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Health secretary says sorry for ‘poor choice of word’ after backlash from bereaved families

One man has serious injuries and another is in serious condition after shots fired at engagement party in Longsight, say policeA 16-year-old girl was among four people hurt during a shooting at an engagement party in Manchester, police have said.Police were called just after 1am on Sunday following reports of four people arriving at hospital with apparent gunshot wounds. Continue reading...

Former Manchester City midfielder who is now Bristol Rovers boss will appear in court on MondayFormer footballer Joey Barton has been charged with assault by beating after a woman suffered a head injury at a residential address in London.Barton, who is currently manager of League Two club Bristol Rovers, will appear at Wimbledon magistrates court on Monday. It follows an incident at a house in Kew, south-west London, on 2 June. Continue reading...

Around the world, activists are pushing to protect their rivers by giving them legal personhood. Is this just symbolism, or can it drive lasting environmental change?The Magpie River winds majestically through the forests of Quebec for nearly 200 miles. Its thundering ribbon of blue is cherished by kayakers, white-water rafters and the indigenous Innu people of Ekuanitshit. Earlier this year, in a first for Canada, the river was granted legal personhood by local authorities, and given nine rights, including the right to flow, the right to be safe from pollution – and the right to sue.Uapukun Mestokosho, a member of the Innu community who campaigned for the recognition of the Magpie’s rights said spending time on the river was “a form of healing” for indigenous people who could revive their traditional land-based practices that had been abandoned during the violence of the colonial era. “People are suffering a lot, with intergenerational traumas linked to the past,” Mestokosho told CBC. As well as this benefit for people, she said that her ancestors had always protected the Magpie, known as the Muteshekau-shipu, in the past, and a recognition of its rights would help protect it for future generations. Continue reading...

Charities call for more accountability as data shows sharp increase in deaths in last 18 monthsMore than 50 people have died in Home Office asylum seeker accommodation in the last five years, with the number increasing steeply over the past 18 months, the Guardian has learned.Three babies are recorded to have died, as well as three people who died as a result of Covid and four dying by suicide. Some of the deaths were due to health conditions such as heart problems, cancer or stroke. Continue reading...

Request follows discovery of possible human remains in the Pyrenees, near where 37-year-old disappearedFrench police have asked for the dental records of a missing British hiker following the discovery of possible human remains in the Pyrenees, the woman’s mother said.Esther Dingley, 37, had been walking alone in the mountains near the Spanish and French border and was last seen on 22 November. Continue reading...

Only 1.6% of the Guatemalan population has been fully vaccinated, and amid corruption allegations critics are calling on the president to quitThe last time René García spoke with his family, he was having a coffee at home south of the Guatemalan capital last year after receiving an insulin shot that failed to improve his health.Related: Argentina threatens to cancel deal for Sputnik vaccine as Russia fails to deliver Continue reading...

The two countries revived Olympic tradition and former colonial tensions with politically charged gestures• With early coverage of the Games inevitably focused on coronavirus, geopolitical tensions have barely had a look-in. But South Korea and its former colonial ruler Japan are doing their best to revive the Olympic tradition. They have clashed over politically charged banners hanging from the South Korean team’s balconies, while a planned appearance by the country’s president, Moon Jae-in, was abruptly cancelled after a Japanese diplomat in Seoul accused him of “masturbating” over a potential summit with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshihide Suga.• Visiting reporters are unlikely to elicit much sympathy from the Japanese public as they document the coronavirus-shaped hoops they have to jump through to cover events at Tokyo 2020. After all, they are guests in a country where most people would rather they had stayed at home. Continue reading...

Leading radicals are raising their voices against the demand for uncritical backing for the governmentLuis Emilio Aybar is a voice from the left, which in Cuba means pretty far left. By any measure, he should be a stalwart defender of the island’s communist regime. After widespread public protests that two weeks ago roiled the nation, the 34-year-old published an article in the magazine La Tizza, which bills itself as “a space to think about socialism”.After the prerequisite denunciation of the US, he wrote: “What happened on 11 July is also because we communists and revolutionaries do not fight with sufficient force and efficiency the harmful practices of the state. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison confirms extra 85 million Pfizer doses; NSW records 141 new local cases and two deaths, including a woman in her 30s; too soon to tell if Victorian lockdown will end Tuesday as state records 11 new local cases. This blog has now closed

