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Showing posts from October, 2023

Martin Rowson on Sunak and Starmer’s blinkered views on Gaza – cartoon | Martin Rowson

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 614

Moldova blocks access to major Russian news media sites; US-made F-16 jets donated to Ukraine from Netherlands to arrive at training centres in weeks See all our Ukraine war coverage Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/TmvKP8M

Taylor Swift becomes a 400lb pumpkin – and the star of Halloween

Installations across US include friendship bracelets and a ‘boyfriend graveyard’ , with fans spending hundreds on their masterpieces Last week, Taylor Swift became a billionaire . She also became a 399lb pumpkin. For 35 years, Jeanette Paras has “pumpkinized” celebrities, turning giant gourds into their likenesses in an effort to drum up breast cancer awareness for charities. This year, her muse was a no-brainer: Swift’s record-breaking Eras tour and concert documentary were cultural events, and her romance with the NFL star Travis Kelce dominates tabloid headlines. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/r3wv5M8

‘A spirit in each room’: ScareBnBs rise in popularity as renters seek out the supernatural

Vacationers are increasingly looking for short-term rentals that may be haunted on online platforms like Airbnb and VRBO Adrienne Parks and her husband, Bill Bowman, moved into their New Orleans Queen Anne-style Victorian house on Halloween in 2005. But it had a long history before them. Built as a single-family home in 1884, the 5,500-sq-ft structure became a boarding house in the 20th century before falling into disrepair. In the 1980s, a couple purchased it and decided to restore the building to its original glory, ripping out sheet rock and tearing out the drop ceilings. Years later, the property found its way to Parks and Bowman. Not long after moving in, Parks took a walking tour of her neighborhood, which happened to be led by one of the home’s previous owners. They made a stop at the house. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Tmn3oRM

Why do so many people still love Friends? | Zoe Williams

The 90s were a decade of carefree optimism and comically low stakes. Matthew Perry’s death brings us crashing back into the now In 2004, the author Damian Barr published Get It Together: Surviving Your Quartlerlife Crisis. Barr would go on to write poignant and beautiful books (including the memoir Maggie and Me) but this wasn’t either of those things. It was more of a fun, generational howl: how’s this stuff supposed to work? How are you supposed to become an adult in these conditions? The dream of life in your 20s – flailing around not sure what to do, mooching from one dead-end job to another but still managing to afford a gigantic, lovely flat in the centre of everything, failing romantically, hilariously, while it all turns out for the best, never feeling anxious for no reason or as if you’re slipping through the sieve of polite society, too small and weightless to remain in the in-crowd – well, that dream was cracking a little. As Barr put it in a radio interview, the question,

South Africa deserve World Cup but teams’ approach needs to change | Robert Kitson

Fiji and Portugal should be proud while Ireland and France will have regrets but there has to be incentive for teams to vary tactics It was Andy Farrell who best summed up the 2023 Rugby World Cup. “Sport can be cruel sometimes – I guess that’s why we love it,” Ireland’s head coach said after his team’s heartbreaking defeat by New Zealand in the quarter-finals. Which is precisely how every All Black squad member felt on Saturday evening as dazzling laser beams, coloured lights and fireworks turned the Stade de France into the planet’s dampest nightclub and South Africa’s ecstatic players danced their way into Springbok folklore. The extraordinary Siya Kolisi was still singing out loud to himself when he entered the post-game press conference clutching the Webb Ellis Cup, in sharp contrast to his downcast All Black counterpart Sam Cane who had just left. Few Test captains have ever looked as pained as Cane after his team’s record 35-7 defeat by the Boks at Twickenham in August. Here

Anguish of Gaza residents as phones return to life with news of those lost

As 36-hour blackout imposed by Israel ended, phones were flooded with news of people killed in intensified bombardment Israel and Hamas at war – live updates On Sunday morning, phones belonging to the 2.3 million people trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip slowly came to life again, inundated with updates, messages and missed calls after the lifting of a 36-hour near-total communications blackout imposed by Israel. Nights in Gaza now are completely dark. At the same time as communications were lost on Friday evening, Israel intensified its aerial bombardment and launched its initial ground operation into the strip. Ambulance drivers described how they decided to just drive towards the sound of explosions as there were no accurate coordinates to follow. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/851YaHc

‘Lord, where do we go?’ Gaza’s social media voices begin to fall silent

Communications blackout cuts off stream of Snapchat updates from residents about life in the conflict • Israel and Hamas at war – live updates Communications went dark in Gaza on Friday, but the few voices that emerged described a night of intense airstrikes and panic among a population fearing that the outage signified a new stage in the violence. The social media platform Snapchat has been used since the war began by some Gazans to post images from their lives, with videos showing people in long queues at bakeries or for water, or gathered in crowds at hospitals and schools. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/pqAlUkg

From heavy metals to heavy metal: Bougainville’s unlikely musical obsession

Popularity of genre traces back to Australian fans who worked in mines in the Papua New Guinea region decades earlier “Courtesy of the patriarchs’ path shown by ancient ancestral domain … retain or never,” bellows singer Hyginus Tagira to an appreciative crowd of metalheads at a festival in Kokopau, a bustling township in Bougainville. Tagira is the flamboyant frontman of Conscience – pronounced Con Science – a four-piece metal band. He’s dressed the part, swaddled in a leather cape that must have raised his body temperature to dizzying levels in the fearsome afternoon heat. It’s still early in the festival but hundreds of Bougainvilleans were there, most wearing lurid heavy metal T-shirts. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/mGVg9hy

Judge rejects Ivanka Trump’s argument against testifying at father’s fraud trial

Lawyers for former president’s daughter had claimed New York attorney general’s office had no jurisdiction over her A New York judge has rejected Ivanka Trump’s argument that she should not have to testify at her father Donald Trump’s fraud trial. Ivanka Trump’s lawyers – she has hired a separate legal team from her father – showed up to court on Friday to argue against a subpoena to testify from the New York attorney general Letitia James’s office, which brought the $250m fraud case against the former president, his eldest sons and other Trump executives. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/9OkQaYd

Furniture for firewood, radios for news: Israel’s siege throws life in Gaza back decades

Families displaced from north face overcrowding, rationed drinking water, and the ever-present threat of death from the air Warning: Some viewers may find the photographs in this article distressing In Gaza, the ever-present fear of sudden death has prompted mothers to write their children’s names on their legs and hips, to help with identification if they are killed in an airstrike. They have no control over the Israeli war waged against them, which is very much out of the 21st century – fought from the cockpits of jets and the control rooms of hi-tech naval ships. Yet, on the streets of southern Gaza, people’s lives have been bombed back decades. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/NYby4xT

‘It will be slow, very hard’: can Israel achieve its aims in Gaza invasion?

