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This innovative biography of the director – a wily tormentor of audiences and colleagues – is most successful when tracking his contemporary influenceDickens never recovered from the spooky stories his nurse told him at bedtime, and few of us ever outgrow Hitchcock. He holds us captive by tweaking our anxieties and using cinematic techniques – warped angles of vision, painfully elongated time, nerve-shredding sonic shocks – to delectably torment us. Martin Scorsese has admitted that he screens Hitchcock’s films “repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly”. Such repetitions always deliver revelations: watching the 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much again the other day, I noticed that the anonymous London bobbies caught in a shootout are granted a line or two of jaunty dialogue just before they’re killed. Their banter is enough to make them pitiably tragic, and it earns the aloof, unmerciful director some credit for compassion.“I dictate the picture,” Hitchcock once said. To consolidate his power, he created a personal myth that became a lucrative commercial brand. When asked for an autograph, he often scribbled a silhouette: a blobby head with wispy hair, its plump curves interrupted by a concave nose and two puckered lips. Hitchcock made an icon of himself using nine economical pencil strokes; Edward White’s study of his “variegated legacies” disassembles him into 12 separate facets, each exposing an aspect of “the public entity he crafted”. Continue reading...

Special programme investigates if the broadcaster ignored the way controversial reporter landed scoopIt was one of the most controversial and shattering TV programmes the BBC has ever broadcast. And early next month, the corporation is to return – in a Panorama special – to its 1995 interview with Princess Diana by the then little-known Martin Bashir.Related: How did the Martin Bashir I knew become TV’s anti-hero? Continue reading...

The west backed military solutions across the Sahel. With the death of President Idriss Déby, that strategy is helping to destabilise the regionThe death in battle last week of Chad’s unloved dictator, Idriss Déby, has pushed the Sahel up the west’s political and media agenda. The sudden burst of interest is unlikely to last. The global attention span for this desperately poor, unstable and ill-governed region is chronically short. And yet the Sahel is, or soon could be, everyone’s problem.A vast, arid swath of sub-Saharan Africa that comprises Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauritania and Burkina Faso (the so-called G5 Sahel), plus parts of neighbouring countries, the Sahel is where the world’s toughest challenges collide. The spread of jihadist terrorism, claiming record numbers of lives and posing a possible threat to Europe, is the most closely watched phenomenon. Continue reading...

Last week, a dinghy full of migrants sank near Libya. Those who were part of the rescue mission tell of a needless tragedyThe weather was already turning when the distress call went out. A rubber dinghy with 130 people on board was adrift in the choppy Mediterranean waters.On the bridge of the Ocean Viking, one of the only remaining NGO rescue boats operational in the Mediterranean, 121 nautical miles west, stood Luisa Albera, staring anxiously at her computer screen and then out at the rising storm and falling light at sea. Continue reading...

The first minister says the UK ‘is over’. A fresh sense of national identity will be tested in May’s elections – but who will benefit?“There was a village choir; there was a folk group with a harp that won prizes; there was a chapel. And all that culture just went under the water. What you see here is the graveyard of a Welsh community.” More than half a century on, Elwyn Edwards still feels a sense of outrage as he contemplates the valley of Tryweryn in north-west Wales, where the thriving village of Capel Celyn was deliberately flooded in 1965.On the orders of Westminster, the picturesque hamlet was sacrificed to create a reservoir supplying water to Liverpool, 43 miles away. Capel Celyn’s inhabitants protested, and there was desperate opposition from Welsh MPs in the House of Commons. Edwards, 13 at the time and living a few miles away, went to the demonstrations and remembers the raw anger. After the deed was finally done, he recalls a sepulchral silence, as labourers built the reservoir dam using the bricks of the village and sand and clay from local farmers. “There were no sheep, no noise or life. It made such an impact on me.” Continue reading...

Peter Dutton says Australia is focused on maintaining good relations with Beijing but China has been ‘very clear’ about its plans for reunificationThe Australian defence minister, Peter Dutton, has said a conflict involving China over Taiwan cannot be discounted but he insists the government’s focus remains on having “good relations” with Beijing.Dutton was on Sunday asked about the prospect of a “battle over Taiwan” following remarks from the former defence minister, Christopher Pyne, and the ex-prime minister, Tony Abbott, about China’s expansionist plans in the region. Continue reading...

