News Desk

Arrest comes after appeals court handed jail terms to opposition leaders, businessmen and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow President Kais Saied.

Tunisian police have arrested prominent opposition figure Chaima Issa at a protest in the capital Tunis on Saturday, lawyers said.

The protest came after an appeals court on Friday handed jail terms of up to 45 years to opposition leaders, businessmen and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow President Kais Saied. Issa was handed a 20-year sentence during the trial.

“They will arrest me shortly,” Issa had told the Reuters news agency moments before her arrest.

“I say to the Tunisians, continue to protest and reject tyranny. We are sacrificing our freedom for you”.

She described the charges as unjust and politically motivated.

Police are also widely expected to arrest Najib Chebbi, the head of the opposition National Salvation Front, the main opposition coalition challenging Saied.

He received a 12-year prison sentence, and opposition figure Ayachi Hammami received a five-year sentence.

Human Rights Watch on Friday described the trial as a “travesty of justice”, saying it was “political, unfair, and without the slightest evidence” against the defendants.

In a statement to the AFP news agency, the US-based rights group condemned the “shameless instrumentalisation of the judiciary to eliminate Saied’s opponents”.

Meanwhile, UK-based rights group Amnesty International said the ruling was “an appalling indictment of the Tunisian justice system”, condemning “a relentless campaign to erode rights and silence dissent” in Tunisia.

During a sweeping power grab in July 2021, Saied suspended parliament and expanded executive power so he could rule by decree. Since then, the president has jailed many of his critics.

Many of the powers that Saied had taken for himself were later enshrined in a new constitution, ratified in a widely boycotted 2022 referendum, while media figures and lawyers critical of Saied have been prosecuted and detained under a “fake news” law enacted that same year.

Saied says his actions are legal and aimed at ending years of chaos and rampant corruption.

The pope is visiting Turkiye until Sunday on his first overseas trip as pontiff, which also includes a visit to Lebanon.

Pope Leo XIV has visited Istanbul’s famed Blue Mosque on the third day of his trip to Turkiye, his first known visit as leader of the Catholic Church to a Muslim place of worship.

The first US pope bowed slightly before entering the mosque early on Saturday and was led on a tour of the expansive complex, able to hold 10,000 worshippers, by its imam and the mufti of Istanbul.

Leo, walking in white socks, smiled during the 20-minute visit and joked with one of his guides, the mosque’s lead muezzin – the official who leads the daily calls to prayer.

“He wanted to see the mosque, he wanted to feel the atmosphere of the mosque, and he was very pleased,” Askin Tunca, the Blue Mosque’s muezzin who calls the faithful to prayer, told reporters.

Tunca said after the mosque visit that he asked Leo during the tour if he wished to pray for a moment, but the pope said he preferred to just visit the mosque.

The Vatican said in a statement immediately after the visit that Leo undertook the tour “in a spirit of reflection and listening, with deep respect for the place and for the faith of those who gather there in prayer”.

While Leo did not appear to pray during the tour, he did joke with Tunca. As the group was leaving the building, the pope noticed he was being guided out a door that is usually an entryway, where a sign says: “No exit.”

“It says no exit,” Leo said, smiling. Tunca responded: “You don’t have to go out, you can stay here.”

The pope is visiting Turkiye until Sunday on his first overseas trip as pontiff, which also includes a visit to Lebanon.

Leo, a relative unknown on the world stage before becoming pope in May, is being closely watched as he makes his first speeches overseas and interacts for the first time with people outside mainly Catholic Italy.

The Blue Mosque is officially named for Sultan Ahmed I, leader of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617, who oversaw its construction. It is decorated with thousands of blue ceramic tiles, the basis of its popular name.

Unlike his predecessors, Leo did not visit the nearby Hagia Sophia, the legendary sixth-century basilica built during the Byzantine Empire, which was converted into a mosque under the Ottoman Empire, then became a museum under Turkiye’s newly established republic.

But in 2020, the UNESCO World Heritage site was converted back into a mosque in a move that drew international condemnation, including from the late Pope Francis who said he was “very saddened”.

