44 minutes ago From Strictly Ballroom to Sydney’s saviour: how heritage town halls are staging a comeback

Inner West council has thrown open the doors of seven town halls to arts organisations free of charge as it tries to revive its buildings and address a performing arts crisisFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastIt’s been more than three decades since Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom was filmed in Petersham town hall. But earlier this year, the 82-year-old building in Sydney opened its doors to the Inner West Theatre Company’s production of the classic, free of charge.Beautiful brick early 20th-century town halls were once venues for council meetings, award nights and country dances. But in recent decades many have been under-used or left entirely empty as modern buildings serve changing community needs. Continue...

Politics

74 minutes ago Helen Flanagan addresses Coronation Street comeback and one storyline request

Helen Flanagan, who played Rosie Webster on Corrie for more than a decade, has spoken out about the possibility of a return to the cobbles and the storyline she would want

Politics

3 hours ago Nine Premier League clubs in transfer scramble for teenager as selling club target record sale

Slavia Prague and Senegal's 19-year-old left wing-back El Hadji Malick Diouf is the subject of huge interest from both the Premier League and Europe ahead of the January transfer window when he is sure to be one of the hottest young talents on the market

Politics

4 hours ago Prince Harry 'not thinking about Meghan Markle' as he continues to 'have fun' in solo appearances

EXCLUSIVE: Following a body language expert’s view on Prince Harry’s demeanour without Meghan, former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond reveals her own thoughts on Harry when he is flying solo

Politics

4 hours ago The Observer view: ICC’s Israel arrest warrants are a test the world must not fail

International criminal court’s intervention must be supported if global rules-based order is to have a meaningful futureThe decision by the international criminal court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s former defence minister, for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza has huge implications for Israel and Palestine, for international justice and the rules-based global order that the UK and its allies are pledged to uphold. This unprecedented, necessary and impartial supranational attempt to prosecute democratically elected western politicians accused of grievous wrongdoing is a test the international community dare not fail.Netanyahu’s reaction to the charges was to dismiss them as “absurd” and “antisemitic” and the...

Events

4 hours ago Rufus Wainwright: ‘I had a great party trick, but it once blew up in my face’

The singer-songwriter on his most memorable fan, his love of Chappell Roan, and his close friend and nemesis Jake ShearsGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailIf you could have a sandwich named after you, what would be on it?I would have a really gross sandwich named after me that nobody would want to eat. The one time I tried to cook – many, many years ago, when I was in college – I decided to make all the things that I love and put them in one dish. And so it was brussels sprouts, macaroni and cheese, merguez sausages, extra blue cheese and broccoli. And it was literally grey. So yeah, it would be something revolting like that, between two pieces of cardboard. Continue reading...

Politics

6 hours ago We shall satirise him on the beaches Churchill through the eyes of cartoonists – in pictures

In one wartime image, Winston Churchill is portrayed as a dragonslayer; in another, a gun-toting gangster. Later, he appears old and dejected, overdue for retirement. The cartoons, on show in a new exhibition at the Imperial War Museum London, show a multitude of Churchills, reflecting how he was seen in different countries and at different times, from 1909 onwards. “There was never a consensus view of him,” says curator Kate Clements. “Some of the depictions were heavily critical and even grotesque”, while others “depict his determined nature and portray him as a British figurehead”. Clements hopes the exhibition will “add another layer to our visitors’ understanding of this complex individual” and show “how satirical cartoons played a part in shaping perceptions of Churchill during hi...

Politics

7 hours ago Arrest warrants for Israeli leaders marks pivotal moment in international law | Beth McKernan

Charges against Israeli prime minister and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant mark first time western-affiliated leaders have been targeted for war crimesThe international criminal court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza has been welcomed by Palestinians as a landmark moment in their decade-long fight to challenge the Israeli occupation through international institutions.Thursday’s announcement from the international criminal court’s pretrial chamber of arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has sent shockwaves through the international legal system. As the first time that officials from a democratic, western-allied state have been charged with war crimes, it is wide...

Politics

7 hours ago I’ve joined Bluesky and it feels like a breath of fresh air – in some ways | John Naughton

The flourishing new platform may be like Twitter once was. The problem is the limited algorithmic scope of all social mediaAs I write, there’s a window on my laptop screen that is providing a live view of a stampede. It’s logging the numbers of people joining the social network Bluesky. At the moment, the number of registered users is 20.5 million. By the time you read this there will be more than 30 million of them, judging by the rate that people are currently joining.The proximate cause of it is the role that Elon Musk, owner of X (née Twitter), played in the election of Donald Trump, when a significant proportion of the platform’s 200 million-plus users realised that they’d been had – that they had, in effect, been useful idiots for Musk on his path to the centre of political power....

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