Latest news with #PE
Spectator
5 days ago
- Business
- Spectator
Soul suckers of private equity, Douglas Murray on Epstein and MAGA & are literary sequels ‘lazy'?
First up: how private equity is ruining Britain Gus Carter writes in the magazine this week about how foreign private equity (PE) is hollowing out Britain – PE now owns everything from a Pret a Manger to a Dorset village, and even the number of children's homes owned by PE has doubled in the last five years. This 'gives capitalism a bad name', he writes. Perhaps the most symbolic example is in the water industry, with water firms now squeezed for money and saddled with debt. British water firms now have a debt-to-equity ratio of 70%, compared to just 4% in 1991. Britain's desperation for foreign money has, quite literally, left Britain 'in the shit'. Gus joined the podcast to discuss further, alongside the journalist Megan Greenwell, author of Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream. (00:46) Next: why is MAGA so incensed over Jeffrey Epstein? Six years after he died, the Jeffrey Epstein scandal is still haunting Donald Trump. Trump had vowed to release all files on various cases that attract conspiracy theorists – from JFK to Martin Luther King Jr. What makes the Epstein case different, as Douglas Murray writes in the magazine this week, is that the case was so recent and Epstein's ties with the elites, many of whom are still in power. Trump appeared to backtrack on releasing files relating to Epstein, prompting ire from the MAGA world, and there is now mounting cross-party pressure to uncover who knew what. Mike Johnson, the House speaker, sent representatives home early for summer, and there is even talk of Ghislaine Maxwell testifying. Why is the Epstein scandal such a lightning rod for MAGA rage? Douglas Murray joined the Spectator to discuss. The full interview can be found on Spectator TV. (15:49) And finally: are literary sequels 'lazy'? It's 'sod's law', says the Spectator's literary editor Sam Leith, that when a friend's book is due to be reviewed in the pages of the books section that you edit, the review will be bad. Mike Cormack reviews Men In Love by Irvine Welsh this week, calling the decision by Welsh to pen another sequel to Trainspotting 'lazy'. At the Spectator this made us ponder whether this is true of all literary sequels, and what motivates authors to stick with characters and stories that they know. Sam joined us to discuss further alongside Lucy Thynne, the Telegraph's deputy literary editor. (33:59) Hosted by William Moore and Lara Prendergast. Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Megan McElroy.
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Trade Optimism, Dollar Declines and What it Means for Private Markets
David Gross, the Co-Managing Partner at Bain Capital joined Wall Street Beat on Bloomberg Open Interest to talk about how private capital is reacting to macro headwinds and the implications of PE in your 401(k) plan. (Source: Bloomberg)
The Guardian
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘I might annoy you, but my intentions are good': Joe Wicks' alien-filled new exercise class for kids
Joe Wicks is doing some burpees. He is being his usual Joe Wicks self, shouting matey encouragement as his lustrous hair bobs up and down in time. If you watched PE With Joe, his daily lockdown-era YouTube series, it will be familiar. However, there is one important distinction. Wicks is now exercising in a void, surrounded by fuzzy little aliens. Welcome to Activate, his new frontier in getting children moving. 'Obviously, PE With Joe had so much impact, and I'm so proud of that,' Wicks says over Zoom. 'But I had this niggling feeling that I couldn't do this for ever. I can't visit every school because thousands and thousands apply for me to visit every year.' Activate is Wicks' answer to this problem. A collaboration with Studio AKA, which makes the magnificent Hey Duggee, it's a series of five-minute animated workout videos in which he appears as a bright, animated avatar, guiding the viewer through a set of bodyweight exercises. These are no joke; the first episode is a lightly punishing round of squats, star jumps and burpees that would probably reduce a lot of adults to sweaty puddles. Activate is fun, visually beautiful and committed to making kids more active. In other words, it's classic public service broadcasting. Which makes it even more baffling that nobody wanted anything to do with it at first. 'No broadcaster could recognise or identify where it would go in their scheduling,' says Sue Goffe, CEO of Studio AKA. 'We just kept getting turned down by everybody.' 'We tried, man, we really, really tried,' sighs Wicks. 'People loved it, but weren't willing to invest. So we said, 'You know what? We gotta make this happen ourselves.'' 'Joe and [his brother] Nikki are contagious,' says Goffe. 'They are a delightful, formidable duo of energy, compassion and kindness. You can't be unaffected by it, so we had to carry on. Roll forward to where we are now and we could never have imagined we would be here.' Where they are now is on YouTube. A few years ago, this would have been seen as a defeat but, in the past year or so, YouTube has become arguably the most dominant method of content consumption on Earth. Much of its colossal audience comprises kids, so now there's a real sense that Activate is meeting its target audience where it lives. Furthermore, as soon as the first episode was complete, partners started rolling in. Universal Music has lent the series its catalogue – the first episode is soundtracked by Elton John's I'm Still Standing – and now it has partnered with the British government. Wes Streeting, the secretary of state for health and social care, was at the launch this week, and there are pledges to fund and promote the next batch of episodes. I poke Wicks a bit, try to get him to gloat over all the broadcasters that turned him down, but he's having none of it. 