Author: INDEPENDENT

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsWhen the choreographer Matthew Bourne was a teenager, he collected autographs. Waiting at stage doors on opening nights gave him a glimpse of the glamorous world of drama, music and movement that had caught his eye growing up in Walthamstow, and one of his prized signatures was from Lionel Bart, composer of Oliver! the musical.In 1994, eight years after he launched his dance company, then known as Adventures in Motion Pictures, now as New Adventures, he met Bart…

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailThe 20-year-old who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump last week flew a drone over the Butler, Pennsylvania rally site hours before the former president took the stage.Thomas Matthew Crooks sent the drone over the site the morning of July 13, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing law enforcement officials briefed on the shooting. He used a pre-programmed flight path, which officials said may mean he used the drone more than once to scope out the area, according to…

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsUnpack your pac-a-mac, fire up your funny bone and gird your loins. In fact, gird everything. It’s the Fringe.With more than 3,500 shows – from big serious plays in proper theatres to intense one-on-one experiences set in a toilet (yes, really) – no one can claim the world’s biggest arts festival hasn’t returned to its pre-Covid heights. This year boasts some big names in comedy and theatre – previous comedy prize winners Hannah Gadsby and…

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekdayYour briefing on the latest headlines from across the US The gunman in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump is believed to have flown a drone around the Pennsylvania rally site ahead of time in an apparent attempt to scope out the site before the event, a law enforcement official said Saturday.The drone has been recovered by the FBI, which is leading the investigation into last Saturday’s shooting at the rally by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.Crooks fired multiple rounds from the roof of…

Ukraine getting ‘closer and closer’ to becoming Nato member, says secretary generalFor free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsAir raid sirens sounded across Kyiv on Sunday morning as air defence systems repelled a Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital.The Ukrainian air force said they shot down 12 Shahed-type drones and one “UAV of unspecified type”, possibly a new form of low-altitude attack drone.The attack on Kyiv comes as the death toll from a Russian strike on a playground in Mykolaiv rose to…

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekdayYour briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Donald Trump’s campaign released an update on the former president’s health Saturday, one week after he survived an attempted assassination at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.The memo, from Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, who served as Trump’s White House physician, offers new details on the nature of the GOP nominee’s injuries and the treatment he received in the immediate aftermath of the attack.According to Jackson, Trump sustained a gunshot wound to the right ear from a…

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailDonald Trump called Project 2025, a 900-page blueprint for his second presidency, “seriously extreme” at his first rally since the assassination attempt against him.Trump made the comments at a rally in Michigan on Saturday afternoon. The event comes one week after Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally last weekend. Crooks killed one attendee and injured two others while one of his shots grazed Trump’s ear.“Like some on the right, severe right, came up with…

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailDonald Trump said he’d like to take North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to a baseball game as he boasted about their friendship at a Michigan rally on Saturday.The former president said he “got along” great with Kim when he was in office.“It’s a good thing to get along not a bad thing. I used to tell him, ‘why don’t you do something else?’ All he wants to do is buy nuclear weapons and make them,” Trump said of…

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailDonald Trump traveled to Michigan on Saturday for his first campaign appearance since being shot last week, and his first alongside his newly announced running mate JD Vance, the US senator for Ohio. His ear may have been bandaged, but otherwise, Trump seemed little different than his old self, continuing to mock Democrats, lie about the 2020 election, demonize migrants in racist terms, praise right-wing dictators, and tell bizarre stories of dubious truthfulness.Trump didn’t waste time in quickly…

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsIsraeli planes bombed Houthi-linked sites in Yemen in retaliation for a drone attack on Tel Aviv on Friday.The Israel Defense Forces struck targets in Yemen’s Hodeidah port on Saturday. Houthi-run media has reported the strikes were deadly, according to CNN. Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam said the strikes also hit civilian areas and a power station, CNN reports. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strike was a direct response to the Houthi’s strike on Tel…