'Emotional' Elton John closes out Glastonbury festival

PILTON -- Elton John gave the final concert at Britain's legendary Glastonbury Festival on Sunday, bringing down the curtain on the annual spectacular with what could be his final UK performance.

"I never thought I'd ever play Glastonbury," he told the crowd. "It's a very special and emotional night for me –- it might be my very last show in England, in Great Britain, so I'd better play well and entertain you."

The 76-year-old pop superstar is winding down a glittering live career with a global farewell tour, having played his last concerts in the United States in May ahead of a final gig in Stockholm on July 8.

Glastonbury, Britain's best-known music festival, has been hosted on a farm in southwest England for five decades.

Before John took to the main Pyramid Stage on Sunday night, anticipation was high among fans.

"Elton's a legend," PhD student Giles Briscoe, 26, told AFP ahead of the set, wearing a replica of the iconic baseball outfit John wore at his famous 1975 concerts at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles.

"The fact that he's going to perform on such a big stage, at such a historic moment of his career, is such a big event."

John did not disappoint, kicking the show off with "Pinball Wizard" -- a role he memorably played in The Who's rock opera "Tommy" -- before reeling through some of his biggest hits, including "Candle in the Wind," "Crocodile Rock" and an intense "I'm Still Standing".

John dedicated "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" to his "friend" and "inspiration" George Michael, who died on Christmas Day in 2016, and who would have turned 60 on Sunday.

'Incredible journey' 

John's husband David Furnish had told Sky News ahead of the concert that John would not stop making music after the farewell tour ends next month, and would start work on a new studio album later this year.

He also teased Sunday's performance, saying it would be "very special," and "not just another day in the office."

Indeed, John was joined on stage by several surprise guests: first off, the London Community Gospel Choir and Jacob Lusk of the soul-pop group Gabriels.

Next up was Stephen Sanchez, with John singing one of the 20-year-old American's songs.

He later shared the stage with Brandon Flowers of The Killers for "Tiny Dancer," and with Rina Sawayama for "Don't Go Breaking My Heart."

He closed out the set with a soaring rendition of "Rocket Man," complete with fireworks.

During the concert, John thanked his fans "for 52 years of amazing love and loyalty."

"It's been an incredible journey and I've had the best, best time. I will never forget you -- you are in my head, my heart and my soul."

John's UK swansong caps days of big-name performances in front of more than 200,000 fans at Glastonbury, including veteran US rockers Guns N'Roses, who were making their debut at the long-running festival in the coveted Saturday night headline slot.

They rocked through their extensive catalogue during a two-hour-plus set, playing hits including "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "November Rain."

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, whose band played a so-called secret slot Friday, joined them onstage to help play a special rendition of "Paradise City."

Other acts playing this year included UK indie giants Arctic Monkeys, singer Lizzo, rapper Lil Nas X, post-punk icon Blondie and "rickroller" Rick Astley, highlighting Glastonbury's eclectic ethos.

On Saturday, a supportive crowd sang along as Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi, who suffers from Tourette's syndrome, struggled to finish his set.

He announced he would take a break, after previously cancelling gigs to recuperate over health concerns.

No mud 

Dairy farmer Michael Eavis first organized the festival in 1970, the day after Jimi Hendrix died, and fans who came to see acts including Marc Bolan and Al Stewart paid £1 each for entry and received free milk from the farm.

It was held intermittently in the 1970s, but it wasn't until the 1990s that it really began to acquire its cult status.

While able to draw the biggest performers from every genre and generation, it is equally known for hosting thousands of small acts and left-field events across the huge Worthy Farm site, as well as for often rainy and muddy conditions.

That has not proved a problem this year, with Britain in the midst of a prolonged dry period leaving much of the country scorched.

More than 100,000 standard tickets for this year's festival sold out in just over an hour, despite the price rising to £335 ($427) this year.

Agence France-Presse

Tears and triumph as Britain hits a 113-year high in swimming

TOKYO—Tears were shed and dreams came true for Britain’s 4x200m freestyle relay team as they celebrated an historic first at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday and their country’s best performance in the pool in more than a century.

Tom Dean collected his second gold medal of the Games, after winning the individual 200m on Tuesday, while a tearful James Guy joined Matthew Richards and Duncan Scott in collecting a first.

Calum Jarvis also swum in the heats.

Guy and Scott were silver medallists in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 to a U.S. team that included Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte but they started as favorites on Wednesday and lived up to expectations.

“In 2016 we came second but that was a monster achievement at the time,” said Scott, who swam the anchor leg to touch out in six minutes, 58.58 seconds.

That was 0.03 off the world record set by the United States in 2009, a different era, and 0.02 slower than the Olympic record set by the Americans in Beijing in 2008.

“We were so close to a world record in the end. If anything I’m a bit gutted,” said Scott.

The U.S. team had taken a medal from the event at every Games since 1908, apart from boycotted Moscow 1980, but that run ended with the defending champions finishing only fourth.

It was also the first time since 1908 that Britain had won three swimming golds at a single Games, with Adam Peaty retaining his 100m breaststroke title in Tokyo, and the first time in 113 years that a British male swimmer had collected two golds at one Olympics.

Wednesday was also the first time since 1908 that Britain had won the relay.

Dean swam the opening leg, followed by Guy, who lifted the team from third to first, and then Richards handed over to Scott for a comfortable victory.

“As a kid, winning an Olympic gold medal was my absolute dream. To do it finally at 25 years is pretty emotional,” said Guy, who was wiping away tears even before Scott hit the wall.

“We’re the best freestylers in the world … it’s just amazing how things progress. Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte won in Rio, now we’re the Olympic champions and that’s a dream come true.”

