Mubeen Blogs

Nomi Kaltmann supported her boyfriend Daniel’s campaign for federal parliament when he was 21. Watching the results roll in, she felt immense pride Find more stories from The moment I knew series Daniel and I went to the same high school in Melbourne. He was a year older than me, and we must have passed each other thousands of times, but I have no memory of ever talking to him. We knew of each other but we didn’t know each other’s names. We met properly for the first time at a pre-drinks when I was in my first year of university. He was holding a six-pack of beer and looked vaguely familiar. I introduced myself, he offered me one of his drinks and we got talking. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/NzVjlR5

Twist ending to this year’s series sees star leaving role and return of Billie Piper Ncuti Gatwa is leaving Doctor Who, with the character regenerating as Billie Piper during the finale of the science-fiction series. The Doctor Who showrunner, Russell T Davies, said: “What a Doctor! Thank you, Ncuti! As his final words say, this has been an absolute joy, and the team in Cardiff and everyone who has worked on this show for the past few years, are so lucky to have been part of Ncuti’s great adventure as he shoots off to stratospheric new heights.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Q9TsGOB

Luis Enrique’s remoulded side aim to ‘finish the job’ against Italian experience in Saturday’s Champions League final A Bavarian beauty contest brings a quandary as old as time. Will fortune favour the youthful swagger and daring of Paris Saint-Germain or the refined cunning of an experienced Inter, whose legs simply refuse to tighten up? The Champions League final is guaranteed to throw up a relatively fresh winner through a clash of styles and approaches that tantalises more than any that this occasion has staged in the past decade. It is hard not to be compelled by Luis Enrique’s remoulded PSG side, even if reservations about their Qatari ownership and utter dominance of Ligue 1 will colour perceptions. Their calibration away from the narcissism of modern-day galacticos, in favour of a fearless younger cast who understand the value of hard work, has in fact had the effect of creating new stars. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/GL4PC5W

Ruling reverses hold on Trump administration’s ending humanitarian parole of Venezuelan migrants and others US politics live – latest updates The US supreme court on Friday announced it would allow the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the United States, bolstering the Republican president’s drive to step up deportations. The court put on hold Boston -based US district judge Indira Talwani’s order halting the administration’s move to end the immigration humanitarian “parole” protections granted to 532,000 people by Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, potentially exposing many of them to rapid removal from the country, while the detailed case plays out in lower courts. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/7kc3ASi

Organizer points to president’s anti-diversity push as companies join Adidas and Clorox in withdrawing support In another blow to one of the largest celebrations of LGTBQ+ people in North America, Pride Toronto has unexpectedly lost two more major corporate sponsors, just weeks before the festival in a setback the festival’s organizer says is direct result of Donald Trump ’s campaign to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the US. Google and Home Depot both announced their plans to abandon the festival in the form of one-line emails, said Kojo Modeste, the executive director of the Canadian event. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/jOQf0lD

The target was delivered by Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem, and triples figures from earlier this year The Trump administration has set aggressive new goals in its anti-immigration agenda, demanding that federal agents arrest 3,000 people a day – or more than a million in a year. The new target, tripling arrest figures from earlier this year, was delivered to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) leaders by Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, and Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, in a strained meeting last week. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/GiYX1RO

Hamit Coskun, 50, held burning text outside Turkish consulate London, Westminster magistrates court heard Prosecuting a man for burning the Qur’an is “tantamount to reintroducing a blasphemy law” in Great Britain, a trial has heard. Hamit Coskun, 50, shouted “fuck Islam”, “Islam is religion of terrorism” and “Qur’an is burning” as he held aloft the burning Islamic text outside the Turkish consulate in Rutland Gardens, Knightsbridge, London, on 13 February, Westminster magistrates court heard. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/BUyCnjd

