The Guardian |
- Senate Republicans will likely sink Democrats’ bid to set up Capitol attack commission
- Number of smokers has reached all-time high of 1.1 billion, study finds
- Brazil aerial photos show miners’ devastation of indigenous people’s land
- Amazon’s mental health kiosk mocked on social media as a ‘Despair Closet’
- San Jose: police say gunman was ‘highly disgruntled’ employee as details of victims emerge
- Arizona ‘refurbishes’ its gas chamber to prepare for executions, documents reveal
- Three Tacoma police officers charged in killing of Manuel Ellis
- Whistleblower who spoke out on UFOs claims Pentagon tried to discredit him
- Nasa’s Mars helicopter goes on ‘stressful’ wild flight after malfunction
- Bill Cosby parole petition denied after he refuses therapy for sexual offenders
- ¡Kapow! Batman takes holiday in Benidorm in DC Comics anthology
- Wisconsin: ground zero of America’s battle against vaccine hesitancy
- Coronavirus live news: India sees lowest new cases in six weeks; Japan expected to extend restrictions
- California launches largest US Covid vaccine lottery yet with $1.5m prize
- The Friends reunion: the best, the worst and the Bieber
- Every mass shooting in the US – a visual database
- Cillian Murphy: ‘I was in awe of how Helen McCrory lived her life’
- Apple TV 4K 2021 review: faster chip, fancy iPod-like remote
- Model behind ‘hands off my hijab’ post is named Vogue Scandinavia editor
- ‘One name in a long list’: the pointless death of another West Bank teenager
- Chile’s political establishment has been swept away – now there's hope for change | Kirsten Sehnbruch
- White America has an ingrained fear of blackness. It’s time to let go of that fear | Patricia Williams
- Covid vaccine crisis may be the last straw for the postwar economic consensus | Mohamed el-Erian
- The world is slowly waking up to Paul Kagame’s brutal actions in Rwanda | Michela Wrong
- Sanctions are imposed by the sanctimonious, and achieve nothing | Simon Jenkins
- Forthcoming. insightful, eloquent: Naomi Osaka’s media snub is a big loss for tennis | Tumaini Carayol
- Tiger Woods: rehab from crash ‘more painful than anything I have experienced’
- Thomas Tuchel: inside the mind of an obsessive with the winning touch
- Nikita Mazepin may be Russian but he is the perfect American anti-hero
- There’s never been a better time for US college athletes to unionize
- Manchester United plan moves for Sancho, Rice, Kane and Pau Torres
- ‘Boxing is a mess’: the darkness and damage of brain trauma in the ring
- A state-sponsored ‘hijacking’ – the arrest of Belarus blogger Raman Pratasevich
- Panic review – Amazon’s high-stakes teen game series isn’t worth playing
- School of Rock star Kevin Clark dies in collision aged 32
- Hear me out: why 2014’s Robocop isn’t a bad movie
- Shakespeare Theatre Company to host Britney Spears musical
- I Am Samuel: the film aiming to ‘change the narrative’ on being gay in Kenya
- DMX: Exodus review – a bold and bleak posthumous finale
- The 15 greatest video games of the 80s – ranked!
- The Democrat standing in the way of his party’s efforts to protect voting rights
- Belcampo: ‘farm to door’ butcher admits misrepresenting origins of meat
- Trayvon Martin family lawyer Natalie Jackson announces run for Congress
- Black Lives Matter co-founder to step down as foundation’s executive director
- Biden officials condemned for backing Trump-era Alaska drilling project
- WeWork founder Adam Neumann received $445m payout in exit package
- Texas Democrats kill transphobic bill aimed at student athletes by stalling
- Miami’s chief heat officer calls for action on ‘silent killer’ in climate crisis
- ‘A ticking timebomb’: Democrats’ push for voting rights law faces tortuous path
- Russia refuses to allow European planes to land in Moscow
- Site in Syria could be world’s oldest war memorial, study finds
- Biden move to investigate Covid origins opens new rift in US-China relations
- Italy cable car crash: five-year-old survivor to be moved out of intensive care
- Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai jailed again as Tiananmen vigil banned
- Germany agrees €2.5bn package to help revive Covid-hit culture sector
- Colombia politician tells protesters hurt by police to ‘stop crying over one eye’
- Markets rally ahead of Biden’s $6tn budget proposal to boost US economy – business live
- Germany agrees to pay Namibia €1.1bn over historical Herero-Nama genocide
- Trudeau apologises for internment of Italian Canadians in second world war
- Turkey seeks arrest of mafia boss who alleges crimes by Erdoğan allies
- Hampers and prosecco, or blankets and pre-mixed tinnies: let the picnics commence! | Hannah Jane Parkinson
- Unionized but impotent? Row erupts over gig workers’ labor proposal
- Astronomers create largest map of the universe’s dark matter
- Milky Way photographer of the year 2021 – in pictures
- After the inferno: Sierra Leone’s poorest struggle to recover from slum fire – in pictures
| Senate Republicans will likely sink Democrats’ bid to set up Capitol attack commission Posted: 27 May 2021 05:17 PM PDT
Senate Republicans were poised on Thursday to kill an attempt by Democrats to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the 6 January attack on the Capitol in which a pro-Trump mob ransacked the building in an attempt to disrupt the formalization of Joe Biden's winning of the presidency. The bill was intended to set up a 9/11-style commission that would examine its causes and impact and exactly who was involved. Continue reading... |
| Number of smokers has reached all-time high of 1.1 billion, study finds Posted: 27 May 2021 03:30 PM PDT Governments told to focus on stopping young from taking up habit that killed 8 million people in 2019 Smoking killed almost 8 million people in 2019 and the number of smokers rose as the habit was picked up by young people around the world, according to new research. A study published in the Lancet on Thursday said efforts to curb the habit had been outstripped by population growth with 150 million more people smoking in the nine years from 1990, reaching an all-time high of 1.1 billion. Continue reading... |
| Brazil aerial photos show miners’ devastation of indigenous people’s land Posted: 27 May 2021 05:16 AM PDT Impact of thousands of wildcat goldminers shown as president Jair Bolsonaro is accused of trying to promote their illegal work Rare and disturbing aerial photographs have laid bare the devastation being inflicted on Brazil's largest reserve for indigenous people by thousands of wildcat goldminers whose illegal activities have accelerated under the country's far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro. Activists believe as many as 20,000 garimpeiro prospectors are operating within the Yanomami reserve in northern Brazil using speedboats and light aircraft to penetrate the vast expanse of jungle near the border with Venezuela. Continue reading... |
