92 m. ago Nashville at 50: Robert Altman’s defining masterpiece of the 1970s

The director’s immersive look at the Nashville music scene remains an audacious narrative experiment that continues to influence film-makersReleased smack-dab in the middle of the 70s, like some gravitational mass at the center of the galaxy, Robert Altman’s Nashville is the defining work of a decade when iconoclasts upended Hollywood and took stock of the country during a turbulent stretch.For Altman, it was the culmination of a film-making style he had been refining since M*A*S*H in 1970, one built on spontaneity, a rich evocation of time and place, and actors empowered to create characters who seem to simply exist in their worlds, rather than impose themselves on it. The offhand magic of Nashville is that it feels modest, despite a who’s who of two dozen stars convening for an epic that offers Music City as a microcosm for America herself. Rarely are great films this casually profound. Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Pete Wicks rages after Sam Thompson tells him about cafe you 'can't eat anything' at

Pete Wickes couldn't believe what he was hearing when podcast co-host and best mate Sam Thompson told him there's a cafe you can go to where you can't eat a morsel

Politics

2 h. ago E2E Tech 100 partner OakNorth: “Supporting these businesses is a privilege”

OakNorth’s corporate affairs director Valentina Kristensen explains the bank’s mission to empower global entrepreneurs.

Politics

5 h. ago Netflix’s Titan: The OceanGate Disaster tells the inside story of CEO Stockton Rush’s fatal gamble

In June 2023, when a tourist submarine went missing off the coast of Newfoundland, the whole world stopped to follow the extraordinary story. Tom Murray speaks to the director of a Netflix documentary about the case, and hears about the mistakes that led to the accident

Events

13 h. ago Kevin Thelwell gets ruthless with Rangers stars as sporting director sees no limit to Ibrox exits

The club's sporting director admits i;ts inevitable more players will leave but won't put an exact number on departures

Politics

13 h. ago England beat West Indies by 37 runs in third ODI to complete series sweep – live reaction

England complete series sweep in SouthamptonWTC final news | Sign up for The Spin | Email James3rd over: England 33-0 (Duckett 22, Smith 11) A drag down from Hosein is slapped to the square boundary by Duckett. Don’t bowl there, son. Duckett plinks down the ground for a couple, losing his shape slightly as he tries to go down the ground. SIXAH! The pint sized opener smears a big one on the sweep behind square. Four more down the ground all along the baize. Shai Hope can’t plug the gaps and Duckett is manipulating the field with aplomb. Seventeen runs off the over.2nd over: England 15-0 (Duckett 6, Smith 9) Jason Holder with the second over, long limbs chugging into the crease and decent bounce off the custard cream coloured surface. Shot! Smith drives on the up over mid-on with that deliciously clean swing of the blade. Sizeable outfield in at the Utilita (as no one calls it) boundaries harder to find than at postage stamp sized Bristol. Continue reading...

Events

15 h. ago Gabbard says AI is speeding up intel work, including the release of the JFK assassination files

The director of national intelligence says artificial intelligence is speeding up the work of America's spy services

Economics

15 h. ago Major Netflix director slams YouTube as viewers' attention spans are 'assaulted'

Generation Z are increasingly watching YouTube and TikTok instead of traditional entertainment and 'have shorter and shorter attention spans' says The Haunting of Hill House director Mike Flanagan

Events

17 h. ago England v West Indies: third men’s T20 cricket international – live

T20 updates from Southampton; start 6.30pm BSTWTC final news | Sign up for The Spin | Email James We’ll be underway in less than ten minutes. Just enough time to dig into Don McRae’s wide reaching interview with Pat Cummins on the eve of the WTC Final. Some topics were still off-limits though But the ball-tampering saga remains an awkward topic. He listens quietly while I tell him about my 2021 interview with Cameron Bancroft who, as a callow opening batter trying to find his way in Test cricket, followed instructions to use sandpaper to rough up the ball. His captain, Steve Smith, David Warner and Bancroft were banned and the batter, when pressed on whether any of the bowlers had known of the plan, told me that “it’s probably self-explanatory”.Cummins took seven wickets in that Test, which Australia lost heavily, and I ask if he really had no idea what was being done to the ball. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he says bluntly.” Continue reading...

Events

17 h. ago DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard posts ominous video warning ‘elites’ are fine with nuclear war because they own bunkers

Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence has posted an ominous video suggesting “political elites” are fomenting nuclear tensions because they own bunkers which would protect them from a bomb.

