US news | The Guardian

Russian pop stars may not be political titans, but the world must not allow the Kremlin to wriggle through any loopholes

US president will meet leaders of Nato’s eastern European members and Nato chief in Poland. Plus, Japan baffled by iron ball washed up on beach

I’m a single mum and a full-time care worker. Based on how little I earn, I’d be better off working in a supermarket or a bar

The Florida governor, considered to be a possible contender for the 2024 presidential race, is conciliatory toward the former presidentRon DeSantis has praised former US president Donald Trump for his “unique star power”, derision of the media as “the enemy of the American people” and decisive role in helping DeSantis win election as a state governor.The flattering comments appear in DeSantis’s book The Courage to Be Free, obtained by the Guardian prior to publication. They are likely to disappoint Republicans urging the Florida governor to jump into the 2024 Republican primary race soon so he can aggressively take on the former president. Continue reading...

The commissioner has shown a tendency to place the business of hockey above the longevity of the sport itself“We’re going to dispel the myth that this is a regional sport,” Gary Bettman said during a press conference to announce him as the NHL’s first, and so far only, commissioner. “The prospects for growth are phenomenal.” As of this month, Bettman has spent 30 years trying to convince everyone both statements are true, to varying degrees of success.By now, anyone familiar with hockey knows about Bettman’s track record since he took office in February 1993. His quest for growth has alienated fanbases. His pursuit of more TV eyeballs has often been uneven and embarrassing – remember the glowing puck? And he led the league into three major labour disruptions, including one that unforgivably led to the cancellation of a whole season. Continue reading...

Russian president accused of ‘playing to rifts in the United States’ by raising specter of nuclear war between Moscow and westVladimir Putin’s threat to suspend Russian participation in New Start, the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the US, represents a blatant attempt to divide American opinion over the war on Ukraine by raising the specter of nuclear armageddon, experts and policymakers warned on Tuesday.Putin announced his intention to halt participation in the agreement towards the end of a belligerent 100-minute speech in which he charged the US and western powers with trying to inflict “strategic defeat” on Russia. His fiery rhetoric prompted instant reaction across the political spectrum in Washington. Continue reading...

You can’t carry a bottle of water on board the plane, but plenty of people – knowingly and unknowingly – try to carry gunA Connecticut woman was the first of the week, walking her child through security at New York’s JFK airport with a loaded gun in her purse and “one in the chamber”, as officials put it.Over the following days, an X-ray machine detected a 9mm pistol and ammunition in the hand luggage of a passenger in Philadelphia, a .45 caliber handgun and seven bullets in the carry-on bag of a man boarding a plane at New York’s Westchester airport, and a loaded weapon carried through screening in Wisconsin. Continue reading...

What if I want a 90-minute commute? Maybe I like sitting in traffic?

Administration’s most aggressive plan yet would bar most migrants who hadn’t sought protection in other countries firstThe United States could bar tens of thousands of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border from claiming asylum under a proposal unveiled on Tuesday that would be the most wide-ranging attempt yet by Joe Biden’s administration to deter unauthorized crossings.Under the new rules, the US would generally deny asylum to migrants who show up at the US southern border without first seeking protection in a country they passed through, mirroring an attempt by the Trump administration that never took effect because it was blocked in court. Continue reading...

Provision comes amid calls for change from South Asian diaspora communities but faces opposition from some Hindu AmericansSeattle has become the first city in the US to ban caste-based discrimination, after council members voted on Tuesday to add the provision to the city’s anti-bias laws.Calls to outlaw discrimination based on caste, a division of people based on birth or descent, have grown louder among South Asian diaspora communities. Proponents of the ordinance, which was approved by a 6-1 vote, say without such laws, those facing caste discrimination in the US will have no protections. Continue reading...

Reporters need protection from violence and intimidation – not a law that makes it easier to sack themDuring my first week as a journalist in a television station in Papua New Guinea, I got told by a bureaucrat in a large government department that I should be careful what I write about him as he knew the country’s prime minister. That was 10 years ago.Since then, I’ve received phone calls from government ministers asking me to omit certain details from stories. While covering an election, my cameraman was assaulted by supporters of a politician, I was threatened, and we were told to delete footage from our camera. Continue reading...

