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When my country, Pakistan, flooded last year, women faced particular suffering. That’s true around the worldLast summer, a third of Pakistan was underwater. My country, the fifth most populous in the world, was submerged. Two million homes were destroyed, thousands of acres of agricultural land were flooded and 90% of the crops in Sindh, a food belt, were damaged. Thousands of kilometres of roads were rendered unusable, a million livestock killed, hospitals and schools obliterated, and 30 to 50 million people – a number as large as the population of Canada or Spain – were displaced and dispossessed.It was the climate crisis that brought this nightmare to Pakistan. Pakistan has the second largest number of glaciers after the Arctic poles and thanks to global heating, they are melting at unprecedented, unmanageable speeds. Glacial melt combined with another consequence of the Earth’s warming climate, erratic monsoon patterns, and together they created what was called a super-flood. Continue reading...

Former president honours January 6 rioters and delivers violent rhetoric in rally at Texas city during anniversary of Branch Davidian massacreDonald Trump, the former US president, continued to invoke retribution and violence on Saturday when he used the first rally of his 2024 election campaign to rail against prosecutors weighing a criminal charge against him.Efforts by Trump’s team to steer a more conventional, disciplined candidacy have wilted in recent days as the 76-year-old unleashed words and images that – even by his provocative standards – are unusually dehumanising, menacing and dangerous. Continue reading...

Fatalities from tornado the worst in 50 years, with more severe storms expected in the region on SundayDevastating storms and at least one large tornado which ripped through rural Mississippi on Friday night left 25 people dead in the state, dozens injured and rescue workers hauling people from rubble throughout Saturday, as the state reeled from its highest tornado-related death toll in decades.Severe weather pounded several southern states overnight as the centers of destruction emerged on Saturday morning as the small, majority Black towns of Rolling Fork and Silver City in the Mississippi delta. Continue reading...

Kathryn Marie Gallagher’s July 2022 death linked to ‘drug-facilitated theft’ after medical examiner’s findings of intoxicationThe death of a rising New York fashion designer last year could be linked to a spate of “drug-facilitated theft” crimes in the city, authorities have revealed.A mystery has surrounded the death of Kathryn Marie Gallagher, 35, since she was found dead in her apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side on 24 July last year. Continue reading...

Tallahassee Classical school’s governing board heard complaints after sixth-graders were shown classical sculptureA Florida principal has resigned after students at a Christian charter school in Tallahassee were shown the statue of the biblical figure David by Michelangelo, prompting at least one parent to complain that the children had been exposed to pornography.Hope Carrasquilla resigned Monday as principal of the Tallahassee Classical school after the campus’s governing board told her to either step down or be fired over parental complaints that came in after sixth-grade students were shown the 16th-century sculpture, one of the Renaissance’s most famous pieces of art. Continue reading...

Jean Dickens Toussaint and Abigail Toussaint were reportedly abducted on a bus on 18 March while visiting ailing relativesA Florida couple visiting the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince are being held at ransom after being kidnapped, according to their family.Jean Dickens Toussaint and Abigail Toussaint were reportedly abducted on a bus on 18 March while visiting the stricken nation to see ailing relatives and attend a community festival. Continue reading...

Joe Biden has warned Iran that the US will 'act forcefully' to protect Americans, after the US military carried out airstrikes against Iran-backed forces in retaliation for an attack in Syria.'Make no mistake: the United States does not … seek conflict with Iran, but be prepared for us to act forcefully to protect our people,' Biden told reporters during a visit to Canada.Officials said a US service member was wounded in Syria on Friday in the latest tit-for-tat strike between Iran-backed forces and US personnel

Plane did not encounter turbulence, but forces about four times stronger than gravity that caused it to swoop down before going upThe business jet flight that killed a former White House official earlier this month violently pitched up and down after pilots addressed cockpit warnings by switching off a system meant to keep the aircraft stable, but it did not encounter turbulence as was initially reported, federal investigators have said.Dana Hyde’s death on 3 March was the subject of a preliminary National Transportation Safety report Friday which described a series of mishaps before and after the Bombardier plane she was on swooped out of control. Continue reading...