One of 11 children, Séamas O’Reilly was just five years old when his mother died. In an extract from his touching new memoir, he recalls with awful day of her wakeOne thing they don’t tell you about mammies is that when they die you get new trousers. On my first full day as a half-orphan, I remember fiddling with unfamiliar cords as Margaret held my cheek and told me Mammy was a flower. She and her husband, Phillie, were close friends of my parents and their presence is one of the few memories that survive from that period, most specifically the conversation Margaret had with me there and then. “Sometimes,” croaked Margaret in a voice bent ragged from two days’ crying, “when God sees a particularly pretty flower, He’ll take it up from Earth, and put it in his own garden.”It was nice to think that Mammy was so well-liked by God, since she was a massive fan. She went to all his gigs – mass, prayer groups, marriage guidance meetings. She had all the action figures – small Infant of Prague statuettes, much larger Infant of Prague statuettes, little blue plastic flasks of holy water in the shape of God’s own mammy herself. So, in one sense, Margaret’s version of events was kind of comforting. It placed my mother’s death in that category of stories where people met their heroes. Continue reading...

The south of the country bears the scars of how bosses enriched their clans with illegal, brutalist buildings and gaudy, now decaying, villas

‘David Taylor’ claims hooding, sensory deprivation and waterboarding was to persuade him to cooperate with the CIAA British citizen has claimed he was tortured in Somalia and questioned by US intelligence officers, raising concern that controversial practices of the post-9/11 “war on terror” are still being used.The 45-year-old from London alleges he has endured hooding, sensory deprivation and waterboarding at the hands of the Somali authorities to persuade him, he believes, to cooperate with the CIA. Foreign Office officials are aware of the allegationsof torture and US involvement, but their failure to act has raised questions over UK complicity. Continue reading...

Governments are launching de facto vaccine passport schemes as they try to head off a summer Covid wave like the UK’s

At 81, after years of suffering, Clare Devlin has joined the campaign to stop sex crime against children by revealing her own ordeal at the hands of her celebrated judge parentClare Devlin’s first memory of being sadistically and sexually snared by her father was when she was seven. But she knows that wasn’t the first time it had happened. She remembers a feeling of dread of something already known, a “recognition of feelings of fear and anger and grief”. The abuse continued throughout her childhood and adolescence until she finally found a way to stop the man who was the most powerful person in her universe.Her father, Patrick Devlin, was one of the most celebrated judges in the country. Now Clare is 81 years old and, with her family’s support, she is going public about his behaviour, lending herself to the international movement to stop child sexual abuse. As well as telling her story to the Observer, she has also made a submission to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which finishes taking evidence in October. Continue reading...

It was billed as a return to freedom, but the week ended with empty supermarket shelves and cancelled trains as many thousand workers – including the PM and chancellor – self-isolated

The fastest woman Britain has ever seen is also thoughtful, inspirational and willing to talk about things that athletes often avoid, like politics and periods. But in the countdown to the Tokyo Olympics, sprinter Dina Asher-Smith knows that every second countsAround 9am local time, this coming Friday, Dina Asher-Smith will crouch on a starting line in Tokyo, ready for her first race of the Olympic Games. Nose this close to the ground, hugger-mugger with the other athletes, the moment will smell to her of skin cream and sweat, also the rubber of the track, a smell that might remind you or me of a playground’s springy surface, but which always makes Asher-Smith think of home. She has been a competitive sprinter since primary school. She started medalling in major 100m and 200m races about the time she was old enough to drive. Now, at 25, she is one of the fastest two or three women alive, and surely Britain’s best hope for athletics gold this summer.On Friday morning, she’ll try to rid her mind of any such expectations. Crouched on the track she’ll place herself in an imaginary bubble, ignoring smells, impressions, sounds, even ready to ignore the echoing pop of the starter’s pistol. Wastes time, Asher-Smith has learned, listening for that. Better to try to feel the gun go and in the very same instant go herself. Ballerina focus will be required, next, to recreate a precise pattern of initial steps that she’ll have planned in advance with her coach. That ought to be the end of any conscious effort on her part. Over the next eight or nine seconds in a 100m race, or the next 20-something seconds in a 200m race, she says: “I shouldn’t really know what the sensations are. I shouldn’t be in a place to be reflective at all. I shouldn’t be feeling, only doing.” Continue reading...

