MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Epic Games, the company behind the popular online game Fortnite, on Tuesday won a partial victory in an Australian court. The case was brought by U.S. billionaire chief executive Tim Sweeney, who claimed that Google and Apple engaged in anti-competitive conduct in running their app stores.
Federal Court Justice Jonathan Beach upheld key parts of Epic’s claim that the tech giants breached Australian competition laws by misusing their market power against app developers and using restrictive trade practices.
Google and Apple ’s dominance of the app market had the effect of substantially lessening competition and breached Australian law, Beach found.
But the judge rejected some of Epic’s claim including that Google and Apple engaged in unconscionable conduct as defined by Australian law.
The litigation began in August 2020 when Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store expelled Fortnite because Epic installed a direct payment feature in the extraordinarily popular game.
The court ruled both companies pressured app developers including Epic through contracts and technology to sell their products through the two dominant app stores.
Epic said that the ruling will allow its Epic Games Store and Fortnite to come to Apple’s operating system iOS in Australia.
“An Australian court just found that Apple and Google abuse their control over app distribution and in-app payments to limit competition,” Epic said in a statement.
“There are 2,000+ pages of findings that we’ll need to dig into to fully understand the details,” the statement added. “This is a WIN for developers and consumers in Australia!”
Apple said the company “faces fierce competition in every market where we operate.”
“We welcome the Australian court’s rejection of some of Epic’s claims, however, we strongly disagree with the Court’s ruling on others,” Apple said in a statement.
Google said it would review the judgment. Google and Apple could potentially appeal the ruling before the Federal Court full bench.
“We disagree with the court’s characterisation of our billing policies and practices, as well as its findings regarding some of our historical partnerships, which were all shaped in a fiercely competitive mobile landscape on behalf of users and developers,” a Google statement said.
Beach has yet to release a 952-page judgment on Epic’s case against Apple or his 914-page judgment on the case against Google.
The judge gave an oral summary of his findings during a 90-minute hearing Tuesday.
Lawyers will return to court on a date yet to be set to argue what Epic is entitled to in terms of damages.
For their historic home in the enclave of Clifton in Bristol, UK, an energetic couple wanted an informal, biodiverse, and sustainable landscape where their grandchildren and dogs could romp. They called on landscape architecture firm Artisan Landscapes to come up with their dream garden, but the firm recognized that the grand Georgian-style home imposed a degree of formality on its landscape that couldn’t be ignored. As a compromise, they kept the classic formal courtyard layout and overlaid “soft, naturalistic meadow planting” to fulfill the clients’ desires for an environmentally friendly garden.
Above: “The homeowners are lucky enough to have both a front and a back garden,” say the architects, “so we could devote the entire back garden to ‘garden,’ while the front garden has a large lawn for the dogs and grandkids, a greenhouse, and informal borders of vegetables intermingled with perennials.” The back garden, they say, is a more intimate space, “although the grandchildren love whirling about the paths.” Above: The sunken octagon is a focal point of the garden but was also one of the more challenging features to install. “There was a one-meter-thick piece of limestone bedrock located under it that had to be removed to install drainage,” say the architects.
Before
Above: The courtyard had a generous footprint, but the neglected landscape was uninspiring.
After
Above: An antique urn is a focal point in the garden. For more inspiration, see Landscaping: 8 Ideas to Add Antiques Artfully to Any Garden. Above: A long, slim reflecting pool is one of two major water features in the project. “They have a combined volume of five thousand cubic liters,” say the architects, and both are controlled by pumps on remote-control switches. Above: Salvia surrounds the pool. For everything you need to know about growing it, see Salvia: A Field Guide to Planting, Care & Design.
In the midst of the Iran-Contra hearings on Capitol Hill, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher joined Face the Nation in July of 1987. Moderator Lesley Stahl asked the prime minister about how the scandal had impacted U.S. relations with other countries across the world.
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TOKYO (AP) — Hello Kitty turns 50 on Friday. Befitting a pop icon at midlife, the bubble-headed, bow-wearing character’s fictional birthday has brought museum exhibits, a theme park spectacle and a national tour. And that’s just in Japan, her literal birthplace but not the one listed in her official biography.
Confused? Welcome to the party. If there’s one thing about Hello Kitty, it’s that she’s proven adaptable and as much a study in contrasts during her long career. She — and Kitty is a she, according to the company that owns her — may have been conceived as a vessel for the feelings of others, but some women see an empowering symbol in her mouthless face.
“Shrewd” is how Mika Nishimura, a design professor at Tokyo’s Meisei University, describes the way Hello Kitty conquered the worlds of commerce, fashion and entertainment. As a tabula rasa open to interpretation, the non-threatening creation was the perfect vehicle for making money, she said.
“American feminists have said she doesn’t say anything and acquiesces to everyone. But in Japan, we also see how she may appear happy if you’re happy, and sad if you’re feeling sad,” Nishimura told The Associated Press. “It’s a product strategy that’s sheer genius. By being so adaptable, Kitty gets all those collaborative deals.”
A visitor looks at giant Hello Kitty display at the exhibition “As I change, so does she,” marking the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty at the Tokyo National Museum in Tokyo Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
The character’s semicentennial is evidence of that. Sanrio, the Japanese entertainment company that holds the rights to Hello Kitty’s name and image, kicked off the festivities a year ago with an animation account on TikTok, Roblox games and an avatar for the social networking app Zepeto.
There have been anniversary editions of merchandise ranging from pet collars, cosmetics and McDonald’s Happy Meals to Crocs and a Baccarat crystal figurine. A gold coin pendant with the image of Hello Kitty holding the number 50 is selling for about 120,000 yen ($800), while a Casio watch costs 18,700 yen ($120).
But first, more on the origin story.
Unlike Mickey Mouse and Snoopy, Hello Kitty didn’t start as a cartoon. A young Sanrio illustrator named Yuko Shimizu drew her in 1974 as a decoration for stationery, tote bags, cups and other small accessories. The design made its debut on a coin purse the next year and became an instant hit in Japan.
A visitor looks at Hello Kitty display at the exhibition “As I change, so does she,” marking the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty at the Tokyo National Museum in Tokyo Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
As Hello Kitty’s commercial success expanded beyond Asia, so did her personal profile. By the late 1970s, Sanrio revealed the character’s name as Kitty White, her height as five apples tall and her birthplace as suburban London, where the company said she lived with her parents and twin sister Mimmy.
“The main theme of Hello Kitty is friendship. When I first created it, I made a family of which Kitty was a part. But then Hello Kitty started to appear in other settings as the character grew,” Shimizu told the BBC in June. “Sanrio put a lot of effort into building the brand into what it is today.”
At some point, Sanrio designated Kitty’s birthday as Nov. 1, the same as Shimizu’s. Her background was embellished with hobbies that included playing piano, reading and baking. Her TV appearances required co-stars, including a pet cat named Charmmy Kitty that made its debut 20 years ago.
But Hello Kitty’s 40th birthday brought an update that astonished fans. Sanrio clarified to a Los Angeles museum curator that Kitty, despite her feline features, was a little girl. A company spokesperson repeated the distinction this year, renewing debate online about the requirements for being considered human.
“She is supposed to be Kitty White and English. But this is part of the enigma: Who is Hello Kitty? We can’t figure it out. We don’t even know if she is a cat,” art historian Joyce S. Cheng, a University of Oregon associate professor, said. “There is an unresolved indeterminacy about her that is so amazing.”
Tourists from Britain pose with Hello Kitty decoration at the Tokyo National Museum where the exhibition “As I change, so does she” is held, marking the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty in Tokyo Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Part of the confusion stems from a misunderstanding of “kawaii,” which is Japanese for “cute” but also connotes a lovable or adorable essence. Sanrio recruited Shimizu and other illustrators to create “kawaii” characters at a time when cute, girlish styles were popular in Japan. But the word is used often in Japanese society, and not only to describe babies and puppies.
An elderly man, something as innocuous as an umbrella, a subcompact car or a kitchen utensil, or even a horror movie monster can get labeled “kawaii.” By Western standards, the idea may seem embarrassingly frivolous. But it’s taken seriously in Japan, where the concept is linked with the most honorable instincts.
The complexity of “kawaii” may help explain Hello Kitty’s enduring appeal across generations and cultures, why Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne released a song titled “Hello Kitty” a decade ago, and why Britain’s King Charles wished Hello Kitty a happy 50th birthday when he hosted Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako at Buckingham Palace in June.
Although Hello Kitty may seem to embody the self-sacrificing woman stereotype, it’s revealing that three women have served as the character’s chief designers at Sanrio. Yuko Yamaguchi, who has held the role since 1980, is credited with keeping the character both modern and timeless, giving Kitty black outfits or false eyelashes as trends dictated but never removing the bow from her left ear.
Hello Kitty waves as she appears to attend the opening ceremony of the exhibition “As I change, so does she,” marking the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty at the Tokyo National Museum in Tokyo Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
“Hello Kitty, this cultural object, has something to tell us about the history of women in East Asia, and how East Asian women modernized themselves and became professional citizens in a modern society,” the University of Oregon’s Cheng said.
Sanrio has come up with hundreds of creatures, all adorable and cuddly, but none with the lasting power of Hello Kitty. Forget the understated wabi-sabi aesthetic historically associated with Japan. A chameleon-like cat-girl who reflects unabashed kitsch is the cultural ambassador of a consumer-crazed, happy-go-lucky nation.
“It’s the anti-wabi sabi, wanting to be as flashy and as bling-bling as possible, like Lady Gaga. In your face, but that’s actually part of the genius, too. It’s powerful,” Cheng said.
Leslie Bow, a professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that while many Asian and Asian American women see Hello Kitty as a symbol of defiance, the protective, caretaking instinct aroused by “kawaii” isn’t without power.
“We take care of our siblings, our babies, our pets, because we are in control. We control their actions. And so that is also the dark side of cute,” Bow said.
Sanrio has taken advantage of the character’s adaptability by allowing relatively unrestricted use of her image in return for a licensing fee.
A food vendor’s van is decorated with Hello Kitty images outside the National Museum during the exhibition “As I change, so does she,” marking the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty at the National Museum in Tokyo Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
A visitor wears boots featuring Hello Kitty at the National Museum during the exhibition “As I change, so does she,” marking the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty at the Tokyo National Museum in Tokyo Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Visitors react to gigantic Hello Kitty slippers at the exhibition “As I change, so does she,” marking the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty at the Tokyo National Museum in Tokyo Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Just about anything goes for the wee whiskered one, from a growing global empire of Sanrio-sanctioned Hello Kitty cafes to an “augmented reality” cellphone app that shows Kitty dancing in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, London’s Big Ben and other tourist landmarks.
On the unsanctioned side, Hello Kitty even has shown up on guns and vibrators.
During a presentation earlier this year in Seoul, Hello Kitty designer Yamaguchi said one of her unfulfilled goals was finding a way “to develop a Hello Kitty for men to fall in love with as well.” But she’s still working on it.
“I am certain the day will come when men are no longer embarrassed to carry around Hello Kitty,” entertainment news site Content Asia quoted Yamaguchi as saying.
___
Leff reported from London. Berenice Bautista in Mexico City contributed reporting.
In the United Kingdom, the Labour Party government has proposed changes to the Employment Rights Bill that would make employers liable if their employees are offended by customers or the public. Pub owners say this will turn them into “banter cops,” trying to stop customers from telling jokes or making off-color remarks that may offend their staff. Academics say that universities and other venues will become less likely to book controversial speakers and artists for fear of being sued for remarks those people or members of the audience might make.
An Al Jazeera investigation has revealed that the United States and United Kingdom have provided military support to Israel by creating an air bridge that was vital to sustain the intensity of the war on Gaza. Alex Gatopoulos breaks it down.
The two-time and reigning U.S. champion scored 290.12 points to finish ahead of Kevin Aymoz of France, whose career-best free skate left him with 282.88 points and earned a standing ovation inside Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas.
Kao Miura of Japan, who was second after his short program, finished third with 278.67 points.
“I was really motivated by Kevin’s skate,” said Malinin, the early favorite for gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. “It really excited me and I was so happy for him. It pushed me to really just get going to try to skate that program, and of course it wasn’t what I wanted today. So after the few mistakes, I just tried to regroup and to make a strategy of what I have to do.”
In the ice dance, American world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates were unable to overcome a glaring mistake during their rhythm dance on Saturday, ultimately finishing second to Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Britain.
Fear and Gibson wound up with 206.38 points after Sunday’s free skate to become the first non-U.S. team to win Skate America since Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France in 2008. Chock and Bates ended with 205.63 points while Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck of Spain earned the bronze medal with 189.44 points.
Malinin and Miura were separated by a mere 0.15 points after their short programs, but it was Aymoz who challenged Malinin for the top of the podium. The 27-year-old from France, who struggled mightily at the end of last season, landed a pair of quads in an error-free program to score 190.84 points — the best of all the free skates — and vault into first place.
“I was super proud,” Aymoz said, “because I did work these last six months.”
Nika Egadze of Georgia was next on the ice but fell on his opening quad lutz and stepped out on his quad salchow, and those two mistakes kept him from medal contention. He wound up fourth with 261.71 points.
Miura, the 19-year-old former world junior champion, landed three quads during a program set to “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” the 1964 musical romantic drama film. But Miura lost points for an under-rotated triple axel and on a step sequence that led into a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination midway through his free skate.
Malinin was last to take the ice, performing a program set to “I’m Not a Vampire” by the rock band Falling In Reverse.
He opened with a perfect quad flip and then hit a triple axel, even though Malinin remains the only skater to have landed the quad version of the jump in competition. Then came the mistake, when he doubled a planned quad loop, leaving Malinin to make changes on the fly over the second half of the program in an attempt to make up the lost points.
After putting his hand down on his triple lutz, Malinin landed a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination before a quad salchow-triple axel in sequence — a pair of huge jumping passes that sent his technical score soaring.
Malinin capped the recovery of his program with a backflip during his choreographed sequence, a move that had been banned until this season because of its inherent danger. It was expected all along but nonetheless sent a roar through the crowd, just as Malinin’s program came to an end and a steady stream of stuffed animals were thrown onto the ice.
“It was really hard for me in the middle of the program to think what I have to do — what I need to do,” Malinin said when asked about the early mistake. “I just went full autopilot through there and I’m glad I made it out.”
Atlantic salmon populations in England and Wales have plummeted to unprecedented lows, according to the Atlantic Salmon Stock Assessment for 2024, a report published this month by the United Kingdom Environment Agency and Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science.
According to the report by the two government agencies, a massive 90 percent of wild river salmon in England are classified as either “at risk” or “probably at risk”.
This latest classification is due to salmon stocks declining to levels that are insufficient for a self-sustaining salmon population.
“Forty years ago, an estimated 1.4 million salmon returned to UK rivers each year. We are now at barely a third of that – a new low and evidence of the wider, growing biodiversity crisis,” Alan Lovell, chairman of the Environment Agency, said when the report was released.
At the end of last year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an international organisation dedicated to nature conservation, changed the status of Atlantic salmon from “least concern” to “endangered” in Great Britain on its Red List of Threatened Species.
“There are rivers that used to have in the UK maybe 20,000 to 30,000 Atlantic salmon running them, and they’re now down to 1,000 to 2,000, and there are some rivers with literally a few hundred left,” Dylan Roberts, head of fisheries at the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust in the UK, told Al Jazeera.
“We’re looking at about an 80 percent decline over the last 40 years in wild Atlantic salmon.”
An Atlantic salmon jumps out of the water at the Shrewsbury Weir on the River Severn in Shropshire, England, as it migrates upstream to spawn [Shutterstock]
Why is Atlantic salmon endangered?
In December, Atlantic salmon was classified as endangered due to a 30 to 50 percent decline in British populations since 2006 and a 50 to 80 percent projected decline from 2010 to 2025, according to the IUCN.
The IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species has nine categories based on risk of extinction. These classifications help the wider scientific community assess and monitor the conservation status of different species.
They are the following:
Not evaluated: species that have not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria
Data deficient: species for which there is insufficient information to make a direct or indirect assessment of their risk of extinction
Least concern: species that are widespread and abundant and do not qualify for any higher risk category
Near threatened: species that do not currently qualify as threatened but are close to qualifying for a threatened category in the near future
Vulnerable: species facing a high risk of extinction in the wild
Endangered: species at very high risk of extinction in the wild
Critically endangered: species that face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild and meet criteria indicating an imminent threat to their survival
Extinct in the wild: species that survive only in captivity or outside their natural range and are presumed extinct in their native habitat after exhaustive surveys
Extinct: species for which there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died, confirmed by extensive surveys without sightings
The IUCN’s Red List includes more than 45,300 species that are threatened with extinction, which includes any species in the classifications from vulnerable to extinct in the wild.
According to Roberts, species do not automatically make the IUCN’s Red List just because of low numbers. What gets a species on the list is how sharp the slope of decline is.
“The slope on salmon is endangered. Hence they went on the red list. You’re looking at quite dramatic declines,” he said.
Why are salmon faring so badly in UK rivers?
Agricultural practices
Salmon habitats globally face multiple threats, including agricultural pollution, increased sedimentation on riverbeds, chemical run-off from industrial activities, wastewater discharge and even disruption of rivers due to new road infrastructure.
Additionally, structural barriers built in rivers that impede migration routes, water scarcity due to excessive use and rising ocean temperatures caused by climate change further endanger salmon ecosystems.
Bycatch
European and British salmon travel along a migration route through rivers and streams known as the “smolt superhighway” as they head north to feed into the North Atlantic.
Peak migration time when many of these young fish are heading through this superhighway is around May and June. At this time, young salmon often get caught by large trawlers entering in the same zone in the sea to catch other fish such as mackerel or herring.
This directly reduces the number of fish that can grow to adulthood and return to their natal rivers to spawn.
Bycatch refers to catching fish that are not the main target for trawlers. “Bycatch would be the accidental capture of things like seals, seabirds, dolphins, whales, sharks, rays, skates and [are] protected,” Roberts said. “All these species are recorded. The problem is that salmon just aren’t recorded. And other protected fish as well, such as sea trout, which go to sea.”
According to Roberts, a solution to this problem is to collect better data on how salmon are moving through the rivers and oceans to get a better sense of the impact on the population.
A turtle, shown on deck of a fishing trawler after being caught as bycatch, will be recorded as a protected species. Salmon caught in this way are not recorded, however [Shutterstock]
Maize production
The environmental impact of maize production in the UK has proven to be another factor that has adversely impacted rivers and streams vital to salmon. The growth in the use of maize in biofuels and cattle fodder has exacerbated the problem.
“The habitat has been destroyed by intensive agriculture and all the algae and the sediment run-off. So you get this filamentous algae growing on the riverbed, and the riverbed just gets smothered with it,” Roberts said.
The overproduction of algae is detrimental to insects and invertebrates that live in the river and on which salmon are dependent as a food source.
Farm salmon fishing in Norway, the biggest producer of farmed salmon in the world [Shutterstock]
Can salmon farming make up for these losses?
Not really and, in some cases, it may be making the situation for salmon stocks worse.
According to some estimates, roughly 70 percent of the world’s salmon is produced through salmon farming and not caught in freshwater streams.
Salmon farming in the UK generates 1.5 billion pounds ($1.95bn) a year in revenues.
Some experts argue that vast numbers of salmon raised in cramped conditions in aquaculture facilities pose significant challenges and health risks. These practices not only impact the welfare of the salmon but also carry implications for human health and environmental sustainability.
Intensive salmon farming coupled with cramped conditions in farming sea cages can result in the salmon being more susceptible to catching diseases.
