The Guardian |
- Intense fighting around Severodonetsk as Zelenskiy says Donbas is ‘hell’
- Bill Barr in ‘active discussions’ to testify before Capitol attack panel – live
- Baby formula crisis: Abbott enriched shareholders as factory needed repairs, records show
- The Trump loyalist who could be a major threat to US democracy
- Elon Musk denies he sexually harassed attendant on private jet in 2016
- Global heating is cutting sleep across the world, study finds
- Rebel Wilson claims male co-star sexually harassed her: ‘It was disgusting’
- Dave Chappelle attack suspect charged with attempted murder over roommate stabbing
- Biden security agents sent home from Seoul after reported drunken assault
- What is monkeypox and should you be worried?
- Ancient forest found at bottom of huge sinkhole in China
- Armageddon Time: film featuring Trump family is attack on capitalism, says maker
- Why the long face? Artist pilloried after creating half-horse, half-man sculpture
- ‘I want Johnny Rotten to attack it!’ Danny Boyle on his shocking Sex Pistols saga
- Experience: I’m a 79-year-old world champion powerlifter
- Betty Gilpin: ‘I am more than the sum of my cheekbones and areolas’
- David Sedaris on the death of his father: ‘I don’t think the coffin could have been any uglier’
- Facing Life: the project showing the cracks in California’s incarceration system
- Oh no. Is Jeff Bezos preparing to run for office? | Hamilton Nolan
- Conservatives want to make the US more like Hungary. A terrifying thought | Andrew Gawthorpe
- Extraditing Julian Assange would be a gift to secretive, oppressive regimes | Peter Oborne
- Digested week: this laissez-faire version of the Queen is an inspiration | Lucy Mangan
- Boris Johnson and I agreed on Northern Ireland. What happened to that good faith? | Leo Varadkar
- Premier League: 10 things to look out for on final day of the season
- Dortmund sack Rose, Origi’s Liverpool exit confirmed: football countdown – live!
- Chess: Carlsen goes head to head with Ding Liren as world top two meet
- Will Lucasfilm’s strange new rules help or hinder Star Wars?
- Top Gun: Maverick and the unstoppable rise of the ‘legacy sequel’
- Mission impossible? My red-carpet quest to thank Tom Cruise for his cake | Stuart Heritage
- Is Kim a secret crime kingpin? The various ways Better Call Saul might finish
- You be the judge: should my husband stop dusting with a dry cloth?
- A question of style: will Top Gun’s apple-pie nostalgia work its magic in 2022? | Jess Cartner-Morley
- I appear successful, but since having kids I feel I’ve lost myself | Ask Annalisa Barbieri
- Can you give yourself a temporary facelift with tape and elastic?
- Los Angeles hotel workers fight for panic buttons amid sexual harassment
- North Korea’s Covid caseload passes 2 million amid global concern about regime’s pandemic plan
- PM’s father Stanley Johnson ‘secures French citizenship’
- Millennium Falcon exhibition opens in Welsh town where ship was built
- ‘Sleepwalking through extinction’: China urged to end delays to Cop15 summit
- Australian election: voters to go to polls in battle of ‘bulldozer’ and ‘builder’
- Spain braces for heatwave of ‘extraordinary intensity’
- Under the volcano: a year after Mount Nyiragongo’s eruption, people of Goma start to rebuild their lives
- Cannes film festival and Cape Canaveral: Friday’s best photos
| Intense fighting around Severodonetsk as Zelenskiy says Donbas is ‘hell’ Posted: 20 May 2022 08:10 AM PDT Russian forces thought to be trying to cut one of the main supply routes to Ukrainian defenders in the area Intense fighting has been reported around the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk as Russian forces appear to be stepping up an offensive to encircle its Ukrainian defenders. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the eastern provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk – known collectively as the Donbas – were being turned into "hell" and warned that what he called the "final stage of the war" would be the bloodiest. Continue reading... |
| Bill Barr in ‘active discussions’ to testify before Capitol attack panel – live Posted: 20 May 2022 07:53 AM PDT
We're still waiting for the final result from Tuesday's Republican senate primary in Pennsylvania, in which Donald Trump's endorsed candidate, celebrity TV doctor Mehmet Oz, and former treasury official David McCormick are separated by only a few hundred votes with 99% of the count in. But there was a clear winner in the race to become the Republican nominee for state governor in November's midterms - Trump loyalist and big lie proponent Doug Mastriano. Continue reading... |
| Baby formula crisis: Abbott enriched shareholders as factory needed repairs, records show Posted: 20 May 2022 06:23 AM PDT Economists condemn 'rot' in system after manufacturer issued billions in stock buybacks despite problems at Michigan factory A deadly bacteria outbreak in baby formula and an ongoing formula shortage stem from issues some economists characterize as "rot" in the nation's economic system: prioritization of shareholder wealth and consolidation. The embattled baby formula producer Abbott used windfall profits to enrich investors instead of replacing failing equipment that was likely injecting the dangerous bacteria into its infant nutritional products, financial records and whistleblower documents show. Continue reading... |
