Latest news with #Chica
Telegraph
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Why I jumped out of an aeroplane with a Duchess and public school headmaster
I blame the wine. I was sharing a bottle on a beautiful summer's day last year with my old friend, Francesca (Chica), Duchess of Norfolk, when she suggested we do a charity sky dive. The rosé was chilled, the food delicious and May 2025 seemed a long way off. So I agreed. The speed at which the plan came about was amazing. Chica had walked her dog only that morning with a neighbour, Linda Woodhouse, who had suggested the whole mad scheme. Come lunchtime the three of us had committed to jump. As the months to take off ebbed away, I was mostly quite blithe about the prospect. Every so often, however, the absurd, daunting reality of it poked its nose into my thoughts. Chica confessed she was scared not of the jump but the landing and the prospect that she'd 'break both ankles'. But having just become patron to The Sussex Snowdrop Trust, which supports children with life-threatening illnesses, the potential to fundraise overcame her reticence. Neither athletes nor dare devils, we are three women of the same certain 60-ish age. And there are easier ways to raise cash, so why skydive? Two of our husbands thought we were mad, but I call it the 'if not now, then when?' spirit. As my old Fleet Street boss used to say: 'Do it darling, you're a long time dead.' We were not entirely strangers to the skies. Chica had recently been up in a Spitfire – an imaginative Christmas present from her husband. Linda had already skydived, in a cool pink flying suit for a breast cancer charity, and I had swooped around above Lake Annecy, in France, a few years before, knuckles rather white, harnessed to a flimsy Para-Pente frame and parachute. Then there is the fact that two of us, now healthy, have had cancer and appreciate the power of publicising and fundraising for charity – and this charity is truly terrific. The Snowdrop Trust sends nurses to care for very sick and terminally ill children in their own homes, and teaches parents how to treat their children too. It also offers financial assistance to parents who care for their child. The testimonies of families involved are, inevitably, very moving. So the nature of the cause, combined with the fact that we are too old to worry about making fools of ourselves but too young to give in yet to the sedate pursuits of retirement, proved irresistible. We booked a pub near the airfield in Old Sarum, Salisbury, the night before the jump, where we, including husbands, all had dinner together. Preparations were non-existent. I had a totally irrelevant pedicure, Chica decided if she could jump out of an aircraft she could add to an already exhilarating couple of days by entering her horse in an event the same weekend, and Linda had, coincidentally, just finished a three-day fast. Neither Chica nor I had quite the right gear though. In my case this was not unexpected: I'm still remembered for scaling a mountain in China in the late Eighties wearing kitten heels. My unworn tracksuit bottoms were unearthed, along with pristine white trainers, but as we wore enormous Ghostbuster -style jumpsuits over all of it our efforts were largely irrelevant. Thankfully, the day of the jump itself was glorious: sunny, clear and the wind 15 knots. During our induction we met the group of four we'd be jumping with. This turned out to be the headmaster of Charterhouse School, with two teenage pupils who had suggested a skydive for The Fountain Centre, a charity which supports cancer patients. As their fourth team member, a housemistress at the school, said: 'Once the girls had asked him, it was pretty much impossible for him to say no.' Briefing was well-organised and tightly managed. There's not much time to think about chickening out. You are weighed, given a jumpsuit and a harness, practice some of the jump positions and moved onto the airfield. You only meet your tandem jumper then. Mine was George, a cheery South African who had done 12,000 skydives. We were packed into the plane, sitting between each other's legs. Sitting on the floor at the door of the plane before pushing out at 10,000ft is, as Chica put it, 'insane'. It's an utterly counterintuitive moment as your brain says: 'This is so wrong'. But by then it's too late, and with a leaping heart you fall gasping into the freezing, rushing air for the freefall at 125mph, strapped to a man you have met only minutes before. Then the parachute opens and there is almost instant silence. I saw Salisbury Cathedral gleaming in the distant sunlight and kept wittering on about how beautiful it all was. I think it must have been worse for Chica, waiting and watching as we pushed off into oblivion. 'I saw Linda being plucked from the plane just in front of me and reality hit,' she says. Shuffling to the edge with Hink, her Dutch instructor, she shouted 'Holy moly. Let's get this done' only to be told: 'Not yet!' Finally she was bundled out. 'The first five seconds were utterly horrendous, a sensory overload, disorientation and a roar of the air,' she says. 