All posts tagged: Finalist

Eurovision 2026: Meet Look Mum No Computer, the UK’s eccentric finalist singing Eins Zwei Drei

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter The UK’s Eurovision entry, Look Mum No Computer, knows that the odds are, quite literally, stacked against him when he competes in this year’s final. The bookies have him down at 80/1 to win, but the musician and YouTuber born Sam Battle has said he’s “happy to be an underdog” in the annual song contest, as he responds to calls to boycott the event. Battle, 37, is representing the UK in Vienna, Austria, with his song “Eins, Zwei, Drei”, amid controversy surrounding the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) decision to allow Israel to compete. Speaking to The Independent this week, Battle seemed acutely aware of the challenge he faces, but wasn’t bothered by predictions that he might fare poorly. Look Mum No Computer, real name Sam Battle, walks on the turquoise carpet during the official start of the Eurovision Song Contest week …

MasterChef finalist Madeeha Qureshi on Saudi cuisine, grief and The Red Sea Cookbook

Published by Daniella Wilson

Sign up to IndyEat’s free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releases Get our food and drink newsletter for free Get our food and drink newsletter for free When Madeeha Qureshi’s father, Gulzar Ahmed Qureshi, died, the BBC One MasterChef finalist says she “couldn’t cry afterwards” – for three years. Referring to him as Aba Jan, he died in 2018, but it took writing her first cookbook for Qureshi to fully grieve her loss. “I cried endlessly writing this book,” says the 44-year-old. “Every single memory was coming from my heart – I’ve cut my heart open and I’ve poured it physically into this book.” Through writing and finally releasing her emotions, Qureshi says she has learned that “grief is a final form of love” and hopes that, while also inspiring people to cook, she can “normalise” conversations on grief and loss, too. “Having that part of grief in you is not wrong, and we shouldn’t be hiding it, we shouldn’t be masking it,” she says. “We should normalise it, the feeling of …

MIT Technology Review is a 2026 ASME finalist in reporting

Published by skeptic

AI is often described as a black box, but it’s not just its inner workings that are mysterious. Leading AI companies have kept figures on energy use closely guarded, making it hard to determine its climate impact. In a rigorous investigation, senior AI reporter James O’Donnell and senior climate reporter Casey Crownhart spent six months digging through hundreds of pages of reports, interviewing experts, and crunching the numbers. The team drilled down into the energy cost of a single prompt, and then zoomed out to build a broader picture illustrating the potential impacts of AI’s current and future energy demand. Their work revealed just how big AI’s energy footprint is, where that energy comes from, and who will pay for it. In the months following the project’s publication, major AI companies including Open AI, Mistral, and Google published details about their models’ energy and water usage. The 2026 awards will be presented in New York City on May 19. Source link

A Must-Read National Book Award Finalist That Can Be a Quick Read

Published by José Betancourt

Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith In they’re stunning 2017 collection, Danez Smith explores being Black, being queer, being HIV positive. Heavy subjects for a heavy world concentrated into spare, potent lines. Not every kind of poetry works for everyone and I can’t always scry meaning from the lines the way I imagine great students of the form might but, as with Tracy K. Smith’s collection, Life on Mars, I got the sense that I was learning more about the author, identity, and the hard questions of life every time I re-read a poem. In “dear white america” Smith calls white Americans out for the enduring and penetrating racism in this country, from violence against Black people to professing color-blindness while upholding racism and the ideals of white supremacy. The normalization of harmful white supremacist beauty standards and racism disguised as personal preference, for instance, emerges in “a note on the phone app that tells me how far i am from other men’s mouth” followed by the poem “& even the black guy’s profile …

Faith to Faithless animation selected as finalist for top charity film award – Humanists UK

Published by Sam Flores

A powerful animated short film created by Humanists UK to highlight the groundbreaking work of its Faith to Faithless service, has been named a finalist in the prestigious Smiley Charity Film Awards. Produced in collaboration with OOF Animation, the film uses striking animation to portray a solitary figure navigating a shadowy labyrinth, guided to safety by a vivid thread of colour. The visual concept for the film was devised by its director Ignatz Johnson Higham. He commented: ‘We wanted to portray the harmful impact of controlling religions in a way that felt sensitive and thoughtful. We deliberately moved away from referencing contemporary religions and instead drew on ancient myths. The story of Theseus escaping the labyrinth, guided by Ariadne’s thread, became a powerful metaphor for finding a way out of isolation and control. Visually, the gritty, monochrome world contrasted with the lightness of the Humanist brand. The team at Humanists UK were incredibly encouraging throughout, and really embraced the concept. We’re thrilled the film is being recognised. When a project aligns so closely with something …

TERRADA ART AWARD 2025 Finalist Exhibition Opens

Published by José Betancourt

Warehouse TERRADA, which supports emerging artists on the foundation of its art-storage business, opened the finalist exhibition for TERRADA ART AWARD 2025 on January 16. Works by five artists poised to shape the next generation are now on view. Founded in 1950, Warehouse TERRADA began its art storage business in the 1970s. Since the 2000s, it has actively expanded a wide range of initiatives dedicated to supporting art, including operating museums and art events using warehouse spaces, managing gallery complexes, retailing traditional art materials, conserving and restoring artworks, and providing transportation services. In recent years in particular, the company has focused on supporting the production of emerging artists—for example, by opening rental studios in Kyoto, extending its activities beyond its home base in Tennoz, Japan. It was against this backdrop that Warehouse TERRADA launched the TERRADA ART AWARD in 2014. Japan has no shortage of art awards, organized by both public institutions and private organizations, but what sets the TERRADA ART AWARD apart—especially since it became a biennial program in 2021—is that it is designed to …

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