Ex-BBC boss who championed Russell Brand and then lost her job over Sachsgate is released from a confidentiality agreement so she can reveal ALL about what she knew of the under-fire star’s behaviour

• Lesley Douglas has reportedly been freed from a confidentiality agreement 

By Cameron Charters

Published: 17:11 EDT, 24 September 2023 | Updated: 17:28 EDT, 24 September 2023

A fuming traveller claims £1,000 ($1,200) worth of items went missing after an airline ‘lost’ her luggage for two months – despite her AirTag tracker revealing that it was at the airport.

Sarah Waite, 25, travelled from Los Angeles to Athens, with a layover in Paris.

But when she landed in the Greek capital, she discovered her suitcase had not made it on to the plane and would arrive later.

A week later, Sarah, who is originally from Los Angeles, received a notification from her AirTag, a tracking device by Apple, saying her bag had left Paris and was finally in Athens.

When she went to pick it up, she claims Air France staff told her they didn’t have it despite the AirTag showing its location at the airport.

The registered nurse spent two months without her luggage after the flight on May 14.

And when she was finally able to retrieve it, Sarah claims her suitcase had been damaged and £1,000 ($1,200) worth of items were missing, including shoes and makeup.

Sarah described the whole experience as ‘horrible and traumatising’.

It was the trip of a lifetime for Sarah, who travelled to Athens to pursue her dream of learning modern and ancient Greek literature.

So her dream trip wasn’t off to a good start when she landed in Athens with no luggage. 

She said: ‘I went to claim my luggage and almost all of the passengers were informed that it was arriving later.

‘We all had to make a claim at the Air France desk at 2am local time.

‘There were probably about 60 people that stayed to file the claim, me being one of them.’

In the hope of speeding things up, Sarah filed a claim online while waiting in the physical queue.

At 5am in the morning, three hours after landing, she finally left Athens International Airport – without her luggage.

Sarah had an AirTag inside her suitcase so she could see that the item was in Paris, where she’d had her layover.

She said: ‘Luckily I had an AirTag inside my luggage so I could see that Air France was not lying and it really was still in the Paris airport.’

Sarah kept in touch with airline staff over the next few days but found the communication difficult.

She said ‘I kept in contact with Air France about my claim and they were not communicative at all, leaving me on hold for long periods, not connecting me with someone who spoke English.’

A week later, on May 20, Sarah’s AirTag sent her a notification revealing that her luggage had left Paris Charles de Gaulle and was finally in Athens.

She decided to make her way to the airport but when she arrived, she was unable to reclaim her belongings.

Sarah said: ‘I went to the help desk and then finally to the lost and found with lots of effort and back-and-forth argumentation about my claim number.

‘It was not there and there was nothing I could do, even though my AirTag said it was there.’

As she found herself without her suitcase, Sarah, who suffers from Graves’ disease, had to buy a number of items including her thyroid medications.

The condition is an autoimmune disorder that can cause hyperthyroidism or overactive thyroid.

She said: ‘I lost hope but I continued my communication with the airline every day, sending them receipts of the items I had to purchase.’

Two months later, on July 20, Sarah was still able to track her AirTag, so she made a final attempt and travelled to the airport again.

When she arrived, Sarah went to the airline desk and confronted the staff. 

She said ‘The people helping me were very rude, yelling at me when I expressed frustration, telling me there is nothing they can do even though they work at the airport and can take me to the AirTag location.

‘They even threatened to call the police on me because I started video recording the situation.’

A video shows the interaction between herself and the staff, where an argument breaks out.

According to Sarah, the staff eventually agreed to take her to the lost and found where she was finally able to retrieve her luggage.

When she was reunited with her suitcase, Sarah claimed that it was clear it had been damaged and items lost.

She explained: ‘I got my bag, but again with extreme frustration.

‘I went to the help desk and got permission to access the lost and found.

‘I went to the lost and found and then the other lost and found but my bag was not there.

‘I finally broke down and cried in front of the entire staff and that is when someone said, “Oh we called you, okay stay here.”‘

She added: ‘It took extreme emotional expression to get the people to understand who I was and that I was contacted, even though I was telling everyone who helped me out that my name is Sarah Waite and I was called because my bags were found.

‘A young man took me to the customs area where my AirTag was tagged and I got my bag.

‘My luggage was completely ripped open, shoes were gone, makeup gone, bags were missing and the original lock on the zippers is not on it.

‘I am devastated still, but at least my medication, which is in a liquid form, if you have Graves’ disease then you know, is viable.’