| The Trump loyalist who could be a major threat to US democracy Posted: 20 May 2022 02:00 AM PDT Doug Mastriano, who won a Pennsylvania primary, promoted Trump's voter fraud myth. If he becomes governor, could he block a result he doesn't like? As Donald Trump tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, there were few officials more willing to help than Doug Mastriano, then a little-known Pennsylvania state senator. Mastriano, a retired army colonel first elected in 2019, regularly communicated with Trump in the weeks after the election. He helped arrange a pseudo-hearing weeks after election day in which the Trump campaign presented baseless claims of fraud. Mastriano helped facilitate a plan to appoint a fake set of electors in Pennsylvania for Trump after Joe Biden won the state by more than 80,000 votes. He embraced and promoted a fringe, anti-democratic legal theory that state legislatures can override the results of an election and appoint its own electors. He was also at the US capitol on January 6, and helped bus supporters there. He pushed an unofficial review of election equipment that prompted the state to decertify election machines in a county. He has been subpoenaed by the January 6 committee. He supported efforts to decertify the election, which is legally impossible. Continue reading... |
| Elon Musk denies he sexually harassed attendant on private jet in 2016 Posted: 20 May 2022 03:31 AM PDT Billionaire says report is 'utterly untrue' after allegation he paid $250k in 2018 to settle claim Elon Musk has denied claims in a news report that he sexually harassed a flight attendant on a private jet in 2016, calling the accusations "utterly untrue". SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Musk, paid the female attendant $250,000 (£200,000) in a severance settlement after a sexual misconduct claim against the world's richest person, according to the news website Business Insider. Continue reading... |
| Global heating is cutting sleep across the world, study finds Posted: 20 May 2022 08:00 AM PDT Data shows people finding it harder to sleep, especially women and older people, with serious health impacts Rising temperatures driven by the climate crisis are cutting the sleep of people across the world, the largest study to date has found. Good sleep is critical to health and wellbeing. But global heating is increasing night-time temperatures, even faster than in the day, making it harder to sleep. The analysis revealed that the average global citizen is already losing 44 hours of sleep a year, leading to 11 nights with less than seven hours' sleep, a standard benchmark of sufficient sleep. Continue reading... |
| Rebel Wilson claims male co-star sexually harassed her: ‘It was disgusting’ Posted: 20 May 2022 06:30 AM PDT Pitch Perfect star says in interview that the incident occurred before #MeToo and the outpour of similar stories Rebel Wilson has claimed that a male co-star sexually harassed her. In an interview with People, the Pitch Perfect and Cats star had said that the incident occurred before #MeToo and the outpour of similar stories. Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading... |
| Dave Chappelle attack suspect charged with attempted murder over roommate stabbing Posted: 20 May 2022 06:35 AM PDT Isaiah Lee, 23, pleads not guilty over stabbing that took place in December, months before incident during Chappelle's standup set A man charged in an on-stage attack of comedian Dave Chappelle has now also been charged with the attempted murder of a roommate months earlier, authorities said on Thursday. Isaiah Lee, 23, has pleaded not guilty in the December stabbing that occurred during a fight at a Los Angeles transitional living facility, the LA county district attorney's office said. Continue reading... |
| Biden security agents sent home from Seoul after reported drunken assault Posted: 20 May 2022 07:30 AM PDT Unnamed team member reportedly got into dispute with South Korean citizen outside hotel where Biden is expected to stay Joe Biden's visit to South Korea and Japan has got off to a bad start with two Secret Service agents set to be sent home after one was accused of drunkenly assaulting a South Korean the day before the president arrived in Seoul, officials said. Earlier reports said a member of his advance security detail was arrested for allegedly assaulting a South Korean citizen in Seoul. Continue reading... |
| What is monkeypox and should you be worried? Posted: 20 May 2022 06:21 AM PDT With cases being identified around the world, experts are looking for the source of the infections and how it is being spread With monkeypox being detected in countries from the US to Australia and France to the UK, we take a look at the situation and whether it is cause for concern. Continue reading... |
| Ancient forest found at bottom of huge sinkhole in China Posted: 20 May 2022 05:11 AM PDT Scientists believe site in Guangxi with trees up to 40 metres tall may contain undiscovered species An ancient forest has been found at the bottom of a giant sinkhole in China, with trees up to 40 metres (130ft) tall. Scientists believe it could contain undiscovered plant and animal species. Continue reading... |
