Israel Katz reaffirms IDF will continue holding Mount Hermon area beyond contested Israeli northern borders
Israel’s defence minister has reaffirmed the country’s intention to occupy a swath of Syria territory beyond Israel’s contested northern borders for an “unlimited amount of time” during a visit to the strategic Mount Hermon.
“The IDF is prepared to stay in Syria for an unlimited amount of time. We will hold the security area in Hermon and make sure that all the security zone in southern Syria is demilitarised and clear of weapons and threats,” Israel Katz said on a visit to the peak on Wednesday.
The Bear actor called Musk a fascist and an idiot after his reaction to a post from a rightwing account that claimed she was replacing Johnny Depp
Ayo Edebiri, the actor best known for her Emmy-award winning work on The Bear, has said she received “insane death threats” after Elon Musk shared a fake news report about her being cast in a film.
On her Instagram, Edebiri recalled the furore that met Musk’s reposting of a story by “Unlimited L’s”, a rightwing account with no apparent Hollywood connection or insight, that she was to replace Johnny Depp in a reboot of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Photographers’ Gallery, London The photographers up for the £30,000 prize show work that ranges from the spiritual and scintillating to the smug and glib
The Deutsche Börse photography foundation prize is back, with four shortlisted artists, each nominated for a solo exhibition or book presented or published in the last year. It’s a quiet, solemn and laconic show ranging from lyrical, captivating portraits of Versace-clad Black cowboys in the American south to a woman hugging rocks.
The show begins with the least interesting work. Cristina de Middel, a former photojournalist and now president of Magnum, is nominated for the second time. Here, a slice of her vast exhibition Journey to the Center, staged in a spectacular 15th-century church during the Arles festival last year, is re-created. The installation tries to be dynamic – a bright orange wooden framework cuts through the middle of the space; photographs are placed next to blown-up versions of Mexican Lotería cards – but it can’t cover up the blandness of De Middel’s work.
It stars a roaming shapeshifter – and a cat-faced soldier fighting a zombie in a swamp. We go behind the scenes of The Stimming Pool, the first ever feature film to be made by autistic directors
Do you know how many autistic people there are in the UK? The answer is an estimated 700,000. Yet until now, there has never been a single feature-length film directed by autistic people. Or at least not one that has secured a theatrical release in the UK and slots at festivals worldwide.
The film is The Stimming Pool, an experimental feature shot over just 12 days that puts on screen the interests, passions and perspectives of its five young autistic creators. They worked alongside Steven Eastwood, professor of film practice at London’s Queen Mary University, funded initially by the Wellcome Trust. “We asked why autistic people are always required to explain or illustrate their experience,” says Eastwood. “What about just having neurodivergent authors behind the cameras, doing the creativity?”
Omer Wenkert says he was held mostly in darkness – and his mistreatment was often sparked by events in war
An Israeli hostage freed by Hamas last month has described the distressing conditions and abuse he says he endured during 505 days held in Gaza.
In an interview on Israeli television, Omer Wenkert, 23, said he had hidden in a bomb shelter with a close friend when it became clear the Nova music festival was under attack by Hamas and other militants from Gaza on 7 October 2023.
Former president was surrendered to The Hague amid a row between his family and that of the current president
Few expected things to move so quickly. Supporters of the Philippines’ former president Rodrigo Duterte barely had time to protest before he was jetted off to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to his country’s so-called “war on drugs”. According to activists, this bloody crackdown has seen as many as 30,000 people killed since 2016.
The charges brought against the former leader are the culmination of years of work by activists, lawyers and victims, who documented abuses committed under his government, often at great personal risk. But Duterte arguably would not have been surrendered to The Hague if it weren’t for his family’s dramatic feud with that of Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the current president.
There is no ‘ideal’ aim for sexual compatibility. If you feel there is something amiss, talk about it
As a sex educator and author, my job – my purpose in life – is teaching women to live with confidence and joy inside their bodies. My latest book, Come Together, is all about the science (and art!) of sex in long term relationships.