Sarah documented her lost-luggage frustrations on TikTok, revealing on one clip that she received $600 (£485) in compensation.

Air France has yet to respond to requests for comment. 

A British holidaymaker told how she was lucky not to lose her left foot after it was ‘sliced wide open’ in a horror accident at a water park in Spain.

Mum-of-four Stephanie Somerville, 32, said she was left in agony and covered in blood after she was catapulted into a wall by a ‘dangerous’ water slide at Rio Safari Elche water park in Alicante.

Stephanie has been signed off work for eight weeks and has been told she may require surgery after the accident last Thursday (September 7).

She hit out at staff who told her they believed she had ripped her foot open on a loose nail but they could not find the object and carried on ‘as if nothing had happened’.

She said: ‘They just don’t care. They kept the pool open with kids inside. It’s so dangerous.

‘My foot was torn open to the bone in one clean slice.

‘I’m worried that the next accident that happens there will be even worse.’

Stephanie – a hospitality worker at Celtic Football Club – told how she jetted out to the Spanish resort on the Costa Blanca for a week long break with partner Charlie, 28, along with her three daughters aged 12, six and four and baby son Tyrien who is just eight-months-old.

But she said the holiday turned into a nightmare after the trip to the water park on the second day of their break.

Describing the accident Stephanie, from Anniesland, Glasgow, said: ‘There was a big slide which you had to go down on a rubber doughnut.

‘I went down for the first time. It’s a very fast slide but instead of being a wide or long pool at the end, it was very small.

‘I went flying off the slide into the pool and smashed into the wall.

‘Unless you were able to turn, which was possible, there was no way of avoiding it.

‘The wall was made of rubber but I hit it very hard.

‘I tried to stop myself but when I put my foot down in the pool there was a tremendous pain.

‘I thought that I had broken my foot. I was in agony.

‘I didn’t realise what had happened until I came out of the pool and a Spanish man came over and was asking if I was OK.

‘He was pointing at my foot. I looked down and there was blood everywhere.

‘It was then I realised the bottom of my foot had been sliced wide open.’

Stephanie said no members of staff were able to offer medical assistance and she was advised to drive to a private hospital 15 minutes away.

She said: ‘‘I was crying and I couldn’t walk.

‘They didn’t care or bother at all. It was just a random guy who helped me out. There wasn’t anyone there who had any medical training to help.

‘My foot had been cut open and there was blood in the pool but they didn’t do anything.

‘Luckily my kids had stayed in the little pool and hadn’t been on the slide but there were children as young as five or six who were using it.

’We were left to our own devices and had to drive ourselves to hospital.’

Stephanie said that when she arrived at the IMED Hospital in Elche, doctors were not surprised to see her.

She said: ‘At the hospital they said it was very bad. They said I would need surgery but that I was lucky because I could have lost my foot.

‘Whatever was in the pool has ripped through the back of my toe and slashed through the whole front half of my foot.

‘The cut is more than five centimetres long. It’s one clean slash. I had to have stitches.

Stephanie – who has been in contact with a lawyer and insurers – said the water park paid for her basic treatment but refused to pay compensation and insisted they could do nothing more for her.

She said: ‘There’s obviously something not right there. That slide needs to be closed down. It’s dangerous. People don’t realise what they’re letting themselves in for.

‘It’s really fast. There’s nothing holding you in and you come down into this area that’s just too small.

‘We went back to the water park two days later as they had stopped taking our calls.

‘They had done nothing about it at all.

‘They thought it was a tiny loose nail or a screw that caused it but they said they couldn’t find anything and kept it open as normal.

‘There was no proper investigation. They don’t know whether the nail was on the ground or in the wall.’

Stephanie told how she spent the next five days of her holiday ‘staying indoors’ at the villa the family had rented as part of their £2,100 holiday.

‘She said: ‘I couldn’t go out as I couldn’t walk. I had to buy crutches and antibiotics but it was too painful to get around.

‘We had only been there two days when it happened and the whole holiday was ruined. It turned into a nightmare.’

Stephanie said she was only given permission to fly home at the last minute after airport staff spoke to doctors at the hospital that treated her.

She was taken to the plane in a wheelchair and her foot swelled up so badly on the flight home that she needed another wheelchair after landing – before going straight to A&E from the airport.

She said: ‘I’ve got a baby and I’ve been signed off work for eight weeks and my partner who is self-employed can’t work right now as he is looking after me and helping with the kids.

‘I’m still in a lot of pain. I’ve got to go back to have my stitches out.