Like Emma Raducanu, the Canadian has found it difficult after her breakout 2021 but the skills and fighting spirit are still thereWithin a few games of Leylah Fernandez’s second-round match against Belinda Bencic at the Miami Open on Friday, defeat already seemed inevitable. As Bencic squeezed up to the baseline, suffocating the young Canadian with her early ball-striking and sharp redirections, Fernandez could not keep up. She tried to hold her own position inside the baseline, but was easily pushed back. When she assumed more risk, forcing the ball closer to the lines, her errors piled up. After 67 minutes, the 20-year-old was thoroughly beaten 6-1, 6-1.Eighteen months on from her unforgettable run to the 2021 US Open final, Fernandez faces plenty of her own struggles as she tries to follow up her breakout performance. In New York, she showed off the full breadth of her talent. Despite standing 5ft 6in, she smote opponents with the combined force of her vicious lefty forehand, unfailingly aggressive returning, movement that allowed her to quickly flip defence to attack and her crafty resourcefulness. Continue reading...

A meteorologist in Mississippi became emotional and prayed live on air after forecasting a tornado was going to head through the town of Amory.Matt Laubhan, the chief meteorologist for local network WTVA, was giving viewers an update on what to expect. 'Oh man, north side of Amory, this is coming in,' he said. 'Oh man. Dear Jesus, please help them.'At least 23 people have died after extreme weather tore through Mississippi and other southern US states on 24 March.

A principal was fired after a Renaissance art class was shown David in the latest example of the state’s censorship crusadeAh, the Renaissance. A period that saw the growth of intellectual reason, the flowering of art and culture, and a lot of very hardcore pornography. Continue reading...

Bill aims to ban chemicals that appear in the candy, perhaps setting an example nationwideFor fans of candy – and who isn’t one? – the headlines have been alarming: a California bill would “ban Skittles”, the rainbow-colored fruity sweets, alongside treats including M&Ms, Nerds and some baked goods.It’s true a lawmaker is pushing for changes that would affect the products, but the reality is much less terrifying. Continue reading...

Militaries are racing to develop weapons that could one day directly assault or disable human minds. We ignore this broader context at our perilTranslated Chinese military reports suggest that warfare is shifting from destroying bodies to paralyzing and controlling the opponent’s mind. Making the Biden administration’s call for TikTok’s Chinese owners to sell their stakes in the app or face a US ban just the start of a protracted Whac-A-Mole game in a broader strategy to combat cognitive warfare – with the human mind as the battlefield.While a TikTok ban may take out the first and fattest mole, it fails to contend with the wider shift to cognitive warfare as the sixth domain of military operations under way, which includes China’s influence campaigns on TikTok, a mass collection of personal and biometric data from American citizens and their race to develop weapons that could one day directly assault or disable human minds. We ignore this broader context at our peril.Nita Farahany is the author of The Battle for Your Brain: Defending Your Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology (St Martin’s Press 2023) and the Robinson O Everett professor of law and philosophy at Duke University Continue reading...

Sheriff’s office reached out to Angel Pittman in response to story but 21-year-old said she won’t speak until she obtains counselPolice are now re-examining the case of Angel Pittman, whose dreams of opening a mobile hair salon in North Carolina were ruined by racism.In response to the story, published by the Guardian this week, the Rowan county sheriff’s office has reached out to her family “to see if we could further assist them”. Continue reading...

I assumed all cats liked to hunt, but there’s growing evidence of a wide range of feline personalitiesSeeing the happy face of my cat, William, at the catflap used to make my heart sink. Usually, a limp body would be protruding from his mouth. Worse still, sometimes the corpse was struggling, resulting in William chasing the luckless mouse or young rat around my kitchen for half an hour or more. For me, this was the dark side of cat ownership.Yet, apparently it was also a sign that I had a cat with an extrovert temperament, with confidence in the safety of his home territory, according to a new study. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that cats have different personality traits, just like humans.Celia Haddon is the co-author, with Prof Daniel Mills, of Being Your Cat: What’s Going on in Your Feline’s MindDo 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...

