Don't miss Thursday, 26 September's riveting episode of South African soapie Skeem Saam on SABC 1 on DStv channel 191.
Read More »
Tonight on Skeem Saam: Lizzy makes a surprising discovery that leaves her reeling
Independent Ireland leader outlines general election plans
Independent Ireland Leader Michael Collins TD says his party is ready for a general election, with candidates at the ready. He also addresses the Ciaran Mullooly controversy, and explains how he would avoid being dominated by a bigger party in a coalition government.
The post Independent Ireland leader outlines general election plans appeared first on Gript.
Everything To Know About Simone Baldasseroni (& Where You Know The Tearsmith Actor & Hip Hop Artist From)
Simone Baldasseroni has come to mainstream attention thanks to his role in the 2024 Netflix movie, The Tearsmith, but the Italian actor has been acting and singing for some years in his native Italy. The Tearsmith is a 2024 Italian teen romance film by Alessandro Genovesi that premiered on Netflix on April 4, 2024. The …
Read More »
Coup scare hits Benin Republic; 3 men arrested
Benin Republic’s state prosecutor has announced the arrest of three prominent men on suspicion of planning a “coup d’etat” in the country. Mario Metonou, special prosecutor at Benin’s financial crimes and terrorism court made the announcement at a press conference. He said former sports minister Oswald Homeky, Republican Guard commander Djimon Dieudonne Tevoedjre, …
Read More »
Bill Gates Awards N8.5bn Grant To Lagos Business School, N1bn To Flood Victims
At the ongoing United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced approval of a $5m (about N8.5bn) grant for Lagos Business School to develop the agricultural economics of industrial cassava. The foundation also pledged $600,000 (approximately N1 billion) for flood relief in Borno State. Dr Christopher Elias, Head of …
Read More »
Hoda Kotb breaks down explaining ‘hard’ decision to leave ‘Today’ show: ‘It weighed on me a lot’
On Thursday, the mom of two tearfully announced that she would be leaving "Today" after more than five years as co-anchor.
Read More »
Homemade slime made me a TikTok star at 12 – but I got death threats & my mum was arrested after stupid mistake
TWO years ago Kyle Thomas was one of Britain’s biggest teenage TikTok stars with a whopping one billion likes, earning thousands of pounds in the process.
He had even been hailed by Forbes as one of the most influential online content creators under the age of 30.
Kyle, now 20 – who started selling homemade slime at 12 and went viral after posting a video of him biting it – couldn’t put a foot wrong.
But in July 2022, his status as a super cool TikTok star evaporated overnight when he ‘stupidly’ posted a video of him larking around with his new exotic pet – a capybara.
He had named the rodent, which resembles a large guinea pig, Queen Elizabeth after the late Queen and filmed her wearing a pumpkin cloak and a silver ring.
It prompted a vicious backlash and a barrage of death threats – with animal lovers accusing him of treating the exotic pet like a baby.
But worse was to come.
Just one week after he’d forked out £5,000 for the capybara, it fell ill and passed away.
His local vet in Northern Ireland immediately contacted the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs after they discovered both Kyle and his mum, Zena Foord, did not have an official licence to look after it at home.
In August 2023 Zena was charged with Keeping Dangerous Wild Animals With No Licence between 6 October 2022 and 24 October 2022.
She pleaded guilty but evaded an up to £2,000 fine by quickly snapping up a licence from the Department of the Environment.
But by then the controversy had hit the influencer’s squeaky-clean reputation hard.
He was trolled relentlessly with many branding him a “thicko”, “moron” and “a TikTocker (sic) who had no grasp on reality” in his “sad and desperate” attempt for likes.
One follower told him it was a ‘shame the rodent doesn’t eat him’ and he was included in a major Channel 4 investigation into the exotic animal trade.
He was also forced to go to the police after receiving several terrifying death threats.
‘Stupid & naive’
Now, two years since the controversy first blew up, Kyle admits he is still being trolled over his past – and the threats continue.
