Classical music
Feldman and Beckett: Words and Music review – hypnotic absurdism at Sheffield Chamber Music festival
Clive Paget
Tue 19 May 2026 17.54 CESTLast modified on Tue 19 May 2026 19.55 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/may/19/feldman-and-beckett-words-and-music-review-sheffield-chamber-music-festival-siobhan-mcsweeney

A few months before he died, Morton Feldman told a radio interviewer that he considered Samuel Beckett to be “a word man, a fantastic word man” and that he, Feldman, always thought of himself as a note man. The two worked together twice, first on an opera and then, in 1987, on Words and Music, an absurdist radio play that Beckett repurposed with Feldman’s music. Their mutual sympathy was apparent in Sheffield Chamber Music festival’s affectionate staging of the latter, which occupied this concert’s second half.

Before that, however, the juxtaposition of a minimalist Beckett monologue with one of Feldman’s classic uncoordinated scores laid bare their deep artistic synergy. Rockaby, a desolate exploration of ageing and isolation, was the opener. Directed in the round by Vicky Featherstone, the rigid protagonist – a magnetic Siobhán McSweeney – revolved in her rocking chair, listening and occasionally responding to her own recorded voice. It was hard not to sense the heavy hand of dementia behind the singsong fragments and the fading woman’s desperate final quest for human connection.

Where Beckett’s speech rhythms were tightly bound to the metronomic rocking of McSweeney’s chair, in Feldman’s Why Patterns?, flautist Clare Jefferis, Tim Horton on piano and Lewis Lee on glockenspiel crafted independent patterns in ever-changing time signatures. Roaming independently, their response to each other’s rhythmic permutations was both timbral and durational. While Jefferis stirred the acoustic pot by switching to mellow alto or sonorous bass flute, Lee conjured iridescent variations through the simultaneous use of up to four sticks. The result was hypnotic, and pure Feldman.

Ultimately, though, the play was the thing. McSweeney was Joe, a words man, in a love-hate relationship with Bob, embodied by conductor George Morton and seven musicians in T-shirts emblazoned with the word “music”. Their tyrannical master Croak appeared, a shuffling Jonjo O’Neill in fur-lined mantle and PJs, demanding they explore chosen themes such as love and age to anarchically comedic effect. Alas, rekindled memories of past sexual encounters proved too much for him and he departed, leaving Joe speechless and the musicians free to break out into unexpected harmony, or at least a Feldman-esque approximation of such.

New York
When I look at what Zohran Mamdani is doing as mayor, I’m jealous of New Yorkers
Arwa Mahdawi
Tue 19 May 2026 15.46 CESTLast modified on Tue 19 May 2026 22.23 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/19/when-i-look-zohran-mamdani-jealous-of-new-yorkers

S ome people buy a motorbike when they have a midlife crisis. Others take up a hobby like pottery. I, meanwhile, have channelled all my perimenopausal rage and existential angst into regularly calling government officials in Philadelphia and complaining about the city’s trash problem . Sometimes I also offer helpful suggestions as to how they can improve things, but these never seem well received. However, the last time I called the mayor’s office the woman who picked up did say: “You’ve called here before, haven’t you?” Which led me to believe that 1) not many people with English accents are calling the Philadelphia mayor’s office to offer unsolicited advice on urban sanitation; and 2) I should probably seek help with my trash obsession.

Since I seem to be airing all my unresolved psychological issues, I should probably add that I have recently diagnosed myself with a condition called Mamdani Mayoral Envy (MME). Depending on your location, you may suffer from it too. Symptoms include reading about New York and wondering why your city can’t be led by someone who actually seems to give a damn the way Zohran Mamdani does.

I don’t want to put mayor Mamdani on a pedestal. He’s obviously not perfect, but you’ve got to admit he provides a glimmer of hope among all the gloom. He didn’t water down his morals to get elected, speaking openly about Israel’s genocide in Gaza . He didn’t try to find some focus-group-approved centrist ground to campaign from, but stood for an ambitious affordability platform.

And instead of abandoning all his promises the moment he got into power (hello, Keir Starmer!), Mamdani genuinely appears to be trying to deliver on them. For the past four-and-a-half months, he has been busy. He has balanced the budget without cutting public services. He’s protected library funding in a way no other mayor has. He’s working with the New York governor to expand free childcare . And he said on Monday that he will be delivering on his campaign pledge to open city-owned grocery stores, with the first location scheduled for next year in the Bronx.

One of the smartest things Mamdani has done is to find quick and practical ways to improve quality of life. In his first 10 days , he fixed a notorious bump at the bottom of the cycling lane on Williamsburg bridge that had caused many a cyclist (myself included) to yelp in alarm. It was scheduled to be fixed, eventually, as part of a larger plan , but Mamdani said it didn’t have to wait. And, boom, life was made tangibly better for the over 8,000 cyclists using that bridge every day.

Mamdani has also filled over 100,000 potholes. I’m no expert, but the data suggests that is a remarkable rate of hole-filling.