I’m A Celebrity star Alex Scott opens up about being taken to the medical tent during a wide-ranging interview with the Mirror after she left the jungle

TV presenter Alex Scott was forced to go to the medical tent in scenes not aired by ITV. She says that she was left “panicking” after a tic burrowed into her shoulder – and Kelly Brook demanded she sought help,

She said: “I was sitting next to Martin after carrying the logs and I felt my shoulder, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a big spot that’s come up.’ I asked him to have a look, then Kelly jumps up and says, ‘It’s a tick.’ I was panicking as she was shouting that I needed to get to medical. I knew about ticks and leeches, but I always thought it wouldn’t happen to me. They got it off but no one else has had one.”

She also revealed that Ginge was affected by leeches too in the wet conditions. Alex opened up to the Mirror as part of a wide-ranging interview. In it she told how her heart sank when she realised Jess Glynne wasn’t waiting for her when she left. The former England star already knew there was a chance that her popstar partner wouldn’t be waiting.

Before she even flew to Australia, Jess’s mum had suffered a stroke, and Alex agonised over whether to pull out of the show. In the end, it was Jess who told her she had to go. “It’s been a tough time for us and obviously her family, and it was a tough decision to come into the jungle, but then Jess never wanted me to step away from not doing it,”

Alex said. “I knew there was always a possibility of her not being across the bridge, if her mum hadn’t got better, or if things had been getting worse, which they have been. But it was a big decision for me to not pass this opportunity, and Jess was the one that pushed me to be here.”

Hours after Alex left the jungle, Jess posted on social media as to why she wasn’t there to greet her. In an emotional statement, she told how over the last few weeks her mother had “suffered a major stroke and needed urgent brain surgery.” She added: “It’s been a really serious, life-altering time for my family, and I’ve had to stay close to home. Alex would always want me to be where l’m needed most. I can’t wait to have her back by my side.”

Asked if she considered pulling out of the show, Alex said: “Oh, yeah, absolutely, 100 percent. But Jess was the one that wanted me to do this, so that’s why I wanted to go in and still make her proud.”

Alex also opened up about being embroiled in one of the camp’s biggest talking points: her salt smuggling operation. The camp had a star taken away after she was spotted sneaking seasoning on crocodile feet.

“I felt like such a naughty schoolgirl, like I should have been put in detention or something,” she laughs. “We had stopped at a service station, and they just had all these little sachets of salt and pepper. I was staring at them for ages, like, ‘Shall I? No… they’ll frisk me.’ But I put them down my socks and didn’t get checked.” And she reveals that a string of other campmates knew about her secret contraband stash. “Jack knew about it, Ginge saw me one night… he just kept giving me the eye. Shona knew about it from early days,” she admits.

As for who she thinks will be crowned this year, Alex says it’s likely to come down to the fan favourites. “Personally, I think, from the public and how the trials have been going, it’s going to be Ginge or Aitch between those two. Because of their fan base and how they’ve come across. I’d love for Shona to win, that would be a beautiful story. But I think it’ll be between one of the boys.”

Nov. 29 (UPI) — The nation’s consumers spent a record $11.8 billion on Black Friday, which exceeded the amount spent during in-store visits on the day after Thanksgiving.

Adobe Analytics data show a combined total of more than 1 trillion online visits to retailers’ websites, during which consumers spent the record amount that exceeded 2024’s Black Friday spending by 9.1%, Forbes reported.

Consumers also spent $6.4 billion online on Thanksgiving, according to Adobe Analytics.

The final numbers for Black Friday in-store spending were not available on Saturday, but analysts said it is less than the online total.

“Cyber Week is off to a strong start, with online spending on Thanksgiving and Black Friday both coming in above Adobe’s initial forecasts,” Adobe Digital Insights lead analyst Vivek Pandya said, as reported by Forbes.

“This was driven in large part by competitive deals across categories, like electronics, toys and apparel,” Pandya said.

“Discounts are set to remain elevated through Cyber Monday, which we expect will remain the biggest online shopping day of the season and year.”

Adobe Analytics had predicted an 8.3% rise for ecommerce retailers, but online buyers spent an average of $12.5 million per minute to break the 9% mark for online sales.

Mastercard SpendingPulse reported even more robust year-to-year increases in Black Friday sales, with 10.4% for online and 1.7% for in-store purchases.

