CORENEWS: September 2018

How can May avoid another terrible Tory party conference?

Four experts give their view on how the prime minister can keep the party faithful happy

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I want to get married, but my partner won’t go through it again… | Dear Mariella

Your partner’s intransigence is unfair – but start by examining your own motives, Mariella Frostrup tells a woman who says she’s ‘always wanted to be a wife’

The dilemma My partner and I have been together for three years, have a child together and are trying for a second. He was married before he met me and his divorce was nasty and dragged on for years. It wasn’t finalised until just after the birth of our child. I desperately want to be married, but he does not. I have told him it’s not a deal-breaker – and it isn’t. Marriage does not make a family and us not being married doesn’t mean we don’t love each other any less. He has said that marriage is a big deal and I should respect the reality of what he’s been through.

I can’t really explain why I want it so badly, but I can’t help it. I’ve always wanted to be married, to be a wife, to wear the dress, etc. It eats me up inside that he gave some other woman this commitment but not me, the mother of his child. I feel I’m being selfish and I probably am, but every time the conversation arises I feel hurt. I love this man and want to spend my life with him. Can I have the happily ever after even if we never get married?

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Topless Serena Williams covers Divinyls hit for breast cancer awareness

Tennis star strips off and sings I Touch Myself to remind women to self-check

Serena Williams has produced a new video to promote breast cancer awareness in which she covers her bare chest with her hands and sings a cover of The Divinyls’ hit I Touch Myself.

The video is shared on her Instagram page, where she wrote: “This Breast Cancer Awareness Month I’ve recorded a version of The Divinyls global hit ‘I Touch Myself’ to remind women to self-check regularly.

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Shakespeare in the age of Brexit and Trump: the play’s still the thing

In his new book, Peter Conrad explains how the Bard’s plays are the perfect mirror for our troubled times

Next time you go to a Shakespeare play, don’t think you can settle back into a safe invisibility when the lights go down. You will be under observation: the actors we watch are in turn watching us, examining our personal flaws and the fault lines in our fractious society. We receive fair warning of the test that is in store. Hamlet invites a troupe of itinerant players to perform at Elsinore in the hope that they will embarrass and with luck incriminate his guilty uncle. Their purpose, he tells them, is to “hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature” and expose “the very age and body of the time”.

It’s our age and body, our manners and manias, that Shakespeare’s plays now probe, perhaps more pointedly than ever before. The film-maker Errol Morris, introducing American Dharma, his sulphurous documentary about Trump’s ideologue Steve Bannon, recently remarked that we are suffering through a period resembling “bad Shakespeare” – a mismanaged chaos that matches Horatio’s summary of the plot at the end of Hamlet, when he reflects on “accidental judgments, casual slaughters” and “purposes mistook”. History, while you’re living through it, doesn’t have the cyclical predictability discerned by Marxists; like Shakespeare’s plays, it is a melee of upsets and reversals, driven by capricious individuals whose actions seldom turn out as they are supposed to do.

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Out of my mind: Sarah Perry on writing under the influence of drugs

When a medical condition left her in agony, The Essex Serpent author was prescribed powerful opiates. They gave her terrifying visions - and a new insight into literary drug culture

The poet Mary Robinson was, said Coleridge, a woman of undoubted Genius. She published her first book while a child bride in a debtors’ prison; she was a political radical who took the future George IV as a lover; in portraits her eyes are serious and her mouth is not. But sickness being no respecter of even the most fascinating people, she acquired an infection at the age of 26, and afterwards lived with paralysis and pain. One night in Bath, finding her suffering intolerable, she dosed herself with 80 drops of a tincture of alcohol and opium, and drowsily composed a poem called “The Maniac”, “like a person talking in her sleep”. Inspired by the memory of a vagrant, it is not a work on which to pin a reputation, but has a place in the history of letters as the first of the English Romantic opium poems. In my Puritan youth I held the cult of the drug-addled artist in contempt. Thomas De Quincey in his voluminous sleeves? A sap, I thought, of doubtful moral fibre. William S Burroughs? What did I want with a man who shot his wife? Besides, Naked Lunch was nothing like as nasty as it thought it was. If marijuana had caused Jack Kerouac’s sentences to be as affectless as the rap of a fork on a Formica table, it was a pity he hadn’t confined himself to tobacco. Susan Sontag wrote on speed: this I admired, since it indicated a solid work ethic. I adored Coleridge, but flinched from the thought of him in the arms of Morpheus as I’d flinch from seeing my father naked. Secretly I admired Middlemarch’s Casaubon, whose ascetic and studious life was directed towards “thoroughness, justice of comparison, and effectiveness of arrangement”.

