Palestinian musicians were joined by stars including Neneh Cherry and Louis Theroux for a massive four-hour fundraising concert in London. Their artistry revealed the strength and breadth of a culture under siege
It’s a muggy midweek afternoon when a trail of people draped in black and white keffiyeh scarves, Palestine flags and Free Palestine slogan T-shirts begin to trickle into Wembley Arena. In the foyer of the venue, 56-year-old Kiran has just arrived from her home in Milton Keynes.
“I’d never protested in my life before October 2023,” she says. “It’s been so horrific to see what’s happening in Gaza, I felt I had to do something since if you don’t make a stand now, when would you ever? Things might feel futile but this is a way to show the world we care and that we stand together more than we are torn apart.”
Piastri says drivers not team will decide outcome of title
Comments follow controversial swap imposed by team
Oscar Piastri has insisted that he and his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, are in control of their own destiny as they fight for the Formula One world championship after the pair were involved in a highly controversial swap imposed by the team at the Italian Grand Prix.
Given the pair are in a two-horse race for the title, the question of team orders playing a potentially decisive role loomed large after Monza. Max Verstappen won the race but McLaren’s decision to have Piastri return second place to Norris, after the British driver lost the position due to a slow pit stop caused by a faulty wheel gun, was contentious.
Sébastien Lecornu, who has recently taken office, faces pressure to act on wages, pensions and public services as disruption is caused across the country
Hundreds of thousands of people have marched in street demonstrations across France as trade unions held a day of strike action to pressure the new prime minister Sébastien Lecornu to rethink budget cuts and act on wages, pensions and public services.
There was disruption to public transport as train, bus and tram drivers went on strike, hospital staff joined protests and nine out of 10 pharmacies were closed as pharmacists protested pricing policies. Around one in six teachers at primary and secondary schools went on strike, as well as school canteen staff and monitors. Several high schools from Paris to Amiens and Le Havre were blockaded by students. Protesters held more than 250 demonstrations and marched in cities from Paris to Marseille, Nantes, Lyon and Montpellier.
She was discovered by Pharrell Williams, signed by Kanye West and worked with Beyoncé – all by her early 20s. Now the star of Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film is creating a buzz in Hollywood
Teyana Taylor is – as she often says to interviewers – the entertainment equivalent of “a Glade plug-in” air freshener: put her in “any socket” and she will make “every room smell good”. And, at 34, she has the CV to prove it. After kicking off her career at 15 as a choreographer for Beyoncé (she later showcased her own moves to millions in the headline-grabbing video for Kanye West’s 2016 single Fade), the New York native began making her own critically acclaimed, cutting-edge R&B. She has also acted in a slew of movies and TV shows – including an award-winning turn as a mother who kidnaps her son from the care system in 2023’s A Thousand and One – and worked as a creative director for brands and a host of other musicians.
But Taylor also likens herself to another household item. “I am a sponge,” she says. “I’m never above being a student.” This was especially true on the set of her latest project, Paul Thomas Anderson’s vigilante group caper One Battle After Another. Observing castmates including Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro – plus the director himself (to many, the greatest of his generation) – turned her into “SpongeBob SquarePants. I get to have my notebook and take all these notes and soak everything in.”
Asencio and three former youth players to face trial
Case relates to alleged incident in Gran Canaria in 2023
The Real Madrid defender Raúl Asencio and three former youth players at the club are to stand trial in connection with the alleged filming and distribution of sexual videos involving two women, one of whom was a minor at the time.
According to court documents, three of the defendants are accused of “one count of distributing child pornography, as well as two offences against privacy”. Their bail has been set at €20,000 each (£17,400). The fourth, who is understood to be Asencio, is accused of two offences against privacy and has had his bail set at €15,000.
The late-night show getting pulled ‘indefinitely’ after relatively mild commentary about the right is another worrying sign of where Trump’s America is heading
Back in the 90s and 2000s, much ink was spilled as the major networks grappled for ratings in the now-quaint real estate of post-11PM programming. Johnny Carson retired. David Letterman jumped to CBS. Conan O’Brien was plucked from obscurity, eventually handed The Tonight Show, and then had it essentially clawed back by Jay Leno for a few more years of appalling hackwork. But in retrospect, maybe the most prescient moments were two that seemed decidedly minor at the time: Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect was yanked off the air by ABC because Maher expressed an unpopular 9/11-related opinion in a highly understandable context, and Jimmy Fallon playfully tousled Donald Trump’s hair.
Maple Leafs have gone under the radar at Women’s Rugby World Cup but underdogs can upset the champions
For anyone who might be thinking champions New Zealand are a shoo-in to make the Rugby World Cup final, Canada have three key attributes to suggest they can knock out the Black Ferns in their semi-final on Friday evening: Belief, fast ruck speed and Sophie de Goede.