‘They don’t know anything yet. I won’t know if I will need surgery or additional treatment until after that and the wound could get infected – anything could still happen.’

MailOnline contacted the water park for comment.

Former Proud Boys boss Enrique Tarrio has been sentenced to 22 years in federal prison after begging a judge for mercy for commanding the Capitol siege – the longest sentence handed down over January 6.

Tarrio, 39, was the final leader of the neo-fascist group convicted of seditious conspiracy to be sentenced and faced 33 years in prison. Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that Tarrio was ‘the ultimate leader of that conspiracy,’ but still did not abide by the government’s sentence request.

During his hearing, Tarrio dropped a bombshell and admitted that Trump lost the 2020 election. ‘On November 3, 2020, something that I never expected happened – my candidate lost. I felt like something was personally stolen from me.’

The Florida-native turned to blame the right-wing media saying: ‘Every media channel that I turned to told me I was justified.’ He said that he was ‘not a political zealot’ and changing the outcome of the election was not his goal on January 6.  

The far-right propagandist wasn’t in Washington on January 6 – he was arrested two days earlier in a separate case – but he was convicted of helping put in motion and encourage the violence interrupted Congress‘ certification of Biden’s electoral victory after Donald Trump‘s electoral loss. 

Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and escorted by U.S. Marshals, the Cuban-American from Florida took the stand to ask judge Timothy Kelly for mercy, apologizing to the officers who responded during the riot and the citizens of D.C., saying he ‘blamed himself.’ 

‘Today I stand before you a different man… I wish to reorient my life’s purpose… I want to rejoin my local church and be an active part of helping others,’ Tarrio told the court. ‘I hope your honor can hear the sincerity… please show me mercy… ‘Do not take my 40s from me… God bless this entire court.’

He claimed that he had really believed the presidential election was stolen and let media coverage influence his desire to ‘protect’ right wingers from Antifa protesters.

‘I have failed as a son, as a fiancée, as a brother, as a nephew… I have been selfish,’ Tarrio said. 

Judge Kelly said of January 6: ‘That day broke our previously unbroken tradition of the peaceful transfer of power, which is truly among the most precious things that we had as Americans… that previously unbroken string is now broken. And it’s going to take time and effort to fix it.’

The judge seemed to be particularly disturbed by Tarrio’s infamously comparison of the January 6 rioters to the nation’s founding fathers.

He added: ‘[Tarrio’s] apologized here today, but I must say, comparing what Dominic Pezzola did to George Washington – the man who helped encourage the notion of a peaceful, orderly transfer of power – by relinquishing power to let someone else be chosen… it slanders the father of our country.’ 

Three fellow Proud Boys found guilty by a Washington D.C. jury of the rarely used sedition charge were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 to 18 years – less than prosecutors wanted.

Tarrio’s defense team argued during the sentencing hearing that the convicted sedition conspiracist is a ‘misguided patriot’ instead of a terrorist, and was just being a ‘Keyboard Ninja,’ saying things ‘he shouldn’t have,’ as reported by independent journalist Gonzo News.

Judge Kelly reminded Tarrio’s lawyers team that a jury did not buy that defense strategy when it decided to convict him, and ruled that Tarrio was at the top of the Proud Boy’s command structure during the riot.

Ultimately the judge ruled Tarrio’s crimes intended to coerce the conduct of government when his lieutenants brought down a barrier between police and rioters and thus qualified him for terrorism enhancement for his sentencing.

However, the judge again noted the Proud Boys’ crimes did not have the terror ‘intent’ of someone who blows up a building.

Tarrio’s aunt and godmother sent in letters pleading for leniency which were read by defense attorney Nayib Hassan.

‘Henry [Tarrio’s birth name] is not a monster like he’s made out to be,’ the letter read.

Tarrio’s mother, fiancée, and his younger sister also spoke of Tarrio’s character as they asked for leniency, saying his incarceration has greatly affected his family.

The younger sister teared up as she spoke, saying: ‘he is the glue that keeps us together… the idea of him not being around for all the milestones is hard to bear.’

The Justice Department has asked for Tarrio to spend more than three decades in prison, describing him as the ringleader of a plot to use violence to shatter the cornerstone of American democracy and overturn the election victory by Joe Biden, a Democrat, over Trump, the Republican incumbent.

Tarrio discussed ‘revolutions’ and ‘storming’ the Capitol complex prior to January 6, but was arrested upon entry into the capital on January 5, 2021 for a prior offense of burning the Black Lives Matter flag and on several weapons charges. 