In Northern Ireland, the Leavers’ folly is now manifest. How can the opposition stay silent about the root cause of the crisis?‘He did not want to die until Brexit was reversed.” These words were spoken at the funeral last week of my dear friend and former Observer colleague Dick Leonard.Dick died a month ago at the ripe old age of 90. The speaker was his widow, Irène Heidelberger-Leonard, before a group of mourners who included the Labour leader Keir Starmer, to whom Dick had been something of a political mentor. Continue reading...

A new failed state in the Middle East would spell chaos for us allAmid so much trouble around the world, the crisis in Lebanon has received relatively little attention, especially from British politicians and media. This is a serious oversight. It’s not inconceivable Lebanon could soon become a “failed state” on a par with Libya or Yemen. That would be a disaster for its people, but also, as recent history shows, for the region, Europe and the UK.The crisis has many aspects. The most pressing is the mounting human cost. The chronic devaluation of the Lebanese pound – it has lost about 90% of its value in the past 18 months – is taking a terrible toll on ordinary families. About 30% of Lebanese children go to bed hungry, the UN says. Most households are short of food. At least half the population has slipped into poverty. Continue reading...

Allow yourself some fallow time so new ways of thinking have time to formThe question I have recently taken six weeks off work due to burn-out, diagnosed by my GP. In the past 10 years I have only ever taken half of all my annual leave and have never been off sick even though there are days I probably should have stayed at home. I am extremely committed to my job in the NHS.My dilemma is how to avoid getting burnt out again. I love my job and get an enormous amount of satisfaction, kudos, legitimacy and engaged interest. I gain not wholly but a large part of my identity from it. Continue reading...

We are losing the race to keep our planet coolReminders that our planet is wilting under the impact of human-driven climate change have been hard to avoid this month. Catastrophic floods have killed 160 in Germany while more than 50 died after massive inundations swept through the central Chinese province of Henan when a year’s worth of rain fell in three days last week. At the same time, forest fires have ripped through one of the world’s coldest places, Siberia, after unusually hot, dry weather gripped the region. Canada and the US have also been afflicted by conflagrations that have destroyed communities and vast areas of woodland. One blaze in the US state of Oregon has spread over an area 25 times the size of Manhattan and has raged out of control for weeks. Global warming, triggered by rising levels of greenhouse gases, has been implicated in every case.Nor will things get better. Indeed, they can only get worse. Every year, factories, power plants and vehicles pump tens of billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, trapping solar radiation that will further increase temperatures round the globe. Even if all greenhouse gas emissions were halted tomorrow the carbon dioxide already in our atmosphere will hang around for decades and continue to heat the planet, turning vegetation to tinder and allowing air to retain more moisture before releasing it with sudden and devastating consequences. Continue reading...

Police denounce violence during illegal marches against coronavirus measures and set up taskforce to trace everyone who broke rules

Exhibit closed after nine-year-old unvaccinated male named Ramil developed a cough and runny nose

One person has died as officials struggle to provide adequate Covid-safe emergency shelter for nearly 15,000 residentsThousands of residents have fled flooded communities and swollen rivers in the Philippine capital, Manila, and outlying provinces after days of torrential monsoon rains that left at least one villager dead.Officials say they are struggling to open more emergency shelters in order to allow social distancing among the displaced residents and prevent evacuation camps from turning into epicentres of Covid-19 infections. In the hard-hit city of Marikina in the capital region, nearly 15,000 residents were evacuated to safety overnight as waters rose alarmingly in a major river. Continue reading...

Bereaved families, Labour and Lib Dems all condemn health secretary, accusing him of insensitivity

Although profits may be down this week, the airline’s shares – and its chief executive’s optimism – are defying gravityWho’s afraid of the Delta variant? Not Michael O’Leary. Over the last 16 months of sickness, death and lockdown, the billionaire Ryanair boss has rediscovered his controversy button and has lately been loudly telling governments to stick their “scariants” and let everyone fly again.Much of his ire has been reserved for Ireland, whose scientific and medical leaders must envy the UK’s Chris Whitty for only getting accosted in the park. Continue reading...