Since I published the book, one of the biggest topics I’m asked about in email and at events is sexual incompatibility. Here’s what I think people should know.
Remains are of an adult member of an extinct species who lived up to 1.4m years ago, researchers say
Bone fragments unearthed at an ancient cave in Spain belong to the oldest known human face in western Europe, researchers say.
The fossilised remains make up the left cheek and upper jaw of an adult member of an extinct human species who lived and died on the Iberian peninsula between 1.1m and 1.4m years ago.
Following last week’s smash-and-grab victory by Liverpool at the Parc des Princes, Football Daily’s expected fun (xF) threshold going into Tuesday night’s second leg at Anfield was extremely high but caveated by several questions. Would Paris Saint-Germain be able to play as well again? Was there any chance Liverpool could be as bad? After Alisson’s heroics in the French capital, would he again be called upon to singlehandedly repel PSG’s attacking hordes? And while it’s OK for PSG fans to finally like Luis Enrique’s exciting team of apparently ego-free young whippersnappers, is it OK for neutrals who disapprove of nation states buying up football clubs in blatant attempts at image-laundering to row in behind them as well? And the answers … Not quite. No, up to a point once it got to penalties. And probably not but they’re so much fun to watch.
We’re going into eight weeks of your life now where you sacrifice everything – you’re not shopping tomorrow, you’re not bowling, your diet’s good … if your wife or girlfriend wants to go shopping, wants to do that, they have to make the sacrifices, it’s a massive sacrifice for us to achieve something because you can’t now go to Bluewater tomorrow walking around high-fiving and going Costa Coffee when you should be resting and all those things, now we have to be at it, now the professional has to be paramount, and everyone’s sacrificing, everyone’s family is sacrificing for the greater good if you like” – Nathan Jones does not appear to have become any less rambling or entertainingly intense since joining Charlton. A 1-0 win at Crawley leaves them fourth in League One.
Re: Stuart Pearce (yesterday’s Quote of the Day). From the man who walked away from a collision with a dustcart (at Newcastle) and tried to run off a broken leg (West Ham), I’m surprised the word ‘pain’ is in his vocabulary” – Paul Griffin.
Re: yesterday’s Football Daily. The proposed New Trafford Enormodome has three pylons, spires, or whatever you call them that are apparently inspired by the devil’s trident on the club badge. Are these the only three points home fans are guaranteed to see?” – Derek McGee.
Since you’re using the wisdom of Sebastian Coe to explain the rationale of Big Sir Jim’s Big Tent, does this mean New Old Trafford will host two games and then lie idle until West Ham move in on a peppercorn rent?” – Declan Hackett.
I know I will definitely not be the first of 1,057 readers to congratulate Ed Taylor on trying again and successfully winning letter of the day yesterday with exactly the same letter as he sent in for publication on Wednesday 5 March that didn’t. The only thing less surprising than a c0ck-up [intentional reader-baiting, no? – Football Daily Ed] with a tea-time email was Alan Shearer still not understanding the new offside law change as evidenced in his commentary on Liverpool v PSG” – Andy Morrison (and 1,056 others).
Austrian’s work with Eagles attracts Bundesliga interest
Jean-Philippe Mateta trains in Marbella after head injury
Crystal Palace have opened talks with Oliver Glasner over extending his contract in an attempt to ward off potential interest from RB Leipzig.
The Austrian celebrated his first anniversary as manager last month and Palace are 11th in the Premier League after Saturday’s win over Ipswich, having recovered from a poor start. They have also reached the last eight of both domestic cup competitions. Palace lost to Arsenal in the Carabao Cup and face Fulham in the FA Cup quarter-finals at the end of this month.