The Miami native was supposed to be sentenced last week in Washington’s federal court, but his hearing was delayed because Judge Kelly got sick. 

Kelly, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, sentenced Tarrio’s co-defendants to lengthy prison terms – though far shorter than prosecutors were seeking.

Self-described Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs sobbed as he was sentenced to 17 years on Thursday for his role in the riot after pleading for leniency to take care of his daughter and ailing mother.

Judge Kelly wasn’t having it, as he said Americans are the envy of the world and U.S. elections must be respected, telling Biggs: ‘You did play a role in riling up the crowd.

‘If you don’t like how an election is being conducted… you can speak out, call, write or meet with election officials. You can engage in peaceful protest. File a lawsuit.’

The judge ruled that Biggs qualified for a terrorism sentencing enhancement because he teared down a fence that stood between police and rioters.

Prosecutors on Tuesday asked Kelly to hand out a harsher punishment for Tarrio than his co-defendants, arguing he was the leader of the operation, and as a someone with a criminal record was a less sympathetic figure than Biggs, who’s a veteran.

‘We need to make sure the consequences are clear to anybody who might be unhappy with any future election as long as this case is remembered…this was a calculated act of terrorism,’ prosecutors said during the sentencing.

Ethan Nordean, who prosecutors said was the Proud Boys’ leader on the ground on January 6, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, tying the record for the longest sentence in the attack. 

Prosecutors had asked for 27 years for Nordean, who was a Seattle-area Proud Boys chapter president.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was found guilty of seditious conspiracy in a separate case, was sentenced in May to 18 years in prison. Prosecutors, who had sought 25 years for Rhodes, are appealing his sentence and the punishments of other members of his antigovernment militia group.

‘Tarrio has repeatedly and publicly indicated that he has no regrets about what he helped make happen on January 6,’ prosecutors wrote in court documents. 

Lawyers for the Proud Boys deny that there was any plot to attack the Capitol or stop the transfer of presidential power.

‘There is zero evidence to suggest Tarrio directed any participants to storm the U.S. Capitol building prior to or during the event,’ his attorneys wrote in court papers.

‘Participating in a plan for the Proud Boys to protest on January 6 is not the same as directing others on the ground to storm the Capitol by any means necessary.’

Police arrested Tarrio in Washington on Jan. 4, 2021, on charges that he defaced a Black Lives Matter banner during an earlier rally in the nation´s capital, but law enforcement officials later said he was arrested in part over concerns about the potential for unrest during the certification. He complied with a judge´s order to leave the city after his arrest.

On Jan. 6, dozens of Proud Boys leaders, members and associates were among the first rioters to breach the Capitol. The mob´s assault overwhelmed police, forced lawmakers to flee the House and Senate floors and disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying Biden´s victory.

The backbone of the government´s case was hundreds of messages exchanged by Proud Boys in the days leading up to Janury 6. 

As Proud Boys swarmed the Capitol, Tarrio cheered them on from afar, writing on social media: ‘Do what must be done.’ In a Proud Boys encrypted group chat later that day someone asked what they should do next. 

Tarrio responded: ‘Do it again.’

‘Make no mistake,’ Tarrio wrote in another message. ‘We did this.’

Tarrio led the neo-fascist group – known for street fights with left-wing activists – when Trump infamously told the Proud Boys to ‘stand back and stand by’ during his first debate with Joe Biden. 

During the month long trial, prosecutors argued that the Proud Boys viewed themselves as foot soldiers fighting for Trump as the Republican spread lies that Democrats stole the election from him.

Attorneys argued that members of the group were prepared to go to war to keep their preferred leader in power.

Defense lawyers denied there was any plot to attack the Capitol or stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s win.

The investigation has become the largest for the Justice Department in American history, and it hadn’t tried a seditious conspiracy case in over a decade.

The riots followed months of false claims by Trump and his allies that the election had been rigged against him.

A select House committee investigated the riots and in its final report accused Trump of a criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The committee estimated that from the election to Jan. 6, the president and aides made hundreds of efforts to pressure officials to overturn the results.

Targets included states he lost but that had GOP-led legislatures such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona.

Trump has since been indicted for this role in the riots, with a grand jury indictment accusing him of spreading ‘lies’ and ‘sham’ investigations while stoking an ‘angry’ mob on January 6.

