Kate Moss, the English supermodel, is launching a range of jam made from fruit grown on the land surrounding her home in the Cotswolds. "It started as a hobby," a friend told the media, "but she's taking it a lot more seriously after glowing feedback from friends and family. She's hoping her plum conserve will be a hit with the public." Lila Grace, the model's seven-year-old daughter, has helped her mother to jar her preserves, but Moss, 36, is now turning to a friend for advice on how to get her jams into shops - Sir Philip Green, the billionaire retail magnate, whose interests include Marks&Spencer, the British clothes and food chain.
The "reasonable likelihood of dormice being present" is disrupting plans to build a £12 million supermarket and other outlets near Wadebridge, a town in Cornwall, southwest England. The dormouse is a protected species in Europe and, although none of the animals has been seen within two kilometres of the site, planning officers have recommended permission should be refused. "These companies are very powerful," a spokesman for the campaign group Love Wadebridge told The Daily Telegraph. "They want to ignore us, but it seems they cannot ignore our dormice."
A Swedish driver caught breaking the speed limit in Switzerland in his Mercedes SLS AMG gullwing sports car may have set a world record - for the largest speeding fine ever. The current record, which stands at US$290,000 (Dh1.06 million), was set in January in the same country by a Swiss driver. Now the 37-year-old Swede, who was driving at 290kph - 170kph over the limit - has had his car impounded and faces a fine of US$1 million. It could have been worse - slightly. The speed of the US$200,000 supercharged V8 car, the pace car for this year's Formula One races, is limited electronically to about 317kph.
It took him two and a half years and he endured a range of inconveniences including 50,000 mosquito bites, the ravages of tropical diseases and attacks by hostile tribesmen, but a former captain in the British army has become the first person known to have walked the length of the Amazon river from its origins in Peru to the Atlantic. What should have been a 6,400-kilometre journey became half as long again when floods forced Ed Stafford, 34, to take lengthy diversions through the rainforest. On the way, said his team, he had been "wrongly accused of murder on two separate occasions, been imprisoned, had concrete stuffed in his mouth by hostile tribes people, been chased by Ashaninka Indians with bows and arrows [and] been stung by hundreds of wasps".
A computing project that harnesses the collective power of idle personal computers via the internet has scored its first triumph, identifying a rare astronomical object by sifting through a mass of data which is too vast for even the largest supercomputer to digest. Three users - one in Germany, the others in the US - have been credited with the discovery of a "disrupted binary pulsar", the signature of a massive star that has collapsed. Their history-making desktops are among 500,000 receiving and analysing data on behalf of the US-based Einstein@home project, to which any computer user can subscribe.
Facebook fans have been saluting the spectacular resignation of flight attendant Steven Slater, who quit his job with the US airline JetBlue after 20 years in the business by hurling abuse at passengers over his aircraft's public address system, deploying an emergency chute and sliding on to the tarmac at New York's Kennedy Airport. Slater, 38, was later arrested at his home in New York and has been charged with criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.
jgornall@thenational.ae
The specs
Engine: 5.0-litre supercharged V8
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Power: 575bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh554,000
On sale: now
THE SPECS
Engine: Four-cylinder 2.5-litre
Transmission: Seven-speed auto
Power: 165hp
Torque: 241Nm
Price: Dh99,900 to Dh134,000
On sale: now
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
SPECS
Engine: 2-litre direct injection turbo
Transmission: 7-speed automatic
Power: 261hp
Torque: 400Nm
Price: From Dh134,999
UK record temperature
38.7C (101.7F) set in Cambridge in 2019
EMIRATES'S REVISED A350 DEPLOYMENT SCHEDULE
Edinburgh: November 4 (unchanged)
Bahrain: November 15 (from September 15); second daily service from January 1
Kuwait: November 15 (from September 16)
Mumbai: January 1 (from October 27)
Ahmedabad: January 1 (from October 27)
Colombo: January 2 (from January 1)
Muscat: March 1 (from December 1)
Lyon: March 1 (from December 1)
Bologna: March 1 (from December 1)
Source: Emirates
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
Motori Profile
Date started: March 2020
Co-founder/CEO: Ahmed Eissa
Based: UAE, Abu Dhabi
Sector: Insurance Sector
Size: 50 full-time employees (Inside and Outside UAE)
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Safe City Group
The bio:
Favourite holiday destination: I really enjoyed Sri Lanka and Vietnam but my dream destination is the Maldives.
Favourite food: My mum’s Chinese cooking.
Favourite film: Robocop, followed by The Terminator.
Hobbies: Off-roading, scuba diving, playing squash and going to the gym.
Company profile
Company name: Fasset
Started: 2019
Founders: Mohammad Raafi Hossain, Daniel Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $2.45 million
Current number of staff: 86
Investment stage: Pre-series B
Investors: Investcorp, Liberty City Ventures, Fatima Gobi Ventures, Primal Capital, Wealthwell Ventures, FHS Capital, VN2 Capital, local family offices
The First Monday in May
Director: Andrew Rossi
Starring: Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld, John Paul Gaultier, Rihanna
Three stars
Keane on …
Liverpool’s Uefa Champions League bid: “They’re great. With the attacking force they have, for me, they’re certainly one of the favourites. You look at the teams left in it - they’re capable of scoring against anybody at any given time. Defensively they’ve been good, so I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t go on and win it.”
Mohamed Salah’s debut campaign at Anfield: “Unbelievable. He’s been phenomenal. You can name the front three, but for him on a personal level, he’s been unreal. He’s been great to watch and hopefully he can continue now until the end of the season - which I’m sure he will, because he’s been in fine form. He’s been incredible this season.”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s instant impact at former club LA Galaxy: “Brilliant. It’s been a great start for him and for the club. They were crying out for another big name there. They were lacking that, for the prestige of LA Galaxy. And now they have one of the finest stars. I hope they can go win something this year.”
The biog
Born: near Sialkot, Pakistan, 1981
Profession: Driver
Family: wife, son (11), daughter (8)
Favourite drink: chai karak
Favourite place in Dubai: The neighbourhood of Khawaneej. “When I see the old houses over there, near the date palms, I can be reminded of my old times. If I don’t go down I cannot recall my old times.”
PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450+ employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
More from Neighbourhood Watch
Company Profile
Company: Astra Tech
Started: March 2022
Based: Dubai
Founder: Abdallah Abu Sheikh
Industry: technology investment and development
Funding size: $500m
Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Three stars
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.