The Guardian |
- In California’s interior, there’s no escape from the desperate heat: ‘Why are we even here?’
- Widow of slain Haitian leader allegedly blames political enemies as power struggle intensifies
- Families grieve loss of relatives in Miami tower collapse as death toll rises to 86
- ‘Cyber-attack’ hits Iran’s transport ministry and railways
- ‘Growing risks’: Hong Kong pro-democracy group scales down
- US community colleges see ‘chilling’ decline in enrollment during pandemic
- Can Biden keep the left happy as he pushes key legislation?
- G20 backs crackdown on multinationals’ use of tax havens
- Woman, 90, infected with Alpha and Beta Covid variants at the same time
- Ursula von der Leyen says EU has reached Covid vaccine target
- More sex. Fewer fights. Has the pandemic actually been good for relationships?
- Virgin Galactic to launch space plane with Richard Branson on board
- Kamala Harris faces scrutiny and tests in first six months as vice-president
- Can facial analysis technology create a child-safe internet?
- Spooked review: exposé of murky world of private spies is a dodgy dossier itself
- 10 of Britain’s prettiest seaside villages
- Data, not arms, the key driver in emerging US-China cold war | Robert Reich
- Africa can’t be left to go it alone when it comes to Covid vaccines | Paul Farmer and Ishaan Desai
- The light that failed: South Sudan’s ‘new dawn’ turns to utter nightmare
- What does the Chinese military want with your unborn baby’s genetic data?
- UFC 264: McGregor humbled by Poirier in one to cap trilogy as Trump looks on
- Nigeria spring historic upset of USA men’s basketball in Olympic tune-up
- Argentina stun Brazil in Copa América final to end 28-year trophy drought
- Ashleigh Barty battles past Karolina Pliskova to clinch first Wimbledon title
- Queen wishes England football team success in Euro 2020 final
- Bauke Mollema climbs to win as Tadej Pogacar tightens Tour de France grip
- ‘He is nine years old’ – more Danes tell of being abused by England fans
- Fukushima to ban Olympic spectators as Covid cases rise
- You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike review – the biography of Nico
- Chameleon ownership and toilet maintenance: the best obscure podcasts
- The Storms of Jeremy Thomas review – Mark Cousins rides shotgun with uber-producer
- Curtis Sittenfeld on American Wife: ‘I thought Democrats wouldn’t read it because it was about a Republican’
- Bangladesh police arrest factory owner after dozens die in fire
- Vancouver judge’s decision over Huawei finance chief may deepen US-China row
- Mogadishu car bombing kills at least nine people, says official
- ‘Where else can I make a month’s rent in two days?’: the unlikely stars of OnlyFans
- Fit in my 40s: an ice bath feels great (once the agony wears off) | Zoe Williams
- ‘They help us stay connected’: how Māori games enthusiasts are reviving tradition
- California: strong winds form fire tornado during Tennant blaze – video
- The big picture: Harry Gruyaert’s sun-dappled Spanish picnic
- 90 minutes from glory: England’s road to the final in pictures
| In California’s interior, there’s no escape from the desperate heat: ‘Why are we even here?’ Posted: 10 Jul 2021 03:00 AM PDT Soaring temperatures are a way of life in the Central Valley, but racial disparities mean many have no access to relief In Cantua, a small town deep within California's farming heartland, the heat had always been a part of life. "We can do nothing against it," said Julia Mendoza, who's lived in this town for 27 years. But lately, she says, the searing temperatures are almost unlivable. By midday on Thursday, the first day of a protracted, extreme heatwave in California's Central Valley, the country roads were sizzling with heat. A young volunteer with a local environmental justice non-profit who had come to check in on the neighborhood collapsed on the sidewalk, her face bright red and damp. Construction crews working nearby quickly swept her into an air-conditioned car and handed her a cold bottle of water. Continue reading... |
| Widow of slain Haitian leader allegedly blames political enemies as power struggle intensifies Posted: 10 Jul 2021 02:35 PM PDT A voice recording on Martine Moise's Twitter page accuses enemies of trying to stop democratic change Martine Moise, the widow of slain Haitian president Jovenel Moise on Saturday accused shadowy enemies of organizing his assassination to stop democratic change, as a struggle for power intensified in the Caribbean nation. Haiti has been reeling since Moise was gunned down early on Wednesday at his home in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Continue reading... |