'Success for me isn't government backing,' he says. 'The win for me is more kids exercising and doing these at home with their parents, doing them in school.' 'I really think this is going to make a big difference to children's health,' adds Goffe. 'You know, it's a big issue. One in five children are leaving school with obesity. That's a terrible statistic. If we can contribute to making content that makes a difference, that's a win.' It's only natural that Activate will be compared with PE With Joe, and for good reason. That was the moment when Wicks – then a fitness instructor with boundless ambition and infinite enthusiasm for taking his top off – became a national treasure. He is now as synonymous with lockdown as banana bread and hitting saucepans on the doorstep. But PE With Joe had two things Activate doesn't. First, it was just Wicks filming himself in his living room so it was cheap to make. Second, it gave lots of bored people an opportunity to spend some of their day looking at Joe Wicks. Meanwhile, Activate is expensive to produce and shows Wicks as a cartoony animation. This is something the producers wrestled with. 'We were always trying to figure out, well, why is it animated?' says Kristian Andrews, who directed the series with Marcus Armitage. 'Obviously, Joe has a massively successful schools tour where he's engaging with kids, but he is just one person. And we pretty quickly realised when we were having these conversations with various broadcasters that, actually, not everyone knows Joe Wicks. Also he's not, you know, the face of diversity. That was an opportunity to broaden it out by giving him some funny little characters to exercise with.' Plus, like everyone, Wicks isn't getting any younger. 'I love what I do, but there's going to come a time where I probably can't film the high-intensity HiiT workouts any more,' he says. 'This is a scalable way of getting into schools, getting into homes.' But simple immortality isn't enough for Wicks. He has far greater ambitions. 'My dream, my moonshot, is that the education department makes it compulsory that every single day kids in primary schools do an Activate,' he adds. 'That could really lift their mood and their focus – and their grades and their mental health – beyond anything else. I'm going to really push for that.' Even without a government initiative, this would seem likely. Primary teachers are crying out for cheap, quick and easy ways to get children moving. Plenty of schools already do a Daily Mile, where pupils go outside and walk around but, to the uninitiated, this tends to have an air of prison exercise. Something as vibrant and fun as Activate could change all that. Having a five-minute break between subjects to jump up and down at the behest of some irresistibly cute animated Minionesque characters seems a no-brainer. There will be more episodes after this first batch and the nature of how they are produced – they are, in their most essential terms, a series of looping animations – means they will become cheaper to make. This is a good thing, because everyone involved has high hopes for Activate. There are suggestions that, through the Universal partnership, musical acts will want to collaborate in animated form. And, although the current focus is on the UK, there are hopes the idea will translate internationally. But, at its core, Activate will always be a manifestation of one man's desire to change the world five minutes at a time. 'I have a genuine love for it,' Wicks says of his desire to get kids moving. 'You might not love everything I say, or I might piss you off, but my intentions are good – and my intention is to help people. This is the most exciting thing I'm working on. PE With Joe, that moment is gone. I always said I'll never do anything more meaningful than that. But if I can create change in the education system and push to make exercise the number one priority, I think that could be my greatest achievement.' Activate is on YouTube now
The Irish Sun
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Kerry Katona admits she contacted ex Brian McFadden's new wife on the morning of their wedding
KERRY Katona has admitted she contacted ex husband Brian McFadden's new wife moments before the pair said I Do. The Westlife hitmaker, 45, wed Advertisement 6 Kerry Katona has admitted she contacted her ex Brian McFadden's new wife on their wedding day Credit: instagram 6 The pair were married for four years Credit: Getty - Contributor 6 The Westlife singer this month shared glimpses of his wedding with new wife Danielle Parkinson Credit: instagram shares Molly Marie, 23, and 21-year-old Lilly-Sue McFadden with his His daughters She told how she reached out to PE teacher Danielle on her wedding day and said: "My ex, Brian McFadden, got married earlier this month and I just want to wish him and his wife Danielle a lifetime of happiness." After rumours of a feud between the pair Kerry, who was married to the Irish singer Advertisement read more kerry katona "I texted Danielle to wish them a happy day - it looked like a beautiful celebration and I hope they had a ball." "I think I might have a girl crush on her. I always go off of what my girls say for a stepmum, and she's the best stepmum. "On Mother's Day, I sent her a message. I went, Happy Mother's Day, Danielle. I think she's lovely and they've got a beautiful little girl, Ruby. Advertisement Most read in Celebrity "I wish them nothing but joy and happiness." Kerry Katona reveals tense relationship with first husband Brian McFadden and shares hopes for a friendship with ex KERRY'S TAKE Whole Again singer Kerry recently told how she hoped she could have stayed pals with boyband star Brian. It came