The New York Post doesn’t seem impressed, quoting a Republican saying Mamdani is just doing his job: “Taking credit for filling potholes is like taking credit for changing a lightbulb. It’s what you’re supposed to do,” scoffed councilman Frank Morano in the Post. Sure, but the problem is that lots of politicians are not doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

From a personal point of view, I was impressed to see Mamdani become the first New York mayor to publicly mark Nakba Day. In a social media post on Friday, he explained that it commemorates , “the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 during the creation of the State of Israel”. My grandparents had to flee Haifa in 1948; like many Palestinians, they kept their key with them, hoping one day to return. They never could. My father, who left the West Bank in 1967, has no right to live where he was born – his former home may soon turn into a settlement . It meant a lot to see a US politician acknowledge Palestinian pain. Particularly when Mamdani knew he would face backlash for it – which he did .

But again: I don’t want to gush. Mamdani is not perfect. His timing, for example, is terrible. Couldn’t he have become mayor a bit earlier? After more than a decade in New York, I left for the cheaper climes of Philadelphia in 2022. I missed out on Mamdani but I did get to watch Philadelphia’s mayor have a viral moment supporting the city’s football team, the Eagles, with a chant that went: “E-L-G-S-E-S!” Philly is great, but its leadership really is for the birds.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

On Monday 8 June, join Mehdi Hasan and Arwa Mahdawi to discuss the current seismic changes in geopolitics, the alarming rise of populism and nationalism, and its global implications. Live in London and livestreamed worldwide. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

US-Israel war on Iran
Trump threatens ‘a big hit’ if Tehran does not make deal soon
Jason Burke
Tue 19 May 2026 20.23 CESTLast modified on Tue 19 May 2026 22.23 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/19/trump-threatens-a-big-hit-if-tehran-does-not-make-deal-soon

Donald Trump has again threatened Iran, saying the US may launch new attacks if Tehran continues to refuse the significant concessions he wants before a deal can be struck to end the Middle East war.

The US president said he had called off a fresh wave of strikes , which would have broken the ceasefire in place since early last month. “I was an hour away from making the decision to go today,” Trump said on Tuesday.

The decision apparently followed a further peace proposal submitted by Tehran via Pakistan , which has mediated, and may have been motivated by the reluctance of allies, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, to see hostilities resume.

Trump said Iran’s leaders were “begging” to make a deal, but a new US attack would deliver “a big hit” in the coming days if one was not reached.

“Well, I mean, I’m saying two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, something, maybe early next week, a limited period of time, because we can’t let them have a new nuclear weapon,” he said.

Trump has made repeated threats in recent weeks but the continuing failure to follow through has increased the sense that the conflict is deadlocked.

Analysts say both sides want to avoid a new round of hostilities but neither are willing to pay the political price of the concessions necessary to secure a peace agreement.

“Trumps’ threats have lost all credibility … Both sides are too far apart in terms of what they are willing to accept or work on but neither side want to go back to war. So they are just stuck … and neither side really knows how to get out of this,” said Neil Quilliam of London’s Chatham House .

Iran continues to block most shipping in the strait of Hormuz, which carried about a fifth of the world’s supply of oil and liquid gas before the conflict, while the US has imposed its own naval blockade on Iranian ports.

Iranian officials have remained defiant in the face of Trump’s new threats, describing US demands as “excessive”.

Since the ceasefire began on 8 April, Tehran and Washington have held only a single round of talks: an unsuccessful 21-hour session in Islamabad. Pakistani mediators have sought to bridge the big gaps between the two sides, passing successive proposals from one to the other, but have complained that both are “changing their goalposts”.

According to Iran’s ISNA news agency, Mohammed Akraminia, a military spokesperson, reiterated on Tuesday that Tehran would continue to manage the strait, adding that the US needed to “respect the Iranian nation and observe the legitimate rights of the Islamic republic”.

On Monday, Iran announced the formation of the Persian Gulf Strait Authority to manage traffic through the waterway, while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to impose permits on the internet fibre optic cables passing through the strait .

Akraminia said on Tuesday that in the event of new attacks Iran would “open new fronts” against the US – which has gathered a vast array of military firepower in the region – and said Tehran had used the ceasefire “to strengthen its combat capabilities”.

Experts say it is likely that Iran would also redouble efforts to retaliate against Israel and nearby Gulf states, probably targeting vulnerable oil and other civilian infrastructure.

Iranian state media said Tehran’s latest peace proposal involved ending hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, the withdrawal of US forces from areas close to Iran, and reparations for destruction caused by US-Israeli attacks.

Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said Tehran also wanted sanctions lifted, frozen funds released, and an end to the US marine blockade, according to IRNA, the state news agency.

The terms as described in the Iranian reports appeared little changed from its previous offer, which Trump rejected last week as “garbage”.

The closure of the strait of Hormuz and the threat of further conflict in the region has sent oil prices soaring, increasing inflation worldwide and threatening a global recession. A new round of fighting could send prices even higher and stock markets tumbling.

White House officials are concerned that the conflict, which has little support among US voters, may derail Republican chances of keeping control of Congress at a time when worries about the cost of living are acute.

Iran faces a deepening economic crisis and potential damage to its oil infrastructure. Inflation is soaring and some officials fear an increase in popular discontent with the regime.

