Premier League supports Crawley Town Community Foundation to give free books to local primary school pupils

Arts & Culture, Books

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565Visit Shots! nowTo mark World Book Day 2025 (Thursday 6 March), the Premier League will be giving away more than 28,000 free books to children across England and Wales through its Premier League Primary Stars education programme. The books have been donated to the programme by the World Book Day Charity, run in partnership with the National Literacy Trust.Since Premier League Primary Stars began in 2017, more than 300,000 free books have been gifted to young people with an estimated value of £2.4million.Premier League Primary Stars uses the appeal of football to help children to learn, be active and develop essential life skills and is available to every primary school in England and Wales. More than 70,000 teachers have engaged with the programme to date, giving them access to more than 650 free downloadable resources across Maths, English, PE and PSHE.Crawley Town Community Foundation is one of 103 professional football club charities across England and Wales to benefit from 275 free books, which they will be able to give away to local partner primary schools in Crawley as part of their in-classroom Premier League Primary Stars session delivery.Reggie the Red at Broadfield AcademyCrawley Town Community Foundation’s Premier League Primary Stars Co-ordinator, Nathan Hull said ‘ Being able to donate loads of different books of varying levels to the schools for their students to enjoy, whilst helping to motivate them to read more and strengthen their confidence to pick up a book and read, was one of the main aims of today. However, most importantly, being able to bring together the fans and local community of Crawley, with the Crawley Town Football Club Staff and Players and solidifying and enhancing the relationship between the 2 and seeing all of the wonderful beaming smiles, was what made today a huge success for the town and community!’ World Book Day aims to promote the many benefits of reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own. To create more opportunities for pupils to experience the joy of reading, the Premier League and the National Literacy Trust are running a free, fun-filled live online event hosted by teacher and author Kit Brown and featuring the Football School authors Ben Lyttleton and Alex Bellos.The Great World Book Day 2025 Footy & Booky Quiz literacytrust.org.uk/world-book-day-live is open to all primary schools across England and Wales to join and engage pupils in reading activities and showcase reading role models through the medium of football.Premier League Charitable Fund Chief Executive, Ruth Shaw, said: “Since 2017, more than a quarter of a million children across England and Wales have received a free book thanks to Premier League Primary Stars and the National Literacy Trust. We understand the crucial role that reading for enjoyment has in building confidence and promoting positive mental health in young people. Through the Premier League Primary Stars education programme, we are committed to helping children access the benefits that reading offers.”According to National Literacy Trust research one in eight children said they did not own a book of their own at home, the highest percentage seen since 2016.Jim Sells, Sport and Literacy Programme Manager at the National Literacy Trust said: “World Book Day celebrates reading for pleasure for everyone, which is central to our vision at the National Literacy Trust. Choosing a book of their own can inspire a child’s love of reading, give them confidence, and support them at school.“Our goal is to engage those who need support this World Book Day through inclusive activities, like our free live quiz and wide-scale book donations, inspiring a life-long love of books and reading, and empowering children and young people with the words to shape their own futures.”Cassie Chadderton, CEO at World Book Day said: “World Book Day’s purpose is to unlock the fun of reading for all children, and we are delighted to partner with National Literary Trust again this year, to ensure even more children get access to our £1 books. By letting go of pressure and embracing choice, we can help more children find the fun in reading and unlock the incredible benefits it brings.”For more information, please visit Premier League Primary StarsContinue Reading

Measly Court Victory Upheld For Climate Scientist Who Hoped To ‘Ruin’ Conservative Paper

Science and Health

Climate scientist Michael Mann, who sued Canadian conservative author Mark Steyn for defamation, maintained a narrow victory in court on Tuesday after the seven-figure punitive damages initially ordered were reduced to just a few thousand dollars.

Steyn was originally ordered to pay Mann $1 million in punitive damage charges for an article he wrote for the National Review in 2012 criticizing Mann, though the District of Columbia Superior Court reduced the charges to just $5,000. In January, National Review editors announced that a Washington, D.C. judge also ordered the climate scientist to pay over $500,000 to cover some of the outlet’s legal fees.
The final judgement order on Tuesday granted Steyn’s 2024 request to drastically reduce the punitive damages, which he argued should be “$5,000 or less,” from $1 million to the requested amount of $5,000.
The 13-year legal battle began in 2012, after Steyn criticized Mann and his climate “hockey stick” graph, which showed a rapid increase in global warming, in an article published by the National Review, resulting in Mann suing for defamation. Editor Rich Lowry then wrote a follow-up post for the conservative outlet defending Steyn’s comments, and Mann then chose to also sue the outlet for defamation.