Manuel Paez Terán’s family say incident reports reveal that Georgia officials ‘planned and led the operation’ that resulted in the activist’s deathA police officer fired rounds from a pepperball gun into Manuel Paez Terán’s closed tent before an exchange of gunfire that resulted in the death of the environmental activist and injury of an officer, according to police incident reports obtained by the Guardian.Armed police in tactical gear killed the 26-year-old Terán on the morning of 18 January as they swept through an Atlanta forest to clear activists who were camping there to prevent construction on a $90m police and fire department training facility known as “Cop City”. Continue reading...

Private Ana Basaldua Ruiz, 20, was found dead at Fort Hood having complained to her family about sexual harassmentThe mother of a soldier who was found dead at the Fort Hood, Texas, military base earlier this week will receive a humanitarian visa to come to the US from Mexico and will visit the post to demand answers surrounding her daughter’s death.Last Monday, Private Ana Basaldua Ruiz, 20, was found dead at the central Texas army post. Ruiz was a combat engineer and had served with the 1st cavalry division for the past 15 months, according to Fort Hood officials. Continue reading...

I left the BBC to fight for restorative justice. The £100,000 we have so far donated to Grenada should be seen only as a first stepIn 1833, when Britain finally abolished slavery, my ancestors were absentee owners of more than 1,000 enslaved people on the Caribbean island of Grenada. To the best of my knowledge, the Trevelyans never set foot on the island. They enjoyed the profits that came rolling in from sugar harvested by exploited and brutalised enslaved people thousands of miles away across the Atlantic Ocean.Like much of Britain, my ancestors never had to confront the face of slavery – or its sordid legacy. Generations later, my extended family spent a year debating how we could respond to the horrors of the past. The deafening silence from the descendants of slave owners, from other families like ours, causes unimaginable pain, Sir Hilary Beckles of the Caribbean Community’s Reparations Commission told us. He convinced us of the power of an apology and encouraged us to lead by example. Continue reading...

While the ex-president left the White House over two years ago, the Trump addiction is hard to beat as his legal perils dominate headlinesWhen Donald Trump took his final walk from the White House, boarded a helicopter and vanished into a cold sky, millions of Americans breathed a sigh of relief. With the former US president retired to his Mar-a-Lago estate, they reasoned, they would no longer live in constant dread of new scandals or impulsive tweets.Two years and two months later, it turns out that Trump addiction is hard to beat. His legal perils have dominated headlines all week. Republicans continue to define themselves in relation to him. He remains the favourite for the party nomination in next year’s presidential election. Trump is still living rent-free in the nation’s head. Continue reading...

House leader Hakeem Jeffries condemns former president over behavior related to expected indictment in New YorkDonald Trump’s incendiary rhetoric over his expected indictment in New York could “get someone killed”, the Democratic leader in the US House warned.“The twice-impeached former president’s rhetoric is reckless, reprehensible and irresponsible,” Hakeem Jeffries, from New York, told reporters at the Capitol in Washington. Continue reading...

New Orleans students Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson recently presented their findings on the Pythagorean theoremTwo New Orleans high school seniors who say they have proven Pythagoras’s theorem by using trigonometry – which academics for two millennia have thought to be impossible – are being encouraged by a prominent US mathematical research organization to submit their work to a peer-reviewed journal.Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson, who are students of St Mary’s Academy, recently gave a presentation of their findings at the American Mathematical Society south-eastern chapter’s semi-annual meeting in Georgia. Continue reading...

Students from at least five local high schools called on legislators to take action to address gun violence after two recent incidentsMore than a thousand Denver high school students protested over gun violence in their schools, rallying on Thursday and Friday at Colorado’s capitol after yet another such incident had occurred.Students from at least five Denver high schools gathered late on Thursday to demonstrate after a fatal shooting at an area high school earlier this week, following another one last month. Continue reading...

Florida governor, who trails former president in Republican polls, says he would not accept an offer to join Trump’s ticketRon DeSantis, the rightwing Florida governor and rising Republican star, has said he would not accept an offer to be Donald Trump’s running mate because he is “probably more of an executive guy”.“I think that you want to be able to do things,” the Florida governor told the hard-right Newsmax channel. Continue reading...

Security guards fought off an armed man wearing a devil mask who was trying to enter a strip club in Tampa, Florida on 19 March. CCTV footage released by Tampa police showed the man being tackled as his gun dropped to the ground. The man was taken into custody by Tampa police, who said they believed the security guards prevented a mass shooting. One of the three officers who fought off the man suffered mild injuries. No one in the venue was injured Continue reading...

