I’ve bought, tried out and travelled with dozens of suitcases over the years, but I couldn’t believe the quality of this one – it’s so lightweight and easy to push
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This is the best suitcase I’ve tried(Image: Laura Mulley)
As a travel editor of over 10 years, I should know a thing or two about packing – and while admittedly I’ve yet to master the art of travelling light, I like to think that I know which suitcases are the best.
I’ve owned and used lots of different sizes and from different brands over the years, including Antler, American Tourister and Away, but the latest I’ve tried has impressed me the most.
After seemingly constantly seeing all the most stylish and jet-set travellers raving about Briggs & Riley luggage, I got my hands on the brand’s Torq Large Hardside Spinner – and it proven to be the best suitcase I’ve ever used.
Although fairly standard in design, inside this suitcase seems incredibly spacious, with no chunky mechanisms or parts of its structure taking up the precious packing area (although I do swear by packing cubes to maximise the space). It’s split 70/30 between each side, meaning the lid won’t be too heavy to close – something that’s not always thought about.
Other nice touches include a crease-resisting suit holder, a handle that’s long enough even for someone tall like me, and the ability to have your initials added onto a subtle section on the front for free.
Once packed and setting off on my travels, however, what impressed me the most was just how easily it manoeuvred – it’s so lightweight and the 360-degree ball-bearing spinner wheels glided like a dream across the floor, and in fact if seemed as if you barely needed to touch it to get it moving. For this reason I think this case would be an excellent choice for anyone with back or shoulder issues, as it really requires very little effort to pull or push.
At £599 for a medium and £679 for a large, these suitcases are certainly an investment, but Briggs & Riley luggage all comes with a lifetime guarantee, meaning that if yours breaks or is damaged – even by an airline – the brand will repair it for free – you don’t even need to provide proof of purchase. This means that you genuinely may only need to buy one suitcase in your lifetime.
If this is a little out of your budget, however, I also own and can vouch for Antler’s Large Suitcase, £255; although not quite as high quality as Briggs & Riley’s, it has served me well on many a travel.
Alternatively there are some bargain ones to be found on Amazon. This medium Amazon Basics one comes in five colours, starts from £59.49 and has thousands of five star reviews, while this ATX Luggage one is even cheaper currently at £50.99.
The Pentagon says it will require credentialed journalists at the military headquarters to sign a pledge to refrain from reporting information that has not been authorized for release — including unclassified information.
Journalists who don’t abide by the policy risk losing credentials that provide access to the Pentagon, under a 17-page memo distributed Friday that steps up media restrictions imposed by the administration of President Trump.
“Information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified,” the directive states. The signature form includes an array of security requirements for credentialed media at the Defense Department, which Trump has moved to rename the War Department.
Advocates for press freedoms denounced the nondisclosure requirement as an assault on independent journalism. The new Pentagon restrictions arrive as Trump expands threats, lawsuits and government pressure as he remakes the American media landscape.
“If the news about our military must first be approved by the government, then the public is no longer getting independent reporting. It is getting only what officials want them to see,” said National Press Club President Mike Balsamo, also national law enforcement editor at the Associated Press. “That should alarm every American.”
No more permission to ‘roam the halls’
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News Channel personality, highlighted the restrictions in a social media post on X.
“The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon — the people do. The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility,” Hegseth said. “Wear a badge and follow the rules — or go home.”
The Pentagon this year has evicted many news organizations while imposing a series of restrictions that include banning reporters from entering wide areas of the complex without a government escort — areas where the press had access in past administrations as it covers the activities of the world’s most powerful military.
The Pentagon was embarrassed early in Hegseth’s tenure when the editor in chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently included in a group chat on the Signal messaging app where the Defense secretary discussed plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen. Trump’s then-national security advisor, Mike Waltz, took responsibility for Goldberg being included and was shifted to another job.
The Defense Department also was embarrassed by a leak to the New York Times that billionaire Elon Musk was to get a briefing on the U.S. military’s plans in case a war broke out with China. That briefing never took place, on Trump’s orders, and Hegseth suspended two Pentagon officials as part of an investigation into how that news got out.
On Saturday, the Society of Professional Journalists also objected to the Pentagon’s move, calling it “alarming.”
“This policy reeks of prior restraint — the most egregious violation of press freedom under the First Amendment — and is a dangerous step toward government censorship,” it said in a statement Saturday. “Attempts to silence the press under the guise of ‘security’ are part of a disturbing pattern of growing government hostility toward transparency and democratic norms.”
And Matt Murray, executive editor of the Washington Post, said in the paper Saturday that the new policy runs counter to what’s good for the American public.
“The Constitution protects the right to report on the activities of democratically elected and appointed government officials,” Murray said. “Any attempt to control messaging and curb access by the government is counter to the First Amendment and against the public interest.”
