If this superhero performs badly due to anti-American feeling it will be a pity, because it’s starting to look rather decent There’s nothing like a good comic book origins story to ramp up excitement levels. The moment where Superman first outpaces a speeding train in Richard Donner’s 1978 film; the bit in Spider-Man where Tobey Maguire stands in front of the mirror and flexes his new-found muscles; the segue in Daredevil where Ben Affleck first dons that purple gimp suit (OK, maybe not so much the latter). Superhero stories speak to the child in all of us, the small boy or girl dreaming of growing up to be something bigger and better. The sense of anticipation that adulthood may open up boundless possibilities is at the heart of our fascination with the form. Captain America: The First Avenger, for which the first full trailer dropped this morning, wisely pitches its own moment of metamorphosis. Steve Rogers (a digitally shrunken Chris Evans) is introduced as a scrawny weakling turned down by the US army, before being transformed into the world’s first “super soldier” via a serum developed by German scientist Stanley Tucci (who seems to be channelling Werner Herzog) to help him fight the Nazis. Riffing off the aspects of Captain America’s origins story, which speak to the universal desire within all of us to be special, was always going to be a smart move for Marvel and director Joe Johnston. And yet if the film’s producers hope to really engage worldwide audiences, they are going to need to sidestep something we’ll call the “Captain America problem”. It ought not to be all that difficult. Put simply, it’s the name. Try as one might to ignore it, it hints at the worst reaches of US nationalism, the gung-ho attitude parodied in films such as Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s wonderful Team America . After eight years of Dubya, the world at large is not exactly primed to wrap itself up in the old red, white and blue, and Captain America is even being titled The First Avenger in some territories in an attempt to sidestep anti-US sentiment. Yet it’s worth remembering that historically the character is no rightwing stooge. Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby partly as a polemical device to argue for the US intervention in the second world war at a time prior to Pearl Harbor, when many were arguing that the country should avoid fighting the Nazis. The first instalment even featured Rogers punching Hitler in the face – Quentin Tarantino, eat your heart out. While the 1950s Captain America did briefly get caught up in the anti-communist fervour of the time as “Captain America: Commie Smasher”, Marvel later “ret-conned” the entire period to suggest that an insane imposter had been wearing Rogers’ costume, a move that mimicked America’s own shame over McCarthy-era persecution. Later on, Rogers almost hung up his suit following the Watergate scandals, and, recently, Marvel has been accused of leftwing bias by the likes of Fox News, following an edition of the comic book in which a raging mob were apparently compared to the Tea Party movement . If Johnston is looking to avoid upsetting those with anti-American sentiments, he ought to keep the character’s liberal origins in mind, because nobody wants “Captain America: fuck yeah!” Thanks to the period setting, it should not be too hard to play down his “Americanness” as a product of wartime patriotic fervour, rather than a conduit for the grimmer realms of US nationalism. In many ways, Rogers is more a man of the people than, say, Superman or Batman, because in theory he might easily have been any one of us. Simon and Kirby conceived him as a character who would fight for all those who believe in what is right and true, not just the Sarah Palin brigade. If the movie does end up performing weakly outside the US due to anti-American sensibilities, it might just be a pity, because Johnson’s film is starting to look rather decent. While it’s always hard to judge these things based on a trailer, I’m liking the heavily filtered, stylised look (even if it screams Zack Snyder’s Watchmen ). It used to be that period movies were shot in black and white in an attempt at authenticity: these days it seems that boosting the teal and tan in post-production is the accepted method for convincing us we’ve slipped back in time. Furthermore, who wouldn’t enjoy Tommy Lee Jones’s gruff and grizzled US army officer – the veteran actor doing a far better job of that particular Hollywood cliche than Brad Pitt ever managed in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds . Based on the new trailer, how does Captain America: The First Avenger strike you? And would the name put you off? Action and adventure Comics and graphic novels Ben Child guardian.co.uk