Jewelry and apparel ranked among the leading product categories for online and traditional retailers, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse.

While the total spent in stores on Black Friday was up from 2024, foot traffic was down.

Black Friday foot traffic was down by 3.6% from 2024, according to RetailNext.

Shoppers are changing how they go about making holiday purchases and are spending less time inside stores than they did during prior holiday seasons.

Many online shoppers were aided by artificial intelligence to locate online deals, with Adobe Analytics reported an 805% increase in AI-driven traffic to retail sites in the United States when compared to 2024.

The Black Friday numbers help the National Retail Federation to assess the impact of the holiday season, which runs throughout November and December.

The NRF is scheduled to update its holiday spending outlook on Tuesday.

British playwright Tom Stoppard, a playful, probing dramatist who won an Academy Award for the screenplay for 1998’s Shakespeare In Love, has died. He was 88.

In a statement on Saturday, United Agents said Stoppard died “peacefully” at his home in Dorset in southern England, surrounded by his family.

“He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language,” they said. “It was an honor to work with Tom and to know him.”

When it comes to the world of comic invention and linguistic pyrotechnics, few dramatists of the 20th century could match Stoppard’s scope and sustained success.

From his earliest hit, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, in 1966, through to 1993’s, Arcadia, and, Leopoldstadt, in 2020, Stoppard engaged and amused theatre-goers with a highly individual brand of intellect.

His writing was often philosophical or scientific, but consistently funny, a distinctive style that gave rise to the term Stoppardian. It refers to the use of verbal gymnastics while addressing philosophical concepts.

“I want to demonstrate that I can make serious points by flinging a custard pie around the stage for a couple of hours,” the Czech-born Stoppard said in a 1970s interview.

“Theatre is first and foremost a recreation. But it is not just a children’s playground; it can be recreation for people who like to stretch their minds.”

Early years

Stoppard was born Tomas Straussler on July 3, 1937, in what was then Czechoslovakia, the son of Eugen Straussler, a doctor, and Marta (or Martha), nee Beckova, who had trained as a nurse.

The Jewish family fled the Nazis and moved to Singapore when he was an infant.

But Singapore also became unsafe, and, with his mother and elder brother Peter, he escaped to India. His father stayed behind and died while fleeing after Singapore fell to the Japanese.

In India, Marta Straussler married a British army major, Kenneth Stoppard, and the family moved to England.

Boarding school followed at Pocklington in Yorkshire, northern England, before Stoppard left school at age 17.

He decided not to go to university. Instead, he went straight to work as a reporter on a local newspaper in Bristol, in western England.

While he found reporting daunting, he threw himself into working as a theatre and cinema critic, and his love of drama took hold.

Award-winning career

His breakthrough came with the overnight success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe of, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a tragicomedy centred around two minor characters from Shakespeare’s, Hamlet.

It moved to London’s West End, before winning a Tony Award for best play in the United States.

“What’s it about?” was a frequent response from bemused theatre-goers about the play. Tired of being asked, Stoppard is said to have replied to a woman outside a theatre on Broadway: “It’s about to make me very rich.”

He later questioned whether he had said “very”, Hermione Lee wrote in Stoppard’s authorised biography, but he had undoubtedly managed to transform his previously precarious finances.

Indeed, Stoppard would go on to win numerous awards on both sides of the Atlantic for his work.

He was knighted in 1997, and in 2014, he was crowned “the greatest living playwright” by the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

To non-theatre-goers, he is best remembered for his work in cinema, which included the Indiana Jones and Star Wars franchises.

In 1999, he won an Oscar for his screenplay for, Shakespeare in Love, which scooped a total of seven Academy Awards that year.

“He has no apparent animus towards anyone or anything,” said film and theatre director Mike Nichols, who directed the Broadway premiere of Stoppard’s tale of marriage and affairs, The Real Thing.

“He’s very funny at no one’s expense. That’s not supposed to be possible.”

JACK Fincham has been caught snogging a MAFS star after his split from Towie’s Chloe Brockett.

The former Love Island star can be seen passionately snogging a new woman – and she’s a very familiar face.

The Sun can exclusively reveal that it’s dental nurse turned reality star Leisha Lightbody.

She appeared on the most recent UK series of Married at First Sight and was paired with Reiss Boyce.

