Number of EU citizens refused entry to UK soars despite Covid crisis

Post-Brexit rules allow travel without visas, but border officials have wide powers to exclude visitors

The number of EU citizens being prevented from entering the UK has soared over the past three months despite a massive reduction in travel because of Covid, according to Home Office figures.

A total of 3,294 EU citizens were prevented from entering the UK, even though post-Brexit rules mean they are allowed to visit the country without visas. That compares with 493 EU citizens in the first quarter of last year, when air traffic was 20 times higher.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/28/number-of-eu-citizens-refused-entry-to-uk-soars-despite-covid-crisis

Nasa’s Mars helicopter goes on ‘stressful’ wild flight after malfunction

Problem with camera-based navigation system saw helicopter wobble through the air in biggest tech issue Ingenuity has faced

A navigation timing error sent Nasa’s Mars helicopter on a lurching ride, its first major problem since it took to the Martian skies last month.

The experimental helicopter, named Ingenuity, managed to land safely after the problem occurred, officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Thursday.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/may/28/nasa-mars-helicopter-goes-on-stressful-wild-flight-after-malfunction-ingenuity

Covid bereaved demand public inquiry and end to ‘political pantomime’

Dominic Cummings’ litany of claims against the government should be formally investigated, say families

Boris Johnson is facing a growing clamour to bring forward the start of the coronavirus public inquiry after Dominic Cummings’ allegations triggered a “political pantomime” that disrespects the victims of the pandemic, their relatives said.

The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, which represents thousands of grieving people, called for an urgent start to the inquiry, which is due to begin in spring 2022.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/28/covid-bereaved-demand-public-inquiry-and-end-to-political-pantomime

‘One name in a long list’: the pointless death of another West Bank teenager

Obaida Jawabra was weeks from turning 18 when he was shot by an Israeli soldier, after a life shaped by arrests and imprisonment

Route 60, the north-south artery that carves its way through the West Bank, is both the lifeblood of the region and a source of daily fear.

Flanked in parts by 2.5-metre-high (8ft) separation barriers, military checkpoints and watchtowers crewed by Israeli snipers, the 146-mile highway that starts and finishes in Israel but passes Hebron and Bethlehem in the West Bank, has been the scene of many fatal attacks and violent clashes.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/may/28/one-name-in-a-long-list-the-pointless-death-of-another-west-bank-teenager

The Friends reunion: the best, the worst and the Bieber

The much-anticipated special brought back the stars of the long-running sitcom along with celebrity guests but was it worth the hype?

Now that it is out in the world, it’s clear that the much-heralded Friends reunion is actually several shows in one. It’s a clip show, it’s an interview show, it’s a celebrity talking heads show. And, as you’d expect from a format this muddled, some of it worked better than others. For every moment that managed to be genuinely touching, there was another where it felt like everyone was simply letting the clock run out. Perhaps the best way to approach this is to break the reunion down into its constituent parts, from most to least successful. Beware: here be spoilers.

Related: Friends: the Reunion review – The One That Is a Nostalgia Fest and No More

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source https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/may/28/friends-reunion-best-worst-moments-celebrity-guests

Cillian Murphy: ‘I was in awe of how Helen McCrory lived her life’

The star of Peaky Blinders on his late colleague, how he convinced the producers to cast him rather than Jason Statham as Tommy Shelby – and returning to the monster-movie genre in A Quiet Place Part II

Cillian Murphy, star of the new horror sequel A Quiet Place Part II, is something to behold: X-ray eyes at once penetrating and ethereally blue, cheekbones so pronounced you could stretch out and go to sleep on them. Unfortunately, the beholding will have to wait. We have barely exchanged greetings over Zoom when his voice breaks up, the screen freezes and the room falls silent. A quiet place, indeed.

We switch to phones. We can do this, I tell him. “I have faith,” he replies, in a soothing Cork accent that compensates for the lack of visuals. Murphy’s gift for intensity has made him a natural fit for characters damaged (Dunkirk, The Edge of Love) or outright villainous (Batman Begins, Red Eye), but today he is quick to laugh and keen to talk. He is speaking from a flat in Manchester, where he is staying while he shoots the sixth and final series of Peaky Blinders. That stylish crime drama, which rocketed from BBC Two cult success to global phenomenon, revolves around a 1920s Birmingham gang led by Murphy as the vicious Tommy Shelby. With his eyes, looks could kill – although he keeps razor blades in the brim of his cap, just in case.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/may/28/peaky-blinders-cillian-murphy-i-was-in-awe-of-how-helen-mccrory-lived-her-life

Arizona ‘refurbishes’ its gas chamber to prepare for executions, documents reveal

The corrections department has spent more than $2,000 on ingredients to make cyanide gas, the same used in Auschwitz

The state of Arizona is preparing to kill death row inmates using hydrogen cyanide, the same lethal gas that was deployed at Auschwitz.

Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal that Arizona’s department of corrections has spent more than $2,000 in procuring the ingredients to make cyanide gas. The department bought a solid brick of potassium cyanide in December for $1,530.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/28/arizona-gas-chamber-executions-documents