| Amazon’s mental health kiosk mocked on social media as a ‘Despair Closet’ Posted: 27 May 2021 04:32 PM PDT AmaZen, a small box for employees' 'mental wellbeing', came under fire as critics called out the company's problematic working conditions Amazon was lampooned on social media Thursday after sharing a video highlighting "AmaZen", a small enclosed booth installed in an Amazon warehouse where employees can go to "focus on their mental wellbeing". Related: Amazon must 'do a better job' for its workers, says Jeff Bezos Continue reading... |
| San Jose: police say gunman was ‘highly disgruntled’ employee as details of victims emerge Posted: 27 May 2021 11:29 AM PDT Shooter who left nine people dead spoke about killing people at work more than a decade ago, said his ex-wife The death of a San Jose rail transit worker overnight makes Wednesday's massacre at a rail yard in the California city the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the San Francisco Bay Area. More details emerged on Thursday about the shooting that claimed the lives of 10 people, including the gunman, who law enforcement officials described as a "highly disgruntled" employee of the rail yard. Continue reading... |
| Arizona ‘refurbishes’ its gas chamber to prepare for executions, documents reveal Posted: 27 May 2021 10:00 PM PDT The corrections department has spent more than $2,000 on ingredients to make cyanide gas, the same used in Auschwitz The state of Arizona is preparing to kill death row inmates using hydrogen cyanide, the same lethal gas that was deployed at Auschwitz. Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal that Arizona's department of corrections has spent more than $2,000 in procuring the ingredients to make cyanide gas. The department bought a solid brick of potassium cyanide in December for $1,530. Continue reading... |
| Three Tacoma police officers charged in killing of Manuel Ellis Posted: 27 May 2021 12:58 PM PDT Decision came more than a year after Pierce county medical examiner's office ruled Black father of two's death a homicide The Washington state attorney general's office has filed felony charges against three police officers in the killing of Manuel Ellis, a 33-year-old Black father of two, who, moments before his death, called out: "I can't breathe." This is the first time the office has filed criminal charges against police officers for unlawful use of deadly force. Continue reading... |
| Whistleblower who spoke out on UFOs claims Pentagon tried to discredit him Posted: 27 May 2021 11:00 PM PDT
A Pentagon whistleblower known for speaking out about UFOs is accusing his former agency of waging a disinformation campaign against him, a report says. Luis Elizondo, who headed the Pentagon's now-defunct Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, lodged a complaint with the defense department's inspector general claiming malicious activities, professional misconduct and other offenses at the agency, according to Politico. Continue reading... |
| Nasa’s Mars helicopter goes on ‘stressful’ wild flight after malfunction Posted: 27 May 2021 09:23 PM PDT Problem with camera-based navigation system saw helicopter wobble through the air in biggest tech issue Ingenuity has faced A navigation timing error sent Nasa's Mars helicopter on a lurching ride, its first major problem since it took to the Martian skies last month. The experimental helicopter, named Ingenuity, managed to land safely after the problem occurred, officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Thursday. Continue reading... |
| Bill Cosby parole petition denied after he refuses therapy for sexual offenders Posted: 27 May 2021 03:15 PM PDT
The Pennsylvania parole board has turned down comedian Bill Cosby's petition to be released from a 10-year prison sentence for aggravated indecent assault, citing his refusal to participate in a therapy program for sexually violent predators. Laura Treaster, a spokeswoman for the state parole board, confirmed the decision, which was made on 11 May and first reported on Thursday by Nicole Weisensee Egan, author of the book Chasing Cosby, on her Facebook page. Continue reading... |
| ¡Kapow! Batman takes holiday in Benidorm in DC Comics anthology Posted: 27 May 2021 09:00 PM PDT Caped Crusader battles villains across the globe in Batman: the World – but he's in Spain to relax Given his 82 long years of rooftop vigilantism, the dank, lonely surroundings of his home office – not to mention the tickly throat irritation caused by all those growled threats – few would begrudge Batman some sun, a nice paella and a cheeky mid-morning pint. Or five. Benidorm, fortunately, is only too happy to oblige. The eastern Spanish resort is among the exotic locations that feature in Batman: the World, a new global anthology to be published by DC Comics in September. Continue reading... |
| Wisconsin: ground zero of America’s battle against vaccine hesitancy Posted: 28 May 2021 12:00 AM PDT Covid vaccine take-up varies widely between rural and urban counties but many of those yet to get a shot remain open to it The fight against the coronavirus hit a milestone in the US last week with the Biden administration announcing more than half of adult Americans are now fully vaccinated. But big issues remain and perhaps few states illustrate the struggles ahead better than Wisconsin. Vaccination rates in Wisconsin vary widely between rural and urban areas and political, religious and racial divides – a pattern that mirrors the divide across the nation. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 28 May 2021 12:23 AM PDT Japan expected to extend emergency measures in Tokyo and several other regions by three weeks; India cases rise by 186,364, lowest since 14 April
A €2.5bn (£2.15bn) package has been agreed by the German government to help the culture industry get back on its feet as the country slowly emerges from a third wave of the Covid pandemic. The finance minister, Olaf Scholz, has called the package "the biggest cultural subsidy programme" since the end of the second world war. Related: Germany agrees €2.5bn package to help revive Covid-hit culture sector
Yesterday UK housing minister Robert Jenrick was touting next spring as a possible starting date for a Covid inquiry. Opposition Labour MP David Lammy has just joined calls to rapidly bring that date forward in the light of the revelations from Dominic Cummings earlier in the week. Start the Inquiry into how the U.K. has been left with the highest Covid death toll in Europe this Summer. No excuses for a delay. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng refuses to guarantee that lockdown will be eased on 21 June. @NickFerrariLBC pic.twitter.com/gwHT3yKJO5 Continue reading... |
