The attempt to pry the party away from Trump’s influence fizzled but support in Congress is greater than it may appearThe Republican rebellion failed: Donald Trump won.“I was disappointed over the last few weeks to see what seemed like the Republican party waking up,” the Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger observed on NBC’s Meet the Press last week, “and then kind of falling asleep again”. Continue reading...
As vice-president, he abased himself and his office. In reward, Donald Trump sent a mob to kill him. Now, as another impeachment trial looms, he is cast out from Republican ranksAfter Donald Trump had exhausted all of his claims of voter fraud and could contrive no more conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, and after his revolving menagerie of legal mouthpieces had all of their motions tossed out of every venue up to the supreme court, and after his reliable enabler, Attorney General William Barr, informed him his accusations were false and he had reached the end of the line, and resigned, Trump came as a last resort to rest his slipping hold on power on his most unwavering defender and ceaseless flatterer, who had never let him down: his vice-president, Mike Pence.Related: To be Trump, or not: what Shakespeare tells us about the last five years Continue reading...
One of the nation’s two major political parties has abandoned democracy and reality. We must now move a vast swath of America back into a fact-based pro-democracy societyNext week’s Senate trial is unlikely to convict Donald Trump of inciting sedition against the United States. At least 17 Republican senators are needed for conviction, but only five have signaled they’ll go along.Why won’t Republican senators convict him? After all, it’s an open and shut case. As summarized in the brief submitted by House impeachment managers, Trump spent months before the election telling his followers that the only way he could lose was through “a dangerous, wide-ranging conspiracy against them that threatened America itself”. Continue reading...
From the coup in Myanmar to the autocratic regimes in China and Russia, western values are under increasing threatBlame Joe Biden for not stepping in more quickly, or Donald Trump for encouraging authoritarian rulers. Blame Barack Obama for lifting sanctions. Easier still, blame China for propping up a military junta and putting profit before people.The International Court of Justice warned of ongoing genocide, but nobody was saved. UN security council members argued endlessly about what to do. The finger of blame also points at Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel heroine turned sellout. Continue reading...
Don’t miss out on these provisions of the bill passed in December in addition to the paycheck protection programWhile a lot of attention has been given to the recent renewal of the paycheck protection program, there are two tax credits included in last December’s Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act that may actually be more valuable for many small businesses. Why?Related: Entrepreneurs are great, but it’s mom and dad who gave them their start Continue reading...
Cheney, the third ranking member of the House Republican leadership, was censured in a vote Saturday by her state’s Republican partyLiz Cheney, the third-highest-ranking Republican leader in the House, was censured by the Wyoming Republican party on Saturday for voting to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January riot at the US Capitol.The overwhelming censure vote was the latest blowback for Cheney for joining nine Republican representatives and all Democrats in the US House in the 13 January impeachment vote. Continue reading...
New York City expects 4-9in of snow on Sunday as CDC head expresses fears of Covid spread with Super Bowl partiesThe north-eastern United States is bracing for its second major snowstorm in a week, as intense snowfall in western New York forced delays in coronavirus vaccinations on Saturday at at least one location, with more vaccination site closures expected.After a historic snowfall of more than 17in last Tuesday, New York City is now expecting an additional 4-9in of snow on Sunday. Local news outlets from Georgia to Washington DC to Boston were reporting coming winter storm conditions, with the National Weather Service warning of “heavy snow” in the north-east. Continue reading...
Podcast will be produced with Young America’s Foundation, group that has stoked ‘free speech’ controversies at US college campusesFormer vice-president Mike Pence will launch a “video podcast” with a conservative group known for bringing inflammatory anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim speakers to college campuses, as part of his effort to “share the good news of conservatism” with young Americans.Pence’s pivot to podcasting comes a month after he refused Donald Trump’s repeated public demands to reject the actual results of the 2020 presidential election and name Trump himself the winner, prompting a mob to storm the US capitol, some of them shouting: “Hang Mike Pence.” Continue reading...
