The name’s Bezos, Jeff Bezos: what can we expect from Amazon’s James Bond? | Film. The ink could hardly have dried on the contract between Amazon MGM and Eon Productions, the legendary Bond film company run by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, before Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos put up a social media post that went to the heart of the conundrum faced by one of the film industry’s most lucrative franchises: “Who’d you pick as the next Bond?” The reality underlying Broccoli and Wilson’s decision to cede control to Amazon, the company that has since 2021 been responsible for co-producing Bond films after its purchase of MGM, is that since it became apparent that Daniel Craig wanted to leave the role, the franchise has been struck by a kind of creative paralysis.
We are used to increasingly long gaps between their release, but with no new lead actor in sight, Bond 26 has still not even reached the starting gate. The focus, understandably, is how Amazon might develop the franchise. The way Bond films are financed will probably change also. Majority of attempts to ban books in US come from organised groups, not parents | Books. A large majority of attempts to ban books in the US last year came from organised groups rather than parents. 72% of demands to censor books were initiated by pressure groups, government entities and elected officials, board members and administrators, reported the American Library Association (ALA). Just 16% of ban attempts were made by parents, while 5% were brought forward by individual library users.
“These demands to remove and restrict books and other library materials are not the result of any grassroots or popular sentiment,” read the ALA’s 2025 State of America’s Libraries report, published on Monday. “The majority of book censorship attempts are now originating from well-funded, organised groups and movements long dedicated to curbing access to information and ideas.” Many of the organisations leading the book censorship movement are so-called “parental rights” groups – most prominently Moms for Liberty. Skip past newsletter promotion after newsletter promotion. David Hockney 25 review – so moving I had tears in my eyes | David Hockney. It’s that time of year. Blossom is on the trees, the air is warming up and David Hockney has a show. Five years ago,, Hockney spent lockdown in his garden in Normandy painting the spring, bud by bud, sharing his iPad pictures with whoever was in his address book, like the last artist on Earth sending out signals of hope.
The slogan he coined then – “Do remember they can’t cancel the spring” – is now written over the entrance to the Fondation Louis Vuitton, as urgent as it was during Covid. His spring pictures are here too. As well as iPad paintings, there are actual oils and acrylics of Normandy, including ravishing trees in blossom that pay homage to Van Gogh. Hockney is as reliable as those daffodils, returning at 87 as he did at 82 to show us how beautiful the world is in spite of those who try so hard to ruin it. But wait. Shockingly, they are not. You can learn a lot in this exhibition – not just about photography and the human eye but art history and perspective. Woman becomes first UK womb transplant recipient to give birth | Fertility problems. Surgeons are hailing an “astonishing” medical breakthrough as a woman became the first in the UK to give birth after a womb transplant. Grace Davidson, 36, who was a teenager when diagnosed with a rare condition that meant she did not have a uterus, said she and her husband, Angus, 37, had been given “the greatest gift we could ever have asked for”.
They named their five-week-old girl Amy Isabel – after Grace’s sister, Amy Purdie, who donated her own womb during an eight-hour operation in 2023, and Isabel Quiroga, a surgeon who helped perfect the transplant technique. Davidson said she felt shocked when she first held her daughter, who was born by planned NHS caesarean section on 27 February at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea hospital in London. She said: “It was just hard to believe she was real. I knew she was ours, but it’s just hard to believe.” The couple always had “a quiet hope” the womb transplant would be a success and enable them to start a family, Davidson said. Minecraft mania: how millions of rowdy kids saved the box office | Film. Minecraft has jumped from game consoles to movie screens, and theaters across the country are shaking with perhaps the most vocal fan participation this side of an Avengers finale.
As the film broke box office records, reports (and phone-shot videos) have been pouring in across the internet of the game-based fantasy-comedy inciting near-riots of applause, cheersand popcorn-chucking as the youthful target audience expresses their gratitude for references to the source material’s characters, memes and attendant lore – particularly the Chicken Jockey, a visual reference to a relatively rare but well-known phenomenon within the game. If you don’t know any more than this, there’s no real need to investigate further; the answer doesn’t matter. Even for someone actively watching A Minecraft Movie, it has absolutely no bearing on the actual story or characters at hand. The thing is, both of these ideas are essentially correct. That’s not exclusive to kids, though. U.S. students face deportation after speaking out about Gaza.