| California launches largest US Covid vaccine lottery yet with $1.5m prize Posted: 27 May 2021 04:25 PM PDT Residents will be eligible for $116.5m in prize money giveaways as the state tries to get millions more vaccinated before reopening California has become the latest state to offer a vaccine lottery to incentivize getting the coronavirus vaccine – launching the nation's most valuable single prize draw: $1.5m. The state's governor, Gavin Newsom, announced on Thursday that residents will be eligible for a total of $116.5m in prize money giveaways, a windfall aimed at getting millions more vaccinated before the nation's most populous state fully reopens next month. Continue reading... |
| The Friends reunion: the best, the worst and the Bieber Posted: 27 May 2021 10:20 PM PDT The much-anticipated special brought back the stars of the long-running sitcom along with celebrity guests but was it worth the hype? Now that it is out in the world, it's clear that the much-heralded Friends reunion is actually several shows in one. It's a clip show, it's an interview show, it's a celebrity talking heads show. And, as you'd expect from a format this muddled, some of it worked better than others. For every moment that managed to be genuinely touching, there was another where it felt like everyone was simply letting the clock run out. Perhaps the best way to approach this is to break the reunion down into its constituent parts, from most to least successful. Beware: here be spoilers. Related: Friends: the Reunion review – The One That Is a Nostalgia Fest and No More Continue reading... |
| Every mass shooting in the US – a visual database Posted: 27 May 2021 06:13 AM PDT A normal day in the US involves a mass shooting. Here, we track the incidents since 2014 Continue reading... |
| Cillian Murphy: ‘I was in awe of how Helen McCrory lived her life’ Posted: 27 May 2021 10:00 PM PDT The star of Peaky Blinders on his late colleague, how he convinced the producers to cast him rather than Jason Statham as Tommy Shelby – and returning to the monster-movie genre in A Quiet Place Part II Cillian Murphy, star of the new horror sequel A Quiet Place Part II, is something to behold: X-ray eyes at once penetrating and ethereally blue, cheekbones so pronounced you could stretch out and go to sleep on them. Unfortunately, the beholding will have to wait. We have barely exchanged greetings over Zoom when his voice breaks up, the screen freezes and the room falls silent. A quiet place, indeed. We switch to phones. We can do this, I tell him. "I have faith," he replies, in a soothing Cork accent that compensates for the lack of visuals. Murphy's gift for intensity has made him a natural fit for characters damaged (Dunkirk, The Edge of Love) or outright villainous (Batman Begins, Red Eye), but today he is quick to laugh and keen to talk. He is speaking from a flat in Manchester, where he is staying while he shoots the sixth and final series of Peaky Blinders. That stylish crime drama, which rocketed from BBC Two cult success to global phenomenon, revolves around a 1920s Birmingham gang led by Murphy as the vicious Tommy Shelby. With his eyes, looks could kill – although he keeps razor blades in the brim of his cap, just in case. Continue reading... |
| Apple TV 4K 2021 review: faster chip, fancy iPod-like remote Posted: 27 May 2021 11:00 PM PDT Future-proofed Apple smart TV upgrade has widest selection of streaming apps but is super pricey The second-generation Apple TV 4K gets a faster processor and future-proofed specs, but is really all about its new iPod-inspired Siri remote. And it all comes at a price. Costing £169, the Apple media-streaming box is very much at the top of the market despite being £10 cheaper than its predecessor, with direct competitors priced between £50 and £130. But the Apple TV 4K offers something most others cannot: full integration with all of the iPhone-maker's services including Siri, iTunes, TV+, Music, Fitness+ and the AirPlay 2 streaming system. Continue reading... |
| Model behind ‘hands off my hijab’ post is named Vogue Scandinavia editor Posted: 27 May 2021 07:44 AM PDT Rawdah Mohamed's Instagram image opposing a proposed hijab ban in France went viral in April Rawdah Mohamed, the Somali-Norwegian model whose protest against a proposed ban on the hijab in France went viral, has been announced as editor of the soon-to-be-launched Vogue Scandinavia. Mohamed will become the first hijab-wearing editor of colour at a fashion magazine in the west. Continue reading... |
| ‘One name in a long list’: the pointless death of another West Bank teenager Posted: 27 May 2021 10:01 PM PDT Obaida Jawabra was weeks from turning 18 when he was shot by an Israeli soldier, after a life shaped by arrests and imprisonment Route 60, the north-south artery that carves its way through the West Bank, is both the lifeblood of the region and a source of daily fear. Flanked in parts by 2.5-metre-high (8ft) separation barriers, military checkpoints and watchtowers crewed by Israeli snipers, the 146-mile highway that starts and finishes in Israel but passes Hebron and Bethlehem in the West Bank, has been the scene of many fatal attacks and violent clashes. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 27 May 2021 01:00 AM PDT After recent elections, the country can shake off social and economic crisis, if it avoids the missteps of its neighbours In October last year, after 12 months of almost continuous protests, Chileans voted overwhelmingly in a national referendum in favour of establishing a new constitution. This result finally sounded the death knell of a constitution that was instituted by the authoritarian regime of Gen Augusto Pinochet 40 years ago. Now, Chileans have elected the members of the constituent assembly that will be charged with writing this new constitution in a democratic process, that can only be described as exemplary, held over two days last week – even though turnout was disappointingly low. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 27 May 2021 03:00 AM PDT The deployment of wildly unreasonable subjective fear is often sufficient to justify a wide range of reactions, even murder It has been a year since George Floyd last drew breath. It has been a year since the multiple videos of his death spread worldwide; since passionate demonstrations swept cities and towns; since personnel carriers filled with soldiers crawled through American streets; since "saying" his or her name became a ubiquitous incantation, an infinitely unspooling litany of death. In the year since, Derek Chauvin, the police officer whose coldly dispassionate gaze riveted our own, was convicted on all counts. It was hard to unsee. And we saw. Moreover, the witnesses against him included the chief of police; the instructor in techniques of restraint at the academy where Chauvin had trained; the police dispatcher who was watching remotely and thought her screen was frozen because he stayed on top of Floyd for so long; the emergency medical technician who had to reach around Chauvin's knee to take a pulse (there was none) because Chauvin refused to move even after the ambulance had arrived; Floyd's weeping (white) girlfriend who testified to his gentle, generous and prayerful nature; the sheer number of bystanders who "called the police on the police"; the crying children; the shopkeepers; the passing martial arts professional who shouted at Chauvin repeatedly, telling him that that he was killing Floyd. I began my own career as a prosecutor and I have never seen a stronger case. Continue reading... |