| Families grieve loss of relatives in Miami tower collapse as death toll rises to 86 Posted: 10 Jul 2021 10:30 AM PDT Authorities have launched a grand jury investigation into the collapse as families have filed at least six lawsuits The number of people confirmed to have been killed in the collapse of a Miami-area condominium tower last month has reached 86, Miami-Dade county mayor Daniella Levine Cava said on Saturday. No survivors have been pulled alive from the ruins since the first few hours after the tower partially caved in on itself early on 24 June. Continue reading... |
| ‘Cyber-attack’ hits Iran’s transport ministry and railways Posted: 10 Jul 2021 05:51 PM PDT Message boards in train stations show cancellations though rail operator denies disruptions Websites of Iran's transport and urbanisation ministry went out of service on Saturday after a "cyber-disruption" in computer systems, the official IRNA news agency reported. On Friday, Iran's railways also appeared to come under cyber-attack, with messages about alleged train delays or cancellations posted on display boards at stations across the country. Electronic tracking of trains across Iran reportedly failed. Continue reading... |
| ‘Growing risks’: Hong Kong pro-democracy group scales down Posted: 10 Jul 2021 09:14 PM PDT Organisation known for annual Tiananmen vigil lets go of all paid staff and halves its steering committee One of Hong Kong's most established pro-democracy civic organisations has said it is letting go its paid staff and halving the size of its steering committee after Beijing stepped up its crackdown on opposition activity. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China is best known for its annual rally and candlelight vigil remembering those killed in the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Continue reading... |
| US community colleges see ‘chilling’ decline in enrollment during pandemic Posted: 10 Jul 2021 03:00 AM PDT Experts worried about long-term impact on low-income and non-white Americans, populations community colleges tend to serve David Ramirez, a student at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, California, struggled with balancing work and classes during the pandemic. Ramirez, who works at Starbucks, worked at least 30 hours a week in addition to his classes. He wasn't alone. The number of students enrolled in community colleges – local educational establishments that offer two-year courses and are often seen as an affordable stepping stone to higher education – was down 9.5% this past spring, about 476,000 fewer students than in spring 2020, according to National Student Clearinghouse data released last month. Continue reading... |
| Can Biden keep the left happy as he pushes key legislation? Posted: 10 Jul 2021 05:58 AM PDT
It is one of the most delicate balancing acts in American politics: how to keep together a Democratic party whose lawmakers range from the democratic socialism of the New York congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez to the staunch conservatism of the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin. But as Joe Biden's administration has pushed both parts of his ambitious infrastructure plan through Congress, top Democratic officials and aides have made a point of working hard to keep the fractious sects of the party on Capitol Hill in check. Continue reading... |
| G20 backs crackdown on multinationals’ use of tax havens Posted: 10 Jul 2021 05:53 AM PDT Finance chiefs endorse landmark move to prevent profits being shifted to low-tax countries Finance chiefs of the G20 economies have endorsed a landmark move to stop multinationals shifting profits to tax havens and will also warn that Covid variants threaten the global economic recovery. At talks on Saturday, they also acknowledged the need to ensure fair access to vaccines in poorer countries. But a draft communique to be rubber-stamped at the meeting in Venice did not contain specific proposals on how to achieve that. Continue reading... |
| Woman, 90, infected with Alpha and Beta Covid variants at the same time Posted: 10 Jul 2021 05:46 PM PDT Researchers warn 'phenomenon is probably underestimated' after the death of woman in Belgium A 90-year-old Belgian woman who died after falling ill with Covid-19 was infected with both the Alpha and Beta variants of the coronavirus at the same time, researchers have said. The unvaccinated woman was admitted to the OLV hospital in the city of Aalst after a spate of falls in March and tested positive for Covid-19 the same day. Continue reading... |
