The Guardian |
- ‘You changed America’: Biden marks first 100 days in Georgia – a state key to his victory
- ‘He did not deserve to die’: anger and protest over Andrew Brown’s killing by police
- Dozens killed in crush at Lag Baomer religious festival in Israel
- Tucker Carlson’s conspiracy-obsessed Giuliani interview: not for the faint hearted | David Smith's sketch
- Five arrested in Lady Gaga dognapping case – including the woman who returned them
- White House investigating ‘unexplained health incidents’ similar to Havana syndrome
- Florida lawmakers pass ‘cruel’ bill banning trans women and girls in school sports
- ‘Cruel’ trafficker accused of torturing refugees found guilty in Ethiopia
- US supreme court gives hope to long-term immigrants in deportation ruling
- ‘Sexual predator’: actor Noel Clarke accused of groping, harassment and bullying by 20 women
- Ghislaine Maxwell: lawyers release photo showing bruised face
- Coronavirus live news: emergency supplies from US arrive in India; UK cuts international aid by almost a third
- Covid: US states moving to lift mask requirements as vaccination rates slow
- US split on vaccine passports as country aims for return to normalcy
- Should police address homelessness? One city is betting on a new model
- NFL draft: Patriots tee up Jones as Brady’s successor as Fields heads to Bears
- Chloé Zhao’s The Eternals will be a quantum shift for Marvel
- Echo Show 10 review: this rotating Alexa display follows you around
- Dutch couple move into Europe’s first fully 3D-printed house
- Iman says her first experience of racism was pay gap when she moved to US
- An overhaul of the global tax system can wait no longer
- Covid has forced a neoliberal retreat. But state intervention isn’t always progressive | Laurie Macfarlane
- NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers does not want to return to Packers, say reports
- Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
- Tim Tebow attempting NFL comeback with Jaguars after spell in baseball
- Edinson Cavani and Bruno Fernandes help Manchester United hit Roma for six
- Nicolas Pépé strikes from spot to give Arsenal a lifeline against Villarreal
- Phillies’ Bryce Harper ‘feels good’ after taking 97mph fastball to left cheek
- Manchester City’s Kyle Walker makes his case for greatness against PSG | Jonathan Liew
- Scotland’s election: a stepping stone to independence? – podcast
- Billie Eilish: Your Power review – chilling ballad seeps under your skin
- Stephen Colbert on Biden’s speech: ‘Hasn’t felt that normal in five years’
- Julia Stone on working with St Vincent and changing her sound: ‘This feels like a first record’
- ‘A blur of legs, arms and adrenaline’: the astonishing history of two-tone
- Hear me out: why Johnny Mnemonic isn’t a bad movie
- Wild Mountain Thyme review – Emily Blunt in an awful Irish stew
- Polanski announces first new film since being expelled from Academy
- Why stars should think twice before calling out their critics
- ‘They all got on as one family’: the story of a woman who lived with chimps
- Things Heard and Seen review – moody Netflix ghost story fails to haunt
- The next major US voting rights fight is here – and Republicans are ahead
- Ivy League colleges apologize for ‘serious error’ in using bones of Black child for teaching
- Hundreds report abnormal menstruation after being teargassed during Portland protests
- California’s legacy of DDT waste: underwater dump site uncovers a toxic history
- ‘A great patriot’: Trump defends Giuliani after federal agents raid home and office
- Josh Hawley rails at big tech firms but records show he has invested in them
- Amazon’s sales up 44% as US economy soars 6.4% in first quarter
- US Senate votes to reinstate methane rules loosened by Trump
- Iraqi Kurds plan special court to try suspected Islamic State fighters
- Sumo wrestler dies one month after suffering a concussion in Japan
- World will lose 10% of glacier ice even if it hits climate targets
- World’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge opens in Portugal
- Researchers find frogmouth is world’s most Instagrammable bird
- Body with power to suspend MPs could investigate Boris Johnson flat refurb
- Four die as Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan armies clash on disputed border
- Giant statue of Roman emperor reunited with long-lost finger
- Researchers ‘shocked’ to find Egyptian mummy was a pregnant woman
- Indigenous chief to request UN peacekeepers to prevent lobster fight boiling over
- Stinging wasps are precious, not pointless, say scientists
- From dust bowl to California drought: a climate scientist on the lessons we still haven’t learned
- I am once again asking for a normal, affordable apartment | Harron Walker
- Michael Collins obituary
- Please don’t stop the music: how choirs are singing through the pandemic
- Venezuela’s ‘doctor of the poor’ to be beatified – in pictures
- England’s seaside heritage from the air – in pictures
- African photography CAP prize 2021 shortlist – in pictures
| ‘You changed America’: Biden marks first 100 days in Georgia – a state key to his victory Posted: 29 Apr 2021 05:24 PM PDT President promoted his $4tn plans to rebuild crumbling US infrastructure and expand the social safety net at drive-in rally On his 100th day as US president, Joe Biden spontaneously lowered his black face mask, leaned towards the microphone and shouted: "Go Georgia, we need you!" It was a fitting moment in a state that has more claim than most to be the ground zero of a potentially transformative presidency. Continue reading... |
| ‘He did not deserve to die’: anger and protest over Andrew Brown’s killing by police Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:21 PM PDT In Elizabeth City, North Carolina, the death of a Black man has sparked large protests – will body-camera footage be released? Raising signs, flags and fists, about 200 protesters walked through the streets of Elizabeth City in North Carolina on Wednesday night following a judge's ruling, which denied the immediate release of police video footage of the killing of Andrew Brown last week. Related: Judge denies requests to release body-cam video of Andrew Brown shooting Continue reading... |