‘Can you imagine if … he had written personal checks as part of that controversy?’ Lanny Davis says without naming ClintonA lawyer representing a key witness in the investigation into Donald Trump over hush money payments has drawn comparisons between the case and the sex scandal that embroiled Bill Clinton, as it became clear there would be no indictment in the Trump investigation until next week at the earliest.Lanny Davis, who represents Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, hypothesized about what might have happened if Clinton had handled his affair with Monica Lewinsky differently. Continue reading...

Canarsie cow to meet fellow celebrity escapees at rescue center where animals live on vast pasture: ‘He’ll be ecstatic’It’s been one hell of a week for the Canarsie cow, a black angus calf who started this week on his way to a slaughterhouse and will end it settling into his new home on a New Jersey farm.After he escaped a truck hauling him from a Pennsylvania farm to certain death at Saba Live Poultry in Canarsie, Brooklyn, he went on a rampage through the streets. Slaughterhouse employees and workers at a nearby pizza shop tried to catch up with him, in a chase that lasted several minutes. Continue reading...

Republicans hail policies they say will give parents a say in their children’s schooling – but critics say it’s a guise to advance a rightwing education agendaSpeaking recently at a theater in Davenport, Iowa, Donald Trump marveled at the crowd’s reaction when he vowed to “bring back parental rights into our schools”. The line elicited thunderous applause – one of the loudest ovations of his nearly two-hour address.“Can you imagine what I’m doing? I’m saying, ‘Parents, you have rights’ … and the place goes crazy,” remarked the former president, who is again seeking the Republican nomination. Continue reading...

Shou Zi Chew attempts to play down concerns over data and privacy as lawmakers call for ban on Chinese-owned app. Plus, majority of trans adults are happier after transitioningGood morning.The chief executive of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, was forced to defend his company’s relationship with China, as well as the protections for its youngest users, at a testy congressional hearing on Thursday that came amid a bipartisan push to ban the app entirely in the US over national security concerns.What are the key takeaways from TikTok hearing in Congress? Chew defended TikTok’s privacy practices, stating they are are in line with those of other social media platforms, adding that in many cases the app collects less data than its peers. “There are more than 150 million Americans who love our platform, and we know we have a responsibility to protect them,” Chew said. Here are some of the other key criticisms Chew faced at yesterday’s landmark hearing, and what could lie ahead.Did the strikes kill anyone? Yes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported: “US strikes targeted a weapons depots inside Deir ez-Zor city, killing six pro-Iran fighters, and two other fighters were killed by strikes targeting the desert of Mayadine and near al-Boukamal.” Continue reading...

Pie-in-the-sky fantasies of carbon capture and geoengineering are a way for decision-makers to delay taking real actionThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, one of which dropped this week, are formidably researched and profoundly important, but they mostly reinforce what we already know: human-produced greenhouse gases are rapidly and disastrously changing the planet, and unless we rapidly taper off burning fossil fuels, a dire future awaits.The message is far from hopeless – “Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits,” said the IPCC chair, Hoesung Lee, in the press release. “This Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all.” Continue reading...

How activists and visionaries across the nation are designing the new hubs of Black commerceWhen most people hear the words “Black Wall Street”, their thoughts tend to dart straight to Greenwood, the prosperous Tulsa enclave that rose to prominence in the early 1900s and lay in ruins after the 1921 Tulsa massacre. In a horrific flashpoint of US history, a white mob descended on the north Tulsa neighborhood, looting and burning down Black-owned businesses and killing approximately 300 people.Phil Armstrong, a Tulsa resident and the president and CEO of the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice, says that the ruinous massacre is only half the story. In fact, the city of Tulsa began rebuilding the Greenwood district almost immediately after the riots. By 1942, one year after the devastation, the zone was home to 242 Black-owned businesses including bowling alleys, hotels and boutiques – double the amount there had been 12 months prior. Continue reading...

