7 h. ago Repair Shop guest breaks down as gran’s Second World War diary is restored

A guest onThe Repair Shop broke down in tears after his grandmother’s diary from the Second World War was restored.

Events

4 d. ago Targeted by the right, Britain’s asylum hotels are places of fear and disorder. Bad political decisions made it so | Daniel Trilling

In the frenzy of racism and culture warring, the issue of why hotels are used gets overlookedA broad section of Britain’s right has spent the summer behaving as if it would like a repeat of last year’s racist riots. As politicians and commentators cry “tinderbox Britain” – are they warning us, or willing it on? – far-right extremists have been actively trying to stoke violence. This year, they have pinned their hopes on asylum hotels, an issue where public fears over crime, immigration and the welfare state conveniently converge.In some places, far-right activists have piggybacked on protests prompted by local grievances. The most significant this year was in Epping, Essex, after an alleged sexual assault by an asylum seeker led to demonstrations that turned violent when they were joined by members of various far-right groups. A similar pattern has unfolded in London’s Canary Wharf, after untrue rumours that some of the Epping hotel residents were being moved there. In other cases, ...

Events

4 d. ago ‘Restoring humanity’: Paris exhibition showcases 5,000 years of history in Gaza

Saved Treasures of Gaza aims to preserve territory’s historical identity against backdrop of war and famineAn exhibition tracing more than 5,000 years of cultural and archaeological history in Gaza has become a summer hit in Paris, as visitors flock to discover the heritage of this strip of land along the Mediterranean, whose multilayered past has been eclipsed by modern tragedy.While Gaza faces a humanitarian catastrophe of starvation and war, the exhibition, Saved Treasures of Gaza, at Paris’s Institut du Monde Arabe brings what curators called a sense of “urgency” to explain the rich history of a place that has been a crossroads of cultures since Neolithic times. Continue reading...

Culture

6 d. ago 'Worst film EVER!' Why War of The Worlds is being hated on with ZERO per cent rating

Prime Video’s ‘dreadful’ new HG Wells reboot stars Ice Cube and Eva Longoria, and is being dragged through the mud

Events

3 w. ago What the culture war over Superman gets wrong | Noel Ransome

Rightwing commentators are furious over the superhero’s positioning as an immigrant. But his story was crafted to cushion uneaseWe’ve entered the era of the superhero movie as sermon. No longer content with saving the world, spandex saviors are now being used to explain, moralize and therapize it. And a being from Krypton has shown up once again in a debate about real life; about borders, race and who gets to belong. Superman. Of all symbols.I’ve read reactionary thinkpieces, rage-filled quote tweets and screeds about the legal status of a fictional alien – enough to lose count. This particular episode of American Fragility kicked off because James Gunn had the audacity to call Superman “the story of America”. An immigrant, by definition, as he was always meant to be.Noel Ransome is a Toronto-based freelance writer Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Goethe immortalised the shaming of German women 200 years ago – we’re still at it | Fatma Aydemir

Abortion is criminalised and stigmatised – and now the right has found a new female scapegoat in its US-style war on bodily autonomyEvery nation has literary classics that shape its cultural identity. Germans have Faust, Goethe’s play about the successful but dissatisfied scientist Dr Heinrich Faust, who makes a deal with the devil. Faust has been performed, referenced and read in schools for more than two centuries now. Interestingly, the most tragic character in this tragedy is not the protagonist, but his “love interest”, Gretchen – a teenage girl groomed by the old man, impregnated and socially ostracised. Her solution? She drowns her “illegitimate” newborn child, accepts her death penalty and rejects Faust’s offer to save her from prison. In God’s mercy, the Christian girl seeks salvation and off goes Faust with the devil to new adventures in Faust, Part Two.What would Gretchen do today, I wonder. Her fate is not only a result of sexual abuse and an inherently misogynistic mora...

Politics

3 w. ago “This ‘us vs them’ mentality is exaggerated online”: London’s cycling chief says reckless, law

“This ‘us vs them’ mentality is exaggerated online”: London’s cycling chief says reckless, law-breaking cyclists and drivers are fuelling a toxic culture war  Road.cc

Politics

4 w. ago Superman shows we were all wrong about the blockbuster summer of 2025

James Gunn’s new film has shrugged off ‘superhero fatigue’ to become one of the biggest and brightest blockbusters of the year. When it comes to mainstream filmmaking, there’s a lot of doom-mongering – but Louis Chilton sees reasons to be cheerful

Politics