| Covid vaccine crisis may be the last straw for the postwar economic consensus | Mohamed el-Erian Posted: 27 May 2021 10:00 PM PDT With an unfair, inefficient global rollout, the west is squandering trust and risking its own prosperity The proper functioning of any interconnected economic system depends on trust. And a global system that has been designed by advanced economies requires a significant level of buy-in from the developing world. Both become even more important as more developing economies, led by China, gain systemic importance. Related: WHO and global faith leaders call for fair access to Covid vaccines Continue reading... |
| The world is slowly waking up to Paul Kagame’s brutal actions in Rwanda | Michela Wrong Posted: 27 May 2021 04:04 AM PDT Emmanuel Macron's visit comes as the increasingly ruthless Rwandan leader is running out of friends There are moments when the international community's perception of a leader shifts into a new configuration, often for reasons that can't be entirely logically explained. Myanmar's Aung San Sui Kyi reached that tipping point during the Rohingya crisis, Ethiopia's prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has been undergoing the same transition since war broke out in Tigray, and the same process is taking place with the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame. Today, he is welcoming the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to Kigali, his spotlessly tidy hillside capital. The visit marks the culmination of a bromance that has seen the French, once supporters of Kagame's predecessor, Juvenal Habyarimana, make a public "mea culpa" for past support of a genocidal regime, and Kagame's ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which did its best to eradicate French influence after seizing power, signal its interest in partnering up once again. Continue reading... |
| Sanctions are imposed by the sanctimonious, and achieve nothing | Simon Jenkins Posted: 27 May 2021 09:19 AM PDT The west can disapprove all it likes of leaders like Belarus's Lukashenko, but only engagement will change anything What should we do about Belarus? It is becoming the North Korea of Europe, its opposition leader in exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, told the European parliament this week. But it must be the wrong question. The question is not what should we do, but what can we do? European and American politicians reach for economic sanctions as they used to reach for gunboats or bombers. But gunboats meant results. You soon knew if anything had changed. Sanctions are like papal edicts, signals of moral superiority supposedly cost-free to the signaller. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 27 May 2021 10:31 AM PDT The grand slam winner is one of the sport's most engaging characters and her silence will be keenly felt at the French Open Towards the end of last season, not long after players had returned from lockdown, the Frenchman Gaël Monfils continued to embrace his newfound hobby on the streaming website Twitch. After retiring from a match in October, he decided to skip his mandatory post-match press duties in favour of inviting French journalists to conduct the press conference online for his fans. The journalists were left with a choice – attend the press conference on terms dictated by Monfils or potentially miss out. In the end, those who did attend discussed with him his biggest news of the year: he was shutting down his season. Continue reading... |
| Tiger Woods: rehab from crash ‘more painful than anything I have experienced’ Posted: 27 May 2021 11:40 AM PDT
Tiger Woods has spoken about the grueling recovery process from the car crash earlier this year that left him with serious leg injuries. One police officer who attended the Los Angeles crash in February said Woods was "lucky to be alive" after his car hit a tree at 75mph. Continue reading... |
| Thomas Tuchel: inside the mind of an obsessive with the winning touch Posted: 27 May 2021 12:00 PM PDT What makes Chelsea's manager so successful? We find out from people who have known him since his school days Christian Heidel laughs as he remembers a story that sums up Thomas Tuchel's obsessive attention to detail. "We were in a training camp in Austria and had a match against Olympiakos," Mainz's sporting director says. "Thomas was looking closely at the lawn. He was measuring the height, sniffing the grass. He was so thrilled about this pitch that he wanted me to transfer the groundsman to Mainz. The next day the groundsman called me and said: 'I heard that we're going to have some talks about a contract.' The deal didn't happen but it shows what a perfectionist he is." Heidel, who gave Tuchel his break when he put him in charge of Mainz's first team in 2009, is not the first person to marvel at the Chelsea manager's quest for perfection. Hans Komm, who taught PE at the German's Simpert-Kraemer high school, remembers a gifted sportsman who possessed a surprisingly bright tactical mind for a teenager. Continue reading... |
| Nikita Mazepin may be Russian but he is the perfect American anti-hero Posted: 27 May 2021 02:00 AM PDT The Haas driver is a stupendously rich coaster who consistently fails upwards. In other words, a perfect embodiment of so much that is wrong with America The classic American sports villain knows many forms. Bill Laimbeer was the Detroit Pistons' elbow-throwing rabble-rouser. Bill Romanowski was the Denver Broncos' late-hitting loogie spitter. Mike Tyson bit off a guy's ear. And now there's Nikita Mazepin, the Formula One racing driver who's fast tracking as an all-time foil too. Doubtless, Mazepin's inclusion in this rogue's gallery will strike some as harsh given that this is the 22-year-old Muscovite's maiden season driving for Haas, the tanking backmarker representing the United States. But for those of us fans who have watched him over the past five grands prix, his early work reads like hacky Russian literature – slow and meandering. Last weekend at Monaco marked the first time he outqualified teammate Mick Schumacher – but much of that was down to Michael's boy ringing up about a half-million dollars' worth of damage sliding his car into a Casino Square exit barrier. Continue reading... |
