ugggh

THE MELON SYSTEM

not worth the money IMO

Wha-hoo

Hercules!

leash your dang dogs!

Let her finish!!

Pukeko Pictures, founded by Weta Workshop’s Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger with their friend and children’s author Martin Baynton, has released a free children’s ebook. The book is based on characters from the New Zealand kids’ show Kiddets and demonstrates to children the importance of remaining clean, clear, and kind. You can download a copy […]

"Mad Mike" Hughes, a self-styled explorer and daredevil bent on proving that the earth is flat was killed over the weekend when his homemade rocket crashed in the California desert over the weekend.

Belgian waffles may be about to become more environmentally friendly.

A British vicar got more than he expected from his first attempt at an online sermon when he leaned too close to a candle on a cross and his sweater caught fire.

You've got to eat it, to beat it: That's the philosophy of one Hanoi chef who is attempting to boost morale in the Vietnamese capital by selling green, coronavirus-themed burgers.

Gerson Monje holds up his cellphone to proudly show off his online sex shop. A red banner reading "sold out!" is plastered across half of the products.

Volunteers clad as Superman and Spider-Man sprayed disinfectant against the coronavirus on Indonesia's island of Java, flanking a colleague wearing the winged helmet of local superhero Gatotkaca who shouted, "Wear masks, wash hands and stay alert."

Dressed as "Star Wars" characters, local officials in the Philippines are out and about to enforce strict quarantine measures while also handing out relief packages.

Chewy and Miley, both two-year-old Schnauzer dogs, are getting their hair cut at a groomer in Bangkok for the first time since the new coronavirus outbreak began in Thailand in January.

Организации хранения в маленькой спальне необходимо уделять много времени, чтобы получилось разместить в комнате все необходимое. Зачастую дизайнеры советуют решать эту проблему, используя свободное пространство под кроватью, однако далеко не все вещи можно туда складывать. Novate.ru составил список таких предметов и спешит поделиться им со своими читателями.

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The strange tale of how paradise came to be located in a Victorian semi not far from the town centre

That the Garden of Eden remains absent from travel bucket lists is, perhaps, unsurprising. Unlike El Dorado or Lyonesse, however, its location is no mystery. It even has an address: 12 Albany Road, Bedford. And while the Victorian house is modest in size, its garden does boast a cosy tearoom, and how it came to be there is as surprising as its geography.

More than 200 years ago, religious prophets – spiritual gurus of their day – attracted loyal followers and occasionally courted scandal. One such was Joanna Southcott from Devon, who in 1814, at the age of 64, declared herself pregnant with the new messiah. The baby failed to materialise and Southcott died a short while later, but not before presenting a mysterious locked box to her followers. It was to be opened in a time of national crisis, and would bring peace and prosperity on Earth – but only if 24 bishops prayed over it for three days. Bishops being busy fellows, Southcott’s box remained unopened and passed down through her followers until it came to the attention of Mabel Barltrop.

Ireland’s 7,000 pubs, 50,000 staff and millions of customers are in crisis. Time for some blue-sky thinking…

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

If it’s a balmy evening and you hear buzzing in the sky over Rathdrinagh, a townland in the middle of Ireland, the odds are that it’s not bees but beer.

Specifically, a drone carrying bottles of beer, and maybe a bag of crisps. “Bottles of Heineken usually, or sometimes a few cans of Bulmers,” said Avril McKeever.

Cities like Barcelona want to use crisis to allow people to rent properties at decent rates

Airbnb has revolutionised travel and since it was founded in 2008 hundreds of thousands of property owners have used the holiday accommodation platform to make ends meet, make a living and, in some cases, make a killing.

But while hosts, as they are known, are wringing their hands over the collapse of the travel industry and their loss of income, many city authorities are rubbing theirs at the prospect of thousands of holiday lets returning to the traditional rental market. Cities complain that the highly profitable holiday lets have driven up rents and forced out residents with the knock-on effect that local businesses no longer have a community to serve.

What does the second world war mean to millennials in Europe? We asked for their views

This weekend marks 75 years since the end of the second world war in Europe, and 70 years since the foundations were established of what became the European Union. With the continent facing its biggest challenge since 1945, do the lessons of the war and its aftermath have any resonance for young people? Millennials from around Europe share some of their thoughts and fears.

A cheap, rich and sticky treat to eat with your favourite cuppa

Usually in a recipe, I like to contrast ingredients and watch them battle it out. But sometimes, when you want to go large on one flavour, it’s worth adding a few ingredients with similar profiles to cover all bases. Today’s loaf is a case in point: I wanted layers of malt on malt on malt – flavours of toast, coffee, toffee and rye bread – which comes from using malt extract and muscovado sugar together with my favourite tea, the robust, full-bodied Assam tea, AKA the thinking woman’s English breakfast.