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When pop stars play pop stars…

As Lady Gaga’s silver-screen version of (almost) herself in a Star Is Born reaches cinemas, we look back at other reinventions, from Whitney as Rachel to Beyoncé as Deena

‘Having something to say is one thing; having a way to make people listen is a whole other bag.” This is what an awestruck Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) tells fledgling singer-songwriter Ally, played by Lady Gaga, in the newest and shiniest remake of A Star Is Born. Premiering last month at Venice film festival to rave reviews – and early Oscars buzz for both Cooper and Gaga – it is, as Variety’s Owen Gleiberman put it, “a transcendent Hollywood movie”. As far as pop music is concerned, the messenger matters.

Like the traditional Hollywood musical, pop star movies follow the familiar arc of an artist finding their voice – and, best of all, feature real pop stars. As a pop music superfan who struggles with musicals and the tiresome way they crowbar narrative into song and dance numbers, I’m obsessed with this movie subgenre. They’re fascinating as vehicles for stardom – and revealing about the kind of icons the pop stars turned actors want to be associated with, as well as the legacies they wish to leave themselves (consider Diana Ross as Billie Holiday in 1972’s Lady Sings the Blues, and Beyoncé as a version of Diana Ross in Dreamgirls). In an age of hyperdocumentation, pop stars are more precious than ever about how their star personas are perceived. Yet in the reflection of another’s star image, we can often see them more clearly.

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Europe take Ryder Cup stranglehold and leave USA needing a new miracle

• Europe dominate day two to take 10-6 lead into Sunday singles
• Fleetwood and Molinari make history by winning four in a row

The extent of Europe’s stranglehold on the Ryder Cup is such that terminology referring to miracles is used when discussing the last time a lead such as this was overturned. A United States side apparently united as never before needs individual skill to retrieve this situation. How poetic.

Thomas Bjørn and his fearless team will take an advantage of 10-6 into Sunday’s singles session. The same margin applied overnight Saturday into Sunday – in the US’s favour – at Medinah in 2012, when José María Olazábal oversaw a recovery for the ages. Europe led 10-6 after two days at Brookline in 1999, before the US roared back. These, however, are the notable exceptions; it would be a major surprise if Europe do not reclaim the cup from here.

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Brilliant Eden Hazard sparkles to win personal duel with Mohamed Salah | Barney Ronay

The Belgian was the star of the show for Chelsea once more but Liverpool have plenty of reasons to be cheerful despite the dip in form of their talismanic forward

Twenty minutes after the final whistle, with the sky above the stands fading to a deep pinky-blue, the Liverpool fans were still singing. This was an excellent game with elements of cheer for both teams in a 1-1 draw – and indeed for Manchester City, too, who saw both their main title rivals gouge a piece out of each other at Stamford Bridge.

For Liverpool’s supporters, there was a little extra feeling in taking a well-deserved point through Daniel Sturridge’s brilliant late equaliser. There are two elements to this. Most obviously, Liverpool drew at Chelsea despite Mo Salah seeming once again to have his gears misaligned, haring around the Stamford Bridge pitch like a soap box cart with a wonky wheel.

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José Mourinho criticises players’ mentality during West Ham defeat

• Manager praises ‘special personality’ of Scott McTominay
• ‘The first was an offside goal, the third was a referee mistake’

José Mourinho criticised the mentality and spirit of his Manchester United players, while also hitting out at the match officials after witnessing a dismal 3-1 defeat at West Ham.