'Then I started to enjoy the freefall. When the parachute opened, joyous peace.' Apart, she confesses now, from a great deal of swearing. Linda too contrasted the 'terrifying' freefall to the 'surreal stillness and calm' of the descent once the parachute opened. We all landed bottoms down – laughing, then staggering about. There was a huddle of husbands and dogs at the side of the airfield looking touchingly relieved at our safe return. Chica asked the headmaster how he felt: 'I'm still processing it,' he said thoughtfully, as we three capered about, giggling, high-fiving and hugging in a mixture of pride and relief. And although I'm glad it's over, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Chica, though, is of a different mind: 'Would I do it again? Absolutely not.' She is thinking about abseiling though. When I told Maureen, my 95-year-old mother-in-law, that I was jumping from a plane at 10,000 feet, she said she wished she could come with us. The power of a charity challenge is compelling, whatever a woman's age. It's amazing what can come out of a dog walk with a friend.
CBS News
01-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
DeSantis touts state's success in immigration enforcement
Governor Ron DeSantis says Florida is leading the way is leading the way when it comes to immigration enforcement in an effort to assist President Donald Trump's drive for mass deportations. Local police can make immigration arrests and detain people for immigration violations under specific agreements. Florida officials say many local agencies are still waiting for federal training. However, the latest U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests, part of what the agency calls "Operation Tidal Wave," show how state and local roles may grow. On Thursday, DeSantis will be joined by officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to tout an operation that authorities say netted about 800 immigration arrests in less than a week. It involved about 80 state troopers from the Florida Highway Patrol and targeted people in Jacksonville, Orlando and Tallahassee, as well as in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, is leading the way in the crackdown on undocumented immigrants," Bill Smith, president of FHP's chapter of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, said. Authorities targeted people who faced final deportation orders and detained others on outstanding arrest warrants for previous offenses, like driving under the influence or without a license, Smith said. "Florida is leading the nation in active cooperation with the Trump administration for immigration enforcement and deportation operations!" DeSantis said after ICE announced arrests Saturday. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt spoke about the operation during a briefing. "Among those arrested were a Colombian murderer, alleged MS14 and 18th street gang members and a Russian with a red notice for manslaughter. Operation Tidal Wave is a preview of what is to come around the country. A large-scale operation that employs our state and local enforcement partners to get criminal illegal aliens off our streets," she said. Some immigrant advocates said most arrests were by local police officers and state highway patrol troopers, not ICE. People were detained during traffic stops or when leaving work. Some had no criminal records and were seeking asylum, or had work permits, advocates said. One family suddenly torn apart Jessica Ramírez, general coordinator at the Florida Farm Workers Association, said that most of those arrested were men. In some cases, though not many, ICE officials knocked on the door of immigrants' houses, she said. "People are extremely afraid to go out and drive, afraid of the police," said Ramírez. "The recommendation is to drive carefully, follow the rules, and not give the police a reason to stop them." Chica, a 25-year-old Guatemalan woman who asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of being detained, said her partner Fernando, the father of her 3-month-old baby, was detained Friday morning as he was riding in a car with three other immigrants to his construction job. Chica hasn't heard from him since. "Honey, the police caught us," Fernando, a 20-year-old Guatemalan, texted her Friday at 7:47 a.m. Chica said he had a pending asylum application and a work permit. Police asked the driver of the car to show his license but he did not have one. Officers then detained all four, including Fernando, who came to the U.S alone in 2020. "I'm really worried. I can't believe they caught him," said Chica, who is now considering going back to Guatemala. "I'm afraid they'll deport him and I'll be left here without anyone's help." Sheriff calls out federal government Grady Judd, the sheriff of Polk County in central Florida, called the operation a "drop in the bucket" and voiced frustration with what he called the federal government's inability to carry out arrests and removals on a larger scale. "The reason I think that they were focusing on those ready for deportation is there's no place to put volumes of people," Judd said. "We're eager to cooperate with them. But it's a federal government system and process. And it's not changing very rapidly."
