Calls to finish Hamas and youre just scum: key Republican debate takeaways
Posted on May 7, 2024
| 5 minutes
| 854 words
| Chauncey Koziol
Republicans This article is more than 2 months oldThis article is more than 2 months oldCandidates showed unequivocal support for Israel on a night when Nikki Haley shot back at Vivek Ramaswamy’s criticism
The third Republican debate was held in Miami on Wednesday, with the frontrunner Donald Trump once again foregoing the debate for his own rally nearby.
The pool has dwindled since the last debate, and Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott and Chris Christie seemed to be more serious and focused this time around as they answered questions on the Israel-Hamas war, immigration, abortion and the federal budget.
[Read More]Faceblock campaign urges users to boycott Facebook for a day | Facebook
Posted on May 7, 2024
| 3 minutes
| 489 words
| Valentine Belue
Facebook This article is more than 5 years oldFaceblock campaign urges users to boycott Facebook for a dayThis article is more than 5 years oldDirect action planned in protest against company’s involvement in Cambridge Analytica scandal
Facebook users are being urged to stop using the social media platform for one day in protest against the company’s involvement in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The Faceblock campaign has been planned to coincide with Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance before US Congress on Wednesday, where the Facebook chief executive will be testifying about data privacy issues.
[Read More]How much is an elephant worth? Meet the ecologists doing the sums
Posted on May 7, 2024
| 11 minutes
| 2176 words
| Chauncey Koziol
The road to Cop15BiodiversityThe idea of being able to put a price on nature is dividing opinion, but the financial value of ‘ecosystem services’ is increasingly guiding policy
In 1996, Prof Shahid Naeem was part of a team of researchers who set out to value the Earth. Specifically, they were trying to establish the dollar value of all of the “ecosystem services” the planet provides to humans every year. Around $33tn, they concluded, nearly double global GDP at the time.
[Read More]Le Faune (The Fairies and the Faun) - 1908 Path video | Film
Posted on May 7, 2024
| 1 minutes
| 129 words
| Chauncey Koziol
Silent film Le Faune (The Fairies and the Faun) - 1908 Pathé video The success of Martin Scorsese's Hugo has reignited interest in the very earliest forms of cinema, and the French company Pathé was at the forefront of the new art form at the dawn of the 20th century. This four-minute short, Le Faune (The Fairies and the Faun), was shot in 1908 by the Pathé brothers.
[Read More]Run over by history
Posted on May 7, 2024
| 4 minutes
| 710 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
BooksReviewVictor Serge was important not only in his subject matter but in his style. Nicholas Lezard hails a great 20th-century Russian novelist The Case of Comrade Tulayev, by Victor Serge, translated by Willard Trask, introduction by Susan Sontag (NYRB, £9.99)
Why, asks Susan Sontag in her first-rate introduction to this first-rate novel, isn't Victor Serge more acclaimed these days? Perhaps it is because there is too much to grasp at once.
[Read More]The Covid loans, the billionaire and Starling, the very fast-growing bank
Posted on May 7, 2024
| 8 minutes
| 1507 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
The ObserverFintechIn 2019, it had lent just £23m. By June 2021, it had issued £1.6bn of bounce-back lending – and an ex-minister has questions
Aboard his 92-foot yacht in the Bahamas in June 2015, the reclusive Austrian-born billionaire Harald McPike was investigating a new moneymaking opportunity.
Decades after reportedly making his first fortune in blackjack, the gambler turned investor had set his sights on the burgeoning UK fintech market and invited the founder of Starling Bank, Anne Boden, aboard.
[Read More]There was a lot of torment: the family who endured two true crime stories
Posted on May 7, 2024
| 7 minutes
| 1288 words
| Kary Bruening
DocumentaryIn docuseries Captive Audience, the Stayner family, whose devastating tragedies were both exploited by the media, get their chance to talk
Ashley Stayner is a self-professed true crime fan. She also happens to have a front row seat to two true crime narratives in her own family.
Her father is abduction-victim-turned-hero Steven Stayner, the subject of the two-part television movie, I Know My First Name Is Steven, which aired in 1989.
[Read More]Viv Richards: Ive always taught my kids to never look down on anyone | Family
Posted on May 7, 2024
| 4 minutes
| 733 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
My family valuesFamilyInterviewViv Richards: ‘I’ve always taught my kids to never look down on anyone’Interview by Nick McGrathThe former West Indies batsman on the influence of church, his cricketing father, home discipline and bringing up his childrenI had a wonderful childhood in Antigua growing up in a family with three other brothers and no sisters, so you can imagine the little fights and scraps we had. My parents were very religious and they made sure we went to church every Sunday.
[Read More]'We live here': fears tourist tweets on gay lifestyle may backfire on Bali's LGBT community
Posted on May 6, 2024
| 4 minutes
| 849 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
BaliExpulsion of US woman who promoted Indonesian island as ‘queer-friendly’ reveals how acceptance extends only to visitors When American tourist Kristen Antoinette Gray began writing about her stay in Bali on Twitter, she apparently had little idea of the controversy she would cause.
Gray and her girlfriend had travelled to Bali for six months but, when the pandemic hit, decided to wait it out on the island. The move had transformed their lifestyles, she wrote, allowing them to enjoy an “elevated lifestyle at a much lower cost of living”.
[Read More]Alex Horne on the secret to his cult show Taskmaster: It must be offbeat but not wacky, off-kilte
Posted on May 6, 2024
| 17 minutes
| 3502 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
Illustration: Jason Ford. Portrait: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian Illustration: Jason Ford. Portrait: Suki Dhanda/The GuardianChristmas puzzles specialTaskmasterInterviewAlex Horne on the secret to his cult show Taskmaster: ‘It must be offbeat but not wacky, off-kilter but not bonkers’Simon ParkinHow does the comedian and creative genius come up with the show’s endless stream of inventive challenges?
Alex Horne is sweltering. Taskmaster, the British panel show in which five comedians complete tasks set by Horne across 10 episodes, is filming its 15th season.
[Read More]