An unusually accomplished cast of human actors, including Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens, gets lost in a hectic, overloaded aesthetic.
Movies and TV shows have fetishized close friendship to the point that the real, often fraught rhythms of such relationships have been lost. Not so in 'Merrily We Roll Along.'
With a new documentary out Friday, during the NCAA tournament she once ruled, the former WNBA great wants you to know she has no plans to stop holding court.
Halle Berry says her doctor was convinced she had the 'worst case of herpes' he had ever seen when she described symptoms related to perimenopause.
Suki Waterhouse and Robert Pattinson, who are engaged, were seen pushing around a baby stroller in L.A. this week in photos published by the Daily Mail.
A new book traces how a gender-bending image from 1953's 'The Wild One' resonated far beyond American gay subculture.
Cuba Gooding Jr. is added as a co-defendant in a lawsuit against Sean 'Diddy' Combs. Record producer Rodney 'Lil Rod' Jones accuses the actor of sexual assault.
After several years of controversy, reform and uncertainty, the Golden Globe Awards will seek to turn the page once and for all at a new long-term home.
Sacha Baron Cohen responded to Rebel Wilson's claims from the set of 'The Brothers Grimsby.' The 'Borat' star inspires a chapter in Wilson's new memoir.
The latest installment in the 'Ghostbusters' franchise topped the box office competition on another relatively sluggish weekend.
'Footloose' star alum Kevin Bacon has accepted a 'promposal' from the students at Utah's Payson High School, where the 1984 movie was filmed.
Joana Vicente, who joined Sundance Institute from the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021, will be replaced by acting CEO and institute board member Amanda Kelso.
The documentary "Carol Doda Topless at the Condor" is a funny, energetic look at the North Beach sensation who ignited a craze and heralded a new era of sexual liberation.
'Jennifer's Body' star Megan Fox opened up about her engagement to Machine Gun Kelly and listed all her cosmetic procedures on the 'Call Her Daddy' podcast.
Simon Baker and Natasha Wanganeen deliver a pair of remarkably synchronized, understated performances in director Ivan Sen's "Limbo," as much last-chance western as stark crime drama.
David Dastmalchian stars as a soulless 1970s talk show host in the clever chiller "Late Night With the Devil," directed by Australian brothers Cameron Cairnes and Colin Cairnes.
"Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" is a sequel to a "lega-sequel," emblematic of the Hollywood cultural-industrial complex's obsession with nostalgia and IP.
Romanian writer-director Radu Jude continues a career-long project of dissecting of the compromises of today's corporate world, in which dignity is impossible.
The star of, among many others, 'The Producers,' 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory' and 'Young Frankenstein' is saluted via anecdotes from his collaborators.
Directed by Sweeney's longtime collaborator, Michael Mohan, this well-tooled piece of nunsploitation horror boasts a brazen, fearless commitment from its star.
Jonathan Majors' ex-girlfriend and accuser Grace Jabbari sued the actor in civil court Tuesday, months after his conviction for assault and harassment.
Director Sarah Gibson and producer Erin Lee Carr say their Peacock documentary on Stormy Daniels shows how her life and livelihood hang in the balance.
Seattle Swifties aren't the only ones who can shake it off to seismic proportions. Taylor Swift's L.A. fans also caused earthquake-like activity, a study says.
Camila Mendes says she was drawn to "MAosica" because it gave representation to the Brazilian American experience. The movie premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film and Television Festival.
Telling a story its modest hero was reluctant to share, the new film dramatizes the life of Nicholas Winton, the stockbroker who saved children during WWII.
Written and directed by Kobi Libii, the comedy aspires to a Hogwarts-like riff: a secret club of Black people soothing racial strife with supernatural gifts.
A labor of love from Milwaukee's Mike Cheslik and Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, the comedy displays an ingenuity similar to the crazed early work of Peter Jackson.
Always reliable as a likable on-screen presence, Michael Keaton has less of a signature as a director, stranding a promising premise in overall blandness.
Mark Wahlberg plays an athlete looking for one last shot in director Simon Cellan Jones' solidly inspiring doggie drama that obediently hits its marks.
