The Guardian
Queensland Maroons v NSW Blues: Women’s State of Origin game 2 – live
Updates from the second game in Brisbane
Kick-off at Suncorp Stadium is 7.45pm AEST
Any thoughts? Get in touch with an email
There’s a bit of rain around at Suncorp, but Maroons captain Tamika Upton says her team is prepared for the conditions. The Blues have warned Upton they will be testing her under the high ball with plenty of bombs to be put up throughout this game. The wet conditions will make that even more challenging, but Upton is a quality player who won’t be intimidated by this game plan.
If you want a refresher on Game 1 before we get underway tonight, you’re in luck! Jack Snape’s match report will take you right back to that fateful night in Newcastle just two short weeks ago.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 09:36
The Guardian
Trump China visit live: Xi Jinping warns US and China could ‘come into conflict’ if Taiwan issue mishandled, state media reports
Security was heightened in Beijing ahead of the two leaders’ crucial talks, which were set to be dominated by trade, AI and the war in Iran
Donald Trump will drive through a Chinese capital that is smoggier than it was on his last visit in 2017, when the authorities launched emergency measures to clear the skies of pollution days before his first state visit to Beijing.
Factories were ordered to halt production and heavily polluting cars were banned from the roads in the days ahead of the US president’s trip nearly a decade ago, an era in which China had declared war on air pollution and made special efforts to clear the skies ahead of important political events such as visiting dignitaries and the Beijing Olympics.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 09:33
The Guardian
Latvia prime minister resigns days after ‘stray’ drone incursion – Europe live
Evika Siliņa said she was frustrated by the response to the incident and late alerts for the population
Meanwhile, the new Hungarian government has summoned the Russian ambassador to the country over a massive drone attack in the Zakarpattia region near Hungary’s border with Ukraine.
The region is of special symbolic importance for Hungary as it remains home to many ethic Hungarians.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 09:25
The Guardian
Philippine politician wanted by ICC flees senate after days holed up in building
Ronald dela Rosa, wanted over involvement in Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’, reportedly left heavily guarded building before dawn
A Philippine lawmaker wanted by the international criminal court for his alleged role enforcing Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody anti-drugs crackdown has secretly fled the senate, after spending days holed up in the building to avoid arrest.
The Senate president, Alan Peter Cayetano, confirmed to media that senator Ronald dela Rosa was “no longer in the building”, after reports that he had slipped out of the heavily guarded building before dawn.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 09:16
The Guardian
Anderson juices up the vibes for Dior with spotlight on Hollywood
Designer suggests decision to stage show in Los Angeles is part of strategy to deepen label’s cinema presence
Like Christian Dior, the founder of the house he now leads, fashion designer Jonathan Anderson’s ambition is to be not just a Parisian couturier but a Hollywood power player. “We think of Dior as this romantic character, but he was also a very savvy businessman,” said Anderson before a blockbuster catwalk show in Los Angeles. Stage Fright, the Hitchcock caper-noir for which Dior dressed Marlene Dietrich, was the show’s origin story. “There is all this amazing correspondence between Dior, Dietrich and Hitchcock, which shows how he navigated the money that it cost to make that film. I think we underestimate how much negotiation Dior did with studio executives. He was very smart in that way.”
Anderson, 41, who was born in Northern Ireland but since being appointed to Dior splits his time between London and Paris, has his own Hollywood side hustle as the costume designer for Luca Guadagnino’s films, and is set on reinvigorating Dior’s relationship with the film industry.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 09:13Cisco's stock pops 17% on surging AI orders, as company says it's cutting almost 4,000 jobs
Cisco's AI story has finally started resonating with Wall Street, with the stock hitting a record late last year and continuing to rally in 2026.
14th May 2026 09:12
The Guardian
IndyCar’s ‘One Nation, One Race’ controversy is no surprise amid its rightward drift
The series quickly withdrew a shirt that stirred up a strong backlash. But IndyCar has been playing with fire for a while
This could be the summer of IndyCar.
Formula One fatigue is beginning to set in, both globally and among the American audiences who helped fuel the sport’s recent boom. Nascar, for all its national reach in the US and lingering cultural import, remains a largely regional attraction. IndyCar, on the other hand, boasts a wealth of personalities, is anchored in real structural parity and delivers wheel-to-wheel action time and again. But as the buildup begins for the 110th running of this year’s Indianapolis 500 – still the sport’s commercial, spiritual centerpiece and Memorial Day weekend staple – IndyCar is at risk of tripping over itself in its rush to return to prominence.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 09:00
The Guardian
Listen and learn: the hidden secret to spotting a liar
You may think you know when someone’s trying to deceive you, but there’s a clever trick very few people are aware of – one that has eluded AI and Traitors contestants alike
Can you tell if someone is lying?
Close your eyes. You’re already twice as good as you were before.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 09:00
The Guardian
‘There are no rules’: spotlight on Gossip Goblin as AI film-making enters new era
Defying criticisms of ‘slop’ and ‘theft’, the growing culture of AI-powered creativity is attracting interest from Hollywood
In a former hemstitching workshop where artisans sewed pleats for Stockholm’s 19th-century bourgeoisie, a distinctly 21st-century craft is taking root: AI film-making.
One day last week, an actor, director and composer squeezed into a tiny studio booth to record a voiceover for their next AI release. Critics disparage AI movies as “automated slop” or cheating, and fume at what they claim to be industrial-scale copyright theft. But this had a distinctly homespun feel, the little team fussing over a monologue by a poetic Scottish gorilla inhabiting a transhumanist cyberpunk universe. It was a bit like recording the Archers, one of them joked.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 09:00Workers are getting paid to teach AI how to do their jobs
AI companies are recruiting a wide range of temp workers, from writers to wine enthusiasts, for hourly-paid gigs to help train their language models.
14th May 2026 09:00
NPR Topics: News
The MAHA movement is coming to school cafeterias. Here's what that means for kids
U.S. school districts worry it could get even more expensive to prepare a meal under new federal dietary guidelines, as they also contend with cuts to programs that helped them buy local food.
14th May 2026 09:00
NPR Topics: News
Ex-DOJ official goes public with blistering criticism of his former bosses
Until recently, Jonathan Gross was a Trump political appointee at the Department of Justice and worked on its "Weaponization Working Group." He has now become a vocal critic of the department.