Key figure in pro-Palestinian campus protests arrested by Ice known for kindness and skill for de-escalation
Mahmoud Khalil, the recent Columbia University graduate who was detained by Ice on Saturday night, was linked by Donald Trump, without evidence, to “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity”. But for those who know him, Khalil was a student, a steady negotiator and a leader whose activism placed him at the center of a national movement for Palestinian solidarity.
Khalil, a Palestinian green card holder who is currently in immigration detention in Louisiana, was a lead negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a role that thrust him into the spotlight during the pro-Palestinian encampment protests last spring – long before his high-profile arrest. He gained a reputation among fellow protesters as a principled and strategic organizer, earning praise for his ability to de-escalate tense situations.
United manager says criticism of his players is fair
Yoro and Maguire ruled out of Real Sociedad second leg
Ruben Amorim has stated that Sir Jim Ratcliffe was correct to criticise Manchester United players, saying he and they are “underperforming”.
On Monday Ratcliffe claimed that the squad was overpaid and not good enough, referencing Casemiro, Rasmus Højlund, André Onana, Antony and Jadon Sancho when doing so.Amorim was asked about the comments from the club’s co-owner.
Alan Jones somehow straddled the riotous noise of the Sex Pistols, the fetishism of Vivienne Westwood and the hedonism of disco and gay clubs. A new book tells his story
In the mid-70s, Alan Jones was performing a particularly exquisite balancing act. A habitué both of Vivienne Westwood’s London boutique Sex and the gay clubs, he was on the frontline of two seemingly opposed cultures: punk and disco. Each camp might have thought the other completely incomprehensible – tuneless noise or vacuous hedonism – but for him it was quite natural: as he says, “They blended together in my mind. It was all about going out and having a good time; the music was interchangeable. And once Vivienne began her fetish clothing lines, it fitted both arenas.”
Nevertheless, there were pinch points. In April 1976, Jones DJed for the Sex Pistols when they played a Soho strip club, El Paradise. Arriving with his “new best friend” John Paul Getty III – fresh from his kidnapping in Italy – Jones decided on a disco set.
As the new league year gets underway, we take a look at the best and worst moves heading into the 2025 season
The Vikings letting Sam Darnold walk was the headline-grabber, but they had more intel on him than any other franchise and were happy to turn the keys over to JJ McCarthy rather than bring back the former Jets quarterback on what would have been a manageable contract. It’s the team’s work elsewhere that’s most intriguing, though. The Vikings retained starting cornerback Byron Murphy and fortified both sides of the line of scrimmage with tasty, affordable signings. They brought in center Ryan Kelly and guard Will Fries from the Colts. The duo are one of the most switched-on, savvy interior tandems in the league. They never bust a protection and will give McCarthy a semblance of security during his first season as starter.
Harlequin returns at full-back for England in Cardiff
Freeman picked at centre and Roebuck earns debut
Marcus Smith has been recalled to the starting lineup for England’s Super Saturday clash with Wales while Henry Pollock is in line for a debut from the bench with Steve Borthwick rolling the dice as his side seek an unlikely Six Nations title.
Smith returns to the side at full-back with Elliot Daly switching to the left wing while Tommy Freeman is deployed at outside centre and Tom Roebuck earns a first start on the right wing. Ben Curry and Luke Cowan-Dickie also come into the side while on the bench Borthwick has included the 20-year-old Northampton flanker Pollock as well as George Ford, who is in line for a first appearance of this year’s championship and a 99th cap.
The shocking tale of a Mormon family YouTuber who was imprisoned for child abuse distils thousands of hours of footage to genuinely push the story forward. It’s as sensitive as it is out-there
Ruby Franke turned her life into content for years, so there is a bleak irony in her content being repurposed now to reveal the extent of her crimes. As a vlogger, she and her husband, Kevin, made a living from YouTube, posting videos on the popular channel 8 Passengers, now defunct, about Mormon family life and parenting their six children in the picturesque city of Springville, Utah. But in 2023 Franke was arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse and sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. The astonishing three-part documentary Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke tells the story, from the beginning of the family’s internet fame in 2015 all the way to Franke’s imprisonment.
