Hackers also demanded the US government release more information on the sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein
Hackers gained access to the X account of the puppet Elmo over the weekend and used it to post racist and antisemitic threats as well as make profane references to Jeffrey Epstein. Sesame Workshop was still trying to regain full control Monday over the iconic red character’s account.
“Elmo’s X account was compromised by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts. We are working to restore full control of the account,” a Sesame Workshop spokesperson said Monday. Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit behind Sesame Street and Elmo.
For over a decade, John Knuth has created art using the regurgitation of flies and after he lost his home in the California wildfires, his work has a new perspective
One morning in Denver as artist John Knuth was getting his exhibition ready at the David B Smith Gallery, the police knocked on the door to check he wasn’t housing a dead body. “They said, ‘We’ve got a report of a lot of flies in here. Is there a dead body or anything rotting?’” Knuth recalls to the Guardian over Zoom.
The hundreds of flies emerging from Knuth’s gallery were actually his collaborators. For over a decade, Knuth has been creating paintings using the regurgitation of tens of thousands of flies. “When flies eat they digest externally,” explains Knuth. “They’re in a constant state of regurgitation. They land on a surface, puke up, suck it back in. Puke up, suck it back in.” After feeding the insects a mixture of acrylic colored paint and sugar water, the flies spend several weeks expelling the mixtures on to his canvases. “From that I get these really transcendent color connections.”
EPA’s move comes as it slashes climate research funding and cuts weather forecasting and scientific agencies’ staff
Trump officials’ recent attempt to dispel concerns about “chemtrails” has perplexed and angered some experts who say the administration has itself promoted the conspiracy theory while also spreading climate misinformation.
“This is an intriguing strategy … in an administration that, depending on agency, is actively promulgating conspiracy theories or at least conspiratorial thinking,” said Timothy Tangherlini, a professor at the Berkeley School of Information who studies the circulation of folklore and conspiracy theories.
Has director James Gunn reinvented the superhero film – or just lovingly detonated it? Let’s have a deep dive into the new Man of Steel movie
• This article contains spoilers for Superman
James Gunn’s Superman is a curious film: so earnest, so heartfelt, and so defiantly weird it sometimes feels less like a reboot of the world’s most iconic superhero and more like an elaborate fan project. Most of us will be relieved we’ve said goodbye to the heavy metal space Jesus of the Zack Snyder years, and that Gunn has avoided paying too much retro cosplay tribute to the Christopher Reeve era. This is undeniably a Superman we’ve never seen before on the big screen: a Kal-El who’s deeply human, flawed, and more likable for it.
The new Man of Steel, played with boyish charm and the right amount of golden retriever energy by David Corenswet, spends most of the movie juggling black holes, battling clone siblings, and dealing with the looming realisation that his space dad might have been one bad day away from full-blown genocide. And yet there’s always the sneaking suspicion he would break off from all this in a second if you asked him to fix your router and play Enya until your existential dread subsides.
Defendant accused of using deadly cocktail of drugs and of setting fire to many victims’ homes to cover up evidence
Hearings have begun in the Berlin trial of a German palliative doctor accused of murdering 15 patients in his care using a deadly cocktail of sedatives and setting fire to many of their homes to try to cover up his crimes.
Prosecutors have charged the 40-year-old defendant with 15 counts of “murder with premeditated malice and other base motives” and are seeking a life sentence, which in Germany usually amounts to 15 years in prison.
Healy becomes first Irishman in 38 years in maillot jaune
Giro winner Yates takes his third career Tour stage win
Ben Healy rode himself into the ground in a nail-biting finale to become the first Irishman in 38 years to wear the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, as Britain’s Simon Yates claimed victory in stage 10 on Monday with a perfectly timed attack.
Giro d’Italia champion Yates emerged from the day’s breakaway to secure his third career Tour stage win, pulling away on the final climb to beat Thymen Arensman of the Netherlands and Healy, who finished second and third, respectively.
Shoaib Bashir takes final wicket after tense run chase
At the end of an undulating Test match that transformed into an intense battle of the wills, it was England who emerged victorious. India were just 23 runs short of their target when, at 4.54pm on the final day, Mohammed Siraj repelled a bouncing delivery from Shoaib Bashir, only to see it trickle back on to the stumps and knock off a bail.