Trump officials offer to move 300 birds to Mehmet Oz’s Florida ranch after Canada’s kill order over avian flu fears What is bird flu, and should you be worried about it? Senior officials in the Trump administration have intervened in attempt to save more than 300 ostriches on a farm in British Columbia which the Canadian government had ordered to be killed over fears the flock is infected with avian flu . Robert F Kennedy Jr , the US health secretary, and Mehmet Oz, a physician and former TV host appointed by Trump as the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid , have offered to move the birds to Oz’s ranch in Florida – despite the kill order imposed by Canadian health authorities. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/FUmclZE

Yaqeen Hammad offered tips for surviving in war zone and is one of dozens of minors who have died in recent attacks Her life was one of war but Yaqeen Hammad somehow found a reason to smile. The 11-year-old was Gaza’s youngest influencer, whose bright smile reached tens of thousands, including other children, while she offered practical survival tips for daily life under bombardment, such as advice on how to cook with improvised methods when there was no gas. In one social media post, Yaqeen wrote: “I try to bring a bit of joy to the other children so that they can forget the war.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/wemsLtP

Goalkeeper’s international retirement has people questioning the timing but not what she has given to Lionesses The news of Mary Earps’s retirement from international football has been met with a cacophony of views, ranging from shock and disappointment to sadness and anger. That the decision to step away has prompted such emotional responses, coming less than six weeks before the first game of England’s European Championship defence, is a testament to her popularity and the standing she has in the game. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/15qH9yf

This turbo-charged last episode brought Ellie and Abby face to face at last, with some heartbreaking collateral damage along the way. Until it took a strange turn … This article contains spoilers for the The Last of Us season two. Please do not read unless you have seen episodes one to six . Typical. For the back half of this season, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) has been hunting high and low for Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) in Seattle, desperate to avenge the brutal killing of Joel (Pedro Pascal). But ultimately it was Abby who ambushed Ellie, at exactly the worst possible time. As season-ending cliffhangers go, it certainly served to turbo-charge the suspense. Just who will be left alive after that final panicked gunshot in the theatre lobby? Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/aRzv1i2

Brighton midfielder returned to pitch in win over Spurs The 39-year-old is in talks over a possible new contract James Milner has opened up over the freak knee surgery complication that left him unable to move his foot for months and fearing he would not walk normally, let alone return to football. The 39-year-old Brighton midfielder made an emotional comeback as a late substitute at Tottenham on Sunday after nine months out – it took him to 638 Premier League ­appearances; Gareth Barry holds the competition record with 653. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/mV6AYSD

French president denies quarrelling with Brigitte Macron after footage is seized on by Russia and far-right accounts Emmanuel Macron has denied he and his wife, Brigitte, had an altercation after a viral video promoted by Russian state media and French far-right accounts appeared to show her pushing him in the face as they prepared to get off a plane in Vietnam. The video, shot by an Associated Press camera operator, shows the French president appearing in the doorway of the plane at the start of a visit to Hanoi. His wife’s hand appears to shove him, causing him to step back before recovering and waving. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/QvT3mPb

Royal College of Psychiatrists and British Medical Association among those saying risks mean police must always attend Plans for NHS staff to restrain and detain people experiencing a mental health crisis, instead of the police doing so, are “dangerous”, doctors, nurses and psychiatrists have warned. The former prime minister Theresa May has proposed legislation in England and Wales that would change the long-established practice for dealing with people who may pose a risk to themselves or others because their mental health has deteriorated sharply. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/1VYXDqj

It’s like Midsomer Murders with jokes, or Rosemary and Thyme – but good. This fun new murder mystery bounces along with verve. It’s a cut above By some curious dint of mathematics, one of life’s greatest pleasures is coming across something that is just a little bit better than it needs to be. It’s such rarity, such a treat – and to pessimists, such a shock to the system – that it becomes disproportionately, though still genuinely, delightful. Such a phenomenon is Death Valley, a new Sunday night comedy drama in which an amateur sleuth helps the police solve crimes in a bucolic village – usually English, this time Welsh – with an astronomically high murder rate and a suspect under every gooseberry bush and felt hat. So far, so Gently cum Midsomer cum Marple cum Agatha Raisin cum pull-up-a-chair-and-a-teacake-and-enjoy. Death Valley was on BBC One Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/vcruOfN

