Thomas Hawk posted a photo:
(Atlantic)
The lyrics may argue the dancefloor is dead, but this funny, wilfully plasticky new single isn’t the total about-turn from Brat that fans expected
Last month, Charli xcx began the media campaign for her seventh studio album by giving an interview to Vogue magazine. The ensuing feature caused an impressive degree of online consternation, not because the 33-year-old star had said anything particularly controversial, but because she had suggested that the follow-up to 2024’s Brat would sound markedly different to its predecessor. “If I’d made another album that felt more dance-leaning, it would have felt really hard, really sad,” she said, not unreasonably declining to chase Brat’s vast success by attempting to replicate it. (Although, in fairness, you could have probably worked that out from House, the noisy, experimental collaboration with John Cale she released at the end of last year as the first single from her soundtrack to Wuthering Heights.)
She also played the interviewer a track that contained both “heavily processed guitars” and the lyrics “I think the dancefloor is dead, so now we’re making rock music”: Vogue duly ran with the idea, trumpeting Charli xcx’s “rock reinvention” in both the headline and on its cover and other news outlets picked up on the story – “CHARLI XCX CONFIRMS ROCK ALBUM”. What one journalist tactfully called “heated discourse online from some fans and artists within the music industry” followed, eventually prompting the singer to respond, posting “a video of me making a song called Rock Music that is not actually rock music which is funny because I never said I was making a rock album”.
Continue reading...Former David Cameron adviser says a vote for him will make California ‘Califordable’ – not everyone is convinced
He “knows how to wind people up like Trump”, according to friends, and made his name in the UK with zany policy ideas including making the country sunnier using state-owned cloud busters.
Now the controversial strategist Steve Hilton, named the “pint-sized Rasputin” of Conservative politics, has become an unlikely frontrunner in the primary race for California governor.
Continue reading...Rumens, whose column ran for nearly 20 years and developed a loyal readership, died this week aged 81
Carol was an excellent commentator on poetry, shrewd and deep-thinking but able to express her thoughts in plain English rather than academic jargon. Her taste in poems was eclectic and very original; one didn’t always share it, but it was never predictable or dull. Sheenagh Pugh, Shetland
Continue reading...After months of protest, crackdown and war, on-the-ground reporting is more impossible than it has ever been. These challenges shape every aspect of how we report on what is happening in the country
Iran is among the world’s most repressive countries for press freedom. But in recent months, I have seen first-hand how the work of telling the truth has grown more fragile, more improvised, and more dangerous than ever.
We have been cut off from our sources. After the authorities imposed a nationwide communications blackout, the already fragile infrastructure of reporting has all but collapsed. Even when we can make contact, we are careful; a phone search at a checkpoint could put them in danger. We cannot cross-check events through local coverage or rely on familiar verification channels. Instead, we wait for the rare, precious moments when a reliable contact inside Iran manages to get online, navigating VPNs or risking Starlink, which the authorities have criminalised.
The Guardian is committed to helping journalists inside repressive regimes across the world to share their stories. As part of our annual support campaign promoting the defence of the free press please consider backing our work today – or consider backing another independent outlet whose work you value. We’re hoping to get 60,000 new supporters, or acts of support by 21 May.
Continue reading...Reform leader irritated when asked about money from Christopher Harborne on day of party’s election gains
Nigel Farage has repeatedly refused to answer questions about a personal gift of £5m he received from the billionaire Christopher Harborne, as the Reform UK leader sought on Friday to focus attention on the party’s election gains.
Farage was clearly irritated when asked on a number of occasions on Friday about the money, which the Guardian revealed he had received shortly before announcing he would stand in the 2024 general election and which was not declared.
Continue reading...The long-suffering saga has been kept alive this decade by TV alone – but even that will perish if the new movie fails to extend its universe
Star Wars has always been big on prophecy. Yoda peers into the future like Nostradamus with messed-up syntax, the Emperor cackles that everything is proceeding exactly as he has foreseen, Darth Vader breathes doom through the front grille of his shiny death helmet. And yet not even the most omniscient of Jedi could have predicted that the franchise responsible for practically inventing the modern Hollywood blockbuster would end up as a TV-centric operation with only occasional forays on to the big screen. Which is why it comes as a genuine shock to realise that, ahead of the release of new movie The Mandalorian and Grogu later this month, it has been more than six years since Star Wars last hit the multiplex.