Quilliam said: “On Iran, there is no real data so it’s very hard to guesstimate, but we know that the regime is intact and probably more hardline than it has ever been … So no matter the pain they are suffering they are not suddenly going to say” ‘OK, we have to get to the negotiating table.’”

Rights groups have said that since the start of the war, Iran has executed 26 men seen as political prisoners – 14 charged over January protests, one over 2022 demonstrations, and 11 accused of links to banned opposition groups.

The Human Rights Activists news agency (Hrana), a US- and Netherlands-based monitoring group , has documented at least 4,023 arrests in Iran between 28 February, when the war started, and 9 May. Hrana has also documented at least 3,636 war fatalities, including 1,701 civilians, from US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

On Tuesday, a top commander of US forces in the Middle East avoided taking responsibility for an attack on a school in Minab, southern Iran, on the first day of the war, 28 February, that killed 155 people, saying a “complex” investigation continued.

Adm Brad Cooper, the commander of US Central Command, told a congressional oversight panel that “the school itself is located on an active IRGC cruise missile base”, making the investigation “more complex than the average strike”.

According to Iranian state media, the attack killed 73 boys, 47 girls, 26 teachers, seven parents, a school bus driver, and another adult.

Games
Star Fox 64, a game I loved in my childhood, is returning – but I have mixed feelings
Keza MacDonald
Wed 13 May 2026 16.00 CESTLast modified on Wed 13 May 2026 16.01 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/may/13/a-game-i-loved-in-my-childhood-is-returning-but-i-have-mixed-feelings

T he Nintendo 64 was not my first video game console, but it was my formative one. Getting to grips with 3D movement in Super Mario 64 with that weird three-pronged controller is one of my most visceral childhood memories; the long, long wait for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was the background noise to a huge chunk of my youth. But back in the 1990s (in the UK at least), it felt as if nobody had an N64. When everybody had a PlayStation instead, I felt I was the only kid in my whole city who cared more about Banjo-Kazooie than Crash Bandicoot.

If even Zelda seemed comparatively niche in Europe in the 90s, Lylat Wars (known elsewhere as Star Fox 64) was a real deep cut. It’s a 1997 space-flight shooter starring Fox McCloud and his squad of animal pilots laser-blasting across different planets in nimble crafts called Arwings. I played this game to absolute death in 1998, when I got it for my birthday alongside the fabled Rumble Pak, which made your controller vibrate and shudder whenever something cool was happening on screen (fun fact: Lylat Wars was the first console game to feature controller rumble). But I really hadn’t thought about it much since. Then, last week, Nintendo announced a Switch 2 remake.

The Star Fox series has been dormant for a good decade, but there have been rumours a new game was in the works for a while now. The moment Fox McCloud appeared for an otherwise inexplicable cameo in the newly released Mario Galaxy movie, I knew that Nintendo must be planning to announce something. I did not for one second expect that game to be a straight-up rework of Lylat Wars, though.

It’s a strange choice.

The Star Fox series has an interesting history. The first game began as a technological experiment to see if it was possible to generate polygonal 3D graphics on a Snes – Nintendo flew a group of young British coders to Japan to help develop it (in itself a fascinating story that’s well worth reading). For that reason, it’s an on-rails shooter: you fly along a set path, moving the craft around the screen, rather than being in full control of where you’re going. Lylat Wars had the same limitations – all its levels are on rails, apart from a few small arenas where you have full freedom of movement. It was designed to show off the then-new Rumble Pak technology as well as the Nintendo 64’s 3D chops; the whole thing is just over an hour long (though there are several different routes through the game, taking you through variably hostile and challenging planets). It is very much a product of technical limitation.

Why not, then, make a new Star Fox game free of such limitation? Why remake a game that is so obviously an artefact of the late 90s? A more free-form and ambitious Star Fox game would be worth getting excited about – space dogfighting games are in much shorter supply now than they were in the 90s.

Obviously, not everything is the same. Beyond the level layouts, which are identical, the new game’s visuals and character designs are totally different – sparking some spirited debate on exactly how players want an anthropomorphic toad to look in 2026. It’s a strange feeling, watching a fly-though of stages I remember in detail. On the opening planet, Corneria, there are strange stone towers jutting up from water that you skate just above, the Arwings’s wingtips throwing up spray. I remember the cheesy dialogue word for word, but in place of the N64’s fuzzy squad-mate mugshots and muffled sound samples are uncannily realistic-looking animal faces and newly-voiced lines. Everything about the game looks better now than it ever did, even in my imagination, 30-ish years ago, and I know I will enjoy revisiting it.

Still, I would have preferred to see an entirely new game. There is a slightly troubling retreat to nostalgia across the gaming world: Sega is prepping new entries in long-abandoned series like Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio, and remaking/rereleasing Resident Evil and Final Fantasy games from the 90s has proved very fruitful for Capcom and Square Enix in recent years. As Konami is doing with its remake of the classic Silent Hill 2 and new takes on the series from Scottish developer SCREEN BURN Interactive (formerly NoCode) and Japanese author Ryukishi07, it would be good to see these nostalgia trips complemented by new takes on bankable franchises – perhaps from new developers.