Dr Alaa al-Najjar was at work when Israeli strike destroyed her home, leaving one son and her husband as survivors In the early hours of Friday, as she did every day, Dr Alaa al-Najjar said goodbye to her 10 children before leaving the house. The youngest, Sayden, six months old, was still sleeping. And like every day, with war raging in Gaza and Israeli strikes landing just metres from her neighbourhood in Khan Younis, Najjar worried about leaving them at home without her. But Najjar, 35, had little choice. One of Gaza’s dwindling number of medics, a respected paediatrician at the Nasser medical complex, she had to go to work to care for injured babies who had barely survived Israeli attacks. She could never have imagined that that farewell to her family would be her last. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/7iuWzxS

Mike Berners-Lee tells Hay festival audience to make spread of political deceit more socially embarrassing People should confront their family members who read news from “nefarious” sources, suggests the environmentalist Mike Berners-Lee. “Challenge your friends and family and colleagues who are getting their information from sources that have got nefarious roots or a track record of being careless – or worse – with the truth, because we need to make this sort of thing socially embarrassing to be involved in,” said Berners-Lee, the brother of the World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/yjvg2OP

Weapons-grade zingers come thick and fast in this chamber piece about four plutocrats on a weekend in a lodge that goes awry when the planet descends into chaos Jesse Armstrong has returned with what feels like a horribly addictive feature-length spin-off episode from the extended Succession Cinematic Universe – though without Succession cast members. It is set in a luxurious Utah megalodge which winds up resembling the Dr Strangelove war room, mixed with the apartment from Hitchcock’s Rope. Mountainhead is a super-satirical chamber piece about the deranged, cynical and facetious mindset of the uber-wealthy, the kind of people who think about ancient Rome every day, though not about Nero and his violin. It may not have the dramatic richness of Armstrong’s TV meisterwerk while the pure testosterone of this all-male main cast (minus any Shiv figure ) is oppressive – though that is kind of the point. The pure density of weapons-grade zingers in the script is a marvel. Our heroes are fo...

Legislation would dismantle regulations in farming, mining and energy, increasing risk of widespread destruction Environmental activists in Brazil have decried a dramatic rollback of environmental safeguards after the senate approved a bill that would dismantle licensing processes and increase the risk of widespread destruction. The upper house passed the so-called “devastation bill” with 54 votes to 13 late on Wednesday, paving the way for projects ranging from mining and infrastructure to energy and farming to receive regulatory approval with little to no environmental oversight. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/8mtGoYv

Cannes film festival Focusing on the rogue’s gallery of hypocrites and crooks surrounding him, Assange himself is in the background of a pretty definitive examination Julian Assange sits at the centre of this gripping account of the WikiLeaks founder’s rise, fall and protracted seven-year limbo inside the Ecuadorian embassy. Eugene Jarecki’s documentary takes its title from the price the incoming Ecuadorian government supposedly charged the Trump administration for helping furnish his extradition to the US, thereby reneging on a promise of political asylum. If The Six Billion Dollar Man doesn’t rebuild Assange, exactly, that’s because it’s more interested in comprehensively demolishing his enemies. Compared to the hypocrites, scoundrels and crooks who surround him, the man himself looks almost virtuous. Actually Assange is mostly a background presence here. He’s more talked about than talking up; a karmic victim of his own success. While even his supporters admit to his personal fai...