14th May 2026 09:00
The Guardian
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma review – Gillian Anderson superb in queer slasher spectacular
Cannes film festival: Young indie film-maker Kris tracks down Anderson’s Final Girl for a remake of a beloved horror, to find fantasy and reality collapsed
Jane Schoenbrun unveils a very enjoyable display of transformative ecstasy and submissive rapture, treating us to a bizarre pop-cultural black mass of fiercely believed-in trash and kink. As before with Schoenbrun’s films, I found myself thinking of Gore Vidal’s (still unfashionable) Myra Breckinridge novel.
This is a film that somehow persuades you that the 80s slasher genre is an exalting and liberatingly progressive experience. As before, in her We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021) and I Saw the TV Glow (2024), Schoenbrun pulls off the trick of inventing an imaginary media phenomenon and treating it with complete fan-seriousness – an online horror game and cult scary TV show in the first two films and now a slasher movie franchise called Camp Miasma about a teen transgender killer called Little Death wearing a ceiling vent as a mask (why is never explained) who periodically emerges from a lake in a sleepaway camp where scantily clad young people will be brutally speared.
The opening credits wittily walk us through the franchise’s initial wild success and slump in the later movies, the merch and the video games and the insufferable cultural studies discourse about its “problematic” treatment of gender.
Now young indie film-maker Kris (Hannah Einbinder) has been hired to direct a lucrative origin-story reboot of Camp Miasma, a dream job as she has been obsessed with this series since illicitly watching the first movie at the age of eight, thrilled by feelings she still can’t understand by the Final Girl’s mortal jeopardy, preparing to die while somehow experiencing the killer’s point-of-view: feelings that Kris’s unhappy, painful experiences with sex have never equalled.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 08:55
NPR Topics: News
Morning news brief
President Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jingping for summit during first day in the country, what Asia thinks of Trump's visit, appeals court hears arguments from law firms targeted by Trump.
14th May 2026 08:47
NPR Topics: News
How Asia is reacting to Trump's summit in China
President Trump is in Beijing for his big summit with Chinese leaders. How Asia is reacting to the summit.
14th May 2026 08:46
The Guardian
UK economy records surprise 0.3% growth in first month of the Iran war
GDP reading ties in with some surveys suggesting UK plc has kept up momentum despite rising fuel costs
The UK economy unexpectedly grew during the first full month of the Iran war, according to official figures, suggesting the Middle East conflict has not yet affected growth as much as feared.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed growth of 0.3% in gross domestic product (GDP) in March, down from a revised 0.4% rise in February and 0% growth in January. The ONS had originally estimated that the economy grew 0.5% in February and 0.1% in January.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 08:18Trade wars to extended truce: Analysts expect ‘stabilization’ in U.S.-China ties as Trump-Xi meet
The world's two largest economies sought to stabilize fractured ties at their first high-level meeting in nearly a decade.
14th May 2026 08:10
The Guardian
Angela Rayner cleared by HMRC over tax affairs paving the way for potential leadership bid
Exclusive: Former deputy prime minister says investigation ‘clipped my wings’ as she settles £40,000 in unpaid stamp duty
Angela Rayner has been cleared by HMRC of deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness over her tax affairs, the Guardian can reveal, paving the way for a potential leadership bid as Keir Starmer’s grip on power unravels.
The former deputy prime minister has settled £40,000 in unpaid stamp duty after initially paying the lower rate, but has not paid any penalty as a result of the investigation. HMRC was also satisfied there was no tax avoidance.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 08:01
The Guardian
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans review – immensely enjoyable return of the epistolary novel
This moving work about an irascible woman in her 70s who conducts her most intimate relationships through letters has been shortlisted for the Women’s prize
Epistolary novels were once all the rage, from the epic Clarissa to the lurid fun of Dracula. They don’t come along very often now, perhaps because they can be tricky to do well: all those gaps and omissions, the need for a flawless command of tone and voice, the problem of creating movement within an unusually hermetic form. But every now and then a book appears that’s a breakout success. The 2000s saw two epistolary smash hits in We Need to Talk about Kevin and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (boy, are those different reading experiences), while in the 2010s there was Where’d You Go, Bernadette?
Now we have Virginia Evans’s The Correspondent. It’s been one of those word-of-mouth sensations that puts a spring back into publishers’ steps, a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic, now shortlisted for the Women’s prize for fiction. It’s easy to see why, given that it’s such an immensely enjoyable read.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 08:00
The Guardian
The Christophers review – Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel are the double act of the year
Steven Soderbergh and Ed Solomons provide a vision of haughty Englishness up there with Gosford Park and Phantom Thread
Steven Soderbergh has a certain superpower, not always bestowed on even the most important directors: a capacity to surprise. This is a restlessly productive film-maker, travelling light creatively, developing eclectic projects, shooting on digital, using intimate locations and getting the very best from an invariably classy cast. He has recently found himself in the UK and his latest London-set movie is terrifically exhilarating and funny, as bracing as a large vodka and tonic before lunch: fast, literate and funny with a key plot progression elliptically and unsentimentally managed.
The Christophers is a movie about contemporary art and about what Alan Bennett in his play about Anthony Blunt called “a question of attribution”, and it puts new life and wit into the (perhaps) tiresome subject of movies on this subject: what has value and what does not. An irascible, dyspeptic old English painter called Julian Sklar, wonderfully played by Ian McKellen, is a once dominant but now outmoded and disliked artist of the School of London variety, living solo in a chaotic bohemian townhouse in the capital’s Bloomsbury district; he is a man given to toweringly witty and cantankerous rants against everything that presents itself to his raddled senses.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 08:00
The Guardian
French authorities lift lockdown on norovirus-hit cruise ship
Asymptomatic people allowed off ship from Wednesday afternoon but those infected ordered to remain in isolation
A norovirus-hit cruise ship carrying mainly passengers from the UK and Ireland has had a French lockdown order lifted.
All 1,701 people onboard Ambition were prevented from disembarking for more than 24 hours after it docked in Bordeaux on Tuesday after one person died of a heart attack and dozens became ill with a vomiting virus.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 07:57
NPR Topics: News
UAE denies Netanyahu secretly visited the country during the Iran war
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quietly visited the United Arab Emirates during the Israeli-U.S. war with Iran, his office said Wednesday. The UAE later denied any secret visit had occurred.
