44 m. ago Chineke! Orchestra/Heyward review – kaleidoscopic concert combines energy and complexity

Royal Albert Hall, LondonThe ethnically diverse orchestra played with vigour and spirit in a varied programme that included Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Shostakovich and Valerie ColemanThis concert was to have been conducted by Simon Rattle – a mark of the esteem in which leading artists hold Chineke! Orchestra, the trailblazing British ensemble made up of a majority of Black and ethnically diverse musicians. In the event, Charleston-born Jonathon Heyward put his own indelible stamp on a varied yet satisfying program.Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s La Bamboula, a kaleidoscopic dance with roots in the West Indies, played to Chineke!’s strengths. The performed it with vigour and spirit, while Heyward kept its likable blend of late-Victorian tunefulness and proto-Hollywood glitz gossamer-light. You could see why Henry Wood programmed it at the Proms 16 times, making its subsequent 91-year absence inexplicable. Continue reading...

Events

60 m. ago Tragedy as woman in 90s found dead outside Rochdale wedding venue

The woman's death is not being treated as suspicious

Events

69 m. ago Keir Starmer joins King Charles at Balmoral after tumultuous week

The PM joined the King in Scotland after a torrid week that has left his leadership under mounting pressure.

Politics

74 m. ago Largest Russian air attack of war sets fire to Ukrainian cabinet building

Russia’s first strike on a key government building kills three, including a baby and an infantRussia has launched its largest ever air attack on Ukraine, hitting a key government building in Kyiv for the first time and leaving at least three people dead, including a baby and an infant, Ukrainian officials said.The bombardment of the capital with a large number of drones and missiles injured at least 18 people and set scores of buildings on fire. Continue reading...

Events

75 m. ago California Schemin’ review – James McAvoy’s directorial debut is an unlikely rap tale

Toronto film festival: the actor makes for a hit-and-miss first time film-maker with the undeniably involving true story of Scottish rappers who pretended to be AmericanAt the start of the century, a struggling Scottish rap duo decided to overhaul their image in extreme fashion: they began posing as two Americans from California, and managed to secure themselves a record deal with a label in London. Eventually the hoax was revealed, and one of them released a memoir about the charade. That wild story has now been adapted into a film, California Schemin’, which marks the alternately confident and unsteady directorial debut of actor James McAvoy.McAvoy is a son of Scotland himself, and perhaps feels some kinship with rappers Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd, who found the cultural tastemakers of the south to be indifferent or even hostile to Scottish artists. Though McAvoy has fared just fine as an actor, Bain and Boyd – who would come to be known as Silibil N’ Brains – had a much tougher go...

Politics

88 m. ago Emmerdale's Kelvin Fletcher and wife Liz open up on 'big change' for family after baby admission

Kelvin Fletcher and his wife Liz have four children together

Events

1 hour ago Debutantes don white gowns and dazzling tiaras as they gather for the annual Queen Charlotte's Ball

Debutantes put on an elegant display as they attended the annual Queen Charlotte's Ball at One Whitehall Place in London on Saturday.

Politics

1 hour ago Celebs Go Dating's Anna Williamson split from boyfriend after heartbreaking conversation

Celeb's Go Dating expert Anna Williamson seems to live a charmed existence with her Italian husband and two children but as she tells us, her happy-ever-after has not always come easy

Politics

1 hour ago Celebs Go Dating's Anna Williamson split up with boyfriend as he didn't want kids

EXCLUSIVE: Celeb's Go Dating expert Anna Williamson seems to live a charmed existence with her Italian husband and two children but as she tells us, her happy-ever-after hasn't always come easy

Politics

2 h. ago Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review – whodunnit threequel is murderously good fun

Toronto film festival: after Glass Onion underwhelmed, Rian Johnson’s self-aware, star-packed Benoit Blanc series makes a barnstorming return to formIf Glass Onion wasn’t quite the deserving follow-up to Knives Out that many of us had hoped it would be (it was more focused on the bigger rather than better), it was at the very least a deserved victory lap. Writer-director Rian Johnson’s 2019 whodunnit brought us back to the starry, slippery fun of the 70s and 80s, when films like this would be a dime a dozen and it was a surprise hit, making almost eight times its budget at the global box office. While Kenneth Branagh had seen commercial success already with his Poirot revival two years prior, his retreads felt too musty, and the actor-director too miscast, for the genre to truly feel like it was entering an exciting new period.Johnson’s threequel, Wake Up Dead Man, is the second as part of his Netflix deal (one that cost an estimated $450m) and arrives as the whodunnit genre has fou...

