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Is Avatar’s main villain about to become a good guy? All the signs are pointing that way
Nov. 21st, 2025 02:43 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
guardianworldnews_feedWill Quaritch, the square-jawed representative of military-industrial destruction befriend the Na’vi in James Cameron’s forthcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash? And if so, what other unlikely character about-turns should we be prepared for?
It’s almost possible to feel a little sorry for Colonel Miles Quaritch, the main villain of Avatar. Imagine: first you’re sent light years from Earth to hang out with 14ft blue space hippies, then you’re suddenly dead. Then you’re resurrected as one of the 14ft blue space hippies. And now, according to James Cameron, you might just be starting to realise that the giant tree-hugging freaks you’ve spent two films trying to erase are your kind of people after all.
Speaking to Empire in an interview last week, Cameron revealed that the Quaritch we will meet in the forthcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash (although still played by Stephen Lang) is no longer the same person we first saw stomping through the rainforest in the original 2009 film. Yes, he’s a “recombinant” – a lab-grown Na’vi reboot of a man carved out of granite and patriotism – but he’s also going through a full-blown existential wobble after discovering in the last instalment that he has a human son, Spider. “Quaritch is undergoing an identity crisis,” said Cameron. “His interest in the biological son of his biological precursor form is all about trying to define, ‘Am I a completely new person? Am I bound by the rules and the behaviours of the person whose memories and personality I was imprinted with?’ It’s a true existential dilemma for him in the philosophical sense.”
Continue reading...Sports quiz of the week: Ashes sledging, Arsenal v Spurs and a young world No 1
Nov. 21st, 2025 02:42 pmguardianworldnews_feedHave you been following the big stories in football, rugby, tennis, cricket, basketball, darts and other mystery sports?
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed⚽ Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
⚽ Sign up for Football Daily | Follow on Bluesky | Mail John
Chelsea: It seems Palmer’s toe is broken. Jacob Steinberg has the latest from Enzo Maresca’s press conference: “Bad news for Chelsea fans, who have been left reeling by the revelation that Cole Palmer’s comeback from a groin injury has been delayed by the forward fracturing a toe in a freak accident at home,” he writes.
”Speaking ahead of his side’s trip to Burnley, Enzo Maresca said: ‘He is not available for tomorrow for sure, Barcelona for sure or Arsenal for sure. Unfortunately, he had an accident at home where he hit his toe but it is nothing important but he won’t be back in the next week. It’s fractured.’ I’m reminded of this …”
Chelsea: Enzo Maresca has revealed that Cole Palmer’s eagerly awaited return to the Chelsea line-up following his recovery from a groin injury will be delayed because the midfielder has hurt his toe in some unspecified accident at home. The Chelsea head coach says he doesn’t know whether or not the little piggy in question is broken.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedRolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Shares are falling faster than wickets in Perth at the start of trading in London, as fears of an AI bubble rip through markets again.
Following losses on Wall Street last night, the FTSE 100 share index has dropped by 104 points, or just over 1%, at the start of trading to 9423 points. That’s a one-month low.
it’s been a truly remarkable 24 hours, with a sequence of moves that were almost impossible to predict….
After the world’s largest company reported spectacular results, the stock was up around +5% by 3pm London time. It closed down -3.15%. The broader market followed a similar pattern: the S&P 500 initially climbed +1.93%, only to fade and close down -1.56% as doubts about AI valuations crept back in. That marked the biggest intra-day swing for the S&P since the six days of extreme market turmoil that followed the Liberation Day tariffs in early April. Adding to the negative backdrop for crypto were lingering questions over the crypto market structure bill that’s being worked on in Congress.
Continue reading...Cop30 live: summit president warns ‘everybody will lose’ if countries fail to cooperate
Nov. 21st, 2025 02:30 pmguardianworldnews_feedAndré Corrêa do Lago issues plea to preserve Paris agreement with countries far from reaching agreement on scheduled final day
An informal stocktake plenary is now underway [see live feed at the top of the blog]. Here the presidency will update parties on the state of the negotiations.
My colleague Damian Carrington will be keeping across the main developments.
Continue reading...Women on strike and a tattooed gang member: photos of the day – Friday
Nov. 21st, 2025 02:30 pmguardianworldnews_feedThe Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedGermany says leaders welcomed US efforts to end war but current line of contact should be ‘starting point’ of negotiation
German Bild tabloid is also reporting that Merz is expected to hold a phone call not only with Zelenskyy, but also with the US president, Donald Trump.
