Government Stuff
A new ‘super committee’ of both MPs and Peers has been formed to scrutinise the government’s draft Online Safety Bill.
Housing Minister Christopher Pincher has approved plans for a national Holocaust memorial to be built next to Parliament.
BEIS with details on how to apply for a licence to conduct commercial spaceflight. Cool, thanks. Will do after the newsletter.
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Culture Stuff
Arts & Culture
Tate is launching a pioneering apprenticeship scheme to help more young creatives from working class backgrounds get into the arts. Great to see.
An excellent bit of research from the Creative PEC exploring how local government spending on culture has changed over the last ten years.
Turner Prize winner Helen Cammock in The Guardian on how ‘cuts to art subjects funding walk us back 60 years’.
A lockdown knitting self-portrait and images of transgender women in Indonesia have won first place at the Wellcome Photography Prize 2021.
The Art Newspaper on how everyone has got the hump about the new £2m Marble Arch Mound (they’ve now suspended bookings in case you planned to go).
One of Monet’s water lilies masterpieces is to be shown in the UK for the first time at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Show me the Monet.
New York-based Chinese scholar and curator Zoe Diao has been selected for the Asymmetry Curatorial Fellowship at London’s Whitechapel Gallery.
Design
A belter of a read. The Guardian on how Henry the vacuum cleaner (NOT Henry the hoover) became a British design icon.
Dezeen looks at how the Kengo Kuma-designed, wood-panelled Japan National Stadium is the centrepiece of this year’s Olympics.
Zaha Hadid Architects have created a 3D-printed concrete bridge in Venice. First one in Amsterdam. Now one in Venice. Can-al bridges be 3D-printed now? (Because they both have canals. That's the joke there).
Theatre & Dance
The Royal Academy of Dance has had its first rebrand in over 20 years.
The Beeb pulls back the virtual curtains to see how Creation Theatre has thrived after embracing innovative uses of digital tech during the pandemic.
Tourism & Heritage
The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales has become the UK’s 33rd UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the City of Bath has just been awarded a dual designation.
Press, Books & Libraries
The longlist for the 2021 Booker Prize for Fiction has been announced, including 1989 winner and Nobel Prize winner, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro.
Press Gazette reflects on 10 years since the ‘cynical’ closure of News of the World.
Exhibitions and Events
From Cézanne to surrealism, Tate has announced the highlights of its 2022 exihibitions at its sites across the country.
All sorts of musical delights in Peckham’s ‘concrete concert hall’ Bold Tendencies this summer, including Samson Tsoy & the Philharmonia Orchestra on 7th August.
Wigmore Hall has unveiled its 2021-22 season. Here’s the numbers: More than 2,500 musicians from 30 nations. 500 concerts. 25,000 £5 tickets for under-35s.
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Rebellion’s hit Sniper Elite 4 has received a free next-gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X and S. And here’s a lil’ Q+A about it with the team at Xbox.
BACK OF THE NET. Roy of the Rovers: Rocky from Tom Palmer and Dan Cornwell is among the nominees for The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2021.
And keeping things literary… Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed (part of the Rebellion Publishing family) is up for best horror novel at the British Fantasy Awards 2021.
Get your hands on this absolutely action-packed Judge Dredd bundle and help support Cancer Research UK and Save the Children UK in the process.
The latest edition of The RP Book Club podcast has landed, with John Appel popping by to chat about his space-opera debut novel Assassin’s Orbit.
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Creative Industries & Tech Stuff
Film & TV
Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker is to commandeer the Tardis for a final time in autumn 2022. To infinity, Jodie.
Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney for releasing her standalone Marvel film Black Widow on streaming platforms at the same time as the cinema.
It’s been a record-breaking first half of the year for BBC iPlayer.
X Factor? More like AXE FACTOR!!! (Had that one in my notes for years). X Factor has been axed in case it wasn’t clear.
Sky One? More like SKY LOST!!! (Needs work). Sky One, the UK’s oldest non-terrestrial channel, is being closed down and replaced with Sky Showcase.
Fashion
Leyna Bloom is to be Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue’s first-ever trans cover star.
Sales of Crocs have almost doubled to £465m since this time last year. Must be all of those pairs you’ve snapped up, Ed.
Music & Radio
Out of Spotify’s top performing 0.8% of artists (about 57,000 musicians), 76% of them made under £36,000 from the platform in 2020.
A further 30 Black students will be supported to study at Cambridge University with £20,000 scholarships thanks to a partnership between our man Stormzy and HSBC.
Music Business Worldwide chats to Alex Boateng, heading up the new 0207 Def Jam with his twin brother Alec, about his journey to date and what’s in store for the label.
Gender equality in UK music industry boardrooms has improved in the past year, from 34% female in 2020 to 42% in 2021.
The UK’s Music Publishers Association is creating a diversity, equality and inclusion council.
Beyoncé. Gaga. Astley. British legend Rick Astley has joined the 1 billion YouTube views club.
Gaming
Facebook has finally brought its cloud gaming service to Apple devices via a web app.
Interesting read. The Guardian on how video game artificial intelligence is evolving.
Tech & Telecoms
Apple profits have nearly doubled in the last quarter, Tesla’s quarterly profit has topped $1bn and Google’s revenue has jumped 62% to a record high.
There’s more. Facebook has reported its fastest quarterly growth in five years and Amazon has posted its third $100bn quarter in a row. Mars next, Jazzy Jeff!
Video now accounts for almost half of all-time spent on Facebook, according to Marky Mark Zuckerberg.
According to the Center for Data Innovation, the European Commission’s Artificial Intelligence Act will cost the European economy €31bn over the next five years and reduce AI investments by up to 20%.
AI firm DeepMind has put its database of almost 20,000 human protein structures online for researchers to access for free.
Instagram is making accounts for users under 16 private by default.
I’ll tell you who it hasn’t been a hot girl summer for… Intel. Here’s The Verge with the lowdown on how it fell behind.
Amazon’s older Kindles will begin to lose their internet access in December. You can just use it to fix a wobbly table after that.
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Appointments & Movers
Former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger is to be the next editor of Prospect magazine; Xavier Rey will be the next director of France’s Centre Pompidou; Anna-Sophie Harling is joining Ofcom as its new online safety principal; the Beeb’s Allan MacKillop has been appointed as the UK’s disability and access ambassador for the creative industries; Katie Razzall has been appointed culture editor for BBC News; Rebecca Kane Burton has stepped down as chief exec of LW Theatres; six leading figures from the arts have been appointed to the arts and creative economy advisory group at the British Council; ITV has announced the members of its first Cultural Advisory Council
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...And Finally
An LA musician has recorded a duet with ‘the world’s largest wind instrument’… the Golden Gate Bridge. Finally guys! You released this! The suspension has been killing me!
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