For too long, the music industry has passed off misogyny, and worse, as rock ‘n’ roll excess, just part of the backdropWhen are we all going to learn that rock stars do not live by different rules where abuse is concerned?Actress Evan Rachel Wood has accused Marilyn Manson (real name Brian Warner) of abuse when they were in a relationship. She claims that he groomed her as a teenager – they began dating when she was 19 and he was 37 – and he manipulated her into submission. Wood previously accused an unnamed person of sexual, emotional and physical abuse, including rape and torture, leaving her with PTSD. Other women have come forward and made similar accusations. Continue reading...
I May Destroy You should be up for an award but perhaps this year’s perplexing nominations reflect our troubled timesEvery time I react passionately to the nominations for any awards ceremony, I have to recognise that I am playing along with the game. I can talk about the Oscars or the Emmys or the Baftas as some sort of monolith, able to point a single benevolent finger at the chosen ones, but they are essentially surveys of big groups of people with different interests and tastes (it may be, though, that it is their similarities that are the problem). Sometimes, they highlight the very best of any given year and are a useful guide to what to watch; more often, they offer a hodgepodge of picks based on politics and fashion. A quick look at the best picture winner at the Oscars, for example, shows that often the winner has not been the film that stood the test of time.Crash beat Brokeback Mountain. Dances with Wolves beat Goodfellas. Forrest Gump beat The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction.However, the Golden Globes have lost it completely by managing to not nominate I May Destroy You for anything at all. Michaela Coel’s brilliant television series, about sex, assault, relationships, identity and so much more, is a masterpiece and that is not hyperbole. To omit it from one category would have been careless and a little weird. To omit it entirely seems pointed and that is shameful. Coel has made a series that will stand the test of time and she deserves to be recognised for it. Continue reading...
We are all in thrall to the corporate giants that control digital technology. Only by seeing that can we hope to change themHypocrisy,” wrote Somerset Maugham, “is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practised at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.” It is indeed, which is why many corporate leaders sometimes seem to struggle to find time for their day jobs – being chief executives.Here for example is Mark Zuckerberg the other day on a regular call with stock market analysts. “Our goal,” he declared, “is to give every individual entrepreneur and small business access to the same kinds of tools that historically only the big companies have had access to. One of the things I’m most proud of is that we build the tools so we can offer these same capabilities to small businesses, often for free. So when you hear people say that we hold a lot of data, that’s because hundreds of millions of businesses that would have otherwise had to do this individually and would have had no easy way of doing so are now using our services to help them reach customers. When you hear people say that we’re connecting data from lots of sources, that’s to help small businesses reach customers more efficiently.” Continue reading...
Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Rosa DeLauro first introduced the Family Act in 2013, but it has failed to gain sufficient supportSenator Kirsten Gillibrand has said US Congress is in a “unique moment” and “better poised than ever” to pass a paid family and medical leave bill that would make the benefit permanently accessible to all American workers for the first time, as she and congresswoman Rosa DeLauro reintroduced the legislation on Friday.Currently, the US is the only industrialised nation in the world not to have a national paid family and medical leave policy. Continue reading...
by Oliver Connolly, Andrew Lawrence, Hunter Felt and on (#5DV5A)
Will Tampa Bay become the first team to win a championship in their own home stadium? Or will the reigning champions retain their title?Be the Chiefs. That may sound flippant, but no team gives more credit to the ‘flip the switch’ theory than this season’s Chiefs. When they’re fully engaged, when they’re at their full Chiefs-ness, there’s not much any other team in the league can do to stop them. There are flaws on defense, but at some point, Patrick Mahomes will have the ball. Even with an excellent defense, Tampa will have a hard time slowing down the Mahomes-Hill-Kelce triumvirate. OC Continue reading...