| Ursula von der Leyen says EU has reached Covid vaccine target Posted: 10 Jul 2021 04:40 AM PDT Commission president says EU has delivered enough vaccine to inoculate 70% of adults in the bloc The EU has delivered enough coronavirus vaccine doses to member states to reach a target to fully vaccinate at least 70% of adults in the bloc, the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a statement on Saturday. Von der Leyen, who had tweeted on 9 May that the EU was on track to meet its goal of inoculating 70% of adults by summer, urged EU countries to increase vaccinations and said about 500m doses would be distributed across the union by Sunday. Continue reading... |
| More sex. Fewer fights. Has the pandemic actually been good for relationships? Posted: 10 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT A poll finds American adults are happy with their partnerships, perhaps because lockdown has pushed couples to grow From the earliest days of the pandemic, experts anticipated that the stress of Covid-19 would wreak havoc on romantic relationships (and in some cases, they were right). But one recent survey suggests what few people could have predicted: for many of the couples that persevered, the pandemic may have actually improved the relationship. According to a national poll released in February by Monmouth University, a whopping 70% of romantically committed American adults are "extremely satisfied" in their relationships. This figure marks a more than 11-point increase over previous installations of the survey, which the university has conducted for more than six years. Continue reading... |
| Virgin Galactic to launch space plane with Richard Branson on board Posted: 10 Jul 2021 10:30 PM PDT The billionaire, along with two pilots and three other passengers, will reach 55 miles above Earth for about an hour July is a frantic month for the two billionaires racing to kick off space tourism, with Richard Branson's SpaceShipTwo set to launch on Sunday with the British entrepreneur on board just days ahead of rival and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in his rocket. Branson's extraterrestrial venture, Virgin Galactic, will send its space plane into sub-orbital flight on Sunday morning, aimed at reaching 55 miles above Earth at its peak altitude. Continue reading... |
| Kamala Harris faces scrutiny and tests in first six months as vice-president Posted: 10 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT The vice-president was handed what some saw as a poisoned chalice of leading the southern border response and faces 'unique hurdles' in the administration Kamala Harris looked glad to be back at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington. "The first office I ever ran for was probably the most difficult campaign I've ever been in," she recalled with laughter, "and that was freshman class representative of what was then called the liberal arts student council." Related: How Trump's big lie has been weaponized since the Capitol attack Continue reading... |
| Can facial analysis technology create a child-safe internet? Posted: 10 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT Determining a person's age online seems like an intractable problem. But new technology and laws could be on the brink of solving it Suppose you pulled out your phone this morning to post a pic to your favourite social network – let's call it Twinstabooktok – and were asked for a selfie before you could log on. The picture you submitted wouldn't be sent anywhere, the service assured you: instead, it would use state-of-the-art machine-learning techniques to work out your age. In all likelihood, once you've submitted the scan, you can continue on your merry way. If the service guessed wrong, you could appeal, though that might take a bit longer. The upside of all of this? The social network would be able to know that you were an adult user and provide you with an experience largely free of parental controls and paternalist moderation, while children who tried to sign up would be given a restricted version of the same experience. Continue reading... |
| Spooked review: exposé of murky world of private spies is a dodgy dossier itself Posted: 10 Jul 2021 10:00 PM PDT Barry Meier brings distasteful characters and episodes to light but is happy to leave out that which does not suit his aims When Christopher Steele's dossier about Donald Trump's connections to Russia was published by BuzzFeed News, the salacious part got more attention than anything else. Related: Trump told chief of staff Hitler 'did a lot of good things', book says Continue reading... |