Divisions among Israeli leadership and US doubts are complicating what are already ‘fiendishly difficult’ objectives Israel and Hamas at war – live updates Israel has had a full invasion force massed on Gaza’s borders for over a week. Its military leaders insist they are ready. The Israeli prime minister gave a speech on Wednesday night that sounded like a rallying cry for a ground assault, but it was carefully drafted, committing to nothing specific. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/FPVqm0C

Arab nations condemn Israel’s Gaza assault during UN debate

US warned over ‘genocide in Palestine’, as foreign ministers challenge targeting of civilians and international law breaches Israel and Hamas at war – live updates Arab nations have linked hands with the Global South to challenge Israel and its western backers to end the bombing in a Gaza at the start of a rare two-day emergency debate at the UN general assembly. In a fierce warning on Thursday the Iranian foreign minister said that if what he described as the genocide did not stop the US would “not be spared from this fire”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/VvP6bZa

Met investigating sexual misconduct accusations against Tim Westwood

Former BBC Radio 1 DJ has been interviewed under police caution over accusations four times this year, but has not been arrested Tim Westwood has been interviewed for a fourth time under police caution after sexual misconduct allegations. The former BBC Radio 1 DJ, 66, who stepped down from his show on Capital Xtra in April last year, has previously “strongly” denied any wrongdoing. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/vpWOmoy

UK TikTok prankster Mizzy could be jailed for flouting court order

London court found online personality Bacari-Bronze O’Garro had defied order and posted videos of people without consent The TikTok prankster known as Mizzy has been banned from using social media and faces a custodial sentence after he was found guilty of posting videos featuring people without their consent. The social media personality, real name Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, was found to have “deliberately flouted” a court order prohibiting him from sharing videos of individuals without their permission “within hours” of it being issued. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/FRJKvbL

Ministers warn English councils not to adopt four-day working weeks

Central government’s attempt to restrict councils’ ability to trial the practice ‘a massive overreach’, say council leaders Ministers have formally warned councils in England to abandon any plans to adopt four-day working weeks for staff, in an escalation of a simmering political row over town hall working practices. Government guidance issued on Thursday said councils that have adopted four-day weeks should end the practice immediately, while any authorities planning embrace it in the future should stop any trials immediately. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/5cYNa2E

Aukus will ‘get done’ despite jitters in Congress, Biden tells Albanese at White House meeting

Getting approval for nuclear submarine plan through legislature a question of ‘not if, but when’ Joe Biden has played down congressional jitters over the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine deal, assuring the visiting Australian prime minister he is “confident that we can get this done”. The US president welcomed Anthony Albanese to the White House and insisted he was “confident that we’re going to be able to get the money for Aukus because it’s overwhelmingly in our interest”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/TAjZyw9

Election denier, climate skeptic and anti-abortion: meet the new US House speaker Mike Johnson

The relatively little-known Louisiana Republican has been thrust into the spotlight and the attention has fallen on his extreme beliefs Mike Johnson’s emergence as the new speaker of the US House of Representatives has earned the relatively little-known Louisiana Republican a turn in the national spotlight. In turn, that spotlight has illuminated positions and remarks many deem extreme. You think about the implications on the economy. We’re all struggling here to cover the bases of Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and all the rest. If we had all those able-bodied workers in the economy, we wouldn’t be going upside down and toppling over like this … I will not yield I will not. Roe was a terrible corruption of America’s constitutional jurisprudence.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3zpQcgh

Israel must stop weaponising the Holocaust | Raz Segal

Scholars of genocide are criticizing the dangerous use of the Holocaust to justify Israeli mass violence against Palestinians President Joe Biden began his remarks in Israel with this : “Hamas committed atrocities that recall the worst ravages of Isis, unleashing pure unadulterated evil upon the world. There is no rationalizing it, no excusing it. Period. The brutality we saw would have cut deep anywhere in the world, but it cuts deeper here in Israel. October 7, which was a … sacred Jewish holiday, became the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. “It has brought to the surface painful memories and scars left by millennia of antisemitism and the genocide of the Jewish people. The world watched then, it knew, and the world did nothing. Raz Segal is an associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University and the endowed professor in the study of modern genocide Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/VIw3S2U

Rishi Sunak’s efforts to hold his party together look increasingly futile

Tory MPs are losing faith in PM’s ability to neutralise infighting and restore stability to party Holding together an unruly Conservative party ultimately proved an impossible task for Boris Johnson and for Liz Truss – and now risks looking insurmountable for Rishi Sunak. The prime minister is increasingly criticised privately by Tory MPs for being too “weak” to stand up to warring backbenchers, amid a host of briefings about him backtracking on key policies. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/uSVwEdI

Rishi Sunak dodges ceasefire questions as he cosplays global statesman | John Crace

The PM, just back in the Commons after meeting Netanyahu, had only vain hopes to offer in the search for peace between Israel and Hamas Call it war fatigue. So soon. Last week it was standing room only on both sides of the house for Rishi Sunak’s statement on Israel and Gaza. For the update on Monday there were plenty of gaps on the green benches. Especially on the Tory side. Already the Middle East has been filed under something too difficult, too unbearable and too far away. Most Conservatives no longer have the bandwidth for the conflict. They are too busy contemplating their own more immediate eternity. Losing the next general election. Many of Sunak’s opening remarks were more or less a reprise of what he had said last week. Horror at the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas. A commitment to stand with Israel and a reaffirmation of its right to defend itself and to retrieve its hostages. An acknowledgment that the Palestinians are also victims of Hamas. Their need for humanitari

Tian Yi wins 4thWrite prize for ‘fantastically original’ The Good Son

Award for short story about a young man reflecting on a small-town childhood includes publication on the Guardian website Read Tian Yi’s The Good Son Tian Yi has won the 2023 4thWrite prize for The Good Son, a short story about a young man reflecting on a small-town childhood interrupted by strange occurrences, and a friendship he never fully understood. The competition, run by the Guardian and publisher 4th Estate and now in its seventh year, is open to unpublished writers of colour living in the UK or Ireland. Yi has won £1,000, a one-day publishing workshop at 4th Estate, and the publication of her story on the Guardian’s website. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/PIV9KT1

EU-funded report calls for wealth of super-rich to be taxed, not income

Wealthiest 3,000 working on ‘edge of legality’ using shell companies to funnel dividends and own property to negate income tax, says study Billionaires have been operating on the “border of legality” in using shell companies to avoid tax and the world’s 3,000 wealthiest individuals should be charged a 2% levy on their wealth, a research group created to inform EU tax policy has claimed. In its inaugural global tax evasion report, the Paris-based EU Tax Observatory said billionaires have been pushing the limits of the law by moving certain types of income, including dividends from company shares, through dedicated holding companies that usually serve no other purpose. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/8tIBHiN

Who are the Republican candidates for House of Representatives speaker?

