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In today’s newsletter: No Bayeux ticket? Everything you need to know about the sold-out exhibition – from its epic journey to London to a Game of Thrones likenessGood morning. If you live in the UK, you have probably heard about the Bayeux tapestry exhibition, which opens today, and you probably haven’t got a ticket. The digital queue was nine-hours long when they first went on sale in July, and the exhibition has already broken the British Museum’s record for the number of tickets sold in a single day.Some lucky individuals, including King Charles and aspiring overlord Peter Thiel, have been treated to early previews of the medieval tapestry. Guests staying at One Aldwych, a hotel where rooms go for £1,000 a night, can partake in the “Bayeux experience” with a themed cocktail (mead spritzer, anyone?), a full English breakfast and preferential access to tickets.Reform | The Met police will investigate allegations that Reform UK broke electoral law relating to overseas donations as part of a wider inquiry.UK- Israel | Prominent British rabbis have backed Ed Miliband’s sanctions on Israeli settlements, warning that the time for inaction on settler violence must come to an end.Technology | Just a day after three Anthropic researchers warned that artificial intelligence could kill off humanity within the decade, US politicians have begun lashing out about the risks of the burgeoning technology.UK news | Protesters who gathered outside a Portsmouth hotel mistook Pakistan’s under-19 cricket team for asylum seekers.US news | Donald Trump pledged to pay every adult citizen in the US $5,000 if Republicans retain the House and Senate in the midterm elections, during a marathon speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. Continue reading...

• French AI startup Mistral raised €3 billion in a Series D funding round to expand its artificial intelligence capabilities. • This investment pushes the company's post-money valuation, or its estimated market value after the investment, to more than €21 billion. • The funding increases pressure on European governments and companies to maintain a competitive edge against global AI leaders.

Eight costumes spanning Queen frontman’s career will feature in a free trail developed with his former fianceeEight famous costumes worn by Freddie Mercury, including the outfit featured on the cover of Queen’s debut album and the catsuit from the video for Bohemian Rhapsody, are to go on display at the V&A in London this autumn to mark what would have been the singer’s 80th birthday.Freddie Mercury | Splendid Things, a free trail developed with Mercury’s former fiancee and close friend Mary Austin, will run from 24 October 2026 to 17 January 2027. Austin is lending seven of the looks, which span Mercury’s career from the 1970s to his final years. Continue reading...

Second world war paintings and sketches show novelist ‘engaging with her world in a new light’For decades, they lay in a secret room in her attic gathering dust. Now, newly discovered artworks by the Booker prize-winning author Iris Murdoch – including the only self-portrait she is known to have painted, four surrealist landscape paintings and three sketches of female nudes – will go on display for the first time on Friday.The artworks were created at the start of the second world war when Murdoch was a student at Oxford. They expose her early interest in surrealism and fascination with the naked female form. Continue reading...

• Indian shuttler and 2023 World Championships bronze medallist HS Prannoy was eliminated in the opening round of the China Open 2026 after losing 10-21, 14-21 to Malaysia's Leong Jun Hao. • Devika Sihag also exited the tournament following a spirited performance in her opening match. • The results mark a tough start for India's campaign, placing more pressure on remaining players to secure wins.

Authorities have said they are still investigating the motive of the attack on Kerry Sheron, 69, by Thomas Butler A southern California man has died after an assault last week in front of his San Diego area home, which was well known for its extensive collection of US flags and signs supporting Donald Trump.Authorities confirmed on Monday that Kerry Sheron, a 69-year-old US army veteran, died days after he was attacked on Wednesday outside his home in Escondido. Police have arrested Thomas Butler, a 32-year-old who media outlets have identified as a navy veteran, on multiple charges including attempted murder, elder abuse and battery. Continue reading...

Double-sided page featuring a sketch and text sheds new light on the baroque master and his time living in RomeMore than 400 years ago, the up and coming Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens toured the streets of Rome, notebook in hand, sketching images from Renaissance works adorning the city’s churches and palazzos.Now a rare sheet, thought to be from his Roman sketchbook, has gone on display in his home city of Antwerp, shedding new light on the baroque master. Continue reading...

Exhibition of Melsonby hoard in York challenges ideas about life in northern Britain 2,000 years agoIron age objects that tell a dramatic story of female power and which dispel the myth that northern Britain was a left-behind backwater have gone on display for the first time.The objects exhibited in York are from the Melsonby hoard, the largest trove of iron age metalwork ever found in the UK, which experts say could alter our understanding of life in Britain 2,000 years ago. Continue reading...

Text on plaque in Hall of Valour updated to include references to war crime – murder charges and the ongoing legal processThe Australian War Memorial has updated the display dedicated to Ben Roberts-Smith after the former Special Air Service (SAS) corporal was officially charged with five counts of the war crime of murder.The changes, implemented on Friday, mean nearly half of the descriptive plaque in the museum’s Hall of Valour is now dedicated to events occurring after his military service, beginning with the initial reports of misconduct in 2016. Continue reading...

Attendees at Conservative Political Action Conference express support and concerns amid rift over Trump’s action Wherever you go, there you are, the saying goes. It was a lesson Donald Trump’s Maga faithful may have been reminded of last week when they gathered in a convention center near Dallas for a revival of the president’s political movement, only to find that there was no escape from the problems it faces.The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is usually a place of optimism, if not, triumph. It was on its stage last year that Elon Musk pumped a chainsaw in the air amid his abortive foray into clear cutting government bureaucracy, and where JD Vance named undocumented immigration as the “greatest threat” facing the United States and Europe. Trump is a regular, regaling the audience with lengthy monologues about his accomplishments. Continue reading...

Piece by late South African artist Dumile Feni is part of new series History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, But It Does Rhyme On the second floor of the Reina Sofía, in the very spot where Picasso’s Guernica was first exhibited when it arrived in the Madrid museum 34 years ago, there now hangs a smaller, near-namesake of the Spanish artist’s most famous work.While African Guernica, which was drawn by the late South African artist Dumile Feni in 1967, may lack the scale of Picasso’s masterpiece, its depth, anger and unnerving juxtaposition of man and beast, light and dark, and innocence and cruelty, are every bit as disturbing. Continue reading...