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Without a doubt, it is important to capture the reflections of a vice president who found herself in an unprecedented situation after the president was pressured to withdraw from the 2024 election. And “107 Days,” a taut, often eye-opening account — written with the help of Geraldine Brooks — takes you inside the rooms where it happened, as well as what led up to Kamala Harris’ remarkable run.
For one, apparently MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell first gave Harris the idea she should seek the presidency in 2020. Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, were having breakfast at a restaurant near their Brentwood home when O’Donnell “wandered up to our table to talk about the dire consequences of a second Trump term.” Harris, then in her first term as a U.S. senator, recounts that O’Donnell bluntly suggested: “‘You should run for president.’ I honestly had not thought about it until that moment,” she writes in “107 Days.”
Later, Harris also reveals that Tim Walz was not her first choice for running mate: Pete Buttigieg was, though she ultimately concluded the country wasn’t ready for a gay man in the role.
“We were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man,” she writes. She assumes Buttigieg felt similarly, but they never discussed it.
We do not glean much more than we already knew or assumed about President Biden’s life-changing 2024 phone call that set Harris on this path. Pleas for Biden to step aside had been building following his disastrous debate performance less than five months before the election, but by that time Harris had given up on the idea that he would withdraw from the race. But on Sunday, July 21, Harris had just finished making pancakes for her grandnieces at the vice president’s residence and was settling in to watch a cooking show with them when “No Caller ID” came up on her secure phone.
“I need to talk to you,” Biden rasps, then battling COVID-19. Without fanfare, he told her: “I’ve decided I’m dropping out.” “Are you sure?” Harris replies, to which Biden responds: “I’m sure. I’m going to announce in a few minutes.” In italics, we are made privy to what Harris is thinking during their brief phone call: “Really?” Give me a bit more time. The whole world is about to change. I’m here in sweatpants.”
If we wanted in on the powerful feelings that must have been swirling within each of them during such an exchange, or a nod to the momentousness of the moment — no dice. The conversation shifted to the timing of Biden’s endorsement of Harris, which Biden’s staff wanted to delay and which she wanted immediately. Politics, not sentiment, reigned.
The Atlantic book excerpt published earlier this month, it turns out, accurately represents the overall tone of “107 Days.” A thread running throughout is one of bitterness toward Biden’s inner circle, whom Harris felt had been poisoning the well since she first took office: “The public statements, the whispering campaigns, and the speculation had done a world of damage,” she recounts, and perhaps laid the groundwork for her defeat. While she had a warm relationship with the president himself, Harris believes she was never trusted by the first lady or the president’s closest advisors, nor did they throw their full weight behind her as the Democratic nominee.
At the same time, she never doubted that she was the right person for the job. She writes, “I knew I was the candidate in the strongest position to win. … The most qualified and ready. The highest name recognition.” She also calculates that the president and his team thought she was the least bad option to replace him because “I was the only person who would preserve his legacy.” “At this point,” she adds, “anyone else was bound to throw him — and all the good he had achieved — right under the bus.”
For those who are cynical about politics, “107 Days” will not alter your view. After Biden announces his withdrawal, First Lady Jill Biden welcomes Second Gentleman Emhoff into the fray, advising: “Be careful what you wish for. You’re about to see how horrible the world is.” Her senior adviser David Plouffe encourages Harris to distance herself from the president on the campaign trail, because “People hate Joe Biden.” Again and again, Harris provides examples of being left out of the loop or not robustly supported by his inner circle. She writes that her feelings for the president “were grounded in warmth and loyalty” but had become “more complicated over time.” She claims never to have doubted Biden’s competence, even while she worried about how he appeared to the public.
“On his worst day,” she writes, “he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump at his best.” Still, his decision about seeking a second term shouldn’t “have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition,” she concludes in an observation that grabbed headlines upon its publication in the Atlantic excerpt.
The exhilaration that Harris’ campaign frequently exuded in those early rallies is summarized here, but those accounts don’t capture the joy. Some of the details she chooses to highlight tamp down the excitement. For example, at their first rally together after picking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, Walz, Harris and their families greet an audience of 10,000 people in Philadelphia. Though Harris writes, “We rode the high of the crowd that night,” she also notes, “When Tim clasped my hand to thrust it high in an enthusiastic victory gesture, he was so tall that the entire front of my jacket rose up.” She makes “a mental note to tell him: From now on, when we do that, you gotta bend your elbow.”
The Kamala Harris I saw on the campaign trail and enthusiastically voted for is often in evidence on the page. She is smart, savvy, funny and tough. As in many of her stump speeches and media interviews, she tends to recite her accomplishments as if reading from a resume, which sometimes reads as defensive. But she is also indefatigable: She believes that she must win to save democracy, yet she seems to shoulder that formidable burden without breaking a sweat.