| Armageddon Time: film featuring Trump family is attack on capitalism, says maker Posted: 20 May 2022 07:44 AM PDT New movie set in 80s US and starring Succession star Jeremy Strong with Jessica Chastain as Donald Trump's sister, traces fault lines of political and social division back to Reagan era A new film set in 1980s New York, in which Donald Trump's property mogul father, Fred, and high-achieving lawyer sister Maryanne appear as characters is a direct attack on late-stage capitalism, according to its principal cast and director. Armageddon Time, which is premiering at the Cannes film festival and stars Succession's Jeremy Strong alongside Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain as Maryanne Trump, in a cameo, is set during the run-up to the election of Ronald Reagan as president and examines the layers of privilege that determine the future of children attending different schools in the same city. Continue reading... |
| Why the long face? Artist pilloried after creating half-horse, half-man sculpture Posted: 19 May 2022 09:00 PM PDT Aidan Harte was thrilled to be asked to make a statue of a púca, a mythological mischievous spirit, but then his troubles began In Irish mythology, a púca is a mischievous, shapeshifting spirit that can take the form of a horse and entice unwary travellers on to its back for a wild ride. Aidan Harte knows how that feels. Eighteen months ago the sculptor was commissioned to create a 2-metre tall bronze statue of a púca for the town square in Ennistymon, County Clare. Continue reading... |
| ‘I want Johnny Rotten to attack it!’ Danny Boyle on his shocking Sex Pistols saga Posted: 20 May 2022 05:00 AM PDT How do you make a sympathetic TV show about the most cancelled, most banned, most shamelessly vile band ever – when your cast have barely heard of them and the frontman is taking you to court? The director reveals all Danny Boyle is sitting in his kitchen sounding faintly surprised that his latest project has been made at all. "It's so not the story that everybody wants to be told," he says, "but it is the story that should be told." Pistol, a six-part miniseries, certainly isn't the first drama about the Sex Pistols. There was Alex Cox's 1986 movie Sid and Nancy, as well as The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle – a game attempt by the band's manager Malcolm McLaren to claim the whole thing was a brilliantly orchestrated money-making scheme. But Boyle's is by far the most ambitious. It is based on Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol, Steve Jones's fantastic, occasionally harrowing autobiography, which takes readers from the guitarist's horrendous childhood (he was sexually abused by his stepfather) to that infamous, expletive-filled appearance the band made on ITV's Today show. It then covers the notoriety that followed, including the band's messy collapse during a US tour and the horrific aftermath, which culminated in bassist Sid Vicious dying of a heroin overdose while on bail, charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. Continue reading... |
| Experience: I’m a 79-year-old world champion powerlifter Posted: 20 May 2022 02:00 AM PDT People look at me and say, 'She won't be able to lift that.' I like surprising them I started powerlifting when I was 65. I worked in real estate in Michigan for about 35 years, and when I retired I decided I wanted to lose a bit of weight. A friend's husband, Art Little, who is a personal trainer, invited me to his gym. He introduced me to powerlifting and is still my trainer now. The first time I went, he gave me a broomstick to lift. The next day I told myself I wouldn't return, but I heard a voice in my head telling me to go back. So, I ended up returning day after day. After a few weeks, my trainer encouraged me to go to a tournament to watch others compete. I was really amazed by all these young women, but there was no one of my age. I asked my trainer if he thought I could do it and he said, "Oh, sure." Continue reading... |
| Betty Gilpin: ‘I am more than the sum of my cheekbones and areolas’ Posted: 20 May 2022 03:00 AM PDT After years of playing bimbo roles, Betty Gilpin found her voice in Glow. Now with an essay collection and a feminist take on Watergate, she's free to make 'weird choices' Betty Gilpin has a succinct way of describing what she sees as an "overcorrection" to female characters on screen. "I used to be a bimbo with tits. Suddenly I'm a Magic 8 ball with tits," she says, referring to the child's toy that tells fortunes. She clarifies: "I'm 35. The roles that I played 10 years ago used to be the bimbo with no answers. Now, even though I'm playing the therapist wife, I have all the answers about my husband's problems at his Nasa job. Which is not really realistic, either! It's just making me one-dimensional in a different way." Perhaps more than most actors, Gilpin has spent a lot of time analysing her industry's treatment of women. Before her thrice Emmy-nominated role in Netflix's prematurely cancelled female wrestling dramedy Glow, she spent her early career mostly smiling, nodding, taking her top off and being zipped into body bags (including on one occasion being accidentally left zipped inside one after the director called cut on the set of Law & Order). Continue reading... |