| Dozens killed in crush at Lag Baomer religious festival in Israel Posted: 29 Apr 2021 10:08 PM PDT Teams treating dozens of injured at Mount Meron as emergency medical group says at least 44 dead At least 44 people have been killed and about 150 injured in a crowd crush at a Jewish religious gathering in northern Israel attended by tens of thousands of people, in one of the country's worst peacetime disasters. Eli Beer, director of an Israeli volunteer ambulance service, Hatzalah, said he was shocked by the size of the crowds at Mount Meron overnight, estimated at around 100,000. Children were among the dead, he told Army Radio on Friday morning. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 29 Apr 2021 07:13 PM PDT Fox News chat leaves vague impression that FBI raid on ex-mayor's apartment was somehow Hunter Biden's fault Rudy Giuliani guilty? That's what they want you to think! And who are they? The sinister cabal of Hunter Biden, the Lincoln Project and Department of Injustice, of course. That would have been the impression of Fox News viewers on Thursday night when Giuliani gave his first TV interview since federal agents seized mobile phones and computers from his New York apartment, part of an investigation into his dodgy Ukrainian dealings. Continue reading... |
| Five arrested in Lady Gaga dognapping case – including the woman who returned them Posted: 29 Apr 2021 03:28 PM PDT Detectives do not believe the thieves knew the dogs belonged to the pop star and think the motive was the French bulldogs' value The woman who returned Lady Gaga's stolen French bulldogs was among five people arrested in connection with the theft from and shooting of the music superstar's dog walker, Los Angeles police said Thursday. Detectives do not believe that the thieves knew the dogs belonged to the pop star, the Los Angeles police department said in a statement. The motive for the 24 February robbery, investigators believe, was the value of the French bulldogs – which can run into the thousands of dollars. Continue reading... |
| White House investigating ‘unexplained health incidents’ similar to Havana syndrome Posted: 29 Apr 2021 08:42 AM PDT Two US officials experienced symptoms similar to ones suffered abroad that were probably result of directed energy device The White House has said it is investigating "unexplained health incidents" after a report that two US officials in the Washington area experienced sudden symptoms similar to the "Havana syndrome" symptoms suffered by American diplomats and spies abroad. Related: CIA file on Russian ESP experiments released – but you knew that, didn't you? Continue reading... |
| Florida lawmakers pass ‘cruel’ bill banning trans women and girls in school sports Posted: 29 Apr 2021 11:10 AM PDT Critics say the bill, which is awaiting the governor's signature, targets 'young people for political gain' Transgender women and girls will be banned from participating in school sports in Florida, if the state's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, signs what critics call a "cruel and horrific" bill rushed through by state legislators in a controversial late-night session. The politicians revived, then passed, the bill that prohibits trans athletes competing in high school and college sports in short order on Wednesday, employing what opponents have called "shady, backroom tactics" to bind it to unrelated legislation on charter schools. Continue reading... |
| ‘Cruel’ trafficker accused of torturing refugees found guilty in Ethiopia Posted: 29 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT Tewelde Goitom reportedly ran a brutal and lucrative trade extorting migrants desperate to reach Europe from Libya One of north Africa's most notorious human traffickers, accused of extorting and torturing thousands of refugees and migrants in Libya, has been found guilty on five counts of smuggling and trafficking in Ethiopia. Tewelde Goitom, known as "Welid", operated in Libya between roughly 2014 and 2018 and is thought to have been at the heart of a highly lucrative and brutal trade trafficking desperate migrants trying to reach Europe. Continue reading... |
| US supreme court gives hope to long-term immigrants in deportation ruling Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:05 PM PDT In 6-3 decision that split conservative bloc, justices faulted government in case of man from Guatemala who entered US without papers The US supreme court on Thursday offered new hope to thousands of long-term immigrants seeking to avoid deportation in a ruling that faulted the federal government for improperly notifying a man who came to the United States from Guatemala to appear for a removal hearing. Related: New York Post reporter quits citing pressure to write incorrect story about Kamala Harris Continue reading... |
| ‘Sexual predator’: actor Noel Clarke accused of groping, harassment and bullying by 20 women Posted: 29 Apr 2021 11:35 AM PDT
When Noel Clarke appeared on stage at the Royal Albert Hall on 10 April to collect his Bafta, the typically self-assured actor looked a little on edge. Viewers might have concluded that Clarke was simply overwhelmed: he was clutching one of the most prestigious accolades bestowed by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the prize for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. Yet there were other reasons why Clarke – and Bafta – may have felt preoccupied. Continue reading... |
| Ghislaine Maxwell: lawyers release photo showing bruised face Posted: 29 Apr 2021 04:08 PM PDT Legal team allege she is being held in worse conditions to other inmates due to the "Epstein Effect" Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell have released a photograph of the British socialite, who is in a US prison facing sex trafficking charges, showing her with a bruised face. Maxwell, 59, who is accused of procuring underage girls for the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein to abuse, has been in jail since last year while awaiting trial. She denies the allegations. Since her arrest last summer, she has only been seen in court sketches during hearings. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 29 Apr 2021 11:52 PM PDT Vaccine offered to all over 40s in England; first US Covid emergency aid supplies arrive in India; UK temporarily reduces international aid from £14.5bn to £10bn
Ukraine will impose an entry ban on non-nationals arriving from India from 2 May, Reuters report. Ukraine itself has seen more than 2 million Covid-19 cases so far, with 44,085 deaths.
