Politics:
The situation in Mali is deteriorating.
Residents in northern Mali have long been calling for an Ecowas intervention. But this week, the UN security council stopped short of backing the planned military action, although it condemned the destruction of ancient shrines in the historic city of Timbuktu, saying it could constitute a war crime, a move that follows a similar statement by the new chief prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda.
Also: The Guardian about how this is a conflict "split along colour lines", the effect of the food crisis, the NY Times on the inaction of the UN Security Council.
openDemocracy on how to think about migration in the UK. This holds up for other countries as well. "Gut intuitions, or the funny feeling that one is seeing fewer jobs but more and more immigrants and that they therefore must be related, will no longer suffice"
Jeff Strabone with the first part of a two-part essay series on How to Abolish the Electoral College, on 3quarksdaily, Nate Silver about Measuring the Effects of Voter Identification Laws, Ana Marie Cox with the week in review, for the Guardian (on Vice Presidential speculations, Bain... and North Dakota).
Pop Culture:
File under: Things I'll never actually ever get to go to there - San Diego Comic-Con, which ended yesterday, brought panels for Doctor Who (with a live performance of Bohemian Rhapsody by Karen and the Babes plus extra unhappiness about the Ponds exiting the show), Game of Thrones, Warehouse 13 (the fourth season will premiere on July 24), Elementary (a re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes starring Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu), Defiance (an upcoming SyFy show starring Julie Benz, Jaime Murray, Mia Kirshner and Stephanie Leonidas). Because all is right in the world, Kelly was asked about Wells and Murray about Bering.
Additionally, the 10-year-anniversary Firefly panel eventually brought tears to almost all present cast members and Joss Whedon.
Game of Thrones recently announced some new additions to the cast for the third season: among them, Ellie Kendrick (Being Human, also, !!!), Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Nathalie Emmanuel, Diana Rigg as the Queen of Thorns (basically I need all the Tyrells next season...). Shireen Baratheon was also cast, defying rumours she'd not appear in the show, and Stannis' wife will be played by Tara FitzGerald (so the other thing I need next season is scenes between Selyse and Melisandre).
The final seasons of Damages and Breaking Bad started last week, and Leverage moved to Portland for its fifth season, making Eliot Spencer the obsessively precise micro-brewer a likely cross-over character for that other show set in the same city.
Wild Flag (and others - here's the full coverage for Friday and Sunday) played the Pitchfork music festival, arguably delivering the best performance of my new favourite song Winter Pair AND interpretation of Racehorse yet. Look at Janet go! (And bonus, a Nerdist podcast with Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen).
Plus new track from The xx (I was recently reminded of their cross-over hitness by a concert poster featuring them right beside Korn... well done, I guess?)
No comments:
Post a Comment