Donald Trump’s Hollywood ambassadors, including actor Jon Voight, joined labor unions and major studios in asking the US president to expand and extend tax incentives for film and television productions. In a letter addressed to Trump on Sunday, the studios and unions did not mention his threat to introduce 100% tariffs on films made abroad,…
Outside the southern district courthouse in Manhattan, at least a hundred members of the media gathered on Monday as the high-profile racketeering and sex-trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs begins. Passersby could see dozens of cameras and crew members; perhaps surprisingly, there were few, if any, demonstrations or protests. Rows of cameras in front of…
A British national arrested in Saudi Arabia on charges that appear to relate to a deleted tweet has been jailed for 10 years, according to British lawyers and campaign groups representing the family. Ahmed al-Doush was arrested in August and, while it is understood that UK Foreign Office officials were allowed into the Saudi court…
Gavin Newsom has called on California cities and counties to clear and effectively ban encampments “without delay” as the governor intensifies a crackdown on homelessness in the state. Newsom on Monday announced a new model ordinance to address “persistent” camps, in hopes of reducing the most visible signs of a worsening crisis, as well as…
Police are investigating after a fire broke out at a home owned by Keir Starmer in north London in the early hours of Monday morning. London fire brigade attended the property after the fire was reported shortly after 1.30am on Monday. The door to the property was damaged but nobody was hurt. Starmer, who resides…
Koyo Kouoh, the groundbreaking Swiss-Cameroonian curator who was to become the first African woman to head up the Venice Biennale, died suddenly on Saturday, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa announced. “It is with profound sorrow that the trustees of Zeitz MOCAA announce the sudden passing of Koyo Kouoh, our beloved executive director and…
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has invited Pope Leo XIV to Ukraine as the new pontiff urged journalists to end a polarising “war on words”. In a post on Telegram on Monday, the Ukrainian president revealed he had spoken to Leo, the first North American leader of the Roman Catholic church, as the new pontiff was finishing a…
A Kurdish militant group whose attacks and insurgency against Turkey have spanned more than four decades has declared it will disarm and disband, after a call from its jailed leader earlier this year. The Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) announced the decision to dissolve its guerrilla forces, heeding a watershed announcement from Abdullah Öcalan three months…
The UK risks becoming an “island of strangers” without tougher controls on who enters the country, Keir Starmer has said, as he unveiled a set of policies meant to significantly drive down net migration. The prime minister said his government would “take back control of our borders” and close the book on a “squalid chapter”…
A legal campaign group is planning a judicial review against the UK government’s new planning bill, arguing it will result in a weakening of environmental protections which were fought for and created over decades. Wild Justice is calling on the housing minister, Angela Rayner, to correct a parliamentary statement in which she told MPs the…