He will appear in the new BBC3 documentary We Built A Zoo on Wednesday, which he hopes proves he is a changed person and admits being “stupid and naïve”.
If I had read an article like the one about me, I would have absolutely thought this person was a thicko and an idiot
Kyle Thomas
He told The Sun: “Looking back on it all now, it was a very stupid decision.
“I am not going to lie; I was incredibly naïve.
“I cannot blame anyone who is looking after the rights of animals for saying what they did.
“But I was trolled a lot and I received death threats that I had to report to the police.
“I was terrified of going to the local supermarket because I feared people would see the newspapers and think I was a terrible person.
“It was a really tough time. I had been very stupid.
“And two years later, people still troll me over it all.
“They also troll me over being too skinny, they dig into my personal life and I still get nasty threats.
“Only yesterday I got this weird message from a person who told me they knew where I lived.”
However Kyle, who was earning £32,000 a year before the incident, now agrees with trolls who called him a ‘moron’ and a ‘thicko’.
“Fair play,” he says. “If I had read an article like the one about me, I would have absolutely thought this person was a thicko and an idiot.
“In fact now, when I see online videos of people cuddling up with a meerkat, I have to stop myself from leaving a negative comment.
The bloody idiot who lied through his teeth all the time, telling us ‘yeah you can have this pet, she is really friendly’
Kyle
“Most of the trolls were looking out for animals for the right reasons.
“They might be extreme sometimes in what they are saying but they aren’t bad people – they are looking out for the welfare of animals.”
Rash decision
Kyle, who is single and lives with his mum in Belfast, said in hindsight he should never have been so gullible as to believe a local trader flogging the capybara.
“It was very expensive, one hundred per cent,” said Kyle.
“I don’t even think we had a chance though to think about the money loss.
“It was more a case of ‘what the hell has happened and how did we stumble into the situation?’
“We’d stupidly done no research and believed the bloody idiot who lied through his teeth all the time, telling us ‘yeah you can have this pet, she is really friendly’.
“We naively didn’t think we were doing anything wrong.
“I am the type of person to make rash decisions – but they come from good intentions.”
Fresh start
Now Kyle is older, wiser and a lot more clued up.
After attempting to set up his own ‘makeshift zoo’ on some land he purchased after his monumental mess up, he has now joined forces with local builder, Phil Hughes, who had also started to care for rescued animals.
The exotic animal trade is a dark, horrible place
Kyle
As well as proper facilities to house the 28 or so animals, including meerkats, marmosets and African hedgehogs, they have ensured they have all the correct legal paperwork in place at their new sanctuary called the Mylo Project.
“Phil reached out to me when everything was kicking off,” he explained.
“Initially I didn’t reply as I wasn’t trusting too many people at the time but eventually I did.
“Now we have joined forces together and we both have the same goal – to care for rescued animals and let them thrive.”
Kyle has also spent time educating himself by reading, listening to podcasts and visiting worldwide wildlife sanctuaries, including one in South Africa, to understand more.
He is determined, too, to use his high-profile TikTok platform to campaign for better animal welfare.
“I have grown up a lot,” he added.
“I have been on a huge journey of personal growth and I am on a journey now to become an animal activist too.
“The exotic animal trade is a dark, horrible place.
“I know a few years ago, I thought nothing of cuddling up to a Meerkat but there is no way I would do that now.”
Keen to attract a wider audience away from his huge TikTok platform, Kyle also hopes his unflinching honesty and no-holds-barred BBC3 documentary will prove, once and for all, that he is passionate about animal welfare and really does mean it when he says he wants to do everything properly.
The UK's exotic animal trade
NEARLY three thousand exotic animals are legally being kept by private homeowners in the UK.
Among the creatures are crocodiles, wild cats, monkeys and venomous snakes.
But animal rights organisations are deeply concerned by how the animals made their way to the UK.
The UN revealed that for every one chimpanzee in private ownership, which is legal in the UK, another 10 have died during their capture or from poor trade conditions.
Those who have been raised in breeding grounds fair no better when it comes to their welfare.
The EcoHealth Alliance fears the capture of animals in the wild will deplete native populations by 70 per cent.