| David Sedaris on the death of his father: ‘I don’t think the coffin could have been any uglier’ Posted: 20 May 2022 05:00 AM PDT Lou Sedaris had always baffled his children. So when he died at 98, where would they begin with his funeral? Ten days before my father died, he suffered a small stroke and fell. Or perhaps he fell and then had the stroke. Either way, it surprised me when people asked what was the cause of death. I mean, he was 98! Wasn't that cause enough? I visited him shortly after his fall, flew down from New York with Amy and Hugh. Gretchen and Paul met us at Springmoor, but he was essentially gone by then. There was a livid gash on his forehead, and he was propped up in his bed, which seemed ridiculously short, like a cut-down one you'd see in a department store. His eyes were closed, his mouth was open, and behind his lips swayed a glistening curtain of spittle. Continue reading... |
| Facing Life: the project showing the cracks in California’s incarceration system Posted: 20 May 2022 03:00 AM PDT A documentary follows the paths of eight people who served decades of their life sentences behind bars, only to be released with no resources Imagine being one of the more than 200,000 people in America sentenced to life in prison. And then, after decades behind bars, laws are changed, your sentence is shortened, and the parole board approves of your release. You become tasked with reentering society, finding stable housing, employment and a healthy social life. These are things that everyone seeks, formerly incarcerated or not. But for people who've spent time behind bars, and more specifically the people who were serving life sentences – the lifers – these challenges can be insurmountable. Continue reading... |
| Oh no. Is Jeff Bezos preparing to run for office? | Hamilton Nolan Posted: 20 May 2022 05:51 AM PDT When an unaccountable billionaire starts putting himself out in the world as a Public Policy Thinker, alarm bells should ring Jeff Bezos is getting nervous. You can tell because he's going on Twitter more, the universal activity of those who are channeling their restlessness in an unhealthy way. This should make the rest of us nervous, too. This is a big, flashing warning sign that America's richest union-buster is about to throw himself more forcefully into politics – an inevitability that could have many bad outcomes, but only one good one. For the past week, the centi-billionaire Amazon founder has been firing off tweets not about his typical, anodyne interests – improved penis-shaped rocket design, luxury head wax – but rather about his policy opinions. Though Bezos (or whichever PR drone drafts his tweets) writes with the bloodlessness of a man who has attended too many management consulting meetings, it is easy to imagine the seething anger that must have been present in order to prompt him to produce them in the first place. On May 13, he criticized one of Joe Biden's economic pronouncements, tweeting that "Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection." Continue reading... |
| Conservatives want to make the US more like Hungary. A terrifying thought | Andrew Gawthorpe Posted: 20 May 2022 05:49 AM PDT For the US right, Orbán's Hungary – unconstrained by an independent media, democratic institutions or racial diversity – isn't a cautionary tale, but an aspiration Long a safe space where conservatives could say what they really thought, this year the Conservative Political Action Conference (Cpac) is hosting an event in Budapest, its first ever on the European continent. Attendees will be treated to panels about "western civilization under attack" and be addressed by American conservative luminaries including the former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and media figures like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens. That Hungary has become an authoritarian state whose leader, Viktor Orbán, has deconstructed Hungarian democracy and become a close ally of Vladimir Putin doesn't seem to faze anyone involved. In fact, it's the whole point. The embrace of Orbán as a role model by many on the right seems at first glance puzzling. After all, conservatives are not known for welcoming lessons from Europeans on how America ought to be run. But it becomes more explicable when you realize that for years, Orbán has been playing out the fantasies of Cpac's attendees, unconstrained by the independent institutions, impartial media and racial diversity which American conservatives see as their foils at home. Where Orbán has gone, American conservatives want to follow. And increasingly, they are doing so. Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University and the host of the podcast America Explained Continue reading... |
| Extraditing Julian Assange would be a gift to secretive, oppressive regimes | Peter Oborne Posted: 20 May 2022 07:13 AM PDT Handing over the WikiLeaks founder to the US will benefit those around the world who want to evade scrutiny In the course of the next few days, Priti Patel will make the most important ruling on free speech made by any home secretary in recent memory. She must resolve whether to comply with a US request to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges. The consequences for Assange will be profound. Once in the US he will almost certainly be sent to a maximum-security prison for the rest of his life. He will die in jail. Peter Oborne is a journalist and author. His latest book, Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong about Islam, is available now Continue reading... |
