1 week ago The Evin Prison Bakers’ Club by Sepideh Gholian review – like no recipe book you’ve ever read

A political prisoner lifts the lid on the hardships and fantasies of life in Iran’s most notorious jailThe Iranian political prisoner Sepideh Gholian’s account of life on the women’s wards in Bushehr and Evin prisons is a blindsiding blend of horrifying concrete detail, dizzying surrealism and wild optimism. In every line and in every moment it attempts to recreate, it is entirely and unconditionally defiant. For the reader, discombobulation comes from (at least) two directions. At one moment, you are presented with, for example, the story of a woman attempting to abort her foetus under permanent camera and human surveillance, because the consequences for her unborn child, herself and other family members if the pregnancy continues are unimaginably violent. At another you are instructed how to make elephant ears pastries, designed for large gatherings of visitors, in the cheery tones of the encouraging expert (“It’s not at all messy and impossible to get wrong. You do...

Events

1 week ago Moment man attempted to start petrol station fire with lighter

A man has been jailed for four years over the incident in Bournemouth

Events

1 week ago World’s worst criminal: Clumsy armed robbery suspect has everything go wrong during his attempted heist

This is the moment an armed thief’s attempted robbery went hilariously wrong.

Events

1 week ago World’s worst criminal: Clumsy armed robber hilariously messes up his attempted crime where everything goes wrong

This is the moment an armed thief’s attempted robbery went hilariously wrong.

Events

4 w. ago David Blaine Do Not Attempt review – the moment where he flees a lethal cobra is oddly adorable

The ‘extreme magician’ delivers a unique twist on the travelogue, in which he hunts out feats of magic rather than tourist attractions – and it’s surprisingly full of darkly comic momentsHe’s been hung upside down, encased himself in ice, lived in a plastic box and spent a week buried underground. He’s let helium balloons pull him several miles upwards, had 1m volts of electricity fired at him, and balanced on the top of a high pillar for a day and a half. American “extreme magician” David Blaine has a catalogue of incredible feats behind him. Now, though, he’s really attempting the impossible: the sonofabitch is trying to make a watchable National Geographic travelogue. Miraculously, he’s gone and done it.Do Not Attempt sees the unflappable conjuror visit developing, historic or remote places in search of people whose death-defying skills could conceivably get them a Vegas residency, but who, instead, are performing for coins, or just their own spiritual enlightenment. Dressed in b...

Politics

last month Chilling moment man lunges out of a hedge and grabs young woman during attempted abduction in Melbourne

Witness the harrowing moment a 20-year-old woman narrowly escaped the grips of her would-be-kidnapper after alighting from a Melbourne bus on Wednesday evening.

Politics