Culture

• Two women have accused the Channel 4 reality show *Married at First Sight UK* of fostering a "toxic" culture after alleging they were raped during filming. • Participant Soraya Spiers, who spoke publicly, described the production environment as being "toxic from the top down" with an unhealthy focus on sex. • These revelations highlight serious concerns regarding the duty of care and safety protocols for contestants on high-pressure reality television sets.

The pop singer said that suggestions that a recent outfit was ‘childlike’ were rooted in sexist attitudes toward womenOlivia Rodrigo has responded to controversy over a recent babydoll dress she wore while performing on stage in Spain.The singer faced backlash online after she wore a short puffy dress with a floral pattern while performing her recent single Drop Dead at Barcelona’s Teatre Grec on 8 May. She also wears a similar style dress on the cover of her upcoming album. Continue reading...

Decision draws criticism from some commentators and free speech advocates as well as Tory leader, Kemi BadenochThe British Museum has postponed a lecture for Jewish culture month over concerns that the event would be disrupted by protesters.The museum announced that the talk on ancient Israel and Judah, which was scheduled to take place on Thursday, would be held at a later date yet to be decided. Continue reading...

• A 2026 Nielsen report indicates that Asian-led content and sports stars, such as Shohei Ohtani, are driving record-breaking viewership levels across U.S. television and streaming platforms. • The data highlights a broader cultural shift where Asian influence is significantly reshaping the landscape of American pop culture and professional sports. • In related cultural developments, director Herman Yau has released "We’re Nothing at All," a social drama focusing on the marginalized fringes of Hong Kong society.

• A 2026 Nielsen report indicates that Asian-led content and sports stars, such as Shohei Ohtani, are driving record-breaking viewership levels across U.S. television and streaming platforms. • The data highlights a broader cultural shift where Asian influence is significantly reshaping the landscape of American pop culture and professional sports. • In related cultural developments, director Herman Yau is releasing "We’re Nothing at All," a social drama focusing on the marginalized fringes of Hong Kong society.

• Yáng Shuāng-zǐ’s novel *Taiwan Travelogue*, translated by Lin King, has won the International Booker Prize, marking the first time a work originally written in Mandarin Chinese has received the honor. • The novel is described as a "double feat" for successfully blending elements of a romance with an incisive postcolonial critique. • Yáng highlighted the work's focus on the complex legacy of the Japanese empire, noting that Taiwanese perspectives on colonial history are often a conflicted mix of nostalgia and distaste.

DCMS says there must be ‘consequences for criminality’, after allegations by three women about onscreen partnersRape claims involving Channel 4’s Married at First Sight UK must be investigated, with consequences for criminality or wrongdoing, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has said.The BBC reported on Monday that two women said they had been raped during filming of the dating show, while a third described an allegation of a non-consensual sex act. Continue reading...

Lisa Nandy told the BBC she did not understand ‘sudden focus on Europe’ from Labour leadership hopefulUK politics live – latest updatesThe UK culture secretary has dismissed calls for Britain to re-enter the European Union as “odd”, a day after her former cabinet colleague Wes Streeting said the country’s future lies back in the bloc.Lisa Nandy criticised the former health secretary on Sunday, saying his comments over the weekend risked reopening a debate that was settled with the Brexit referendum 10 years ago. Continue reading...

• A lawsuit was filed accusing the Agriculture Secretary of religious coercion through workplace emails sent to staff members, raising federal civil rights concerns. • The complaint alleges improper use of official communications to promote religious viewpoints in violation of federal employment law and constitutional protections. • The case highlights ongoing tensions regarding religious expression boundaries within federal government workplaces.

The Venice Biennale, Eurovision and Cannes are framed as artists representing their nations. But in a fractured world, national identity seems increasingly futile• Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereAre the arts being drowned out by politics? A few days before the biggest week of the year in Europe’s cultural calendar, that impression may be hard to avoid. The Venice Biennale opens its doors to the public on Saturday, but talk in the run-up to the world’s largest contemporary event has focused little on the works that will go on display inside the national pavilions, and a lot on which pavilions are going to open their doors, or shouldn’t.The building housing the Russian national representation was open for press previews on Tuesday, pumping out techno, for the first time since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It’s a decision the biennale president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, seems to have made against the wishes of the Italian government that appointed him, and could cost the festival €2m in EU funds for a breach of its ethical standards. Russia has not participated in the past two editions due to its war in Ukraine. Its pavilion’s doors will be closed to the public when the biennale opens fully on 9 May, which a Ukrainian official told the Guardian was a “meaningful step”, after the biennale’s jury resigned en masse in April, in objection to entries from countries whose leaders are subject to international arrest warrants. Continue reading...

Home secretary is challenging high court decision that PA’s proscription interfered with freedom of speechThe ban on Palestine Action has created a “culture of fear” among those campaigning for Palestinian rights and judges were right to deem it unlawful, the court of appeal has heard.Shabana Mahmood is challenging the high court’s decision in February that Palestine Action’s proscription, the first of a direct action protest group, represented a “very significant interference” with the rights to freedom of speech and assembly. It also found that the ban, which remains in place pending the appeal, was a breach of the home secretary’s own policy on proscription. Continue reading...

Teacher at Marist College Ashgrove claims she suffered ‘serious psychiatric injury’ after the schoolyard incidentGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA teacher at one of Brisbane’s top private boys’ schools has claimed she was subject to a “culture of misogyny” after being surrounded by hundreds of Catholic school students and pelted with food in an incident that left her with a “serious psychiatric injury”.A barrister acting for Victoria Sparrow, a teacher at Marist College Ashgrove, told the Brisbane supreme court that the school allowed a culture of misogyny to “develop and exist”. Continue reading...

