Louvre’s decision to move Mona Lisa is a misguided act of snobbery

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Crowds give life to the Paris museum and the painting is a silent, compelling mystery at the heart of the hubbub

What a wonderful headache for a museum to have. The Louvre in Paris gets so many visitors it is taking drastic measures to cope, which include moving its most famous treasure to a dedicated space where fans can visit without entering the main museum at all. It will no longer suck the oxygen from other art.

Nearly 9 million visitors a year stream through the Louvre and it’s believed 80% of them are looking for Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, better known as La Gioconde, better still as the Mona Lisa.

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Woman accused of stealing Ukrainian soldiers’ mobile numbers, court hears

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Prosecutor at Old Bailey says Katrin Ivanova was only member of Bulgarian spy ring able to pull off plot

A lab technician has been accused of being the only member of a Bulgarian spy ring able to pull off a plot to steal the mobile numbers of Ukrainian soldiers training in Germany.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, was told by prosecutor Alison Morgan KC at the Old Bailey that she had been described by the plotters’ leader as the most technically adept member of the group and that she was necessary to the planned surveillance in Stuttgart.

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Canada subject to widespread political interference, probe says – Financial Times

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  1. Canada subject to widespread political interference, probe says  Financial Times
  2. Trudeau Government Left Canada Vulnerable to Foreign Interference, Report Finds  The New York Times
  3. No 'traitors' in Canada's parliament, says foreign meddling inquiry  BBC.com
  4. India Rejects Canada's Election-Meddling "Insinuations"  NDTV
  5. India rejects Canada's report on election interference, accuses Trudeau government of 'consistently inter  The Times of India
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Sister of Omagh bombing victim tells inquiry about ‘mind-blowing shock’

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Paloma Abad Ramos thanks the inquiry chair for the only support her family has felt ‘for many, many years’

The sister of a 23-year-old Spanish visitor killed in the devastating Omagh bomb has said the public inquiry into the atrocity is allowing the family “to close a wound that has been open for 26 years”.

During the opening day of the resumed inquiry, Paloma Abad Ramos told of the “mind-blowing shock” she and her family felt in 1998 when they learned the youngest of three daughters, Rocio, had been caught up in a bomb in a foreign country.

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11 Baltic cables damaged in 15 months, pushing NATO to boost security – Defense News

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  1. 11 Baltic cables damaged in 15 months, pushing NATO to boost security  Defense News
  2. Undersea infrastructure is Europe’s unexpected Achilles’ heel. What’s going on?  CNN
  3. Exclusive: Baltic Sea shipping tax could pay for undersea cable protection, says Estonian minister  Reuters
  4. Sweden seizes ship after suspected Baltic Sea cable sabotage  BBC.com
  5. Suspected Sabotage of Deep-Sea Cable Triggers First NATO-Led Response  The Wall Street Journal
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AllBright, London’s women-only members’ club, enters administration

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The networking and events business struggled with ‘rising rents’ and the aftermath of the pandemic

AllBright, the women-only members’ club with a five-storey townhouse in Mayfair, London, has entered administration, the Guardian can reveal.

The networking and events business – which was co-founded by the Telegraph Media Group’s chief executive, Anna Jones, and the co-chair of the Invest in Women Taskforce, Debbie Wosskow – emailed members last week to say it was closing the doors of its building just off Regent Street.

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Cardiff University to cut 400 staff and drop subjects including nursing and music

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Union describe reductions as ‘cruel’ as university says it will run out of money without changes

Cardiff University has announced plans to shed 400 academic staff – almost 10% of its total – and cut subjects including nursing, music and modern languages, saying it will run out of money in four years if no changes are made.

Academics, union representatives and students expressed shock and dismay at the scale of the cuts, which were announced at staff meetings at the Russell Group university on Tuesday.

A reduction of academic headcount by about 400 full-time equivalent (7% of total workforce), using compulsory redundancy only if absolutely necessary. ​

Ceasing subjects and programmes in ancient history, modern languages and translation, music, nursing, and religion and theology.

Increasing student-to-staff ratios across the university.

Bringing “complementary” disciplines together through school mergers. For example, the creation of the school of natural sciences (merging chemistry, Earth sciences and physics) and school of global humanities (merging English, communication and philosophy, Welsh, and remaining elements of history, archaeology and religion and modern languages).

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Canada report on foreign interference: no evidence of ‘traitors’ in parliament

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Commission finds democratic institutions ‘robust in the face of foreign interference’ but some MPs behaved ‘naively’

Canada’s democratic institutions are “robust in the face of foreign interference” attempts and there is “no evidence of ‘traitors’” in the country’s parliament, a landmark report into election meddling has found.

But the commission’s lead said on Tuesday that the federal government should take steps to better safeguard democratic institutions and better inform the public of foreign interference threats.

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US tech stocks partly recover after Trump says DeepSeek AI chatbot is ‘wake-up call’

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Tentative rise comes after emergence of cheaper Chinese rival wiped $1tn off the value of leading US tech companies

US tech stocks tentatively recovered on Tuesday after Donald Trump described the launch of a chatbot by China’s DeepSeek as a “wake-up call” for Silicon Valley in the global race to dominate artificial intelligence.

The emergence of DeepSeek, which has built its R1 model chatbot at a fraction of the cost of competitors such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, wiped $1tn (£800bn) in value from the leading US tech index on Monday.

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Giorgia Meloni says she is under investigation for repatriation of Libyan warlord

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Rome prosecutor launches investigation into controversial release of Osama Najim, who is wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes

Giorgia Meloni has said she is under investigation in connection with Italy’s unexpected release and repatriation last week of a Libyan general who is wanted for war crimes by the international criminal court.

The Italian prime minister said in a video message posted on social media that she is suspected of aiding and abetting a crime and embezzlement in connection with the case of Libya’s chief of judicial police, Osama Najim – also called Almasri.

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Electric planes, new fuel: Can Heathrow’s third runway be green? – BBC.com

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  1. Electric planes, new fuel: Can Heathrow's third runway be green?  BBC.com
  2. Britain backs a third runway at Heathrow Airport, a major project beset by delays and environmental challenges  CNN
  3. UK finance minister backs expansion of London's Heathrow Airport to boost struggling economy  CNBC
  4. Heathrow third runway: a saga of promises, protest and U-turns  The Guardian
  5. UK Treasury chief backs third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport  The Hill
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