Comments from right wing are business as usual – but could signal future political battles to come if US to keep sending aid to UkraineFor Joe Biden to safely visit Ukraine, the White House spirited him out of the country in the middle of the night and made reporters traveling with him swear a temporary oath of secrecy – none of which could protect the president from attacks by Republicans.The journey was only complicated further by an unexpected announcement. In a speech marking a year since he sent his armies over Ukraine’s borders in an ill-fated attempt to take Kyiv, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced his country would no longer participate in the last nuclear arms control treaty with the United States still standing, and accused the west of posing an existential threat to his country. Continue reading...

The US senator checked into a hospital for clinical depression – and has provoked a conversation about mental healthMy senator, John Fetterman, has checked into a hospital for clinical depression.This is an action that an increasing number of Americans will likely take in their lifetimes, given the rising rates of depression. Still, Fox News has already pounced: Tucker Carlson argued that Fetterman is “unfit to serve in the United States Senate”, while Laura Ingraham went as far as to imply that Fetterman’s wife has worked to hide his condition and that the act was “craven or a cruel political calculation by a stage wife and political nihilist”. Continue reading...

The country has showed astonishing courage and resolve in the face of the brutal Russian invasion, but the costs mount by the dayWhen Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin spoke in Warsaw and Moscow on Tuesday, the gulf between Russia and the west and its allies stretched a little further. Yet at the heart of two starkly different speeches lay a shared assumption: that this war will not end soon.The Russian president assumed it would be over in days when he launched his brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine a year ago on Friday. He was hardly alone. The courage and resolve of Ukrainians, and the rush of support from the west and its allies, was remarkable. Each day that Ukraine fended off defeat counted as a victory. Yet the parameters have shifted. In a war of attrition, time is usually on the aggressor’s side. Millions have been forced to flee their country. More than 7,000 civilians have died, hundreds of them children, and the US estimates that there have been well over 100,000 Ukrainian military casualties. The economy and critical infrastructure are devastated and key resources lie under Russian control. Each Russian war crime has reinforced the Ukrainian understanding that this is an existential struggle, and the fear that a negotiated settlement at this stage would simply be an opportunity for Mr Putin to restock and prepare for a renewed assault. Continue reading...

Republican congressman tells broadcaster it ‘wasn’t about tricking anybody’ while defending his comments on being JewishGeorge Santos, the embattled Republican congressman from New York who fabricated large swaths of his resume, admitted in an interview on Monday with Britain’s Piers Morgan that he had been a “terrible liar”.Santos was elected to represent portions of the New York City borough of Queens and neighboring Long Island in November and a staggering number of falsehoods have come to light since. His lies include claiming to be Jewish, graduating from college, working at finance giants Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, and that his mother was in the World Trade Center during the Al-Qaida terrorist attack on 11 September 2001. Continue reading...

Lee is the highest-ranking Black woman in House Democratic leadership and seeks to take seat in hotly-contested raceUnited States congresswoman Barbara Lee on Tuesday formally launched her campaign for the Senate seat held by the retiring Dianne Feinstein, joining two fellow House Democrats in the race in the nation’s most populous state.In a video posted on Twitter, Lee ran through a list of the personal and professional battles she has taken on in her life, including fighting to be her school’s first Black cheerleader, championing protections for survivors of domestic violence and being the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization for the use of military force after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Continue reading...

