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Hamish Gullick has only himself to blame. “I kind of dug this hole a bit,” admits the 26-year-old double bassist from the Australian National Academy of Music. At a new festival of freshly commissioned Australian music next year he will find himself doing things to a double bass that, possibly, nobody has done before. ANAM musician Hamish Gullick at Abbotsford Convent.Credit:Paul Jeffers The work he will perform, by award-winning composer Samantha Wolf, is called Adrift and is one of 67 commissioned for the ANAM Set festival, to run over three nights in May next year. Gullick was paired with Wolf, and they were challenged to create something new. As they brainstormed they swapped influences: pop, classical, indie, jazz; Bjork and Bon Iver. Gullick sent Wolf some YouTube clips he’d come across of different bass techniques: experiments in new ways of playing the instrument by some of the world’s best players. “I’d fiddled around with some of them but others I hadn’t really

The Pentagon is reviewing a request from Oklahoma’s governor for an exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for National Guard troops. For now, Gov. Kevin Stitt says the troops in his state won’t be forced to get the shot, citing his authority over them in all cases except when they are under federal jurisdiction. Unlike the Army and Air Force reserves, the National Guard has a federal and a state mission â€" and a sometimes competing command structure.

Though China remains a relatively weak nuclear power, it has in recent years become central to U.S. strategic policymaking. What explains this shift? How is the U.S.-China strategic nuclear relationship evolving? What role do other states play in shaping it? To address these questions, the authors of U.S.-China Nuclear Relations (Lynne Reinner Publishers) examine a series of strategic triangles involving China, the U.S., and one or more key third actors (among them, Australia, India, Iran, Japan, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, and Taiwan). Their work also critically highlights the challenges and opportunities facing Washington and Beijing in this increasingly complex security arena. Learn more about the book here.

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon says Canadians have sent her a clear message that reconciliation is at the top of a "chain" of issues she should address during her term as the Queen's representative in Canada. In an interview that aired Sunday on Rosemary Barton Live, the recently installed Governor General said she saw the issues of reconciliation, mental health, climate change, youth issues and education as linked, and they would be her focus over the next five years. Addressing reconciliation specifically, she said there had been a shift in Canadian society such that "we're willing to look at the truth" when it comes to Canada's history with residential schools. She said that was reflected in countless messages she received following her appointment. "I think the day they found those unmarked graves of children that died at residential schools, that was the day the wound really opened up," she told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton.

Should you get Twitter Blue? That depends on whether you consider yourself a “power user.” The platform’s new subscription service, which costs $3 per month, comes with a suite of requested features: bookmark folders for organizing saved tweets, a “reading mode” that declutters long threads, and a (sort of) edit button, good for 30 seconds of revisions after a tweet is sent. It also comes with ad-free access to articles from a number of journalism outfits, like The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic. Compared to the number of third-party apps that give Twitter more brawnâ€"plug-ins that help you auto-delete your tweets or search within the tweets you’ve likedâ€"Twitter Blue feels a little overwhelming. But considering it’s the company’s first-ever paid product, Twitter has chosen to go narrow, catering to a small group of people by giving them exactly the features they want. Photograph: Twitter Twitter Blue doesn’t get rid of ads in a user’s

After a more than two-year flight ban, a modified version of the Boeing 737 MAX is expected to finally return to the skies of its biggest consumer, China, as Beijing signals approval of the proposed changes to the plane. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has reportedly told the nation’s air carriers it is satisfied with the design alterations the plane manufacturer has proposed for the 737 MAX, and that these changes could resolve safety issues. The aviation regulator suggested that airlines should give feedback on the airworthiness directive for the 737 MAX by November 26, according to an undated notice seen by Reuters. Read more The move is pr