Gérard Depardieu sexual assault trial postponed after actor’s no-show

Paris trial rescheduled for March 2025 after 75-year-old actor fails to appear in court, pleading ill health

The trial of Gérard Depardieu on sexual assault charges was postponed until next year after the actor failed to appear in court on Monday, saying he was unwell.

His lawyer Jérémie Assous had said the 75-year-old was “extremely affected” by ill health and that he had asked for the proceedings to be delayed until he could attend in person.

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John Farnham opens up about his ‘abusive’ and ‘sexually aggressive’ first manager

In his new memoir The Voice Inside, the Australian singer says Darryl Sambell drugged him, controlled what he ate and punished him for rejecting his advances

John Farnham has opened up for the first time about his “abusive” relationship with his first manager, Darryl Sambell, accusing him of being “sexually aggressive” towards him and controlling what he sang, wore and ate.

In his new memoir, The Voice Inside, published in Australia on Wednesday, the 75-year-old singer reveals the extent of Sambell’s abuse for the first time, writing that he “used me like a piece of meat”.

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Stevie Nicks says Fleetwood Mac would have been ‘done’ without 1977 abortion

Legendary singer-songwriter tells Rolling Stone new song was inspired by battle to reinstate federal abortion rights

Stevie Nicks thrust herself into the ongoing fight for access to abortion in the US because she had “been there, done that”, the legendary singer-songwriter says in a new interview.

“I tell a good story,” Nicks remarked in an interview conducted by CBS News Sunday Morning, a clip of which was circulated by the network in advance.“So maybe I should try to do something.

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Linguist calls for London’s endangered language communities to be mapped

British capital may be second only to New York in the number of at-risk languages spoken, says Ross Perlin

Life in London has been mapped according to its health, wealth, land ownership, politics and transport at key points in its long history. But it is now hoped it can be charted in a way that tells a different story: the story of language itself.

Ross Perlin, an academic who claimed a prestigious £25,000 book prize last week, now hopes to start work on a mapping project with British researchers that would reveal the whereabouts of the speakers of the capital’s most at-risk languages. The map, they believe, would be a first step to saving them.

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Phil Lesh, bassist for the Grateful Dead, dies at 84

The musician was a founding member of the influential band and died ‘surrounded by his family and full of love’

Phil Lesh, the influential bassist of the Grateful Dead who powered many of the jam band’s touring incarnations after the 1995 death of Jerry Garcia, has died. He was 84.

Lesh’s death was announced on his Instagram page. “Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of The Grateful Dead, passed peacefully this morning,” the caption reads. “He was surrounded by his family and full of love. Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We request that you respect the Lesh family’s privacy at this time.”

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Comedian Joe Lycett says he has become father of a baby boy

TV presenter praises and thanks staff at Birmingham women’s hospital for ‘exceptional’ care his partner received

The comedian Joe Lycett has announced he has become a father to a baby boy.

Lycett, 36, shared a picture on Instagram of him holding the infant, whom he said was born at Birmingham women’s hospital.

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Beyoncé at Kamala Harris rally says ‘time for America to sing a new song’ – as it happened

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Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are tied at 48%, according to a new poll by the New York Times and Siena College.

Published on Friday, the poll, the poll also revealed that 31% of registered voters view Trump as very favorable while 29% view Harris as very favorable.

Ms Harris’s position, if anything, may have declined among likely voters since the last Times/Siena College poll, taken in early October. At the time, she had a slight lead over Mr Trump, 49 percent to 46 percent. The change is within the margin of error, but The Times’s national polling average has registered a tightening in polls over the past few weeks as well, suggesting at the very least that this contest has drawn even closer.

“I don’t think she has Jim Comey in the wings waiting to kneecap her so that’s good.”

“I think she is doing what she needs to do, and…a number of the voters who were at [the CNN] town hall have said she convinced them, that she had shown the kind of empathy and concern about their problems, that she had come forward with her ideas, her suggested policies. So, I think she’s doing what she needs to do.”

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Alexander Rodnyansky: Oscar-nominated producer sentenced to jail in Russia in absentia

The Ukrainian film producer behind Leviathan and Loveless was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison after speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

A Moscow court has sentenced Oscar-nominated film producer Alexander Rodnyansky to eight-and-a-half years jail in absentia on Monday for spreading “fake” information about the Russian army.

Rodnyansky, 63, was born in Kyiv but spent most of his career in Russia, producing dozens of TV series and movies there including the Oscar-nominated crime drama Leviathan. He has been an outspoken critic of the Kremlin’s offensive since it sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, repeatedly denouncing the invasion on social media.

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Liam Payne had ‘pink cocaine’ in his system at time of death – reports

An official in Argentina, where the boy band star died last week, has spoken anonymously ahead of the final toxicology results being released

Former One Direction singer Liam Payne had multiple drugs including crack cocaine and methamphetamine in his system when he fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Argentina, according to anonymous Argentinian sources familiar with the initial toxicology reports.

The British singer and former One Direction member died last week at the age of 31 after plunging from a third-floor hotel room in Buenos Aires.

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Paul Di’Anno, early frontman for Iron Maiden, dies aged 66

The vocalist, who went on to form Battlezone and Killers, had experienced a number of health issues in recent years

Paul Di’Anno, the journeyman heavy metal vocalist best known for fronting Iron Maiden in their early years, has died aged 66.

