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A DJ and LGBTQ+ activist who performed during a controversial scene in the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony has said she is taking legal action after becoming the target of “an extremely violent campaign of cyber-harassment and defamation”.
Barbara Butch, who calls herself a “love activist”, had been “threatened with death, torture and rape, and has also been the target of numerous antisemitic, homophobic, sexist and body-shaming insults”, her lawyer said in a post on her Instagram page.
Dutch artist’s 17th-century work said to have inspired tableau that has offended Christian and conservative critics
A controversial tableau in the Olympics opening ceremony denounced by Christian and conservative critics as an offensive parody of The Last Supper was in fact inspired by a 17th-century Dutch painting of the Greek Olympian gods, art historians have said.
“Does this painting remind you of something?” the Magnin Museum in the French city of Dijon asked (with a wink) on X, inviting people to “come and admire” The Feast of the Gods, painted by the artist Jan van Bijlert between 1635 and 1640.
Gérald Darmanin says activists may have been encouraged to carry out arson attacks that caused disruption
France’s interior minister has suggested that far-left activists were behind the attacks on the high-speed rail system on the eve of the Olympics opening ceremony, as a fresh wave of vandalism targeted internet cables.
Four days after the attacks, Gérald Darmanin said the investigation into the arson attacks had “identified a certain number of profiles who could have committed it”.
Temperatures expected to soar to 35C, making some competitions more challenging for athletes
The Paris Olympics had a soggy start but conditions improved over the weekend. Meteorologists now expect temperatures to soar early this week, prompting several warnings.
The weather in the French capital has been forecast to climb to 35C (95F) on Tuesday, about 8C above average for the time of year, making some competitions more challenging for the athletes. Southern parts of France are likely to experience the hottest weather, reaching the high 30s celsius, nearly 10C above average.
Swimmer narrowly misses third successive Olympic gold, as Andy Murray keeps tennis alive in doubles comeback
World record-holding swimmer Adam Peaty was left in tears after being beaten to gold by the smallest of margins on a day of disappointment for Team GB at the Paris Games.
The 29-year-old had been seeking to join American legend Michael Phelps as only the second man to win three successive Olympic golds in the same discipline, but trailed Italy’sNicolò Martinenghi by just 0.02 of a second in the men’s 100m breaststroke.
Apology follows anger among Catholics and other groups at opening ceremony segment that resembled biblical scene
The organising committee of Paris 2024 has apologised to Catholics and other Christian groups who were outraged by a scene during the opening ceremony that evoked Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper painting with drag queens, a transgender model and a singer made up as the Greek god of wine.
The parody of the biblical scene, performed against the backdrop of the River Seine, was intended to interpret Dionysus and raise awareness “of the absurdity of violence between human beings”, organisers wrote on X.
Eleven Premier League teams start season with major bookmaker backing as industry watchdog report says stats can ‘mask’ scale of problem betting
Official figures on rates of problem gambling in Britain – which have been put as low as 0.3% – can “mask” the scale of harms by including people who never bet, a report published by the industry regulator has warned.
Various surveys suggest a problem gambling rate in Britain in a range of between 0.3% to 2.5%. But in the new report that figure rose sharply when non-gamblers were excluded – and was even higher among those who gambled on online casinos.
The melody for the first live performance since 2020 by the singer, who has suffered with ill-health, was suitably tragic
It was a very public triumph, both for Paris and for Céline Dion. It received plaudits around the world as one of the highlights of the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Yet the soundtrack was a tragic one.
The Canadian diva had chosen to celebrate the great French chansonnier Édith Piaf in a live, high-stakes comeback performance delivered from the iron shoulders of the Eiffel Tower amid showers of rain and fireworks.