| Digested week: this laissez-faire version of the Queen is an inspiration | Lucy Mangan Posted: 20 May 2022 03:17 AM PDT Elizabeth shrugged, a final flourish in the Wagatha Christie trial, and why my son will go to the school disco I have just got back from a gorgeous weekend in Bath, after doing a book event with proper writers Marian Keyes and Nina Stibbe at the literary festival. I was high as a kite on my return. Because sure, I love to talk about books and writing, meet amazing authors and fellow bookworms, and revel in the cornucopia of delights offered by reading temples such as Toppings bookshop and Mr B's Emporium. But do you know what I really, really love? A hotel. An hotel, if you're a bit of a twunt, but either way – a place where you can go and eat, drink, sleep between clean sheets, shower in an immaculate bathroom, breakfast from a variety of increasingly decadent choices (fruit-toast-cereal-full-English-attenuated-as-best-suits-you-and-any-hangover's-requirements) and repeat without having to do anything at all for yourself. One 24-hour span on your own in a hotel is equivalent to one week's holiday en famille. The restorative bang for your buck ratio is unsurpassed. At least until a friend remarked that this was because "staying at a hotel is the equivalent of having a wife". And this irrefutable truth unrestored me immediately and absolutely. Continue reading... |
| Boris Johnson and I agreed on Northern Ireland. What happened to that good faith? | Leo Varadkar Posted: 19 May 2022 10:00 PM PDT The EU's flexibility has been met by the UK government talking about scrapping the protocol and breaching international law
In October 2019 I met Boris Johnson in the Wirral. It was an appropriately "neutral" venue, and I was happy to meet the prime minister in the north-west of England. At the time, controversy surrounded the backstop, which the European Union had negotiated with the former prime minister Theresa May. This mechanism was designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland, and to protect Ireland's place in the EU single market while respecting Northern Ireland's place in the UK's internal market. It would have kept the whole of the United Kingdom close to the European single market on regulations and customs rules, thus removing the need for many of the checks between Britain and Northern Ireland that are currently required. May's commitment to the union was so strong and genuine that she was willing to opt for a "soft" Brexit to protect it. I was keen to hear whether Johnson had any suggestions that could resolve the impasse, and perhaps develop into an alternative to the backstop. We had a very good meeting, much of it conducted in private, one-on-one. We both wanted a deal. I felt that we understood each other's needs and red lines. A crucial point was democratic consent: we both agreed that only the Northern Ireland assembly should be allowed to revoke any solution that we agreed. Leo Varadkar is Ireland's tánaiste (deputy prime minister), and was taoiseach during Brexit negotiations Continue reading... |
| Premier League: 10 things to look out for on final day of the season Posted: 20 May 2022 01:23 AM PDT Will City or Liverpool be champions? Burnley or Leeds to go down? And surely Spurs won't lose at Norwich … will they? This season's final-day title battle will have an air of familiarity as Manchester City look to pip Liverpool to the post for the third time in the last decade. Steven Gerrard will be in the opposition dugout at the stadium where the greatest finale of all played out 10 years ago. Folklore is in the air, but Pep Guardiola might feel frustrated that it has come to this. City could have few complaints with their draw at West Ham, digging in to rescue a vital point after a disastrous first half – but had Riyad Mahrez scored his late penalty, Liverpool would have been left needing snookers. Lukasz Fabianski's fine save should not be overlooked, but the outcome highlights a curious weakness in Guardiola's attacking machine. In the six seasons since he took charge, City have scored 34 of 50 spot-kicks awarded – the worst conversion rate among the 'big six' clubs. Even Sergio Agüero was guilty of the odd aberration but since his departure, Guardiola has struggled to settle on a penalty taker. Erling Haaland will bring a 92% success rate with him next season, but for now, City fans will hope another late spot-kick is not required. NMc Manchester City v Aston Villa, Sunday 4pm Liverpool v Wolves, Sunday 4pm Continue reading... |
| Dortmund sack Rose, Origi’s Liverpool exit confirmed: football countdown – live! Posted: 20 May 2022 08:23 AM PDT
