© Doug Mills/The New York Times
Rightwing candidates lead polling ahead of fragmented left amid country’s worst economic crisis in four decades
Bolivians are going to the polls in an election that could mark a shift to the right – and the end of nearly 20 years of rule by the leftist Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas).
The party, which came to power with the first election of Evo Morales in 2005, risks losing its legal status if it fails to reach 3% – a threshold it has not hit in polls.
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© Photograph: Natacha Pisarenko/AP
© Photograph: Natacha Pisarenko/AP
© Photograph: Natacha Pisarenko/AP
The band were as big as it got, topping the Irish singles chart seven times. Then they were stopped at a bogus checkpoint in County Down – and three were shot dead. Fifty years on, survivor Des Lee looks back on that terrible night
‘It was absolutely despicable,” says Des Lee, his voice trembling with emotion, “to think that those people who were supposed to be protecting us had planned our murder …” I’ve never heard a story as astonishing as Lee’s. His memoir, My Saxophone Saved My Life, recounts the events of half a century ago, in which his much-loved pop group, the Miami Showband, were ambushed by loyalist paramilitaries operating a fake army checkpoint, with half his bandmates murdered as he lay still, playing dead to stay alive.
Though the attack carries strangely little traction in Britain, the Miami Showband massacre of 1975 is deeply etched into Irish cultural memory. Even amid the context of the Troubles, whose bleak statistics – more than 3,600 dead, more than 47,500 injured – made slaughter almost normalised, the killing of three members of the Miami Showband left Ireland in shock. Fifty years after the atrocity, Lee, 79, tells me about a tangled plot with its roots in the uniquely Irish phenomenon of showbands.
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© Photograph: Independent News and Media/Getty Images
© Photograph: Independent News and Media/Getty Images
© Photograph: Independent News and Media/Getty Images
Series aims to follow original in tackling ‘thornier issues’, and to support talent from lower-income backgrounds
It was one of the most influential British television series of the last century, renowned for exploring thorny societal issues and bringing the work of emerging talent, such as Ray Winstone, Alison Steadman, Helen Mirren and Dennis Potter, to mass audiences.
Now Play for Today is being revived on Channel 5, to give young writers, actors and producers from lower-income backgrounds a way into TV, helped by established talent.
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© Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
© Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
© Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
Festival theatre, Edinburgh
Mary births a balloon and Elizabeth I towers on stilts in Sophie Laplane and James Bonas’s production about the queens’ distant relationship
The second half of this show is much better than the first. It’s often the way in (loosely) narrative ballet. There’s all the scene-setting and character introductions before you can get to the guts of it – the relationships, the tension, the betrayal. Scottish Ballet’s new Mary, Queen of Scots, created by choreographer Sophie Laplane and director James Bonas, stumbles in the setup. Sometimes it’s just helpful to know where we are and who’s who. How would we know this scene where the men have porky prosthetic bellies protruding from their jackets is the French court, for example?
The central conceit is that this is Mary’s story told through her cousin Elizabeth I’s eyes and the creators have set themselves a challenge there: in literature, one person can easily tell another’s story, but you can’t dance someone else’s dance. Older Elizabeth (Charlotta Öfverholm), however, is the most distinctive presence on stage, frail and losing her dignity, with a sense of confusion around her.
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© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
Charli xcx dances, Dax Shepard’s podcast and Mario Kart on the sofa are all enjoyed across the generational divide in our family. What happened to shouting up the stairs to turn that music down?
Some things you know without being told. Kids reached peak summer holiday boredom last week – on 12 August to be precise – according to a survey. If you’re a parent you may have laughed hollowly there, in the unlikely event you still have enough energy.
Exhausted and bankrupt after standing in endless queues for more wholesome activities, we’ve started Cinema Club, which is totally different from just watching a film on the sofa, in ways I’ll explain, er, later. I was excited to share a particular childhood favourite of mine with my son, who turned 11 a fortnight ago, although this can be a risky business (ooh, is he too young to watch Risky Business?).
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© Photograph: Carlos Barquero/Getty Images
© Photograph: Carlos Barquero/Getty Images
© Photograph: Carlos Barquero/Getty Images
Military claims it is displacing population ‘to ensure their safety’ even as health officials report deadly attacks on previously designated safe zones
The Israeli military will begin preparing for the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza City, it said on Saturday, as health officials said it had killed at least 40 people including a baby in a tent and people seeking aid in its latest attacks.
The announcement came days after Israel said it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban centre, in a plan that raised international alarm. The Israeli offensive has already displaced most of the population, killed tens of thousands of civilians and created a famine.
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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Doug Mills/The New York Times
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