14th May 2026 07:16
The Guardian
Labour is being destroyed by dithering: it should either do Brexit properly or rejoin the EU | Larry Elliott
The UK has been suffering since going it alone, but Starmer’s noncommittal approach has made things worse. No wonder voters are angry
Ten years on from the referendum, Brexit still shapes British politics. It has smashed the two-party duopoly and continues to divide the country. Keir Starmer’s struggle to remain prime minister after last week’s drubbing for Labour in elections in England, Scotland and Wales is proof of that.
Voters took politicians at their word after the decision was made to leave the EU. The reason “Take back control” worked as a slogan was that it chimed with the public mood in large parts of Britain.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 07:00
The Guardian
Why are we getting more, not less, VAR? Football will not kill its golden goose | Jonathan Liew
In generating a constant stream of outrage, debate and engagement, much-reviled tech has become its own spectacle
“Just keep delaying,” Darren England tells the referee, Chris Kavanagh, at West Ham on Sunday afternoon. The title is on the line, possibly relegation too, and as replay after replay queues up on the tape machine, who could blame a humble video assistant for wanting to savour the moment?
To survey it from all the relevant angles, consider all contingencies. To feel the sensation of all that awesome power at his fingertips. They’re calling it the most important VAR review in Premier League history. Stuart Attwell, you’ll never sing that.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 07:00
The Guardian
‘Give him the pain’: meet Zak Chelli, the supply teacher turned boxing sensation
The light-heavyweight is a substitute teacher by day but on Saturday delivered a blistering lesson to Cuba’s David Morrell
Last Saturday night in Manchester, Zak Chelli, a 28-year-old supply teacher from Fulham, produced one of the sporting upsets of the year when he knocked out Cuba’s esteemed David Morrell in a stoppage as shocking as it was compelling. Chelli had been offered the fight two weeks earlier and despite the limited preparation he proved himself a formidable late replacement.
Morrell was ahead on the scorecards, but he was hurt badly in the ninth round. In the 10th and last, Mr Chelli – as he is known to his pupils – delivered a blistering lesson before Morrell was rescued by the referee.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 07:00
The Guardian
Nemesis review – a ridiculously entertaining cop show packed with stars of The Wire
This Netflix drama about a maverick cop crime-busting high-stakes heists might seem cliched at first – but it gets better and better by the minute. Hi Herc!
Detective Isaiah Stiles (Matthew Law) is extremely committed to his job, but it brings him no satisfaction. The long hours he dedicates to crime-busting with the LAPD have alienated his teenage son and infuriated his wife, Candace (Gabrielle Dennis), to the point where Isaiah is sleeping in the summer house. He is permanently vexed. But he isn’t meant to be happy: he’s a maverick cop.
The maverick-copness of its lead character is the first of many crime-show cliches shamelessly replicated by Nemesis, the first Netflix show from writer Courtney A Kemp, creator of the gangster drama Power and its various spin-offs. Isaiah carries the trauma of an old case where a junior colleague was killed in pursuit of a gang of elite thieves: now, whenever a robbery goes down in Los Angeles – and a big one has just happened, with bags of cash brazenly swiped from a posh party’s high-stakes poker game – Isaiah suspects that his white whale, the man who pulled the trigger years ago, is behind it. To the consternation of colleagues, he has a whiteboard in his office covered in photographs and sticky notes.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 07:00
The Guardian
Shakira, Madonna and BTS to headline first World Cup final half-time show
Colombian singer last week teased new official tournament song
Coldplay’s Chris Martin is curating entertainment at MetLife Stadium
Shakira, Madonna and K-pop megastars BTS will headline a Super Bowl-style half-time show at the World Cup final on 19 July at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Fifa said Thursday.
Coldplay’s Chris Martin is curating the show, which is a first for a football World Cup final but has raised concerns about how long half-time will be.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 06:25
The Guardian
Falling backwards and plunging through clouds: British paratroopers’ landing on Tristan da Cunha
Member of army squad sent with medics to assist suspected hantavirus patient recounts descent to remote island
The hardest part of the parachute jump, according to Capt George Lacey, is falling backwards through the air. It is Saturday and Lacey, and his squad of six plus two medics, have just leapt out of an RAF transport, 2,500 metres over the south Atlantic.
“The parachute can only go forward so quickly,” he says, meaning that it has to be pulled at precisely the right moment. “So you have to turn into the wind and basically fly backwards, which is a very weird sensation, as you can imagine.”
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 06:00
The Guardian
‘There was a lot of addiction and trauma in my family’: why Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon plays a perfect Judy Garland
As she takes on the icon in musical drama End of the Rainbow, Monsoon recalls a childhood spent watching Wizard of Oz on repeat – and explains why audiences are ready for trans performers in non-trans roles
If these are strange times in America, they are particularly strange for Jinkx Monsoon, the 38-year-old actor, singer and drag artist who, since winning RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2013 and Drag Race All Stars in 2022, has become a huge breakout star. Monsoon, who has the white-lead-and-vinegar glamour of a 1930s movie star, has appeared on Broadway, at Carnegie Hall and in countless viral clips from Drag Race – and in other words is widely well known. And yet, she says, when she walks down the street in certain American cities, it is in a state of “not knowing if someone’s going to recognise me and be excited to see me, or recognise something about me and be hostile. It’s a really interesting dichotomy.” She lets out a huge laugh. “But it also keeps me humble, I gotta say.”
We are backstage at the Soho Theatre in London’s Walthamstow, where Monsoon is shortly to appear in End of the Rainbow, Peter Quilter’s musical drama about Judy Garland, set in 1969 in the last months of the icon’s life. It’s a great role for Monsoon, whose impersonation of Garland on Drag Race was so spot-on the clips are still doing the rounds (although for my money, her Little Edie Beale was even better and funnier). But the show isn’t being played for laughs. Monsoon, who had a stellar run as Mama Morton in the Broadway production of Chicago three years ago, is increasingly leaning towards dramatic roles and, like Garland herself, is comfortable with the tragi-comic. “She’s a pillar, and an institution,” she says of Garland, in whom she became interested after watching the Wizard of Oz on repeat as a child. And because, she laughs, “my ex was obsessed with her”.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 06:00
The Guardian
Weimar by Katja Hoyer review – the town that changed Germany
It was the birthplace of the liberal tradition, but also the incubator for Nazism – what can this historic city tell us about democracy?