| 10 of Britain’s prettiest seaside villages Posted: 10 Jul 2021 10:00 PM PDT Sands, seas and glorious scenery … plus ideas for the perfect bolthole near the coast A jumble of red-roofed cottages open on to a wide stretch of beach at Runswick, an under-the-radar gem. Rock pools, fossil hunting and acres of sand make it a great choice for families, and walkers can follow the Cleveland Way National Trail to Saltburn. Summer visitors should seek out the pop-up Runswick Bay Tea Garden (2 Ellerby Lane), while Runswick Bay Cottages (runswickbaycottages.co.uk) has the pick of self-catering properties. Continue reading... |
| Data, not arms, the key driver in emerging US-China cold war | Robert Reich Posted: 10 Jul 2021 03:00 AM PDT Cybersecurity comes down to which side has access to more information about the other and can utilize it best This week, shares in China's giant ride-hailing app Didi crashed by more than 20%. A few days before, Didi had raised $4.4bn in a massive IPO in New York – the biggest initial public offering by a Chinese company since Alibaba's debut in 2014. The proximate cause of Didi's crash was an announcement by China's Cyberspace Administration that it suspected Didi of illegally collecting and using personal information. Pending an investigation, it had ordered Didi to stop registering new users and removed Didi's app from China's app stores. Continue reading... |
| Africa can’t be left to go it alone when it comes to Covid vaccines | Paul Farmer and Ishaan Desai Posted: 10 Jul 2021 03:00 AM PDT Europe and the US have won the scramble for vaccines – now they must help African nations produce their own More than 3bn doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have now been administered worldwide. But as the campaign forges ahead, one continent lags far behind the rest. Africa, home to 17% of the global population, accounts for less than 2% of the shots given to date. In the scramble for vaccines, wealthy countries have come out on top, shoving Covax – the global procurement mechanism on which most of Africa relies – to the end of the queue. The continent's drive was dealt another blow when India, overwhelmed by a wave of infections, suspended the export of Oxford/AstraZeneca doses manufactured by Covax's largest supplier, the Serum Institute of India. With shipments unlikely to resume until the end of 2021, only seven out of 54 African nations are on track to immunise even 10% of their populations by September. Continue reading... |
| The light that failed: South Sudan’s ‘new dawn’ turns to utter nightmare Posted: 10 Jul 2021 10:15 PM PDT Nearly 400,000 have died since it won independence 10 years ago. Now violence looms again, within and beyond its borders Independence isn't always what it's cracked up to be. Recent additions to the family of nations, such as Kosovo and East Timor (Timor-Leste), have struggled to find their feet. In 2017, Catalonia's secessionists split their homeland in two. Scottish referendum voters took a pass in 2014. The uncomplicated glory days when "third world" liberation movements ousted colonial regimes seem a long time ago. South Sudan, which marked its 10th birthday on Friday, came late to Africa's independence party – the product of a complex 2005 deal to end Sudan's decades-old civil war. Barack Obama, seeking the credit, waxed lyrical. "Today is a reminder that after the darkness of war, the light of a new dawn is possible," he declared. Continue reading... |
| What does the Chinese military want with your unborn baby’s genetic data? Posted: 10 Jul 2021 06:00 AM PDT The BGI group has used data from its popular prenatal test to help the People's Liberation Army improve 'population quality' but they are far from the only ones normalizing eugenics Could data harvested from millions of pregnant women pave the way for genetically enhanced super-soldiers? According to a recent Reuters investigation, BGI Group, the manufacturers of a popular prenatal test, is working with the Chinese military towards that very goal. Continue reading... |
| UFC 264: McGregor humbled by Poirier in one to cap trilogy as Trump looks on Posted: 10 Jul 2021 09:51 PM PDT
Dustin Poirier beat Conor McGregor for the second time in six months when McGregor badly injured his left ankle in the closing seconds of the first round at UFC 264 on Saturday night. The fight was stopped after the first-round bell when McGregor (22-6) was unable to continue. The biggest star in mixed martial arts never got up after falling to the canvas following a final-minute blow by Poirier (28-6), who will get the UFC's next lightweight title shot. Continue reading... |
| Nigeria spring historic upset of USA men’s basketball in Olympic tune-up Posted: 10 Jul 2021 07:22 PM PDT
This is not how USA Basketball expected to open their Olympic summer. Nigeria probably didn't expect it, either. If there was any expectation of invincibility for the Americans heading into the Tokyo Olympics, it's already gone – after Nigeria shocked the US, 90-87, on Saturday night. Continue reading... |