Nine congressmen had registered by Sunday’s noon deadline following Jim Jordan’s failed bid to claim the gavel After more than two weeks of failing to choose a speaker, Republicans in the US House plan to reconvene on Monday to begin the process of nominating a third candidate to try to get the 217 votes needed to secure the speakership. So far, Steve Scalise, the No 2 Republican in the House, and Jim Jordan, the far-right congressman, have both failed in their bids. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/lzg4esV

Readers reply: do animals have accents?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts Do animals have accents? Dan Gardner, Rutland Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/SJs9EQg

Russian missile strike on Kharkiv postal centre has caused multiple deaths, says governor

Attack on civilian site in Ukrainian city has killed six people and injured 14, according to Oleh Synehubov A Russian missile has hit a postal distribution centre in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, on Saturday, killing six people and injuring 14, Kharkiv’s regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, has said. Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Syniehubov said several of the injured were in a serious condition in hospital. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/tkRfThF

Private life of France’s Bonnie and Clyde revealed in love letters

Prison letters sent by ‘public enemy No 1’ Jacques Mesrine to his girlfriend Jeanne Schneider to be sold at auction Bankrobber and serial prison escapee Jacques Mesrine had many names during his two-decade criminal career in the 1960s and 70s. In disguise and on the run from police, he made headlines as “ the man of a thousand faces ” and “public enemy number one”. In Canada and the US with his girlfriend, Jeanne Schneider, the couple were nicknamed France’s Bonnie and Clyde. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Pgdu41B

A stranger broke into a first date to out the man as a cheat – and thousands of women seek the same online

On social media women post pictures of potential dates, seeking information from others who have met them. It’s a defence mechanism, but also a privacy and legal minefield Sarah* met Max* for their first date at a cocktail bar on a cool spring evening. They had matched online, talked about TV shows and movies, and he picked the place and time. He was tall, smart, good looking in an understated way. Sarah thought a second date might be on the cards. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/K1OUo6z

Oxford University says it will not base admissions on botched online tests

Sixth formers said tests displayed incorrect questions, repeatedly crashed or failed to record answers Oxford University says it will not use results from its botched online admissions tests to award places on next year’s English courses, after students and schools across the UK described multiple crashes, freezes and other frustrations using the new system. Sixth formers applying to Oxford said the online tests being used for the first time were plagued with difficulties, displaying incorrect questions and repeatedly crashing or failing to record answers, raising concerns it would damage their chances of admission as undergraduates. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/vZnoH62

F1 Academy season climax in Austin speeds women closer to main grid

Series title will be decided this weekend with hopes that the platform will help female racers to set their sights higher With the Formula One championship done and dusted , the tension and urgency of a title fight will be sorely lacking at this Sunday’s US Grand Prix. However, another championship will be decided in Austin where F1’s attempt to return a woman to the grid reaches the climax of its first season at the Circuit of the Americas. For the all-female F1 Academy this is both a finale and also a precursor for grander ambitions. The series’ managing director, Susie Wolff, is fired up by bringing her drivers to the F1 undercard and encouraged by the positive results from the Academy’s inaugural season. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/QzhdPty

Not just St Ives: Redruth festival will shine light on vibrant Cornish arts scene

First Flamm festival in old mining town this weekend will include ‘art rave’ and installations using local natural materials In the 18th and 19th centuries, copper mining turned Redruth into a wealthy, bustling hub. But in more recent times the Cornish town has suffered the trials and tribulations of post-industrial decline. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/T5tMIJw

When the fog of war envelops everything, we owe it to those who suffer to admit doubt | Gaby Hinsliff

The BBC is under scrutiny over reports of the Gaza hospital blast. But there is a lesson for all who want clarity when there is none Death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses. Throughout these days of unbearable stories, from the slaughter of small children in their kibbutz bedrooms to the fireball at a Gaza hospital where families were seeking sanctuary from bombs, those words have echoed around my mind. Taken from the biblical book of Jeremiah, they entered my thoroughly godless ears via a comforting-sounding rabbi on the BBC and stayed. It is no criticism of its competitors to say that in this house at least, in times of trouble, it’s always the BBC. Though nobody knows better than a journalist that journalists aren’t infallible, there are times when only the Pavlovian effect of the pips or of Lyse Doucet’s voice will do. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/mhx906p

Nae Expectations: Andy Arnold on a gallus Dickens, Glasgow’s Tron and ‘catastrophic’ arts cuts

As he stages Gary McNair’s twist on the tale of Pip, the director reflects on 16 years of spotting and developing raw talent while running the Tron Andy Arnold is a director with staying power. Nae Expectations, which has just opened at Glasgow’s Tron theatre, is his swansong production after nearly 16 years with the company. Prior to that, he spent 18 years at the Arches, the multi-arts venue he founded in the catacombs beneath the city’s Central station, creating a seedbed for a generation of theatremakers, artists and DJs. If in neither case did he overstay his welcome, it is because of the quality that defines him: his relentless championing of young artists. He has remained a vital part of Glasgow’s cultural life because of the company he keeps. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/op3fbdY

Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons: the cult play about words becomes a ballet

When a principal at the Royal Ballet asked to adapt his drama about imposed verbal limits, playwright Sam Steiner was all in. ‘There are things dance does better,’ he says ‘Why don’t you start in the weird position?” suggests director Ed Madden. “That’s a technical term!” he calls across the Royal Ballet’s Opera House studio. “Weird position” may not derive from the classical ballet textbook, but it perfectly suits the making of The Limit – an audacious production that reimagines Sam Steiner’s cult play Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons with some of the Royal Ballet’s boldest artists. The encounter began with the amiable but ambitious Alexander Campbell, an Australian-born principal with the Royal. “In lockdown, I was thinking about the work I wanted to do,” he says. “I was keen to work with people who inspired me.” He and fellow principal Francesca Hayward considered working with text, and his producer sister Amelia recommended Lemons, which imagines a world giving people a cruelly

MPs’ futile words on Israel and Gaza are better heard than left unsaid | John Crace

It wasn’t a debate, more a coming together in the Commons, after measured statements from party leaders Words can feel futile at a time like this. If they could make a difference, they would probably have done so by now. Decades of violence and hatred have largely proved immune to the power of the spoken word to find a peaceful solution in the Middle East. But words are all that British politicians have in the present circumstances. And you have to keep on believing even when it looks like we’re heading towards another war. At the very least, though, words can acknowledge the horror. To recognise its existence, even when powerless to influence the outcome. So that no one’s pain, no one’s loss, no existential threat is covered up or minimised. To stand up and be counted. A message of support at a time of grief. A fury contained. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/kxhQdwG