Some perspective on the Bundesliga, after all the handwringing about Bayern Munich making things uncompetitive by winning 10 league titles in a row. Yes, it would probably be good for the league if Dortmund, or Bayer Leverkusen, or, well, no, not RB Leipzig, could knock Bayern off their perch. But Frankfurt are Europa League champions, there's a left-field, clash-of-cultures DFB-Pokal final between SC Freiburg and Leipzig coming up this weekend and, all in all, the matchday experience in Germany remains unrivalled. It's almost as if supporters having democratic influence over their clubs via the 50+1 rule – Leipzig aside, of course – is a good thing for fan culture. Continue reading... |
| Chess: Carlsen goes head to head with Ding Liren as world top two meet Posted: 20 May 2022 12:00 AM PDT China's Ding is the new favourite for next month's Candidates after Alireza Firouzja, 18, failed in Bucharest, and the 29-year-old will play the world No 1 at least once during the Chessable Masters A head to head between the world champion and the leading pretender to the throne can be a game to savour. Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren are both playing in the online Chessable Masters, which began on Thursday with an all-play-all of 16, followed next week by a knockout of the top eight. Carlsen and Ding are paired in Sunday evening's 15th and final all-play-all round, but even if both are already qualified there could still be a battle as Carlsen always wants to be top seeded for the knockout stage. There they would be likely to meet again, either in Tuesday's semi-finals or in the two-day final on Wednesday and Thursday. Continue reading... |
| Will Lucasfilm’s strange new rules help or hinder Star Wars? Posted: 20 May 2022 02:22 AM PDT The studio has decided never to recast familiar old characters – but does this misunderstand the space saga's very appeal? Star Wars has a new set of rules, and it's nothing to do with what the Jedi and Sith are permitted to do to stay on the right side of the Force. Kathleen Kennedy , head of Lucasfilm,has told Vanity Fair that the studio no longer thinks it is acceptable to recast legacy characters from the original trilogy, as it did when Alden Ehrenreich was cast as Han Solo in the misfiring 2018 spinoff film. "Some people have talked about how Solo should have been a TV show. But even doing Solo as a TV show without Harrison Ford as Han Solo … it's the same thinking," Kennedy said. "Maybe I should have recognised this before. We would never make Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford. Having just finished the fifth movie, there wasn't a day I wasn't on set where I wasn't like, 'Yes – this is Indiana Jones.'" Continue reading... |
| Top Gun: Maverick and the unstoppable rise of the ‘legacy sequel’ Posted: 20 May 2022 06:00 AM PDT With Avatar and Spinal Tap films on the way, does the flurry of belated follow-ups typify Hollywood's aversion to risk? Next week, Hollywood will take an estimated $300m gamble on Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to a film released 36 years ago. Right now, one of the hottest projects at the Cannes film festival market, where rights are sold to as-yet-unmade films – is the sequel to This Is Spinal Tap, a film released 38 years ago. This Christmas we'll get the sequel to James Cameron's blockbuster Avatar, which in contrast is practically sprinting to the gate a mere 13 years after its first appearance. In between, this summer will see the arrival of The Railway Children Return, a sequel to the beloved family classic, 52 years later. Reboots, remakes and sequels have been Hollywood's life blood for decades now, but the profusion of "belated sequels" appears to be reaching epidemic proportions, where even the most ancient material can be picked up and dusted down for a new audience. Top Gun: Maverick, in which Tom Cruise revisits his 80s hotshot navy pilot character in middle age, joins the likes of Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, Jurassic World, Rambo, Mad Max and Star Wars in attempting to convert fan nostalgia for a successful franchise into a new mass-appeal blockbuster. Continue reading... |
| Mission impossible? My red-carpet quest to thank Tom Cruise for his cake | Stuart Heritage Posted: 20 May 2022 04:33 AM PDT Last Christmas, Tom Cruise sent me two cakes. This week, I went to the Top Gun: Maverick premiere to repay him. Here is my story Some months ago, after waging a shameless and one-sided year-long campaign, I received a cake from Tom Cruise. The legend goes that he does this to hundreds of people every Christmas: his crews, his castmates, obnoxious journalists without any basic dignity, they all receive a large white chocolate bundt (and Christmas tree decoration) in a box. It was a lovely gift. But something about it nagged away at me. Was it really from Tom Cruise? Did Cruise one day sprint into his manager's office, slam down a rolled-up copy of the Guardian and yell: "This kid wrote about me eating some curry. Send him a cake! Send him two!"? Or did Tom Cruise have absolutely nothing to do with it? Did all my hard work simply trigger a Google alert in a publicist's office somewhere? Continue reading... |
| Is Kim a secret crime kingpin? The various ways Better Call Saul might finish Posted: 20 May 2022 02:31 AM PDT The miniature season finale of Netflix's Breaking Bad prequel is upon us, and we're expecting drama. What will happen to Kim? And what does Jimmy really deserve?