Prep 10 min
Cook 50-60 min
Serves 8-10

A weekday lunch of braised chickpeas, a savoury brunch porridge and a grown-up take on rice pudding

The world has seen more than its fair share of closed doors lately – shops, restaurants, the barber, your neighbours’ – but that has, in turn, led to the opening of some others.

And if there is one door that has swung wide open in recent weeks, it’s the one that leads into the kitchen. From the keenest of cooks to the humblest of beginners, the kitchen has provided us all with the one thing we’ve been missing the most: freedom.

Set after the Great Depression, Morrison’s heartbreaking debut explores beauty and finds joy where there really should be none

This week, amazingly, I read a book. Just the one, though – let’s not get excited. I suspect I was only able to do so because I wasn’t reading for pleasure, but because I’ve been asked to write a foreword for it. The book I read was The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, a novel about a young, dark-skinned girl growing up in the US after the Great Depression who believes herself to be ugly; she wishes for blue eyes in the hope that they will make her beautiful. I had started to read it a few years ago, but was so overwhelmed that I had to put it down. This time, I knew, contractually, that I was going to tackle it head on.

Usually I blitz through a book. But it’s Toni isn’t it, so you’ve got to gear yourself up for heartbreak, some trauma, and also to learn some things about yourself, and human nature, that you’d rather not be faced with. If she did one thing impeccably, it was holding a mirror up to society and saying: “Look at how we live. Are you proud of that?” And the answer cannot always be yes.

Harrell launched the careers of 90s R&B megastars Mary J Blige and Jodeci on his Bad Boy label with the Notorious BIG

Andre Harrell, founder of the influential R&B and hip-hop label Uptown Records, has died. He was 59. The cause of Harrell’s death, which was announced early on Saturday by DJ D-Nice and confirmed by media outlets, was not immediately known.

Harrell started out as half of the early-80s hip-hop duo Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde but was best known for schooling an intern, Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, in the music business.

Singer’s new documentary about the 1960s Laurel Canyon music scene shows why there is no substitute for creative collaboration

Bob Dylan’s son, the musician and performer Jakob Dylan, has urged young people to get together in person to make music and not to rely on technology, after fronting an elegiac film about how the ageing “giants” of rock gathered together to share ideas and refine their sounds.

Digital files now allow singers and musicians to hear each other across great distances, and even to collaborate on new songs, but it should never replace the habit of playing together, Dylan argues.

(Atlantic)
This solo debut from the frontwoman of pop-punk stadium stars Paramore is a riot of lust, funk and femininity

Maturity is an often derided concept in a youth-facing art form. But when Simmer, a song about repressed feminist rage buoyed by creepy electronics – the lead track from Hayley Williams’s debut solo album – was released in January, it signalled an intriguing sea change in an artist previously known as a bouncy, flame-haired emo cheerleader.

The story of how Hayley Williams, now 31, went from leading angsty emo shoutalongs in the Tennessee pop-punk band Paramore to releasing these startling songs about rage, femininity and suicidal thoughts is one of the knottier yarns in contemporary American guitar music. Her trio-of-EPs album is now complete, with the final EP – and a physical album uniting all three – released last Friday.

Coronavirus has robbed the Democrat of his typical back-slapping approach as he faces growing scrutiny and a third-party challenge

The Tampa, Florida, rally for Joe Biden on Thursday evening began as it normally might have, before a once-in-a-century pandemic transformed all aspects of American life, including the presidential campaign. A local high school student recited the pledge of allegiance, a campaign organizer pleaded with supporters to volunteer and a local DJ spun R&B music between speakers.

But in a sign of how profoundly the coronavirus crisis has reshaped American politics, that was where the similarities ended.

American Revolution 2.0, which presents itself as bipartisan, has been assisted by far-right individuals – some with extremist links

Leaked audio recordings and online materials obtained by the Guardian reveal that one of the most prominent anti-lockdown protest groups, American Revolution 2.0 (AR2), has received extensive assistance from well-established far-right actors, some with extremist connections.

Related: Armed protesters demonstrate against Covid-19 lockdown at Michigan capitol

Detailed pictures of planet glowing through clouds were taken with telescope in Hawaii

Astronomers have captured some of the highest resolution images of Jupiter ever obtained from the ground using a technique known as “lucky imaging”.

