Only recently, the most powerful woman in Europe seemed unassailable. Now, with crucial elections today, the German chancellor faces a growing reaction to her policies as the refugee crisis fuels an angry radicalisation Published: 12 Mar 2016 ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaKiipLOquMRon5qmo2K4trrDp5inoQ%3D%3D
Remember #Kony2012? Were still living in its offensive, outdated view of Africa | Dipo Faloyin
OpinionAfrica This article is more than 1 year oldRemember #Kony2012? We’re still living in its offensive, outdated view of AfricaThis article is more than 1 year oldDipo FaloyinThe continent is treated as a single failed entity, whose people are helpless recipients of aid. This needs to change
Some 10 years ago, the world was momentarily transfixed by a 30-minute film soundtracked by a heady mix of Nine Inch Nails and EDM, featuring shots of Adolf Hitler, crying children, and bodies lying in the road.
Teenagers guilty of senseless murder of transgender girl Brianna Ghey | Crime
CrimeTeenagers guilty of ‘senseless’ murder of transgender girl Brianna GheyMurder-obsessed 16-year-olds convicted of killing girl who was stabbed 28 times in Warrington park
Two 16-year-olds have been found guilty of the “senseless” murder of Brianna Ghey, a “witty, funny and fearless” transgender girl who was stabbed 28 times in a Warrington park this year.
The murder-obsessed teenagers, known as Girl X and Boy Y to protect their identities, were found guilty unanimously by a jury at Manchester crown court on Wednesday after it deliberated for four hours and 40 minutes.
The Humans by Matt Haig review
FictionReviewAn alien at Cambridge University? In the body of a distinguished professor of mathematics? Matt Haig's hilarious novel puts our species on the spotProfessor Andrew Martin of Cambridge University, one of the great mathematical geniuses of our time, has just discovered the secret of prime numbers, thereby finding the key that will unlock the mysteries of the universe, guarantee a giant technological leap for mankind and put an end to illness and death.
A Guest at the Feast by Colm Tibn review words never fail him
Book of the dayColm TóibínReviewThe clarity of the novelist’s descriptive ability shines through essays on topics ranging from his treatment for cancer to the joys of an empty Venice
Publishers are very naughty. Even as many of them seem increasingly to disdain journalism, they’re often perfectly happy to repackage the stray bits and pieces of their luckiest writers as “essays” before sticking them opportunistically between hard covers. In the case of the Irish writer Colm Tóibín, I’ll give Viking a semi-pass for doing precisely this.
Animal Joy by Nuar Alsadir review is laughter the best medicine?
The ObserverBooksReviewJoining the dots between Ali G and Nietzsche, the poet and psychoanalyst’s unguarded exploration of laughter will leave readers enlightened and emboldened
An outburst of laughter, Freud maintained, is an eruption from the unconscious. It’s a belief that American psychoanalyst and poet Nuar Alsadir sets about unpacking in Animal Joy, her ruminative interrogation into the might and meaning of this vital mode of human communication. Understanding it better, she suggests, can open us up to a less constrained, more spontaneous experience of the world around us.
Cleansed review Katie Mitchell plunges us into Sarah Kane's chamber of horrors
Guinea pigs … Tom Mothersdale and Natalie Klamar in Cleansed by Sarah Kane. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The GuardianGuinea pigs … Tom Mothersdale and Natalie Klamar in Cleansed by Sarah Kane. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The GuardianMichelle TerryReviewDorfman, London
Love is tested to its limits in a series of cruel experiments, in which the cumulative effect is numbing rather than redemptive
Even by her own standards, Sarah Kane’s 1998 play is an unusually punishing experience that posits a world in which licensed cruelty tests love to its limits.
Is being the 'voice of a generation' a curse or an honour for novelists?
BooksFrom F Scott Fitzgerald to JD Salinger, Bret Easton Ellis to Sally Rooney, this label has been applied to countless zeitgeisty coming-of-age novels. But is it helpful?
Sally Rooney doesn’t come across as someone who spends a lot of time on Snapchat. There is no scene in her 2018 novel Normal People where her protagonists Marianne and Connell bond over the camera filter that turns your face into a dog. The characters in her debut, Conversations With Friends (2017), mostly communicate by text.
Outrage over French girl's rape case sparks demand for law to protect minors | France
The ObserverFrance This article is more than 2 years oldOutrage over French girl's rape case sparks demand for law to protect minorsThis article is more than 2 years oldCampaigners call for the introduction of an age of consent as 20 firefighters face charges
Protests will take place across France on Sunday in support of a woman allegedly raped by 20 firefighters when she was between 13 and 15 years old. Her case is being examined in the country’s highest court this week and campaigners hope it will lead to an age of sexual consent being enshrined in law as it is in the rest of the European Union.
The 50 biggest films of 2012 in pictures | Film
The 50 biggest films of 2012 – in pictures Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email From the blockbusting (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Dark Knight Rises) to the ludicrous (Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator), here's our pick of the next year in film, featuring three starring roles for Leonardo DiCaprio, Keira Knightley as Anna Karenina and post-franchise efforts from Twilight's Robert Pattinson and Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe Catherine Shoard, Xan Brooks, Andrew Pulver and Henry Barnes