Protesters attend a demonstration in support of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil in New York City on March 10. Yuki Iwamura/AP hide caption toggle caption Yuki Iwamura/AP In recent weeks, several international university students have been taken by immigration agents or had their legal status questioned. Turkish graduate student Rumeysa Öztürk was detained by masked agents in plainclothes as she walked to meet friends for dinner.
She says she is being targeted over an op-ed about Gaza that she wrote in the Tufts University student newspaper. Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested in his university housing despite being a legal permanent resident. Columbia University Ph.D. student Ranjani Srinivasan was accused publicly by the Department of Homeland Security of being a terrorist sympathizer, with no evidence, when she got notice that her visa was revoked. Their cases raise concerns that more students could be targeted for their views. Via Eric Lee toggle caption. 'The Great Gatsby': Fitzgerald's masterpiece about the American dream. A first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby at the London International Antiquarian Book Fair on June 13, 2013. Oli Scarff/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Oli Scarff/Getty Images The Great Gatsby — 100 years old?
The novel's main characters are young in a restless America reveling in the excess of the new Modern Age — an age whose anxieties have resurfaced with fresh intensity in our own moment. Great works of art are great, in part, because they continue to have something to say to the present: They're both timebound and timeless. Recall that the novel takes place in the summer of 1922 on Long Island and in New York City — a city that was then the center for contemporary debates about the threat of foreign influences, so-called racial "pollution," and the ascendance of the liberated "new woman," embodied in the novel by the professional golfer, Jordan Baker. “Civilization’s going to pieces. ...” Fitzgerald himself said his novel was about "aspiration.
" Trump confirms 104% tariffs on Chinese goods as part of unfolding global trade war | Trump tariffs. Donald Trump is poised to unleash his trade war with the world on Wednesday, pressing ahead with a slew of tariffs on the US’s largest trading partners despite fears of widespread economic damage and calls to reconsider. The US president claimed “many” countries were seeking a deal with Washington, as his administration prepared to impose steep tariffs on goods from dozens of markets from Wednesday. However, Beijing vowed to “fight to the end” after Trump threatened to hit Chinese exports with additional 50% tariffs if the country proceeds with plans to retaliate against his initial vow to impose tariffs of 34% on its products. That would come on top of the existing 20% levy and take the total tariff on Chinese imports to 104%.
The White House confirmed that the higher US tariffs on China would, indeed, be imposed from Wednesday. But the bounce didn’t last long. Trump was asked on Monday whether the tariffs set the stage for negotiations with countries, or were permanent. ‘I was a British tourist trying to leave the US. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre’ | US immigration. Just before the graphic artist Rebecca Burke left Seattle to travel to Vancouver, Canada, on 26 February, she posted an image of a rough comic to Instagram.
“One part of travelling that I love is seeing glimpses of other lives,” read the bubble in the first panel, above sketches of cosy homes: crossword puzzle books, house plants, a lit candle, a steaming kettle on a gas stove. Burke had seen plenty of glimpses of other lives over the six weeks she had been backpacking in the US. She had been travelling on her own, staying on homestays free of charge in exchange for doing household chores, drawing as she went. For Burke, 28, it was absolute freedom. Within hours of posting that drawing, Burke got to see a much darker side of life in America, and far more than a glimpse. When she tried to cross into Canada, Canadian border officials told her that her living arrangements meant she should be travelling on a work visa, not a tourist one.
At 11pm, Becky was allowed to call her family. Yale professor on Trump defunding universities. Alexander Walk at Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S., on April 7, 2024. Joe Buglewicz/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Joe Buglewicz/Bloomberg via Getty Images Philosophy professor Jason Stanley has been a faculty member of Yale University since 2013. But as the Trump administration targets university funding, he has decided to leave Yale, and the country altogether. Stanley, an American Jewish man, will move his spouse and children to Canada soon, as he has secured a job at the University of Toronto. Though the administration says they are pulling funding from universities to protect students from antisemitism, Stanley says the administration is using Jewish people as an "excuse to take down democracy.
