San Francisco’s de Young Museum honors the creator of The Dinner Party and a vast body of urgent workCriticized at the time for an over-emphasis on white women and its stylized representations of vaginas, Judy Chicago’s room-sized installation The Dinner Party has only recently come to be seen as a canonical example of late-20th-century art.Created over a five-year period (1974-79) and consisting of 39 elaborate place settings, it imagines a meal shared by notable women throughout history, such as Elizabeth I, Sojourner Truth, and the goddess Ishtar. Continue reading...
Students delay studying abroad and some even switch continents because of visa delaysThousands of British students have been hit by post-Brexit visa hurdles, leaving many struggling to complete their language courses or take up internships in the EU.While some have delayed studying abroad or even switched continents because of visa delays, hundreds of undergraduates taking modern foreign language courses may miss out on a vital part of their degree. Continue reading...
Dramatising the true story of Teddi Pietrzykowski, an internee who fought to entertain the guards, this is a solid, occasionally sentimental taleThis cleanly hewn drama from Poland, surely destined to be Poland’s submission for the Academy Awards, tells the true story of Tadeusz Pietrzykowski, AKA “Teddi”, a (non-Jewish) Polish bantamweight boxer who was one of the earliest prisoners at Auschwitz. There have actually been a couple of other films about Pietrzykowski over the years, which might explain why writer-director Maciej Barczewski, making an impressive debut here, doesn’t go into a lot of detail about how Teddi fought Nazis at the start of the war during the siege of Warsaw in 1939. Instead, a few slow-motion flashbacks are deemed sufficient to ground the story while the film settles down to the grim business of following Teddi as he tries to survive the camp by getting assigned to a work detail. Inevitably, a lot of this work involves disposing of the dead, and trying not to listen to the screams as Jews deemed too weak for work assignments are herded into the gas chamber on their arrival at the camp. Continue reading...
A sage and sane theory of ‘time unmanagement’ exhorts us to stop chasing the seconds and embrace the joy of missing outYou’ve probably already worked out what this book’s title means, even if the number seems outrageously small. Four thousand weeks is roughly the amount of time you’ll get through if you live to be 80. That will appear even more paltry as you age – not just because you’re running out of weeks, but because time speeds up in your head the older you get, until the weeks seem to flash by in minutes.But Oliver Burkeman is not here to scare you into squeezing every last drop of pleasure and productivity from your meagre ration of weeks. His previous book, The Antidote, was subtitled “happiness for people who can’t stand positive thinking”. He is the self-help writer for people like me who find self-help books oversold on magical transformations. Here, true to form, he tells us to abandon the impossible – “the quest to become the optimized, infinitely capable, emotionally invincible, fully independent person you’re officially supposed to be”. Four Thousand Weeks is a time-unmanagement book, a pushback against what the American writer Marilynne Robinson calls the “joyless urgency” of our age. Continue reading...
The activists had pleaded guilty to charges related to their role in protests triggered by Beijing’s tightening control over Hong KongSeven Hong Kong democracy activists were sentenced to up to 16 months in jail for their role in an unauthorised assembly at the height of anti-government protests in 2019.They had pleaded guilty to charges, including organising and inciting others to take part in the illegal assembly on 20 October 2019, when tens of thousands took to the streets and police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse them. Continue reading...
Spanish chambermaids’ union to launch platform in response to outsourcing and low pay ratesTourists booking a hotel in Spain will soon be able to choose not only one with the best views or the biggest pool, but also one where the staff enjoy decent working conditions.Having tried without success to persuade platforms such as Booking.com and TripAdvisor to include working conditions as part of how they rate hotels, Las Kellys, Spain’s indefatigable chambermaids’ organisation, is setting up its own booking platform. Continue reading...
Auckland remains the centre of the outbreak with all but one of the new infections found in the cityNew Zealand has recorded 75 new cases of Covid-19, a bounce upward after two days of seeing cases decline.The director general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, said on Tuesday the increase was “not unexpected” and noted that during New Zealand’s previous outbreak, case numbers did move up and down somewhat day-to-day, while still tracking down overall. Continue reading...