A D.C. Superior Court judge’s 2021 order found that National Review couldn’t be held to “actual malice” from Mann’s suit, while Steyn was eventually found by a jury to have defamed Mann.
A 2012 email from Mann surfaced during the discovery process in the case, in which he said he hoped the lawsuit would “ruin” the conservative outlet, according to the National Review.
In National Review’s article announcing that Mann was ordered to contribute to the outlet’s legal fees, titled “Pay Up, Mr. Mann,” the editors wrote that “Mann’s explicitly stated intention was to use a ‘major lawsuit’ as a vehicle with which to ‘ruin National Review.’”

“The promise of American law is that there will be material consequences for bad behavior, and, after twelve years, there finally have been,” the editors continued. “Mann’s behavior throughout has been appalling. Now, he must pay up.”
Mann and Steyn did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].

Ripped from the Headlines: 6 Disturbing True Crime Horror Films

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

When it comes to revisiting the gateway horror media that haunted our youth, we often find ourselves baffled by the silly and often laughable things that used to scare us. However, sometimes the opposite is true. Sometimes we look back on a piece of media that we enjoyed as children only to realize that it was much darker than our naïve brains could fully comprehend at the time.
A great example of this is Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, a series of Young Adult novels defined by their generally gothic tone and frequent use of gallows humor. While these books were a tremendous hit among the Scholastic crowd (and often served as a dreary substitute for kids who weren’t into Harry Potter), they also contained numerous gruesome deaths and genuinely disturbing plot points that still distress readers to this day. And with the 2000s seeing a rise in big budget Young Adult adaptations, it’s no surprise that these books were eventually adapted into a divisive feature film back in 2004 – a film that I believe deserves more love from genre enthusiasts.
Originally released in 1999, the first wave of ASOUE books were optioned by Nickelodeon only a few months after they hit store shelves. Producers saw potential in an edgier series that didn’t talk down to its younger readers, and an adaptation was all but confirmed once the first Harry Potter film proved to be a huge success. Excited by the idea of a faithful adaptation, Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket’s real-world alter ego) himself wrote the first draft of the proposed movie while also personally insisting on Jim Carrey to be cast as the villainous Count Olaf.
Unfortunately, this initial version of the project would end up being canceled due to budgetary concerns and studio meddling. After a series of false starts, one of which was meant to be directed by Tim Burton, production would pick up again a few years later with Robert Gordon rewriting the script and Brad Silberling taking over to direct after Burton dropped out of the project. Thankfully, despite all the changes, the studio ultimately managed to secure Jim Carrey as the iconic antagonist.
In the finished film, which adapts The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room and The Wide Window simultaneously, we follow the ill-fortuned Baudelaire orphans – Klaus (Liam Aiken), Violet (Emily Browning) and Sunny (Kara and Shelby Hoffman) – as they are tossed from one eccentric guardian to the next after a mysterious fire destroys their home. To make matters worse, the siblings are constantly targeted by the scheming actor Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), a sleazy criminal who will stop at nothing to get his hands on the orphans’ family fortune.

SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?

Released in December of 2004, A Series of Unfortunate Events didn’t exactly set the world on fire. It wasn’t really a box-office bomb, but the movie severely underperformed after a botched marketing campaign failed to attract families during the Holiday Season. And while most reviews at the time were positive, there was a recurring notion that the movie was trying to recreate the dark fairy tale magic of a Tim Burton movie without the idiosyncrasies that made the director’s films so interesting in the first place.
I’ll be the first to admit that Silberling’s adaptation is a deeply flawed and regrettably toned-down retelling of the books (the film was hastily re-edited after test screening audiences deemed it too dark for children), but I still think that there’s still plenty to love about this misunderstood gem – perhaps even more so than its 2017 successor on Netflix.
For starters, while the flick’s gloomy sense of style was accused of borrowing heavily from Tim Burton’s work, this happened to be an intentional choice by Silberling who was aware of the director’s plans for this adaptation. Realizing that Burton’s “suburban gothic” style was a perfect fit for the anachronistic world of ASOUE, Silberling wanted to honor his vision and even insisted on keeping Burton on as a producer/creative consultant once he took over directing duties. Burton may have refused to continue working on the film, but his influence can be felt in its peculiar atmosphere and even Thomas Newman’s excellent Danny-Elfman-inspired soundtrack.
Beyond the gothic aesthetic, I also believe that the film’s script captures the essence of Handler’s writing even though the story had to be dumbed down for a wider audience. I even appreciate how A Bad Beginning was used to bookend the movie in order to make things feel less episodic, and the added moments of tension (such as the scene where the Orphans have to escape from a locked car before it’s destroyed by an oncoming train) feel like natural extensions of the books. My only real grip here is with the way that the movie removes all agency from Violet during the climax.
In the end, it’s really the film’s surprisingly talented ensemble that manages to tie the whole experience together. The Baudelaires are perfectly cast despite some discrepancies from the books, Billy Connolly and Meryl Streep knock it out of the park as Uncle Monty and Aunt Josephine (and that’s not even mentioning Jude Law’s brief appearance as Lemony Snicket), but Jim Carrey’s Count Olaf is the real reason to see this picture. This version of Olaf may not be quite as menacing as his literary counterpart, but I actually find him more believable than Neil Patrick Harris’ take on the character in the Netflix series.
As if that wasn’t enough, the movie also benefits from a series of bit parts performed by memorable character actors like Jennifer Coolidge, Luis Guzman and even the always-lovable Catherine O’Hara!

AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?

Daniel Handler has repeatedly claimed that the ASOUE books were actually based on an idea he had for a satirical gothic novel aimed towards adults. This initial version of the story may have been heavily revised, but bits and pieces of its edgier material managed to survive in the ensuing Young Adult franchise. Naturally, this also extends to the film adaptation despite its limitations.
The series as a whole has a grisly fascination with grief and death, but the film enhances these themes with its gloomy atmosphere and abundant use of subliminal imagery implying that the Baudelaires are constantly being watched by forces beyond their control. That’s not even mentioning the man-eating leeches (with designs directly lifted from the book’s eerie illustrations) and freaky giant reptiles that populate this deadly fable, with these darker elements making me wish that we could one day see the more adult version of the film that supposedly offended test audiences.
Olaf himself can also be a legitimately frightening villain when the story calls for it. Despite Carrey’s over-the-top antics, there’s plenty of bite to this terrifying thespian – especially when he’s hidden from fellow adults and reveals his true colors to the orphans. Not only does this despicable character repeatedly try to murder a group of children with no remorse (while also having no qualms about marrying his underaged ward), but Carrey also claims to have based parts of his villainous performance on Bela Lugosi’s larger-than-life stage presence.
The 2017 Netflix series may technically be a superior adaptation of the books, benefiting from the added runtime and a more faithful script that reaches a definitive conclusion, but it still can’t compete with the impressive filmmaking behind Silberling’s version of the story. This may not be the adaptation that fans deserved, but Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is still worth revisiting over two decades later as blockbuster oddity from a time when horror-adjacent kid’s stories still had a chance of reaching the big screen.
[embedded content]

There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.

‘Whalefall’ – Austin Abrams Starring in Survival Movie About a Man Swallowed by a Whale

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Say his name, say his name… Rumpelstiltskin is back with a brand new update on the terrifying fairy tale, and Bloody Disgusting has the exclusive trailer reveal for ya today.
From director Andy Edwards (Zombie Spring Breakers, Midnight Peepshow), Rumpelstiltskin is premiering at UK’s FrightFest this weekend before hitting U.S. VOD on April 8.
You’ll find the film on Digital in the UK on April 7.
Hannah Baxter-Eve (Aguska, Escape), Joss Carter (Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, Tarot) and Adrian Bouchet (The Wheel of Time, The Last Kingdom) star in the horror film.
Miracle Media previews, “The film breathes new life into the age-old children’s story, with eye-popping, gnarly special effects and a potty mouthed female protagonist who isn’t your typical damsel in distress. With bawdy humour and devilishly delightful visuals, this new incarnation certainly packs a punch and is sure to permeate your dreams with nightmare fuel.”
Once upon a time a greedy miller (Mark Cook) promises to marry off his beautiful daughter Evaline (Hannah Baxter-Eve) to the King (Colin Malone). But things don’t quite go to plan when his lies are uncovered and the pair are about to be locked up in a tower forever.
So, they make a bold promise to the King, that Evalina will spin straw into gold using a spinning wheel… but that’s easier said than done and they realise that they’ve made a promise they can’t keep. That is until a mischievous masked creature (Joss Carter) appears from nowhere with the offer of help. But help comes with a cost…
When the woman fulfills the task, the King becomes seduced by greed and wants more gold, so in an act of desperation she pleads with the fiendish imp and they make a deal… her firstborn child for more gold. But everyone ends up getting more than they bargained for when the Devil gets involved and all hell breaks loose.
Watch the official trailer for the new Rumpelstiltskin horror movie below.
A previous horror movie version of the classic German fairy tale was released way back in 1995, you may recall. You can grab a new Blu-ray copy of that film from Terror Vision now.
[embedded content]

