Following a strikingly white and male list of Bafta nominees, this year’s Academy Awards shortlists are barely more diverse. It’s a chronic problem in an industry running out of excuses for its slow pace of change. Lanre Bakare examines why the Oscars are still so white. Plus: Joan E Greve on a hectic week of US politics

When the lists of nominees for the major film awards in 2020 were announced, there was, once again, a glaring anomaly. Not a single person of colour was nominated in the Bafta acting categories, while the Oscars managed only Cynthia Erivo for her part in Harriet.

It is an issue that the industry is well aware of: in 2015, the ceremony saw #OscarsSoWhite trending on Twitter, while actors such as Eddie Murphy were rebuking the academy from the stage back in the 1990s. So what explains the glacial pace of change? Guardian arts and culture correspondent Lanre Bakare tells Anushka Asthana that there have been plenty of false dawns over the years in the quest for greater diversity.

Have you ever noticed that in film and on TV, period dramas tend to have almost entirely white casts? It’s almost as if, at least in film and TV land, black people do not feature in British history at all. The Guardian’s Josh Toussaint-Strauss finds out how accurate costume dramas are in terms of racial diversity, and looks into the reasons why period dramas might get whitewashed

Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders gives a compelling lead performance as a young man trying to escape his father’s shadow

It’s an unusually stacked week for new films on Netflix (one they might regret when pre-pandemic content starts to dry up) with a teen comedy, a B-thriller and a romantic documentary all launching before the weekend, a feast for viewers at home but a glut that could overshadow one of their finer offerings quietly releasing alongside. All Day and a Night, a tough-minded drama from Black Panther co-writer Joe Robert Cole, might not be quite worthy enough for their awards slate (although it’s a damn sight more compelling than The Two Popes …) but it’s a step up from what one might expect of an unhyped May movie from the streamer. Think of it as a classier boutique release, deserving of a higher shelf placement.

Related: The Half of It review – charming Netflix teen comedy takes on Cyrano

You know who you are. You know what you did. And to the driver who killed Nathan Beaulieu’s dog in a cowardly hit-and-run, the Winnipeg Jets defenceman wants you to ...

The fallout came swiftly Thursday after vulgar and insulting messages traded on a private Instagram chat surfaced on social media a day earlier. The University of Manitoba Bisons released Jeremey Leipsic ...

Football is back. It returned on a warm, cloudless Friday night in Jeonju, South Korea, a mid-sized city about 200 kilometres directly south of Seoul. The United States beat Mexico here ...

"I just couldn't be more proud of you and the prospect of your presidency," Newsom told Biden Friday during a campaign event.

Restaurants and drive-in movie theatres are allowed to reopen in Las Vegas today, with casinos hoping to reopen by Memorial Day.

Audio of a private conversation shows the 44th president's unvarnished views about the former national security adviser's case and the White House's COVID-19 response.

Jameela Jamil also came to Teigen and Kondo's defense, calling Roman "distasteful" and "cliche" for criticizing women of color for being successful in business.

Trump administration whistleblower Rick Bright teared up while ripping the Trump's response to the coronavirus: "We could've done something and we didn't."

The singer who played a key role in early rock music's popularity died Saturday at 87 years old.

Groups across the country are putting tablets in the hands of COVID patients so their families can see them, sometimes for the last time

Messenger Rooms will be free for all users, with no time limit

Astronomers using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have tracked water loss from 2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet to visit our Solar System, as it approached and rounded the Sun. Their findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. 2I/Borisov was detected on August 30, 2019 by Gennady Borisov, an astronomer at the Crimean Astrophysical [...]

Neuroscientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Science have released the third version of their Allen Mouse Brain Common Coordinate Framework (CCFv3). A mouse brain contains approximately 100 million cells across hundreds of different regions. As neuroscience datasets grow larger and more complex, a common spatial map of the brain becomes more critical, as does [...]

Facebook’s dedicated Gaming app is now live on Android, months before its planned June release. The social media giant pushed the app out two months prior to its scheduled unveiling amid a global pandemic that’s left people all over the world isolated at home, rapidly burning through entertainment options. The New York Times announced the […]

Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions into isolation, video games are seeing a surge in usage as people seek entertainment and social interaction. When we surveyed gaming-focused VCs in October, Andreessen Horowitz partner Jonathan Lai predicted that “next-generation games will be bigger than anything we’ve seen yet,” eventually reaching “Facebook scale.” This month, […]

During these long, mundane physically-distant days, stretching on into an uncertain future like an ever-lengthening beigeish corridor, it’s impossible not to miss hanging out with friends. Especially the kind of hanging out where you’re not really doing anything in particular, not talking about any one thing—just kind of being. As we continue to stay physically […]

While Jackbox clearly owes a great deal of its current popularity to the shelter-in-place policies, they've also been honing their craft for years. It's worth looking at what makes them work.

