Latest news with #vacation
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
NYC Mayor Eric Adams takes a swipe at Mamdani trip to Uganda, then says he was only kidding around
NEW YORK — Mayor Adams, after taking a jab at Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani's decision to take a trip to Uganda after 'winning half an election' in a video released Thursday, said Friday he was joking and conceded politicians need a getaway every once in a while. 'People are going to travel, particularly after a race, a hard race, and we're just making fun at him,' Adams, who's running for re-election on an independent line, said in an interview on Fox5. 'They're going to make fun at me. This is going to be an exciting campaign.' Adams, who has often caught flack for his own many trips abroad, added that after the November general election, he is thinking of taking a 'nice vacation' to Italy. 'I love Pompeii, and Portofino is one of my favorite locations,' he said. 'So, sometimes you just got to download. And that's just the reality of this business.' In the short-form video on Thursday, Adams made a tongue-in-cheek reference to his now-dismssed indictment on charges of taking illegal donations from Turkish nationals, suggesting he'd like to go on a trip to Istanbul or Ankara. But he said he wouldn't, because he has to run the city. 'I realized I'm not a wannabe mayor,' Adams says in the video. 'I'm the actual mayor. I just can't get up and leave. If I'm gone, there won't be an Eric Adams keeping things under control. 'Somebody has to keep us safe and get stuff done,' he said. Adams also took a jab at mayoral opponent Andrew Cuomo, musing that maybe the mayor could also write a book on 'failed leadership.' The press also took a shot in the video, with the mayor suggesting if he weren't around they 'might actually need to report the news.' Mamdani and his wife traveled to Uganda earlier this week to celebrate their recent marriage with family and friends, according to the campaign. Mamdani was born in the country. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
NYC Mayor Eric Adams takes a swipe at Mamdani trip to Uganda, then says he was only kidding around
NEW YORK — Mayor Adams, after taking a jab at Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani's decision to take a trip to Uganda after 'winning half an election' in a video released Thursday, said Friday he was joking and conceded politicians need a getaway every once in a while. 'People are going to travel, particularly after a race, a hard race, and we're just making fun at him,' Adams, who's running for re-election on an independent line, said in an interview on Fox5. 'They're going to make fun at me. This is going to be an exciting campaign.' Adams, who has often caught flack for his own many trips abroad, added that after the November general election, he is thinking of taking a 'nice vacation' to Italy. 'I love Pompeii, and Portofino is one of my favorite locations,' he said. 'So, sometimes you just got to download. And that's just the reality of this business.' In the short-form video on Thursday, Adams made a tongue-in-cheek reference to his now-dismssed indictment on charges of taking illegal donations from Turkish nationals, suggesting he'd like to go on a trip to Istanbul or Ankara. But he said he wouldn't, because he has to run the city. 'I realized I'm not a wannabe mayor,' Adams says in the video. 'I'm the actual mayor. I just can't get up and leave. If I'm gone, there won't be an Eric Adams keeping things under control. 'Somebody has to keep us safe and get stuff done,' he said. Adams also took a jab at mayoral opponent Andrew Cuomo, musing that maybe the mayor could also write a book on 'failed leadership.' The press also took a shot in the video, with the mayor suggesting if he weren't around they 'might actually need to report the news.' Mamdani and his wife traveled to Uganda earlier this week to celebrate their recent marriage with family and friends, according to the campaign. Mamdani was born in the country.
