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US news This article is more than 9 years old'Bloodied' Kent State sweatshirt removed from Urban Outfitters websiteThis article is more than 9 years oldFashion retailer takes down ‘vintage’ sweatshirt that recalled deadly Vietnam war protests in which four students were killed The fashion retailer Urban Outfitters removed a “vintage” sweatshirt from sale after allegations that it appeared to be stained with blood, recalling deadly Vietnam war protests when National Guardsmen shot and killed four students at the university depicted on the garment. [Read More]

The ObserverFilmHe played some of the most sublime chess ever seen. Then, as a new book and film illustrate, he disappeared from view. What made such a brilliant mind go into freefall?In 1999, I spent three days sitting in a variety of thermal baths dotted around Budapest. As grand and attractive as the Hungarian capital's spas are, I wasn't stewing myself for therapeutic or leisure purposes. Instead, I was waiting for someone I'd been told frequented the baths, someone who was said to be a genius and a paranoid obsessive, the greatest chess player who ever lived and an obnoxious crackpot. [Read More]

Houseplant of the weekLife and styleHappy in any light and capable of surviving weeks of neglect, this is the closest real plant you can get to a fake one Why will I love it? This plant, also know as the cylindrical snake plant (see below for its Latin names) has a reputation for longevity and indestructibility. It’s the closest the real thing gets to a plastic plant, as it can go through weeks of neglect without its looks being affected. [Read More]

BooksReviewGeoff Dyer is entranced by Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke, a sprawling nightmare in a distinctly modern keyTree of Smoke by Denis Johnson 614pp, Picador, £16.99 Who'd have thought that Denis Johnson had this kind of whopping, mega-ton novel in him? His last, The Name of the World, ran to a mere 120 pages but still managed to sneak on to the shortlist for the biennial Irish Times international fiction prize. [Read More]

BooksReviewMark Lawson finds authorial controversy and romantic scrawl in an imitation library bookCreators of popular television have often invoked comparisons with written fiction: Dennis Potter and Steve Bochco both used the term "TV novel" to describe series such as Potter's The Singing Detective and Bochco's LA Law and NYPD Blue. Both screenwriters also published novels, and this switchover tradition continues with JJ Abrams, the power behind Alias and Lost. Perhaps surprisingly, writers who rethought the structures of television often became reverentially conventional on the page: Potter's Ticket to Ride and Bochco's Death by Hollywood had impressive plot and dialogue, as you might expect, but an Edwardian reader would be at ease with the novels' approach to narrative and chapters. [Read More]

Saturday Night Live recapSaturday Night LiveThe Wednesday and Scream VI star brings her brand of dark humor to a miss-heavy week covering everything from the Oscars to Randy McNally Saturday Night Live opens with Access Hollywood coverage of this weekend’s Oscars red carpet preshow. Between awkward shots of women’s feet, Mario Lopez (Marcello Hernandez) and either Maria Menounos or Kit Hoover (Heidi Gardner) interview the ceremony’s new head of security, “notoriously calm and sane person” Mike Tyson (Kenan Thompson); “refreshingly down to earth” nominee Jamie Lee Curtis (Chloe Fineman); incomprehensible Banshees of Inisherin costars Colin Farrell (Mikey Day) and Brendan Gleeson (Molly Kearny); Michelle Williams’ Jewish acting coach (Sarah Sherman); and finally, Tom Cruise – or, rather, George Santos (Bowen Yang) pretending to be Tom Cruise. [Read More]

‘Trust me’ … Birbiglia in Netflix’s Thank God for Jokes; the comic has to sleep in disabling mittens. Photograph: Jessica Miglio/Netflix‘Trust me’ … Birbiglia in Netflix’s Thank God for Jokes; the comic has to sleep in disabling mittens. Photograph: Jessica Miglio/NetflixEdinburgh festival 2023The comic, who has survived cancer and once sleep-jumped through a closed hotel window, is bringing his Broadway smash about mortality to the UK. ‘I guarantee you’ll laugh,’ he says [Read More]

‘It’s deeper than basketball’: South Sudanese-Australian professional basketball player Bul Kuol. Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/The GuardianLast year Bul Kuol faced a choice: play for the fledgling South Sudanese national team or try for a place in the Boomers. He has no regrets by Kieran PenderBul Kuol has never been to his homeland. He left South Sudan before it was an independent nation, arriving in Canberra as a refugee as a child. So when the South Sudanese basketball team play Australia’s Boomers in Melbourne tonight, Kuol will be filled with mixed emotions. [Read More]

The ObserverFashionWhen Emma Beddington took part in a challenge to wear the same dress for 100 days, she wasn’t expecting to feel the positive force of sisterhood alongside a few neat cleaning hacks Could you wear the same thing for 100 days? I could, because I don’t care about clothes. I do not like how they look on me, a 46-year-old woman whose hobbies are cake and sitting still, so I stick to navy or green trousers in summer and black trousers in winter, coupled with plain tops and jumpers. [Read More]

Crime This article is more than 14 years oldMother jailed for faking son's illnessThis article is more than 14 years oldLisa Hayden-Johnson forced boy to pretend he was unwell to con benefits from authorities and donations from the publicThe boy's bedroom was crammed with so much medical equipment that police described it as "like a scene from Casualty". He used a wheelchair and wore dark glasses because of a supposed intolerance to sunlight; he was fed through a tube and at school sported a bright yellow and green hat so that he could be quickly found in an emergency. [Read More]