It starts with the now infamous and distressing doorbell-camera footage of one of the Franke children, a 12-year-old boy – the documentary blurs the faces of the four youngest children and does not name them – who turns up on a neighbour’s porch, asking to be taken to the nearest police station. He is evidently injured and emaciated. Later, we see more from that day and witness the neighbour sobbing when he realises the state the child is in. The boy has escaped imprisonment from the house of a woman called Jodi Hildebrandt. It is the spark that lights the inferno.
Daniel Noboa, who is seeking re-election, announced the partnership with Erik Prince, a supporter of Donald Trump
Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, has announced a “strategic alliance” with the Donald Trump-supporting founder of the private military firm Blackwater to supposedly reinforce his controversial “war” on crime.
Noboa, the rightwing heir to a South American banana empire, announced the partnership with Erik Prince on social media on Tuesday night.
Once again, the American economy is under the gun and under a microscope
In 2016, voters in the UK opted to leave the European Union hoping that the day after would deliver something better. Nearly nine years later, Britain’s growth remains anemic, its economy continues to underperform. A parade of prime ministers came and went. Along the way, a head of lettuce outlasted a hapless and clueless Liz Truss.
Blood and soil economics exacts high a price. Fittingly, Nigel Farage, the godfather of Brexit, was on hand for Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. On account of the cold, he was not seated. Still, Farage left his mark. America now endures a Brexit moment of its own.
‘When time is right I’ll have no problem standing aside’
American multi-major winner set to miss rest of season
As Tiger Woods begins his recovery from yet another injury, Rory McIlroy has firmly dismissed any notion of his own career stretching into his 50s.
The 49-year-old Woods ruptured an achilles while training at home on Tuesday morning. McIlroy believes Woods will not feature in any of the 2025 majors. “It sucks,” McIlroy said. “He doesn’t have much luck when it comes to injuries and his body. Obviously he was trying to ramp up to get ready for Augusta and achilles surgeries aren’t fun.
The $488m Spherex mission aims to explain how galaxies evolved over billions of years
Nasa’s newest space telescope rocketed into orbit on Tuesday to map the entire sky like never before – a sweeping look at hundreds of millions of galaxies and their shared cosmic glow since the beginning of time.
SpaceX launched the Spherex observatory from California, putting it on course to fly over Earth’s poles. Tagging along were four suitcase-size satellites to study the sun. Spherex popped off the rocket’s upper stage first, drifting into the blackness of space with a blue Earth in the background.
Emma Heming Willis, who is primary carer for the actor since his dementia diagnosis in 2023, says there is ‘a broader story’ to tell about their plight
Emma Heming Willis, the primary carer for her husband, the actor Bruce Willis, who is suffering from a rare form of dementia, has issued a statement in the wake of the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa.
An investigation by local authorities in New Mexico concluded last week that Arakawa, 65, died of a rare respiratory disease around seven days before her husband, meaning that it was likely he spent a week by himself, disorientated and increasingly malnourished.
Security services claim to have rescued about 190 people being held by Baloch Liberation Army in remote area
An operation to rescue hundreds of people taken hostage when a train was hijacked by a separatist militant group in remote south-west Pakistan has ended with dozens killed in the onslaught, a spokesperson for the army said late on Wednesday.
Pakistan’s security services claimed to have rescued about 190 people who were being held captive after militants from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) blew up a railway line and launched an attack on the Jaffar Express train.
The director talks about his genre-trampling film Sister Midnight, the hilarious and gory story of a female force of nature stifled in an arranged marriage
One of the most powerful scenes in Sister Midnight is also a quiet and unexpected one. The protagonist, Uma, sits idly with her neighbour Sheetal outside their adjoining homes in Mumbai. To pass the time, the bored housewives pretend to be divorcing one another. Amid the role play, Uma turns to her confidant and says: “I’m tainted goods, I’m a divorcee. But it’s OK. I’ll wear this like a badge and go forth to the hills, form a manless nation and build a monolithic altar to the pussy.”
