39 m. ago Cheer up, Ice Cube, your War of the Worlds movie may be really bad, but it's not worthless | Saranka Maheswaran

Awful clunkers occasionally emerge from both Hollywood and Bollywood, but I have found value in most cinematic calamitiesIf the latest adaptation of HG Wells’s 1898 novel The War of the Worlds, a movie starring Ice Cube and Eva Longoria, was designed to make us pause and ask questions, it has certainly succeeded. Unfortunately, what a lot of viewers have been asking is why it was inflicted on the public in the first place. Is War of the Worlds “one of the worst movies ever made?”, asked the BBC. “Shockingly bad War of the Worlds is one of the worst movies of the decade,” said the New York Post. “Amazon’s War of the Worlds update should never have been released,” declared the Telegraph.The 2005 adaptation, starring Tom Cruise, was a smash hit. Now people are flocking to the remake to see just how bad a film can be – it’s in the top 10 films watched in the UK and US on Amazon Prime. It seems that we have come to love “bad” films almost as much as those deemed good. The website Rotten ...

Events

70 m. ago Netflix fans cancelling plans for thriller series from makers of 'best series to exist'

Netflix fans say they have chills over the first look at new limited series

Politics

89 m. ago Major retailer cancels online orders and refunds as it collapses into administration

The iconic chain currently operates over 300 stores across the UK and Ireland alone.

Politics

97 m. ago Bezalel Smotrich outlines plan for 3,000 new housing units in controversial West Bank settlement, reports say – Middle East crisis live

Israel’s far-right finance minister announces plan to advance tenders for housing which international community says would split West Bank in half, reports Times of IsraelThe health ministry in Gaza has just issued a statement, saying four more people have died from famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours.This brings the total to 239 since the start of the war, including 106 children, according to the health ministry. Continue reading...

Events

1 hour ago Netflix fans 'cancel all plans' over eight part thriller perfect for Harlan Coben fans

The new Netflix limited series is already being described as a perfect binge

Politics

2 h. ago Israel announces West Bank settlement that rights groups say could imperil Palestinian state

Israel’s far-right finance minister has announced a contentious new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which Palestinians and rights groups worry will scuttle plans for a future Palestinian state by effectively cutting the West Bank into two separate parts

Politics

2 h. ago Bezalel Smotrich approves 3,000 new housing units in controversial West Bank settlement, reports say – Middle East crisis live

Israel’s far-right finance minister approves tenders for housing which international community says would split West Bank in half, reports Times of IsraelThe health ministry in Gaza has just issued a statement, saying four more people have died from famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours.This brings the total to 239 since the start of the war, including 106 children, according to the health ministry. Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago Jason Bourne is coming back – but what do we want from him this time?

A heated bidding war for the future of the Bourne franchise is over, so whether we need him or not, the amnesiac assassin is set to returnWhat do you consider to be the end of Jason Bourne? For connoisseurs, Bourne’s story definitively ended in 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum, which masterfully wrapped up the story that began five years earlier with The Bourne Identity. For the less discerning viewer, it ended with 2016’s scraggy and inconsequential Jason Bourne. For the three people who watched the USA Network’s 2019 series Treadstone, it ended there. So which is it?Trick question, because Jason Bourne is never actually going to end, ever. This week, NBCUniversal has won a bidding war to acquire all non-publishing rights to Robert Ludlum’s Bourne and Treadstone properties in perpetuity. The deal, described as “very large”, means that Bourne is now firmly as much a part of Universal as Jaws, Jurassic World and the Minions. It also means we are never getting rid of him. As the Universal ...

Politics

2 h. ago Air Canada to cancel hundreds of flights and lock out staff this weekend

The airline said the first flights will be cancelled Thursday, with more on Friday and a complete cessation of flying by Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge by the weekend

Politics

3 h. ago Trump’s foreign aid cuts have ‘strengthened tyranny’ in Myanmar, rights groups say

USAID funding cuts have given Myanmar’s military rulers ‘carte blanche’ to escalate human rights abuses

Politics

4 h. ago Noughties rock band 'devastated' as they're forced to cancel UK tour just a day before it starts as they issue apology to fans

A noughties American rock band have issued an apology to fans after being forced to cancel their UK tour just a day before it starts.