Then again, perhaps the real humdinger is that it hasn’t been longer. The most recent Disney Star Wars film, JJ Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker, did not so much conclude the long-running space saga as destroy several decades of perfectly serviceable mythology and ruin all sense of congruence with previous films. It was frantic, weirdly apologetic (about previous instalment The Last Jedi) and overstuffed with dodgy fan service. It was essentially a $590m act of narrative panic.
Continue reading...The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world
Continue reading...SINZIG (ANP) - De Duitse politie is in Sinzig een bank binnengevallen na berichten dat daar een gijzeling gaande zou zijn. Twee opgesloten personen zijn ongedeerd aangetroffen, meldt de regionale omroep SWR. De dader of daders zijn niet gevonden.
DEN BOSCH (ANP) - Peter Gillis gaat in hoger beroep tegen de gevangenisstraf en de boete die hij donderdag kreeg opgelegd wegens belastingontduiking. Dat laat zijn advocaat vrijdag aan het ANP weten. De rechtbank in Den Bosch veroordeelde de realityster, bekend van de tv-serie Massa is Kassa, tot een celstraf van anderhalf jaar, waarvan zes maanden voorwaardelijk. Ook moeten de ondernemingen van Gillis boetes van in totaal ruim 1,3 miljoen euro betalen.
Gillis had volgens de rechters te laat aangifte van vennootschapsbelasting gedaan voor onder meer de Oostappen Groep in de jaren 2020 en 2021. Zijn advocaat toonde zich "teleurgesteld" en zei het vonnis te bestuderen, maar gaf al aan dat hoger beroep "in de rede" lag.
Vorig jaar kreeg Gillis ook al twaalf maanden cel opgelegd, waarvan zes voorwaardelijk, voor belastingfraude tussen 2014 en 2019. Tegen die uitspraak ging hij in hoger beroep. Donderdag kreeg Gillis ook te horen dat hij een taakstraf van zestig uur moet uitvoeren, vanwege mishandeling van zijn ex-partner Nicol Kremers. Het is nog niet bekend of Gillis ook in die zaak in beroep gaat.
DEN HAAG (ANP) - Asielminister Bart van den Brink wil de regels voor grenscontroles versoepelen. De Koninklijke Marechaussee gaat na september niet meer aan de grens controleren als het aan de CDA-minister ligt, maar gaat gebruikmaken van mobiele controles.
Volgens Van den Brink is dit een effectievere manier van controleren. "De marechaussee analyseert waar het best gecontroleerd kan worden en voertuigen worden uitgezocht op basis van inlichtingen en een risicoprofiel."
De huidige manier van controleren, aan de grens, wordt verlengd tot eind september. Die periode wil de CDA-minister gebruiken om de mobiele controles op te zetten. De controles aan Nederlandse en Duitse kant kregen veel kritiek van burgers en ondernemers in grensregio's.
De Nederlandse controles leidden van december 2024 tot en met afgelopen maart tot 270 aanhoudingen, bijvoorbeeld vanwege mensensmokkel of documentfraude. In diezelfde periode is aan zeshonderd vreemdelingen de toegang tot Nederland geweigerd.

Makkers wild geraas staken, het is vrijdag, de boel de boel, de baas naar huis, vandaag een keertje niet Samantha de draden laten zien in het serverhok wegens Eurosport achter de command-tab en dan mag er subito een glas Italiaans kantoorbier in. De Giro d'Italia, de meest romantische wielerkoers van allemaal, met die majestueuze roze trui en die prachtige vrouwen en het stof en het zweet en de kleine iele schrale mannetjes die heel veel of heel weinig doping gebruiken. En dat dan allemaal met de eerste etappes in Bulgarije, met voorsprong het goorste land van de EU, alleen getopt door Noord-Macedonië en dat is geeneens EU. Als u in Sofia op de Vitosha Boulevard staat en naar de Cherni Vrah kijkt lijkt het misschien nog wat, maar aan het einde van de avond staat u weer met de poten in de klei van de Fetish Striptease Club en daar lichten ze u op, pakken ze uw geld af, jagen ze op uw creditcard en krijgt u ruzie met de knuisten van de uitsmijters. Ga daar NOOIT heen, het is een rotclub vol dieven, moordenaars, oplichters en schooiers, nog corrupter dan Yordan Letchkov, en de danseressen zijn opdringerig en vervelend bovendien. Dat allemaal van horen zeggen uiteraard! Nu de eerste etappe van de Giro d'Italia, in Bulgarije dus, met finish in Burgas. Twee Nederlandse kanshebbers: Dylan Groenewegen en Casper van Uden, al zal Johnny Milan wel winnen. Proost.