cultureSee all
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Womad festival returns and moves to new Wiltshire site

Womad festival, the global music festival co-founded by Peter Gabriel, is to return in 2026 at a new venue.The festival took a year off in 2025 in order to “return fully charged”, and left its home of Charlton Park, Wiltshire, where it had been held since 2007. Its new venue remains in Wiltshire, at nearby Neston Park in Corsham.“It immediately felt to us like a warm and welcoming home into which we could sink our roots,” Gabriel said.“In a world in which many bad actors seem to be achieving power by fanning the flames of hatred, racism and division, a meeting place for all the world’s cultures and dreams, built on mutual respect, seems all the more precious,” he added

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Seth Meyers on Trump’s South Korea visit: ‘Getting the royal treatment he so desperately craves’

Late-night hosts recapped Donald Trump’s lavish visit to South Korea, where he received a ceremonial golden crown.Trump continued his tour of Asia on Wednesday, where he’s been “getting the royal treatment he so desperately craves”, according to Seth Meyers. “He wishes he could get the same treatment back here at home. He made it clear, for example, that he’s super-jealous of China’s authoritarian government.”Speaking to South Korean leaders, Trump assured them that the country’s partnership with the US guaranteed that “you’ll have everything done very, very quickly … as fast as any other country, other than China”, because China “has a good system” where Xi Jinping can “approve things immediately” whereas he had to “wait two weeks”

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A third of people in England believe in ghosts, survey finds

It is the time of the year when the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest, and spirits walk the Earth once more.But it appears you are more likely to be visited by a ghost if you are under 35 years old, while spiritual creatures tend to avoid those who live in the East Midlands.New research from the National Folklore Survey has found that, across England, more than a third of people believe in ghosts and supernatural beings, but belief in the paranormal varies according to age and geography.Led by academics from Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Hertfordshire, and Chapman University in the US, the survey is the first of its kind since the last Survey of English Language and Folklore more than 60 years ago.Just over one in three people in England said they believed in ghosts or the spirits of the deceased, with younger people (aged 25-34) most likely to believe in the paranormal, which also includes magical beings, possession, spells, psychics, angels and demons

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Arts organisations still in ‘funding limbo’ after crash of Arts Council England online portal

Arts organisations and artists have said they are still in “funding limbo” with mounting bills and uncertain futures after this summer’s crash of Arts Council England’s grant processing platform.ACE’s online portal, Grantium, was used by artists to submit and manage funding applications. But when it crashed in July, it left thousands of applications for vital funding in doubt – a situation that persisted for several months until applications reopened in late September.Individual artists and leaders of arts institutions have said that, after the crash, they received less money than initially offered by ACE, which is also accused of revoking funding application extensions for organisations affected by the collapse of the portal.ACE claimed the outage was caused by the inability of Grantium to operate with high traffic at a time when the system was being updated

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Jimmy Kimmel on government shutdown: ‘There is no Republican plan for healthcare’

Late-night hosts recapped Donald Trump’s state visit to Japan as the government shutdown continued into its fourth week.On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the comedian checked in on Trump’s visit to Japan this week. “You know, when Trump visits, you have to find something to do with him,” he said. “You can’t just take him for a stroll around town.“So instead, you take him for a stroll inside a palace, where he gets uncomfortably close to the band,” he said over footage of Trump wandering aimlessly through a ballroom with the Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi

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Man who won damages over Richard III film calls for more regulation of fact-based drama

A university executive who won damages over his portrayal in Steve Coogan’s film The Lost King has urged Ofcom to strengthen regulation of fact-based drama, after what he described as a three-year “anxious, stressful and hurtful” ordeal.Richard Taylor, formerly deputy registrar at the University of Leicester, sued Coogan as well as the film’s production company, Baby Cow, and the distributor Pathé over his portrayal in the 2022 film about the discovery of Richard III’s remains in a Leicester car park.The parties reached a settlement requiring damages, a clarification to appear on the film, and an undertaking not to repeat the defamatory claims. A judge had found Taylor was shown in an “unrelentingly negative and defamatory” light.Taylor said Ofcom needed “clearer guidance” to stop similar misrepresentations happening in future

politicsSee all
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Bridget Phillipson ‘ready to take on unions’ over year 8 reading tests

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UK politics: Worries about immigration are ‘manufactured panic’ says charity as poll shows issue not a local concern – as it happened

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Keir Starmer keeps Trumps’ silver necklace gift – for a price

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‘Young Tories are fed up’: the students switching to Reform in big numbers

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Zarah Sultana sets sights on replacing Labour and gaining power

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UK launches search for ‘town of culture’ among places ‘written out of national story’