Events

2 h. ago Bill Belichick gets first UNC win and confirms he has banned Patriots scouts

Tar Heels beat Charlotte 20-3 on rainy afternoonScout ban shows decaying of relations with former teamBill Belichick won six Super Bowls during nearly a quarter of a century coaching the New England Patriots, but it’s clear that relationship has deteriorated since his departure in January of 2024 leading to plenty of animosity and hard feelings. When asked to address reports that he banned a Patriots scout from attending practices at North Carolina this summer, Belichick said bluntly, “It’s clear I’m not welcomed in their facility, so they aren’t welcomed in ours Simple as that.”Belichick’s comments came just minutes after he won his first game as head coach of North Carolina 20-3 over Charlotte on a rain-soaked afternoon in front of a record crowd of 19,233 at Jerry Richardson Stadium. Continue reading...

Economics

2 h. ago BBC EastEnders fans 'figure out' Jay's tragic exit as actor is axed after nearly 20 years

EastEnders fans are convinced they know how Jamie Borthwick's character Jay Brown will be written out of the soap after it was confirmed the actor had been axed

Events

2 h. ago Fossils show pair of baby pterosaurs ‘died in violent storm’

Stunning fossils from Germany reveal hatchlings were injured and drowned during tropical storm 150 million years ago

Events

2 h. ago Lewis Hamilton will be concerned as Charles Leclerc told he'll never by F1 champion

Ferrari have yet to provide Charles Leclerc with a car capable of making him Formula 1 champion, though that has not stopped the Monegasque from committing his future to the team

Politics

2 h. ago Nicolas Jackson's Chelsea exit in doubt as Bayern Munich chief reveals contract details

Nicolas Jackson left Chelsea to join Bayern Munich on a season-long loan deal on transfer deadline day, but a permanent move to Germany might not be as straightforward as first thought

Politics

2 h. ago Mass mortuaries, forensics and rare cooperation with Russia: The agonising task of identifying Ukraine’s war dead

Bryony Gooch speaks to a forensic specialist about the ongoing work to put names to bodies in Ukraine after Moscow agreed to return thousands of the fallen

Events

2 h. ago How to make perfect nanaimo bars – recipe | Felicity cloake's How to make the perfect

This Canadian staple has long been interpreted differently, with various nuts and biscuit bases, but which version nails it?Canadians are famously nice – think laid-back Keanu Reeves, sunny Pamela Anderson, the charmingly incompetent Inspector Gadget – except when it comes to their beloved nanaimo bars. Get the ratio of this three-tier national treasure wrong, as the New York Times stood accused of doing in 2021, when its Instagram account posted a picture of squares that one user described as “an insult to Canadians everywhere”, and you’ll discover you can push them only so far.The Times is not alone in attracting ire. So popular are nanaimo (pronounced nuh-NYE-mo) bars, named after the British Colombian logging and mining town where they are said to have originated, that Canada Post put them on a stamp in 2019 only to face similar howls of outrage, albeit in Canadian: “One hesitates to be critical,” Nanaimo’s mayor explained carefully, “but it’s not a very accurate depiction.” Con...

Politics

2 h. ago EastEnders Jay's heartbreaking exit storyline 'unveiled' as actor axed after 19 years

EastEnders’ Jay Brown star was axed this week and fans have already ‘rumbled’ the character’s exit storyline

Politics

3 h. ago The Voice of Hind Rajab should have won Venice’s top prize. But the result wasn’t a cop

Many felt Kaouther Ben Hania’s Gaza docufiction was robbed when Jim Jarmusch’s latest took the top prize. Yet accusations of moral cowardice on the part of the jury are naive and unfairThere are standing ovations and there are jury decisions.Jim Jarmusch’s droll, quirky, very charming film Father Mother Sister Brother got a mere six minutes for its standing ovation at Venice – though one day we’re going to have to introduce some Olympic-style standardisation to these timings. But it got the top prize, the Golden Lion, from Alexander Payne’s jury. Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago The Voice of Hind Rajab was better than the film which won Venice. But that result wasn’t a cop

Many felt Kaouther Ben Hania’s Gaza docufiction was robbed when Jim Jarmusch’s latest took the top prize. Yet accusations of moral cowardice on the part of the jury are naive and unfairThere are standing ovations and there are jury decisions.Jim Jarmusch’s droll, quirky, very charming film Father Mother Sister Brother got a mere six minutes for its standing ovation at Venice – though one day we’re going to have to introduce some Olympic-style standardisation to these timings. But it got the top prize, the Golden Lion, from Alexander Payne’s jury. Continue reading...

Politics