His label Conquest Music confirmed that he died at home in Salisbury, adding: “Despite being troubled by severe health issues in recent years that restricted him to performing in a wheelchair, Paul continued to entertain his fans around the world, racking up well over 100 shows since 2023.”

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BBC Young Musician competition crowns pianist Ryan Wang

The biennial competition that counts Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Nicola Benedetti as previous victors was won by the 17-year-old Canadian for his performance of Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto

The 2024 BBC Young Musician competition has been won tonight by 17-year-old pianist, Ryan Wang.

Three musicians competed in the final, in which each played a concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Ben Gernon before an audience at Bristol Beacon. Joining Wang was another pianist, Jacky Zhang (also a category finalist in 2022’s competition), and violinist Shlomi Shahaf.

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‘Crikey, that was close’: Jeremy Clarkson reveals he needed heart procedure

Former Top Gear host, 64, says he had stent fitted for blocked artery after ‘sudden deterioration’ in his health

Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he had a heart procedure after waking up feeling “clammy” with a tightness in his chest and pins and needles in left arm.

The 64-year-old former Top Gear host said he was taken to hospital by ambulance before having a stent fitted to open up a blocked artery, which left him thinking: “Crikey, that was close.”

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Robin Hood, morris dances and UFOs: English folklore survey gets post-Brexit reboot

A fresh look at cultural identity will follow outline of 60-year-old Survey of Language and Folklore, conducted by two academics driving a red Mini

In 1964, two young academics clambered into a red Mini and, armed with a mountain of printed slips, set out to conduct what would become the definitive survey of English folklore and traditions for the next 60 years.

John Widdowson and Paul Smith went to town centres, ­community halls, Women’s Institute meetings. They handed the simple forms out to anyone who visited Sheffield University, where they were based. And they wanted to know the answer to one simple question: what do you know to be true?

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K-pop, K-movies, a Nobel prize … and now K-poetry: book of wise words adds to Korea’s cultural glory

After Han Kang’s Nobel award and South Korean cinema hits, Penguin publishes new English edition of maxims by Lee Seong-bok in wake of US success

A collection of wise maxims written by a 72-year old poet, calmly setting out illuminating advice to other poets, is the latest and perhaps most unlikely book to benefit from a surge in demand for South Korean literature.

“Kick against words like you would kick back on a swing. You’ve got to feel as if the soles of your feet are touching the sky,” suggests Lee Seong-bok in his hit title Indeterminate Inflorescence.

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Undercover film exposing UK far-right activists pulled from London festival

Film festival organisers make ‘heartbreaking’ decision not to show Undercover: Exposing the Far Right amid concerns over staff welfare

A documentary that lifts the lid on a “race science” network of far-right activists in Britain and its links to a rich American funder of eugenics research has been pulled from the London Film Festival (LFF) at the last minute due to safety concerns.

The organisers have taken the “heartbreaking decision” to cancel the planned screening of the “exceptional” Undercover: Exposing the Far Right this weekend due to fears about the welfare of audiences, staff and security working in the festival venues.

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‘We leave viewers smarter’: fears over plans to close ‘world’s most highbrow’ TV station

Unique experiment in German-language public broadcasting 3sat faces pressure from populist right

In many countries around the world, breakfast TV means cele­brity interviews, soap operas and last night’s football highlights. On the German-language channel 3sat this Sunday morning, it means a one-hour philosophical discussion on trauma psychology, followed by a book review programme and a classical concert by the Munich Radio Orchestra.

The collaboration between public broadcasters in Austria, Germany and Switzerland is a unique experi­ment in pan-European broadcasting that has defied doubters for almost four decades: highbrow television.

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Luca Guadagnino to direct new take on Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho

Call Me by Your Name and Challengers film-maker to bring new interpretation to hit novel to the screen

Luca Guadagnino, the Italian film-maker, will bring a new interpretation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho to the screen.

According to Deadline, the acclaimed director of Call Me by Your Name and Challengers will work with screenwriter Scott Z Burns to find an updated way into the material. Burns is known for his many collaborations with Steven Soderbergh including Contagion, Side Effects and The Informant.

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Netflix to double profits after adding millions of subscribers in three months

After cracking down on password sharing, expanding into ads and investing billions in live TV, group declares success

Netflix expects to double its profits this quarter after the world’s largest streaming service added more than 5 million new subscribers this summer.

After cracking down on password sharing, introducing adverts to its service and investing billions in live TV, the group declared it had “delivered” on plans to shore up its business.

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‘Heartbroken’: family, friends and fans pay tribute to Liam Payne

Former One Direction member died after falling from hotel balcony in Argentina on Wednesday

Liam Payne’s family and stars from across the music world have led tributes to the former One Direction star after his death at a hotel in Argentina.

“We are heartbroken. Liam will forever live in our hearts and we’ll remember him for his kind, funny and brave soul,” his family said in a statement issued on Thursday.

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Liam Payne, former One Direction singer, dies aged 31

British musician was found dead after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires

Liam Payne, a former member of the boyband One Direction, has died aged 31 after falling from a third-floor hotel room in Buenos Aires, police have confirmed.

The singer died on Wednesday at 5pm local time.

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