Alexandre Dumas was wowed by it and Burt Lancaster starred there. Now the Cirque d’Hiver has a new spectacle
For more than 170 years the Cirque d’Hiver, the world’s oldest circus, has been the scene of many a breathtaking act.
In 1859, gymnast Jules Léotard – whose name would become synonymous with the one-piece – captivated audiences by launching himself from one swinging trapeze to another without a safety net for the first time in public.
Continue reading...Djidji Ayôkwé was handed to Ivorian officials in Paris earlier this month
A sacred artefact looted by French colonial authorities more than a century ago has been returned to Côte d’Ivoire in one of the most significant cultural restitutions to a former French colony in years.
The Djidji Ayôkwé, a talking drum confiscated in 1916 by French administrators, landed at 8.45am on Friday at the airport in Port Bouët on the outskirts of the economic capital, Abidjan. It was handed over to Ivorian officials in Paris earlier this month after being removed from the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum.
Continue reading...Calls for Alexandra Căpitănescu’s Choke Me to be banned as campaigners say lyrics are ‘dangerous’ and ‘reckless’
Romania’s Eurovision entry Choke Me has been labelled “dangerous” and “reckless” for appearing to glamorise sexual strangulation, an unsafe practice that can lead to brain injury and death.
Campaigners against sexual violence said the entry, in which the words “choke me” are repeated 30 times during the three-minute song, was “playing fast and loose with young women’s lives”.
Continue reading...After latest concert cancellation, singer also describes Valencia hotel as ‘indescribable hell’ that will require ‘one year to recover’ from
British singer Morrissey has cancelled a concert in Valencia after being left sleep-deprived during the city’s notoriously noisy Las Fallas festival.
A statement on his website said: “Having travelled for two days by road, Morrissey reached the hotel in Valencia late on Wednesday. Any form of sleep or rest throughout the night was impossible due to festival noise/loud techno singing/megaphone announcements.”
Continue reading...European Commission says it will suspend €2m grant if organisers of arts festival go ahead with proposals
The European Commission has warned it will cut funding for the Venice Biennale if organisers go ahead with plans to include Russia.
The commission reiterated that any breach of ethical standards by the art festival would be treated as a violation of contract, leading to suspension of the €2m (£1.7m) agreement.
Continue reading...Sansevero Chapel Museum will host day of guided tours where visitors will be able to feel marble sculptures
The Sansevero Chapel Museum in Naples will allow dozens of visually impaired visitors to take part in a rare tactile experience, letting them touch celebrated works of art including the Veiled Christ, which is widely regarded as one of the most striking masterpieces in the history of sculpture.
On 17 March, the museum will host an initiative called La meraviglia a portata di mano – Wonder within reach – organised in partnership with the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Naples, offering about 80 blind and partially sighted visitors a chance to encounter the marble masterpieces.
Continue reading...TV star announces birth of Ozzy Matilda Osbourne on social media, alongside image of cuddly bat
Jack Osbourne, the only son of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, has honoured his late father by naming his baby daughter after him.
Jack, 40, announced the birth of Ozzy Matilda Osbourne on social media alongside his wife, Aree, who he married in 2023. The newborn Ozzy was pictured lying next to a cuddly bat toy: another reference to his father, who famously bit the head off a real bat during a 1982 concert believing it was made of rubber.
Continue reading...TV star announces birth of Ozzy Matilda Osbourne on social media, alongside image of cuddly bat
Jack Osbourne, the only son of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, has honoured his late father by naming his baby daughter after him.
Jack, 40, announced the birth of Ozzy Matilda Osbourne on social media alongside his wife, Aree, who he married in 2023. The newborn Ozzy was pictured lying next to a cuddly bat toy: another reference to his father, who famously bit the head off a real bat during a 1982 concert believing it was made of rubber.
Continue reading...René Redzepi also steps down from non-profit board after accusations of both physical and psychological abuse
René Redzepi, the head chef and co-founder of Noma, announced Wednesday he was resigning from his internationally acclaimed Copenhagen restaurant following allegations that he had physically abused his staff.
Redzepi had been facing protests in Los Angeles before a four-month pop-up that launched this week. His resignation comes after the New York Times detailed shocking allegations of physical and psychological abuse, including claims that he “punched employees in the face, jabbed them with kitchen implements and slammed them against walls”.
Continue reading...‘Trailblazer’ rapper returns to Australia for first time in 15 years, with body horror performer and dance biennale also on lineup
The pioneering female rapper Lil’ Kim, the vomit-inducing performance artist Florentina Holzinger, and the first ever Australian Dance Biennale are among the lineup for the 2026 Rising festival, which is staged around Melbourne each winter.
Lil’ Kim, who last played in Australia in 2011, will perform at Melbourne’s Festival Hall to celebrate her landmark multiplatinum records Hard Core – which turns 30 this year – and The Notorious KIM.
