It’s impossible not be be enraged by this story of Indigenous children who were taken from their families. This heartbreaking show has been a hit in Canada – and it would be a crime for the rest of the world to miss it
Few dramas will enrage you as much as Little Bird. Not because it’s in any way hokey or problematic. On the contrary. Based on the real story of the Sixties Scoop – a period in Canada from the mid-1950s to the 1980s, when an estimated 20,000 First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families and adopted by non-Indigenous families – this heartbreaking tale is restrained and carefully measured. Melodrama is swerved, letting the injustice at this story’s core slowly metastasise.
Spread across six episodes, the series juggles two timelines – 1968 in Saskatchewan; 1985 in Montreal – tracking one family’s rupture; and the decades-long reckoning that follows. We meet Esther Rosenblum (Darla Contois), a first-year law student, at her engagement party, where her fiance David (Rowen Kahn), a doctor, mingles with his wealthy Jewish family. When his mother describes her as “exotic”, the word lodges like shrapnel. She was transplanted when she was five from the (fictional) and raised in the Jewish faith by a Canadian family.
Little Bird aired on Sky Atlantic and is on Now
Continue reading... https://ift.tt/OE4s2Ym August 19, 2026
It’s impossible not be be enraged by this story of Indigenous children who were taken from their families. This heartbreaking show has been a hit in Canada – and it would be a crime for the rest of the world to miss it
Few dramas will enrage you as much as Little Bird. Not because it’s in any way hokey or problematic. On the contrary. Based on the real story of the Sixties Scoop – a period in Canada from the mid-1950s to the 1980s, when an estimated 20,000 First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families and adopted by non-Indigenous families – this heartbreaking tale is restrained and carefully measured. Melodrama is swerved, letting the injustice at this story’s core slowly metastasise.
Spread across six episodes, the series juggles two timelines – 1968 in Saskatchewan; 1985 in Montreal – tracking one family’s rupture; and the decades-long reckoning that follows. We meet Esther Rosenblum (Darla Contois), a first-year law student, at her engagement party, where her fiance David (Rowen Kahn), a doctor, mingles with his wealthy Jewish family. When his mother describes her as “exotic”, the word lodges like shrapnel. She was transplanted when she was five from the (fictional) and raised in the Jewish faith by a Canadian family.
Little Bird aired on Sky Atlantic and is on Now
Continue reading...Today we begin our drive to get everyone in for Christmas. And it will be for local communities up and down the land to decide how best to do it
I’ve always thought you can tell something about a country by what it learns to walk past. And, somewhere along the way, we’ve got used to seeing people sleeping rough on our streets.
We see people bedded down in doorways and sat outside stations, carrying their lives in rucksacks and with sleeping bags on their backs. And I think most people have the same reaction: this isn’t right; it shouldn’t be happening here. But we’ve lived with it for so long that something that used to shock us now feels like part of the scenery.
Andy Burnham is prime minister of the United Kingdom
Continue reading... https://ift.tt/DGIXJ7V August 19, 2026 at 12:30AM
Today we begin our drive to get everyone in for Christmas. And it will be for local communities up and down the land to decide how best to do it
I’ve always thought you can tell something about a country by what it learns to walk past. And, somewhere along the way, we’ve got used to seeing people sleeping rough on our streets.
We see people bedded down in doorways and sat outside stations, carrying their lives in rucksacks and with sleeping bags on their backs. And I think most people have the same reaction: this isn’t right; it shouldn’t be happening here. But we’ve lived with it for so long that something that used to shock us now feels like part of the scenery.
Andy Burnham is prime minister of the United Kingdom
Continue reading...Amid heated race with Anthropic, firm says it’s overhauling research and training and will require greater safety parameters of AI after hack
OpenAI on Tuesday said it had slowed down the pace of its AI development while it overhauled its research and training systems.
The company’s researchers were caught unaware last month when an AI agent under testing hacked another AI firm, Hugging Face.