A huge investigation has so far arrested 235 people, including far-right militants, members of the military – and otherwise unremarkable Trump fansAs prosecutors from the House of Representatives prepare to present their case against Donald Trump at his impeachment trial next week for incitement of insurrection, supporters who heeded his call on 6 January to “fight like hell” and went on to storm the Capitol Building are finding themselves in far greater legal peril.The trial that kicks off in the US Senate on Tuesday could lead to a further vote that would permanently debar Trump from holding office in the future. By contrast, the mob of fervent Maga acolytes who broke into the US Capitol following an incendiary rally headlined by Trump could face prison for up to 20 years. Continue reading...
Six workers laid off amid the coronavirus pandemic report long delays, backlogs, system crashes and small paymentsA year since the first coronavirus case was reported in the US, millions of Americans have found themselves out of work for nearly all that time as the pandemic triggered an economic crisis on a scale unseen since the Depression of the 1930s.Florida has been hit harder by the pandemic than nearly any other state and the crisis has wreaked havoc on countless lives, families and communities from the Florida Keys to the Panhandle – and everywhere in between. Continue reading...
During lockdown it has been especially cheering to bunker down in my mad floral jungle of a sitting room when outside all is grey and unrelenting gloomChances are you’re quite bored of your home by now. Oh sure, you know how lucky you are, if you have a warm and comfortable place to live when so many don’t. But a person could live in a full-on palace and still, at this point in a generation-defining global pandemic, think, “If I have to spend one more day looking at this cornicing and those enormous wall sconces, I will genuinely hurl myself off the balcony.” So allow me to share the greatest tip of all time for making your home more fun: get some wallpaper.People are very wary of wallpaper, especially the patterned type. I didn’t fully understand this until my partner and I were house-hunting half a decade ago, after we found out I was expecting twins. Off we went to look at family houses and, while the prices were horrific, the houses were, to my mind, even worse. That’s not fair: they were perfectly fine, but there was something about them that sent me spiralling into a low-grade depression. I tried to explain it to the increasingly exasperated estate agents: maybe they were dark? Or they just had a bad vibe? Were the ceilings too low? At last, I understood: every house I looked at was painted all white or – worse! – some weird Farrow & Ball-esque muted grey. Literally, every single one, and I assume the people who lived in them thought they looked chic and safely neutral. To me they brought back memories of teenage years spent in a psychiatric unit. Continue reading...
The congresswoman represents an ascending far-right movement within the Republican ranks that carries the banner of Trump’s grievance politicsAwaiting punishment for her lengthy history of extreme and violent commentary on Thursday, Marjorie Taylor Greene rose to introduce herself to the Congress. Wearing a mask embroidered with the words “FREE SPEECH”, the freshman congresswoman from Georgia regretted that she had not yet had a chance to tell her House colleagues “who I am and what I’m about”.Over the next eight minutes, Greene sought to untangle herself from the litany of dangerous and unfounded conspiracy theories that she had peddled on social media in recent years – “words of the past” that did not represent her. Continue reading...
Psaki is the most prominent face of an administration that has pledged to restore order and trust with the press – but there is also a fast chess game taking placeThe blue door at the side of the White House podium slid open. “Hi everyone!” exclaimed Jen Psaki with a congeniality seldom heard in the briefing room in recent years.The press secretary introduced Jake Sullivan, national security adviser, and stepped away from the podium only to hastily reach back for a face mask she had momentarily forgotten there. Warning reporters that their time with Sullivan was limited, she quipped: “I will be the bad cop as per usual over here.” Continue reading...
Dobbs, who hosted Fox Business Network’s highest-rated show, was a key driver of baseless election fraud claimsFox Business Network has canceled the show of Lou Dobbs, the ardent Donald Trump supporter with a history of espousing misinformation who promoted baseless conspiracy theories of voting fraud after the election.Friday evening marked the final airing of Lou Dobbs Tonight, Dobbs’ regular weeknight program. The Fox host was a major contributor to the false narrative that the election was stolen and continued espousing those views on his program even after admitting that they lacked actual proof. Continue reading...