A month ago, I wrote about Better Call Saul's final stretch. The crux of the piece was that the show has long revelled in telling a story as slowly as possible; how it steadfastly refuses to cut corners by denying us a single element of its overarching narrative. But with so much left to tell, and such a short amount of time to do so, I thought that was all over. This last season was going to be a full-blast rocket ship, I figured, and we would all have to strap in or miss out. Clearly, I was wrong. Rather than rush to its big finale, Better Call Saul's six most recent episodes have been as methodical as usual, with just about every character meticulously plotting out various unexplained endgames in granular detail. Jimmy and Kim have spent the entire season piecing together an elaborate plot to bring down Howard Hamlin. Lalo Salamanca is roaming the world as part of an impressive big-picture scheme to take revenge on Gus Fring. Fring is busy, too, fortifying himself against the inevitable attack. Lots of pieces are in motion – but Better Call Saul is being exceptionally cagey about where they will end up. Continue reading... |
| You be the judge: should my husband stop dusting with a dry cloth? Posted: 20 May 2022 12:00 AM PDT She insists using a wet cloth is the right way; he says a dry one is fine. You decide who is right in this domestic dust-up He thinks it's fine to just give things a quick once over with a dry cloth – but this is pointless Continue reading... |
| Posted: 20 May 2022 08:00 AM PDT The original film's James Dean T-shirts and flying jackets harked back to a safer, more wholesome era. Three decades later, its sequel will try the same trick Flicking through a magazine one day in 1983, Jerry Bruckheimer found himself transfixed by a photo. "It was a picture of this helmet with a visor down and a plane reflected in the visor, and then two airplanes beside the helmet, and the guy's in a cockpit," the Hollywood producer later recalled. Three years later, the movie pitch that Bruckheimer dreamed up in that moment – "Star Wars on Earth" – became Top Gun, a blockbuster that grossed $350m from a $15m budget, sent Berlin's Take My Breath Away to No 1 in six countries, turned a young Tom Cruise into the biggest movie star in the world, and made Ray-Ban's Aviator sunglasses into a bulletproof summer style icon. Continue reading... |
| I appear successful, but since having kids I feel I’ve lost myself | Ask Annalisa Barbieri Posted: 20 May 2022 06:00 AM PDT Squashing your anger down is exhausting. Try using your free time to do what makes you feel good, and see what shifts I have struggled with depression and anxiety since my teens and have had therapy and medication on and off since I was 17 (I am now 37). I'm aware of deep-rooted low self-esteem and shame. I feel worthless. I never want to draw attention to myself and have a paralysing fear of confrontation. I have managed to maintain a few close friendships, have worked in the past, and am married with two kids. So I appear "successful" on the surface. Things really spiralled when I had my kids, specifically my youngest, two years ago. My anxiety went off the charts and my thoughts went very dark. Covid likely had an impact, too. My world has become small. Continue reading... |
| Can you give yourself a temporary facelift with tape and elastic? Posted: 20 May 2022 02:00 AM PDT Some vloggers are tightening their skin with 'beauty' tape, but should we have anything to do with this perpetuation of unrealistic ideals? The hack The promise |
| Los Angeles hotel workers fight for panic buttons amid sexual harassment Posted: 20 May 2022 02:00 AM PDT Push for petition that would mandate safety protections, limit workloads, set wage standards, and extend worker retention rules Sonia Molina Sanchez, worked as housekeeper at the celebrity hotspot hotel Chateau Marmont for 10 years. She will never forget the night she was sexually harassed by a guest. "I knocked on a guest's door and went inside, and as soon as I went inside something didn't feel right," said Molina Sanchez. "The guest was lying in bed as if he was about to go to sleep. I turned around and looked at him, and when I looked at him he was staring at me while masturbating. I felt violated, really disturbed, and just completely in shock." Continue reading... |