In newly filed court documents, Britney Spears’ attorney likens the move to ‘extortion’Britney Spears’ new attorney has accused her father of trying to get about $2m in payments before stepping down from the conservatorship that controls her life and money, a move likened to extortion in a court filing.The document filed by lawyer Mathew Rosengart on Tuesday argues the upcoming scheduled accounting of the conservatorship, which Jamie Spears says he wants completed before he steps down, will mean significant payments for him. Continue reading...
NSW has recorded 1,116 new cases of locally-acquired cases of Covid-19 and four deaths. When asked why the government would not release the modelling they were relying on to make decisions, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said there were numerous models that changed daily. Pushed on why she couldn't release the worst case scenario modelling, she said: 'I’ve seen various versions of modelling and I can’t recall all the numbers but I can tell you this much - that we know that the rate of hospitalisations is likely to peak some time in October'► Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube
Host Yves de Mbella, who has been suspended, apologises for shocking viewers while ‘trying to raise awareness’A television channel in Ivory Coast apologised after airing a show in which a male guest introduced as an ex-rapist showed how he assaulted his victims using a dummy for the demonstration.The programme, broadcast at prime time on Monday by the private Nouvelle Chaine Ivorienne (NCI) channel, caused a massive outcry and sparked a petition signed by 37,500 people demanding that the presenters be punished. Continue reading...
Danny Fenster’s family believe he has caught Covid in jail, where he has been since he was detained trying to board a flight out of Myanmar in MayThe family of US journalist Danny Fenster have appealed for his release as they marked the 100th day of his imprisonment by Myanmar’s military regime.Fenster is believed to have contracted Covid-19 during his detention, family members said during a conference call with American journalists on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Bordering states such as Pakistan urged to temporarily take in Afghans bound for Europe and the USCountries neighbouring Afghanistan have been offered millions in aid if they are prepared to temporarily harbour tens of thousands of refugees, prior to security checks clearing them for transit to Europe and the US, but Pakistan and other bordering states have warned they will not take more refugees permanently.Iran could see a large influx of refugees – mainly Hazara Shias – reaching the country overland. Refugee specialists inside Iran have suggested as many as 7,000 people were crossing the border illegally a day, with no serious control over the entire 980km (608-mile) border, and very little international aid. Continue reading...
Since 1975, Māori have been able to reclaim land through a tribunal – but its reach is limited and now they are exploring other optionsTwo years ago, a small pocket of land three kilometres from Auckland’s international airport became the most prominent site of a struggle by Māori, New Zealand’s indigenous people, to reclaim land confiscated by the crown more than 150 years ago.Ihumātao contains evidence of New Zealand’s first commercial gardens, where thousands of hectares were planted with kumara, a tropical sweet potato which thrived in the warm and nutritious soil. The adjacent stonefields, today a category one Unesco heritage site, are rich with ancient nurseries and storage pits. When William Hobson, then-governor of New Zealand, founded Auckland in 1840, the produce of Ihumātao sustained the growing population. Continue reading...
After a four-year legal battle, Helen Macdonald gave an emotional statement after her alpaca was forcibly removed from his home in Gloucestershire and put down.Macdonald said the UK government did not engage in good faith and that 'all the time they were simply planning to murder Geronimo'.She went on to accuse the government of falsifying Geronimo’s positive bovine tuberculosis test, and that she would not accept the postmortem results if there was not an independent witness present
by Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent on (#5P042)
Answer to sex question can differ from birth certificate, without need for gender recognition certificate, says NRSPeople can answer the male or female question in Scotland’s 2022 census based on how they identify themselves rather than according to legal status, according to new guidance from the body responsible for the survey.Issued by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) on Tuesday, the guidelines tell people to answer the sex question according to how they self-identify, regardless of the details on their birth certificate or whether they have a gender recognition certificate. Continue reading...
Officials in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus say 20,000 tonnes of oil is approaching its coastlineTurkish Cypriot authorities have taken emergency action to stop an oil slick blamed on a faulty power plant in Syria from wreaking environmental havoc along some of the island’s finest unspoilt coastline.Officials in the war-partitioned country’s breakaway north erected what local media described as a 400 metre barrier off the Karpas peninsula to prevent the slick reaching its pristine shores. Continue reading...