What to play

Nostalgia isn’t just the purview of remakes, as Mixtape amply proves. An intentionally tropey interactive coming-of-age movie about three teens on their last night of high school in the mid-90s, it has encouraged a lot of discussion about commercialised longing for the past. The game is constructed around a licensed soundtrack that is, admittedly, a little much – even for the most insufferable American teenager of the time – featuring Portishead, Siouxsie and The Banshees and Silverchair among other sometimes anachronistic alternative rock. I have read more interesting criticism on this game than any other this year. Some have found Mixtape to be a weirdly ill-fitting take on the 1990s, with the feel of second or even third-hand nostalgia; the fact that it is a small-town teen drama made by Australians about a city in the US Pacific Northwest might contribute to that. Others have absolutely loved it, related to it strongly, and showered it in 10/10s. I’m landing somewhere in the middle – I rolled my eyes often at the story, but loved the inventive way that it plays with adolescent experiences like a first kiss and a trip to the video store. However you feel about it, this is a game that’s worth having a take on.

Available on: Xbox, Switch 2, PS5, PC Estimated playtime: 3-4 hours

What to read

The Nintendo Switch 2 will increase in price soon due to global RAM and component shortages. (Sony also recently raised the price on the PlayStation 5 for the same reasons.)

I felt all warm inside reading this paean to the video game pub from Jank, a new(ish) PC games website from some of the greatest people to ever cover the scene.

The video game industry unionisation push continues: Microsoft-owned Double Fine (Psychonauts, Keeper) is the latest US studio to unionise.

At Eurogamer, Dom Peppiatt writes about how they have learned to do cryptic crosswords with the help of Pokémon .

What to click

Streaming platform Twitch lets users enter viral ‘mogging’ beauty contests

‘We’re remixing her library for a new medium’: the video games capturing the happy-sad spirit of Tove Jansson’s Moomins

‘Nurse, the joypad!’: the eight greatest medical video games

From Smashing Pumpkins to Ferris Bueller: new Australian indie video game Mixtape is a blast of nostalgia

Mortal Kombat II – junky game-to-movie sequel offers more of the same | ★★☆☆☆

Question Block

Reader Chris asks:

“I am a member of a book club and we recently played through Crow Country . I thought that the length was about the same as a book, and the various themes (don’t want to spoil) would make for an interesting discussion. Do you think a game club would work? If so, what games would you recommend (ideally these would be multiplatform)?”

We had a similar question a year ago, Chris, and it got both me and Pushing Buttons readers thinking about what to call a video game book club and which games would be most suited to such an endeavour. So I’m taking this opportunity to resurface those recommendations and add some fresh ones. (If you’ve got 2-4 straight hours, you could even play most of these in a single evening with your fellow book-clubbers, or you could just all play them individually.)

Mixtape , mentioned earlier, would be a great shout, as there’s loads to talk about. To a T was hilarious, and short, and interesting. Thank Goodness You’re Here would also be a great comedic selection. You could do the multi-Bafta-winning Dispatch chapter by chapter. The Exit 8 has just been adapted into a film. I know we never shut up about Despelote in this newsletter, but it is also short and dense with meaning. Many Nights a Whisper is a one-night game that’s been on my list for ages. I reckon there’s a suitable short game for every theme you could possibly come up with. Have fun!

If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – hit reply or email us on pushingbuttons@theguardian.com .

Painting
‘America’s Mona Lisa’: how chance, genius and cheap paint made the masterpiece Whistler’s Mother

Tue 19 May 2026 16.20 CESTLast modified on Tue 19 May 2026 21.25 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/may/19/americas-mona-lisa-whistlers-mother

‘O ne does like to make one’s mummy just as nice as possible.” So James Abbott McNeill Whistler said about his triumphant painting of his mother Anna – or Arrangement in Grey and Black No 1 as he christened it. Whistler was not a man given to undue modesty, but in 2026 his words sound like a rare understatement. Over the past century and a half, Whistler’s Mother, as it is commonly known, has become America’s equivalent of the Mona Lisa. Anna has never stopped travelling around museums in the US and beyond in those years. This month, for the first time in almost two generations, it will return to London, the city where Anna was painted in Whistler’s Chelsea studio, as part of Tate Britain’s Whistler show .

I got to know every inch of the picture over many months, as I restored it for the Musée d’Orsay to the state it is in now (I was commissioned by the Louvre, the owner of the painting). Whistler is the only artist whose portrait of his mother has reached such superstar status – and its history is fascinating.

The artist was a larger-than-life personality, with a never-ending store of dazzling aphorisms. The young Oscar Wilde was a disciple of his mordant wit and once exclaimed, “I wish I had said that”, to which Whistler rapier-like retorted, “But you will.” However, he was far more than just an amusing man. Walter Sickert, who worked as Whistler’s assistant, called him, “A beacon of light and happiness to everyone who was privileged to come within its comforting and brightening rays.”

Nevertheless, when Anna sat for her son in 1871, nobody would have predicted the success of the painting. Whistler’s life at the time was at a nadir, and London critics panned his work. Arrangement in Grey and Black No 1 was painted in a moment of despair. He had spent four years as an American in Paris, living la vie bohème , garret, mistresses and all. Realising that he stood little chance against his friends and French contemporaries Manet and Monet, he moved to London where the art scene was stuck and ripe for a revolutionary artist.