Appeals court rules Mason, now 49, did not know she was ineligible when she voted in 2016 and throws out conviction
A Texas appeals court has thrown out a five-year prison sentence for Crystal Mason, a Texas woman who was sentenced for trying to cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election that was rejected.
Mason, now 49, attempted to vote in Fort Worth in the 2016 even though she was ineligible because she was still on supervised release a which is like probation a for a tax felony. She has always maintained she had no idea she was ineligible and only tried to cast a ballot because her mother urged her to.
Continue reading...Rights groups say Antonina Favorskaya is accused of links to Alexei Navalnyas aextremist organisationa and is one of six journalists held this month
A journalist who filmed the last video of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny before he died, Antonina Favorskaya, has been detained by authorities.
Favorskaya covered the trials of Navalny for several years and media freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders said on Thursday she was one of six journalists across the country held this month.
Continue reading...Shasta countyas Kevin Crye fought off recall effort, but a far-right official who pushed election conspiracies lost the race for his seat
Shasta county voters returned a mixed verdict on the ultra-conservative politics the rural enclave in northern California has become known for, ousting one far-right local official and offering another a political lifeline.
County residents on 5 March resoundingly declined to re-elect Patrick Jones to the board of supervisors, the countyas governing body. Jones, a leader of the local far-right movement, had repeatedly, and baselessly, argued that county and US elections are being rigged. Jonesas opponent, Matt Plummer, won the race for the seat with nearly 60% of the vote.
Continue reading...Activists say plan to remove 200 felines near Old San Juan fortress within six months is not enough time and worry cats will be killed
A non-profit organization said Thursday that it sued the US National Park Service over a plan to remove Puerto Ricoas famous stray cats from a historic district in the US territory.
The lawsuit filed by Maryland-based Alley Cat Allies comes four months after the federal agency announced it would contract an animal welfare organization to remove an estimated 200 cats that live in an area surrounding a historic seaside fortress in Old San Juan.
Continue reading...Judge orders disgraced crypto mogul to forfeit $11bn in assets and says he showed no remorse for his crimes
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul who perpetrated one of the largest financial frauds in history, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11bn in assets. His lawyer reiterated a pledge to appeal the sentence the same day.
The judge, Lewis Kaplan, issued the penalty in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday. Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was convicted of fraud and conspiracy to launder money late last year.
Continue reading...Attorney hired by family casts doubt on departmentas claim that girl disarmed deputy, and will conduct investigation
Authorities have identified the teenage girl who died of a gunshot wound inside a Los Angeles county sheriffas station as 17-year-old Johanna GonzA!lez, according to the county medical examiner, who has classified her death as a suicide.
Deputies were called to a home in the City of Industry, a small city 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, on 25 March for a teen allegedly having a mental health crisis. By the time they arrived, GonzA!lez, who was being fostered by her aunt and uncle, had already left.
Continue reading...Chuck Schumer and Lizzo made appearances before the presidents talked onstage in event that widens fundraising lead over Trump
Joe Biden and his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, headlined a star-studded fundraiser with Bill Clinton on Thursday that organizers said raised more than $25m for the US presidentas re-election campaign.
Such a haul, which Politico called an aNYC money bomba, will widen Bidenas lead over Donald Trump in fundraising for the November election.
Continue reading...Poor harvests in extreme weather conditions have led to a tripling of cocoa prices a but farmers have seen no benefit
Around the world this holiday weekend, people will consume hundreds of millions of Easter eggs and bunnies, as part of an annual chocolate intake that can exceed 8kg (18lb) for every person in the UK, or 5kg in the US and Europe. But a global shortage of cacao a the seed from which chocolate is made a has brought warnings of a achocolate meltdowna that could see prices increase and bars shrink further.
This week, cocoa prices rose to all-time highs on commodity exchanges in London and New York, reaching more than $10,000 a tonne for the first time, after the third consecutive poor harvest in west Africa. Ghana and Ivory Coast, which together produce more than half of the global cacao crop, have been hit by extreme weather supercharged by the climate crisis and the El NiA+-o weather phenomenon. This has been exacerbated by disease and underinvestment in ageing plantations.
Continue reading...Americans of Middle Eastern descent used to have to identify as white on government forms a new categories will change that
For the first time in 27 years, the US government is changing how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity, an effort that federal officials believe will more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African heritage.