It was a galling way for the tourists to go 2-1 down, while the jubilant hosts still resembled the survivors in a disaster movie. Both sides deserve credit for five dramatic days; the second of back-to-back Tests that began in a heatwave and hit boiling point once a row about time-wasting blew up day three. Unlike similar scenes at Lord’s four years ago – Virat Kohli’s “60 overs of hell” match – England just about kept their heads this time.
Adults over the age of 50 represent nearly a third of US gamers and are becoming more visible in the mainstream
Michelle Statham’s preferred game is Call of Duty. It’s fast and frenetic, involving military and espionage campaigns inspired by real history. She typically spends six hours a day livestreaming to Twitch, chatting to her more than 110,000 followers from her home in Washington state. She boasts about how she’ll beat opponents, and says “bless your heart” while hurtling over rooftops to avoid clusterstrikes of enemy fire. When she’s hit, she “respawns” – or comes back to life at a checkpoint – and jumps right back into the fray.
The military shooter game has a predominantly young male user base, but Statham’s Twitch handle is TacticalGramma – a nod to the 60-year-old’s two grandkids. Her lifelong gaming hobby has become an income stream (she prefers to keep her earnings private, but says she has raised “thousands” for charity), as well as a way to have fun, stay sharp and connect socially.
HBO releases first glimpse of new Boy Who Lived as cameras roll on small screen adaptation of JK Rowling’s books
HBO has provided a first glimpse at the new world of Harry Potter, as filming begins on its hotly anticipated television adaptation of JK Rowling’s beloved book series.
A photo provided by the broadcaster shows Dominic McLaughlin in character as the young wizard for the first time. The 11-year-old was selected alongside Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley and Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger after an extensive casting search among British children aged 9-11. As with Daniel Radcliffe before him, McLaughlin sports Potter’s trademark round glasses and Gryffindor uniform.
Player’s claim relates to injury in final year at club
Fletcher appointed lead coach of United’s Under-18s
Axel Tuanzebe has lodged a legal complaint against Manchester United alleging “medical negligence”, with the claim by the club’s former defender relating to an injury sustained in or after July 2022.
A submission entitled “Tuanzebe v Manchester United Football Club Limited” was registered last Wednesday at the high court, with the case type described as “Clinical Negligence – Part 7 Claim – Medical Advice”. The claim is understood to relate to an injury in his final year at the club.
Italian overcame heartbreak in French Open final and now moves on to his favoured hard courts for US Open buildup
With his hopes of a third consecutive Wimbledon title desperately fading with every point, Carlos Alcaraz sat down in his chair on Centre Court after conceding the third set of his final with Jannik Sinner and bluntly unloaded his thoughts on his team: “From the back of the court, he is much better than me. Much better than me! Much [better]! It’s like this,” Alcaraz said, gesturing with his hands to demonstrate the vast gap between his greatest rival and himself.
His assessment was not wrong. From a set down, Sinner put together a supreme performance to overturn five consecutive losses against Alcaraz and win his first Wimbledon title, avenging the most difficult loss in his career – his French Open final defeat by Alcaraz in June – at the earliest opportunity. No one in the world strikes the ball with anything close to the destructive power, cleanliness, consistency that the Italian employs to dominate on the court and he used his incessant aggression to constantly rob time from his opponent, making it so difficult for him to impose his own varied game.
The 35-year-old charged with ‘malicious mischief’ after alleged attempt to break the glass case containing the famous artefact
A man from Sydney has appeared in a court in Scotland charged with “malicious mischief” following reports a glass case containing the Stone of Scone was broken in Perth.
It follows an incident at Perth Museum on Saturday afternoon when visitors reported a man in a kilt attempting to smash through the case containing the ancient artefact, which has long been associated with the monarchy.
‘I’d quit heavy drugs, got married and started a solo career … then my label dropped me. This felt like the last roll of the dice for me as a musician’
My wife, Helen, had driven our two young kids down to Porthcurno beach in Cornwall. It’s where Rowena Cade had carved the Minack theatre into the granite cliffs. I’d been playing a gig so arrived two days later, and for a boy from a smoggy industrial city, the blue sea and palm trees felt revelatory.
Defendant, 15, in court in Berlin accused of involvement in foiled Islamic State-inspired plot to attack Vienna concert
A Syrian teenager has gone on trial in Berlin accused of involvement in an Islamic State-inspired plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last summer.