The statement captures what is so provocative about the film – it turns societal norms on their head and dares to ask: what if we did things differently? At its core, the film feels quite feminist. “That word comes up a lot,” says director Karan Kandhari. “I’m happy people can see the film like that, but I didn’t set out to make something with an agenda. I would say the film is actually punk rock because it questions things that don’t make sense. Just because something is tradition or old doesn’t mean it’s right.”
Results and off-pitch changes contributed to coach going days before a cup final and months after all seemed rosy
On a cold Manchester night last November, as Gareth Taylor watched his team secure a 10th straight victory of the season by beating Hammarby, the idea that he would not be in charge of Manchester City by mid-March seemed fairly far-fetched. City were on a run of 21 wins and one defeat in 23 WSL matches, meaning that across 12 months they had the best league results in the country. Yet four months and four painful league defeats later, Taylor is out.
To some, who were surprised Taylor was given a one-year contract extension in May 2023 despite City finishing fourth, his departure has been on the cards because of a relatively low trophy return – the FA Cup in 2020 and League Cup in 2022 – and City’s eliminations in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League in 2022 and 2023. To others, who see him as the coach who was within a whisker of winning the league last term, his dismissal may seem brutal.
On the podcast today; PSG knock out Liverpool on penalties after two thrilling legs. PSG rarely put a foot wrong in either game including four perfect spot kicks.
Large tax cuts for the rich, import tariffs, and the competing interests of Republican nationalists and the techno-right is a dangerous combination
What connects Donald Trump’s approach to trade, tax and government spending? Is there a Trumpian theory of economics – Maganomics? Trump, like most politicians, would doubtless reject any claim that he was following a particular ideological blueprint, but then, as John Maynard Keynes said: “Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”
It’s certainly difficult to attribute Trump’s policies to the intellectual influence of any one strand in economic thinking. The most obvious frame is the dual one identified by Harvard economist Dani Rodrik, who describes it as a combination of economic nationalism and the techno-right. The former, represented by long-term Trump confidantes Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon, wants to rebuild America’s traditional industrial strength behind tariff walls while deporting as many immigrants as possible; the latter, represented of course by Elon Musk, to engineer a great leap forward into an AI-enabled libertarian future.
Jonathan Portes is professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London and a former senior civil servant
Netflix’s motor-racing extravaganza is one of the most influential shows of the decade. How did it turn such a tedious sport into such gripping television?
Tennis has Break Point. Rugby union has Six Nations: Full Contact. Nascar has Full Speed. Golf has Full Swing. Basketball has Starting 5. Cycling has Tour de France: Unchained. American football has both Quarterback and Receiver. Athletics has Sprint. What do all these documentaries have in common? They have all sprung up in the past five years or so, and are basically all the same show: if they are not full clones of Formula 1: Drive to Survive, they are heavily inspired by it.
Drive to Survive thus has a claim to be one of the most influential TV documentaries of the past decade, having pioneered a simple but effective format. Every 12 months since 2019, it has delivered a new season – last week it released the seventh – that recaps what happened in the previous year’s F1 championship, using behind-the-scenes access, race-day footage and retrospective interviews.
The 11 days of whiplash-inducing talks British and French officials endured to repair shattered relations between Washington and Kyiv, and for the first time put Donald Trump’s trust in Vladimir Putin to the test, could go down as one of the great feats of diplomatic escapology.
The dogged fence-mending may yet unravel as hurdles remain, principally the outstanding question of Ukraine’s security guarantees, but for the first time, in the words of Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, the ball is in Russia’s court. Putin, by instinct cautious, has preferred watching from the sidelines, suppressing his delight as Trump denounced Volodymyr Zelenskyy to his face in the White House and wreaked subsequent vengeance by stopping all military aid and then pulling some US intelligence.
