Lachlan Murdoch is back in the picture as 'co-chairman' of 21st Century Fox, but is his father a 'co' sort of person?
So, the older brother becomes "co-chairman" of the empire while the younger brother has to make do with being a mere "co-chief operating officer" of 21st Century Fox. You'd reckon, at first glance, that Rupert Murdoch's own game of thrones was well nigh over. Lachlan, after a prolonged, quasi-entrepreneurial sulk, returns to the Westeros fold. James, victim of the Wapping wild lands, has to make do with TV, movies, videos and sundry digital wonders.
There's no doubt, at first glance, who's won. Daughter Elisabeth, in many ways the ablest but also most independent of the lot, remains in the land of dragons across the Narrow Sea. Ex-wife Wendi, meanwhile, was cancelled at the end of marital series three, a very conscious uncoupling.
Roger Goodell wants to give these women fewer labor rights than a stripper and less pay than a garment worker? Bring it on
Just why would someone ever want to become an NFL cheerleader? For the fleeting, half-baked fame? The camaraderie? Recognition for your athletic-aesthetic prowess? Or maybe its the privilege of being one of Americas Sporting Handmaiden and all the charitable, community-serving femininity youll embody forever after. (Provided, of course, you dont move on to stripping, or bring the NFL into disrepute while you represent it.)
Hopefully young women are looking for at least one of the above, because its certainly not the money, honey: as a brewing lawsuit brought against the Oakland Raiders by their cheer squad has revealed, NFL cheerleaders are some of the most poorly paid legal workers in America. With next to no labor rights and making nowhere near the minimum wage, they could use a cheer or two themselves.
Cameron, Miliband, Clegg the harder they try, the more we despise them
What do the British want from their politicians? That must be a question the aides of all the party leaders agonise over. It's what they're trying to answer as they slave over the latest soundbite or policy initiative, before sending their leaders out into a hostile media environment to chorus "I am not a phoney like the others! I am my own man slash woman!"
The Russians have their answer: bare-chested aggression is what floats their boat. The merciless sturgeon-eyed tyrant. The Russians don't want to vote for the kind of sap who wouldn't rig the election if they didn't. After centuries of dysfunctional relationships with their leaders, they've given up resisting: the fact is they're attracted to a strong man, even when he slaps them about a bit.
As the first same-sex couples celebrate their weddings, we salute the new law
On Friday, for the first time, rainbow flags, the colours of the gay community, flew over two government buildings in London in what the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, called "a small symbol to celebrate a massive achievement". Just after midnight, in London's Camden Town Hall, Sean Adl-Tabatabai and Sinclair Treadway were among the first same-sex couples to be pronounced "husband and husband".
Regardless of personal views on the paraphernalia of orange blossom and nuptials, the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act now in law in England and Wales with Scotland following in the autumn marks a striking and remarkably rapid change in social attitudes on the question of equality. Polls show two-thirds of people back same-sex unions. Yet little more than a decade ago, England still had a law on the books banning the "promotion" of homosexuality.
Metal veterans to be joined at the concert by Soundgarden and Faith No More
Black Sabbath: 'We used to have cocaine flown in by private plane'
Black Sabbath are to headline Hyde Park in London on 4 July, as part of the British Summer Time festival. The veteran metal band reached No 1 in both the UK and US album charts last year with 13, their first album with original singer Ozzy Osbourne since 1978, and played sold out arena shows in Britain before Christmas. Now they are to play one of the capital's signature summer shows.
"The first time I came to London I didn't have a pot to piss in and I spent the advance I got for the first album on a new pair of shoes and some Brut aftershave," Osbourne said. "Returning almost 50 years on, we are doing a it better for ourselves so I may even splash out on some new aftershave before taking to the stage at Hyde Park, the most beautiful park in London that has opened its gates to so many legends in the past. We are beyond honoured to be allowed to put on a show and hope the Royals will enjoy it."
The American ghostly folk exponent on her time in Bonnie Prince Billy's band and why it's hard keeping festival crowds happy
The Observer's A-Z of festivals 2014 in pictures
Ed Vulliamy: my life in festivals
Win a pair of tickets to the festival of your choice this summer
The subtle musician has it tough at festivals. Those intimate, murmured lyrics, the sleepy strums, tricks that work so well on record they're not best suited to open fields, wind-whipped marquees, audiences that don't always fully invest.