The observations, from the Gemini North telescope on Hawaii’s dormant volcano Mauna Kea, reveal lightning strikes and storm systems forming around deep clouds of water ice and liquid. The images show the warm, deep layers of the planet’s atmosphere glowing through gaps in thick cloud cover in a “jack-o-lantern”-like effect.

British medical journal’s editorial says the Brazilian president’s disregard for lockdown measures is damaging

• Coronavirus – latest updates
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The biggest threat to Brazil’s ability to successfully combat the spread of the coronavirus and tackle the unfolding public health crisis is the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, according to the British medical journal The Lancet.

In an editorial, The Lancet said his disregard for and flouting of lockdown measures was sowing confusion across Brazil, which reported a record number of Covid-19 deaths on Friday, and is fast emerging as one of the world’s coronavirus hot spots.

After the justice department dropped charges against Trump’s ex-national security adviser, Obama expressed fear the US is headed in a dangerous direction

Barack Obama has reportedly said the “rule of law is at risk” in the US, after the justice department said it would drop its case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Related: For Trump, l'etat, c'est moi. Attorney General Barr does whatever he wants | Lloyd Green

Labour’s shadow foreign secretary says coronavirus crisis exposes ‘myth of exceptionalism’

• Coronavirus – latest updates
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Lisa Nandy has said the government’s “go it alone” approach left Britain unable to to prepare for the coronavirus crisis as she urged Boris Johnson to spearhead international cooperation to create and distribute a vaccine.

In her first newspaper interview since becoming shadow foreign secretary, the former Labour leadership candidate said the aftermath of the pandemic should mark a “serious reckoning” about Britain’s role in the world. She criticised the “myth of exceptionalism”, which she said was part of the country’s self-image.

Televised broadcast includes extracts from Churchill’s historic victory speech

• VE Day 2020: follow our live blog

The Queen led tributes to the wartime generation on Friday night, recalling the “never give up, never despair” message of VE Day as the country marked the 75th anniversary of victory in Europe.

In a special broadcast, on a unique day of remembrance, reflection and celebration taking place during the coronavirus lockdown, she said: “Today it may seem hard that we cannot mark this special anniversary as we would wish. Instead we remember from our homes and our doorsteps.

Care minister’s request is admission that centralised programmes have fallen short

Ministers have asked local directors of public health to take charge of Covid-19 testing in English care homes in what will be seen as a tacit admission that centralised attempts to run the programme have fallen short.

In a letter to sector leaders, seen by the Guardian, the care minister, Helen Whately, acknowledged that testing of care home residents and staff needs to be “more joined up”. She describes the new arrangements as “a significant change”.

When councils were instructed to provide accommodation for their homeless population to protect them from coronavirus, Mike Matthews, owner of the Prince Rupert hotel in Shrewsbury, was one of the first to step in. The decision was part business decision to save his hotel, part philanthropy to help homeless people he admits he usually ignored. The new residents, including a former employee, feel it has given them some dignity back and offered them a rare feeling of family and safety. They also know this cannot be a permanent change to their lives, so what happens next?

It's one of the most important decisions a presidential candidate can make: so who will Joe Biden choose as his running mate? Political correspondent Lauren Gambino breaks down the most likely candidates for November's election

For a while supper and wine were sufficient; now I’m watching every adaptation that is better than its source material

I suspect I’m not alone in this but, at some point in the past two weeks, I hit my lockdown wall. Not literally, although apparently the “banging one’s head against the kitchen wall” phase kicks in on the eighth week, so that’s something to put in the diary. But last week I felt really, really over it. Enough with every day being the bloody same; enough with watching my children become increasingly fretful because they haven’t seen their friends in over a month, the equivalent of five years to a pair of four-year-olds. But unless you want to be one of those delightful people protesting the lockdown in the US, clothed in stars and stripes, AK-47s across their backs, what choice do we have? So, like Bill Murray, we grind out the same day, again and again and again.

The trick is to invent things to look forward to. For a while, “supper” and “wine” were sufficient, but repetition has dulled their efficacy. So I set myself challenges, driven on by the thrill of completion. Some people hear the word “challenge” and think, “Fitness!” Those people are not me. “Rewatch the entirety of 30 Rock” is more my speed. It is so soothing to watch a show about a luxuriantly bouffanted New York tycoon who isn’t a moron. In a just world, Jack Donaghy would be the US president instead of, well, you get the point. Then, sparked by his brilliant turn as Chris Tarrant on the ITV drama, Quiz, my next challenge was, “Watch every Michael Sheen performance in which he plays a real person”. This was deeply enjoyable, even if, in my lockdown-confused mind, I now think Brian Clough interviewed Richard Nixon on TV and Kenneth Williams was prime minister when Diana died.