" Harvard University is the latest school to be targeted for what the administration says is a failure to protect students from antisemitism. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. Interview highlights Stanley: That's right. Wisconsin judicial election: Liberal Susan Crawford wins court seat in setback for Elon Musk. Nomia Iqbal in Milwaukee & Max Matza BBC News Wisconsin voters have elected a Democratic-backed judge to serve on the state supreme court, according to projections, following the most expensive judicial election in US history. Susan Crawford is on course to beat conservative rival Brad Schimel, which would keep intact the 4-3 liberal control of the Midwestern state's highest court. President Donald Trump's billionaire adviser Elon Musk was a prominent fundraiser in the campaign, and was the subject of Democratic attack ads. More than $100m (£77m) was spent by the candidates and their allies, including $20m by Musk.
The result is expected to have far-reaching implications, potentially even affecting the balance of power in the US Congress. That is because the state's supreme court is expected to play a key role in cases related to congressional redistricting ahead of midterm elections in 2026 and the next presidential election, in 2028. "Wisconsin cannot be bought. Cory Booker’s Long Speech: By the Numbers. WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) held the Senate floor with a marathon speech that began at 7pm ET Monday evening and lasted until Tuesday night. After 25 hours and 5 minutes speaking directly to the American people, Senator Booker broke the record for longest individual floor speech ever delivered, surpassing the previous record set by Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Yesterday, Senator Booker took to the Senate floor with the intention of speaking as long as he was physically able to uplift the stories of Americans who are being harmed by the Trump Administration’s reckless actions, attempts to undermine our institutions, and disregard for the rule of law.
Here’s a look at Booker’s speech, by the numbers: To watch Senator Booker’s closing remarks, click here. The Amazonian town putting world cities to shame. Brendan Sainsbury Features correspondent Puerto Nariño is a tranquil experiment in sustainable living where motor vehicles are banned and the streets are as clean as Copenhagen's. The boat dock in the Colombian town of Leticia was a hive of market-traders, tuk-tuks and bobbing water taxis.
I bought a ticket from a small office on the Malecón promenade and navigated my way past a cluster of wooden houses on stilts to a row of floating platforms beside the Amazon River. "Puerto Nariño? " Located 75km apart on the banks of the Amazon, Leticia and Puerto Nariño, Colombia, are jungle municipalities with radically different personalities. Boat is the only way to get to Puerto Nariño from the outside world, a captivating two-hour journey along the Amazon from Leticia with Peru on one side and Colombia on the other. Known locally as "the natural cradle of Colombia", Puerto Nariño is an encouraging example of a community living in relative harmony with nature.
‘Meta has stolen books’: authors to protest in London against AI trained using ‘shadow library’ | Books. Authors and other publishing industry professionals will stage a demonstration outside Meta’s London office today in protest of the organisation’s use of copyrighted books to train artificial intelligence. Novelists Kate Mosse and Tracy Chevalier as well as poet and former Royal Society of Literature chair Daljit Nagra will be among those in attendance outside the company’s King’s Cross office. Protesters will meet at Granary Square at 1.30pm and a letter to Meta from the Society of Authors (SoA) will be hand-delivered at 1.45pm.
It will also be sent to Meta headquarters in the US. Earlier this year, a US court filing alleged that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg approved the company’s use of a notorious “shadow library”, LibGen, which contains more than 7.5 million books. Last month, the Atlantic republished a searchable database of the titles contained in LibGen, through which many authors discovered their works may have been used to train Meta’s AI models. skip past newsletter promotion. Tesla quarterly sales slump 13% amid backlash against Elon Musk | Tesla. Tesla reported a 13% drop in vehicle sales in the first three months of the year, making it the electric vehicle maker’s worst quarter since 2022. It’s another sign that Elon Musk’s once high-flying electric car company is struggling to attract buyers. The drop is probably due to a combination of factors, including its ageing lineup, competition from rivals and a backlash from Musk’s embrace of rightwing politics. It also is a warning that the company’s first-quarter earnings report later this month could disappoint investors.
Tesla reported deliveries of 336,681 vehicles globally in the January-March quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet expected much higher deliveries of 408,000. The figure was down from sales of 387,000 in the same period a year ago. Despite Donald Trump’s attempts to shore up company sales with a Tesla presentation in front of the White House and Musk’s assurances to employees that the company has a “bright and exciting” future, the drop in sales was striking.
Why is your boss a narcissist? Blame the job ad that got them hired | Life and style. ‘Nowhere on earth is safe’: Trump imposes tariffs on uninhabited islands near Antarctica | Trump tariffs. Trump tariffs: Punitive or a gift? How five big economies see new US tariffs. Trump announces sweeping new tariffs, upending decades of US trade policy | Trump tariffs. Starmer and Trump discuss 'productive negotiations' on economic deal. The Trump Admistration accidentally texted me war plans. Brexit a key factor in worst UK medicine shortages in four years, report says | Health. Trump’s EU tariffs threat could cost 80,000 jobs in Ireland, Dublin warns | Business.
European universities offer ‘scientific asylum’ to US researchers fleeing Trump’s cuts | Trump administration. Will Snow White be a 'victim of its moment'? How the Disney remake became 2025's most divisive film. NASA and SpaceX launch astronauts to the ISS. Micro-retirement: has gen Z found a brilliant fix for burnout? | Work & careers. 'Exciting' but no bombshells: four key JFK files takeaways. UK ban on zero-hours contracts ‘to include agency workers’ | Zero-hours contracts. Trump's AI-generated Gaza video has glitz, gold and 'TRUMP GAZA' resort. Federal workers get a new email demanding their accomplishments. Private spacecraft Blue Ghost makes historic lunar landing. Keir Starmer says Europe ‘at crossroads in history’ and must support Ukraine | Ukraine.
UK watchdog to investigate TikTok and Reddit over use of children’s data | Information commissioner. One in three NHS doctors so tired their ability to treat patients is affected, survey finds | NHS. Why Valentine's Day chocolates are more expensive. Coal nuclear climate change. Egg purchases limited by Trader Joe's and Kroger. Trump threatens reciprocal tariffs against other countries. TikTok is back on the Apple and Google app stores. What happened with Elon Musk and DOGE this week. President Trump’s emergency declarations expand his power. I met the ‘godfathers of AI’ in Paris – here’s what they told me to really worry about | Alexander Hurst. ‘You go to buy a loaf of bread and come home with a candle’: how fast homewares became the new fast fashion | Interiors.
France’s language tests for foreigners seeking citizenship defeat French people | France. Extreme weather expected to cause food price volatility in 2025 after cost of cocoa and coffee doubles | Food. Theweek. California wildfires: Right-wing influencers cast blame on DEI policies. What's behind Trump rhetoric on Greenland, Canada and Panama Canal. Under Trump presidency, solar tax credits could be at risk. Fact check: What really happened with the Pacific Palisades water hydrants? | LAist. No Trousers Tube Ride brings carnival of underwear to London Underground | London Underground. George Orwell to be honoured on new £2 coin by Royal Mint | George Orwell. Google's antitrust ruling could change how you search the internet | The Week. How to protect yourself from AI scams.
Biden commutes death row inmates' sentences. The retro hobby that can help boost happiness levels. Living with lions: the New Zealand city where humans and sea lions co-exist | New Zealand. Record number of protesters will be in UK prisons this Christmas | Protest. 100 heartwarming stories: Smurfs and Vikings sail the Thames and fundraising cats in tiny jumpers. Google Street View image helps police unlock Spain murder case. Clouds on horizon as EU members meet to discuss relationship with UK | European Union. Study: About 3 dozen high-rise buildings in South Florida are sinking. California declares bird flu emergency. 1st severe human case found in Louisiana. Elon Musk’s Farage meeting renews reports he could fund Reform UK | Reform UK. Coal use to reach new peak – and remain at near-record levels for years | Energy industry.
Lawsuit: A Character.AI chatbot hinted a kid should murder his parents over screen time limits. Is our use of digital technologies negatively affecting our brain health? We asked 11 experts. | Vox. The Economist’s word of the year for 2024. France's toppled government adds to Europe's larger political problems. Brian Thompson’s killing sparks outrage over state of US healthcare | Brian Thompson shooting.
Trump tariff threat puts a strain on Canada-Mexico ties. Some rural Nevadans want Trump to stop the state's solar energy boom. Revealed: bias found in AI system used to detect UK benefits fraud | Universal credit. MPs back landmark bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales | Assisted dying.