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Best music of 2020Fiona AppleInterviewFiona Apple on the album of the year, Grammys hypocrisy and how #MeToo helped her get soberLaura SnapesOver two interviews and more text messages, our artist of the year unpacks her album Fetch the Bolt Cutters – and explains how she finally found compassion for herself after trauma and bullying The Guardian’s No 1 album of 2020: Fetch the Bolt Cutters The album has meant so much to people this year. [Read More]

Mark Sanford This article is more than 10 years oldMaria Belen Chapur speaks publicly about former governor Mark SanfordThis article is more than 10 years oldArgentinian woman talks to press for first time about US politician who resigned South Carolina office over affair with herMaria Belen Chapur, the Argentinian woman for whom former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford left his wife and derailed his career, has finally spoken on camera about their relationship. [Read More]

MonacoPrince Rainier of Monaco laid to restDignitaries and royals from throughout Europe today attended the funeral of Prince Rainier III of Monaco, who died earlier this month at the age of 81. The prince, who had ruled the tiny Mediterranean principality for more than half a century, had struggled with health difficulties for years. He died after a battle against heart, kidney and breathing problems. He will be buried later today next to his wife, the Hollywood star Grace Kelly, who was killed in a car crash in 1982. [Read More]

Sondra Locke - a life in pictures Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email Sondra Locke, the US actor who co-starred in six films with her one-time partner, Clint Eastwood, has died of cancer. Their professional association began with The Outlaw Josey Wales in 1976 and ended with Sudden Impact in 1983. She described undergoing a double mastectomy and chemotherapy in her 1997 memoir, The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly: A Hollywood Journey [Read More]

StageReviewPlaywrights Horizons, New York A play about a charismatic pastor who has had a revelation that upsets his congregation asks difficult questions about belief and behaviour in America Whether or not you believe in God, you should believe in Lucas Hnath. Hnath is a youngish playwright with an interest in form, argument and the stories we tell in order to consolidate our lives and beliefs. His latest play, The Christians, at Playwrights Horizons, delivers on the earlier promise of Isaac’s Eye, a heavily fictionalised and heavily footnoted treatment of an episode in the life of the young Isaac Newton, and A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney, a loosely biographical tribute to the showman, structured as a table read in a blandly corporate conference room. [Read More]

Observer special reportEvolutionOur species, Homo sapiens, evolved in Africa over hundreds of thousands of years. Now we are beginning to understand how Underneath our skins, we are all Africans. That is the recent, simple conclusion of scientists studying the origins of our species. Genes, ancient stone tools and fossil bones – analysed over the past few decades – make it clear that men and women today are the direct descendants of hunter-gatherers who evolved somewhere in Africa and took over the continent before one group departed to conquer the rest of the world tens of thousands of years ago. [Read More]

Organ GrinderThe WireThe Wire re-up: season three, episode one – String theorySPOILER ALERT: This weekly blog is for those who have already seen The Wire in its entirety. This week: the laws of economics crash into the laws of the corner The Wire Re-up - the book is out now. Click here to buy it Season three opens with the demolition of the infamous towers, home and greenhouse to many of our favourite dealers and hoppers. [Read More]

Brazil This article is more than 5 years old'Raining spiders': airborne arachnids appear over south-east BrazilThis article is more than 5 years oldSoaring temperatures bring tales of eight-legged invaders as huge numbers of communal species spin invisible webs in the sky Summer in south-east Brazil has brought soaring temperatures and some disconcerting eight-legged visitors. Residents in a rural area of southern Minas Gerais state have reported skies “raining spiders”, a phenomenon which experts say is typical in the region during hot, humid weather. [Read More]

Readers' travel tipsPoland holidaysSpectacular architecture, art and wilderness feature among our readers’ favourite encounters . Scroll down for the winning tip and to send us your own Renaissance beauty, ZamośćThe relative remoteness of Zamość, a south-eastern town (only a few buses and trains each day from Lublin), makes the surprise of emerging onto its extraordinary Rynek square even more delightful. Set on an important trading route, with ornate Armenian merchant houses painted yellow, red and blue, the square and surrounding streets were designed by Venetian Renaissance architect Bernardo Morando. [Read More]

AnorexiaAs the use of pro-anorexia websites increases, some vulnerable women are finding themselves the targets of grooming by the porn industry. Nicola Hobbs reports'As you know, beauty has one name: being thin. Our models are underweight, skinny, thin, bony – just like you. We want you. Regardless of the costs, we want you to join our agency. Let's face facts, on anorexic porn websites, men are masturbating watching your pictures. You are a superstar of starvation and if you were selling and marketing your frame you would be more wealthy than most of us because men would pay any price for watching those pictures. [Read More]