All posts tagged: island

Love Island star undergoes surgery for rare pregnancy condition

Love Island star undergoes surgery for rare pregnancy condition

Published by skeptic

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Love Island bombshell Tink Reading has shared her ordeal of being rushed into emergency surgery for a rare pregnancy condition. The 28-year-old first appeared on the 10th series of the reality dating show in 2023 when she made a splash as a Casa Amor bombshell embroiled in a love triangle with Montell Douglas and Leah Taylor. Douglas shocked contestants when he decided to stay with Taylor and dump Reading, despite the two having been intimate together during his time away from the main villa. Sammy Root and Jess Harding eventually won the show with a shock victory. On Tuesday (29 April), Reading revealed that she had found out she was experiencing a “molar pregnancy” in a post to her almost 30,000 followers on Instagram. …

Jack Fincham: Love Island star wins appeal against prison sentence for dangerous dog offences | Ents & Arts News

Jack Fincham: Love Island star wins appeal against prison sentence for dangerous dog offences | Ents & Arts News

Published by skeptic

Former Love Island winner Jack Fincham has won an appeal against his prison sentence for two dangerous dog offences. Fincham, 32, was sentenced to six weeks imprisonment at Southend Magistrates’ Court on 29 January after pleading guilty to two counts of having a dangerously out-of-control black cane corso. But within hours of the sentencing, he was released on conditional bail and vowed to appeal it. On Friday, Fincham, who won the ITV dating show with Dani Dyer in 2018, was told by a judge at Basildon Crown Court that the original sentence had not been “just in the circumstances”. Image: Fincham and his black cane corso Elvis. Pic: @jack_charlesf 2021 Instead, Judge Samantha Leigh set aside the custodial sentence and extended a suspended sentence he was given in March last year for two unrelated offences in 2023 – drug driving and fraudulent use of a registered trademark. That order of 12 weeks custody – suspended for 18 months – has been lengthened by three months, Judge Leigh told the court. Prosecutors said Fincham’s dog, Elvis, …

Most Greenlanders are Lutheran, 300 years after a missionary brought the faith to the remote island

Most Greenlanders are Lutheran, 300 years after a missionary brought the faith to the remote island

Published by skeptic

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — Most Greenlanders are proudly Inuit, having survived and thrived in one of most remote and climatically inhospitable places on Earth. And they’re Lutheran. About 90% of the 57,000 Greenlanders identify as Inuit and the vast majority of them belong to the Lutheran Church today, more than 300 years after a Danish missionary brought that branch of Christianity to the world’s largest island. For many, their devotion to ritual and tradition is as much a part of what it means to be a Greenlander as is their fierce deference to the homeland. The one so many want U.S. President Donald Trump to understand is not for sale despite his threats to seize it. Greenland is huge — about three times the size of Texas; most of it covered in ice. Still, its 17 parishes are located across many settlements in the icy land and people endure the frigid Arctic climate to fill up church pews on Sundays. Some even tune in to radio-transmitted services on their phones on a break from fishing …

Disco Witches of Fire Island by Blair Fell

Disco Witches of Fire Island by Blair Fell

Published by skeptic

In his dazzling sophomore novel, Blair Fell weaves an enchanting narrative that masterfully blends historical fiction, magical realism, and LGBTQ+ romance against the backdrop of the devastating AIDS crisis. Set in the summer of 1989 on Fire Island, this compelling story follows Joe Agabian’s journey of healing and self-discovery, surrounded by a secret coven of disco-dancing witches who protect their cherished gay paradise. Setting & Historical Context The author brilliantly captures the dichotomy of Fire Island in the late 1980s – a haven of freedom and celebration juxtaposed against the shadow of the AIDS epidemic. Fell’s intimate knowledge of the era shines through in his detailed depiction of the island’s unique culture, from the bustling bars and clubs to the infamous Meat Rack. The setting becomes a character itself, pulsing with both vitality and vulnerability. Character Development The strength of Fell’s writing lies in his ability to craft multidimensional characters that feel authentically human. Joe Agabian’s struggle with grief, guilt, and the fear of loving again resonates deeply. The supporting cast is equally well-developed: Howie …

Shaken by 10,000 earthquakes, Greece’s Santorini island is left deserted by its inhabitants

Shaken by 10,000 earthquakes, Greece’s Santorini island is left deserted by its inhabitants

Published by Sam

Closed shops in the town of Fira, on the island of Santorini (Greece), on February 3, 2025. PETROS GIANNAKOURIS / AP The beads of his komboloi spinning, Manolis Goulas started to pray the rosary just as soon as he sat down to two cups of coffee, convinced that this age-old activity of Greek men that keeps the fingers busy also calms the mind. If the owner of Emporio’s Puzzle Café was upset, it was due less to the earth shaking beneath his feet than to his waitress’s hasty departure, frightened by the thousands of tremors Santorini has been experiencing since the end of January. Her exit had forced him to run his own bistro in the middle of February. The time when every good islander takes advantage of the low season. Down in the village of Emporio, the most traditional on the island of Santorini, life moves slowly between the Panagia Mesani church and the Puzzle Café, the men’s meeting place. On this Sunday, February 9, the place of prayer was fully booked, and so …

Love Island star Jack Fincham released on bail after being jailed for dog attack | Ents & Arts News

Love Island star Jack Fincham released on bail after being jailed for dog attack | Ents & Arts News