The Sun
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Simone Biles stuns in bikini on yacht vacation as NFL star husband sends steamy 7-word message
SIMONE BILES stunned fans and her husband Jonathan Owens as she dazzled in a bikini. The 28-year-old gymnast is currently enjoying a vacation in the Caribbean with friends. 4 4 4 Biles took to Instagram to share three incredible snaps of herself soaking up the sun on a yacht. The seven-time Olympic gold medallist donned a black bucket hat and stylish sunglasses as she posed in front of glistening blue ocean water. She left little to the imagination in her blue swimwear but wore a white t-shirt over the top. It brilliantly said on it: "No crying on the yacht." Biles' army of adoring fans were left in awe of her, with one saying: "Simone is literally that girl!" Another added: "I'm in love." A third joked: "We are crying because we are not on the yacht with you lol." But her biggest supporter was, of course, her husband and NFL star Owens. The Chicago Bears safety showed just how much he is missing her with a steamy comment on her post, which read: "Sheesh baby i need you home asap!!!" He accompanied it with a drooling, sweltering hot and splash emoji. Simone Biles forgets wedding anniversary on Met Gala carpet Fans loved his comment and they reacted: "Love your girl and show it, she a baddie bro, let ppl know." A second wrote: "Love this! May you always be obsessed with each other!" Owens, 30, has not been able to join his wife on the vacation as he is in a training camp with the Bears getting ready for the new season. They face the Miami Dolphins in their first pre-season clash on August 10. Meanwhile, Biles has been busy of late, stealing the show at the ESPY red carpet event. Her dress was custom-made and she wowed in a royal blue color, possibly inspired by her outfits seen at the Olympics. 4
The Independent
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
I live in the Cotswolds – here's why Americans are obsessed
This summer, American Vice President JD Vance has opted for a rather un-Trumpian vacation. No golden elevators or Mar-a-Lago this time: he'll be heading with his family to the Cotswolds in August, reportedly renting a romcom-worthy cottage. The Cotswolds really is as beautiful as the postcards – and Instagram posts – would have you believe. The region that spans parts of six counties (Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire and Somerset) has always had a touch of glamour to it: it's been a hub for the wealthy since the heyday of the wool trade in the late Middle Ages. And more recently, the region I call home has been drawing the great and the glamorous from both sides of the pond. Taylor Swift based herself here for her London Era tour dates, Shonda Rhimes filmed Bridgerton on the streets of Bath and Jeremy Clarkson continues to cause traffic jams by selling pork scratchings to queues of Clarkson's Farm fans. Ellen DeGeneres briefly moved here with her wife Portia De Rossi (although she's just put her property up for sale). We've even had the ultimate seal of American approval – a visit from a Kardashian. Kourtney was recently spotted at Soho Farmhouse in Chipping Norton. So what exactly is the appeal for transatlantic tastemakers? For one, the Cotswolds is, simply, breathtaking, in a seen-it-on-the-telly sort of way. Gorgeous, untouched villages such as Bibury, Bourton-on-the-Water and Castle Combe seem tailor-made for Instagram posts, sitting among golden hills, babbling brooks and gastropubs serving £18 sticky toffee puddings. For Americans raised on fantastical versions of British life (think Downton Abbey, The Holiday and Harry Potter, all filmed here), it's a concentrated dose of British fantasy: the accents, the bunting, the Range Rovers. And this isn't just an American fascination. The British elite are still rushing to join the 'Chipping Norton set', so-called as they tend to land among covetable postcodes in the north of the Cotswolds. Everyone from Kate Winslet to Kate Moss – and former prime minister David Cameron – have called it home. But the influx of celebrities, Veeps and, increasingly, busloads of TikTok-fuelled day-trippers have taken their toll on the Cotswolds, straining local infrastructure and disrupting community life. In 2023, the region welcomed over 23 million visitors, a sharp rise from 16 million in 2018. The area is usually home to 140,000 people. Some of the Cotswolds' prettiest, most untouched villages now face daily congestion, their narrow lanes overwhelmed by tour buses as well as increased litter and noise. The