Demonstrators in several cities denounce president for alleged corruption and Covid mismanagementProtesters took to the streets in several Brazilian cities on Saturday to demand the impeachment of Jair Bolsonaro, the country’s far right president whose popularity has fallen in recent weeks amid corruption scandals against the backdrop of the pandemic.This week, news broke that Brazil’s defence ministry told congressional leadership that next year’s elections would not take place without amending the country’s electronic voting system to include a paper trail of each vote. Continue reading...

We need the self-belief that comes from honest appraisal, not an ad-man’s optimism based on false confidenceWhen we started writing this piece, Brisbane was in lockdown. By the time we finished, Sydney, Victoria and South Australia were as well. Millions of Australians have already spent chunks of the last 18 months concerned for their jobs or their business, navigating the new world of remote learning and wearing the emotional strain of being cut off from the comfort of loved ones and familiar routines.Amid all this, optimism might not seem thick on the ground. Continue reading...

30-year-old Manchester man in custody on suspicion of attempted murder after group of pedestrians hit in early hoursA man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a car struck a number of pedestrians on Blackpool promenade.Police were called at 5.25am on Saturday to reports a red Peugeot had driven at a small group of people near to the North Pier. Continue reading...

Greater Manchester police say 31-year-old taken from East Street address to hospital but died short time laterThree men have been arrested after a woman died in hospital after suffering severe burns at an address in Bury, Greater Manchester police have said.A Greater Manchester police statement said: “Police were called just after 7.30pm on Friday 23 July to reports a woman had been badly burned at an address on East Street in Bury. Continue reading...

The French-Moroccan author on why she writes, the complexity of identity, and the first book of a trilogy based on her family historyAuthor Leïla Slimani, 39, grew up in Rabat, Morocco, and moved to Paris when she was 17. Her first novel, Adèle, a melancholy story about a nymphomaniac mother in her 30s, was published in France in 2014. In 2016, she was the first Moroccan woman to win France’s most prestigious literary award, the Prix Goncourt, for her second novel, Lullaby, about a nanny who kills the baby and toddler in her care. In 2017, President Emmanuel Macron appointed her as his personal representative for promoting French language and culture.Last year, Slimani published a nonfiction book, Sex and Lies, a collection of intimate testimonies from Moroccan women about their secret lives. Her latest book, The Country of Others, is the first novel in a planned trilogy based on her family history. Set in the late 1940s and 50s, it centres on her maternal grandparents during Morocco’s period of decolonisation. Slimani lives with her husband and two children in Paris. Continue reading...

Nearly 3,000 hauliers are proposing a ‘stay at home’ day, prompting fears over already creaking food supply chainsLorry drivers are planning a nationwide strike over their working conditions, prompting warnings that this would magnify food shortages and cripple the country’s already creaking supply chains.Hauliers are proposing a “stay at home” day next month in response to low pay and working terms, an event designed to compound the effect of the UK’s lorry-driver shortage , which last week led to widespread stock shortages. However the Road Haulage Association, which represents commercial road haulage companies and has more than 7,000 members, warned drivers against taking action saying it would make a “bad situation worse” and severely disrupt automated chains. Continue reading...

Research increasingly suggests that extracts from the plant are effective in treating pain, anxiety, epilepsy and more, but experts still preach caution around recreational useIn 2017, Mikael Sodergren, a liver and pancreatic cancer surgeon at Imperial College healthcare NHS trust, was finding himself becoming increasingly interested in the potential role of medical cannabis in treating pain, especially the discomfort experienced by patients after complex operations.“I hope that I do a lot of good, but unfortunately in the short term, I inflict a lot of pain with cancer surgery,” says Sodergren. “So we’re reliant on pretty nasty painkillers, such as high-strength intravenous opioids, which we’re trying to move away from. They slow patients down and they cause complications.” Continue reading...

Demonstrators say law that bans teaching of issue in schools is causing division in HungaryThousands of Hungarians have joined the annual Budapest Pride march to support LGBTQ people and protest against a law that limits teaching about homosexuality and transgender issues in schools.Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, in power since 2010, has introduced social policies that he says aim to safeguard traditional Christian values from western liberalism, stoking tensions with the EU. Continue reading...