You can well imagine the issue of "vaccine passports" or "Covid vaccine certification" or whatever you want to call them dominating much of the discourse in the next couple of months as the UK gradually reopens the economy. A new survey suggests that 31% of people in the UK now believe the passports will reduce civil liberties. That number is up from 25% when people were asked the same question last month. There has been great policy interest in whether vaccination passports might encourage vaccine uptake. These findings indicate they may do so. But we also have evidence of the challenges that may come with the passports – as significant proportions of the public fear they will be misused, including through curtailing civil liberties. Continue reading... |
| Covid: US states moving to lift mask requirements as vaccination rates slow Posted: 29 Apr 2021 06:14 AM PDT Daily vaccination numbers drop from 3.4m two weeks ago to 2.7m this week while Biden says 220m shots given in his first 100 days US states are moving to lift mask requirements and other restrictions as new coronavirus cases drop sharply, even as the Biden administration grapples with a slowdown in vaccination rates and runaway infections in other parts of the world. In his joint address to Congress on Wednesday night Joe Biden basked in the glow of having beaten his own promises on Covid-19. He said that 220m Covid shots had been given in his first 100 days, while death rates among seniors from the disease were down 80% on January levels. Continue reading... |
| US split on vaccine passports as country aims for return to normalcy Posted: 29 Apr 2021 01:00 AM PDT Some lawmakers and businesses are in favor of vaccine verification, but civil liberties and privacy questions abound With summer around the corner, Americans are desperate for some sense of normalcy as the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine continues. Some businesses and lawmakers believe they have a simple solution that will allow people to gather in larger numbers again: vaccine passports. But as with so many issues in the US these days, it's an idea dividing America. Continue reading... |
| Should police address homelessness? One city is betting on a new model Posted: 29 Apr 2021 08:00 AM PDT San Francisco has an initiative to take police out of the response to the crisis of homelessness altogether It's been some time now since Shanna Couper Orona has slept on the sidewalk, but she can't forget the first time a police officer kicked the side of her tent in an encampment sweep in San Francisco. The disorienting confusion of getting jarred awake at 3 in the chilly morning. The rush of fear that comes for any woman who hears unknown male voices at night. The ache in her back. "I poked my head out, and they said, 'You have to get the fuck out'," Orona said. "I said back to them, 'I have to get the fuck out?' And they said, 'Oh, you got a smart mouth'?" Continue reading... |
| NFL draft: Patriots tee up Jones as Brady’s successor as Fields heads to Bears Posted: 29 Apr 2021 09:06 PM PDT
Quarterbacks dominated the first-round of the 2021 NFL draft as teams looked to grab the players they hope will be franchise cornerstones for years to come. There was little surprise at the No 1 overall pick in Thursday night's event in Cleveland. The Jacksonville Jaguars selected Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, considered one of the best college prospects in decades. Similarly, BYU quarterback Zach Wilson had long been predicted as the second overall pick for the New York Jets, and those predictions came true. Continue reading... |
| Chloé Zhao’s The Eternals will be a quantum shift for Marvel Posted: 29 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT The Oscar-winning director's delicate cinéma vérité style is a million miles from the cosmic chicanery of the MCU Marvel's decision to hand Chloé Zhao the reins to The Eternals, the studio's sprawling, millennia-spanning tale of godlike superheroes, looks like a stroke of genius after the Chinese film-maker won the best director and best picture Oscars for her film Nomadland this week. What was it that Marvel president Kevin Feige saw in the director's intimate, sober yet ultimately spirited work that inspired him to think that she could become the film-maker to spin the Marvel Cinematic Universe into its most far-out venture yet? It could not have been Nomadland itself, for all reports suggests that Zhao worked on The Eternals (due out in November) concurrently with the best picture winner. More likely it was Zhao's previous film The Rider, a poetic tale of poverty and desperation among the Lakota Sioux of the Pine Ridge Reservation which, like Nomadland, used untrained actors for authenticity. This was the movie that inspired McDormand, also Nomadland's producer, to approach Zhao about working on the eventual Oscar-winner. Continue reading... |
| Echo Show 10 review: this rotating Alexa display follows you around Posted: 29 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT Novel motorised smart screen tracks your movements to keep facing you for media and video calls Amazon's latest top-of-the-range Alexa smart display has a trick up its sleeve like no other: it can follow you around a room. The third-generation Echo Show 10 costs £239.99 and is Amazon's largest smart display, sitting above the smaller £100 Echo Show 8 with an 8in screen and £80 Echo Show 5 with a 5.5in screen. Continue reading... |
| Dutch couple move into Europe’s first fully 3D-printed house Posted: 29 Apr 2021 09:00 PM PDT New home in shape of boulder is first legally habitable property with load-bearing walls made using 3D-printing technology A Dutch couple have become Europe's first tenants of a fully 3D printed house in a development that its backers believe will open up a world of choice in the shape and style of the homes of the future. Elize Lutz, 70, and Harrie Dekkers, 67, retired shopkeepers from Amsterdam, received their digital key – an app allowing them to open the front door of their two-bedroom bungalow at the press of a button – on Thursday. Continue reading... |
| Iman says her first experience of racism was pay gap when she moved to US Posted: 29 Apr 2021 07:51 AM PDT Supermodel says on Naomi Campbell's Unfiltered show: 'My rate was different to white girls – it was an unspoken rule' Supermodel Iman has said that her first experience of racism was witnessing the racial pay gap in fashion at the beginning of her career when she moved to America. The model, who grew up in Somalia and came to New York in 1975, said that it was the industry norm to pay white models a higher rate than their black counterparts. Continue reading... |
| An overhaul of the global tax system can wait no longer Posted: 29 Apr 2021 04:00 AM PDT The Covid-ravaged global economy is at a crossroads: we can commit to greater tax cooperation or risk a tax-driven trade war
