text: The recently elected Police Welfare Association [PWA] on May 3rd met with 10 suspended police officers at Chesterfield to offer support and stand in solidarity in a bid to restore their tenure. Travis Chicot is the PWA president. Listen below. The ranks of the suspended officers vary. The Commissioner of …
  Imagine looking over your shoulder while taking part in the parents’ race at sports day, only to see David Beckham about to overtake you.
  School sports days bring out the competitive side in many of us and we imagine competing against a professional footballer (albeit a retired one), rather ups the ante. But Beckham certainly wasn’t going to make any allowances when taking on other dads in a bean bag balancing race.
  Victoria Beckham shared a video of the competition in an Instastory to mark their 19th wedding anniversary.
  The Beckhams took time out from their romantic celebrations on 4 July to join Harper and her school friends at their sports day, and if anything it seems to have only made the day even more special.
  The dubious claim to fame was announced on Facebook, along with pictures of the colossal arachnid, which has been aptly named ‘Behemoth’.
  Behemoth was given to the Australian Reptile Park in Sommersby, New South Wales during a recent drive to have funnel web spiders brought to the park. He has since been released into the nearby bush.
  A spokesman for the zoo helpfully allayed the fears of arachnophobes, explaining: “Huntsman spiders tend to inhabit many places that humans do and will pop up when you least expect them. Such times are in your car when driving or in your room when watching TV, but they really are not a worry!”
  The centre has photographed Behemoth next to average sized huntsman spiders to show he is, in fact, a monster, with a leg span of around 14cm.
  Behemoth joins similarly sized specimen Charlotte, who was found in Queensland, in November last year in the oh-my-god category.
  Charlotte’s keepers at Barnyard Betty’s Rescue were equally forgiving of her fearsome appearance, stating: “She was a beautiful, calm, spider, not aggressive in any way and like most spiders she just wanted to go about her business eating bugs and living in peace.”
  Despite their terrifying size, a bite from a huntsman spider can be painful, but will not cause anything more serious than mild nausea or headaches. Localised swelling and pain tend to be the only symptoms.
  The average huntsman is about 1 inch long, with a leg span of up to 5 inches. The giant huntsman however, has a leg span of up to 12 inches and is often described as being the size of a dinner plate.
  The subject of real-adult-people parents is a concept that sounds a little strange, but bear with me while I explain what I mean. It's something that I've noticed becoming an increasing conversation amongst my friends and colleagues: in our late twenties, our relationships with our parents are shifting. We view them as friends, as peers, as humans. Our brains are shifting into becoming actual real adults ourselves, and our thought patterns are changing towards those that brought us up, taught us to drive and loaned us all that money.
  Realising your parent is an adult is that moment where they confide in you, or you visit them in hospital. It's realising that they are not invincible, but they need you as much as you completely, unequivocally need them. It's providing support as well as receiving it, paying for dinners because, actually, you can afford it and they deserve it. It's feeling really f*cking bad about that horrible teenage boyfriend and the time you drank way too much cider down the park and threw up all over the carpet. Sorry mum.
  Realising our parents are actually real, honest, sensitive human beings and not just primary caregivers comes to everyone in different ways. For some, it's gradual; an easy shift into a relationship that becomes more balanced. For others, it'll actually never happen - mum and dad will always be mum and dad.
  For others, the realization is sharp, premature and sometimes even cruel. I have a dear friend who, aged seventeen, became a carer for her mother suffering from early onset Alzheimer's. Her mum died in her late forties having suffered from the ravages of the disease for ten years, leaving her completely alone.
  Watching my parents separate when I was 19 was potentially my first outpost into the world of adult-parents. At the time, all I wanted to focus on was my own hurt and sadness. In the years that followed, those two amazing people sat through Christmas dinners, graduations and birthdays, apart in marriage but together in their love for us. Looking at it now through less selfish eyes, it must have been absolutely awkward as hell for them and hurtful beyond words to watch a life they used to have, but they did it. They are both amazing and I'm incredibly lucky.
  The moments of realization with my mum have materialized over the years. When I was a little girl I used to look through my parents wedding photos and ask her with indignation why she didn't wear a wedding dress. "Because it was snowing", she would tell me. A few years ago she admitted it was because she had no family (she lost her parents in her early twenties and her only sister lives in Italy), and thought going shopping for a big fancy dress wasn't a task to be carried out when you had no one to share it with. Typing that out as a 28 year old makes my heart physically ache.
  With my dad, it was the moment I got a phone call from my uncle to tell me that he'd come off his bike on the Isle of Skye without a helmet and had been airlifted to Neurology in Glasgow with suspected severe head injuries. My uncle was crying and we all thought the worst. Rushing to hospital and supporting his frail frame as I took him back to his house when he was discharged with a fractured skull and hip was a real parent-adult moment for me. It took me a little while to get my head around the fact that the man who had run around with three of us all hanging off him and regularly cycled 100 miles in one go was anything less than okay.