Homeland security agent Gerard Gannon testifies about federal raid on Miami Beach property in March last year The federal trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs entered its eighth day of testimony in New York on Wednesday, with a homeland security agent resuming testimony about the federal raid of Combs’s Miami property last year. Combs, 55, is facing charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He was arrested in September and has pleaded not guilty. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/tFuqXjD

Englishman has just left Ligue 1 side Lens Saints host Arsenal in final game of the season Southampton are accelerating plans to appoint Will Still as their head coach. If Saints make sufficient progress in the coming days, they hope the 32-year-old will be in the stands when they host Arsenal on Sunday. Still, born in Belgium to English parents, left the Ligue 1 side Lens last week citing personal reasons and a desire to be closer to family in England.
 He took his steps into coaching at Preston’s academy, during an internship from a college course, but has spent all of his professional career in Belgium and France, also working at Sint-Truiden, Beerschot, Lierse and Reims. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/0SW8luh

‘Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t – we tried’ Djokovic will work with fellow Serb Dusan Vemic Novak Djokovic says he and Andy Murray felt they “couldn’t get more” out of their short-lived partnership. The 24-time grand slam champion parted ways with former on-court rival Murray last week following six months working together. Djokovic has entered the Geneva Open as a wildcard as he builds towards the French Open, which begins on Sunday. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/GepSPw8

Ruth López held without access to lawyers at secret location accused of ‘embezzlement’ a decade ago The head lawyer of a human rights group representing the families of Venezuelan migrants imprisoned in El Salvador after being deported from the United States has been arrested. Ruth López, an outspoken critic of President Nayib Bukele, was detained late on Sunday under an order from the prosecutor’s office which accused her of “embezzlement” when she worked for an electoral court a decade ago, the human rights group Cristosal said in a statement. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/gsyMnz0

Horden Methodist Church, County Durham Ensemble ’84 generate an exhilarating racket in this gutsy rendition of Brecht’s play about the thirty years’ war The noise is constant. It is in the eight marimbas lined up across the stage, which add a South African bounce to Bertolt Brecht’s 1939 epic of the thirty years’ war. It is in the operatic songs, all lush harmonies and pulsing percussion. And it is in the vocal effects of the large cast, adding birdsong or insect rhythms to the battlefields. Sometimes it is in the crackle of a plastic bottle to suggest fire, the shuddering boom of a drum to indicate an execution, or the grind of hands across metal for machine-gun fire. All of it is generated by the actors, much like the set, by the ensemble with Janet Brown and Eve Booth: a resourceful collection of corrugated iron, wooden pallets, old tyres and buckets. It gives Mark Dornford-May’s production an in-built theatricality: each performance created anew. Continue reading... from The ...

Sound the tram bells, unleash the smoke plumes from the Tasty Jerk shack – Crystal Palace have finally won a major trophy As the final whistle was blown at Wembley there was a moment that seemed to stretch out and become frozen in time. The Crystal Palace players collapsed where they were standing, crumpled across the grass like a battle scene fresco. The colours made it beautiful, red and blue against the deep green, new optics, new names, the unstyled celebrations of players unused to these moments, Jean-Philippe Mateta face down, Will Hughes flat on his back, arms spread like a snow angel. There was a rush of noise as the clock began to tick again. And that was that. Sound the tram bells, unleash the smoke plumes from the Tasty Jerk shack – 119 years into Crystal Palace’s existence this mercurial club with the clanky corrugated stadium has finally won a major trophy. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/lE9Vsja

Former coaches and teammates reflect on the Leicester striker’s singular journey to the pinnacle of the game Where to start with the wiry teenager turned Premier League icon who once worked 12-hour shifts in a carbon-fibre factory? Perhaps at the beginning of an extraordinary career, his release by Sheffield Wednesday and those days earning £30 a game at Stocksbridge Park Steels hounding defenders in the Northern Premier League. For six months an electronic ankle tag – after he was convicted of assault – meant midweek matches were off-menu and games often saw him being subbed after an hour so he could jump over fences and into his parents’ car to beat his 6pm curfew. By then, his work was usually done. Word of mouth spread. He signed for Halifax for £15,000 in 2010, then Fleetwood a year later for 10 times that. Ten months on he joined Leicester in the Championship in a £1m deal, a non-league record. The story goes that he first appeared on Nigel Pearson’s radar while scoring 66 goal...