Despite vaccine rollout, global coronavirus cases hit a new daily record on the back of an explosion of infections in India

After last year’s socially distanced Anzac Day, crowds returned to dawn services around the countryA year after Covid cancelled all services, New Zealanders rose to acknowledge its servicemen and women on Anzac Day.Last year the pandemic and level four lockdown left New Zealanders standing at their letterboxes in a socially distant tribute. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, was joined by her partner and father at the bottom of Wellington’s Premier House driveway, listening to the Last Post silently before returning to the official residence. Continue reading...

State news agency says fatal fire broke out after ambush thought to have involved droneAt least three people died when an Iranian fuel tanker was attacked off Syria’s coast on Saturday, in the first assault of its kind since the Syrian civil war started a decade ago, a war monitor said.“At least three Syrians were killed, including two members of the crew,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Continue reading...

Firefighters have been tackling huge gorse blaze in the Northern Ireland beauty spot since Friday

After an appeal for information, the teenager was arrested following an attack in Westleigh Park in Leigh on ThursdayA teenage boy has been arrested after a 14-year-old girl was dragged into bushes and raped.The victim was targeted as she walked on open land to the south of Westleigh Park in Leigh, Wigan, on Thursday afternoon. Continue reading...

Labour urge Speaker to summon senior minister as poll reveals 40% of voters think Tories are corruptLabour is aiming to force a senior minister before parliament this week to account for the growing sleaze crisis engulfing No 10 – amid growing cross-party uproar over a collapse in standards at the heart of government.The Observer understands the opposition is hoping to persuade Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, to grant an urgent question on Monday that would mean a senior minister – most likely the Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove – being summoned to the Commons to account for the crisis, explain steps being taken to end it, and take questions from MPs. Continue reading...

First minister tells PM that Scots must not have their democratic will thwarted by Westminster government in run-up to electionsRelated: Ignoring the will of the Scots would be an act worthy of TrumpNicola Sturgeon has warned Boris Johnson he would be showing the same contempt for democracy as Donald Trump displayed after losing the US presidential election, if he were to block the will of the Scottish people in favour of another referendum on independence. Continue reading...

The technician was attending a 999 call when an object struck the ambulance windscreenAn ambulance technician has died after an object struck his vehicle’s windscreen as he was responding to a 999 call in Herefordshire.The incident took place at 8am on Saturday at the junction of Moreton Road and the A49, near the village of Moreton on Lugg, north of Hereford. Continue reading...

Two men jumped into River Thames in midnight rescue effort, but one was later found dead by policeA man has died after jumping into the River Thames in an attempt to rescue a woman who fell from London Bridge.Two men saw the woman fall into the river just after midnight in the early hours of Saturday morning and jumped in to save her. Continue reading...

Indonesian president’s remarks come after crisis talks with junta chief and south-east Asian leadersMyanmar’s military must restore democracy and stop the violence against citizens, the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, said after crisis talks with junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and south-east Asian leaders on Saturday.The strongly worded comments followed a meeting in Jakarta of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which was the senior Myanmar general’s first foreign trip since security forces staged a coup that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in early February. Continue reading...

Police arrest man on suspicion of assault for going to work and the gym despite signs he had the virus

The actor, 74, on Ab Fab, recycling, President Clinton and why you can’t be happy all the timeThe nuns at convent school wore black stockings under their long habits and wimples. They were part of the Blue Stockings teaching community, and more concerned with turning us into interesting, strong women than anything holy.We followed my father’s regiment in the Gurkhas from India to Hong Kong and Malaysia. My memories are of a bungalow that looked out over a little air strip where biplanes would land and the spotlight from a prison camp that flicked through my bedroom windows. Continue reading...

