BlinkDash

Male ultramarine grosbeak, Cyanocompsa brissonii (formerly, Passerina brissonii, Cyanoloxia brissonii and Cyanocompsa cyanea; protonym, Fringilla brissonii), also known locally in Argentina as Azulón Ultramarino and in Brasil as Azulão, photographed at Lomas de Olmedo, Salta Province in northwest Argentina (South America). Image: Paul Handford, 16 August 2004 (with permission) [velociraptorize]. Fuji S7000 Question: I am very excited to introduce you to another mystery bird photographer, Paul Handford, who out-of-the-blue (no pun intended) volunteered to share his photos of Argentinian birds with us.

BooksReviewDonald Trump’s attorney general wants you to know the bad stuff wasn’t his fault and the media and Democrats were nasty Take Bill Barr literally, but not too seriously. One day before his memoir was published, the former attorney general told NBC he would vote for Donald Trump for president in 2024, if Trump were the Republican nominee. For all Barr’s protestations about how the man was unsuited to the job, he continues to resist being banished from Trump’s garden.

TheatreAfter her gripping trilogy The James Plays, Rona Munro continues her ambitious series on Scottish history with a saga about power and race in the 16th century When an early draft of Rona Munro’s new play did the rounds, one of the first people to read it had a quibble. They said they had liked the way her original three James Plays had been based on historical fact – the stories of Scotland’s medieval kings, James I, II and III – whereas this latest one, James IV: Queen of the Fight, seemed to be made up.

The ObserverRembrandtIn 2019, exhibitions across the Netherlands will mark the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death. And at their heart lie the portraits of his wife, charting their short, doomed marriageRembrandt drew Saskia van Uylenburgh for the first time three days after their engagement, in the summer of 1633. His future wife is a picture of spirited allure. She smiles back at him from beneath the brim of a wide straw hat, lips shining, hair tousled, eyes glowing with intelligence and humour.

Stephen Colbert This article is more than 1 month oldStephen Colbert cancels week of shows due to burst appendixThis article is more than 1 month oldThe comedian revealed on social media that he is recovering after surgery, wiping out planned shows for the week First this fall, another round with Covid-19 shuttered Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show. Now the show is again sidelined as the host recovers from a burst appendix.

MoviesReviewA staggeringly good opening set piece is the high point of Romain Gavras’s gritty thriller about police racism Romain Gavras’s new drama-thriller is about racism, violence and injustice in the Paris banlieues – broadly in the tradition of Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine and Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables. It’s spectacular and immersive, with a sensational opening. But it gets bogged down in its own one-note, one-tempo uproar and open-ended parkour camerawork – impressive though that is – and suffers from a number of sneaky false-flag get-out clauses that feel like a cop-out.

Argentina This article is more than 5 years oldBroken promises of Buenos Aires Zoo after mysterious deaths of animalsThis article is more than 5 years oldAfter it was announced in 2016 the zoo would become an ecopark, 119 animals have died, leaving activists to feel little has changed When the mayor of Buenos Aires announced in 2016 that the Argentinian capital’s 140-year-old zoo was to be shut down and redeveloped as an ecopark, animal welfare campaigners heaved a collective sigh of relief.

World news This article is more than 2 years oldEurope’s unluckiest train station gets new lease of life as hotelThis article is more than 2 years oldOnce-grand Canfranc was known as the Titanic of the mountains, but fell into disrepair thanks to fire, derailment and war It earned the nickname “Titanic of the mountains”, but now the monumental and ill-fated train station at Canfranc is to get a new life as a five-star hotel, 51 years after the international rail link across the Pyrenees closed.

Harper Lee: Go Set a Watchman specialHarper LeeThey were 15 years apart, but shared a passion for home and family. Alice Finch Lee on the growing pains of her little sister, To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Go Set a Watchman: read the first chapter Oprah Winfrey: my lunch with Harper Lee Shami Chakrabarti: To Kill a Mockingbird made me a lawyer Mary Badham: how playing Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird changed my life My father was a self-made person.