6 h. ago Modern marvel or concrete ‘blob’? Inside LA’s divisive $700m art gallery

Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s new building has been a decade in the making and has long vexed critics, but its CEO hopes to turn things aroundAs Los Angeles county’s new $720m art museum building nears completion, it’s still haunted by a single, vexing question: how do you hang art in a gallery where every single wall is made of massive slabs of concrete?Designed by Peter Zumthor, a prizewinning Swiss architect, the new building at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) has sparked controversy in the art world since its initial designs were made public in 2013. Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago ‘He left us with nothing’: the British investors swindled by a German property firm

Investors in the Dolphin/GPG ponzi scheme run by Charles Smethurst are angry that more is not being done to recover the €1bn owed to them “He took everything, left us with absolutely nothing,” says David Middleton, one of thousands of British and Irish investors who racked up huge losses from the collapse of a German property ponzi scheme.The 72-year-old pensioner from Northern Ireland is referring to Charles Smethurst, the German-British businessman who set up Dolphin Capital in 2008, later renamed Dolphin Trust, then German Property Group (GPG), with 200 affiliated companies. In July 2020, the business filed for insolvency, owing more than €1bn to up to 25,000 investors around the world. Continue reading...

Economics

7 h. ago Online hacks to offline heists: crypto leaders on edge amid increasing attacks

Industry figures are seeing beyond the ‘illusion of invisibility’ after series of investor kidnappingsCryptocurrency traders such as Mohammed Arsalan are prepared to watch their online assets expand and explode if they miss the right moment, making or breaking their fortunes in just minutes. All in a day’s work on the internet. Offline, though, they have found themselves less equipped for the consequences of affluence. A string of kidnappings has plagued the industry over the past year and left traders across the globe paranoid, fearful and keen to invest in physical security measures.Arsalan grew up working class in Karachi, Pakistan. He hustles in any setting. At 14, he started a business exporting T-shirts overseas. By 17, the pandemic swept it all away. Inside, online and penniless, the booming world of Bitcoin beckoned him. Continue reading...

Politics

12 h. ago Less death, more social media: Formula One films decades apart reveal a changed world | Emma John

The new Brad Pitt F1 movie offers a glossy exhilarating ride but its 1960s predecessor Grand Prix goes beneath the bonnet‘Let’s try to get the season off to a good start, shall we? Drive the car. Don’t try to stand it on its bloody ear.”Have you watched the movie? It’s about a rule-breaking American Formula One driver, the kind who blows past blue flags and crashes into his own teammate. You must have heard of it. They shot it in real race cars, across some of the most prestigious circuits in the world. It even had contemporary world championship drivers making notable cameos on the track. Continue reading...

Events

15 h. ago Just when the world desperately needs wise elders, its fate is in the hands of old and ruthless patriarchs | David Van Reybrouck

The global order is being dismantled by a generation that will not live to see the wreckage they leave behindLet’s attempt something delicate: talking about age without slipping into ageism. Never before in modern history have those with the fate of the world in their hands been so old. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are both 72. Narendra Modi is 74, Benjamin Netanyahu 75, Donald Trump 79, and Ali Khamenei is 86.Thanks to advances in medical science, people are able to lead longer, more active lives – but we are now also witnessing a frightening number of political leaders tightening their grip on power as they get older, often at the expense of their younger colleagues.David Van Reybrouck is philosopher laureate for the Netherlands and Flanders. His books include Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World and Congo: The Epic History of a People Continue reading...

Politics

23 h. ago Missing TikTok star found dead and dismembered in shockingly gruesome crime

A missing TikToker was found dead and dismembered near a water treatment plant in Lima, Peru, earlier this month. Fabiola Alejandra Caicedo Piña, 19, was originally from Venezuela.

