The names Great Britain and United Kingdom are often used interchangeably. However, they are not actually synonymous. The reason for the two names, and the difference between them, has to do with the expansive history of the British Isles. The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwestern coast of Europe. The largest of these islands are Britain and Ireland. (Smaller ones include the Isle of Wight.) In the Middle Ages, the name Britain was also applied to a small part of France now known as Brittany. As a result, Great Britain came into use to refer specifically to the island. However, that name had no official significance until 1707, when the island’s rival kingdoms of…
Author: dmnews
The Championships have begun, and the quintessentially British tennis tournament has some very particular codes for attendees to follow. How are spectators expected to behave, and what should they – or should they definitely not – wear? Afternoon tea, a stiff upper lip and Wimbledon – all so deeply “British” that they’ve become part of the nation’s international brand; the things that seem to make Britain, Britain, and tempt tourists from far and wide to observe them for themselves. The optics of the annual tennis tournament in south London – the strawberries and cream, the Pimm’s, the ball girls and boys –…
Starring Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey, the latest in the dinosaur blockbuster series follows the template created by the original Jurassic Park – but it’s no match for it. Eww. There is a definite whiff of staleness about the latest Jurassic film, which strains to come up with a fresh take on a formula – outrun those dinosaurs – that has made billions of dollars and clearly can’t be messed with too much. It turns out the film-makers should have messed with it a little more. Jurassic World Rebirth has major stars in Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey, and better-designed…
For the last six years, the globe’s top beer tourism destination has been quietly inviting brewers to the Czech Republic to teach the world how to drink properly. The beer drinking began at 10:39am. Twenty brewers had just walked into a bar – a bar in a brewery in the Czech Republic, one of the world’s great beer-making nations. I held up my mug of burnt-orange-hued pilsner, a three-finger-wide layer of foam crowning the top, and clinked glasses with Liam Taheny, a craft brewer from South Australia. When I asked him what impressed him most about Czech beer culture, he…
The US State Department has issued a rare global security warning ahead of summer. But travellers – and the destinations that rely on them – are largely undeterred. Just in time for the peak summer travel season, last week the United States State Department issued a rare “worldwide caution” security alert. Triggered by the Israel-Iran conflict and rising global tensions, the warning urges US citizens to take extra caution wherever they are in the world, citing the risk of anti-American demonstrations and unexpected airspace closures, particularly in the Middle East. The alert is layered on top of the State Department’s typical…
At least 81 Palestinians have been killed and more than 400 injured in Israeli strikes across Gaza in the 24 hours until midday on Saturday, the Hamas-run health ministry said. In one incident, at least 11 people, including children, were killed after a strike near a stadium in Gaza City, Al-Shifa hospital staff and witnesses told news agencies. The stadium was being used to house displaced people, living in tents. Footage verified by the BBC shows people digging through the sand with their bare hands and spades to find bodies. The Israeli military said it was “unaware of injuries as…
The Israeli military has said it is examining reports of civilians being “harmed” while approaching aid distribution centres in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Since GHF operations began in late May, following a three-month Israeli blockade on Gaza, there have been almost daily reports from medics, eyewitnesses and the Hamas-run health ministry of Israeli fire killing people seeking aid at these sites. The UN says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid. The Israeli military said on Monday instructions had been issued to forces after “lessons learned”, but did not specify what…
Back in March, as he turned his back on a ceasefire process that was delivering results, the Israeli prime minister took a decision described by some commentators as akin to “political suicide”. The Gaza ceasefire deal, brokered by Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff even before the US president was inaugurated to his second term, had led to the release of dozens of hostages from Hamas captivity, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. The next stage was due to see more hostages return home and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, before a negotiated end…
More than 130 charities and other NGOs are calling for the controversial Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to be shut down. Over 500 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid since the GHF started operating in late May, following Israel’s three-month blockade of Gaza, the organisations said. Almost 4,000 have been injured. The organisations, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty, say Israeli forces and armed groups “routinely” open fire on Palestinians seeking aid. Israel denies its soldiers deliberately shoot at aid recipients, and has defended the GHF system, saying it provides direct assistance to people who need…
At least 20 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike that hit a popular seafront cafe frequently used by activists, journalists, and local residents in western Gaza City on Monday, according to medics and eyewitnesses. Rescue teams evacuated 20 bodies and dozens wounded from Al-Baqa Cafeteria, an outdoor venue which consisted of tents along the beach, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence told the BBC. He added that emergency crews were still searching through a deep crater left by the explosion. The Israeli military later said it struck “several Hamas terrorists” in northern Gaza and that it was…