Latest news with #TomFletcher
BBC News
a day ago
- General
- BBC News
BBC Audio Tom Fletcher
Tom Fletcher heads the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and has been at the forefront of recent efforts to deliver aid into Gaza. Last week, he was criticised for making inaccurate claims about the impact of the Israeli blockade. No stranger to tough jobs, he was previously a foreign policy advisor to three British Prime Ministers and the UK Ambassador to Lebanon as the country dealt with the civil war in neighbouring Syria. He once fought the mayor of Nairobi in a boxing match and had a mortar round land in his swimming pool at the British embassy in Beirut. One of four siblings, he was born in Folkestone, where he attended the Harvey Grammar School before studying at Oxford University. Prior to his UN role he was Principal of Hertford College and has written books on diplomacy as well as novels. Presenter: Mark Coles Producers: Tom Gillett, Lucy Pawle and Jo Casserly Editor: Nick Holland Sound: Gareth Jones Production Coordinator: Sabine Schereck
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Tom Fletcher explains fans know 'real' version of McFly for simple reason
McFly have been a staple of the music industry since 2003, and this is something Tom Fletcher believes has worked to their advantage in recent years Tom Fletcher reveals that fans of McFly have always seen the "true" version of the band. The musician and his bandmates found fame in 2003 and have since gone on to top the charts. But while they don't always share an in-depth glimpse into their personal lives, those who follow the band know why. While the band may have a huge online following now, Tom, 39, Dougie Poynter, 37, Danny Jones, 39, and Harry Judd, 39, were on the rise before the likes of Bebo, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram became household names. Instead, fans of the band relied on meeting them at CD signings, TV interviews and magazine interviews to get to know them. "We found a lot of our dedicated fans before social media," Tom exclusively told the Mirror. He went on to add: "They got to know us before that was a thing, so they knew our personalities, and so I think it would have been strange if we were then presenting a different version of ourselves now that we had a phone with a camera on us all the time. "I guess it was an easy transition to social media." Tom explained that the first time the band ever did a live stream for fans, they had a man carrying a hardwired camera around them on tour. But Tom does show insights into his family life with his wife, Giovanna, 40, and their sons, Buzz, 11, Buddy, and Max, though he admits it's a balance. "It's really important, this is something that has evolved over the years," he said of finding the balance. He continued: "There was a time when I feel like people were not presenting their true selves. "I think people are doing that more often now, maybe it's just the people I follow. That's the thing with social media – my version of social media is completely different to someone else's. For me, it was really important to be as authentic as I could be and show people. "It's finding that balance of giving people access to my life but also retaining some sort of privacy, but knowing the bits I am sharing is a true reflection of who I am and who we are as a family, or who we are as a band. It's really important." Between them, the band have seven UK Number 1 hits, 19 Top 10s, 21 Top 40s, two Number 1 albums and nine Top 40 albums. But how does he deal with such high levels of success? "It just became our lives," he said, before adding: "McFly is just being normal for us – that's our default mode. We all do other things, I write children's books and musicals, and McFly is like home. "That's the default mode of who we all are, it changed our lives, I can't imagine our lives without it. The guys, we're like brothers. We fight, it is a family. We fight like brothers, we love each other like brothers." It's not just children's books and music for McFly that Tom has written, though; he's also the lyricist behind the upcoming Paddington The Musical, which premieres at The Savoy Theatre in November. "It's been a very slow, long transition," he said of going from writing pop-rock tunes. He added: "I grew up at theatre school, I was in West End musicals from the age of nine. That was my life before the band, and behind the scenes, I've been working on musicals, writing musical versions of my books for over ten years. "I think all of these things have been gearing me up, ready to take on the challenge of writing Paddington, which is definitely another level of responsibility. Everything I've ever worked on has been like my own project and my own characters, and I've only got myself to kind of disappoint. "Whereas with Paddington, everybody loves Paddington. Everybody knows him all around the world. So suddenly feeling that I am responsible for that. Yes, definitely had moments of feeling overwhelmed, but also just what an honour. Of all of the songwriters on this planet who would have lept to have written this musical, it was my phone that rang and they asked me, I just can't believe, I still can't believe it." Tom explained that that he hopes the lyrics do the musical "justice." But in a spooky turn of events, the night before he got the call during the first coronavirus lockdown, he sat down with his family to watching Paddington 2. "It felt like stars were aligned," he said. He added: "My kids are incredibly excited but they've also been very useful because I test all the songs out on them." Buzz is currently