The group still projects a powerful presence but, after all the damage, it will need to divert blame if the truce collapses
Of the many factors that will determine the fate of the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, one of the most difficult to quantify and predict is the level of popular support for Hamas.
On Monday, Hamas threatened to delay the release of further Israeli hostages, accusing Israel of breaches of the ceasefire deal. The uncertainty, just over halfway into the ceasefire’s six-week first phase, complicates talks on the far more difficult second phase. It also jeopardises the pause in the devastating fighting and the increase in humanitarian aid for Gaza that the truce has made possible.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
© Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
© Brendan McDermid/Reuters
It had seemed like the year of Emilia Pérez or The Brutalist but Sean Baker’s comedy won three major awards over the weekend, turning the best picture race on its head
It had already felt like a weirder Oscars race than usual.
The question of what will win best picture had been asked and then answered by most with a shrug, the frontrunner changing by the day. At various points in the last few months, experienced prognosticators have offered up Conclave, Wicked, A Complete Unknown, September 5, The Brutalist or Emilia Pérez as their pick, the race shifting with the smallest shred of new intel.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: CraSH/imageSPACE/REX/Shutterstock
© Photograph: CraSH/imageSPACE/REX/Shutterstock
Democrats and scholars fear Trump will create a constitutional crisis by defying the courts blocking the administration’s efforts to upend federal government
Steve Bannon will serve no jail time after pleading guilty to a fraud charge connected to duping donors into thinking they were funding construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border, the Associated Press reports.
The plea deal resolves a long-running case against Bannon, a top ally of Donald Trump and an architect of his Maga political philosophy, which began at the federal level before being disrupted when Trump pardoned Bannon near the end of his first term, and was then taken up by prosecutors in New York. Here’s more on its resolution, from the AP:
Bannon, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty to one scheme to defraud count as part of a plea agreement that spares him from jail time in the “We Build the Wall” scheme. He received a three-year conditional discharge, which requires that he stay out of trouble to avoid additional punishment.
Asked how he was feeling as he left the courtroom, Bannon said, “Like a million bucks.”
The U.S. Court of the Appeals for the 11th Circuit approved dropping the case against Trump valet Walt Nauta and property manager Carlos De Oliveira, who were charged alongside Trump in a case accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home and social club. All three pleaded not guilty.
A lawyer for Nauta, Richard Klugh, said the decision “closes out a prosecution that was misguided and which should never have been filed.”
Continue reading...
© Photograph: ABACA/REX/Shutterstock
© Photograph: ABACA/REX/Shutterstock
© Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
Matildas and Chelsea star had denied charge and was cleared at Kingston crown court
Sam Kerr has been found not guilty of racially aggravated harassment after calling a police officer “fucking stupid and white” after he doubted her claims of being “held hostage” in taxi.
Kerr showed no emotion during the reading of the verdict, which the jury delivered after a little over four hours of deliberation, but gave a thumbs up to her barrister Grace Forbes.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA
© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA
She sells out large venues, is feted by legends – and adored for her euphoric songs. The remarkable Japanese musician talks about magical islands, sonic sorcery and playing gigs with her eyes shut
When Ichiko Aoba stood up to perform at London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields in September 2024, most people couldn’t actually see the Japanese singer at first. The Georgian parish church has no stage, just a postage stamp of a red platform. And Aoba is not that tall. “I was a bit nervous,” she says. “Venue staff had told me it would be difficult for people to see, so I kept thinking about how I might massage people, loosen them up.”
Aoba, 35, is speaking over video call from Tokyo. Her vibe in conversation is much the same as on stage: quiet but not shy, thoughtful, funny and direct. At St Martin’s, she walked down the aisle, guitar in hand, sat down on the flagstone floor, big white skirts billowing up like powdery snow, and started to sing, unamplified. The audience hushed. Aoba said, “Come closer”, and everyone who could did.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Roger Garfield/Alamy
© Photograph: Roger Garfield/Alamy
Playwrights and actors paid homage to the small but mighty UK theatre company that nurtured them, as part of a fundraising initiative for new writers
A politician bounds on to the stage to talk about the future of theatre. “I’m here to help,” she announces with an unctuous smile, holding an iPad. The occasion is the 50th anniversary of a celebrated touring company. The politician tries to convince her audience that technology will lead the way. Drama is not real but “artificial” so, moving ahead, wouldn’t it make more sense for artificial intelligence to produce it? “Let’s reset!” she says, whooping at her idea.
The scenario is, thankfully, artificial itself: a short new satirical work by James Graham, written to mark the 50th anniversary of Paines Plough, which has championed new writing and helped kickstart the careers of Graham and a glittering alumni of other leading British playwrights.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: PR
© Photograph: PR
Trump ally pleaded guilty to charge related to duping donors who gave money to effort to build wall on US border
Steve Bannon pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a fraud charge related to duping donors who gave money to a private effort to build a wall along the US southern border – a case the conservative strategist has decried as a “political persecution”.
Bannon, a longtime ally of Donald Trump, reached a plea agreement that spares him from jail time in the “We Build the Wall” scheme.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP
© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP
A night behind the velvet ropes at the Super Bowl of canines, America’s oldest continuously held sporting event, was enough to change even the staunchest skeptic
I’m not afraid to say it: dogs are in their flop era. Or maybe, just their owners are. The ones who bring a Great Dane into the grocery store, or hole up in a cocktail bar with a giant Saint Bernard at their feet. Dog people used to symbolize sensitivity, or a down-to-earth vibe. Now, they’re synonymous with white-collar entitlement.
But I kept those feelings to myself during the Westminster Dog Show, lest they take me out back to get mauled by a pack of Belgian Malinios.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
Mike White’s masterly series takes a new gang of shiny unhappy people to a Thai resort and serves up a sumptuous feast for the senses. This is killer TV
Eight to a dozen affluent Americans, half of them hiding a dark secret as they head to a glamorous location for a luxury vacation, the other half complicating the issue by creating some dark secrets of their own. A dead body ruining everyone’s fun but increasing the audience’s exponentially. Shiny unhappy people getting their just deserts by the end of an immaculately plotted eight-hour series. Yes, my friends, we can only be back at the White Lotus.
Written and directed as ever by Mike White, this time he is taking us, his new gang and one or two familiar faces to Thailand. We have the family group, with Parker Posey (possibly Parker Poseying it slightly too much in a part that doesn’t demand as much kookiness as she brings to it) as Victoria Ratliff, a heavily medicated Southern belle and wife of wealthy businessman Timothy (Jason Isaacs). They are the parents of three children: the enjoyably appalling chip-off-the-old-block Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger – and the answer to your first question is yes, he is; the answer to the next one is, no, he’s actually very, very good); idealistic daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), who is writing her thesis about eastern religion and at whose behest they chose Thailand as their holiday location; and sweet, gentle Lochlan (Sam Nivola), who may be trying to work out how to come out as gay in a family that does not seem to accommodate much difference.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: HBO
© Photograph: HBO
Connexion