Aditi Mangaldas: Forbidden review – a post-menopausal play for sexual pleasure

Sadler’s Wells, London Leading Indian kathak performer Mangaldas explores her desire and confronts the double standards around men’s and women’s sexuality Is it audacious for a 63-year-old woman to talk publicly about sexual desire? It’s audacious enough for a 63-year-old woman to front her own solo dance show, the art form most associated with youth, never mind witnessing a grandmother luxuriating in sensation, her body twitching and pulsing, her desire fluttering. There’s nothing salacious about Forbidden. Leading Indian kathak performer Aditi Mangaldas has created work that is earnest and sensitive albeit frank, and quietly outraged at the double standard afforded to men’s and women’s sexuality. Forbidden is a fearless picture of woman as both object and fount of desire. The New Delhi-based choreographer has been schooled in kathak dance since childhood, but she makes work that uses her classical roots within a contemporary dance-theatre idiom. There are three sections: the awake

Blood, sweat and effort: How England kept calm and carried on amid Fiji din

With Fiji breathing down their necks in Marseille, Steve Borthwick’s players took the game by the scruff of the neck Ten minutes left to play in Marseille, and the game is slipping away from England, taking with it their improbable shot at winning this World Cup. They had been 14 points up just moments ago and the Stade Vélodrome was so quiet, in those moments, that the crowd were throwing Mexican waves. It would have been stretching the point to say you could hear a pin drop, but if you strained your ears you could hear the bones pop and the bodies flop. And then Fiji finally started to play the way only they can. In six minutes they broke the line twice and scored tries both times, 24-10 became 24-22. The English didn’t stop to watch the conversion. They were in the one place no team want to be when there’s 10 minutes left to play, when you’re just two points up and the semi-finals are on the line. In a huddle under their own posts. Maro Itoje was first, and already calling his exh

Dan Biggar, the battered Welsh dragon, has flame extinguished by Argentina | Andy Bull

The patched-up, veteran fly-half poured his heart and soul into an ultimately futile attempt to delay international retirement Night time, Saturday 18 March, and Wales are gathered in the away changing room at the Stade de France. They have just lost to France 41-28 , and are tired and hurting. It’s their fourth defeat in five games. Warren Gatland is talking. Privately, Gatland has been wondering if it was a mistake to take this job on again. But it is too late now. They only have five months and 21 days before the World Cup. “It is going to be tough,” Gatland tells them. “Probably the toughest thing you have ever done. If you’re not willing to work, if you’re not willing to give everything, let me know, and I won’t pick you.” Silence, of course, no one talks. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/MQLviYf

Warren Gatland laments Wales’s failure to handle ‘disruptive’ change of referee

Jaco Peyper replaced by Karl Dickson in defeat by Argentina Wales coach suggests Guido Petti lucky to escape sanction Warren Gatland has highlighted his side’s failure to deal with the “disruptive” change of referee in his side’s World Cup quarter-final defeat by Argentina and suggested the wrong decision was made when Guido Petti escaped any sanction for a shoulder charge on Nick Tompkins. Wales scored the opening try through Dan Biggar after an impressive start to the match but on 15 minutes the South African referee, Jaco Peyper, pulled up with a calf injury and was replaced by Karl Dickson of England, who was acting as an assistant referee. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Cpe71Lf

‘Revenge on my mind’: Somerset gunman was fascinated with mass killers

Reed Wischhusen seemed to be law-abiding citizen until police found ‘revenge plan’ inspired by Columbine and Dunblane attacks Outwardly Reed Wischhusen lived a quiet, ordinary life, caring for his father, Alan, at their scruffy semi in the Somerset village of Wick St Lawrence and working nightshifts in a budget supermarket’s warehouse near Bristol. On his Facebook page, Wischhusen, 32, described himself as “down to earth and very shy”, a lover of 80s and 90s music and video games. He seemed isolated and lonely, but law-abiding and harmless. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/AoMDwRS

Sunset Boulevard review – Nicole Scherzinger dazzles in Jamie Lloyd’s radical rework

Savoy theatre, London Lloyd brings hipster edginess, style and unpredictability to this revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical – though it’s more surface-level than penetrating closeup We have come to expect the unexpected from Jamie Lloyd . The director’s 2019 revival of Evita gave Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical a hipster-ish edginess, and it is the same for this production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1993 musical, to which he brings ferocious unpredictability. Based on Billy Wilder’s film about struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis and his relationship of convenience with faded Hollywood starlet Norma Desmond, it speaks to that original medium. A black and white film is being made on stage and projected on to a gigantic back-screen. Credits roll at the beginning and end. Cameras follow characters, capturing their faces in magnified proportions so it’s clear that all here are ever-ready for their closeups, not just Norma. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/kZIVWp

Rudolph Isley, founding member of the Isley Brothers, dies at 84

Singer left the pioneering group in 1989 but had appeared on hits such as Shout, Summer Breeze and Fight the Power Rudolph Isley, one of the founding members of R&B family band the Isley Brothers, has died at the age of 84. His lawyer, Brian Caplan, confirmed the news to the website Pitchfork, saying: “Rudolph Isley, a founding member of the world-famous Isley Brothers, died peacefully in his sleep on the morning of 11 October 2023. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/0VDNkKX

Winning $1.765bn Powerball ticket sold at liquor store in tiny California town

Co-owner says it’s the ‘most exciting news ever to happen to Frazier Park’ – but winner has not come forward A liquor store in a tiny California mountain town reverberated with excitement on Thursday after word that the winning ticket for a $1.765bn Powerball jackpot was sold there. The drawing on Wednesday night ended a long stretch without a winner of the top prize and brought news media to Midway Market & Liquor in Frazier Park, a community of 2,600 residents about 75 miles north of Los Angeles. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Hzc87Cn

Grunge and rap to feature in new lesson aids for music teachers in England

Curriculum resources also to include more diverse English literature texts and history topics such as ‘imperial decline’ Any teacher who likes to sing along to Nirvana will soon be encouraged to get their pupils rocking to the Seattle grunge sound of the 1990s in lessons. Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and other 90s bands could be included in the new lesson aids for teachers being issued by the Oak National Academy, the government-backed creator of curriculum resources for England’s schools. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/N63moeV

Antarctica has lost 7.5tn tonnes of ice since 1997, scientists find

Study finds more than 40% of ice shelves have shrunk, with millions of tonnes of freshwater entering ocean More than 40% of Antarctica’s ice shelves have shrunk since 1997 with almost half showing “no sign of recovery”, a study has found, linking the change to the climate breakdown. Scientists at the University of Leeds have calculated that 67tn tonnes of ice was lost in the west while 59tn tonnes was added to the east between 1997 and 2021, resulting in a net loss of 7.5tn tonnes. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/b7gZQuG