"It's kind of a detached experience, not the same as playing a venue at all," says Angel Olsen, a soft-spoken American whose intense, spectral folk has won her many fans in recent months. "People are drunk, milling around; half the time they're not really even, like, enjoying themselves because they're sweaty and they can't see and people are stepping on their toes. It's hard to tell if people are going to pay attention at festivals. But I've had a pretty decent time with it so far."
The Observer's music writers' guide to this summer's festival highlights, taking in A$AP Rocky and OutKast, Dolly Parton and Neutral Milk Hotel
Sex, drugs and Jimi Hendrix: my life in festivals, by Ed VulliamyWin a pair of tickets to the festival of your choice this summer
At 16, Ed Vulliamy saw Jimi Hendrix blow the crowd away on the Isle of Wight. Today, at nearly 60, he is still chasing the festival spirit round far-flung fields. Here is his tale of peace, love and mud
The Observer's A-Z of festivals 2014 in pictures
Win a pair of tickets to the festival of your choice this summer
Just as it had rained at Woodstock in 1969 so it began to pour down too on the 1970 Bath Blues and Progressive Music festival in Somerset. And because it had rained at Woodstock, it didn't seem to matter it was what one did, apparently, with Peace, Love and Music: one sat or slid around in mud.
This was the prototype Glastonbury, and because of the rain the Byrds high point of the bill had to play an acoustic set. But what the hell: covered by a plastic sheet, I had to pinch myself to believe I was hearing Roger McGuinn sing Mr Tambourine Man live. And Jefferson Airplane Grace Slick was my pubescent pin-up passion thundering White Rabbit. The Airplane's bluesy offshoot, Hot Tuna, played, too, as did mighty Steppenwolf who performed Monster, their epic counter-history of America, in its entirety.
The Observer has 24 pairs of tickets to give away to some of the top festivals across the summer
The Observer's A-Z of festivals 2014 in pictures
Ed Vulliamy: my life in festivals
The Blondie singer on the outrageous example of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, the folk happenings of the hippy era and unwinding with a bit of Bizet
Born at the end of the second world war and adopted by two gift-shop owners, Debbie Harry grew up in suburban New Jersey. After apprenticeships in folk band the Wind in the Willows and girl trio the Stilettos, she was 31 when Blondie released their 1976 debut LP. Their first UK hit was 1977's Denis and by 1978's Parallel Lines they were global stars. Reuniting in 1997 after a 15-year sabbatical in which Harry made solo records and films, Blondie play Glastonbury in June and V festival in August.
The Virginia-based rapper has sharpened up his act and his after-show activities in preparation for forthcoming summer festival appearances
The Observer's A-Z of festivals 2014 in pictures
Ed Vulliamy: my life in festivals
Win a pair of tickets to the festival of your choice this summer
"There isn't a free moment," says Pusha T on the phone from Virginia. It's 9am on the east coast and the veteran rapper, currently one of the hottest emcees on the planet, has been up bright and early washing clothes. "I'm supposed to be taking a holiday, man, but today I've got to go to New York City for two meetings about my album and another meeting about my clothing line." He sighs. "So much for the vacation."
Pusha T born Terrence Thornton in the Bronx and raised in Norfolk, Virginia has been active in hip-hop for the past two decades, but he's never been busier than he is right now. Last October, four years into his solo career, having taken extended leave from the fraternal rap duo Clipse, he released his debut album. My Name is My Name had plenty of wattage behind it Pusha's label boss, Kanye West, oversaw production and guest stars included Chris Brown and Kendrick Lamar but nobody expected it to generate much commercial heat. The album sold 74,000 copies in its first week and went to No 4 on the Billboard charts, not bad for a hard-edged rap record largely preoccupied with the travails of being a crack dealer.
Now is the summer of our disco tent. Arm yourself with our spotter's guide to 25 things that happen whenever Brits gather for alfresco fun
The Observer's A-Z of festivals 2014 in pictures
Ed Vulliamy: my life in festivals
Win a pair of tickets to the festival of your choice this summer
1 | Chino-clad politician arrives on-site for awkward photo opportunity
2 | Horrifically sunburnt man asleep on ground but everyone's too scared to wake him
Oxford don John Carey's trawl through his back pages is at its best when least professorial
At the very beginning of John Carey's enjoyable ramble through his life as a scholar, critic, literary prize judge, writer and professor, he admits that at first he wanted to write a history of English literature, rather than a history of himself. "Then I realised it would be a lot of donkey work," he confesses, immediately striking the kind of straight-talking, warmly accessible tone that has characterised his career.
