#women party normal dresses 2017

[f0point5]

I do like simple suits as well, maybe a pop of dark colour generally. But not at the MET. This one time of the year, I'd really love to see some insane creations in men's fashion as well.

But yeah I do agree on the rest. And I have no idea how much time is given to the designers, like when is the theme revealed. But I just often get the impression they're not even trying. And I often get the vibe that most men are kind scared to do something flashy and scandalous because that would reflect bad on them? But the met to me always felt like a glorified dress up party, so you could wear whatever you wanted and I still wouldn't think that oh so Hugh Jackman is gay because he wore that to the met ya know?

Yeah that’s totally valid. I just think most of the time when I see what is considered creative in men’s fashion I have trouble appreciating it as art rather than kind of assessing how much it would irk me if my boyfriend wore that outfit. It’s like the girl version of the male gaze for me idk 😂 but I do get that considering these men are the invitees and not just the plus ones that they should be making more of an effort to stay on theme considering how women get roasted for not trying.

I feel like sometimes with designers, especially the commercial ones, there’s an element of them wanting to advertise themselves and that becomes more important than staying on theme. Like Jennie Kim, she was just a walking Alaia advert, her dress was literally just what was on the runway at fashion week. And same with the guests, especially those who aren’t “A list”. They’re concerned with avoiding the worst dressed lists etc.. I think the ones who really go all out are the designer/celebrity combinations that appreciate fashion as art form, and they’re normally the celebrities who reflect that in general. Like Zendaya has always been really into fashion and her styling has always reflected that. Same with Gwendolyn Christie.

I low-key wish they would do away with themes for the gala and just have a regular black tie dinner because the outfits have been disappointing since like 2017. Then they could a special edition photo book to coincide with the exhibition and include guests of the gala but choose their outfits for them and work with designers who understand the theme and curate outfits. It seems pointless to just keep demanding people stick to a theme when they’re clearly more interested in self promotion.

And I think the thing with men ties into that. The men invited, or at least the ones I often see on the carpet, are very often relevant or up and coming stars, eg. Josh from Challengers (forget his last name), or Jonathan Bailey. They’re just making names for themselves, they can’t really afford to be introduced to a new audience wearing a something that looks like it was thrifted from Louis XIV when they have to appeal to an often female audience. And that’s not to say anyone would genuinely be questioning their sexuality, I think most of us are more evolved than that, but you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression on your audience or even the people you meet at the gala networking. I think they probably feel the need to project as much of an “Everyman” vibe as possible. Which I do get.

As I said, I think the theme idea is nice but it’s not inspiring the outfits in the way it once was.

[snowonthebeachmp3]

October 2016

Oct 1st - Taylor takes pictures with fans in Nashville. (x)

Oct 4th - Demi Lovato criticises Taylor in their Glamour magazine cover interview. (x)

To be honest, and this will probably get me in trouble, I don’t see anybody in any sort of squad that has a normal body. It’s kind of this false image of what people should look like. And what they should be like, and it’s not real…. It’s not realistic. And I think that having a song and a video about tearing Katy Perry down, that’s not women’s empowerment.

Demi defends themself on Twitter after the interview is published, saying they're 'not apologizing for saying what everyone wants to say.' (x)

Taylor's partnership with AT&T is announced, including her Super Saturday Night pre-Super Bowl performance which will take place on Feb 4th 2017 in Houston. (x)

Joe is in London attending the IWC Schaffhausen Dinner in Honour of the BFI. (x)

Oct 5th - Taylor FaceTimes with Cara and Dakota Johnson, who are both in LA, for Dakota's birthday. (x)

Oct 9th - Paul Sidoti (Taylor's guitarist) posts a photo of guitars in a rehearsal studio with the caption, 'Back in the saddle again.. #formula1' (x)

Oct 11th - Cara is seen leaving Cornelia Street. (x)

Taylor, Cara, Dakota and Suki Waterhouse meet at the Waverly Inn in the West Village at around 11pm. (x)

Oct 12th - Taylor attends a private Kings of Leon concert at Le Poisson Rouge in New York, along with Lorde, Lily Aldridge, Lily Donaldson, Cara, Suki, Martha, Dakota, Zoë Kravitz and Naomi Campbell. (x) They then go to the Bowery Hotel for the afterparty. (x)

The group is then papped leaving the Bowery Hotel and arriving at the Lovers of Today bar. Joe arrives at Lovers of Today with Lily D, Martha, and Martha's boyfriend Jason McDonald, while Taylor, Dakota, Cara and Zoë arrive moments later. (x) Given that Joe has a connection to the lead singer Caleb Followill (via his Billy Lynn costar Garrett), and arrived at the bar with others who were definitely at the concert and afterparty, it seems almost certain that he was at those events too. No media picks up on his presence at the time.

Oct 13th - Taylor goes out for dinner with Dakota and Cara in New York. (x) She then attends an Eliot Sumner concert at the Bowery Ballroom (not to be confused with the Bowery Hotel), along with Karlie, Suki, Lily D, Dakota, Cara, Zoë and Serena Williams. (x)

Taylor is wearing a temporary golden tattoo on her neck.

Oct 14th - Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk premieres at the New York Film Festival. (x) Joe walks the red carpet and does some promo. (x)

Eliotte, Kamilah and Melanie, three of Taylor's backup singers, are hanging out and probably rehearsing for the upcoming concert at F1. (x)

Oct 15th - Joe does some more promo with the rest of the Billy Lynn cast in New York. (x)

Taylor is in LA for a few days between the 13th and 16th recording Delicate (her golden neck tattoo is visible). (x)

Oct 16th - Lily D and Suki post videos of Olivia to their social media from Cornelia Street. (x) (x)

Oct 17th - Cara is seen leaving Cornelia Street. (x)

Oct 18th - Taylor is in rehearsals in Nashville for her upcoming F1 concert. Her golden neck tattoo is gone. (x) (x)

Oct 20th - Little Big Town releases Better Man as the lead single from their eighth studio album. (x) (The song was written by Taylor but this fact is not publicised upon the song's initial release.)

Oct 21st - Taylor posts an Instagram story from her bed. She has a cold and Meredith is making a racket and keeping her awake ahead of her concert in Texas the next day. (x)

Oct 22nd - Taylor files a counter-suit against radio DJ David Mueller, who is suing her because he lost his job after groping her at a 2013 meet and greet. By counter-suing him for assault and battery, she hopes to 'serve as an example to other women who may resist publicly reliving similar outrageous and humiliating acts.' (x)

Taylor performs her only concert of 2016 at the US F1 Grand Prix in Austin, Texas (saving the US Grand Prix from going bust in the process). She plays TIWYCF on piano, her first time performing the song live. (x) She has a cold and has to pause the show to blow her nose. (x) (While promoting Billy Lynn in Taiwan a few weeks later, Joe also has a cold.)

Oct 23rd - Taylor goes to Drake's 30th birthday party at Delilah restaurant in LA. Karlie, Zoë, Jari Haile, Kennedy Rayé, Halston Sage and the Haim sisters are there, as well as John Mayer and Katy Perry. (x) Taylor and Halston both have stick-on gold star tattoos on their chests. (x)

Oct 24th - Taylor commemorates the tenth anniversary of her first album with an Instagram post. (x)

Given that Taylor does not leave LA until the 28th but is not papped anywhere, it is possible that she uses her time there to work on I Did Something Bad at Conway Studios with Max and Shellback. (x) The Making Of clips for the song show that it was recorded sometime after Taylor's haircut on the 24th Sep. (Don't Blame Me was not recorded until some point after December 13th, as she wears the J necklace in the Making Of clips and we know that was a 27th birthday present. (x)) However, it isn't possible to precisely date these clips.