Confirmation that Russia will be backing out of the New Start treaty underlines his disdain for the international orderThere was perhaps only one truth spoken during Vladimir Putin’s two-hour state of the nation address: that Russia would suspend its participation in the New Start treaty with the US. The rest was yet another a trip down the rabbit hole into the Russian president’s parallel universe.Those who were anticipating a major revelation in a speech that had been postponed from December were disappointed. In the absence of any groundbreaking advances on the military front, many expected Putin to finally admit that Russia was at war in Ukraine. But no, the “special military operation” is ploughing on “step by step”. Not only did he fail to offer any reassurance to those who dared hope he was considering making some concessions to the truth that the operation is not going well, but he also left the radical pro-war faction hungry for a more aggressive approach.Samantha de Bendern is an associate fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House and a political commentator on LCI television in FranceDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Which language immigrant parents should speak at home has been endlessly debated. For now, we have not passed Urdu onto our childrenAs a second-generation British Pakistani growing up in Bradford, I was surrounded by Urdu and smatterings of Punjabi. English came later, and I can remember not being able to understand my teacher on the first day of nursery. This was all part of my parents’ plan: to speak in Urdu to my siblings and I because they knew we would learn English at school. They were right.There have been countless debates over the years about which language immigrant parents should speak to their children, and the impact of that on their studies. I’ve never been convinced of the benefit of dropping one language in favour of the other. Because of my parents’ decision, I’m able to speak both languages fluently. I write for a living and worked as a journalist for the BBC, and my multilingualism has only enhanced my life. It gives me access to other worlds, stories, film and poetry. Whether it’s ordering cuts of meat in the butcher, placing an order in a restaurant or discussing designs in a clothing shop, it adds joy to my life, allows me to weave in and out of communities, and frees me from the constraints of any one group.Saima Mir is a freelance journalist and author of the 2021 novel The KhanDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

On TikTok, live-in landlords are described in a way that sounds less elitist and exploitative, more tech-driven and cool. And don’t get me started on ‘yimbys’Allow me to introduce you to one of the most annoying phrases in the modern English language: house hacking. What’s that when it’s at home? It’s when you rent out a room in your house – or a unit in your multi-unit building – so that your mortgage is covered by your tenants. Hang on, you might say, isn’t there already a perfectly good way to describe this? Isn’t that called being a live-in landlord?Yes, precisely, but don’t tell the house hackers that. They think they have discovered something new. And not only do they think they are property pioneers, they can’t stop boasting about their financial prowess online. TikTok is full of viral videos in which house hackers explain how you too can get other people to pay your living expenses. Not all these videos, you will be amazed to hear, have been well received. There’s something about people crowing about raking in rents during a cost-of-living crisis in which rents have rocketed that doesn’t go down particularly well. Continue reading...

Russian president criticises west as US leader plans rallying Warsaw speech. Plus, Ariana DeBose’s Bafta rap deconstructed

Proposition 308 now makes higher education more affordable for undocumented immigrantsAndrea Vasquez, a social worker at a high school in Tucson, Arizona, was approached by a student in her senior year. She was asked how difficult it would be to attend college as an undocumented immigrant.Vasquez, 29, immediately flashed back to a younger version of herself, studying at the school where she now works, Palo Verde Magnet high school, and remembering her own struggle to get to college while being undocumented. Continue reading...

Enough was enough when it came to the noise of the social media platform and I am loving life without itA few years ago, Charlie Brooker – creator of the brilliant Black Mirror and a former Guardian columnist – hosted a show for Channel 4 that counted down the greatest video games of all time. A sucker for those sorts of things, not to mention a bit of a gamer in my youth, I tuned in with great interest. There they were: Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart, Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter II, GoldenEye, Call of Duty … on it went until it was time for Brooker to reveal the No 1. “What could it be?” I wondered. I was not ready for the answer, because the answer was Twitter.A baffling choice and I can’t remember Brooker’s logic for why Twitter was best of the lot. But I do remember his argument for why it was definitely a game, which was that, ultimately, the aim of people who use it is to collect as many followers as possible. Nobody wins Twitter, but everyone plays it, trying their hardest to be among the most popular, influential, important people on there. Continue reading...

The former Minnesota Viking terrorized opposing quarterbacks for more than a decade. Now he is pursuing a more peaceful pursuit, and excelling once againIn 2018, retired NFL defensive end Jared Allen took up curling in the hopes that he would one day be an Olympian in the sport.“Yeah, right” was a perfectly reasonable reaction. Allen had dedicated most of his adult life to football – only 11 men have more NFL career sacks and he is a three-time finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Most competitive curlers have been sliding around on ice since preschool, honing the skills and acumen necessary to win at their local clubs, let alone the Olympic trials. Allen, meanwhile, had never played the sport seriously and spent most of his time smashing into other very large men before retiring from football in 2016. Continue reading...