‘Weimar is Germany in a nutshell,” 1990s president Roman Herzog once quipped: “a town in which not only culture and thought were at home but also philistinism and barbarism.” The small city (population 65,000) sits at the heart of the nation and acts as a shrine to its sons Goethe, Schiller and Nietzsche. In 1919 the country’s first democratic constitution was promulgated in its national theatre. It was chosen as the site of Germany’s rebirth precisely because its aura of refined culture contrasted so sharply with the “Prussian militarism” of Berlin. From 1919-1925 it hosted the Bauhaus School, led by Walter Gropius, placing it at the forefront of art and design.
Yet, starting in the mid-1920s, Weimar, which was also then the state capital of Thuringia, became pivotal in the rise of the Nazi party and its first, regional, experiments in government. After 1933 it competed with Bayreuth for recognition as the “spiritual home of Nazism”.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 06:00
The Guardian
Naked jetskiers, human bells and a celebrity seagull! Venice Biennale’s wildest moments – in pictures
The Guardian’s David Levene braved two-headed worms, Pussy Riot protests and a tank of urine to bring you this photographic extravaganza from the celebrated arts festival
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 06:00
NPR Topics: News
Russia hits Kyiv with drones and ballistic missiles, killing 1 and injuring 31
Russia has launched a mass drone and missile attack on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, killing one person and injuring at least 31. Local authorities report damage across six districts.
14th May 2026 05:21
The Guardian
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for orzo with peas, broad beans, asparagus, parmesan and lemon | A kitchen in Rome
A deliciously rustic, risotto-style pasta using seasonal spring veg and finished with butter, parmesan and lemon zest
I am in more or less the same position as with last week’s recipe, only this time the pods contain broad beans, which are slightly easier to read than peas. This is because the pods are longer and become softer and floppier as they age, so you can see and feel if the beans inside are large and hard, which, like peas, is because their sugar has turned to starch, and which makes them more suited to longer cooking. The other thing about broad beans is their opaque jackets, which thicken as the beans age and get more bitter, but they can be removed by picking them off with a nail, or by dunking the beans in hot water for a minute, then in cold water and squeezing the jackets off and across the worktop. Even older, larger beans can be enjoyed raw or lightly cooked; they are brighter, too, like green tiddlywinks.
As well as dealing with pods, I have been reading about broad beans in recipe books and stories, looking out in particular for references to how they are consumed in spring, which in Italy is often alongside young sheep’s cheese – a great combination, as is broad beans and lancashire cheese. It turns out, though, that the mentions I have enjoyed most are to be found in England, and in George Eliot’s Adam Bede. One instance is when Adam, having walked past the leafy walls of scarlet beans, late peas and bushy filberts, strides over a “superfluity of broad beans” in Mrs Poyser’s garden; another when he eats cold broad beans out of a large dish with his pocket knife, and finds a flavour that he would not exchange for the finest pineapple.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 05:00
The Guardian
Most famous image of JMW Turner not a self-portrait, says expert
Painting that inspired depiction on £20 note more likely the work of John Opie, says Romantic artist’s biographer
In 2020, Tate Britain hosted the launch of a new £20 banknote bearing representations of The Fighting Temeraire by JMW Turner and the artist’s most famous self-portrait. Now a leading expert has said the latter work, part of the Tate collection, is not by Turner at all.
Dr James Hamilton, who has published books on Turner and staged exhibitions at museums and galleries nationwide, said that while the painting does depict the English Romantic painter, it is likely to be the work of his contemporary, John Opie.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 05:00
The Guardian
And did those feet in ancient time: walking Britain’s oldest paths
There are few places where history can be felt more powerfully than these pathways, walked by explorer, author and TV presenter Nicholas Crane
How often do you look down and wonder who created the path your feet are following? Or ask the cause of its curves and dips? Formed over thousands of years, paths form an “internet of feet” – a web of bridleways and hollow ways, drove roads and ridgeways, coffin tracks, pilgrimage trails and city pavements. Whether you’re hiking a National Trail or pottering along a National Trust footpath, there’s a good chance you’re following ancestral steps.
It’s thoughts like these that led me on a journey to track the evolution of British paths for my book, The Path More Travelled. Eleven thousand years ago ice age hunter-gatherers arrived from Europe’s heartlands, moving through the wilderness along broad “routeways”, that later widened to tracks when horses and then wheels were adopted in the bronze age. For more than 2,000 years, traffic moved no faster than the speed of a horse, until the internal combustion engine drove pedestrians off the road just over a century ago.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 05:00
The Guardian
As the right moves in on antisemitism, where does that leave the Jewish left?
After Reform politicians were cheered and progressive rabbis booed at rally against antisemitism, some fear longstanding alliances are fracturing
Rabbi Charley Baginsky, the co-leader of Progressive Judaism, admitted she felt apprehensive before speaking at last weekend’s central London rally against antisemitism.
As she addressed the crowd, there were some boos. It wasn’t the first time – last year, on a similar stage outside Downing Street, Baginsky and her fellow co-lead, Rabbi Josh Levy, were jeered off stage.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 05:00Lotus CEO warns solid-state batteries still up to a decade from mass production
Sometimes billed as the "holy grail" of sustainable driving, solid-state batteries have long been stuck between theory and the promise of commercialization.
14th May 2026 05:00
The Guardian
‘Oh my God, did my dad and I fight’: Olivia Colman on the regrets triggered by new film Jimpa
John Lithgow plays the gay and often nude septuagenarian father of Colman’s character in Jimpa, a new story of intergenerational queerness. She explains why her own dad would have ‘sat and cried all the way through it’
In Jimpa, Olivia Colman plays a woman called Hannah who leaves Adelaide with her husband and 16-year-old child to visit her father in Amsterdam. This is Jimpa – the word sticks better once you know it’s a compound of Jim and grandpa. At the airport, the teenager, Frances, who’s trans, drops a bombshell: they want to move to the Netherlands and finish their schooling there. Hannah and her husband, Harry, respond thoughtfully, not freaking out.
But once they arrive in Amsterdam, Jimpa, played by John Lithgow, brings enough drama for everyone – something he’s been doing for 40 years, since he left his family for a fuller queer life than Australia at the end of the 20th century could offer. The film revels in revealing the sort of lifestyle he enjoyed instead.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 04:00
The Guardian
For three years I scoured the world for answers to Europe’s big problems – here’s what I found
Japan and Taiwan have enviable care systems because they had the courage to plan – some solutions are radical, most are hiding in plain sight
It’s mid-afternoon in Fujisawa. Schoolchildren, rucksacks on their backs, bound into a room where a group of pensioners welcome them boisterously, before sitting them down to help with their homework. This group of older people is looked after by some of the pupils’ parents. Up the road, a cluster of university students live above some over-75s. They get half-price rent in return for checking in on them on their way to and from studies.