Continue reading... https://ift.tt/e64FmnK August 18, 2026 at 11:47PM
Amid heated race with Anthropic, firm says it’s overhauling research and training and will require greater safety parameters of AI after hack
OpenAI on Tuesday said it had slowed down the pace of its AI development while it overhauled its research and training systems.
The company’s researchers were caught unaware last month when an AI agent under testing hacked another AI firm, Hugging Face.
Continue reading...After pubs and clubs get rates relief, authors back open letter calling for similar support for bookshops, described as the ‘beating hearts’ of high streets
Maggie O’Farrell, Philip Pullman, Katherine Rundell and Elif Shafak are among the authors supporting a campaign by independent booksellers who have urged Andy Burnham to extend business rates relief for pubs, clubs and live music venues to bookshops, warning that rising bills could put some shops at risk of closure.
A total of 234 independent booksellers have signed an open letter organised by the Booksellers Association, calling on the prime minister and the chancellor to give bookshops the same consideration as other businesses that play a significant, positive role in their communities.
Continue reading... https://ift.tt/qrufVIX August 18, 2026 at 08:25PM
After pubs and clubs get rates relief, authors back open letter calling for similar support for bookshops, described as the ‘beating hearts’ of high streets
Maggie O’Farrell, Philip Pullman, Katherine Rundell and Elif Shafak are among the authors supporting a campaign by independent booksellers who have urged Andy Burnham to extend business rates relief for pubs, clubs and live music venues to bookshops, warning that rising bills could put some shops at risk of closure.
A total of 234 independent booksellers have signed an open letter organised by the Booksellers Association, calling on the prime minister and the chancellor to give bookshops the same consideration as other businesses that play a significant, positive role in their communities.
Continue reading...Lawyers seek dismissal of state charges after Mangione pleaded guilty in federal case over Brian Thompson killing
A New York state judge on Monday effectively postponed Luigi Mangione’s trial on murder and weapons charges over the 2024 killing of a health insurance company CEO, after Mangione pleaded guilty last week to separate federal charges.
The trial had previously been scheduled to begin on September 8. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to the state charges. Mangione’s lawyers on Friday asked New York state justice Gregory Carro, who is overseeing the state case, to dismiss the charges.
Continue reading... https://ift.tt/gmZCUka August 18, 2026 at 12:26AM
Lawyers seek dismissal of state charges after Mangione pleaded guilty in federal case over Brian Thompson killing
A New York state judge on Monday effectively postponed Luigi Mangione’s trial on murder and weapons charges over the 2024 killing of a health insurance company CEO, after Mangione pleaded guilty last week to separate federal charges.
The trial had previously been scheduled to begin on September 8. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to the state charges. Mangione’s lawyers on Friday asked New York state justice Gregory Carro, who is overseeing the state case, to dismiss the charges.
Continue reading...Shasta county, hotbed of US election denialism movement, set to appoint ex-Colorado clerk who served prison term
A northern California county that has become a hotbed of activism for those who sow doubts about the reliability of voting machines plans to hire Tina Peters, the prominent Colorado election denier recently released from prison, to work on elections.
Clint Curtis, the top election official in Shasta county, told the Guardian he plans to hire Peters as a consultant to replace Brent Turner, his top deputy, who has been on medical leave. He said Peters would not have access to the county’s voting system. Plans to hire Peters were first reported by Action News Now.
Continue reading... https://ift.tt/91lWmGu August 18, 2026 at 12:07AM
Shasta county, hotbed of US election denialism movement, set to appoint ex-Colorado clerk who served prison term
A northern California county that has become a hotbed of activism for those who sow doubts about the reliability of voting machines plans to hire Tina Peters, the prominent Colorado election denier recently released from prison, to work on elections.
Clint Curtis, the top election official in Shasta county, told the Guardian he plans to hire Peters as a consultant to replace Brent Turner, his top deputy, who has been on medical leave. He said Peters would not have access to the county’s voting system. Plans to hire Peters were first reported by Action News Now.
Continue reading...