The European court of human rights has ruled that Russia violated the rights of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny by placing him under house arrest in 2014 and imposing other restrictive measures. Navalny was held under house arrest for months from February 2014 while he and his brother Oleg were investigated for embezzlement in a…
Trump designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as foreign terrorist organization
The United States has designated Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization, Donald Trump said on Monday, marking the first time Washington has formally named a branch of the armed forces of a foreign government as a terrorist group. In a statement, Trump said this unprecedented step, “recognizes the reality that Iran is…
Chelsea’s Sarri hints at Eden Hazard exit after his masterclass sinks West Ham
The adulation which poured down after the final whistle as Eden Hazard, almost sheepishly, clapped his thanks to all sides of the arena was a recognition of one man’s brilliance. His had been a virtuoso display, played out to gasps of disbelief from stands, dug-outs and opposing ranks alike. It might have been tempting to…
Canada: one indigenous group accuses other of cultural appropriation in award row
A prominent awards show for indigenous music in Canada has been plunged into turmoil after a group of Inuit performers accused a Cree folk singer of cultural appropriation. Several well-known Inuit singers have cut ties with the Indigenous Music awards (IMA), an annual show due to held in Winnipeg on 17 May, over the nomination…
Felicity Huffman to plead guilty in college admissions cheating case
Felicity Huffman has agreed to plead guilty in the college admissions cheating scandal, the biggest celebrity name so far to admit to her involvement in the scheme. Court documents made public on Monday show that 12 other prominent parents, in addition to Huffman, will also plead guilty in the case. The actor, 56, was accused…
Streaming: Where Is Kyra? Good question…
Travelling the international film festival circuit, as I do, can be both a thrilling privilege and a source of frustration. On the one hand, seeing a flood of wonderful, adventurous films from all corners of the globe is a great perk of the job, as is contributing to early critical dialogue around them that boosts…
Donald Trump gags and D&G ads: how Game of Thrones took over the world
Game of Thrones is finally big enough to engulf us. As the HBO blockbuster reaches its final season, it has definitively crossed over from the novelty mugs and Funko Pop! figurines of middle-class nerdery and into the full mainstream. And with that comes a cultural cachet that threatens to ruin the spider’s web-thin magic of…
Billy Bragg: ‘I love my country and I don’t want it to make an absolute fool of itself’
The milkman of human kindness is angry. Not just generally, but specifically now, as he arrives at a BBC building in central London. On the train up from Dorset, where he lives, Billy Bragg has read about British soldiers in Kabul firing shots at a poster of Jeremy Corbyn. He is angry because it is,…
What does the battle for Tripoli mean for Libya and the region?
Libya is on the brink of an all-out civil war that will upend years of diplomatic efforts to reconcile two rival armed political factions. An advance led by Khalifa Haftar, the warlord from the east of the country, has diplomats scrambling and the UN appealing in vain for a truce. The French government, the European…
Identifying separated migrant families may take two years, US government says
It could take the US government up to two years to identify potentially thousands of children who were separated from their parents by the authorities at the southern border, the government said in a court filing. The filing late on Friday outlined for the first time the Trump administration’s plan for identifying which family members…