Biden says predecessor shouldn’t have access to briefings, which are traditionally offered to presidents even after leaving officeJoe Biden has said that he doesn’t believe his predecessor, Donald Trump, should have access to any intelligence briefings due to his “erratic behavior”. Continue reading...
#MeToo activists say claims against musicians highlight how Black survivors’ trauma has been ignoredActivists with the #MeToo movement, along with Time’s Up and the National Women’s Law Center, have spoken out in support of Black survivors of sexual assault in light of allegations made against the rapper Clifford “TI” Harris and his wife, the singer Tameka “Tiny” Harris.The scandal involving the rapper and former girl group member erupted over several weeks as women reportedly came forward to accuse the power couple of confiscating their cellphones and preventing from leaving as the Harrises sexual assaulted them, or other women, in forced drug binges. Continue reading...
President’s call for urgency comes after House and Senate approve budget plan, paving way for $1.9tn packageJoe Biden urged Congress to swiftly pass a $1.9tn relief package, emphasizing the collective financial and emotional stress millions of Americans face as the pandemic that has claimed more than 450,000 lives continues into its second year.“I know some in Congress think we’ve already done enough to deal with the crisis in the country,” he said. “Others think that things are getting better and we can afford to sit back and either do little or do nothing at all. That’s not what I see. I see enormous pain in this country. A lot of folks out of work. A lot of folks going hungry.” Continue reading...
Halt came after activists and staffers called homeland security secretary’s office but it is unclear how long it will lastThe US has suspended deportation flights to Haiti, in the latest sign the Biden administration is attempting to assert control over the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Ice, according to community activists and congressional sources.The reported halt to Haitian flights came after a night of frantic calls from community activists and congressional staffers to the office of the newly confirmed secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas. It is unclear how long the suspension will last, and Ice did not reply to a request for comment on Friday morning. Continue reading...
State house’s vote makes abolition assured, a historically important step since capital punishment emerged from the south as a legal alternative to lynchingVirginia is all but certain to become the first state of the old Confederate south to abolish the death penalty, after the commonwealth’s house of delegates voted on Friday to end the ultimate punishment which it has practised since 1608.Related: Virginia may be first in south to abolish death penalty and abandon ‘legalized lynching’ Continue reading...
British socialite’s lawyers seek to dismiss or narrow the case and say US has ‘sought to substitute our client for Jeffrey Epstein’Lawyers for the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell have accused the US government of prosecuting her for aiding Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuses only because Epstein is dead and they want to hold someone else responsible. Continue reading...
State’s part chairman, Allen West, is latest Republican to come out in support of declaring Texas an independent nationThe Texas Republican party has endorsed legislation that would allow state residents to vote whether to secede from the United States.In a talkshow interview, the party chair, Allen West, argued that: “Texans have a right to voice their opinions on [this] critical issue. Continue reading...
Congresswoman who spread violent theories kicked from committees but vote illustrates influence of Trump in partyIn the end, just 11 Republicans voted to discipline Marjorie Taylor Greene, despite the Republican congresswoman having claimed space lasers had started wildfires, suggesting mass shootings didn’t really happen, and supporting the assassination of Democratic politicians.Related: Senate passes budget plan to allow Biden’s $1.9tn Covid relief package without Republicans – live Continue reading...
The US Senate has passed a budget resolution that allows for the passage of Joe Biden’s $1.9tn (£1.4tn) Covid-19 relief package in the coming weeks without Republican support.The vice-president, Kamala Harris, broke a 50-50 tie by casting a vote in favour of the Democratic measure, which sends it to the House of Representatives for final approval.It marked the first time Harris, in her role as president of the Senate, had cast a tie-breaking vote after being sworn in as the first female vice-president on 20 January
Trading platform removes limit on amount of shares individuals could purchase following criticism from usersRobinhood, the financial trading platform credited with enabling and then inhibiting the unprecedented rise of Gamestop stocks, lifted all trading restrictions on Friday, allowing users to buy shares in Reddit-promoted companies after a week of financial tumult.Related: Senate passes budget plan to allow Biden’s $1.9tn Covid relief package without Republicans – live Continue reading...