“107 Days” does an excellent job of conveying the difficulty of seeking — and occupying — high office, and suggests that if she’d won, Harris’ resilience and ambition would have served her well as the leader of the free world. Many of her insights are astute, though occasionally tinged with rancor. She does accept responsibility for certain missteps, such as when she was asked on “The View” if she would have done anything differently than Biden had she been in charge. She reflects that her response — “There is nothing that comes to mind” — landed as if she’d “pulled the pin on a hand grenade.” But she doesn’t attribute her eventual loss to that or any other miscalculation: She simply needed more time to make her case.
I craved a soaring moment, a rallying cry. I didn’t find hope or inspiration within these pages — the book felt more like an obligatory postmortem with an already established conclusion. If an aim of this memoir was to rally the troops for a Harris run in 2028, “107 Days” falls short of lighting a fire. The brilliant, charismatic woman who came close to breaking the ultimate glass ceiling has given us an essential portrait of an unforgettable turning point in her journey, but “107 Days” is mainly absent the perspective and blueprint for going forward that so many of us hunger for. A few years out, that wisdom may come.
Haber is a writer, editor and publishing strategist. She was director of Oprah’s Book Club and books editor for O, the Oprah Magazine.
‘Relieved’ BBC Breakfast editor Richard Frediani has reportedly been ‘cleared’ after a review into his behaviour and will be continuing his duties
08:08, 09 Sep 2025Updated 08:08, 09 Sep 2025
‘Relieved’ BBC Breakfast editor ‘cleared after review’ into behaviour(Image: BBC)
BBC Breakfast’s editor, Richard Frediani, has reportedly been ‘cleared’ of bad behaviour by bosses amid a ‘feud’ with presenter Naga Munchetty. During the summer, it was claimed that show boss Richard went on extended leave on the flagship show after complaints about his behaviour.
One source told the Mirror: “He is not a bully at all and the truth will come out. He’s a great boss and was – and is still – overwhelmingly loved by the team, who respect his drive, expertise, and journalistic ambition. He has delivered great audiences and the first ever Bafta for breakfast TV.
Richard Frediani was reportedly cleared(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/James Stack)
“He can be brash and opinionated but works so hard for his team and allows people to flourish.”
Three months on, it was reported that the BBC conducted an interview review of the bullying allegations, with the broadcaster conducting 70 sessions and a ‘listening exercise’ with staff.
Richard, who is said to be ‘relieved’ with the outcome, reportedly told staff he was in the clear and would be continuing with his duties as editor.
Naga and Charlie are reportedly ‘furious’ with the outcome(Image: BBC)
“He’s in a significantly more secure place than he was. And I think he’s had a lot of support from people on the team who have come out and said he’s a great editor,” a support told The Times.
“Not everyone on the team because there are divided loyalties, but he is in a much better place.”
A spokesperson for the BBC told the Mirror: “While we do not comment on individual HR matters, we take all complaints about conduct at work extremely seriously.”
A source claimed Naga and co-host Charlie Stayt were ‘furious’ about Richard being ‘cleared’ to return to his duties.
“Naga and Charlie are furious and feel like the BBC have backed him over them,” they told The Sun. “No one would be surprised if they ended up leaving.”
In July, an insider told the publication that Naga was looking for a new job. While the presenter ‘loves the BBC’, her team reportedly ‘renewed talks’ with other companies.
They said: “Her team last week renewed talks with LBC. The Global Radio station would suit her as there’s far less of the fluffy nonsense that’s involved in working at the BBC.”
Meanwhile, the BBC’s annual salary was previously published and Naga was revealed to be earning almost double her co-host Charlie’s pay.
Charlie has stayed within the £190,000 salary band, whereas Naga enjoyed a £10,000 increase to her earnings, moving from £345,000 to £355,000.
The Mirror have reached out to the BBC and the representatives of Charlie and Naga for comment.
Chloe Malle will become the top editor at American Vogue after Dame Anna Wintour stepped aside as editor-in-chief, the publication has announced.
The 39-year-old worked her way up the fashion magazine ranks over the past 14 years to become editor of Vogue.com and host the magazine’s podcast The Run Through.
Malle’s appointment marks a new era for the magazine, considered one of the most influential and glamorous fashion publications.
Dame Anna, the British-born fashion magnate, announced she was leaving the role in June after holding the position for 37 years. The magazine said she would retain senior positions at its publisher.
In a statement announcing the news, Malle said she had worked across every platform during her time at the magazine. “Vogue has already shaped who I am, now I’m excited at the prospect of shaping Vogue,” she said.
Dame Anna said Malle had proven adept at finding the balance between Vogue’s “long singular history” and its future “on the front lines of the new”.