The case brought by federal prosecutors against the 15-year-old defendant, identified only as Mohammad A in keeping with German privacy rules, includes charges of preparing a “severe subversive act of violence” and supporting a terrorist organisation abroad.
Despite their predecessors stressing the horrors of pop success, a new cohort are hungry for it, reflecting the ambitions of spotlight-hungry gen Z and the shamelessness of Trump 2.0 life
On Lorde’s 2021 album Solar Power, the New Zealand pop star ditched fame. She threw her phone in the sea, sang “if you’re looking for a saviour, well, that’s not me” and advised looking to nature for answers instead. But her sun-bleached third album proved divisive, so much so that just a year later, she placated fans by promising she was making “bangers” again. This April, her comeback single What Was That returned to the incandescent synth-pop of her beloved 2017 album Melodrama; her new album Virgin opens: “It’s a beautiful life so why play truant? / I jerk tears and they pay me to do it.” Lorde was back roaming the streets, swapping Auckland fishing trips for New York Citi Bike rides, addicted to her phone again, playing Glastonbury at 11.30am and then disappearing to get high at Four Tet.
Where Solar Power was introverted, Virgin is hungry for experience and connection, sticky with sweat and other bodily fluids. But it’s also still preoccupied with the cost of finding fame at the age of 16 and how to carry it at age 28. The erratic album has divided critics again: is the sometimes spindly sound and lyrical status anxiety another attempt by Lorde to push listeners away? Or are the intermittent Melodrama 2.0 bangers her giving in to expectation? Ever alert to her own myth, she said recently: “I just am this person who’s meant to make these bangers that fuck us all up.”
Up to five areas could enter drought status and more hosepipe bans expected after three heatwaves and lack of rain
As many as five areas of England are expected to go into drought this summer after the hottest June since records began in 1884.
Three heatwaves, which tend to increase water consumption, combined with a lack of rain means that large swathes of England are heading towards drought status and the damage to the environment that entails.
Customs officials at Cologne Bonn airport tipped off by ‘noticeable smell’ that did not resemble confectionary
Arachnophobes beware: customs officials have released photos from a seizure of roughly 1,500 young tarantulas found inside plastic containers that were hidden in chocolate sponge cake boxes shipped to an airport in western Germany.
Customs officials said on Monday they had found the shipment at Cologne Bonn airport in a package that had arrived from Vietnam. A Cologne customs office spokesperson, Jens Ahland, said they had been tipped off by a “noticeable smell” that did not resemble the expected aroma of the 7kg (about 15lb) of the confectionery treats.
Not far from Football Daily Towers, nestled away on a quiet London street just around the corner from both the old Highbury and the new-ish Emirates Stadium, there once stood an Irish pub. It was a good one, named the Auld Triangle. It wasn’t a ‘beautiful’ place by any traditional yardstick, but still had original wood panelling dating back to its Victorian inception. It wasn’t particularly busy, apart from Arsenal matchdays, but its steady flow of regulars and opportunists convinced by its pretty exterior to step inside still created an atmosphere. It didn’t do food, but a friendly, monosyllabic man behind the bar would allow you to bring whatever takeaway grub you wanted into the pub, so long as you were drinking his fare. As recently as 2021, the Auld Triangle had Sky Sports, BT Sports, screen dedicated to GAA and horse racing, daily newspapers splayed out over a table in the corner and as recently as 2021, sold pints for less than a fiver. It never shouted, never made any TimeOut lists or went viral but it was, in many ways, the perfect pub and a 10/10 experience on almost every occasion.
What was presented as a global celebration of football was nothing more than a fiction created by Fifa, promoted by its president, without dialogue, sensitivity, and respect for those who sustain the game with their daily efforts. A grandiloquent staging inevitably reminiscent of the ‘bread and circuses’ of Nero’s Rome, entertainment for the masses while behind the scenes inequality, precariousness, and the lack of protection for the true protagonists deepen” – Fifpro president, Sergio Marchi, sharpens his studs and takes a two-footed leap at Gianni Infantino.
I read Arsène Wenger’s comments about the Club World Cup with a mixture of laughter and increasing incredulity. As a Spurs fan of 78 years and counting I was well accustomed to his poor eyesight at red card incidents and your quoted ‘dubious decisions’ but this latest effort takes the biscuit. To think that he is trousering a considerable amount of money as Fifa’s so called director of world football development merely confirms my opinion of the [snip]show that is Fifa” – Stewart McGuinness.