Special Counsel Jack Smith said in a televised public statement following the release of the indictment that the attack on the Capitol was ‘fueled by lies’ made by Trump ‘targeted at obstructing the bedrock function of the U.S. government – the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.’ He pledged that his office will conduct a ‘speedy’ trial.

Trump is facing four counts including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and obstruct the electoral count for trying to overturn the 2020 election. The 45-page indictment says he was ‘determined to remain in power’ despite ‘having lost.’

He and his six co-conspirators ‘used knowingly false claims of election fraud’ to try to ‘subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes’ to take down Joe Biden, according to the indictment.

He has plead not guilty.

Delta offers passenger Paula Rodriguez $1,800 after they LOST her dog while she was placed in a detention center overnight over visa issues

• Paula Rodriguez’s six-year-old dog Maia was lost by Delta Airlines and is still missing
• Rodriguez and Maia got to Atlanta before being turned back around due to visa paperwork issues
• The owner was sent back home, but she has not given up hope in finding her dog

By Emma Richter For Dailymail.Com

Updated: 16:36 EDT, 4 September 2023

‘Radar contact lost.’

Former air traffic controller Robin A. Smith reveals in his memoir that he once had to utter that dreaded phrase – one that no one in the profession ever wants to say.

He recounts in the riveting tome the sequence of events that led up to him saying it. And how for a brief time, he thought a disaster involving an airliner and four military aircraft was imminent.

The account underscores that when an air traffic controller has a bad day at work, it can be truly hair-raising.

The ‘radar contact lost’ drama played out in August 1992 over Tucson in Arizona when Smith worked in the Tucson terminal radar approach control (Tracon), which was housed on the city’s Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and oversaw plane movements for the base and the international airport four and a half miles to the southwest.

The day in question had begun positively, Smith recalls – he drove to his 6am to 3pm shift under cobalt blue skies.

But ominous signs that a big storm was approaching appeared around 10am. Puffy clouds were forming and it was over 100F – that ‘drives an elevator that lifts moisture into the sky’.

Smith writes in Life With A View – Memoir of an Air Traffic Controller: ‘As with the fast-food rush, we anticipated the adverse effects of the monsoon and were prepared to adjust accordingly.

‘The radar scope resembled a teenager with acne, becoming increasingly cluttered with building thunderstorms.’

At 2pm Smith was assigned a final shift on the departure sector.

He writes: ‘Looking at the radar for the first time after a 20-minute break I was astonished at how quickly the storms had matured. Previously isolated thunderstorm cells had congealed… positioning themselves on the west side of both airports.’

The drama, Smith recalls, was kickstarted by a voice from Tucson tower, saying: ‘Northwest 551, Boeing 727, taking the runway for departure.’

Smith was shocked that the captain had decided to take off, given the intimidating weather.

He reveals that air traffic controllers cannot deny take-off clearance ‘because the weather looks bad’ – but can put an airport ‘on hold’.

Smith, in the moment, didn’t think pausing the airport was necessary, because he could ‘issue an immediate right turn’ for the aircraft belonging to Northwest [which merged with Delta Air Lines in 2008], which would take it around the storm.

But there was a caveat. This plan would only work if no aircraft took off from Davis-Monthan airport.

He writes: ‘[Hopefully] the air force pilots at Davis-Monthan had enough sense to look out of their window and opt for another Coke in the ready room.’

But the worst-case-scenario began to unfold, with the tower at Davis-Monthan announcing the departure of ‘Simon 22’ – the codename for four navy A-7s.

Smith, however, reasoned that he could turn the Northwest B727 over the top of Davis-Monthan and the departing A-7s.

His confidence came from the knowledge that announcements regarding commercial aircraft taking off were normally made as the flight was turning onto the runway, while military flights normally run through a checklist at the start of the runway.

He writes: ‘For a flight of four, as in Simon 22’s case, the taxi onto the runway and run-up process would easily take three to four minutes, and by that time, Northwest 551 would be… 20 miles northeast of Tucson and passing through 10,000 feet.’

He adds: ‘At least, that’s what would have happened on a perfect day.’

Next, Northwest checked in, revealing that it was ‘climbing out of 3,700ft… ‘

Seconds later, Simon 22 announced that it was ‘climbing out of 3,600ft… ‘

Smith writes: ‘As all five aircraft climbed into the thunderstorm I watched the storm change size and shape like an amoeba in a high-school science movie.

‘Each passing sweep of the radar emphasised the inevitable, and time slowed. I was not comfortable.’

‘As expected’, Northwest 551 requested ‘an immediate right turn for weather’.