2020 and 2021 will be one of the periodic transitional eras in gaming as Sony and Microsoft debut their shiny new consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. To ease the process (and spur adoption of the next generation), EA may make its upcoming titles free to “upgrade” to your chosen console. On an […]

With conferences canceled indefinitely, companies are increasingly reliant on online events to hype product launches. As they prepare to release a next-gen console before the end of the year, expect plenty of live streams and blogs from both Microsoft and Sony in an attempt to flesh out all that their respective systems have to offer. […]

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn is in self-quarantine for a couple of weeks after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, an FDA spokesman told Reuters late on Friday.

The number of deaths from the coronavirus in Mexico's best-known border city, Tijuana, has soared and the COVID-19 mortality rate is twice the national average, the health ministry says, after medical staff quickly fell ill as the outbreak rampaged through hospital wards.

While President Donald Trump traveled to the battleground state of Arizona this week, his Democratic opponent for the White House, Joe Biden, campaigned from his basement as he has done throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Greta Thunberg says she and her father, Swedish actor Svante Thunberg, appear to have been infected by the coronavirus, though they have not been tested as their native Sweden is only doing so for severe cases

The economic and healthcare policies pursued by the US in recent years have failed to prioritise public health and made it vulnerable to a pandemic. Could things be different?

Efforts to scale up testing for the covid-19 coronavirus have been slow in some countries, and some tests are more accurate than others, which could make it harder to slow the spread

The factors that cause flu to decline in spring might apply to covid-19 too. But we don’t know yet if warm weather can curb the spread of the coronavirus

We can't lose sight of the climate emergency when dealing with the covid-19 pandemic, say Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac

A study suggests high blood pressure in people over 75 doesn't seem to raise the risk of death, leading researchers to question the use of medications for it in older people

Children will face many hidden negative effects from the new coronavirus, but it's not too late to avert them, says Paul Ramchandani

Fever is a pain, quite literally, but new evidence hints at its purpose. Here’s what you need to know

An end to lockdown is many weeks away for some nations, but decisions on how to do it need to be made now so we can make preparations and communicate it clearly

Touch is key to social relationships, and while coronavirus social distancing measures may limit physical interactions, there are still many ways to connect from afar, says evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar

People from an ethnic minority are disproportionately affected by covid-19. Researchers say the reasons are rooted in existing social and healthcare inequalities

People born prematurely may have weaker hearts that recover less well after exercise, potentially explaining their increased risk of heart disease

Looking at how many more people are dying than usual gives an idea of the coronavirus pandemic’s true effect – and suggests a far higher death toll in many countries

To figure out what makes some people more vulnerable to severe cases of covid-19, we need to rethink what we know about infection

The more people we encounter, the higher the risk of virus transmission. So, how do we keep safe when going to the shops?

Antibodies in blood taken from people who recovered from COVID-19 are widely seen as a key to developing a possible cure for the disease

The former Stoke and Leicester player is a forgotten legend of English football, still the only player of East Asian heritage to play for England

The Netherlands international has become a talismanic presence for club country, but the commanding centre-half believes there is more to come

UFC 249 fight card isn't full of stars, due to the coronavirus enforced restrictions, but is expected to be a much-watched affair, however not in the arena.

UFC returns to action this weekend with an action-packed card of action from Florida.The mixed martial arts organisation comes back after a coronavirus-enforced hiatus on Saturday night in Jacksonville with a 11-fight bill headlined by Tony Ferguson’s clash against Justin Gaethje for the interim lightweight title.

Sania Mirza took to social media to post a picture with her son Izhaan.

Damien Comolli, who took the England international to Anfield, saw the Reds enter into transfer talks with the Cottagers during the summer of 2012

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday laid out the broad outlines of the next massive coronavirus-response bill Democrats will seek, with possible votes as soon as next week.

The U.S. Senate failed on Thursday to override President Donald Trump's veto of a resolution that would have reined in his ability to wage war against Iran by requiring him to obtain congressional authorization for military action.

While President Donald Trump traveled to the battleground state of Arizona this week, his Democratic opponent for the White House, Joe Biden, campaigned from his basement as he has done throughout the coronavirus pandemic.