One afternoon, I set up my kit and taped a drumstick to my amputated arm

The transformer exploded a few feet from where I was standing. One moment I was on the roof of a restaurant kitchen in Atlanta, cleaning exhaust vents. The next, I was on the ground, my body seizing and burned.

Before that day, music had been the centre of my life. My father was a well-known guitarist in Australia and I grew up watching him play. When I was 14 my parents bought me a drum kit for Christmas. I fell in love immediately. By 22, I was playing in two bands – one metal, one reggae – and preparing to audition for the Atlanta Institute of Music. Then I was electrocuted.

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With elections next year, Emmanuel Macron and other European leaders are trying to secure institutions against the National Rally threat

European governments have quietly begun adapting their policies for the hitherto unthinkable prospect that France, a founder member of the EU, may elect a far-right nationalist president next year. Germany may be Europe’s biggest economy and most populous state, but nuclear-armed France is the pivotal military power.

More than a year before the French choose a successor to Emmanuel Macron, the possibility of a rightwing populist government in France led by Marine Le Pen or her protege, Jordan Bardella, is keeping policymakers awake in Brussels, Berlin and Kyiv. While European leaders regard Macron with respect (and occasional irritation) as an experienced peer, they are gazing with growing anxiety over his shoulder to see who may follow him in May 2027 and what problems that could pose for the bloc, Nato and Ukraine.

Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre

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As the Spanish PM decries the war in Iran, other politicians are unable – or unwilling – to speak against the US president

On Wednesday morning, Pedro Sánchez delivered a 10-minute televised address with the rather bland title: “An institutional declaration by the prime minister to assess recent international events.”

The speech’s words, however, were anything but beige. Hours after Donald Trump had threatened to cut off trade with Spain over its government’s refusal to allow two jointly operated bases in Andalucía to be used to strike Iran, Sánchez set out his thinking.

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Yes, there are plenty of big-budget visual effects of prehistoric creatures in Steven Spielberg’s natural history show. But the voiceover is the real draw

It’s difficult these days to make a nature documentary that isn’t like all the others. Spectacular landscapes, crisp closeup photography, tales of predation and survival, birth and death: whether you go for Pixar cuteness, crimson claws or environmental crisis, it’s been done 100 times before. Watching The Dinosaurs, it’s hard not to sense the same problem starting to affect factual shows about the animal kingdom as it was millions of years ago. Impressive as it is that big-money dino documentaries boast visual effects that look similar to footage of Earth today, we are getting used to it.

Before the opening titles roll, cliches from two genres have been cross-bred. From regular animal shows, there’s the one where a lone male tries to muscle in on a family unit, forcing the existing patriarch to fight for his status against a younger, stronger rival. Our friend who looks as if he’s about to be fatally pushed aside is a pachycephalosaurus, but the dynamic is the same. Then the two males’ head-smashing battle is interrupted by a familiar sight from dinosaur documentaries: the animal posing a threat is suddenly bitten in two by a Tyrannosaurus rex, leaping unbidden through the undergrowth with a camp flourish. The pachycephalosaurus clan, led by their relieved dad, scurry happily away to the sound of the interloper’s cracking skull.

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Our current approach to mental health labelling and diagnosis has brought benefits. But as a practising doctor, I am concerned that it may be doing more harm than good

By Gavin Francis. Read by Noof Ousellam

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Deze vrijdag beleeft Theory of Flames, een filmopera over liefde in tijden van fake news, zijn première. Nooit eerder maakte de gelauwerde componist Michel van der Aa zo’n persoonlijke opera. „Het is waar dat ik mensen probeer wakker te schudden.”

Met ruim 70.000 leden is Forum voor Democratie de grootste. GroenLinks krijgt er de meeste leden bij, constateren onderzoekers van de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.

Met zijn opmerking dat de nieuwe box 3-wet terug naar de tekentafel moet, verraste minister Heinen zijn eigen staatssecretaris en coalitiegenoten. De wet is al door de Tweede Kamer, maar alle opties om vermogen te belasten lijken weer bespreekbaar.

banzainetsurfer has added a photo to the pool:

Shodo Island, Kagawa Prefecture, Shikoku, Japan
日本四国香川県小豆島

wesleyparsons has added a photo to the pool:

8922 with 8222, 8157, 8220 on Friday 6th of March 2026