| Argentina stun Brazil in Copa América final to end 28-year trophy drought Posted: 10 Jul 2021 07:09 PM PDT
Two long droughts ended on Saturday at the Copa América final: Argentina won their first major title since 1993 after a 1-0 win against Brazil. And Lionel Messi finally lifted his first major trophy for the national team, filling in one of the biggest gaps in his decorated career. Argentina's winning goal at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro came in the 22nd minute after Rodrigo de Paul made a long pass to Ángel Di Maria. The 33-year-old veteran striker counted on some sloppy defending from left-back Renan Lodi to take control and lob it past goalkeeper Ederson. Continue reading... |
| Ashleigh Barty battles past Karolina Pliskova to clinch first Wimbledon title Posted: 10 Jul 2021 08:05 AM PDT
There was nothing in the world that was going to stop Ashleigh Barty from taking the Wimbledon title she had arrived on these shores to claim. Not the weight of the moment that tested her to her mental limits, nor the force of history amidst a run inspired by her mentor and idol, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, whose influence even spread to the scallop-patterned dress she wore, and not even the formidable, resilient opponent across the net. The 25-year-old Barty won her second grand slam title by riding her nerves in a desperately tense contest between two world number ones, recovering after failing to serve out the match in the second set to beat Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3 and become the first Australian woman, also a proud Indigenous woman, to win Wimbledon since Goolagong Cawley in 1980. Fifty years on from Goolagong Cawley's maiden Wimbledon title, here she stands as the most fitting successor imaginable. Continue reading... |
| Queen wishes England football team success in Euro 2020 final Posted: 10 Jul 2021 10:30 AM PDT Note to manager Gareth Southgate pays tribute to 'spirit, commitment and pride' of the Three Lions The Queen has paid tribute to the "spirit, commitment and pride" of the England football team in a good luck message ahead of the Euro 2020 final. In a short note to manager Gareth Southgate, the 95-year-old monarch sent her "good wishes" for Sunday's match against Italy at Wembley Stadium. Continue reading... |
| Bauke Mollema climbs to win as Tadej Pogacar tightens Tour de France grip Posted: 10 Jul 2021 08:18 AM PDT
The Ineos Grenadiers' hopes of dethroning Tadej Pogacar from the overall race lead in the 2021 Tour de France became a little more complicated in the stifling heat of the Pyrenean foothills after the French rider Guillaume Martin leapfrogged the podium contenders Rigoberto Urán, Jonas Vingegaard and Richard Carapaz, to move into second place overall, on the eve of a key mountain stage to Andorra. Carapaz, de facto leader of the British team after Geraint Thomas dropped out of the leading positions, has now slipped to fifth overall, five minutes and 33 seconds behind the defending champion, Pogacar. Ahead of him lie Vingegaard, of Jumbo Visma, Urán, leader of the EF Education-Nippo team, and now Martin, riding for Cofidis, who placed 11th overall in last year's Tour. Continue reading... |
| ‘He is nine years old’ – more Danes tell of being abused by England fans Posted: 10 Jul 2021 09:12 AM PDT • Danish supporters say they were verbally abused at Wembley • One fan claims England fans spat at children More Denmark fans have come forward to say they were verbally abused by England supporters at Wembley during Wednesday's Euro 2020 semi-final, with one parent describing how her nine-year-old son was "booed in the face" and that she and her husband were shouted at after the game. Imaan Madsen, a Danish citizen living in the UK, told the Observer that the family of three had not experienced any problems during the game but as they left the stadium England fans shouted "fuck Denmark" and other slurs at them. Continue reading... |
| Fukushima to ban Olympic spectators as Covid cases rise Posted: 10 Jul 2021 04:26 AM PDT U-turn deals blow to Japan's hopes of using Games to showcase recovery from 2011 tsunami The Fukushima prefecture of Japan will bar spectators from the Olympic events it hosts this summer owing to rising Covid-19 infections, its governor said on Saturday, reversing a position announced two days earlier by organisers. The decision deals another blow to Japan's hopes of using the Olympics to showcase its recovery from a devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the northern coast in 2011, destroying a nuclear power station in Fukushima in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Continue reading... |