| North Korea’s Covid caseload passes 2 million amid global concern about regime’s pandemic plan Posted: 19 May 2022 08:21 PM PDT Experts believe North Korean authorities are underreporting deaths to prove that their response has been effective Experts have questioned North Korea's claim that it is achieving "good results" in its battle against a Covid-19 outbreak, as the number of people with symptoms of the virus surpassed 2 million. The regime reported 263,370 new fever cases on Friday and two deaths, taking the total caseload to 2.24 million, including 65 deaths, according to state news agency KCNA. Continue reading... |
| PM’s father Stanley Johnson ‘secures French citizenship’ Posted: 20 May 2022 03:34 AM PDT Johnson campaigned for UK to remain in EU in 2016 but has since expressed support for Brexit The prime minister's father, Stanley Johnson, has secured French citizenship, according to reports. French officials reportedly told the AFP news agency that Johnson, 81, whose mother was French, obtained French nationality on Wednesday. Continue reading... |
| Millennium Falcon exhibition opens in Welsh town where ship was built Posted: 20 May 2022 06:00 AM PDT Star Wars craft was secretly put together in a hangar in Pembroke Dock amid 'flying saucer' rumours It is perhaps the most recognisable and beloved spaceship in movie history – a battered old warrior of a vessel that got Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and the rest of the Star Wars crew out of – and into – a string of sci-fi scrapes. What is not so well known is that the Millennium Falcon, or at least a full-size model of it, was the last major craft to be built at a dockyard in south-west Wales. Continue reading... |
| ‘Sleepwalking through extinction’: China urged to end delays to Cop15 summit Posted: 20 May 2022 03:56 AM PDT Covid lockdowns in host country frustrate scientists as no date in sight for key UN conservation conference after two years of delays
After two years of delays, governments had been scheduled to meet in Kunming, China, for Cop15 in late April to negotiate this decade's targets to halt and reverse the rampant destruction of ecosystems and wildlife crucial to human civilisation. It had been hoped the summit would be a "Paris moment" for biodiversity, with China holding the presidency for a major UN environmental agreement for the first time. Continue reading... |
| Australian election: voters to go to polls in battle of ‘bulldozer’ and ‘builder’ Posted: 19 May 2022 07:12 PM PDT Opposition Labor party's lead has narrowed in final week of an attritional campaign Australians head to the polls on Saturday with the opposition Labor party, led by Anthony Albanese, hoping to end nine years of conservative rule. The Liberal-National coalition government, headed by Scott Morrison, goes into the election with 75 MPs in the 151-seat House of Representatives, one short of the majority needed to govern without crossbench support. Continue reading... |
| Spain braces for heatwave of ‘extraordinary intensity’ Posted: 19 May 2022 09:00 PM PDT Country warned of risk of orange dust storms as forecasters predict France will see hottest May on record Temperatures in parts of southern Spain are forecast to exceed 42C (107F) on Saturday as a heatwave of "extraordinary intensity" brings dusty skies, a heightened risk of forest fires and blistering conditions more usually seen in high summer than mid-May. The Spanish government activated its national plan for excess temperatures on Thursday evening after the state meteorological agency, Aemet, warned that Spain was facing "one of the hottest Mays in this country in recent years". Continue reading... |
| Posted: 20 May 2022 02:00 AM PDT Mount Nyiragongo, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, erupted in May last year. More than 360,000 people were displaced from around Goma but the aid has dried up and now they must largely fend for themselves Continue reading... |
| Cannes film festival and Cape Canaveral: Friday’s best photos Posted: 20 May 2022 05:43 AM PDT The Guardian's picture editors select highlights from around the world Continue reading... |
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