Judge says Gaiyathiri Murugayan was mentally ill but understood what she was doing in abusing Piang Ngaih Don from MyanmarSingapore’s high court has sentenced a woman to 30 years in prison for killing her Burmese maid after more than a year of abuse that included starving, torture and beatings.Singaporean Gaiyathiri Murugayan pleaded guilty in February to culpable homicide among 28 charges related to her abuse of Piang Ngaih Don, who was 24 and subjected to 14 months of beating that culminated in her death in 2016. Continue reading...

Notices appear on Iran-affiliated sites saying they had been seized as part of law enforcement actionUS authorities have seized a range of Iran’s state-linked news websites, which they accused of spreading “disinformation” on Tuesday, a US official said, a move that appeared to be a far-reaching crackdown on Iranian media amid heightened tensions between the two countries.The US government official, who spoke on Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the case had not yet been officially announced, said the US had effectively taken down roughly three dozen websites, the majority linked to Iranian disinformation efforts. Continue reading...

NSW Health confirmed a case had flown between Sydney and Wellington and issued alerts for several flights

More than anything, it was a night when Gareth Southgate needed his attacking talents to express themselves. Safe passage to the last 16 at Euro 2020 had been guaranteed but could England show something to generate a bit of excitement, to fire the feeling that they might be able to cut through teams – a quality that had been wholly absent last Friday in the 0-0 draw with Scotland? Thanks in large part to Jack Grealish and Bukayo Saka, who both came into the starting lineup for the first time at these finals, they did so during an enjoyable first half when England asked questions of the Czech Republic with their movement and interplay.Related: Bukayo Saka’s versatility has Czechs flailing and England flying | Jonathan Liew Continue reading...

South African soprano Pretty Yende, due to star in Bellini opera, given French visa after strip searchThe South African opera star Pretty Yende has accused French immigration authorities of “outrageous racial discrimination” after being detained, strip searched and held in a dark room at Paris’ main airport.“Police brutality is real for someone who looks like me,” Yende, who is black, said in a social media post on Tuesday, a day after the encounter at the Charles de Gaulle airport. Continue reading...

• Carlos Fernando Chamorro: ‘They won’t silence journalism’• Chamorro’s sister among 19 jailed in pre-election crackdownNicaragua’s most prominent journalist has fled the country for a second time after police raided his house during a widening crackdown on opposition figures by the country’s Sandinista rulers.Carlos Fernando Chamorro, the editor of the Confidencial website and a member of one of the country’s most influential political families, said on Tuesday he had left the Central American country to “safeguard his freedom”. Continue reading...

Navy document, obtained by the Intercept, lists political philosophy alongside anarchists and neo-NazisA US military training document has described the political philosophy of socialism – a relatively mainstream term in politics around the world – as a “terrorist ideology” akin to neo-Nazism.The document, which was obtained by The Intercept news website, was used in the US navy. It was entitled: Introduction to Terrorism/Terrorist Operations, and aimed at some members of the navy’s internal police, the outlet reported. Continue reading...

The UK’s chief negotiator with the EU did his best to prove why he isn’t really up to the jobYou win some, you lose some. We’re still nowhere near finding out if the government has a coherent plan for tackling social care – only late on Monday the prime minister cancelled a meeting with Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock due to take place on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the issue. So we can probably assume not. But we are a little better informed as to why the negotiations with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol have started to unravel badly. And that’s because every time he speaks, the UK’s lead Brexit negotiator, David Frost, doesn’t seem to be quite as bright as he would like us all to believe.Tuesday’s appearance before the foreign affairs select committee was a case in point. Having established his credentials as being rather more important than a minister for Europe, Lord Frost then did his best to prove why he wasn’t really up to the job. He got off to a bad start by saying that the decision not to fully accredit the EU ambassador to the UK had been “over-interpreted” and that petty point scoring had been the last thing on the government’s mind. For some reason, the EU had seen it differently and taken offence. Continue reading...