As tech firms battle creative industries over copyright, OpenAI chief Sam Altman says he was ‘really struck’ by product’s output
The company behind ChatGPT has revealed it has developed an artificial intelligence model that is “good at creative writing”, as the tech sector continues its tussle with the creative industries over copyright.
The chief executive of OpenAI, Sam Altman, said the unnamed model was the first time he had been “really struck” by the written output of one of the startup’s products.
A federal judge blocked Donald Trump’s executive order banning trans youth healthcare, but access remains uncertain
Aryn Kavanaugh was sitting in her living room in South Carolina when her 17-year-old daughter came into the room and said: “I’m really scared. I think people are gonna die.” Katherine, who is using her middle name for her protection, told Kavanaugh that she thought transgender youth may be the target of violence due to the hate generated by Donald Trump’s recent action.
On 28 January, Trump issued an executive order to ban access to gender-affirming care for youth under 19 years old. It directed federal agencies to deny funding to institutions that offer gender-affirming medical care including hormones and puberty blockers.
A bullet grazed the Memphis man’s thigh after his one-year-old pit bull got his paw stuck in a gun’s trigger guard
Dog bites man is hardly news, but in Tennessee, a dog recently shot a man.
In what is only the latest instance of a kind of accidental shooting that intermittently occurs in the US, Jerald Kirkwood reported to police in Memphis that he and a woman were lying in bed with a firearm when his dog jumped up and inadvertently caused the weapon to discharge.
Preview: 2.40 The Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle, 2m 5f
This is always one of the fiercest betting heats of the week, and also one of the trickiest of all the races to solve, with just two successful favourites this century and winners at 50-1, 33-1 (twice) and 28-1 in the last dozen years alone. Dan Skelton fields the likely favourite in Be Aware as he attempts to complete a three-timer in this race, following victories for Langer Dan in each of the last two runnings, and while the old warrior in not in the field this time around, Henry de Bromhead’s Ballyadam, the three-and-a-half length runner-up 12 months ago, is back for another crack. Be Aware, a hold-up horse who is certain to get a strong pace to aim at, has run well in handicaps at Cheltenham and Ascot on his two previous starts this season, but his run-style means he will need some luck in running and punters are, frankly, spoiled for choice if they are looking for an alternative. JP McManus’s colours will be aboard a couple of very live runners in Impose Toi and Comfort Zone, while Tony Bloom, another owner who likes a punt, will have high hopes of Bunting, seventh home behind Majborough in last year’s Triumph Hurdle. Harry Fry’s Beat The Bat also seems sure to appreciate a return to this trip after an eye-catching run in the William Hill Handicap Hurdle last time and is possibly the pick of the prices at around 12-1.
Ficre Ghebreyesus, who died in 2012, made vertiginous paintings celebrating family, the diaspora and his own turbulent story. His first European solo exhibition charts this remarkable journey
What is home? What does it mean to belong? For Eritrea-born artist, activist and chef Ficre Ghebreyesus, who fled war in his homeland at the age of 16 and landed on US shores in 1981, these were vital questions that played out in his vibrant, often dreamlike canvases. “Painting was the miracle, the final act of defiance through which I exorcised the pain and reclaimed my sense of place, my moral compass, and my love for life,” the artist wrote in 2000, in his application for a masters in fine art at Yale School of Art.
Ghebreyesus, who died suddenly of a heart attack aged 50 in 2012, left behind more than 800 paintings. These were barely exhibited in his lifetime but have garnered acclaim posthumously, presented at the 2022 Venice Biennale and in a handful of US shows. Now Ghebreyesus will have his first solo British exhibition at Modern Art gallery in London, made up of 25 canvases from the 1990s to 2011, many of which have never been displayed publicly.
The US president is making energy deals with Japan and Ukraine, and in Africa has even touted resurrecting coal
Donald Trump’s repeated mantra of “drill, baby, drill” demands that more oil and gas be extracted in the United States, but the president has set his sights on an even broader goal: keeping the world hooked on planet-heating fossil fuels for as long as possible.