| There’s never been a better time for US college athletes to unionize Posted: 27 May 2021 08:00 AM PDT The only meaningful counterweight to the NCAA system's exploitative dynamics is unionization: the empowerment of athletes to defend their own interests as a collective At times it can feel like it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of exploitation, abuse and harm in the world of US college sport. This is after all an athletic system that produces billions of dollars of revenue for universities and the NCAA and yet denies the workers who generate it a basic wage, the ability to engage in compensatory promotional work and the equivalent educational experience enjoyed by their non-sporting peers, even as it tolerates physical, sexual and emotional abuse and the subjection of its participants to extreme physical harm. And we haven't even mentioned the plantation dynamics. "We are at the mercy of our respective schools, they get to set the rules and treat us however they want and the worst consequence is some bad press, but the machine keeps on going," a Pac-12 football player told the Guardian. "The power dynamics between player and coaches/schools is so off balance, guys were scared to speak up and advocate for themselves in the middle of a pandemic. The NCAA has shown they don't give a fuck about us, it's all about protecting the bottom line and making money." Continue reading... |
| Manchester United plan moves for Sancho, Rice, Kane and Pau Torres Posted: 27 May 2021 09:00 AM PDT
Ole Gunnar Solskjær wants to strengthen Manchester United in the centre-back, midfield, wide attacker and No 9 positions, with Pau Torres, Declan Rice, Jadon Sancho and Harry Kane among his preferred targets. Although the manager is conscious that adding four major signings is unlikely given an estimated total cost of more than £300m and the availability of any particular player, he is intent at least on pursuing one in each of his identified areas to bolster a squad that requires an upgrade in quality and depth. Continue reading... |
| ‘Boxing is a mess’: the darkness and damage of brain trauma in the ring Posted: 27 May 2021 12:00 AM PDT Boxing must address the damage done in the ring and a new book by Tris Dixon lays out what's left after the final bell rings The writer, the fighter, the doctor and the widow all look down into the darkness and damage of boxing. They understand the previously untold story of brain trauma in the ring and, as they talk to me, their moving testimony underpins a shared belief that change has to come. There is a measured urgency to their words for they love the fighters and they want to offer their knowledge to help make this brutal sport a little safer. Damage and death have always framed boxing. This harsh truth means that, despite the chaos outside the ring, boxing is shockingly real. It can maim and even kill but, in a strange paradox, boxing also makes most fighters feel more intensely alive than anything else. Continue reading... |
| A state-sponsored ‘hijacking’ – the arrest of Belarus blogger Raman Pratasevich Posted: 27 May 2021 07:00 PM PDT Belarusian journalist Hanna Liubakova examines why Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, apparently diverted a Ryanair flight in order to arrest 26-year-old blogger Raman Pratasevich. Guardian Moscow correspondent, Andrew Roth, discusses the fallout from the action Anushka Asthana talks to the Belarusian journalist Hanna Liubakova about the 26-year-old opposition blogger Raman Pratasevich and his 23-year-old girlfriend, Sofia Sapega. On Sunday their Ryanair flight, which was meant to be flying to Lithuania, was forced to make an emergency landing in Minsk and they were arrested. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Belarusian opposition leader, told the European parliament on Wednesday that Lukashenko was "turning the country into the North Korea of Europe: non-transparent, unpredictable and dangerous". Anushka also talks to the Guardian's Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth about the international reaction to what has been called a 'state-sponsored hijacking'. The British government has told all UK planes to cease flying over Belarus, while the EU has imposed new economic sanctions. Kremlin officials have offered only muted support over the incident.  |
| Panic review – Amazon’s high-stakes teen game series isn’t worth playing Posted: 28 May 2021 12:06 AM PDT The 10-episode YA series, based on the novel by Lauren Oliver, places small-town teens in a life-or-death game with zero dramatic tension Amazon's Panic, a 10-episode series based on the YA novel by Lauren Oliver, launches off a cliff (literally) with an improbable premise: that small-town teenagers in the late 2010s would believe in and submit to a secret ritual competition at risk of death, and not tell anyone about it. The fictional Panic game, in which graduating seniors of Carp, Texas, population 12,000, try to outlast each other in daredevil challenges for a roughly $50,000 pot, mixes the relatively benign, suburban American high school tradition of Nerf gun wars or spoon assassins with the appeal of Fear Factor – sans safety measures – and the compulsory buy-in of The Hunger Games (a dollar a school day for every student, mandatory). "No one knows who invented Panic, or when it first began," says Heather Nill (Olivia Welch), in the series opener, and bafflingly few characters seem interested in questioning a tradition which killed two classmates the prior summer under mysterious circumstances. Continue reading... |
| School of Rock star Kevin Clark dies in collision aged 32 Posted: 27 May 2021 03:00 AM PDT Jack Black leads tributes to Clark, who played drummer Freddy in the comedy film, saying he was 'heartbroken' at the loss School of Rock star Jack Black was among those paying tribute to Kevin Clark, who as a 13-year-old had played drummer Freddy in the hit 2003 film, after Clark was killed in a collision on Wednesday 26 May. The Chicago Sun Times reported that Clark, 32, had been hit by a car while cycling in the Avondale area of the city late at night, and that the car driver had been issued with several citations. Continue reading... |
| Hear me out: why 2014’s Robocop isn’t a bad movie Posted: 27 May 2021 11:24 PM PDT Continuing our series of writers defending films hated by most is a tribute to the remake of Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi thriller Some films are sacred. Ghostbusters and Point Break are among the 80s classics that sparked howls of outrage at the very idea of remaking them, as if glossier effects are the worst crime that could be visited on a filmgoer. The 2014 reboot of the techno-thriller Robocop fell victim to just such a backlash, but that's hardly fair for a film that is smarter and angrier than your average blockbuster – perhaps even smarter than the original. Related: Hear me out: why Equilibrium isn't a bad movie Continue reading... |