Five years on from the referendum, few voters have seen the benefits of leaving the EU. What if they become impatient?Doesn’t time fly? Five years ago we were going to the ballot box to cast our votes in the EU referendum. Now we are approaching 18 months since the UK ceased to be a member state. The transition period ended six months ago, yet, as the latest Ipsos Mori survey indicates, most of the British public still don’t think Brexit is over.Overall, more than two in five think there are still “many important issues to finalise” and “lots more negotiations” to come, with a further one in four saying there are still “some important areas left to decide”. Even among leave voters, only one in five think the future relationship is “mostly decided and will hardly change”. They have a point. The full implications of the decision to leave the European Union have yet to be felt. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison’s free trade agreement with the UK is a win for the Nationals, but the return of coal-loving Barnaby presents a new challenge for the PMOn Monday morning, we saw one of those organic redirections that sometimes happen in politics. If the Nationals hadn’t lunged to take out their leader Michael McCormack, another story about Scott Morrison and an undeclared pilgrimage in Cornwall to engage with his convict ancestry would have dominated the day.If you missed this story in the melee, a quick recap. On Monday, the London correspondent for Nine newspapers, Bevan Shields, reported that Morrison had last week embarked on an undeclared pilgrimage to St Keverne, a small village 45 minutes south of the G7 summit site in Cornwall, to explore his family’s convict past. This ancestry dot com sortie was undertaken minus the travelling press. Continue reading...

Nicola Sturgeon also said move to level 0 will happen on 19 July, with limits on gatherings eased

Dominic Raab due to hold talks with Prak Sokhonn as part of efforts to expand diplomatic and trade ties in south-east AsiaHuman rights groups have called on the British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, to intervene over the detention of three young environmental activists when he meets Cambodian leaders on Wednesday in efforts to build trade ties between the two countries.The activists, who were arrested at the weekend, face up to 10 years in jail for insulting the Cambodian king. Their case has been raised by environmental activist Greta Thunberg and NGO groups in the country. Continue reading...

Allowing processed animal protein feed for pigs and poultry, barred since BSE crisis, will address non-EU competition, says CommissionA ban on farm feed made of animal remains introduced during the BSE crisis is to be lifted in the EU to allow cheap pig protein to be fed to chickens over fears that European farmers are being undercut by lower standards elsewhere.The change to the regulations come into force in August following a last-ditch attempt by a coalition of MEPs, led by the Greens, which failed on Tuesday to kill the policy. The EU’s member states have already endorsed the regulation, with only France and Ireland abstaining. Continue reading...

Carmarker claims Switzerland’s Nebula Project did not pay customer deposits for orders of sports carAston Martin Lagonda is suing Swiss car dealer Nebula Project and its board members, accusing it of failing to pay customer deposits it had accepted for orders of its £2.5m Valkyrie sports car.The luxury carmarker, best known for making James Bond’s vehicles, said it was filing criminal and civil proceedings in Switzerland, where it is asking the prosecutor to investigate. Continue reading...

Despite comments he made in the past, the director’s production company Amblin has signed a multi-picture deal with the streaming giant. Should cinephiles be worried?Did another citadel just fall? Has another general just presented his sword in surrender? Steven Spielberg’s production company Amblin has signed a deal to produce multiple features a year for the streaming behemoth Netflix – which is precisely that small-screen player that Spielberg seemed to be rebuking two years ago when he proclaimed the importance of the theatrical experience and implied digital streaming content should not be eligible for Oscars. (Spielberg has since disputed the way his words were reported and interpreted.)Well, now Spielberg has joined that other celluloid master, Martin Scorsese, in taking the Netflix dollar. Of course, this is not an exclusive deal: Amblin still has relationships with other studios, including Universal, and its own producing remit, after all, is for both film and television. It is also the case that Spielberg himself, though credited as a producer on them all, may not actually direct any of the films that are earmarked for Netflix. But it is still a mighty name for Netflix to have in the bag, and his prestige and the attendant coverage are still hugely important for the big streaming service, which is hyper-vigilant in its guarding against any slowing of momentum in subscription growth. We are, arguably, another step closer to the theatrical experience being just another aspect of the content rollout – a luxury loss-leader or promotional event, perhaps, while the main action involves consuming movies on laptops, tablets and even phones. Or are we approaching a postmodern cinema, which is a new version of its nickelodeon beginnings: watching flickering images once again on a tiny screen? Continue reading...