tourism economy, one of the area's largest incomes, supports jobs but inflates property prices, creating a housing shortage in which thousands of covetable cottages have been converted into holiday lets. I live in a wonderfully un-touristy corner of the Cotswolds (visitors often don't realise it's big enough to have plenty of 'normal' towns and communities). Last month, I stayed in Castle Combe, often dubbed 'the prettiest village in England'. Around 350 people live here, but I didn't see a single local – the narrow streets were thronged with international influencers busily filming videos. Charming cottages, with roses around their doorframes, were plastered with signs begging visitors not to fly drones. It felt closer to a visiting a theme park than a tucked-away treasure. And yet it's still possible to find magic in the Cotswolds, and I think to write off the region William Morris called 'heaven on earth' as a playground for the posh is a disservice. Stunning villages such as Snowshill and Guiting Power offer tranquil walks and pint-sized pubs. The market town of Cirencester will please photographers but is still a proper community with a great foodie scene, while Tetbury groans with antiques. Stroud sits jewel-like in the heart of the Five Valleys, its rolling green hills perfect for escaping the madding crowds. Or visit spots that are actually equipped to welcome tourists. Stroll among autumn colour at Westonbirt Arboretum, explore National Trust sites such as Chedworth Roman Villa or spot wildlife at Cotswold Water Park. Avoid Airbnbs and stay instead in a boutique hotel. The Painswick sits in a chocolate box village while Wild Thyme and Honey has a relaxed, pubby vibe. Cowley Manor offers heated indoor and outdoor pools, plus an award-winning restaurant. Or simply head right out of this corner of the country completely. The Shropshire Hills are far quieter than the Cotswolds. The Suffolk coast and many corners of Somerset offer chocolate-box charm without the Instagram hoards. The Cotswolds will no doubt remain catnip for celebrities and clout-chasers, but for those in search of real countryside calm – and a Britain less filtered – it's worth taking the road less travelled. After all, who wants exactly the same holiday snaps as JD Vance?
The Independent
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Why the Cotswolds are the perfect place for JD Vance to spend his holidays
JD! You're spending part of your vacation in the Cotswolds, and you couldn't be more welcome. In order to squeeze every drop while visiting this little-known area of England, I've compiled a few tips. Firstly, where to stay? If it's an authentic working smallholding you want, you could do worse than the Soho Farmhouse, set in 100 acres with horse stables, a cinema and barns with underfloor heating. Your room will be a converted pigsty with cast-ion tubs and curated ducks. You will have a chance to discuss rural life with friendly and knowledgeable countrymen. If it's kids' entertainment you're after, try nearby Estelle Manor, where your offspring can race around in mini–Land Rovers. It's where all the local kids learn to drive. Premium cabins are a very reasonable $1,500 a night. From there, it is a short hope to another working farm, the quaintly-named Diddly Squat, owned by a real local 'character', Jeremy Clarkson. He is your kinda guy: a petrolhead, anti-woke, no-nonsense salt of the earth multi-millionaire. You will undoubtedly bond. You use your outrage to galvanise voters. Clarkson uses it to sell books, TV rights and chilli-flavoured mayonnaise. You will love his fart jokes and his encyclopaedic knowledge of 14th-century sheep taxation. Understand that Clarkson's agricultural odyssey is genuinely rooted in the absurd realities of British farming — but it's also brilliantly edited television. Think the Apprentice meets James Herriot. The show is a love letter to rural life, a middle finger to government overreach, and a sitcom disguised as a documentary. You will doubtless meet another delightful local, Kaleb Cooper, who works alongside Clarkson. You'll instantly recognise him as the archetype of the forgotten working man, except that he has 2.9 million Instagram followers, which is about a million more than you. See this as a meeting of populist icons. Don't try to win him over with libertarian homilies or war stories from Senate hearings: he'll just challenge you to reverse a trailer into a tight gate without taking out a water pump. Next, you must drop in on Daylesford Organic, where all the locals shop. It is technically a farm in the same sense that