Politics

4 h. ago Truck drivers, doctors and bakers: ordinary Yemenis turn to veteran journalist when justice fails

Fatehi Bin Lazreq has used social media, newspapers and radio to expose corruption and everyday injustices since the country’s civil war started a decade agoWhen dozens of gas tankers near Yemen’s southern city of Aden were held up at a checkpoint by soldiers demanding heavy bribes, the frustrated drivers and traders turned to a man they trusted: Fatehi Bin Lazreq, a prominent Yemeni journalist.Known for using his media outlets and social media platforms to demand accountability, Bin Lazreq posted about the drivers’ ordeal on Facebook. It quickly went viral, generating thousands of likes and comments. Within hours, the post prompted a phone call from the prime minister and another senior official, both pledging to resolve the issue. Soon, the tankers were able to move on. Continue reading...

Society

4 h. ago Putin prepares for nuclear war on eve of Trump summit: Russia readys new cruise missile nuke for tests in satellite images after Donald warned of 'severe consequences' if Ukraine conflict continues

Experts say recent satellite images show intense preparations at the Pankovo test site on Novaya Zemlya, a remote archipelago in the Barents Sea.

Events

5 h. ago Air Canada cabin crew strike: Everything you need to know about the total shutdown

Airline warns ‘other carriers are already very full due to summer travel peak’, limiting travellers’ options for alternative flights

Events

5 h. ago ‘Censorship’: over 115 scholars condemn cancellation of Harvard journal issue on Palestine

In an open letter, writers denounced abrupt scrapping of a Harvard Educational Review issue dedicated to PalestineMore than 115 education scholars have condemned the cancellation of an entire issue of an academic journal dedicated to Palestine by a Harvard University publisher as “censorship”.In an open letter published on Thursday, the scholars denounced the abrupt scrapping of a special issue of the Harvard Educational Review – which was first revealed by the Guardian in July – as an “attempt to silence the academic examination of the genocide, starvation and dehumanisation of Palestinian people by the state of Israel and its allies.” Continue reading...

Politics

5 h. ago Period drama 'as satisfying as a warm cup of tea' perfect for All Creatures Great and Small fans

The historical television drama was met with both critical acclaim and a passionate fan base, but was controversially cancelled after just two seasons

Events

6 h. ago Israeli airstrikes on Tehran killed inmates in ‘apparent war crime’ – report

Human Rights Watch also finds that Iran abused survivors of June attack, which killed 80 peopleIsraeli airstrikes on Tehran’s Evin prison in June killed scores of detainees, visitors and staff in what Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called an “apparent war crime”. Iranian authorities have since subjected survivors to abuse, enforced disappearances and inhumane detention conditions, the rights group said on Wednesday.HRW’s investigation, based on satellite imagery, videos and witness accounts, found the 23 June Israeli airstrikes destroyed visitation halls, prison wards, the central kitchen, the medical clinic and administrative offices. No evident military targets were identified in the facility, which held more than 1,500 prisoners at the time, many of whom had been jailed for peaceful activism. Continue reading...

Events

6 h. ago Are you tying your shoelaces wrong? How experts have used an 'over

Hundreds have been left gobsmacked after discovering a 'secret way' runners tie your sneakers.

Politics

6 h. ago Nicola Sturgeon’s immense political talent is undeniable. The nationalism was the problem | Martin Kettle

Many of her admirers gloss over her desire to break up the UK as Scotland’s first minister. But in her open and touching memoir, it plays a starring roleNicola Sturgeon was – and still is – important, talented, personable and, to many, inspirational. She was also extremely lucky and often wrong, sometimes seriously so. There are examples of all these qualities in her newly published memoir, Frankly. Sturgeosceptics should concede at once that it contains much that is fascinating, especially about her relations with her charismatic mentor turned vengeful enemy Alex Salmond. Starry-eyed Sturgies should equally admit she made several deep and lasting errors that have left behind a divided nationalist party and movement.The book is more open and touching about private issues than most political memoirs, although Sturgeon deploys these qualities selectively. Many of the intimate reflections are about being a woman in politics. Other memoirs by female politicians – including those of Marg...

Politics

6 h. ago Wildly incoherent, utterly flummoxing, blissful: how And Just Like That rewrote the rules of TV

The Sex and the City spinoff – which ends this week – is so bizarre it has barely made sense as a television show. Unless you think of it as an attempt to redefine the whole genre Sex and the City’s divisive spin-off And Just Like That is set to end after three bizarre seasons and a deluge of critical contempt, with bemused fans losing it on Reddit, and articles about how the programme became a hate watch. There has been little heartache in the discourse after the announcement of the show’s demise, the general consensus being: good. But to these people, I say – you’re wrong! But also, I understand. There is always an element of fear in contemplating change, in engaging with the rapid advancement of modernity, and I would like to make the case for And Just Like That being a product of exactly that.It feels analogous to a comment a friend of mine once made during a conversation about the best oven pizzas, when someone posited Dr Oetker pizzas as a contender: “It’s delicious, it’s some...

Politics