| You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike review – the biography of Nico Posted: 10 Jul 2021 01:00 AM PDT A not always flattering portrait of the enigmatic Velvet Underground singer's troubled life and legacy In 1966, the artist Andy Warhol was booked to appear at the annual banquet for the New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry. Rather than give a speech, he brought along the Velvet Underground, the house band at his Factory studio, to perform instead. The evening marked the German model Nico's first appearance with the band, which also comprised Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Moe Tucker. As diners tucked into their main course, "the Velvets started to blast, and Nico started to wail", recalled Warhol in his book POPism. Factory gadabouts Edie Sedgwick and Gerard Malanga climbed on to the stage and danced with bullwhips, while two film-makers rushed into the room wielding bright lights and Super 8 cameras and began loudly interrogating startled attendees about their sex lives. The next day, the event – more art prank than performance – was written up in the papers, with the headline in the New York Herald Tribune declaring: "Shock Treatment for Psychiatrists." It was a pivotal night for Nico, whose presence and distinctive deep alto would raise the profile of the Velvet Underground and inject their shows with an otherworldly, melancholy glamour. It also forms a significant moment in You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone, the cultural historian Jennifer Otter Bickerdike's account of the life of Christa Päffgen (she adopted the name Nico in her late teens). Before joining the Velvet Underground, Nico had spent more than a decade working as a model and sometime actor – she appeared in Fellini's La Dolce Vita after the director spotted her standing on the set and offered her a role on the spot. But while she enjoyed the lifestyle modelling afforded her, she objected to being intellectually patronised or regarded as a blank canvas, and was uncertain about the path her life should take. Though not all the members of the Velvet Underground were thrilled at her joining – Reed didn't want her singing all his songs; Warhol said he wouldn't manage them without her – she felt at home among artists and avant-garde musicians, and her year-long spell with the band launched a career that would occupy her until her death at 49 following a bicycle accident. Continue reading... |
| Chameleon ownership and toilet maintenance: the best obscure podcasts Posted: 10 Jul 2021 02:00 AM PDT Anyone with an internet connection can make a podcast, so it's no surprise that there are a host of truly niche shows available to download Podcasting is frequently hailed as a democratic medium, meaning anyone with an internet connection and a recording device can cobble one together. For listeners, this is both a blessing and a curse: just because you can doesn't mean you should. Nonetheless, this brave new world of audio has yielded a host of unexpected themes and formats which, in ye olden days of radio, would have been laughed off the airwaves. All are testament to podcasting's indulgence of niche and, frankly, weird pursuits. Behold the crème de la crème of obscure stuff to stick in your ears. Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading... |
| The Storms of Jeremy Thomas review – Mark Cousins rides shotgun with uber-producer Posted: 10 Jul 2021 06:30 AM PDT Film-maker Cousins joins the great independent film producer on his annual car trip down to Cannes in this rapturous if indulgent portrait Ninety minutes at the sweet trolley of pure cinephilia is what's on offer in director Mark Cousins's madly – even outrageously – indulgent documentary-riff about the life and career of celebrated English film producer Jeremy Thomas, an elegant independent spirit in a corporate world. Thomas is a veritable auteur of auteurs, the godfather-slash-midwife-cum-creative enabler to some of the most exciting movies of the past 40 years, including Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, Cronenberg's Crash, Roeg's Bad Timing and many more (though I would have liked a mention of Matteo Garrone's freaky Tale of Tales).  |