The manager, already under pressure after last Saturday’s home draw with Wolves and the Carabao Cup exit against Derby, chose to talk up the personality of Scott McTominay, the 21-year-old defensive midfielder whom he drafted in on the right of a back three. Mourinho being Mourinho, it was clear that what he left unsaid about the other, more senior players was damning. “I can have complaints with quality and mental approach,” he said. “You have to try always and that is my nature as a football professional.”

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Northampton secure victory in breathless encounter at Bristol

• Bristol 40-45 Northampton
• Sheedy scores 15 points after replacing Ian Madigan

Another weekend, another points fest. This one topped 80, the odd try in 11 earning Northampton their second win of the season. Under Chris Boyd, the improvement in their game has been obvious; here, it yielded the full five points.

It meant Bristol’s first home loss of their return to the top flight fell at the third instalment, but they took two bonus points themselves to keep both sides nestled amid the customarily crowded mid-table.

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Inside the weird and wonderful world of 24-hour cycle racing | Martin Love

Riding a bike in circles for 24-hours sounds like a very particular form of masochism – but that’s exactly what the entrants to Revolve24 do. Martin Love explains why

Lindsay McCrae, an ultra-athlete from Inverness with an easy smile and a honed body that’s part rabbit part robot, gives me a steady look and tells me his race tactics: “I’ll ride for five hours, then have 15 minutes off. Then repeat to the end. I want to have less than an hour stoppage in total.” I burst out laughing. Then realise he isn’t joking. He isn’t joking one bit. Big Kev from Berkshire plans to stop for 10 minutes every two hours, while Audrey from Poole aims to ride for 12 hours straight, then stop for an hour… In the bonkers world of 24-hour bike racing, contestants casually pass off feats of extreme endeavour as if they’re talking about a stroll to the shops.

It’s all quite straightforward. The event is the Revolve24. It’s a 24-hour cycling endurance challenge hosted on possibly Britain’s most picturesque motor circuit, Brands Hatch. Riders line up at 3pm on Saturday and start pedalling round and round. At 3pm on Sunday, exactly 24 hours later, they stop. The winner is the person who goes the farthest. You can break whenever you want, but obviously every time you do you are losing distance. Questions arise. Tactics are crucial. Would you go further if you slept for an hour or just kept going?

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Anna van der Breggen wins road world championships with astonishing ride

• Dutch cyclist adds elusive title to glittering CV
• Spratt finishes second while Britain’s Dani Rowe suffers a fall

She had won gold at the Olympic Games and European Championships. She had won the Giro Rosa and La Course by Tour de France. But for so long, success at the UCI Road World Championships had proven elusive for Anna van der Breggen.

On four occasions the Dutchwoman had placed in the road race top 10, including second in 2015. Three times she had won the individual time trial silver medal, most recently on Tuesday. But as her compatriots Annemiek van Vleuten and Chantal Blaak added world titles to their palmares in recent years, the rainbow jersey remained conspicuously absent from Van der Breggen’s record.

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No-deal Brexit would stall the NHS medical revolution | Jeremy Farrar

Wellcome’s director offers a stark warning about the trust’s future in the UK

Every year, about 100 babies in the UK are diagnosed with rare, soft-tissue cancers. Treating young babies with chemotherapy and surgery is difficult and dangerous, but a new way of understanding these tumours using genomics offers hope. Researcher Sam Behjati devotes his work to decoding the DNA of rare childhood cancers. Recently, Behjati and his co-researchers revealed the genetic changes that cause a group of tumours to grow on babies’ kidneys. Now better targeted treatment using existing medicines is a possibility.

This week, the NHS becomes the first in the world to offer patients routine access to cutting-edge genomic medicine. This huge advance is in no small part because science in the UK has been at the forefront of the genomic revolution.

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Forget the pledges to act – London is still a haven for dirty Russian money | Oliver Bullough

After Salisbury, the Tories said we would get tough on rich Russians. But billionaires are still coming and sanctions are nowhere to be seen

Britain, we’re told, has a new policy on dirty Russian money. We are finally pulling the red carpet from under the feet of the rich Russians who have turned London into a private members’ club.

