The Daily: June 1

We scour the news so you don't have to.

Real Tracy Island discovered
Thunderbirds fans are excited about a volcanic island in the Philippine Sea, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the iconic Tracy Island. Although there are no indications of the sliding swimming pool, the topography of the tropical island is similar to that of the island in Gerru Anderson’s hit 60s series, which served as the Thunderbirds' top-secret headquarters of International Rescue.  The island, called Aogashima, is 200 miles from Tokyo and has a population of around 200. Gerry Anderson had said that the programme was based on an island in the South Pacific but he has never revealed where.

Queen used to wear crown in the bath
In celebration of his mother, Prince Charles has donated never-seen-before footage to feature to a television tribute. The Queen often shot home videos of the family, which can be seen in the new BBC programme which aims to shine light on the goings-on inside the Royal household. Prince Charles recalls: “I remember my Mama coming, you know, up when we were being bathed as children, wearing the Coronation Crown…it was quite funny.” Other footage includes Prince Charles and Princess Anne buried up to their necks in the sand while on holiday in Norfolk.

Kindle bad news for booksellers
Derek Addyman, boss of three second-hand bookshops in Hay-on-Wye, has branded the Kindle device as an ‘enemy’ which needs to be driven out. Mr Addyman has also stated that “books are sociable and people stop and talk to each other about them. Kindles are just a phase and they won’t last.” At Hay, the world’s biggest literary festival, booksellers are anxious that the Kindle and other electronic devices will cause a decline in people buying books, leading to a significant decrease in independent sellers.

Exploration of Ulysses on Radio 4
Radio 4 is clearing its schedule for the day to dedicate its airtime to a 5 1/2- hour dramatisation of James Joyce’s novel, Ulysses. The day will also consist of various debates and discussions, all of which provide bite-sized chunks to help depict the meaning of the famous work. Radio 4 has hosted something similar before with a Harry Potter book, but Ulysses proves to be a bit more testing. Once quoted to be the greatest novel of the century, Ulysses provides it readers with passages which are dense, funny and filthy. The current Penguin edition is 933 pages long, so proves to be an epic day for BBC 4.

Britain’s Butterflies in decline
The colourful and common site of the garden butterfly is slowly becoming a rarity, and there has been an appeal for better countryside care as the British Butterfly population is in decline. Butterfly numbers have dropped by more than a fifth since 2010. The small tortoiseshell, common blue and wall brown butterfly are some of the main species that have declined the most, with a cold summer and the deterioration of suitable habitats thought to be the dominant reasons for this.