This multigenerational community I visited in a small town not far from the port of Yokohama is one of 5,000 in Japan.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 04:00
The Guardian
Choughs reappear at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall after decades of absence
King Arthur is said to have transformed into a chough when he died, its red feet and beak representing his bloody end
Decades after disappearing from the jagged cliffs around Tintagel Castle on the coast of north Cornwall, a bird with legendary connections to the area has returned.
The custodian of Tintagel, English Heritage, and local ornithologists have declared that choughs – charismatic corvids with red beaks and feet – are back.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 04:00
The Guardian
‘A passion, but also a gamble’: why India’s gen Z are cashing in on the trend for secondhand fashion
Faced with rising costs and a lack of jobs, many young Indians are turning an online side hustle into an income
The work begins at sunrise, ahead of her first Instagram post. Astha Chhetri starts the day on her phone, combing through supplier lists, checking shipment updates and preparing stock for her online store.
The evenings find Chhetri, 26, with her mobile still in hand, photographing and posting reels of clothes for sale and replying to customer messages.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 03:00
The Guardian
Canada court quashes bid by Alberta separatists for independence referendum
Alberta judge ruled provincial government must consult with First Nations before collecting signatures for a proposed referendum
A Canadian judge has quashed a petition for an independence referendum in Alberta after finding First Nations were not consulted, dealing a blow to separatist hopes in the country’s western province.
Justice Shaina Leonard of the Court of King’s Bench on Wednesday shut down the effort by a separatist group to hold a referendum on secession from Canada.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 02:55Survivors of plane crash off Florida coast were on raft for hours, military says
The nail-biting incident took place about 80 miles east off the coast of Melbourne, Florida, which is about 175 miles north of Miami.
14th May 2026 02:21
The Guardian
Cuba has run out of diesel and fuel oil, energy minister says, as US blockade pushes island to brink
Minister Vicente de la O Levy says ‘Cuba is open to anyone that wants to sell us fuel’ as rolling power blackouts increase
Cuba has completely run out of diesel and fuel oil, the country’s energy minister said on Wednesday, as Havana faces its worst rolling blackouts in decades amid a US blockade that has strangled the island of fuel.
“We have absolutely no fuel (oil), and absolutely no diesel,” the energy minister, Vicente de la O Levy, said on state media, adding that the national grid was in a “critical” state. “We have no reserves.” Fuel oil is a product derived from crude oil distillation used to generate heat or power.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 02:15
The Guardian
Rand Paul’s son apologizes for antisemitic and anti-gay rant after accosting lawmaker
In apology, William Paul said he had had ‘too much to drink’ and the things he said ‘don’t represent who I really am’
Republican senator Rand Paul’s son William apologized on Wednesday for a drunken tirade at a bar in Washington DC, in which he reportedly told a Republican congressman he “hates Jews and hates gays”.
“Last night, I had too much to drink and said some things that don’t represent who I really am. I’m sorry and today I am seeking help for my drinking problem,” William Paul posted on social media under the handle TastyBrew1776.
Continue reading... 14th May 2026 01:44What we know about hantavirus cases tied to deadly cruise ship outbreak
Health officials have identified at least 11 confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus tied to an outbreak on the M/V Hondius cruise ship.
14th May 2026 01:40
NPR Topics: News
Denise Powell wins Democratic primary for Nebraska's 2nd congressional district
Political organizer Denise Powell has defeated State Sen. John Cavanaugh to win the Democratic primary in the closely watched race for Nebraska's second congressional district.
14th May 2026 00:59
NPR Topics: News
Remains of 2nd U.S. soldier who went missing in Morocco have been recovered
Spc. Mariyah Symone Collington, 19, of Taveres, Florida, is the second U.S. soldier who fell off a cliff during a recreational hike in Morocco. The remains of 1st Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key Jr. were recovered last week.
14th May 2026 00:43Cerebras prices IPO above expected range, as Wall Street braces for AI tsunami
Cerebras raised $5.55 billion in its IPO, and with the chipmaker's offering, investors are gearing up for some even bigger AI deals later this year.
14th May 2026 00:395/13: The Takeout with Major Garrett
President Trump's trip to China gets underway; DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin details what ICE agents will be doing at World Cup games.
14th May 2026 00:38Denise Powell projected to win Democratic primary in key Nebraska district
The state's electoral system was a key issue in the 2nd Congressional District primary to replace GOP Rep. Don Bacon.
14th May 2026 00:29Why Taiwan is a major flashpoint between the U.S. and China
For decades, U.S. presidents have remained steadfast in their defense of the tiny Asian ally from its neighboring giant.
14th May 2026 00:05Court overturns Alex Murdaugh's murder convictions, orders new trial
Alex Murdaugh was convicted of his killing his wife and his son at the family's home in 2021.
14th May 2026 00:01Trump arrives in Beijing to meet with Xi Jinping
President Trump said before he left that he and President Xi Jinping "have a lot of things to discuss."
14th May 2026 00:00
The Guardian
New York man found guilty of acting as an unregistered agent of China
Lu Jianwang was accused of operating a ‘secret police station’ in Manhattan’s Chinatown at the behest of Beijing
A New York man was found guilty on Wednesday of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government after he was accused of operating a “secret police station” on behalf of Beijing in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Lu Jianwang, 64, should have alerted the US attorney general that he was a Chinese agent when he helped open the so-called police station in 2022. They also said he helped China’s government locate a pro-democracy activist living in California.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 23:58Body of second U.S. soldier who went missing in Morocco recovered
The Army identified the soldier as Spc. Mariyah Collington.
13th May 2026 23:50Is the rise of a powerful new China a true narrative?
As President Trump and China's Xi Jinping prepare to meet, Americans will hear a lot about American decline and the rise of a powerful new China. The Chinese certainly believe it - but is it true? Tony Dokoupil has more.
13th May 2026 23:40New video shows dramatic Air Force rescue after plane crash off Florida coast
The U.S. military rescued a small plane that crashed off Florida's East Coast on Tuesday. The passengers were stranded at sea for hours. Cristian Benavides reports.
