Category Archives: Culture

Trump asks Smithsonian to install ‘Colossus statue’ of George Washington with exhibit

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Trump, again trying to curate museum, says exhibit would stay until 2032 for 300th anniversary of Washington’s birth

Donald Trump asked the Smithsonian Institution to install a 30ft “Colossus statue” of George Washington outside the National Museum of American History, and a special exhibit honoring the nation’s first president, in a social media post late on Friday.

The president requested that the exhibit continue through February 2032, the 300th anniversary of Washington’s birth.

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Jeremy Thomas, British producer of The Last Emperor and Sexy Beast, dies aged 77

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An outstanding figure in the UK film industry, Thomas was noted for collaborations with directors including Bernardo Bertolucci and David Cronenberg

Jeremy Thomas, the distinguished British producer of films including Sexy Beast, High-Rise and the multi-Oscar-winning The Last Emperor, has died aged 77.

A representative for Thomas said he died on Friday “peacefully, at his country home in Oxfordshire, surrounded by his family and loved ones”.

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Artist delights in beautiful ‘mess’ and dead trees of England’s rewilding sites

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Rebecca Howard spent two years visiting projects and painting landscapes that feature in West Sussex exhibition

Rewilding areas do not usually conform to traditional notions of beauty in England’s green and pleasant land. Detractors may bewail the beaver-felled trees, untidy scrub, deadwood, weeds, mud and “mess”.

But a new exhibition highlights the aesthetic delights that can be discovered on rewilding sites where fungi grows on dying trees, water buffalo gather in new wetlands and brown-watered beaver pools flood once-desiccated fields.

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Céline Dion sparks mass karaoke and power-ballad fever with return to stage in Paris

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Fans from around the world gather for star’s long-awaited performances after break because of neurological condition

More than 30,000 Céline Dion fans have gathered in Paris for the Canadian singer’s long-awaited return to performing on Saturday night, four years after she revealed her diagnosis of stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological condition.

Thousands more people without tickets have flocked to a series of giant karaoke events across France to belt out Dion’s famous power ballads, in celebration of the star’s health stabilising enough for her to return to the stage.

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Sacha Baron Cohen lined up for Quentin Tarantino’s West End playwriting debut

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The Ali G and Borat creator is reported to be taking the lead in The Popinjay Cavalier, a swashbuckling comedy Tarantino is developing for early 2027

He will soon be seen resuming his old Staines rudeboy persona in the film
Ali G: Who Iz I?, but Sacha Baron Cohen may also be eyeing a new departure – on stage.

The actor will reportedly star in Quentin Tarantino’s first play, The Popinjay Cavalier, which is billed as a “rambunctious comedy of deception and disguise” and a “sweeping celebration of theatre and its heightened romance”, set in 1830s Europe. According to Deadline, Baron Cohen will play the swashbuckling title character in the play, which Tarantino will also direct.

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John Major’s rise from obscure whip to PM part of new National Theatre season

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Play is one of eight world premieres in programme with global conflict and political upheaval at its heart

A new play about John Major’s rise to power, written by James Graham, will premiere at the National Theatre in London next year, as part of a season that puts political upheaval and global conflict at the heart of its programme.

Major reunites Graham with Jeremy Herrin, the director behind the acclaimed parliamentary drama This House. It will chart Major’s emergence from relatively obscure whip to prime minister, taking over from Margaret Thatcher at a pivotal moment in Britain’s relationship with Europe.

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John Malkovich cancels Israel trip over fabricated solidarity quote

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The Wild Horse Nine actor had been due to appear on stage in The Music Critic in Tel Aviv – but pulled out over PR firm’s ‘unacceptable and untenable’ attribution of statement

John Malkovich has cancelled a planned trip to Israel next year to appear on stage after a PR firm hired by the show attributed quotes to the actor that the company had written.

Malkovich, who is a leading Oscar contender for his role in Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, was due to appear in The Music Critic, a theatrical-musical satire composed by the Jewish violinist Aleksey Igudesman, in Tel Aviv’s Charles Bronfman Auditorium on 13 April.

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Smithsonian Institution secretary to retire amid Trump attacks on museum independence

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‘I have to be honest, it has been stressful,’ Lonnie Bunch III says

The Smithsonian Institution’s secretary, Lonnie Bunch III, will retire at the end of the year amid Donald Trump’s attacks on the museum’s content and independence.

Bunch, who was appointed in 2019 as the first African American to lead the museums, cited personal reasons for departing, while acknowledging the pressure that the president’s attacks on the Smithsonian’s depictions of US history had taken.

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Artworks stolen from Renoir Museum on French Riviera in latest heist

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Thieves took four artworks but it is thought they dropped two in museum garden as they fled

French police are hunting two thieves who escaped with two Renoir paintings from a museum on the French Riviera after breaking in through a hole cut in its garden fence.

Bryan Masson, the mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, about 10 miles west of Nice, said the pair appeared to have been “well equipped and well informed” about the museum, which houses works by the French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in his former home.

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Radiohead announce 2027 tour with shows in Australia and Japan

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UK band will play 16 shows across Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, as well as five shows in Saitama

Radiohead will return to Australia to play 16 shows across three cities next year, marking the band’s first tour of the country in 15 years.

On Monday afternoon, the British rock band unveiled the itinerary for its May 2027 tour, which also includes five shows in Japan.

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Falling ceiling debris at Kennedy Center may mire debate over renovations

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Preservationists worry board may seize on incident ‘to make the point that the whole thing needs to be shut down’

Falling debris from a ceiling in the grand foyer of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts may have complicated a battle over renovations of the Washington DC arts center that could result in the building being demolished.