Rabbi Gilad Kariv, a Labour party member of Israel’s parliament, warns ultra-conservative members are pushing tighter controlsA prominent member of the Israeli parliament has a warning for America’s Jewish community: one of the greatest threats to Israeli democracy comes from within its own ranks.On a visit to New York to rally opposition against the “judicial coup” by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, rabbi Gilad Kariv cautioned that “rightwing forces in the Jewish community in America and ultra-right players” were driving and financing the push toward a political takeover of Israel’s supreme court and nationalist policies to tighten control over the occupied Palestinian territories. Continue reading...

Atlanta may be a work in progress after an off-season of change, but their 21-year-old Argentinian already looks like he is too good for the leagueThiago Almada’s 35-yard free-kick goal for Atlanta United against the Portland Timbers has been viewed millions of times on social media. A decent number of those views were surely made by European scouts keeping a close eye on the Argentinian, who has lit up the early stages of the new Major League Soccer season with four goals and four assists in as many games.Almada is MLS’s must-watch player. Atlanta United are a work in progress after an off-season of change, but their No 23 is the full package. He can dribble, he can pass, he almost always makes the right decision and he can pick out the top corner with a laser of a free-kick from a position closer to the halfway line than the goal, as he demonstrated earlier this month. Continue reading...

The war is a test of China’s ability to manage its interests. Putin, Zelenskiy, the EU, the global south: it’s trying to keep them all on sideThe Moscow summit between the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was described as a visit that may change the world order by many international media. Xi’s visit came at a time of great need for isolated Putin, but the rest of the world remains puzzled about precisely how far China will go in supporting Russia in its horrific war in Ukraine.While China demonstrates a willingness to maintain the status quo in its relationship with its biggest nuclear neighbour, Xi has still not provided a straightforward answer on exactly what kind of support is on offer, beyond deepening bilateral trade ties and elusively worded further coordination in international affairs. Nor is there a clear next step for Beijing’s “peace plan” until a call between Xi and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, takes place.Dr Yu Jie is a senior research fellow on China in the Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House Continue reading...

Unfortunately, actual justice may prove to be far more elusiveYou have to hand it to Stormy Daniels.After all of Donald Trump’s well-documented malfeasance over the decades – his fake university and failed casino, his Covid denialism, his consorting with dictators, his blatant lies about election fraud, his incitement of a deadly riot – it has taken a hush money payment to a porn actress to create the most imminent threat that he’ll face criminal chargesMargaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

Hanif Kureishi talks of cocaine nights with his kids. He makes the whole issue sound simple. I can’t believe it is“Say nothing, she’s going to use it,” my 13-year-old daughter said to my 15-year-old son, like a Miranda warning. It was the week after the novelist Hanif Kureishi had tweeted: “I’ve had some great cocaine nights with my children, and I know friends who take MDMA with their kids, though this isn’t something I would do, out of the fear of talking too much.”Before I even considered too deeply whether I’d ever take drugs with my kids – obviously this is a purely hypothetical, what-if question – it seemed useful to know whether they’d ever take drugs with me. Even though they said nothing, in case I used it, I knew the answer would be no. They’re very anti-drugs, for which I blame/thank the school.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnistDo 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...

Governor signs law putting restrictions on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and other platforms, including requiring them not to get minors addictedThe governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, has signed sweeping social media legislation requiring explicit parental permissions for anyone under 18 to use platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. He also signed a bill prohibiting social media companies from employing techniques that could cause minors to develop an “addiction” to the platforms.The former is the first state law in the US prohibiting social media services from allowing access to minors without parental consent. The state’s Republican-controlled legislature passed both bills earlier this month, despite opposition from civil liberties groups. Continue reading...

Violent funnel with gusts reaching up to 110mph ripped through roofs and scattered debris high into the airThe National Weather Service (NWS) has confirmed that the violent funnel of swirling winds that ripped through roofs and scattered debris high into the air near downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday was indeed a tornado – and the strongest one the area has seen in more than three decades.It was the second tornado to touch down in southern California this week in an area unaccustomed to facing that particular kind of extreme weather. “It’s definitely not something that’s common for the region,” said NWS meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld, noting that the last time the weather service’s LA office sent out tornado assessment teams was in 2016. Continue reading...

