WHY MY OWN FATHER WOULD HAVE LET IS KILL ME

The group that calls itself Islamic State (IS or Isis) has a special punishment for gay people - it kills them by throwing them off high buildings. Taim, a 24-year-old medical student, tells the story of how he only escaped this fate by fleeing from Iraq to Lebanon.

In our society, being gay means death. When Isis kills gays, most people are happy because they think we're sick.

I first realised I was gay when I was about 13 or 14. I too thought homosexuality was a sickness and I just wanted to feel normal. During my first year of college, I started having therapy for it. My therapist told me to tell friends that I was going through a "difficult phase" and to ask for their support.

I'm of Muslim background but my ex-boyfriend was from a Christian background and I had a bunch of Christian friends, whom I used to hang out with. In 2013 I got into a fight with a fellow student, Omar - who later joined Isis - about hanging out with Christians. A friend of mine told him to go easy on me because I was going through a hard time, having treatment for being gay. That's how people knew. I think my friend's intention was noble but what happened as a result ruined my life.

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FORMULA 1: CRACKS APPEARING BETWEEN HONDA AND MCLAREN

Fernando Alonso scored his first point for McLaren-Honda at the British Grand Prix. That one sentence sums up just what a dire situation that team are in at the moment.

It has taken nine races for a man many regard as the best driver in the world, in a team that has the target of winning championships, powered by an engine produced by one of the world's leading car companies, to score a single point.

It became obvious at Silverstone that cracks are appearing in therelationship between McLaren and Honda - just seven months into a 10-year contract.

When the partnership was announced, McLaren chairman Ron Dennis talked of repeating the domination of the last McLaren-Honda era in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

But this Honda is not the same as that Honda.

On and off track there is more competition now. Back in 1988, when McLaren-Honda won 15 of the 16 races, only Ferrari had a turbo engine, but it wasn't as good as Honda's and Ferrari's drivers were not as good as Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

In the road car marketplace, Honda has been overtaken by Nissan and is now the third-biggest Japanese manufacturer, not the second.

Back then, Honda used their racing programme to filter through engineers so they gained experience. It was very much an engineering-led company. Now, its ethos seems to have shifted.

If you look across motorsport, Honda is struggling everywhere except the British Touring Car Championship.  Honda does not seem to be the same company with the same racing spirit it had in the past.

Honda only started developing this F1 engine just over two years ago. Mercedes worked on its turbo hybrid F1 engine for four years before the rules changed in 2014. That lack of preparation by Honda is showing.

It is quite clear to everyone in F1 that the Honda engine is responsible for the vast majority of McLaren's performance shortfall to Mercedes.

I suspect Honda realise that, too - if they do not, they're blind - but there is not a lot of evidence so far that they know how to fix it.

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THE 'PHALLIC' CLAM AMERICA SELLS TO CHINA

It's not the most beautiful dinner to look at and it has a very odd name... but in China the geoduck is an expensive delicacy, so on North America's Pacific coast the race is on to farm them and cash in.

The first thing people notice is the shape - it's not nicknamed the King Clam for nothing.

Its long, probing siphon bulges out of its shell and burrows through the sand - sucking in sea water, and squirting it out again (minus vital nutrients) from its tip.

Even its name sounds peculiar when pronounced correctly: "gooey-duck".

It is the largest burrowing clam in the world and can weigh up to 16lb (7.25kg), but it has another claim to fame.

It tastes delicious.

So delicious in fact that diners at high-end seafood restaurants in China will pay up to $300 (£200) for a fresh geoduck imported live from Canada or the US.

Its delicate texture and exotic looks are prized by connoisseurs - who consider the "elephant trunk clam", as it is known in China, to be an aphrodisiac.

"You really feel a mouthful of the Pacific... it's slippery, it's very tender, very sweet," said diners interviewed by the BBC in Beijing.

Geoduck - the vital statistics

• The name "geoduck" is thought to come from the Nisqually (Native American) word "gweduc," meaning "dig deep"
• The bivalve grows in the tidal flats of Oregon, Washington State, British Columbia and Alaska, on beaches with deep sandy substrate
• It takes six years for a farmed geoduck to reach maturity but they can live up to 160 years- as measured by the rings on their shells
• The siphon can grow to 1m (3ft) or more in length
• The clams may be served sauteed, as chowder, sushi or sashimi, but are most often blanched in broth

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FORMULA 1 ROUND-UP: JULES BIANCHI, KIMI RAIKKONEN, VETTEL, RED BULL

A sticker paying tribute to Bianchi will be made available to all F1 drivers in Hungary this weekend, courtesy of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association.

