Ex-first lady sentenced to 20 months for receiving gifts for political favours, as Yoon Suk Yeol awaits rebellion verdict
The wife of South Korea’s ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for corruption, as her husband awaits a verdict on a high-stakes rebellion charge that could result in the death penalty or life imprisonment.
Kim Keon Hee was sentenced for receiving luxury gifts including a Graff diamond necklace and a Chanel bag from the Unification Church in return for promises of political favours.
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© Photograph: Jung Yeon-Je/Reuters
© Photograph: Jung Yeon-Je/Reuters
© Photograph: Jung Yeon-Je/Reuters
In 20 years, Danish capital’s fashion week has pushed for greener standards and catapulted homegrown talent to global success
When it comes to fashion weeks, there used to be four key cities: New York, London, Milan and Paris. While they remain titleholders, a host of other cities from Berlin to Seoul and Lagos have been vying for the same recognition to become “the fifth fashion week”. But so far only one real winner has emerged: Copenhagen fashion week.
On Tuesday, the Danish showcase, which has helped catapult homegrown brands including Ganni into the international spotlight while spearheading sustainability initiatives, kicked off the start of its 20th-anniversary celebrations.
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© Photograph: Ganni
© Photograph: Ganni
© Photograph: Ganni
Founder of the world wide web says commercialisation means the net has been ‘optimised for nastiness’, but collaboration and compassion can prevail
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When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989, his vision was clear: it would used by everyone, filled with everything and, crucially, it would be free.
Today, the British computer scientist’s creation is regularly used by 5.5 billion people – and bears little resemblance to the democratic force for humanity he intended.
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© Photograph: Simon Dawson/Reuters
© Photograph: Simon Dawson/Reuters
© Photograph: Simon Dawson/Reuters
There are unspoken rules about being in an elevator, people! Unspoken being one of the most important
Read more petty gripes
Most people don’t relish being locked in a confined space, in close proximity to strangers, travelling at speed. And yet, so many people do nothing to elevate the experience for others.
I am floored at the enthusiasm of people who stand at the crack of elevator doors waiting for them to open, as if it were 9am at the Black Friday sales. When the doors open, they recoil in surprise – presumably they were expecting to be the first passengers on the maiden voyage of this metal tube sliding up and down the building’s shaft.
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© Illustration: Victoria Hart/Guardian Design
© Illustration: Victoria Hart/Guardian Design
© Illustration: Victoria Hart/Guardian Design
If you’re wearing tight clothes and flashing your ankles, you may want to make some bold changes
Is your wardrobe cringe? Does it make you look out-of-touch and cause younger and cooler people to look upon you with pity? Do you really want me to answer that? Never mind, I’m going to anyway, so buckle up. Brutal honesty is very January, so I will give it to you straight. But before we get down to dissecting your wardrobe, two quick questions for you. Do you put full stops in text messages? Were you baffled by Labubus? If the answer to those two questions is yes, then I’m afraid the signs are that your wardrobe is almost certainly cringe.
Being cringe is essentially being old-fashioned, but worse. Being old-fashioned is what happens when you grow older with grace and dignity. Cringe is when you lose your touch while convincing yourself you are still down with the kids.
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© Photograph: The Guardian
© Photograph: The Guardian
© Photograph: The Guardian
Former world champion to face Arslanbek Makhmudov
Briton has been training in Thailand ahead of his return
Tyson Fury is to make his comeback against Arslanbek Makhmudov on April 11 in a fight that will be screened on Netflix.
Fury announced his retirement a year ago in the wake of successive defeats to Oleksandr Usyk but has been training in Thailand ahead of his return to the ring. The venue for the bout will be announced later.
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© Photograph: Richard Sellers/PA
© Photograph: Richard Sellers/PA
© Photograph: Richard Sellers/PA
US president says armada heading towards Iran is ‘prepared to fulfil its missions with violence if necessary’
The threat of a US-Iranian war may be looming closer after Donald Trump warned time was running out for Tehran and said a massive US armada was moving quickly towards the country “with great power, enthusiasm and purpose”.
Writing on social media, the US president said the fleet headed by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was larger than the one sent to Venezuela before the removal of Nicolás Maduro earlier this month and was “prepared to rapidly fulfill its missions with speed and violence if necessary”.
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© Photograph: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Brian M Wilbur/AP
© Photograph: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Brian M Wilbur/AP
© Photograph: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Brian M Wilbur/AP
Gergely Karácsony urged people to take to streets in June in pushback against Orbán government’s attack on rights
Prosecutors in Hungary have filed charges against the progressive mayor of Budapest, seeking to fine him months after hundreds of thousands of people heeded his call to take to the streets in defiance of the government’s ban on Pride.
The June march made headlines around the world after the ruling Fidesz party, led by the rightwing populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, backed legislation that created a legal basis for Pride to be banned, citing a widely criticised need to protect children.
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© Photograph: Tamas Purger/AP
© Photograph: Tamas Purger/AP
© Photograph: Tamas Purger/AP
In a new weekly column about the world of classical music, Tom Service bemoans Hollywood turning pieces into slop through overuse. Plus: Philip Glass withdraws his symphony from the Kennedy Center
Back in 2008, Transport for London came up with a ruse to dispel antisocial behaviour: it piped classical music into supposedly problematic stations in the crime hotspots of south London. I think that was when I realised just how far the association of classical music with relaxing affect instead of real emotion had gone. Once an entire genre has become associated with relaxification, it’s enough for you to hear the sound of an orchestra and think, “This isn’t for me”. Whatever its BPM, classical music will only be a backdrop, the sound of luxury goods, the sound of cultural anaesthetic.
The playlist included the finale of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony – music that is obsessive and wild, the sound of barely controlled hysteria, full of harmonic grind and rhythmic assault. This radical and Dionysian music, that was literally made to push communities of orchestras and listeners to their extremes in the early 19th century, was being reduced to calming and inoffensive aural wallpaper.
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© Photograph: 2025 Focus Features LLC./PA
© Photograph: 2025 Focus Features LLC./PA
© Photograph: 2025 Focus Features LLC./PA
Charles Victor Thompson would be the first person executed in the US this year for the 1998 shooting deaths
A Texas man who at one time escaped from custody and was on the run for three days after being sentenced to death for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend nearly 27 years ago was scheduled on Wednesday to be the first person executed in the US this year.
Charles Victor Thompson was condemned for the April 1998 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend, Glenda Dennise Hayslip, 39; and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, at her apartment in the Houston suburb of Tomball.
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© Photograph: AP
© Photograph: AP
© Photograph: AP
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