| Shakespeare Theatre Company to host Britney Spears musical Posted: 27 May 2021 07:30 AM PDT Once Upon a One More Time will debut on 30 November at company's flagship theater in Washington DC Broadway producers and Washington DC's Shakespeare Theatre Company are teaming up to host the world premiere of Britney Spears Once Upon a One More Time, a musical wrought from the pop star's songbook, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. This Tony award-winning theater is hosting the "pre-Broadway tryout of a commercial musical inspired by a pop phenom" which, the Post notes, is "the first such event in the company's 35-year history". Continue reading... |
| I Am Samuel: the film aiming to ‘change the narrative’ on being gay in Kenya Posted: 28 May 2021 12:00 AM PDT The young star of Peter Murimi's intimate documentary is as poor, religious and conservative as his peers – and fearful of a violent backlash, he says Samuel Asilikwa grew up in rural Kenya. There was a strict template for masculinity, informed by centuries of tradition – and intolerance. In a new documentary about his life, we see his father, a pastor, question Asilikwa about why he is yet to find a wife. We then watch as he relocates to Nairobi in search of work and adventure. He finds community, friendship and intense romance with a man called Alex. Peter Murimi's film I Am Samuel, shot verité-style over the course of five years, is at its most powerful contrasting city and countryside. Kenya's farmland, clay roads, shrubbery and corn fields are evidence of a still, yet cyclical, pattern of life compared with the infinite noise and claustrophobia of Nairobi. But it is also a film about a shifting political landscape, where "carnal knowledge against the order of nature" is punishable by 14 years' imprisonment. Continue reading... |
| DMX: Exodus review – a bold and bleak posthumous finale Posted: 27 May 2021 05:24 AM PDT (Def Jam Recordings) Hip-hop loves a posthumous album, but DMX's has arrived sooner than most because it wasn't supposed to be posthumous at all. Earl Simmons' career had been in decline since the mid-00s, eventually grinding to a halt amid a litany of legal problems, health issues and financial woes – he filed for bankruptcy three times, was jailed for everything from tax fraud to animal cruelty; struggled with bipolar disorder and addiction and released only one, poorly received official album, 2012's Undisputed, in the last 15 years. But prior to his death from an apparent drug overdose this April, he was already on the comeback trail. Continue reading... |
| The 15 greatest video games of the 80s – ranked! Posted: 27 May 2021 01:00 AM PDT Button-bashing arcade sports vied with the thrill of urban planning, Pac-Man ate up everything, and Super Mario Bros smashed gaming into the mainstream The 1980s were crammed with wonderful adventure games – The Hobbit, King's Quest, Leather Goddesses of Phobos – but the first point-and-click title to be designed by comic genius Ron Gilbert using the SCUMM scripting language is the classic that busted out of the genre ghetto. Filled with great jokes and B-movie cliches, the game made brilliant use of its accessible and intuitive interface, as well as seamlessly integrating cutscenes and non-sequential puzzles. The start of a weird and special era. Continue reading... |
| The Democrat standing in the way of his party’s efforts to protect voting rights Posted: 27 May 2021 07:00 AM PDT Joe Manchin has publicly signaled that he doesn't back Democrats' bill and wants bipartisan support – can senators win him over and move forward? Happy Thursday, Continue reading... |
| Belcampo: ‘farm to door’ butcher admits misrepresenting origins of meat Posted: 27 May 2021 06:24 AM PDT Employee posted an Instagram video that said the company's products were not all they claimed to be The trendy "farm to door" meat purveyor Belcampo has admitted to misrepresenting the origin of meats sold at a store in Santa Monica, after an employee posted an Instagram video that charged the company's products were not all they claimed to be. The San Francisco Bay Area-born company is well known for its high-end butcher shops, where organic beef and other meats can sell for over $30 a pound. It's website promises that its meat comes from vetted partner farms – "meat you can trust start to finish" – and says it tracks its animals "from birth to butchery to your plate". Continue reading... |
| Trayvon Martin family lawyer Natalie Jackson announces run for Congress Posted: 27 May 2021 11:13 AM PDT Florida attorney who has received endorsements from Benjamin Crump and Philonise Floyd is running to replace Val Demings Natalie Jackson, a prominent Florida attorney whose clients include Trayvon Martin's family, is running to replace Representative Val Demings in Congress next year. Just days into her campaign for the Orlando-based House seat, Jackson has already garnered endorsements from two powerful civil rights champions: attorney Benjamin Crump and Philonise Floyd, George Floyd's brother. Continue reading... |
| Black Lives Matter co-founder to step down as foundation’s executive director Posted: 27 May 2021 03:10 PM PDT Patrisse Cullors has recently faced attacks from a far-right group and criticism from other Black organizers A co-founder of Black Lives Matter announced Thursday that she is stepping down as the executive director of the movement's foundation following what she has called a smear campaign from a far-right group and recent criticism from other Black organizers. Patrisse Cullors, who has been at the helm of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation for nearly six years, said she is leaving to focus on other projects, including the upcoming release of her second book and a multi-year TV development deal with Warner Bros. Her last day with the foundation is Friday. Continue reading... |
| Biden officials condemned for backing Trump-era Alaska drilling project Posted: 27 May 2021 08:39 AM PDT DoJ says decision to approve project in northern Alaska was 'reasonable and consistent' and should be allowed to go ahead Joe Biden's administration is facing an onslaught of criticism from environmentalists after opting to defend the approval of a massive oil and gas drilling project in the frigid northern reaches of Alaska. In a briefing filed in federal court on Wednesday, the US Department of Justice said the Trump-era decision to allow the project in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska's north slope was "reasonable and consistent" with the law and should be allowed to go ahead. Continue reading... |
| WeWork founder Adam Neumann received $445m payout in exit package Posted: 27 May 2021 09:16 AM PDT Neumann received $245m in company stock and $200m in cash earlier this year as part of a renegotiation with investor SoftBank WeWork founder Adam Neumann received $245m in company stock and $200m in cash earlier this year, part of an enormous exit package from the office rental company he led to dizzy heights before its equally dramatic fall. The award comes nearly two years after a disastrous attempt by the company to go public and the ousting of Neumann. Continue reading... |
