Big fight scenes are everywhere in the Aquaman star’s drama about the real-life 18th-century warrior that united Hawaii’s four kingdoms. But so too is a lot of heavy backstory. It’s dense stuff
There is, probably literally, only one man who could have done it. Whatever claims Hollywood likes to make for itself regarding meritocracy and diversity, only Jason Momoa has the Hawaiian heritage and the commercial clout needed (via such roles as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones and various outings as Aquaman in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) to get an endeavour like Chief of War on to our screens.
Momoa co-created with Thomas Pa’a Sibbitt the nine-part historical drama, co-wrote every episode, executive produces and stars as the protagonist Ka’iana, a Native Hawaiian warrior who would become instrumental in the fight to unify the four Hawaiian kingdoms at the turn of the 18th century. It opens with lingering shots of O‘ahu, Maui, Kaua‘i and Hawai‘i, each island so spectacularly beautiful, so inviting, so intriguingly different from anywhere else and so lovingly captured by director Justin Chon that it all begins to take on a vaguely hallucinatory quality.
By my age, my German boomer parents had kids, a house, a car, a garden. All I have is a nervous feeling whenever I open my banking app
A couple of weeks ago, I came across an Amy Poehler joke in which she sums up the different generational experiences of money: “Boomers are all about money. Gen X is like: ‘Is it all about money?’ Millennials ask: ‘Where is the money?’ And gen Z is like: ‘What is money?’”
It made me laugh – but it also hit a nerve. It felt painfully accurate and oddly comforting. Maybe it’s not just me. I’m a millennial, and financial insecurity has been a theme in my life for a while. But recently, it’s grown louder, and I literally can’t stop asking: “WHERE IS THE GODDAMN MONEY?”
Carolin Würfel is a writer, screenwriter and journalist who lives in Berlin and Istanbul. She is the author of Three Women Dreamed of Socialism
A growing number of scholars and lawyers are losing faith in the current system. Others say the law is not to blame, but the states that are supposed to uphold it
Aamir Khan will release his latest film on YouTube so families who cannot afford cinema trips can watch
About ten years ago, Aamir Khan became troubled. Despite being one of Bollywood’s most bankable superstars for more than three decades, he realised that only tiny numbers of Indians were watching him on the big screen.
Indian cinema is widely adored and has an outsized influence on society but just 2-3% of its 1.4 billion people go to the cinema.
Five female activists talk about their lives since Sheikh Hasina was ousted – and how the country can secure lasting change for women’s rights
On 5 August 2024, Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister of Bangladesh and fled the country, the culmination of a student uprising that saw the most widespread participation of women in street protests in Bangladesh’s history.
Armed with sticks and stones, Bangladeshi women headed marches and stood defiant against riot police and the military. Their presence became a defining image of a revolution that has rewritten Bangladesh’s political and social narrative.
After a No 1 debut album, a Brit win and Mercury and Oscar nods, the pandemic and a devastating breakup paused the singer’s rising career. Now, she’s back with a new record and a newfound sense of peace
On Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage in June, Celeste appeared wearing smeared black eye makeup and a leather jacket moulded with the impression of feathers, latched at the throat. She evoked glamour and tragedy, a bird with its wings clipped. “My first album came out nearly five years ago and I didn’t expect it to take so long,” she said of its follow-up. “But I’m here now.”
Celeste broke through in 2020, her voice reminiscent of Billie Holiday’s racked beauty, but sparkling with a distinctly British lilt: a controlled, powerful vibrato that stirs the soul. Despite her jazz-leaning balladry not being obvious chart fodder, she became the first British female act in five years to reach No 1 with her debut album, Not Your Muse, which was nominated for the Mercury prize. She also won the BBC’s Sound of 2020 poll and the Brit award for rising star and was nominated for an Oscar for best original song (for Hear My Voice from The Trial of the Chicago 7) the year after – but her chance to capitalise on those accolades was stalled by the pandemic. She had to halt her touring ambitions. Of the years since, she says: “Sometimes you worry: are you on your path?”
I opened the door and saw flames spreading fast. My daughter screamed, ‘Mummy!’
One morning in 2018, my husband Reuben told me about a nightmare he’d had the previous night. He’d been driving over the Hewitt Avenue Trestle, a bridge near our house in Everett, Washington in the US, crashed through the barriers into the estuary below, and had to decide which of our two children to save.
Two weeks later, I was getting Talia, then three, and Weston, 10 months, dressed, fed and out of the door to take them to preschool on my way to work.