The MAFS UK couple split just weeks after their emotional final vows, with the distance between Essex-based Reiss, 33, and 31-year-old Leisha, who lives in Scotland, proving too much for them. 

And now it appears that Leisha has moved on with Jack.

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The video shows the pair in a quiet corner of the Tulley’s Christmas event going in for a passionate snog.

A source said: “Jack and Leisha were all over each other for the whole night and didn’t seem to care who was watching. 

“Leisha is clearly no longer heartbroken over Reiss and it looks like Jack’s definitely moved on from Chloe. 

“It looked like a lot more than a drunken kiss.”

Jack and Leisha’s reps have been contacted for comment.

It’s been a tough time for Jack after his split from Chloe, with him recently revealing he’s lost a £1m.

The reality star, 34, has had a tough year which saw him narrowly avoid prison after being arrested while serving a suspended sentence at the time.

In a candid Instagram post, Jack penned: “I’ve been quiet for a long time — maybe too long. Truth is, I haven’t known what to say.

“I lost over £1 million chasing the wrong things — and in the process, I lost over a million followers too. That hurt. But I get it.

“I wasn’t myself. I was lost, struggling, and making the kind of mistakes that feel impossible to come back from.

“But I’ve learned this — you don’t need millions of followers to find your voice again. You just need to tell the truth.”

Explaining more, Jack said: “I took a lot of bad advice over the years and had a lot of the wrong people around me.

“I’ve made some massive mistakes. I’ve learnt some really, really proper painful, really painful lessons over the years. Every mistake that I’ve made, I own them all.”

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It has been more than a month and a half since a ceasefire was concluded in Gaza. As part of the deal, 600 trucks were supposed to cross daily into the Strip carrying food, medicine, tents, fuel and other basic necessities.

We have grown used to official statements talking about hundreds of trucks crossing the border every day. Photos are released, crossings are documented carefully, and announcements are made with celebration.

“4,200 trucks carrying humanitarian goods are entering Gaza weekly, since the start of the ceasefire. 70% of trucks that entered carried food … Over 16,600 trucks of food entered Gaza since the start of the ceasefire. Over 370,000 tons of food,” claims a November 26 update from the Israeli occupation authorities.

One would think the Palestinians in Gaza are the most well-fed people in the world.

To many of us, it is not clear how Israel counts the “trucks of food”, as there are indeed many commercial trucks allowed in that carry food of low nutritional value, like chocolate bars and biscuits, or food that is too expensive, like frozen chicken for $25 a kilo or a tray of eggs for $30.

Humanitarian organisations also seem to doubt the official count. According to the World Food Programme, only half of required food aid is entering Gaza. According to Palestinian relief agencies, only a quarter of necessary aid is actually allowed to go in.

And then only a fraction of that fraction actually reaches the displaced, the impoverished, the injured and the hungry. That is because much of the aid that does make it inside Gaza disappears into a “Bermuda triangle”.

The distance between the border and the displacement camps, where aid should be distributed, looks short on the map, but in reality, it is the longest distance politically and security-wise.

Yes, many trucks that go through never reach the families that need the supplies the most.

People hear about trucks, yet see no humanitarian packages. They hear about tonnes of flour, but they see no bread. They watch videos of trucks entering the Strip, but they never seen them come to their camps or neighbourhoods. It feels as if the aid enters Gaza only to vanish into thin air.

Recently, talk about the missing aid has grown louder in the streets, especially as basic food items have suddenly appeared in local markets while still carrying labels that say: “Humanitarian Aid Not for Sale”. I have seen cans of chicken meat with this label being sold for $15 apiece.

Even when aid parcels reach the needy, they are often lacking in promised items. For example, my family received a food parcel that was supposed to contain rice, lentils, and six bottles of cooking oil, but when we opened it, there was no rice or lentils, only three bottles of cooking oil.

This is not simply a matter of corruption. After two years of genocidal war, governance in Gaza has collapsed, its institutions systematically targeted by the Israeli army. There is no unified authority, and there is no force able to provide public order and security.

According to the UN mechanism for aid monitoring, from May 19 to November 29, 8035 aid trucks made it to their destinations inside Gaza; 7,127 were “intercepted” either “peacefully” or “forcefully”.