World champion Lewis Hamilton has asked his Twitter followers to help  with ideas for his own sticker in memory of Bianchi.

Manor driver Will Stevens tweeted: Arrived in Hungary for what's going to be an emotional weekend, but we race on! That's what we do and what Jules would want! #JB17 #CiaoJules."

Other news

Kimi Raikkonen is as fast as four-time world champion team-mate Sebastian Vettel but the German "almost never makes mistakes", according to Ferrari's technical director James Allison.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says he has "absolutely no doubt" the team "will get back to the front". (Daily Express)

Renault would receive a significant financial bonus by being declared an historic team should it decide to again become a works marque in Formula 1, according to the sport's boss Bernie Ecclestone. (Autosport)

Ecclestone will decide whether current suppliers Pirelli or Michelin will provide F1's tyres from 2017. (F1i.com)

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo has posted his first message on Instagram.

Lotus's Romain Grosjean, meanwhile, posted an image from "beautiful Budapest".

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JAKE GYLLENHAAL: ACTORS ARE TAKING DANGEROUS RISKS

Hollywood actor Jake Gyllenhaal says some actors are taking "dangerous risks" for their craft.

The star told the BBC another actor had once asked him for advice on whether they should take drugs for a role.

"Someone came to me and said, 'I'm going to play a drug addict - should I try the drug?' and I was like, 'no'," he said.

Gyllenhaal has dramatically lost weight for some of his roles, but said it was "with a watchful eye of an expert".

The actor shed most of his body fat for his current role in boxing movie Southpaw, out this week.

A gruelling training schedule saw him work out for six hours every day for six months to get down to 175lbs (79kg) - 15lbs (7kg) less than his normal weight.

For his Bafta-nominated role in last year's Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal dropped 30lbs (13.6kg) for the part of gaunt paparazzo Lou Bloom.

He previously admitted he lived on a diet of kale salad and chewing gum, while running 15 miles every night to get into character.

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TURKEY BOMBS ISLAMIC STATE TARGETS IN SYRIA

Turkey's government says it has bombed Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria.

A day earlier the two sides exchanged fire near the border, with one soldier killed and two more injured.

Turkey is to let the US carry out air strikes against the Islamic State group from a key military base near the Syrian border, US officials have said.

Turkish police also launched raids to arrest suspect IS militants on Friday morning in more than 100 locations in Istanbul.

The raids were carried out in 26 districts of the city and involved 5,000 officers. Members of the the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were also arrested.

A statement released by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's office said that F-16 jets had hit three IS targets in Syria.

The decision to carry out the attacks was taken at a security meeting called after Thursday's border clashes.

Turkish state TV said that the jets had not violated Syrian air space as they attacked the border town of Havar.

'A game changer'

The US is expected to step up bombing raids against IS after reaching an agreement with Turkey to use the Incirlik airbase.

The agreement was finalised in a phone call between President Barack Obama and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday. It was confirmed by US officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

The use of the Incirlik airbase broadens the US military's ability to strike IS targets - one US official told the New York Times it was a "game changer".

Once used in raids against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the base is near to Turkey's long border with Syria, and significantly narrows the distance to the IS stronghold of Raqqa.

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FORMULA 1: HOW WILLIAMS BLEW CHANCE TO WIN BRITISH GP

Williams have re-established themselves as the next best team behind Mercedes as the Formula 1 season reaches its midpoint around the two races in July.

At last weekend's British Grand Prix they were clearly the second quickest car, decisively ahead of the Ferrari, until the rain came - and that puts them back where they were at the end of 2014.

They were leapfrogged over the winter by Ferrari, after the Italian team made a major improvement to their engine and a more subtle one to their car.

But a significant upgrade package introduced by Williams in Austria, the race before Silverstone, and then developed further for Silverstone, has put Williams back in the game.

Considering the resources they are working with - a budget of no more than half of that of Mercedes and Ferrari - that is a remarkable achievement.

And it gives them a strong foundation to head to the next race in Hungary on 24-26 July with every confidence that they can finish at least third in the championship again, if not potentially think about challenging Ferrari for second.

That will put them in a much more comfortable position financially going into 2015 and give them the chance to keep building on the revival they have been going through since the start of last season.

Team orders - the right call in the wrong way

That's the positive. The negative is that Williams will have come away from Silverstone a little bit disappointed about both their result and their handling of the race on the way to it.

They were running one-two for the first 19 laps but they ended upfinishing fourth and fifth, having been leapfrogged not only by the two Mercedes cars but also Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari.

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