Author: Gulf News Week
There were tears, there were surprises, there were fabulous outfits – as one of the biggest nights for UK television, the Bafta TV awards, took place.The ceremony is now over and we know all the winners and losers.Netflix’s mega hit Adolescence scooped several awards on the night, while there was also a special prize for the high queen of the kitchen, Dame Mary Berry.We were on the red carpet before heading backstage to get all the gossip from the winners. Here are all the moments you may have missed.PA MediaBroadcaster, journalist and campaigner Martin Lewis received the special award, in…
Was it enough?That is the question that matters after Sir Keir Starmer’s speech.Was it enough to avert a challenge to the prime minister’s leadership less than two years after he won a landslide general election victory?In the first instance, the person whose answer to that question matters most – and this would have sounded like a strange joke just two days ago – is Catherine West.But having heard the prime minister’s speech, she is standing down from running as a stalking horse candidate and trying to trigger a formal leadership contest right now.A sigh of relief, in the immediate moment…
Stage and screen actor Michael Pennington has died at the age of 82, his representatives have confirmed.Best known as Death Star Commander Moff Jerjerrod in Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the actor was an accomplished Shakespearean and is listed as an Honorary Associate Artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company.He also co-founded the English Shakespeare Company alongside theatre director Michael Bogdanov.Actress Miriam Margolyes led tributes to Pennington, describing him as a “very fine actor, brilliant, wise, clear.”Born Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington on June 7, 1943, in Cambridge, England, the actor’s on-screen career began in 1965 with a supporting…
A painting stolen from a Jewish art collector by the Nazis during World War Two has been found in the home of descendants of a notorious Dutch SS collaborator, an art detective has said.Portrait of a Young Girl, by Dutch artist Toon Kelder, is believed to have hung for decades in the home of Hendrik Seyffardt’s family, Arthur Brand said.It had belonged to Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who died while fleeing the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, leaving behind a collection of more than 1,000 paintings.The case was brought to Brand’s attention by a man who told…
The Philippine House of Representatives has voted to impeach Vice-President Sara Duterte for a second time, threatening her plan to run for president in 2028.Monday’s vote moves the impeachment process to the Senate for trial, where if convicted, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte will be disqualified from holding public office.The 47-year-old is leading early surveys to replace her ally-turned-bitter foe, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.The case against the vice-president stemmed from her alleged misuse of public funds and public threats against Marcos, his wife and his cousin, the former House speaker.The case was revived this year. Last week, a…
Moments after Austria overtook Israel to win last May’s Eurovision Song Contest and in doing so won the right to host this year’s event, UK viewers heard commentator Graham Norton say organisers “will be breathing the largest sigh of relief that they’re not faced with a Tel Aviv final next year”.Anti-Israel protests had built ahead of the contest. At a demonstration of several hundred people in Basel, Switzerland, where the final was held, protesters wore the Palestinian flag and smeared themselves with fake blood to symbolise the killings in Gaza. During the grand final the Israeli singer Yuval Raphael was…
Pop star Dua Lipa has filed a $15m (£11m) lawsuit against Samsung, alleging it used her image on packaging for its televisions without permission.Lipa alleges that Samsung prominently used a photograph of her face without consent on various television models sold across the US, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday in the US District Court for the Central District of California.Samsung’s packaging was “designed to improperly capitalize on Ms. Lipa’s hard-earned success to promote and sell Samsung’s products”, the filing said.The BBC has contacted to Samsung for comment.US District Court for the Central District of CaliforniaSamsung’s TV packaging featuring…
The Israeli attack on part of our flotilla has convinced us we must continue with our mission.Imagine the following scenario: you are scheduled to board a sailing boat as part of a large fleet carrying humanitarian aid. Some boats in the fleet had already departed ahead of you, yet days before you are scheduled to join them, the boats are violently intercepted in international waters by a foreign power acting 600 nautical miles (1,100km) from its own coast in flagrant violation of international maritime laws.At least 30 of your fellow sea travellers were injured, and at least four have since come…
It feels like the prime minister has to give the speech of his life today.Those within the Labour Party who want to see him succeed acknowledge that you can’t change everything in one speech.But it is clearly imperative for Sir Keir Starmer to try to calm down a party that is hurting and anxious.Many Labour MPs have spent the weekend observing the politically scorched earth around them locally – their friends and colleagues in local and devolved government wiped out. There are fraught emotions and there is anger.With every one, a little more of the prime minister’s authority drains away.Incidentally,…
Beijing has confirmed that US President Donald Trump will travel to China this week to meet Xi Jinping.The visit, from the 13 – 15 May, will be the first to China by a US president in nearly a decade – and comes at a pivotal moment for ties between the world’s two largest economies.Executives from some of America’s biggest companiess – including Boeing, Citigroup and Qualcomm – are expected to travel with Trump, potentially to make deals with Chinese firms. It will also mark a key test in the fragile trade truce between Washington and Beijing.In April 2025, Trump unveiled…