The revisions to the minimum categories on race and ethnicity, announced Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget, are the latest effort to label and define the people of the United States. This evolving process often reflects changes in social attitudes and immigration, as well as a wish for people in an increasingly diverse society to see themselves in the numbers produced by the federal government.
Continue reading...Afghan regimeas return to public stoning and flogging is because there is ano one to hold them accountablea for abuses, say activists
The Talibanas announcement that it is resuming publicly stoning women to death has been enabled by the international communityas silence, human rights groups have said.
Safia Arefi, a lawyer and head of the Afghan human rights organisation Womenas Window of Hope, said the announcement had condemned Afghan women to return to the darkest days of Taliban rule in the 1990s.
Continue reading...Researchers analysed the words in more than 12,000 English-language songs across several genres from 1980 to 2020
Youare not just getting older. Song lyrics really are becoming simpler and more repetitive, according to a study published on Thursday.
Lyrics have also become angrier and more self-obsessed over the last 40 years, the study found, reinforcing the opinions of cranky ageing music fans everywhere.
Continue reading...US pushes exporters to cut off clients who might sell weapons parts on to Russia; Zelenskiy insists Putin a threat to Nato countries. What we know on day 765
The US journalist was seized by officials and charged with espionage, and friends and family say he has kept his spirits up
Friday marks the grim first anniversary of the day when masked Russian officers grabbed Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist, at a steakhouse in Yekaterinburg where he was waiting to eat on a reporting trip.
Gershkovich, a 32-year-old reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has not seen a day of freedom since. He has been held in the infamous Lefortovo prison on the outskirts of Moscow, where the Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was once detained.
Continue reading...Experts say UK-imposed sanctions will make no difference when hacking is part of ecosystem of dealing with Beijing
With the announcement that the UK government would be imposing sanctions on two individuals and one entity accused of targeting a without success a UK parliamentarians in cyber-attacks in 2021, the phrase atip of the iceberga comes to mind. But that would underestimate the iceberg.
James Cleverly, the home secretary, said the sanctions were a sign that atargeting our elected representatives and electoral processes will never go unchallengeda.
Continue reading...(Parkwood/Columbia)
Straying far beyond its original country concept, the musicianas eighth album straddles the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the blues a and Becky with the Good Hair via Dolly Partonas Jolene
American Requiem, the opening track of BeyoncA(c)as eighth studio album, is many things. It offers a touch of state-of-the-nation address a aCan we stand for something? Now is the time to face the winda a and a sprinkling of the kind of vague but apparently personal lyrics that send social media into a frenzy of decoding: what are her afatheras sinsa that BeyoncA(c) has apparently acleanseda herself of? Who are the afairweather friendsa for whom she claims to be planning aa funerala?
Itas also a loud statement of what you might call BeyoncA(c)as bona fides. She is, she avers, athe grandbaby of a moonshine man [from] Gadsden, Alabamaa who furthermore has roots in Louisiana. aThey used to say I spoke too country,a she protests, adding: aWhat could be more country than that?a
Continue reading...Tom Power led an alliance that brought about the pioneering health initiative which has since been adopted by more than 70 countries a and has saved countless lives
Exactly 20 years ago an Irish civil servant named Tom Power won a remarkable battle against the tobacco industry when Ireland enacted the worldas first ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and workplaces.
TV crews from Japan, the US and elsewhere flocked to Dublin to record the events of 29 March 2004. No one knew what would happen. Would smokers revolt? Would pubs flout the law? Would a bold experiment go up in smoke?
Continue reading...The Oscar-nominated actor and the boss of XL Recordings a now a synth-pop duo performing ghostly songs with lyrics rooted in childhood trauma a discuss the healing power of making art
Inside a rehearsal space scented with essential oils, a new, unlikely electro-art-pop duo are preparing for their live debut. Called Sam Morton, they are the collaborative pairing of the twice-Oscar-nominated actor, director and writer Samantha Morton and the celebrated producer, songwriter and boss of XL Recordings Richard Russell. Morton, wearing denim dungarees, is singing the fluty, jazzy, bassy, atmospheric Letas Walk in the Night while Russell, in jeans and a graffitied white T-shirt, hunches over production consoles, alongside a keyboard player and a guitarist.