As a song contest on a space station descends into terror, Ncuti Gatwa gives his most disturbing performance yet – and the Doctor in rage mode is terrifying For an episode that started out like a joyfully camp romp into the world of Eurovision, Juno Dawson turned in a script that truly had ice in its heart, in just the way the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) told Kid (Freddie Fox) that the Time Lord now had ice in his hearts. Doctor Who stories often feature alien invasions, conquest, destruction and the desire for revenge, but they have seldom so bleakly painted the determination to carry out a mass casualty terrorism event. That in turn provoked one of the most extreme reactions we have ever seen from the lead character. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/ND2ZCiM

Local, state and federal officials launch ‘full-scale’ search and warn escapers are ‘armed and dangerous’ Eleven people in custody at the New Orleans ’s jail, including a man convicted of four killings, escaped early on Friday morning. The escapes prompted local, state and federal officials to launch a “full-scale search operation” and warn community members to be on the lookout for “armed and dangerous” individuals. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/opvUA1k

Cannes film festival Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone and Austin Butler have little to work with in this disappointing dud from the Hereditary and Midsommar director Ari Aster now worryingly creates a losing streak with this bafflingly dull movie, a laborious and weirdly self-important satire which makes a heavy, flavourless meal of some uninteresting and unoriginal thoughts – on the Covid lockdown, online conspiracy theories, social polarisation, Black Lives Matter, liberal-white privilege and guns. The movie looks good, courtesy of Darius Khondji’s cinematography, but has nothing new or dramatically vital to say, and moreover manages the extraordinary achievement of making Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix look like boring actors. This is by virtue of its moderate script and by the unvarying stolid pace over its hefty running time which might have suited a 12-episode streamer. Eddington is a fictional small town in New Mexico in the US, bordering Native Amer...

Trump administration policies on immigration, families, and children have been pockmarked by all kinds of contradictions Some of the children were too young to stand on their own. Instead, they sat on their parents’ knees or in their parents’ arms, waving American flags. Many of them seemed confused about what, exactly, was even happening. But these kids were in the midst of making history: their families were among the first to take advantage of Donald Trump’s February executive order granting white South Africans refugee status in the United States, on the grounds that Afrikaner landowners – who make up just 7% of South Africa’s population yet, decades after the end of apartheid, control about half of its land – are facing persecution. While the doors to the US refugee program have been slammed shut to virtually everyone else, these Afrikaners showed up in the US earlier this week, their refugee status promising a path to US citizenship. Continue reading... from The Guardian ht...

Driver allegedly stole luggage and cash from foreign secretary and Nicola Green after ride from Italy to French ski resort A taxi driver has been charged by French police with stealing luggage and cash from the UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, and his wife, Nicola Green. The driver took the couple more than 600km (370 miles) from the town of Forli in Italy to the French ski resort of Flaine, Haute-Savoie, last month. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said Lammy and his spouse were victims in the case and that the driver has been charged with theft after driving off with their luggage. It also denied that the Labour MP for Tottenham had refused to pay the driver. Whitehall sources said no sensitive material was in the pair’s holiday luggage. Prosecutors opened an investigation into a “commercial dispute” in Bonneville after the driver filed a complaint. The Bonneville prosecutor, Boris Duffau, told the BBC the taxi driver was being charged with the...

Daré accepted the £10,000 prize for her latest novel, And So I Roar, the follow-up to her bestselling debut The Girl with the Louding Voice Nigerian writer Abi Daré has won the inaugural Climate fiction prize for her novel And So I Roar, the follow-up to her bestselling debut The Girl with the Louding Voice. Daré was announced as the winner of the £10,000 prize at a ceremony in London on Wednesday evening. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/V7qZ4Xs

The writer and director, whose credits also include Bonnie and Clyde, Superman and Places in the Heart, died at his New York City home Oscar-winning writer and director Robert Benton has died at the age of 92. He won his two Academy awards for divorce drama Kramer vs Kramer . His longtime assistant and manager confirmed his death to the New York Times . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/IgilfXh