Local police unit says influx of visitors has coincided with ‘signs of urban degradation’Venice has missed tourists – but not their bad habits. In an echo of the pre-pandemic era, authorities have been cracking down on uncouth behaviour as visitors flock back to the lagoon city. A French tourist was fined €150 (£128) after paddling along the Grand Canal on his standup paddleboard and two German women had to each pay €250 for sunbathing in bikinis by San Stae church.Venice’s local police unit said the return of tourists had coincided with “signs of urban degradation”. They also reprimanded two tourists from the Czech Republic – one for speeding through Campiello Selvatico on a bike and the other for whizzing past Palazzo Cavalli on an electric scooter. Each received fines of €100. Continue reading...

Lighting display planned for Germany’s Euro 2020 match with Hungary to protest at country’s discriminatory lawMunich’s mayor has attacked the “shameful” decision by Uefa to quash his city’s plans to illuminate its Allianz Arena in rainbow colours in support of LGBTQ+ rights for Germany’s Euro 2020 match against Hungary on Wednesday.European football’s governing body said the rainbow lights would contravene its rules about political and religious neutrality. Continue reading...

Radu Ciorniciuc directs a beautifully measured portrait of a Romanian family forcibly removed from their wilderness homeThere’s a strong streak of paradise-lost romanticism in this Romanian documentary, directed by undercover reporter Radu Ciorniciuc and filmed over several years. At first it looks like a straightforward parable about rebellious free spirits pushed out of their natural idyll by interfering bureaucrats and consigned to misery in the city, but as events progress things (perhaps inevitably) become more complex, with contending pressures and motivations that emerge as time passes. The ostensible subject is Gica Enache, a former lab assistant who, for reasons that are not entirely clear, moved his family into an overgrown wasteland on the edge of Bucharest, abandoned after the collapse of Ceaușescu’s government, an area that has since become the Văcărești nature park.Enache’s kids – nine of them seen here, though at one point someone says there are 20 – run wild: catching fish, chasing birds, messing about with dogs. (In some ways, it’s the dream off-grid lifestyle for device-addled western parenting.) But when the authorities finally take notice of the wilderness and send in the park rangers, the family is forcibly removed from their shack and sent to live in the big city next door. Gica, the paterfamilias, has a bolshie side that presents (at first) as a kind of admirably doomed anti-authoritarianism; but at night, it turns into sinister, booze-fuelled rantings. (Civil society also comes in helpful when he has to get treatment for his diabetes.) Adjustment to city life is painful: the children are basically illiterate, there are repeated brushes with the law (including a disturbing scene where one of the kids is basically assaulted on camera by a policeman), and much of the younger kids’ time appears to be spent dumpster diving for plastic bottles. Continue reading...

Sadiq Khan says work will begin soon on connecting busiest underground stations for end of next yearLondon underground passengers will soon be able to use their phones in the depths of every tube station and tunnel, the mayor has pledged, with mobile coverage throughout the network by the end of 2024.Transport for London (TfL) said work to prepare some of the capital’s busiest stations, including Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road and Bank, would begin soon, and they would be among the first fully connected stations by the end of next year. Continue reading...

Prime minister says controversial decision represents constitution’s ‘spirit of co-existence and harmony’Spain’s prime minister has called for a new “era of dialogue and understanding” as his Socialist-led government pardoned nine Catalan independence leaders for their roles in the illegal, failed push for regional secession four years ago that plunged the country into its gravest political crisis in decades.Announcing the partial, and bitterly controversial, pardons on Tuesday, Pedro Sánchez said the decision had been taken in the interests of national unity and social cohesion. Continue reading...

More than 2bn Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide. Find out which countries are vaccinating the most

She used to worry about ‘not making enough to pay the rent’. But with a solo show, a commission to make UK’s first Windrush monument and an OBE, the artist has stepped out of the shadows

Westminster MP only person to be put forward after resignation of Edwin PootsSir Jeffrey Donaldson is to become the new leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) after he was the only candidate put forward to succeed Edwin Poots.Nominations closed on Tuesday with nobody else declaring, paving the way for Donaldson to be crowned leader of Northern Ireland’s biggest party later this week or next. He will be the party’s third leader in three months. Continue reading...

Babis Anagnostopoulos claimed for a month that Caroline Crouch died in robberyDramatic scenes unfolded at Athens’ court complex as the pilot who has confessed to killing his British wife in a crime that has riveted the country was brought to testify before a magistrate now handling the case.As Babis Anagnostopoulos was hurried into the building by police from Greece’s anti-terrorist unit, in handcuffs and a bulletproof vest, it was to chants of abuse from irate onlookers who had gathered outside the complex. “Rot in prison, you monster,” one man screamed. Continue reading...