  Personally I'm incredibly glad that I now have a real-adult-people relationship with my parents. I have two unwavering support systems, and two great pals, that (I hope) love spending time with me as much as I love spending time with them. If you're lucky enough to have parents, pick up the phone and call them. Real-adult-people parents love that too.
  This week's On the Streets is focused on the faces painted on the city walls, that we see but don't always look at. Having a portrait is usually something very emotional and personal, and all the works included below carry this 'inside-out' revealing intimate feeling... See for yourselves.
  Other noable walls come from Thierry Noir in London, Aryz in Linz, Austria, Rone in Melbourne, Space Invader in Paris, Vhils in Seixal, Portugal, Jade in Lima and BLU in Niscemi, Italy.
  Renowned artist Thierry Noir is in London for his retrospective show and left a few signature pieces on the streets already (see here). Thierry's characters are unique. They are part of the artist's own visual language and strike with their highly stylized shapes and bright popping colours, constantly capturing attention and provoking conversations.
  It has been a while since Aryz's last outdoor work, but this new mural named 'Overprotected' in Linz has worth the wait. The mural features two figures entwined in each other's arms in an almost painful way.
  And while Aryz's brilliant but intense mural leaves us overwhelmed with a mixture of feelings, Rone's last wall in Melbourne fills our senses with its calm beauty. The giant portrait of a girl, based on a photograph the artist took of Australian model Teresa Oman, took seven days and more than 70 hours to complete. Image via StreetArtNews.
  Rone is currently in London for his first solo show and we will be covering his work on the streets shortly. Stay tuned...
  From one iconic look to another - we leave sunny Melbourne to see Space Invader's take on Mona Lisa in Paris. The piece is quite big and impressive we think- definitely worth seeing.
  From the playfulness of Mona Lisa to the tribute Vhils pays to one of the greatest Portuguese poets and activists - Jose Alfonso in Seixal, Portugal, portraits carry important messages that we should not ignore.
  Another valuable addition to this week's list is Peruvian Jade's latest mural in Lima. The graphic style and colour palette of his Andean heritage are evident in this work along with the delicate signature portrait of his character.
  We finish our review with this strong piece by BLU in Niscemi, Italy, depicting an army general playing on a deadly Xylophone, which shoots bullets. And while there is no image of the general's face, the portrait of death and destruction is captured by the artist undoubtedly...
  Can't afford the 10-week inter-railing trip, or that massively Instagram-worthy Thailand vacation? Then Jailbreak is your answer. You may not get to bathe Elephants, and you probably won't "find yourself"- but you'll still have a weekend of memories nonetheless.
  You and your teammates have 36 hours, zero money, and the goal to get as far away from the "jail" more commonly known as your university campus.
  Essentially, Jailbreak is glorified begging. Leave your shyness behind, as to succeed, you need to beg for free tickets, all in the name of winning. And you'll do it too: "Remember that team that got to Australia? WE HAVE TO BEAT THEM!" I guess a positive is that Jailbreak begging brings you back down to reality, and teaches you to deal with rejection - ideal for when second-year Craig finally decides to call time on your alcohol-fuelled romance.
  Jailbreak is also massively unpredictable. Whilst inter-railing and backpacking is usually quite organised (as long as you don't miss that train), the beauty of Jailbreak is that it is exciting, spontaneous, and you just don't know where you'll end up. It may surprise you how kind people are, or even how horrible they are. But we don't let a desire to win compromise our safety in order to get to a destination quicker. You'll learn more about the world in a mere 36 hours, and that's got to count for something.
  Finally, and possibly most importantly, Jailbreak is a way to get students actively involved in charity work. Yes, it attracts some criticism, with some claiming that students are merely hiding behind 'charity' to have a mid-term escape. Let's not beat around the bush: this idea of a "free" escape is certainly a motivating factor. If this is what it takes to successfully raise money for charity, then Jailbreak is no bad thing. Raising money for charity is always a good thing, regardless of whether you are running a 5k marathon, or selling cookies behind a stall - let's not take away from all the effort that goes into raising money for a worthy cause.
  And at the end of the day, if students are motivated to do something other than waste their weekend on a hangover, or run back to Mummy and Daddy during reading week - then I don't see how Jailbreak could be a bad thing. You probably won't look back and remember being President of that society, but you will definitely remember this break-out-of-jail challenge. Given the exposure to charity, and the memories and experiences you'll have as a result, there really isn't any reason not to take part in Jailbreak.
  You don't need to fear travelling; you just have to know how to be safe doing it. However, if you do plan to make it out of the country make sure you are prepared for foreign travel, from EHICs to travel insurance. Check out the Foreign & Commonwealth Office's travel checklist so as not to get caught out abroad. It is also worth quickly checking country specific advice here and keeping an eye on up-to-date travel advice on the @FCOtravel twitter page.