We are in the Copper House, Russellas personal studio. It is characterised by an undeniable vibe: a lime-green artwork on a scarlet wall announces aRESIDENCE LA REVOLUTIONa; the phrase aFATE IS DECIDEDa, alongside descriptions of cloud formations, is chalked on black walls. The tiny bathroom is wallpapered in Buddhist texts and stocked with books, including The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Continue reading...This charming period drama about a 1920s Russian aristocrat being kept in a hotel by the Bolsheviks sees McGregor on sparkling form. Heas an intoxicating, swaggering figure of delight
Some books are difficult to film, and TV is a fool to attempt them. Others, however, perch on the shelf poised and preened, all dressed up and ready for the small screen. Amor Towlesas 2016 novel A Gentleman in Moscow could have been designed as a handsome, charming period drama, of the kind that once slid smoothly on to BBC One or ITV1 on a Sunday evening. Itas actually on Paramount+, but is handsome and charming and Sunday-ish still.
It remains to be seen whether Paramount takes advantage of the fact that the novelas early chapters create a setup that could run on TV indefinitely, or whether it renders roughly the same amount of narrative as the book then bids us adieu. But that setup is this: in Moscow in 1921, four years after the revolution, the countryas disfranchised aristocracy face summary trials and executions. Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov (Ewan McGregor) a Sasha to his friends, aYour Excellencya to the dwindling minority of Russians who still recognise honorifics a seems to be next, but is saved from death by the surprising fact that he is the credited author of a seminal revolutionary poem.
Continue reading...In rural Rajasthan, villagers have taken action against climate damage by constructing water-saving walls, trenches and dams to revive their farmland
The villagers of Surajpura have built a wall: a 15ft (4.5 metre) mud bulwark that snakes through barren land for nearly a mile, with an equally long trench dug beneath it. It might not look like it, but for the 650 residents who toiled on it for six months in 2022, it is an architectural marvel.
The wall passed its strength test last year when it stopped rainwater runoffs, and the trench channelled the water to parched farms in the drought-prone region of Rajasthan in north-west India, reviving them for the first time in more than two decades.
Continue reading...Thereas a likable, light-hearted zip to the monster mash follow-up but energy dissipates when weare stuck with the humans
It was a strange old time when the creature feature mash-up Godzilla vs Kong was released, the first major blockbuster in cinemas since Covid shuttered them all a year prior. Expectations were low, thanks to how rotten the last two Godzilla films had been, but thirst for something, anything, truly escapist was high and the big screen equivalent of a kid smashing his toys together became an unlikely saviour, both commercially and critically.
Three years later with normality resuming, thereas arguably less audience demand for another instalment, although the industry could definitely do with another monster hit, the strikes leaving the first few months of 2024 a little weakened. Thereas enough easily marketable simplicity to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire that it should become a swift global hit (the film is tracking to make $135m worldwide in its opening weekend) but, especially in the shadow of the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, there will be predictably diminishing returns for those who venture out. Itas a still fun yet far sloppier outing, a second round thatas less of a win for us and more of a draw.
Continue reading...Late-night hosts discuss ex-president hawking $60 Bibles while preparing for trial over paying hush money to an adult film star
Late-night hosts spoke about Donald Trumpas ad for a $60 Bible as well as some good news about one of his upcoming trials.
Continue reading...The Stanford neuroscientist is highly credentialed and endearingly earnest on his popular wellness podcast, but is now facing claims against his credibility
Iam going to divulge something rather embarrassing: earlier this year I got sucked deep into the aHuberspherea, the cult-like following of Andrew Huberman, the controversial neuroscientist and podcaster who is the subject of a viral New York Magazine article that came out this week. Huberman has racked up a massive (and lucrative) following with his data-driven aprotocolsa for a better life. These protocols involve things like taking enormous amounts of expensive supplements, ensuring you view early morning sunlight for 10-30 minutes after waking, carefully timing when you drink coffee and plunging yourself in ice baths.