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Yahoo
Kink and LGBT dating apps exposed 1.5m private user images online
Researchers have discovered nearly 1.5 million pictures from specialist dating apps – many of which are explicit – being stored online without password protection, leaving them vulnerable to hackers and extortionists. Anyone with the link was able to view the private photos from five platforms developed by M.A.D Mobile: kink sites BDSM People and Chica, and LGBT apps Pink, Brish and Translove. These services are used by an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 people. M.A.D Mobile was first warned about the security flaw on 20th January but didn't take action until the BBC emailed on Friday. They have since fixed it but not said how it happened or why they failed to protect the sensitive images. Ethical hacker Aras Nazarovas from Cybernews first alerted the firm about the security hole after finding the location of the online storage used by the apps by analysing the code that powers the services. He was shocked that he could access the unencrypted and unprotected photos without any password. "The first app I investigated was BDSM People, and the first image in the folder was a naked man in his thirties," he said. "As soon as I saw it I realised that this folder should not have been public." The images were not limited to those from profiles, he said – they included pictures which had been sent privately in messages, and even some which had been removed by moderators. Mr Nazarovas said the discovery of unprotected sensitive material comes with a significant risk for the platforms' users. Malicious hackers could have found the images and extorted individuals. There is also a risk to those who live in countries hostile to LGBT people. None of the text content of private messages was found to be stored in this way and the images are not labelled with user names or real names, which would make crafting targeted attacks at users more complex. In an email M.A.D Mobile said it was grateful to the researcher for uncovering the vulnerability in the apps to prevent a data breach from occurring. But there's no guarantee that Mr Nazarovas was the only hacker to have found the image stash. "We appreciate their work and have already taken the necessary steps to address the issue," a M.A.D Mobile spokesperson said. "An additional update for the apps will be released on the App Store in the coming days." The company did not respond to further questions about where the company is based and why it took months to address the issue after multiple warnings from researchers. Usually security researchers wait until a vulnerability is fixed before publishing an online report, in case it puts users at further risk of attack. But Mr Nazarovas and his team decided to raise the alarm on Thursday while the issue was still live as they were concerned the company was not doing anything to fix it. "It's always a difficult decision but we think the public need to know to protect themselves," he said. In 2015 malicious hackers stole a large amount of customer data about users of Ashley Madison, a dating website for married people who wish to cheat on their spouse. Ashley Madison client data 'leaked' The hackers taking the bugs to the bank 'Sensitive' army papers found scattered in street
BBC News
30-03-2025
- BBC News
Over a million private photos from dating apps exposed online
Researchers have discovered nearly 1.5 million pictures from specialist dating apps – many of which are explicit – being stored online without password protection, leaving them vulnerable to hackers and with the link was able to view the private photos from five platforms developed by M.A.D Mobile: kink sites BDSM People and Chica, and LGBT apps Pink, Brish and services are used by an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 people.M.A.D Mobile was first warned about the security flaw on 20th January but didn't take action until the BBC emailed on have since fixed it but not said how it happened or why they failed to protect the sensitive images. Ethical hacker Aras Nazarovas from Cybernews first alerted the firm about the security hole after finding the location of the online storage used by the apps by analysing the code that powers the was shocked that he could access the unencrypted and unprotected photos without any password."The first app I investigated was BDSM People, and the first image in the folder was a naked man in his thirties," he said. "As soon as I saw it I realised that this folder should not have been public."The images were not limited to those from profiles, he said – they included pictures which had been sent privately in messages, and even some which had been removed by moderators. Hacking risk Mr Nazarovas said the discovery of unprotected sensitive material comes with a significant