This new “hostile environment” was trailed in February after the security minister, Ben Wallace, watched McMafia – “We know what they are up to and we are not going to let it happen anymore,” he told the Times – in an onslaught of media announcements that has since become more intense. After the novichok attack in Salisbury, a headline in the Sun told us wealthy Russians were unwelcome. These are, an article on Bloomberg announced “the last days of Londongrad”.

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The Observer view on the Brett Kavanaugh Senate hearing | Observer editorial

The clash between the supreme court nominee and his accuser exposed the ugly truth about power and the law in the US

The US supreme court is best known, in the modern era, for its landmark 1973 ruling in the case of Roe v Wade, which upheld a woman’s legal right to an abortion. That may have changed last week. The case of Ford v Kavanaugh, fought out before the judiciary committee of the US Senate, in front of a riveted national audience, provided both a dramatic spectacle worthy of Hollywood and a startling insight into the travails and traumas of contemporary American life. It is not over yet. And neither will it soon be forgotten.

The Observer is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, founded in 1791. It is published by Guardian News & Media and is editorially independent.

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In extraordinary maneuver, Jeff Flake halts Brett Kavanaugh's march to Supreme Court

Sen. Flake said he wouldn't vote to confirm Kavanaugh unless the FBI investigated the sexual assault allegations against him.

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Parkland survivor Cameron Kasky sets a new political course

Cameron Kasky says one of the "biggest problems" is the lack of discussion among those who disagree, and he wants to change that.

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Memphis civic leader, former Pinnacle Airlines CEO shot dead

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A civic leader and former airline executive was alone when he was fatally shot in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, and authorities are investigating whether he was killed in a robbery or as part of a "personal vendetta," police said Friday.

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Airline Searching for Missing Man After Saying All 47 Passengers Survived Plane Crash

The airline said one man remains unaccounted for.

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Teenage Boy Attacked by Shark at Southern California Beach

The victim was reportedly lobster diving when the incident occurred

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Russia begins missile system delivery to Syria, warns West on peace talks

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had said on Monday the system would be delivered to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces in two weeks despite strong Israeli and United States objections. A week previously, Moscow had accused Israel of indirectly causing the downing of a Russian military jet in Syria. "The delivery started already and as President (Vladimir)Putin said, after that incident ... the measures that we will take will be devoted to ensuring 100 percent safety and security of our men," Lavrov told a news conference at the United Nations.

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The go-between in the Trump Tower meeting offers clue to 'golden shower' claim in dossier

Rob Goldstone, who set up the 2016 meeting between a Kremlin-linked lawyer and Trump campaign officials, shares his theory.

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Deadly earthquake and tsunami kill hundreds in Sulawesi, Indonesia

At least 384 people were killed and many swept away when a major earthquake and tsunami hit the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, authorities said on Saturday.

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Airline now says 1 missing after Pacific lagoon plane crash

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The airline operating a flight that crashed into a Pacific lagoon in Micronesia on Friday now says one man is missing, after earlier saying all 47 passengers and crew had safely evacuated the sinking plane.

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Maddox Ritch's Father Grieves Death of 6-Year-Old: 'I Found Out I'm Not a Dad Anymore'

He took to Facebook to post about the tragedy.

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Iraq 'regrets' US closure of Basra consulate

Iraq's foreign ministry voiced "regret" on Saturday over a US decision to shut its consulate in the southern city of Basra which has been rocked by weeks of deadly protests. "The ministry regrets the American decision to pull its staff out of Basra," a statement said. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered all but emergency staff to leave Basra, with consular duties to be taken over by the embassy in Baghdad.

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Brexit challenger Gina Miller: UK's battle over EU membership must end

More than two years since the 2016 EU referendum, the United Kingdom, its politicians and its business leaders remain deeply divided over Brexit while Prime Minister Theresa May has yet to clinch a divorce deal with the EU. Opponents of Brexit are exploring ways to stop what they say is Britain's biggest mistake since World War Two. Miller is leading a campaign to have another referendum, but she said if the government manages to successfully navigate an exit deal then politicians must be allowed to focus on domestic issues without the distractions of a debate about Britain's relationship with Europe.