Auditor found Sarah Wedl-Wilson approved payments of public money to groups that had not been fully vettedBerlin’s top culture official, British-born Sarah Wedl-Wilson, has stood down over a funding scandal involving the the irregular distribution of €2.6m in public money for programmes to fight antisemitism.As culture senator for the Berlin regional government, Wedl-Wilson had already sacked a state secretary in her department, Oliver Friederici, over the affair this week, but the opposition called him a mere scapegoat. Continue reading...

Lisa Nandy says BBC staff have been strongly affected and have expressed frustration that high-paid presenters and executives are unlikely to be affectedThe BBC’s sudden announcement of 2,000 job cuts has had a “very strong effect” on staff, the UK’s culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has said, as employees express frustration that highly paid presenters and senior staff will not be the prime targets of the cuts.Nandy, who has been having conversations with BBC staff during discussions about the broadcaster’s charter renewal, is understood to be keen that staff are involved in making the cost-cutting plan, which will affect as many as 10% of the broadcaster’s 21,000 employees over the next three years. Continue reading...

Lisa Nandy says there are no grounds to refer Axel Springer deal to Ofcom, ending almost three years of uncertainty for titlesBusiness live – latest updatesThe culture secretary has cleared Axel Springer’s £575m takeover of the Telegraph, paving the way for the end of almost three years of uncertainty over the ownership of the titles.Lisa Nandy said that she does not believe there are grounds to intervene and refer the deal to the media regulator, Ofcom, for an in-depth regulatory investigation. Continue reading...

Director and producer is co-creator of You Are Here, a one-day immersive theatrical event traversing 75 years of youth cultureOut of chaos come great cultural movements, according to the director and producer Danny Boyle, who will inflict a little curated chaos on London’s Southbank Centre with what has been described as an “epic, one-off pop culture spectacular”.Boyle, whose 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony drew on the rich thread of British culture, is the co-creator and director of You Are Here, a one-day immersive theatrical event traversing 75 years of youth culture and social movement: think teddy boys, Lovers’ Rock, punk, Ziggy Stardust, rave, acid house, the spoken word, Brit pop, ballroom to name a few. Continue reading...

Inquiry will directly look at whether factors influenced offending and institutional response in England and WalesThe grooming gangs inquiry will directly examine whether ethnicity, culture or religion influenced offending and whether they shaped the institutional response.The statutory independent inquiry has published its terms of reference, which will be laid before parliament when it returns from recess on 13 April. The inquiry will then begin its full investigation into the group-based sexual exploitation of children in England and Wales. Continue reading...

Opening in May, Camden museum has 100,000-item archive telling story of British youth subcultures, from mods and rockers, to ravers and emoIn 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. Continue reading...

Margaret Hodge, who led report into arts funder, tells DCMS committee that grant recipients have lost confidence in the bodyArts Council England (ACE) requires a “radical” overhaul so that it is able to respond to the challenges of the culture sector, according to Margaret Hodge, who said if ACE leaders did not heed her warnings it would be a “disaster”.The Labour peer, who led a wide-ranging and critical report into ACE, made the comments at a Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee, where she reiterated her calls for the organisation to embrace reform. Continue reading...

Conservationists hope Murray Watt’s review of national marine parks will ‘right the wrongs’ of previous downgrade of protectionSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereThe federal environment minister, Murray Watt, has pledged to put an extra half a million square kilometres of Australia’s ocean out of reach of fishers and drillers in a step conservationists hope will “right the wrongs” of an Abbott-era downgrade of marine protection.Watt confirmed last year Australia would put 30% of its ocean estate under a high level of protection that bans extractive industries as part of an international agreement to protect 30% of the planet’s oceans. Continue reading...

• The U.S. House Agriculture Committee approved the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 on March 5 in a 34-17 vote after a 20-hour markup session. • GOP-proposed cuts to SNAP nutrition programs sparked partisan disputes, with Rep. Angie Craig warning they 'jeopardize the path forward for this bill.' • The 802-page bill sets policy and funding for food, agriculture, and conservation programs over five years, but faces hurdles needing Democratic support in the Senate's 60-vote threshold.

Pop Culture Con 2026 kicks off today in Houston at CityPlace Marriott, featuring a 40th anniversary reunion of 'Aliens' cast including Michael Biehn, Mark Rolston, Jenette Goldstein, Ricco Ross, William Hope, Cynthia Scott, and Carl Toop. Additional guests comprise Zach Galligan from 'Gremlins,' voice actors Salli Saffioti and Vic Mignogna, and comic creators like Mark Bagley of Spider-Man fame. The event, running March 14 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and March 15 until 5 p.m., offers panels, cosplay contests with cash prizes, and a vendor hall. Organizers expect thousands of sci-fi and anime fans amid growing convention popularity.

Pop Culture Con 2026 kicks off today at Houston's CityPlace Marriott with a star-studded 40th anniversary reunion for James Cameron's 'Aliens,' featuring Michael Biehn, Mark Rolston, Jenette Goldstein, Ricco Ross, William Hope, Cynthia Scott, and Carl Toop. The event, running March 14 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and March 15 until 5 p.m., also welcomes Zach Galligan of 'Gremlins,' voice actors Salli Saffioti and Vic Mignogna, plus comic creators like Mark Bagley. Attendees can enjoy panels, Q&A sessions, a cosplay contest with cash prizes, and a vendor hall for collectibles. Organizers expect thousands of sci-fi and pop culture fans over the weekend.