Laneway festival 2026: Chappell Roan leads lineup featuring Wet Leg, Wolf Alice and PinkPantheress

US pop star Chappell Roan will headline next year’s Laneway festival in Australia and New Zealand – another coup for the festival, which was headlined by Charli xcx this year.In exclusive appearances for Laneway, this will be Roan’s first New Zealand show ever, and her first Australian shows since her global ascension in 2024. The 27-year-old artist will perform the full 90-minute production that pulled the biggest crowd at Reading and Leeds festival last month, complete with fantasy castle stage set, an all-female band and gothic fairytale costumes heavily indebted to drag.The scale of these shows will be in stark contrast to 2023, when the artist toured small venues on Australia’s east coast after the release of her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. Hits including Pink Pony Club, Good Luck Babe and the recent The Giver have seen Roan graduate from camp cult favourite to bona fide superstar, headlining Coachella and Lollapalooza, and drawing record crowds with shows that are high on energy, sex and maximalist theatrics

Jimmy Kimmel: Republicans ‘working very hard to capitalize’ on Charlie Kirk’s killing

Late-show hosts recap Donald Trump’s chilly reception in the UK, his corrupt business deals with the UAE and Maga’s fearmongering around the “radical left”.On Monday night, Trump became the first US president to sue the New York Times, for defamation to the tune of $15bn. “Where does he even come up with this?” wondered Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday evening. “These are like numbers my children make up when they’re talking about money.”“I thought he said the New York Times was failing,” he added

‘The storm for Lear is inside him’: Crossing choppy seas to bring Shakespeare to Isles of Scilly

RSC touring troupe stage King Lear in a school hall on St Mary’s before continuing to the Isle of Wight“Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!” King Lear, Act III, Scene 2A fierce wind and strong swell had turned the Atlantic into a rollercoaster and when the troupe made landfall on the Isles of Scilly, several members felt rather wobbly and looked a little green around the gills.The life of a touring actor is not always glitz and glamour, but the first visit of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) to Scilly – to perform King Lear – got off to a particularly rocky start.“It was a rough crossing,” said Oliver Senton, who plays Lear, as the 15-strong cast and crew recovered on the harbourside of St Mary’s, the largest of the islands, 30 miles off the south-west coast of mainland Britain. “We’re more used to being in a van or train when we’re going place to place. But it’s wonderful to be here, breaking territory, bringing theatre to new places

Seth Meyers: ‘Trump clearly has no answer to Putin’s aggression’

As several late-night hosts take a break for the Emmys – which went to the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Sunday night – Seth Meyers looked into Donald Trump’s lack of international leadership.On Monday’s Late Night, Meyers pointed out the hypocrisy behind the Trump’ administration’s foreign policy agenda. “Trump and the GOP spent years whining that Democrats were supposedly leading from behind, and have now declared that America will be setting the world’s agenda,” he explained. “No more waiting for other countries to act – America acts first and other countries follow us. You got that, world?”Except earlier this week, Trump announced on Truth Social that he was ready to enact sanctions against Russia for flying drones into Poland’s airspace … but not until all Nato nations had agreed to stop buying oil from Russia

What do the circus and US politics have in common? Ask these Black and brown circus artists

International Black Indigenous Circus Week in Philadelphia brings together artists specializing in aerial, juggling clowning and more for various panels and showsIn an industrial building in north Philadelphia, teal and red fabric used for aerial tricks dangled from the high ceiling. Alyssa Bigbee, the co-founder of the Philadelphia-based International Black Indigenous Circus Week, called on five performers to circle around for the first rehearsal of their circus show titled The Rebellion: Anarchy. “Remember to breathe. Remember to pace yourself,” Bigbee told the group of mostly Black and brown artists. “Lean on each other and feed off of each other in terms of energy

‘We were being watched by the KGB’: how Scorpions made Wind of Change

‘A guy from our record company told me to take out the whistling. I said no way. When the song went through the roof, he came to me, bent over and said, “Kick my ass!”’Being a West German band made playing the Soviet Union in the late 1980s particularly special. We’d grown up in a divided country and had tried many times to play in East Germany, but they would never let us in. When we did our first gig in what was then Leningrad, the atmosphere was a bit grey, not very colourful or rock’n’roll – but hearts started opening up over the course of the 10 gigs we did in the city