Canada are the world No 2 side and came close to beating England at the 2024 WXV 1, yet have gone under the radar in the buildup to this tournament and during its early stages, with much of the attention focused on the potential for a rematch of the 2022 final between New Zealand and hosts England. Against the Black Ferns in the last four at Ashton Gate, Canada will still be viewed as underdogs in some circles, something the team have spoken about a lot, according to the wing Alysha Corrigan.
Tens of thousands more forced to flee makeshift homes and shelters daily in face of new Israeli offensive
More than a quarter of a million people have been displaced from Gaza City in the last month, according to figures from the UN, with tens of thousands more forced to flee makeshift homes and shelters daily in the face of a new Israeli offensive.
Multiple strikes by Israeli artillery, tanks and warplanes hit Gaza City again on Thursday as a UN official said “new waves of mass displacement” were under way, after about 60,000 fled the new assault in 72 hours earlier this week.
A separate research found that at the current rate of global heating, more than 70,000 people will die in the US by 2050
Smoke billowing from wildfires will cause a growing number of deaths around the world in the decades ahead as the planet continues to heat up, new research has found.
Wildfire smoke is expected to kill as many as 1.4 million people globally each year by the end of the century if planet-heating emissions are not curbed, according to a study published on Thursday.
The sporting superstar walked away from success and adulation at 26 – much to everyone’s bemusement. He opens up about his secret life and the depression, cocaine, overdoses and aggressive cancer that almost killed him
‘I’m a person who doesn’t say very much,” Björn Borg says with a wry smile. Which may be the understatement of the century. Borg, the greatest tennis player of his day, has spent 42 years saying nothing since he announced his retirement at the age of 26.
When he broke that news in 1983, it was one of the biggest shocks in the history of sport. Not simply because he was at his peak, but also because he was the rock star tennis player – beautiful, mysterious and followed by a flock of teenybopper fans. When Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz triumphed in the US Open earlier this month, aged 22, he became the second youngest player to have won six major tournaments. Borg beat him by four months.
(Signum) Viktoria Mullova and Alasdair Beatson end their cycle of Beethoven violin sonatas with energised and immaculate performances
Viktoria Mullova began her cycle of the Beethoven violin sonatas partnered by Kristian Bezuidenhout, but Alasdair Beatson has been the pianist for the last three instalments. They end the series with a pairing of the second of the Op 12 set in A major with the last of the sonatas, in G. All of the performances use historical instruments, with Mullova playing her gut-strung 1750 Guadagnini and using a classical bow, while here Beatson plays a different keyboard for each sonata. For the rather Mozartian Op 12 no 2 he uses a copy of a Walter fortepiano made in 1805, seven years after the sonata was composed; while for the much more ambitious keyboard writing of Op 96 it’s a copy of a Graf from 1819.
What is common to the performances of both sonatas is the sheer joie de vivre of the playing. Everything seems energised, and if the precision and immaculate ensemble is sometimes at the expense of obvious affection for the music and perhaps the last degree of warmth, that’s usually a small price to pay. The fine detail of both the violin and the keyboard playing is exquisite; the shape of every phrase, you feel, has been considered and weighted accordingly, without losing any sense of spontaneity, so the music never stales.
His contract to 2027 includes break clause this summer
Benfica play at Chelsea in Champions League
José Mourinho has been confirmed as Benfica’s head coach on a contract until the summer of 2027, with a break clause at the end of this season. His fourth game, on 30 September, will take him back to his former club Chelsea in the Champions League.
The 62-year-old takes over from Bruno Lage, who was sacked after Benfica’s 3-2 Champions League defeat by Qarabag on Tuesday. Benfica said in a statement that a break clause would allow the club or Mourinho to end his deal in the 10 days after their final game of this campaign.
The big firms making these pledges are not charities. We know there will be a quid pro quo; we just don’t know what it is yet
Peter Kyle, until two weeks ago the technology secretary, once warned that tech companies such as Meta, Google and Microsoft were so powerful that the UK needed to approach them with “a sense of statecraft” and “humility”, and treat negotiations with them similarly to diplomacy between nations. That vision endures in the form of the UK-US tech prosperity agreement struck this week. While officially a new bilateral partnership, this seems to be a deal aimed at facilitating investment from US technology companies rather than advancing collaboration on goals such as AI safety, copyright protections for British rights holders or a digital services tax.
The rationale is clear: US firms stand alone atop the global AI value chain, making the country an obvious partner for a UK government seeking to “turbocharge” its AI sector. Against a challenging economic backdrop, the promise of “a combined £31bn” in support for UK AI infrastructure such as datacentres offers welcome headlines.