Not that Carey takes the easy option; he aims for a book that intertwines his admiration (and sometimes disgust) for literature with the major events in his life. A neat intention, but for the first third The Unexpected Professor is a pretty straightforward autobiography of growing up without privilege in south-west London, completing national service, and going to Oxford in the 1950s, which seemed as different a world to him then as it does now. Strangely this is when Carey is at his best; uninhibited by the Oxford life he both loves and rails against. The tracts on the great writers are to come, and while they don't feel professorial, thankfully, it's those vivid early days that really stick in the mind.
Political scientist who sought reform from within the Soviet Communist party and was an early advocate of perestroika
Behind its facade of unity, the post-Stalin Soviet Communist party was nothing like as single-minded as its leaders pretended and as many in the outside world believed. It contained radically different undercurrents: among the reformers essential to Mikhail Gorbachev's eventual programme of perestroika was Fedor Burlatsky, who has died aged 87.
A vivid personality and at times an influential figure in intellectual and political life, he observed enough of the rules of the game to maintain a comfortable, although far from lavish, lifestyle. His political writings often pushed to the limits of the permissible: he was an eloquent representative of those party insiders who were critical both of the influence of the military-industrial complex and of Russian nationalist currents within the party.
A mother is distraught at her failure to get pregnant again. Mariella Frostrup says she should focus on the child she has, not the child she may never have.
If you have a dilemma, send a brief email to mariella.frostrup@observer.co.uk
The dilemma I will turn 40 in a few weeks and have spent the past decade battling with infertility. After two miscarriages and infertility treatment from the age of 30 to 35, at 36 I was fortunate enough to bring a wonderful boy into the world. For the past four years, I have been struggling to have a second. Despite IVF attempts, my doctor now tells me my age is an additional negative factor. There are medical problems which have been overcome but, for the most part, the IVF failure is unexplained. I feel anguish when, every month, I realise my efforts have failed and that I may not ever be able to have a second child. My world centres around this overwhelming problem. IVF is taking a toll on my job, our finances, my health and my relationship. The need and desire to be pregnant is so deep, I don't know how to cope.
Mariella replies A big deep breath would be my first suggestion. You are hurtling towards your 40th birthday and, as with all landmarks, it can play havoc with your mind and increase anxiety. I'm not being dismissive of your dilemma. Having given birth to my first child at 42 I know all too well the anguish of trying for a baby, the corrosive effect it can have on your relationship and the ease with which monthly disappointment can tip into depression. My gynaecologist, a lovely man in every other respect, was equally negative about my chances of conceiving and actually laughed when, at your age, I announced my husband and I were trying for a baby.
The Private Eye editor on his new TV series, nostalgia, hobbits, and why Scotland should vote No
Your new BBC series, Ian Hislop's Olden Days, is a history of the British belief that things are never what they used to be. How far back does your looking back go?
The first part is the very olden days, right back to the 8th century. It is: where did Arthur first appear?
The author of Kinder Than Solitude on Tiananmen Square and the psychological violence people inflict
Yiyun Li, 41, was born in Beijing. After college, she emigrated to the US to study immunology and turned to creative writing. Her first collection of short stories, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, won the 2005 Guardian first book award. Her first novel, The Vagrants was set shortly after the death of Chairman Mao. Her second collection, Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, followed in 2010. Her new novel, Kinder Than Solitude, focuses on three friends, and alternates between 1990s Beijing and present-day America. She lives in Oakland, California, with her husband and sons, and teaches creative writing at the University of California, Davis.
It's a brilliant device to open a novel with the death of a 43-year-old women who has been in a coma for 20 years. But isn't it inspired by a real-life case the thallium poisoning of a Chinese student, Zhu Ling, in 1995?