before the mum of five She spoke from the heart about her ex during the podcast Meeting… Kerry Katona - and the sadness that has followed. Advertisement The Atomic Kitten star, 43, told presenter Matt Foister: "I really wish me and Brian were friends. I said that to Lily yesterday because she was going to [Westlife's] concert to watch and I said, I wish I could come." Kerry Katona's love life timeline Kerry's first high-profile relationship was with Brian McFadden, who was then a member of the Irish boyband Westlife. The couple married in 2002 and had two daughters together, Molly and Lilly-Sue, but divorce beckoned just four years later after infidelity claims. In 2007, Kerry married Mark Croft, a former taxi driver. Their relationship was tumultuous and marked by financial difficulties and accusations of infidelity. They had two children together, Heidi and Maxwell, before divorcing in 2011. Kerry has spoken openly about the difficulties she faced during this period, including struggles with her mental health and substance abuse. Following this, she entered into a relationship with George Kay, a former professional rugby league player. They married in 2014 and had a daughter, Dylan-Jorge (DJ). However, their relationship was fraught with issues, including horrifying domestic abuse, and they separated in 2017. Kay died in 2019 after 'biting into a ball of cocaine'. Kerry later found love again with Ryan Mahoney, a fitness trainer. The couple became engaged in 2020, and Kerry described Ryan as a stabilising and positive influence in her life. After increasing speculation late in 2024, Kerry revealed they had split over a "breach in trust" and Ryan had moved out of her home. She then admitted: "People forget I've lived a million lives after Brian, but it was so iconic and it was so public, and people always go on about me and Brian but it was a lifetime ago. "He is a part of my story and he hates that, but unfortunately it is what it is and I'm grateful to him, because I went through something with Brian that was phenomenal... phenomenal." LOVE STORY Brian met his PE teacher partner Danielle in 2016 and they got engaged shortly after. Advertisement After meeting his long-term love, Brian popped the question shortly after in December 2019. The happy couple welcomed their daughter Ruby Jean into the world back in 2021. Brian recently revealed his intimate The happy couple had planned on getting married in South Africa but were forced to postpone their big day due to Covid-19 restrictions and the birth of their daughter. Advertisement Following his split with Kerry, he was previously engaged to Australian singer Delta Goodrem from 2007 to 2011. He was then married to model 6 Brian and PE teacher Danielle said I Do in a lavish ceremony Credit: instagram 6 Kerry, 44, told of her admiration for her daughters' step parent Credit: instagram Advertisement 6 She recently told how she hoped she and the Irish boyband star could be pals Credit: Getty
GMA Network
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- GMA Network
Will Ashley, Charlie Fleming, Esnyr recreate Mika Salamanca's viral 'Sino Nga Ba Siya' clip
After Mika Salamanca emerged as the first Kapuso big winner of "Pinoy Big Brother: Celebrity Collab Edition," old videos from her childhood resurfaced on social media and offered a nostalgic glimpse into the Mika we know today. Among those videos that are going viral is a hilarious clip of a young Mika singing to Sarah Geronimo's "Sino Nga Ba Siya." Clad in her PE uniform, the Sparkle star is seen running before accidentally tripping and falling flat on the ground. Undeterred, she bursts into tears—then starts singing the song, creating a moment that's equal parts funny and endearing. With the clip going viral, netizens have jumped on the trend—sharing their own hilarious takes using the audio. Even Mika's fellow housemates Charlie Fleming, Will Ashley, and Esnyr didn't miss out on the fun, joining in with their own playful renditions. On TikTok, Charlie joined the trend with her own spin—filming her version along the shores of Boracay. After running playfully through the sand, she collapsed beneath a coconut tree by the water, perfectly lip-syncing to Mika's now-iconic audio. "Pasado na po bah?" Charlie wrote in the caption and tagged Mika. Her entry earned an applaud by Mika herself, who wrote: "Ay at talagang sumali ka pa. 10/10 sa 'kin 'yan kase upgraded sa white sand," in the comment section. Meanwhile, Will took on the trend in a parking lot—sprinting across the pavement and even throwing himself to the ground as he dramatically dubbed Mika's lines. "Grabe," Will said in the caption, tagging Mika. As for Esnyr, he put his signature twist on the trend—bringing his trademark humor and energy, with fellow housemate Bianca De Vera making a fun cameo in the video. The short skit begins with Bianca and Esnyr laughing inside a moving car. In a playful moment, Bianca pushes Esnyr to the side, prompting him to yell "Aray!" before breaking into an impromptu a cappella version of the song. He then pans the camera to Bianca, who delivers her own hilarious rendition, adding to the fun. And of course, Mika herself joined in on the fun—sharing a fresh take on the viral video that started it all. In the video she shared, Mika just walked out from an elevator and squatted on the floor as she sang the song in acapella. As the song reached its climax, Mika stood up and belted the song's chorus showing her pure, raw and unadulterated voice. "'Wag n'yo na akong i-tag, salamat. Chereng!" Mika wrote in the caption. Mika and her duo Brent Manalo won "Pinoy Big Brother: Celebrity Collab Edition." As she returned to the outside world, Mika said that she wants to pursue music. She currently appears in "Encantadia Chronicles: Sang'gre" as Anaca. —Jade Veronique Yap/MGP, GMA Integrated News
