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The author of the hit YA fantasy talks about Netflix stardom, making her novels more diverse and why she had to give up a close relationship with her fans When Leigh Bardugo first came face to face with her characters, she wept. In a video that was uploaded everywhere from YouTube to TikTok, the author stepped on to the Budapest set of Netflix’s Shadow and Bone and embraced her heroine, Alina – or rather, the actor Jessie Mei Li in costume. “You guys look amazing,” Bardugo repeats in the video, between hugs and tears. “You look so incredible. It’s actually eerie.” “Adaptation is scary,” Bardugo says now. “I don’t begrudge any author the right to say that they don’t want to do it, because we’ve all seen it go wrong. It would be heartbreaking to be locked out of the house that you built. But I got lucky, because the people I collaborated with cared deeply – not just about the material, but the people who love it.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RZamVw

Hooper reported at a time of cuttings libraries and copytakers but Italy’s story of instability and migrants dying in the Med is little changed Long before even meeting John Hooper, affectionately known among foreign correspondents in Rome as “the Hoops”, I considered him a guide. In 2018, in preparation for the March general election, I bought his book, The Italians , seeking insight into Italian history, culture and mindset Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3uX0H0c

Safety warnings as pubs, cinemas and restaurants fully reopen … Gaza rocked by fresh Israeli airstrikes … average house prices pass £333,564 Morning everyone. I’m Martin Farrer and these are the top stories this morning. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2QmdAls

Investigation reveals that ‘plastic waste coming from the UK to Turkey is an environmental threat, not an economic opportunity’ Turkey has become the latest destination for British plastic waste, which ends up dumped, burned or left to pollute the ocean, a Greenpeace investigation has found. More than half of the plastic the British government says is being recycled are sent overseas, often to countries without the necessary infrastructure to do so. The UK exported 688,000 tonnes of discarded plastic packaging in 2020, a daily average of 1.8m kilos. Just 486,000 tonnes were recycled in the UK. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/33MmJqL

Bridgewater, billed as ‘Europe’s biggest gardening project’, is to finally open after Covid delays The Royal Horticultural Society billed it as “Europe’s biggest gardening project”, a 154-acre garden in one of the most deprived local authorities in England that was going to open up a new audience for one of the country’s most middle-class organisations. RHS Bridgewater in Salford was supposed to open last summer, but Covid had other ideas. It will finally open to the public on Tuesday, with the curator, Marcus Chilton-Jones, saying the pandemic was a “blessing in disguise” because it gave the RHS an extra 10 months to get the gardens established. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3w2MYVY

Four years after escaping her marriage, the former Spice Girl talks about confidence, family – and why the pandemic has led to a rise in abusive relationships Melanie Brown is in her tracksuit talking to me from her Leeds home. Her mother has popped round and is chomping away on an Easter egg she has just found, despite the fact that Brown has made her some “amazing” spicy curry soup for lunch. Her oldest daughter, Phoenix, is going to extreme measures to get her attention. Meanwhile, tiny yorkshire terrier Cookie has jumped into Brown’s arms, as her French bulldogs Yoshi and Yoda and golden doodle Luna wander around making mischief. It’s a picture of contented domestic chaos. But it wasn’t always like this. Four years ago Brown, better known as Mel B or Scary Spice, was living in Los Angeles, married to the American film producer Stephen Belafonte and, she says, terrified for her life. In her 2018 memoir Brutally Honest , she documented the horror of her day-to-day existence – alleg...

Project turns trophy hunters’ hit list into a conservation tool – and reveals the animals we most want to see caught on camera For trophy hunters, the big five are the toughest, most dangerous animals to kill, but a photography project has turned the meaning of shooting on its head, creating a new list of the five most fantastic creatures to capture on camera. More than 50,000 people from around the world voted for animals they most liked seeing pictures of as part of the New Big 5 wildlife photography list. The crowning creatures are elephant, lion, polar bear, gorilla and tiger, all of which are keystone species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as either critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3wcKfcE

Theatregoers want to ‘get underneath the skin’ of societal issues, says National Theatre’s Clint Dyer Britain’s cultural institutions are at a crossroads moment, according to the National Theatre’s deputy artistic director, who says the public want challenging art rather than “comforting” work as venues reopen and lockdown eases. Clint Dyer, the playwright and actor who took on the NT role in January, said that before the pandemic mainstream theatre often comforted rather than confronted its audience. “A lot of the work in the mainstream was there to say: ‘Oh, this is the world that we know you like seeing,’” said Dyer. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3fr1rUK

The ‘household book’ of Martha Lloyd, who lived with the Austens, contains recipes giving an authentic flavour of the writer’s life “Grate the Cheese & add to it one egg, & a teaspoonful of Mustard, & a little Butter,” advises Martha Lloyd, a close friend of Jane Austen, in her recipe for one of the author’s favourite meals, “Toasted Cheese”. “Send it up on a toast or in paper Trays.” This recipe is part of the “household book” written between 1798 and 1830 by Lloyd, who lived with Austen, her sister Cassandra and their mother (also called Cassandra) for years. The four women lived together in a cottage in Chawton, Hampshire, where Jane wrote, revised and had published all of her novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/33M956U

As museums and galleries finally reopen, our Great British Art Tour comes to an end with a quiz to celebrate some of our favourite discoveries from the series. Have you been paying attention? Each of these works, and the answers to our questions, has featured in our series that explored highlights from public collections across the country while art galleries and museums were closed. You can read the four-month series here , produced in collaboration with Art UK , which brings the nation’s art together on one digital platform and tells the stories behind the art. If you spot any mistakes, or want to give us feedback – good or bad – please get in touch . Filters and flattering angles for selfies are not a 21st-century invention. What was Godfried Schalcken hoping to achieve with this large work of self-promotion that can be seen in Leamington Spa’s Art Gallery ? Election to England’s Royal Academy The position of official portrait painter at the court of King William and Queen Ma...

