Rome: worker trapped and one injured after part of medieval tower collapses

Three others rescued at the Torre dei Conti, which was undergoing restoration works

A medieval tower in central Rome has partly collapsed twice during renovations, injuring one worker and trapping another.

Falling debris from the initial collapse of the Torre dei Conti, just after 11.30am (0930 GMT), close to the Roman Forum ruins, hit a 64-year-old worker, the Ansa news agency reported. He was taken to San Giovanni hospital in a critical condition although Francesco Rocca, Lazio’s regional president, said his injuries were not life threatening.

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Louvre jewel heist by petty criminals, not organised professionals, says Paris prosecutor

Laure Beccuau said ‘upper echelons of organised crime’ unlikely to be involved as one perpetrator remains at large

The brazen daytime heist at the Louvre was carried out by petty criminals rather than professionals from the world of organised crime, the Paris prosecutor has said, describing two of the suspects as a couple with children.

The assertion comes two weeks after thieves parked a stolen truck outside the world’s most-visited museum, used a furniture lift to reach the first floor, then smashed their way into one of the museum’s most ornate rooms. Less than seven minutes later, they escaped on scooters with crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m).

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Paintings by UK pioneer of abstract art to be displayed in West Country

Large-scale William Scott works feature in exhibition that tells story of artist’s friendship with Mark Rothko

The story of how one of the UK’s great abstract painters was inspired by ordinariness – and the extraordinary meeting he had with an American artistic giant – is being told in a new exhibition in the West Country.

Three large-scale paintings by William Scott (1913 –1989) have been loaned to the Museum of Somerset in Taunton, not far from the artist’s home and studio in the countryside south of Bath.

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Veteran actor Tchéky Karyo, star of Nikita and The Missing, dies aged 72

French-Turkish actor appeared in a string of high-profile films, as well as hit BBC series The Missing

Tchéky Karyo, who appeared in some of director Luc Besson’s biggest hits and a string of international films, died on Friday at the age of 72, his family have announced.

A statement from his wife and children sent to AFP said he had “succumbed to cancer”.

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Big belly, wavy fur and a nose for trouble: we exclusively reveal the new-look Paddington

It’s been the biggest secret in theatre: what will the marmalade-loving, hyper-polite Peruvian look like in Paddington the Musical? As the curtain rises, we speak to the new bear’s creator, a veteran of Star Wars and PG Tips ads

Paddington stands within touching distance. His fur flutters as he turns, his neat button nose sniffs the air, and his eyes soften with a smile. For years, design details of the bear for Paddington the Musical, directed by Luke Sheppard, have been kept top secret. Now here he is, in his blue duffel coat and red hat. A quiet theatrical marvel. “What we’re doing,” says producer Sonia Friedman, “has never been done before.”

Standing around 1.2 metres (just under 4ft) tall, the bear is beautifully round, all belly and sloping shoulders. He is not an exact replica of the Paddingtons we’ve seen in illustrations or movies, but something new. His shaggy, caramel fur has a gentle wave, and his white snout is dotted with a brown nose, ideal for sniffing out trouble. Around his neck sits a label, threaded through an old piece of string, asking for someone to look after him.

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Two more suspects charged over Louvre heist taking total to four

Woman, 38, and man, 37, had been arrested on Wednesday in relation to theft of £76m worth of jewellery in Paris

Two more suspects, a man and a woman arrested this week over the jewel heist at the Louvre, have been charged and remanded in custody, prosecutors have said.

The charges on Saturday brought to four the number of people now charged over the spectacular robbery.

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UN expert urged to investigate Lebanon over alleged torture of Egyptian-Turkish poet

Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi has been imprisoned in the UAE for almost a year for criticising Emirati, Egyptian and Saudi governments

The UN special rapporteur on torture is being urged to investigate Lebanon’s role in the treatment of the Egyptian-Turkish poet and activist Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi, a dissident who has been imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates for more than 10 months over a post he made on social media.

Legal counsel representing Qaradawi filed a complaint to the UN rapporteur on Thursday, asking it to examine the situation.

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Madrid regional government co-funding Woody Allen’s new film – but it must feature ‘Madrid’ in the title

Regional authority is investing €1.5m in the project but has stipulations about featuring ‘identifiable locations’ on screen and the film premiering at an international film festival

The Madrid regional government is hoping to harness the power of film tourism by investing €1.5m (£1.3m) in a new Woody Allen movie that will be shot in and around the Spanish capital and which will be contractually obliged to feature the word “Madrid” in its title.

Regional authorities are confident the 89-year-old film-maker’s next project could do for Madrid what Roman Holiday did for Rome tourism in the early 1950s, and what Sex and the City and Emily in Paris have more recently done to increase visitor numbers to New York and the French capital.

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Egypt’s vast $1bn museum to open in Cairo after two-decade build

Grand Egyptian Museum next to pyramids of Giza billed as world’s largest archaeological facility for single civilisation

A vast $1bn museum billed as the world’s largest archaeological facility dedicated to a single civilisation will open outside Cairo on Saturday, after countless delays over the course of its two-decade construction.

The Grand Egyptian Museum, located a mile away from the pyramids of Giza, covers an area of 470,000 sq metres. The complex was announced in 1992 but it was not until 2005 that construction began. Some areas of the museum opened in a soft launch in 2024.

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Trump ally Stephen Miller at heart of FBI agent purge, new book reveals

Miller urged firings of those who had investigated president to satisfy Trump’s desire for revenge, Injustice authors write

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, was the driving force behind a purge of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who had investigated Donald Trump, a new book reveals.