13th May 2026 23:31American monitored for hantavirus: "I'm just ready to cope" with quarantine
Jake Rosmarin is one of the 16 Americans at the University of Nebraska Medical Center being monitored for signs of hantavirus. Ian Lee spoke with him and has more details.
13th May 2026 23:28Alex Murdaugh's lawyers say they "look forward to a new trial"
Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial drew national attention, but three years later, South Carolina's Supreme Court tossed aside his conviction. Mark Strassmann reports on the new developments.
13th May 2026 23:26Inflation is getting worse, Americans are feeling the impact
Wholesale prices in the U.S. jumped 6% last month compared to a year ago, the highest annual increase in more than three years. Gas prices are driving the increase, and Americans are feeling the impact. Jo Ling Kent reports.
13th May 2026 23:24China's most critical issue is Taiwan, also central to America's economy
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called Taiwan "the most important issue" between his country and the U.S. About 10% of the population in Taiwan wants to reunify with mainland China, and there are real fears that it will fall under communist control. Tony Dokoupil and Anna Coren break down its importance to China and the U.S.
13th May 2026 23:22Kevin Warsh wins Senate confirmation as the next Federal Reserve chair
In the most divisive vote ever for a Fed chair, Warsh, 56, won confirmation to take over for Jerome Powell.
13th May 2026 23:21Utah woman's hopes of flipping mansion flop after murder charge
Utah woman accused of murdering husband loses $12 million real estate deal after his death.
13th May 2026 23:17Trump given red carpet welcome in Beijing
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet face-to-face for the first time on this trip at an elaborate welcome ceremony. The two-day visit is meant to signal stability to the world, showing that the competition between the U.S. and China is not escalating into confrontation. Weijia Jiang has more from Beijing.
13th May 2026 23:17Did Utah mom poison her husband, then write a children's book on grief?
When her husband Eric died in March of 2022, Kouri Richins wrote a children's book to help her sons cope with the loss of their father – then she was charged in his death. Follow the timeline for a deep dive into the history of Eric and Kouri's relationship.
13th May 2026 23:15Did Utah mom charged in husband's death poison him with a cocktail?
A medical examiner ruled Eric Richins, a Utah father of three, died of a lethal dose of fentanyl. His wife Kouri was charged in his death.
13th May 2026 23:08Sen. Rand Paul's son confronted Rep. Mike Lawler in drunken, antisemitic rant
The senator's son apologized Wednesday, saying he was seeking help for his drinking problem.
13th May 2026 23:01
The Guardian
Remains of second US soldier who went missing during military exercises in Morocco have been recovered
Mariyah Symone Collington and Kendrick Lamont Key Jr, who also died, had fallen off a cliff during an off-duty hike
The remains of the second US army soldier who went missing during military exercises in Morocco have been recovered, the army said on Wednesday, ending a multinational search operation that deployed air, naval and artificial intelligence assets.
The soldier was identified as Spc Mariyah Symone Collington of Taveres, Florida, the US Army Europe and Africa said in a statement. She was 19 years old.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 23:01
The Guardian
Typical English roast dinner potentially ‘drenched’ in 102 pesticides, says report
Greenpeace finds cocktail of pesticides including seven banned in EU may have been used on seven categories of vegetables and soft fruit
It is a beautiful early summer Sunday afternoon and you have stopped for a pub lunch. A waiter sets down a roast served with carrots, peas, parsnips, potatoes and onion gravy, and then for pudding, strawberries and cream. It feels like the perfect rustic meal to accompany a day in the country.
However, a report by Greenpeace, published on Thursday, has found that the ingredients of the traditional Sunday roast have potentially been treated with a cocktail of more than 100 pesticides. Data from the Fera pesticide usage survey for 2024, showed 102 – including seven banned in the EU – were used on seven vegetable and soft fruit categories.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 23:01
The Guardian
Housing market in England and Wales weakening due to Iran war, say estate agents
Homebuyers more cautious due to possible mortgage rate rises and higher inflation as sellers sit on properties
Fears of higher mortgage rates and rising inflation as a result of the Middle East conflict are leading to a subdued and downbeat housing market, according to estate agents.
Demand from potential homebuyers across England and Wales has shown a “noticeable softening” recently, according to a monthly survey of estate agents by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 23:01Microsoft feared being too dependent on OpenAI, Musk-Altman trial testimony reveals
Top Microsoft executives testified in Musk v. Altman this week, spelling out concerns they had in the early days of the partnership with OpenAI.
13th May 2026 22:48DHS Secretary Mullin says ICE won't "round up" people at World Cup
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told CBS News that ICE arrests at the FIFA World Cup are not off the table, but the agency will not be at the global sporting event for the purpose of immigration arrests.
13th May 2026 22:48Lutnick testified he knew little about Epstein, his next-door neighbor
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he was unaware for years that Jeffrey Epstein was a registered sex offender, according to a transcript of testimony released Wednesday.
13th May 2026 22:41House leaders to take action on process for sexual misconduct claims
Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are launching a bipartisan task force aimed at addressing how sexual misconduct claims are handled within the House of Representatives, multiple sources confirm to CBS News.
13th May 2026 22:305/13: CBS Evening News
President Trump in China amid economic pressure at home caused by Iran war; Alex Murdaugh to be tried again after court overturns murder convictions.
13th May 2026 22:30
The Guardian
Selfless Silva gives latest reminder of why Manchester City will miss him so much | Will Unwin
Pep Guardiola’s lieutenant gave a performance of understated excellence against Crystal Palace, a trademark during nine seasons in Manchester
There will be plenty that Bernardo Silva will miss about Manchester City but driving rain in May and playing against the lowest of blocks will not be two of them. The midfielder’s penultimate game at the Etihad Stadium after nine years at the club was a reminder of how difficult it will be to replace him.
Amid six changes, as Pep Guardiola rested and rotated, keeping “grandfather” Silva in the team was imperative. Without Rodri, the head coach needed someone he could rely on and no one better fits the category than the 31-year-old.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 22:21
The Guardian
Weight gain as adult increases cancer risk by up to five times, research shows
Swedish study of 600,000 patients between 17 and 60 years old suggests there is no safe age to get heavier
Gaining weight as an adult increases the risk of cancer by up to five times, according to research involving more than 600,000 patients.
