Tom Daley says ‘it’s scary how LGBT rights are being dangerously threatened’

Published

1 day ago

May 30, 2025

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Even as someone who has grown up in the public eye, Tom Daley has vulnerabilities and concerns to finally reveal.

The five-time Olympic medallist has an even greater perspective as the British diver who first competed at the Games aged 14 in 2008, who is now retired and a father of two.

Having grown up in the public eye when social media was still in its infancy, Daley is deeply troubled by the toxicity online, especially for someone with an opinion.

And the 31-year-old has spoken out from a young age – from LGBTQ+ rights to bullying and mental health – but he is ready to go further now.

“There’s lots of things I think we’ll look back on this last five, 10 years of human history as being quite shocking in a way,” Daley said in an interview with Sky News.

“When social media came to prevalence – and cancel culture and people not being allowed to make any mistakes or be able to share too many opinions – it can be very scary and intimidating for certain groups of people.

“I think it definitely pits lots of people against each other and I think we always have to remember that we’re all in this together at the end of the day.

“And there’s so many more important things – being able to come together as one human race and I know that sounds very like hippie-dippie.

“But it really is as simple as that, about just being kind to each other.

“Where has that kindness and compassion gone because everybody feels like they have something to say about very small groups of people.”

A front row seat to LA 2028

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion revealed he was gay in 2013 and went on to marry Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black.

They now live as a family in Los Angeles – the city hosting the 2028 Olympics.

Having retired from diving after a final silver medal at Paris 2024, Daley will have a front row seat to the Games taking place in an America where Donald Trump has seemed to roll back LGBTQ+ protections early in his second presidential term.

“It is scary in some parts of the world how the rights of LGBT people are kind of being reversed or they’re being dangerously threatened,” Daley said when asked about Trump.

“It’s something again where minorities have to come together for the greater good because it is scary.

“And you may see someone else’s rights going away and I think it’s important that everybody, especially minorities, come together because it won’t just be one group that gets targeted.

“Once one group has been targeted, it will move on to the next, and the next, and the next.

“I think the most important thing is staying visible. I think lots of people ask, ‘What can you do to be an activist? What can you do to an advocate?’

“I think it’s being truly and authentically yourself. As long as you’re happy, your friends and family are happy, and you’re not hurting anyone else, then I think just being visible is a great form of activism.”

Trump election victory was a ‘shock’

“For lots of people living in the West Coast bubble, it was like a bit of a shock when Trump won the election in November,” Daley said.

“But I think it’s also given everybody a wake-up call. I just always believe in leading with kindness, care and compassion and trying to make life worth living for every single person.”

Daley knows what it is like to feel targeted for abuse.

In a new documentary featuring family video growing up, Tom Daley 1.6 Seconds, there is a sense of disbelief that he gave interviews as a child talking about being bullied in school after his Olympic debut at Beijing 2008.

“I never really saw it back then as something that was strange because it’s something that I had lived and grown up and just was part of how my life existed,” he said.

“But, looking back on it, I kind of was like, ‘Oh my gosh, imagine if it could have all been so different’.”

London 2012 poster boy

During the build-up to London 2012, Daley was the poster boy of the home Olympics.

But he was dealing with bulimia and body dysmorphia in private. It’s still difficult to talk about, knowing people would comment on how he seemed in great shape.

“But that’s not what an eating disorder is,” he said. “An eating disorder is not being able to think about your body, what you eat, what you put into your body rationally.

“And I think that’s something that people don’t necessarily understand with eating disorders, which is why going through that, I went through it alone.

“Because I was embarrassed to be thinking about those things. I didn’t think anybody would believe me.”

To this day, Daley feels people online are dismissive of his concerns. In interviews, he grates when it is pointed out that in retirement he is not fat.

“I’m constantly reminded of that,” he said. “So it’s definitely something that triggered the way that I think about my relationship with food.”

This is not to take away from how fondly Daley looks back on a career that saw him reach the pinnacle with Olympic gold in 2021 at the pandemic-delayed Olympics.

There is no sign of coming out of retirement again as he did in Paris last year.

“I feel incredibly proud of what I’ve been able to achieve in terms of my perseverance and resilience through lots of different things,” he said. “I do miss being on that diving board.

“It is like there is no other feeling than being on top of a diving board in a competition where you’re putting all of the work that you put in into that 1.6 seconds and I think I will forever miss that.”

UK

Kids ‘sleep with vapes under pillows’ – but will sales ban on disposables have any effect?

Published

12 hours ago

May 31, 2025

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Kids 'sleep with vapes under pillows' - but will sales ban on disposables have any effect?

As a ban on the sale of disposable vapes comes into force on Sunday, a doctor who set up the first-ever clinic to help children stop vaping has said she has seen patients so addicted they couldn’t sleep through the night without them.

Professor Rachel Isba established the clinic at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool in January and has now seen several patients as young as 11 years old who are nicotine dependent.

“Some of the young people vape before they get out of bed. They are sleeping with them under their pillow,” she told Sky News.

“I’m hearing stories of some children waking up at three o’clock in the morning, thinking they can’t sleep, thinking the vape will help them get back to sleep. Whereas, actually, that’s the complete opposite of how nicotine works.”

Ms Isba said most of her patients use disposable vapes, and while some young people may use the chance to give up, others will simply move to refillable devices after the ban.

“To me, vaping feels quite a lot like the beginning of smoking. I’m not surprised, but disappointed on behalf of the children that history has repeated itself.”

