The infamous Japanese noise artist has a vast and forbidding catalogue that commands a cult fandom. Sam Andrews, 18, is vlogging his way through the lot – and taking a stand for deep listening

An Instagram Reel that looks like an 80s coming-of-age movie pops up on your feed. It’s four teenage boys in an American-style basement – comfy sofas, guitars, ping pong table – jeering and laughing. But they aren’t secretly drinking beer or planning on sneaking out. They’re brandishing a vinyl copy of Pulse Demon, the most popular album from the cult Japanese noise artist Merzbow, and subjecting themselves to its brutally harsh sound in full, for fun. “I think this is the Book of Revelation: The Soundtrack,” one guy blurts out, a vague look of fear in his eyes.

Merzbow, real name Masami Akita, is the world’s most renowned noise artist. Since 1979, Akita has released more than 400 recordings, which range from a 10-hour long album misleadingly titled Merzbient (it’s anything but ambient) to a free-noise supergroup called Flying Testicle. Since February, Sam Andrews, the video’s 18-year-old creator, has been attempting to listen to every one, and is documenting his progress online each day. “I think of my day in album-size chunks,” he says, laughing. “It’s like, get up at seven, get breakfast and then headphones in: noise.”

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© Photograph: Aviv Small/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Aviv Small/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Aviv Small/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Girls Gone Bible is on tour in the US, touting a regressive ideal of femininity through discussions of abstinence and mental health struggles

At first glance, the crowd gathering outside a music venue in Red Bank, New Jersey, could have passed for a group of sorority rush hopefuls – or Ella Langley fans on their way to the country star’s show. Most of them were under the age of 30. They wore cowboy boots, maxi sundresses and soft, bouncy blowouts, scrolling on their phones outside the doors as they waited for friends to arrive.

But one accessory gave them away: the Bibles they toted. These women were there to pray.

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© Photograph: Jessie Wardarski/AP

© Photograph: Jessie Wardarski/AP

© Photograph: Jessie Wardarski/AP

While journalists can report freely on grief and anger in Nepal, China’s official media have presented a sanitized disaster aftermath in Tibet.

© Greg Baker/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Experts say ruling could undermine the ‘actual malice’ standard and make publishers more wary of critical reporting

A $300,000 jury verdict won recently by a Louisiana supreme court justice who sued the Advocate, the state’s largest newspaper, for libel over an editorial has caused concern among some US press freedom advocates.

One said the decision demonstrated a misunderstanding of a key legal principle governing such cases. And another worries the verdict could have a chilling effect on the media industry’s efforts to report on powerful people and institutions.

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© Photograph: Louisiana Supreme Court

© Photograph: Louisiana Supreme Court

© Photograph: Louisiana Supreme Court

The non-profit Leaving Maga is built on the premise that abandoning the Trump-built movement is like fighting a disease or breaking an addiction

• Four Maga defectors on what led them to walk away: ‘I’d been addicted to fear and rage’

Stephania Messina kept birthing boys. In the Quiverfull conservative Christian church she belonged to outside Detroit, Michigan, that made her a community celebrity. Your quiver, as the church taught it, is your womb, meant to be filled with as many arrows – a metaphor for children – as you can shoot unto the Lord. She shot five. “They treated me like I was Mother Mary, like I was this gift to the church,” she said.

But while she was quickly pushed into leading worship and Bible study groups for women and children, she wasn’t permitted to talk about politics.

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© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

Exclusive: Some staff call decision a betrayal of young apprentices who are often selected to increase diversity

The BBC is facing internal anger after a group of apprentices were told they could no longer expect jobs they had been promised, as a result of the corporation’s sweeping cuts.

In a sign of the pressure the BBC is under to find savings, apprentices working with BBC News were told that “exceptional circumstances” meant the broadcaster could no longer stand by its pledge to find them permanent positions.

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© Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

© Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

© Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Youth club closures, unaffordable housing and social media cited as factors contributing to a sharp decline in wellbeing

The number of young people with no close friends has risen fivefold since 2014 as a result of growing up in a “bleak world” dominated by austerity, the pandemic and social media.

New research paints a sobering picture of how 11- to 24-year-olds in England are increasingly lonely, isolated and “disconnected” from themselves, peers and wider society.

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© Photograph: Ievgen Chabanov/Alamy

© Photograph: Ievgen Chabanov/Alamy

© Photograph: Ievgen Chabanov/Alamy

Discussing people’s bodies can be fraught. We asked eating disorder experts how to do so – or not – responsibly

In the age of Ozempic and people being open about plastic surgery, discussion about people’s bodies is rife. At the same time, nobody seems quite sure how to talk about them, as shown by recent coverage of celebrities like Ariana Grande.

It is a fraught topic. We asked eating disorder experts for guidelines to follow when talking about other people’s bodies, and how to do so without doing harm.

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© Illustration: LUVLIMAGE/Getty Images

© Illustration: LUVLIMAGE/Getty Images

© Illustration: LUVLIMAGE/Getty Images

The vice president spoke to reporters before he flew to Michigan on Monday about the AI video that President Donald Trump posted on social media over the weekend that featured a stylized imaginary attack on Iran's Kharg Island, which is key to its oil exports and Trump has repeatedly threatened.

New child safety measures are welcome, but the wider risks posed by these platforms remain unaddressed

“Hook, hold, harvest and hide” was how Megan O’Neill, a lawyer for the US state of California, characterised Meta’s business model in the trial that ended last week with an $18bn settlement, to be shared between the states and territories that brought the case. It was a clever way to describe the company’s approach to users’ attention and data. But the sharpness of her words was not matched by the deal. While the strengthening of child safety features is welcome, the tech giant once again batted off efforts to alter its products.