Continue reading...Musician behind Vietnam war protest hit I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag dead from Parkinson’s complications, his wife confirms
“Country Joe” McDonald, a hippy rock star of the 1960s whose protest track I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag rebuked the Vietnam war and became a highlight of the Woodstock music festival, died on Sunday. He was 84.
McDonald died in Berkeley, California. His death from complications of Parkinson’s disease was reported by Kathy McDonald, his wife of 43 years, in a statement issued by his publicist.
Continue reading...Relatives call on institutions to help them find remains of ancestors who led fight against British colonisers in 1890s
Descendants of freedom fighters executed and beheaded in southern Africa by colonial British forces have called on the Natural History Museum in London and the University of Cambridge to help them find their ancestors’ looted skulls.
Zimbabwean descendants of the first chimurenga heroes, who led an uprising against British colonisers in the 1890s, have long believed the museum and university hold several of the skulls.
Continue reading...Presenter who entertained children with his sharp-witted, furry puppet Agro Vation, remembered for his brash and unapologetic humour
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Jamie Dunn, a veteran radio personality who unleashed the puppet Agro on Australia, entertaining children and adults alike for decades, has died aged 76.
Dunn, who was once Australia’s longest-serving breakfast radio host, died on Saturday.
Continue reading...Grenade-throwing contests replaced PE and ‘denazification’ speeches became homework. Pavel Talankin’s undercover film about his school’s indoctrination drive won a Bafta and is tipped for an Oscar, but has left him in exile
In order to watch the Oscar-nominated documentary in which many of them have starring roles, pupils at Karabash School No 1 have had to source bootlegged copies, viewing the film in private, on their phones or their laptops.
Last week’s Bafta best documentary win for Mr Nobody Against Putin has been studiously ignored by Russian state media, and the prize the film won at Sundance last year was also met with silence. Staff at the school and government officials in the Kremlin seem united in their desire to pretend that they know nothing about the film.
Continue reading...Lindo speaks out after man with Tourette syndrome shouted slur while actor was on stage with Michael B Jordan
British-American actor Delroy Lindo expressed gratitude for “the support and love” he and Michael B Jordan have received after a man with Tourette syndrome (TS) shouted the N-word as the two men presented a Bafta award.
“We appreciate all the support and love that we have been shown,” Lindo – who, like Jordan, is Black – said on stage at the annual NAACP Image awards in Los Angeles. He called it “a classic case of something that could be very negative becoming very positive”.
Continue reading...After a heist and the departure of its boss, the French institution wrestles with water leaks, strikes and much-criticised plans for a €1bn renovation
Just over a year ago, Laurence des Cars, the intellectually brilliant (if famously prickly) former head of the largest and most-visited museum in the world, wrote a somewhat alarming note to her boss, France’s culture minister.
Des Cars, who on Tuesday resigned as president of the Louvre, lamented the advanced state of disrepair of the iconic museum’s buildings and galleries.
Continue reading...Olivia Dean tops the winners list with four, while Sam Fender bags two – see all the category winners here
• News: Olivia Dean sweeps the board at 2026 Brit awards, winning four including artist, song and album of the year
• Alexis Petridis: This year’s Brit awards found a flicker of chaos – but the winners were never in doubt
Olivia Dean
Continue reading...A shout of ‘racist’ could also be heard during the segment at France’s version of the Oscars
A tribute to Brigitte Bardot at the Césars, France’s version of the Oscars, on Thursday was greeted with boos. In a video clip posted on social media, boos can clearly be heard among the applause as the tributes, and a shout of “racist!” is also audible.
Bardot, who died in December aged 91, became arguably the most celebrated figure in postwar French cinema for films such as And God Created Woman and Contempt, but after quitting acting in the early 1970s her later years were marred by increasing political activity on the far right, resulting in a string of convictions for inciting racial hatred.
Continue reading...Landslide in Niscemi in January tore away entire slope of town and carved 4km chasm
Firefighters in Sicily have rescued about 400 rare books from a library in Niscemi that hangs on the edge of a mudflow, after a devastating landslide in January tore away an entire slope of the town and carved a 4km chasm.
The library stands on the lip of the precipice gouged out by the landslide, with part of the building in effect hanging in mid-air. The recovery operation, which began on Monday, was preceded by a detailed study of floor plans and interior photographs to map the position of the books.
Continue reading...Landslide in Niscemi in January tore away entire slope of town and carved 4km chasm
Firefighters in Sicily have rescued about 400 rare books from a library in Niscemi that hangs on the edge of a mudflow, after a devastating landslide in January tore away an entire slope of the town and carved a 4km chasm.
The library stands on the lip of the precipice gouged out by the landslide, with part of the building in effect hanging in mid-air. The recovery operation, which began on Monday, was preceded by a detailed study of floor plans and interior photographs to map the position of the books.
Continue reading...