Blakey Johnston has broken a world record by surfing 4,097 waves in 253 sessions, over 25 days, at Urbnsurf Sydney, a wave pool for surfing. Each day was considered to be as physically challenging as running a marathon
San Francisco judge leaves temporary protected status in place for people from Honduras and Nicaragua while case against Trump administration proceeds
A federal judge has ruled against the Trump administration’s plans and extended temporary protected status (TPS) for 60,000 people from Central America and Asia, including people from Nepal, Honduras and Nicaragua.
TPS is a protection that can be granted by the homeland security secretary to people of various nationalities who are in the United States, preventing them from being deported and allowing them to work.
If I were president of the United States, I would certainly be concerned about the cost and performance of the country’s healthcare system. The grim statistics are well known. As of 2022, the US spent $12,555 per person on healthcare, almost twice as much as other wealthy countries, including Australia. That gap alone cancels out about half of the difference in income per person between the US and Australia, according to World Bank estimates.
Higher expenditure on healthcare would not be a problem if it delivered a healthier population. But this is not the case. The US has one of the lowest life expectancies of any rich country. And even though more Americans die young, those who survive have worse health than elsewhere. Americans suffer from chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma and depression at around twice the (age-adjusted) rate of other rich countries.
Former president says some politicians watch deportations of legal immigrants with ‘glee’ in speech to National Bar Association gala
Former United States President Joe Biden took the stage at the National Bar Association’s 100th Annual Awards Gala in Chicago to deliver remarks honoring the United States civil rights legacy, and the state of the country.
Speaking amid continual scrutiny around his physical and mental health, Biden played up the importance of a strong judicial branch, and characterized the US as at a moment in time that “makes us confront hard truths.”
Muhammad Zaher Ibrahim, 16, has been detained for five months on accusations of rock-throwing and has reportedly developed scabies
The family of a 16-year-old dual American-Palestinian citizen is trying to secure his release from an Israeli prison where he has been held in detention for more than five months and where they say he has lost a significant amount of weight and developed a severe skin infection.
Muhammad Zaher Ibrahim was still 15 when he was arrested at his family’s home in the occupied West Bank village of Silwad in February.According to relatives, he was blindfolded and handcuffed before being taken to the Megiddo prison in Israel, where he remains in pre-trial detention accused of throwing rocks – accusations his family denies.
Israel controls the flow of food into Gaza. It has calculated how many calories Palestinians need to stay alive. Its data shows only a fraction has been allowed in
The mathematics of famine are simple in Gaza. Palestinians cannot leave, war has ended farming and Israel has banned fishing, so practically every calorie its population eats must be brought in from outside.
Israel knows how much food is needed. It has been calibrating hunger in Gaza for decades, initially calculating shipments to exert pressure while avoiding starvation.
Donald Trump executive order says goods imported from all countries globally will have 10% tariff except for goods from 92 nations subject to higher levies
Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand was hit with 15% tariffs.
The country’s trade minister Todd McClay said he was hoping to have talks with his US counterparts.
We will be making the case about why this shouldn’t have happened, and engaging very, very quickly again with US officials to clarify this and to seek changes around the new tariffs put on New Zealand exporters.
Accuser who died in April wanted justice for victims and urged Trump not to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, family says
The siblings of Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent accusers who died earlier this year, said their sister had wanted the so-called Epstein files to be released, and urged Donald Trump not to pardon his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.
In an interview with NBC News on Thursday, Giuffre’s family said she would have wanted the documents – a trove of materials related to the investigation into the years of abuse into the late sex offender – made public.
Despite being uncredited for her role in launching what became a global craze, Joan Anderson was just ‘happy to bring so much joy to people’
What began with a large bamboo ring wrapped in brown paper and posted across the Pacific to an Australian war bride in the US launched what became one of the world’s greatest fads of the late 1950s – the hula hoop.
But Joan Anderson, the parcel’s recipient and the woman who delivered the concept of the hoop to America, was left out of the loop – ignored by the toy company that sold more than 100m hula hoops before the fad was replaced.
Guangzhou is the humming heart of the global fast fashion industry, but uncertainty over US tariffs is putting pressure on orders and profits
Lingering at a day market for labourers in Panyu, an urban village on the outskirts of Guangzhou, Ms Qiu looks dejected. She is looking for a local factory that will hire her for the day to sew clothes – cheap tops and dresses that will be churned out on to China’s e-commerce platforms, or bundled up for export to western shoppers. But she is not having much luck.
“The whole industry is struggling, and now there is a high tariff on Chinese goods because of the trade war. Many foreign clients have decreased their orders from China,” she says, declining to give her first name.
I have a stepmother who my brother and I really despise. She has made our relationship with our dad really hard, and has tried to stop him seeing us at points. She has resented us since we were little. My dad has recently admitted that he thinks she is jealous of us and has a lot of regret for the way we were treated in the past.