Deputy minister for climate change will announce move as part of plans to reach net zero emissions by 2050The Labour-led Welsh government is to freeze new road-building projects as part of its plans to tackle the climate emergency, and an external panel will review all proposed schemes.The deputy minister for climate change, Lee Waters, is to tell the Welsh parliament on Tuesday afternoon: “Since 1990, Welsh emissions have fallen by 31%. But to reach our statutory target of net zero emissions by 2050, we need to do much more. Continue reading...

Rights activists say country has built one of world’s most far-ranging systems of forced disappearanceChina has ramped up its use of secret detention without trial, creating one of the most far-ranging systems of forced disappearance in the world, human rights activists warn in a report.Tens of thousands of people have been subjected to “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL), an anodyne, bureaucratic name for an Orwellian system, the group Safeguard Defenders said in the report, Locked Up. Continue reading...

Authorities deny reports that inmates were beaten after a 10-day sit-in over concerns about virus spread and lack of medical careIn early April, inmates at Bahrain’s Jau prison crowded into the corridors to protest. They were angry about a lack of medical treatment and fearing for their lives after the death of another inmate. Their sit-in at building 13 lasted 10 days, and spread to other blocks in Jau, an infamous prison complex in the south of the kingdom.Inmates claim authorities regularly delay or deny vital medical care to prisoners – especially prisoners of conscience. The concern has grown since late March when Covid-19 began to tear through the prison system. Prisoners and rights groups claim authorities failed to prevent the outbreak and have denied some inmates their choice of vaccine. Continue reading...

Removal of political secretary in face of MPs’ criticism is latest step in reshuffle of Labour’s top teamKeir Starmer’s closest aide, Jenny Chapman, is to be removed from her role as political secretary after significant criticism from MPs, but will move into the shadow cabinet taking responsibility for Brexit.Chapman’s departure is another major change to Starmer’s top team and follows a sideways move for Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and the departure of his two most senior communications staff, Ben Nunn and Paul Ovenden. Continue reading...

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to jail people who refuse to be vaccinated against the coronavirus as the country battles one of Asia’s worst outbreaks, with a cumulative total of more than 1.3 million cases and 23,000 deaths.“You choose, get vaccinated or I will have you jailed,” Duterte said in a televised address on Monday following reports of low turnouts at several vaccination sites in the capital Manila.

The opposition responds to Foster review undertaken by Scott Morrison’s department following the Brittany Higgins furoreLabor says a new independent complaints mechanism to be established for federal parliamentary staff in the wake of the Brittany Higgins furore needs a broader remit so it can retrospectively investigate serious incidents.The opposition has responded to the main recommendations of the Foster review undertaken by a deputy secretary in Scott Morrison’s department after the Higgins rape allegation became public. Continue reading...

Special report details instances of excessive force, inappropriate strip-searches, smuggled contraband and guards accepting bribesThe rapid growth of the Victorian prison population and poor workplace culture in prisons has led to “significant corruption risks”, a damning report into Victoria’s corrective services has found.A special report released by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac) on Tuesday detailed accounts of excessive use of force by prison guards, inappropriate strip-searching, relationships between prison officers and inmates, smuggling of contraband, and prison guards accepting thousands of dollars in bribes. Continue reading...

As party girl Marissa in The OC, Barton found fame at a time when young female stars were being hounded by the press. She talks about strength, resilience and her battle against revenge pornFor some actors, the roles they have played stick to them like shadows, long after they should have been left behind. Just ask Mischa Barton. It is 15 years since she starred as Marissa Cooper in the teen drama The OC, and yet still she can’t shake her off. When Barton appeared in the reality show The Hills in 2019 – inspired by The OC’s privileged young Californians but featuring real-life people – she was supposed to be herself, but the producers expected Cooper. “It is the constant mistake,” she says wryly. “They were even calling me by my character name. Seriously? Like, this far down the line they can’t get my name right?”The parallels, though, are irresistible. Marissa was a troubled party girl with a love of fashion who met a tragic end. Mischa (even their names are similar) was also a troubled party girl with a love of fashion, whose life at times seemed out of control. There was the extreme fame, the breakdown, the reported threats of suicide, estrangement from her parents and a “revenge porn” court case. Barton has weathered it all with a sense of humour and now, at 35, a bit of perspective. Continue reading...