You’d think during a pandemic we’d all have gained a little perspective – but policing female bodies and appetites is a timeless trend

Sign up for the Week in Patriarchy, a newsletter​ on feminism and sexism sent every Saturday.

Charlie I’Anson’s contract in the third tier has been terminated but the lockdown has left him unable to travel

Charlie I’Anson spent Thursday packing up boxes in the small flat he rents near Madrid, finalising the details of his dismissal from the football club for whom he played, and trying to contact the police to request permission to travel home. The night before, the news slipped out: two months after the last match, and on the day the first and second division players returned to work, the football federation decided to cancel the rest of the season in Spain’s third and fourth tiers. Like thousands of footballers, the English centre-back’s season was over with 10 matches remaining.

Related: Covid-19's impact on football: 'It could take 10 years to get where we were'

• World champion not relishing racing without fans
• Hamilton appreciates sport’s importance to many

Lewis Hamilton believes returning to grand prix racing without fans will be an “empty” experience as Formula One prepares to launch the new season behind closed doors.

F1 expects to hold its first race on 5 July in Austria as a double header followed by two meetings at Silverstone, all without spectators. However, there remains the possibility that government quarantine restrictions may make travel for F1 teams unfeasible.

• Follow a classic Merseyside derby at Wembley, as it happened
• Everton v Liverpool at Wembley – in pictures
• Email Scott with your thoughts here

3.48pm BST

Half-time advertising break.

3.46pm BST

And that’s the end of the first 45. Plenty of thinking to do for Kenny Dalglish, Bob Paisley and the rest of the Liverpool management team. Everton took a while to get going, but they eventually assumed control and have been much the better team since. Peter Reid, Kevin Ratcliffe and Gary Lineker have been the standout turns. They deserve their lead. Unless there’s a seismic shift in momentum, Everton will be drinking from the cup of redemption in about one hour’s time!

Despite rising coronavirus case numbers, the US state of Mississippi is moving out of lockdown and reopening parks, restaurants and other non-essential shops. Oliver Laughland went to the resort of Biloxi to see how residents were responding

• Coronavirus – latest US updates
• Coronavirus – latest global updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

The US southern state of Mississippi is the country’s poorest. It went into the coronavirus crisis with high levels of poverty and poor health outcomes. But following the period of lockdown and orders for residents to stay at home, the state’s governor Tate Reeves has eased restrictions - despite evidence that the rate of infections has not yet hit its peak.

The Guardian’s Oliver Laughland travelled to the Mississippi coastal resort of Biloxi where he tells Mythili Rao he found the lockdown has hit hardest those working in low paid jobs in the tourism industry. One restaurant worker describes how the loss of work meant he has had to rely on the charity of his neighbours and local food banks. But despite growing numbers of cases, people are flocking back to the beach and increasingly breaching recommendations of minimum social distancing. The state is reopening, but at what cost?

Have you been keeping up with the news?

What reason did the government give for not joining the EU procurement scheme on four separate occasions?

Brussels had the wrong address so we never got the email

We weren’t allowed to because we had left the EU.

All the European ventilators had the wrong plugs.

In her evidence to the home affairs select committee, did Priti Patel say that the reason passengers weren’t tested on arrival at airports was because...

The UK had too many international air passengers

The UK had too few international air passengers

The UK had both too many and too few international air passengers

The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, owns three homes, two of which are in London. Where is the third which he visited in contravention of lockdown rules?

Exmoor

His constituency of Newark

Herefordshire

What did the Daily Mail think VE Day stood for in its readers’ offer for a 75th Anniversary Celebration coin?

Victory in Europe

Victory for Europe

Victory over Europe

Who was visited by the police after breaking lockdown to go to Dover to make a video about his failure to find any illegal immigrants?

Richard Tice

John Redwood

Nigel Farage

How many people in South Korea (population 52 million) have died from the coronavirus?

256

2,560

25,600

What did Donald Trump suggest people should think about using to help them beat coronavirus?

Sunbed courses

Dettol

Chloroquine

What is France selling to help pay for the coronavirus crisis?

The Arc de Triomphe

The wine cellar of the Elysee Palace

Its national collection of antique furniture

How long do you get on a free Zoom conference call?

30 minutes

40 minutes

60 minutes

What was Boris Johnson doing when he took 10 days off in Chequers in February during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic?

Recovering from his 10-day break to Mustique at the New Year.