Sounds like your run-of-the-mill scammy wellness influencer, right? Not quite. What makes Huberman different from others in the aGoop for brosa wellness space is that he is highly credentialed and endearingly earnest. The 48-year-old describes himself as a neuroscience professor at Stanford and a lab director at Stanford School of Medicine. He leans heavily on his affiliation with the Ivy League to bolster his credibility and frequently has other Stanford professors on his podcast, which was the third most popular in the world last year, according to Spotify.
Continue reading...There have been no changes since the ex-mogulas conviction as lawmakers fail to pass regulations to protect the public
There is a palpable feeling of relief in the cryptocurrency industry. Evangelists are preaching the good news that the industry has been purged of the Sam Bankman-Frieds, the Alex Mashinskys, the Do Kwons and the Changpeng Zhaos of the world. They proclaim that crypto can finally ascend from its purgatorial, awild westa days to become a respectable sector of the financial world blessed by regulators and speculators alike.
That exultant attitude has contributed to surging cryptocurrency prices, which surpassed previous all-time highs in the weeks leading up to Bankman-Friedas sentencing of 25 years in prison on Thursday.
Continue reading...After a Trump-backed purge of the RNC this month, promoting the 2020 stolen election lie has become a litmus test for loyalty
If youare seeking employment at the Republican National Committee (RNC), youare likely to be asked in your job interview if you believe the 2020 election was stolen. And if you say no, well, you might as well seek a job with George Santos.
After a Trump-backed purge of the RNC this month, agreeing to the false claim has become a kind of litmus test for gaining employment a no less than itas become a litmus test for running for public office as a Republican.
Continue reading...Donald Tusk is working hard and fast on a great transformation, but travel the country and itas clear what a difficult task that is
My formative journalistic years were spent reporting on the final freeze of the cold war a days of hard times and soft currencies. When I return to those countries now, I test myself on how well I guessed what would follow in the three decades since. On Poland in particular, I would have been hard pressed to predict the giddy zigzag of power still featuring a generation who marched to topple communism, but whose protagonists feud bitterly about how to govern the country in the 21st century.
We talk a lot about places that have recently bought a one-way ticket towards authoritarian politics a Russia and Turkey for the full-fat versions, and Hungaryas democratic backsliding and stifling of independent institutions.
Continue reading...The way musicians are compensated is highly unfair. A new bill in the US Congress could fix that a and itas about time
Many of the younger musicians I know a musicians in the full flush of their career a donat see a path forward toward making a living. These arenat artists failing to connect with a public; on the contrary, they are releasing widely reviewed albums, going on tours and communicating (constantly) with their fans via social media. But this work is not paying them enough to manage without second jobs or side hustles.
Thatas a broken system. Itas not just broken for individual artists, itas broken for our society as a whole. We all benefit from music. And I believe we as a society want that music to come from as wide and deep and rich and varied sources as exist. How could we not?
Continue reading...Too often cemeteries for enslaved people have been all but erased from history but how we remember matters
For archeologists, what defines people as human is how we bury our dead. Imagine, then, a society that relegates a whole community as legally inhuman, enslaved with no rights. In spite of slavery, African burial grounds are tangible reminders of the enslaved and free a defying oppressive circumstances by reclaiming peopleas humanity through acts of remembrance.
When I first visited the British overseas territory of St Helena in 2018 and saw the burial ground in Rupertas Valley, I was astounded by its size and significance. It unambiguously placed the island at the centre of the Middle Passage a tying the British empire to the institution of slavery in the US, the Caribbean, and globally.
Continue reading...A braid from a formerly enslaved African buried on the island was the catalyst for Annina van Neelas work to preserve and share these histories
At the end of January 2012, I arrived on St Helena after a six-day journey by ship from Cape Town. After being surrounded by water for nearly a week, the sight of land on the midnight-blue horizon was overwhelming. It was as though someone had forgotten their piece of land in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. 47 square miles of volcanic rock, 2,810 miles from the coast of Brazil and 1,610 miles from Angola a an oasis in a desert, an enigma.
I arrived on the island as part of the project team constructing St Helenaas first airport. Previously accessible only by sea, this incredible community, which had been defined by its isolation as an outpost and a place of exile for 500 years, would for the first time be easily reached by the rest of the world.
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