Mind you: there’s been no official confirmation yet.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedFrom Claire Foy’s Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall to Adriana in The Sopranos, we meet the actors who had to bump off TV legends … and then face the wrath of the public
Talk about being a pantomime villain. It’s unpopular enough playing the antagonist who murders a long-running TV character. When your victim is a fan favourite, though, you risk being vilified even more. So what’s it like being the ultimate baddy and breaking viewers’ hearts? Do they get booed in the street or trolled online? We asked five actors who killed off beloved characters – from Spooks to The Sopranos, Wolf Hall to Westeros – about their experiences …
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedHe may now live in Germany, but he loves returning to Britain, not just to put on a show, but to enjoy the weather, the food, the humour – and the selfie-takers in galleries
Let’s suppose that you are a Turner prize-winning sculptor, with more than 50 years in the game. One restless night, an idea comes to you. You work it up in your studio and send it off to the foundry, to be cast in bronze. Finally, you’re ready to show it to the world, but the first person through the gallery doors barely glances at it before taking a selfie with it. What do you do? Bear in mind that you are Tony Cragg, Royal Academician, and you are on record bemoaning the preference of many art-lovers for listening to audio guides as they tour exhibitions.
The perhaps unlikely answer is that you welcome the selfie-taker with outstretched arms, or at least give a convincing impression of doing so. “No, I don’t have problem with that,” says Cragg, albeit faintly, as if he’s thinking about the people who might be crossing the threshold of his latest show, which just opened in London. “People are bound to respond in different ways.”
Continue reading...After 10 years talking to knights, squires and wizards, I understand why ren fairs are booming
Nov. 21st, 2025 02:00 pmguardianworldnews_feedAs the loneliness epidemic worsens, young people are finding themselves and each other through the thriving culture of medieval and renaissance fairs
“I dunno what to tell ya, mate,” a young knight once told me through his helm’s lifted visor. “Gettin’ shield bashed just feels good.”
For the knaves among thee, a “shield bash” is what it sounds like: to bash, or be bashed, with a shield. It’s simple and to the point, like a mace to the face or an arrow to the knee. Witnessing a shield bash, you understand the “haha yesss” that the basher must feel upon bashing, just as you empathetically presume a long “oh noooooo” on behalf of the bashee. So I was surprised to learn being bashed was, in itself, just as fun.
Continue reading...Covid bereaved call for Boris Johnson to lose ex-PM benefits over inquiry report
Nov. 21st, 2025 01:57 pmguardianworldnews_feedCampaign group says it will pursue all legal means to ensure personal accountability for ‘grave betrayal’
Covid-bereaved families have called for Boris Johnson to lose access to public funds and said they will pursue all legal options for personal accountability after a damning report into his handling of the pandemic.
The families said they wanted all privileges Johnson received as a former prime minister – including his ministerial pension, his place on the privy council and access to the public duty costs allowance – to be withdrawn.
Continue reading...Wildlife Sculptures of Leader in Leader, Saskatchewan
Nov. 21st, 2025 09:00 amatlas_obscura_places_feed
In the little town of Leader, Saskatchewan, the wide variety of wildlife that calls the Canadian prairie home comes to life in a very big way.
Starting in 1992, municipal leadership decided that they could liven up the 900-person town by commissioning fiberglass statues of some of the region's most iconic animals from artists Ralph Berg and Grant McLaughlin. Playfully interspersed amidst Leader's quiet grid of streets, visitors will encounter a catalog of local fauna, including a mule deer, a rattlesnake, a bobcat, a couple of endangered kangaroo rats, and a troupe of burrowing owls.
The collection of critters reflects Leader's proximity to the Great Sand Hills, a vast wilderness area in southern Saskatchewan that hosts far more biodiversity than one might initially realize. Over the years, it has been encroached upon as more and more of the prairie has been overtaken by farmland.
While in Leader, you can also go see the concrete foundation that marks the only remaining evidence of what was once the world's largest barn, which stood in the town from 1914 to 1921.
Cop30 live: summit president warns ‘everybody will lose’ if countries fail to cooperate
Nov. 21st, 2025 02:15 pmguardianworldnews_feedAndré Corrêa do Lago issues plea to preserve Paris agreement with countries far from reaching agreement on scheduled final day
An informal stocktake plenary is now underway [see live feed at the top of the blog]. Here the presidency will update parties on the state of the negotiations.