After the initial success of his dreamy masterpiece At the Piano (1858), painted when Whistler was only 25, things had steadily gone downhill, however. English collectors rigidly expected a painting to tell a story and he, by then in his 30s, was doggedly pursuing what he called “the poetry of sight”. This was radically different from the impressionists taking Paris by storm with their interest in capturing light. Whistler was not that interested in nature.

The portrait actually came about by chance. In 1871, the 15-year-old daughter of William Graham MP had run off from posing for a lucrative society portrait. Whistler asked Anna instead (it is painted on the reverse of a used canvas, possibly the one he had been labouring on). His mother could sit for him in his studio rather than stand on account of her poor health. The footstool in the painting may even have been another concession: a footwarmer in the cold, crepuscular, north-facing studio of the house on Cheyne Walk.

Everything suddenly came together in flashes of genius. Whistler was far from an intellectual, but he had the equivalent of perfect pitch for art. He was interested in its texture and painted its deep blacks almost like ink as an experiment. What colour there is lies in thick traditional paint. The background of Whistler’s Mother is his minimalist studio. Very modern today, it was alien to the riot of Victorian colours, tchotchkes and tapestries in fashion in London at the time.

When Whistler’s Mother was exhibited at the Royal Academy after much arm-twisting by his friends, art experts were perplexed. A critic for the Examiner newspaper gave Whistler the benefit of the doubt that the likeness of the room and his mother were “probably” true, but otherwise concluded “it is not a picture”, decrying the use of only grey and black. Only when the admiring French government bought the painting in 1891 did Britain’s art establishment agree that it had let a valuable treasure slip through its fingers. It would take Britain another three decades to recognise the revolution that had happened under its nose.

With Mother, Whistler became the first in the line of America’s own great painters: Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko to name but a few. As a restorer, I can clearly see how Whistler’s burst of creative energy was uniquely American. Warhol once remarked, “My pictures won’t last. I used cheap paint”, and Whistler could easily have said something similar. The blacks of Anna’s skirt already looked different when the French state bought the painting for the Louvre. Whistler didn’t help matters by having it relined too soon for the occasion, soaking the paint into the canvas like butter into toast. In many ways, the painting was as tricky to restore as the now quietly decomposing Rothkos in the cellars of museums around the world.

At the same time, the heart of the painting is indestructible as a touching portrait of the affection between a mother and son. In a letter she wrote, she revealed how Whistler “had no nervous fears” and that he kissed her when it was done. There is no artifice here. Anna always dressed in a widow’s plain black dress with a white bonnet. She was as devoted to her Puritan religion as Whistler was to his art and they respected each other’s devotion without question.

Whistler accompanied his mother to Sunday mass, and when she moved in with him and his girlfriend Jo Heffernan on Cheyne Walk, she fused seamlessly into his artistic milieu of louche and outrageous friends, including Aubrey Beardsley and Algernon Swinburne. Only once, when she opened the door to his studio and found the maid posing in the “all over”, did she quickly close the door.

During the long process of her restoration, Whistler’s Mother ended up by chance next to Ingres’s enormous portrait of Napoleon decked out in all his imperial pomp. Yet the emperor struggled to overpower the widow from the Carolinas. Which makes sense: after all, if everyone’s life had one empress, wouldn’t it be one’s mother?

James McNeill Whistler is at Tate Britain, London , from 21 May to 27 September. Whistler and His Mother: The Mystery of America’s Most Famous Painting by Sarah Walden is published in paperback on 21 May(Gibson Square, £14.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

Barcelona
Three Toronto police officers arrested over sexual assault in Barcelona
Leyland Cecco
Tue 19 May 2026 19.13 CESTLast modified on Tue 19 May 2026 20.52 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/19/toronto-police-sexual-assault-charge-barcelona

The Toronto police force, which is already under intense public scrutiny, is facing fresh questions after it emerged that three off-duty officers on vacation in Barcelona were arrested in connection with a sexual assault last week.

According to police in Barcelona, the alleged assault occurred in the early hours of 13 May, when the trio of police officers were travelling in a taxi with a sex worker in the Ciutat Vella neighbourhood of the Catalan capital.

The officers allegedly tried to force the woman to have sex with them all simultaneously, according to the regional paper El Periódico de Catalunya. When she refused, the three suspects are alleged to have become violent and to have started insulting, threatening and beating the woman.

“One of the officers in the back allegedly sexually assaulted the victim, while the other allegedly punched her in the face, causing a cut above her eyebrow that required stitches due to profuse bleeding,” the newspaper wrote. “Faced with this situation, the woman called for help from the taxi window.”

When plainclothes officers from Barcelona’s municipal police force stopped the taxi and ordered its occupants out, one of the Canadian policemen allegedly reacted violently, while another – who had allegedly hit the woman – ran away.

Two of them were arrested at the time, while a third fled,” said a spokesperson for the Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra. “One of the two men arrested in Barcelona has been charged with sexual assault and assault, while another has been released on bail. The third man was arrested on the morning of Friday 15 May in Palma de Mallorca in cooperation with the Guardia Civil.”

