Weeks after jewel heist, world’s most visited museum in dispute over staffing, renovations and ticket price rises
Trade unions at the crisis-hit Louvre museum in Paris will begin a strike on Monday to demand urgent renovations and staffing increases, and to protest against a rise in ticket prices for most non-EU visitors, including British and American tourists.
The world’s most-visited museum – which has had a difficult few months after a jewel heist, a damaging water leak and safety fears over a gallery ceiling – could face days of partial or total closure at one of its busiest times of the year if many of its 2,100-strong workforce vote to continue striking.
Family friend, sources in Russia and Syria, and leaked data help give rare insight into life of dictator’s reclusive household
In 2011, a group of teenage boys spray-painted a warning on to a wall in their school playground: “It’s your turn, Doctor.” The graffiti was a thinly veiled threat that Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, a London-trained ophthalmologist, would be next in the line of Arab dictators toppled by the then raging Arab spring.
It took 14 years, during which 620,000 were killed and nearly 14 million displaced, but eventually the doctor’s turn came and Assad was deposed, fleeing to Moscow in the middle of the night.
Emergency help should be available, but some being forced to travel 100 miles or go private, says Healthwatch England
People needing emergency dental care in England are being denied help from the NHS despite guidance saying that it should be available, in some cases resorting to risky self-treatment such as pulling out their own teeth, the patient watchdog has found.
Patients who experience a sudden dental crisis such as a broken tooth, abscess or severe tooth pain are meant to be able to get help from their dentist or by calling NHS 111.
After years as Hollywood’s romcom darling, Hudson is putting music at the centre of her career – and after her show-stealing turn in Song Sung Blue, the Oscar buzz is growing
The first voice I hear when I enter the hotel room to meet Kate Hudson belongs to her 21-year-old son, Ryder, who speaks from the end of a phone: “Love you, Mum!”
Doesn’t everyone? You don’t have to be related to Hudson to consider her a joyous proposition – a great performer who hasn’t yet made a great film. It was a quarter-century ago in Almost Famous, her breakthrough picture, that she first proved she could hoist a movie out of the doldrums while making the task appear as effortless as blow-drying her hair. Without her performance as Penny Lane, the rock’n’roll muse who describes herself as a “band-aid” rather than a groupie, Cameron Crowe’s dopey valentine to the 1970s of his youth would have been Almost Forgettable.
It started out as a fringe musical about an outlandish war plan – and became a West End and Broadway smash. As the show hits China, Australia and Mexico, its ‘nerd’ creators explain how they went global with a box of hats and a dream
Natasha Hodgson is wondering what to make of all the straight women who have developed a crush on her. Or, to put it more accurately, all the straight women who have developed a crush on her when she’s dressed as a second world war naval intelligence officer and speaking in a silly voice. But is it really Hodgson these woman have fallen for? Or is it Ewen Montagu, the bombastic, braces-wearing war hero she plays in the hit musical Operation Mincemeat?
“The confusion is real,” says Hodgson. “These women come to the show believing themselves to be straight, then they have a total identity crisis. But hey – if that’s not what musical theatre is for, I don’t know what is!”
Though once so despairing she thought of giving up the law for art, Kateryna Rashevska is still pushing for the return of thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by the invaders
At only 28, the human rights lawyer Kateryna Rashevska has become the public face of Ukraine’s campaign to repatriate children forcibly deported to Russia. She knows this means she is being watched.
The past two years have seen the Ukrainian addressing the UN security council, the US Senate and writing submissions to the international criminal court (ICC), which then issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.
The comforting tourist-brochure idea of what Italian food looks like obscures a story shaped by hunger, migration and innovation
Alberto Grandi is the author of La Cucina Italiana Non Esiste and a professor of food history at the University of Parma
Italy’s cuisine has now joined Unesco’s “intangible” heritage list, an announcement greeted within the country with the sort of collective euphoria usually reserved for surprise World Cup runs or the resignation of an unpopular prime minister. Not because the world needed permission to enjoy pizza – it clearly didn’t – but because the news soothed a longstanding national irritation: France and Japan, recognised in 2010 and 2013, had beaten us to it. For Italy’s culinary patriots, this had become a psychological pebble in the shoe: a tiny, persistent reminder that someone else had been validated first.
Yet the strength of Italian cuisine has never rested on an ancient, coherent culinary canon. Most of what passes for ancient “regional tradition” was assembled in the late 20th century, largely for tourism and domestic reassurance. The real history of Italian food is turbulent: a saga of hunger, improvisation, migration, industrialisation and sheer survival instinct. It is not a serene lineage of grandmothers, sunlit tables and recipes carved in marble. It is closer to a national long-distance sprint from starvation – not quite the imagery Italy chose to present to Unesco.