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Thousands in Central Park panic after barrier collapse

NEW YORK (AP) — Fearing possible gunshots, it took only the collapse of a police barrier at a politically charged New York celebrity music show Saturday to send thousands of spectators fleeing in panic.

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Erdogan demands Germany seize 'terrorists' as state visit gets off to icy start amid street protests

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, was greeted with protests and controversy in Germany on Friday as a state visit that was supposed to repair relations between the two Nato allies appeared only to highlight their stark divisions. Thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets of Berlin under a banner of “Erdogan not welcome”, while a Kurdish activist burnt himself to death in an apparent suicide protest. Angela Merkel appeared to throw Mr Erdogan a lifeline by offering him a full state visit at a time when Turkey is struggling under the weight of US economic sanctions. But there was little sign of common ground after the two held face-to-face talks. “It is important to continue the dialogue with Turkey, because we can only work out our differences by talking,” Mrs Merkel told a joint press conference. "There is much that unites us: Nato membership, the migrant issue, and the fight against terror." But she added: “There are still profound differences between us over press freedom and the rule of law.” As if to underline the point, Mr Erdogan used the press conference to demand the extradition of a prominent Turkish journalist living in self-imposed exile in Germany. A woman shows Kurdish symbols and a sticker with a portrait of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party Credit: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber And Mrs Merkel’s words were undercut when another journalist was thrown out of the press conference for wearing a T-shirt that called for “Freedom for journalists in Turkey”. Ties between the allies have been strained by the crackdown on opponents of the regime in Turkey, and Mrs Merkel urged Mr Erdogan to free five German citizens who are being held in Turkey on what Germany maintains are “political charges”. But Mr Erdogan rebuffed the request and responded by demanding Germany do more to help Turkey in its crackdown on opponents of his regime. "I can not interfere in the German justice system or criticise them, nor can you interfere with the Turkish judiciary or criticize them,” he said. “Germany must be more determined in the fight against terror.” He claimed supporters of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Fethullah Gülen, the cleric Turkey alleges was behind a failed coup in 2016, are living in Germany. The Turkish foreign ministry reportedly handed over a list of 69 people it wants Germany to extradite as he arrived. Profile | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Earlier, there were frosty scenes as Mr Erdogan was received with full military honours. The German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, appeared at pains to show he was only welcoming his Turkish counterpart on sufferance, and remained stony-faced throughout. More than 200 guests refused invitations to a state banquet in Mr Erdogan’s honour, among them prominent figures from across the German political spectrum. An estimated 4,000 protestors marched through central Berlin to the Bellevue palace where the official banquet was held. The march was led by a homemade cardboard tank. One man held aloft a banner that read "No deals with the devil". But the protestors' numbers were smaller than expected, and the march was peaceful under a heavy police presence. Nevertheless, the visit was fraught from the start. The German press published pictures of Mr Erdogan appearing to give the four-fingered salute of the Muslim Brotherhood as he arrived on Thursday. Bild, Germany’s biggest-selling newspaper, described it as a “provocation against Western values and democracy”. The charred body of a 26-year-old Kurdish activist was found in Bavaria after he set himself alight. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (L) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrive for a state dinner at Bellevue presidential palace Credit: ADAM BERRY/AFP/Getty Images In a video message left behind, Umit Acar reportedly said his death was a protest against Turkish military operations against Kurds in Turkey and Syria. “I chose today especially, because Erdogan is coming here,” he said. “In all the massacres that the Turks have committed against the Kurds, the Germans delivered them weapons.” The joint press conference with Mrs Merkel almost didn’t take place after Mr Erdogan threatened to boycott it if Can Dündar , a prominent former Turkish newspaper editor living in Germany, was allowed to attend. He later used the press conference to demand Mr Dündar’s extradition to Turkey. “This is our natural right,” he said, claiming Mr Dündar was a “spy” who had published “state secrets” over a report which alleged Turkish intelligence armed Islamist factions in Syria. There was no question of Germany agreeing to extradite Mr Dundar, Heiko Maas, the foreign minister, said. "I look forward to seeing more of Mr Dündar in Germany in future," he added. The only real progress appeared to be when Mrs Merkel announced a joint summit over Syria next month with Mr Erdogan, France’s Emmanel Macron and Vladimir Putin of Russia. Mr Erdogan has been pushing for such a meeting, but one name conspicupous by its absence was that of Donald Trump. The US president has taken a different approach to freeing prisoners held in Turkey, imposing economic sanctions over Mr Erdogan’s refusal to release an American pastor. Mrs Merkel made clear in the run-up to yesterday’s talks that her priority was to preserve relations between Turkey and the West amid fears the US sanctions are pushing Mr Erdogan into Russia’s embrace.