It was the local media reports in Barcelona that first tipped off Canadian media that the officers had been arrested and faced criminal charges. The Toronto police service confirmed the arrests on 18 May, but it did not respond to questions over why it failed to proactively disclose the arrests by Catalan police.

A Toronto police spokesperson called the allegations “serious” but said the force was not identifying the officers. The police service said it was unable to comment further on the charges, as the matters are now before the court.

The allegations come as the police force, the largest in Canada , grapples with immense reputational damage over recent allegations of corruption.

In recent months, at least eight officers have been charged in a sprawling investigation for accepting for bribes, aiding drug traffickers, leaking personal information to criminals who then carried out shootings, and helped members of organised crime in a plot to murder a corrections officer. The investigation, Project South, has exposed the “corrosive” reach of organised crime into Canada’s largest municipal police service, said the city’s police chief.

None of the officers arrested in Spain has been linked publicly to Project South.

The Toronto police association, which represents police officers, said it was aware of the incident involving three of its members but provided no further details.

“Given these charges relate to an off-duty incident, the Toronto police association has no further comment,” the group said.

Life and style
This is how we do it: ‘My sex life with her is completely separate to my life as a divorced father’
Olivia Ladanyi
Sun 17 May 2026 12.00 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/may/17/this-is-how-we-do-it-sex-life-after-divorce-late-forties

Can, 49

I was used to telling people that I could only offer them adventure, but with Shani that wasn’t true

I remember the moment Shani leaned forward slightly at brunch. We started kissing but we were a bit tipsy so decided to leave it there. I’d been poly for seven years after my divorce, rediscovering myself through the pleasure of connection with different people.

Shani and I both decided to stop having sex with other people so that we could experience each other fully. I was used to telling people that I could only offer them adventure, but with Shani that wasn’t true. Maybe it was timing, or that she also wanted good sex with someone who didn’t need a relationship. In the beginning, she focused on the physical – I was more of a sexual tool for her than a partner, and I understood why she needed that. But trust grew slowly and Shani began to let her guard down. Now she says she likes my company as well as my anatomy.

More than two years in, we still can’t get enough. We only see each other a few nights every couple of weeks, and that distance keeps the sexual tension alive. My life with Shani is completely separate from my life as a divorced father. There’s still a part of my heart that’s frozen, and difficult to open up and give away. Divorce does that to a person.

What I’m drawn to most is her brilliant mind. She’s intelligent and has strong opinions, which is as arousing to me as her figure. The more she realises how much I love her body, the better the sex is. Shani initiates by walking through the door wearing a certain nail polish or lipstick or shoes. I initiate by coming up behind her and biting her neck, and depending on the way she smiles or pushes back on me, I can tell there’s reciprocity. If she’s horny, it’s written all over her face.

I didn’t think my sex life would be like this in my late 40s. It helps that Shani and I are very open with each other. We talk about attraction, other people, our fantasies. She told me early on that she can get jealous. It’s about being open – communicating our doubts and fears rather than letting them sit unspoken.

Shani, 44

Our relationship is intuitive and exists in the present, so I don’t know what long-term looks like

I’d known Can for 15 years when I invited him over for brunch. I hadn’t felt attracted to him before, but then we got drunk and kissed. Nothing else happened between us that day because we both had plans, but we knew that something was unfolding and we’d jump on each other the next time we met. When we eventually did, we had sex for two days. The attraction is just as strong two and a half years later.

At the time, I was coming out of a wild period after my husband of 12 years left me out of the blue. I moved around a lot, between cities and countries, sleeping on sofas, never staying in one place longer than a month. At the peak, I was sleeping with four men I met via apps in one day. Being with everyone was a way to avoid being with anyone, so I wouldn’t be abandoned again. But it eventually started to scare me, so by the time Can and I got together I’d already decided to stop.

Getting closer to Can was scary, so I told myself it was just sex. But being with him was fun and easy, so I was open to seeing where it could go. He was poly and divorced, and didn’t seem as if he needed anything from me, which made it feel safer. When he decided to stop seeing other people early on, it was reassuring. I really trust him; he’s taking the cynicism out of me. But the fear is still there – that he’ll fancy someone else and leave me for them.

We talk about going to sex clubs and bringing other people in – Can is the first person I can imagine doing that with. But seeing him with someone else will be a test. I’m not sure how I’ll react.

We live an hour apart and don’t talk every day, and I like that distance. I don’t want to rely on anyone, but I know I can rely on him. When we’re together, we have sex first, then talk. Our relationship is intuitive and exists in the present, so I don’t know what long-term looks like, but I don’t see why it can’t continue like this.

Chelsea flower show
‘An accessible space’: the Chelsea garden visitors can see, hear, feel, taste and touch their way round
Donna Ferguson
Tue 19 May 2026 07.00 CESTLast modified on Tue 19 May 2026 14.31 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/may/19/chelsea-flower-show-accessible-sensory-garden-sightsavers

S ome will want to touch the Stachys byzantina , an evergreen plant with leaves so velvety soft its common name is lamb’s ear. Others will want to smell the star jasmine, taste the plethora of herbs or listen to the “sensory soundscape” inspired by bioelectric signals of the surrounding plants.