If higher inflation leads the US Fed to raise rates soon, emerging markets will face problemsEconomic recovery, like Covid-19 vaccines, will not be evenly distributed around the world over the coming two years. Despite enormous policy support provided by governments and central banks, the economic risks remain profound, and not only to frontier economies facing imminent debt problems and low-income countries experiencing an alarming rise in poverty. With the coronavirus far from tamed, populism rife, global debt at record levels, and policy normalisation likely to be uneven, the situation remains precarious.This is not to deny the overall good news of the past 12 months. Effective vaccines have become available in record time, far sooner than most experts originally anticipated. The massive monetary and fiscal response has built a bridge toward a much-hoped-for end to the pandemic. And the public has gotten better at living with the virus, with or without the help of national authorities. Continue reading...
Vice-president’s Senate intervention means Biden’s $1.9tn package can pass without Republican supportThe US Senate has passed a budget resolution that allows for the passage of Joe Biden’s $1.9tn (£1.4tn) Covid-19 relief package in the coming weeks without Republican support.Related: Senate passes Covid relief budget resolution after Harris uses casting vote – live Continue reading...
This project aims to explore the challenges many in the US face getting access to safe, clean, affordable water, and the injustices to those most at riskThis content is supported in part through philanthropic funding from theguardian.org by the Water Foundation, which is a public foundation that focuses on securing clean, reliable water for people and nature, and by The 11th Hour Project, established within The Schmidt Family Foundation to uplift bold, community-centered solutions to a more regenerative, just, and healthy future for people and planet. All content is editorially independent and overseen by Guardian editors.All our journalism follows GNM’s published editorial code. The Guardian is committed to open journalism, recognizing that the best understanding of the world is achieved when we collaborate, share knowledge, encourage debate, welcome challenge and harness the expertise of specialists and their communities. You can read more about content funding at the Guardian here. Continue reading...
The House of Representatives voted to strip extremist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee roles yesterday. Plus, Biden has withdrawn US support for the Yemen conflictSenate passes budget plan to allow Biden’s $1.9tn Covid relief package without Republicans – liveGood morning.The House of Representatives on Thursday voted to strip the extremist Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee roles. The vote fell broadly along party lines, with 230 in favour and 199 against, and just 11 Republicans crossing to vote with Democrats to end her roles on House budget and education and labor committees. Continue reading...
The issue remains deeply misunderstood, shrouded in shame and judgment of the victims, enabled by excuse-making for the perpetratorsFor years, the actor Evan Rachel Wood spoke about an abusive past relationship with a man she did not name. In 2018, she testified before Congress about her experience of being sexually assaulted, as part of her public advocacy for a law called the sexual assault survivor’s bill of rights. In 2019, she testified before the California state senate in support of extending the statute of limitations on crimes related to domestic violence. In her descriptions of the relationship, Wood describes gradually being subjected to berating and accusations, which escalated into demands that she isolate from friends and family, strict controls on her ability to eat and sleep, and eventually physical as well as sexual violence. “He broke me down through means of starvation, sleep deprivation, and threats against my life, sometimes with deadly weapons,” Wood told lawmakers. The abuse would often result, she said, “in me having severe panic attacks where I was unable to breathe or stop shaking”. She said her abuser would keep her awake for days by forcing her to do drugs, and that he sometimes subjected her to inventively violent and cruel non-consensual sex acts. When she tried to leave, she said, her abuser would threaten suicide, or blackmail her with revenge porn. After the relationship finally ended in 2011, she says she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.On Monday, Wood publicly named the man she says did these things to her for the first time. “The name of my abuser is Brian Warner,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “Also known to the world as Marilyn Manson.” Shortly thereafter, four other women also came forward with their own accounts of abuse at Warner’s hands: Sarah McNeilly, Ashley Lindsay Morgan, Ashley Walters and Gabriella Accarino. (Manson has denied these allegations, as well as similar allegations that have been made against him in the past.) Warner’s record label, Loma Vista said that they would no longer work with him after the women’s accusations became public. AMC networks cut Warner from a segment of the horror anthology series Creepshow, and the talent agency CAA severed its contract with the musician. Continue reading...
