News (old posts, page 879)

Edward Burtynsky: ‘My photographs are like Rorschach tests’

The photographer’s images of environmental degradation are both stunning and haunting, and make up a captivating new survey

Few if any photographers have done more than Edward Burtynsky to shape our view of the large-scale industrial production that is a constant, ever-expanding part of the capitalist system. Since the 1980s, he has created more than a dozen multiyear series, tackling extractive industries like mining and oil refining in India, China and Azerbaijan, traveling to such disparate places as Western Australia, Chile’s Atacama desert and the so-called ship graveyards of Bangladesh.

Often taken from high in the sky, his photos offer views of industrial landscapes that attend to color and pattern with a sophisticated eye reminiscent of abstract expressionism, while also forcing us to contend with the devastating transformations to the natural world required to sustain our way of life.

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Kardashians, critics and copycats kick off €40m Bezos wedding bash

Private jets and super-yachts deliver guests to three-day event protesters say will turn Venice into playground for rich

The world’s rich and famous have arrived in Venice as the three-day wedding bash hosted by the Amazon billionaire, Jeff Bezos, and his wife-to-be, Lauren Sánchez, gets under way amid protests in the lagoon city.

The US reality TV personalities Kim and Khloé Kardashian were spotted clambering into water taxis in stilettos, while Kris Jenner, Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom and Jordan’s Queen Rania have also been seen.

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IOC’s Kirsty Coventry announces ‘scientific approach’ to protect ‘female category’

  • Task force of scientists and federations to revise policy

  • Trans and DSD athletes expected to be banned from female category

Kirsty Coventry has said there is now “overwhelming support” among International Olympic Committee members to protect the female category in a significant shift in its gender eligibility policy.

Coventry, who was chairing her first meetings as the IOC’s new president, said that a taskforce of scientists and international federations would be set up within weeks to come up with a new policy.

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Did The Simpsons really just kill off a major character?

The 36th season of the long-running comedy ended with a surprise flash forward to the death of a family member but it’s less a twist and more a sign that it can’t last forever

  • Spoilers ahead

The Simpsons is getting experimental in its old age. With 36 seasons complete and a renewal through a 40th secured, the show has entered territory previously occupied mostly by non-prime-time stalwarts like Saturday Night Live and Meet the Press – television institutions that run for much longer than the typical sitcom or drama. Perhaps conscious that the animated comedy has now lasted five to 10 times longer than a normal sitcom, the 36th season has repeatedly toyed with the idea of what a series finale might look like, even though no such thing is anywhere in sight.

For the season’s premiere back in the fall, it created a fake series finale, hosted by Conan O’Brien, that featured forever-10-year-old Bart turning 11 and reacting badly to a number of finale-style abrupt changes to the status quo. And in the last episode of season 36, Estranger Things, the show flashed forward to a future where family matriarch Marge has passed away and a gradual estrangement has developed between now-adult Bart and Lisa. (Homer remains alive, with the show repeatedly underlining how unlikely it seems that he would outlive his patient, cautious and seemingly healthy spouse.)

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Mamdani stood firm in his support of Gaza. The Democratic party could learn from him | Yousef Munayyer

Few issues highlight how out of touch Democratic leaders are than the issue of Palestine – Mamdani chose a different path

As the ballots were counted on Wednesday in the Democratic primary election for mayor in New York City, a young candidate with little national name recognition, Zohran Mamdani, stood atop a slate of candidates including the runner-up, and favorite, Andrew Cuomo.

There are several reasons why Mamdani was able to pull off this remarkable victory, putting him on track to compete favorably in the mayoral election in November, and many of them have implications for elections outside New York City.

But one area where the contrast between the candidates could not be clearer was on the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Mamdani, for his part, stood with protesters, demanded the release of Mahmoud Khalil, and called out Israel’s war crimes. Mamdani even pledged he’d have the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, an indicted war criminal, arrested if he came to New York City while he was mayor. Cuomo, on the other hand, volunteered to be part of Netanyahu’s legal defense team before the international criminal court.

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