For almost a century, international tax was a byzantine and foreboding world into which few but the cognoscenti would dare to venture. It took the huge upheaval of the 2008 global financial crisis to change the game. In the absence of modern tax regulation, governments in desperate need of revenues realised how far their sovereignty had been eroded. A race to the bottom had set in, with beggar-thy-neighbour competition leading to plummeting corporate income tax rates and shrinking tax bases. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 29 Apr 2021 04:15 AM PDT We may be seeing the rise of a new authoritarian capitalism shielded from democratic scrutiny Thirteen years after the financial crisis put the global economy on life support, neoliberal capitalism is facing an existential crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the disastrous consequences of decades of privatisation, deregulation and outsourcing. In order to contain the economic fallout from the pandemic, western countries have ripped up the neoliberal playbook. Market forces have been shunned in favour of regulatory controls and state intervention. Central banks have broken the ultimate economic taboo and are printing money to finance ballooning budget deficits. For the first time in decades, the direction of travel for corporate tax rates is up rather than down. Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has thrown its weight behind wealth taxes. As Guardian columnist Larry Elliott recently put it: "the era of small states, low taxes and balanced budgets suddenly looks to be over". The question remaining is: what is replacing it? In the UK, a number of recent developments provide some clues. Continue reading... |
| NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers does not want to return to Packers, say reports Posted: 29 Apr 2021 01:15 PM PDT
Aaron Rodgers' relationship with his only professional team could be heading for a messy divorce amid reports that the quarterback has told some people he does not want to return to the Green Bay Packers for the 2021 season. ESPN's Adam Schefter, citing multiple team and league sources, says the future Hall of Famer has lost patience with the way the team is run as well as starting to look at life beyond the NFL. The Packers are understood to be concerned enough about the situation that the team's president, general manager and head coach have flown out on separate occasions during the offseason in order to rebuild bridges with Rodgers. Continue reading... |
| Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend Posted: 29 Apr 2021 05:28 PM PDT City could depend on Liverpool to win the league, pressure is still on Timo Werner and Ross Barkley risks missing the plane What better way to prepare for the second leg of their Champions League showdown with Paris Saint-Germain than by winning the Premier League? Manchester City will be guaranteed another title if they take three points at Selhurst Park on Saturday and Liverpool beat Manchester United on Sunday. The luxury for Pep Guardiola is that he can hold back many of the players he plans to start against PSG and still be confident of giving Palace what for. Having played without a striker in Paris, City could, for  |
| Tim Tebow attempting NFL comeback with Jaguars after spell in baseball Posted: 29 Apr 2021 01:26 PM PDT
Tim Tebow wants to get back into professional football. The former Denver Broncos and New York Jets quarterback worked out for the Jacksonville Jaguars as a tight end, NFL Network and ESPN reported Thursday. Continue reading... |
| Edinson Cavani and Bruno Fernandes help Manchester United hit Roma for six Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:10 PM PDT Manchester United emerged from an invigorating contest with a surely unassailable advantage that all but places them in the Europa League final next month. This victory, secured despite a 2-1 deficit at half-time, had the feel of the next major step in the evolution of Ole Gunnar Solskjær's side. Bruno Fernandes's 70th-minute penalty may have been dubiously awarded – Chris Smalling's "foul" on Edinson Cavani appeared to be the latter merely falling over – but United's talisman made no mistake. Continue reading... |
| Nicolas Pépé strikes from spot to give Arsenal a lifeline against Villarreal Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:10 PM PDT Arsenal stepped back from the edge of the abyss and turned towards the final instead. Just when their European journey and their season appeared over, down to 10 men and trailing 2-0 through goals from Manu Trigueros and Raúl Albiol, unable to muster a shot on target and on the verge of falling at the hands of the manager they had sacked, Bukayo Saka won a penalty that gives them hope. Mikel Arteta's side went down in Spain, but they didn't go out, Nicolas Pépé scoring the away goal that provides something to build on in seven days' time. Related: Edinson Cavani and Bruno Fernandes help Manchester United hit Roma for six Continue reading... |
| Phillies’ Bryce Harper ‘feels good’ after taking 97mph fastball to left cheek Posted: 29 Apr 2021 06:07 AM PDT
Phillies star Bryce Harper said he feels fine after being hit in the face by a 96.9mph fastball Wednesday night, forcing him from Philadelphia's game against St Louis. "Everything feels good," Harper said in a video he posted to Instagram. He said he got a CT scan and other testing and "Everything came back good." Continue reading... |
| Manchester City’s Kyle Walker makes his case for greatness against PSG | Jonathan Liew Posted: 29 Apr 2021 09:38 AM PDT Critics are quick to dismiss the 30-year-old as a mere speed merchant, but he is one of the game's best full-backs It was about 40 minutes into the semi-final on Wednesday night that Kyle Walker made the first of his trademark overlapping sprints up the right wing. You know the one: the classic jet-powered Walker burst that seems to possess a surreal comic-book quality. Cartoon smoke billows from him as he goes. Cars are hurled aside in his wake. A dweeby looking businessman gets coffee blown all over his suit. Manchester City were 1-0 down against Paris Saint-Germain and, with half-time looming, City's all-action hero had finally decided to join the party. Related: 'No cheering': Manchester City players were calm after PSG win, says Guardiola Continue reading... |
| Scotland’s election: a stepping stone to independence? – podcast Posted: 29 Apr 2021 07:00 PM PDT Constitutional questions have dominated the Scottish election campaign. As voters go to the polls next week, Libby Brooks assesses whether they will give the SNP a majority and a mandate for a new independence referendum Nicola Sturgeon has said that next week's election in Scotland is the most important in the country's history. The SNP is once again promising to hold a referendum on independence if it wins a majority in the Scottish parliament. The Guardian's Scotland correspondent, Libby Brooks, tells Rachel Humphreys that the pandemic has cast a long shadow over the campaign, with very little door-knocking or in-person campaigning. Continue reading... |