The Israeli army sets restrictions on the roads that trucks can take, often forcing them to take routes that are full of danger. Some roads cannot be used without coordination with powerful local families or neighbourhood committees, others are controlled by armed groups. All this makes a trip of a few dozen kilometres a very fragile process that is easy to disrupt. This is how aid disappears into Gaza’s “Bermuda triangle”.

International organisations are also unable to enforce security. They cannot accompany trucks because of the danger, cannot supervise unloading in real time, and do not have enough staff to track every shipment. Their dependence on local committees and volunteers means they rely on a system full of gaps that different parties quickly take advantage of.

Amid all this, one big question remains: Who truly benefits from the disappearance of aid?

There are the merchants looking for quick profit. There are the local armed groups seeking a source of cash. And there is, of course, the occupation and its allies who want to continue using hunger as a tool of political pressure. All of them are benefitting from the pain of ordinary Palestinians.

The problem here is that attention to what is happening in Gaza has diminished since the ceasefire. The global public feels reassured that the genocide is over, and it is no longer asking why aid is not reaching the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, within policy and political circles, the disappearance of aid is being normalised, as if it were a natural outcome of conflict. But it is not; it is an engineered crisis meant as yet another kind of collective punishment for the Palestinian people.

As the world chooses yet again to turn a blind eye, it is not only trucks that are vanishing into Gaza’s “Bermuda triangle”, it is also the strength of Palestinians to keep going.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

LONDON — British playwright Tom Stoppard, a giant of modern theater and Oscar-winning screenwriter known for erudition and wit, has died. He was 88.

In a statement Saturday, United Agents said Stoppard died “peacefully” at his home in Dorset in southern England, surrounded by his family.

“He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language,” it said. ”It was an honor to work with Tom and to know him.”

The Czech-born Stoppard was often hailed as the greatest British playwright of his generation and was garlanded with honors, including a shelf full of theater gongs. Dizzyingly prolific, he also wrote radio plays, a novel, television series and many celebrated screenplays, including 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love,” which won an Academy Award.

His brain-teasing plays ranged across Shakespeare, science, philosophy and the historic tragedies of the 20th century. Five of them won Tony Awards for best play: “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” in 1968, “Travesties” in 1976, “The Real Thing” in 1984, “The Coast of Utopia” in 2007 and “Leopoldstadt” in 2023.

Stoppard biographer Hermione Lee said the secret of his plays was their “mixture of language, knowledge and feeling. … It’s those three things in gear together which make him so remarkable.”

The writer was born Tomás Sträussler in 1937 to a Jewish family in Zlín in what was then Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic. His father was a doctor for the Bata shoe company, and when Nazi Germany invaded in 1939 the family fled to Singapore, where Bata had a factory.

In late 1941, as Japanese forces closed in on the city, Tomás, his brother and their mother fled again, this time to India. His father stayed behind and later died when his ship was attacked as he tried to leave Singapore.

In 1946 his mother married an English officer, Kenneth Stoppard, and the family moved to threadbare postwar Britain. The 8-year-old Tom “put on Englishness like a coat,” he later said, growing up to be a quintessential Englishman who loved cricket and Shakespeare.

He did not go to a university but began his career, aged 17, as a journalist at newspapers in Bristol, southwest England, and then as a theater critic for Scene magazine in London.

He wrote plays for radio and television including “A Walk on the Water,” broadcast in 1963, and made his stage breakthrough with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” which reimagined Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” from the viewpoint of two hapless minor characters. A mix of tragedy and absurdist humor, it premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966 and was staged at Britain’s National Theatre, then run by Laurence Olivier, before moving to Broadway.

A stream of exuberant, innovative plays followed, including meta-whodunnit “The Real Inspector Hound” (first staged in 1968); “Jumpers” (1972), a blend of physical and philosophical gymnastics; and “Travesties” (1974), which set intellectuals including James Joyce and Vladimir Lenin colliding in Zurich during World War I.