Meta’s decision to settle enabled it to avoid any admission of liability. It put a stop to the awkward questions being asked of witnesses including Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s CEO, and the damaging claims made by whistleblowers such as Arturo Béjar. This former Meta safety engineer told the court that his own daughter had been sent unsolicited photos of male genitals on Instagram.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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© Photograph: Noah Berger/AP

© Photograph: Noah Berger/AP

© Photograph: Noah Berger/AP

These things are undermining not just our public spaces but the very nature of being human. Let’s shame them off the streets

So far I am yet to be tempted into purchasing a pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses. To a certain extent this is a function of possessing a large, misshapen and comically convex head upon which no pair of sunglasses has ever looked remotely appropriate. Nor am I one of those consumers who professes to be “really into gadgets”, a preference I’ve always found weirdly unspecific. It’s subtly telling when people claim to be into “gadgets”, because they’re never talking about, say, a tin opener. What they really mean is something gimmicky and expensive that almost certainly requires the services of a datacentre and enough water to irrigate Kent.

And even if I were to surmount these two obstacles, you then get into the ethics of the thing. I’m nobody’s idea of a PR expert, but if your shiny new product keeps requiring patches and updates to prevent people from using it to do degenerate things to women, perhaps it might be worth walking it back to the research and development stage.

Jonathan Liew is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

Amelia Dimoldenberg says publicists ignored her interview show for years but she can now be picky over A-list guests

Just a decade ago, Amelia Dimoldenberg found it impossible to drum up any mainstream celebrities to come on her mock date YouTube show, in which she chats awkwardly with guests over chicken and chips.

Even persuading a local actor connected with her London youth club to come on took years of prodding. Managers of A-listers with movies or albums to push instead battled to claim a spot on the hallowed cushions of the primetime TV chatshow sofa.

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© Photograph: Chicken Shop Date

© Photograph: Chicken Shop Date

© Photograph: Chicken Shop Date

As families await news after the catastrophe, community members appeal for compassion in the face of hateful rhetoric

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A slew of racist social media comments have been made towards Australians missing in the catastrophic Nepal-Tibet floods, prompting calls for greater accountability of major platforms to remove hateful rhetoric.

On Monday, the total number of Australians missing after flash floods triggered by a massive glacier collapse in the Himalayas rose to 43, and the overall death toll was at least 810 people.

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© Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images

‘Alt-right’ agitator and former Trump backer deported from US is said also to be too extreme for Reform

As he arrives back in the UK after being deported from the US by the Trump administration, the far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos may be wondering what lies ahead for him in his native country.

The “alt-right” agitator, 41, made his name in the US by promoting Donald Trump and associating with his allies before the 2016 election.

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© Photograph: Julio Cortez/AP

© Photograph: Julio Cortez/AP

© Photograph: Julio Cortez/AP

‘Alt-right’ agitator and former Trump backer deported from US is said also to be too extreme for Reform

As he arrives back in the UK after being deported from the US by the Trump administration, the far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos may be wondering what lies ahead for him in his native country.

The “alt-right” agitator, 41, made his name in the US by promoting Donald Trump and associating with his allies before the 2016 election.

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© Photograph: Julio Cortez/AP

© Photograph: Julio Cortez/AP

© Photograph: Julio Cortez/AP

This month a predator with ties to the online extortion group known as 764 was sentenced to decades in prison. The mother of one of his victims wants parents to know the truth about this ‘harrowing’ global trend

• Sadistic online exploitation: five warning signs for parents - and how to keep young people safe

“My beautiful, kind, intelligent, trusting daughter had the misfortune of stumbling across a link in a Discord server that led her to your evil and cruel group.

“The grooming of her started immediately, and what followed was unimaginably harrowing and traumatic. You were just one of the group members who abused her, who made her do things that no young person should ever be made to do.”

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© Illustration: Avinash Weerasekera/The Guardian

© Illustration: Avinash Weerasekera/The Guardian

© Illustration: Avinash Weerasekera/The Guardian

Many people think Greg Chism is a freak — or worse. He says he was just following the incentives of the platform.

© Chris Buck for The New York Times

Social services minister says social media was playing a role in the increase of sexual violence among teenagers

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The Australian government is considering allowing users to opt in or opt out of social media algorithms, and is looking at a recent UK ban on depictions of strangulation and suffocation in pornography.

The social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, said social media was “playing a huge role” in the increase in sexual violence among teenagers and choking, and confirmed the options were being considered as the government develops its second action plan to end family and domestic violence against women and children.

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© Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

© Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

© Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Social services minister says social media was playing a role in the increase of sexual violence among teenagers

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The Australian government is considering allowing users to opt in or opt out of social media algorithms, and is looking at a recent UK ban on depictions of strangulation and suffocation in pornography.

The social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, said social media was “playing a huge role” in the increase in sexual violence among teenagers and choking, and confirmed the options were being considered as the government develops its second action plan to end family and domestic violence against women and children.

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© Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

© Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

© Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Matt Bradley and crew assaulted while interviewing woman who said settlers had driven family out of home

A Palestinian woman and an NBC News team are reported to have been attacked and injured by masked Israeli settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Saturday, amid worsening confrontations in the area.

Benjamin Netanyahu said he condemned the violence committed “by a handful of rioters”.

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© Photograph: mattmcbradley/NBC News

© Photograph: mattmcbradley/NBC News

© Photograph: mattmcbradley/NBC News