Oct 25th - Katy Perry attends Kanye's concert in LA and posts a video on her Instagram story dancing along to the Famous lyric about Taylor. (x)

Oct 27th - There are rumours that Taylor and Drake are dating, following her appearance at his birthday party, but these are shut down, presumably by Tree. (x) (x)

Oct 28th - Calvin drops the music video for My Way. Some think it contains several references to Taylor. (x)

Karlie wishes Drake a belated happy birthday by posting an Instagram picture of herself and Taylor at his party. (x)

In the evening Taylor's plane goes from LA to NYC, and then from NYC to London. However, she stays completely under the radar and is not spotted anywhere in London. (x) At the time some people theorise that this means she's seeing Tom again, but in hindsight she almost certainly went to see Joe.

Oct 31st - Taylor's plane returns to the US from London. (x)

Taylor has a small Halloween party at her Cornelia Street townhouse. Guests include Gigi, Martha, Lily D, Camila, Kennedy Rayé and Emmie Gundler. Taylor dresses up as Deadpool and wears Ryan Reynolds' actual costume from the movie. (x)

Camila talks about the party a year later on Jimmy Fallon and mentions that at one point 'two attractive guys' arrived, prompting Camila to run to the bathroom and change out of her grandma costume. (x) (x) Apparently one of the guys was dressed as Spiderman. (x) If so that was probably Joe, since that's his favourite superhero. (x) Also probably a couples' costume, since Deadpool and Spiderman have a bromance going on in the comics. However, I couldn't find any original interviews where Camila mentions a Spiderman being at the party (I know she mentioned the party in some radio interviews which have since disappeared from the internet so maybe it was one of them).

Anyways, it's very likely that the guys attending what was otherwise a girl's night/Kennedy Rayé's birthday were Joe and a friend, especially since the next day Taylor's private jet made a seemingly random round trip to London and back. Presumably this trip was to drop Joe (and possibly his friend) back in London, in time for Joe to fly from the UK to Taiwan and China for Billy Lynn promo. (x) (x)

Intro // February // March // April // May // June // July // August // September // October // November

[emma-what-son]

How Sir Philip's son cast a spell on Emma Watson: The super-woke Harry Potter star and the playboy son of the disgraced Topshop tycoon - it's hard to think of a more unlikely romance, writes ALISON BOSHOFF

One can almost see her eyebrows raised in quizzical disdain. Hermione Granger would surely disapprove.

Pictures emerged this week of Emma Watson, the serious-minded Harry Potter actress and eco-warrior, hopping out of Sir Philip Green’s family helicopter in Battersea, South London. Curious, some would think, given Emma’s long-standing war against fast fashion, that she would accept a lift from the fallen King of the High Street.

More curious still, however, is that Emma, 31, has apparently been enchanted by Brandon Green, Sir Philip’s 28-year-old son, whose longest relationship to date seems to have been with a Belarusian bikini model. Could there be a more unlikely romance?

Aside from both being awash with money —Brandon is an heir to a £2 billion fortune, while Emma is said to be worth about £59 million —they appear to have almost nothing in common. Yet according to a friend, a certain magic is in the air.

‘Brandon has been wooing Emma,’ says one source. Another says: ‘They are an item, although she hasn’t met the family yet.’

Emma, who once mused about being ‘self-partnered’, has certainly had more suitors than her single status would have you believe.

At 17, an early boyfriend was rugby player Tom Ducker, but her most serious romance seems to have been with another rugby player — and fellow Oxford student — Matt Janney, with whom she broke up in 2015.

Then there was another Oxford student, Will Adamowicz. The relationship lasted from 2011 to 2013.

She was then seen out and about with actor/producer Roberto Aguire, whom she first met in 2005 on the set of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire. She also seems to have a particularly weak spot for young tech millionaires, as she has dated at least three of them, most significantly U.S. entrepreneur William ‘Mack’ Knight, whom she split from in late 2017 following a two-year romance.

Then came a six-month love affair with handsome Glee actor Chord Overstreet. They broke up during the summer of 2018.

She was then spotted sharing cocktails with tech CEO Brendan Wallace, a New Yorker, now 38, who is co-founder of a venture capital fund. By summer 2019 she was rumoured to have moved on to another tech millionaire, Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus.

She most recently split from her boyfriend of two years, businessman Leo Robinton.

It’s a longer list of amours than you might expect for someone who claims to be ‘self-partnered’, but then Emma is a woman who solemnly examines her life.

‘The boyfriends or partners I’ve had have generally made me feel really cherished. They have built me up,’ she said.

Quite how Brandon — who featured in Tatler’s ‘most eligible’ list in 2014 and was once caught patting Kate Moss’s bottom — fits into Emma’s orbit of admirers, remains to be seen. Although, like Emma’s other admirers, he does have a job running a tech investments company.

So who is this handsome young man — and what does Emma see in him?

Born in 1992, he was raised in Monte Carlo with big sister Chloe. His mother, Tina, is resident in the tax haven and was the ultimate owner of the Arcadia group, which went into administration last year. He went to the principality of Monaco’s International School.

To say his was a gilded upbringing would be an understatement. A source in Monaco says: ‘All the time he was growing up, the Greens would never fly commercial, always in their private jet.

‘They have a private chauffeur and in the family penthouse at the Roccabella building in Monaco there are uniformed maids standing to attention in every room just in case someone needs something. That’s the lifestyle Brandon was born into and has always thought was completely normal.’

He and Chloe have the use of the 109ft yacht Lionchase — Sir Phil has the 295ft Lionheart —which is moored in Monaco in the winter and cruises around the Med all summer.

I’m informed that his mum will pick up ‘seven-figure’ boat bills for the pair of them at the end of the season without blanching.

Brandon’s 2005 Bar Mitzvah caused a stir. It was held at the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat, with entertainment provided by Beyonce, Destiny’s Child and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. There were 300 guests over three days, all hosted by Sir Phil, who was then the boss of Topshop, BHS and Dorothy Perkins, all part of the Arcadia group.

When he was younger, Brandon seemed to be happy to join Chloe in a celebrity-packed party lifestyle. Locals say he was ‘practically living in Monaco’s Sass Café and partying until dawn every morning with a bevy of models’ in his 20s.

Kate Moss — a friend of his father — spent much of her 2011 honeymoon break with Jamie Hince on board his yacht and they got on famously. In 2013 he was spotted playfully groping Moss’s bikini-clad bottom while on holiday in St Barth’s. At the time he was 21.

When she was 21, Emma Watson had been famous for a decade and had just finished making the Potter films.

While Brandon found life one long, joyful party, she was struggling introspectively with having money and acclaim. As she recently said: ‘I’ve often thought, I’m so wrong for this job because I’m too serious.’

She felt physically sick when she found out how much money she had earned from the Potter films, and considered not renewing her contract to complete them.

Following stellar A-levels, she took an English degree at Brown University in Rhode Island — over five years, due to disruption from filming.

