Creative Australia chief executive facing mounting pressure to resign after Khaled Sabsabi controversy

Senior arts figure says board and CEO ‘didn’t seem to understand or at least trust the power and complexity of the visual arts’

Creative Australia chief executive Adrian Collette is facing mounting pressure to resign after the body’s decision to reinstate Khaled Sabsabi as Australia’s 2026 Venice Biennale representative.

Senior arts figures have also criticised the Creative Australia board, as a former chair of the selection panel for the biennale said the board and Collette did not “understand or at least trust the power and complexity of the visual arts”.

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Trump has ‘good conversation’ with Zelenskyy after heavy bombardment of Ukraine by Russia

US munitions slated for Ukraine held up over shortage as Trump ‘disappointed’ by Putin’s refusal to make concessions

Donald Trump spoke with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Friday as the US president appears increasingly disheartened over his chances of fulfilling a campaign pledge to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The call with Zelenskyy comes as Washington has halted its latest shipment of military aid to Ukraine including Patriot air defense missiles and other crucial munitions meant to support the country’s defenses.

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Oasis in row with photo agencies over pictures from reunion shows

Exclusive: Band’s management tell agencies and publishers they can only use shots of first gig in Cardiff for a year

A row has broken out over restrictions imposed on how newspapers, magazines, TV broadcasters and digital publishers can use pictures taken at Oasis reunion gigs, as the band prepare to play the first night of what is expected to be the most profitable tour in UK history.

Photo agencies and publishers have been told they can use shots of the first concert, which takes place in Cardiff on Friday, for one year and then the rights revert back to the band and management.

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Mourners gather in Portugal for Diogo Jota’s wake as Salah and Robertson pay tribute

Mourners gathered on Friday morning to honour Liverpool footballer Diogo Jota at a wake in Portugal

Mourners have gathered at a wake in Portugal to commemorate Diogo Jota and his brother, André Silva, following their deaths in a car accident.

Jota and his 25-year-old sibling died when the Lamborghini they were travelling in careered off a road in north-western Spain in the early hours of Thursday. The bodies of the two professional footballers were returned to Portugal later that day. Jota was 28 and had married his long-term partner, Rute Cardoso, 11 days before his death. They had three young children.

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Ukraine accuses Putin of humiliating Trump with devastating attack on Kyiv

Russia launches record number of drones and ballistic missiles in seven-hour assault shortly after its leader spoke to US president

Ukraine has accused Vladimir Putin of “publicly humiliating” Donald Trump after Russia launched a devastating attack with a record number of drones and ballistic missiles on Kyiv, hours after the two leaders spoke by phone.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the seven-hour raid as a “deliberate act of terror” which “immediately followed the call between Washington and Moscow”. It was one of the most severe assaults of the entire war and a “clear interpretation of how Moscow interprets diplomacy”, he added.

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A ceasefire in Gaza appears to be close. Here’s why it could happen now

A weakened Hamas plus Israel’s war with Iran have given Netanyahu a boost, raising hopes of a pause in fighting

After nearly 21 months of bloody war, it now appears a question of when rather than if a new ceasefire brings a pause to the fighting that has devastated Gaza, destabilised the region and horrified onlookers across the world.

On Friday, Donald Trump said he expected Hamas to agree within 24 hours to a deal that Israel has already accepted. Analysts predict a formal announcement after Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, arrives in Washington on Monday on his third visit to the White House since Trump began his current term.

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El Salvador’s president denies that Kilmar Ábrego García was abused in notorious prison

Nayib Bukele disputed claims of Ábrego García’s lawyers that he was tortured and deprived of sleep while in custody

The president of El Salvador has denied claims that Kilmar Ábrego García was subjected to beatings and deprivation while he was held in the country before being returned to the US to face human-smuggling charges.

Nayib Bukele said in a social media post that Ábrego García, the Salvadorian national who was wrongly extradited from the US to El Salvador in March before being returned in June, “wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight”.

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Jeremy Corbyn says ‘discussions are ongoing’ after Zarah Sultana claimed she would ‘co-lead new party’ with him – as it happened

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here

My colleague Lauren Almeida, who is running the Guardian’s business live blog, has shared the following:

Rachel Reeves has not given herself enough fiscal headroom to manage public finances, Charlie Bean, the former deputy of the Bank of England has said, and has to “neurotically fine tune taxes”.

About £10bn – that’s a very small number in the context of overall public spending. Government spending is about one and a quarter trillion so £10bn is a small number … and it is a small number in the context of typical forecasting errors.

You can’t forecast the future perfectly both because you can’t forecast the economy and you can’t forecast all the elements of public finances …. The forecasts are imprecise and there is no way you can avoid that. That is a fact of life.

In light of reports of atrocities committed by the Israeli government in Gaza and reports of the UK’s collaboration with Israeli military operations, it is increasingly urgent to confirm whether the UK has contributed to any violations of international humanitarian law through economic or political cooperation with the Israeli government since October 2023, including the sale, supply or use of weapons, surveillance aircraft and Royal Air Force bases.

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Smartphone bans in Dutch schools have improved learning, study finds

After initial concerns, pupils are said to be more focused and have better social interactions with each other

Bans on smartphones in Dutch schools have improved the learning environment despite initial protests, according to a study commissioned by the government of the Netherlands.

National guidelines, introduced in January 2024, recommend banning smartphones from classrooms and almost all schools have complied. Close to two-thirds of secondary schools ask pupils to leave their phones at home or put them in lockers, while phones are given in at the start of a lesson at one in five.

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Jeremy Corbyn confirms talks about forming new party with Zarah Sultana

Corbyn says ‘discussions are ongoing’ after MP’s surprise announcement, and is understood to be reluctant to take title of party leader

Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed he is in discussions about creating a new leftwing political party, hours after the MP Zarah Sultana announced she was quitting Labour to co-lead the project.

Sultana, the MP for Coventry South who had the Labour whip suspended last year for voting against the government over the two-child limit on benefits, said on Thursday night she was quitting Labour and would “co-lead the founding of a new party” with Corbyn.

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Power outage hits the Czech Republic and disrupts Prague public transport – AP News

  1. Power outage hits the Czech Republic and disrupts Prague public transport  AP News
  2. Czech Republic hit by major power outage triggered by fallen cable  Reuters
  3. Major blackout hits Czech Republic  DW
  4. Czechia recovers from power blackout after day of chaos and confusion  Expats.cz
  5. Grid Gaps and Cyber Threats: Why Smart Infrastructure Stocks Are Poised to Surge Post-Czech Outage  AInvest
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