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Arianna Huffington to launch UK edition as US news and current affairs website moves to expand internationally Arianna Huffington is to launch a UK edition of the Huffington Post this summer, as the US news and current affairs website recently acquired by AOL moves to expand internationally. The multi-millionaire, who sold Huffington Post to AOL for $315m (£195m) in February , told the MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit on Thursday that the takeover meant she could accelerate plans to hire journalists and create a UK-specific site. The British-educated internet entrepreneur said “whenever I am in England I feel like I am home”, adding that she had always planned to expand outside the US, but had been held back by limited internal capital. Huffington Post UK will follow the same model as the US version – hiring a core team of paid writers and editors, while at the same time signing up unpaid bloggers who will have their writings showcased on the site. Huffington Post currently employs 200 writers and journalists. AOL meanwhile is eager to expand its content portfolio internationally. Tim Armstrong, Huffington’s boss and the chief executive of AOL, told the event: “Both companies may be big in the US, but the US only represents 4% of the world’s population.” • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Huffington Post Digital media Arianna Huffington Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Arianna Huffington to launch UK edition as US news and current affairs website moves to expand internationally Arianna Huffington is to launch a UK edition of the Huffington Post this summer, as the US news and current affairs website recently acquired by AOL moves to expand internationally. The multi-millionaire, who sold Huffington Post to AOL for $315m (£195m) in February , told the MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit on Thursday that the takeover meant she could accelerate plans to hire journalists and create a UK-specific site. The British-educated internet entrepreneur said “whenever I am in England I feel like I am home”, adding that she had always planned to expand outside the US, but had been held back by limited internal capital. Huffington Post UK will follow the same model as the US version – hiring a core team of paid writers and editors, while at the same time signing up unpaid bloggers who will have their writings showcased on the site. Huffington Post currently employs 200 writers and journalists. AOL meanwhile is eager to expand its content portfolio internationally. Tim Armstrong, Huffington’s boss and the chief executive of AOL, told the event: “Both companies may be big in the US, but the US only represents 4% of the world’s population.” • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Huffington Post Digital media Arianna Huffington Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Arianna Huffington to launch UK edition as US news and current affairs website moves to expand internationally Arianna Huffington is to launch a UK edition of the Huffington Post this summer, as the US news and current affairs website recently acquired by AOL moves to expand internationally. The multi-millionaire, who sold Huffington Post to AOL for $315m (£195m) in February , told the MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit on Thursday that the takeover meant she could accelerate plans to hire journalists and create a UK-specific site. The British-educated internet entrepreneur said “whenever I am in England I feel like I am home”, adding that she had always planned to expand outside the US, but had been held back by limited internal capital. Huffington Post UK will follow the same model as the US version – hiring a core team of paid writers and editors, while at the same time signing up unpaid bloggers who will have their writings showcased on the site. Huffington Post currently employs 200 writers and journalists. AOL meanwhile is eager to expand its content portfolio internationally. Tim Armstrong, Huffington’s boss and the chief executive of AOL, told the event: “Both companies may be big in the US, but the US only represents 4% of the world’s population.” • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Huffington Post Digital media Arianna Huffington Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk
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Stone tools have been found in sediments 15,500 years old, before the Clovis people are thought to have arrived in America Humans first arrived in North America more than 2,500 years earlier than previously thought, according to an analysis of ancient stone tools found in Texas. And the people who left them appear to have developed a portable toolkit for killing and preparing meat. Researchers found a haul of thousands of artefacts near the state capital, Austin, some of which were identified as blades and other tools. The material was buried in sediments that are between 13,200 and 15,500 years old. Until now, the oldest evidence for human occupation in North America has come from the Clovis site in New Mexico . Scientists think that these people came to North America around 13,000 years ago by crossing the Bering Land Bridge from northeastern Asia. From there, they are thought to have spread across the northern and southern American continents. There are problems with this story, however. Clovis-like tools, known for their distinctive fluted points, have never been found in northeastern Asia. And stone tools found in Alaska are too young (and too different) to be associated with Clovis. Michael Waters from Texas A&M University led a team of researchers to study the