Matt Davies is economic and social policy lead at the Ada Lovelace Institute. Imogen Parker of the Ada Lovelace Institute also contributed
Bosses say independent news needs to be promoted on social platforms that increasing numbers of viewers are turning to
The BBC and Britain’s other public sector broadcasters have united to demand new regulations to force platforms such as YouTube to give them a fairer deal and more prominence, warning that failing to do so will fan the flames of misinformation.
Public service broadcasters (PSBs) are facing huge pressures as increasing numbers of viewers turn to digital platforms. Bosses say PSBs need to be protected to safeguard the “shared social fabric of the UK”.
Prepare the tiny violins! Someone has been shouting at Diego Simeone! Famously thin-skinned and a bastion of all that is right and pure in this world, the Atlético Madrid manager was sent off on Wednesday night at Anfield after reacting to a fan’s jibes from behind the dugout, following Liverpool’s latest Slottage-time winner in their Bigger Cup tie.
While admiring John Waugh’s ‘more is more’ celebration of the extended Bigger Cup format (yesterday’s Football Daily letters), he evoked Albert Camus as justification for his case. As we all know, Camus owed everything he knew about morality and the obligations of men to football, but, whereas life may be meaningless, his love of his team RUA was so deep that when he went to Paris he went to watch Racing Club, because they wore the same kit as RUA, so he could pretend to still be watching his favourite team. ‘After all,’ he wrote (in French), ‘that’s why I loved my team so much – for the joy of victories, so wonderful when paired with the fatigue that follows effort, but also for that stupid urge to cry on nights of defeat.’ Were Algeria still French and RUA playing in Bigger Cup, and that Camus had been wearing a seatbelt on that fateful drive, and reached the ripe old age of 112 he would be have been ecstatic to watch them play against any old chaff they were drawn against” – Guy Cooper.
Has it occurred to our learned friend that Football Daily might be looking at the bigger picture (doubtful, I know)? Qarabag may be minnows in Bigger Cup, but they’ve won 11 of their past 12 domestic league titles because of the money they make in European competitions. I wonder how many fans find it fun watching non-Qarabag teams compete in the Azerbaijan Premier League? Contrary to John’s argument, I believe clubs having a chance of actually winning a competition would increase fan engagement and make the whole sport more appealing. Maybe a better idea than just cramming more teams into European competitions is to actually have fewer teams competing in them, but have Uefa distribute more money across those weaker leagues so teams are better able to compete?” – Thabo Caves.
What pleasure to read a reference to Larkin (yesterday’s letters) on a day when I myself had spent a little while reading part of an anthology of the great poet’s works. Noble Francis, and others, who may have found Larkin’s sometimes fruity language a little coarse for their sensibilities might have enjoyed attempts to sanitise literature that included: ‘They tuck you up your mum and dad’” – Michael Lloyd.
The late actor was a paragon of masculine cool and a sartorial chameleon, able to take any aesthetic trope and make it shine with easy authenticity
The pantheon of men’s style icons is surprisingly compact. There are scores of uniquely handsome and stylish actors, pop stars, sportsmen – but when it comes to their decades-long influence and a sense of permanence unaffected by trends in fashion, three square-jawed American boys next door stand out: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen – and Robert Redford, who died yesterday at 89.
Redford’s death is, obviously, a loss to cinema. In the latter half of the 20th century, few actors so roundly embodied the soul of American film-making, or perhaps even the US itself. During a decade-long, career-defining run of hit movies, Redford established the archetype of the modern leading man. He was impossibly handsome and warmly charismatic, of course, but also scrappy, soulful, athletic, bookishly intelligent and politically aware. A matinee idol who could fix your car while reciting Walt Whitman.
Redford played with style, able to flit between macho tradition and 70s femininity, and always with innate sex appeal
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran the fastest women’s 400 metres in 40 years to claim world championship gold in 47.78sec on Thursday and complete her transition from the one-lap hurdles in emphatic style.
The American stormed through the Tokyo rain to add a first global gold in the flat 400m to the two Olympic and one world titles she won over the hurdles.
When faced with a crisis, presidents can inflame divisions or unify the nation. Trump is taking the path of Johnson and not Lincoln
Over the course of American history, presidents have not been judged by whether violence occurred on their watch but by how they responded to it. Each crisis poses the same test: will the person who holds the office use it to steady the republic, or to further polarize it?
The oath of office exists for precisely this moment. It binds the president to something larger than self-interest and party, the constitution and the rule of law. In the wake of rightwing political activist Charlie Kirk’s death, Donald Trump has forsaken this oath, instead choosing to wield his immense power to further divide an already polarized nation, not unite it. History will not soon forget this grave act of political opportunism.