Woman, 36, dies after stabbing in East Dulwich and man dies following separate incident in DagenhamTwo separate murder investigations have been launched in London after emergency crews were called to addresses in the east and south of the capital on Friday night.The Metropolitan police said they were called to reports of a stabbing at a residential address on Lordship Lane in East Dulwich shortly after 10pm. A 36-year-old woman was found with stab injuries and died in hospital later that night. Officers are working to locate and inform her next of kin. Continue reading...

The singer, 71, on enjoying her grandchildren, missing her mum, giving everything on stage and her need for an Ego RoomMy mouth is my weapon. I can destroy somebody with a flick of my tongue. I’ve got a sharp wit and a sharp way of talking. I’m not a hitter, but when I’m mad, I’m mad. I scream it out, then I’m done.Nobody could believe it when I once used the men’s toilet at a petrol station. I was on tour. Our bus had stopped for us to get snacks and use the loo, but there was a huge line for the ladies’ and my impatience is really bad, so I refused to wait. I walked right past everybody, into the men’s, used a stall and came out. Continue reading...

It’s a serious drink for serious times – which is why the former insiders’ tipple is now absolutely everywhereA decade ago, ordering a negroni was “a secret handshake, a sign to bartenders that you knew what you liked, and how to order it”, according to Bon Appétit magazine. In 2013, GQ magazine wrote that “a negroni, like black coffee or Texas, is an acquired taste”. A negroni is made up of equal parts gin, vermouth and Campari, the herbaceous scarlet liqueur that, according to Italian bar wisdom, begins to taste good the third time you drink it. Its botanical bitterness seemed destined to keep the negroni forever pigeonholed as an insider’s drink.Fast-forward to summer 2021, and it has gone from arthouse to blockbuster. At the smart new rooftop gin terrace of the St Pancras hotel in London, the negroni gets headline billing on the drinks menu, ahead of the gin and tonic. You can buy negroni ready-mixed in a can for a train journey, or send a letterbox cocktail as a gift. You can mix a snowgroni (a frozen, slushy-style negroni) or order a pineapple negroni at happy hour. Head to the menswear department of Marks & Spencer and you can even pick up a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “Negroni” above a cheery illustration of a tumbler full to the brim with cherry-red liquid. Continue reading...

Participants celebrate with selfies and champagne as running club gets back on its feet after Covid hiatusThe return of parkrun was met with scenes of jubilation on Saturday as the weekly running club took place in England for the first time since the start of the Covid pandemic.After 16 months without the weekly ritual, thousands of runners took part in 5km runs across the country, from Cliffe Castle in West Yorkshire to Bushy Park in south-west London. Continue reading...

Spain may be famous for its love of meat – but sanctuaries across the country are coming to the rescue of its doomed cows, bulls, pigs, sheep and geeseIn the north-east Spanish region of Catalonia, an enormous bull called Pedro is poking his head over a barn door to look at some sheep. He’ll stay there for two hours if the sanctuary volunteers let him; he’ll have to be tempted away with treats so that the sheep can be let out to graze. Pedro knows the routine; he’s been here since he was a calf, when he was bottle-fed by volunteers. He lives a charmed life – he is fed, he roams, he watches sheep, he sleeps; and when he dies, it will be of natural causes.“He’s enormous!” I say to Olivia Gómez de Zamora, a veterinary assistant from Madrid who spends a lot of time coaxing Pedro from the barn. Continue reading...

Yellow weather warning issued for southern England and Wales with risk of difficult driving conditionsA 70-year-old woman has escaped unharmed after two homes were partially destroyed by a lightning strike in Hampshire, with thunderstorms and heavy rain expected across the south of the UK this weekend.After several days of sunny skies and scorching temperatures, the Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning in southern England and Wales for Saturday and Sunday, advising that frequent lightning, thundery rain and strong winds are expected. Continue reading...

Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah’s new book The Sex Lives of African Women examines self-discovery, freedom and healing. She talks about everything she has learned

Season now has a health warning and people may lose associations of joy, relaxation and celebrationBeware summer! The season we used to anticipate as the lightest, brightest, balmiest time of the year now comes with a health warning.For the first time in the UK, the Met Office issued an extreme heat advisory this week. The warning was very staid, very British, but a clear shift away from the ethos of Keep Calm and Carry On. The amber alert urged precautions against adverse health effects for vulnerable populations, pressure on water resources, potential power cuts and increased likelihood of transport delays. Given the temperatures were only a little over 30C for a few days, this might seem risible to people living in far hotter parts of the world, but it is part of a growing global conversation that is fundamentally challenging how we think about summer in a climate-disrupted world. Continue reading...