When the Sightsavers sensory garden opens at the Chelsea flower show this week, designers Peter Karn, Janice Molyneux and Sarah Fisher are hoping that visitors, with disabilities or without, will find it an accessible, inclusive space that engages all their senses.

“A garden can be more than just a nice space to look at. It can be an immersive sensory experience,” said Karn. “And the more sensory elements like texture, flavour and aroma we can work into a garden, the more accessible it is going to be for lots of different groups.”

The flower show in west London gets under way on Tuesday, with hundreds of thousands of people from around the world expected to flock to the banks of the Thames. But among the crowds and more typical “luxury” attractions, the creators of the sensory garden hope it will stand out because of its accessibility and use of humble, everyday materials.

Children, wheelchair users and those who have lost, or are losing, their sight or other senses will find many safe and stimulating ways to interact with the natural world in the Sightsavers 3-metre by 4-metre garden. Molyneux said: “We’ve designed the planting so there’s nothing harmful, so if you reach out and touch a plant, it’s not going to be a thorn – or if you put a leaf in your mouth, there’s nothing toxic there.”

Instead, visitors are invited to enjoy the sensory delights of fennel, dill, rosemary and thyme, as well as the edible, colourful flowers of nasturtium and chives.

Many of these plants were chosen because, as well as being “lovely” to taste and smell, they are pleasant to brush past and touch, Molyneux said. “The dill has a fine, feathery texture, the rosemary is really tactile, and the thyme is quite bouncy … you want to touch its little leaves.”

To attract the sound of birdsong, there is also a small ornamental tree, Cornus kousa , with edible berries birds like to feed on, and the lamb’s ear, a perennial member of the mint family, which birds often use to line their nests. “It has grey silvery leaves, which have all these soft little hairs,” Molyneux said. “They feel like felt.”

The “pollinator-friendly” and drought-tolerant plants, which are all grown in low-level, tiered containers, offer interest at different heights and could be easily maintained by a wheelchair user or mobility-impaired gardener, Karn said.

The containers are curved, “so it’s quite easy to feel your way around the space and by having protruding leaves, you get this very gentle brushing of sensory plants as you move through the garden,” he added. “You experience the aroma of the garden as you explore it through touch … If you were to shut your eyes, you could feel and smell your way around the garden.”

Visitors are invited to sit in the centre, underneath a steel halo structure that collects rainwater near a fragrant seven sons flower tree ( Heptacodium miconioides) , which has a textured, peeling golden bark. The water trickles down into a pond via a “rain chain” water feature, creating “a relaxing, natural sound”, Molyneux said.

The entire garden has been designed around a wheelchair-turning circle, and there is a light beige path that contrasts sharply with the red brick of the planters. “You need a contrast between vertical structures and the floor so that you can see where your boundaries are, if you’re visually impaired,” said Karn.

As some of the plants were growing in their nursery, composer Dr Helen Anahita Wilson recorded their bioelectric signals by hooking up their stems, leaves and roots to monitors, using crocodile clips and sensors. She then interpreted patterns of the plants’ “aliveness” that she saw in the numerical and graphical data she collected, and used these patterns to compose a sensory sound installation of rhythms and melodic phrases that will be played on hidden loudspeakers in the garden.

“I have a deep fascination for all things gold – and there’s this one plant in particular in the garden called Aurinia saxatilis , which also goes by the name ‘gold dust’,” she said. “So in the sound installation, all of the harmonies are built from biodata from this gold dust and my observations of its plant structure, because I like to look really closely at plants and think about how their shape could be interpreted in sound.”

From her bioelectric recordings of achillea “Moonshine”, a perennial yarrow with bright yellow flowers, she got “very strange, intricate, delicate patterns” which she decided to interpret as being “quite bubble-like and insect-like … So any visitors to the garden will hear these effervescent sounds in the higher registers, which feel a bit twinkly and curious.”

Listeners will also be able to hear the character of the fragrant star jasmine plant, which has been turned into a “supportive string drone sound” similar to an electronic double bass and a cello, throughout the 30-minute composition.

Wilson was excited about how the weather and sounds of wildlife in the garden would transform and enhance her music. “We’re hoping for some insects and birds to add another sonic layer to it,” she said.

The inclusive ethos of the garden is intended to reflect the breadth of Sightsavers’ charitable work across more than 30 low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia, from tackling avoidable blindness and neglected tropical diseases to promoting equality of opportunity for people with disabilities.

Molyneux hopes the garden will help people – particularly those living with sensory loss – to feel as though they belong in gardens and the natural world. “Connecting with nature has been proven to be so great for our wellbeing,” she said.

Karn was determined to show visitors how a well-designed garden should do more than just appeal to people visually: “Gardens should be universally accessible places for everyone.”

Books
‘Capitalism has to become more humane’: a Stanford economist on big tech, power hoarding and democracy
Hannah Harris Green
Mon 18 May 2026 15.00 CESTLast modified on Tue 19 May 2026 00.13 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/18/big-tech-monopolies-democracy-mordecai-kurz

T he billionaires of today are unusually aggressive in their hoarding of cultural and technological influence, according to Mordecai Kurz, a Stanford economist whose research connects monopoly power with political and economic inequality. In his new book, Private Power and Democracy’s Decline, publishing 19 May, he argues the US is living through an extreme version of a pattern that has repeated itself since industrialization: technological power concentrating in the hands of a few, which is eroding democracy.

