Johns

SIR Elton John’s glasses firm owes a whopping £3.7million, latest figures have revealed.

The Rocket Man star’s glasses are available via his website and at high street giant Specsavers.

However, the firm that receives cash from the sale of the eyewear has substantial debts.

Accounts for Elton John Optical Company Ltd show that it is £3.7m in the red for the 12 months to the end of March this year.

The company has cash reserves of £308,173 and paid just £1,020 in Corporation Tax on its taxable income for the most recent trading period.

The bulk of the cash is owed to firms called William A Bong Ltd, J Bondi Inc and J Bondi LLP – outfits that form part of the star’s business empire.

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Elton, 78, offers fans two pairs of glasses for £130 at Specsavers.

Buyers are told: “Introducing the Elton John Eyewear glasses collection.
“Designed by the man himself, the Elton John Eyewear range is bursting with his love of individualism and flamboyant style. Inspired by Elton’s journey, you’ll find pops of colour, smatterings of glitter and twists on classic designs.”

He recently admitted that his eyesight was failing and he can now only sign autographs with his initials.

The pop legend lost vision in his right eye in July last year after contracting an infection on holiday in the South of France, and said his left eye is “not the greatest”.

In December, he explained he was unable to watch his new musical version of The Devil Wears Prada.

He added: “I haven’t been able to come to many of the previews because, as you know, I have lost my eyesight.

“But I love to hear it.”

And interviewed on Good Morning America, he said. “It kind of floored me, and I can’t see anything.

“I can’t read anything, I can’t watch anything.”

NEW YORK — Social justice advocates are creating a queer history archive that celebrates Bayard Rustin, a major organizer in the Civil Rights Movement and key architect of the March on Washington.

The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice will launch a digital archive this fall featuring articles, photos, videos, telegrams, speeches and more tied to Rustin’s work. Sourced from museums, archives and personal accounts, it’s designed as a central space where others can add their own stories, creating a living historical record.

“There’s this hole in our history,” said Robt Martin Seda-Schreiber, the center’s founder and chief activist. “And there are great resources about Bayard, but they’re all spread out, and none of it has been collected and put together in the way that he deserves, and more importantly, the way the world deserves to see him.”

Rare footage of Rustin speaking at a 1964 New York rally for voting rights marchers who were beaten in Selma, Ala., was recently uncovered and digitized by Associated Press archivists. Other AP footage shows him addressing a crowd during a 1967 New York City teachers’ strike.

“We are here to tell President Johnson that the Black people, the trade union movement, white people of goodwill and the church people — Negroes first — put him where he is,” Rustin states at the 1964 rally. “We will stay in these damn streets until every Negro in the country can vote!”

Rustin mentored Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The legacy of Rustin — who died in 1987 aged 75 — reaches far beyond the estimated 250,000 people he rallied to attend the March on Washington in 1963, when Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech. Rustin also played a pivotal role behind the scenes, mentoring King and orchestrating the Montgomery bus boycott.

And his influence still guides activism today, reminding younger generations of the power the community holds in driving lasting change through nonviolence, said David J. Johns, a queer Black leader based in Washington, D.C.

“Being an architect of not just that moment but of the movement, has enabled so many of us to continue to do things that are a direct result of his teaching and sacrifice,” said Johns. He is the chief executive and executive director of the National Black Justice Collective, which attributes its advocacy successes in the Black queer space to Rustin’s legacy.

Rustin was born into activism, according to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. His grandparents, Julia Davis and Janifer Rustin, instilled in him and his 11 siblings the value of nonviolence. His grandmother was a member of the NAACP, so Rustin was surrounded and influenced by leaders including the activist and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson, who wrote “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Rustin was expelled from Wilberforce University in 1936 after he organized a strike against racial injustice. He later studied at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, the nation’s first historically Black college, then moved to New York during the Harlem Renaissance to engage more deeply with political and social activism. He attended the City College of New York and joined the Young Communist League for its stance against segregation.

Rustin served jail time and was posthumously pardoned

Rustin was arrested 23 times, including a 1953 conviction in Pasadena, for vagrancy and lewd conduct — charges commonly used then to criminalize LGBTQ+ people. He served 50 days in jail and lost a tooth after being beaten by police. California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a posthumous pardon in 2020, acknowledging Rustin had been subjected to discrimination.

Rustin and figures such as Marsha P. Johnson, a prominent transgender activist during the gay rights movement, continue inspire the LGBTQ+ community because they “were super intentional and unapologetic in the ways in which they showed up,” Johns said.

