Post your questions for Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco may be the only musician ever to have tired Prince into submission. When they jammed in 1999, he and his band called it quits after four hours while the Buffalo songwriter kept dancing. “After being with her, it dawned on me why she’s like that,” Prince said. “She’s never had a ceiling over her.”DiFranco has been tirelessly doing things to her own beat since 1989

Guardian journalist received large number of leads after Noel Clarke article, court told

A Guardian journalist who has worked on high-profile investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct by men said the volume of fresh leads received after writing about Noel Clarke was the most she had ever witnessed.Lucy Osborne, who, with Sirin Kale, carried out the Guardian’s investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against the Doctor Who actor, told the high court that she was “taken aback” by how many people got in touch after publication of the first article.Clarke, 49, is suing Guardian News and Media (GNM) over seven articles and a podcast published between April 2021 and March 2022 in which more than 20 women accused him of sexual misconduct.Osborne, who has also worked on investigations about David Copperfield and the former Elite model agency boss Gérald Marie, said in her witness statement: “I remember being taken aback by the number of possible leads we received following the first article.“By way of example, at least 25 new sources came forward between publication of the first article and the fourth article – a 24-hour period

Seth Meyers: ‘Donald Trump has entered his Gaddafi era’

Late-night hosts talk Donald Trump’s unspecific tariffs plan, the fallout from Signalgate and Trump openly discussing an illegal third term in office.“March madness is in full swing, and sadly I’m not talking about the basketball tournament,” said Seth Meyers on Monday evening.“Donald Trump has entered his Gaddafi era,” the Late Night host continued, referring to the former Libyan dictator. “Trump’s got masked agents snatching people off the street for opinions he doesn’t like, he’s musing about staying in office past the end of his term, he’s abducting people with no criminal record and sending them to foreign prisons without due process. He’s implementing arbitrary tariffs and admitting that he couldn’t care less if ordinary Americans pay higher prices

Reacher is a show about a very large man punching his way through crime – and it’s perfect

What if there was a man who was substantially larger than other men? This is the big question posed to us by the philosophers behind Amazon Prime’s original series Reacher. Based on the (many) Jack Reacher books by the crime author Lee Child, the show (which just wrapped its third season) follows the adventures of a mountain of man-flesh who uses his beefy body, brawny mind and slab of moral fortitude to kick and punch other men, and solve military crimes.It’s hard to explain exactly what the plot of Reacher is: in the ancient tradition of shows like JAG (what if lawyers could fly jets?), it follows a retired US army military cop (what if a soldier could also solve crimes?) who wanders America with only a toothbrush. However, as he says, “wherever I go, trouble seems to find me” – usually in the form of organised crime needing to be less organised, or old grudges resurfacing, or the murder of an old pal, all of which means he has to reluctantly come out of retirement to stoically punch and kick yet again.Our titular hero starts off as a recognisable trope in the action genre – a figure of terrifying efficiency who is capable of brutal violence; a John Wick or even Jason Bourne-style action man

The wrestler with nine lives: how Saraya survived alcohol, abuse, injury and a leaked sex tape

At 18, Saraya-Jade Bevis had a rags-to-riches signing that took her from Norwich to the largest wrestling promotion in the world. A few years later, she hit rock bottom. Here is how she started overIt’s hard to know where to start with champion wrestler Saraya-Jade Bevis. Do we start in the same place as her memoir, at rock bottom aged 25 when a sex tape of Bevis taking part in a threesome was leaked and went viral? At that time, Bevis was suspended from wrestling, addicted to alcohol and, she says, snorting so much cocaine that her nose was spraying out blood.Or do we start with her childhood in Norwich, raised by a family of wrestlers, ex-cons and alcoholics, living in a council house where, she says, the rent was always due and dinner might be mashed potato sandwiches

Noel Clarke left women he thought spoke to Guardian ‘fearful and in tears’

The actor Noel Clarke made calls to some of the women he thought were cooperating with the Guardian prior to the publication of its investigation into his behaviour, leaving them “shaken, fearful and in tears”, the high court in London has heard.The Guardian’s head of investigations, Paul Lewis, was giving evidence in defence of Clarke’s libel claim against the news publisher over allegations of sexual misconduct.Detailing the steps taken during the investigation into allegations against the former Doctor Who star, Lewis said in his witness statement that he had become aware that Clarke and his business partner Jason Maza had been making calls to women they thought had spoken to the Guardian’s reporters.The women had found the approaches upsetting and some had been left “shaken, fearful and in tears”, Lewis said.In the calls, Clarke had shown a willingness to apologise to some of his alleged sexual misconduct victims if they did not speak to the Guardian about him, the high court was told