The Guardian News

His hyperactive stylistic shifts and high-speed rhythms have a delirious, head-spinning beauty of their own

From Biafra, Nigeria/Texas, USA
Recommended if you like Los Thuthanaka, Jpegmafia, DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ
Up next Album Cantu of the Sower released via NTS Recordings on 7 October

Many listeners might find blown-out noise, hyperactive stylistic shifts and breakneck rhythms a hellish prospect, and fair enough. But for a certain stripe of sensory freak, such swarming intensity can tip over into a state of heady relaxation. The ultra-prolific Heavensouls’ latest project scratches that itch: the six songs on Cantu of the Sower glitter like rich seams of rare crystal, billowing from arcade glitter to compression-straining bass, sprite-like playfulness to warm, rushing brass. Languid trumpet lines float around trash-compactor crunch; sugary breakbeats reach tweaky maximalist peaks. I don’t know about you, but I could bathe in it.

Northampton star on his tenacious rise to the international ranks – and eating ‘massive cakes’ with Springbok colossus Ox Nché

Some people are destined from day one to play international rugby for England. Others owe their selection to an injury crisis or simply get lucky. And then, in a totally different category, there is Steve Borthwick’s latest new cap, a player whose unlikely journey to the top has required inspirational levels of resilience and fortitude.

To describe the persevering Emmanuel Iyogun’s debut off the bench in Argentina in July as hard earned is to put it mildly. At times the Spain-born son of Nigerian immigrants has had to show immense levels of determination, just as his parents had predicted. “There was always a sense growing up of, ‘You’ll have to work harder than everyone else. You might not get the privileges that some people get initially. So when you get told no or something doesn’t go your way, you just have to keep working. There isn’t any argument about it.’”

The six stories on the shortlist for the 10th year of the writing award run by 4th Estate and the Guardian and open to unpublished writers of colour are ‘affecting in new and surprising ways’, said judge and author Gurnaik Johal

The shortlist for the 10th year of the 4thWrite prize – the short story competition for unpublished writers of colour run by the publisher 4th Estate in association with the Guardian – has been revealed.

The six shortlisted stories were “affecting in new and surprising ways”, said judge Gurnaik Johal, who was shortlisted for the prize in 2018.

In the film-maker’s Houston-set film, Ali stars as a devout Muslim who moonlights as a vicious hitman

Mahershala Ali is swinging around a blade in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother. That’s not a nod to Ali’s previous attachment to Marvel’s Blade. It’s of a piece with Ali’s character, Latif, a devout Muslim who also happens to be a contract killer, though he fashions himself a righteous killer. Latif justifies his violence as divine retribution, dispensing victims he believes to have offended God. His sword, according to writer and director Bassam Tariq, is a part of Latif’s code, a negotiation with his faith.

“You are forced to strike with intention when you use a sword,” Tariq says, speaking in a recent interview in Toronto.

Have It by John Cooper Clarke; The Dodo Stories by Mary Mulholland; Red River Valley by Ian McMillan; Some Sacred Harbour by Roger Robinson; Otherwhere by Carolyn Forché

Have It by John Cooper Clarke (Picador, £16.99)
The latest collection from the original “people’s poet” displays his characteristic swagger, delivered with a distinctively northern humour. Merging blistering social satire and brash wit, Cooper Clarke irreverently tackles themes from the ridiculous to the sublime, including the malaise of contemporary urban life, the erosion of nature and the environment, money and the prospect of a cashless society, death and ageing, fascism, bachelorhood, popular culture and the NHS. His punk rock values caustically underpin the collection: “Me and my shrinking crowd / Each under our own personal cloud”; “We wish you no serious harm/ However, everybody sucks but us”. There’s heavy use of doggerel and jokes as he stridently proclaims his passion for writing. “It’s a meaningless job but someone’s got to do it / Thank God it’s me”. Overall, Cooper Clarke’s consummate performance skills in playing to the crowd demand applause as he advocates for the “blood royal of the working class”.

Motorists and small businesses struggle with costs as Iran war drives up cost of oil worldwide

• ‘Half my day’s pay goes to filling up my car’

• Business live – latest updates

British motorists face more pressure at the pumps after the average price of diesel climbed to a record £2 a litre.

The price of a litre at UK forecourts has risen 40.5% since late February, when the US-Israel war on Iran began disrupting supplies of crude and refined oil products from the Gulf, leading to cost increases across the economy.

Madeleine Finlay hears from Steve Ramirez, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at Boston University, whose book How to Change a Memory was shortlisted for this year’s Royal Society Trivedi science book prize. He explains how scientists have been able to locate memories in the brains of rodents, trigger them artificially and even remove them, and reveals what the practical applications of this science could one day be for humans.

