1 hour ago China applies to launch 200,000 satellites into space, sparking concerns they plan to build a 'mega

China has applied to launch almost 200,000 satellites into space, sparking concerns that the nation seeks to build a 'mega-constellation'.

Politics

1 hour ago When is a pothole actually a pothole? Not many know but here's 5 top tips to tackle them

Councils across the nation have different definitions of a pothole is

Politics

2 h. ago This famous London art gallery is hosting free yoga classes in its exhibition galleries

This famous London art gallery is hosting free yoga classes in its exhibition galleries  Time Out Worldwide

Politics

2 h. ago Should you stop saying ‘please’ in your ChatGPT prompts? An expert explains

The idea does sound plausible because AI systems process text incrementally

Politics

4 h. ago Andy Warhol would have hated safe spaces. So why keep dragging dead artists into today’s culture wars?

Critics and curators are reframing great artists, from Gentileschi to Soutine, to fit with modern ethical narratives. But this ignores the glorious ambivalence of their creationsOne rainy afternoon last winter, sitting under a blanket with a cup of tea, I found myself Googling paintings by Chaïm Soutine. It’s a pastime I’ve indulged ever since visiting an exhibition of his portraits of hotel staff on the French Riviera during the 1920s – paintings that combine such a mixture of tenderness and debasement that it’s as if his brush is kissing and beating his subjects at the same time.I flicked through images of hopelessly innocent cooks and bellboys, with complexions the colour of raw sausage and ears that look as if they have been brutally yanked. And as I did, I came across a review of the very show where I had first encountered Soutine’s works. Ah, I thought, looking forward to luxuriating in literature about his particular genius for kindly sadism. Continue reading...

Events

4 h. ago What’s in a club DNA? Alonso exit shows the only reliable predictors of success are wealth and good decisions | Jonathan Liew

Real Madrid and Manchester United put their faith in familiarity but the lesson of Ferguson is dynastic greatness rests not in tradition but ditching principles“It is all too easy to make mistaken inferences unless the process involved is already very well understood.” Francis Crick, molecular biologist“This club is about winning, winning and winning again. It’s in our DNA.” Álvaro Arbeloa Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago The world of today looks bad, but take hope: we’ve been here before and got through it – and we will again | Martin Kettle

As I write my last regular column for the Guardian, my thoughts turn to the lessons and hope we can take from historyFrom Greenland’s icy mountains, from India’s coral strand, as the old hymn has it, we seem to inhabit a world that is more seriously troubled in more places than many can ever remember. In the UK, national morale feels all but shot. Politics commands little faith. Ditto the media. The idea that, as a country, we still have enough in common to carry us through – the idea embedded in Britain’s once potent Churchillian myth – feels increasingly threadbare.Welcome, in short, to the Britain of the mid-1980s. That Britain often felt like a broken nation in a broken world, very much as Britain often does in the mid-2020s. The breakages were of course very different. And on one important level, misery is the river of the world. But, for those who can still recall them, the 1980s moods of crisis and uncertainty have things in common with those of today.Martin Kettle is a Guard...

Politics

6 h. ago Tate boss Maria Balshaw on why she’s leaving the biggest job in art after nine years

Balshaw, the organisation’s first ever woman director, is resigning on a ‘high note’, writes Annabel Nugent

Politics

7 h. ago Trump says he’s been assured Tehran has stopped killing protesters as Iran reopens its airspace – live

US president says ‘important sources’ also told him executions not going ahead as Iranian airspace reopens to flights after near-five-hour closureFull report: Iran protest killings have halted, Trump claims, as Tehran says executions are ‘out of the question’Iran crisis explained: what we know so farAnalysis: why western diplomats are wary of predicting regime’s end daysPodcast: Massacres and executions: what are we hearing from inside Iran?Moving for a moment to Australia, protesters have staged a rally outside the Iranian embassy in Canberra to demand regime change in Iran.About 100 demonstrators chanted “democracy for Iran” and “King Reza Pahlavi”, a reference to the last Iranian shah’s exiled son – a key figure in the anti-government protests.I don’t want Iran to be indentured to any foreign nation the moment anybody interferes. But if it means saving one life for it, we want a measured response that we can have this bloodshed ended. Continue reading...