| Posted: 10 Jul 2021 04:30 AM PDT The US author on writing a fictionalised version of the former first lady Laura Bush's life – and why she expected so few people to read it I was in the shower, washing my hair. It was July 2006, and I was on holiday in Massachusetts, visiting family. In my regular life, I lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where my boyfriend was finishing graduate school. I was about to turn 31, and my first novel, Prep, about a diffident girl who attends a fancy boarding school, had been published in the United States in January 2005 and become a surprise bestseller, the kind of sensation that young writers tend to hope for without usually getting to experience. I'd quickly followed up with the May 2006 publication of a second novel, The Man of My Dreams. To call this novel, about a diffident girl who does not go to a fancy boarding school, a sophomore slump would probably be generous. It turned out that the part of Prep most readers and reviewers had liked wasn't the main character – it was the class commentary and elite setting. All of which is to say that in the summer of 2006, I was feeling professional whiplash. In less than a year and a half, I'd gone from being a bit of a new literary darling to – maybe? – being a one-hit wonder. Though I'm not usually a self-conscious writer, when I futzed around with new ideas in my Philadelphia office, I felt the strange awareness of the eventual judgment that would greet whatever I now released into the world. Continue reading... |
| Bangladesh police arrest factory owner after dozens die in fire Posted: 10 Jul 2021 03:52 AM PDT Police chief says entrance was padlocked; separate inquiry looks into use of child labour at food plant Bangladeshi police have arrested the owner of a factory where at least 52 people died in an inferno, as it emerged that children as young as 11 had been working there. Police said the owner of the food factory and four of his sons were among eight people detained over the fire that broke out on Thursday and raged for more than a day. The blaze began in the evening at the five-storey Hashem Foods factory in Rupganj, just outside Dhaka. Continue reading... |
| Vancouver judge’s decision over Huawei finance chief may deepen US-China row Posted: 10 Jul 2021 03:48 AM PDT Judge refuses to admit new evidence that might have helped Meng Wanzhou avoid extradition to US The prospect of a deepening diplomatic row between the US and China has grown after a Canadian judge refused to admit new evidence that might have helped the Huawei chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, avoid extradition to the US. The arrest of Meng, the daughter of the Chinese telecommunication company's billionaire founder, has prompted a sharp deterioration in relations between Canada, the US and China. Soon after Meng's detention in Vancouver in December 2018, China arrested two Canadians in China: Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. Continue reading... |
| Mogadishu car bombing kills at least nine people, says official Posted: 10 Jul 2021 03:38 AM PDT Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for suicide attack on convoy of senior police official in Somali capital A suicide car bomb targeting a government convoy exploded at a busy junction in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing at least nine people and injuring eight others, a health official said. The convoy was carrying a senior police official, Farhan Mohamud, who survived the attack on Saturday, the government news agency reported. Continue reading... |
| ‘Where else can I make a month’s rent in two days?’: the unlikely stars of OnlyFans Posted: 10 Jul 2021 02:30 AM PDT Clarita needed to put herself through nursing school; Lex wanted to boost his income as a labourer – now they are erotic influencers on the subscriber site In many ways, Lex Lederman, 28, is a classic American family man. He owns a farm in New Hampshire, where he lives with his wife and three children (plus a sizable company of chickens, pigs and geese). He's teaching himself home renovation (plumbing, electrics, how to lay floors) and regularly helps out with homeless food charities, refugee relief, and the local high school football team. But this lifestyle has only become possible since he quit his construction job for a full-time career on OnlyFans – the content subscription service where he uploads erotic pictures and videos for his predominantly gay male fanbase. One of the biggest tech success stories of the last few years, OnlyFans was founded by British entrepreneur Tim Stokely in September 2016. "You could see the explosion of influencer marketing, but the influencers were getting paid via ad campaigns and product endorsements," he explained in an interview earlier this year. "Our thinking was always, OK, what if you could build a platform where it's similar to existing on social media, but with the key difference being the payment button?" Stokely is now worth an estimated $120m (£86m). Continue reading... |