Corey Brettschneider is a professor of political science at Brown University. He co-hosts the podcast The Oath and the Office, and is the author of The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It
The Nobel winner explores the dynamics of her relationship with a student 30 years her junior in an intimate, taboo-breaking memoir
In Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical story, translated by Alison L Strayer, the author recalls a past affair with a student who was 30 years her junior. “Often I have made love to force myself to write … I hoped that orgasm, the most violent end to waiting that can be, would make me feel certain that there is no greater pleasure than writing a book.” In other words, she is keen to break her writer’s block. But, to both their surprise, the affair becomes “a relationship that we longed to take to the limit, without really knowing what that meant”.
The Young Man is Ernaux’s shortest memoir yet, clocking just over half an hour in audio. But brevity doesn’t impede her ability to get to the heart of the intimate dynamics or external pressures of a situation that many others view as taboo. The couple get disapproving looks in restaurants, which, rather than leaving Ernaux cowed, reinforces her “determination not to hide my affair with a man who could have been my son”.
In reaction to the news that Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show has been indefinitely suspended, the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) said that “Trump’s FCC identified speech it did not like and threatened ABC with extreme reprisals. This is state censorship.”
On X, the president of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, Tino Gagliardi, issued a statement in response to ABC taking Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which employs musicians from the American Federation of Musicians Local 47 in Los Angeles, off the air. In it he said:
This is not complicated: Trump’s FCC identified speech it did not like and theatened ABC with extreme reprisals. This is state censorship. It’s now happening in the United States of America, not some far-off country. It’s happening right here and right now.
This act by the Trump administration represents a direct attack on free speech and artistic expression. These are fundamental rights that we must protect in a free society. The American Federation of Musicians strongly condemns the decision to take Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air.
As a Guild, we stand united in opposition to anyone who uses their power and influence to silence the voices of writers, or anyone who speaks in dissent. If free speech applied only to ideas we like, we needn’t have bothered to write it into the constitution. What we have signed on to – painful as it may be at times – is the freeing agreement to disagree.”
Democracy thrives when diverse points of view are expressed.
The decision to suspend airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone’s freedoms. Sag-Aftra stands with all media artists and defends their right to express their diverse points of view, and everyone’s right to hear them.
Bilic was club’s manager from 2015-17 and is out of work
Potter’s future not thought to hinge on Palace match
West Ham will consider turning to Slaven Bilic if they sack Graham Potter, who is under growing pressure after a poor start to the season. Although there is a belief that Potter’s immediate future does not hinge on the outcome of Saturday’s home game against Crystal Palace, the wider picture is less than encouraging for the former Chelsea manager.
West Ham are 18th in the Premier League after losing four of their first five games and there is growing alarm at board level. David Sullivan, the largest shareholder, is not ready to make a change yet but contingency plans are being put in place.
Marlon Wayans hams it up as a quarterback looking to crown the new Goat in an unsubtle and increasingly meaningless critique of a broken system
Him, a Jordan Peele-produced splatter film in the psychological mold of Us, deviates from the schmaltzy, feel-good formula that has defined American sports movies since Charlie Chaplin in The Champion. Tackle football, notorious for eating the young, is recast as a genuine meat grinder for Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) – a generational college quarterback touted as an heir apparent to Marlon Wayans’s Isaiah White, the Tom Brady of this world. But when a trippy, blunt force head injury endangers Cameron’s professional aspirations and multimillion-dollar payday, he agrees to train and rehab at Isaiah’s desert-based cement compound – a haunted house of vice and duplicity that threatens to swallow Cameron whole.
Him is not a subtle critique of America’s pastime. It opens with Isaiah breaking his leg on a championship-winning drive, and young Cameron taking in the gruesome injury from his living room floor while his father drills the mantra “no guts, no glory” into his psyche. It reintroduces football, quite rightly, as a veritable meat market where players are poked, prodded and scrutinized like chattel. Director Justin Tipping even switches to X-ray vision to bring out the underlying damage that can result from football’s incessant collisions, one of many stylish visual touches.
Desk from Quarry Bank high school had been hidden by staff as teachers considered Lennon a ‘nuisance’
A desk used by John Lennon has gone on display after being found in the attic of his former school, where teachers had not wanted to remember the musician because he was a “nuisance”.
Lennon attended Quarry Bank high school in Liverpool between 1952 and 1957, and the name of the Quarrymen, the band that would become the Beatles in their formative years, was inspired by the school’s name.
Increase in violence since 2019 is linked to online campaigns seeking to sow disinformation and fuel hatred
Europeans who do not fit the typical definition of male or female are grappling with an “alarming” rise in violence, the EU’s leading rights agency has said, as concerted campaigns seek to sow disinformation and fuel hatred towards them.
The findings from the EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights, published on Tuesday, were based on responses from 1,920 people in 30 countries across Europe. All of them identified as intersex, an umbrella term referring to those with innate variations of sex characteristics and which includes people who identify as trans, non-binary and gender diverse.
Connexion