Starve Acre review – intelligent performances in sinister Yorkshire folk horror

London film festival Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark play an unhappy couple who have moved to the moors with their young son, and soon become entwined in the occult Award-winning director Daniel Kokotajlo made a real impression five years ago with his fiercely distinctive debut feature, Apostasy , set in an enclosed religious world. Here is his diverting but frankly more generic follow-up, adapted from the novel by Andrew Michael Hurley . It is billed as contemporary folk horror but borders on film-school pastiche, and “contemporary” means set in the era of The Wicker Man in the early 70s – a British world of brown corduroy, Austin 1100s, no central heating, odd locals and a persistent, sinister encroaching gloom in the countryside. The movie teeters on a knife-edge between scary and silly, and yet without that weird flavour of silly, the scares wouldn’t mean as much. Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark, two very potent and formidable screen presences, play Richard and Juliette, an unhappy co

Kirkmoore review – disability is way funnier than this comedy can handle

This sitcom about disabled young people at a residential college is spot on with its depiction of disabled dating and friendships. Unfortunately, it forgets one thing – making people laugh There are some really nice moments in BBC Three ’s new one-off comedy, Kirkmoore , about three disabled young people living at a residential college. Chloe, a smart, wheelchair-using queer woman, is trying to explore the dating scene with the usual assortment of apps (and an ill-advised fling with a care worker) but is almost thwarted by a care manager who pointedly comments that Chloe has arranged her “third date this week,” before warning her: “if you don’t knuckle down I’m going to have to involve your parents.”. Chloe, it should be noted, is an adult – she is still at college, aged 21, because she wasn’t given the right support by her previous sixth form. For many disabled people with care needs, it’s a day-to-day reality that a stranger with a checklist can control their choices. To see this

Ex-Tory business minister Anna Soubry says she will vote Labour

Co-founder of Change UK who opposed Brexit praises Keir Starmer as having the ‘values and competence’ Britain ‘desperately needs’ Anna Soubry, the former Conservative business minister, has announced she will be voting for Labour at the next general election. The former MP, now a criminal barrister, said on social media that she will be voting for Keir Starmer. On Wednesday, she wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I will be voting #Labour. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/9u5N8vc

Arab ministers urge Israel to resume talks on two-state solution

Emergency meeting of Arab League calls for ‘serious negotiations between the PLO and Israel’ Arab foreign ministers have urged Israel to meet its international obligations as an occupying power and return to negotiations on a two-state solution that provides a viable state for Palestine. At an emergency meeting of the Arab League in Cairo on Wednesday, ministers underlined “the importance of resuming the peace process and starting serious negotiations between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/uClL98i

Why Labour will be pleased that ‘boring’ was the buzzword of conference

MPs stayed on-message, fringe events were packed and businesses wanted to get involved at a conference that passed by with barely a hitch In the hotel bar on the last night of Labour conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, one senior aide of Keir Starmer was taking soundings from journalists about how they felt the annual gathering had gone. The adviser nodded along when they said that it had been a competent and professional affair but it was only when one reporter replied that it had also been “a bit boring” that he broke out into a big grin. “That’s the right answer,” he said. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/6teCbsH

Don’t Look Down review – the heartwarming tale of 10 terrified celebs on a 100ft highwire

This Stand Up to Cancer special is an oddly touching look at stars who suffer vertigo – and their attempts to walk a nausea-inducingly high tightrope As Don’t Look Down begins, the words “10 terrified celebrities” flash up on the screen, so large that it looks as if this is the real title of the show. It is not, of course, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be. Over the years, television has invested a lot of time and money in the business of terrifying and even potentially injuring celebrities, whether on I’m a Celebrity , The Jump or Dancing on Ice . You could drop Ten Terrified Celebrities into the weekly listings and nobody would bat an eyelid. There are a few I’m a Celebrity graduates on Don’t Look Down but, thankfully, there’s no suggestion of them eating testicles again. This is a charity event, put on in aid of Stand Up to Cancer. Ten Terrified Celebrities – who are afraid of heights specifically, rather than just generally afraid at all times – have agreed to head off to

Russia fails to win back seat on human rights council after UN vote

Country was suspended from body last year after Ukraine invasion but scale of support for readmittance will worry Kyiv and allies Russia has been defeated in its attempt to regain a seat in the UN’s top human rights body by a significant majority at the general assembly, which voted last year to suspend Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine. Russia was competing against Albania and Bulgaria for two seats on the Geneva-based human rights council representing the East European regional group. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/y6QsChS

Trump fraud trial: Allen Weisselberg grilled on financial report discrepancies

Prosecutors questioned former chief financial officer about the value of Trump’s triplex apartment in Trump Tower The former former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization was grilled over discrepancies in financial statements as the second week of Donald Trump’s fraud trial kicked off in New York. Prosecutors questioned Allen Weisselberg, who worked at the company for decades, about whether the Trump Organization was aware of inconsistencies between documents. The New York attorney general’s office has been trying to prove that Weisselberg and others at the Trump Organization knowingly inflated the value of Trump’s assets to boost his net worth. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/gzXRjA7

The Reckoning review – Steve Coogan is chillingly brilliant as Jimmy Savile

Coogan captures the charm and creepy depravity of the notorious abuser. But this is a horrific tale most of us already know – and the BBC’s depressing drama adds little of value If you are among the vanishingly few people left in the country who do not know that Jimmy Savile was an absolutely evil man, then I recommend watching The Reckoning, a dramatisation of his story written by Neil McKay and starring Steve Coogan as the necro-paedophile, OBE. If you do know who he is – well, I wonder. Stripped of context, The Reckoning is a rigorously well-made and polished thing. It takes us from 1962, as Savile’s career as a DJ on the northern club circuit began to gain traction, through his years as an increasingly beloved and powerful figure on radio and then television, and on until his much-mourned death in 2011 at the age of 84, untouched and then untouchable by any revelations about his awful secrets. For some reason, it is interspersed with a lot of archive footage of the real Savile th

Leak from International Space Station poses no danger to crew, says Russia

Space agency Roscosmos says there has been a coolant leak from its portion of ISS Liquid has leaked from the Russian portion of the International Space Station but the crew are not in any danger, the Russian space agency Roscosmos has said. “The Nauka module of the Russian segment of the ISS has suffered a coolant leak from the external (backup) radiator circuit, which was delivered to the station in 2012,” Roscosmos said on Telegram, suggesting there was no danger to the orbiting laboratory. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/NdLaVHs

