- EntertainmentThe Telegraph
'I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this': why John Boyega is our most fearless actor
Sometimes when critics especially enjoy a film, we’re asked to host a Q&A; screening, at which the film itself is followed by an on-stage discussion during which audience members can put questions to “the talent”. You get to watch actors play themselves – or at least, versions of themselves that can think of no better way to spend an evening than on the publicity circuit – and the gulf between their screenbound and flesh-and-blood selves is often striking. That said, I’ve met three whose blockbuster charisma was entirely undimmed in person, and who at the end of the talk have had the auditorium spellbound, hanging on their every word. One was Tom Hanks – well, duh. Another was Meryl Streep – ditto. And the third was John Boyega. It was at an opening night screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in central London, and the panel was crammed with big names and bigger personalities, from Harrison Ford to Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy. But Peckham-born Boyega stole the show. Just 25 years old at the time (he’s 28 now), he spoke in a way that made the whole room crane in, even though most of it had probably neither seen nor heard of him before that night. (Pre-Star Wars, his biggest credits were a stint on the London-set 24 miniseries, a handful of independent dramas and the cult alien invasion thriller Attack the Block.) He told stories about his life on set, and before and after, with the almost mathematically calculated bounce and cadence of a great stand-up comic, but with none of the emotional distance that kind of technique often entails. I suspect everyone in that room believed we were listening to the real him speaking, regardless of whether we actually were, or if it was just another, more invisible kind of performance.
232232 reactions - U.S.Yahoo Sports
Drew Brees addresses NFL players kneeling in 2020: 'I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag'
Drew Brees isn't a fan of NFL players taking a knee.
- WorldThe Guardian
Missing Mexican congresswoman's body found a month after abduction
* Anel Bueno, 38, was snatched in Pacific coast town * Area important for drug cartels is country’s murder capitalThe body of a missing Mexican congresswoman has been found in a shallow grave more than a month after she was abducted by armed men while raising awareness about the coronavirus pandemic.Anel Bueno, a 38-year-old lawmaker from the western state of Colima, was snatched on 29 April in Ixtlahuacán, a town on a stretch of Mexico’s Pacific coast that the drug trade has made one of the country’s most murderous regions.Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters on Wednesday a suspect had been detained over the killing of Bueno, who was a member of his party, Morena.“We still don’t know the causes,” López Obrador added.Indira Vizcaíno, a local politician from the same party, tweeted: “Your departure hurts me deeply – I’m saddened not just by the fact but by the cruelty.”Vizcaíno, another López Obrador ally, said authorities were fighting to catch the killers “and bring justice – for this case and all of our country’s victims”.Ixtlahuacán is a 30-minute drive from Tecomán, a picturesque seaside town that has earned the unenviable reputation as Mexico’s most murderous municipality because of its strategic position for drug smuggling cartels.In 2017 Tecomán’s murder rate of a reported 172.5 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants resembled that of a war zone. Last year more than 100 clandestine cemeteries were found there containing the bodies of those who had dared cross the cartels.Colima is one of five Mexican states the United States state department urges travellers against visiting.Calderón sends in the armyMexico’s “war on drugs” began in late 2006 when the president at the time, Felipe Calderón, ordered thousands of troops onto the streets in response to an explosion of horrific violence in his native state of Michoacán.Calderón hoped to smash the drug cartels with his heavily militarized onslaught but the approach was counter-productive and exacted a catastrophic human toll. As Mexico’s military went on the offensive, the body count sky-rocketed to new heights and tens of thousands were forced from their homes, disappeared or killed.Kingpin strategySimultaneously Calderón also began pursuing the so-called “kingpin strategy” by which authorities sought to decapitate the cartels by targeting their leaders.That policy resulted in some high-profile scalps – notably Arturo Beltrán Leyva who was gunned down by Mexican marines in 2009 – but also did little to bring peace. In fact, many believe such tactics served only to pulverize the world of organized crime, creating even more violence as new, less predictable factions squabbled for their piece of the pie.Under Calderón’s successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, the government’s rhetoric on crime softened as Mexico sought to shed its reputation as the headquarters of some the world’s most murderous mafia groups.But Calderón’s policies largely survived, with authorities targeting prominent cartel leaders such as Sinaloa’s Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.When “El Chapo” was arrested in early 2016, Mexico’s president bragged: “Mission accomplished”. But the violence went on. By the time Peña Nieto left office in 2018, Mexico had suffered another record year of murders, with nearly 36,000 people slain."Hugs not bullets"The leftwing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador took power in December, promising a dramatic change in tactics. López Obrador, or Amlo as most call him, vowed to attack the social roots of crime, offering vocational training to more than 2.3 million disadvantaged young people at risk of being ensnared by the cartels. “It will be virtually impossible to achieve peace without justice and [social] welfare,” Amlo said, promising to slash the murder rate from an average of 89 killings per day with his “hugs not bullets” doctrine.Amlo also pledged to chair daily 6am security meetings and create a 60,000 strong "National Guard". But those measures have yet to pay off, with the new security force used mostly to hunt Central American migrants.Mexico now suffers an average of about 96 murders per day, with nearly 29,000 people killed since Amlo took office.During a 2018 interview with the Guardian, Vizcaíno backed one of the key pledges López Obrador made to Mexicans ahead of his election that year – that efforts to combat organised crime would start to tackle the social roots of crime and no longer “just be a matter of fighting fire with fire”.“Crime rates aren’t going up because the people feel like being bad. Crime rates are going up because people need to eat,” Vizcaíno said at a restaurant in Colima’s capital that was the scene of a 2015 assassination attempt on its ex-governor.Bueno had been attempting to raise awareness of Covid-19 prevention techniques when armed men swept into the area on pickup trucks and ordered her inside.During a 2018 interview Tecomán’s mayor, Elías Lozano, blamed the bloodshed blighting the region on “the lack of honest politicians”.“That’s the root of it all. Politicians had the choice of deciding between staying on the sidelines or getting involved – and many decided to get involved because there were economic benefits,” he said.
- CelebrityGood Morning America
Jennifer Aniston's nude portrait is being auctioned for COVID-19 relief
One of Jennifer Aniston's most famous portraits is heading to the auction block for COVID-19 relief. Aniston, 51, revealed on Instagram over the weekend that photographer Mark Seliger organized the auction. "My dear friend @markseliger teamed up with @radvocacy and @christiesinc to auction 25 of his portraits - including mine - for COVID-19 relief," the "Friends" alum announced.
- WorldThe National Interest
Concrete Ships? Inside One of the U.S. Navy's Craziest Ideas
When the United States finally entered World War I in 1917, steel became scarce, and at the same time the demand for ships increased. With the advent of World War II, steel was once again in short supply.
- U.S.MarketWatch
Coronavirus update: U.S. case tally tops 1.8 million; study finds face masks, social distancing effective at reducing infections
The number of Americans with confirmed case of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 climbed above 1.8 million on Tuesday, amid concerns that protests about the death of George Floyd last week, and people gathering in groups as lockdowns are lifted, will spark a fresh wave of infections. Trump, meanwhile, threatened to mobilize the military to restore peace across the U.S. late Monday, after days of protests at the death of the unarmed Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., some of which turned violent.
- U.S.CBS News
Tropical Storm Cristobal takes aim at U.S. Gulf Coast
The storm could bring heavy rain to Louisiana and its neighbors this weekend.