The musical drama “Every Good Boy Deserves Favor” (1977) was a collaboration with composer Andre Previn about a Soviet dissident confined to a mental institution — part of Stoppard’s long involvement with groups advocating for human rights groups in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

He often played with time and structure. “The Real Thing” (1982) was a poignant romantic comedy about love and deception that featured plays within a play. “Arcadia” (1993) moved between the modern era and the early 19th century, in which characters at an English country house debated poetry, gardening and chaos theory as fate had its way with them.

“The Invention of Love” (1997) explored classical literature and the mysteries of the human heart through the life of the English poet A.E. Housman.

Stoppard began the 21st century with “The Coast of Utopia” (2002), an epic trilogy about pre-revolutionary Russian intellectuals, and drew on his own background for “Rock ’n’ Roll” (2006), which contrasted the fates of the 1960s counterculture in Britain and in communist Czechoslovakia.

“The Hard Problem” (2015) explored the mysteries of consciousness through the lenses of science and religion.

Stoppard was a devoted champion of free speech who worked with organizations including PEN and Index on Censorship. He claimed not to have strong political views otherwise, writing in 1968: “I burn with no causes. I cannot say that I write with any social objective. One writes because one loves writing, really.”

Some critics found his plays more clever than emotionally engaging. But biographer Lee said many of his plays contained a “sense of underlying grief.”

“People in his plays … history comes at them,” Lee said at a British Library event in 2021. “They turn up, they don’t know why they’re there, they don’t know whether they can get home again. They’re often in exile, they can barely remember their own name. They may have been wrongfully incarcerated. They may have some terrible moral dilemma they don’t know how to solve. They may have lost someone. And over and over again I think you get that sense of loss and longing in these very funny, witty plays.”

That was especially true of his late play “Leopoldstadt,” which drew on his own family’s story for the tale of a Jewish Viennese family over the first half of the 20th century. Stoppard said he began thinking of his personal link to the Holocaust quite late in life, only discovering after his mother’s death in 1996 that many members of his family, including all four grandparents, had died in concentration camps.

“I wouldn’t have written about my heritage — that’s the word for it nowadays — while my mother was alive, because she’d always avoided getting into it herself,” Stoppard told the New Yorker in 2022.

“It would be misleading to see me as somebody who blithely and innocently, at the age of 40-something, thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, I had no idea I was a member of a Jewish family,’” he said. “Of course I knew, but I didn’t know who they were. And I didn’t feel I had to find out in order to live my own life. But that wasn’t really true.”

“Leopoldstadt” premiered in London at the start of 2020 to rave reviews; weeks later all theaters were shut by the COVID-19 pandemic. It eventually opened in Broadway in late 2022, going on to win four Tonys.

Stoppard’s catalog of screenplays included the Terry Gilliam dystopian comedy “Brazil” (1985), the Steven Spielberg-directed war drama “Empire of the Sun” (1987), Elizabethan rom com “Shakespeare in Love” (1998) — for which he and Marc Norman shared a best adapted screenplay Oscar — code-breaking thriller “Enigma” (2001) and Russian epic “Anna Karenina” (2012).

He also wrote and directed a 1990 film adaptation of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” wrote the 2013 TV series “Parade’s End” and translated numerous works into English, including plays by dissident Czech writer Václav Havel, who became his country’s first post-communist president.

He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for his services to literature.

He was married three times: to Jose Ingle, Miriam Stern — better known as the health journalist Dr. Miriam Stoppard — and TV producer Sabrina Guinness. The first two marriages ended in divorce. He is survived by four children, including the actor Ed Stoppard, and several grandchildren.

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Abby Martin – Journalist, The Empire Files
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Hilla Dayan – Sociologist, University of Amsterdam
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Oren Ziv – Photojournalist, +972 Magazine

Sir Tom Stoppard, one of the UK’s best-known playwrights, has died aged 88, his agents have announced.

Sir Tom, who won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for the screenplay for Shakespeare In Love, “died peacefully at home in Dorset, surrounded by his family”.

His other stage work included The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

“He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language,” United Agents added.

“It was an honour to work with Tom and to know him.”

The playwright captivated the hearts of audiences for more than six decades with work that explored philosophical and political themes.

He also wrote for film, TV and radio. He adapted Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina for the 2012 film starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law.

In 2020, he released his semi-autobiographical new work titled Leopoldstadt – set in the Jewish quarter of early 20th Century Vienna – which later won him an Olivier award for best new play and scooped four Tony awards.

