Notting Hill carnival to go ahead this year after £1m funding boost

Cash will pay for extra measures to address ‘critical public safety concerns’ identified in independent review of festival Notting Hill carnival will go ahead this year after almost £1m of funding was raised to provide extra safety and infrastructure measures.City Hall, Kensington and Chelsea council and Westminster city council together provided £958,000 for the event following pleas from organisers for support, after a review recommended several changes to make the event safe.The chair of Notting Hill Carnival Ltd, Ian Comfort, who had appealed to the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, for additional support, said the event’s future was secured just in time.The event always takes place over the August bank holiday weekend – which this year runs from Saturday 23 August to Monday 25 August.“Although this support comes just weeks before the event, it is a much-needed and welcome commitment,” Comfort said

Jon Stewart on Trump’s sweeping bill: ‘What is Ice going to do when they have real money?’

Late-night hosts delve into Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and consider his UFC proposal for next Independence Day.Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show following the Fourth of July holiday in the US, during which Congress and Trump passed the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”. The legislation will, among other things, cut $930bn from the Medicaid budget, thus putting 11 million at risk of losing their health insurance, end Biden-era green energy credits and cut funding for 3 million kids’ school lunches.“It’s a lot of painful cuts on a lot of vulnerable populations,” Stewart summarized on Monday’s Daily Show. “But, to be fair, at least America will finally make a dent on the deficit

Is Possession about a harrowing divorce or a woman with an octopus kink? Why not both?

Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession is genuinely unhinged and utterly unforgettable. Żuławski called it “a very true-to-life autobiographical story”, which it is: when he made it in 1981, his own marriage had just collapsed, and as portraits of divorce go, Possession is a pretty spectacular one. But Żuławski also once described Possession as a film about a woman who “fucks with an octopus”, which it is too.A co-production between France and West Germany that was shot in West Berlin by a Polish director, Possession opens as Mark (Sam Neill), a spy, returns home and finds that his wife, Anna (Isabelle Adjani), wants a divorce. She’s having an affair, she reveals, ostensibly with Heinrich (Heinz Bennent) – exactly the kind of lofty weirdo you’d hate your wife to dump you for

Bayeux tapestry to return to Britain for first time in 900 years

The Bayeux tapestry will return to the UK for the first time in more than 900 years as part of a landmark loan agreement by Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron.The 70-metre embroidered cloth depicts the 1066 Norman invasion and Battle of Hastings, in which William the Conquerer took the English throne from Harold Godwinson and become the first Norman king of England.It will go on display at the British Museum from September next year, in exchange for the Anglo-Saxon treasures of the Sutton Hoo ship burial, the Lewis chessmen and other treasures.The loan is to be officially announced during the French president’s state visit on Wednesday at the British Museum, which has been closed to the public for the day. A blockbuster exhibition offering the chance to see the tapestry up close for the first time on UK soil since its creation is also expected to boost London’s visitor economy

The Guide #198: Finally, Superman meets his match

As comic book movies go, the Superman reboot is a biggie. It’s the first film from DC Studios, created by Warner Bros in 2022 in an attempt finally to rival Marvel. And it marks the start of the newly rebooted DC Universe, which has seen studio heads James Gunn and Peter Safran merrily culling storylines, cancelling projects, and recasting characters (to much online frothing).So why am I struggling to care? Is it the Russian-doll rebooting? Is it franchise fatigue? No, it’s Superman! The dullest hero of them all! Too good to be interesting, too strong to be truly fallible and definitely too Boy Scouty to be funny, I’ve always found him a less exciting prospect than other supers.But Gunn, who wrote and directed the film, seems to have a plan to make Superman less of a snooze

‘The army were on the streets – and we were bored’: Stiff Little Fingers on making Alternative Ulster

‘There wasn’t time to sit down and discuss politics and the future of the world, or your aims and aspirations. You just did stuff’I was approached by Gavin Martin, who ran a fanzine called Alternative Ulster. He wanted to put a flexi-disc on the cover and said: “Can we use Suspect Device?” That was going to be Still Little Fingers’ debut single so I told him he couldn’t have that, but I would write him a song.It’s the old adage – write about what you know. The opening line is: “There’s nothin’ for us in Belfast