AI ‘twins’, Mar-a-Lago lookalikes, Melania impersonator conspiracies … doubles proliferate in today’s culture – and nowhere more so than in a series of unsettling new novels that draw on a rich gothic tradition to tap into our paranoid times
‘He was after me. Always had been. Why else would he target me months ago? Infiltrate my flat, my supposed safe space? Question was, what did he want from me. Who, for that matter, did I mean by me?” Isabel Waidner’s fifth novel, As If, opens with the meeting of two bedraggled strangers, Aubrey and Lindsey. Lindsey has materialised on Aubrey’s doorstep and Aubrey has asked him in, noting with pained curiosity how alike they look. “He had dark brown hair not unlike mine,” Aubrey tells us. “My unremarkable eyes they were looking back at me.” With this unsettling opener, the tone is set for a disquieting read, one that I found all the more uncanny as it overlaps so unnervingly with my own new book, Lean Cat, Savage Cat.
Both books draw their protagonists from the lower rungs of showbiz, both utilise the language of fashion in deliberately off-putting ways, both bring the sybaritic myths of artistic life into direct conflict with the realities of housing insecurity and wage instability. Both novels look at how unprocessed grief can fracture the psyche, and – crucially – they both centre on a mysterious pair of doubles. They were also published on the same day. All of which prompts me to ask: does my book have its own doppelganger?
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc./PA
© Photograph: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc./PA
© Photograph: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc./PA
With voting now closed, the months-long campaign for Oscar glory is over – but industry insiders are still dissecting every award-season clue in a tight best picture race
Voting for the Oscars closed at 5pm PT on Thursday, meaning that the months-long campaigns of the favoured films have hung up their spurs: the red carpets have been rolled up, hospitality pavilions shut down, the PR minders putting their feet up until the Oscars ceremony itself takes place. The prefatory campaign – on-stage Q&As, special-screening paparazzi shoots, the string of lesser awards ceremonies – is over, and there is now nothing for the nominees to do but kick back and count the days.
Over the long haul of awards campaigning, which can reasonably be said to start with the near-simultaneous late summer film festivals in Venice, Telluride and Toronto and hits its peak in mid-February as Oscar voting opens, reading the runes has become a full-time activity across the entire film industry, and an absolute obsession for Hollywood insider publications such as Variety, the Hollywood Reporter and Deadline. Every ebb and flow of the process – a critics-awards nomination here, a trade-guild snub there – is endlessly picked over for what it might mean for the end result.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters
© Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters
© Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters
The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world
Continue reading...
© Composite: AFP/Getty Images
© Composite: AFP/Getty Images
© Composite: AFP/Getty Images
No algorithm, no endless playlists, no podcasts on demand. Just a handful of albums, wired headphones and a lot of silence
I stared at the thing sitting atop my dresser with dread. For an entire week, I was going to use an MP3 player to listen to music. I’d never tried one before. In elementary school, I used various iterations of iPods, and since my Bieber-obsessed tween years, I’ve almost exclusively relied on streaming services for music and podcasts. Thanks to my Spotify Premium subscription, I’ve listened to 64,186 minutes of music in recent years.
Since the company’s debut in the US 15 years ago, Spotify has made listening to music frictionless. The streaming platform possesses roughly 31% of the world’s music subscribers, making it practically interchangeable with the music streaming industry itself. Its powerful algorithm defines how so many of us listen to music (and podcasts and audiobooks), thanks to features like Smart Shuffle, the AI DJ X and the mood-based Daylist all recommending creepily accurate songs based on your listening history. You can also sort playlists by mood (sad boy anthems), micro-genre (indie twang) and most recently, even by BPM.
Continue reading...
© Composite: Tracy Allison/Guardian Design
© Composite: Tracy Allison/Guardian Design
© Composite: Tracy Allison/Guardian Design
‘The first thing is: Where are we? And how much fuel have we got and where do we need to go?’, Australian veteran pilot says
Keith Tonkin has flown a Boeing 747 towards airspace where missiles were being fired, and knows the pressure pilots have been under this week.
“You’re stuck in that airplane until you land safely,” the veteran Australian pilot says.
Continue reading...
© Composite: Guardian Design
© Composite: Guardian Design
© Composite: Guardian Design
Amy Wallace spent years helping Giuffre write her life story. Now she reflects on what the survivor would have thought of the release of the Epstein files
There are many reasons why Amy Wallace wishes Virginia Roberts Giuffre was still alive. Some are personal. Some are practical. But at its heart pulse the reverberations of a child sex trafficking scandal that reaches into palaces and courtrooms across the globe.
Wallace is the now very visible ghostwriter behind the posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl, by Jeffrey Epstein’s best-known accuser.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP
© Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP
© Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP
Researchers identify sharp rise to about 0.35C every decade, after excluding natural fluctuations such as El Niño
Humanity is heating the planet faster than ever before, a study has found.
Climate breakdown is occurring more rapidly with the heating rate almost doubling, according to research that excludes the effect of natural factors behind the latest scorching temperatures.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP
© Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP
© Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP
He’s got a three point plan
See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here
© Illustration: Fiona Katauskas/The Guardian
© Illustration: Fiona Katauskas/The Guardian
© Illustration: Fiona Katauskas/The Guardian
Experts say US influence over South American neighbour will be hard to replicate in country with deep and long-standing antipathy to the west
First, the CIA tracks the head of an oil-rich, US-baiting nation to a heavily guarded compound at the heart of his country’s mountain-flanked capital.
Then, that leader is removed from power with a deadly and irresistible show of US military force.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters
© Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters
© Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters
Didn’t you know? True British patriots are the ones who want to join an obviously disastrous war on behalf of Israel and Donald Trump
Have you heard enough pant-wetting about Britain’s “reputation” this week? Honestly, I don’t think any of us can bear the social embarrassment of not getting immediately involved in an obviously disastrous war in the Middle East. The awks of it. How will good old Britannia hold her head up high if she isn’t an instant ride-or-die for a US administration described by a former senior Nato commander as “gung-ho nutters” with “no clear understanding of how this thing is going to end”? You should be simply unable to stand it. You should have Middle East-catastrophe FOMO.
Opposition party leaders and politicians seem genuinely excruciated by the fact that Earth’s pettiest man, Donald Trump, sniffed earlier this week of Keir Starmer: “This is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with.” Boo-hoo for you, pal. We’re having to deal with the Cheeto FDR, so everyone’s making sacrifices.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Leon Neal/AP
© Photograph: Leon Neal/AP
© Photograph: Leon Neal/AP
Two women who have lived almost all their lives in UK, but whose British fathers were not married, tell how they are having to battle for British citizenship
Two women who have lived almost all their lives in the UK have had their lives thrown into chaos due to the new border control rules for British dual nationals because their French mothers were not married to their British fathers.
Both women have been forced to prove their right to British passports as a result of archaic laws, which did not accord automatic citizenship to the children of unmarried British fathers in dual national relationships until the law was changed in 2005.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Alex Segre/Alamy
© Photograph: Alex Segre/Alamy
© Photograph: Alex Segre/Alamy
Ohtani grand slam sparks 10-run second inning
Japan crush Taiwan 13-0 under mercy rule
Bad Bunny, Timothée Chalamet among crowd
Shohei Ohtani blasted a home run to ignite Japan’s World Baseball Classic campaign as the defending champions thrashed Taiwan 13-0 in their tournament opener in Tokyo on Friday.
Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Ohtani’s grand slam homer set the tone as Japan scored 10 runs in the second inning alone in front of around 42,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Toru Hanai/Getty Images
© Photograph: Toru Hanai/Getty Images
© Photograph: Toru Hanai/Getty Images
Republican congressman Tony Gonzales had repeatedly denied affair with former aide who later died by suicide
Texas Republican congressman Tony Gonzales is ending his bid for re-election but said he will serve out his term, following his admitting, after repeated denials, that he had an affair with a former staff member who later died by suicide.
Gonzales announced his plan late on Thursday after facing calls from party leadership to withdraw from the race for re-election this November. Others in Congress had called on him to resign his seat.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Blaine Young/AP
© Photograph: Blaine Young/AP
© Photograph: Blaine Young/AP
Aicher trims Vonn’s downhill lead to just 14 points
Pirovano wins first race in 125th World Cup start
USA’s Johnson third as overall title race tightens
With neither injured Lindsey Vonn nor Mikaela Shiffrin starting a World Cup downhill on Friday, Emma Aicher seized her chance to cut the American superstars’ leads in the season-long standings.
Aicher, the Olympic downhill silver medalist, placed second – just 0.01 behind first-time winner Laura Pirovano, pushing Olympic champion Breezy Johnson down to third – and reduced Vonn’s lead in the downhill points race to just 14 with two races left.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Marco Trovati/AP
© Photograph: Marco Trovati/AP
© Photograph: Marco Trovati/AP
US military officials briefed on investigation make disclosure, while Pentagon has confirmed only that inquiry is under way
Military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reached a final conclusion, according to two US officials.
Reuters was unable to determine further details about the investigation, including what evidence contributed to the tentative assessment, what type of munition was used, who was responsible or why the US might have struck the school.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News/WANA/Reuters
© Photograph: Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News/WANA/Reuters
© Photograph: Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News/WANA/Reuters
The Scandal star made history as the first Black woman to lead a TV show in 40 years. Now, she’s back in the hot seat with starry thriller Imperfect Women, and she’s determined to keep shaking up the industry
As double entendres go, to say Kerry Washington acts with teeth isn’t a bad one. There’s the literal meaning: Washington’s dramatic facial expressions have become internet canon, immortalised as various reaction gifs and as a favourite of online impressionists. But there’s also the roles themselves. The characters Washington plays have bite – they’re complex women that defy neat categorisation. Her role as Olivia Pope, the sleek political fixer in ABC’s Scandal, became a global sensation – and was the first time a Black woman led a network show in nearly 40 years.
Now Washington is back with a new project offering not just one complicated leading lady but three. Imperfect Women, Apple TV’s adaptation of Araminta Hall’s novel, brings Washington together with Elisabeth Moss and Kate Mara in a glossy murder mystery that puts female friendship – its love, loyalty, secrets and rivalry – at the heart.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian
© Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian
© Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, crushes our people and calls it freedom. We want engagement, not escalation
The day that will be remembered as one of the darkest days of the long and troubled US-Cuban relationship is 29 January. That was the day that Donald Trump declared Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security, introduced a full-scale fuel blockade around the island, and turned off the lights for their home, schools and hospitals.
For Cubans Americans like me, the consequences of Trump’s declaration are not abstract. They are immediate, and devastating. Our families are running out of food. Our friends are unable to access medicine. While Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, speaks in the name of our “freedom”, he actively starves our communities of their most basic needs.
Danny Valdes is an activist from Miami and co-founder of Cuban Americans for Cuba
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Norlys Perez/Reuters
© Photograph: Norlys Perez/Reuters
© Photograph: Norlys Perez/Reuters
Connexion