| Billie Eilish: Your Power review – chilling ballad seeps under your skin Posted: 29 Apr 2021 10:40 AM PDT For the first single from her hugely anticipated second album, Eilish uses a disarmingly dreamy sound to confront a man preying on a young woman To say that Billie Eilish's forthcoming third album is eagerly-awaited is an understatement. It wasn't just that 2019's triple-Grammy winning When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? was incredibly popular, although it was. Eilish was already a phenomenon among tweenage girls, but its commercial success – it went platinum or multi-platinum in 17 countries – catapulted her into a different sphere of fame, where everyone from Tyler, the Creator to Pete Townshend expressed their approval, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it among the greatest albums of all time and the producers of the James Bond franchise commissioned Eilish to sing the theme to No Time To Die. What invites quite so much anticipation, though, is that its success clearly impacted on the music industry: you don't have to look too far in 2021 to find Eilish acolytes, hastily signed in an attempt to mimic her success. The question of what the 19-year-old and her brother and co-collaborator Finneas do next – on an album that was apparently hastened by the Covid pandemic and the cancellation of Eilish's world tour – is an intriguing one. Continue reading... |
| Stephen Colbert on Biden’s speech: ‘Hasn’t felt that normal in five years’ Posted: 29 Apr 2021 08:54 AM PDT Late-night hosts recap Biden's first speech to Congress, Trump's failed Foxconn deal and the administration's handling of migrant children at the border. The Late Show aired live after Joe Biden's first address to a (Covid-limited) joint session of Congress, to mark his first 100 days in office. "Because of the pandemic, tonight was a bit odd," Stephen Colbert said. "First, Biden didn't mention low-flow toilets once. Second, everything else." The president delivered his speech to a masked audience of 200 instead of the usual 1,600 lawmakers. "Still, 200 people is more than watched the Oscars," Colbert joked. Continue reading... |
| Julia Stone on working with St Vincent and changing her sound: ‘This feels like a first record’ Posted: 29 Apr 2021 03:00 PM PDT With a bigger, brighter and more shimmering sound, Stone's new album is the one she's long wanted to make Fifteen years into her career, a new chapter is beginning for Julia Stone. You may know the singer-songwriter as half of Angus & Julia Stone, the Australian duo behind dreamy folk-pop songs like Big Jet Plane and Chateau. Together, the brother-sister act found incredible success, with four albums and multi-platinum sales. But after their last LP, 2017's Snow, their time making music together had "come to an end". Angus pursued his new indie rock project Dope Lemon and over the four years that followed, Julia assembled a solo album she eventually titled Sixty Summers. Continue reading... |
| ‘A blur of legs, arms and adrenaline’: the astonishing history of two-tone Posted: 29 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT As a new exhibition documents the UK ska-pop sound, stars including the Specials, Elvis Costello and Pauline Black recall how it opened up music, fashion and racial understanding 2 Tone Records began in a Coventry flat in 1979 and peaked two years later, when the Specials' era-defining Ghost Town went to No 1 as riots blazed around a UK in recession. The label launched the Specials and the Selecter from the current City of Culture, plus Londoners Madness, Birmingham's the Beat and others, all to chart success, but also ended up naming an entire movement: dance crazy, sharp-suited, political, multi-racial ska-pop that reverberates to this day. As a major 2 Tone exhibition comes to the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry, the Guardian spoke to the people who were at the centre of a multicultural revolution. Continue reading... |
| Hear me out: why Johnny Mnemonic isn’t a bad movie Posted: 29 Apr 2021 11:07 PM PDT The latest in our series of writers defending films hated by many is an ode to the 1995 William Gibson adaptation starring Keanu Reeves as a tech antihero Johnny Mnemonic, Robert Longo's 1995 William Gibson adaptation, offers a wide target for derision. The more cynical among us might scoff at the depiction of technology run amok in "the future" (the film is set in 2021), the irrepressibly sweet earnestness of Keanu Reeves' cynical antihero, and (spoiler alert) the salvation of humanity coming in the form of a cybernetically enhanced dolphin ("It's a FISH!?!" yells an incredulous Keanu). The very premise of the story – that Keanu (as data smuggler Johnny) has so much information contained within his brain that it may explode at any time – may even be enough to raise a smirk. Related: Hear me out: why The Paperboy isn't a bad movie Continue reading... |
| Wild Mountain Thyme review – Emily Blunt in an awful Irish stew Posted: 29 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT This bucolic romance, co-starring bashful Jamie Dornan, is awash with whimsy, wonder – and laughable accents There's a sublime awfulness and condescension to this American vision of Ireland, adapted by writer-director John Patrick Shanley from his Broadway stage hit: a mind-boggling stew of bizarre paddywhackery that makes John Ford's The Quiet Man look like a documentary about crack dealers. Two of its stars, Emily Blunt and Christopher Walken – both playing Irish people – engage in a colossal intergenerational battle for who can do the worst Irish accent. Blunt and Walken's brogue-off makes this the King Kong v Godzilla event of inauthentic Irish voices. It's supposed to be happening in the present day, but it might as well be happening in 1958. Blunt plays Rosemary, a beautiful, sharp-tongued farmer's daughter in County Westmeath, and isn't she in love with the soft eejit from the farm next door? The first time we see her, she is actually smoking a pipe, although the presumed "joke" status of that moment is undermined by the keynote of syrupy-poetic whimsy that dominates the rest of the movie. Continue reading... |
| Polanski announces first new film since being expelled from Academy Posted: 29 Apr 2021 09:53 AM PDT Italy's Rai Cinema is backing a drama by the director wanted in the United States for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl Roman Polanski has announced his first film to be put into production since the director was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) in 2018. According to Variety, Polanski has secured backing from Italian media giant Rai Cinema for The Palace, a drama Polanski has co-written with fellow Polish film-maker Jerzy Skolimowski. Rai Cinema's CEO Paolo Del Brocco said that The Palace is set on New Year's Eve in 1999, and is about "a big hotel immersed in the Swiss Alps where the lives of the guests and those who work for them intersect". Continue reading... |
