News Atlas

BBCOct 7Preview

Chisora, 42, to fight in December after deciding against retirement

Derek Chisora's last fight was billed as his retirement bout, but the 42-year-old says he intends to box in December.

GuardianOct 7Preview

Detective breaks down in court as she recalls finding Beau Lamarre-Condon’s alleged murder victims

Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to murdering Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in Sydney in February 2024Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA detective has broken down in court while describing the moment she found the bodies of two men allegedly murdered by former police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon.Jesse Baird, 26, and his new boyfriend Luke Davies, 29, were shot dead in a Sydney terrace in February 2024. Continue reading...

Australian Associated PressAustralia newsNew South Wales

GuardianOct 7Preview

A moment that changed me: I was heading for disaster on the Greek version of Strictly. Then instinct kicked in

I was gripped by fear, aching all over – and still recovering from cancer treatment. But Dancing With the Stars was a joyous celebration of survivalIt was an invitation I accepted in a moment of madness – and, over the next three months, regretted many times a day. I was in over my head, often with my heels literally over my head: I’d signed up to appear on the Greek version of Strictly Come Dancing.Dancing With the Stars, as it is called in Greece, follows the same format as its UK counterpart, with an identical studio, a matching shiny floor, even many of the same costumes that are hired out and circulated among the 70 or more international versions of the BBC show. Of course, it’s all in Greek – and in the season I took part in, Covid restrictions had been imposed, which intensified its strangeness. Continue reading...

Victoria HislopDanceStrictly Come Dancing

NYTOct 7Preview

Understanding France’s Polycrisis

An autumn of discontent has gripped the country ahead of its presidential election.

Katrin Bennholdinternal-open-access-from-nlFrance

NYTOct 6Preview

OpenAI Releases Findings on 377 Math Problems, Further Roiling Field

After a previous solution angered mathematicians, the company characterized the new release as being more responsive to concerns about A.I. disrupting research.

Kenneth Chang and Siobhan RobertsArtificial IntelligenceMathematics

GuardianOct 6Preview

Bel review – a tearful, heartbreaking tribute to a spellbinding singer

Beldina Odenyo was on the verge of stardom when she took her own life in 2021. In this beautiful documentary, her grief-stricken sister Leah attempts to finish her album – and her journey will make you cry again and againIn 2021, the Kenyan-Scottish singer-songwriter Beldina Odenyo was on the brink of major stardom. That October, aged 31, she headlined a gig at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, delivering an instantly legendary performance; barefoot, cloaked and bone-shaking in its intensity. Everyone in that concert hall knew they were witnessing something extraordinary that night. Two weeks later, Odenyo took her own life.This tender and grief-stricken documentary, which opens a year after her death, is directed with remarkable care by Louise Lockwood. What emerges is a sensitively drawn portrait of a visionary artist haunted by trauma, formed through her teenage video diaries, the words of thos

Chitra RamaswamyTelevision & radioCulture

NPROct 6Preview

Ex-spy chief is arrested in Germany on suspicion of trading state secrets and treason

A former head of Germany 's foreign intelligence service was arrested on suspicion that he had passed state secrets to a foreign intelligence service, the federal prosecutor's office said.(Image credit: Michael Kappeler)

The Associated Press

GuardianOct 6Preview

Holding Lightning by Emily Lordi review – an intimate portrait of Whitney Houston

An empathetic biography of the the singer recasts her tumultuous later career as a triumph of self-expressionSince Whitney Houston’s death in 2012, a flurry of books and documentaries have appeared, most of them presenting her life as a cautionary tale. In this new biography, Emily Lordi, a professor of English at Vanderbilt University, refuses to reduce Houston’s story to another “good girl gone bad” narrative. Instead she presents a pluralistic take on her life in which Houston’s queerness, drug use and eccentricities are not dismissed as aberrations (as they were in her lifetime) but rather seen in the wider context of her unique talent and the pressures placed on her to embody black excellence.Lordi describes the unsteady building blocks of Houston’s family (her mother Cissy’s band The Sweet Inspirations were in-demand session musicians who worked with Elvis, as well as on Van Morris

Priya ElanWhitney HoustonBiography books

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