Robert F Kennedy Jr announces independent run for 2024 US election

Kennedy, who had been running as a Democrat, says he feels ‘pain’ leaving party of uncle John and father Bobby Robert F Kennedy Jr, the scion of the Kennedy political family who has spent the last six months running for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, announced on Monday he would continue his long-shot pursuit of the White House as an independent. The 69-year-old conspiracy theorist and vaccination opponent gave a fiery speech from Philadelphia, declaring his “independence from the Democratic party and all other parties”, and telling a gathering of several hundred supporters of his “pain” at leaving the party of his uncle and father, John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/T3sdvjy

SAS troops ‘executed Afghan males of fighting age’, inquiry hears

Counsel to London inquiry into 80 civilian deaths focuses on British operations in Helmand province between 2010 and 2013 Britain’s SAS faced allegations that it shot dead nine Afghans while they were sleeping and engaged in a policy of “executing Afghan males of fighting age” between 2010 and 2013, on the first day of a public inquiry into the killing of 80 civilians in Afghanistan. Oliver Glasgow KC, the counsel to the inquiry, focused on seven deadly operations in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, including one in February 2011 where only three AK47 assault rifles were recovered after the nine had been killed. A night raid on 7 February 2011, when nine Afghan males, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed and three AK47 assault rifles recovered. “We anticipate the evidence from the families will be that they were shot in bed, most likely when asleep,” Glasgow said, and he told the inquiry that the photographs of the bodies suggested Afghans may have been shot at close ra

Fiji squeeze into quarter-final against England despite defeat by Portugal

Pool C: Fiji 23-24 Portugal Portugal win for first time at Rugby World Cup A historic first World Cup win for Portugal, a place in the quarter-finals for Fiji and elimination for Eddie Jones’s Australia. But that barely tells the half of it. The final match of the World Cup pool stages proved to be the most entertaining with Rodrigo Marta’s try in the final minute giving Portugal the victory their approach to the tournament fully deserved. Fiji’s losing bonus point ensures they go through in second place in their pool and will face England on Sunday in Marseille. For the second match running, however, they were outclassed for large spells and this time Portugal made them pay. Os Lobos have won hearts and minds throughout this tournament and now have a victory to boot, with Samuel Marques’s late conversion making sure of the one-point win. Fiji can take solace from the fact that they are into the knockout stages for only the third time but they must make considerable improvements

Music, history and courageous journalism: Baillie Gifford prize shortlist announced

Judges praise the final six ‘exquisite and ambitious’ works in contention for the £50,000 award for nonfiction Books tackling climate change, China, the NHS, European revolutions, ballet and music feature on the shortlist for this year’s Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction. The six-long list includes “exquisite, quite ambitious works of writing about art and music and history” as well as “very courageous investigative journalism”, said judging chair and Financial Times literary editor Frederick Studemann. He announced the list on Sunday live from an event at Cheltenham Literature Festival. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/GsNLKI2

‘Just joy’: Greta Gerwig discusses reaction to Barbie at London film festival

Director recalls enjoyment of making highest-grossing film of the year and says she was ‘so moved’ by response Greta Gerwig has spoken of her “thrill” at the “incredible reaction” to Barbie, her existential comedy and the runaway hit film of the year. Talking to Succession and Peep Show co-creator Jesse Armstrong at an audience during the London film festival at the BFI Southbank, Gerwig, 40, recalled standing covertly at the back of cinemas in New York during the film’s opening weekend, asking the projectors to “turn up the volume” and being “so moved” by the warmth of audience response. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/UFszbe3

Ever vigilant Labour makes caution its watchword in Liverpool

Everything is going terribly well as conference opens – not that the party would like you to think that You can’t miss the union jacks. They are everywhere at this year’s Labour party conference. On the walls of the exhibition halls, hung outside the venue and plastered all over the main stage in Liverpool. Everything is red, white and blue. It wouldn’t surprise me if the shadow cabinet weren’t all under instructions to wear union jack pants. No one is going to accuse Labour of not loving the UK in the run-up to the next election. Vote Labour. It’s your patriotic duty. You also can’t miss the crowds. Unlike the Tory conference last week, which often felt like a dead zone, Labour’s is rammed. The exhibition hall is full of both well-known corporates, like Barclays and Mastercard, and windfarm and hydrogen-car manufacturers, while the main hall is twice the size of the Conservatives’ in Manchester. What’s more, it’s at least three-quarters full for most sessions. Even for the members’

Ex-wife of Boris Johnson to help Labour protect women from bullying at work

Marina Wheeler KC to be tasked with strengthening rights to safeguard women who report workplace harassment A leading barrister and ex-wife of Boris Johnson is set to be appointed as Labour’s new “whistleblowing tsar”, offering advice on proposed protections for women against workplace harassment. Marina Wheeler KC will help the party with its plans to strengthen employment rights to safeguard women from abusive colleagues, the Independent reported. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/NBD2F8g

Hugo Keenan’s double helps Ireland march on and knock out Scotland

Ireland 36-14 Scotland Andy Farrell’s side run in six tries in comprehensive win No one connected with Ireland will be getting ahead of themselves. There is the small matter of a quarter-final against a revitalised New Zealand next weekend and plenty more ferociously hard yards still to cover. But this was yet another of those nights when the world’s number one ranked side more than justified their elevated status and looked every inch a side capable of going all the way. Never before, certainly, have they reached the knock-out stages of a Rugby World Cup at such a thoroughbred gallop. The All Blacks will ask more demanding questions than a totally outclassed Scotland but the green energy with which Ireland dominated the breakdown and took their fired-up opponents apart was both impressive and, from a Kiwi perspective, rather ominous. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/sVI7rqE

The moment I knew: on our first date she said she might die in her 30s; we married the next year

Over dinner in the 1980s, Trenna told Greg Mahney about her genetic condition which meant she only had years to live. He decided he wanted to spend whatever time she had left together I’d seen Trenna a couple of times through mutual friends. At first we showed little interest in each other. She was a smoker and I had a beard, traits that were mutually offputting. But in early January 1988, not long after we’d first been introduced, we found ourselves at the same party. She’d given up smoking as a New Year’s resolution and I’d shaved my beard off in exchange for a keg of beer from a mate. We got chatting; it was just small talk. But when Trenna’s friend arrived to give her a lift home, she took it upon herself to write down Trenna’s number on a bus ticket and give it to me. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/yC9sfhu