Obesity can cause 13 different cancers and is thought to be linked to another eight. But less is known about the impact on cancer risk of the amount of weight put on – and when in life it is gained.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 22:01Louisiana lawmakers advance new 5-1 congressional map that favors Republicans
The new map will eliminate one of the state's majority Black, Democratic-leaning districts while keeping one Democratic-leaning district.
13th May 2026 21:53
The Guardian
Cartel corruption claims push US-Mexico relations to breaking point
With Mexico under pressure from Trump to tackle drug trafficking groups, analysts say ‘it’s the most tense situation since the 1980s’
Relations between Mexico and the United States are being pushed to breaking point amid accusations by Washington that Mexican officials have been “in bed for years” with drug traffickers, and reports of CIA agents freely operating south of the border.
“There are many who are betting on the defeat and failure of the Mexican government,” said Claudia Sheinbaum tersely on Wednesday, when asked about the allegations at a news conference. ”We want a good relationship with the United States government. What are our limits? The defence of sovereignty and respect for the Mexican people and their dignity.”
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 21:31Kouri Richins sentenced in husband's fentanyl-laced cocktail murder
Utah mom Kouri Richins was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole on Wednesday, after a jury convicted her of murder and other charges in her husband's 2022 death.
13th May 2026 21:29
The Guardian
‘Disgusting’: Hearts see off Falkirk but McInnes fumes as late Celtic penalty tilts title race
Hearts players and supporters had this much in common; they did not have a clue how to act or react. For eight minutes, with this game already at an end, the scene promised to be a euphoric one. Hearts, having swept Falkirk aside, were staring at the prospect of travelling to Celtic Park on Saturday needing only to avoid a three-goal defeat to win the league.
A twist lay in store. Deep in stoppage time at Motherwell, the controversial awarding of a penalty to Celtic and subsequent conversion materially altered the Hearts position. The whiff of cordite has been added to the mix. Derek McInnes, the Hearts manager, was so enraged by the Celtic call as to label it “disgusting”. He added: “I heard there was a 96th-minute penalty. I didn’t need to ask who for.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 21:11AI is fabricating citations in biomedical studies, researchers find
"Your doctor could be making decisions around treatment based on studies that never existed," one expert said.
13th May 2026 21:09Allegiant CEO makes case for low-cost airline model as Sun Country acquisition closes
Allegiant CEO Greg Anderson said leisure travel demand is still strong despite higher fuel prices.
13th May 2026 20:59
NPR Topics: News
Foreign ticket holders from World Cup teams' countries won't have to pay bonds to enter U.S.
The Trump administration is suspending a requirement that visitors from countries that have qualified for the World Cup and bought tickets for the tournament pay as much as $15,000 in bonds to enter the U.S.
13th May 2026 20:24
The Guardian
Benjamin Netanyahu says he made secret trip to UAE at height of Iran war
Emirates’ foreign ministry rejects claims that Netanyahu visited the country describing them as ‘baseless’
Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed he made a secret trip to the United Arab Emirates at the height of the Iran war to meet the president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
“This visit has led to a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the UAE,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Wednesday night.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 18:54
The Guardian
A Woman’s Life review – a breezy comedy of midlife crisis and same-sex affair
Cannes film festival: Léa Drucker gives a bravura performance as a brilliant surgeon whose already chaotic life is further complicated by a same-sex affair with a journalist
Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s new film is a hectic, garrulous, breezily agreeable comedy of midlife emotional upheaval, unencumbered by any serious or permanent concern about any of the passion and heartache that it briefly encounters. It’s also a movie that declines to allow its characters to be changed in any way by the excitements and disappointments that life has to throw at them. Léa Drucker carries off the lead with terrifically competent elan; there’s hardly a scene in which she is not interrupted by a call on her mobile, going into bravura walk-and-talk acting on the phone while on the street, arriving at the office or getting into or out of her car.
She plays Gabrielle, a brilliant surgeon – what other sort is there in the movies? – who specialises in maxillofacial reconstruction. Gabrielle is battling budget cuts, scolding her idle interns, doing outstanding work and is heavily reliant on her assistant Kamyar (Laurent Capelluto). At home, she has a tricky relationship with her partner Henri (Charles Berling), whose teen children from his previous marriage she has raised while resenting his ingratitude for this, as well as for his somewhat semi-detached attitude to their relationship. She is also deeply concerned by her elderly mother Arlette (tenderly played by Marie-Christine Barrault) who is entering the twilight of dementia.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 18:39Mortgage rates jump to highest level since March on hotter inflation reports
Mortgage rates surged to the highest level since March in reaction to two hotter-than-expected inflation reports.
13th May 2026 18:25
The Guardian
The Guardian view on the king’s speech: an agenda for a government that lacks conviction | Editorial
Keir Starmer’s programme is fatally limited by the timidity of an election manifesto that shied away from hard arguments
Ending 14 years of Conservative rule was supposed to bring an end to dysfunctional government. In the speech that launched his 2024 general election campaign, Sir Keir Starmer said that “a vote for Labour is a vote for stability … a vote to stop the chaos”. Less than two years later, Sir Keir’s government looks no sturdier than its predecessors. The prime minister’s chances of serving a full term in office look slim.
There are as many reasons for this precipitous decline as there are Labour MPs calling for a change of direction. The common analysis is that a project branded by the single word “change” has neither transformed people’s lives for the better nor given them confidence that a transformation is coming. For many voters, the prime minister is the embodiment of a miserable status quo.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 17:20
The Guardian
The Guardian view on Iran’s repression: political prisoners such as Narges Mohammadi need freedom not bombs | Editorial
The critically ill Nobel peace laureate should be released. Iranians’ human rights are under attack from both the regime and the US-Israel war
“Authoritarian regimes do not always need an executioner’s rope,” the Iranian Nobel peace laureate Narges Mohammadi observes in a forthcoming memoir smuggled from her cell. “Sometimes, they simply wait for the human body to fail – and then make sure no help arrives, or they create conditions in which death can come easily, helping it along by standing in the way of life-saving care.”