| Texas Democrats kill transphobic bill aimed at student athletes by stalling Posted: 27 May 2021 08:52 AM PDT Bill would have forced all student athletes in the state to compete according to their sex assigned at birth On Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers in the Texas house of representatives successfully stalled a transphobic bill from going to a vote until it hit its "pass-or-die" deadline and expired. Senate Bill 29, which had already passed the Texas senate, would have forced all student athletes in the state to compete according to their sex assigned at birth. Continue reading... |
| Miami’s chief heat officer calls for action on ‘silent killer’ in climate crisis Posted: 27 May 2021 01:45 AM PDT Jane Gilbert urges greater federal and state response to lethal threat posed by rising temperatures Miami's new chief heat officer has called for greater federal and state action on the lethal threat posed by rising temperatures after becoming the first official in the US appointed to focus solely on heatwaves. Jane Gilbert, who has been tasked by Miami-Dade county with coordinating and accelerating efforts to protect lives from extreme heat, said that more focus was needed on what has been called the "silent killer" of the climate crisis. Continue reading... |
| ‘A ticking timebomb’: Democrats’ push for voting rights law faces tortuous path Posted: 27 May 2021 04:00 AM PDT Democrats have yet to convince their entire Senate caucus to back the House-passed For the People Act – let alone beat the filibuster After six months of aggressive Republican efforts to restrict voting access, Democrats are facing new questions about how they will actually pass voting rights reforms through Congress. The most recent hand-wringing comes as Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democratic senator, made clear earlier this month he still is not on board with the For the People Act, which would require early voting, automatic and same-day registration, and prevent the severe manipulation of district boundaries for partisan gain. Continue reading... |
| Russia refuses to allow European planes to land in Moscow Posted: 27 May 2021 09:16 AM PDT Retaliation over Belarus airspace row results in cancellation of flights from French and Austrian carriers Russia has retaliated against a ban on carriers entering Belarus's airspace by refusing to grant permission to European planes flying to Moscow. In an apparent escalation by the Kremlin, Russian aviation authorities forced Austrian Airlines to cancel its flight from Vienna to the Russian capital. Air France also cancelled its Paris-Moscow flight for the second day in a row, after it was denied permission on Wednesday to land in Russia. Continue reading... |
| Site in Syria could be world’s oldest war memorial, study finds Posted: 27 May 2021 04:01 PM PDT Archaeologists say White Monument in Tal Banat was tribute to war dead of 3rd millennium BC A burial mound in northern Syria has been identified by researchers as perhaps the world's oldest known war memorial. The site, known as the White Monument, in the town of Tal Banat had previously been thought to be an ancient mass grave of enemy fighters. However, a report published in the journal Antiquity on Friday suggests it was a memorial for the community's battle dead from the 3rd millennium BC. Continue reading... |
| Biden move to investigate Covid origins opens new rift in US-China relations Posted: 27 May 2021 12:23 PM PDT Beijing reacts angrily to calls for WHO to carry out second phase of investigation, while US intelligence split on virus's likely origin Joe Biden's decision to expand the US investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, with one intelligence agency leaning towards the theory that it escaped from a Wuhan laboratory, has opened a new divide in his administration's already tense relationship with China. Biden said on Thursday that he would publish the results of the 90-day inquiry, which has made a priority for the intelligence agencies. The move represents a dramatic turnaround from the administration's policy until now of leaving the investigation to the World Health Organization. Continue reading... |
| Italy cable car crash: five-year-old survivor to be moved out of intensive care Posted: 27 May 2021 07:41 PM PDT Eitan Biran, whose parents, younger brother and great-grandparents were killed in the crash, has woken up and spoken to his aunt The five-year-old boy who survived last weekend's deadly cable car crash in the Italian mountains that killed his parents and sibling is awake and will soon be moved out of intensive care, hospital officials said on Thursday. Eitan Biran has been in critical condition since the cabin plunged to the ground on the Mottarone mountain, killing the other 14 people inside, including his parents, younger brother and great-grandparents. Thirteen of the passengers died at the scene, while Eitan and another child were taken to hospital. The other child later died. Continue reading... |
| Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai jailed again as Tiananmen vigil banned Posted: 27 May 2021 10:16 PM PDT Media figure punished over pro-democracy rally as authorities again cite coronavirus restrictions to prohibit traditional Tiananmen vigil Hong Kong authorities have continued their crackdown on dissent, with media tycoon Jimmy Lai handed a fresh prison sentence, and a candlelit vigil to mark the anniversary of Beijing's Tiananmen Square massacre banned. Lai was handed a new prison sentence of 14 months on Friday over his role in an unauthorised assembly in October 2019, during one of the city's pro-democracy rallies. Continue reading... |
| Germany agrees €2.5bn package to help revive Covid-hit culture sector Posted: 28 May 2021 12:11 AM PDT Finance minister calls measures the 'biggest cultural subsidy programme' since end of the second world war A €2.5bn (£2.15bn) package has been agreed by the German government to help the culture industry get back on its feet as the country slowly emerges from a third wave of the Covid pandemic. The finance minister, Olaf Scholz, has called the package "the biggest cultural subsidy programme" since the end of the second world war. Continue reading... |
| Colombia politician tells protesters hurt by police to ‘stop crying over one eye’ Posted: 27 May 2021 12:15 PM PDT At least 43 protesters have been killed by police and 46 people have suffered eye injuries After a month of protests in which 46 people have suffered eye injuries from police teargas rounds and rubber bullets, a Colombian politician has prompted outrage by saying that supporters of the anti-poverty demonstrations should "stop crying over one eye". "Don't fool Colombians and don't fool the international community and stop crying over one eye," said Paola Holguín, a senator from the ruling Centro Democrático party, to opposition politicians during a virtual floor speech on Wednesday afternoon. Continue reading... |
