Theft of four works on national holiday described as wound to historical memory and cultural identity of city of MessinaFour of the most important works of art by the 15th-century Renaissance master Antonello da Messina were stolen during a national holiday from a museum in the Sicilian port city of Messina.Thieves gained access to the Regional Museum of Messina, or MuMe, on Saturday evening, possibly capitalising on attention being focused on La Vara, a huge religious festival that takes place in the city on 15 August, when Italy marks the Ferragosto national holiday. Continue reading...

16 Aug 2026 13:44 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Exclusive: Guardian analysis finds one section of report includes links to academic articles that do not exist, but authors deny the references were made up by AIFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe authors of a report testing the technology underpinning Australia’s social media ban have conceded ChatGPT was used in editing, but denied a number of citation errors in the report were due to AI hallucinations.The $3.48m age assurance technology trial, run by the UK-based Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) last year, tested various types of technology that could be used by social media platforms as part of Australia’s under-16 social media ban. Continue reading...

17 Aug 2026 02:58 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Hundreds watched the 56-metre monument’s consecration, including anti-communist leader Lech WałęsaAn enormous statue of the Virgin Mary that is believed to be Europe’s tallest was inaugurated on Saturday in a small Polish village, in the presence of the anti-communist leader Lech Wałęsa.Hundreds of people took part in the consecration of the monument, which towers 55.6 metres (182ft) over Konotopie in central Poland, a village of fewer than 150 people. Continue reading...

16 Aug 2026 15:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Searchers dig through collapsed buildings and debris after 7.7 magnitude quake killed at least 53 peopleRescue crews dug through collapsed buildings and landslide debris in eastern Indonesia on Sunday as they searched for bodies and possible survivors a day after a powerful earthquake killed at least 53 people, injured more than 100 and displaced thousands.At least 24 people died in Manggarai regency and 17 in neighbouring East Manggarai, with additional fatalities reported in Sikka, Ngada and Ende regencies, the national disaster management agency said. Rescuers were still searching for people feared buried beneath landslides triggered by the quake across six regencies on Flores, a predominantly Catholic island in Muslim-majority Indonesia. Continue reading...

16 Aug 2026 03:57 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

This fictional memoir by Octavius’s right-hand man shows us bloodshed, betrayal and hectic jockeying for powerIf you’re one of those people who thinks about the Roman empire several times a week, Robert Harris has you covered. He follows his trilogy of novels about the life of Cicero and his one-off about the unpleasantness in Pompeii with a narrative that takes us from civil war through the assassination of Julius Caesar, with all the bickering and bloodshed that follows, on to the decisive battle of Actium and Octavius’s apotheosis as Caesar Augustus. We meet Cicero, Fulvia, Lepidus, two Caesars and a burly Antony (“Imagine, if you will, a statue of Hercules with a club in one hand, a wineskin in the other”).Here’s the clever bit: he narrates it all from the point of view of Octavius’s right-hand man, Agrippa, a much less well-remembered figure. Harris tells us he “left behind no speeches, few letters and only a couple of sentences of direct quotation”. Yet Agrippa was “effective co-ruler of the Roman world for many years” and “the greatest general of the period”. Octavius couldn’t have risen without him, but he seems to have done his best to write him out of the story afterwards, according him only two passing mentions in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti. Continue reading...

17 Aug 2026 06:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

The O2, LondonOn her last live dates before she steps back from the public eye, Grande holds her own – but it’s also impossible to avoid feeling concerned for her wellbeingThere’s a thrum of excitement in the air as an eight-minute countdown starts and Ariana Grande’s unmistakable silhouette appears on a giant backlit curtain on the stage of the O2. Is it actually her? Posing there for eight minutes before the show starts? It can’t be. But is it? It’s the first time we question what is and isn’t real at this Eternal Sunshine tour stop, a 10-night residency and a robust arena show that ultimately wants us to see one thing and experience another.Collectively, we’ve been scolded for talking about it – the “endless, ongoing public scrutiny” of Ariana Grande’s body has pushed her to “[take] a step back from visibility” when this tour ends. It can’t be nice or fun to have your body examined and discussed for any reason but it is impossible to witness the 33-year-old’s frame on stage and not be gripped by genuine concern for her. Two songs in, a lump forms in my throat, which is not the intended effect of Positions, the zippy title track of her 2020 album. As the set around her is engulfed in digital flames, Grande sings about her infinite flexibility vis a vis relationship boundaries and sexual olympics and all I can think is: she looks like a little kid. Continue reading...

16 Aug 2026 14:20 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

When sobersided Max agrees to chaperone zany childhood pal Doug to a big night with the lads, everything goes predictably wrong, but some real surprises awaitDoug, the incessant funster played by Gregory Fung in this jaunty but finally poignant buddy comedy, joins the likes of The Hangover’s Alan Garner as the nightmarish BFF most likely to give you an aneurysm. After losing a round of bagsy, childhood pal Max (Reece Henderson) is saddled with chaperoning Doug to their annual lads’ night out, taking place in, of all places, Orford, Suffolk. Their car gets a flat tyre, leaving them stranded the titular 49 miles from their destination; of course Doug insists that walking the whole stretch will be a good laugh.Hitting the beers at 10am, Doug is a one-man ambush: insisting on the miraculous properties of duct tape, demonstrating how he’d beat a whale in a fight, writhing around like a toddler in a precarious rubber dinghy. Contrasting him with Henderson’s straight man, director Oliver Cox doesn’t completely sanction this buffoonery. But his film also likes to run with its own absurdist streak, such as the driver (Caroline Webster) whose definition of going “not very far” turns out to be 10 metres down the road, or her lending them her “son’s bike” (a children’s tricycle) to help speed them on their way. If it gets over-silly at points, as with a bout of berry-induced squits, Cox operates with a curious unfilteredness, as if he’s letting some screwy family vernacular play out. Continue reading...

17 Aug 2026 06:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN