Fashion Week opens in the British capital Friday, and among the legions of models strutting down the catwalk, several will come from Ugly.

They make eye-catching additions to the perfectly honed or androgynous models that typically feature at fashion’s annual showcase in London.

“It’s celebrating diversity really and it’s bringing a bit more light to fashion instead of just using the bog-standard models,” agency owner Marc French told AFP.

He describes it as a “character” model agency — “from fat, thin, to large to small: you name it, we’ve got it”. He cited the example of French actor Gerard Depardieu.

“I mean look at him: he’s so full of character and charisma. “He becomes sexy because he’s so cool and he’s so different.”

– ‘Imperfection is beauty’ –

Founded a half century ago, Ugly occupies trendy open-plan space in west London featuring a baroque sofa, brushed aluminium computers and walls studded with photos of models.

A portrait of late rock superstar David Bowie adorns the wall, alongside the quote “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius,” which reads like a company motto.

Like any such agency, it manages the careers of its models, putting them in touch with employers of all stripes, from Burberry to Mercedes to Jack Daniel’s.

On a recent weekday, Ugly was organising a casting to complete its catalogue and those in attendance were atypical models.

Among them were some tough-looking guys.

Chris, for example, a former soldier with arms as thick as logs, posed shirtless with a 50-year-old brunette in a two-piece suit.

Kris Chesney, an ex-rugby player with Toulon and Saracens, is a man mountain at nearly two metres (over six feet) tall and weighing 135 kilogrammes (almost 300 pounds).

With his shaved head, tattooed arms, rugged face, and body bearing the marks of countless scrums, he is perhaps an unlikely male model.

“It’s a new journey, something interesting, like a challenge,” he said. Others are on more of a personal mission.

Sheerah Ravindren, a petite 22-year-old model just 1.61 metres tall, comes from Sri Lanka and proclaims herself a “militant immigrant model”.

Sporting a bare belly between baggy jeans and black top, she has a right nostril piercing and plenty of positive attitude.

“I’m a woman of colour. Growing up, I’ve never seen people that look like me in media, in fashion.” //AFP

Frances, a disabled model who gets around using a pair of eye-catchingly futuristic crutches, revealed proudly that her disability “didn’t stop me from doing what I want”.

– ‘Not here to exploit’ –

For French, “what makes a good ugly model is someone who is comfortable in his own skin”.

“We don’t want retouching, we don’t want people to change the way they look.

“If someone comes to us a certain way, we’d never say it’d be better if he was smaller.

“It’s really important. There’s so much pressure on young kids,” he said.

The agency is also eager to counter any perception that it cynically exploits its models for their peculiarities.

“Sometimes we’ve had companies ring up and said: we want a small person that will kick themselves in the head. Woo… like no — that’s wrong,” said Lulu Palmer, a booker who is head of new faces.

“We’re not here to exploit people, to take the mickey out of people.”

Always on the lookout for new talent, the team admitted the company name can elicit less than enthusiastic responses from would-be models.

But, said French, “the minute they understand what Ugly is all about then they want to be a model.”//AFP

Joyce, 50, whose National Party rules alongside Turnbull’s Liberals, admitted last week to having an affair with his 33-year-old media adviser, who is pregnant with their child.

Turnbull on Thursday harshly admonished Joyce for making a “shocking error of judgement” for the affair and said he had created a “world of woe” for his wife, four daughters and lover Vikki Campion.

Turnbull, head of the Liberal Party, acknowledged that he was powerless to remove Joyce, who holds the deputy position as leader of smaller National Party on which he relies to govern.

He instead announced that a formal ban on sexual relations between cabinet members and their staff would be added to the ministerial code of conduct.

Joyce hit back in a defiant press conference in Canberra Friday, refusing to resign and accusing Turnbull of interfering with internal National Party affairs. He blasted the PM’s comments as “inept”, “unnecessary” and causing “further harm”.

“I don’t believe people should be resigning in any job over personal issues,” Joyce added.

“In any workplace in Australia, when personal issues become the determination of a job, then I think we’ve moved to a very sad place,” he said.

He also batted away revelations he accepted a rent-free apartment from a millionaire after his marriage collapsed, saying the accommodation was just a gesture of support from a friend.

Daily media headlines about the affair have riveted the public and sparked debate about workplace culture in Australia amid the global #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.

But it has also highlighted the perilous state of the coalition government, which just a few months ago survived a crisis over lawmakers’ dual citizenship that threatened its wafer-thin parliamentary majority.

The Labor opposition has capitalised on the ructions, with leader Bill Shorten on Friday calling for Turnbull to sack Joyce.

“This government is in crisis. It is a full-blown political crisis,” Shorten told reporters, adding that the spat showed neither man was “fit for the high office they currently hold”.

The citizenship crisis had capped a decade of turmoil for Australian politics that saw a revolving door of prime ministers.

Labor’s Kevin Rudd, who came to power in 2007, was ousted as prime minister by his deputy Julia Gillard, before snatching back the top job in 2013.

He lost the national election in the same year to the Liberals’ Tony Abbott, who was then deposed by rival Turnbull in 2015.

According to the Embassy, Johnson, who recently visited Bangkok, said: “… I have just discovered we have more than a million people who go to Thailand every year, where our superb consular services deal with some of the things that they get up to there.”

The Embassy insisted that there he made no mention of sex tourism. “The focus was on the provision of consular services to our approximately 60,000 British residents in Thailand and approximately 1 million British visitors each year who mostly have a fantastic time in Thailand.”

His speech was reportedly designed to woo “Remainers”, as those who would prefer that the UK stays in the European Union are called, but was criticised after the British media quoted him as saying “As I have just discovered we have more than a million who go to Thailand every year, where according to our superb consular services they get up to the most eye-popping things.”

Some UK politicians have urged him to resign.

Read : British foreign secretary jokes about British sex tourism in Thailand during major Brexit speech

The controversial comments about Thailand however were included in a written copy of his speech issued to journalists beforehand, TheNational.Scot online reported.

His actual speech toned down the “joke” slightly – “where our superb consular services deal with some of the things they get up to there”.

Th Embassy also said the Foreign Secretary’s visit on February 12 deepened and strengthened UKThailand ties not just at the government to government level through his meeting with Thai PM and the foreign minister where they discussed regional issues and he encouraged swift progress towards democratic elections in Thailand.

“But also at the people to people level through wideranging discussions covering cooperation on education, the digital economy, science and innovation, financial technology, and trade and investment, as well as further cooperation to tackle the Illegal Wildlife Trade.”

These weapons under development by China and Russia — as well as by the United States — can fly at many times the speed of sound and are designed to beat regular anti-missile defense systems.

The hypersonic missiles could change the face of future warfare, as they can switch direction in flight and do not follow a predictable arc like conventional missiles, making them much harder to track and intercept.

“China’s hypersonic weapons development outpaces ours… we’re falling behind,” Admiral Harry Harris, who heads the military’s Pacific Command, warned lawmakers on Wednesday.

“We need to continue to pursue that and in a most aggressive way in order to ensure that we have the capabilities to both defend against China’s hypersonic weapons and to develop our own offensive hypersonic weapons,” he added.

In its proposed $9.9 billion requested budget for 2019, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is asking for $120 million to develop hypersonic missile defenses, a big increase from the $75 million in fiscal 2018.

MDA Director of Operations Gary Pennett told Pentagon reporters this week that the potential deployment by America’s rivals of hypersonic weapons — which could be launched from planes, ships or submarines and carry either nuclear or conventional payloads — would create a “significant” gap in US sensor and missile interceptor capabilities.

“The key challenge to US national security and the security of US friends and allies is the emergence of new threats designed to defeat the existing” ballistic missile defense system, Pennett said.

So, why the sudden alarm?

According to reports in the Japan-based Diplomat magazine, China has developed — and last year tested — a new type of hypersonic missile called the DF-17. The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence this week stated China “has tested a hypersonic glide vehicle.”

Russia too is believed to be developing its own hypersonic weapon called the Zircon. According to Russian news agency Tass, it is to go into serial production this year.

– A mile a second –

Though the Pentagon is warning about hypersonics, the United States has been developing the technology for years.

The Air Force says its X-51A Waverider cruise missile, tested in 2012, could travel at speeds faster than Mach 6 (3,600 miles per hour, 5,800 kilometers per hour).

That’s more than one mile a second, and future iterations are expected to go much faster.

Part of the reason China has been able to advance its hypersonic missile programs is that it is not subject to anti-missile treaties signed between the United States and Russia.

The 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty banned short- and intermediate-range ground-launched missiles.

“Over 90 percent of China’s ground-based missiles would be excluded by INF if they were now in it,” Harris said.

Still, by far the lion’s share of the MDA’s budget continues to go towards improving existing missile-defense systems.

Various sensors and radars can track an incoming missile hurtling towards a target, then blast interceptor rockets toward it to pulverize it with kinetic energy.

Sokha, who was wanted in connection with throwing a shoe at a ruling party billboard last year, was handed over to Cambodia on February 8 after a Thai court convicted her last month of overstaying her visa.

She is now being detained in Kampong Speu province and may faced two or more years in jail if found guilty of insulting political figures.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the deportation was a clear violation of customary international law, notably the principle of non-refoulement that prohibits sending people back to places where their lives and freedoms could be in danger.

The Thai Foreign Ministry said the deportation was conducted in accordance with Thai immigration law and in the context of collaboration between police of the two countries.

While Thailand gave importance to the principle of non-refoulement, relevant agencies had carefully considered that the deportation would not send Sokha into danger, according to ministry spokeswoman Busadee Santipitaks.

The UN refugee agency stated it was alarmed at the deportation since Sokha’s refugee status was already confirmed and she had a well-founded fear of persecution if she returned to Cambodia.

A Kampong Speu province native, Sokha posted a video clip on Facebook last April of her throwing her sandal twice at a Cambodian People’s Party billboard in Preah Sihanouk province, 200 kilometres southwest of Phnom Penh. The first throw was aimed at the image of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the second at National Assembly President Heng Samrin’s.

She was charge in absentia by the Kampong Speu Provincial Court for incitement and insulting a public official. In Thailand, she was arrested and charged with overstaying her visa last month before being deported.

The UNHCR has continued to seek clarifications about the circumstances of the deportation and strongly urged the Thai government to refrain from taking such actions in the future, the UN statement said. The UN refugee agency is prepared to discuss similar situations, in view of supporting Thailand so it upholds its international human rights obligations, the agency stated.

The gunman, 19, showed up at the end of the school day at his former school — Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland — with a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle and a large amount of ammunition.

Local police later arrested him in nearby Coral Springs.

Born in September 1998, Nikolas Cruz had posted “very disturbing” messages on social media, according to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, who did not specify their exact content.

Authorities have not released a photograph of the shooter, and an Instagram account reportedly belonging to him has been suspended.

Cruz was known at school as having problems, according to several witnesses interviewed by local media.

“There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus,” Jim Gard, a math teacher who had taught Cruz for a semester in 2016, told the Miami Herald.

Gard told CNN that although he had not had problems with Cruz in class, female students reported Cruz having “problems with other girls.”

Meanwhile a student, who wasn’t named, told local broadcaster WSVN-7 that Cruz was “a troubled kid” who had firearms at home and had talked about using them.

“He shot guns because he felt it gave him, I guess, an exhilarating feeling,” the student said.

According to another pupil, Nicholas Coke, Cruz was a “loner” who left the school and moved to northern Florida following the death of his mother. He had also undertaken a junior military training program, according to Pentagon sources who did not offer details.

The shooter had already had “a lot of problems,” Coke said, recalling an incident during middle school when Cruz kicked out a window.

Meanwhile another student, speaking to local channel WJXT, said “everyone predicted” Cruz would carry out such an atrocity.

“Honestly, a lot of people were saying it was gonna be him,” the pupil said.

He added Cruz knew the layout of the school and had some knowledge of security procedures through participating in fire drills.

“He knows the school layout, he knows where everyone would be at as of right now,” the student said.

“He’s been with us in fire drills, he’s prepared for this stuff.”

In an address in which he outlined his vision for the country’s departure from the EU, he also quipped “the right deal on aviation and on visa-free travel” would allow Britons “ever more intensively to go on cheapo flights to stag parties in ancient cities”.

Johnson continued, “As I have just discovered we have more than a million who go to Thailand every year, where according to our superb consular services they get up to the most eye-popping things.”

“If we get the right deal on aviation and on visa-free travel – both of which are in our mutual interest – this expansion of UK tourism will continue, not just beyond the EU, but within the EU itself; and we will continue ever more intensively to go on cheapo flights to stag parties in ancient cities, meet interesting people, fall in love, struggle amiably to learn the European languages whose decline has been a paradoxical feature of EU membership.”

His comments, made in a ‘Road to Brexit’ speech in which he attempted to reach out to Remain supporters, were described as “off-colour” and  “embarrassing” by some on social media, the online reported.

One Twitter user said: “Boris Johnson going on about Brits committing illegal activities in Thailand and stag parties in ancient cities. This is our international reputation? How sad.”

Another wrote: “Harming our reputation and making light of serious behaviour, even criminal abuse, is a step too far even for him.”

Liam Kirkaldy (@HolyroodLiam) : In a keynote speech on Brexit Boris Johnson is talking about measuring the English channel with his fingers, referring to it as a moat, and making jokes about the things that go on when Brits go to Thailand. This is terrifying.

6:25 PM – Feb 14, 2018

Johnson met Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwina during a tour of Asia this week.

After talks on trade and security, he said he would “look forward to further strengthening the UK’s relationship with Thailand in the future”.

General Department of Prisons General Director Chan Kimseng met with Krit Krasaedhibaya, commander of the Bangkok Remand Prison, on Monday to discuss extradition and the re-integration of prisoners into society to prevent future crime, according to a departmental Facebook post.

Prisons spokesman Nuth Savna said around 2,000 Cambodians were detained in Thailand, compared to just 52 Thais in Cambodia. He said many items were discussed, but would not address whether Cambodia requested the return of political exiles, whom he said were actually criminals.

“They ran there by themselves and some of them have an arrest warrant against them,” he said, meaning Cambodia could request extradition.

“They committed a crime and when we wanted to arrest them, they used the political excuse to seek asylum,” he added.

Last month, Sokha was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison by the Kampong Speu Provincial Court after a viral video on Facebook showed her throwing a sandal at a ruling party billboard bearing the face of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Sokha, who was labelled a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International this week, had been recognised as a refugee by the United Nations and talks were reportedly underway to resettle her in a third country when she was arrested by Thai police for overstaying her visa.

She was extradited on February 8, a move that rights groups said breached international law.

Her extradition sparked fears that more than 100 Cambodian opposition members hiding out in Thailand, where they fled after their party was forcibly dissolved in November, could face the same fate. In recent days, former Cambodia National Rescue Party members reported being visited by Thai police.

Sokha’s lawyer in Thailand, Koreeyor Manuchae, said she had taken legal action in an attempt to get Thai authorities to present Sokha in a Thai court, which a judge rejected as Sokha was already deported.

Sokha’s younger brother, Sam Dara, said he had visited his sister three times in prison this week. “She feels ill, she looks so pale – she’s in shock,” he said.

In an email on Monday, International Federation for Human Rights Asia Director Andrea Giorgetta warned of a “quid pro quo among the two authoritarian governments” that could also affect Thai activists in hiding in Cambodia.

But Thai exile and Redshirt dissident Jakrapob Penkair was unconcerned yesterday, despite the passage of Cambodia’s lèse majesté laws, which now make insulting the King a crime in both countries and would theoretically enable his extradition.

“Since most of us in the red-shirt Movement do not stay permanently in Cambodia, but rather moving around, we run a low risk of being watched by the Cambodian authority, who does not want any sensitive issues with the Thai side either,” he said in an email.