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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