A government ban on single-use vapes comes into effect from Sunday, prohibiting the sale of disposable vaping products across the UK, both online and in-store, whether or not they contain nicotine.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said usage among young vapers remained too high, and the ban would “put an end to their alarming rise in school playgrounds and the avalanche of rubbish flooding the nation’s streets”.

Circular economy minister Mary Creagh said: “For too long, single-use vapes have blighted our streets as litter and hooked our children on nicotine. That ends today. The government calls time on these nasty devices.”

At nearby Shrewsbury House Youth Club in Everton, a group of 11 and 12-year-old girls said vape addiction is already rife among their friends.

Yasmin Dumbell said: “Every day we go out, and at least someone has a vape. I know people who started in year five. It’s constantly in their hand.”

Her friend Una Quayle said metal detectors were installed at her school to try to stop pupils bringing in vapes, and they are having special assemblies about the dangers of the devices.

But, she said, students “find ways to get around the scanners though – they hide them in their shorts and go to the bathroom and do it”.

The girls said the ban on disposables is unlikely to make a difference for their friends who are already addicted.

According to Una, they’ll “find a way to get nicotine into their system”.

As well as trying to address the rise in young people vaping, the government hopes banning single-use vapes will reduce some of the environmental impact the devices have.

Although all vapes can be recycled, only a tiny proportion are – with around eight million a week ending up in the bin or on the floor.

Pulled apart by hand

Even those that are recycled have to be pulled apart by hand, as there is currently no way to automate the process.

Scott Butler, executive director of Material Focus, a recycling non-profit group, said vapes were “some of the most environmentally wasteful, damaging, dangerous consumer products ever sold”.

His organisation worries that with new, legal models being designed to almost exactly mimic disposables in look and feel – and being sold for a similar price – people will just keep throwing them away.

He said the behaviour “is too ingrained. The general public have been told ‘vapes are disposable’. They’ve even been marketed this way. But they never were disposable”.

UK

Why stockpiling vapes could be dangerous – as ban on disposables nears

Published

12 hours ago

May 31, 2025

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Why stockpiling vapes could be dangerous - as ban on disposables nears

A ban on disposable vapes comes into force on Sunday, with a warning issued about the “life-threatening dangers” of stockpiling.

From Sunday it will be illegal for any business to sell or supply, or have in their possession for sale, all single-use or disposable vapes.

Online nicotine retailer Haypp said 82% of the 369 customers they surveyed plan to bulk purchase the vapes before they are no longer available.

But the vapes contain lithium batteries and could catch fire if not stored correctly.

While more than a third (34%) of people surveyed by Haypp said they would consider buying an illegal vape after the ban, the overall number of people using disposable products has fallen from 30% to to 24% of vapers, according to Action on Smoking and Health.

Shops selling vapes are required to offer a “take back” service, where they accept vapes and vape parts that customers return for recycling – including single use products.

The Local Government Association (LGA) led the call for a ban two years ago, due to environmental and wellbeing concerns, and is warning people not to stockpile.

Cllr David Fothergill, chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “Failing to store disposable vapes correctly could cost lives, given the significant fire risk they pose.”

How disposable vapes catch fire – or even explode

Figures obtained by the Electric Tobacconist, via Freedom of Information requests, found an increase in vape related fires – from 89 in 2020 to 399 in 2024.

Many disposable vapes use cheap, or even unregulated lithium-ion batteries, to keep the costs down. These batteries often lack proper safety features, like thermal cut offs, making them more prone to overheating and catching fire.

If the battery is damaged, or overheats in any way it can cause thermal runaway – a chain reaction where the battery’s temperature rapidly increases, causing it to overheat uncontrollably.

Then, once these fires start start, they are very hard to stop. Water alone can make things worse if the battery is still generating heat, so they require specialised fire suppressants to put them out.

Batteries can then re-ignite hours, or even days later, making them a persistent hazard.

Disposable vapes are a hazard for waste and litter collection and cause fires in bin lorries, even though customers have been warned not to throw them away in household waste. They are almost impossible to recycle because they are designed as one unit so the batteries cannot be separated from plastic.

Some 8.2 million units were thrown away, or recycled incorrectly, every week prior to the ban.

Circular economy minister Mary Creagh said: “For too long, single-use vapes have blighted our streets as litter and hooked our children on nicotine. That ends today.

“The government calls time on these nasty devices.”

‘One in five say they will return to cigarettes’

Separate research by life insurance experts at Confused.com found two in five people (37%) planned to stop vaping when the ban starts.

Nearly one in five (19%) said they would return to cigarettes once the ban comes into force.

The research was based on the answers of 500 UK adults who currently vape.

Vaping and smoking also appears to be on the rise, with Confused.com saying there was a 44% increase in the number of people declaring they smoke or vape on their life insurance policy since 2019.

UK

Russell Brand: Comedian and actor pleads not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges

Published

1 day ago

May 30, 2025

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Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges as he appeared in court in London.

The British comedian and actor, from Hambleden in Buckinghamshire, was charged by post last month with one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape as well as two counts of sexual assault.

The charges relate to alleged incidents involving four separate women between 1999 and 2005.

The 49-year-old, who has been living in the US, was flanked by two officers as he pleaded not guilty to all the charges at Southwark Crown Court today.

Brand stood completely still and looked straight ahead as he delivered his pleas.

The comedian, who has consistently denied having non-consensual sex since allegations were first aired two years ago, is due to stand trial in June 2026.