From an approval rating of 80% earlier in the year, now tough questions are being asked of PM’s leadership The missing persons complaint was filed at Parliament Street police station in Delhi as a matter of some urgency: it concerned the “disappearance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi” and 10 of his cabinet ministers during the pandemic. Nagesh Kariyappa, the general secretary of the Indian national students’ union who filed the report to police on Friday, said he wanted the absence of political leadership when India had been brought to its knees by Covid-19 to be a matter of official record. “Where are the so-called leaders who had promised to make India a global leader but have instead made people suffer like this?” said Kariyappa. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RWAXmi

UK health experts warn people to ignore lockdown easing; India reports 281,386 cases and 4,106 deaths; ten weeks out, more than 80% of Japanese oppose holding Olympics Tokyo Olympics: more than 80% of Japanese oppose hosting Games – poll ‘Everybody is angry’: Modi under fire over India’s Covid second wave UK ‘faces labour shortage’ as Covid and Brexit fuel exodus of overseas workers See all our coronavirus coverage 5.51am BST Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan. People should ignore Monday’s easing of lockdown in parts of the UK and avoid socialising indoors in pubs and restaurants to prevent the new Covid-19 variant first detected in India sparking a third wave of the disease, health experts say. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3brrdHx

Indigenous people in the grip of a humanitarian crisis as Bolsonaro gives encouragement to wildcat miners with designs on their rainforest territory A photograph of an emaciated Yanomami girl, huddled listlessly in a hammock beside an empty cooking pot over an unlit fire. Shaky footage of indigenous people screaming as they flee in panic to a soundtrack of gunfire. Shocking images shared on Brazilian social media this week have cast a spotlight on a spiral of violence, malnutrition and disease that threatens fresh devastation for the Yanomami people and their ancestral territory in the Amazon state of Roraima. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3eTGanC

Front pages celebrate easing of restrictions but they all deliver a health warning as cases of the new variant spread Newspapers are almost unanimous in identifying the easing of coronavirus restrictions as the biggest story of the day – but they all deliver the news with a health warning. As the most parts of the UK take another step out of lockdown on Monday – with two households or groups of six allowed to meet indoors in England for the first time since last year – health experts have said that the Indian Covid variant still poses a real risk. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3fq5Win

Japan expanded a coronavirus state of emergency on Friday as the nation battles a fourth wave of Covid infections See all our coronavirus coverage More than 80% of Japanese oppose hosting the Olympics this year, a new poll published on Monday showed, with just under 10 weeks until the Tokyo Games. The latest survey comes after Japan expanded a coronavirus state of emergency Friday as the nation battles a fourth wave of virus infections. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3ygmvpO

Strikes early on Monday appeared broader and more intense than Sunday’s, in which 42 Palestinians died in the deadliest single attack yet Israeli warplanes have launched what appeared to be the heaviest airstrikes yet on Gaza City, hours after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled the bombardment would rage on. The series of attacks early on Monday rocked the city from north to south for 10 minutes and was more intense, covered a broader area and lasted longer than the raids 24 hours earlier in which 42 Palestinians were killed – the deadliest single attack in the latest violence between Israel and the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/33RFN6Z

Khet Thi, who captured the unflinching determination of the Myanmar public, was the third poet to be killed by the military since the coup His words captured the unflinching determination of the Myanmar public in the face of military brutality: “They shoot in the head, but they don’t know revolution dwells in the heart.” The poet Khet Thi was taken from his home in Shwebo, in the Sagaing region, last Saturday. The next day, his wife collected his body from a hospital. His organs had been removed , she told BBC Burmese. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3tVr7OC

The author and journalist Michael Lewis discusses reporting on a group of individuals who tried to alert the US government to the dangers of its inaction as coronavirus cases began to rise at an alarming rate The author and journalist Michael Lewis has made a career of writing about people who see things coming that most of us don’t. His book The Big Short, which was turned into an Oscar-winning film, followed a group of investors who predicted the collapse of the American housing market in 2007. He tells Rachel Humphreys about the group of individuals who have become the focus of his new book, The Premonition. As Covid case numbers began to rise at an alarming rate across America, Lewis discovered a group of medics and scientists who were trying to alert the US government to the dangers of its inaction. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3eScI1C

Grounding of the container ship in a southern section of the canal in March delayed the passage of hundreds of vessels through the waterway Egypt has started dredging work to extend a second lane that allows for two-way traffic in a southern section of the canal near to where a giant container ship got stuck for six days in March. The state-owned Suez Canal Authority (SCA) announced last week that it was planning to extend a second canal lane that opened in 2015 by 10km to make it 82km long, and would widen and deepen a single lane stretch at the southern end of the canal. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3eQ5haV

There has been a 27% increase over four years in avoidable illnesses and injuries caused by failures in care Tens of thousands of people with dementia are taken to hospital each year for emergency admission because inadequate social care has left them unprotected from infections, falls and dehydration, an investigation has found. There has been a 27% increase over a four-year period in avoidable illnesses and injuries caused by failures in care for those living with dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Society , which sent Freedom of Information Act requests to all NHS trusts. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3tWuqVQ

Experts say recovery at risk amid sharp fall in EU workers and dwindling interest in UK jobs from abroad Britain’s employers are struggling to hire staff as lockdown lifts amid an exodus of overseas workers caused by the Covid pandemic and Brexit, industry figures reveal. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the recruitment firm Adecco, employers plan to hire at the fastest rate in eight years, led by the reopening of the hospitality and retail sectors as pandemic restrictions are relaxed in England and Wales on Monday. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RZco7Y