Debra L. Friedkin site in Texas, about 40 miles northwest of Austin. Buried underneath the layer of rock that has been associated with the time period for the Clovis humans, his team found more than 15,000 objects that indicated the presence of an older civilisation. “This discovery challenges us to rethink the early colonisation of the Americas,” said Waters. “There’s no doubt these tools and weapons are human-made and they date to about 15,500 years ago, making them the oldest artefacts found both in Texas and North America.” He added: “This makes the Friedkin site the oldest credible archaeological site in Texas and North America. The site is important to the debate about the timing of the colonisation of the Americas and the origins of Clovis.” The analysis of the artefacts found at the site, which researchers have called the Buttermilk Creek Complex, is published in the latest issue of Science . “Most of these are chipping debris from the making and re-sharpening of tools, but over 50 are tools,” said Waters. “There are bifacial artefacts that tell us they were making projectile points and knives at the site. There are expediently made tools and blades that were used for cutting and scraping.” The researchers think that the tools were made small so they could be used in a mobile toolkit, easily packed up and moved to a new location. Though the tools are noticeably different from the Clovis technology, Waters thinks that they could be related. “This discovery provides ample time for Clovis to develop. People [from the Buttermilk Creek Complex] could have experimented with stone and invented the weapons and tools that we now recognise as Clovis … In short, it is now time to abandon once and for all the ‘Clovis First’ model and develop a new model for the peopling of the Americas.” The stone tools at Buttermilk Creek were dated using an optical technique called luminescence dating , which uses changes in luminescence levels in quartz or feldspar as a clock to pinpoint the time that objects were buried in sediment. “We found Buttermilk Creek to be about 15,500 years ago – a few thousand years before Clovis,” said Steven Forman of the University of Illinois, who is a co-author on the paper. He added that it was the first identification of pre-Clovis stone tool technology in North America. Anthropology Archaeology United States Alok Jha guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jon Stewart razzed reporters in a segment last night , kicking things off by poking at Nancy Grace, whose arguments about the radiation threat the US faces from Japan unraveled into an argument about how “there is no such thing as magic.” But she is not the media story of the…
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Jeremy Morlock receives 24 years in prison following plea deal to give evidence against fellow soldiers A US soldier who pleaded guilty to the murders of three Afghan civilians has been sentenced to 24 years in prison after saying “the plan was to kill people” in a conspiracy with four fellow soldiers. The military judge said he initially intended to sentence Jeremy Morlock to life in prison with possibility of parole but was bound by the plea deal. Morlock, the first of five soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade to be court-martialed in the case, will receive 352 days off of his sentence for time served and could be eligible for parole in about seven years, his attorney, Frank Spinner, said. He will be dishonourably discharged as part of his sentence. The 22-year-old is a key figure in a war crimes investigation that has raised some of the most serious criminal allegations to come out of the war in Afghanistan. Army investigators accused him of taking a lead role in the killings of three unarmed Afghan men in Kandahar province in January, February and May 2010. His sentencing came hours after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three counts of murder, and one count each of conspiracy, obstructing justice and illegal drug use at his court martial at the Lewis-McChord military base in Washington state. Under his plea deal, he has agreed to testify against his codefendants. Asked by the judge whether the plan was to shoot at people to scare them, or to shoot to kill, Morlock replied: “The plan was to kill people.” Speaking after the sentencing, Spinner read a statement prepared by Morlock in which the soldier apologised for the pain he had caused his victims’ families and the people of Afghanistan and asked for forgiveness from his fellow soldiers. The plea deal had been in place for nearly two months, so the sentence “wasn’t really a surprise” to Morlock, Spinner told reporters. Morlock told the judge that he and the other soldiers first began plotting to murder unarmed Afghans in late 2009, several weeks before the first killing took place. To make the killings appear justified, the soldiers planned to plant weapons near the bodies of the victims, he said. Morlock said he had second thoughts about the murder plot while home on leave in March 2010, after the first two killings. “It was really hard to come back,” he told the judge, adding that he no longer wanted to “engage or be part of anything” like the killings that had already occurred. Morlock