Analysis: Experts are divided over whether events in Afghanistan will significantly increase risk of attacksIn three days in earlier this month Islamist militants killed more than 120 civilians in a series of attacks in the Sahel, a belt of increasingly anarchic and violent territory across Africa, where such groups have gone from strength to strength in recent years. Thousand of miles to the east, fighters from the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabaab stormed a military base in the centre of Somalia.None of these attacks received much attention – nor did the recent arrest of IS sympathisers in Australia, the attempted murder of a moderate politician in the Maldives or a court case against militants who attacked LGBT activists in Bangladesh. Continue reading...
Goffin’s cockatoos on Indonesia’s Tanimbar Islands crafted three different types of tools from tree branches to obtain seeds from sea mangoesWild cockatoos have been observed using three types of tools as “cutlery” to extract seeds from tropical fruit.Researchers made the discovery while studying Goffin’s cockatoos on the Tanimbar Islands, a remote archipelago in Indonesia. Continue reading...
Yet another Before Sunrise imitator – this time with two men who have 15 hours to spend together in Berlin – falters because of a subpar script and annoying charactersRichard Linklater has a lot to answer for. Ever since Before Sunrise, countless indie films have tried to ape the incandescent spirit of that 1995 classic, usually to middling results. Daniel Sanchez Lopez’s Boy Meets Boy is the latest unfortunately failed attempt, and once again reveals the achilles heel of these copycat projects. Before Sunrise might appear improvised but it has a tightly constructed script. Without good writing, watching random people walking around rarely makes for a good time at the movies.At least the chosen location is charming enough. Having locked eyes the previous night at a club, Johannes (Alexandros Koutsoulis) and Harry (Matthew James Morrison), wander about on a sun-drenched day in Berlin, before the latter’s flight back to the UK. It’s the kind of brief encounter where the goodbyes pre-exist the hellos: the young men know they only have 15 hours together. Most of their conversations are spontaneous – or try to be; they range from family life and jobs to, later, more personal subjects such as monogamy and open relationships. The issues discussed are interesting yet the subpar writing renders the pair’s opinions inconsequential, if not outright annoying. “Quirky” moments, such as Harry showing a film clip by Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl, only induce eyerolls. Continue reading...
Analysis: Rishi Sunak’s scheme has helped hold off mass unemployment, but he now favours targeted actionThere have been few unalloyed successes for the government during its battle with the biggest public health challenge of modern times. Vaccine procurement was one, the furlough introduced at the start of the crisis was another.State wage subsidies are entering their final month and although in the past deadlines for winding them up have been missed, there is no prospect of that happening this time. Unless something dramatic occurs in the next 30 days, a scheme that has supported 11.6m jobs and for which the final bill will be £70bn or more will come to an end. Continue reading...
by Bethan McKernan, and Quique Kierszenbaum in Hebron on (#5NZV1)
Killing of the strident Fatah critic has underlined the PA’s complicity with Israel and how far Mahmoud Abbas will go to crush dissentNizar Banat knew he was going to die. As he grew bolder calling out corrupt members of Fatah, the party which controls the Palestinian Authority, the death threats mounted. In May, his home near Hebron was attacked by masked gunmen on motorbikes, in an incident which left his children traumatised.After that, the political activist decided it wasn’t safe to stay home. “He went to his cousin’s house in H2 [an area of Hebron city controlled by the Israeli military] because he hoped Fatah and the PA could not reach him there, but he knew they were coming for him,” said Jihan, Banat’s widow, as she hugged their youngest son in the family’s reception room in the village of Dura. The front of the house is still pockmarked with bullet holes. “He told me: ‘I don’t want to be killed in front of the children.’” Continue reading...
Danish Refugee Council documents 60 illegal pushbacks in August against families fleeing TalibanWhile the allied forces struggled to evacuate thousands of refugees from Kabul amid threats of Islamic State retaliation, the Croatian police are allegedly robbing and pushing back to Bosnia dozens of Afghans who have left their country for fear of Taliban reprisals.The Guardian has collected testimonies from Afghan asylum seekers and obtained an exclusive report from the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) documenting about 60 illegal pushbacks allegedly perpetrated between 16 August and 29 August by the Croatian police against Afghan families in Bosnia attempting to reach Europe. Continue reading...