Events

27 h. ago University of Toronto agrees to host Harvard students facing Trump visa restrictions

Pact will help international students finish their studies amid Harvard’s legal battle with Trump administrationHarvard University and the University of Toronto and have announced a plan that would see some Harvard students complete their studies in Canada if visa restrictions prevent them from entering the United States.The pact between the two schools reflects the tumultuous and “exceptional” politics of the postsecondary world during the second term of Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Politics

29 h. ago UK pop star on a mission to meet Olivia Rodrigo at BST gig: 'You don’t go to a party and not say thank you'

Olivia Rodrigo is headlining London’s BST Hyde Park festival, which officially kicks off on Friday, June 27 and runs until Sunday, July 13

Events

30 h. ago Lorde at Glastonbury and Jeff Bezos’s wedding: photos of the day – Friday

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Culture

31 h. ago Defiant Phil Mickelson refusing to give up on that missing Major as LIV star makes vow

American legend believes he'll get more cracks at elusive Major

Events

31 h. ago UK launched huge operation to find suspected Russian double agent in MI6

Exclusive: Operation Wedlock lasted up to 20 years and took MI5 teams across world amid panic about ‘another Philby’Britain’s spy chiefs were forced to launch one of the most sensitive and risky investigations since the cold war over fears a senior officer at the foreign intelligence service MI6 was a double agent for Russia.The extensive hunt for the alleged mole, called Operation Wedlock, was run by MI6’s sister agency, MI5, which deployed a team of up to 35 surveillance, planning and desk officers, who travelled across the world. Continue reading...

Politics

37 h. ago Week in wildlife: an orphaned sloth bear, swimming hippos and cheeky New Forest donkeys

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Politics

45 h. ago Rampant street crime. One alleged rape every hour. Homeless beggars. And demographic changes that have made the city unrecognisable. With a heavy heart, MATT GOODWIN says London is OVER

When I fired off a tweet about my day trip to London last week, I didn't expect it to be read by 12 million people around the world.

Events

55 h. ago Kardashians in Venice and a French Spiderman: photos of the day

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Culture

55 h. ago Manzanar teaches about Japanese American incarceration in the US. That’s in jeopardy under Trump

As visitors to the national historic site are urged to inform on anything ‘negative’, advocates warn of the same playbook that led to concentration campsAt the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, more than 200 miles (320km) outside Los Angeles, in what feels like the middle of nowhere, is Manzanar national historic site. It marks the place where more than 10,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during the second world war, crowded into barracks, surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers with searchlights, and patrolled by military police.Since then, Manzanar, which now has a museum and reconstructed barracks that visitors can walk through, has been transformed into a popular pilgrimage destination for Japanese Americans to remember and teach others about this history. (Manzanar was one of 10 concentration camps where the US government forcibly relocated and held more than 110,000 people of Japanese descent during the second world war.) Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Paris fashion, Glastonbury and a new dinosaur: photos of the day – Wednesday

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Culture

3 d. ago ‘It’s death by a thousand cuts’: marine ecologist on the collapse of coral reefs

David Obura believes humans have been using nature for free, and tipping points at some reefs have already passedThe Kenyan marine ecologist David Obura is chair of a panel of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the world’s leading natural scientists. For many decades, his speciality has been corals, but he has warned that the next generation may not see their glory because so many reefs are now “flickering out across the world”. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago ‘It’s like being walled in’: young Iranians break through internet blackout

Desperate for news on war with Israel, people are searching for proxy links that route messages through servers outside Iran• Middle East crisis – live updatesAmir* hasn’t slept much in days. From his apartment in northern Tehran, the 23-year-old spends his nights searching for proxy links – fragile digital lifelines that briefly break through the internet blackout.Iran remains under a near-total internet shutdown, severely limiting access to information. A group of young Iranians are, however, working non-stop to breech the blackout to ensure their voices go out to the outside world. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago ‘It’s like being walled in’: young Iranians try to break through internet blackout

Desperate for news on war with Israel, people search for proxy links to route messages through servers outside Iran• Middle East crisis – live updatesAmir* hasn’t slept much in days. From his apartment in northern Tehran, the 23-year-old spends his nights searching for proxy links, fragile digital lifelines that briefly break through the internet blackout.Iran remains under a near-total internet shutdown, severely limiting access to information. A group of young Iranians are, however, working non-stop to ensure their voices reach the outside world. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Meet the 'doomsday preppers' ready for World War III: Survival enthusiasts have secret bunkers and 'months of supplies' to outwit the apocalypse

One UK-based social media group for 'preppers' - survival enthusiasts who strive to be prepared should the end of the world, or WWIII, happen - has 23,600 members.

Events