According to Kurz, technological moguls have long seen themselves as superior beings whose natural role is to shape society – so they have no problem disrupting the institution of democracy. During the first Gilded Age, in the late 19th century, as the US was enjoying its first ascent as an industrial powerhouse, wealthy industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller “invented all kinds of theories about human evolution”, twisting the logic of social Darwinism to convince themselves that their success was a sign they had been selected by nature to influence society, Kurz explained. Now, the Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, has suggested his technology has a mystical potential to become a transcendent good. He has also openly acknowledged it could lead to mass unemployment .

Voters turn towards fascist leaders when democracy no longer serves workers, Kurz says. “New Deal” reforms during the Great Depression limited monopoly power and provided benefits to the vulnerable. According to Private Power and Democracy’s Decline , these reforms precipitated a “half-century of sustained innovations, rapid economic growth and stable income distribution”. Reagan-era reversals of those reforms led to what Kurz calls the “second Gilded Age”, when technological firms could accumulate monopoly power and wealth while most Americans, especially blue-collar workers without college degrees, saw their wages stagnate as the cost of living rose. It was this economic disenfranchisement, rather than cultural forces, that led to the rise of Maga, according to Kurz.

The book describes how today’s tech giants are diminishing voter power through both economic and cultural influence. Small tech startups and bigger tech companies like Microsoft and OpenAI prefer to collaborate with one another rather than compete, Kurz says. New technology companies are now formed not with the intention to challenge existing players but with the explicit aim of eventually being acquired by one. This is a symptom of monopoly power so extreme and entrenched that no innovator can survive without an established monopoly’s blessing. David has no choice but to work with Goliath. This same monopoly status gives tech giants enormous lobbying influence. Politicians who rely on their money are unlikely to rein them in.

“When you use strategies designed to manipulate knowledge to create market power, you go way beyond what we should be willing to accept,” Kurz said.

Tech giants use the force of their largely unregulated social media networks to further drive polarization to serve their bottom lines, Kurz says. “[Social meda] activity is profitable, and sometimes you generate activity by creating falsehoods, which are not good for democracy,” he said, adding that tech companies should be held legally liable for misinformation on their platforms. Unregulated AI could also further entrench disillusionment as it seeks to displace an even larger swath of workers, he projects – not just those without college degrees but doctors, lawyers and engineers as well.

Still, Kurz is optimistic that a better democracy will rise again, though it might be a difficult road. “Trumpism will not go in a whimper,” Kurz says. “There may be a big recession or a big depression or some other crisis before we can complete a new reform cycle.”

Kurz says that extreme consolidation of technological power has eventually led to reform in the past, and conditions are ripe for it to happen again. “If you talk to any normal, intelligent American, they will tell you something is wrong in America and something has to change,” he said. The Maga coalition is a combination of old-fashioned Republicans, white supremacists and former blue-collar workers who have been disenfranchised, says Kurz. Very specific economic circumstances led this group of people to come together, and they will fall apart again.

When the time for that reform comes, Kurz outlines what it should look like in Private Power: the government should tax and redistribute excess wealth that tech firms accumulate due to monopoly power. When workers are displaced by AI, education to help them learn new, more relevant skills should be government subsidized, as should companies who hire them. And new policies should ensure that AI technology assists workers but doesn’t replace them.

“We want capitalism to support democracy. Capitalism has to become more humane. It has to be more regulated. And in democracy, we don’t leave anybody behind,” he said.

Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock painting sells for record $181m at Christie’s in New York

Tue 19 May 2026 16.08 CESTLast modified on Tue 19 May 2026 22.23 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/may/19/jackson-pollock-painting-sells-for-record-181m-christies-new-york-auction

A Jackson Pollock painting has sold for a record $181.2m (£135.3m) at Christie’s in New York.

The sale on Monday made Number 7A, 1948 the fourth most expensive work ever sold at auction, according to ARTnews.

The previous auction record for a work by Pollock was $61.2m, set in 2021. Other works by the abstract expressionist have sold privately for up to $200m.

“It is with this work that Pollock finally frees himself from the shackles of conventional easel painting and produces one of the first truly abstract paintings in the history of art,” Christie’s said in a statement.

On a busy day for the auction house, Danaïde, a bronze head sculpted by the Romanian-born artist Constantin Brâncuşi in around 1913 sold for $107.6m, topping its previous record of $71.2m set in 2018.

No 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) by the US painter Mark Rothko sold for $98.4m, and Portrait of Madame K by the Catalan artist Joan Miró for $53.5m.

The sales broke previous records for Rothko (of $86.9m) and Miró ($37m) set in 2012.

Monday’s auction followed a string of records set at Sotheby’s in November last year.

Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, painted by the Austrian master Gustav Klimt between 1914 and 1916, sold for $236.4m, becoming the second most expensive work ever sold at auction.

The Dream (The Bed), 1940, a self-portrait by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, sold for $54.7m, a record for a painting by a woman.

The most expensive painting ever sold at auction is Salvator Mundi, a Renaissance work attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which was bought for $450m in 2017.