14 h. ago ‘Be playful, try new things!’ The Southbank Centre’s Mark Ball on his new festival, Multitudes

The arts centre’s artistic director is on a mission to bring new audiences to the joys of classical music. He explains why mixing it with circus, grime, poetry, and film might be the way to do itCan you name the UK’s top five most visited attractions? A 2024 survey placed the British Museum and Natural History Museum in the top two spots, then Windsor Great Park and the Tate Modern. No surprises there. But the fifth is perhaps less expected: the Southbank Centre, with 3.7 million annual visitors.“If you come down in the summer, it’s like a 21st-century version of the Victorian pleasure garden,” says its artistic director, Mark Ball. “It’s like the whole world is here. Skateboarders mixed with poets mixed with the classical musicians, mixed with the dancers – it’s what gives this space its vibrancy and why I love it so much.” Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Arsenal: Mikel Arteta expects transfer window 'surprises' from Andrea Berta as plans change

The new sporting director is set to bring some new ideas to the table

Sport

5 d. ago Postmortems of rescue workers killed in Gaza show ‘gunshots to head and torso’

Findings likely to increase pressure on Israel to give a full account of incident amid accusations of war crimeThe Gaza paramedic killings: a visual timelineThe doctor who carried out the postmortems of the 15 paramedics and rescue workers who were killed by Israeli troops in Gaza in March has said they were mostly killed by gunshots to the head and torso, as well as injuries caused by explosives.There was international outcry last month after it emerged that Israeli troops had launched a deadly attack on a group of paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent, civil defence and United Nations workers, as they carried out a rescue operation in southern Gaza. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago Autopsies of rescue workers killed in Gaza show ‘gunshots to head and torso’

Findings likely to increase pressure on Israel to give a full account of incident amid accusations of war crimeThe Gaza paramedic killings: a visual timelineThe doctor who carried out the autopsies of the 15 paramedics and rescue workers who were killed by Israeli troops in Gaza in March has said they were mostly killed by gunshots to the head and torso, as well as injuries caused by explosives.There was international outcry last month after it emerged that Israeli troops had launched a deadly attack on a group of paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent, civil defence and United Nations workers, as they carried out a rescue operation in southern Gaza. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Israel releases Palestinian who took part in attack aged 13 and developed mental illness in prison

Israel has released a Palestinian who took part in an attack when he was 13 and developed schizophrenia in prison as requests for early release were denied

Events

2 w. ago Boutique UK venue finding agency, ExecSpace, welcomes Lucy McNicoll as new managing director

Renowned boutique venue-finding agency ExecSpace has announced the appointment of Lucy McNicoll as its new Managing Director. Lucy has officially taken the helm from April, bringing with her a wealth of experience and a fresh vision for the company.

Politics

2 w. ago Gaza paramedics shot in upper body ‘with intent to kill’, Red Crescent says

PRCS calls for international investigation after postmortem results add to evidence contradicting Israel’s accountAutopsies conducted on 15 Palestinian paramedics and civil emergency responders who were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza show they were were shot in the upper body with “intent to kill”, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, which is demanding an international investigation into the attack.The killings took place in the southern Gaza Strip on 23 March, days into a renewed Israeli offensive in the Hamas-ruled territory, and sparked international condemnation. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Israeli military changes account of Palestinian medics’ killing after video showed attack

Phone video contradicts IDF claims vehicles were not using emergency lights when troops opened fireThe Israeli military has backtracked on its account of the killing of 15 Palestinian medics by its forces last month after phone video contradicted its claims that their vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire on them in the Gaza Strip. The military said initially it opened fire because the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” on nearby troops without headlights or emergency signals. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations late on Saturday, said that account was “mistaken”.The almost seven-minute video, which the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Saturday was recovered from the phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the men killed, appears to have been filmed from inside a moving vehicle. It shows a red fire engine and clearly marked ambulances driving at night, using headlights and flashing emergency lig...

Events

2 w. ago Good Night, and Good Luck review – George Clooney’s Broadway debut never quite lands

Winter Garden Theatre, New YorkThe actor-director brings his 2005 drama to the stage, now playing the lead role, but while it’s timely and nicely staged, it feels stiffTime has been kind to Good Night, and Good Luck, George Clooney’s sincere dramatization of the broadcaster Edward R Murrow’s on-air tangles with Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. Sleek, slim and reverent, the 2005 film recalled a time of both cultural panic and promise, before American attention splintered and television’s road forked toward cable news. In its own era, the movie played in implicit contrast to mainstream media’s failure to interrogate the Bush administration’s dubious justifications for the Iraq war. In 2025, well now, as in 1953, the lies run rampant. But in Clooney’s stark black-and-white drama, truth prevails.Wouldn’t that be nice. The ongoing lurch away from due process casts both a haunting pall and a self-congratulatory glow over New York’s Winter Garden Theatre, where Clooney leads a profici...