said he did not voice his doubts to his fellow soldiers, however, and he went on to participate in the third killing in May. Morlock also admitted to smoking hashish while stationed in Afghanistan, though he said he was not under the influence of the drug at the time of the killings. In addition, he admitted to being one of six soldiers who assaulted a fellow platoon member after that man reported the drug use. Morlock, his voice shaking at times, told the judge he had asked himself “how I could become so insensitive and how I lost my moral compass”. “I don’t know if I will ever be able to answer those questions,” he said, adding that he believed he “wasn’t fully prepared for the reality of war as it was being fought in Afghanistan”. Earlier this week, the German news magazine Der Spiegel published three graphic photos showing Morlock and other soldiers posing with dead Afghans. One image features Morlock grinning as he lifts the head of a corpse by its hair. US military Afghanistan United States guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jeremy Morlock receives 24 years in prison following plea deal to give evidence against fellow soldiers A US soldier who pleaded guilty to the murders of three Afghan civilians has been sentenced to 24 years in prison after saying “the plan was to kill people” in a conspiracy with four fellow soldiers. The military judge said he initially intended to sentence Jeremy Morlock to life in prison with possibility of parole but was bound by the plea deal. Morlock, the first of five soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade to be court-martialed in the case, will receive 352 days off of his sentence for time served and could be eligible for parole in about seven years, his attorney, Frank Spinner, said. He will be dishonourably discharged as part of his sentence. The 22-year-old is a key figure in a war crimes investigation that has raised some of the most serious criminal allegations to come out of the war in Afghanistan. Army investigators accused him of taking a lead role in the killings of three unarmed Afghan men in Kandahar province in January, February and May 2010. His sentencing came hours after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three counts of murder, and one count each of conspiracy, obstructing justice and illegal drug use at his court martial at the Lewis-McChord military base in Washington state. Under his plea deal, he has agreed to testify against his codefendants. Asked by the judge whether the plan was to shoot at people to scare them, or to shoot to kill, Morlock replied: “The plan was to kill people.” Speaking after the sentencing, Spinner read a statement prepared by Morlock in which the soldier apologised for the pain he had caused his victims’ families and the people of Afghanistan and asked for forgiveness from his fellow soldiers. The plea deal had been in place for nearly two months, so the sentence “wasn’t really a surprise” to Morlock, Spinner told reporters. Morlock told the judge that he and the other soldiers first began plotting to murder unarmed Afghans in late 2009, several weeks before the first killing took place. To make the killings appear justified, the soldiers planned to plant weapons near the bodies of the victims, he said. Morlock said he had second thoughts about the murder plot while home on leave in March 2010, after the first two killings. “It was really hard to come back,” he told the judge, adding that he no longer wanted to “engage or be part of anything” like the killings that had already occurred. Morlock said he did not voice his doubts to his fellow soldiers, however, and he went on to participate in the third killing in May. Morlock also admitted to smoking hashish while stationed in Afghanistan, though he said he was not under the influence of the drug at the time of the killings. In addition, he admitted to being one of six soldiers who assaulted a fellow platoon member after that man reported the drug use. Morlock, his voice shaking at times, told the judge he had asked himself “how I could become so insensitive and how I lost my moral compass”. “I don’t know if I will ever be able to answer those questions,” he said, adding that he believed he “wasn’t fully prepared for the reality of war as it was being fought in Afghanistan”. Earlier this week, the German news magazine Der Spiegel published three graphic photos showing Morlock and other soldiers posing with dead Afghans. One image features Morlock grinning as he lifts the head of a corpse by its hair. US military Afghanistan United States guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jeremy Morlock receives 24 years in prison following plea deal to give evidence against fellow soldiers A US soldier who pleaded guilty to the murders of three Afghan civilians has been sentenced to 24 years in prison after saying “the plan was to kill people” in a conspiracy with four fellow soldiers. The military judge said he initially intended to sentence Jeremy Morlock to life in prison with possibility of parole but was bound by the plea deal. Morlock, the first of five soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade to be court-martialed in the case, will receive 352 days off of his