Tributes have been paid to David O’Connell, who was shot on SaturdayThe husband of an Irish bishop’s housekeeper has been arrested in connection with the bishop’s murder in Los Angeles.David O’Connell, a prominent liberal bishop, was shot on Saturday in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

The host was on to me and my friends as fast as a security guard trying to get a chaotic drunk out of McDonald’sSo the scene was a set of railway arches, and there was a different party in each one. In retrospect, it was really easy to tell them apart: it went Weird People, Old People (40+), Young People (-30). But when you first arrive at a venue, it’s a bit discombobulating: too much sensory stimulation, very little signposting. It’s a reasonable human imperative, I think, to move towards the visible bar, rather than stop to notice that every arch has a bar.This is how I and a group of friends and family ended up fleetingly in the Young People party on our way to the Old People one. My brother-in-law has form; only last week he was refused entry at a rave because he had no ID, and was last seen taking his bike helmet off, yelling: “My bald head is my ID!” I only know that because I was there, inside the rave, and we can deal with what the hell I was doing at a rave another time.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Burmese pythons, which can grow up to 20ft, have surged in south Florida due to snake owners releasing them when they get too bigTo better find, capture and remove invasive Burmese pythons in Florida’s Everglades, a team of researchers is attaching location-tracking collars on animals such as raccoons and opossums that the predatory snakes feed on.Burmese pythons have surged in south Florida in recent years, because many snake owners release them into the wild after they become too large to take care of. Continue reading...

Ford Pinto found in Alabama belonged to Kyle Clinkscales, 22, who disappeared nearly 50 years agoSkeletal remains inside a car discovered in a creek a little more than a year ago belonged to an Auburn University student who had disappeared in 1976, authorities have confirmed, closing the book on a missing person case that had puzzled investigators for nearly five decades.Kyle Clinkscales, 22, was last seen alive at a bar where he worked in his home town of LaGrange, Georgia, on the night of 27 January 1976. He was planning to drive back to school in Alabama about 35 miles away in his white 1974 Ford Pinto, but he never arrived. Continue reading...

We must make humanitarianism a global agenda, just like climate change, press freedom and gender equalityAfter the dreadful earthquakes in Syria and Turkey – the latter of which is now grappling with two more powerful shocks – the global humanitarian ecosystem seems to have once again failed to serve its purpose.Under domestic pressures and international politics, there is a stark disparity in the way international rescue, relief and rehabilitation aid has been delivered to thousands of Syrians in comparison with their peers deserving equal care and attention in Turkey. Continue reading...

Details emerge of how White House planned ‘unprecedented’ visit and meeting with Volodymyr ZelenskiyThe White House notified the Kremlin of Joe Biden’s intention to visit Kyiv hours before he departed for Ukraine, it has been revealed, as the details began to emerge of how the US president pulled off his high-profile diplomatic coup.Meticulously planned over several months by a tight circle of key advisers, Biden’s visit was described as “unprecedented in modern times” by his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, on the grounds that it was the first time a US president had visited “the capital of the country at war where the United States military does not control the critical infrastructure”. Continue reading...

Officials drop firearm enhancement charge that carries mandatory five-year term to focus on involuntary manslaughter chargeNew Mexico prosecutors have walked away from their efforts to seek a five-year prison sentence for actor Alec Baldwin in the film-set death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, opting instead to pursue an essentially reduced charge against him.Baldwin, who still faces a count of involuntary manslaughter, now is looking at a maximum of 18 months in prison if convicted. This decision came after Baldwin’s attorneys argued that the firearms enhancement they had tried to attach to the case against the actor was not in effect in state law when the deadly on-set shooting occurred in October 2021. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson and co just could not let the PM put the final piece of his Northern Ireland Brexit jigsaw into placeBrexit plays havoc with people’s memories. There are those of us who could have sworn that most leavers promised the country that a deal to exit the EU would be the easiest thing in the world. It would be the most amicable separation in history. The EU would be as pleased to see us go as we would be to see the back of them. We Brits would get everything of which we had always dreamed. Or maybe not. It now turns out that nobody ever said anything like that. It was all a figment of our imaginations.Even so. This Monday was meant to be the day. The day when the final piece of the Northern Ireland Brexit jigsaw fell into place. Rishi Sunak had had a cunning plan. There could be a green lane for goods coming from Great Britain whose final destination was Northern Ireland. Continue reading...