Samoa coach accuses referees of ‘unconscious bias’ against tier two sides

Seilala Mapusua speaks out after defeat by England ‘I’ve asked the question in the past about referees’ Samoa’s head coach and captain have accused international referees of holding an “unconscious bias” against the Pacific island and other tier two teams in the World Cup. Samoa were penalised 14 times in their 18-17 defeat, five more than England, and were shown the only yellow card. Coach Seilala Mapusua rejected the idea that his players needed more exposure to Test match referees, and argued that the problem was his players were treated being differently. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/SyCZ89o

Care’s late heroics give sloppy England late World Cup win against Samoa

England 18-17 Samoa Steve Borthwick’s side fight back but fail to impress A fourth win from four matches for England but this was undoubtedly a significant step backwards for Steve Borthwick’s side, who needed Danny Care to produce a late sniping try and a last-ditch tackle to see off an inspired Samoa side. The Pacific Islanders’ head coach, Seilala Mapusua, had promised an “unapologetic Samoan” performance and that is precisely what his side produced. For England, this was a sorry showing. Samoa deserved their half-time lead after two fine tries from the veteran wing Nigel Ah Wong and were agonisingly close to sealing victory at the death when Neria Fomai just ran out of gas after yet another flowing move. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/NaU6cxo

Memory review – survivors grapple with an unstable past in a delicate, painful duet

Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard excel in Michel Franco’s absorbing story about the unnerving reunion of a care worker and a friend from her past Mexican film-maker Michel Franco, famed for his icily contrived, pitilessly controlled dramas, often shown in static tableau scenes, has made another of his complex, painful and densely achieved movies; at Venice it won its leading man, Peter Sarsgaard, the Volpi cup for best actor. It is about abuse, violence, recovery and the redemptive power of sexual intimacy, but also about just what its title proclaims: memory, and how this accumulates over a lifetime to form an identity. Yet memory is unreliable building material; memory is the uncertain support underneath us, but solid as a crushing burden above us, a destructive gravitational force that could annihilate us entirely. And apart from anything else, memory is not necessarily the truth, so attempts to deny it are not necessarily dishonest or delusional. This movie has the same pier

Labour’s Scottish byelection win sets off tremors in Holyrood and Westminster

Victory for Labour in Rutherglen and Hamilton West gives party cautious hope for bigger battles ahead Labour went big on the earthquake metaphors after winning the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection with a 20% swing. It no doubt felt seismic and earth-shattering for the party after its troubles in Scotland for more than a decade and the seemingly unbreakable dominance of the Scottish National party. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/EIj2LTh

No need for conspiracies, World Cup 2030 and 2034 are a plot in plain sight | Barney Ronay

Tournaments of climate death and state-sanctioned death are the inevitable result of unrestrained money and power What do a Saudi Arabian World Cup, inexplicable VAR mistakes, David Beckham pretending Qatar was the best gay World Cup ever because, like, his gay mate told him it was, and the cancellation of the HS2 northern section have in common? For the first time I can reveal that all these things are indeed connected. Just because you’ve been cajoled into a state of paranoid alienation by algorithm-driven conspiracy theories, it doesn’t mean they’re not actually out to get you. Just not, perhaps, in the most obvious way. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/7BqTiDd

The Bikeriders review – potent ode to the violent lives of 60s biker gangs

London film festival Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy are magnetic in this power struggle-cum-love triangle inspired by Danny Lyon’s 1968 photographic study of Chicago bikers Jeff Nichols’s motorcycle movie is about a love triangle and a succession crisis – inspired by the immersive 1968 study of Chicago bikers by photojournalist Danny Lyon, whose black-and-white pictures flash up with the closing credits. This film opens up the storytelling throttle with a throaty growl, delivering the doomy romance of an old-fashioned western and the thrills of a mob drama. The Bikeriders is set in a world in which the increasingly careworn gang leader competes for the affection of his toughest follower with this man’s girlfriend, while at the same time grooming him as his heir. Yet this is a group where the biker king – whatever his plans for a dauphin – can be challenged for the crown by any subordinate according to the rules of his own violence-democracy, the incumbent gruffly asking:

Vladimir Putin escalates nuclear rhetoric with threat to resume testing

Russian president uses speech to highlight new missile capabilities and moots abandoning test-ban treaty Vladimir Putin has ramped up his nuclear rhetoric, stating that his country had successfully tested the nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable Burevestnik strategic cruise missile, as he held out the possibility that Russia could resume nuclear testing for the first time in more than three decades. The Russian president said in a speech on Thursday at the annual Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi that Russia had also almost completed work on its nuclear-capable Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile system, which is capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads on each missile. “In the event of an attack on Russia, no one has any chance of survival,” he declared, adding that he was he was “not sure if we need to carry out nuclear tests or not”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/YdPOSzc

Payback review – every actor in this gangland drama oozes quality

This pacy crime drama from Jed Mercurio’s stable doesn’t have a single weak link among its stellar cast – although there is the odd dubious bit of plotting … Payback is the televisual equivalent of a sudoku puzzle or a crossword. It keeps your mind happily occupied without demanding any emotional investment whatsoever. This is mostly because it is about fraud and gangland criminals so – in the best possible way – who cares? A daughter gets threatened from afar but, you know, that’s just how gangland criminals roll. There are no missing or abused children, no gruesome murders, no raped, battered then murdered women. With only an untraceable £28m at stake, it’s practically a romcom. Life is going along quite nicely for the Noble family. Husband Jared (Thoren Ferguson) and wife Lexie (Morven Christie) are hardworking accountants – she’s a partner at his firm – who live in a lovely house and have recently taken on a competent if sullen nanny Doris (Eileen Duffy) to help with the care of

What will happen if the ‘right to shelter’ law is rolled back in New York City?

40-year-old law is in jeopardy after weeks of debate about city’s obligation to protect 100,000 migrants sent from the US border In a late Tuesday night email, the administration of New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams, asked a New York supreme court justice to allow it to ignore the state’s longstanding “right to shelter” law in certain circumstances. Dating back to the Depression, a provision of the New York state constitution stated that “aid, care and support of the needy are public concerns”. A consent decree resolving the 1981 case Callahan v Carey and various lawsuits built on that foundation. Now anyone in New York City can access guaranteed shelter with required minimum standards like 3ft between beds, access to lockers and showers, and basic toiletries. But that 40-year-old law is in jeopardy, amid a push from the city’s executive. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/i4vrFlA

A saint, a sinner and a sprog: Goldsmiths book prize shortlist announced

Six books are up for the award celebrating innovative fiction, including Benjamin Myers’ account of St Cuthbert and a ‘great trans novel’ set in a small northern town A bildungsroman, a story within a story and two novels set across a single day feature in the six-book shortlist for this year’s Goldsmiths prize. The award, which celebrates “fiction that breaks the mould”, carries a prize of £10,000. This year’s shortlist, selected from 107 books, “shows the novel – that most slippery and vital of forms – continuing to morph and reinvent itself in ways that surprise and delight us,” said Dr Tom Lee, judging chair and lecturer in creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/6JpEkIY