Born Tomas Straussler in Czechoslovakia, he fled his home during the Nazi occupation and found refuge in Britain.

He received many honours and accolades throughout his career, including being knighted by the late Queen for his services to literature in 1997.

Sir Tom’s career as a playwright did not take off until the 1960s when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was later performed at the National Theatre and Broadway.

The play focuses on two minor characters from Hamlet. It won several awards including four Tonys in 1968, including best play.

Comedian Bob Mortimer shared a “sad” update on the Gone Fishing favourite’s health.

Bob Mortimer has shared a “sad” update on his beloved Gone Fishing co-star, their dog Ted. The comedian has fronted the beloved BBC programme with Paul Whitehouse since 2018.

Over that period, with the eighth series currently airing, Ted has frequently joined them, but during an appearance on Saturday Kitchen today, (29 November), Bob shared a concerning update.

When host Matt Tebbutt asked how Ted was doing, Bob jokingly put on a voice, imitating: “I’m alright mate.”

He then added: “No, he’s knocking on a bit.”

Bob revealed Ted was 15 years old, saying: “He still loves coming out with us, and he seems very happy.”

“I was quite sad when I saw him being wheeled around,” Matt replied.

Bob continued: “He doesn’t have to be wheeled around all the time, but for longer journeys, up the river bank, we put him in a pram now.”

Teasing the final episode of Gone Fishing, Bob went on to say “it’s a beauty,” adding: “It’s odd that people like it so much, but I kind of get it.

“We make the UK look really pretty – it’s nice to be reminded occasionally.”

This comes after Bob addressed his own health, revealing he’s ignored doctor’s orders to cut back on cheese after suffering a health scare.

The 66-year-old admitted he would rather “have three years less” than change his diet after having a triple heart bypass surgery.

Bob underwent the operation in 2015 after thinking he was suffering from a chest infection, and he later discovered 95% of his arteries were blocked.

He had been warned by his doctor that he would have had a heart attack on stage, and was forced to cancel tour dates with comedy partner Vic Reeves.

Despite the scare, he’s willing to take risks when it comes to giving up one of his favourite foods, telling The Daily Mail: “The dietitian said, ‘You can have a matchbox-size [piece] every week’.

“That broke my heart. There are probably those who do stick to it, but I’m probably in the school of thought that I’d rather have three years less.”

Last year, Bob opened up about his health struggles after facing shingles, and having to use a wheelchair while filming Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.

He revealed he “wasn’t very well” and had to be “looked after” by co-star Paul after he was left unable to walk due to a six-month battle with the condition.

He said: “I wasn’t very well and it made it a bit of a struggle but, as always, Paul looked after me and pulled me through.”

The Last One Laughing star went on to say that he was getting better, while trying to “grow muscle back”.

He previously shared: “I got a bit unlucky with it, I lost the use of one of my legs but it’s coming back now, I’m a bit limpy but I’m very grateful to be back up and going.”

Saturday Kitchen airs at 10am on BBC One and iPlayer.

Two people were killed in the strikes on the capital, and a woman died in a combined missile and drone attack on the broader Kyiv region, officials said.

Russian drone and missile strikes in and around Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, have killed at least three people and wounded dozens of others, officials said, as Ukrainian representatives travelled to the United States for talks on a renewed push to end the war.

“Russia shot dozens of cruise and ballistic missiles and over 500 drones at ordinary homes, the energy grid, and critical infrastructure,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X on Saturday.

“While everyone is discussing points of peace plans, Russia continues to pursue its ‘war plan’ of two points: to kill and destroy,” he added.

The Kyiv City Military Administration said two people were killed in the strikes on the capital in Kyiv. A woman died, and eight people were wounded in a combined missile and drone attack on the broader Kyiv region, according to the regional police.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 29 people were wounded in Kyiv, noting that falling debris from intercepted Russian drones hit residential buildings. He also said the western part of Kyiv had lost power.

Kyiv’s military administration head, Tymur Tkachenko, said in a social media post that a 42-year-old man was killed by a drone, while the man’s 10-year-old son was taken to hospital with “burns and other injuries”.

“The world should know that Russia is targeting entire families,” Tkachenko said, adding that the son was the only child recorded among the injured so far.