Smith writes: ‘My worst-case scenario had just become very real because I had violated the cardinal rule of air traffic control. I didn’t have a way out.’

He explains that his only option was to restrict Simon 22 to 6,000ft, the minimum altitude to clear the mountains ahead, and send the B727 over the top of the A-7s after it had hit 7,000ft – ‘thereby ensuring the minimum one thousand feet of vertical separation required by ATC’.

The problem? ‘By the time Northwest 551 had the necessary altitude for the turn,’ writes Smith, ‘forward momentum would put all five aircraft in the worst part of the thunderstorm.

‘In the next few seconds, Northwest 551 would rapidly encounter severe turbulence, forcing crew members to wrestle with controls. The loss of control would be compounded by hail, which would sound like rocks hitting the cockpit windshield. Microbursts, extreme downdrafts of air present in mature thunderstorms, would compound the difficulties.’

What did Smith do next?

He replied: ‘Northwest 551, unable immediate right turn, traffic directly off your right side, four miles, four A-7s leaving Davis-Monthan. They will be stopped at 6,000ft, leaving 7,000, turn right heading zero-four-five.’

He continues: ‘The next response from Northwest 551 sent a chill down my spine. “Northwest 551 is declaring an emergency and starting an immediate right turn, northeast bound.”’

Once a pilot declares an emergency, Smith explains, ‘the book and all its rules go out the window’, because ‘the pilot in command is free to do whatever is necessary to ensure the safety of the aircraft, crew and passengers’.

Smith adds: ‘From a strictly statistical view, the chance of hitting one of the A-7s was lower than the chance of losing a wing or an engine in the black cloud so, a right turn it was.’

The worst-case scenario wasn’t finished with Smith just yet though – because Simon 22 announced that they had lost visual contact with each other.

Smith writes: ‘I now had five aircraft in the middle of a severe thunderstorm who were unable to see each other and unwilling to accept my instructions as they approached downtown Tucson and flew directly over the University of Arizona.’

What’s more, the storm had become so dense that the ATC radar could no longer penetrate it and pick up the aircraft.

Smith was forced to raise his hand to summon his supervisor for assistance.

‘Seconds passed with no information from my radar or voices from the cockpits, and in this case, no news was not good news,’ he writes.

On the fifth sweep of the radar – some good news. It had picked up a plane heading northeast – then the 727 answered a call for a radio check, Smith reveals.

Another radar sweep picked up two A-7s, then the third was picked up, before the flight leader checked in and said that he’d made radio contact with the fourth A-7.

Smith writes: ‘The fourth Simon 22 member was radar-identified, and I issued headings to join them as a flight again.

‘As quickly as it had begun – it was over. And all aircraft were separated.

‘I issued headings commensurate with the aircraft’s original flight plans and sent them on their way.

‘The weather was now north of both airports, leaving behind shaken aircrews, a confused controller, and a city full of people who would not read in the morning paper about an incident in southern Arizona that had claimed a bunch of lives.’

Smith admits that he could have put both airports on hold for a few minutes and averted the situation. But that was a solution that only presented itself with hindsight.

His supervisor scolded him for not initiating ‘radar contact lost’ procedures, but Smith argued that ‘he didn’t have time’.

His final thought? Because no aircraft had ‘scraped paint’, in the world of air traffic control ‘it was a perfect day’.

Life With A View – Memoir of an Air Traffic Controller, by Robin A Smith and published by iUniverse, can be ordered from Amazon for £9.95 ($9.20). 

Smith spent nearly 38 years in the aviation industry, serving as a domestic and international controller at two Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) towers in the U.S, as well as being a certified radar approach control instructor in Oklahoma City.

TRAVEL 

Abroad in japan

by Chris Broad (Bantam £16.99, 320pp)

‘I like Queen Elizabeth,’ a Japanese man tells Chris Broad when he discovers he is from Britain. ‘So good England grandma.’

It’s the perfect summary of Broad’s experiences in Japan: everyone is friendly and engaging, but all the time there’s something not quite right.

Broad went there to teach English to Japanese students, and a decade later is established as a YouTube star with his Abroad In Japan videos explaining the country’s customs and curiosities.

Some of his lessons were learned the hard way, such as the time a friend of a friend told him he should try the food known as shiokara. 

Ordering it in a restaurant, he discovered that it’s the fermented entrails of a squid. The chef literally laughed at him.

Some of the smallest things provide the biggest shocks. Grass, for example — there isn’t any. Even local parks are mostly gravel and sand.