Brandon Green doesn’t have a degree. There was some idea that he might buck the family trend and go to university, but Sir Phil told an interviewer at the time: ‘It’s up for discussion,’ and evidently it was decided that was not the right path.

Instead, he spent years learning the ropes of the fashion business with Sir Philip and working for Arcadia.

As the BHS scandal raged in 2016 — after Sir Philip sold the company to a bankrupt, with a hole in its pensions provisions — and the company went bust, Brandon was sent to host a table at the Met Gala Ball in New York in his father’s place.

For three years, he was also a regular at the Topshop show at London Fashion Week, sitting with model Jourdan Dunn and chatting to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.

He began to go to Cannes, again as part of Topshop’s presence at the film festival, and to attend the Amfar charity gala on the arm of girlfriend Maryna Linchuk, a Victoria’s Secret model who towered over him.

But when Chloe became more involved in the family business and started designing shoes, Brandon stepped back from the spotlight.

They are a close family, all the more so since the woes that beset the Arcadia Group and Sir Philip before it collapsed. In fact, this seems to have acted as a wake-up call for Brandon.

A source said: ‘Once Philip fell from grace so badly, all the A-list celebrities and many of the world’s elite dropped the Green family completely. It really shook them up.

‘There was a party in Monaco that a family friend threw for them in the middle of the BHS pensions scandal. Brandon looked around aghast and said to Tina, “We don’t know anyone here!”

‘They felt the world hated them. Philip would fill his days doing laps of Monaco on foot with his bodyguard and personal trainer. Tina would busy herself in her art gallery or with her interior design business. There were a lot of tears; it was an awful atmosphere for the staff and for the family.

‘Brandon could see how transient popularity is and how big A-list stars had been using them for free holidays on their yachts for years. The whole experience sparked a “woke-over” in Brandon.

‘He got very interested in biodiversity and saving the oceans. He does a lot of charity and advocacy work with both Monaco’s Prince Albert’s Foundation and Princess Charlene’s Foundation. He is a trained deep-sea diver, he is very into fitness and gets involved with galas and charities that help the planet. He does frequent beach clean-ups and whatever he can to help.

‘It’s all very low-key, as he doesn’t want to be seen to be doing charity work for PR. But he’s been getting Tina to donate a hefty amount of money to charities that help save the planet too, saying they should do some good with their huge fortune.’

A second source says it is now Brandon, rather than Chloe, who is the apple of Tina’s eye, and he who is seen as the one who will eventually turn the family’s public reputation around.

A friend says: ‘He is very disciplined, intelligent and keen on study. He reads a lot, he travels a lot. He’s polite and well-mannered. Whatever he does, he embraces it fully. His parents are proud of him.’

His hobbies include skiing, at which he excels. He trains almost daily and took part in a gruelling cycling and swimming charity event last year for Princess Charlene of Monaco’s charity, going from Corsica to Monaco.

The friend adds: ‘He eats right and doesn’t drink or party — he is a very nice young man.’

How Brandon came to meet Emma, whose woke credentials may prove challenging for his family, is somewhat unclear, although it is believed his newfound interest in charitable ventures may have steered him her way.

Last year Miss Watson joined the sustainability committee at Kering, the owner of top fashion brands such as Gucci. She was labelled ‘Hollywood’s queen of ethical dressing’ by Vogue.

She has been taking a break from acting after appearing in the 2019 film Little Women but remains an active advocate for ‘race and gender justice’ via various charities. In 2014 she became a UN Women Goodwill ambassador, and she also ran a feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf, on Twitter.

She loves writing poetry, jigsaws, cats and nights in.

Her first purchase with the Potter millions was a ‘brick-like’ Toyota Prius. She said: ‘It’s sensible and boring, like me.’

Not that Emma is as staid as she says. In conversation with Gloria Steinem at an event in London in 2016, she revealed that she subscribes to a sex education website called OMGyes.

It’s a far remove from the days when she was cast in the Harry Potter films at nine years old, having been found via the theatre club she attended. She only completed filming the last Potter when she was 20, in June 2010.

Sources who knew her in the Potter days say her father Chris’s influence was paramount, even though she lived with her mother in Oxford.

The experience of growing up on Potter was so constricting and stressful, when the cast and crew held a ‘wrap party’ at Harry’s Bar after the final set of reshoots in 2010, she didn’t attend.

She said in 2017: ‘It’s something I’ve really wrestled with. I’ve gone back and quizzed my parents. When I was younger, I just did it. I just acted, it was just there.

‘I was finding this fame thing was getting to a point of no return. I sensed that if this was something I was ever going to step away from, it was now or never.’

Post-Potter, her films have been generally low-key. It is said she turned down the La La Land role that brought Emma Stone an Oscar.

Her £3 million London home was selected after she viewed it over Skype, because she can come and go unobserved.

That’s not to say her life is in any way normal: her social circle includes fashion figures such as Antoine Arnault of the LVMH dynasty, she has been the face of Lancome perfume and launched a collection with the ethical fashion label People Tree.

The question now is, will Emma finally find lasting love with a most unlikely Green?

[newstfionline]

Monday, January 11, 2021

The workers hit hardest during Covid-19’s first wave are getting pummeled again (Yahoo Finance) Since the beginning of the pandemic, one group of workers has been hurt far more than others: those working in the service industries, specifically in leisure and hospitality jobs. And in December after some progress, that industry lost jobs once again. “The most recent surge in coronavirus cases is once again battering the US labor market,” Indeed’s economic research director Nick Bunker wrote in a note. “The economic fallout from this wave of cases is hitting the industries and workers pummeled hardest by the initial damage before they fully bounced back from that first hit.” The latest hit isn’t as bad as the spring, as vaccines are rolling out and certain measures are in place, but restaurants, bars, and other jobs that depend on people interacting still cannot do business in a pandemic environment.

Squelched by Twitter, Trump seeks new online megaphone (AP) One Twitter wag joked about lights flickering on and off at the White House being Donald Trump signaling to his followers in Morse code after Twitter and Facebook squelched the president for inciting rebellion. Though deprived of his big online megaphones, Trump does have alternative options of much smaller reach. The far right-friendly Parler may be the leading candidate, though Google and Apple have both removed it from their app stores and Amazon decided to boot it off its web hosting service. Trump may launch his own platform. But that won’t happen overnight, and free speech experts anticipate growing pressure on all social media platforms to curb incendiary speech as Americans take stock of Wednesday’s violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol. Facebook and Instagram have suspended Trump at least until Inauguration Day. Twitch and Snapchat also have disabled Trump’s accounts, while Shopify took down online stores affiliated with the president and Reddit removed a Trump subgroup. Twitter also banned Trump loyalists including former national security advisor Michael Flynn in a sweeping purge of accounts promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory and the Capitol insurrection. Some had hundreds of thousands of followers.

Navy’s Priciest Carrier Ever Struggles to Get Jets On, Off Deck (Bloomberg) Aircraft takeoff and landing systems on the USS Gerald R. Ford remain unreliable and break down too often more than three years after the $13.2 billion carrier was delivered, according to the Pentagon’s top tester. The latest assessment of the costliest warship ever built “remains consistent” with previous years, director of testing Robert Behler said in his new summary of the program obtained by Bloomberg News before its release in an annual report. The Ford’s new systems—which propel planes off the deck and into the sky and then snag them on landing—are crucial to justifying the expense of what’s now a four-vessel, $57 billion program intended to replace the current Nimitz class of aircraft carriers. The continuing reliability woes with the carrier systems built by General Atomics of San Diego are separate from another continuing challenge: the installation and certification of elevators needed to lift munitions from below deck. As of November, six of 11 “advanced weapons elevators” that should have been installed when the ship was delivered in May 2017 are now operational.