What have we learned from the Hollywood strike? | Kathleen Sharp

Top executives are terrible at reading the room and unions are stronger when workers stick together. Now let’s sign that contract This year was supposed to have been a showbiz love fest. Disney, Warner Brothers and the boosters of the world-famous Hollywood sign had planned to celebrate their centennials, with a special thanks to the “ storytellers who have sparked the joy ” of movies. There were so many actors, writers and other workers buzzing around the soundstages in Burbank, Studio City and Culver City that you could practically hear the hum of a $134bn TV-and-film hive. Kathleen Sharp is the author of Mr & Mrs Hollywood: Edie and Lew Wasserman and Their Entertainment Empire which has been optioned Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/7PDAS6a

‘What would it be like to be evil?’ Controversial Philip Guston show ridicules the virus-like KKK

Delayed after the murder of George Floyd, this show has now arrived in Britain accompanied by warnings. Our critic revels in the American’s cartoonish renderings of everyday objects – and the hate groups lurking in our midst In 1970, Philip Guston, who was the most quietly painterly of the generation of abstract American artists known as the abstract expressionists , revealed a new body of work at Marlborough Gallery in New York. Instead of the aggregations of clumpy brushwork, the atmospheric jumbles and close-toned indeterminacies of the works that had made his name over the previous two decades, here, suddenly, were cartoonish depictions of pointy-hatted Ku Klux Klansmen, going about their business of idiot evil. They ruminate in their rooms, drive around looking for trouble, paint and smoke in a world as clunky and cartoonish as they are. All Guston’s skills were pressed into a new and parodic purpose. This cartoonish, figurative late style shocked the art world and alienated the

Former social worker alleges she was dismissed over menopause symptoms

Maria Rooney’s action against Leicester city council is first tribunal case to consider the symptoms as a disability A former children’s social worker has told an employment tribunal that she felt “colluded against” by the council she worked for due to suffering symptoms of menopause. Maria Rooney initiated legal action against Leicester city council in the first tribunal case to consider the symptoms as a disability. She has alleged she was constructively dismissed after discrimination over suffering menopause symptoms. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Qn97mqD

Abuse of Oxford’s trans students and staff saddens me, says vice-chancellor

Prof Irene Tracey tells assembly free speech has been ‘centre stage’ at university during her first year in post Oxford’s vice-chancellor has said she was “deeply saddened” by the abuse and attacks aimed at the university’s transgender staff and students during her first year in the post, including the controversy which surrounded an appearance by Kathleen Stock, a gender-critical feminist. Prof Irene Tracey, delivering her first oration since her appointment as vice-chancellor, told the assembly at the university’s Sheldonian theatre: “I was deeply saddened to learn of the abusive and threatening language and behaviours that our trans community suffered this year. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/HrGNjgs

Police investigating allegations Dan Wootton solicited explicit images

Suspended GB News presenter has been accused of using pseudonym to solicit images from former Sun colleagues The GB News presenter Dan Wootton is under investigation by police as a result of allegations that were made against him earlier this year. Wootton has previously been accused of using a pseudonym to solicit explicit images from former colleagues at the Sun over many years. The presenter has not directly denied the allegations but says he is the victim of a smear campaign by unknown forces who want to shut down his political views. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/n94OzTS

Lightning strike causes huge explosion at Oxford recycling plant

Witnesses report large ‘fireball’ in sky at Severn Trent Green Power facility but no one is thought to have been injured in the blast A lightning strike at a recycling plant in Oxford caused a huge gas explosion and local power outages. Eyewitnesses reported hearing a loud bang and seeing a “fireball” lighting up the sky. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/wyIq0pg

Union With David Olusoga review – finally! A history show that’s not deathly dull

Most history documentaries are so drearily simplistic they make you cross-eyed with boredom. Thank goodness then for this fascinating, first-rate effort about how our septic isle came to be I am woefully lacking in all sorts of knowledge, but none more than the historical kind. My cohort’s history GCSE comprised “the evolution of medicine” and “Britain 1815-51”. Not more. Not less. As an education in how the political, social or cultural shaped the world into its current form, it was wildly lacking. Although if you ever need to trepan a Chartist, give me a call. So I am always on the lookout for kind people and programmers ready, willing and able to try to disperse some of my profound ignorance. Such a person and such a programme is Union With David Olusoga (although my English GCSE tells me there should ideally be a comma in the title to prevent unwanted misunderstandings). This ambitious and stylishly confident four-part series looks at the origins and development of our septic isl

Is HS2 destined for the rubbish heap or could its northern leg be saved?

Furious city mayors make a plea for the project north of Birmingham amid ugly scenes at Tory conference So what does cancelling HS2 north of Birmingham look like? There were ugly scenes at the Conservative conference hall even before the official death knell sounds: an uneasy HS2 minister batting off questions as above his pay grade, furious metro mayors declaring battle, railway leaders’ heads spinning at the logic. In the real world, it’s even worse. From the massive crater and demolished homes, business and public spaces outside London Euston station to the hundreds of millions spent on compulsory purchases of houses on the original routes north from Birmingham, the consequences of a train line that may never exist are all too tangible. About 30,000 people are working on the scheme – and many of those believed they would have jobs for the long term. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/OqG4EZK

VAR’s failings threaten to plunge Premier League into mire of dark conspiracies

What happened at Spurs on Saturday only further erodes trust in referees in this country, which could badly damage the game Pitchforks were brandished, torches were lit and tinfoil was licked late into a Saturday night, when the air hung heavy with conspiracy. The Premier League was having its latest – perhaps greatest – crisis of confidence in officialdom. It turns out that “video evidence”, as it was quaintly called before the launch of VAR as a fated initialism, is no cure-all solution for refereeing elite football matches. “We need the VAR, now. I think we need the VAR,” was Rafael Benítez’s reaction to Mike Dean sending off DeAndre Yedlin after his Newcastle team lost against Wolves in December 2018. Five years on, Dean is a television personality and Stockley Park, VAR headquarters, has gained the notoriety that might be attached to a house of ill repute. It is difficult to imagine any manager – including Benítez himself – being so evangelical about a system that, in England a

Liverpool stun Arsenal as Miri Taylor gives visitors opening-day WSL win

It is not a crisis yet – there are plenty of World Cup hangover caveats to Arsenal’s sluggish defeat – but it is edging towards becoming one. A crowd of 54,115 – breaking their own WSL record set last season to ensure they have the top three Women’s Super League attendances – is all well and good but Arsenal need to perform to maintain that momentum. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/i4HCFyn