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Baz Luhrmann: ‘There’s the image of Elvis and then there’s the man’

Baz Luhrmann: ‘There’s the image of Elvis and then there’s the man’

The singular director has made a second film about the King of Rock, and Roll and this time audiences will get to see a side of him they’ve never seen before In the spring of 1972, a film crew trailed Elvis Presley everywhere he went to capture a pivotal moment in his career – his first tour in nearly a decade. Ironically, one of the most crucial things that happened during that project occurred way off camera. “We really wanted to get an interview with Elvis on film,” said Jerry Schilling, a confidant and employee of the King who at that time was working for the company behind the movie. “But he was tired when we were going to do it and for whatever reason we never wound up getting anything on camera.” They did, however, get Presley to talk casually on tape for about 40 minutes, during which he said things he never put on record before. That was enough to raise concerns for his notoriously censorious manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who insured that little of that talk saw the light of day during his lifetime. Continue reading...

Poorly regulated clinics are putting children with ADHD at risk, warn doctors

Poorly regulated clinics are putting children with ADHD at risk, warn doctors

Private providers in UK accused of prescribing powerful stimulants without examining young patients properly Children with ADHD are being put at risk by poorly regulated private clinics that prescribe powerful stimulants without key physical examinations, doctors have warned. A surge in remote-only assessments has led to what one clinician described as “widespread and unsafe practice”, where children are being diagnosed and medicated via video link. The clinical warnings have now forced health authorities in Greater Manchester to overhaul prescribing rules, mandating face-to-face checks to protect the safety of children. Continue reading...

Islamic State emerges from rubble of north-east Syria to exploit discontent with al-Sharaa

Islamic State emerges from rubble of north-east Syria to exploit discontent with al-Sharaa

‘Rebranded’ terror group seeks to recruit those alienated by Damascus government’s western pivot On the surface, all that remains of Islamic State in the Syrian town of Baghuz are discarded tubs of whitening cream, spent RPG motors and children’s backpacks, with an old grenade nestled in the frayed pink nylon. It was here nearly seven years ago that IS made its last stand . Its most zealous followers were obliterated along with the blood-soaked caliphate they fought to defend. Their bodies were collected and buried next to the town graveyard, while bulldozers came and sealed the entire area under a layer of heavy yellow earth. Continue reading...

‘I’d hoped to capture the graphic chaos in the window. What I found was an even more tangled scene’: Michael Krupka’s best phone picture

‘I’d hoped to capture the graphic chaos in the window. What I found was an even more tangled scene’: Michael Krupka’s best phone picture

He may not be a cyclist, but the photographer was drawn by this bike shop’s jumble of frames and parts Michael Krupka had passed Philadelphia’s Via Bicycle repair shop for years before he ventured inside. As a photographer rather than a cyclist, he was drawn by the jumble of frames and parts in the front window. “My father was a machinist and when I was a child we had a workshop at home where he could repair pretty much anything mechanical he encountered,” Krupka recalls. “As an artsy kid, I didn’t inherit those skills, but I do have an aesthetic attraction to machines and mechanical things.” Krupka was out that day on what he describes as an “intentional photo hunt”. He asked a guy repairing a bike near the entrance for permission. “He just shrugged and carried on,” Krupka says. “I’d hoped to capture the graphic chaos against the backlit window. What I found was an even more tangled scene, with even more bikes in the foreground, which I used for the bottom third of the composition,” he says. “The shot has something of a maze or jigsaw element, too, a kind of puzzle that might have interesting things to find within it.” Continue reading...