Events

19 h. ago MG ALBA’s Margaret Cameron receives special recognition at RTS Scotland Awards

The Royal Television Society (RTS) Scotland hosted its annual awards ceremony on Friday (6 June) where Margaret Cameron, director of content at MG ALBA, was honoured with the prestigious RTS Scotland Special Recognition Award.

Events

19 h. ago Even Elysium’s director thinks his film is a mess – but a decade on, it deserves a second chance

Matt Damon runs around the US in 2154, when civil liberties are eroded, healthcare is for the rich and wealth inequality is soaring. But its sci-fi!Get our weekend culture and lifestyle emailWhen director Neill Blomkamp followed up his acclaimed debut feature, District 9, with the cyberpunk dystopia Elysium in 2013, it was met with a resoundingly mediocre reception. It’s a movie that even Blomkamp has disavowed. “I fucked it up,” he said bluntly in a 2015 interview. But I think he’s too hard on himself: a decade on, Elysium might be worthy of re-appraisal.In 2154, Earth is an overpopulated, polluted dust bowl. The wealthy elite live on the luxurious space station Elysium, where they have access to advanced medical technology and other essentials denied to the surface population. Continue reading...

Politics

20 h. ago Scottish football chief kept in Africa for weeks after suffering 'extensive' injuries in accident

Thistle sporting director badly hurt in swimming accident

Sport

21 h. ago Jewish Care Scotland charity director admits embezzling £54,000 from hardship fund

Catherine Bell swiped the cash between October 1, 2013 and October 25, 2018, Paisley Sheriff Court heard.

Economics

23 h. ago The Rangers cull starts now as just four stars sealed off for Russell Martin and the rest face oblivion

There are 27 first-team players in the Ibrox squad and Martin and sporting director Kevin Thelwell are going to be ruthless

Politics

25 h. ago Pete Wicks announces 'big news' as decision supported after backing Sam Thompson's emotional charity feat

The Strictly Come Dancing 2024 star was flooded with praise and support as he shared the announcement on social media

Politics

25 h. ago Edinburgh book festival to make case for hope with Hanif Kureishi and Palestinian poet

Brazilian tribal leader among other guests at event with theme of repair, along with Ruth Jones and Nicola SturgeonThe Edinburgh book festival is to champion the positive power of hope later this summer with events involving Hanif Kureishi, the Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish and an exiled Brazilian tribal leader.The core theme for this year’s festival will be the “expansive” concept of repair, and offering solutions and optimism at a time of crisis and conflict, said Jenny Niven, the event’s director.The Edinburgh international book festival runs from 9 to 24 August. Tickets go on sale on 21 June. Continue reading...

Culture

27 h. ago Olivia Attwood feud erupts as Maura Higgins takes drastic action with her and Pete Wicks

Maura Higgins has reportedly ditched Pete Wicks from her social media months after their split. And it appears that his close pal Olivia Attwood has also had the chop by the Irish beauty.

Politics

27 h. ago Dead elephants and feral sea lions: how poisonous algal blooms harm the planet

As the Earth heats up, the amount of algae in our waterways is rapidly increasing, transforming the colour of lakes and killing entire ecosystemsBefore the elephants collapsed, they walked in aimless circles. Some fell head first, dying where they stood moments earlier; their carcasses scattered near watering holes across the Okavango delta. The unexplained deaths in May 2020 alarmed conservationists. By July, at least 350 elephants had died and nobody knew why.“The animals all had their tusks, so poaching was unlikely. A lot of them had obviously died relatively suddenly: they had dropped on to their sternums, which was indicating a sudden loss of muscle function or neural capacity,” says Niall McCann, director of the conservation group National Park Rescue. Continue reading...

Events

28 h. ago Platense who? Club World Cup is another step on the road to a global super league | Jonathan Wilson

Fifa’s huge prize money risks making a handful of clubs almost infinitely wealthier than their domestic rivalsLast Sunday, in the northern Argentinian city of Santiago del Estero, Platense beat Huracán 1-0 to win Argentina’s Apertura, the decisive goal a beautiful dipping effort struck at the top of the bounce by Guido Mainero. It was the first title in the club’s 120‑year history and provoked scenes of extraordinary emotion.Platense are one of Argentina’s quirkier clubs. They are nicknamed the Squid because their original ground was built on a marsh and the story grew that they played better in wet conditions when, as the journalist Antonio Palacio Zino put it, “the boys moved like squid in their ink”. The boggy conditions are also supposedly why they wear brown after an early director thought it would help to hide mud stains; the real reason is probably that their first members agreed to wear the colours of a jockey who won a particular race. Continue reading...

Politics