A portion of the ceiling collapsed on Friday evening after heavy rain swept through the area, prompting officials to temporarily close the Edward Durell Stone-designed building. No one was injured by the debris.

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Hillary Clinton leads tributes to Gloria Steinem: ‘Her activism was rooted in optimism’

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Ex-secretary of state joins Nancy Pelosi, Jill Biden, Roxane Gay and others in heralding groundbreaking feminist

Leading figures from politics, entertainment and wider society led glowing tributes to Gloria Steinem on Thursday, with Hillary Clinton hailing the American feminist icon who died at 92 at home in New York as “one of the architects of the entire structure of women’s equality”.

Clinton, a former US secretary of state, presidential candidate and first lady, was among the first to jump in with praise early on Thursday when she appeared on the CBS Mornings TV show to share her respect and gratitude for Steinem.

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Female film-makers still being squeezed out of industry, London film festival director says

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Over 40% of films in LFF programme are female-made, but only two of 21 gala films are directed by women

Female film-makers are still being squeezed out of the industry as they progress beyond their debut films, the director of the London film festival has said, adding that “the dial does not seem to be moving”.

Kristy Matheson’s comments came as LFF announced its full programme for this year’s event, which runs from 7 to 19 October. Of the 251 titles, 109 (43%) are made by female film-makers, but only two of the 21 gala films are directed by women.

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Todd Haynes and Wallace Shawn among signatories of letter backing Mark Ruffalo amid antisemitism charge

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More than 170 Jewish artists, also including Joel Coen, Hannah Einbinder and Miranda July, have supported the actor after he criticized Paramount

A collective of more than 170 prominent Jewish artists – including Todd Haynes, Joel Coen, Miranda July, Hannah Einbinder, Wallace Shawn and Naomi Klein – have signed an open letter supporting Mark Ruffalo.

The actor had been accused of invoking antisemitic tropes after he criticized Paramount Skydance, the media company owned by David Ellison, a Donald Trump ally. Ruffalo had spoken out about the $111bn merger with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).

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Fourth time lucky as Chris Cantrill’s spoof whodunnit wins Edinburgh comedy award 2026

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Nominated in three previous years, the rambunctious standup – one half of The Delightful Sausage – wins the prize for his show Rewilding while Marty Gleeson is named best newcomer

The annual Edinburgh comedy award has been won by the standup Chris Cantrill, two years after his comedy partner Amy Gledhill – in the raucous northern double act The Delightful Sausage – won the same prize.

Cantrill, 42 and from Bradford, received the so-called “Oscar of live comedy” for a show, Rewilding, about his new life in rural Northumberland, where an act of vandalism shocks the local community – and a spoof whodunnit ensues. It builds on the foundations laid in 2024 by Easily Swayed, which documented his move to the countryside and secured what was then Cantrill’s third nomination (but first as a solo act) for the award.

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Laurie Anderson’s next manuscript to be locked away for 88 years in Future Library

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Grammy award-winning American artist selected as 13th person to submit written work to Oslo-based project

The next manuscript by the American artist Laurie Anderson will remain unseen for 88 years, as she becomes the 13th figure to contribute to the Future Library project.

Anderson joins Margaret Atwood, Han Kang, Ocean Vuong and other prominent authors who have written secret manuscripts, which have been locked away until 2114.

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Egyptian queen’s 673-diamond necklace stolen in Vienna smash-and-grab raid

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Police hunt two suspects after historic 200-carat piece is snatched from Austrian museum during opening hours

Austrian police are hunting two men alleged to have stolen a 200-carat platinum necklace encrusted with 673 diamonds that was on loan to a museum in Vienna and once belonged to Egyptian royalty.

Authorities in the capital released pictures of the suspects captured by security cameras during the heist at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), amid a rash of spectacular smash-and-grab thefts from European cultural institutions.

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Bondi library returns book How to Sell a Genocide to shelves after State Library ‘outlines the law’

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Book was removed for review earlier this month following complaint but reinstated after petition and State Library letter to Waverley council

A Sydney library has returned to its borrowing shelves a book critical of Israel called How to Sell a Genocide following a public campaign and an intervention from the State Library of New South Wales.

Waverley library removed the book “for review” earlier this month after the Jewish news outlet JWire reported it had approached the council.

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‘No precedent’: Lorde and Little Simz to star at world-first festival run on clean power

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A zero-emission compact hydrogen power plant will drive the main stage at Clifton Down in Bristol

When Lorde, Little Simz and Wet Leg stride on to stages in Bristol this weekend, they will not only be entertaining tens of thousands of festivalgoers but taking part in what is being billed as a world-first clean power project.

The two stages at Forwards festival on Clifton Down are being driven almost entirely by green power – a combination of hydrogen and mobile batteries charged with sustainable energy.

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Greek Orthodox priest and cult musician clarifies views on homosexuality

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Father Dionysios Tabakis says his views are those of Orthodox church, ‘nothing more, nothing less’

A Greek Orthodox priest whose home-recorded album of drone metal and religious dubstep has made him a cult figure in experimental music circles has issued a statement in which he has clarified his stance on homosexuality and the Greek radical right.

“As can be seen from my musical expression, I am in favour of unity, love, empathy and help for every needy, wronged and suffering person in life,” Father Dionysios Tabakis said in a public statement shared with the Guardian. “Whoever they are, whatever they believe, whether they are a saint or a sinner.”

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