Chicago’s plan for vaccine equity is hampered by old divisions, hospital and pharmacy ‘deserts’ despite efforts to deliver the vaccine equitablyLast April, Dr Clarence Kelley Sr, 64, a pastor in Chicago’s West Side, contracted Covid-19. The disease nearly claimed his life, forcing him into the hospital for almost two weeks and on a breathing machine.“I was afraid that I would never ever see my wife again … it was devastating to me. I would not wish this on anyone,” Kelley told the Guardian. Continue reading...
At least 11 migrant women sent to Mexico border towns without birth certificates for newborns since last MarchAt least 11 migrant women were dropped off in Mexican border towns without birth certificates for their days-old US citizen newborns since March of last year, an investigation by the Fuller Project and the Guardian has found.Based on multiple conversations with lawyers who work with asylum seekers at the border and a review of hospital records and legal documents, multiple US citizen newborns were removed to Mexico after their mothers were subject to a Trump-era border ban that the Biden-Harris administration has been slow to rescind. Continue reading...
Who hit a hat-trick? Which ground filled up? Who misbehaved?There will be 25,000 fans at the Super Bowl on Sunday (and 30,000 cardboard cutouts), making it the smallest ever attendance at a Super Bowl. What is the highest ever attendance?91,654103,985176,222222,543Manchester United beat Southampton 9-0 this week, equalling the record they already share with Leicester City for the biggest win in Premier League history. What is the all-time record for the top flight?10-0, held by Sunderland12-0, held jointly by West Brom and Nottingham Forest15-0, held by Liverpool18-0, held by Charlton AthleticSeven United players were on the scoresheet in their 9-0 win over Southampton. For which other club have seven players scored in a single Premier League game?Leicester CityPortsmouthChelseaIt has never happened beforeJan Bednarek did not have the greatest of nights in that 9-0 defeat. Which of these things did he not do?Pick up a yellow cardGet sent offGive away a penaltyScore an own goalScotland are playing England at Twickenham in the Six Nations this weekend. Which music format was introduced in Europe in the month Scotland last beat England at Twickenham?VinylCassette tapeCompact discsDigital downloadsWhy was Corentin Tolisso missing from the Bayern Munich team for their game against Hoffenheim this week?The game was an early kick-off and he slept inHe went skiing in nearby Liechtenstein and had to quarantine for 14 days upon returning to GermanyHe was injured during a snowball fight in trainingHe posted a photo of his new tattoo on social media and the club dropped him for breaking lockdown restrictionsManchester City are playing Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday. Which former Liverpool player scored the winning goal the last time City beat Liverpool at Anfield?Robbie FowlerSteve McManamanNicolas AnelkaRaheem SterlingPep Guardiola has never won at Anfield – not even as a player. His only game at Anfield in his playing career, the Uefa Cup semi-final in 2001, ended in a 1-0 defeat for Barcelona. Who scored Liverpool’s winning goal? Clue: it was a penalty and he also scored a penalty in the final.Steven GerrardGary McAllisterMichael OwenRobbie FowlerLive cricket is back on terrestrial TV in the UK for the first time since the Ashes was shown on Channel 4 in 2005. England won that series in the second week of September. What was the most watched TV show on Channel 4 that week?The AshesChannel 4 NewsSupernannyLocation, Location, LocationWhat unlikely double did the Bristol City women’s team pull off this week?They bought a player on deadline day and sold her for two hours later for double the priceThey took a gambling company's logo off their shirt and started advertising a gambling charity insteadThey reached a cup final and won their first league game all seasonThey won a home game 8-0 and lost an away game 8-03 and above.Not bad. Have a good weekend4 and above.A decent score. Have a great weekend5 and above.A decent score. Have a great weekend6 and above.A fine score. Have a great weekend7 and above.A fine score. Have a great weekend8 and above.A fantastic score. Have a great weekend9 and above.A fantastic score. Have a great weekend10 and above.A perfect 10. Fantastic. Have a great weekend2 and above.Not to worry. Have a good weekend0 and above.Not to worry. Have a good weekend1 and above.Not to worry. Have a good weekend Continue reading...