“You end up with disease problems – viruses, biological sea lice, sea lice problems – then all the waste that goes into these lochs because they’re in sheltered areas. They don’t get a full flushing from the tides, and over time, they build up,” Roberts explained.
“And what they’re finding now in these lochs is that they’re getting eutrophication [a build-up of algae]. So the locks are turning green, and that’s killing the fish in the cages,” he added.
Eutrophication is often caused by agricultural practices and can cause salmon to experience hypoxia, a depletion of oxygen levels. This can happen to both wild salmon and farmed salmon.
Salmon sometimes escape from the aquaculture farms through nets damaged by severe weather, just being worn down or via poorly secured drains.
Once these escapees from the “fish asylum” are in freshwater rivers and streams, they can interbreed with wild salmon, disrupting their natural development and passing on diseases.
“If you upset the genetic gene pool, that’s a big problem,” Roberts said.
A salmon farm in Loch Fyne in Scotland that uses round fish ‘cages’ [Shutterstock]
According to a 2023 annual fish health report from the Norwegian Veterinary Institute, roughly 17 percent of the country’s farmed salmon died due to infectious diseases. Norway is the top producer of salmon, contributing roughly 50 percent of global production.
Diseases can range from winter sores to heart skeletal muscle inflammation. Although there are treatments for some of these diseases, the treatments themselves can weaken fish, making them even more susceptible to other infectious diseases.
“Infectious diseases are an extensive problem both for the fish’s welfare and survival in the sea,” said Edgar Brun, department director at the Veterinary Institute.
However, industry experts say finding the right preventive measures to reduce disease in fish remains challenging. Moreover, the overuse of vaccines can increase antibiotic resistance, making certain pathogens more entrenched in the salmon population.
Is salmon endangered in other parts of the world as well?
In Ireland and Iceland, overfishing and habitat destruction have led to significant declines in the salmon population.
According to Inland Fisheries Ireland, an organisation responsible for protecting inland fisheries and sea angling resources, wild salmon numbers returning to Ireland dropped from 1.76 million in 1975 to 171,700 in 2022.
In the US, specific species, including Chinook and Coho salmon, have endangered status due to overfishing, pollution from agricultural run-off and urban development.
In Canada, the fourth largest producer of salmon, production has fallen from a peak of 148,000 tonnes in 2016 to 90,000 tonnes in 2023, according to the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance. Many experts attribute some of the decline to hundreds of thousands of salmon escaping from sea cages and spreading diseases to the wild stock.
[Shutterstock]
Should we all stop eating salmon?
Until recently, salmon was considered a luxury food in many parts of the world. These days it is eaten much more frequently, and many experts say we eat too much of it.
Although salmon is often celebrated by health experts for its omega-3 fatty acids, which are beneficial for heart health, there is a risk of overconsumption, given the levels of freshwater contamination and diseases that can become pervasive in fish farms, causing populations to fall.
Some farmed salmon has more omega-3 fatty acids than wild salmon but can have high levels of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB). PCBs are synthetic chemicals that have widespread industrial uses. PCBs can “live” in industrial waste that gets dumped into our seas, rivers and streams. PCBs tend to be more prevalent in closed-system environments than open environments, like freshwater rivers.
Many health experts recommend eating wild salmon because of their lower levels of PCBs. Freshwater salmon also tend to be less susceptible to those fish-related diseases that are more common in farm-raised salmon.
According to Roberts, encouraging people to eat less salmon would not be particularly practical.
However, he said, collaboration with organisations like the Missing Salmon Alliance, which brings together other NGOs that advocate for sensible production of salmon while preserving the salmon ecosystem, can help put pressure on governments to implement more stringent rules for fisheries to preserve current populations and increase salmon populations.
A European eel in the River Culm, England [Shutterstock]
Are other fish species in danger as well?
According to Roberts, another endangered fish is the eel. The conditions that have endangered salmon are very similar to those that are threatening eels: overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution and climate change.
Eels are an important food source for mammals that live around rivers and streams, including minks and otters. Smaller eels are an important food source for birds too.
Due to low eel populations, the European Union implemented regulations on eel fishing in 2018.
According to a May report from the European Parliamentary Research Service: “The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) has suffered a 90 percent to 95 percent decline in its population since the 1980s. Within 50 years, the European eel has turned from one of the most abundant freshwater fish to an endangered species.”
How is climate change contributing to this?
Rising water temperatures as a result of climate change pose significant challenges for salmon. As the water warms, its oxygen content decreases, making breathing more difficult for these fish. Consequently, salmon must swim greater distances in pursuit of nourishment and cooler waters, further taxing their already strained systems.
According to Roberts, warmer waters destroy some nutrients in oceans and rivers, which affect food chains. Atlantic salmon typically eat zooplankton, blue whiting, sand eels, small insects, insect larvae and small crustaceans called amphipods or scuds. As food for the salmon becomes more scarce, this can have a negative impact on the size of the salmon.
Smaller salmon produce fewer eggs. Fewer eggs mean a decrease in the overall population.
“Now, as it grows, it gets faster, more powerful. It can evade predators, but if they grow more slowly, they’re more vulnerable to predation,” Roberts said. “And what we found is that the decrease in the growth rate of salmon is most marked during their first summer at sea.”
LONDON (AP) — King Charles III, who is 75 and battling cancer, will travel halfway around the world to Samoa this month to take his seat as the head of the Commonwealth and highlight the existential threat that climate change poses for Pacific island nations.
He will also return to Australia, a country that played a key role in Charles’ adolescence — giving him the chance to be an almost normal teenager during the six months he spent at Timbertop school outside Melbourne in the 1960s. The visit marks the first time since he assumed the throne that Charles will visit one of the 14 countries outside the United Kingdom where the monarch is head of state.
The tour, from Friday to Oct. 26, is a watershed moment for Charles, who is slowly returning to public duties after a hiatus following his cancer diagnosis in early February. The decision to undertake such a long journey is seen as a reflection of his workaholic tendencies and his wish to put his stamp on the monarchy after waiting some seven decades to become king.
“He doesn’t just want to be a sort of caretaker king, waiting in a sense for his own death and the accession of William,’’ said Anna Whitelock, a professor of the history of the monarchy at City University, London, referring to Prince William. “He wants to be active in the world.’’
Charles’ globetrotting itinerary comes as he works to shore up support for the monarchy at home and abroad two years after ascending the throne.
It’s a challenge the king will face in Australia, a country with a strong anti-monarchy movement.
Charles and Queen Camilla arrive in Australia with a schedule that includes a visit to Parliament House in Canberra, the Australian War Memorial and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander memorial. The king will also meet with professors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer to learn about their work on melanoma, one of Australia’s most common cancers, while the queen’s program will include joining a discussion on domestic violence.
Charles first visited Australia as a 17-year-old, when he spent two terms at Timbertop, chopping wood, going on long hikes and meeting boys who welcomed him, unlike his classmates at Gordonstoun in Scotland. The future king returned to the U.K. a more confident, disciplined young man, according to his biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby.
“Part of this change was in the nature of adolescence, but some of it lay in the opportunity he had been given in Australia to find himself — free from Gordonstoun, away from his parents, away from the British press, away from the suffocating certainties of royal life,” Dimbleby wrote in 1994.
Charles later toured the country as a young prince and visited again soon after he married his first wife, the late Princess Diana.
But this time he returns as king not only of the United Kingdom, but also of Australia. That’s not an easy thing to be.
Around 45% of Australians voted to ditch the monarchy in 1999, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labour Party has long aimed to hold a second referendum on the issue. But those plans were put on hold after Australians overwhelmingly rejected a plan to give greater political rights to Indigenous people in a referendum held last year.
While many Australians still favor becoming a republic, it isn’t central to the national debate these days, said Ian Kemish, a former Australian diplomat. People are more focused on the economy, the rising cost of living and the ascendance of China.
The king’s visit helps to bolster ties between Australia and the U.K., which recently signed a tripartite security agreement with the United States. The pact, known as AUKUS, will equip the Australian navy with nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, while also increasing military cooperation and information sharing in other areas.
“In my view, we have bigger fish to fry here in Australia right now than the question of whether we should continue as part of a constitutional monarchy or become a republic,” Kemish said.
As important as Australia is to Charles, his lifelong passion is the environment, and climate change is at the top of the agenda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa. The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 56 independent nations, most of which have historic ties to the U.K.
Charles has built a reputation as an outspoken environmental campaigner, calling on world leaders to work together to curb the carbon emissions that cause global warming. He will attend the summit for the first time as head of the Commonwealth, a role first championed by his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Island nations like Samoa are on the front lines of the climate emergency, with the United Nations saying they are already feeling the effects of rising sea levels, ocean acidification and more intense tropical storms.
Charles is a “genuine eco-warrior” who has earned the respect of people around the world for his stance on climate change, Whitelock said.
“Focusing specifically around environmental issues, I think, will really play to his strengths and show that actually he has a really meaningful role he could play in the Commonwealth,” she said. “And I think he knows that and will absolutely relish that.”
Charles’ presence in Samoa may help focus international attention on the threat faced by Pacific island nations, said Kemish, who once served as Australia’s ambassador to Papua New Guinea.
“These are the countries that will go below the surface of the ocean first and where the impact can be seen most dramatically,’’ Kemish said. “And I think it’s important for global attention to be brought to this part of the world. So, yes, I think a bit more than a photo opportunity. We certainly hope so.”
Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland who for decades championed Scotland’s independence from the U.K., has died. He was 69.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer paid tribute to Salmond, calling him a “monumental figure” of both Scottish and British politics.
“He leaves behind a lasting legacy,” Starmer said in a statement shared on X. “As first minister of Scotland, he cared deeply about Scotland’s heritage, history and culture, as well as the communities he represented.”
Alba Party leader Alex Salmond on the last day of campaigning in the UK General Election on July 3, 2024, in Dalgety Bay, Scotland.