Then there’s the ability of Japanese people to fall asleep instantly. ‘Watch a Japanese commuter . . . They’ll sit down, sleep, then, as if there’s an alarm clock built into their brain, they’ll snap awake and stumble off at the right stop.’

Gradually, Broad gets used to social customs such as not wearing your shoes inside other people’s homes or, indeed, in some public spaces.

‘One of the few times I’ve truly seen a Japanese person snap was when a friend wandered into a public bathhouse without removing his shoes, only for the elderly woman at the reception desk to spring up out of her chair and forcibly push him back out of the door.’

And don’t even think about leaving a tip. ‘It’s considered almost rude . . . The Japanese believe that service staff should always be giving their absolute best . . . and if you tried to leave money, you’d likely find yourself chased down the street by a waiter brandishing your change.’

His day job in the classroom — assisting Japanese teachers of English — provides some of the most bizarre moments. 

One gets him to hide under the desk, then asks the class: ‘Where is Chris sensei?’ They all shout: ‘UNDER the desk!’

Then he has to squeeze inside the desk’s tiny cupboard. ‘Where is Chris sensei?’ ‘INSIDE the desk!’ ‘He opened the doors and I rolled out on to the floor, wondering how on earth £30,000 of university fees had led to this.’

One teacher is a huge Beatles fan, and Broad uses this to create mischief. He prints out the lyrics to I Am The Walrus, removes key words and gets the class to fill in the blanks. 

‘ “Chris sensei, what is the egg man? Who are the egg men?” “He is the walrus,” I insisted. “I don’t understand.” She stomped her feet in frustration.’

Another song helps Broad to discipline a student who won’t stop talking. He writes ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ on the board, summons the boy to the front and asks him to pronounce it. ‘British-style punishment at its finest’.

In the end, you get the feeling that Japan will always remain a mystery to Westerners, at least partially, and probably because it wants to.

Broad writes of the country’s ‘tendency to hold the rest of the world at arm’s length’, noting that only 23 per cent of its people possess a passport. But is that necessarily a bad thing? It would be boring if we were all the same.  

Maybe we can learn from some of the differences. I like the concept of wabi-sabi, defined by Broad as ‘embracing imperfections and appreciating the beauty in the incomplete’.

There’s also chinmoku, the idea that silence contains the secrets of existence.

Japanese conversations often include periods where neither person speaks. Awkward at first, but there are plenty of people over here I’d like to see give it a go.

And, of course, just as we struggle to understand the Japanese, so they struggle to understand us.

One man tells Broad that he tried learning English simply by reading a dictionary. ‘It was very difficult,’ he reports. ‘I think I made it all the way to the letter G.’

Ashley Graham, 35, reveals she was told by a photographer at age 12 that if she lost HALF her weight she could model more as she poses for Vogue

By Sam Joseph Semon For Dailymail.com

Updated: 12:54 EDT, 25 August 2023

More than 3.5 million people lost their ‘dollar millionaire’ status in 2022 during the first fall in global wealth since the 2008 financial crisis, a study has found.

The number of adults with assets totalling more than $1m (£790,000) dropped from 62.9 million at the end of 2021 to 59.4 million at the end of last year, according to the Global Wealth Report launched by Credit Suisse and UBS.

The number of millionaires in the US fell by 1.8 million to 22.7 million, but there are still far more than in any other nation, while in the UK the number dropped by 440,000 to 2.6 million, the third largest globally.

The world’s privately held wealth fell 2.4 per cent to $454.4 trillion at the end of last year, as $11.3 trillion was stripped from the value of personal assets by high inflation and weaker currencies.

The invasion of Ukraine for was blamed for causing the lift in inflation in 2022.

According to separate research for the Bloomberg billionaires index, the richest 500 people in the world lost a total of $1.4 trillion in 2022.

The report from Credit Suisse and UBS shows that, measured in current nominal USD, wealth per adult also declined by $3,198 to reach $84,718 per adult. 

Much of this decline comes from the appreciation of the US dollar against many other currencies. 

Financial assets contributed most to wealth declines in 2022, while non-financial assets (mostly real estate) stayed resilient, despite rapidly rising interest rates.

Regionally, the report shows the loss of global wealth was heavily concentrated in wealthier regions such as North America and Europe, which together shed $10.9 trillion.

Asia Pacific recorded losses of $2.1 trillion.

Latin America experienced a total wealth increase of $2.4 trillion, helped by an average 6 per cent currency appreciation against the US dollar.

In terms of losses in market terms in 2022, the United States headed the list, followed by Japan, China, Canada and Australia.