Visit to Ukraine is a defining moment for the US president but foreign policy does not necessarily win elections

Man, 21, arrested on count of murder, weapons charge after deadly shootingA shooting on a carnival parade route in New Orleans on Sunday night killed one man and wounded four other people, including a four-year-old girl, according to officials.Authorities said they had arrested one suspect in the deadly quintuple shooting on a count of murder as well as a weapons charge. Continue reading...

Bulley’s family faced a cruel sleuthing free-for-all on social media. But it is a breakdown of trust between public and police that got us hereNicola Bulley’s family now has a fresh agony to endure, now that the body found a mile from where she was last seen has been identified, seemingly confirming Lancashire police force’s original hypothesis: that Bulley was likely to have fallen into the river.For Lancashire constabulary, however, being proven right will inspire no retrospective confidence in them – this entire sad period has spoken of a complete breakdown in trust between the public and the authorities, in this case the police. Continue reading...

Reptile rescued from lake on Sunday is most likely an unwanted pet and has been taken to Bronx Zoo for rehabilitationIn an unusual scene for this part of the country, a 4ft-long alligator was rescued from the famed Prospect Park Lake in Brooklyn on Sunday.The itinerant crocodilian – most likely an unwanted pet – was in poor condition and described as sluggish by park officials, the local news station PIX11 reported. Authorities said the lethargic alligator might have been shocked by the cold. Continue reading...

The industry is simply updating classics to appeal to millennial parents. The main problem seems to be the quality of the proseHanding down beloved books to your children is one of the best things about being a parent. And so like countless others raised on Willy Wonka’s golden ticket and the BFG’s jars of dreams, of course I was thrilled to relive the Roald Dahl books with my son all over again.On bored, rainy afternoons we copied George’s Marvellous Medicine by mixing potions from the contents of the kitchen cupboards. We made the pilgrimage to the Dahl museum in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, with its magical recreation of his writer’s hut and its collection of homesick letters the author wrote back from boarding school as a boy, which shed a sad kind of light on the cruel adults who stalk his fiction. Continue reading...

The former leader had no regard for truthfulness, and now we see others happy to follow his example, knowing the system rarely holds them to accountHere comes the Boris Johnson Brexit wrecking ball. How could he resist a chance to ride back in to sabotage any agreement Rishi Sunak reaches with the EU? The walrus breaks the surface to warn that abandoning his treaty-breaking protocol deal is “a great mistake”, summoning old supporters – who brag that they number 100 – to his battle flag.Out comes Sir James Duddridge, ex-Brexit minister, to declare that any role for the European court of justice would be a “wedge”, knowing the issue is a deal-breaker. The European Research Group’s David Jones absurdly claims the protocol means “a foreign government governing part of our country”. In case Johnson returns, fence-sitters keep their options open, so Penny Mordaunt calls his intervention “not entirely unhelpful”.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Any dream of competing properly, let alone adding to his 15 majors, appear unattainable for wounded greatIt would be quite the story if Tiger Woods turned up at a tournament and announced he was there only to make up numbers. Eyebrows were raised when Woods used pre-tournament media duties at the Genesis Invitational last week to assert he was in California to win, seven months after his last competitive round, but this was Woods in natural form. When the 47-year-old senses he cannot trade blows with the best in the world he will quietly exit stage left.Woods must realise that time is fast approaching. He surely comprehends the competitive dilemma he finds himself stuck within. Making the cut at the Genesis was a fine achievement – Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth and Sam Burns did not – but Woods wants to be judged by loftier standards. The victor, Jon Rahm, finished 16 shots better off than the 15-times major champion, who tied for 45th. Rahm, the world No 1 once more, recorded four sub‑70 rounds. Continue reading...

Frappuccino not sold in stores but distributed in supermarkets by PepsiCo recalled after glass detected in 13.7oz bottlesAmerican food and beverage regulators have recalled hundreds of thousands of Starbucks Vanilla Frappuccinos after their distributor warned the drinks could have glass in them.The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said 25,200 cases of the caffeinated drink, carrying 12 bottles per case, were recalled starting 28 January after glass was detected inside the 13.7oz bottles. That means officials requested more than 300,000 bottles to be returned. Continue reading...