Exclusive: cut off from support networks and often facing tension at home, young LGBT+ people suffered more than most during lockdowns Young LGBT+ people are three times more likely to self-harm and twice as likely to contemplate suicide as their non-LGBT+ peers, according to a survey. The research was carried out by Just Like Us, an LGBT+ young people’s charity, which surveyed 2,934 pupils aged 11-18, including 1,140 pupils who identify as LGBT+. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3yqE5Ym

Prices have increased most in Wales and the north-west of England and least in London, says Rightmove The average asking price of homes coming on to the UK property market hit a high of a third of a million pounds in May, according to figures from the listings website Rightmove. The average asking price has increased by 1.8%, or £5,767, over the past month to £333,564, the website said, with an “unexpected mini-boom” that started last year continuing well into 2021. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3w2nMyS

Advanced technique used to recover genetic material may help solve the mystery of early man Scientists have pinpointed major changes in Europe’s Neanderthal populations – from traces of blood and excrement they left behind in a Spanish cave 100,000 years ago. The discovery is the first important demonstration of a powerful new technique that allows researchers to study DNA recovered from cave sediments. No fossils or stone tools are needed for such studies. Instead, minuscule traces of genetic material that have accumulated in the dust of a cavern floor are employed to reveal ancient secrets. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2STEhyZ

Starving and trapped by ice, the Norwegian’s crew had discovered how to beat scurvy on an earlier voyage. The benefits proved crucial Thirteen years before he became the first person ever to reach the south pole in 1911, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen experienced his first merciless taste of winter in the Antarctic . Stuck onboard the Belgian expedition ship Belgica, which was grounded in pack ice, he and the rest of the crew contracted scurvy and faced certain death. That is when, according to a new book published later this month, Amundsen started eating raw penguin meat – and discovered a secret that would later give him a huge advantage over Captain Robert Falcon Scott in the race to the south pole. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2SV6TI8

Imad Alarnab lost everything to the war. He never dreamed he could rebuild his restaurants in the UK When Imad Alarnab, a Syrian chef, arrived in the UK as a refugee five years ago, he could barely afford to eat. Meals were regularly skipped and a Snickers bar could be eked out over a whole day to help him survive. On Monday, the 43-year-old father of three will be celebrating lockdown rules easing with a fairytale twist: Alarnab will be opening the doors to his very own central London restaurant . “This is not because I am strong or brave,” says Alarnab, who begins to well up as staff scurry through the restaurant, prepping for their first service. “I am proof that if you try to do something good for people, something good will happen to you. This is a fact.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3eNE88L

Loved for her biting comedy roles, the actor is enjoying a late-blooming career. She talks about playing a convert to Islam in After Love, and her TV series about women’s sex lives during lockdown Joanna Scanlan is sitting in splendid isolation in a country house hotel in Sussex, where she has been transforming herself into HE Bates’s voluptuous matriarch, Ma Larkin, for a six-part ITV miniseries. But we’re not here to talk about the Larkins, or any of the other TV roles that have earned her a place as one of the UK’s funniest actors, from hopelessly disengaged press officer Terri in Armando Iannucci’s The Thick of It , to gobby Detective Inspector Deering in Paul Abbott’s No Offence , and status-obsessed ward sister Den in her own award-winning hospital comedy, Getting On . I’ve dropped in remotely on her filming bubble to discuss a role that could not be more different, more heart-wrenchingly serious, even as it draws on the very qualities that have so often made us laugh. In After...

UK prime minister under mounting pressure to rethink lifting of restrictions amid warning of potential surge in hospital admissions Johnson ‘must think again on plans to relax Covid rules’ 8.56am BST Matt Hancock said there is a “high degree of confidence” that the current vaccines work against the Indian variant of coronavirus. He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: There’s new very early data out from Oxford University, and I would stress that this is from the labs, it’s not clinical data, and it’s very early. But it does give us a degree of confidence that the vaccines work against this Indian variant, but it is clearly more transmissible and has been spreading fast in the groups where there’s a cluster. 8.45am BST Health secretary Matt Hancock has warned the UK needs to be cautious to avoid an explosion of the Indian variant. He also said the government will make a decision on June 14 over whether to go ahead with the final unlocking, planned for June 21. Continue readin...

It’s hoped a 12-year trial in Devon will persuade policymakers to back silvopasture to benefit the soil, livestock and climate Andy Gray stands beside an enormous hill of bare red earth and smiles with a hint of mischief. This is his best field, its soils known as Crediton red land. The region was once known for producing swedes prized by Covent Garden market. Now, every six metres, planted in rows 14 metres apart, stands a tree guard shielding a young oak, aspen or alder. “You can grow anything on it and I’m planting trees,” says Gray, a 16th-generation Devon farmer. “I’m seen as the fool on the hill. One neighbour said ‘you might as well concrete it over and build houses’. They could be right. Who knows?” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2S0Wudh

An early still life painting by the Pink Floyd founder will be sold at auction Monet had his water lilies, Van Gogh his sunflowers, but for Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett it was orange dahlias. A vibrant still life painted by the late frontman of the British band when he was 15 will go under the hammer on 27 May as his childhood playmate puts it up for sale. “I have lots of happy memories, including watching the first Dr Who series from behind the sofa together. But the Syd I remember is a different, younger person, and I know there are a lot of fans who feel even more about him who might give this painting a home,” said Phil Harden, who spent hours with Barrett as a boy in Cambridge and later visited him as an adult, when the former musician was struggling with mental illness in seclusion. “He was a funny and lively boy, but also very protective of me, as I was six years younger. It is rather amazing to me that he is still so highly regarded across the world.” Continue reading... fr...

Misinformation could be causing real harm in the community Like viruses, false information spreads through networks. I n March 2020 , more than a quarter of the top Covid-19 related videos on YouTube contained misleading claims and those had more than 60m views worldwide. The World Health Organization’s Covid “myth-busters” page counters ideas such as the notion that eating garlic protects you against infection. But how many people believe such claims? University of Cambridge researchers found in an online survey that about 15% of UK respondents thought it was more reliable than not that “the coronavirus is part of a global effort to enforce mandatory vaccination”, while 9% supported “the new 5G network may be making us more susceptible to the virus”. They found the most important factor linked to resilience to misinformation was numeracy. While we are fully aware that correlation is not causation, it encourages the idea that greater “data literacy” in the population could help bri...

Nish Kumar considers himself a mild-mannered British Asian man who does comedy. So why does he attract so much rage from the rightwing press and social media? Hide your commemorative Brexit coins! Here comes Nish Kumar, scourge of the sensible right, pirate-chief of the woke left, swinging in fresh from a morning spent toppling statues, hexing Conservative politicians, rolling up Union Jack flags and smoking them like giant cartoon cigars… Kidding. The real Nish Kumar is boyish and bearded, a 35-year-old comedian who likes to loaf around in an Adidas tracksuit and slip-on Simpsons trainers, who leans left in his politics and who (in keeping with a million British comics before him) enjoys making jokes at the expense of the government of the day. When Kumar looks in the mirror, he tells me, he sees a well-to-do, fundamentally harmless British Asian man. He barely recognises the dangerous lefty ghoul who gets criticised in the right-wing press and lambasted on social media as a bigot, ...

Restaurants across the UK are ready to open, indoors and out. We ask a top chef, a restaurateur and a street food team where the hospitality industry will go from here Tom Kerridge The Hand & Flowers, Marlow Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3fkte9E

Harry Edward, who took 100m bronze at the 1920 Antwerp Games, enjoyed an extraordinary running career but he deserves to be far better remembered Harry Edward took a deep breath, pushed his spikes into the holes he’d just dug in the sodden cinder track and dropped his head. A vos marques. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3bsyQxg

With such high-profile splits at Bill and Melinda Gates and Jeff and Mackenzie Bezos, some say the wealthy play by their own rules but celebrities often set standards the rest of us follow A cascade of recent high-profile divorces of the very rich and famous has presented new questions for the divorce industry – and offered a voyeuristic thrill-ride for millions of the less well-known. Some of the divorces of recent years have apparently been amicable or pseudo-amicable, such as the tech billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates, and the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, and Mackenzie Scott. The same is largely true of the split between the reality star billionaire Kim Kardashian and singer Kanye West. But other splits have been decidedly less so, such as the long-running epic divorce and now custody battle between two of Hollywood’s A-listers, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3hxKF9g

As the orchestra prepares to welcome back live audiences, the conductor urges ministers to act on new touring rules in Europe Sir Simon Rattle and his top team at the London Symphony Orchestra have appealed for government support to help them survive the difficulties created by Brexit and Covid. The orchestra depended on international touring – much of it in Europe – for 40% of its revenue before the coronavirus, with tours cancelled by the pandemic . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3tQnObB

Lawmakers faced with choice between embarrassing Trump and ignoring insurrection House Democrats are poised to adopt legislation to create a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Capitol attack, in a move that will force Republicans to either embrace an inquiry that could embarrass Donald Trump – or turn a blind eye to a deadly insurrection. Related: Liz Cheney: McCarthy should testify about Trump’s views on Capitol attack Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3yek5rJ

Fire services say 10 units were called to homes early on Sunday morning and were searching a collapsed property A major incident has been declared after a gas explosion that reportedly destroyed up to three terrace houses in Heysham, Lancashire. Lancashire Fire said on Twitter that 10 units were called to a row of homes about 2.30am on Sunday and that firefighters were searching a collapsed property. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Qqe0HI

Cross-party group warns Boris Johnson that conclusions will not be drawn in time to inform response to third wave Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage A cross-party group of MPs including a former Tory health minister today call on Boris Johnson to ensure that the chair and panel of the public inquiry into Covid-19 is not “hand-picked” by the government, in order to avoid accusations of “political bias”. Around 25 members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus also warn in a letter to the prime minister that the current timetable under which the inquiry will not begin until spring next year will mean vital lessons go unlearned ahead of a potential third wave. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3yhX0UX

These are serious warning signals about your future happiness which you should not ignore, says Mariella Frostrup The dilemma My boyfriend and soon-to-be husband doesn’t like my parents. He is not rude to them. In fact, he can be very welcoming. However, each time I bring up a conversation about my parents he criticises their parenting method in raising me and my siblings. He feels they didn’t do a good job with us. For example, my parents encouraged us to come home with our boyfriends. But from his upbringing that is a taboo, unless you are ready to get married. He feels my parents spoilt us and didn’t instil any moral values. When I try talking about how often we will visit my parents after we get married, his response is not encouraging. This really bothers me. I do not like to think that he sees my family like this. And when I confront him about it, he boldly tells me that he had a better upbringing than me so there is nothing to argue about. I feel not visiting would affect our...