sentence for time served and could be eligible for parole in about seven years, his attorney, Frank Spinner, said. He will be dishonourably discharged as part of his sentence. The 22-year-old is a key figure in a war crimes investigation that has raised some of the most serious criminal allegations to come out of the war in Afghanistan. Army investigators accused him of taking a lead role in the killings of three unarmed Afghan men in Kandahar province in January, February and May 2010. His sentencing came hours after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three counts of murder, and one count each of conspiracy, obstructing justice and illegal drug use at his court martial at the Lewis-McChord military base in Washington state. Under his plea deal, he has agreed to testify against his codefendants. Asked by the judge whether the plan was to shoot at people to scare them, or to shoot to kill, Morlock replied: “The plan was to kill people.” Speaking after the sentencing, Spinner read a statement prepared by Morlock in which the soldier apologised for the pain he had caused his victims’ families and the people of Afghanistan and asked for forgiveness from his fellow soldiers. The plea deal had been in place for nearly two months, so the sentence “wasn’t really a surprise” to Morlock, Spinner told reporters. Morlock told the judge that he and the other soldiers first began plotting to murder unarmed Afghans in late 2009, several weeks before the first killing took place. To make the killings appear justified, the soldiers planned to plant weapons near the bodies of the victims, he said. Morlock said he had second thoughts about the murder plot while home on leave in March 2010, after the first two killings. “It was really hard to come back,” he told the judge, adding that he no longer wanted to “engage or be part of anything” like the killings that had already occurred. Morlock said he did not voice his doubts to his fellow soldiers, however, and he went on to participate in the third killing in May. Morlock also admitted to smoking hashish while stationed in Afghanistan, though he said he was not under the influence of the drug at the time of the killings. In addition, he admitted to being one of six soldiers who assaulted a fellow platoon member after that man reported the drug use. Morlock, his voice shaking at times, told the judge he had asked himself “how I could become so insensitive and how I lost my moral compass”. “I don’t know if I will ever be able to answer those questions,” he said, adding that he believed he “wasn’t fully prepared for the reality of war as it was being fought in Afghanistan”. Earlier this week, the German news magazine Der Spiegel published three graphic photos showing Morlock and other soldiers posing with dead Afghans. One image features Morlock grinning as he lifts the head of a corpse by its hair. US military Afghanistan United States guardian.co.uk
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Man, 47, arrested as police find two dead, one believed to be missing Swindon woman Police searching for Sian O’Callaghan , who disappeared after leaving a nightclub in Swindon last week, have said they have found two bodies, including one which is thought to be O’Callaghan. A 47-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of kidnap and two murders, officers told a news conference. Detective superintendent Steve Fulcher said: “The location of two bodies have been identified to me, one of whom has yet to be identified formally, but I am quite clear is Sian. “I have informed Sian’s family, who are obviously deeply distressed, and I would ask to give them time and space to come to terms with what’s happened. Police reportedly arrested the suspect outside an Asda in Swindon. A green Toyota was also taken away on the back of a trailer. Meanwhile, police began searching a house in Ashbury Avenue, Swindon. Neighbours said the man who lived there was a cab driver who drove a green taxi. A white police tent was erected in the front garden of the semi-detached house, which was cordoned off and had three police vans parked outside Sian, aged 22, disappeared after leaving a nightclub in Swindon on Saturday in the early hours. Police have been combing the Savernake forest 12 miles away. Analysis of O’Callaghan’s mobile phone records suggests that about 30 minutes after she left the club, her phone was somewhere in the 1,800-hectare (4,500-acre) Savernake forest, near Marlborough. O’Callaghan, an office administrator, was caught on CCTV leaving the nightclub, in Swindon’s Old Town area, after an evening out with friends. She lived in a flat just half a mile away with her boyfriend Kevin Reape, 25. O’Callaghan’s family thanked the public for their help in the search for “our beautiful girl”. In a statement released by police they said: “We have been so touched by the support shown by the community that we wanted to express our thanks. “The sheer numbers of people who have given up their time to help search for Sian and distribute appeal posters are overwhelming and we couldn’t ask for better support from the public, police and media.” Crime Police Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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