Mona Lisa to be moved as part of major Louvre overhaul
The Mona Lisa will be moved to a new exhibition space at the Louvre in Paris as part of a plan to renovate the world’s most frequented museum. Emmanuel Macron stood in front of the masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci as he made the announcement to an audience of dignitaries, with the change to be introduced by 2031 and visitors charged separately to see the painting. The French president was outlining his New Renaissance project, which will also involve an international competition to design a second entrance to relieve the growing pressure of visitor numbers beneath the famous glass Pyramid. Tariff changes will also be introduced from next January so non-EU residents – including UK tourists – pay more to visit.
RSC announces world premiere of Roald Dahl’s BFG
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has announced that it will be adapting Roald Dahl’s children novel The BFG for the stage. Working alongside Chichester Festival Theatre and the Roald Dahl Story Company, the new stage adaptation will open at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon for a 10-week run over the festive season in 2025. The BFG tells the story of a young orphan named Sophie who befriends a giant and they embark on a mission together to stop other giants from eating children. The show is the first RSC stage adaptation of a Roald Dahl novel since Matilda the Musical in 2010. The production will be directed by RSC’s co-artistic director Daniel Evans. Speaking to BBC News, he said he was excited about the show and that it would appeal to both adults and children as “everyone has dreams and the story shows that if you believe hard enough, your dreams can come true”. Another important character in the book is the Queen who helps the BFG and Sophie save the children. Based on Queen Elizabeth II, Evans said that as adults will have grown up with her as their monarch, there’s something “even more poignant” about her character. Facebook X Threads Related Post Facebook Tiktok Instagram Threads
Six Nordic paintings that can help us rethink winter
Winter isn’t all bad – these “sublime” landscapes of the frozen North from the turn of the 20th Century offer us a way into resilience – and an “acceptance of the seasonality of life”. With its bare trees, long nights and icy temperatures, it’s perhaps unsurprising that, culturally in the Northern Hemisphere, we seem so conditioned to complain about winter. Yet, as the author Katherine May points out in her 2020 book Wintering, winter is also a valuable time for rest and retreat. “Winter offers us liminal spaces to inhabit,” she writes. Its “starkness”, she argues, re-sensitises us, and “can reveal colours that we would otherwise miss”.
El Salvador offers to lock up US criminals in its mega-jail it’s very Fantastic
Cek satu El Salvador has offered to take in criminals deported from the US, including those with US citizenship, and house them in its mega-jail. The deal was announced after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele during his visit to the central American nation. Bukele – whose iron-fist approach to gangs has won him plaudits from voters but been heavily criticised by human rights groups – said he had offered the US “the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system”. Rubio said the US was “profoundly grateful” to Bukele, adding that “no country’s ever made an offer of friendship such as this”. Rubio told reporters: “He has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those with US citizenship and legal residency.” Facebook X Threads Related Post Facebook Tiktok Instagram Threads
China counters Trump’s tariffs with measured opening move
Beijing has made its decision. After days of warning of counter measures and urging Washington to enter negotiations and “meet China halfway”, it has decided to hit back – or at least threaten to retaliate with its own tariffs. China said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the US from 10 February. The date is important. It means there is still time for the world’s two largest economies to step back from the brink of a trade war. The two leaders have scheduled a call later this week, according to the White House, and there are signs, despite today’s announcement, that China is in listening mode and is keeping the door open for talks.
Man who ran length of Africa reveals new challenge
A man who ran the entire length of Africa has announced his next challenge – running the full length of New Zealand. Russ Cook, nicknamed Hardest Geezer, completed his previous endurance challenge in April last year after 352 days. The 27-year-old, from Worthing, West Sussex, is to run the 1,864 mile (3,000km) Te Araroa Trail in March, which will see him take on 60 ultramarathons while navigating mountains, forests, coastlines and cities. “After a big challenge, it took some time for the body to get back to reality. But I’m feeling fresh and ready for the next one,” he said.
Tax relief for Indian middle class – but will it boost economy?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s coalition government has unveiled its first full-year budget after his party lost an outright majority in parliament last year. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced measures to counter slowing growth, rising prices and flagging consumption among the middle class in Asia’s third-largest economy. After a period of world-beating growth of more than 8%, India is set for its slowest economic expansion in four years as stagnant wages and high food prices hit consumer spending and corporate profits. Here are five key takeaways from India’s union budget:
US sovereign wealth fund could buy TikTok, Trump says
US President Donald Trump has taken the first step towards setting up a sovereign wealth fund for the United States, and suggested that it could end up buying TikTok. The president signed an executive order on Monday, to kickstart the process, saying the fund would soon be “one of the biggest”. More than 90 countries have sovereign wealth funds, investing surplus income for the benefit of future generations. However, the US currently runs a budget deficit. “We’re going to create a lot of wealth for the fund,” Trump told reporters, without clarifying where the money would come from.
‘A brutal reality for Man Utd’ – McNulty’s deadline day verdict
There will be widespread consternation among Manchester United fans that they leave the transfer window with their already slim attacking options even thinner than they were when it opened. Head coach Ruben Amorim effectively wiped Marcus Rashford from his mind, leaving the exiled 27-year-old to join Aston Villa on loan, with United sources stating a minimum of 75% of his wages will be covered at Villa Park. Amorim’s decision to play teenage England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo as a false nine in the 2-0 home defeat by Crystal Palace, ahead of expensive recognised striker Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee, delivered a damning verdict of how little he feels he has at his disposal with that pair. This lack of a striker will be the biggest talking point of a United transfer window that brutally outlined their reduced circumstances, mocking their status as the world’s third richest football club.
‘It could illuminate an area the size
Vladimir Syromiatnikov’s bold attempts to light up Siberia with a space mirror captured global attention. The BBC’s Tomorrow’s World reported on an ambitious experiment that was launched on 4 February 1993. It sounds like a scheme a James Bond villain might hatch: launching a giant mirror into orbit to harness the Sun’s rays, then redirecting them to beam down on a target on Earth. Yet this was exactly what the Russian space agency Roscosmos attempted to do on 4 February 1993. But the aim of the Znamya (meaning banner in Russian) project was not a dastardly plot to hold the world to ransom. Its more utopian goal, as presenter Kate Bellingham explained on BBC Tomorrow’s World before Znamya’s launch, was “to light up Arctic cities in Siberia during the dark winter months”. Essentially, it would try to switch the Sun back on again for Russia’s polar regions after night fell.