“I am so excited to continue working with her, as her mentor but also as her student, while she leads us and our audiences where we’ve never been before,” Dame Anna said.
Long-time Vogue employee
Malle, the daughter of actress Candice Bergen and French film director Louis Malle, grew up splitting her time between Paris and Los Angeles until her father died when she was 10 years old.
In a previous job, Malle covered real estate for the New York Observer. Her next gig as a freelance writer led her to Vogue, where she began a full-time position as the social editor in 2011, aged 25.
Much like an iconic scene in the acclaimed fashion film The Devil Wears Prada, Malle has previously recalled attending her interview wearing a “boring” ensemble.
“I was hesitant when I was interviewing, because fashion is not one of my main interests in life, and I wanted to be a writer more than an editor, but I was so seduced by the Vogue machine that I couldn’t resist,” she also said in 2013.
Malle rose through the ranks of the organisation and later became the editor of Vogue.com, while also hosting a podcast for the magazine called The Run Through.
While at Vogue, Malle has reportedly been responsible for securing the magazine’s photoshoot with Naomi Biden for her 2022 White House wedding, as well as an interview with Lauren Sanchez ahead of her wedding to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Reuters
Dame Anna will retain senior positions at Vogue’s publisher
Political activism
Like her predecessor, Dame Anna, she has not shied away from politics while in her job.
Both on her social media and on her podcast, she has supported Democratic causes and candidates.
She participated in the Women’s March in 2017 and was photographed with a sign that read “Keep Your Tiny Hands Off My Rights”.
And during a 2024 episode of her podcast, which aired after Donald Trump was re-elected as US president, Malle expressed her disappointment with the election result.
She asked her guest on the programme, Jack Schlossberg – the grandson of former President John F Kennedy – “what would [Kennedy] say to people who are struggling this week and advice on getting through it?”
Wintour to continue oversight role
It is unclear exactly when the transition from Dame Anna to Malle as chief of the magazine will be, but 75-year-old Dame Anna is not completely leaving the picture.
In an interview with the New York Times, Malle acknowledged that working alongside Dame Anna could be a balancing act.
“I know that some people who were interested in this job were sort of daunted by the idea of Anna being down the hall,” she said. “I’m very happy she’s down the hall with her Clarice Cliff pottery.”
Dame Anna will remain publisher Condé Nast’s chief content officer – a role to which she was appointed in 2020 – which means she will still oversee Vogue’s content, along with the company’s other titles such as GQ, Wired and Tatler.
Lauren Sherman, a reporter with Puck News who broke the story, told BBC News that Malle had the pedigree and background of those in Dame Anna’s inner circle, but was also known as being a hard worker.
“She’s still reporting to Anna Wintour, so the buck stops with Anna Wintour,” Sherman said. “I don’t think we’re going to see any big splashy changes to start, but let’s see how much she pushes back on Wintour and makes it her own.”
I’m a regular traveller, but I don’t go anywhere without this handy, practical beauty bag that I bought from Amazon years ago – and it’s now reduced in price to under £25
17:05, 22 Jul 2025Updated 17:09, 22 Jul 2025
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My must-have travel toiletries bag is now on sale(Image: Amazon)
As someone who travels often for both work and pleasure, from overnight stays to long-haul holidays, I like to think that I’ve become something of a pro at packing neatly and concisely. For my clothes, I’ve recently invested in a set of the best packing cubes I’ve ever used, and for toiletries, this trusty Amazon bag of mine can’t be beaten.
It might not be the most luxurious or the most elegant of items (my boyfriend think it looks like an old lady’s handbag), but in terms of practicality and price, I’ve never found anything that’s even half as good – especially as it’s currently reduced from £29.99 to £23.99. Here’s why I love it so much…
I first saw this toiletries bag recommended by celebrity hairstylist Jen Atkin on Instagram and, as she’s someone who probably always packs a lot of products, I thought it was worth trying out.
I have the larger one (there’s also a medium, and all are available in several different colours), and it’s perfect for most of my travels. Things I love about it including the hook for hanging it up in the bathroom, saving previous sink space, the compartments with elasticated straps to stop your products rolling around, and how neatly it all folds up into itself. It even fits neatly inside this handy Antler backpack (now on sale) that I use for overnight stays in the city for work.
I use the smaller two sections for things like scrunchies, tweezers and cleansing clothes, and the larger two compartments for skincare and body care. They’re large enough to fit enough stuff for a good number of days away – including a full-size deodorant and shampoo. The only additional things I sometimes need to pack separately are sun creams (I’m very sun-sensitive and so go through a lot of them!).
My make-up also goes in another bag – one like this popular Space NK zip-up one – which fits neatly into corners of suitcases and stops my products from getting crushed.
A nice option for storing make-up(Image: Space NK )