| Fit in my 40s: an ice bath feels great (once the agony wears off) | Zoe Williams Posted: 09 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT Immersing yourself in cold water brings many benefits, even if you only stay in for one minute – or, as I did the first time, 10 seconds The ice bath found its modern pioneer in a man called Wim Hof. An inspiringly beardy gentleman with 1.9 million followers on Instagram, he proselytises cold exposure as part of a suite of self-improving exercises; yoga and mindfulness among them. But it's the ice that he's known for, because he's just so rock-hard, and often nearly naked, in situations where you'd want not just regular clothes but also long johns and probably a big winter coat, too. Martin Petrus, a breathwork coach and author of the Cold Exposure Guide, described to me how to dunk yourself into this enterprise. The problem with incredibly cold water is that every synapse of your sorry mind urges you not to enter, whatever the benefits. "The best way is to go very slowly, and progress only when you feel ready," he says. Continue reading... |
| ‘They help us stay connected’: how Māori games enthusiasts are reviving tradition Posted: 09 Jul 2021 01:00 PM PDT Māori games were often designed to teach new skills and advocates say they also offer a haven from more serious concerns Hundreds of people gathered recently at Umupuia Marae in the New Zealand town of Maraetai to celebrate the launch of Kaupapa – a word-description board game for learners and speakers of te reo Māori. It is the latest addition to an ever-increasing range of taonga tākaro, or Māori games. Whether you play in Māori or English, it involves each player taking turns to describe actions, objects, places, natural phenomena, or names, while their teammates try to correctly guess the words. Continue reading... |
| California: strong winds form fire tornado during Tennant blaze – video Posted: 10 Jul 2021 06:06 AM PDT Newly released footage of the Tennant fire in California, filmed on 29 June, shows a fire tornado near the Klamath national forest. Large wildfires can heat air so much that huge clouds develop. In strong winds, these can rotate and sometimes produce a tornado, or fire whirl. California's wildfire season is already more extreme than in 2020. Officials say the length of the fire season has increased by 75 days across the Sierras, in keeping with a rise in the extent of forest fires statewide  |
| The big picture: Harry Gruyaert’s sun-dappled Spanish picnic Posted: 10 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT The photographer delights in colour contrasts as he makes a psychedelic pattern of al fresco eating If you were telling the history of photography through the Magnum agency you might compare Henri Cartier-Bresson's famous pictures of families picnicking on the banks of the River Marne, taken in 1938, with this image by Harry Gruyaert, of families eating in the sunshine in Extremadura, Spain in 1998. Cartier-Bresson set the black-and-white documentary tone of the agency he co-founded for several decades. His picnickers had a belt-and-braces solidity, apparently timeless working men and women on their Sunday off. His camera gave them gravitas and a sort of idealised humanity. In Gruyaert's picture the social history of the families themselves seems of little interest; his eye is entirely for the play of light and colour. He might take his inspiration from Gerard Manley Hopkins: "Glory be to God for dappled things!" Some of the elder statesmen at Magnum tried to block Gruyaert's election to the agency when his work was proposed in 1981. They had never admitted to their democratic cabal a photographer who worked primarily in colour, which they associated with advertising images, not photojournalism. Cartier-Bresson had famously declared colour pictures to be "something indigestible, the negation of all photography's three-dimensional values" – and here was a man, Gruyaert, who had partly made his name taking pictures of newfangled colour television screens. Continue reading... |
| 90 minutes from glory: England’s road to the final in pictures Posted: 10 Jul 2021 03:11 AM PDT Accompanied by extracts from our writers' coverage, here is a photographic celebration of England's progress, from the opening win against Croatia to beating Denmark in the semi-final England's passage through to the final of Euro 2020 offers an uplifting narrative in difficult times, with a likable coach and team offering excitement, passion, purpose and hope. They entered the tournament with plenty of doubters, though, and even in the group stage they took a while to convince. Continue reading... |
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