Miller trampled the independence of the FBI by demanding firings that would satisfy the US president’s desire for retribution, journalists Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis write in Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department.

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Five new suspects arrested in connection with Louvre robbery

Public prosecutor says arrests were made in and around Paris but suspects ‘did not help us find the stolen goods’

Five new suspects have been arrested in connection with the Louvre robbery in Paris, in which thieves stole crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m), the city’s public prosecutor has said, but the gems remain missing.

Laure Beccuau told RTL radio on Thursday the arrests had been made on Wednesday night in the French capital and the surrounding area, particularly the neighbouring Seine-Saint-Denis department. But they “did not help us find the stolen goods”, she added.

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Wole Soyinka, Nigerian Nobel laureate and Trump critic, says US visa revoked

Soyinka, 91, who recently compared US president to Idi Amin, says ‘I have no visa – I am banned’

The Trump administration has revoked the visa for Wole Soyinka, the acclaimed Nigerian Nobel prize-winning writer who has been critical of Trump since his first presidency, Soyinka revealed on Tuesday.

“I want to assure the consulate … that I’m very content with the revocation of my visa,” Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel prize for literature, told a news conference.

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Tilda Swinton and Gary Oldman return to stage for Royal Court’s 70th anniversary

Tilda Swinton’s performance marks 30 years since audiences last saw her tread the boards, meanwhile Gary Oldman will be in Krapp’s Last Tape

Tilda Swinton will return to the stage for the first time in more than 30 years as part of the Royal Court’s 70th anniversary programme in a reprisal of her 1988 one-woman performance in Manfred Karge’s Man to Man.

Swinton’s return to the role, in which she plays a widow who takes on the identity of her deceased husband, is one of two star turns in David Byrne’s third season as artistic director, which will also feature Gary Oldman in another revival: Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape that was first performed in 1958.

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House of Dynamite writer ‘respectfully disagrees’ with Pentagon’s complaints about nuclear missile thriller

Noah Oppenheim responded to complaints from the Pentagon over the accuracy of the film’s depiction of the US’s defence systems

Warning: contains a spoiler for the plot of House of Dynamite

Noah Oppenheim, the writer of Kathryn Bigelow’s nuclear-missile thriller House of Dynamite has responded to complaints from the Pentagon over the accuracy of its depiction of the US’s defence systems, saying he “respectfully disagree[s]”.

In an internal memo dated 16 October obtained by Bloomberg, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said: “The fictional interceptors in the movie miss their target and we understand this is intended to be a compelling part of the drama intended for the entertainment of the audience,” but results from real-world testing “tell a vastly different story.”

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Björn Andrésen, Swedish actor who starred in Death in Venice, dies aged 70

Actor who also starred in Midsommar and became a musician was nicknamed ‘the most beautiful boy in the world’ – a title he struggled with all his life

Björn Andrésen, the Swedish actor best known for his breakout role in the 1971 film Death in Venice, has died aged 70.

At 15, Andrésen was cast in Italian director Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice, based on Thomas Mann’s novella, in which he played Tadzio, a beautiful boy with whom an older man, played by Dirk Bogarde, becomes obsessed.

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Radiohead’s Thom Yorke says he would ‘absolutely not’ play in Israel now

Singer says he will not perform in Israel while Benjamin Netanyahu remains in power, eight years after Radiohead defied criticism to perform in Tel Aviv

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has said he would not now perform in Israel, eight years after the band defied pro-Palestinian activists to play a show in Tel Aviv.

“Absolutely not. I wouldn’t want to be 5,000 miles anywhere near the Netanyahu regime,” he told the Sunday Times magazine, referring to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

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Keir Starmer shares post-punk passion and revisits musical past

Prime minister praises Scottish band Orange Juice and shares details about his family life in Radio 3 interview

Keir Starmer has said he is a fan of the Scottish post-punk band Orange Juice and northern soul, in a deep dive of his musical tastes and personal life.

On BBC Radio 3’s Private Passions, Starmer chose a selection of his favourite music including works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Elgar, and reflected on his own musical journey, which included learning to play violin alongside Norman Cook, AKA Fatboy Slim, at school.

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Actor June Lockhart of Lost in Space and Lassie fame dies aged 100

Lockhart started out on stage at age eight and appeared in scores of television series and feature films

June Lockhart, the popular actor known for her work in film and television, has passed away at the age of 100.

She died on Thursday night of natural causes, with daughter June Elizabeth and granddaughter Christianna by her side, according to People.

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What’s in a name? West End casting directors raise concerns about trend for big stars

Film and TV stars are selling tickets, but director says reliance on famous names is ‘killing audiences’ intellects’

From Ncuti Gatwa in Born With Teeth to Alicia Vikander in The Lady From the Sea and Susan Sarandon in Mary Page Marlowe, there is no shortage of starry celebrities being cast for the West End right now.

It is a phenomenon happening in subsidised theatre too: Indhu Rubasingham’s inaugural season at the National Theatre features the likes of screen favourites Paul Mescal and Nicola Coughlan.

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Louvre thieves’ slow-motion getaway using furniture lift was caught on video

Footage showing two men appears to have been filmed from nearby window in museum

The slow-motion getaway of two thieves from the Louvre clutching €88m (£76m) of France’s crown jewels was captured on video, it has emerged – the latest dramatic twist to the country’s most spectacular heist in decades.

The 36-second clip, which Le Parisien newspaper said it had verified, shows two men dressed in black, one wearing a yellow hi-vis vest and the other a motorcycle helmet, slowly descending on a furniture lift from the museum’s Apollo gallery.

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