The novelist’s career was in the doldrums when she began writing about a difficult boy and his ambiguous relationship with his motherI began We Need to Talk About Kevin without ceremony on an ordinary morning. I’d yet to read all the hundreds of articles about school shootings that I’d photocopied in American libraries over the summer, so still more research would amount to procrastination. I tapped out the initial paragraph – still word-for-word as I first wrote it – with zero anticipation that this novel would finally turn the tide of my flagging career.If anything, I felt pessimistic and forlorn. None of my previous novels, however well reviewed, had erased my mark of Cain in publishing as a money loser. Nevertheless, I liked this new premise. And giving up altogether after having had only my previous manuscript roundly rejected would have struck me as babyish. Continue reading...

Romance scams on social media and apps are on the rise – but there are steps you can take if you fall victimThe dating game is full of the unexpected: it can quickly become apparent that photographs might have been in rotation for a few years or that someone listing their height as 5ft 10in could only achieve that height on tiptoes. But while those deceits may be forgivable if you hit it off with your date, at the other end of the spectrum are far worse cons.In 2020, with more of us stuck at home, often desperate for some company or conversation, the number of romance scams reported to the crime body Action Fraud rose by 15%. Over the past 18 months it has received reports of more than 7,000 cases, with losses totalling £69.7m – an average of almost £10,000 a victim. Continue reading...

Authorities battle to get oxygen supplies to hospitals overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of new cases

In-car film events are thriving, but unless you were a teen in the 50s you may not be familiar with their charms. Here are the the dos and don’ts

The singer-songwriter on smoking, her new baby and the C wordBorn in Kent, Joss Stone, 34, released her debut album, The Soul Sessions, in 2003 and went on to win Brit and Grammy awards. In 2019, she was deported from Iran as she attempted to complete her Total World Tour, performing in 200 countries. She lives in Nashville with her partner, Cody DaLuz, and their three-month-old baby.When were you happiest?

Even omnivores will be up for these crunchy bhajis with mint yoghurt, and a moreish vegan side dish or dipThere are many reasons to be vegan – concerns about animal welfare, the environment and personal health being the obvious three. I’ve never been good at being any “one” thing, but, though I’m not vegan, I can go for days eating as if I were, not least because there’s a fourth reason to feel passionate about eating vegan, be that sometimes, often or always: because it can be so darned tasty. Vegan ingredients are my daily staples – my olive oil and bread, my pulses and tahini – and they’re also what I reach for when I want to dial up the savoury flavour in my cooking; miso paste, in particular, does the job here. When I want a briny kick, I’ll often reach for capers, while when I want a smooth, creamy texture, silken tofu works wonders. On other days, it might be black garlic, preserved lemon and tahini, for much the same reasons. And the list goes on. So, today, two recipes for those who are vegan every day and for those who find themselves being so accidentally. Continue reading...

He was in the one of the most influential indie bands ever, but the songwriter prefers life as a visual artist. He talks presidents, parties and photographing his heroesThe last time I saw Michael Stipe, he had a beanie hat on and was wandering between the tents at the Extinction Rebellion camp in Trafalgar Square. It was early evening in October 2019, and we had just finished an interview at a nearby hotel. The fashion designer Erdem Moralioglu had arrived with his twin sister Sara, to take Stipe to dinner, but Stipe wanted to check out the protest first. The crowd-phobic Erdem wasn’t sure, but Stipe was almost skipping with excitement. Both scenes – heading off for a meal with his world-renowned artistic friend and mixing with young grungy activists – were exactly his thing.We had met to discuss Stipe’s second book of photography, Our Interference Times, which he’d created with the author Douglas Coupland. It was a hefty tome that explored the dissonance between the analogue and the digital. (If that sounds pretentious, the book was very accessible.) It was a follow-up to Volume 1, published in 2018, made with curator Jonathan Berger. That book was more intimate: only 35 pictures, including ones of a young River Phoenix, and Kurt Cobain’s hands. Continue reading...

US restarts Johnson & Johnson vaccinations, New Zealand excludes Western Australia from bubble, EU pledges vaccine drive

KRI Nanggala 402 was only equipped with enough oxygen for three days after losing powerHopes of rescuing dozens aboard a missing Indonesian submarine are fading as its oxygen reserves are believed to have run out, turning the focus to retrieving the stricken vessel from waters off Bali.As hundreds of military personnel took part in a frantic hunt for the KRI Nanggala 402, authorities said the German-built craft was equipped with enough oxygen for three days after losing power. Continue reading...