The Del Boy pun is a laugh, but there’s real intent behind the cooking at this Brixton venture Only Food and Courses, Pop Brixton, 49 Station Road, London SW9 8PQ ( onlyfoodandcourses.co.uk ). Starters £10, mains £14, desserts £10, wines from £24 On the wall of the space housing this week’s restaurant is a sign which reads: “A brilliantly cheeky twist on classic British food.” There is a lot to unpack here, not least the second word; I’ll be the judge of that and so on. Even before you get to that sign, you have to confront the name of the restaurant. It’s called Only Food and Courses. That’s boss-level punnery right there, but just about excusable, I think. The restaurant is located inside Pop Brixton, the loose-limbed food-and-drink market built out of converted shipping containers that is only a couple of miles from Peckham, the setting for John Sullivan’s sitcom Only Fools and Horses . Geddit? Sure you do. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3uVnJF0

The Loose Women presenter talks rice and peas, constant news and noise, bringing up her kids and taking time with her hair When are you up? I’m mum to two children under four – so I’m lucky to be asleep still at 6am. These days, they don’t care if mummy’s exhausted. Keeping the older one entertained with the iPad until 7am is a victory. From then it’s a day of tottering. Do you have a Sunday routine? Doing my hair. Afro hair takes time to care for properly. Sunday morning I wash, condition and tie it up wet. Once the kids are in bed, I sit cross-legged on the bedroom floor to blow it out and then comes flat twisting. And dancing with my son. I find it hard to spend time in a room that’s silent. It feels a wasted opportunity. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3olMRCn

Historian Rebecca Hall works with a graphic artist in her new book to reclaim the stories of the female rebels on ships and plantations Growing up in New York in the 1970s Rebecca Hall craved heroes she could relate to – powerful women who could take care of themselves and protect others. But pickings were slim. The famed feminists of the time, Charlie’s Angels and The Bionic Woman , didn’t cut it for her. But every night when she went to sleep, her father would recount stories of her grandmother’s life. Harriet Thorpe was born into slavery 100 years earlier, in 1860, and was the “property”, she was told, of one Squire Sweeney in Howard County, Missouri. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3fiGLP2

Three Palestinians were killed in bombardments early Sunday as the UN security council prepared to meet later in day Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said attacks in Gaza will continue “as long necessary”, amid continuing hostilities that have so far killed 148. At least three Palestinians were killed in airstrikes early on Sunday, health officials said, and many were injured as the sounds of heavy bombardment took place through the night. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2SSinMy

Event organisers say police are threatening to some in the LGBTQ+ community, while NYPD called decision ‘disheartening’ Organisers of New York City’s Pride events say they will ban police and other law enforcement personnel from marching in their annual parade until at least 2025 and will also seek to keep on-duty officers a block away from the celebration of LGBTQ+ people and history. In a statement released on Saturday, NYC Pride urged members of law enforcement to “acknowledge their harm and to correct course moving forward”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3ow2GXf

Prince of Wales is said to want Buckingham Palace, Sandringham and other royal homes to go from ‘private spaces to public places’ The Prince of Wales reportedly plans to give people greater access to the royal palaces when he becomes king. Charles wants Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, Windsor Castle, Sandringham and Balmoral to be transformed from “private spaces to public places”, according to the Sunday Times. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3w7Cg0d

Since March 2020 the pandemic has taken a big red marker pen to the cultural calendar – here are the longest postponements across the arts Previously July 2020 Now July 2021 Delay equivalent to The ideal period between MOT tests Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2SHrdfR

University of Southampton spends ‘hundreds of thousands’ on legal battle preventing access due to government veto When the diaries and letters of Lord and Lady Mountbatten were “saved for the nation” in 2010, it should have created an invaluable public resource. Instead, a writer has spent four years and £250,000 of his own money in an ongoing – but still frustrated – attempt to force Southampton University and the Cabinet Office to allow the public to view them. The university bought the Broadlands archive, named after the Mountbattens’ Grade I-listed house, for £2.8m in 2010, attracting funding by stating it would “preserve the collection in its entirety for future generations to use and enjoy” and “ensure public access”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3bv3kPd

Covid physical-distancing rules also reel in more women to apply for rod licence applications See all our coronavirus coverage Retailers that specialise in fishing tackle are struggling to keep up with demand as thousands of people have taken up angling as a pandemic pastime and a physically distanced way to enjoy the outdoors. The number of annual rod licence applications in England and Wales surged by more than 120,000 in 2020, up 15% on the previous year, according to the Environment Agency, with a big increase in the number of women and families heading to the waterside. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2SUge2T

A new crop of novels are exploring work culture and burnout – yet for many, the office feels like a distant memory. In the light of coronavirus, where will this literature go next? What has become of the office? Its small, mundane daily rituals, its smells – of over-boiled coffee, synthetic fabrics, other people’s perfume – the low hum of phone conversations and the whirring of the printer. To those of us who are still working from home, it feels like a faraway place, a half-forgotten memory, and to those who have returned it is utterly transformed: masked, distanced, hushed. It’s a strange time to be appraising the workplace novel. Will things return to how they were before, or will we look back on our time of working long, gruelling hours in the office with relief, or even nostalgia? I wonder if books set in offices will make us wistful about some aspects of pre-pandemic life or if, instead, these narratives will act as a warning against returning to a working culture that felt, to...

Venerable department store chain closes its doors as other retailers struggle to survive on the high street Shoppers and staff react to store closures There were queues of bargain hunters at the tills at Debenhams in Sheffield but it had the feel of a market hall rather than a department store chain that can trace its roots back more than 240 years. Large areas were roped off with black and yellow tape, the beauty department had been stripped bare with some brand names now obscured by black spray paint, while the lingerie display was little more than four cardboard boxes of bras. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3tV5uhG

With teacher-assessed grades this summer expected to result in more top marks, universities are worried about space in halls and staffing Heads of some of the UK’s elite universities fear they may be forced to take thousands of extra students they feel they do not have room for this summer, if teacher-assessed A-levels lead to far more 18-year-olds achieving the grades they need to obtain a place. During last summer’s A-level fiasco , when thousands of students had their A-levels marked up at the last minute, some elite universities accepted up to a third more students than planned because so many met their offer grades. This year, teacher-assessed A-levels are widely expected to result in far more students with top grades again, leaving some universities worrying about how they will cope. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/33LNZFG