The US president’s proposed film industry tariffs have led to confusion and unrest within Hollywood Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Gone with the Wind, Goodfellas, Sunset Boulevard and the Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle Bloodsport – Donald Trump’s favourite movies are thoroughly American and 20th century. Foreign films? Not his thing. At campaign rally in 2020 he reacted to the South Korean movie Parasite winning the best picture Oscar by demanding : “What the hell was that all about? We got enough problems with South Korea with trade. On top of that they give them best movie of the year? Was it good? I don’t know. Let’s get Gone With the Wind. Can we get Gone With the Wind back please?” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/qInwBVd

Shots overcome Spennymoor 3-0 in FA Trophy, while Whitstable defeat Whyteleafe in FA Vase final It took Aldershot 99 years and two football clubs to reach Wembley and for almost exactly as many minutes on a sun-kissed May afternoon they made themselves entirely at home there, outnumbering their opponents in the stands and outplaying them on the pitch on their way to claiming their first FA Trophy. Second-half goals from Jack Barham, Dan Ellison and Josh Barrett earned the National League side a 3-0 win over Spennymoor Town of the National League North, and secured for their manager, Tommy Widdrington, a dream end to a season temporarily derailed when he had two strokes in November. Widdrington was back in the dugout in less than two months having acquired, as he put it in the buildup to this game, “a certain sense of perspective”. This was an excellent, mature performance, whatever way you look at it. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/kBfcrNO

Ncuti Gatwa takes his Doctor to get a haircut in Lagos and encounters gods, myths … and a giant spider Set in Lagos, The Story and the Engine attempted to weave elements of western African folklore with wider myths and legends, alongside the mythology of Doctor Who itself. Like a lot of recent episodes, it was eager to play with the idea that the viewer is aware they are watching a story. At the Q&A after the London premiere of The Robot Revolution , Ncuti Gatwa said that this was the episode he was most looking forward to people watching this year, and he seemed to have had an absolute hoot on set. He clearly relished showing his Doctor feeling alive and accepted within a Black African community on Earth, but as events unfolded, he also got to flex flashes of anger alongside all the joy. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/QD8seyh

Actors contribute to the poet and singer’s anthology exploring ceremony, loss and worship Actors Channing Tatum and Pedro Pascal have written poems for a new anthology curated by Canadian musician and poet Mustafa that also includes contributions by the writers George Saunders, Max Porter and Hanif Abdurraqib. The book, titled Nour, explores themes of ceremony, loss and worship. “You told me God wasn’t real/ as we sat in the water in the dark that night/ I couldn’t see your eyes but I could feel the anger/ in the water”, opens Tatum’s poem, extracted below along with Pascal’s. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/eRVukrv

Fans protested against the leveraged takeover but were offered little support and the toxicity has had a lasting impact The first time the Glazer family visited Old Trafford, in June 2005, they paid a visit to the megastore. Outside, hundreds of furious Manchester United fans turned up with banners and placards, shouted slogans such as “Die Glazer die”, and a few clashed with police. Inside, the Glazers were doing a spot of – and here we must stretch the word to its broadest possible definition – shopping. For Joel, Avram and Bryan had no intention of doing anything quite as undignified as parting with their own cash. Instead they swarmed the aisles, scooped up armfuls of replica shirts and merchandise, which shop staff dutifully ran through the tills and bagged up. When the time came to leave, the Glazers simply took the bags and left. This was, after all, all their own property, theirs to take and use as they pleased. And as a metaphor for how they intended to run Manchester United...