Two men, both reportedly drivers, killed on final day of the race, one day after death of NSW competitor Shane NavinTwo people have died in a fatal crash on the final day of the Targa Tasmania, only a day after another driver was killed in the same race.The crash occurred at Wattle Grove Road, near Cygnet, south of Hobart in southern Tasmania, police said on Saturday. Continue reading...

Arrest of Fahmi Reza comes amid concerns of a crackdown on dissent under prime ministership of Muhyiddin YassinA Malaysian artist has been detained by police for allegedly insulting the country’s queen by making a Spotify playlist that mocked comments on her Instagram account, an arrest condemned by rights groups as a clampdown on free speech.Police said in a statement the graphic artist, Fahmi Reza, had uploaded a playlist with songs containing the word “jealousy”, with a photo of Queen Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah. Continue reading...

Therapeutic Goods Administration says the patients, including an 80-year-old man, are stable and recoveringAustralian health authorities say another three cases of rare blood clots – including in an 80-year-old Victorian man – are very likely linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.The medicines regulator on Friday night said the suspected cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) were in a 35-year-old New South Wales woman, a 49-year-old Queensland man and the 80-year-old. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Secret government documents contradict Coalition’s claim that controversial policy is ‘not a cost-cutting measure’The introduction of independent assessments to the National Disability Insurance Scheme would save the federal budget $700m and lead to smaller funding packages “on average”, according to secret government documents that contradict Coalition claims the policy is “not a cost-cutting measure”.Under proposed changes to the eligibility assessments process, participants would undergo a three-hour interview with a government-contracted allied health professional instead of submitting reports from their own treating specialists. Continue reading...

Bright yellow costume had been found near Adelaide circus with apology noteThe “Big Bird Bandits” who allegedly stole a Sesame Street costume from a circus in Adelaide have been tracked down and charged. Continue reading...

Henry Shepherdson jumped from Williamstown wall while holding nine-month-old Kobi in child carrierSome domestic violence issues surrounding a man who killed himself and his young daughter at a dam wall in South Australia had been settled by agreement just hours before the murder-suicide, it has been revealed.The state’s attorney general, Vickie Chapman, said the family had come to an agreed position as to what would and wouldn’t proceed in relation to the allegations and protective orders. Continue reading...

This week Katharine Murphy speaks with Erwin Jackson, the policy director at Investor Group on Climate Change, to discuss the Biden administration’s pressure on Australia to cut greenhouse gas emissions faster than planned. With the global summit of 40 world leaders held this week, how will Australia face up to the challenge of transitioning to a net zero world? Continue reading...

Emergency services were called to Barking Road in East Ham, Newham, shortly before 4pm on Friday after reports of a stabbingA murder investigation has been launched after a 14-year-old boy was knifed to death in east London in broad daylight.Emergency services were called to Barking Road in East Ham, Newham, shortly before 4pm on Friday to reports of a stabbing. Despite the efforts of paramedics from the London ambulance service and London Air Ambulance, the victim was pronounced dead shortly after 4.30pm. Continue reading...

If popular outrage can have such a dramatic effect in football, then why not in even more consequential areas of life?

Anti-terrorism branch leading investigation after incident in which assailant was shot dead

Call comes after European Medicines Agency reaffirms benefits outweigh very small risk of blood clots

Investigation finds up to 40% of UK solar farms were built using panels from leading Chinese companiesSolar projects commissioned by the Ministry of Defence, the Coal Authority, United Utilities and some the UK’s biggest renewable energy developers are using panels made by Chinese solar companies accused of exploiting forced labour camps in Xinjiang province, a Guardian investigation has found.Confidential industry data suggests that up to 40% of the UK’s solar farms were built using panels manufactured by China’s biggest solar panel companies, including Jinko Solar, JA Solar and Trina Solar. Continue reading...

Former Manchester United player and Wales manager to appear at magistrates court next weekThe former Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs has been charged with domestic violence offences after police were called to his home in Salford last year.Giggs, 47, has been charged with one count of coercive and controlling behaviour between December 2017 and November 2020, Greater Manchester police (GMP) said. Continue reading...