Long denied adequate treatment, Ms Mohammadi is now in a critical condition. She was found unconscious in her cell after a suspected heart attack in March and had been experiencing chest pain, loss of consciousness and extreme weight loss. She was finally moved to hospital this month, with authorities approving her transfer to specialist care in Tehran only this week. Supporters fear that she will be sent back to prison if her condition improves.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 17:20
The Guardian
Butterfly Jam review – Barry Keoghan can’t save this New Jersey misstep
Cannes film festival: The Irish actor plays a disillusioned Circassian chef with a knack with animals in Kantemir Balagov’s clunky third film
All talented directors are allowed an off moment in their careers – and this is the stage arrived at by Kantemir Balagov, whose earlier film Beanpole was such a triumph. This follow-up – his third feature in fact – is his first English language movie, set among the expat Circassian community in New Jersey; it features star names and one colossally self-conscious icon cameo unsubtly signalling cinephile importance. Butterfly Jam is contrived, tonally uncertain, implausible and frankly plain silly in its underpowered kind of magic-unrealism, with some clunky secondhand Mean Streets mob-fraternal dialogue and pedantic ethnic-foodie cred, and elliptically positioning key scenes off camera for no obviously satisfying reason.
Barry Keoghan plays Azik, a widower who with his longsuffering pregnant sister Zalda (Riley Keough) runs a Circassian food diner in Newark; as chef he cooks a sublime delens a delicious cheese and potato dish to his own (secret) recipe, accessorised with delicious jams, one of which, he whimsically announces, is made of butterflies. (He is presumably kidding but he has an amazing touch with the natural world, as we will see.) His teen son Temir (Talga Akdogan) is a talented wrestler who dreams of Olympic glory and he has a sweet crush on fellow wrestler Alika (Jaliyah Richards).
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 17:16Gas tax holiday as Trump promises? Not so fast, trucking, construction industries say
President Donald Trump and lawmakers are eyeing federal gas tax relief, but opponents contend a pause wouldn't help consumers and could harm roads.
13th May 2026 17:14
The Guardian
Roots of resilience: the experts working to bolster apples against the climate crisis
Scientists are focusing on improving apples’ resilience after stressors like wild temperature swings and drought
Terence Robinson still remembers the Valentine’s Day Massacre – of 2015, not 1929.
For the Cornell University horticulture professor, the term doesn’t conjure up Tommy guns and Al Capone’s Chicago. Instead of a gangster, the culprit in Robinson’s massacre was the weather. And its victims were the apple orchards of the north-eastern United States.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 17:00CEOs worth nearly $1 trillion accompany Trump to China
The delegation of business leaders underscores the deep ties many major U.S. companies maintain with China despite years of trade tensions.
13th May 2026 16:29
The Guardian
Jim Furyk tells US players they need to make Ryder Cup more of a priority
‘My job is to create a culture,’ he says
Captain may ask Tiger Woods for his input
Jim Furyk has admitted the United States need to make the Ryder Cup more of a priority as the 56-year-old plots a reversal of fortunes at Adare Manor in September 2027.
Speaking expansively for the first time since being handed the US captaincy for a second time, Furyk pointed towards an overhaul of approach to the biennial event. He also suggested he will be keen to involve Tiger Woods on his backroom team.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 16:12
The Guardian
Obesity rates in some countries levelling off or potentially falling, study finds
Researchers say rise not inevitable and it is important to unpick what is behind differences in obesity trends
A continuing rise in obesity around the world is not inevitable, research suggests, with rates in some countries levelling off or potentially in decline.
Researchers say focusing on what has been described as a global epidemic of obesity hides large variations in trends across different countries, sexes and age groups.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 15:00
The Guardian
Vape sommeliers: the next frontier in fine dining?
Caramel vape with your latte? ‘Banana ice’ with your curry? The perfect pairing is out there – and vapeologists are keen to help you find it
Name: Vape sommelier.
Age: Emerging.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 14:51
The Guardian
Nagi Notes review – clear, calm light shed on criss-crossed family passions
Cannes film festival
Set in a beautifully filmed provincial Japanese town, what could have been a soapy drama is told with poetic restraint and subtlety by Kôji Fukada
Japanese film-maker Kôji Fukada has created a film of great lucidity and calm, a walking-pace drama set in the quiet town of Nagi in the south of the country; this is a provincial place of seclusion and restraint, notable for its military base but also an interesting contemporary art gallery. The movie is less overtly sensational and emotional than Fukada’s previous pictures such as Love Life or Goodbye Summer, though it has the same Rohmeresque gentleness, the same considerate and caring mien, the same palate-cleansing wash of cool daylight. These are factors which do not however preclude intensity, even passion and a feeling that a dreamlife of yearning is taking place underneath innocuous waking reality.
At the centre of the film is an enigma: Yoriko (Takako Matsu) is a single woman who runs a dairy farm in Nagi, but her real passion is art. She draws and sculpts, but entirely for her own pleasure. None of her pieces get exhibited or sold. One warm spring day – the movie is elegantly interspersed with chapter-heading closeups in which different kinds of calendar get the days torn off – Yoriko is visited by her good friend Yuri (Shizuka Ishibashi), an architect who after some time in Tokyo, moved to Taiwan to start a practice there with her husband Masato but returned to Japan after her divorce. What makes their friendship interesting is that they are sisters-in-law, or perhaps ex-sisters-in-law. Masato is Yoriko’s brother. So how exactly has their friendship survived and thrived for so long?
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 14:50
The Guardian
‘Sung by a silver robot from 1984!’ The 11 biggest bangers in Eurovision 2026
Delta Goodrem, rappers on scooters and a Lion spray-painted silver from head to toe … as Europe’s pop circus returns amid protests and pyrotechnics, we pick the songs set to dominate this year’s grand final. Bangaranga!
Oh, Vienna. The buildup to Eurovision 2026 in Austria has been beset by controversy. Five nations – including Spain, the Netherlands and seven-time winners Ireland – have boycotted the event in protest at Israel’s participation. The first semi-final on Tuesday saw chants of “free Palestine” echoing around the Wiener Stadthalle venue. The song contest’s slogan, “United by music”, feels increasingly ironic. Hardly ideal preparation for the annual pop party’s 70th anniversary.
Still, the cheesy Euro-pop show must go on and Saturday night’s grand final is primed to be as compelling as ever. In fact, surprises have already been sprung. Rather randomly, Boy George co-wrote San Marino’s entry and provided guest vocals, but failed to make it through Tuesday’s semi-final. Do you really want to hurt me? For voting viewers, it seemed the answer was yes. Nul points for you, former Culture Club frontman.
Continue reading... 13th May 2026 14:31