‘My father’s death saved my life’: director Steve McQueen on grief, gratitude and getting cancer

After his dad died at 67, the 12 Years a Slave film-maker knew it was only a matter of time before he would get prostate cancer, too. The disease kills 12,000 men a year in the UK – a disproportionate number of them black. Now, in a bid to save lives, he is speaking out about his own diagnosis, alongside the doctors who successfully treated himSteve McQueen felt relieved when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He had no symptoms, was perfectly fit, at the peak of his game. Yet the Oscar-winning film-maker and artist believed it was inevitable

From A Minecraft Movie to Black Mirror: a complete guide to this week’s entertainment

A Minecraft MovieOut now You know how it is – you’re hanging out minding your own business when you’re pulled through a random portal into a three-dimensional world made up of voxels. That’s the fate that befalls Jason Momoa, Sebastian Hansen, Emma Myers and Danielle Brooks, where they meet Jack Black in this adaptation of the popular game.SebastianOut now Twentysomething Max works at a literary magazine in London while side-hustling as sex worker Sebastian to get inspiration for his debut novel, but soon finds his double life leading to a new understanding of his own identity, in this acclaimed first film from Mikko Mäkelä.Death of a UnicornOut now Accidentally hitting an animal is any driver’s nightmare. But it’s worse when said animal is an honest-to-god unicorn

Noel Clarke allegations had ‘high public interest’, Guardian editor tells court

The editor-in-chief of the Guardian, Katharine Viner, has told the high court there was a “very high public interest” in reporting allegations made against Noel Clarke after he received a special Bafta award.In a witness statement, Viner said she believed it was conceivable that the actor’s endorsement by the British academy film awards could lead to an escalation of his allegedly abusive behaviour towards women.Clarke, who is suing Guardian News and Media (GNM), the publisher of the Guardian, for libel over seven articles and a podcast published between April 2021 and March 2022, was given an honorary Bafta award in 2021, which was later suspended.Viner, who has held the position of editor-in-chief at the Guardian since 2015, said that Clarke’s alleged sexual misconduct appeared to be “something of an open secret in the UK film and TV industry”.She was made aware of the intention to follow up on leads about Clarke’s behaviour in April 2021 by the Guardian’s head of investigations, Paul Lewis

Seth Meyers on Trump’s tariffs: ‘Mafia-style governance designed to bully the world into submission’

Late-night hosts sift through the US economic crisis posed by Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs.Seth Meyers bemoaned a new economic reality on Thursday after Trump implemented sweeping tariffs on nearly all countries, “raising prices for American consumers, escalating a pointless trade war and plunging the economy into a self-inflected meltdown. Let me check my 401k – oh no.”And the “early response is worse than the worst-case scenario”, said the Late Night host, as the Dow plunged more than 1,600 points on the day after Trump implemented the tariffs.Meyers recapped how we got here: Trump promised to lower grocery prices during the campaign, but also to tax imports from other countries, setting up an impossible scenario

The Guide #185: How The Phantom Menace’s trade wars can help you understand our political moment

There are many scary things to come out of Trump’s tariffs. The world economy being thrown into chaos; spiralling prices; furious economic experts showing charts with big down arrows, using phrases like “gilt markets” and “share index undergrowth”, which I definitely understand. But the most terrifying thing – the thing that has made me truly believe that we are living in the End Times – is a panic-inducing realisation: The Phantom Menace just might have been right all along.For those who haven’t seen the first Star Wars prequel, GOD I envy you. The dialogue is wooden and the structure inexplicable (sure, let’s just have a pod-race instead of an Act II) – and that’s even before we get onto the Jar Jar Binks of it all (the answer to the question “what if we shaved Paddington and spliced his DNA with the most unlikeable newt in the world?”)

Tasmania’s Dark Mofo is back with a bang – and a car crash: festival announces 2025 program

A two-hour performance work involving an artist and a stunt driver culminating in a head-on car crash, a man being crushed by sand in a giant hourglass, and an open invitation to scream, are among some of the artworks heading to Tasmania’s Dark Mofo festival, which is back this winter after taking a fallow year.The annual art festival, created by David Walsh’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) and well known for its often controversial, confronting and humorous spirit, was called off last year so organisers could take stock of “changing conditions and rising costs” to ensure its future. Many festivals around Australia have been cancelled in the last two years, including Dark Mofo’s summer equivalent, Mona Foma, which finished in 2024 after 16 years.Estimates put Dark Mofo’s economic impact on Tasmania at $54.3m in 2023, which reportedly fell to $7