Meet the 10 most endangered dog breeds in Britain
For more information on breeds and breeders,
contact thekennelclub.org.uk
Neuroscientist says children are being 'labelled' as having ADHD when there could be other reasons for their disorder
Two dozen family members fly into Kuala Lumpur to meet 'highest officials' as search for missing plane still draws blanks
Razzak, back into the side today, comes into the attack and his flatter brand of left-arm spin is effective early on. As I said may happen, the ball sticks in the pitch and Kamran knew he was in trouble with his pre-meditated lap scoop thing straight away. Captain Hafeez comes in and gets his first run with a sharp single to mid-on. That's a great over from Razzak, who is bowling from very wide around the stumps. Four runs and a wicket.
Oh what a catch this is! Akmal fluffs a scoop and top edges it to short fine leg, where Ziaur takes a marvellous catch leaping backwards. Like watching Paul Collingwood, that one.
It's fair to say that seam isn't working, so Bangladesh turn to their star all-rounder Shakib and his left-arm darts. He induces a big top edge from the sweeping Kamran Akmal, but with no fielder at deep square leg the ball trickles sadly for four. Akmal tries to slog an ugly leg side wide but misses it and gets a few byes. The final ball brings a shout for LBW from the wicketkeeper but it's come off the gloves. Great start this for Pakistan but it's very much buffet bowling.
Ugh, a disgusting slog from Shehzad over mid-wicket brings four, as does a much nicer flick over fine leg. Mortaza is bowling these on a good length and it's difficult to work out what his idea length would be. He tries a fuller, slower ball and Shehzad makes it three boundaries in three with an inside-out cover drive. A rare dot ball follows before Shehzad dances down the track and lofts a straight drive for six to make it 18 from the over.
"An hour early isn't embarassing," writes Gary Naylor. "I once turned up a whole day early for a ferry to Bergen and had to invest in a Whitley Bay BandB."
Al-Amin Hossain is, as usual, the other opening bowler, which means seam from both ends. The pitch looks so slow that it might be difficult to get the ball away to the fence here, as it could well stick in the pitch. The batsmen are happy to get on to the front foot, work the ball into the gaps here and run the singles quickly. Al-Amin strays on to Shehzad's pads with a full one and fine leg is up, so the batsman easily flicks it over him for four.
Mashrafe Mortaza, who has spearheaded Bangladesh's attack since 1904, is opening the bowling to the out-of-form Shehzad under the watchful eyes of Richard Kettleborough and Ian Gould. Pakistan get off the mark thanks to a misfield at square leg; Bangladesh's fielding hasn't been good so far in this tournament and that's an ominous portent. There's absolutely nothing on offer for the bowlers on what looks to be a featherbed and, after a couple of leaves, I can't imagine that Akmal will need long to get his eye in here. Oh I say that and he's beaten all ends up here by one angled in, the crooked bat wafting miles from both body and ball and it passes low over the stumps. Wide filth for the final ball though and it's cut hard to the point boundary.
Which means we'll begin in a couple of minutes. What do we reckon a good score for Pakistan will be? They're capable of getting 180+, especially if Umar Akmal continues the form he showed against Australia, although I doubt they'll need that many. Anything over 160 should be defended comfortably enough.
"Hi Dan," begins this email from Zeeshan Ahmad. "Any news on the Pakistan flag being allowed inside the stadium? Last I heard they had been banned by the Bangladesh Cricket Board authorities."
I'd not heard about this, but there appears to be something to it. Specifically, Bangladeshis are banned from carrying the flags of any other nation into the ground, so it's not a Pakistan-specific thing.
They're both in the bowling department too: Sohail Tanvir comes in for Bilawal Bhatti for Pakistan, while for Bangladesh, Abdur Razzak replaces Sohag Gazi.
Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Shamsur Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim*, Nasir Hossain, Mahmudullah, Ziaur Rahman, Mashrafe Mortaza, Abdur Razzak, Al-Amin Hossain
Pakistan: Kamran Akmal, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez*, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Sohaib Maqsood, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Zulfiqar Babar, Saeed Ajmal
Pakistan have won that and will have a bat.
Perhaps surprisingly, Bangladesh can still qualify for the semi-finals. Beat Pakistan today and Australia on Tuesday and they'll have four points; if Pakistan beat the West Indies in the following game, then both of those teams will have the same and it all comes down to net run rate.
