SwayBlog

Explain it to me quicklyChildren's TVThe show has been launched by a US rightwing media brand as a means to ‘challenge the left’. It looks … familiar Janine, I just saw a teaser for a new show that looks like Bluey but … for conservatives? What’s going on? You’re not imagining things, Steph. The Daily Wire, the US conservative media brand founded by political commentator Ben Shapiro and film-maker Jeremy Boreing, has branched out into kids’ entertainment with a new subscription streaming app called Bentkey.

People pose at the Martin Luther King Jr memorial statue The Embrace on Martin Luther King Jr Day on the Boston Common in Boston. Photograph: CJ Gunther/EPAPeople pose at the Martin Luther King Jr memorial statue The Embrace on Martin Luther King Jr Day on the Boston Common in Boston. Photograph: CJ Gunther/EPAMartin Luther KingThe Embrace, a 19-ton bronze depicting Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King and a love that helped change the world, has inspired praise, jokes and bile

Sexual healingLife and styleIt is a new relationship and I am finding it difficult to tell her that this makes me uncomfortable. What should I do? After some years of bachelorhood, I recently met the most wonderful woman through a dating app. I could easily fill pages on how we connect, barring one sexual fetish that has emerged. During one of our first nights together, she described herself as “a bit of an exhibitionist” and insisted on leaving the bedroom curtains open while making love.

StageObituaryNatasha Parry obituaryElegant stage and screen actor who gave memorable performances in many of the productions of her husband, the director Peter BrookNatasha Parry, who has died aged 84, was an actor of exceptional poise and beauty. Her career was inescapably defined by her marriage, at the age of 20, to the director Peter Brook, with whom she worked many times in productions of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Anouilh and Beckett. She was also a vital part of Brook’s experimental, theatrical work in Paris, Persia (as Iran then was) and the villages of Africa.

Barack Obama Obama accuses pro-Assad forces of having 'blood on their hands' – video US president Barack Obama says the the bloodshed in the Syrian city of Aleppo is on the hands of the Assad regime and its allies Russia and Iran. Speaking at the White House on Friday, in his last press conference of the year, Obama went on to discuss his response to Russian hacking of the DNC in the run-up to the election, telling Putin to ‘cut it out’

‘Tremendous’: Clare Perkins in The Wife of Willesden at the Kiln. Photograph: Marc Brenner‘Tremendous’: Clare Perkins in The Wife of Willesden at the Kiln. Photograph: Marc BrennerThe ObserverTheatreReviewKiln; Royal Court, London The Wife of Bath is wonderfully at home in 21st-century Brent in Zadie Smith’s inspired reworking of Chaucer. Meanwhile, the troubles of the Royal Court’s big new play continue on stage It cracks itself wide open to the audience; it hits them in the face.

Children's booksChildren's booksTop 10 monkey books for childrenAlison Brown takes a swing through the trees to share 10 of her favourite books about monkeys and primates of all kinds First of all, although there is a big blue gorilla on the cover my latest book Mighty Mo, it’s is actually all about a little raccoon! I haven’t read 10 raccoon books, but I do have lots of favourite monkey stories, so I am very pleased to be able to present my top 10.

US news This article is more than 9 years oldBoston Marathon bombing review says Russia withheld informationThis article is more than 9 years old Russia did not share some findings on Tamerlan Tsarnaev US-Russia relations currently at low ebb A yearlong review of information the US intelligence community had prior to the Boston Marathon bombing found that the government did not miss any key details that could have prevented the attack.

Pop and rockObituaryDennis ‘Dee Tee’ Thomas obituarySaxophonist, frontman and founding member of the American funk band Kool & the GangAs well as being the alto saxophonist and flautist in Kool & the Gang, Dennis “Dee Tee” Thomas, who has died aged 70 in his sleep, was also the band’s master of ceremonies. This role earned him an enduring moment in the group’s history when he delivered the opening monologue to their single Who’s Gonna Take the Weight (1971).