Organisations are also concerned that owners do not know how to care for them – as proven by data the RSPCA received 15,790 calls to their cruelty hotline about exotic pets alone.
Other concerns include the animals escaping and some not being suited to domestic life.
“I do hope this documentary will show everyone the person I really am,” he said.
“I think people think I live in this happy ‘La La land’.
“I hope this will show I am actually a sensitive and serious person too.”
In the BBC3 doc, Kyle doesn’t try to gloss over difficult topics nor does he stray from his promise to educate his 34.5 million followers who, despite the trolls, have loyally stuck by him.
Regular videos set at his new sanctuary attract hundreds of thousands of likes every day.
“I don’t ever want to make money out of looking after animals,” he stressed. “I want everyone to come on my journey with me.”
While Kyle is eying up future opportunities – including modelling, after working at Milan Fashion Week – he has ruled out OnlyFans – despite some of his mates earning a massive £100,000 per month from the steamy online platform.
“I wouldn’t be able to do it, I would lose my dignity,” he said.
“I can’t even kiss someone without worrying about it, let alone exploiting myself over the Internet!”
Looking ahead, the changed TikTok star says he would love to go on further formal courses as well as continue to visit global sanctuaries to learn from them.
And if the internet were to ever blow up, he added, he would retrain as a vet.
“I would go to Uni and study,” he said. “Or go into wildlife presenting if I could.
“I am proud of this documentary and it is a good representation of me.
I can’t even kiss someone without worrying about it, let alone exploiting myself over the Internet!
Kyle
“If people don’t like it, then OK, I am not their cup of tea.
“My time is far better spent learning about animals now than trying to prove myself to people who don’t like me.
“Chasing more followers online isn’t my goal anymore either, it’s about what I can do to help.
“There are bad people in the world who want to make money from exploiting the animals as pets.
“If people can see me now, hear my story and see I have grown up a lot, then hopefully people will realise I do care.”
We Built A Zoo airs at 9pm on Wednesday on BBC Three and will be available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
TikTok's top tips, tricks and trends
TikTok is one of the world's most downloaded apps with millions uploading videos everyday. But what are the best tricks and trends on it?
- Who has the most followers on TikTok?
- How to reverse a TikTok after recording it
- How to go live on TikTok
- How to see your TikTok watch history
- What is the most viewed TikTok?
- What does ratio mean on TikTok?
- What is TikTok’s blackout challenge?
- What is the meaning of DTB on TikTok?
- What does KMT mean on TikTok?
- What is the meaning of CNC on TikTok?
- What was the viral vanilla flavouring TikTok trend?
I swear by my favourite fashion hack – it’s giving Sabrina Carpenter vibes, and it’s so cheap
A FASHION fan has been compared to Sabrina Carpenter after showing off her newest hair look.
Kristen Scott, 19, loves switching up her style and enjoys accessorising her hair whenever she can.
One of her favourite methods is getting affordable wigs from Shein because it’s such a simple way of finding a new look.
Whether it’s long flowing locks or a princess-style ponytail, there’s something for everyone.
And Kristen, from Paisley, got the ultimate compliment when a fan compared her to the US pop star.
The follower said: “First one giving Sabrina Carpenter vibes.”
The wig in question – a grey ombré number – only costs £9.09.
While the ponytail that she said took her ‘from Bobbie to Barbie’ only sets shoppers back £4.25.
She said: “Guys I just got my hair done. Kidding on, they’re wigs.
“I actually really like this colour on me, it makes me think I should maybe get my hair dyed.
“It’s giving slay. They’re all giving slay.”
And other followers agreed with Kristen’s assessment.
One wrote: “Big Slay.”
Another added: “They are lush.”
Meanwhile, a hair expert and revealed the five haircare myths that are actually damaging your locks.
Eva Proudman, who has over 20 years of experience in scalp and hair health, has revealed which haircare hacks you need to watch out for.
The expert trichologist, who works with Absolute Collagen, also offered up her own alternative tips that won’t ruin your locks.