Alberto Grandi is the author of La Cucina Italiana Non Esiste and a professor of food history at the University of Parma
Japanese green tea named stain of the year as survey finds Aperol spritz and bubble tea are also leaving their mark
It used to be curry sauce, egg yolk and red wine that ruined Britain’s clothes but in a sign of the times laundry detergents are being reformulated to tackle stains left by matcha lattes, Aperol spritz and bubble tea.
In a month when year-end gongs are dished out, from BBC Sports Personality to Pantone’s Colour of 2026 (a white called “cloud dancer”), matcha has received the dubious accolade “stain of the year”.
Authorities investigating ‘apparent homicide’ after 78-year-old director of Stand By Me and The Princess Bride was discovered dead at LA home with wife
Rob Reiner, the director of beloved films including When Harry Met Sally, Misery, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride and This is Spinal Tap, has died aged 78 in an apparent homicide, along with his 68-year-old wife Michele Singer Reiner.
Reports first began to emerge on Sunday afternoon that the bodies of a 78-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman had been found by authorities inside a home owned by Reiner in Brentwood, Los Angeles.
Progressing from child labourer to billionaire, Lai used his power and wealth to promote democracy, which ultimately pitted him against authorities in Beijing
The verdict was expected. Long a thorn in the side of Beijing, Lai, a 78-year-old media tycoon and activist, was a primary target of the most recent and definitive crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. Authorities cast him as a traitor and a criminal.
Rozen had attended the Chanukah by the Sea event with her family when the terrorist attack began that evening, bringing a terrifying end to the day’s Jewish celebration of light.
Blaise Metreweli expected to say UK faces new ‘age of uncertainty’ in speech identifying Kremlin as key threat
Assassination plots, sabotage, cyber-attacks and the manipulation of information by Russia and other hostile states mean that “the frontline is everywhere”, the new head of MI6 will warn on Monday.
Blaise Metreweli, giving her first speech in the job, is expected to say the UK faces a new “age of uncertainty” where the rules of conflict are being rewritten, particularly in light of wider Kremlin aggression after the invasion of Ukraine.
The alleged gunmen behind the Bondi beach attack are a father-son duo suspected of using legally obtained firearms to commit the massacre, according to police.
Naveed Akram, 24, was arrested at the scene and taken to a Sydney hospital with critical injuries. His 50-year-old father, who the Sydney Morning Herald first reported to be Sajid Akram, was shot dead by police. Police would not confirm their names.
MI6 chief to deliver remarks on Monday warning ‘chaos is a feature not a bug in the Russian approach’; European leaders to join day two of talks in Berlin. What we know on day 1,391
The head of Britain’s foreign spy service, known as MI6, will warn that Russia poses an “aggressive, expansionist, and revisionist” threat, in her first speech since taking office. Blaise Metreweli took over from Richard Moore in October, becoming the first female chief of MI6. “[Vladimir] Putin should be in no doubt, our support is enduring. The pressure we apply on Ukraine’s behalf will be sustained,” Metreweli will say on Monday, according to advance extracts of her remarks. “The export of chaos is a feature not a bug in the Russian approach to international engagement, and we should be ready for this to continue until Putin is forced to change his calculus,” she said, according to the extract.
Separately, Richard Knighton, head of Britain’s armed forces, will also call in a separate speech on Monday for a “whole society” approach to defence in the face of growing uncertainty and threats, and highlight an increased probability of Russia invading a Nato country.
The Ukrainian leader called on Sunday for a “dignified” peace and guarantees that Russia would not attack Ukraine as he attended talks with US figures in Berlin – the latest efforts to end the war with Russia. “Ukraine needs peace on dignified terms, and we are ready to work as constructively as possible. The coming days will be filled with diplomacy. It is critically important that it delivers results,” Zelenskyy said on X. He later added ahead of a meeting with US officials: “The key thing is that all the steps we agree on with partners must work in practice to deliver guaranteed security. Only reliable guarantees can deliver peace.” Zelenskyy is expected to comment on the talks once they are completed on Monday, when they are expected to be joined by other European leaders.
The Ukrainian leader said that a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia along the current frontlines would be a fair option in any peace deal. Russia has demanded Kyiv withdraw its troops from parts of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions that Ukraine still holds. Answering questions from reporters in a WhatsApp chat, Zelenskyy reiterated that option would be unfair, adding that the issue of territory remained unresolved and very sensitive.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff said “a lot of progress was made” at the first day of talks. The meeting between US and Ukrainian delegations included Witkoff, president Zelenskyy, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and European officials. “Representatives held in-depth discussions ... a lot of progress was made, and they will meet again tomorrow morning,” Witkoff said in a post on X. The talks ended after more than five hours on Sunday.