| Why stars should think twice before calling out their critics Posted: 29 Apr 2021 05:00 AM PDT From Lizzo to Lana Del Rey, celebrities have taken umbrage with reviews online. But arguing with journalists only warps the public's view of the media, and puts writers under siege In 2018, while working as a freelance writer, I travelled three hours outside of London on a train, and then a coach, to review a music festival. I camped in the cold and the rain, waking up at 8am each morning to make sure I didn't miss anything. When I got home, I filed what I thought was a generous review. I did not expect the organiser and the founder of the festival to find me on Twitter to tell me that I clearly hadn't attended, or that my three-star review was full of lies. They were hurt that I hadn't given it five stars. I was hurt that my hard work – complete with blood blisters, swollen glands and glitter that took two weeks to wash out of my hair – was now seen as a declaration of war. As an editor and sometime critic specialising in pop culture, differing perceptions are par for the course. I find it skull-crushingly boring to see the same TV show or album receive near-identical reviews across the board, or read identikit reviews of the same film. I inhale people's opinions – the good and the bad, the funny and the touching, the flippant and the problematic – and exhale them. I don't internalise them. I don't agree with a lot of what I read, but I take something from it: someone else's views. I go to certain people because I know, nine times out of 10, we think very, very differently (here's looking at you, Camilla Long). Reviews can serve as a guide but they are also an artform in their own right. They entertain, inform and challenge readers. The writer AO Scott described criticism in his 2016 book Better Living Through Criticism as "art's late-born twin". Continue reading... |
| ‘They all got on as one family’: the story of a woman who lived with chimps Posted: 28 Apr 2021 10:35 PM PDT A moving new documentary provides a sensitive first-person account of a chimp raised as a human, and the caretaker who followed her to extraordinary ends Janis Carter was 25 when, in September 1976, she responded to a bulletin-board ad for a job as a part-time caretaker of a chimpanzee. The job was relevant to Carter's interests as a graduate student in the primate studies group at the University of Oklahoma, and could help pay for school. It was also mostly hands-off; the caretakers, psychologist Maurice Temerlin and his wife, Jane, relayed instructions via note left on the kitchen counter, save for one hard rule: no physical contact with Lucy, their 11-year-old chimp. Related: Primatologist Jane Goodall: 'Tarzan married the wrong Jane' Continue reading... |
| Things Heard and Seen review – moody Netflix ghost story fails to haunt Posted: 29 Apr 2021 07:18 AM PDT Amanda Seyfried is a woman coming undone, thanks to a supernatural entity and a toxic husband, in a strangely inert combination of horror and drama To the annals of Bad Movie Husbands, let us add George Claire, the contemptible academic assayed by James Norton in the starchy new Netflix joint Things Heard and Seen. He checks every box on the list of tropes associated with silver-screen college professors: bookishly handsome, sure, but also self-absorbed, pretentious, entitled, condescending to his wife Catherine (Amanda Seyfried), and overly familiar with the student body's bodies. Not to mention that he hustled his spouse and their daughter into a move from New York City to a farmhouse tucked away in the wilds of upstate for a gig at the tony Saginaw College rather hastily, and under shadowy circumstances. Plus, everyone who gets on his bad side seems to wind up vanished or in a coma. That he's up to something isn't even a question – it's only a matter of how deep his evil runs. Related: Stowaway review – a devastating dilemma drives tense Netflix sci-fi Continue reading... |
| The next major US voting rights fight is here – and Republicans are ahead Posted: 29 Apr 2021 03:00 AM PDT After the latest census numbers, Republicans are well positioned to draw districts that will give them an advantage in their effort to reclaim the House in 2022 The next major fight over voting rights in the US kicked off Monday: a hugely consequential battle over the boundaries of electoral districts for the next 10 years that will have profound implications for American politics. And Republicans seem to be pulling ahead. Continue reading... |
| Ivy League colleges apologize for ‘serious error’ in using bones of Black child for teaching Posted: 29 Apr 2021 09:45 AM PDT Princeton and University of Pennsylvania at center of storm over the use of the bones of a child killed by police bombing in 1985 The two Ivy League universities at the center of a billowing storm over the use in anthropology teaching of the bones of an African American child killed by Philadelphia police in 1985 have apologized for the "serious error", promising to return the human remains to relatives who never consented to the practice. The pelvis and femur bones of an unidentified Black girl thought to be in her teens were revealed last week to have been used as props in an online anthropology course staged by Princeton and given by a professor from the University of Pennsylvania. Neither institution had requested or received consent from the family of the child, yet held on to the bones for research and teaching for 36 years. Continue reading... |
| Hundreds report abnormal menstruation after being teargassed during Portland protests Posted: 29 Apr 2021 03:00 AM PDT More than 1,000 report cramping, increased bleeding and other health issues, challenging claims teargas has minor impact More than a thousand people reported lasting health effects after being exposed to teargas during protests in Portland, Oregon, last summer, according to a newly published scientific study. Nearly 900 people reported abnormal menstrual cycles, including intense cramping and increased bleeding, that began or persisted days after their initial exposure to the teargas. Hundreds of others complained of other negative health impacts, including severe headaches, nausea, diarrhea, and mental health concerns. Continue reading... |
| California’s legacy of DDT waste: underwater dump site uncovers a toxic history Posted: 29 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT A team of scientists discovered tens of thousands of barrels containing what is believed to be chemical waste The discovery of tens of thousands of underwater barrels containing what scientists believe to be chemical waste has raised alarm and reopened scrutiny into a history of toxic dumping that persisted off the California coast into the 1970s. A team of scientists announced this week that they had found more than 25,000 containers, many of which they believe to be DDT waste, which has been linked to cancer and disease in humans and mass die off events in the natural world. The barrels cover a seafloor area double the size of Manhattan off the coast of the Santa Catalina Island, near Los Angeles. Continue reading... |
| ‘A great patriot’: Trump defends Giuliani after federal agents raid home and office Posted: 29 Apr 2021 06:34 AM PDT Investigators execute search warrants at Rudy Giuliani's Manhattan residence and office as part of Ukraine investigation Federal agents raided Rudy Giuliani's Manhattan home and office Wednesday, seizing computers and cellphones in a major escalation of the Justice department's investigation into the business dealings of former president Donald Trump's personal lawyer. Giuliani, the 76-year-old former New York City mayor once celebrated for his leadership after 9/11, has been under federal scrutiny for several years over his ties to Ukraine. The dual searches sent the strongest signal yet that he could eventually face federal charges. Continue reading... |