Like the Buccaneers quarterback, I played well into my 40s. But eventually you have to confront a future in which your physical skills are no longer enoughProfessional athletes are mayflies. The mayfly rises magnificently into the air on translucent wings, only to die within 24 hours. According to the NFL Players’ Association, the league average playing career lasts 3.3 years. That’s not long considering the many years of grueling daily training, various physical injuries, and social sacrifices athletes endure to play those three years. Compared to the NBA (4.5 to 6.5 years), the NHL (5 years), and MLB (5.6 years), the NFL has the shortest career lifespan. Worse, 78% of those NFL players go broke within three years of retirement.Then there’s Tom Brady. Brady, considered by many to be the greatest quarterback of all time, is no mayfly. On Sunday, he will make his bid to win his seventh Super Bowl. At 43, he is the oldest active NFL player and, after playing 21 seasons, he is closing in on George Blanda’s 26-season record. Continue reading...
The furore about Carey Mulligan’s ‘hotness’ speaks to the heart of the filmI hadn’t been intending to watch Promising Young Woman, the rape-revenge fantasy film that picked up four Golden Globe nominations this week. I just read the thumbnail description and, ugh, I was out. Movies in this genre tend to meet violence with violence and always include drawn-out rape scenes that – like every other rape scene in every other movie, and a lot of bad crime fiction, too – present torture porn as some kind of feminist gesture. Who needs it after a long day at work?I can’t say what changed my mind, although reading accounts by Evan Rachel Wood and four other women, this week, of their alleged abuses at the hands of Marilyn Manson certainly helped put me in the mood for something more strident than hand-wringing. Promising Young Woman – the title inverts the trope of the “promising young man”, a phrase that crops up, with depressing frequency, in the defence of college-aged men accused of rape – is written and directed by Emerald Fennell and has divided critics. It is thin, didactic, preachy, reductive, uneven and flippant towards victims of sexual assault. Alternatively, it is a thrilling and cathartic expression of post-#MeToo female rage towards a problem that never goes away. Continue reading...
It’s time to resolve the narrative – otherwise we’ll be stuck in act two for ever, says Veep writer Ian MartinFor a year now, the reality of humanity’s global struggle against the coronavirus has felt oddly fictional. Very much, in fact, like a blockbuster movie.Covid-19: The Reckoning follows all the movie cliches. The story starts somewhere in the world requiring subtitles. Patient Zero eats a what? An infected bat? OK, maybe it’s a pangolin (what’s a pangolin? Who cares, never mind). Then the contagion spreads like a slow-motion tsunami across the planet as dumbass politicians first play it down, then panic. Or, in America’s case, dismiss it, blame China, promise it’ll go away, ignore it some more, commend the ingestion of light and disinfectant, ignore it again, actually get it, shrug it off, host a series of superspreader events, repeatedly lose an election then scuttle off to become a human pathogen infecting civilian life. Again. Continue reading...
The congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib have delivered powerful testimonies about the 6 January US Capitol breach on the House floor. Ocasio-Cortez called for the House to avoid quickly moving on from the insurrection, saying it would diminish the impact on survivors and avoid accountability for those killed. Tlaib referenced the death threats she had received before she was sworn in and pleaded for the rhetoric that led to the attack to be taken seriously Continue reading...
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