In Central America, tensions rise as soldiers aim to stop migrants (Reuters) Guatemalan and Honduran soldiers will be deployed to prevent new U.S.-bound migrant caravans from advancing, military officials said, amid growing desperation among those seeking to cross and signs that some groups will depart later this month. Two devastating hurricanes late last year along with severe economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic have pushed millions of people in the already-poor region closer to hunger, leading to a steady rise in U.S.-bound migration through Mexico. In online forums, many Honduras have indicated they plan to leave next weekend in a new caravan, which has caught the attention of U.S. officials who have called on the region’s governments to stop them. Many migrants in recent years have chosen to travel by caravan because being part of a large group offers protection from criminals who might prey on them, even though traveling alone is often faster.

Johnson under fire as UK again faces onslaught of COVID-19 (AP) The crisis facing Britain this winter is depressingly familiar: Stay-at-home orders and empty streets. Hospitals overflowing. A daily toll of many hundreds of coronavirus deaths. The U.K. is the epicenter of Europe’s COVID-19 outbreak once more, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government is facing questions, and anger, as people demand to know how the country has ended up here—again. Many countries are enduring new waves of the virus, but Britain’s is among the worst, and it comes after a horrendous 2020. More than 3 million people in the U.K. have tested positive for the coronavirus and 81,000 have died—30,000 in just the last 30 days. The economy has shrunk by 8%, more than 800,000 jobs have been lost and hundreds of thousands more furloughed workers are in limbo. Even with the new lockdown, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Friday that the situation in the capital was “critical,” with one in every 30 people infected. “The stark reality is that we will run out of beds for patients in the next couple of weeks unless the spread of the virus slows down drastically,” he said.

In the Cold and Rain, India’s Farmers Press Their Stand Against Modi (NYT) Under a rain-slick tarpaulin, half a dozen elderly women bake roti on a wood-fired griddle—flattening dough, flipping browned bread from dawn until the sun retreats into Delhi’s evening smoke. Anyone who walks in gets served rice and cooked vegetables and, to wash it down, a cumin-flavored yogurt drink. Across the road, Jagjeet Singh, a burly man with a large fanny pack and a light purple turban, churns a hefty pot of milk coffee from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. The scenes stretching for miles around the Indian capital don’t come from a fair. They make up one of the largest sustained protests the country has seen in decades, persisting through steady rains and dozens of deaths that farmers and the Indian media have attributed to the weather, illness or suicide. For six weeks now, tens of thousands of farmers have choked the city’s four main entry points. They are challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has crushed all other opposition and stands as the country’s dominant political force, over his effort to reshape how farming in India has been done for decades. “They sold everything else. Only the farmers are left,” said 18-year old Ajay Veer Singh, who has been at the protest with his 67-year-old grandfather since it began in November. “Now they want to sell the farmers to their corporate friends too.”

China sees growing outbreak south of Beijing (AP) More than 360 people have tested positive in a growing coronavirus outbreak south of Beijing in neighboring Hebei province. The outbreak has raised particular concern because of Hebei’s proximity to the nation’s capital. Travel between the two has been restricted, with workers from Hebei having to show proof of employment in Beijing to enter the city. Almost all of the cases are in Shijuazhuang, the provincial capital, which is about 260 kilometers (160 miles) southwest of Beijing. A handful have also been found in Xingtai city, 110 kilometers (68 miles) farther south. Both cities have conducted mass testing of millions of residents, suspended public transportation and restricted residents to their communities or villages for one week.

Pompeo voids restrictions on diplomatic contacts with Taiwan (AP) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Saturday that the State Department is voiding longstanding restrictions on how U.S. diplomats and others have contact with their counterparts in Taiwan, another move that is expected to upset China as the Trump administration winds to an end. The Trump administration has sought to strengthen bilateral relations with Taiwan. It announced Thursday that U.N Ambassador Kelly Craft would go to Taiwan, a move that sparked sharp criticism from Beijing and a warning that the U.S. would pay a heavy price. In August, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar became the first Cabinet member to visit Taiwan since 2014. Pompeo said that the State Department has created complex restrictions when it comes to contacts between the two parties. He said those actions were taken to appease the Communist regime in Beijing. “No more,” Pompeo declared in a statement. “Today I am announcing that I am lifting all of these self-imposed restrictions.” The Chinese government maintains that mainland China and Taiwan are parts of “one China.” China has been stepping up its threats to bring the self-governing island under its control by military force with frequent war games and aerial patrols. It has been using its diplomatic clout to stop Taiwan from joining any organizations that require statehood for membership.

Japanese pray for end to pandemic in annual ice bath ritual at Tokyo shrine (Reuters) Men wearing traditional loin clothes and women dressed in white robes clapped and chanted before going into an ice water bath during a Shinto ritual at a Tokyo shrine on Sunday to purify the soul and pray for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Only a dozen people took part in the annual event at Teppou-zu Inari Shrine, scaled down this year due to the health crisis, compared to over a hundred in early 2020. After doing warming-up exercises and chanting under a clear sky with outside temperatures at 5.1 degree Celsius (41.18 Fahrenheit), the nine male and three female participants went into a bath filled with cold water and large ice blocks. Fewer participants at the Shinto ritual made the water extra cold, participant Naoaki Yamaguchi told Reuters. “Normally we have more participants and it makes the water temperature a little bit warmer. But this year, there were just twelve people, so it (the cold) was crazy,” the 47-year-old said.

Indonesian divers find parts of plane wreckage in Java Sea (AP) Indonesian divers on Sunday located parts of the wreckage of a Boeing 737-500 at a depth of 23 meters (75 feet) in the Java Sea, a day after the aircraft with 62 people onboard crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta. Earlier, rescuers pulled out body parts, pieces of clothing and scraps of metal from the surface. It’s still unclear what caused the crash. There was no sign of survivors. Fishermen in the area between Lancang and Laki islands, part of an archipelago around Thousand Islands north of Jakarta’s coast, reported hearing an explosion around 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

At a Yemen hospital wracked by U.S. funding cuts, children are dying of hunger (Washington Post) Her infant son, weakened by hunger, needed a better-equipped hospital in the capital, Sanaa, roughly 30 miles away. But Hanan Saleh could no longer afford even the $30 taxi fare. Before, she depended on a Western aid organization, Save the Children, for funds, drawn from money donated by the United States, to cover the travel costs, said employees of the organization and hospital officials. But last year, the United States slashed its funding to United Nations groups and others such as Save the Children. So Saleh had to raise money to treat her son, Mohammed, in Sanaa until those funds ran out, too. Her last option was a small hospital in this northern Yemen market town, a 15-minute walk from their home. The staff tried to build up his skeletal, malnourished 9-month-old body. “He died two months ago,” Saleh recalled in November, breaking down in tears. Aid cuts by the Trump administration and other Western countries, intended to prevent Yemen’s Houthi rebels from diverting or blocking funds, are worsening the country’s humanitarian crisis, already considered the most severe in the world. Last year’s pledges totaling $1.61 billion were less than half of 2019’s funding, and hundreds of millions of dollars committed by donors have not yet been paid, according to the U.N.’s humanitarian office for Yemen. At least 15 of the U.N.’s 41 major programs have been scaled back or closed, and additional programs could shutter in the months to come, if more funds are not received, U.N. officials say.

