Voices: Why am I always attracted to emotionally unavailable people?
The Independent’s agony aunt Victoria Richards is here to help. Email dearvix@independent.co.uk for advice on love, work, family and relationships
The Independent’s agony aunt Victoria Richards is here to help. Email dearvix@independent.co.uk for advice on love, work, family and relationships
Organiser says ‘we will reflect on recent events while highlighting the strength, creativity, and optimism that defines Los Angeles and our industry’
That would explain some of the clunky language, say observers
Oxfam report says wealth extracted from India between 1765 and 1900 would be a sum large enough to ‘carpet the surface area of London in £50 notes almost four times over’
The spy series had a relatively obscure cast and a pulpy story – yet it became one of the streamer’s most watched shows ever. Louis Chilton thinks it might have what it takes to avoid disappointing its audience this time around
The process of finding somewhere to rent in the capital is like competing in the Hunger Games. It’s easy to lose your dignity, writes Ellie Muir. Will tenants ever be freed from this misery?
What happens when a food writer swaps London’s bustle for Scotland’s beauty? Lilly Subbotin discovers the unexpected culinary delights of Skye – from langoustines on a harbour boat to black garlic butter that tastes like witchcraft
When it gets going, the Netflix show is a pleasingly fraught watch about an Iranian mole, packed with risky missions and heroic acts. Breathtaking stuff
The Night Agent started life as a determined little underdog. Uncool, old-fashioned and on the wrong side of Netflix’s tendency to hype some shows while leaving others unloved, it had to fight its way into the streaming platform’s most-viewed section and critics’ best-of-2023 lists, which it did simply by being a sturdily constructed, twist-packed conspiracy thriller. Once viewers switched it on, they couldn’t switch it off.
It concerns Night Action, an awkwardly named arm of the American intelligence services that is so secret it doesn’t officially exist. When we met him, Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) was its most junior employee, answering the landline phone that rang in the White House basement when an agent needed assistance. By the end of the first season, Peter’s courage, hand-to-hand combat skills and, most of all, his unswerving, country-serving, square-jawed moral code had seen him single-handedly foil a presidential assassination plot.
Continue reading...The photographer’s exhibition, which features images of Noel Gallagher, took place after donation to the gallery’s £40m makeover
The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) has been accused of nepotism after it hosted a photography exhibition by a large donor to its £40m makeover.
Zoë Law’s work is on display until 2 March in the Studio Gallery and Spotlight Space, with the organisation also acquiring her portrait of Noel Gallagher for its permanent collection.
Continue reading...We see untrammelled power with fawning courtiers. George Washington would have recognised the new system at the White House
Donald Trump’s triumphal return to the White House was American political theatre on steroids. This was, of course, exactly the returning president’s intention. “Shock and awe” was the en vogue phrase in the Trump camp to describe it, as the president sought to obliterate the Biden era in a blizzard of executive presidential orders and day-one Maga movement payoffs.
Trump’s second inauguration was exceptionally well worked. Where or whether it all lands in the form of delivered policy is a different issue. To some, it may feel petty to note that the last US “shock and awe” exercise – the Iraq invasion of 2003 – also generated a feast of indelible images of American power. But that one certainly did not end well.
Continue reading...From Trump’s Project 2025 to a huge aid cut by the Dutch, donors are turning their backs on the developing world
Foreign aid spending reached a record high of $223bn (£180bn) in 2023, new figures released this week from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) confirmed.
Yet, in 2024, eight wealthy countries announced $17.2bn in cuts to official development assistance (ODA), and three others hinted at reductions, all to take effect over the next five years.
Continue reading...The author of books such as Slow Horses and Down Cemetery Road receives the prestigious Diamond Dagger award for his contribution to the genre
British writer Mick Herron, best known for his Slough House series beginning with Slow Horses, has been awarded the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Diamond Dagger award for lifetime contribution to crime writing.
“To receive this accolade from these friends and colleagues is a career highlight and a personal joy,” said Herron. “I’m touched and thrilled beyond measure, and will try to live up to the honour.”
Continue reading...Analysis: Joe Biden tried to rise above politics. It didn’t work with Donald Trump, writes John Bowden