My colleague Damian Carrington will be keeping across the main developments.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedRolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Shares are falling faster than wickets in Perth at the start of trading in London, as fears of an AI bubble rip through markets again.
Following losses on Wall Street last night, the FTSE 100 share index has dropped by 104 points, or just over 1%, at the start of trading to 9423 points. That’s a one-month low.
it’s been a truly remarkable 24 hours, with a sequence of moves that were almost impossible to predict….
After the world’s largest company reported spectacular results, the stock was up around +5% by 3pm London time. It closed down -3.15%. The broader market followed a similar pattern: the S&P 500 initially climbed +1.93%, only to fade and close down -1.56% as doubts about AI valuations crept back in. That marked the biggest intra-day swing for the S&P since the six days of extreme market turmoil that followed the Liberation Day tariffs in early April. Adding to the negative backdrop for crypto were lingering questions over the crypto market structure bill that’s being worked on in Congress.
Continue reading...‘There are many zoos I would like to see closed’: Zoo chief plans shake up
Nov. 21st, 2025 02:08 pmguardianworldnews_feedAs debate continues to rage over the welfare of animals in captivity, David Field is hoping to drag the sector forward
He has loved zoos all his life, but would close many of them down if he could.
David Field, who this month became head of the world’s zoo industry group, said of zoos that treat animals badly: “It makes me feel desperate. I’ve probably in my life tried to close down more zoos than open them.”
Continue reading...Alastair Cook and Becky Ives make best of TNT Sports’ shonky Ashes production | Barney Ronay
Nov. 21st, 2025 02:03 pmguardianworldnews_feedPresenter Ives was breezy, while Cook fronted everything like the last ceremonial horse of some dying cavalry unit
You know what they say. Never judge a pitch until both teams have batted really badly on it. You know what they say. Over here you bat long, bat hard, bat short, bat soft. You know what they say, the Ashes in Australia is all about a hybrid maverick production with a fan-first identity.
Given the brilliance of the basic entertainment on day one in Perth, it was easy to forget that England’s Baz-facing tourists aren’t the only setup with a brave new philosophy in play, out there disrupting the norms, and in need, above all, of a decent start.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed⚽ Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
⚽ Sign up for Football Daily | Follow on Bluesky | Mail John
Chelsea: It seems Palmer’s toe is broken. Jacob Steinberg has the latest from Enzo Maresca’s press conference: “Bad news for Chelsea fans, who have been left reeling by the revelation that Cole Palmer’s comeback from a groin injury has been delayed by the forward fracturing a toe in a freak accident at home,” he writes.
”Speaking ahead of his side’s trip to Burnley, Enzo Maresca said: ‘He is not available for tomorrow for sure, Barcelona for sure or Arsenal for sure. Unfortunately, he had an accident at home where he hit his toe but it is nothing important but he won’t be back in the next week. It’s fractured.’ I’m reminded of this …”
Chelsea: Enzo Maresca has revealed that Cole Palmer’s eagerly awaited return to the Chelsea line-up following his recovery from a groin injury will be delayed because the midfielder has hurt his toe in some unspecified accident at home. The Chelsea head coach says he doesn’t know whether or not the little piggy in question is broken.
Continue reading...We know ultra-processed foods are bad for you – but can you spot them? Take our quiz
Nov. 21st, 2025 02:00 pmguardianworldnews_feedTest your knowledge in eight questions to prove you know your onions from your emulsifiers
A major global report released this week linked ultra-processed foods to harm in every major human organ. For people in the US, the UK and Australia, these foods make up more than half the calories they consume each day.
But it’s not always easy to tell which foods are ultra-processed.
Group one: unprocessed or minimally processed foods including whole fruits and vegetables, milk, oats and rice.
Group two: processed basic ingredients used in cooking including salt, sugar and vegetable oils.
Group three: processed foods made by adding items from groups one and two. Includes canned legumes, bread and cheese.
Group four: ultra-processed foods which are commercial products made from extracts of foods, often with added chemicals, flavours and other ingredients you wouldn’t find in a home kitchen.
With thanks to Dr Priscila Machado from the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition at Deakin University for checking this quiz for accuracy
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedThere is no point pretending that change is not happening, or that it can be avoided. But these are the risks we must address
The idea of serving the public has been baked into the bones of journalism ever since the profession was created.
Whether it was quality information to inform the citizenry, or sensationalism and gossip, newsrooms and editors have had the desires and needs of their audiences, noble and ignoble, front of mind.
Continue reading...