“I often think about Bayard and the March on Washington, which he built in record time and in the face of a whole lot of opposition,” Johns said.

Walter Naegle, Rustin’s partner and a consultant on projects related to his life and work, said it’s important for the queer community to have access to the history of social movements.

“There wasn’t very much of an LGBTQ+ movement until the early 50s,” said Naegle. “The African American struggle was a blueprint for what they needed to do and how they needed to organize. And so to have access to all of the Civil Rights history, and especially to Bayard’s work — because he was really the preeminent organizer — I think it’s very important for the current movements to have the ability to go back and look at that material.”

Rustin had to step away from leadership for several years

Rustin’s sexuality and his former association with the Young Communist League forced him to step away as a Civil Rights leader for several years.

In 1960, New York congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. threatened to spread false rumors that Rustin and King were intimately involved, weaponizing widespread homophobia to undermine their cause, according to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute.

But Rustin resumed his work in 1963 as chief organizer of the March on Washington, which became a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement and paved the way for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In 2023, Netflix released the biopic “Rustin.” Filmmaker and co-writer Julian Breece, who is Black and queer, grew up in the ’90s when, he said, being gay still correlated with the spread of AIDS, leading to shame and isolation. But he learned about Rustin’s impact on the Civil Rights Movement and found a peer to admire.

“Seeing a picture of Rustin with King, who is the opposite of all those things, it let me know there was a degree to which I was being lied to and that there was more for me potentially, if Bayard Rustin could have that kind of impact,” Breece said.

“I wanted Black gay men to have a hero they could look up to,” he said.

Green writes for the Associated Press.

Emmerdale’s Robert Sugden will tell his sister Victoria that their mystery brother John Sugden is ‘dangerous’, questioning what they even know about the character

John Sugden’s days on Emmerdale could be numbered, as Robert Sugden has him figured out it seems.

According to a new preview for Wednesday’s episode that has been shared with The Mirror, Robert is onto the secret killer and is very aware he’s harbouring something dark. Not only that, but he believes he’s not the man everyone thinks he is, and is determined to prove who he actually is, and what he’s done.

Questioning John’s identity and his past, Robert will do what it takes to make sure he’s exposed. No one in the village has yet to rumble that John killed Nate Robinson, and that he has been behind a number of incidents where villagers have faced harm.

His obsession with husband Aaron Dingle, Robert’s ex, has also sparked concern with viewers but no one in the village has realised. Robert took a matter of seconds to have John sussed though, while it seems people think he’s just bitter about Aaron choosing him.

On Tuesday night we saw John and Robert in a tense stand-off, leading to Robert exposing his recent kiss with Aaron. John had thought he had the upper hand, but the mention of the kiss left him spiralling in front of his brother.

READ MORE: Emmerdale Robert Sugden’s tragic death ‘foreshadowed’ after sinister John scene

John turned to Robert with a sinister look on his face, and told him to “be careful” making it obvious he planned to hurt him. Telling him he wanted to “smash his face in” and he needed “protection” outside of prison, he warned: “You have no idea what I am capable of.”

Robert initially laughed and made it abundantly clear he wasn’t scared. But it was clear Robert saw in John what only viewers and few others have seen.

So much so that after he told John he was going to expose him, Wednesday’s episode sees him bringing the incident up with their sister Victoria Sugden. He tells his sister about the threat and that there was a look in his eye that scared him, and now he’s worried for his loved ones.

Now the character is keen to find out exactly who John is, keen to know his identity and his past, urging Victoria to remember the fact she knows very little about him. The clip finished before Victoria says anything but it is clear she is a little alarmed so will she believe Robert?

Robert says: “Something’s not right about him. I’m only looking out for you and Aaron.” as Victoria backs John, Robert says: “Are you really that gullible? I bet Johnny boy didn’t tell you he warned me off.

“He threatened me. You should have heard him. Being in here I’ve met a lot of people with that look in their eye. Half the crazies in this building have got it.”

As Victoria downplays it and says he “isn’t crazy”, Robert says back: “He’s dangerous Vic. He said to me you have no idea what I’m capable of and I think I do, and it scared me.

“You say he’s great for Aaron but do you even know him? Do you know anything about him?” Robert seems panicked when he asks this this, with him sure something is off about John.

He might not be the only one though as Victoria seems to really think about what Robert is saying to her. So might she finally ask questions and expose the real John?

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .