Author: The Guardian

Here is a marvellously tender story of loneliness and love which starts with a bigger bang than most thrillers. Etero, played by Eka Chavleishvili, is a middle-aged single woman in a remote Georgian village who is out walking near a steep ravine, collecting blackberries for the cakes she likes to bake. She looks up, transfixed by the beauty of a blackbird – having been, we are perhaps invited to assume, only waiting for this moment to arrive – when she loses her footing and disappears from the frame; film-maker Elene Naveriani switches the viewpoint to something terrifying and vertiginous: straight…

Violent clashes have broken out on the campus of the University of California in Los Angeles after counter-demonstrators attacked a pro-Palestinian protest encampment.Aerial footage from the broadcaster KABC showed people wielding sticks or poles to attack wooden boards being held up as a makeshift barricade to protect pro-Palestinian protesters, some holding placards or umbrellas. At least one firework was thrown into the camp.Administrators at the university called in law enforcement officers to try to stem the violence, which is the worst since counter-protesters who support Israel set up a rival protest area near the pro-Palestinian encampment.“Horrific acts of violence occurred…

As the declining population continues to impact Japan’s society and economy, the number of vacant houses has topped nine million – enough to accommodate the entire population of Australia at three people per dwelling.Government figures released on Tuesday show the number of empty houses, known as akiya, as of October 2023 was up by more than half a million since the previous survey in 2018.At the root of the issue is rural depopulation combined with many of those who inherit such properties being unable or unwilling to live in them, refurbish or even demolish them. Cities are not immune though,…

They say it’s unlucky to make your own wedding dress. They say the same about receiving knives as gifts, brides wearing pearls or getting married on a Saturday. So much of wedding culture is built on fear. But wearing my homemade wedding dress was a moment of courage.I was underqualified to make it. I hadn’t sewn together a proper piece of clothing since my GCSE textiles classes. But I knew the basic concepts, I could read a pattern and I can be very stubborn. In the end, I decided to go ahead because I liked sewing and thought, if I…

Paul Auster, the author of 34 books including the acclaimed New York Trilogy, has died aged 77.The author died on Tuesday due to complications from lung cancer, his friend and fellow author Jacki Lyden confirmed to the Guardian.Auster became known for his “highly stylised, quirkily riddlesome postmodernist fiction in which narrators are rarely other than unreliable and the bedrock of plot is continually shifting,” the novelist Joyce Carol Oates wrote in 2010.His stories often play with themes of coincidence, chance and fate. Many of his protagonists are writers themselves, and his body of work is self-referential, with characters from early…

Steve Smith’s omission from the men’s T20 squad for next month’s World Cup in the Caribbean marks a shift into a new era for Australian cricket.But the selectors opted not to include youngster Jack Fraser-McGurk despite scoring 259 runs in six Indian Premier League games, including 27 in Delhi’s win over Mumbai on Saturday. 84 points.Selectors chairman George Bailey said it was an “experienced” squad that “covered the situations that the panel felt would affect West Indies” but Smith had not done enough to earn the No. 1 spot.”We have a handful of players – probably more than some other…

These are Real Madrid’s principles, and if you don’t like them … well, they have others. Here Bayern Munich forced Carlo Ancelotti’s side to play not one game but several: an early defensive rearguard, a gradual arm-wrestle for control, a chaotic period at the start of the second half and finally a late quickening as they chased down the lead wrought so spectacularly by Leroy Sané and Harry Kane.That they are still standing, ­perhaps even marginal favourites in this semi-final, is a testament to the speed and agility with which they manage to find solutions, to sense the little fissures…

A young Saudi women’s rights activist has been secretly sentenced to 11 years in prison by an anti-terrorism court after she was arrested for “choosing clothing and supporting women’s rights”.In a statement to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Saudi officials confirmed that Manaher al-Otaibi was sentenced on January 9 for what the Saudi government described as “terrorist crimes.”Al-Otaibi was found guilty at a secret hearing at an anti-terrorism court on charges related to Saudi Arabia’s anti-terrorism law, which criminalizes the use of websites to “broadcast or publish news, statements, false or malicious rumours”. criminal behavior”.Al-Otaibi, a certified…

Police begin to detain protesters at ColumbiaLive TV images show that police have begun to detain protesters at Columbia.The New York Times is reporting that some students have been escorted off campus with their hands zip tied behind their backs. Some protesters are being loaded on to law enforcement buses parked outside the university.Students have not resisted arrest, according to the New York Times.New York police arrest a student at Columbia University. Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty ImagesNew York police entered Columbia University in an apparent effort to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters who seized and occupied a classroom building and have been…

Rafael Nadal’s thrilling and dramatic final stand at home ended just after midnight on Wednesday morning as he was outplayed and outplayed by the Czech young prodigy Jiri Lehecka, who seized on the chance of his career One of the most important moments in the game, he finally defeated the Spaniard 7-5, 6-4 and advanced to the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open.The defeat is likely to mark Nadal’s last appearance at the event, which he has won a record five times, with the 37-year-old expecting 2024 to be the last year of his career.After the game, an emotional Nadal remained…