The Tiny Satellites That Will Connect Cows, Cars and Shipping Containers to the Internet (WSJ) Scientists who track the health of Adélie penguins on the ice-covered wastes of Antarctica are managing their cameras from thousands of miles away—via tiny satellites orbiting above our heads. Energy companies are exploring using the same technology for monitoring hard-to-reach wind farms; logistics companies for tracking shipping containers; and agribusiness companies for minding cattle. It even helped National Geographic track a discarded plastic bottle from Bangladesh to the Indian Ocean. In the near future, it isn’t unreasonable to imagine this evolving satellite technology could put a distress beacon in every automobile, allow remote monitoring of wildlife in any environment on earth, and track your Amazon shipment—not just when it’s on a truck, but backward, all the way to the factory that produced it. And it could be done at a fraction of the cost of earlier satellite tracking systems. These novel networks of nanosats—aka cubesats—are a result of a number of factors. First, the satellites themselves are smaller, cheaper and more capable than ever. Just as important, there’s the rollout and adoption of new long-distance, low-power wireless communication standards that can work just as well in outer space as they do on the ground. In the next year, hundreds of satellites from more than a dozen companies are set to launch.

[kentonramsey]

How We Fell Back In Love With The Classic Canvas Shoe

Lockdown may have brought new meaning to the concept of comfort dressing but we have 2017 to thank for putting functionality first. The year that killed the heel – not just in the office but for weddings and parties, too – made trainers in their many guises the acceptable footwear for any and all occasions, no matter how formal. Thanks to Balenciaga’s volcanic Triple S, chunky commuter trainers have reigned supreme ever since but there’s change in the air – or rather, on the ground. 2020 has made way for a more classic style of kicks, free of bells and whistles: the rubber-soled, lace-up canvas shoe.

Commonly referred to as the plimsoll, the canvas shoe has been around since self-taught chemist Charles Goodyear invented vulcanised rubber back in 1839. However, from the 1980s onwards the simple style fell by the wayside in favour of flashier, high-tech alternatives. As sportswear giants like adidas, Puma and Nike competed for fan loyalty via cult collectables and game-changing alliances – from Run-DMC and Michael Jordan to Kanye West, there’s no underestimating the power of an influential endorsement in solidifying a trainer’s status – the unassuming plimsoll was relegated to PE lessons and mums on the go. 

Now, though, born out of lockdown’s less-is-more approach to dressing, the simplicity of a heritage canvas and rubber shoe is far more appealing than its ostentatious counterparts. Whether referencing Normal People’s Marianne in a black dress and white canvas pumps or every outing made by Emily Ratajkowski since lockdown began, our entire Instagram feed has been donning a more streamlined sneaker of late. 

Though hardly the kicks you’d reach for to head out for a run or hit the tennis courts, the plimsoll’s legacy can be traced back to the 1920s, when the relationship between sportswear and fashion was forged. In 1916 Keds launched its first pair of plimsolls: the Champion, a simple lace-up, low-rise canvas shoe, prompted the coining of the term ‘sneakers’ thanks to its quiet – thus sneaky – rubber sole. “As lifestyles began to change and women were encouraged to be more active and independent, the elaborate dressing of previous decades began to fade away in favour of comfortable cuts and fabrics that moved and breathed,” explains Holly Curtis, vice president of product at Keds. “This is also when sneakers really entered the space and became everyday items in a woman’s wardrobe. This relationship continued to ebb and flow until the more recent rise of athleisure fully melded the two.” 

The all-American brand sent its female customers a clear message: shoes should be practical, provide run-around-friendly comfort and transcend the trappings of suffocating femininity represented by heels. Fast-forward to the ‘50s and ‘60s and Keds were endorsed by Hollywood stars looking to prove they were more than delicate dolls of the silver screen. From Katharine Hepburn to Marilyn Monroe, the Champion was worn with high-waisted denim (another sartorial symbol of rebellion at the time), blouses tied at the waist and ringer tees. In 1969 Yoko Ono married John Lennon in a white skirt and top, knee-high socks and a pair of Keds, confounding expectations of what a woman should wear on her wedding day. Meanwhile Jackie Onassis was often spotted cycling around New York City in her monochromatic preppy uniform of white jeans, black turtleneck and Keds. In the ‘80s and ‘90s the brand was embraced on TV and in film by influential girl-next-door characters from Saved by the Bell’s Kelly Kapowski and Dirty Dancing’s Frances “Baby” Houseman to Friends’ Rachel Green. All three favoured tank tops, dungarees and denim cut-offs with their plimsolls, a look that’s come full circle and can be seen on Instagram and Depop’s coolest today. 

The world’s most-worn canvas shoe, the Converse All Star, also originated in sport. Founded in 1908, the brand initially made galoshes and other work-related rubber shoes but by 1917 the first iteration of the style had been created, in brown canvas with a black rubber trim. It was the first mass-produced basketball shoe in the United States but didn’t really take off until 1921, when Charles H. Taylor, a player for Ohio’s Akron Firestone Non-Skids, took a shine to the sneaker and travelled across the country with Converse, promoting the All Star as the only shoe worth playing in. His marketing campaign was such a success that in 1932 the brand added Chuck’s name to the ankle patch. In 1936 Converse issued a white pair with a patriotic red and blue trim especially for the Berlin Olympics and in 1949 the monochrome high top we know today was launched. 

While the mass popularity of Converse never really faltered, the launch of corporations like Nike, adidas and Puma – and high-tech innovations like air pockets, springs and pumps – diluted the brand’s influence in the athletic footwear market. Eventually, All Stars evolved from court-ready sports staple to become the footwear of choice for countercultural youths. As its appeal switched from functionality to fashion, Converse became a leisurewear brand and in the ‘80s and ‘90s it conquered the music industry, just as it had the sports arena decades earlier. Loved by everyone from The Clash to Kurt Cobain, no gig venue in the world has gone untouched by a pair of Chucks; there’s even an extensive database of musicians who have worn the classic kicks, spanning Green Day, Ariana Grande and George Harrison. 

Converse may have dominated the music scene but it was Vans to which skaters pledged their allegiance. From the brand’s birth in 1966, California’s boarders made Vans’ #44 deck shoe – now known as the Authentic – their preferred kicks thanks to the style’s sticky gripped sole. The Era style was introduced in ‘76, with padded features for ankle support, and one year later the Old Skool debuted the “jazz stripe”, the hallmark wave on the side of the shoe. Sean Penn’s Jeff Spicoli donned Vans’ checkerboard slip-ons in Cameron Crowe’s classic teen movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, solidifying the brand as the footwear of laid-back stoners and slackers the world over. In 2001, Vans helped director Stacy Peralta, former member of the pioneering ‘70s Zephyr skateboard team, to produce the definitive skate documentary, Dogtown and Z-Boys. 