In an extract from his book on late musicians’ estates, Eamonn Forde explores the feud that began shortly after Jeff Buckley’s death between the songwriter’s label and his motherJeff Buckley had released two live EPs (Live at Sin-é in 1993 and Live from the Bataclan in 1995) plus one complete studio album (Grace in 1994) before he died in 1997. Since his death, eight live albums and multiple compilation albums have been released, spanning music recorded while he was signed to Sony and also before he had a record deal.The most contentious is Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, which was released a year after his death. Buckley had already scrapped a batch of recordings produced by Tom Verlaine in late 1996 and early 1997 and was preparing to record afresh in Memphis, the place where he drowned in the Mississippi. Continue reading...
High court ruling led to animal being destroyed after twice testing positive for bovine TB at Gloucestershire farmGeronimo the alpaca has been put down by government officials after his owner said he was forcibly removed from his home in Gloucestershire to the distress of his owners and supporters.The animal, who had tested positive twice for bovine tuberculosis and whose fate has divided the nation, was taken from the farm, near Wickwar, South Gloucestershire, on Tuesday by a team of four vets from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and at least 10 police officers, who had closed the roads around the farm preventing media from coming nearer to the property. Continue reading...
University of South Wales research finds professional squad suffered decline in cognitive functionA single season of professional rugby could be enough to cause a decline in a player’s blood flow to the brain and cognitive function, according to a study.The research, reported by the BBC, also suggests that repetitive contact events, rather than only concussions, incurred through rugby caused the declines seen in the players. Continue reading...
by Nicola Slawson (now) and Helen Sullivan (earlier) on (#5NZ81)
Biden confirms end of 20-year military presence; US secretary of state says support for Taliban ‘will have to be earned’; Taliban fire guns into the air in Kabul in celebration
Baseball caps and bucket hats used to be about accessibility. But a new school of wearers are using them to express something about themselvesSpotting a man wearing a baseball cap that featured only the name Rachel Cusk, the British author beloved of LRB subscribers, stopped me mid-scroll. A cultural commentator I follow had posted a selfie to his Instagram feed saying: “Copped the hottest hat.” Continue reading...
The C.1.2 strain has scientists’ attention because it possesses mutations within the genome similar to those seen in variants of interest, like DeltaA new Covid variant detected in South Africa has made headlines around the world.On Monday the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa issued an alert about the “C.1.2 lineage”, saying it had been detected in all provinces in the country, but at a relatively low rate. Continue reading...
New Zealand's social development minister Carmel Sepuloni said she would ‘never buy the odd shaped carrot pack again’ after ‘almost wrestling’ with son over vegetable
Carmel Sepuloni said she would ‘never buy the odd shaped carrot pack again’ after ‘almost wrestling’ with son over vegetableA New Zealand cabinet minister has become the latest public figure to be embarrassed by an unfortunate incident involving a video call after her live TV interview was interrupted by her son, who entered the room excitedly brandishing a phallic carrot.Carmel Sepuloni, the minister for social development, was doing a live Zoom interview with Radio Samoa when her grinning son burst through the door behind her, holding an oddly shaped carrot he’d apparently found among the groceries. Continue reading...
Tuesday: Australians concerned about Covid strategies that would significantly increase deaths. Plus: the future of dating in a vaccinated worldGood morning. There is plenty of local Covid news today, including fears about the NSW health system’s capacity to deal with a surge in cases, warnings over the deworming medicine ivermectin, and what the future of dating may look like in a vaccinated world.The latest Guardian Essentials poll reveals Australians are concerned about any “living with Covid” strategy that would lead to a significant increase in hospitalisations and deaths. A majority think governments should not end current lockdowns until a substantial proportion of children are fully vaccinated. Some 44% of respondents (including 37% of Coalition voters in the sample) believe the current strategy should be getting Covid-19 cases down as close to zero as possible. Continue reading...