Sorting out his complicated private life.

Helping Carrie Symonds arrange a baby shower for her friends.

What was the name of the two doctors who cared for Boris Johnson in St Thomas’ after whom he named his son?

Imran

Ranjit

Nicholas

What aliases did the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, use for his second job as an internet marketeer when first elected as an MP?

Maurice Blue and Archie Stoat

Mostyn Orange and Torquil Beaver

Michael Green and Sebastian Fox

How many coronavirus tests did Priti Patel tell a Downing Street press conference had been carried out?

300,034,974,000

3,000,349,740,000

30,034,974,000

Who is being lined up to take the blame for the inevitable public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic?

The EU

Matt Hancock

Meghan and Harry

How much will a mug of coronavirus breakout star, Chris Whitty, cost you from the ‘Chris Whitty Appreciation Society’?

£8

£10

£12

What did deputy chief medical officer, Jenny Harries, tell a Downing Street press conference in March that couples should do?

Separate

Stop being so needy

Move in together

Banksy has donated a new artwork to Southampton general hospital. It depicts a boy holding up

A testing kit

A Boris Action man

A nurse doll

Where is Tom Cruise’s new film set to be shot?

The International Space Station

Richard Branson’s Necker Island

The Nightingale Hospital in London

What was Meghan reading to her son Archie in his first birthday video

Lights! Camera! Action!

Duck! Rabbit!

Duck! Never!

15 and above.

Excellent: give yourself a round of applause

11 and above.

Well done: you seem to have been paying attention to the news

7 and above.

Not bad: you appear to have been trying to keep with events

0 and above.

Risible: were you trying to get the answers wrong?

3 and above.

Very poor: do you follow the news at all?

They have a middle-class reputation, but one outdoor school near Nottingham is reconnecting disadvantaged 10-year-olds with nature and a sense of freedom

When Kate Milman was 21, she paused her English degree at the University of East Anglia to join protests against the Newbury bypass. It was 1996, and the road was being carved out through idyllic wooded countryside in Berkshire. She took up residence in a treehouse, in the path of the bulldozers, and lived there for months. It was a revelation. She lived intimately with the catkins, the calling birds, the slow-slow-fast change in the seasons. Despite being in a precarious position as a protester, she felt completely safe and her brain was calmed.

“You know when you go camping and go back to your house, and everything feels wrong? The lighting is harsh and everything seems complicated indoors. It just got under my skin, this feeling – that [living in the woods] is like being at home.”

The story of global conflict is all the more powerful when it isn’t seen in black and white. Artist Marina Amaral explains her latest work

On a stretcher lies a patient; his ashen face protrudes from under a green blanket, eyes closed. Two uniformed women carry the stretcher, wearing face masks. It looks as if it’s a lovely day: the sun is shining, the shadows dark, the sky blue. But this is not a happy picture. Is the casualty even alive, or has he already been taken by the killer virus that has wrapped itself around our planet like a python, squeezing the life from it?

The photograph was taken at an ambulance station in Washington DC. Within the past couple of months? It could have been, if it weren’t for the uniforms (I don’t think today’s nurses wear lace-up leather boots) and the stretcher. In fact, it was taken more than a century ago, in 1918, during the Spanish flu epidemic, which killed so many millions. The photographer is unknown, forgotten. But the black and white picture was recently “colourised” by Marina Amaral.

Teenagers affirm evidence that suggests they are particularly struggling with coronavirus crisis

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

When, in late February, Betsy Sheil turned 16, she thought she was staring down the end of secondary school, not the beginning of global pandemic.

“I was going to finish year 11 and do my GCSEs, then I was going to have a really long summer with my friends, hopefully go abroad – have that summer that everyone has.”

Horn was famed for introducing a pet cheetah to the magic show and was mauled on stage by a tiger in 2003

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy, the duo whose extraordinary magic tricks astonished millions until Horn was critically injured in 2003 by one of the act’s famed white tigers, has died from coronavirus complications. He was 75.

Horn died of on Friday in a Las Vegas hospital, according to a statement released by his publicist Dave Kirvin.

Security council had spent weeks seeking resolution but Trump administration opposed mention of organization

The US has blocked a vote on a UN security council resolution calling for a global ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic, because the Trump administration objected to an indirect reference to the World Health Organization.

The security council has been wrangling for more than six weeks over the resolution, which was intended to demonstrate global support for the call for a ceasefire by the UN secretary general, António Guterres. The main source for the delay was the US refusal to endorse a resolution that urged support for the WHO’s operations during the coronavirus pandemic.