I was 49 that I met my person, and I met him and it’s a little undercurrent in the book.”

She joked that Tom Ellis, who played Gary, was not her husband.

“I’m not going to reveal how we met as that is a little bit of a twist,” she said. “He’s my best friend, we have the best fun and I’m just thrilled to be a young bride at 51.”

After appearing on The One Show, Hart posted on social media to thank supporters for their well-wishes, which she found “really very touching”.

The actress said: “I’ve got my best friend to do life with and it’s wonderful and I’m also utterly thrilled to be back in telly land and having a book out so thanks so much for all your support.”

In the video, she then high-fives her husband – who is just out of frame – and jokes that fans got an “exclusive – his hand”.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection spread to humans by infected ticks. Symptoms usually present as a circular or oval rash and flu-like symptoms, according to the NHS.

Some people who are diagnosed with Lyme disease continue to have symptoms including tiredness, aches and loss of energy for years.

Hart’s new book, published by Penguin Books, will be released on 10 October.

Entertainment

London Film Festival: Steve McQueen’s Blitz offers view of war ‘through child’s eyes’

Published

19 hours ago

October 9, 2024

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London Film Festival: Steve McQueen's Blitz offers view of war 'through child's eyes'

Oscar-winning filmmaker Sir Steve McQueen hopes his new film will get “people off their iPhones” and “refocus our gaze” on what war is like for the children who live through it.

His new movie Blitz, set in wartime London and starring Irish actress Saoirse Ronan, will open this year’s London Film Festival later today.

In the film, Ronan plays a mum who, after having her son George evacuated to the countryside for his safety, ends up frantically searching the streets for him after learning he’s defiantly come home.

Eliott Heffernan plays the nine-year-old with much of the story told from his perspective.

Speaking to Sky News, McQueen set out what he hopes his latest movie will bring to audiences worldwide as he said: “Seeing war through a child’s eyes, at what point do we as adults look away?”

While it’s an idea the 12 Years A Slave director has been working on for over a decade, he admitted it certainly feels “even more urgent” to be showing Blitz now as the wars in Gaza, Ukraine and beyond rage on.

McQueen says his young protagonist was inspired by a picture he discovered while researching the Blitz.

“I saw this photograph, a boy with an oversized coat and a very large suitcase standing in a railway station waiting to be evacuated, this black child, and I thought ‘that’s my in’.”

The film offers a much more diverse depiction of wartime London than audiences will perhaps have seen before, with characters like Ife – a Nigerian air raid warden – based on real individuals meticulously researched by McQueen’s team.

He says: “I’m not interested in pointing anything out, I’m just interested in telling the truth… central London was quite cosmopolitan.

“It was kind of an everyday occurrence. Ife, our character, did exist, he patrolled the Marylebone area… So it’s not a case, as my son says, of flexing, it’s a case of just telling the truth.”

From the sound of bombs getting closer, to the scramble to find shelters, the film sets out to give a true sense of the terror and chaos of war for those on the ground. It’s set in the past but, the director hopes, it’s just as relevant now.

“Hopefully, you know, it can help in one way, shape or form… and take people off their iPhones for five minutes or so,” he adds.

Blitz is the opening movie at this year’s BFI London Film Festival. It will be released in cinemas on 1 November and globally on Apple TV+ on 22 November.