Now, of course, you don’t have to know your grind from your kickflip to sport a pair of Vans, nor are you expected to wear drainpipe jeans and a cropped leather jacket on stage before a beer-slinging crowd to qualify for a pair of All Stars. The canvas shoe has transcended its subcultural history thanks to smart marketing, contemporary celebrity endorsements and designer collaborations. Shoes that once dressed the outcasts of the underground have now been embraced by the masses for their comfort. For Mira Bourdon, senior global category manager of women’s classics footwear at Vans, the canvas shoe’s ubiquitous appeal lies in its status as a “blank canvas for creative expression”. This may not always be a good thing – we’ll leave the Harry Potter Golden Snitch Old Skools to the tweens – but it can work: just see Converse x Comme des Garçons, which has turned heart-emblazoned Chucks into the unofficial uniform of minimalist-leaning architects and artists alike.

Superga, too, has nailed the art of collaboration in its hook-up with Alexa Chung. The brand’s 2490 COTU style – a low-cut, six-eye lace-up canvas shoe – has always been a bestseller but by aligning with the closest thing we have to Jane Birkin (who can be found on ’60s and ’70s Pinterest boards wearing her white plimsolls with flared jeans and cotton blouses, shift dresses and basket bags, and crochet crop tops and denim cut-offs) Superga infused its retro legacy with some contemporary cool. Understanding that, in contrast to the hyped-up, high-tech trainer, the appeal of the canvas shoe lies in its simplicity, the ongoing collaboration focuses on new colourways and fabrics rather than graphic prints and patterns or pumped-up soles.

The real contenders for our feet in 2020 are lesser known and eco-conscious. Stocked at independent boutiques like TOAST, Couverture & The Garbstore and Goodhood, Novesta has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years. The Slovakian brand, founded in 1939, uses natural rubber and 100% cotton and linen to make its products, the jewel in the crown of which is the ultra-comfy Star Master with its unmistakable chunky sole (complete with vulcanisation marks) and deep toe. They look just as great with a wide-legged trouser and cropped tee as they do with a floral midi dress.

Elsewhere, British brand Good News, founded in 2016, has surely had a heavy hand in the return to the canvas shoe’s simple silhouette. “The breathable durability of a canvas sneaker provides an everyday staple that never goes out of fashion,” cofounder Nia Jones tells me. “The new sustainable technologies being developed in this area means the canvas shoe will be forever relevant.” Each season, Good News scrutinises its production and supply chain to improve its sustainability credentials: every pair of shoes has recycled rubber soles, organic cotton and weave uppers, and recycled eco-lite footbeds; its lace tips are biodegradable and the brand has offset its carbon footprint, making it a carbon-neutral company. 

Trainers have long since replaced heels as the favoured wear-anywhere footwear but the genderless, breathable, comfortable and streamlined canvas shoe feels more fitting for the quieter, more pared-back, practical life of lockdown. With no one around to admire our flashy kicks, a nondescript plimsoll feels all the more purposeful. Now more than ever we’re considering our wardrobes with a future-looking eye, asking what will age well, be worn until the seams are torn, and truly last. As fashion history has proved, the timeless rubber and canvas shoe endures, no matter how you style it.

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How We Fell Back In Love With The Classic Canvas Shoe published first on https://mariakistler.tumblr.com/

[kickassviv]

Pernille Harder: "I first dared to say that I would be the best in the world when I got away from Denmark"

Danish national team leader Pernille Harder was only a fan of the women's soccer World Cup. However, due to her high profile on and off the field, she left her mark on the tournament. Berlingske has met her for a conversation about love, homophobia, the fight for equality and the ambition to become the best in the world. And about two parties that got the national team leader out of the chair.

Credit to @magdaerikssons for the article and disclaimer, google translate was used to translate into English.

Is there a Danish "Liebes-Spionin", a love spy who helps the Swedish women's team against a victory?

That's how the German newspaper "Bild" speculated about the Danish national team leader and Wolfsburg player Pernille Harder in the heat during the just over the World Cup in women's football in France.

The newspaper had noted that the "Bundesliga's best player with a good knowledge of Germany" was constantly found among the Swedish players because of the girlfriend and defender Magdalena Eriksson. Eriksson plays daily for the London club Chelsea.

Two days before Berlingske meets Harder in the French city of Rennes, a picture of her and her boyfriend, both wearing Swedish national team jerseys, went viral on social media, not least in South America:

“It's a little crazy. I've gained 10,000 new followers on Instagram and I haven't even posted the picture myself. Many are from South America. I don't know what it is about homophobia down there, but it obviously means a lot of two female soccer players openly dare to show their love, ”says Harder, who also notes that she has lost no followers because of the picture.

It's 38 degrees hot, and the blue-and-yellow fans are trying to hide in the shade of bars and cafes before heading out to the stadium where the double world champion Germany, with some of Harder's teammates, waits.

Commander's Tour de France as the roe Instead of just being upset that it missed out on Denmark's participation, Harder has been taken to the World Cup as a Swedish roigan. The qualification smoked on the floor, among other things, as Denmark, due to a conflict between the national team and DBU, could not place teams against Sweden in the fall of 2017 and therefore lost 3-0 at the desk.

Now, instead, she is undertaking her own personal Tour de France in cities such as Nice, Paris, Rennes and Lyon. To support her girlfriend, who otherwise beat Denmark in the World Cup qualification, and to become smarter in her sport:

“It gives me another perspective to be here as a fan. I sense what the football gives off the field to all the fans. When you play a final round, you don't think so much about it off the field. But now I realize how big it all has become with fan march, etc., and that makes me want to put even more heart into it on the track in the future, "says the 26-year-old star, while the Swedish fans agree a new kind of song.

Harder and Eriksson have been together for five years. The Dane has not been exposed to homophobia or hate emails herself, but decided in the spring of 2019 to go actively into the debate on homophobia. This happened after FCK star Viktor Fischer was met by homophobic calls.

In a broadcast on TV 2, Harder openly talked about how she had previously fallen in love with a guy, but fell for Magdalena when they both played in Linköping:

'I didn't really think much about it. It just came very naturally. You have to be with the one you love. I have always felt that if there is something I want, then I do it and do not go into what other people think. And then I also have a good family that totally doesn't care who I love, just like it is pretty normal in the women's soccer world, "says the Wolfsburg player.

According to Harder, in the men's football »a front figure is missing. There are certainly gay and bisexual men in men's soccer too, but they obviously dare not stand out because the tone is different in the dressing room and among the fans. That is a sorry trend. You have to be proud of the one you love '.

More edge in women's football Courage to step up in the homophobia debate, Pernille Harder shares with female U.S. national team leader Megan Rapinoe, who up to the World Cup declared that her team would not accept an invitation from President Donald Trump if they returned home with the World Cup trophy. In addition, Trump was too homophobic and condescending to women:

"There are several in women's football who dare to have an opinion, although that may not be the opinion that other people think one should have. And so it gives something more edge. After all, not one of the really big men's team players actually does. Maybe just with the exception of Zlatan, ”Harder points out. Swedish Zlatan Ibrahimović has, among other things, commented on the Swedish immigration debate.

A party in Basel In addition to the fight against homophobia, Harder's main theme is gender equality. And here we are approaching the canceled match against Sweden and the football conflict with DBU.

Instead of looking back at the conflict, Harder first takes a mental detour to Switzerland. In 2018, the FC Basel football club held an anniversary party that got Harder out of the chair.