Anthony Joshua set for Daniel Dubois rematch after Saudi boxing chief orders another fight between Brit rivals
ANTHONY JOSHUA is heading for a rematch with Daniel Dubois.
AJ’s career was left hanging in the balance after being knocked out in five rounds by Dubois in front of a British-record 98,000 fans.
But Joshua spoke out in the aftermath to insist this is not the end of the road in a defiant snub to retirement.
He has one contracted fight left with Saudi Arabia boxing supremo Turki Alalshikh and Riyadh Season.
Joshua met with promoter Eddie Hearn and Alalshikh to map out his future just days after being brutally KO’d.
And Hearn revealed all parties are on board for a blockbuster rematch.
He said talkSPORT: “Rematch clauses come in many different forms.
“We have a fight with Riyadh Season. One of our options is to fight Daniel Dubois again, and our contract is with them.
“His Excellency [Turki Alalshikh] will deal with Frank and Daniel and make that fight happen. The terms will have to be agreed with them.
“We have already agreed our terms, we have the option to rematch with Dubois.
CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO WELCOME OFFERS
“Our meetings with His Excellency, he wants the rematch. AJ will always want the rematch.
“Daniel wants the rematch too it’s the biggest fight for him and they will fancy it.
“It is a case of going away and talking about, do we go straight into the rematch? And when will it be?
“It was a heavy night at the office, we aren’t going back to fight in 10-12 weeks, he needs his rest and time to recover.”
Tyson fury, 36, rematches Oleksandr Usyk, 37, on December 21 following his win in May.
And both Joshua, 34, and Dubois, 27, were considering awaiting the result to challenge the pair afterwards.
But promoter Frank Warren – who promotes Dubois – opened the door to a rematch with AJ which could be set for February.
Warren told TNT Sport: “I’m not against that at all. That’s not an open door for me, I’ll take the door off the hinges and we’ll do it.
“That fight is there. If they want it, they’ve got it, have it in a heartbeat. His next fight will be in February.
“That’s when he’ll fight next, and we will work out who that’s going to be in the next week or two weeks.”
Roman Kemp’s new girlfriend revealed as stunning branding assistant – and she’s met royalty with him
THE One Show host Roman Kemp has found love with a branding assistant.
The ex-Capital Breakfast presenter was seen leaving a restaurant hand-in-hand with the woman, named Carmen Gaggero, this week following a romantic date night.
Roman, 31, and his new love interest were spotted at Le Petit Maison in Mayfair, West London, on Wednesday evening.
The couple are believed to have been secretly seeing each other for several months.
They were actually photographed together meeting Queen Camilla and Princess of Wales, Kate, at an event in May.
Roman’s rep has been approached for comment.
Carmen was raised in Brighton and describes herself in her social media bios as “a TV, film and fashion enthusiast.”
Her Instagram profile features an image taken inside Roman’s central London apartment.
Roman previously dated neuroscientist Anne-Sophie Flury for three years before splitting in 2020.
He later set up a profile on celebrity dating app Raya.
The popular star, who is the son of Spandau Ballet’s Martin Kemp and pop singer Shirlie Holliman, stepped down from his job as Capital Breakfast presenter in March after a decade with the station.
Speaking on his final show, he explained: “What I want to get across is just how much fun I’ve had on this station in the past ten years.
“It has changed my life in so many ways and I have grown up in this place, and that’s because of all of you listening.
“You have been able to be there for me through things that I never imagined would even happen.
“I’ve had moments on this show where my whole life outside of work is completely down the pan. There were times where I didn’t want to be here anymore.
“There have been moments where my life outside of this room has been the worst thing ever.
“I want to say thank you for listening, every text, every call, all of it. I appreciate it more than you will ever know. I’ve had the most fun and I owe a huge debt to this company to be able to take a punt on me.
“I was terrified to take over this show and I’m terrified to leave it. But sometimes with these things, you just know when the right time to move on is and that time is now for me.”
He has since been replaced on the coveted slot by ex-Radio 1 and I’m a Celeb star Jordan North.