KEN JACK / Getty Images
Salmond served as first minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014, and was leader of the Scottish National Party on two occasions, from 1990 to 2000, and from 2004 to 2014. Salmond, as then leader of the Scottish National Party, led the independence campaign in the referendum in 2014, but lost, gaining 45% of the vote.
Salmond resigned from the SNP in 2018 in the wake of sexual harassment allegations. He subsequently formed a new party called Alba.
Former U.K. Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Salmond was a “huge figure in our politics.”
“While I disagreed with him on the constitutional question, there was no denying his skill in debate or his passion for politics,” Sunak said on X. “May he rest in peace.”
This year’s Frieze Masters offered a beautiful juxtaposition of the natural and mechanic. Photo by Hugo Glendinning. Courtesy of Frieze and Hugo Glendinning.
London’s art world has come alive once more for Frieze week. The Big Smoke is glittering with new shows, drinks receptions and VIP dinners and along with thousands, I went to pray at the feet of art and commerce at Frieze London 2024. The habitual hum of excitement bordered on anxiety this year as a depressed art market and an expanded Art Basel Paris (due to start in a few days) invited talk about London’s rivalry with the City of Lights. Is this the beginning of Brexit’s wrestling of the European art crown from London’s hands? Frieze director Eva Langret, showcasing a vibrant and varied London art scene, seemed to successfully make the case for why not.
“Frieze was never just a trade fair,” Langret told The Art Newspaper this week, but also an opportunity for “the many conversations that you can anchor around the galleries and the many ways in which they work for the artists.” Indeed, I found much to enjoy—particularly, as is always the case with art fairs, the opportunity to discover exciting artists and galleries I had never heard of. Of course, I would be remiss not to snark that if Frieze truly wishes to be more than a trade fair, they will need to consider adjusting ticket prices to encourage wider participation.
A redesigned floor plan by A Studio Between prioritized the new and emerging galleries in the Focus section, who, rather than sulking somewhere near the back of the tent, were able to greet visitors immediately. Like last year, they impressed with innovative booths. The Focus section is known for being experimental—the galleries in this section are looking to make a name for themselves. Placed along a central corridor, we were able to interact with them repeatedly whilst navigating the fair. I was particularly excited to see Xxijra Hii steal focus with Hannah Morgan’s alabaster carvings, steelwork, pewter casts, frogged clay and soundscape. I’d previously seen a very small show in Xxijra Hii’s boxy garage-like space in Deptford, their strong showing at Frieze is a testament to the breadth and depth of the London art scene even in a struggling art market and amongst omnipresent funding cuts.
Other standouts in the Focus section included Eva Gold’s sensitive text-based work at Rose Easton (You were disgusting and that’s why I followed you, 2024), Sands Murray-Wassink’s tongue-in-cheek illustrations at Diez (Culture is not a competition, 2024) and Nils Alix-Tabeling’s camp insectile sculptures at Public Gallery. Further into the fair, the blue-chip galleries presented solid, predictable booths, showing off big names—Georg Baselitz held the fort at the White Cube and Chris Ofili at David Zwirner.
Harlesden High Street’s booth at Frieze London. Photo by Linda Nylind. Courtesy Linda Nylind / Frieze.
For all the talk about Paris and London, Mumbai and New Delhi were the cities at the top of my mind this Frieze London. Indian galleries took pride of place at this year’s fair and ran with breathtaking displays. Vadehra Art Gallery from New Delhi showcased an incredible cabinet of curiosity and banality by Atul Dodiya (Cabinet VI and Cabinet VIII), including pipes, photographs and vaguely animist figurines. Jhaveri Contemporary showcased the textile work of Sayan Chanda (Dwarapalika II, 2024) and Gidree Bawlee (Kaal (Pala) 2023), which blended together into a sublimely sensate and textural experience.
Outside the tent, there were great improvements in the sculpture park this year. Arresting, thoughtful pieces responded deftly to their environment, working with organic forms and pagan imagery to transform a jubilantly sunny Regent’s Park into an other-worldly spectacle. Visitors were greeted by Leonora Carrington’s bronze sculpture The Dancer (2011) upon entering, the figure (half-bird, half-man) melted into bucolic surroundings. Carrington‘s Dancer was swiftly followed by two bronze pillars by Theaster Gates, The Duet (2023). The works in the park were so well integrated into the grounds that the trees that littered the lawn felt like sculptures themselves, blurring the line between the natural and the man-made; one work actually hung from a tree. My favorite by far was Albany Hernandez’s Shadow (2024). This was a shadow painted under a tree in the park using water-based grass paint. The paint marked the tree’s 10:30 a.m. shade; when I arrived around 3 p.m., the tree had two delicate shadows.
Gagosian’s booth at Frieze Masters. Photo by Hugo Glendinning. Courtesy of Frieze and Hugo Glendinning.
At the other end of the sculpture park, Frieze Masters opened with a beautiful juxtaposition of the natural and mechanic. Gagosian’s slick booth of metallic sculpture by John Chamberlain and furniture by Marc Newson stood next to a wooden booth with work much softer in feel at Hauser & Wirth, with broad-ranging paintings from the 19th and 20th Centuries, including Philip Guston and Édouard Manet. In typical showman style, David Aaron followed up last year’s towering T-Rex “Chomper” with an enormous Egyptian sarcophagus from the 7th Century BCE. Thaddeus Mosley at Karma in the ‘Studio’ section—which featured solo shows of living artists and considered their studio practice—seemed like an anchor point in the fair. This is due to the booth’s central placement but also its visual impact. The booth was vast and striking; Mosley’s robust wooden towers, pulling from modernist abstraction and African sculpture, made an imposing statement.
One prominent theme with Masters was the rediscovery of important female artists, with lengthy biographies getting ample space in numerous galleries: Eva Švankmajerová was spotlighted by The Gallery of Everything, Feliza Bursztyn at The Mayor Gallery and Alice Baber at Luxembourg + Co.
All in all, the Frieze fairs were good this year—fun, even. Frieze London celebrated the contemporary art scene in London whilst showcasing talents from across the globe, particularly works by Indian stars. Frieze Masters returned to its rightful place as Frieze London’s drab older sister whilst also reintroducing some unsung talents. The sculpture park, for once, held its own and felt like a destination in and of itself. The stark October sun was shining over an overexcited city, and London, it seemed, was well and truly alive.
LUCKNOW, India (AP) — American and British climbers have been rescued after being stranded for three days on a mountain in India’s Himalayan north.
Fay Jane Manners from the United Kingdom and Michelle Theresa Dvorak from the United States were ascending a rocky section of the Chaukhamba-3 peak in India’s Uttarakhand state when they got stranded there, said Sandeep Tiwari, a senior administrative officer of Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district. The climbers were rescued on Sunday, he said.
The climbers were first reported stranded on Thursday when a rockfall severed their rope, sending their bags — along with crucial supplies like food, tent and climbing gear — into a gorge. The climbers also lost most of their communication equipment, but managed to send out an emergency message the same day.
“We were pulling up my bag and she (Dvorak) had her bag on her. And the rockfall came, cut the rope with the other bag, and it just went down the entire mountain,” Manners told local reporters on Sunday.
The rescue operation took 80 hours to complete and involved the Indian air force and the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority.
Rajkumar Negi, a spokesperson for India’s disaster management agency, said that two Indian Air Force helicopters dispatched on Friday to help with the search were unable to locate the climbers. But on Saturday, a French mountaineering team, which was also attempting to climb the Chaukhamba-3 peak, located the stranded climbers and relayed their coordinates to the rescue authorities.
The Indian air force said in a statement on social platform X that it airlifted the climbers on Sunday “from 17,400 feet, showcasing remarkable coordination in extreme conditions.”
Chaukhamba-3 is a mountain peak in the Garhwal Himalaya in northern India.
Frieze Art Week has officially kicked off in London with its first openings, as the local community and international visitors gear up for the launch of Frieze London and Frieze Masters tomorrow (October 9). Despite the buzz that some global collectors might skip London in favor of Paris due to the challenge of committing to a full two-week marathon of fairs, the city’s art scene—through its galleries and institutions—has once again curated an impressive lineup that makes a stop in the British capital worthwhile, even if just for a few extra days before heading to the next art week or fair. To help you navigate this year’s Frieze offerings, Observer has compiled a list of the top show openings to check out in London.
Mire Lee’s Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern
Visceral and uncanny, Mire Lee’s art probes the boundaries between the technological and the human. Selected for the prestigious annual Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern, she has transformed the Turbine Hall into a surreal landscape of hanging fabric sculptures and epic mechanical installations, reimagining the space as a living factory populated by alien forms and mysterious processes.
Drawing on the building’s history as a power station, Lee reflects on its monumental scale and how it mirrors humanity’s relentless drive for dominance and control over nature. She has reconfigured the hall into an industrial womb—an environment where human desires and ambitions echo through sprawling mechanical systems. Crafted from industrial materials like silicone, chains, and eerie fluids, her “skin” installations stir a complex interplay of emotions, provoking awe and disgust, desire and repulsion. The work explores horror not merely as fear, but as a gateway to alternative possibilities and future potentialities, as once theorized by Foucault. As Lee expressed in a statement, “Ultimately, I am interested in how behind all human actions there is something soft and vulnerable, such as sincerity, hope, compassion, love and wanting to be loved.”
Exploring a non-human concept of the body, the Korean artist’s intricate installations challenge the technological illusion of solidity and permanence, confronting viewers with the inevitable decay and deformation of all subjects over time. By staging this perpetual state of transformation and metamorphosis within a post-apocalyptic setting, the artist engages with a new notion of hybridity—one that blurs the line between the products of the Anthropocene and the unknown entities and processes that will ultimately supersede them.
Mire Lee’s “Open Wound” opens tomorrow (October 9) and is on view at Tate Modern through March 16.
“Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look” at the National Gallery
Detail from David Hockney’s My Parents (1977). Courtesy London’s National Gallery
Don’t miss this rare conversation at the National Gallery, which explores the inspiration David Hockney drew from the enigmatic paintings of Renaissance master Piero Della Francesca. This one-room capsule project creates a space for slow contemplation, juxtaposing two of Hockney’s works—one portraying his mother and father, and the other depicting his friend, curator Henry Geldzahler, alongside the thread that connects them: Piero della Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ. Part of the National Gallery’s Bicentenary celebrations, the project illuminates the connections that weave through art history, highlighting how it’s been a continuous journey of confrontations, inspirations and exchanges, where artists revisit and reinterpret recurring themes and archetypes according to the aesthetics and sensibilities of their own era.
Opening just ahead of Frieze Art Week, Whitechapel Gallery has set up a compelling dialogue between two artists who, despite distinct geographical and cultural backgrounds, have similarly sought to redefine the relationship between artist and audience by fostering greater interaction and a more participatory approach.
Brazilian artist Lygia Clark, a pioneer of the “Neo-Concrete Movement” (1959-1961), anticipated the notion of Relational Art by developing a new, organic concept of the artwork—one that could fluidly respond to the phenomenological space of the senses. Her creations evolved into “social sculptures” designed to engage and transform through direct interaction, unfolding within the temporal space of community and social cohesion. “Lygia Clark: The I and the You” traces her artistic journey from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, exploring how her radical approach emerged in response to a turbulent period in Brazil’s history.
In parallel, Venice Golden Lion-winner Sonia Boyce explores similar themes of manipulation and inhabitation, inviting viewers to engage, touch and experience her work in unscripted, immersive ways. “Sonia Boyce: An Awkward Relation” is conceived specifically to resonate with Lygia Clark’s exhibition, showcasing the strong synergies between the British and Brazilian artists’ experiential, participatory practices.
George Rouy’s debut solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth London, “The Bleed, Part I.” Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Following the announcement of his representation just a few months ago, the highly sought-after George Rouy is making his debut with Hauser & Wirth in London. The painter’s meteoric rise stems from his ability to resonate with a new generation of collectors, offering a visual language that captures the tensions and contradictions of the body and psyche as they navigate the physical and digital realms.
“The Bleed, Part I” showcases Rouy’s latest body of work, where he delves further into themes of collective mass, multiplicities, and human movement across different modes of existence. Playing between the “void,” where the psyche expands and projects itself, and the “surrounding,” where the physical body is in constant negotiation with external forces, Rouy’s paintings depict the push-and-pull between these realms, producing figures that are simultaneously fragmented and whole. This tension suggests the potential for a new hybrid human experience, oscillating between the linear constraints of the body and the quantum possibilities it can access.
The exhibition will continue with “Part II” at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, launching during Frieze L.A. and underscoring the gallery’s commitment to positioning Rouy as “a leading figure of the new generation of painters.”
George Rouy’s “The Bleed, Part 1” is on view at Hauser & Wirth London through December 21.
Suspended between a dreamlike world, a sentimental dimension, and a poetic space of literary references, Dominic Chambers’s paintings capture moments of joy, leisure, love, and life. His vibrant canvases are defined by intentionally surreal palettes that heighten the emotions and atmosphere of each scene. Since graduating from Yale, the young artist has swiftly risen to prominence, making his debut at Lehmann Maupin in New York soon after. Now, for his first solo show at the gallery’s London location—his U.K. debut—Chambers presents an expansive new body of work, including paintings, works on paper and color studies. His visual language has already evolved into something more allegorical, shifting from human-centered scenes to lyrical or oneiric landscapes where figures often float, yet the mood and feeling remain the true protagonists.
Drawing its title from the Greek word meraki, meaning “to pour one’s soul into one’s work,” the exhibition takes this notion as a springboard to explore how the concept of the soul—or one’s interiority—intersects with devotion and creativity. Rich in both art historical and religious references, the works tap into a more spiritual dimension, expanding beyond the sentimental intimacy that defined his earlier pieces. Deeply influenced by Magic Realism, Chambers’s paintings detach themselves from material reality, moving fluidly between inner, outer and otherworldly realms, exploring symbols, signals and intermediaries that guide us in navigating the layers of human experience.
Dominic Chambers’s “Meraki” is on view at Lehmann Maupin through November 9.
Rirkrit Tiravanija at Pilar Corrias
“A MILLION RABBIT HOLES” marks Rirkrit Tiravanija’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery. Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias
As a pioneer of Relational Art, Rirkrit Tiravanija’s work carries an inherently political charge, as demonstrated by his latest show at Pilar Corrias London. In “A MILLION RABBIT HOLES,” Tiravanija explores the deepening polarization and disillusionment surrounding the U.S. election, touching on globally pervasive sentiments as the world’s balance grows increasingly fragile. Transforming the gallery walls with forest-like wallpaper, he creates an immersive environment reflecting the charged atmosphere of American politics in the lead-up to the election, inspired by his experiences in Upstate New York.
Known for his groundbreaking installations centered around cooking and communal sharing, Tiravanija’s practice emphasizes human connections over traditional notions of art as static objects. His works often subvert societal hierarchies and behavioral norms, inviting audiences to participate actively—whether through interactions with others or through the artist’s facilitation. In his London exhibition, visitors are plunged into a world of paradoxical propaganda, surrounded by an intentionally illusory, pastoral setting that underscores the fiction of contemporary politics and the false promises of a better future.
Rirkrit Tiravanija’s “A MILLION RABBIT HOLES” is on view at Pilar Corrias, London, through November 9.
Tracey Emin at White Cube
Tracey Emin’s “I followed you to the end” at White Cube, London. Courtesy of teh Artist and White Cube.
Since her rise to fame as the queen of the Young British Artists with her unforgettable My Bed (1998), Tracey Emin has captivated international audiences with her provocatively raw yet deeply human art, addressing the peaks and valleys of existence—love, desire, grief and loss—with an unflinching honesty. Her autobiographical approach has laid bare the intensely personal yet universal experience of being a woman, capturing everything from the awakening of sexual desire and the claiming of one’s pleasure to the visceral trials of violence, shame, illness, abortion and menopause. This turbulent inner world of emotions, passions, and sensations is instinctively translated onto Emin’s canvases through bold, unplanned strokes that channel her emotional energy directly onto the surface.
Emin has never hesitated to confront the most profound physical and psychological challenges, chronicling the unique struggles of the female condition in today’s world. Her latest show in London continues the journey she began with her recent exhibition at White Cube New York last year, presenting a powerful new series of paintings and sculptures that delve into themes of love and loss, mortality and rebirth.
Every time Anna Weyant stages an exhibition, it becomes evident that beneath the buzz surrounding her private life, there’s an undeniable technical mastery that continues to evolve while remaining deeply engaged in a dialogue with art history. Drawing as much from the refined elegance of Flemish portraiture as from the dramatic chiaroscuro of Caravaggio, Weyant’s paintings are not only visually captivating but also deeply intriguing. They meticulously uphold the Western canons of beauty and “good painting”—executed with precision—but simultaneously disrupt this perfection with uncanny elements that provoke the viewer to question these very ideals.
Rendered in somber tones and pale hues, her figures often play tragicomic roles, suspended in a dreamlike, timeless space. These doll-like girls move through her canvases with a fierce presence, yet subtly reveal a concealed inner struggle—suggesting a fragile, unspoken vulnerability. They project an image of strength, wielding their allure with confidence, but betray an underlying trauma or insecurity that compels them to seek validation and admiration externally. This tension resonates perfectly with the exhibition’s title, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” Marking her London debut, the show makes these dynamics of concealment and performance even more apparent. The feminine attributes of her meticulously rendered classical bodies are only glimpsed through small windows, partially obscured by a fabric blind or a newspaper—introducing a fresh psychological layer to her latest body of work.
“Calder: Extreme Cantilever” at Ben Brown London. Courtesy of Ben Brown.
Opening on Frieze Masters Night at Ben Brown Fine Arts, this exhibition reunites Alexander Calder’s three unique cantilever sculptures for the first time, presented alongside a curated selection of oil paintings, works on paper and historically significant artifacts. The centerpiece sculptures—Extreme Cantilever, More Extreme Cantilever and Extrême porte à faux III—are on loan from the Calder Foundation and distinguished private collections, showcasing the artist’s boundless imagination and intuitive genius that firmly position him as one of the 20th Century’s leading innovators. More importantly, this grouping captures a pivotal evolution in Calder’s formal and conceptual approach to spatial abstraction, shaped by the seismic impact of the Second World War. Confronted with a world grappling with collective trauma, Calder responded with sculptures that became strikingly evocative, featuring increasingly complex forms that seem to encapsulate the anxieties of an era—a resonance that remains poignant amid today’s renewed geopolitical uncertainties.
“Calder: Extreme Cantilever” opens tomorrow (October 9) and runs on November 22 at Ben Brown Fine Arts in London.
“Enchanted Alchemies: Magic, Mysticism, and the Occult in Art” at Lévy Gorvy Dayan
Geltrude Abercrombie, Lady with Black Braid; Oil on Masonite, 8 × 10 inches (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Courtesy of Lévi Gorvy Dayan
As interest in Surrealism, now 100 years old, continues to rise, Lévy Gorvy Dayan’s latest exhibition in London delves into themes of magic, mysticism, and the occult through a collection of masterpieces primarily by Surrealist women artists such as Gertrude Abercrombie, Eileen Agar, Leonora Carrington, Elda Cerrato, Ithell Colquhoun, Leonor Fini and Monica Sjöö, placed in dialogue with contemporary figures like Francesco Clemente, Chitra Ganesh, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Bharti Kher, Linder and Goshka Macuga. Blurring the boundaries between spirituality, mysticism, and hallucination, the show provides a sweeping exploration of the human imagination across cultures and eras.
