Ministers consider charging tourists to enter national museums in England

Ministers are considering charging international tourists to access permanent collections at national museums as part of an initiative to improve arts funding.The government said there was a need for long-term options to fund the struggling arts sector in its response to a review of Arts Council England, which distributes public funding to the arts. Among the options cited was a hotel levy, a policy being consulted on.But Alison Cole, the director of the Cultural Policy Unit thinktank, said charging international tourists would be a “very bad idea”.“There’s a much better way to save our wonderful civic museums and cultural infrastructure across the country, and that we believe is a hotel levy,” she said

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s election integrity push: ‘Like Bill Cosby telling you he’ll watch your drink for you’

Late-night hosts mocked Donald Trump’s mail-in voting as he tries to end mail-in voting, ICE agents in US airports and a mysterious “gift” from Iran.On Tuesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host checked in on Donald Trump’s efforts to pass the so-called Save America act. The sweeping restrictive voting bill would require proof of US citizenship for new voters and end mail-in voting, or what Trump called “mail-in cheating”.“That’s right, he prefers in-person cheating,” Kimmel quipped.“He keeps saying that it was brought to his attention today that we’re the only country that does mail-in voting – when is someone going to step in and tell him that’s not true?” he continued

Jon Stewart on Donald Trump’s Iran lies: ‘Our Supreme Misleader’

Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s tweet celebrating Robert Mueller’s death, his ICE intervention at chaotic airports and his bluffing on “talks” with Iran.Jon Stewart hoped you had a happy Monday, because “the dizzying, chaotic carnival ride that is Donald Trump’s America continues to careen down Shitshow Hill”, he said on The Daily Show. “It’s fucking madness out there: TSA lines longer than your actual trip, escalating threats in the Middle East, planes driving into trucks.”In fact, “the only thing giving me joy is looking forward to this season of The Bachelorette”, he joked, referring to the doomed season with The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul, pulled three days before its premiere after video surfaced of a previously reported domestic violence incident from 2023. “I mean, they’ve got a strong Mormon woman

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at 60: Elizabeth Taylor still crackles with feral energy

After a long day at work, we may not instinctively leap to films about toxic marriages and relationship breakdowns – but by God they can make good drama. Blue Valentine, The Squid and the Whale and A Separation are some of the great portraits of love turned septic. But perhaps greatest of all is Mike Nichols’ directorial debut – a sizzling adaptation of Edward Albee’s legendary Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which arrived in 1966, four years after the play, and helped cement it in the zeitgeist.The film was nominated for every eligible Academy award and won five, including best actress for Elizabeth Taylor, who delivers a searing performance as the ferocious yet vulnerable Martha. It’s lost none of its gut-busting charge today and her brilliantly performed experience still crackles with emotional electricity

Punk masks, Walkmans and Choppers: Museum of Youth Culture to open in London

In the basement of a new-build housing block in Camden, the ventilation system is working flat out. The fans whir like a chainsaw orchestra bouncing around the concrete room as they attempt to deal with a slight damp problem. “This is what it’d sound like if there was a fire!” shouts Jon Swinstead, the driving force behind the Museum of Youth Culture, as he tries to make himself heard above the din.It’s hard to imagine but in a few weeks this empty, slightly soggy space will be transformed into an institution dedicated to all things teenage – a project Swinstead has been working on in one way or another for almost 30 years.Opening on 15 May, the museum has amassed a 100,000-item archive that tells the story of British youth subcultures from mods and rockers, to ravers and emo

‘Audiences told us we didn’t show enough teacher sex’: how we made Waterloo Road

‘In series one, it was bullying, drugs and alcohol. Twenty years on, it’s vapes, cyber-bullying and bloody energy drinks’I was working on women’s prison drama Bad Girls when the idea for Waterloo Road came up. Bad Girls creators Maureen Chadwick and Ann McManus had a fiery belief in social justice and did rigorous research. Those are often the foundations of successful serial drama. Ann had once taught in a Glasgow comprehensive and was passionate about education: she believed we write off young people too readily