The US’s most successful Paralympian, born in the shadow of Chornobyl, on her traumatic childhood, Ukrainian resilience and her plans for two more Games“I was the smallest one there and you learned not to show any emotion, whether you were sad or happy,” says Oksana Masters as she describes the Ukrainian orphanage where she suffered terrible abuse before being rescued and taken to America.Masters, who was born in the shadow of Chornobyl’s nuclear plant in 1989 and suffered multiple birth defects caused by radiation, is the most decorated US Paralympic athlete after excelling in four summer and winter sports, winning 17 medals. Continue reading...

The US president has visited the Ukrainian capital, defying threats of Russian missile attacks, to announce an additional package of US weapons supplies worth $500m (£415m), including artillery ammunition, anti-armour systems and air surveillance radars.Volodymyr Zelenskiy responded by saying: 'Such an important package is an unmistakable signal that Russian revenge attempts will have no chance'

Joe Biden has made a surprise visit to Kyiv before his planned trip to Poland, days before the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Rumours were swirling in the lead-up to the US president’s Europe trip that he could meet Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, either in Warsaw or at Poland’s border with Ukraine.Biden's visit to the Ukrainian capital, almost a year since it was almost surrounded by Russian troops in the early days of the war, sends a strong signal of US support for Ukraine to Moscow and the international community

US president meets Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy ahead of anniversary of invasion. Plus, the disruptors who want to make death greenerGood morning.Joe Biden has arrived in Kyiv to meet Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Biden’s public itinerary had suggested he would be visiting Poland, but the US president arrived in Ukraine’s capital this morning and has been spotted on a walkabout in the country’s capital.What else is happening? The EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, backed a call from Estonia for the bloc’s members to buy arms jointly to help Ukraine – an approach officials have said would be more efficient than EU members placing individual orders. EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the plan in Brussels today. He said the war was over unless the EU boosted its military support.How would it work? Borrell said he would table plans at the meeting to use the existing €3.6bn (£3.2bn) European peace facility for the EU to procure ammunition jointly on the model of the procurement of vaccines during the Covid crisis.What else is going on at the social media company? Meta cut 11,000 staff in November – the equivalent of 13% of its workforce – amid falling ad revenue and economic downturn. The company’s share price fell by more than 70% in 2022 before a rebound and in July it reported its first ever fall in revenue.What has Elon Musk said? Twitter’s chief executive, Elon Musk, responded to the news in a tweet saying it was “inevitable” Meta would follow Twitter. Continue reading...

Conservatives are blocking a more inclusive version of history – even as our Capitol contains statues of white supremacistsWelcome to White History Month! While February – the shortest of months – is typically associated with a 28-day acknowledgement of the historical contributions of African Americans, the truth of the matter is that this month, and every month, is actually a celebration of white history.This particular February is noteworthy because of the controversy surrounding revisions to the first-ever advanced placement (AP) course in African American history. (It is worth noting that the College Board, which administers AP courses, has been in existence since 1900 and is only now getting around to offering a class on African Americans.) The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has seized on the occasion to fan the flames of white racial fear and resentment by having the Florida department of education very publicly reject the course because they claimed it “significantly lacks educational value”. Continue reading...

The Bafta-winning film has helped increase visibility of women in conducting, but I long for the day when my presence on the podium won’t be remarked onI’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve been asked my thoughts on the film Tár these last few weeks. It seems as if everyone wants to know what it’s really like to be a woman in conducting, and how I feel about the abusive fictional character causing a stir on cinema screens across the globe.Lydia Tár lives in a world that closely resembles present-day reality, complete with references to a recent pandemic. But one notable difference is apparent: in Tár’s world, female conductors have well and truly smashed the glass ceiling, and conducting seems to be a gender-balanced profession. In the film’s opening scenes, Tár talks about how the challenges once faced by women are in the past, and suggests that her fellowship programme for female conductors should be opened up to men as it no longer feels necessary to distinguish between genders. Continue reading...