Ukraine’s offer to forgo joining the Nato military alliance probably will not significantly change the course of peace talks, two security experts said on Sunday. “This doesn’t move the needle at all,” said Justin Logan, director of defence and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. “It’s an effort to appear reasonable.” Nato membership for Ukraine has not been realistic in a long time anyway, said Logan and Andrew Michta, a professor of strategic studies at the University of Florida. Michta called Ukraine’s Nato admittance a “non-issue” at this point.
The Kremlin said on Sunday that Nato secretary general Mark Rutte’s remarks about preparing for war with Russia were irresponsible and showed that he did not really understand the devastation of the second world war. Rutte, in a speech in Berlin on Thursday, said that Nato should be “prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured” and asserted that “we are Russia’s next target”. “Kremlin spokespersonDmitry Peskov told state television reporter Pavel Zarubin: “They have no understanding, and unfortunately, Mr Rutte, making such irresponsible statements, simply does not understand what he is talking about.”
Drone fragments caused a fire near the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region without inflicting any injuries or damage, an emergency centre said on Sunday. “A gas pipe caught fire outside the refinery near one of the checkpoints. The fire covered an area of 100sqm and has since been extinguished,” the centre said on the Telegram messaging app. Ukraine had said earlier that its military had hit the refinery and an oil depot in the Russian Volgograd region.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had captured the village of Varvarivka in Ukraine’s eastern Zaporizhzhia region. Reuters could not verify battlefield reports of the both sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Two Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor gags make top 10 of public vote, along with jokes about Oasis and Nigel Farage
It’s safe to say it’s been a very bad year for the former Prince Andrew. Already stripped of his title and privileges, he is rounding off the year by becoming the punchline of the year’s most popular Christmas cracker joke.
The annual competition is commissioned by the comedy channel U&Gold (formerly Comedy Gold) and decided by the British public. It usually produces a topical winner that sends up one of the biggest stories of the year.
People able to buy homes previously beyond budget, aided by rising wages and looser affordability tests
First-time buyers are taking out larger mortgages than ever before as rising wages and looser affordability tests allow them to buy properties that were previously beyond their budget.
The average first-time buyer borrowed £210,800 in the year to September, a record high, according to analysis by Savills, the property agent.
The son of a Nazi party member and an admirer of Pinochet, Kast built his campaign on a promise to expel tens of thousands of undocumented migrants
The ultra-conservative former congressman José Antonio Kast has been elected as Chile’s next president.
With more than 99% of polling stations counted, Kast took 58.16% of the vote, against 41.84% for the leftist Jeannette Jara, a former labour minister under the current president, Gabriel Boric.
Trump praises Vince Haley, his ex-speechwriter tasked with creating Arc de Triomphe knockoff amid affordability crisis
Amid concerns that he has failed to address a worsening affordability crisis, with health insurance premiums about to spike dramatically for over 20 million Americans, Donald Trump revealed on Sunday that his domestic policy chief’s main priority is building a triumphal arch for Washington DC.
Speaking at a White House holiday party, the president praised Vince Haley, his former speechwriter and a longtime aide to Newt Gingrich who now leads the White House Domestic Policy Council.
The Los Angeles Chargers eliminated the Kansas City Chiefs from playoff contention when Derwin James picked off a pass by Gardner Minshew – who had just taken over for the injured Patrick Mahomes – in the closing seconds to preserve victory over the reigning AFC champions.
As federal agents target families, teens are left to care for siblings – from accessing bank accounts to medical records
Vilma Cruz, a mother of two, had just arrived at her newly leased Louisiana home when federal agents surrounded her vehicle in the driveway. She had just enough time to call her oldest son before they smashed the passenger window and detained her.
The 38-year-old Honduran house painter was swept up in an immigration crackdown that has largely targeted Kenner, a New Orleans suburb with a large Hispanic population, where some parents at risk of deportation had rushed to arrange emergency custody plans for their children in case they were arrested.
Israeli prime minister claims the Australian government ‘let the disease’ of antisemitism spread ‘and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today’
Leaders around the world expressed their horror at Sunday’s terrorist attack on Bondi beach, in which at least 16 people died, mixed in some cases with harsh words for the Australian government for alleged shortcomings in tackling antisemitism over the past two years.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had written to his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, in August, warning that the government’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire … emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets”. He claimed Albanese had “replaced weakness with weakness and appeasement with more appeasement”.
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