Events

7 h. ago The pub that changed me: ‘The barman banned me – no process, no second chances, no appeal’

The world’s largest Wetherspoon’s has seal-spotting views, a green leather banquette and a grand central staircase. I would do anything for that pub, so imagine my surprise when I was given my marching ordersIn the most prime imaginable bit of Ramsgate beach real estate, right on the sand, stands a handsome, turn-of-the-last-century building that had claimed for the longest amount of time, some years in neon, to be a casino. I’d never been allowed in as a kid. Then in the 90s it was leaning towards defunct, by the 00s it looked a bit haunted, then there was a fire, and wham, 2017, it turned into a Spoons. It had been trailed for a few months ahead, and I’d sworn off it; the living nightmare that was Brexit was only a few months old and Wetherspoon’s Tim Martin was one of its most gracelessly triumphant fuglemen. He could keep his (incredibly cheap) pints and his (superhumanly fast) nuggets. Continue reading...

Events

9 h. ago Britain's stupidest criminal? Burglar who FILMED himself preparing for raids and brandishing stolen cash is jailed along with his whole gang 

Masked thief Hamza Ghafoor brazenly recorded himself gearing up for break-ins, cruising at the wheel of a luxury car and flaunting stacks of cash.

Events

9 h. ago ‘Dangerous’ pipe bombs found detonated on Canberra footpaths, police say

Police believe no one hurt but urge public not to pick up explosive devices and say more may be foundFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastNearly a dozen pipe bombs, some of them already detonated, have been found on footpaths and in parks in the nation’s capital, sparking a major police investigation and warnings not to touch the potentially explosive items.ACT police Det Acting Insp Anna Wronski could not say where the pipe bombs came from or who was behind them, but said the matter was being taken extremely seriously. Continue reading...

Events

11 h. ago Iran closes airspace as state television sends Trump 'bullet won't miss' threat

Iran has shut its airspace following escalating tensions with the United States, as anti-government demonstrations continue to rage across the Middle Eastern nation

Politics

12 h. ago Churchill’s desk and rare artwork among items donated to UK cultural institutions

Items worth £59.7m allocated to museums, galleries, libraries and archives as part of Arts Council England schemeWinston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli’s desk, a painting by Vanessa Bell and a rare artwork by Edgar Degas are among the items of cultural importance saved for the nation this year.The items, worth a total of £59.7m, will be allocated to museums, galleries, libraries and archives around the UK as part of Art Council England’s cultural gifts and acceptance in lieu schemes. Continue reading...

Politics

13 h. ago Greenland tells Trump 'you can't own us' as summit ends in disaster

Following the tense diplomatic gettogether, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said the prospect of the US acquiring Greenland is "absolutely not necessary".

Politics

15 h. ago UK withdraws staff from embassy in Iran as thousands killed in protests

At least 2,500 people are believed to have been killed in the biggest protests in the nation for years

Events

15 h. ago East Kilbride Arts Centre hosts free exhibition by Robert Hair Miller

He said: “This exhibition is really to show I have many interests in the art world, although portraiture will always be top of my list.

Politics

17 h. ago Venezuela regime claims release of political prisoners is sign of new era

NGOs estimate that there are still close to 1,000 political prisoners in Venezuela despite claims by new leadersVenezuela’s acting president has claimed that the regime’s release of political prisoners sent a “very clear message” that the country was “opening up to a new political moment”, days after the seizure and rendition of the dictator Nicolás Maduro.Delcy Rodríguez also vowed to continue the releases and accused NGOs that have described the process as slow and opaque of “lying to the world and trying to sell falsehoods about Venezuela”. Continue reading...

Events

17 h. ago Sheku Bayoh family call for inquiry to get back on track as new chair appointed

The family of Sheku Bayoh say it is “time to restart the stopwatch” after Lord Colbeck was appointed chair of the long-running public inquiry into his death, urging a swift timetable to bring the process to a conclusion.

Society

17 h. ago Ariana Grande to make London stage debut alongside Jonathan Bailey in Sunday in the Park With George

The singer will reunite with her Wicked co-star in a revival of the musical inspired by artist Georges Seurat in summer 2027Wicked co-stars Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey are to reunite on stage in Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park With George. The production, hotly rumoured and finally announced on Wednesday, will run at the Barbican Centre, London, in summer 2027.Sunday in the Park With George, which has a book by Sondheim’s long-term collaborator James Lapine, is a tale of two artists. One is inspired by the pointillist Georges Seurat and the other is the character’s great-grandson. On Wednesday, Bailey and Grande shared a photo on Instagram of them sitting in front of the Seurat painting that inspired the production, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which is on display in the Art Institute of Chicago. Continue reading...

Politics