-reuters

Obama condemns beheading of Briton by extremists

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is condemning as a “barbaric murder” the slaying of British aid worker David Haines by Islamic State extremists.

Haines was abducted last year in Syria, and extremists released a video on Saturday showing his beheading.

In a statement, Obama says the United States stands shoulder to shoulder with Britain in, quote, “grief and resolve.” The president says the U.S. will work with Britain and a broad collation of nations to bring to justice those who committed what he calls an “outrageous act.”

Repeating a message from his Wednesday night address laying out a strategy for attacking the Islamic State group, Obama says the coalition will degrade and destroy the threat the extremists pose to people around the world.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Elton John to marry longtime partner

WASHINGTON — Pop icon Elton John says he will tie the knot with partner David Furnish now that his native Britain has legalized gay marriage.

The top-selling artist told NBC’s “Today” show that “we’ll do it very quietly.”

“But we will do it and it will be a joyous occasion,” John added.




The couple, who have two children together, entered into a civil partnership in 2005.

A historic law legalizing same-sex marriage took effect in England and Wales on Saturday, the final stage in the long fight for legal equality for gays and lesbians.

Civil partnerships have been legal there since 2005.

“I’m very proud of Britain and the laws that we’ve seen come into existence since we’ve been together,” John said in excerpts of the interview set to air Monday.

“For this legislation to come through is joyous, and we should celebrate it. We shouldn’t just say, ‘Oh, well we have a civil partnership. We’re not going to bother to get married.’ We will get married.”

Furnish told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a separate interview that an intimate ceremony would take place in May.

“I think what we’ll do is go to a registry office in England in May, and take the boys with us, and a couple of witnesses,” the publication quoted him as saying.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

UK inflation rises to 2.9 percent in June

LONDON— Official figures show that inflation in Britain rose to a 14-month high of 2.9 percent in June.

The increase from May’s 2.7 percent rate, reported Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics, was slightly less than anticipated and may provide policymakers at the Bank of England some relief as they work out what further measures they can take to help the British economy.

Though the Bank has a target to keep inflation around 2 percent, policymakers have shown a greater willingness of late to look past temporary increases amid fears that raising interest rates to lower inflation would hurt the recovery.

Unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve, which aims to control inflation and also increase employment, the Bank of England’s exclusive mission has been to keep inflation close to target.

source: business.inquirer.net

UK will cut top income tax rate

Britain's finance minister has cut the rate of income tax for the country's wealthiest citizens but insisted the rich will pay more through a raft of measures to prevent tax avoidance and a hefty new charge on expensive property sales.

In his annual budget statement on Wednesday, George Osborne said he was cutting the top rate from 50 per cent to 45 per cent by April next year on incomes over STG150,000 ($A228,000)a year. He argued that the original higher rate did not yield as much as expected, partly because the rich were able to avoid the tax.

Osborne sought to deflect criticism that any largesse was confined to the wealthy by announcing a big hike in the level Britons start paying tax to STG9,205. There are doubts, however, as to whether the poorest in British society will reap the full reward, given they may lose some benefits.

'Together, the British people will share in the effort and share the rewards,' Osborne said at the conclusion of his hour-long statement. 'This country borrowed its way into trouble, now we're going to earn our way out.'

The 50 per cent tax rate was introduced by the previous Labour government in response to the sharp deterioration in public finances in the wake of a banking crisis that led to the country's deepest recession since World War II.

The leader of the Labour opposition Ed Miliband pounced on Osborne's decision to cut the top rate of tax, mocking him for his oft-repeated mantra that 'we're all in this together.'

'After today's budget, millions will be paying more while millionaires pay less,' Miliband said.

Osborne insisted that the rich should pay a bigger proportion of their income than the poor and said he was offsetting the cut in the top rate by other taxes on wealth, including a new seven per cent charge on the sale of houses valued over STG2 million, up from five per cent.

Most of those residences are located in London, which has become a second home of choice for many of the world's super-rich - Russian oligarchs and hedge fund managers have all converged on the capital, driving up the cost of homes to levels that are unaffordable to the vast majority of Londoners.

Tony Ryland, a senior tax partner at London Chartered Accountants Blick Rothenberg, said the changes will have 'a major effect on the London housing market, potentially driving away overseas buyers.'

Overall, the budget measures were broadly neutral. Osborne has little room for manoeuvre, given the government's primary plan to dramatically reduce borrowing and recent warnings from credit ratings agencies that they could cut the country's cherished triple-A rating if public finances don't improve.

The government's debt-reduction program has been rewarded in the money markets to an extent, even though the economy has flatlined and unemployment stands at a near 17-year high. Unlike other big borrowers in Europe, such as Greece and even Italy, Britain - the biggest European economy that does not use the euro - has enjoyed super-low borrowing rates, making the deficit easy to finance.

Osborne said he was asking the Treasury to examine whether it would be wise for Britain to start issuing bonds of duration longer than 50 years to lock in the current historic low interest rates. The yield on Britain's ten-year bond is around 2.3 per cent, in line with the equivalent US rate.

Economic growth this year will be 0.8 per cent, up from a previous forecast for 0.7 per cent, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, an independent agency tasked by the government to compile projections.

Osborne said Britain was likely to avoid a technical recession, officially defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. In the last three months of 2011, Britain contracted by a quarterly rate of 0.2 per cent.

In 2013, Osborne said Britain's economy would likely grow two per cent, slightly lower than the previous forecast of 2.1 per cent. The projected growth rates remain below the long-run average of 2.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, the budget deficit in the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, will be STG126 billion, STG1 billion less than expected. As a percentage of GDP, debt will peak at 76.3 per cent in 2014-15, lower than previously thought.

source: http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=731491&vId=3139065&cId=World