Politics

3 w. ago Academy apologises for failure to back Palestinian Oscar winner over attack

Letter signed by 700 members offers support to Hamdan Ballal after initial statement had failed to name directorThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has apologised after criticism for its failure to support the detained Palestinian Oscar winner Hamdan Ballal.Almost 700 voting members, including multiple A-list actors, signed a letter apologising for not directly acknowledgingBallal and the film by name. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago ‘This is no isolated event’: attack on Palestinian director brings rising settler violence into focus

Activists fear unprecedented levels of violence, with the apparent backing of Israeli authorities, part of drive to force Palestinians out of the West BankIt was around 6pm, just after its Palestinian residents had finished their daily Ramadan fast, dozens of masked Israeli settlers, armed with batons, knives and assault rifles, entered the West Bank village of Susiya in the rural Masafer Yatta area of the south Hebron hills. Among them were a group of Israeli soldiers who escorted the settlers into the village where Hamdan Ballal, one of the four directors of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, lives.About three weeks after appearing on stage at the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles to accept the Oscar, Ballal has become the victim of the very violence shown in his film. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago From the Oscars to Israeli detention: the attack on No Other Land director Hamdan Ballal – podcast

What does the attack on an Oscar-winning Palestinian director say about the situation in the West Bank today? Adrian Horton and Lorenzo Tondo reportEarlier this month, No Other Land won the Oscar for best documentary feature. The film chronicles the West Bank community of Masafer Yatta as it resists being driven off its land by settler violence and the demolitions of the Israeli military. The film’s two protagonists, Palestinian film-maker Basel Adra and Israeli film-maker Yuval Abraham, gave speeches when they accepted their award.Yuval Abraham: “We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life There is a different path, a political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people.” Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago ‘I thought I was going to die’: director Hamdan Ballal recounts attack by settlers in West Bank

Exclusive: Filmmaker who won an Oscar earlier this month says Israeli settlers were aided by IDF soldiers who beat him with their riflesDuring an attack on Oscar-winning Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal on Monday, Israeli settlers were aided by two Israel Defense Forces soldiers who beat him with the butt of their rifles outside his home and threatened to kill him, the film-maker has said.In an interview with the Guardian, Ballal, one of the four directors of the film No Other Land, which documented the destruction of villages in the West Bank and won best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards, recounted how two Israeli soldiers first encircled him while a settler was assaulting him, before violently striking him on the head and threatening to shoot him. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago ‘It was revenge for our movie’: Oscar winner says soldiers helped settlers attack him in West Bank

Hamdan Ballal says Israeli soldiers beat him with their rifle butts and threatened to kill himThe Oscar-winning Palestinian film director Hamdan Ballal has said that during an attack on him Israeli settlers were aided by two Israeli soldiers who beat him with the butt of their rifles outside his home and threatened to kill him.In an interview with the Guardian, Ballal, one of the four directors of the film No Other Land, which documented the destruction of villages in the West Bank and won best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards, recounted how on Monday two Israeli soldiers first encircled him while a settler was assaulting him, before violently striking him on the head and threatening to shoot him. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago British father who saw family massacred by Hamas stands to receive £10.5 MILLION from Palestine Authority in landmark ruling

Rabbi Leo Dee, originally from London, lost his wife Leah and daughters Rina, 15, and Maia, 20, in April 2023, after a terrorist sprayed them with bullets in a drive-by attack.

Economics

4 w. ago ‘Like a punishment’: witnesses describe Israeli settler attack on No Other Land director

Activists from Center for Jewish Nonviolence say Israeli police ‘did not intervene’ in attack on Hamdan BallalIt was shortly after Palestinian residents had finished their daily Ramadan fast that dozens of masked Israeli settlers entered the West Bank village of Susiya, according to witnesses.Some of the settlers were armed with batons, others had knives and one of them was holding an M-16 rifle, the witnesses told the Guardian. Among them were a group of Israeli soldiers who escorted the settlers inside the village. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Israeli strike at Gaza hospital kills five including senior Hamas figure

Ismail Barhoum and medics die in attack, which Israel says was based on extensive intelligenceAn Israeli airstrike on Sunday night hit the largest hospital in southern Gaza, killing five people, including a Hamas political leader and Palestinian medics, the militant group has said, in an attack that wounded others, causing a large fire.The Gaza health ministry said the strike hit the surgery department at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said its attack followed extensive intelligence and used precise munitions to minimise harm at the site. Continue reading...

Events

4 w. ago Israeli strike at Gaza hospital kills five including Hamas political leader

Ismail Barhoum died in attack on Khan Younis, which Israel says followed extensive intelligenceAn Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza has killed five people, including a Hamas political leader and Palestinian medics, Hamas has said, in an attack Israel said had targeted a key figure in the militant group.The Gaza health ministry said the strike hit the surgery department at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said its attack followed extensive intelligence and used precise munitions to minimise harm at the site. Continue reading...

Politics