Before the party, the club had decided that the gentlemen should attend a gala party with a three-course menu, while their female counterparts were asked to sell the ticket and were literally eaten off with a sandwich:

“It's incredible that it can still occur today. But that's why it's so important that we have enough self-respect to say. And that women know what value we have. If we don't, they just do it again. And that is exactly why we had to take that fight with DBU, 'says Harder.

Similarly, Harder and teammates from Wolfsburg said when the club in 2017 asked the women's team to postpone their championship party until it became clear if the club's men's team avoided relegation.

When the women's team won "The Double" again the following year, no-one was thinking of issuing a ban - even if the men again fought relegation.

The conflict between the national team and the DBU was primarily about the remuneration of the women's team players. A sub-agreement between DBU and the Players' Association was landed in October 2017. But negotiations are soon on a long-term agreement, so that the national team is in control if Denmark should be able to arrange the European Championships in 2025 at home.

And here too the national team leader is ready to make demands. However, she fully agrees that in the future there will also be a difference between women's and men's salaries and bonus schemes, simply because Denmark does not have a women's league that can afford to pay the domestic players sufficiently in salary.

This is why DBU has to step in with scholarships, and then "there is something else you can't get," Harder points out.

The decisive point, however, is not the money, but that the national teams - regardless of gender - must have the same conditions for all the matches:

“Now just take the planes. Now we have to go to Georgia soon and play the European Championship qualifier. It is such a match that we risk playing a draw and thus lose important points to qualify for the European Championships in England. So it's mega important. But we are definitely traveling over there with two stops where we have to get up at 05:00 in the morning. DBU should, therefore, charter an aircraft. After all, they do this to the gentlemen, and so does the German and Swedish Football Federation for their wives, ”Harder points out.

Of other differences, the leader mentions that, unlike the gentlemen, the women travel without a cook and only occasionally have a volunteer analyst who can help understand and illustrate the tactics of the opponents. According to Harder, it is also not OK that the national team has only 18, and not 23, players with:

"It's a problem when we have to play 11 against 11. Then the physical therapist has to get into the field. There, I think we can demand equality and that it must be completely the same regardless of gender. And it's not, ”Harder points out.

The conflict was not the main problem Although the conflict is still filling, it is definitely not the whole story of why Denmark is not on the field in France:

“We simply weren't ready physically after the summer holidays in 2018, when we were going to play against Croatia and Sweden. Before the two matches went well. But we have learned from that and have now got a new physical trainer in Peter Krustrup. "

Harder is also confident that Peter Møller's new director of football, Peter Møller, will address the women's case to the DBU board.

She is aiming for Denmark to qualify for the European Championships in England in 2021, just as she hopes that Denmark can secure the European Championships in 2025:

"It will be crazy for Danish football, but we can learn something from them down here about how to set up fan zones and use modern, hard-hitting discos rather than always horn music for the matches," the national team leader says.

Although the level in France is high, Harder is not intimidated on behalf of Danish women's soccer: “We have a good team, and now we work with physics. This is where we need to put in. We are already fully involved in the technical, football and tactical aspects. "

According to the leader, a number of new talented players are also emerging, such as Emma Snerle from Fortuna Hjørring.

Harder welcomes the high viewership of the World Cup, which has seriously given women's football its popular breakthrough. In England, the fight against the United States was the most-watched TV show of 2019:

"I also don't understand if people can't see the exciting thing in eg. the battle between France and the United States. There are 40,000 at the stadium, high pace, chances, and fighter will. Now I have also seen men's football at the stadium several times, so it is not because I think 'hold it up, where does it go 100 times stronger', 'notes Harder.

Football camp in Ikast As we speak, several fans pass by in national team jerseys with women's names on their backs and no longer just men's stars such as Mbappé, Messi and Müller.

As a child, Harder had only one possible role model, Brazilian Marta, but it was now United gentlemen David Beckham and Ryan Giggs who hung in the children's room. Back in the nineties and nineties, there was also no opportunity to attend a girls' soccer camp.

That's the main explanation that, a few years ago, Harder and her sister and cousin decided to start a girls soccer camp:

“I want to pass on some of what I have learned both on and off the field. I even train the girls some of the time and give presentations. And this year I also had my mental trainer who gave parents some tips on how to be good parents. "

The world's best is the goal In 2018, Pernille Harder was named the second best Danish footballer ever to be Europe's best. The first to achieve this honor was Allan Simonsen in 1977. But despite the lack of World Cup, the goal remains to be the world's best footballer.

“I know it might not be very Danish with the Janet Act and all that. And I also dared to say it out loud first when I moved away from Denmark. But why is it so dangerous to say that I want to be the best in the world? One must dare to put words into one's dreams. And the worst thing that can happen is only that I don't reach it, but then I have pushed myself to do my utmost. "

The dream, which she first put into words when she came to Sweden, was born in Ikast. “Recently, I found a style that I wrote when I was ten years old. And there I wrote that I would be the world's best in ten years, 'says Harder.

The road over there is provisionally over Wolfsburg, where this year the club has invested in five to six new players to be able to conquer the Champions League trophy, which lost after another defeat to Lyon.

But Harder, whose contract expires in 2021, is open to trying her hand at a new country and league - also to learn a new language.

"German is doing very well," laughs Harder and continues:

"Although I do not always have a say in whether the pronoun should come in the middle or at the end."

During the World Cup, there have been rumors that Real Madrid are looking for the striker. As one of the last major clubs in Spain, the "king's club" now also enters women's soccer. Before the World Cup, the women's match between Barcelona and Atlético Madrid set a spectator record in Spain with over 60,000 on the limbs.

“We must say that both Denmark and Germany are behind. In England and Spain, they are targeting a professional league, where big men's clubs also invest in women's soccer. It would be optimal if we also did it at home. But it is clear that e.g. FC Midtjylland does not have as much money as Manchester United, so it will cost in the beginning, 'says Harder, pointing to FC North Zealand as a men's club, which is now also focusing on women's football.

On the team with Magdalena? A new club change could also open for the girlfriend couple Harder and Eriksson to put an end to the long-distance relationship, which is, however, facilitated by a direct flight connection from Hanover to London:

“Right now we are each running our own race. But we are about to be where we can again play on the same team. Defenders are slowing down a bit, but Magdalena has become one of the key players on Chelsea's team entering the Champions League semi-final, "Harder points out.

If the pair are on the same club team, there will also be no danger of the relationship being put to the test in a Champions League match between Chelsea and Wolfsburg:

“None of us can stand to lose. I want to win everything. Also in ludo against children. And so will Magda. If she loses cards to me, she won't talk to me for the rest of the day, 'says Harder, laughing.

But in France, the couple both get something to laugh at. Magda and the other Swedish players secure a bronze medal at the World Cup. Yet another image of the couple kissing each other goes around the world. Although Pernille Harder has not been on the field, much has been noticed by the Dane during the World Cup.

[jamesginortonblog]

No one could accuse James Norton of allowing himself to be typecast. The 34-year-old has played a vicar-turned-sleuth in Grantchester, a violent rapist in Happy Valley, and the aristocratic hero of War & Peace. He’s also number three in the betting to be the new James Bond. And he’s just about to add to his library of opposites with two new roles: the staid tutor John Brooke, who marries Emma Watson’s Meg March, in the star-studded new film adaptation of Little Women; and the flamboyant real-life figure at the centre of the Profumo scandal – Stephen Ward – in BBC One’s The Trial of Christine Keeler.