The largest wealth increases at the other end were recorded for Russia, Mexico, India and Brazil.

In terms of wealth per adult, Switzerland has stayed at the top of the list followed by the USA, Hong Kong SAR, Australia and Denmark despite sizeable reductions in mean wealth versus 2021.

Along with the decline in aggregate wealth, overall wealth inequality also fell in 2022, with the wealth share of the global top 1 per cent falling to 44.5 per cent.

Global wealth will increase by 38 per cent to $629 trillion by 2027, according to the report’s projections. 

Growth by middle-income markets will be the primary driver of global trends.

The number of millionaires will rise to 86 million by 2027, according to the estimates. 

Nannette Hechler-Fayd’herbe, Chief Investment Officer for the EMEA region and Global Head of Economics & Research at Credit Suisse, said: ‘Wealth evolution proved resilient during the COVID-19 era and grew at a record pace during 2021. But inflation, rising interest rates and currency depreciation caused a reversal in 2022.’

Anthony Shorrocks, economist and report author, said: ‘Much of the decline in wealth in 2022 was driven by high inflation and the appreciation of the US dollar against many other currencies. If exchange rates were held constant at 2021 rates, then total wealth would have increased by 3.4% and wealth per adult by 2.2% during 2022. 

‘This is still the slowest increase of wealth at constant exchange rates since 2008. Keeping exchange rates constant but counting the effects of inflation results in a real wealth loss of –2.6% in 2022. 

‘Similarly, financial assets contributed most to wealth declines while non-financial assets (mostly real estate) stayed resilient, despite rapidly rising interest rates. But the relative contributions of financial and non-financial assets may reverse in 2023 if house prices decline in response to higher interest rates.’

A Brazilian father who lost all three of his children to cancer has tragically died from the same disease.

Regis Feitosa Mota, 53, and his children, learned in 2016 that they all had Li-Fraumeni syndrome, or LFS. Among sufferers, 90 percent of men and 70 percent of women go on to develop cancer during their lives.

The economist, from Fortaleza in the northeast of the country, had battled off cancer three times already. But in January this year he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma — a cancer affecting white blood cells.

Eight months later he died, leaving behind his wife Mariella who said the pain was ‘indescribable’ and that she had been sure he would beat the disease.

Their youngest daughter Beatriz died in 2018, aged 10, from leukemia, while their son Pedro died in 2020, aged 22, after suffering a brain tumor. Their eldest Anna Carolina died at the age of 25 last year after also being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

LFS is a condition thought to affect at least one in 20,000 families, and possibly as many as one in 5,000 families. 

Up to 50,000 Americans are thought to have the condition, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The disease is diagnosed via a genetic test with scientists warning it can trigger cancer at any time — although this is more likely to occur at an earlier age.

It is caused by a mutation in the TP53 gene, which means that a protein regulating cell division and triggering cell death when DNA damage is detected does not work.

This raises the risk of cells starting to divide uncontrollably, causing cancer.

People with LFS are most likely to suffer cancers in the bones, muscles and connective tissues as well as breast cancer, brain tumors, leukemia and cancer in the adrenal gland.

But a range of other cancers have also been detected in sufferers, including lung cancer, kidney cancer and cancers in the intestinal tract. 

Mr Mota’s wife, Mariella Pompeu, said after her husband’s death was revealed: ‘My friends, I never imagined making this post.

‘I never prepared myself for this moment because I was always convinced Régis would make a full recovery.

‘It’s an indescribable pain. The ground has opened up and I don’t know what life will be like without his affection, companionship and absolute love.’

His brother Rogério Feitosa Mota said: ‘Our warrior went to meet his children exactly on Father’s Day.

‘May God take you, my brother! We love you so much.’

Mr Mota, was diagnosed with cancer three times between 2016 and 2023.

But in January this year he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma — where  white blood cells start to divide uncontrollably in the bone marrow, crowding out healthy cells.

At the time, he said: ‘We discovered yet another disease. We have already treated lymphocytic leukaemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which are now stabilised.

‘But we have been treating them, they are not cured.

‘This time, we discovered multiple myeloma, which even affects the bones.’

Mr Mota said on social media last week that he was in the hospital waiting for a bone marrow transplant.

He passed away in the state of Ceará, Brazil, where Fortaleza is based, on 13 August — Father’s Day in the South American country.

His body was cremated on 14 August in the city.

Adults with LFS have a 50 percent chance of giving birth to a child with the same condition, scientists say.