the nearby Blenheim estate is a garden. Don't be put off by the prices, which might be considered a hate crime in Appalachia (organic active manuka honey for only £36 a jar!). Only this is not Appalachia: it's Aspen with sheep. You'll love the owner, Lady Bamford, who will acknowledge the trauma in your memoir Hillbilly Elegy, but also wonder if the aesthetic has potential. You can discuss diggers with her old man, the Tory-donor Lord Bamford of JCB. Just don't mention the £500m tax inquiry that was reportedly launched in 2020 – the outcome of which remains unknown. You may be feeling peckish by now, so where better for a pint and some grub than a local hostelry? May we recommend the Bull Inn in Burford, a 16th-century grade II coaching inn lovingly restored by another real Cotswold 'character', Matthew Freud? Know that Matthew doesn't do small talk: he does narrative control. Once married to Elisabeth Murdoch, he will admire your origin story and suggest that he could help you with some strategic rebranding. Next, it will be time to meet the other members of the Chipping Norton set: think the Hamptons, only older, colder and with mud-speckled Defenders and labradors named Beckham. It is now a slightly marginal but still potent clique of political-media aristocracy that peaked during the Cameron years. These days their power is subtler, more slippery. Do not try to bond over populism. They'll nod politely, then have you edited out of the group photo. If you meet Rebekah Brooks remember Trump is suing her boss Rupert Murdoch for a cool $10bn. When in doubt, change the subject to the weather. Do not, on any account, travel south to Oxford; it will simply annoy you. If you think Harvard is bad, just wait until you encounter the real thing, with their obsession with pronouns, unisex toilets and trigger warnings; and woke professors who don't believe in American exceptionalism. They also have a tiresome obsession with facts. They still speak Latin at dinners and graduations, and when you learn about the ructions over a tiny statue of Cecil Rhodes you'll just get mad. He was just trying to Make Africa Great Again. Head north instead to the RSC at Stratford, where you may just catch the Winter's Tale, a character study in paranoia and power. Or too much of a busman's holiday? Is there something about Leontes that might resonate – an uncanny capacity for self-destruction, reinvention and spectacular ideological whiplash? Back in Shakespeare's day, every female character would have been played by a teenage boy in drag. But thankfully, there is no gender-bending cross-dressing in modern performances. You can relax. Over at Garsington Opera, things are more fluid, so you should probably give their current production of Fidelio a miss. The vibe includes quite a lot of cross-dressing, tyranny and liberation – though the disguise theme arguably aligns with your own trajectory of self-reinvention from Middletown, Ohio, to Yale Law School to MAGA Trumpworld. If you were hoping for a bit of shooting, you're out of luck since partridge and pheasant shooting on estates such as Coombe End or Salperton Park doesn't start until October. It's probably just as well. Semi-auto shotguns are frowned on: everyone shoots vintage hand-engraved Purdeys that cost more than a Cadillac. Even the ammo is woke: lead-free and bio-degradable. Do not mention AR-15s. No one knows about the Second Amendment. A note on clothing. A MAGA hat in the Cotswolds would be like turning up at Garsington Opera wearing camo. Barbour, yes. Patagonia, never. Cotswolds outerwear must say: 'I could survive a blizzard, but I'm really just popping to the farm shop for some heirloom fennel.' The trick is to look poor, but in a rich way. In the Cotswolds, wealth is whispered, not shouted. Leave behind anything from Under Armour, North Face, LL Bean, or anything that says 'Outlaw and Hillbilly' in League Gothic script. Forget your loafers: wear boots. Mud is a class signifier, but maybe not in the way you imagine. The locals in the Cotswolds do not know what 'pill mills' (that illegally dispense drugs) are, and they'd very much like to keep it that way. If you strike up a conversation in the Bull Inn about intergenerational trauma and opioid dependency, you may be asked to leave. Or, worse still, taken for a Guardian columnist. In summary: keep your opinions zipped and your nostalgia for Appalachia hidden. When in doubt talk about Europe: the locals share your loathing for it. Remember you're not in Yoo-S-A! any more. You're in Clarkson Country, which — odd as it may seem — may be even more confusing.