In deals being formulated with countries such as Japan and Ukraine, Trump is using US leverage in tariffs and military aid to bolster the flow of oil and gas around the world. In Africa, his administration has even touted the resurrection of coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, to bring energy to the continent.
As she brings A Shadow Work to the UK, the New York choreographer talks about therapy, ‘pulling up women with me’ and art-led activism
Chanel DaSilva has always been a dancer. “I felt completely free,” she says of her first class. “I felt at home. Like I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing. And it’s weird to know that at the age of three.” The New Yorker, 38, is a rising star choreographer in the US, with credits including Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet, and is about to make her international debut in London.
DaSilva’s dance style has been described as “technique meets humanity”, in the sense that she draws on the precision and virtuosity of classical and modern dance, but brings in a freedom and naturalism. The piece she has made here for the company Ballet Black, called A Shadow Work, is in part about dealing with grief over the death of her mother when DaSilva was 19. At the time, trying to get through her college education, she couldn’t cope with it. “So I packed up that grief, put it in a little box, and pushed it down deep. And it stayed there for about 10 years until I was finally brave enough to reckon with it.” In hindsight, “I should have mourned,” she says. “But we’re not judging.”
Mangroves are being destroyed and residents displaced to make way for an airport to serve president Nayib Bukele’s vision of a tax-free economic hub
When Nayib Bukele launched his presidential campaign in the eastern department of La Unión in 2018, the new outsider politician stood in a street packed with supporters and promised a new airport. La Unión and the rest of El Salvador’s eastern region have historically been neglected by governments, with few infrastructure projects and widespread poverty.
Just a month later, Bukele travelled to Germany to lobby for his project. “Munich airport is interested in operating our new airport that we will build in La Unión,” he said.
The defiantly anti-commercial British musician had walked away from mainstream success twice by his early 20s. Will his Academy Award convince him to embrace Hollywood, celebrity, the big bucks?
Daniel Blumberg hands me his Oscar, as surprised as he is chuffed. Bloody hell, it’s heavy. Is it real gold? “I wish it was,” says the latest winner of best original score, for The Brutalist. (Apparently, it’s gold-plated bronze.) He puts it back on a shabby wooden shelf alongside his Bafta, also for The Brutalist, and his Ivor Novello award, which he won in 2022 for The World to Come, directed by Mona Fastvold (the partner of Brutalist director Brady Corbet). “Before the Ivor Novello, the only thing I’d ever won was ‘most improved footballer’ when I was six,” he says. “Honestly, I’d never thought about Oscars in my entire life. I’d never even watched the ceremony.”
Blumberg, 35, is the least likely Oscar winner you could imagine. Not because he lacks the talent, but because he has spent his career walking away from mainstream success. The former schoolboy indie pop star has reinvented himself as an atonal improviser of scratchy, screechy weirdness. If that sounds like a tough listen, it’s all combined with sublime minimalist melodies to create music as beautiful as it is challenging.
By turning his back on US allies and global institutions, Trump will help Xi Jinping advance his plan for a China-centric world
Is Donald Trump China’s worst nightmare or a dream come true? He is both, but not in equal measure. In the near-term, his tariff-led approach to trade will cause problems for Beijing. However, in just a few weeks he has done more damage to the liberal international order, the cohesion of the democratic west, and the US’s global standing, than all the combined efforts to undermine them in the entirety of the cold war. This goes beyond the wildest dreams China’s leaders could have had.
The tariffs already levied are serious enough, and Beijing cannot but see them as a harbinger of more to come. Unlike during his first term, this time Trump seems prepared to deliver the threats he makes. With China’s economy already misfiring, an intensified trade war is the last thing Beijing needs, despite the bravado of its diplomats.
Steve Tsang is director of the China Institute at Soas University of London and co-author of The Political Thought of Xi Jinping
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