The trouble lies in the fact that he has said if anything happens to him (ie if he dies first) we would need to make an effort with her will-wise, to ensure we were treated fairly, as he doesn’t quite trust she would do the right thing.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged his allies to bring about “regime change” in Russia, hours after a Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv killed 16 people including two children. The Ukrainian president said he believed Russia could be “pushed” to stop the war. “But if the world doesn’t aim to change the regime in Russia, that means even after the war ends, Moscow will still try to destabilise neighbouring countries,” he said on Thursday, speaking virtually to a conference marking the 50th anniversary of the cold war-era Helsinki accords. Russia’s overnight strikes wounded at least 150 people, authorities said.
Russia fired more than 300 drones and eight cruise missiles at Ukraine – with Kyiv the main target – from late Wednesday to early Thursday, the Ukrainian air force said. One missile tore through a nine-storey residential building in the capital’s west, ripping off its facade, authorities said. Zelenskyy said the injured including 16 children and six police officers. It was the largest number of children hurt in a single attack on Kyiv during the war, the rescue service said.
Donald Trump criticised Russia’s actions in Ukraine, suggesting new sanctions against Moscow were coming. “Russia – I think it’s disgusting what they’re doing,” the US president said on Thursday. “We’re going to put sanctions,” he said, before adding: “I don’t know that sanctions bother him,” referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Russia’s attack came just days after Trump issued a 10-to-12-day ultimatum for Moscow to halt its invasion or face sanctions.
The Ukrainian parliament has passed a law restoring independence to two anti-corruption bodies, essentially annulling another law adopted last week that prompted the biggest street protests since Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago, reports Shaun Walker. Several hundred protesters outside the parliament building in Kyiv erupted into chants of “the people are the power” as the bill passed on Thursday. Volodymyr Zelenskyy will hope the new law will put an end to what had threatened to become a political crisis domestically and had worried European allies. He signed the law into force swiftly after the vote.
Russia claimed on Thursday that it had captured the Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar, a strategically important military hub in the eastern Donetsk region. Zelenskyy called Moscow’s claim “Russian disinformation”, saying: “Ukrainian units are defending our positions.” Ukrainian military analyst Oleksandr Kovalenko said Russian forces “have full control over the entire northern and eastern part” of Chasiv Yar, including districts that had been hardest to get. But he said fighting for the western side was ongoing, with the situation “very difficult”. The battlefields reports could not be independently verified.
Groundsman’s revenge at the Oval, and reminders of grim episode that reflects poorly on India’s head coach, and on the power dynamics of elite cricket
Nothing does irony quite like Test cricket. Say what you like about the world’s most desiccated, Miss Havisham-ish team sport, out there trailing around the post-colonial world still dressed in its yellowing wedding dress. It’s definitely got a sense of humour.
On day one of the fifth England-India Test this was expressed in cosmic terms, and a single bold and improbable dramatic arc. Talk about groundsmen a lot. Tell groundsmen they’re nothing. One thing is for sure. You’re going to find yourself spending quite a lot of time watching groundsmen.
Crowds of hungry people waiting for humanitarian aid at Zikim crossing shot at by Israeli soldiers
At least 91 people have been killed and 600 wounded while waiting for aid in Gaza over the past 24 hours, as the US envoy, Steve Witkoff, visits Israel for ceasefire discussions and to inspect food distribution.
On Wednesday night, crowds of hungry people had gathered at the Zikim crossing with Israel, waiting for trucks loaded with humanitarian aid to enter the besieged strip, when they were shot. Al-Saraya field hospital said it had received more than 100 dead and wounded after the shooting, while the death toll was expected to rise, the Associated Press reported.
Isotopes can be detected at airports and borders even in large containers and are harmless to the animals
A South African university has launched an anti-poaching campaign to inject the horns of rhinoceroses with radioactive isotopes that it says are harmless for the animals but can be detected by customs agents.
Under the collaborative project involving the University of the Witwatersrand, nuclear energy officials and conservationists, five rhinos were injected in what the university hopes will be the start of a mass injection of the declining rhino population, which they are calling the Rhisotope Project.
Reports say British writer, whose credits include Dirty Pretty Things, will work with Denis Villeneuve on relaunch
The British screenwriter Steven Knight has reportedly been tapped to write the next James Bond movie.
According to Deadline, Knight recently met the director Denis Villeneuve and landed the job after various other writers were also considered. Villeneuve is currently filming the third Dune instalment.
Sent by Trump administration to quash LA protests, remaining 250 guards will stay to protect federal assets
The Pentagon will remove 1,350 national guard troops from Los Angeles originally sent to the state by the Trump administration to deal with protests over its immigration policies.
Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, ordered the national guard members to leave this week. A remaining 250 troops will stay put to protect federal personnel and property, according to the statement attributed to Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesperson.
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