While approaches may differ, the importance of free time to play is increasingly being recognised

Police searching for year 8 pupil who got off bus on way to school and fell into river on Tuesday

There’s nowhere better to eat than outdoors – if you can avoid the common pitfalls. Here’s how to keep your sandwiches fresh, your corner of the park rubbish-free and the wasps safely distant

The regional coordination of the pink tide era has given way to various governments, left and right, going it aloneA terse report filed from São Paulo, Brazil, appeared in the 17 March 1919 edition of the New York Times. It read: “Influenza again has appeared here in epidemic form. The Government is taking steps to prevent the spread of the disease.” Just over one hundred years later, faced with another pandemic, the Brazilian government has taken a different approach. President Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right extremist elected in 2018, has repeatedly downplayed the coronavirus, urging citizens to suck it up and get back to work so that the economy can once again get moving.The president has frequently appeared in public places without a mask, stopping to greet supporters, creating potential super-spreader events as a matter of course. Bolsonaro’s recklessness has had terrible consequences: Latin America’s largest nation has been ravaged by the pandemic, with more than 13m cases. Continue reading...

Ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, we explore the hotly-tipped Nomadland director’s journey from Beijing to HollywoodTen minutes into Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland an itinerant Amazon packer hoists up her shirt-sleeve to show off her tattoos. Her favourite, she says, is a lyric from Morrissey’s song Home Is a Question Mark: “Home – is it just a word or is it something you carry within you?” This question echoes through the story that follows, as Nomadland trails its band of ageing, displaced RV and van-dwellers across the midwest from one seasonal gig to the next. Quite likely it resonates with the film’s director as well.“My life has been so transient and fast-moving,” Zhao told the Mexican film-maker Alfonso Cuarón, summing up a path that has led her ever-westward, first from Beijing to a UK boarding school, then from New York via New England to her current base near LA. This weekend, barring a shock upset, the 39-year-old film-maker will make history as the first woman of colour to win the best director Oscar (and only the second woman ever, after Kathryn Bigelow in 2010). Hailed for her soulful, clear-eyed studies of marginalised communities in the US, she’s the vibrant outsider ushered into the fold, living an immigrant dream that is causing political headaches back home. Continue reading...

Oscar-nominated film Sound of Metal depicts a drummer battling hearing loss. As rock stars like Myles Kennedy explain, it’s a debilitating and worryingly widespread problemThe Bafta-winning film Sound of Metal dramatises every musician’s worst nightmare. Ruben Stone, played by Riz Ahmed – who is up for a best actor Oscar this weekend – is a metal drummer who loses his hearing, and the film depicts Ruben’s loss exactly as he hears it, where the world around him and the intense music he plays suddenly fade to a muted and distorted drone.These scary and involving scenes have highlighted a crisis in hearing damage right across the music industry, be it through deafness or tinnitus (a constant ringing in the ears). In a report published last month by the British Tinnitus Association (BTA), over half of the 74 tinnitus-suffering musicians surveyed said they developed the condition due to noise exposure, but nearly a quarter said they never wore hearing protection. Continue reading...

Rocío Monasterio of far-right Vox party had cast doubt on threat sent to Podemos leader and his familyThe Unidas Podemos leader and former Spanish deputy prime minister, Pablo Iglesias, has walked out of a Madrid regional election debate after the candidate for the far-right Vox party cast doubt on the death threat he and his family had received along with four assault rifle bullets.Iglesias revealed on Thursday that he had been mailed the bullets and a threat, which read: “You have let our parents and grandparents die. Your wife, your parents and you are sentenced to capital punishment. Your time is running out.” Continue reading...

Putin critic to stop refusing food after 24 days following examination by non-prison doctorsAlexei Navalny has said he is ending his hunger strike after getting medical attention and being warned by his doctors that continuing it would be life-threatening.In an Instagram post on Friday afternoon, the 24th day of his hunger strike, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader said he would continue to demand a visit from his doctor to address a loss of sensation in his legs and arms – his main demand when launchinghis hunger strike. Continue reading...

Tottenham somehow found time to part ways with Mourinho, while my shower raised some issues