appearing in Starlight Express and "loves" musical theatre. Tom revealed that for songs he needs vocals from children on, his children have recorded the demo tracks he needed. "My wife is on all the demos and my kids are singing on the demo, it's quite useful having a family that are into musical theatre," he laughed. Tom admits that his three children "gave him more purpose". He said: "The biggest change is becoming a parent, before that, my whole life revolved around my band and work. Then suddenly, there's a new centre of gravity in your life and it's your kids. It gives you more purpose, it gives more reason to do all the things you want to do. You have a different motivation to it and the hardest thing is saying 'No.' "I think that's the biggest thing I've learnt about myself is that I need to say 'no' more often in a very polite way – I can't do everything that I want to do, unfortunately." However, Tom explained that it is an "amazing problem" to have and feels "very lucky" for the opportunities that are thrown his way. "I feel very lucky that I've just been in the right place at the right time and the stars aligned," he stated. One project Tom couldn't refuse, though, was teaming up with Yoplait to share his take on the classic nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty, to tackle the ongoing crisis of childhood calcium and vitamin D deficiency. "As a dad, I can really relate to what these stats have shown," Tom said. He added: "There's a lot of confusion about what we should be feeding our kids," Tom said. He went on to add: "There's so much information out there, whether that's on social media, which can just be overwhelming, knowing what is accurate or not. "I think that is one of the things that has left to seeing an increase in kids that are deficient in calcium and vitamin D. Now being able to put my children's author hat on and rework the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme, hopefully to raise awareness for what I think is a fun way of highlighting a very serious issue. "It can be small changes that need to be made, changing one or two of the sugary snacks for a yoghurt that's fortified with calcium and vitamin D. It's quite an easy thing to make that change. Hopefully, this will be something that parents can read the information from Yoplait and get all the information on the stats." But what's the biggest thing he's taken away? He said: "Knowing where I'm getting my information from. If parents what to go to the Yoplait website, they'll know that's the best place to get this information and see all of the stats from there. But as parents, we're all going through the same stuff together. I'm experiencing that same confusion. Kids will tell you what they want to eat as well, it's hard knowing what you want to give your kids, but your kids are going to want to eat it as well. Luckily in my house, giving them a yoghourt is not a challenge." In partnership with Yoplait, the brand behind Petits Filous and Frubes, children's author and musician Tom Fletcher tackles childhood calcium and vitamin D deficiency, starting with a bold new take on Humpty Dumpty.
The Wire
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Wire
Concerns Expressed Over Gaza Situation, Modi Government Accused of ‘Assisting Genocide'
Support independent journalism. Donate Now World The Wire Staff The statement also cited Mahatma Gandhi's statement wherein he had said that Palestine belongs to the Arabs and it was 'wrong and inhuman to impose the jews on the Arabs.' Palestinians inspect the damage at a school used as a shelter by displaced residents that was hit by Israeli military strike and killed at least 36 people, in Gaza City, on Monday, May 26, 2025. Photo: AP/PTI Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute Now New Delhi: Signatories to a statement from around the world have expressed their concern over the fact that India – which had always supported the Palestinian cause – is under its present government supporting Israel by supplying it weaponry. 'India, from its inception, supported the just cause of the Palestinians. However, the present regime is assisting the genocide by exporting rockets, explosives and killer drones to Israel,' said a list of 372 signatories from India and other countries in a statement. 'The ongoing genocide in Gaza is nearing 600 days. According to official records, the death toll has crossed 54,000. Studies done by Lancet and others put the death toll several times more than the official numbers. An estimate by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is that Israel kills a Palestinian woman every hour in the Gaza Strip, including 7,920 mothers so far. Israel kills a child in Gaza every 45 minutes,' added the statement. The statement said that despite all these horrors, the world just stands by and watches the genocide, which is perhaps the first live-streamed genocide. 'Even though the world gets real-time updates on this genocide the world powers don't raise a finger to stop Israel; rather, this genocide is aided by Western powers, especially the United States. Israel has dropped approximately 90, 000 tons of bombs on Gaza, every one of them provided or assisted by the United States. It is almost 4.5 times the tonnage of nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,' said the statement. It added that UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher has recently warned that 14,000 babies in Gaza could die soon if aid does not reach communities in Gaza. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 60,000 pregnant women are currently enduring severe conditions due to malnutrition, hunger, and inadequate healthcare, said the statement. 'Palestine is not an Arab/Muslim Vs Jews issue. It is the last great anti-colonial struggle against Western colonialism,' said the statement. It also cited Mahatma Gandhi's statement wherein he had said that Palestine belongs to the Arabs and it was 'wrong and inhuman to impose the jews on the Arabs.' World Trump and the Fantasy of a 'White Genocide' View More