Well I, for one, am glad of the Copa Gianni. I have managed to prove to myself (if no one else) that I am not obsessed with football and there are some tournaments even I would not stoop to watch” – Alex Folkes.
Looked at livesoccertv.com for friendlies on Saturday. There are THREE HUNDRED of them. That’s 600 different teams named on the list, mostly European. Amazing!” – Jim Geissman.
Air India cautions investigation into Boeing 787 Dreamliner crash is in early stages as speculation about cause grows
India’s aviation regulator has ordered the country’s airlines to examine fuel switches on Boeing aircraft, after a preliminary report on the Air India flight 171 crash in June showed the fuel supply had been cut seconds after takeoff.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said it had issued the order after several domestic and international airlines began making their own inspections of the locking mechanisms attached to the switches.
Stephanie Davies says crucial details about one of the babies could have made difference to police investigation
A senior coroner’s officer who first reviewed the deaths of babies at the Countess of Chester hospital for Cheshire police in 2017 now believes Lucy Letby has suffered a miscarriage of justice.
Stephanie Davies, who was given three hours to carry out her review, was told it was key to detectives deciding to commence an investigation into the former neonatal nurse.
In her first interview, with the Guardian and Channel 4 News, Davies said she had become increasingly alarmed since December, when she learned that the hospital doctors had not reported a key medical procedure on one of the babies to the coroner at the time. She has since found the explanations of new medical experts, who have publicly contested the prosecution arguments, compelling.
Fluminense winger Arias impressed at Club World Cup
Arsenal are hoping to complete the signing of Cristhian Mosquera from Valencia this week in a deal that could take their summer spending past £200m.
Negotiations with Valencia over the 21-year-old defender have been taking place since an initial offer of £14m including bonuses was rejected this month. It is understood an agreement has been struck for Arsenal to pay an initial £13m plus up to £3.5m in bonuses.
Richard Teder secured a major debut at Royal Portrush after a hole out in a playoff and the 20-year-old only took up the sport after his aunt won a prize
All we know already about Richard Teder suggests his Open Championship debut may provide essential viewing when he becomes the first golfer from Estonia to tee it up in the oldest major.
He qualified by holing out from 90 yards in a sudden death playoff, a euphoric scene which preceded the eating of half a doner kebab for dinner. Teder picked up golf by accident, finds the sport straightforward and learned English via YouTube. There are far more illustrious names in the field at Royal Portrush but few competitors have such a backstory.
Howard Phillips tells court he hoped to ‘trap’ agents by offering information about the then defence secretary
A man accused of attempting to hand over the personal details of the then defence secretary, Grant Shapps, to Russian intelligence officers has told a court he was actually trying to “expose” the agents.
Howard Phillips, 65, was charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service after passing a USB stick containing details relating to Shapps including his home address and the location of his private plane to undercover officers, who prosecutors say he believed to be Russian spies. He previously pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Nearly 30 years after Andrew Wakefield’s discredited study linking the MMR vaccine and autism, we badly need an injection of rationality
It’s easy to say in hindsight, but also true, that even when the anti-vax movement was in its infancy in the late 90s before I had kids, let alone knew what you were supposed to vaccinate them against, I could smell absolute garbage. After all, Andrew Wakefield, a doctor until he was struck off in 2010, was not the first crank to dispute the safety and effectiveness of childhood vaccines. There was a movement against the diphtheria-tetanus-whooping cough vaccine in the 1970s in the UK, and a similar one in the US in the early 1980s. The discovery of vaccination in the first place was not without its critics, and enough people to form a league opposed the smallpox rollout in the early 1800s on the basis that it was unchristian to share tissue with an animal.
So Wakefield’s infamous Lancet study, in which he claimed a link between the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine and autism, going as far as to pin down the exact mechanism by which one led to the other, was new only in so far as it had all the branding of reputable research, when in fact it was maleficent woo-woo, a phenomenon as old as knowledge. It was noticeable, though, that it fell on parched ground – a lot of people were very keen for it to be true. That was partly simple news appetite: vaccines are inherently boring. Devised by humans co-operating with one another, motivated by nothing more complicated than a desire to help the species – and indiscriminately, no one baby more worthy of protection than any other – there is no animating conflict here, nothing hidden, no complexity. Is there anything more tedious than humanity at its finest? So wouldn’t it be at least piquant if it turned out to be a giant mistake?
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