Womadelaide 2026 review: Grace Jones embraces the compulsion for dancing in the dark times

Botanic Park, AdelaideNo matter the music, no matter the mood, the festival crowd moved and moved – in a celebration embodied by the liberated, messy and sexual stylings of the 77-year-old headlinerGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailStraight away, the atmosphere at Womadelaide is calmer this year. On opening night, it is only 25C – the warmest it is forecast to be all weekend. After two years of temperatures in the 40s, this will be a festival to ease into. Even the bat colony at the entrance feels decidedly more settled. “I hear we missed a really hot one last year,” says Beoga’s Niamh Dunne later that night

‘Kitty karma’? Jessie Buckley tries to claw back approval after enraging cat-lovers

If Jessie Buckley fails to win the Oscar for best actress next week it will be a sign that cat lovers have got their claws out.The Irish actor is the runaway favourite for her performance in Hamnet, but in recent days has stumbled into a controversy over a stated antipathy to cats.She has said she once gave her husband an ultimatum to banish his two cats because they would defecate on pillows, telling a podcast: “I was like, ‘it’s me or the cats.’”Cat-lovers have responded with indignation and condemnation, sparking a wave of headlines and warnings that “kitty karma” could deny Buckley, 36, her first Academy award.She attempted to repair the damage on Jimmy Fallon’s chatshow on Thursday, saying it was a “misconception” that she loathed cats

From The Bride! to Harry Styles: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

Maggie Gyllenhaal gives us a new take on The Bride of Frankenstein, and the stadium-conquering pop prince is back with a new albumThe Bride!Out now Maggie Gyllenhaal directs this Chicago-set gothic romance starring Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale. Per James Whale’s 1935 classic Bride of Frankenstein, on which it is loosely based, a lonely monster wants a mate and taps up a scientist, Dr Euphronious (Annette Bening), to create her.Peaky Blinders: The Immortal ManOut now As The Rachel was to women who watched Friends in the 90s, so the Peaky Blinders mop chop was to male fans. Will the return of the Birmingham gang drama in feature film form prompt another wave of ill-advised dos? Only time will tell. Just remember, Cillian Murphy looking amazing with that haircut doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for absolutely everyone

Stephen Colbert on Republican double-speak for war in Iran: ‘A war that got a thesaurus for Christmas’

Late-night hosts unpacked the Orwellian double-speak of congressional Republicans trying to justify the Trump administration’s military strikes in Iran.“Folks, I really didn’t want to start the monologue by talking about the war, but in honor of this administration, I went into this without a plan,” said Stephen Colbert on Wednesday, five days after the US military, in conjunction with Israel, bombed Iran and killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.“I say ‘war’,” he continued, “because it sure looks like a war, and Trump keeps calling it a war, but Congress never declared it a war, and Maga was promised no new wars, so the White House sent out a list of talking points to all the congressional Republicans telling them in no uncertain terms that if a reporter asked ‘Can you promise the American people this will not be a long-drawn out war?’, the answer to give is ‘These are targeted, major combat operations.’”“So … it’s worse than a war,” said Colbert. “It’s a war that got a thesaurus for Christmas

Nothing beats the smell of oil and steam | Brief letters

Re your article (T rex breath and Queen Elizabeth’s car: scientists creating ‘time machine for the nose’, 28 February), one of the great attractions about working steam museums is the whole sensory experience, including the smell of hot oil and steam, which is often mentioned by visitors. Non-working steam engines are, by comparison, lifeless, however well they are polished.John Freeman Trustee, Claymills Victorian Pumping Station My tried and trusted method of getting back to sleep (Letters, 25 February) involves me making the mental journey from my home in Kent to Lewis, including stocking up with groceries in Stornoway. I’m looking forward to making the trip for real in November. Out the door, turn right, right again…Ralph JonesRochester, Kent My twin sister and I shared a bed from the early 1950s

Jon Stewart on US attacks in Iran: ‘A war with no clear purpose, no end in sight’

Late-night hosts delved into the new US regime-change war in the Middle East, after Donald Trump directed the US military to bomb Iran in conjunction with Israel.Jon Stewart opened The Daily Show on Monday in a daze, after Iran state media confirmed that US and Israeli forces killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over the weekend. The host joked that, for the surprise occasion and chaos that followed, he needed to bring back “a 20-year recurring segment” titled “Mess O’Potamia”.“America, apparently, had to start an entire war to kill an 86-year-old man in ill health and not wait – I don’t know – three weeks to let saturated fat do its thing,” he joked.He then played a clip of Trump, wearing his USA hat, announcing the so-called “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran from his luxury golf course in Florida