| Josh Hawley rails at big tech firms but records show he has invested in them Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:00 AM PDT Missouri senator accuses big tech of posing 'gravest threat to American liberty' since Gilded age in new book Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri accuses the US's biggest tech companies of committing the "gravest threat to American liberty since the monopolies of the Gilded Age" in his upcoming book. He rails that tech giants Amazon, Google and Facebook "have become a techno-oligarchy with overwhelming economic and political power". Related: Josh Hawley attacks 'woke capitalism' and claims to be victim of cancel culture Continue reading... |
| Amazon’s sales up 44% as US economy soars 6.4% in first quarter Posted: 29 Apr 2021 01:29 PM PDT Company makes $8.1bn profit for quarter as positive economic reports suggest US shaking off worst of pandemic recession Amazon's sales increased 44% to $108.5bn in the first three months of the year as the company's pandemic boom continued into 2021. The sales figures from the online shopping and web services giant came after the release of slew of positive economic reports that suggest the US is shaking off the worst of the pandemic recession. Continue reading... |
| US Senate votes to reinstate methane rules loosened by Trump Posted: 29 Apr 2021 06:38 AM PDT Congressional Democrats move to reinstate regulations designed to limit potent greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas fields Congressional Democrats are moving to reinstate regulations designed to limit potent greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas fields, as part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to tackle climate change. The Senate approved a resolution Wednesday that would undo an environmental rollback by Donald Trump that relaxed requirements of a 2016 Obama administration rule targeting methane emissions from oil and gas drilling. Continue reading... |
| Iraqi Kurds plan special court to try suspected Islamic State fighters Posted: 29 Apr 2021 09:00 PM PDT Kurdish parliament legislation could lead to trial of Isis suspects detained across Middle East and beyond Iraqi Kurdish officials plan to establish a special criminal court to prosecute accused Islamic State (Isis) members in a move that could lead to senior members of the terror group being brought to Iraq to face trial. Legislation introduced to the Kurdish parliament on Wednesday has raised the possibility that suspects detained in the years since the extremist group's collapse could be transferred to a court in the northern city to Erbil to be prosecuted with international backing. Continue reading... |
| Sumo wrestler dies one month after suffering a concussion in Japan Posted: 29 Apr 2021 08:11 PM PDT Hibikiryu, 28, landed on his head during a bout in March and was later treated for a spinal injury A Japanese sumo wrestler has died a month after suffering a concussion during a bout, as the ancient sport's authorities come under renewed pressure to rethink their outdated approach to head injuries. Hibikiryu, a 28-year-old rikishi in one of the lower divisions, died from acute respiratory failure, the Japan Sumo Association said, despite earlier showing signs that he was recovering from his injuries. Continue reading... |
| World will lose 10% of glacier ice even if it hits climate targets Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:22 AM PDT Exclusive: loss is equivalent to more than 13,200 cubic kilometres of water or 10m Wembley Stadiums A tenth of the world's mountain glacier ice will have melted by the middle of this century even if humanity meets the goals of the Paris climate agreement, according to figures compiled exclusively for the Guardian. The loss is equivalent to more than 13,200 cubic kilometres of water – enough to fill Lake Superior, or more than 10m Wembley Stadiums – with knock-on effects on highly populated river deltas, wildlife habitats and sea levels. Continue reading... |
| World’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge opens in Portugal Posted: 29 Apr 2021 08:36 PM PDT The structure at Arouca Geopark spans 516 metres and hangs 175 metres above the river Paiva in north of the country The world's longest pedestrian suspension bridge has been completed in northern Portugal, where residents of the nearby town hope the tourist attraction will help revive a region whose economy was devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Hidden between rock-strewn mountains covered with lush greenery and yellow flowers inside the Unesco-recognised Arouca Geopark, the 516 metres (1,700 feet) bridge hangs 175 metres above the fast-flowing River Paiva. Continue reading... |
| Researchers find frogmouth is world’s most Instagrammable bird Posted: 29 Apr 2021 11:30 PM PDT A study of likes on the photo-sharing app has (perhaps surprisingly) deemed the Australian and south-east Asian native 'most aesthetically appealing' If someone were to ask what the most "Instagrammable" bird in the world would be, it's unlikely that the frogmouth – whose main aesthetic goal is to look like a jagged tree branch – would be front of mind. But it seems science says otherwise, the dishevelled looking Australian and south-east Asian native taking out the top spot in a study from Germany's University Hospital Jena, which aimed to see which bird species reigned supreme on the photo-sharing app. Continue reading... |
| Body with power to suspend MPs could investigate Boris Johnson flat refurb Posted: 29 Apr 2021 12:31 PM PDT Exclusive: Labour asks parliamentary commissioner for standards to investigate any potential breach of MPs' code of conduct Boris Johnson's refurbishment of his Downing Street residence could be investigated by parliament's sleaze watchdog, a move that would mean the prime minister could be personally sanctioned if found to have breached conduct rules. The Guardian understands an extensive complaint has been submitted to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, with powers that can lead to suspensions of MPs or even byelections if serious breaches have occurred. Continue reading... |
| Four die as Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan armies clash on disputed border Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:26 PM PDT Dozens injured in latest conflict as latest ceasefire between the two ex-Soviet country collapses Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan traded blame on Thursday for cross-border shelling and clashes that left at least four people dead and dozens injured in a conflict over water, the latest outburst of tensions between the two ex-Soviet central Asian neighbours. Troops from the two countries exchanged gunfire for most of the day around a water supply facility near the village of Kok-Tash in western Kyrgyzstan on the border with Tajikistan. More than 800 Kyrgyz residents were evacuated from several villages engulfed by the clashes. Continue reading... |