This special film follows a journalist and a theatre-maker as they attempt to reframe their national identity on stage, even as the project threatens their long friendshipCinema is often connected to dreams and triumphs, and yet failure can make for a far more arresting subject. This astonishing documentary both demythologises the creative process and captures a tortuous artistic collaboration full of human messiness and complexity.With an evocative opening image of a man paddling a small boat towards the shore, Sing, Freetown is about returning, both physically and metaphorically. The image recalls the history of Sierra Leone as a territory where liberated Africans resettled after the slave trade was outlawed. Bafta- and Emmy-winning journalist Sorious Samura is also on his own odyssey. Weary of reporting on the poverty and civil unrest in Africa, Samura has come back to Sierra Leone, his homeland, to create a theatre piece that is positive about the nation’s pride and its rich history. Joining him is Charlie Haffner, Samura’s friend, mentor and founding figure of modern Sierra Leonean theatre. The pair encounter funding difficulties and resistance from the government. These are to be expected; what they do not predict is how the project would irretrievably puncture their relationship. Continue reading...

A new exhibition shines a light on the female creatives and managers who helped turn the home of Joy Division and New Order into a three decade-long powerhouseFrom its figurehead Tony Wilson through to the male-dominated bands that found fame on the label, Factory Records is sometimes seen as the epitome of a muso lad fest. But a new exhibition at Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum is having a go at changing all that, casting welcome light on the women who were integral not only to Factory’s birth but its three decade-long survival.Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...

Singer says she was unaware of the meaning of the offensive word at the time, did not mean to cause offence, and the prospect of causing people hurt ‘absolutely breaks my heart’Billie Eilish has apologised after a video surfaced appearing to show her mouthing a racist slur.The Grammy-winning pop star, 19, shared a lengthy statement to Instagram Stories, writing that she was “appalled and embarrassed” by the clip. Continue reading...

Carrie Lam denies arrest of senior editorial figures at pro-democracy paper and seizure of its assets was an attack on press freedomHong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, has refused to clarify how journalists can avoid breaking the vaguely defined national security law following the raid and prosecution of journalists at a pro-democracy newspaper.At a regular press conference on Tuesday the city’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, defended the arrest of senior Apple Daily executives under the national security law (NSL) – two of whom have been charged with conspiracy to commit collusion with a foreign country – as well as the raid of its newsroom and freezing of assets. Continue reading...

Prime minister says controversial decision opposed by many Spaniards will ‘open path to reconciliation’Spain’s socialist-led government will on Tuesday approve the deeply controversial pardons of the nine Catalan independence leaders who were jailed over their roles in the illegal, failed attempt to secede from the rest of the country in October 2017.The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has acknowledged that the decision will anger many Spaniards, but insists the act of clemency is the best way to bring the country back together and to help find a political solution to the enduring territorial crisis. Continue reading...

Man, 62, held in south London police station after footage shared online showed reporter being harassedPolice have arrested a second man on suspicion of harassing the BBC journalist Nick Watt after footage emerged online last week of the political editor being confronted and chased by a group of protesters.The Metropolitan police said a 62-year-old man was being held in custody in a south London police station on suspicion of an offence under section 4a of the Public Order Act, which covers using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards another person with the intention to cause them harassment, alarm or distress. Continue reading...

Estimated UK cut of $900m offsets increases by others nations, according to annual Global Humanitarian Assistance ReportInternational humanitarian spending by public donors dropped by $284m (£204m) between 2019 and 2020, and UK the government cut its humanitarian funding by the most of any major western country, according to a new report from the independent Development Initiatives has found.Its annual Global Humanitarian Assistance Report is regarded as one of the best sources for objective statistics on aid trends and humanitarian needs, and the report highlights the extraordinary pressure now being placed on UN-coordinated humanitarian appeals.The total UK cut – put at $900m – offsets increases by others. Humanitarian assistance can be both multilateral or bilateral, but does not cover all overseas aid designed to provide long-term resilience. The UK has cut its large aid budget due to an unprecedented cut in the size of the economy and priority given to dealing with the impact of Covid in the UK. Continue reading...