Organized into three thematic chapters—“Occultism and Dreams,” “Magic and Mysticism” and “Alchemy: Enchantment and Transformations”—the exhibition examines how artists over the past century have engaged with occult and esoteric traditions to shape and reshape their personal, cultural and historical narratives. The timing feels particularly relevant as society experiences a renewed fascination with alternative knowledge and spirituality in an era that has “killed its idols” yet still searches for new belief systems amid a pervasive sense of irrationality and uncertainty.
Genesis Belanger’s work is coming to Pace London. Fine art documentation for Perrotin, photographed and edited by Claire Dorn
New York-based artist Genesis Belanger has made a name for herself exploring the uncanny and unconscious meanings of everyday objects, crafting mysterious handmade tableaux vivants that blend mass-production aesthetics with exquisite craftsmanship across a range of materials, from wood to porcelain. She’s currently preparing for her upcoming show, “In the Right Conditions We are Indistinguishable” at Pace Gallery’s Hanover Square location, which opens on October 9 to coincide with London Art Week, but hit pause to speak with Observer about the themes shaping her new body of work.
Belanger describes the exhibition as a series of vignettes that challenge our relationships with material objects and the desires, needs and emotions we project onto them. “This idea that something or someone could all be the same, except for the context that makes one different. The context is what changes the person,” she explains. In our conversation, Belanger reflects on America’s polarized state and suggests that many of these perceived differences are actually shaped by external circumstances. In her work, she captures the tension between the homogenization of cultural habits driven by global mass production and the deeply personal stories we attach to the objects that surround us.
Underlying Belanger’s practice is a fascination with how advertising and popular culture shape our perceptions and the value we assign to material goods. Her meticulously crafted replicas of ordinary objects serve as eerie anthropological artifacts of mass consumption, revealing the layered associations and emotional weight we impart onto inanimate items. By inviting us to examine these items as symbols of our collective desires and anxieties, not to mention our deepest fears, Belanger’s installations offer a commentary on the complex interplay between consumerism and personal identity.
The surreal quality of Belanger’s art is intrinsically linked to her interest in human psychology, a fascination that both Surrealism and advertising share. “I feel like the surreal character in my work is because Surrealism is interested in human psychology and the subconscious, and so is advertising,” the artist told us. “I came to the surreal or uncanny elements through an interest in the tools advertisement uses to manipulate.” At the heart of her research lies a deep focus on psychology, which then intersects with sociology and semiotics. She’s not necessarily intentionally making work thinking about Surrealism, but she very much is thinking about human psychology.
Belanger’s practice stages scenes that hover between dreamscapes and studio sets, where miniature versions of human daily dramas are enacted through the objects that define those interactions. She examines how these items transform into symbols, becoming part of more intricate narratives. Yet, her characters (the objects) appear transient, embodying a sense of impermanence—as if they are worn-out replicas of a once-meaningful original, shadows of the objective referent drained of value and meaning through repeated remediation.
As for contrasts, Belanger’s ghostly, malleable cartoonist avatars of the real subjects have hilarious yet poetic titles, which transport them into another symbolic universe, already detached from the materialism that characterizes the capitalistic mass production and consumption from which they originate—and by which they would otherwise be condemned to rapid obsolescence. Occasionally, these objects become so malleable that they metamorphose entirely, adopting human-like features and transforming into eerie fantasies or unsettling creatures, evoking a blend of attraction and repulsion. Through synesthetic play, her sculptural creations evoke psychological responses that blur the boundaries between senses, unlocking a surreal, nonsensical realm of expression beyond any conventional linguistic code.
It’s no wonder that some of her pieces are reminiscent of characters from animation, such as those in Disney’s Fantasia. They tap into similar Surrealist imaginings, unveiling hidden aspects of the collective unconscious and conjuring a vibrant symbolic universe that resists the rigid societal frameworks of productivity and rationality.
“I’m always interested in the element of time and how, if you create a scene or an image that alludes to the presence of a person who’s no longer there, it’s like all the objects left behind are just evidence,” Belanger explains. “The viewer can access and then enter a narrative.” In this way, her works become relics—remnants that evoke human presence and their stories without depicting the actual subjects. By blending beauty, nostalgia and humor with motifs of capitalist consumerism, Belanger provokes specific psychological responses, allowing us to connect with the objects’ narratives and emotional associations. In this sense, they also serve as reminders after the loss and absence, contrasting the restless circle of consumption and destruction by freezing in time and eternalizing the emotional values associated with the original products.
The artist acknowledges that it’s impossible to escape the consumer-driven reality surrounding us. Thus, her primary source of inspiration is the overwhelming flood of products and images she encounters daily. “I live in New York, and I travel mostly by bike,” she says. “I feel like I’m just moving through this center of capitalism and seeing so much all the time. I don’t think you could exist today and not be inundated with a type of delicious image or images made to touch our desires. I’m a visual sponge; I’m absorbing every single thing that interests me.”
During this appropriation, Belanger creates critical friction between the readily available and reproducible mass-produced objects and the laborious craftsmanship behind her version of those objects. Using ceramics, wood and other natural and traditional materials, she highlights the handmade, tactile nature of her sculptures, imbuing them with a distinct material presence that transforms them into “artifacts” and cultural records of contemporary society and of the state of our civilization. This focus on craft interrupts the ceaseless flow of products and advertising, giving these objects a new weight and individuality, allowing them to stand apart from the homogenized world of consumer goods and acquire unique identities.
These layers of interpretation add depth to Belanger’s practice, especially considering how, in photographs, her art often resembles digital images created by A.I. based on inputs about our human needs. “I think it’s exciting to make an object that exists in the world, but when it’s photographed, it could just be like the imagination of an artificial intelligence,” says Belanger.
This concept complicates the relationship between her creations and the real-life objects that inspire them, highlighting how Belanger’s artistic process absorbs and transforms these influences into new material forms—similar to how A.I. processes and reinterprets data on human consumer behavior. Thus, her work reflects on the meaning and significance of objects and products, a dialogue that gains further relevance as data itself becomes more valuable than the physical items it represents. Despite these complexities, Belanger’s art ultimately encourages us to appreciate the tangible materiality of the objects we create, interact with, and integrate into our lives.
LONDON (AP) — It’s been a year since a sycamore tree that stood high and proud near the Roman landmark of Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England was inexplicably chopped down, triggering a wave of shock and disbelief across the U.K., even among those who had never seen it up close.
Known and loved by millions, the 150-year-old tree was made famous around the world when it featured in Kevin Costner’s 1991 film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.” The Sycamore Gap tree, as it was known because of its regal canopy framed between two hills, was a popular subject for landscape photographers and a great resting spot for walkers.
Now it is going to get a new lease of life — dozens of them.
The National Trust, a conservation charity that seeks to protect and open up historic places and green spaces to the general public, launched an initiative on Friday in which 49 saplings from the tree will be given to communities around the U.K. Other saplings will be sent to the U.K.’s 15 national parks and the local primary school.
The initiative, which also involves the local Northumberland National Park Authority and Historic England, the public organization that looks after England’s historic environment, is called “Trees of Hope” and aims to “create a new chapter in the life of this legendary tree.”
Each of the 49 saplings — one to represent each foot of the tree’s height when it was felled — is expected to be 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall on delivery.
People from around the U.K. are invited to apply for a tree to plant in publicly accessible spaces which have emotional connections with people and communities. Entries must be made by Oct. 25, with winners announced on Nov. 18.
“The last 12 months have been a real rollercoaster of emotions, from the hopelessness and grief we felt when we discovered that the tree had been illegally felled, to experiencing the stories shared with us about just what the tree meant to so many,” said Andrew Poad, general manager for the National Trust’s Hadrian’s Wall properties.
Also on Friday, the Northumberland National Park Authority is marking the anniversary of the felling with the opening of the first phase of an exhibition, “Sycamore Gap: One Year On,” including the largest remaining section of the tree.
Two men — Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers — have been charged with two counts over the felling of the tree. One count is for allegedly cutting down the tree and the second is for damage to the adjacent wall built by Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 122 to protect the northwest frontier of the Roman Empire. Prosecutors have calculated that the cost of the felling was around 620,000 pounds ($825,000).
Both have been released on bail ahead of their trial scheduled for early December.
For Zoë and Layo Paskin, going to a good restaurant should feel like being invited to a dinner party. It’s a welcoming philosophy that the siblings have embodied in all of Studio Paskin’s openings, from their iconic (now closed) London nightclub The End, to debut restaurant The Palomar, which opened in 2014, to Covent Garden favorite The Barbary, which opened its doors in 2016, to Michelin-starred fine dining spot Evelyn’s Table. Now, the hospitality group has expanded west with The Barbary Notting Hill, a lively restaurant that is notably bigger than all of their prior endeavors, but still retains that intimate dinner party vibe.
“I’ve always enjoyed having people to my home,” Zoë tells Observer. “So that’s, for me, how it all feels and how you’re making someone feel. And they need to feel better when they leave than when they arrive, so when they walk out that door, they think, ‘I just had a great time.’”
“It’s a bit like music,” adds Layo. “You need all the classical professional things to be there, but a little bit of the jazz that goes on top and feeling with the people who are serving you or welcoming you or are being present in that moment with you is quite important. You need to feel the whole thing is engaged.”
The Barbary Notting Hill seats 75 guests (the original has only 24), and expands on the sharing plates and flatbreads beloved at The Barbary and its sister restaurant, The Barbary Next Door. The dishes and ingredients are inspired by the Barbary Coast, a 16th-century region that comprised North Africa and southern Europe, although the dishes are modern and forward-thinking. It’s helmed by head chef Daniel Alt, who has included both classics and new offerings on the menu, which is accompanied by a 250-bottle wine list.
Guests for lunch and dinner can currently partake in two types of flatbread, accompanied by small plates like fried artichokes and dips like hummus and spinach borani. There is a range of fish preparations, from scallop aguachile to monk fish tempura, as well as larger plates of meat and seafood cooked on the fire (a personal favorite was the coffee rub organic chicken). These can be served with vegetable sides, although there’s no wrong way to order. It’s all intended as a convivial, collective experience, which Zoë describes as a “feast of flavors.”