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Defense officials debunk UN accusations of halting, impeding aid delivery
The UN acted as if it lacked the capacity to move food to northern Gaza, stalling aid trucks at the Kerem Shalom crossing, defense officials claim. Defense officials accused the United Nations on Friday of undermining efforts to supply food to Gazan civilians, adding to the existing tensions between the international body and Israel. The UN had acted as if it lacked the capacity to move food to northern Gaza, thereby stalling hundreds of aid trucks at the Kerem Shalom crossing point, the officials claimed. Earlier this week, Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said that the UN is reducing cooperation with Israel's food initiative, complicating the distribution of aid and effectively playing into Hamas's hands. On Monday, Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said there are 10,000 aid trucks on the Gaza border, cleared and ready to go. 'We've got 10,000 trucks on the border right now, cleared [and] ready to go, and we'll do everything to get them in and save lives,' Fletcher told CNN's Christine Amanpour on Monday. When she repeated the number back to him incredulously, Fletcher nodded and replied, 'Full of food.' COGAT posted a clip of the interview on X/Twitter, saying, 'Look, it's @UNReliefChief with another libelous lie.' 'There are no 10,000 trucks waiting to go into Gaza. What there are, are hundreds of trucks' worth of aid the UN hasn't picked up from the Gazan side over the last few days, after we gave you plenty of routes you can use to safely distribute the aid throughout Gaza.' On Thursday, COGAT accused UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric of lying about Fletcher's recent visits to Gaza and the UN's framing of the Gaza humanitarian aid issue. COGAT noted that while Dujarric claimed Fletcher had seen Gaza "with his own eyes a few weeks ago," the UN official had actually not visited the enclave since February. "Let's stop focusing on aid that might be in the pipeline, and start collecting the content of the 550 trucks already waiting for you inside Gaza," COGAT wrote. "For a full week now, we've been offering you alternative routes to facilitate pickup. These are areas with active military activities, and coordination is for your own safety. Mathilda Heller contributed to this report.
Arab News
3 days ago
- General
- Arab News
UN aid chief says Israel's blocking of food to Gaza is a ‘war crime'
LONDON: Israel's blocking of food aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza in an attempt to forcibly remove the population amounts to a war crime, the UN's humanitarian chief said in an interview broadcast on Friday. Israel allowed a trickle of supplies into Gaza last week after a complete blockade for nearly three months. But there have been chaotic and deadly scenes amid a new distribution system that sidelined the UN. 'We're seeing food sat on the borders and not being allowed in when there is a population on the other side of the border that is starving, and we're hearing Israeli ministers say that is to put pressure on the population of Gaza,' Tom Fletcher told the BBC. Using food as a weapon 'is classified as a war crime,' he said, adding that would be for the courts and history to judge. He also warned Israel against the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza to another country, a policy that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his hard-line cabinet have advocated. Earlier this month, Israel's extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Gaza would be 'totally destroyed' within six months and Palestinians there would be so despairing that they would be 'looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places.' Fletcher called on Netanyahu to ensure that 'this language, and ultimately, this policy ... of forced displacement, isn't enacted.' Since Israel broke a two-month ceasefire in March it has ramped up its operations in Gaza, killing thousands more Palestinian civilians in an attempt to take full military control of the territory. The increased violence has led European countries to shift their stance and threaten sanctions against Israel if it does not stop the slaughter and allow the full flow of aid. On May 14, Fletcher told the UN Security Council that it must act to prevent genocide in Gaza. He said the comments were in response to what his colleagues on the ground were telling him. 'What they're reporting is forced displacement. They're reporting starvation, they're reporting torture, and they're reporting deaths on a massive scale,' he said. 'In previous cases, Rwanda, Srebrenica and Sri Lanka, the world had told us afterwards that we didn't act in time, that we didn't sound the warning and ask that the world respond to prevent genocide. 'And that's my call to the Security Council and the world right now, 'will you act to prevent genocide?'' He added: 'History will be tough in the way it judges us. And it must be.' The conflict has killed almost 54,000 Palestinians since it started in October 2023 when a Hamas-led assault killed 1,200 Israelis and seized dozens of hostages.