| Giant statue of Roman emperor reunited with long-lost finger Posted: 29 Apr 2021 06:09 AM PDT Bronze finger found at Louvre is remounted on to Constantine's hand at museum in Rome A huge statue of the hand of Constantine the Great in Rome has been reunited with its missing finger after more than 500 years. The 38cm-long bronze index finger, found in the Louvre in Paris in 2018, was remounted on to the statue at Rome's Capitoline Museums on Wednesday. Continue reading... |
| Researchers ‘shocked’ to find Egyptian mummy was a pregnant woman Posted: 29 Apr 2021 08:40 AM PDT Archaeologists studying Warsaw's national collection of mummies expected to uncover a male priest Polish researchers examining an ancient Egyptian mummy that they expected to be a male priest were surprised when X-rays and computer tests revealed instead that it was a mummy of a woman who had been seven months pregnant. The researchers said on Thursday it was the world's first known case of such a well-preserved ancient mummy of a pregnant woman. Continue reading... |
| Indigenous chief to request UN peacekeepers to prevent lobster fight boiling over Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:30 AM PDT Sipekne'katik chief Mike Sack says his First Nation plans to open a lobster fishery in Nova Scotia in defiance of government rules After a violent clash over lobster fishing on Canada's east coast last year, a First Nations chief says he will request United Nations peacekeepers to keep his people safe on the water this summer – predicting tensions will reach a boiling point. When the Sipekne'katik First Nation sought to harvest lobster outside of the fishing season defined by federal authorities, commercial harvesters launched a series of protests that turned physical when traps were removed, harvesters assaulted and lobster pounds vandalized. Continue reading... |
| Stinging wasps are precious, not pointless, say scientists Posted: 28 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT Much-hated insects are voracious predators of pests, produce powerful antibiotics and pollinate plants For those who have asked what the point of wasps is, there is now a comprehensive answer. They are voracious predators of pest insects, produce powerful antibiotics in their venom, pollinate plants and even make a nutritious snack. The benefits to humans of the much-hated insects are revealed in the first major scientific review of the ecosystem services they provide. It focused on the 33,000 known species of hunting wasps, which carry stings and live in every corner of the world. Continue reading... |
| From dust bowl to California drought: a climate scientist on the lessons we still haven’t learned Posted: 29 Apr 2021 03:00 AM PDT Peter Gleick argues there's an urgent need to reshape our relationship to water: 'There is enormous untapped potential for conservation' California is once again in a drought, just four years after the last dry spell decimated ecosystems, fueled megafires and left many rural communities without well water. Droughts are a natural part of the landscape in the American west, and the region has in many ways been shaped by its history of drought. But the climate scientist Peter Gleick argues that the droughts California is facing now are different than the ones that have historically cycled through the Golden State. Continue reading... |
| I am once again asking for a normal, affordable apartment | Harron Walker Posted: 29 Apr 2021 03:00 AM PDT A studio apartment in which the bed drops from the ceiling? For more than $3,500 a month? I mean, honestly I began my morning, as I do many mornings, by masochistically searching different apartment listing sites for one-bedrooms and studios I could fantasize about renting –well, to the extent that one can fantasize about something so fundamentally inhumane as giving a landlord money just to have somewhere to live. There was a gorgeous pre-war apartment in the New York neighborhood of Bed-Stuy, with rich mahogany moldings that took up an entire floor of a brownstone; a corner spot in Williamsburg with windows on two sides of the living room. Too bad everything I found cost upwards of $2,000, a monthly rent that I, a single freelance writer with no partner to speak of much less split rent with, simply cannot afford. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 29 Apr 2021 05:07 AM PDT Astronaut and pilot of the command module Columbia during 1969's Apollo 11 mission On 20 July 1969, Michael Collins, who has died aged 90, became the most solitary human in the universe – even if he derided that categorisation as "phony philosophy". He orbited the moon alone, inside Apollo 11's command module Columbia, and out of touch with ground control for 48 minutes on each orbit. Meanwhile, and more famously, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were becoming the first men to set foot on that rock, some 240,000 miles away from Earth. As the command module pilot, on $17,000 a year, Collins was, he later wrote half-jokingly, "the navigator, the guidance and control expert, the base-camp operator, the owner of the leaky plumbing – all the things I was least interested in doing". He was also, thought Aldrin, probably Nasa's best-trained command module pilot. Continue reading... |
| Please don’t stop the music: how choirs are singing through the pandemic Posted: 22 Apr 2021 03:00 AM PDT Choral singing has become a health hazard Zoom can't fix. But singers are finding ways to keep the music alive As anyone who has tried to sing "happy birthday" at a Zoom party this past year can tell you, online audio does not work well with multiple users. This is because Zoom, like most other video platforms, experiences a 300-millisecond to one-second lag between computers as information gets sent over the internet. The delay renders directing and singing music simultaneously nearly impossible, making the pandemic eerily quiet for the one in six Americans who sing in a choir. Continue reading... |
| Venezuela’s ‘doctor of the poor’ to be beatified – in pictures Posted: 29 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT On Friday José Gregorio Hernández, doctor, scientist, university professor and pioneer of bacteriology, will be beatified, a step toward sainthood in the Roman Catholic church, after 72 years of efforts by Venezuela's Catholics Continue reading... |
| England’s seaside heritage from the air – in pictures Posted: 29 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT Aerial photographs of England's best-loved seaside resorts, taken between the 1920s and the 1950s when coastal destinations were nearing the peak of their popularity, tell the story of how they developed. Initially places where the wealthy few bathed in the sea to improve their health, they became a magnet for the whole population. England's Seaside Heritage from the Air, written by Historic England's Allan Brodie, is published by Liverpool University Press Continue reading... |
| African photography CAP prize 2021 shortlist – in pictures Posted: 29 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT The CAP Prize has announced 25 shortlisted projects with the highest ratings at the online showcase Award Winning African Photography - photo basel Takes a Closer Look. Here we take a look at a selection of the shortlisted photographers work.
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