The Coffee Rub Organic Chicken. Mickaël A. Bandassak
“In London, you’ve got a lot of reinvention of Thai food and Indian food, and with lots of cuisines here right now, you get the layering of lots of different dishes and flavors,” Layo says. “It’s a really fun way to eat, because you get a lot more food. Don’t get me wrong: It’s nice having one dish and one thing. But we’ve all been embracing, over the past few years, this option of having loads of dishes together.”
Zoë and Layo chatted with Observer about the two-year journey to opening The Barbary Notting Hill, how the menu was brought to life and where they like to dine when going out in London.
The Barbary Notting Hill took over a former gallery space. Mickael A. Bandassak
Observer: Why did you decide to open in Notting Hill?
Layo Paskin: We asked ourselves the same question. All of our places, and even going back to when we had our nightclub The End, are in central London, but neither of us live centrally. With the pause that happened during Covid, we focused a bit more on our own neighborhoods. So when we started to think about doing [another restaurant], we decided to step away from the center of town, although Notting Hill is a central neighborhood. So that started the conversation. And then, really, what often happens is, you see the site. We saw this site when it was an art gallery and it was a beautiful room. It was quite an immediate reaction to the site. A bit like when you’re searching for a flat and you see something you love. Galleries are nice because you get a sense of peace from the space. So straight away, we got a nice energy from it.
Zoë Paskin: We always hoped one day to do a corner site. The combination of that and a blank canvas was quite exciting.
How challenging was it to develop the restaurant once you found the site?
ZP: First, we had to secure the site. There were various people going for it. And then the lease took a long time, and the license had to be sorted out because it was a change of venue [type]. We actually went on a high-risk journey with this, evolving what we wanted to do but always knowing we may not quite get there. But once we started designing the restaurant, it was about what we wanted to draw from The Barbary’s core and essence. Obviously, it’s many years later in a very different location. When you find a space you always get informed by it, too. The Palomar was an old restaurant called The Spice Bazaar. The Barbary in Neal’s Yard was a skate shop.
LP: In the back of our minds, it was always to take some elements from The Barbary. We wanted to have a kitchen bar still, but we always wanted to have these bigger tables. You put down all of the things you want to include, and then you try to incorporate as much of that into the design as possible.
Inside the Barbary Notting Hill. Mickael A. Bandassak
Sitting at the counter is a big draw at the original restaurant. How did you balance having tables and a counter here?
LP: One of the biggest functions in this restaurant, from our perspective, was that the kitchen and the kitchen team could really work. So the positioning of the kitchen and the back of house informed a lot. The kitchen had to be in a certain position, which dictated where the bar is. There were two possible entrances to the restaurant, and we picked the one where your immediate reaction when you walk in is the drinks bar, with the tables to one side and the kitchen bar to the other. These are subtle things, but you think about where the thoroughfares are. If you’re sitting at a table, you don’t want a ton of people always walking past. The reality is you can’t overcome every obstacle, but I think we’ve achieved a lot of what we wanted.
How does it feel to finally open a restaurant after going through all of that?
ZP: In the middle of a service, you feel like you’ve taken this vessel out to sea. In a marvelous way. I quite like standing in the middle of the restaurant and seeing it all come together and all of the respective chatter. But, of course, it is a bigger restaurant to captain, in that sense.
LP: The nicest thing about a bigger restaurant is that there’s more places to be in it. Take our restaurant Evelyn’s Table; we can’t really be in service unless we’re actually in service because it’s so small. So it’s quite nice to be in the room orchestrating and working with the team, but not feel too in the way.
Octopus Sabzi. Mickaël A. Bandassak
How did you determine which dishes to bring from The Barbary and which dishes to introduce as new?
LP: We’ve been testing dishes all of this year. So we’ve got a big bank of recipes that work seasonally with different things, and that will react to how people in the area respond. But we tried to take all of the things that were important to take while also wanting to develop. We didn’t want to open the same restaurant in a different neighborhood. The Barbary and The Barbary Next Door are so small that there was a lot more to the story we could tell, and by doing that in a bigger restaurant with a bigger kitchen, we could have more scope. And none of it is hard and fast. It’s always evolving. That probably makes life harder work-wise, but it probably makes the restaurants have more longevity.
ZP: One of the things about the menu is the buildup of lots of flavors and lots of dishes, which is my personal favorite way to eat. I like the way they all complement each other.
LP: I like that we can also do bigger dishes. We could do a whole fish for two, which is just not feasible in any of our other places. And we’re only just beginning how we’re doing that. We’ve worked on it a lot. Even with our flatbreads, we’ve got lots of toppings and ideas, but because we have a brand-new team, we want to give them a bit of time to feel their way in. Those are the biggest changes in the dishes we’re doing—the rest of the evolutions of dishes that we’ve done and other things we’ve worked on in the same vein.
Has the concept behind The Barbary shifted since you first opened the one in Neal’s Yard?
LP: It’s developed. With The Barbary Next Door, we haven’t got a fire there, so it’s more about raw and slow cooking. That made us look at the cuisine in a different way. With The Barbary Notting Hill, we’ve gone farther into Europe than we have before. It’s the same geography of southern Europe and northern Africa, but we’ve moved that around a little bit. There’s more from southern Spain and southern Italy than we have in the original Barbary.
Did you travel to research those places?
LP: Yeah, that’s the best bit of the job! We went to Sicily. We went to Seville. San Sebastian. El Palmar de Vejer. Costa Brava.
ZP: It’s slightly more complicated now that we’ve each got children, but it’s one of the ways we get into a creative space together.
There’s still bar seating. Mickael A. Bandassak
What’s your favorite thing about opening a new restaurant?
LP: When you see it all come together and you feel that atmosphere and you see all the work, from yourselves and the team, come together. And all of that time and energy and creative endeavor comes together. It feels really, really good. And maybe you get a nice moment with a customer, either re-booking or coming up to you and saying they had a great meal. That’s when you feel, “Okay, we’re in the right area of where we want to be.”
ZP: At the end the night last night, I sat down to have some food at the bar on my own before driving home, and I managed to get to chatting with the couple next to me. I just had such a wonderful conversation with them. They had lived on Shelton Street near The Barbary and had loved it and recently had moved to Chelsea. They were so complimentary about their relationship with The Barbary and how they felt about the one they were now sitting in. It was just a magical moment. Very, very special.
It’s a nice idea to think about people having living relationships with restaurants.
ZP: They are living things, aren’t they? Like I said earlier, you’ve got this vessel and you’ve got the bar, the kitchen, the kitchen porters, the runners, the guests. People are waiting for a table patiently or impatiently. People won’t get off their table. There’s this whole improvisation going on every day where the core elements are the same but they’re completely different every day. And that’s bit where, hopefully, all of the good stuff happens.
Where do you both like to go out to eat in London?
LP: Thinking about it like relationships, I have different places for when I want different things. I like going to Bistrotheque if I’m having lunch in east London. On a night out, I’d choose somewhere like Chiltern Firehouse. If I want turbot, I’d go to Brat. If I want dim sum, Royal China Club. If I want Turkish, there’s a place in Dalston called Number 34. For takeaway, my favorite in Islington is called Afghan Kitchen. We go to all of the new openings, but some I repeatedly enjoy. For me, it’s a personal choice about what I’m in the mood to eat.
ZP: I have my favorites, too. Most recently, I keep wanting to go back to Farang. I live quite near and I like strong, spicy flavors. For old favorites in town, I love Barrafina.
What’s the most memorable meal you’ve had recently?
ZP: Whenever we order a ton of oysters and my partner shucks—that feels like a real treat at home. Or we go to the Japanese fish market near us, and we do a massive plate of sashimi at home. When I was at the end of my pregnancy, those were the two experiences I was asking for most.
LP: This summer, I was near Saint Tropez and near Dubrovnik, and both times I had lunch in beachside restaurants. Grilled fish and bottle of rose by the sea. If I can picture what my last meal should be, it’s that. Being in those moments, surrounded by friends and family, and feeling that sense of relaxed, late afternoon sun.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged on Thursday, a day after official figures showed inflation in the U.K. holding steady at an annual rate of 2.2% in August, with higher airfares offset by lower fuel costs and restaurant and hotel bills.
Central banks around the world dramatically increased borrowing costs from near zero during the coronavirus pandemic when prices started to shoot up, first as a result of supply chain issues built up and then because of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine which pushed up energy costs. As inflation rates have fallen from multi-decade highs recently, they started cutting interest rates.
The latest reading from the Office of National Statistics on Wednesday was in line with market predictions and means that inflation remains just above the British central bank’s goal of 2% for the second month running, having fallen in June to the target for the first time in nearly three years.
Last month, the central bank reduced its main interest rate by a quarter-point to 5%, the first cut since the onset of the pandemic. It was a close call though with four of the nine members voting for no change.
Most economists think the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee will take a pause on Thursday as some panel members have voiced ongoing worries about price rises in the crucial services sector, which accounts for around 80% of the British economy. Wednesday’s data showed that services sector inflation jumped to 5.6% in August from 5.2% in July as a result of higher airfares across European routes.
However, they think that the bank will most likely cut again in November, in the wake of the government’s budget on Oct. 30.
The new Labour government has said that it needs to plug a 22 billion-pound ($29 billion) hole in the public finances and has indicated that it may have to raise taxes and lower spending, which would likely weigh on the near-term outlook for the British economy and put downward pressure on inflation.
“An interest rate cut on Thursday is looking unlikely with the majority of the Monetary Policy Committee likely to want to assess the impact of next month’s budget before deciding when to loosen policy again,” said Suren Thiru, economics director at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
LONDON (AP) — The chief executive of Britain’s scandal-ridden Post Office will step down next year, the company said Wednesday, as criticism mounts over the speed of compensation payments to branch managers wrongly convicted of theft or fraud because of a faulty computer system.
