Why don’t Conservatives get credit for culture funding? | Letter

Helen Marriage, a hugely respected cultural leader, writes that “there is no political party that will commit to the kind of investment needed to keep a living art and culture ecology alive” (Durham’s Lumiere festival was a beacon of hope and togetherness – we cannot let the lights go out on the rest of the arts, 11 November). But she also places the responsibility on all of us. She wants the culture sector to make a better case. But can it?As commissioner for culture in the last government, I remain surprised that large funding decisions directed at culture have been forgotten, devalued and ignored, perhaps because the sources were then from a Conservative government.During Covid, culture was the only economic sector to receive its own rapid, specially designed, comprehensive rescue package

Jon Stewart on Trump’s Epstein files flip-flop: ‘This dude is flailing’

Late-night hosts tore into the next chapter of Donald Trump’s never-ending Jeffrey Epstein scandal.Jon Stewart ripped into Trump on Monday evening after the president abruptly changed tack and called on House Republicans to authorize the justice department’s release of files related to Epstein, a convicted sex offender – files which Trump himself could order to be released.“If he had nothing to hide, he could have declassified and released these files himself at any time,” the Daily Show host explained. “How do I know this? A legal expert named Donald Jurisprudence Trump said so.”Stewart then played footage of Trump from 2022 in which he insisted that the president can declassify anything, at any time, just by saying so or “even by thinking about it”

Memoirs, myths and Midnight’s Children: Salman Rushdie’s 10 best books – ranked!

As the author publishes a new story collection, we rate the work that made his name – from his dazzling Booker winner to an account of the 2022 attack that nearly killed him “It makes me want to hide behind the furniture,” Rushdie now says of his debut. It’s a science fiction story, more or less, but also indicative of the sort of writer Rushdie would become: garrulous, playful, energetic. The tale of an immortal Indian who travels to a mysterious island, it’s messy but charming, and the sense of writing as performance is already here. (Rushdie’s first choice of career was acting, and he honed his skill in snappy lines when working in an advertising agency.) Not a great book, but one that shows a great writer finding his voice, and a fascinating beginning to a stellar career

High art: the museum that is only accessible via an eight-hour hike

At 2,300 metres above sea level, Italy’s newest – and most remote – cultural outpost is visible long before it becomes reachable. A red shard on a ridge, it looks first like a warning sign, and then something more comforting: a shelter pitched into the wind.The structure stands on a high ridge in the municipality of Valbondione, along the Alta Via delle Orobie, exposed to avalanches and sudden weather shifts. I saw it from above, after taking off from the Rifugio Fratelli Longo, near the village of Carona – a small mountain municipality a little over an hour’s drive from GAMeC, Bergamo’s Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea – the closest access point I was given for the site visit.The Frattini Bivouac is not staffed, ticketed or mediated

Colbert on Trump and Epstein: ‘They were best pals and underage girls was Epstein’s whole thing’

Late-night hosts covered this week’s latest bombshell Epstein and Trump revelations and spoke about the president’s latest interview with Laura Ingraham.On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert spoke about the government shutdown likely coming to an end after “an historic impasse” (the shutdown later did end) and Democrat Adelita Grijalva being sworn in as a member of Congress, seven weeks after she won a special House election in Arizona.Colbert said she has been “reborn from the ashes” and will be the 218th and final signature needed to force a vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.He joked that on her first day she was shown around and told “down there is the room where you’re going to topple the pervert cabal”.This week saw some new emails from Epstein released which suggest Trump knew of his conduct

‘I really enjoyed it’: new RSC curriculum brings Shakespeare’s works to life in UK classrooms

Act 1. Scene 1. A classroom in a secondary school in Peterborough. It is a dreary, wet afternoon. Pupils file into the room, take their seats and face the front