Andy Farrell installs Itoje as captain for Australia tour Henry Pollock backed to star, Leinster provide 12 players Andy Farrell has left the door open for his son Owen to join the ­British & Irish Lions tour of ­Australia and called on Henry Pollock to showcase his “cocky” streak after Northampton’s rising star was the standout ­selection in his squad. Farrell Jr was among the headline omissions from the 38-man group that will be captained by Maro Itoje , with Finn Russell, Fin Smith and ­Marcus Smith preferred as the fly-half options. ­Pollock’s selection caps a stunning rise for the 20-year-old who made his Test debut against Wales in March as part of a remarkable breakthrough season with Northampton. Marcus Smith benefits from his ability to play full-back despite falling down the England pecking order. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/FDfh3a5

An adaptation of the 2020 YA horror sees an evil clown pick off local youths and while there are a handful of interesting ideas, this is pretty standard late night fodder One would be forgiven for assuming there was a lot more to early summer slasher Clown in a Cornfield other than, well, a clown in a cornfield. Because ever since an inevitable premiere at SXSW in March, an impressively maintained buzz has followed – special drive-in screenings, an ambitiously wide release, the bullish positioning of a New Horror Icon – giving us enough naive hope that in an overcrowded genre (there’s estimated to be double the amount of wide release horrors this year compared to 2024), this one might be worthy of the hype. But the film, which was picked up by ever-growing horror streamer Shudder at the end of last year, would have been a wiser choice for a small screen premiere, a late-night weekend couch watch that feels a little too modest for the multiplex. The expansive rollout will likely have...

Locals welcome plan but fear being pushed out of homes by theme park When it was announced that Universal Pictures, one of the largest movie studios in the world, was opening its first theme park in Bedfordshire, fans were ecstatic. Social media was filled with questions: Which film franchises will appear? How many rides would there be? Will there be a section dedicated to the Minions? Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/DVFrjcq

Cynthia Diekema and husband were paddling in mouth of river when startled animal thrashed and capsized canoe An alligator killed a Florida woman after tipping over a canoe she and her husband were paddling, in what investigators say appeared to be an accidental encounter. The attack happened on Tuesday afternoon near the mouth of Tiger Creek into Lake Kissimmee, south of Orlando, the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) said. It’s near the same location as a March alligator attack in which a woman was bitten on the elbow while kayaking. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/5fmEW3n

Former Scottish first minister expresses concern about interim advice from EHRC UK politics live – latest updates The lives of transgender people in the UK are at risk of being made “unliveable”, Nicola Sturgeon has said in her first public comments about the supreme court ruling on the legal definition of a woman, which was prompted by legislation she oversaw in the Scottish parliament. The UK supreme court ruled that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act referred only to a biological woman and to biological sex. This was the conclusion of a long-running court action by the gender critical campaign group For Women Scotland, who objected to a law passed at Holyrood aimed at improving women’s representation on public boards being extended to transgender women. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/wGJnlcU

Several paid roles at party are not in office despite Nigel Farage’s comments promising ‘no more work from home’ Reform UK has been accused of hypocrisy after it emerged the party is advertising several jobs offering home working despite promising a clampdown on the policy. The party’s leader, Nigel Farage, told reporters he hoped to emulate Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge), which has attempted to slash federal spending in the US, after a record performance in the local elections last week. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/ZHNDlPM

Officials believe Lily, six, and Jack Sullivan, four, are lost in woods of Nova Scotia after disappearing on Friday A frantic search for two children presumed lost in the unforgiving and thickly forested lands of Nova Scotia has entered its fourth day as police in Atlantic Canada expand their search. Nearly 150 searchers have braved rain and fog to track down Lily Sullivan, six, and Jack Sullivan, four, who were last seen on Friday around their home in Pictou county, 100 miles north-east of Halifax. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/rDFVT72

Britain’s Draper loses 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 to 14th seed Ruud Ruud clinches his first Masters 1000 title Jack Draper’s excellent breakthrough run on the clay courts of Madrid was halted at the final hurdle in a bruising, physical tussle against the 14th seed Casper Ruud, who brilliantly held his nerve to win his first Masters 1000 title with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 win. A two-time French Open finalist, Ruud was competing in the seventh significant final of his career. He had lost all six of those previous matches, including both those Paris finals in 2022 and 2023, the 2022 US Open final and the ATP finals. Finally, he has clinched the first significant title of his career. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/48GZr0B