Nick Read said it has been a “great privilege” to have been chief executive of the company during an “extraordinarily challenging time for the business and for postmasters.”
Read, who took the helm in 2019, announced in July his intention to temporarily step back from the role to give his “entire attention” to the next stage of the ongoing inquiry into what is one of the country’s biggest miscarriages of justice that saw hundreds of branch managers wrongly convicted. The next stage of the inquiry is due to begin next week.
“There remains much to be done for this great U.K. institution but the journey to reset the relationship with postmasters is well under way and our work to support justice and redress for postmasters will continue,” said Read, who was not at the company when the miscarriages of justice took place.
Read succeeded Paula Vennells, who has given back her Commander of the Order of the British Empire title that she received in 2019, following criticism of her actions in the top job.
The scandal around the Horizon IT scandal has been known for years but really became headline news at the start of this year when a four-part television docudrama aired.
The ITV show, “Mr. Bates vs the Post Office,” told the story of branch manager Alan Bates, played by Toby Jones, who has spent nearly two decades trying to expose the scandal and exonerate his peers.
Bates said that Read “hasn’t achieved anything for the victims” during his time as chief executive.
“It’s funny that because when I knew he’d taken seven weeks’ leave — in theory to prepare for the inquiry — I thought he’d taken seven weeks off to find a new job,” he added.
After the Post Office introduced the Horizon information technology system 25 years ago to automate sales accounting, local managers began finding unexplained losses that bosses said they were responsible for covering.
The Post Office maintained that Horizon, which was made by the Japanese company Fujitsu, was reliable and accused branch managers of dishonesty. Vennells, who was chief executive from 2012 to 2019, a period that included the last few years of the scandal, had for years insisted that the system was “robust” despite the hundreds of workers who said they had done nothing wrong.
Between 2000 and 2014, more than 900 postal employees were wrongly convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting, with some imprisoned and others forced into bankruptcy.
The number of victims is not fully known but the British government introduced legislation to reverse the convictions, brought by the Post Office itself.
The company, which is state-owned but operates as a private business, has had a unique function whereby it can prosecute its own staff without the need to contact police or state prosecutors. However, Read has said he couldn’t imagine using it again given what happened.
LONDON (AP) — Former BBC news anchor Huw Edwards, once one of the most prominent media figures in Britain, was given a suspended prison sentence Monday for images of child sexual abuse on his phone.
Edwards, 63, pleaded guilty in Westminster Magistrates’ Court in July to three counts of making indecent images of children, a charge related to photos sent to him on the WhatsApp messaging service by a man convicted of distributing images of child sex abuse.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring sentenced Edwards to a six-month prison term suspended for two years. He will be listed on a sex offenders register for seven years.
“It is not an exaggeration to say your long-earned reputation is in tatters,” Goldspring said.
Edwards’ fall from grace over the past year has caused turmoil for the BBC after it was revealed the publicly funded broadcaster paid him about 200,000 pounds ($263,000) for five months of his salary after he had been arrested in November while on leave. The BBC has asked him to pay it back.
“We are appalled by his crimes,” the BBC said in a statement after the sentencing. “He has betrayed not just the BBC, but audiences who put their trust in him.”
Edwards had been one of the BBC’s top earners when he was suspended in July 2023 over separate claims made last year involving a teenager he allegedly paid for sexually explicit photos. Police investigated and decided not to bring charges.
Although Edwards was not publicly named at the time those allegations surfaced, his wife later revealed he was the news presenter investigated and said he was hospitalized for serious mental health issues.
He never returned to the air but the BBC kept him on the payroll until he resigned in April for health reasons.
Edwards began his BBC career in Wales four decades ago. He went on to become lead anchor on the nighttime news for two decades and led the coverage of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 as well as election coverage.
The BBC said at the time of his guilty plea that it was shocked to hear the details of the charges against him.
More than 375 sexual images were sent to him on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021. More than 40 were indecent images of children, including seven classified as “category A” — the most indecent — with children estimated to be between 13 and 15. One child was aged between 7 and 9.
In chats with Alex Williams, who was later convicted of distributing child sex abuse images, Edwards was asked if he wanted sexual images of a person whose “age could be discerned as being between 14 and 16,” and Edwards replied, “yes xxx,” prosecutor Ian Hope said.
“From that chat in December 2020, Alex Williams said that he had ‘a file of vids and pics for you of someone special,’” Hope said.
Edwards asked who the subject and was then sent three images that appeared to be the same person who appeared to be aged 14 to 16, Hope said.
Williams later sent Edwards a video in February 2021 that involved two children, one possibly as young as seven and the other no older than 13, involving penetration, Hope said.
Edwards did not respond, but when asked by Williams if the material was too young, he said, “don’t send underage.” He also said he didn’t want him to send anything illegal.
Defense lawyer Philip Evans said Edwards was “truly sorry” for the offenses and the damage he had done to his family.
“He apologizes sincerely and he makes it clear that he has the utmost regret and he recognizes that he has betrayed the priceless trust and faith of so many people,” Evans said.
Evans said Williams had reached out to Edwards on Instagram at a time when he was mentally vulnerable and began sending him images. He said Edwards never received gratification from the images and hadn’t saved them or sent them to anyone.
Hope said Edwards paid Williams “not insignificant sums of money,” as gifts that Williams used while studying at a university.
At one point, Williams asked for a “Christmas gift after all the hot videos” he had sent. Edwards remarked that some of the images were “amazing,” Hope said.
Williams, 25, was given a suspended 1-year sentence in March for possessing and distributing indecent images as well as possessing prohibited images of children.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announces interest rates will remain unchanged during a news conference at the Federal Reserves’ William McChesney Martin Building in Washington, D.C., on June 12, 2024.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
A flurry of major central banks will hold monetary policy meetings this week, with investors bracing for interest rate moves in either direction.
The Federal Reserve’s highly anticipated two-day meeting, which gets underway on Tuesday, is poised to take center stage.
The U.S. central bank is widely expected to join others around the world in starting its own rate-cutting cycle. The only remaining question appears to be by how much the Fed will reduce rates.
Traders currently see a quarter-point cut as the most likely outcome, although as many as 41% anticipate a half-point move, according to the CME’s FedWatch Tool.
Elsewhere, Brazil’s central bank is scheduled to hold its next policy meeting across Tuesday and Wednesday. The Bank of England, Norway’s Norges Bank and South Africa’s Reserve Bank will all follow on Thursday.
A busy week of central bank meetings will be rounded off when the Bank of Japan delivers its latest rate decision at the conclusion of its two-day meeting on Friday.
“We’re entering a cutting phase,” John Bilton, global head of multi-asset strategy at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Thursday.
Speaking ahead of the European Central Bank’s most recent quarter-point rate cut, Bilton said the Fed was also set to cut interest rates by 25 basis points this week, with the Bank of England “likely getting in on the party” after the U.K. economy stagnated for a second consecutive month in July.
“We have all the ingredients for the beginning of a fairly extended cutting cycle but one that is probably not associated with a recession — and that’s an unusual set-up,” Bilton told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”
“It means that we get a lot of volatility to my mind in terms of price discovery around those who believe that actually the Fed [is] late, the ECB [is] late, this is a recession and those, like me, that believe that we don’t have the imbalances in the economy, and this will actually spur further upside.”
Policymakers at the Fed have laid the groundwork for interest rate cuts in recent weeks. Currently, the Fed’s target rate is sitting at 5.25% to 5.5%.
Some economists have argued the Fed should deliver a 50 basis point rate cut in September, accusing the central bank of having previously gone “too far, too fast” with monetary policy tightening.
Others have described such a move as one that would be “very dangerous” for markets, pushing instead for the central bank to deliver a 25 basis point rate cut.
“We are more likely 25 but [would] love to see 50,” David Volpe, deputy chief investment officer at Emerald Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday.
“And the reason you do 50 next week would be as more or less a safety mechanism. You have seven weeks between next week and … the November meeting, and a lot can happen negatively,” Volpe said.
“So, it would be more of a method of trying to get in front of things. The Fed is caught on their heels a little bit, so we think that it would be good if they got in front of it, did the 50 now, and then made a decision in terms of November and December. Maybe they do 25 at that point in time,” he added.
For Brazil’s central bank, which has cut interest rates several times since July last year, stronger-than-anticipated second-quarter economic data is seen as likely to lead to an interest rate hike in September.
“We expect Banco Central to hike the Selic rate by 25bps next week (to 10.75%) and bring it to 11.50% by end-2024,” Wilson Ferrarezi, an economist at TS Lombard, said in a research note published on Sept. 11.
“Further rate hikes into 2025 cannot be ruled out and will depend on the strength of domestic activity in Q4/24,” he added.
Traffic outside the Central Bank of Brazil headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil, on Monday, June 17, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In the U.K., an interest rate cut from the Bank of England (BOE) on Thursday is thought to be unlikely. A Reuters poll, published Friday, found that all 65 economists surveyed expected the BOE to hold rates steady at 5%.
The central bank delivered its first interest rate cut in more than four years at the start of August.
“We have quarterly cuts from here. We don’t think they are going to move next week, with a 7-2 vote,” Ruben Segura Cayuela, head of European economics at the Bank of America, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday.
He added that the next BOE rate cut is likely to take place in November.
South Africa’s Reserve Bank is expected to cut interest rates on Thursday, according to economists surveyed by Reuters. The move would mark the first time it has done so since the central bank’s response to the coronavirus pandemic four years ago.
The Norges Bank is poised to hold its next meeting on Thursday. The Norwegian central bank kept its interest rate unchanged at a 16-year high of 4.5% in mid-August and said at the time that the policy rate “will likely be kept at that level for some time ahead.”
The Bank of Japan, meanwhile, is not expected to raise interest rates at the end of the week, although a majority of economists polled by Reuters expect an increase by year-end.