With a 50% chance of inheriting a fatal disease, is it better to know your future or live in the moment?Lillian Hanly has a 50/50 chance of inheriting Huntington’s, a neurodegenerative disease. With a number of her family testing positive for the gene, and her mother already affected by it, she must come to a decision: Get tested now or continue to live on, in the unknown.Fifty Percent is part of the Loading Docs 2021 collection. The films can be viewed online via www.loadingdocs.net Continue reading...
More than a million people in and around New Orleans were without power after Hurricane Ida, a 150mph monster storm that was the most powerful ever to hit Louisiana. At least one person was killed, by a falling tree, but the governor, John Bel Edwards, warned that the death toll will probably rise
by Presented by Laura Murphy-Oates, reported by Katie on (#5NZ0G)
Australia has been in and out of lockdowns for more than 18 months. For single people, that is a long time to go without the hope of companionship. But with more and more jabs in arms and talks of opening up, could we see a whole new era for those looking for love? Katie Cunningham talks to Laura Murphy-Oates about the future of dating in a vaccinated AustraliaRead more: Continue reading...
Islamic State claims responsibility for attacks in final hours of western evacuation of AfghanistanUS anti-missile defences have intercepted as many as five rockets targeting Kabul airport as key American diplomats flew out of the Aghan capital in the final hours of the western evacuation under the threat of further Islamic State attacks.Officials told Reuters that core US diplomats had on Monday joined the 122,000 foreign nationals and Afghans to be evacuated since mid-August, although it was not clear whether the acting ambassador, Ross Wilson, was among them. Continue reading...
There is some sustained brilliance here, but unfortunately it comes from the guest stars – and at 108 minutes, this long-awaited album is in need of an editChaotic preview events for Kanye West’s 10th studio album Donda have dominated social media feeds in recent weeks, each one promising a release date that never materialised. The coverage of the events has focused on Kim Kardashian dressed as a Balenciaga-clad sleep paralysis demon, $50 chicken tenders, potential Drake disses, levitation and cameos from alleged rapist Marilyn Manson and the homophobic DaBaby. Fans called West a genius capable of creating exciting theatre that evolves in real time; others saw him as an empty provocateur. Much like kindred spirit Donald Trump, West seems to instinctively know how to weaponise controversy to drive interest in a new project.With the eventual release of Donda (named after West’s English professor mother, who died in 2007), there is a nagging sense the spectacle has overshadowed the actual music, with this bloated 108-minute album rarely sure of what it is trying to say. The intro, Donda Chant, a sequence of eerie recitations of his mother’s name seemingly designed to send you into a sunken place, is arresting, giving you the impression you’re about to undergo an immersive religious experience. But too often the songs that follow are built on half-baked ideas from a West more concerned with self-pity and martyrdom than confronting his contradictions. Continue reading...
by Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo and agencies on (#5NYF5)
Experts say combustible materials were used in 20-storey building that went up in flames with no loss of lifeThe mayor of Milan has compared a fire that ripped through a 20-storey residential building on Sunday to the Grenfell Tower blaze in London that killed 72 people four years ago.The fire, which started on the upper floors of the tower on the southern outskirts of the capital of the Lombardy region, spread to the rest of the building owing to what experts described as the “chimney effect”, which turned the building into a torch. Continue reading...
Encounter unlikely to have banished CDU nerves after snap poll suggests SPD’s Olaf Scholz retains leadThe three politicians battling it out for the top job in German politics have clashed in a TV debate during which the leader of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats failed to regain lost momentum and ceded the role of continuity candidate to his centre-left rival.Polls published before the first of three televised debates suggested the race to lead Germany into the post-Merkel era was more wide open than ever, with Olaf Scholz’s SPD in a narrow lead over Armin Laschet’s CDU and Annalena Baerbock’s Green party following closely in third place. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5NYAX)
Corrinne and Brett Giles live in Donegal and Derry counties due to ‘borderline unconstitutional’ application of immigration ruleA South African doctor and her British husband are living on either side of the Irish border because of what one MP called a “borderline unconstitutional” application of post-Brexit immigration rules.Corrinne and Brett Giles live 25 miles apart in Donegal and Derry counties respectively, with Corrinne in a “constant state of anxiety” waiting for a family permit to join her husband in the UK. Continue reading...
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