Taiwan raises its coronavirus alert level following a surge in new domestic infections Taiwan records 180 new cases in island’s worst Covid outbreak Who: vaccinate vulnerable global poor before children in rich countries India variant could disrupt lifting of England lockdown, says Boris Johnson How a proudly multicultural country became ‘fortress Australia’ 8.55am BST Australia has carried out its first repatriation flight from India after the government temporarily banned all travel from the country last month, with 80 passengers arriving in Darwin from New Delhi. Reuters reports: The Australian government came under fire for temporarily barring all travel to and from India last month, a policy that drew heavy criticism from lawmakers, expatriates and the Indian diaspora. A total of 70 passengers were barred from boarding the flight on Friday after they or their close contacts tested positive for the coronavirus. 8.14am BST Taiwan has raised its Covid-19 alert level o...

Dogs are more valuable than ever – which is why so many are being snatched. But some owners and pet detectives are fighting back The village of Partridge Green in West Sussex on a gorgeous spring morning. The early mist has burnt off; a wood pigeon coos; a flurry of pink snow falls from a showy cherry tree; outside the butcher’s, an orderly, socially distanced queue has formed; a chap out for a morning spin motors along the high street in his vintage MG. It is, as my companion, Colin Butcher, says, a scene straight out of Midsomer Murders. There are no murders today in Partridge Green, but it is a crime scene, and the crime is one that appears to be sweeping the nation . Butcher – ex-police (you can tell), then private investigator, now company director and chief investigator of The UK Pet Detectives – is on the case. He steps from his Range Rover wearing a fleece with an official-looking badge and “UKPD” emblazoned across the back; a twist on NYPD, except PD stands for Pet Detectiv...

Her track Peng Black Girls was a love letter to womanhood, and a huge lockdown hit. Now the rising south-London star is ready for her closeup. Photography by Suki Dhanda. Styling by Barbara Ayozie Fu Safira . In the depths of a bleak Covid winter, very few of us were feeling peng. With Zoom meetings and state-mandated daily walks our only form of socialising, there was little to dress up for, and few opportunities for us to feel beautiful. Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3opSTSj

Organisers have faced huge challenges in the Covid pandemic, but hope their events can help rejuvenate the arts sector Under the colourful kaleidoscope of Coventry’s latest public artwork, Chenine Bhathena reflects on what the next 12 months hold for the city as it begins its year as the UK’s city of culture after a four-month delay due to the pandemic. “The city is transforming around us. I think it will be really important to build pride for people here, and to be able to show off on a national stage, to help people understand the city as it is now,” she said. “After Covid, the city of culture is more important than ever.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3hwUww3

US team succeeds in captive breeding of sunflower sea stars and aims to reintroduce them to the wild Scientists in a San Juan Island laboratory in Washington state have successfully raised sunflower sea stars, or starfish, in captivity for the first time, in an effort to help save these charismatic ocean creatures from extinction. Sunflower sea stars, whose colours vary widely, can grow as big as a bicycle wheel and have about 20 legs. They were once abundant in coastal waters from Alaska to Mexico, but since 2013, nearly 6 billion of these now critically endangered animals have died from a gruesome wasting disease linked to warming seas . Populations have plummeted by more than 90%. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3tQtDWi

Adapting commercial property will create new homes, but campaigners voice concerns over privacy New planning laws to make it easier to turn empty shops into flats could result in poor-quality homes with “absolutely no privacy”, campaigners claim. However, a separate rule change should mean an end to tiny “rabbit hutch” flats – an issue that has been highlighted by Guardian Money on many occasions in recent years. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3tIUAeE

Return of indoor service on 17 May promises a sorely needed fillip for craft brewers fighting for survival amid Covid crisis Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage The beery aroma in the air at the Gipsy Hill brewery in south London grows ever richer as sack after sack of the finest malt empties out into a stainless steel container, ready to be brewed into their flagship Hepcat IPA. About an hour’s drive away, near Esher in Surrey, the small team at the Big Smoke Brew Co are working equally hard on their own leading label, Electric Eye. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3uPr8VI

The public view on how the demise of the large department stores will affect towns, what went wrong and who was to blame Debenhams bows out after 200 years leaving town centres counting the cost Debenhams may have been far from its heyday for some time, but the closure of its large department stores will still hit towns, cities and shopping malls around the country. By Saturday night, more than 160 Debenhams stores will have closed in the past two years, adding to a smaller number of closures by rivals House of Fraser and John Lewis and the collapse of the 22-strong Beales chain. Shoppers and staff told the Guardian how they thought the closures would hit their towns, what went wrong and who was to blame. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3uPZgAR

I was taken into care when I was just two, but have never known the exact reasons why It was in early 2020 that I received the first few fragments of my care records from my local council. They arrived in an email, with a secure link to a server where I could download a pdf of documents that had been collated, redacted and scanned. I often imagine that these documents were sitting in the forgotten basement of some council building in Guildford. Maybe a civil servant had to find a torch and descend a set of concrete steps into the dark, brush the cobwebs away from the cabinet and jimmy it open with a crowbar to undertake the labour of reading, sorting, censoring and digitising each page of information kept about me. If so, they might have been there a while. The collection of documents anatomising my state guardianship spanned more than two decades. Even before I decided to ask for them, I knew that the files would be altered: the Information Governance department at Surrey county cou...