“Ward was 100 per cent the fall guy,” says Norton, sporting a dark-blue crushed velvet jacket and settling in on a chaise longue in an upmarket London hotel. The actor looks every bit as debonair as you’d expect for a man playing the high-society osteopath with connections that ran from Soho to the aristocracy. “The government needed to clear their own name by tarnishing someone else’s.”

It was Ward who introduced the 46-year-old Secretary of State for War John Profumo (Ben Miles) to 19-year-old model and showgirl Christine Keeler (Sophie Cookson) at a party at Lord Astor’s country house estate of Cliveden in 1961. It led to an affair that exposed Profumo as a security threat – thanks to Keeler’s simultaneous relationship with a Russian naval attaché.

Keeler and her friend Mandy Rice-Davies (Ellie Bamber) often stayed at Ward’s London mews flat, and the 50-year-old former public schoolboy would later be prosecuted for living off immoral earnings in a dubious case of establishment revenge. The two had contributed small amounts to household expenses. Ward committed suicide after the judge’s summing up amounted to a direction to the jury to find him guilty.

Amanda Coe’s stylish, evocative drama establishes Keeler and Rice-Davies as sexually liberated young women for their time. Does Norton think they were victims? “Ward definitely used certain relationships he had with young, beautiful women to ingratiate himself with the wealthy elite,” he says. “He also groomed them to a point… but it’s too simplistic to say he was a man who groomed young women. His relationship with these young girls was often a very positive one, he would enable them, take them out of poverty.” Keeler was from a disadvantaged background and fitted the mould of the “alley cats” Ward liked to befriend. Norton gives a terrific performance as the sleazy Pygmalion.

“I really warmed to him… you fall in love with these characters, and Stephen Ward was way ahead of his time, so brave in how he lived his life and expressed himself, his sexual tastes, his flirting with cross-dressing, in a world that was still incredibly repressed.

“And the final reckoning was that Stephen Ward had somehow corrupted these Tory ministers and it was all his fault, which is absurd.”

I wonder if Norton, the son of a retired college lecturer and a mother who taught medical ethics, is as dazzled by the truly posh as Ward was.

“Wealth or class are not things that I’m particularly dazzled by,” he says. “I am by talent.” He cites Little Women director Greta Gerwig and her partner Noah Baumbach, who made Netflix’s Marriage Story, as an example.

Norton himself is part of a powerhouse acting couple, with British star Imogen Poots, whom he became close to when they starred together in a play in 2017. They seem very happy. “It’s good,” he says, but adds, “my personal life is very normal, I have a house in Peckham, my [parents] live in Yorkshire. There's very little glamour and scandal.”

There was a little bit of the latter when his previous girlfriend, actress Jessie Buckley, said their break-up had been “acrimonious”, but Norton is far too canny to add fuel to that particular fire.

Similarly, he won’t comment on the rumours linking him to James Bond, insisting they are “based on nothing”. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have strong opinions on the series in general.

“We all know that with James Bond, large parts of it, and all the versions of it in the past, are now antiquated and it needs to be updated,” he says. “And I think that Barbara Broccoli and the producers are very aware of that. Bringing in people like Phoebe Waller-Bridge can only help.”

Might the spy be a little too one-dimensional for someone who has taken on so many interesting parts? Daniel Craig, who is stepping aside after the latest film No Time To Die comes out in April, has often seemed unhappy with the role.

“If I was to take on a franchise,” Norton says, “I would always want to complement it with something completely different.”

He has just taken on a big HBO sci-fi series, The Nevers, he says, and is in negotiations with the BBC about doing a second series of McMafia. We chat about the fact that the first series attracted a measure of criticism, including some for his own performance as Alex Godman, the scion of a Russian mafia family drawn reluctantly into the underworld. “There was an article about the three wooden faces of James Norton,” he says with a laugh.

How did he take it?

“It’s a rite of passage that you have [bad reviews],” he replies. “Ultimately, it’s an art form which is deeply subjective and you’re never going to please everyone.” The character was intended to be “inscrutable and calcified”, he adds. Nevertheless, he admits he might play it slightly differently second time around.

“Yeah, possibly,” he says. “But, then again, you don’t want to pander to the people who didn’t like it. There's so much content out there that people who don't like it can go and find something else.”

One of the factors that Norton and director James Watkins agreed upon when sketching out Godman’s background was his public school education. Norton is a public school boy too; a former pupil of Ampleforth, the leading Catholic boarding school which was found to have covered up the sexual abuse of scores of children in a devastating report in 2018.

Norton never saw any wrongdoing during his time there, but does admit to being “quite badly bullied” and credits one of the monks - a Father Peter - with helping him get through it. “I was able to go and just talk to him and he basically became my therapist,” says Norton. “I just sort of sobbed my eyes out.”

Has it left a mark? “It probably has a bit,” he says. “It’s not defined me, but it has informed who I am. I’m hyper aware if someone is being in any way ostracised on a film set, for example.”

On Little Women, he found himself on set with some of the industry’s biggest names, including Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet, Meryl Streep and Laura Dern. The film’s a deliriously romantic and sentimental take on the novel’s sibling rivalries, but it takes its duty to Louisa May Alcott’s study of the economic subjection of women seriously. “It's important for us to go back to those punctuation marks in the struggle towards equality and recognise how far we've come, but also how we're not quite there yet,” Norton says.

He and Watson were given the task of writing their own marriage vows for the film, which he says he laboured over but arrived with them unfinished to discover that Watson had already written hers and they were beautiful. He was just young enough to read the early Harry Potter books, he notes, but has only seen a couple of the films – “Don’t tell Emma.”

He plays Chalamet’s tutor – did he fancy the 23-year-old as everyone else seems to right now? He smiles. “He’s a beguiling and bizarre, unique force of nature,” he says. Norton had been wondering about wearing a suit to today’s photoshoot, but is glad he didn’t as he’s just bumped into the younger man in a Gorillaz tee-shirt and sunglasses. “Whenever he’s around, I feel about 10 years older than I am.”

Among all its bold women, I wonder if his own character – John Brooke – is just a teeny bit dull. He laughs. “He’s a little quieter than some of the other characters, but that allowed me to just witness all these great women actors. It was incredible.”

There’s certainly nothing dull or quiet about the character he plays in the film Mr Jones, which is released in February. It’s the surprisingly little-known story of Gareth Jones, the journalist who uncovered the Holodomor – the man-made famine genocide inflicted by the Soviet Union upon Ukraine in 1932-33, which is estimated to have killed up to 7.5 million people. “He blew the whistle on the Soviet Union,” says Norton. “He was the first person to go [to Ukraine], and come back and tell the world.”

In the West, the economic crash of 1929 had led to the Great Depression. “Everyone was looking at the Soviet experiment thinking, ‘Oh, it's working’,” Norton says. “They were getting into bed with Stalin and trade deals were being made. And no one was calling them out. Until this one serious, bespectacled, earnest Welsh journalist got on a train and risked his life to blow the whistle.”

I wonder if those types of films can command a big enough audience to keep getting made? He accepts that independent cinema is in a period of shrinkage, but says, “while the audience for this type of film might not be as big as a Marvel movie, we have to protect those stories because film isn't just about escapism. It's also about education.”