The prime minister gave far and away the most powerful, emotional and gamechanging leader’s speech of the century

Words I thought I’d never write. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Tory party. Look, I know we ended up with Theresa May and Boris Johnson in the Conservative party leadership contests of 2016 and 2019 – and they were shockers, both of them – but at least the Tory MPs twice ensured we dodged the bullet of Michael Gove. Last week, Sky broadcast The War Game, a reality show for superannuated politicians and former senior civil servants and military officers. The set up was that the Russians had engineered an attack on a British warship in the North Sea and over the course of four episodes set in the Cobra emergency situation room, the assembled cast had to figure how to respond. We were left hanging at the final credits, but a nuclear apocalypse felt like the most likely outcome. And for that we have The Govester to thank. He was playing the prime minister and – to be blunt – he had an absolute shocker. For the first two episodes he seemed to be in a coma. All he could manage was to repeat back what the last person had said to him and then shout “asap”. But that was far more preferable to the Gove that turned up for the last two episodes. Despite frequently being warned about the dangers of escalation and the inadequacy of the UK war machine, Mikey kept on taking the option that would get the most people killed. Why bomb one Russian city when you can bomb two? The game ended with what were almost certainly nuclear warheads minutes away from destroying a major city in the UK. Still, Gove wasn’t the only deadbeat. Nicola Sturgeon, acting the deputy prime minister, was as hopeless as you would expect of someone who failed to notice her kitchen filling up with new appliances. It was terrifying TV. Not so much in the premise. What was really scary was the knowledge that our politicians were even more clueless than the rest of us.

• FA has the power to charge club and individuals

• It will not act until appeal process completed

The Football Association has confirmed it has powers to take disciplinary action against Manchester City and key individuals at the club in the governing body’s first comment since City were found guilty of multiple breaches of financial regulations.

The FA said the independent commission’s decision on City had “significant implications for the integrity of the game” and that it “will take action where appropriate.”

Dozens of schools have been damaged and nearly 3,000 teenagers have been detained since the start of the tensions

in Madrid

Meanwhile, rightwing parties in Spain have said they will vote against new housing measures that are set to be put to parliament today by the Socialist-led coalition government.

Match against England is welcome test for former West Ham coach as he replaces history-making Zlatko Dalic

“I don’t believe in comebacks.” Slaven Bilic sat in the lobby of a hotel in Canary Wharf wearing a black Soundgarden T-shirt and dark denim, confidently discussing a wide variety of topics ranging from Sir Alex Ferguson’s autobiography to historical epics of Yugoslav cinematography and Nikola Tesla’s celibacy. He was living the good life in London, just before his third Premier League season as West Ham’s manager, and a rare interview for Croatian media was a chance for him to catch up with domestic intrigues.

“I’m now distanced by default, geographically,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief, before continuing to jump from subject to subject; a bit about a Metallica concert, then a bit about steaks at an Argentinian restaurant, followed by some off-record anecdotes. He was clearly enjoying himself and didn’t hesitate to show it; his time as Croatia’s manager seemed long gone, although he always left a bitter-sweet aftertaste when talking about them.

Sixty top architecture firms from around the world have mooted 500 eye-catching projects across Albania, sparking fury and protests. Now they’re being celebrated in an 800-page tome that some are calling ‘a smoking gun’

Last autumn, I was sitting with a prominent architect in New York, when their phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. They finally checked the messages and chuckled. “Oh, the Albanian Architecture Army chat is blowing up again,” they said. “It looks like Edi has some new projects for us.”

Edi was Edi Rama, the prime minister of Albania since 2013, who has been presiding over the rapid transformation of the former communist country with a fleet of glamorous building projects. There are twisting towers in Tirana, along with prize-winning public spaces, striking coastal resorts, and many more dazzling visions on the way – all now brought together in a hefty new book, The Albanian Files.

When a rarity blew up on TikTok, the solitary ambient artist had fraudsters trying to steal her royalties. It reinforced her DIY mentality – until reforming her band Helen reminded her of the beauty of collaboration

In mid-September, I watched as Liz Harris soundchecked to 1,500 empty seats at midtown Manhattan’s historic Town Hall theatre. Soon each plush red chair would be filled for the second of two sold-out nights, but this ornate seclusion felt oddly perfect. It is fair to infer that most of her concertgoers generally listen to the uncanny experimental music she makes as Grouper alone, just as she creates it.

Harris started Grouper in 2005 in the DIY noise warehouses of Oakland, California. At 46, she now lives farther north, in coastal Astoria, Oregon, where she creates densely tessellated visual art and spare, lucid albums that have made her a titan of modern ambient music. Painfully beautiful and often inscrutable, hers is a sonic language all its own, creating thickets of sound using little more than guitar or piano, voice and space; her angelic and alien songs have influenced artists as disparate as Phoebe Bridgers and Mk.gee, and been sampled by Lil B and 100 Gecs. It is intensely solitary work, often characterised as sad but full of profound relief. “Like a bloodletting,” Harris offers.

Israel’s conduct in Gaza shows the danger of using AI in warfare. Humans must remain at the center of wartime decisions

As tech leaders warn about the threats of artificial intelligence, most conjure up images of AI agents running amok, such as hacking systems used to run our critical infrastructure, banks or even militaries. Yet one serious danger is mentioned less frequently – the threat posed by AI – empowered lethal weapons. Fully autonomous versions of these weapons are colloquially known as killer robots.