Katie, 25, branding and innovation consultant, meets Jack, 30, actor What were you hoping for? A cross between Tarzan and Louis Theroux . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3w4Levi

I’m crouched on the wet back step, holding a mirror stolen from the middle one’s bedroom It is Wednesday afternoon, and I am on the step just outside the open garden door. The weather has been cold and wet all day – rain is still dripping from the trees – but the sun has come out and the air is warming up. Twenty minutes ago: it’s so dark that all the lights are still on in the kitchen, where the oldest one is working and the youngest is dicing onions, while they both listen in silence to an audiobook about the American civil war. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3w6gBWn

Seven Palestinians killed in strike on house in Gaza City as US envoy arrives in Israel as part of mediation efforts Israeli fighter jets have hit targets in central Gaza the army said on Saturday, after a day of deadly violence rocked the West Bank and unrest persisted inside Israel. Israel’s air force struck several sites, including a house in Gaza City where at least seven Palestinians were killed, according to the Associated Press and local media. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3uQKmdE

Experts convened to consider changing male-only succession laws amid preponderance of women in the royal family A panel of experts has begun talks on addressing the shortage of heirs to the Japanese imperial throne, as a poll showed that four in five members of the public are comfortable with the idea of women becoming reigning empresses. Solving the succession crisis has taken on greater urgency due to a scarcity of males in the world’s oldest monarchy and the abdication , for health reasons, of Emperor Akihito. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2SU4IVd

Lod’s mayor has described events as a ‘civil war’ with city filled with rocks, burnt cars and armed police in riot gear A smell of petrol lingered in the air and the synagogue’s metal gate had been completely ripped from its hinges. Inside, a small room filled with colourful books for children had been blackened by smoke. Outside, the skeletons of palm trees stood charred, save for a few bits of green at the top. “Those animals destroyed and burnt,” said Eytan Schnur of his Arab neighbours, who, he said, had torched the Jewish house of worship on Thursday night. “We will rebuild; we’ll build it bigger.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3hov245

Spacecraft, which has no crew, touched down on red planet’s surface on Saturday, according to Chinese state media An unmanned Chinese spacecraft has successfully landed on the surface of Mars, Chinese state news agency Xinhua has reported, making China the second space-faring nation after the US to land on the red planet. The official Xinhua news agency said the lander had touched down on Saturday, citing the China National Space Administration. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2QprQKs

Farmers and residents in NSW and Queensland are still battling surging rodent numbers but they fear the ordeal will stretch on for months Warning: graphic images may disturb some readers When the mouse plague began in regional New South Wales and Queensland, residents spoke like generals in a war. It was all about strategy, setting the cleverest traps, fortifying houses to keep the enemy out and outsmarting the tiny creatures as they attacked wave after wave. But, six months on, with rodent numbers surging again despite thousands of tonnes of poisons being deployed and devastating floods, conversations about mice have changed. They aren’t foes to be bested any more, they’re more like a giant dark cloud hovering over each town. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3oiKaBj

Addition of 2,500 extra services will mean rail network running at levels before start of December lockdown Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Thousands more train services will be restored to the UK rail schedules this weekend with more passengers expected to travel as coronavirus restrictions ease on Monday . The addition of 2,500 extra services daily means that about 85% of the rail network will be running again, back to levels before the start of the last lockdown in December. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3tNRt5d

Fears over ‘Indian variant’ prompt pressure for action … Greensill lobbying left reputation in tatters, Cameron told … and Friends, reunited Hello, Warren Murray here to help you get the gist. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RPG9s6

Survey of 936 women in December shows nearly one in five made to cover up, despite official guidance to contrary Nearly one in five pregnant women in the UK were forced to wear a face covering during labour, according to research by a charity, despite official health guidance saying they should not be asked to do so. Women described feeling unable to breathe, having panic attacks or even being sick during labour because they were made to wear a face covering. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RTemHf

Academic and broadcaster will give £80,000 to support two students at Cambridge as parting retirement gift The academic and broadcaster Mary Beard is to retire from Cambridge University next year and as a parting gift will leave an £80,000 fund to support two classics students from under-represented groups. Despite recent efforts to increase diversity in the classics department, including offering an additional year for candidates with little or no Latin, Beard says the faculty remains “very white” and more needs to be done to attract different kinds of students. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3uNX2Sn

President-designate of Cop26 talks says tackling the fossil fuel is ‘a personal priority’ Coal must be consigned to history as the world faces its “last hope” of holding back climate breakdown, the president of the Cop26 climate summit says. Alok Sharma, a former UK business secretary and now president-designate of Cop26, to be held in Glasgow this November, is expected to say this Friday morning: “This is our last hope of keeping 1.5C alive. Our best chance of building a brighter future … of green jobs and cleaner air. I have faith that world leaders will rise to the occasion and not be found wanting in their tryst with destiny.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3bssuOB

Shadow chancellor will discuss how party can appeal to blue-collar voters and urban graduates The new shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, intends to consult Joe Biden’s economic team on how Labour can make a major economic offer before the next election, rooted in job security, childcare and social infrastructure. The party has suffered a bruising week of infighting, criticism of Keir Starmer’s leadership and questions over the party’s values, which both Starmer and Reeves will be called on to address in the coming months. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3tJpt2I

Judge rules medical staff can use minimum force on woman who has barely left home in four years Medics can use force to remove an agoraphobic pregnant woman from her home so she can give birth in hospital, a judge has ruled. Justice Holman concluded that it would be in the 21-year-old’s best interests to allow staff trained in restraint techniques to use minimum force if the woman refused to leave home. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3yapdNG

The director and actor have finally achieved ‘a far-fetched dream’ by working together on his first film in English, The Human Voice. They talk about their mutual admiration, filming in lockdown – and how falling in love can destroy your sense of humour For more than 30 years, the film-maker Pedro Almodóvar has had a voice in his head – The Human Voice, that is. In Jean Cocteau’s monologue , first performed in 1930, a woman goes to pieces during a telephone conversation with her soon-to-be-ex lover. The audience hears only one side of the exchange, lending her the upper hand in the drama at the precise moment she has been robbed of everything else. Almodóvar has now adapted Cocteau’s piece into a typically plush half-hour short starring Tilda Swinton as the injured party, though this isn’t his first brush with the material. A performance of the play is glimpsed in his seamy 1987 masterpiece The Law of Desire , while it was also the inspiration for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Bre...