The financial shackling of historically Black universities in the United States

Technology

Students in a biology laboratory around 1899 at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a historically Black university in Greensboro. Credit: Buyenlarge/GettyThroughout the twentieth century and beyond, the record of colleges and universities set up to provide higher-education opportunities for Black students in the United States could be viewed as one of failure. Their mission was to produce scholars to create economic, social and political freedom for African Americans. But, in the nearly 200 years since the first historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) opened their doors, Black people in the country still have not achieved economic parity with white people.Springboard to science: the institutions that shaped Black researchers’ careersYet this failure cannot be laid at the feet of the Black universities’ leadership. No strategy that they could have deployed would have made a difference. The suppression of African American achievement was intentional and systematic. It occurred because many of those who controlled white society (particularly in the former Confederate states) never wanted African Americans or their institutions to achieve social equality1 — and I argue that this is not a priority for the second administration of US President Donald Trump either. This does not mean that all white people are racists: indeed, many have taken an active role in the fight against structural racism. However, the majority have either bought into or been unwilling to take action against a social and political system that has and continues to deny opportunity to African Americans2. For most of the twentieth century, the majority of this group accepted the inferiority of people of African descent as socially agreed ‘fact’. This allowed powerful institutions to discriminate against African Americans. For example, redlining, which occurred between 1934 and 1968, became a widespread practice in the United States to deny loans and housing to African Americans, and it led to different capacities for accumulating wealth. Today, owing in large part to such policies, the median wealth of white families is about 6.5 times greater than that of African American families3.Historic inequality in Black educationI have reviewed the history of African American higher education in the context of evolutionary science4, but the essential details of the story are the same across scientific disciplines. The second Morrill Land-Grant Act, enacted in 1890, established 19 HBCUs in the US South to provide opportunities for Black students. But these institutions and the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Act institutions, which educated white students, were never funded equitably (see ‘HBCUs: a history of underfunding’).Joseph L. Graves Jr shows students in his evolutionary-medicine class how to construct spreadsheets to analyse models of natural selection.Compared with their historically white institution (HWI) counterparts, HBCUs admit a disproportionate share of students from struggling school districts, a result of historical inequalities in primary and secondary education in the country. Yet, state appropriations to HWIs are larger than those to HBCUs in the US South. For example, in 2021–22 the state budget appropriation per undergraduate student at the North Carolina State University (NCSU), an HWI in Raleigh, was $35,513 per student, but at my institution, the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCATSU) in Greensboro, an HBCU, it was $19,083. This means that for every dollar spent on a student at the NCATSU, $1.86 is spent on a student at the NCSU.This situation is common across the US Southeast, as documented in a 2023 report on the status of HBCUs5 from the Century Foundation, a think tank in New York City. Between 1987 and 2020, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas underfunded their HBCUs by $8.5 billion compared with their HWIs, according to letters to the governors of these states, sent in September 2023 by Miguel Cardona, secretary of education and Thomas Vilsack, secretary of agriculture. The NCSU and the NCATSU have a $2-billion funding disparity, one letter said. The federal government has never forced states to fund white and Black higher education equitably, and it has never denied funds to states that continue discriminatory funding practices.Biden must keep funding pledge to historically Black colleges and universitiesThis historical underfunding has produced an environment in which HCBU faculty members have to shoulder disproportionately heavy teaching loads, advise more students — many of whom are underprepared — and operate in facilities that are ill-suited for twenty-first century instruction and research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). HBCUs operate on shoestring budgets, so they have fewer resources for research, teaching and student and community programmes. Owing to budgetary shortfalls, administrators at HBCUs often have to delay purchasing or repairing much-needed technology and infrastructure. For example, in January 2024, the central heating plant at the NCATSU failed, so the institution had to house students in hotels or send them home.

Enjoying our latest content?
Login or create an account to continue

Access the most recent journalism from Nature’s award-winning team
Explore the latest features & opinion covering groundbreaking research

Access through your institution

or

Sign in or create an account

Continue with Google

Continue with ORCiD

‘Just Contemptible’: Piers Morgan Skewers Democrats For ‘Pathetic’ Antics During Trump Speech

2024 Election

Piers Morgan skewered Democratic lawmakers Thursday over their “pathetic” behavior during President Donald Trump’s address to Congress. The Democrats protested Trump’s speech in the House chamber Tuesday night and refused to applaud his special guests, with one congressman even getting escorted out for shouting at the president as he spoke. Morgan said on “Fox &…