| Markets rally ahead of Biden’s $6tn budget proposal to boost US economy – business live Posted: 28 May 2021 12:18 AM PDT Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business. Global stock markets are nudging higher as investors brace for president Joe Biden to propose a $6tn trillion spending package when he unveils his first budget later today. Republicans have criticized the president for seeking trillions in new spending, setting the stage for pitched battles over his priorities. "It just seems like the trillions keep on coming," Republican U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who is leading a group of colleagues pursuing a counteroffer to Biden's current $1.7 trillion infrastructure proposal. "Now is the time to build (upon) the foundation that we've laid to make bold investments in our families and our communities and our nation. We know from history that these kinds of investments raise both the floor and the ceiling over the economy for everybody." "We've turned the tide on the once-in-a-century pandemic. "And now we're faced with a question: what kind of economy are we going to build for tomorrow? What are we going to do? I believe this is our moment to rebuild an economy from the bottom up and the middle out." President Biden's Preliminary Budget is envisaging a $1.8 trillion deficit next year, after tax rises. Of course, what the President would like, and what he will get from Congress could be quite different, but with that level of spending, Asia appears to feel that some of that goody bag will fall their way, and Asian equity markets have risen today A robust GDP growth in the first quarter, a fresh pandemic low print in weekly jobless claims and the talk of a $6 trillion federal spending package for the coming fiscal year boosted appetite in most equities and the US dollar. Continue reading... |
| Germany agrees to pay Namibia €1.1bn over historical Herero-Nama genocide Posted: 27 May 2021 11:01 PM PDT It is understood the text of the joint declaration will call German atrocities 'genocide' but omit the words 'reparations' or 'compensation' Germany has to agreed to pay Namibia €1.1bn (£940m) to fund projects among communities affected by the Herero-Nama genocide at the start of the 20th century, in what Angela Merkel's government says amounts to a gesture of reconciliation but not legally binding reparations. Tens of thousands of men, women and children were shot, tortured or driven into the Kalahari desert to starve by German troops between 1904 and 1908 after the Herero and Nama tribes rebelled against colonial rule in what was then named German South West Africa and is now Namibia. Continue reading... |
| Trudeau apologises for internment of Italian Canadians in second world war Posted: 27 May 2021 08:23 AM PDT Canada interned over 600 people of Italian heritage after Italy declared war in 1940, and labelled about 31,000 as 'enemy aliens' Justin Trudeau has made a formal apology for the internment of Italian Canadians during the second world war, acknowledging that hundreds of people were denied due legal process. After Italy declared war against Canada in 1940, Canada interned more than 600 people of Italian heritage and declared about 31,000 as "enemy aliens". Continue reading... |
| Turkey seeks arrest of mafia boss who alleges crimes by Erdoğan allies Posted: 27 May 2021 08:12 AM PDT Videos by convicted criminal Sedat Peker accusing president's allies of grave offences get millions of views Turkey has issued a new arrest warrant for a convicted crime boss who fled prosecution abroad and then began publishing videos that allege grave crimes committed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's allies. Related: Mafia boss's YouTube claims rattle Turkish government Continue reading... |
| Posted: 27 May 2021 11:00 PM PDT Lolling about, twiddling grass between one's fingers, peering at friends over the rim of your sunglasses – boy, it's been a while As I write, tabloid newspapers are full of headlines about a forthcoming heatwave. Newcastle is set to "boast scorching temperatures"with "a maximum of 21C cited". Oh. So it's… a warmwave? It's five days of room temperature. Still, it's an improvement on the current week's weather, which is thunder and lightning and all things frightening. Twenty degrees is, at least, just about, picnic weather. And, boy, it's been a while. I understand the visceral reaction some people have to the word "picnic". It can summon up the thought of a lot of faff; easy-to-lose bits and pieces, or perhaps Enduring Love (and nobody can argue that a hot-air balloon accident or a stalker sounds like fun). Continue reading... |
| Unionized but impotent? Row erupts over gig workers’ labor proposal Posted: 27 May 2021 03:00 AM PDT New York bill would give gig workers path to unionize but at steep price, opponents say, as bill wouldn't define them as employees A huge controversy has erupted among labor unions after several unions joined with Uber and Lyft to develop legislation in New York state that would deliver on one of labor's major goals: giving many gig workers a quick path to unionization. The legislation would make good on another labor objective: allowing industrywide bargaining for gig workers, specifically the roughly 250,000 app-based drivers and food delivery workers in New York. Continue reading... |
| Astronomers create largest map of the universe’s dark matter Posted: 27 May 2021 08:30 AM PDT International team reveal vast cosmic voids over the Earth's skies that could challenge Einstein We can't see it, barely understand it, but know that it exists because of the powerful influence it exerts on space. Dark matter makes up about 27% of the universe, and its gravitational force is enough to mesh entire galaxies together in a structure known as the cosmic web. Now, scientists have created the largest ever map of this mysterious substance – and it could imply that there's something wrong with Einstein's theory of relativity. Continue reading... |
| Milky Way photographer of the year 2021 – in pictures Posted: 27 May 2021 11:00 PM PDT The annual Milky Way photographer of the year competition features the best photos of our galaxy as selected by Capture the Atlas. This year's images were taken from around the world by 25 photographers of 14 different nationalities. The best time to see and photograph the Milky Way is usually between May and June with maximum hours of visibility on both hemispheres Continue reading... |
| After the inferno: Sierra Leone’s poorest struggle to recover from slum fire – in pictures Posted: 27 May 2021 01:30 AM PDT A blaze ripped through the overcrowded settlement of Susan's Bay in Freetown in March, injuring hundreds. British photographer Henry Kamara, of Sierra Leone descent, documents the aftermath in this coastal community as people try to rebuild their lives Continue reading... |
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