The Whip Smart author explores consent, bodies and boundaries in a poignant and frank collection of essays that celebrates the power to say ‘no’Several years ago, the New York writer Melissa Febos went to a cuddle party, in which people pay money to engage in non-sexual intimacy with strangers. The events are designed to meet the needs of those suffering from what psychologists call “skin hunger”, or a lack of human touch. Attendees in pyjamas sit amid pillows, duvets and blankets stroking and hugging each other or holding hands. Sessions typically begin with a short workshop about boundaries and consent. Touching around “bikini” areas is forbidden; participants must seek permission and receive a clear “yes” before any physical contact; everyone gets to practise saying “no”.But, despite the clear messaging, Febos is uneasy. When a man asks to spoon her, she is reluctant but allows him to do it anyway. Another requests a cuddle; rather than say no, she suggests they hold hands, prompting him to look annoyed and ask if he can massage her instead. Afterwards, Febos is unnerved. It wasn’t just the air of entitlement among the men that disturbed her. “It was how powerful my instinct was to give them what they wanted, as if I didn’t have a choice.” Continue reading...

Some accommodation providers refuse to defer breaks despite Covid quarantine decision

PM wants to echo Blair’s promise of an ‘opportunity society’ and energise those who feel left behindBoris Johnson intends to mimic aspects of Tony Blair’s political project in the hope of winning over more voters in former Labour heartlands, Downing Street sources have revealed.While the Conservatives’ 2019-intake MPs are more likely to model themselves on Margaret Thatcher than the former Labour prime minister, No 10 insiders said Johnson had been studying Blair’s approach. Continue reading...

Eddie, 79, human rights activist, meets Gisela, 65, teacherWhat were you hoping for?

Chaotic scenes in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane as protesters demand end to lockdowns

Move by international body set up to implement post-war peace deal follows attempts to downplay 1995 Srebrenica massacreThe top international official in Bosnia has outlawed denial of genocide in the Balkan country to counter attempts by Bosnia’s Serbs to deny the scope of the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, Europe’s only post-second world war genocide.Valentin Inzko, the outgoing head of Bosnia’s Office of the High Representative, or OHR, introduced the changes to the country’s criminal code on Friday, bringing in prison sentences of up to five years for genocide denial and for the glorification of war criminals, including naming of streets or public institutions after them. Continue reading...

Tokelau, one of the most inaccessible atolls in the world, can only be reached by small boat, but received boxes of vaccine this weekThe elders of Nukunonu atoll in Tokelau at the wharf on Monday morning, dressed in white and singing songs, held a banner that said: “Welcome”.In the distance, a small inflatable boat made its way to them carrying a New Zealand defence officer dressed in full protective gear and 12 precious boxes. Inside the boxes were just over 700 doses of Pfizer vaccine, enough to cover the 346 residents of Nukunono who are eligible for the vaccine. Continue reading...

This agonising, intimate programme gives family and friends’ side of the singer’s complicated story, as a riposte to Asif Kapadia’s 2015 documentary AmyIt is now 10 years since Amy Winehouse’s death at the age of 27, and Reclaiming Amy (BBC Two) is a short, sad, sweet film that sees her family and friends give their side of the singer’s complicated story. It is narrated by her mother Janis, and does not attempt to hide its position as a riposte to Asif Kapadia’s 2015 documentary Amy, which, Janis says, “claimed to tell the real story about our daughter”. The implication is that it did not, and certainly her father, Mitch, has reason to address some of the criticisms it levelled at him. Here, he claims he had a nervous breakdown after its release.“The way Amy turned out wasn’t because she wasn’t raised right,” insists her lifelong friend, Michael, and we see plenty of clips of how she was raised. There are home videos and photographs of her on the day she was born, at three, at five. There is footage of her playing Rizzo in a school production of Grease, and her star power is plain to see even then. She practically blows the other Pink Ladies off the stage. Continue reading...