Her final first minister’s questions was a sad moment for the outgoing SNP leader but was business as usual for the Scottish ToriesSome rage against the dying of the light. Boris Johnson is howling into the wind. Crying out for meaning, begging for attention. Anything but be forgotten. But his time is up. All that remains for him is life as another old curiosity on the after-dinner speaking circuit. A job he hates almost as much as he hates himself for doing it. He despises the people – the little people – to whom he is obliged to talk. Most of whom only listen with one ear open at best. He is the amuse-bouche entertainer who has backed himself into a narcissistic cul-de-sac.Others, though, leave the political stage at a time of their own choosing. On their own terms. Just over a month ago, Nicola Sturgeon surprised even her closest allies by announcing she was standing down as leader of the SNP. Some bits of her resignation statement didn’t quite make sense. She claimed her party was in good health and never nearer to achieving independence. In which case why walk away now? But the other, more personal stuff, felt real. She had had enough. Her entire adult life devoted to frontline politics. She just wasn’t feeling it so much any more. She wanted more Nicola time. Continue reading...

The international criminal court’s issuance of an arrest warrant for the Russian president over Ukraine is welcome. It needs supportIt is entirely likely that Vladimir Putin may never be held fully accountable for his crimes. But the possibility of eventual justice grew somewhat brighter with the international criminal court’s decision last week to issue an arrest warrant for overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children.The compelling evidence of the forced transfer of thousands of children for adoption or to “re-education camps” is appalling. But this is only one of many horrors that Mr Putin has unleashed on Ukraine. There is growing support for prosecuting him for the invasion itself, which would require the creation of a special tribunal as the crime of aggression is not within the ICC’s scope. These calls are made in part because it is usually hard, if not impossible, for war crimes investigators to prove that those at the top sanctioned atrocities on the ground. Mr Putin can, however, be clearly linked to the abductions. Last month, the children’s rights commissioner, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, indicted alongside the president, appeared on television thanking him for her “adoption” of a 15-year-old boy from Mariupol. This is the beginning of the case against Mr Putin, not necessarily the end. Continue reading...

A week that began with a bang fizzled out as grand jury unlikely to deliver verdict in hush money payment case until next weekOver the weekend Donald Trump set off an international maelstrom of media attention when he announced he would be “arrested on Tuesday”.Like so many of Trump’s certain proclamations, it proved to be throughly wrong, and the grand jury weighing whether to charge Trump over payments to an adult film star is now unlikely to deliver its verdict until next week. Continue reading...

Body found after shooting occurred at East high school in Denver, wounding two administratorsA body found in the Colorado woods near an abandoned car was that of a 17-year-old student accused of wounding two administrators in a shooting at his Denver high school on Wednesday, a coroner’s office said.The Park county sheriff, Tom McGraw, said the body was discovered on Wednesday not far from the student’s car in a remote mountain area about 50 miles south-west of Denver, near the small town of Bailey. The town had been ordered to shelter in place while officers from agencies including the FBI combed the forest. Continue reading...

Alvin Bragg writes to committee chairs seeking his testimony saying there is ‘no legitimate basis for congressional inquiry’The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, on Thursday accused Republicans in the US Congress of interfering in his investigation of Donald Trump over a hush money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.A letter from House Republicans demanding testimony and documents related to the investigation “only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested … and his lawyers repeatedly urged you to intervene”, Bragg wrote in a letter of his own. Continue reading...

There are invigorating versions of Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma! and Cabaret in London – and some enticing new dramas coming – yet theatre risks being cut off from its pastDavid Hare has argued this week that musicals are strangling the growth of straight plays in the West End. I have some sympathy with his point, but it is one that could have been made anytime in the past two decades, during which there has never been less than 25 tune-and-toe shows in the commercial sector. What is curious is Hare’s timing, since right now three London theatres traditionally associated with straight plays happen to be housing quite exceptional musicals.Hare seizes on Oklahoma!’s occupation of the beautiful Wyndham’s theatre. Director Daniel Fish, however, has done precisely what the best directors of classic plays have been doing for ages: he gives us a fresh perspective on a familiar work without (well, almost without) altering the text. Instead of the usual gung-ho hymn to rural America, we get a dark, disturbing study of the victimisation of the outsider – in this case Jud Fry – by a small, self-regarding community. Continue reading...