risk for the platforms' hackers could have found the images and extorted is also a risk to those who live in countries hostile to LGBT of the text content of private messages was found to be stored in this way and the images are not labelled with user names or real names, which would make crafting targeted attacks at users more an email M.A.D Mobile said it was grateful to the researcher for uncovering the vulnerability in the apps to prevent a data breach from occurring. But there's no guarantee that Mr Nazarovas was the only hacker to have found the image stash."We appreciate their work and have already taken the necessary steps to address the issue," a M.A.D Mobile spokesperson said. "An additional update for the apps will be released on the App Store in the coming days."The company did not respond to further questions about where the company is based and why it took months to address the issue after multiple warnings from security researchers wait until a vulnerability is fixed before publishing an online report, in case it puts users at further risk of attack. But Mr Nazarovas and his team decided to raise the alarm on Thursday while the issue was still live as they were concerned the company was not doing anything to fix it."It's always a difficult decision but we think the public need to know to protect themselves," he 2015 malicious hackers stole a large amount of customer data about users of Ashley Madison, a dating website for married people who wish to cheat on their spouse.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Illinois farmers, saying they face ‘so many challenges as it is,' criticize USDA funding freezes
Funding freezes by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under President Donald Trump could have a 'generational' impact on vulnerable Illinois communities and are already causing financial hardships for farmers, a state House legislative committee was told in testimony Tuesday. 'Farmers face so many challenges as it is, and now they must contend with the uncertainty of whether these contracts with the government will be honored,' said Anna Morrell, co-owner of The Little Farm at Weldon Springs in Clinton and a member of the National Young Farmers Coalition. 'We need certainty, and we need certainty so we can continue feeding our communities.' The USDA has said it plans to cut off funds in fiscal year 2025 for a program that provides funds to food banks to purchase food from local farmers, among other funding pauses and program cuts. Some of the programs cut specifically helped newer farmers and farmers from historically disadvantaged groups, or brought food to disadvantaged communities, Morrell said. As a first-generation farmer, Rachael Smedberg of Tulip Tree Gardens in Beecher said the grant related to food banks, called Local Food Purchase Assistance, allowed her to 'turn the traditional narrative of local, nutrient dense foods on its head.' 'What was once reserved for affluent farmers (markets) is now accessible,' Smedberg told the committee. Her farm's pasture-raised pork, for example, is now available in food banks throughout the state, she said at the hearing of the House Agriculture and Conservation Committee. The USDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. While the committee did not focus on any particular legislation during Tuesday's hearing, the testimony could be used as part of a pressure campaign on members of Congress to force the executive branch to release funds affecting farmers, Illinois Stewardship Alliance spokesperson Nathan Ryder said earlier Tuesday. Trump's widespread halting of federal funds through executive action, which his administration says eliminates government waste, has sown confusion and chaos across federally funded programs in Illinois, though some funding has been restored. The president's tariffs and resulting retaliation from other countries could also cause issues for farmers, Illinois Department of Agriculture Director Jerry Costello told the committee. Trump has said those tariffs will stoke American industry after potential short-term economic hardship. 'Farmers, just like any other business, need and deserve stability. They're businessmen and women making decisions,' Costello said. Republican Rep. Charlie Meier of Okawville suggested the hearing was a partisan exercise by Democrats who control the committee. 'This is a hearing that maybe should be done six months from now … and it shouldn't be being done today,' he said. Meier said the committee shouldn't 'overreact' to Trump's funding moves, which at times have suspended federal money and then brought it back. Rep. Sonya Harper, a Chicago Democrat, denied that the hearing was called for political reason, saying 'it is evident that the actions taken on the federal level are definitely hurting farmers and rural communities in Illinois.'