Published by skeptic

Love Island winner Jack Fincham has been released on bail pending an appeal – hours after being jailed for his cane corso dog attacking a man while he was running. The 32-year-old had pleaded guilty at Southend Magistrates’ Court to two counts of being in charge of a dangerously out-of-control dog, with one of the incidents causing injury. As well as being jailed for six weeks, he was ordered to pay £3,680 in total, including a £2,000 contribution to kennelling costs, a fine of £961 and £200 compensation. But after being sentenced at the court on Wednesday, it emerged he had successfully lodged an appeal and had been granted conditional bail. Fincham’s solicitor told Sky News District Judge Williams heard the bail application in open court. Image: Pic: @jack_charlesf 2021 After the sentence was announced, Fincham gave a thumbs up as he was led to the cells, as a woman in the public gallery cried. The court heard his dog Elvis bit a runner in his home town of Swanley, Kent, in September 2022. Fincham …

Love Island winner Liam Reardon forced to move out of home after sinkhole ‘eats away’ driveway | UK News

Love Island winner Liam Reardon forced to move out of home after sinkhole ‘eats away’ driveway | UK News

Published by skeptic

A former Love Island winner has had to move out of his house due to a sinkhole “in his driveway”. Liam Reardon, 25, won the 2021 series of the reality show alongside girlfriend Millie Court, 28. Speaking on the pair’s podcast, Mr Reardon said he and his family had only moved into their new home in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, “a few months ago”. Hours before the sinkhole first appeared on Saturday 30 November, he “drove over the part where the hole is”, he said. “We get a call at 2pm, saying we’ve got a small sinkhole at the end of our drive, and from there it progressively got worse and worse throughout the evening,” he added. Image: Pic: @MerthyrCBC The situation deteriorated on Sunday morning while Mr Reardon and his family were having breakfast. “All of a sudden our front gates and our front wall… disappeared into the hole, and our driveway started eating away,” he said. “So then everyone’s on the street like ‘Get out of the house’.” Mr Reardon is currently living …

Revamped Big Sister’s Island reopens after 3 years, with floating boardwalk and tidal pools

Revamped Big Sister’s Island reopens after 3 years, with floating boardwalk and tidal pools

Published by Sam

SINGAPORE: Big Sister’s Island reopened to the public on Monday (Oct 28) after three years of enhancement works.  The revamped island has several new features such as a floating boardwalk, a coastal forest trail and a lagoon tidal pool where visitors can swim or snorkel.   The island’s new features give visitors more opportunities to get close to Singapore’s rich array of marine and terrestrial biodiversity such as coral reefs and mangroves, the National Parks Board (NParks) said.  Sisters’ Islands Marine Park, the country’s first marine park, plays an important role in conservation, research, outreach and education.  The blacktip reef shark, copperband butterflyfish and giant carpet anemone are some of the aquatic creatures that can be found in waters surrounding the marine park.  Although the park spans across 40 hectares, only Big Sister’s Island is accessible to the public. Small Sisters’ Island, which is earmarked for marine conservation, continues to be off-limits.  Singapore announced in May that the southern islands – Kusu and Lazarus – have been picked as the proposed site for the country’s second …

At least 7 dead after ferry dock gangway collapses on Georgia’s Sapelo Island : NPR

At least 7 dead after ferry dock gangway collapses on Georgia’s Sapelo Island : NPR

Published by Sam

Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Captain Chris Hodge speaks during a news conference after a gangway collapse on Sapelo Island, Ga in McIntosh county, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. Lewis M. Levine/AP/FR142748 AP hide caption toggle caption Lewis M. Levine/AP/FR142748 AP SAVANNAH, Ga. — Georgia authorities said Sunday they are investigating the “catastrophic failure” of a dock gangway that collapsed and killed seven on Sapelo Island, where crowds had gathered for a fall celebration by the island’s tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants. “It is a structural failure. There should be very, very little maintenance to an aluminum gangway like that, but we’ll see what the investigation unfolds,” Georgia Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon said at a news conference. The gangway was installed in 2021, authorities said. Rabon said three people remained hospitalized in critical condition from Saturday’s collapse. Rabon said “upwards of 40 people” were on the gangway when the “catastrophic failure” occurred, and at least 20 people fell into the water. The gangway connected an outer dock where people board the …

Happy Island of Psalters and Cucumbers | Beatrice Radden Keefe

Happy Island of Psalters and Cucumbers | Beatrice Radden Keefe

Published by skeptic

Reichenau is an island smaller than Manhattan. It lies in beds of reeds on Lake Constance, in the far south of Germany. The Rhine flows west past its shores. Today Reichenau’s farms produce ton upon ton of lamb’s lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes, but in the centuries straddling 1000 CE it was a rich meadow of wall painting, manuscript making, and Latin poetry. A congregation of monks lived on Reichenau then. Many of them would have been given to the island’s abbey as children, and Reichenau became their home. Around 827 a teen monk named Walafrid Strabo composed an ode in Sapphic stanzas to his monastery on the “insula felix” (“happy island”) of Reichenau. A homesick student in distant Fulda, nearly two hundred miles to the north, he was miserable and freezing and prayed to one day return. Later Walafrid wrote a horticultural poem in hexameter about the island monastery’s garden, full of medicinal plants and multipurpose gourds, in which he advises the novice gardener not to be afraid of getting dirty and calloused hands: “I …