Success in the local council elections has raised the party’s hopes of a parliamentary seat Four days on from one of the most eye-catching results in England’s local council elections, Yassin Mohamud , the new Green member for the Bristol inner city ward of Lawrence Hill, still has to stop every few minutes to accept the congratulations of residents, neighbours, shopkeepers and taxi drivers when he walks down to the shops. “It’s very exciting,” said Mohamud. “I can’t wait to get on with the job. This area has been neglected for too long. There is so much litter, drugs, air pollution, antisocial behaviour. Things must change.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3w4akdJ

A nun working in war-torn Tigray has shared her harrowing testimony of the atrocities taking place The Ethiopian nun, who has to remain anonymous for her own security, is working in Mekelle, Tigray’s capital, and surrounding areas, helping some of the tens of thousands of people displaced by the fighting who have been streaming into camps in the hope of finding shelter and food. Both are in short supply. Humanitarian aid is being largely blocked and a wholesale crackdown is seeing civilians being picked off in the countryside, either shot or rounded up and taken to overcrowded prisons. She spoke to Tracy McVeigh this week. “After the last few months I’m happy to be alive. I have to be OK. Mostly we are going out to the IDP [internally displaced people] camps and the community centres where people are. They are in a bad way. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3uMepCZ

Ahead of the reopening of hotels on 17 May, we stay at five, each offering a different experience What’s it like? A joint venture by a cracking little hotel and a special restaurant opened in late 2019 in the small-but-happening town of Bruton. The Grade-II listed building on a medieval plot at 1 High Street is a mishmash of a Georgian townhouse and converted 15th-century forge and cottages Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2QhDfff

With international tourism frozen, families separated and expats feeling abandoned, the question of how to reopen is becoming pressing See all our coronavirus coverage As vaccination continues around the world, the New Zealand government has begun providing glimpses of how the country will eventually reopen its borders. But there’s no immediate end in sight, even for expats who have received vaccinations overseas. New Zealand has been closed to most international visitors for more than a year now. Anyone entering the country – except via recently-opened travel bubbles with Australia and the Cook Islands – is required to spend two weeks in government-run isolation. Even those spaces are only open to citizens, permanent residents or essential workers. For those eligible, access is still limited – at times, all spots in isolation have been booked out for months in advance. And while there are now spaces available, the cost of a visit is prohibitive for many: NZ$3,100 for anyone who...

Tech industry struggles to keep up with demand brought on by the reopening of the world economy The shortage of computer chips plaguing industries around the world and helping to fuel inflation could last another two years, the boss of IBM has said. With the global car industry estimated to lose $110bn this year thanks to the chip shortage, IBM’s president, Jim Whitehurst, told the BBC on Friday that the tech industry was struggling to keep up with demand brought on by the reopening of the world economy. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3uMFvKs

Japan will declare a state of emergency in three more prefectures; Greece launches tourism season; calls for ‘surge vaccinations’ in UK as India variant cases double Call for ‘surge vaccinations’ as UK cases of India variant double Delay in giving second jabs of Pfizer vaccine improves immunity Eid al-Fitr celebrations muted as UK mosques adapt to pandemic See all our coronavirus coverage 5.48am BST The UK government is under growing pressure to deploy “surge vaccinations” in Covid hotspots, with some local authorities pushing to extend the offer of jabs to over-18s to stop the spread of a coronavirus variant. Boris Johnson said he was anxious about the spread of the variant first detected in India, as cases more than doubled in a week. Some government advisers are concerned that his roadmap out of lockdown should be slowed down until the infections are under control. Related: Call for ‘surge vaccinations’ as UK cases of India variant double 5.32am BST Japan will declare...

Services marking end of Ramadan, in Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff, guided by safety precautions Eid al-Fitr celebrations in Britain were muted for the second year in a row amid the challenge of holding the religious festival with Covid restrictions in place. The festival marks the end of Ramadan and typically starts with people attending mosque for morning prayers followed by family and friends getting together for a celebratory meal. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RUPdMo

As the world witnesses the worst violence in Jerusalem since the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, the US president, Joe Biden, has been criticised for his silence. Jonathan Freedland speaks to the veteran negotiator Dennis Ross about the history of US policy in the Middle East “We’re escalating towards a full-scale war,” the UN’s Middle East envoy said on Tuesday of the situation in Gaza . As Israel continues to launch airstrikes and Palestinian militant groups fire rockets in retaliation, dozens of Palestinians, including children, have been killed in Gaza, as well as several Israelis. The situation is serious, but the Biden administration has remained silent for the most part . The US, once seen as an influential arbiter in the Middle East, has been too wrapped up in domestic issues to deal with far-away troubles. So what is the president to do? Is the US even the right mediator any more? Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3oe35x4

Defence force says ground forces are carrying out strikes on Gaza Strip – but are not operating inside territory – amid escalating crisis Israel military says air and ground forces are attacking Gaza – live updates Israel’s military has said its ground and air forces are attacking targets in the Gaza Strip as residents reported a massive bombardment, amid fears that Israel would launch an incursion into the blockaded territory. “[Israel Defense Forces] air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip,” the military said in a statement just after midnight local time, without providing further details. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3eMxKPb