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US court opens new legal 'Stairway,' overturns Zeppelin case

The court in San Francisco overturned a 2016 judgment by a jury which found no proof the classic 1971 Zeppelin song breached the copyright of "Taurus," written by Randy Wolfe of a Los Angeles band called Spirit. Wolfe's trustee, Michael Skidmore, filed the case in 2015 on behalf of his late friend who long maintained he deserved credit for "Stairway" but drowned in 1997 having never taken legal action over the song. The case is "remanded for a new trial," the higher court panel ruled Friday in a 37-page decision supporting Skidmore's appeal.

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What to know about the deadly drug fentanyl

Fentanyl was first developed in 1959 and introduced in the 1960s as an intravenous anesthetic.

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Sex abuse scandal: Pope seeks prayers to fight 'devil'

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis asked Saturday for daily prayers to protect the Catholic Church from what he says are "attacks by the devil," in his latest response to the clerical sex abuse and cover-up scandal roiling his papacy.

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Plane ditches into Pacific lagoon

The Air Niugini Boeing 737-800 was attempting to land at Weno airport in Micronesia but ended up half submerged in Chuuk lagoon after the accident on Friday morning. The airline said the plane, which was involved in a collision with another aircraft earlier this year, had "landed short of the runway". Remarkably, it reported no serious injuries among those on the plane, which was making a scheduled stop on its way from the Micronesian capital Pohnpei to Port Moresby.

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'Turbulence' in ties threatens U.S.-China security meeting

Beijing and Washington are locked in a spiraling trade war that has seen them level increasingly severe rounds of tariffs on each other's imports. Friction between the world's top two economies is now moving beyond trade, with U.S. President Donald Trump accusing Beijing this week of seeking to interfere in congressional elections, marking what U.S. officials told Reuters was a new phase in an escalating campaign by Washington to put pressure on China. On the military front, China has been infuriated by the United States putting sanctions on the People's Liberation Army (PLA) for buying weapons from Russia, and by what Beijing sees as stepped up U.S. support for self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by China as its sacred territory.

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The F-35B Just Went to War for the Very First Time

And settled an old grudge in Afghanistan.

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'Boofing' and 'ralphing' and other doubts about Kavanaugh's testimony

Kavanaugh veered from the truth, offering explanations that conflicted with evidence or definitions that were unverifiable.

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UN rights council renews Yemen war crimes probe

The United Nations Human Rights Council voted to extend an international probe of alleged war crimes committed in Yemen despite strong opposition from Saudi Arabia and several of its allies. Last month, investigators detailed evidence of possible war crimes committed in Yemen by both the Saudi-led coalition and the Huthi rebels supported by Iran. The coalition and the Yemeni government, which together are battling the Huthis, strongly criticised the probe's initial report, arguing that it underplayed rebel violations and Iran's role.

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LA TIMES PAGE ONE SUNDAY: Kavanaugh testimony may save his nomination, but undercut expectations for impartiality...

LA TIMES PAGE ONE SUNDAY: Kavanaugh testimony may save his nomination, but undercut expectations for impartiality...

(Top headline, 1st story, link)