Ten years since the Arab spring rocked Egypt and removed its president, the country is still detaining human rights workers and locking up political prisoners. Karim Ennarah, a human rights worker for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, was at a beach resort in South Sinai when he was arrested and accused of joining a terrorist group and ‘spreading false news’. He tells Anushka Asthana his arrest was only the beginning of his separation from his British wifeThis episode was first aired on our global news podcast Today in Focus Continue reading...

Poll finds 59% believe Australia needs to follow the lead of other countries and make action a priorityA majority of voters fear Australia will be left behind unless the Morrison government follows the lead of other countries in prioritising serious action to combat global heating, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.The findings from the fortnightly survey of 1,087 respondents come as Barnaby Joyce deposed Michael McCormack and returned to lead the National party after a week where senior Nationals expressed open hostility about the government adopting a net zero emissions target by 2050. Scott Morrison says achieving net zero as soon as possible is Australia’s preference. Continue reading...

Hungarian-born Zsolt Balla speaks of his ‘historic responsibility’ to serve Jewish soldiersThe German army has installed its first rabbi as a religious counsellor in 100 years, in a symbol of the renewal of Jewish life decades after the Holocaust.Priests and pastors are already providing religious services to the estimated 94,000 Christians in the military. Continue reading...

Former aide says in Substack Q&A that No 10 is now ‘just a branch of the entertainment industry’Downing Street under Boris Johnson is “a branch of the entertainment industry” and nothing will get done in terms of serious policy focus until he leaves, Dominic Cummings has said in his latest blast at his former boss.In a question and answer session with paid subscribers to his Substack newsletter, Johnson’s former chief adviser described the prime minister as “a pundit who stumbled into politics and acts like that 99% of the time”. Continue reading...

At a Tribeca film festival event, the director and his star Robert De Niro discussed the legacy of the greatest boxing movie ever madeIn Martin Scorsese’s 1980 magnum opus, Raging Bull, the self-destructive boxer Jake LaMotta goes from the greatest to a washed-up parody of himself, clinging to his memories of the good ol’ days. For the director and star Robert De Niro, looking back on the film from the present day could have been tempting fate, a couple of ageing men reminiscing about their younger years via a movie illustrating the hazards of just that.At this year’s closing night for De Niro’s own Tribeca film festival, during an hour-long pre-recorded conversation that preceded the evening’s screening, there was a slight hint of the rueful in the way he and dear pal “Marty” discussed the experience with emcee Leonardo DiCaprio. “Our way of making movies went down,” Scorsese proclaimed, citing the massive financial failure of the pricy Heaven’s Gate that same year as a sign that the party was over for creative talents in search of studio carte blanche. “The kind of thing we were doing was too much trouble for, ah, what they would reap from it.” De Niro clarified: “Money.” Continue reading...

Justice minister tells people to focus on facts after discovery of corporal’s body in woods near Dutch borderBelgium’s justice minister has appealed to the public to ignore conspiracy theories around the death of Jürgen Conings, the heavily armed soldier whose body was discovered on Sunday a month after he went missing, threatening to kill a high-profile virologist.Vincent van Quickenborne said he hoped people would focus on the facts of the case following the discovery of the 46-year-old corporal’s body in the Dilserbos woods in the municipality of Dilsen-Stokkem near the Dutch border. Continue reading...

Some of you went classic rock; others Iranian ambient. And yet others took on epic challenges that will take years to complete … here’s what you’ve been listening to while working under lockdownIf I need to concentrate on something really thorny, I go for Bach every time. It seems to allow my brain to work at a high level and I do almost all my best work to Bach. András Schiff or Angela Hewitt playing keyboard works, and Hilary Hahn on violin. Beethoven’s late quartets and Schubert lieder are good for deep thought. If I’m just doing low-level stuff, then Radio Paradise is my go-to – it’s a commercial-free internet station, which I like because it mixes a lot of stuff I know from my younger days with music that I’m less familiar with. Edward Collier, software developer, Cheltenham Continue reading...

Princess, who was seized trying to flee the sheikhdom in 2018, has appeared in several social media posts in recent monthsA Dubai princess who has been the subject of concern from a United Nations panel after being seized trying to flee the sheikhdom in 2018 has appeared in a social media post that described her as being in Spain on a “European holiday”.An image published on an Instagram account belonging to former Royal Navy member Sioned Taylor appears to shows Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum at Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas airport. Continue reading...