The bad news is that Bangladesh's is now a miserable -2.204, largely thanks to that enormous 73-run defeat by the Windies the second-highest in this competition overall and the highest in the main pool stage and their chances of overhauling the West Indies' +1.223 are slightly on the slim side. Still, hope there!
I'm going to sheepishly get a coffee. You guys can get an extra hour's kip, I guess.
Bangladesh doesn't appear to have adjusted its clocks, unlike here, which means I'm an hour early.
Morning folks. Apologies but we don't have long to go until this one starts as it took me a while to get into the building this morning, so let's get on with it.
Bangladesh been pretty dismal in hosting their own tournament. Never mind the lights going out regularly in Chittagong, nor the bizarre decision to hold day-night games in locations that become drenched with dew at night making bowling and catching near-impossible; they've been close to inept when it comes to actually playing
cricket
T20. It's three defeats in a row now, narrowly to lil' ol' Hong Kong then utter spankings by the West Indies and India. Captain Mushfiqur Rahim has urged players to play their natural game, but if this is that then things do not bode well for Bangladeshi cricket.
Dan will be along from around 10am.
As it's Mother's Day in the UK and Ireland, we asked Guardian readers to tell us about their relationships with their mothers. Here are some of their inspiring pictures and stories
You can share your own pictures and memories with GuardianWitness
The party used to split along a distinct left-right divide. These days it's much more complicated. Here's a guide to Labour's warring tribes
In the good old, bad old days when Labour had a strange compulsion for committing suicide in public, the party's uncivil wars were bloody, but at least they were easy to follow. You knew where you were when the Bevanites were slugging it out with the Gaitskellites in the 1950s. As you did when the Bennites were battling with the Healeyites in the 1980s. Those fratricidal frenzies helped to put Labour out of power for long stretches, but the one redeeming feature of the divides of the past is that the battle lines were vividly drawn.
Ed Miliband's Labour is not noisily split along left-right lines. Though his senior team seethes with plenty of personal rivalries, the lid has been kept on them for most of the time. That is one of the lesser sung achievements of his leadership of a historically fissiparous party. It doesn't mean that Labour is not divided. The difference is that the fault lines these days are more complex and various. I offer you my attempt to delineate the five Labour divisions that matter at the moment.
One thing we won't be celebrating on Mothering Sunday is the annoying habit mums have of telling their daughters what no one else will that they're fat, badly dressed or having a bad hair day
Mother's Day: your photos and stories in pictures
Mother's Day is when we celebrate the maternal role. But there's one special quality to that role we don't often acknowledge: that mothers can get away with saying things that no one else is allowed to.
"I don't want to freak you out, but I think you may have put on a little bit of weight." Charlotte Alter, an American journalist, wrote in Time magazine last month that her mother said this to her when she was 12: "Horrified relatives said I would need years of therapy to forgive my mother for 'fat-shaming' me into anorexia, that I would eventually turn to drugs and cutting to heal my crippled psyche before I succumbed to a life of crime. None of these things happened. Instead, I have a good relationship with my body and my mother, partly because she told me when I was getting a little plump."
Holly Willoughby's killer combination of glamour and approachability means she's television's go-to presenter,
despite toying with respectability in Celebrity Juice. Elizabeth Day meets her to discover if she's really as flawless as she seems
Is Holly Willoughby too good to be true? She arrives at our interview in the midst of a torrential rain storm, having ridden pillion on a motorbike straight from London's South Bank. Yet when she emerges she is bone-dry and unruffled, like a hologram beamed in by laser. Her unsmudged make-up gives her an unnatural sheen of perfection, as though her face is continually being airbrushed by some unseen hand. Her hair, undented by either motorbike helmet or rain, is a volumised confection of blonde waves. Her smile is broad and unforced. She is pretty, but not unapproachably so. In every respect, Willoughby seems to embody that elusive quality much beloved of prime-time television audiences: relatability.
At 33, Willoughby has the career of someone twice her age, holding down some of the most sought-after jobs in TV. She is co-host of ITV's flagship magazine format This Morning (Most Popular Daytime Programme at the National Television Awards 2014), and fronts the prime-time show Surprise, Surprise. She is also team captain for ITV2's comedy panel game Celebrity Juice, which has become the channel's most-watched programme since its launch in 1998, routinely attracting around 2m viewers.