Israel’s conduct in Gaza shows that, in an important respect, such AI weapon systems are already here. An algorithm has been deciding who lives and who dies.

A hothouse in my garden may be just a fantasy, but I can still offer plenty of protection for tender plants

I thought I would have had a new coldframe by now, but the only new thing in the garden is a fox hole. It would be more polite of them to direct their exemplary digging skills towards where we’re excavating for new foundations, but so it goes.

I’m writing this, then, in the hope that it will spur me on to order one. I like to think that, one day, in a fantasy life, I might be a greenhouse person. I’d fill it up with pelargonium cuttings and orange blossom and hold tiny little lunch parties for one. Or maybe have a clever walk-through one like Mary Keen’s – genius for making sure you go in there, what with it being on the path. But I think of glasshouse life in the same way I think of one day learning Italian. It’s a nice idea, but unlikely to happen.

Yes, after 25 years I’m signing off, and I’ve cherished every moment – especially storming the French embassy with a (toy) AK-47

Journalism 101 – a course I have yet to complete – dictates that if you have something salient to say you should get there fast. So right now, I should mention that this is my last ever column for the Guardian. I’ll level with you: I spent a long time wondering how to write it. At first, I thought it should be about all the things I’ve learned, purely because that would be a hell of a lot shorter than a column about all the things I keep failing to learn, no matter how many times I make the mistakes. For example: if you’ve got a good joke, you’d best put it in the intro. (Why is there literally no joke in this intro?)

Or: remember that people love the piss-taking until it strays into the arena of something they like, when it suddenly becomes wholly unacceptable. Take the time I wrote: “Arguing on the internet is like playing real tennis: even if you win, you’re still a twat”. This prompted an immediate missive from a member of the Cambridge University real tennis club, which appeared on the letters page under the headline “Real tennis has been served badly by this unfair slur” and began: “Like many Guardian readers, I have thoroughly enjoyed and always look forward to reading Marina Hyde’s witty and caustic commentaries on the world about us. However …” Incidentally, I told this story at one book tour event, and then at the signing afterwards, a lovely young lady came up to get a book dedicated to her father, Jeremy. And of course, she said: “I should probably mention, he’s the guy who wrote in from the Cambridge University real tennis club.” Truly, the circle of life. To Jeremy, and the many other Jeremies who have written in over the years, let me just say: we all know the real twats are rackets players.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Attack accessing historical data on bushfires occurred in June but not disclosed by the tech company until Thursday

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Artificial intelligence company OpenAI has disclosed another unauthorised hack on a government department in Australia.

In June, an OpenAI agent hacked into a New South Wales state government department and accessed historical non-public data on bushfires without authorisation.

Reports that Jon Watts could make a new trilogy about a clan who have already saved and destroyed the galaxy several times over leaves you wishing for a newer world

The Skywalkers: who are they exactly? A family that has moulded the entire Star Wars galaxy in their image, to the extent that nobody can really imagine the long-running space opera without them. An almost endless familial battle between good and evil, featuring absent fathers, secret siblings, murdered mentors, wayward nephews, surprise grandfathers. For nearly half a century they have blown up Death Stars, built Death Stars, destroyed Jedi orders, rebuilt Jedi orders, fallen to the dark side, risen from the dark side, died heroically, come back as ghosts. Star Wars has occasionally attempted to escape them. It has made films and TV shows about stolen Death Star plans, bounty hunters, smugglers and rebels from entirely different corners of the galaxy. Ryan Gosling will soon appear in a Star Wars movie that, as far as we know, has absolutely nothing to do with them. But they have never really gone away, and now they are back, possibly because Disney has run out of ideas for how to take the franchise forward without them.

Deadline reports this week that Lucasfilm has hired Jon Watts to direct the first instalment of a new trilogy continuing the Skywalker saga, written by Simon Kinberg, with Daisy Ridley reportedly being eyed to return as Rey. The films have not yet been greenlit, and there are precious few other details, but Watts does seem an inspired choice, if for no other reason than that he has previously overseen a film – Spider-Man: No Way Home – that was built around the idea that nobody in a long-running franchise needs to remain dead.

Platform ‘for the curious’ says users outside the UK account for nearly 90% of its revenues

• Business live – latest updates
  

Feeld, a UK-based dating app aimed at non-monogamous, queer and kinky users, has reported strong sales growth and paid its largest-ever dividend as it attracts users from more “vanilla” rivals.

Revenues jumped by 32% to £64m following a surge in interest from what it called “open-minded people exploring love, desire, and alternative relationships in a safe, inclusive space”.

Obsession is a terrifying, violent nightmare of lovestruck madness – but the Globes’ rigid awards categories have forced it into an absurd choice

What do this year’s wish-gone-wrong tale Obsession, gross-out transformation bloodbath The Substance, and Jordan Peele’s generational masterpiece Get Out have in common? Well, they’re all modern horror success stories, with critics and at the box office, and they broke free of genre snobbery to become awards-season contenders.

They’re also toe-tapping laugh riots. At least that’s what the Golden Globes would have you believe.