Death of Layton Carr, 14, has left community ‘heartbroken’ as police arrest more than a dozen children A 14-year-old boy whose body was found after a large fire in Gateshead was “valued and much loved”, his headteacher has said. Fourteen children have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter over the death of Layton Carr, from South Tyneside. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/xS3DR60

Billionaire shocked audience of investors with disclosure and said his vice-chair, Greg Abel, should take over Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, has announced his intention to retire at the end of this year. He is 94 years old. Buffett, the fifth richest person in the world, shocked an arena full of shareholders on Saturday when he announced that he would step down as the CEO and chair of the trillion-dollar conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway at the end of 2025. He will recommend to the board that his vice-chair, Greg Abel, who currently oversees most of the company’s investments, be named as his successor, Buffett said. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/c7fVNw8

Territory’s voluntary move comes as Trump administration makes good on pledge to end lawsuits against oil and gas Puerto Rico has voluntarily dismissed its 2024 climate lawsuit against big oil, a Friday legal filing shows, just two days after the US justice department sued two states over planned litigation against oil companies for their role in the climate crisis. Puerto Rico’s lawsuit , filed in July, alleged that the oil and gas giants had misled the public about the climate dangers associated with their products. It came as part of a wave of litigation filed by dozens of US states, cities and municipalities in recent years. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/7OgivIn

Benjamin Netanyahu says strikes intended to deter Syria’s new leadership from any hostile move against the Druze Syria’s new rulers have angrily denounced raids launched by Israel’s air force against unidentified targets near the presidential palace in Damascus, warning of a “dangerous escalation”. Israeli officials said the attacks were intended to send a message to the Syrian government after days of bloody clashes near Damascus between pro-government militia forces and fighters from the Druze minority sect. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/txabUjO

This week Nottingham Forest readied themselves for the Champions League, Evangelos Marinakis relinquishing his controlling interest in the club to comply with Uefa’s ownership rules. Marinakis’s other club, Greek champions Olympiakos, have already qualified for the grandest stage in the club game but Forest’s bid to return to European competition will probably go to the wire. Will Forest, who remain sixth, look back on defeat at home to Brentford as a costly misstep when their season ends here against Chelsea, one of those teams vying for a top-five berth? Forest, who face Crystal Palace, Leicester and West Ham before that potential final-day showdown, never really got going on a disappointing evening. Goals from Kevin Schade and Yoane Wissa, a January target for Forest, condemned the hosts to successive league home defeats for the first time since the end of last season. Nuno Espírito Santo’s side have now lost four of their past five matches in all competitions, including Sunday’s ...

Guz Khan’s last dive into Birmingham’s criminal underbelly is both hard-hitting drama and as delightfully puerile as ever. You won’t stop laughing … even if you can’t fully follow along Do not come to the new series of Man Like Mobeen cold. What started out in 2017 as a relatively straightforward sitcom about three twentysomething friends who kept inadvertently grazing the criminal underbelly of their corner of inner-city Birmingham is now a violent, convoluted gangster thriller – one whose fifth and final season involves a promised assassination, the Turkish mafia, an Irish mobster, a prison doctor who is really the evil daughter of a drug kingpin, a kidnapped sister, millions in unlaundered cash and a tea shop. The action will be practically incomprehensible to the uninitiated – and pretty hard to follow even for the faithful. Is it worth starting from the beginning? That depends. On the one hand, Man Like Mobeen does feel like an objectively valuable comic enterprise. Creator and ...

Government lawyer says treatment of hostages by Hamas is no excuse to break Geneva conventions British government lawyers have said Israel is bound by the Geneva conventions to give the International Committee of the Red Cross access to Palestinian prisoners and cannot justify its refusal to do so by pointing to Hamas’s treatment of Israeli hostages. On the fourth day of proceedings at the international court of justice in The Hague, Sally Langrish said there had been “repeated credible reports of ill treatment of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli custody” since the 7 October 2023 attacks by Hamas on Israel. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/zgDE0hq