Following the attacks on Kyiv, EU Ambassador Katarina Mathernova cast doubt on Russia’s stated interest in a peace deal.

“While the world discusses a possible peace deal. Moscow answers with missiles, not diplomacy,” Mathernova said in a post on X.

Ukraine team heads to US

On the diplomatic front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that his negotiators had left for Washington to seek a “dignified peace” and a rapid end to the war begun by Russia in 2022.

Zelenskyy is under growing pressure from Washington to agree to a US proposal to end the war that critics say heavily favours Moscow.

The Ukrainian team is being led by former defence chief Rustem Umerov, following the resignation on Friday of his chief of staff Andriy Yermak amid a corruption probe.

“The task is clear: to swiftly and substantively work out the steps needed to end the war,” he posted on X.

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and head of the Ukrainian delegation Rustem Umerov, together with the team, is already on the way to the United States. Rustem delivered a report today, and the task is clear: to swiftly and substantively work out…

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 29, 2025

“Ukraine continues to work with the United States in the most constructive way possible, and we expect that the results of the meetings in Geneva will now be hammered out in the United States.”

At Kyiv’s insistence, US President Donald Trump’s initial 28-point plan to end the war was revised during talks in Geneva with European and US officials. However, many contentious issues remain unresolved.

Black Sea attacks

Separately on Saturday, an official from the SBU security service said that Ukraine had hit two tankers used by Russia to export oil while skirting Western sanctions with marine drones in the Black Sea.

The joint operation to hit the so-called “shadow fleet” vessels was run by the SBU and Ukraine’s navy, the official told the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.

Turkish authorities have said that blasts rocked two shadow fleet tankers near Turkiye’s Bosphorus Strait on Friday, causing fires on the vessels, and rescue operations were launched for those on board.

The SBU official said both tankers – identified as the Kairos and Virat – were empty and on their way to the port of Novorossiysk, a major Russian oil terminal.

“Video [footage] shows that after being hit, both tankers sustained critical damage and were effectively taken out of service. This will deal a significant blow to Russian oil transportation,” the official said. They did not say when the strikes took place.

Ukraine has consistently called for tougher international measures for Russia’s “shadow fleet”, which it says is helping Moscow export vast quantities of oil and fund its war in Ukraine despite Western sanctions.

There is truly no safe place for women when patriarchy is normalized as a culture and violence is silenced as a family matter in their own country. A United Nations (UN) report shows that every 10 minutes, a woman is murdered by her own partner or family member. These facts and figures reflect a structural crisis that is still being ignored by many countries. This issue is no longer just about criminality; rather, it indicates a failure in security governance, a failure of protection policies for women, and ultimately, a state failure to break the cycle of gender-based violence. Viewing this phenomenon, it can be assessed that femicide must be understood as a national and international strategic issue that requires a systemic state response, not just symbolic campaigns like the use of the Purple Profile Picture (PFP) that recently became popular in South Africa. Therefore, the author will highlight an analysis of three arguments, namely the failure of the legal structure, the need for a structured prevention strategy, and the cultural normalization that allows violence against women to persist.

Failure of the Legal Structure Due to Half-Hearted Enforcement

Femicide does not, in fact, occur suddenly without warning signs. Global research has shown a consistent pattern: threats, injuries, social isolation, and even domestic violence reports that are not followed up on. This is further reinforced by the fact that in many cases, the victim had already shown these patterns, but there was no system for cross-sector reporting, and the state only responds after a life has been lost. This is the major loophole that keeps femicide repeating in the same pattern. This crisis reflects the weakness and failure of a country’s law that cannot serve as a shield of protection for its citizens, especially women. In Mexico, for instance, femicide is recognized as a separate category of crime, but weak legal implementation keeps the number of women murdered there persistently high. Slow court proceedings, police lacking gender sensitivity, and a culture of impunity reduce legal protection to mere text without meaningful power.

A similar situation is also felt in South Africa, which is a country notorious for gender-based violence, even holding the highest rate on the continent. Although the country launched the Purple Profile Picture (PFP) Campaign as a symbolic form of solidarity in response to femicide, the use of this symbol cannot replace the urgency of improving the legal system and structure that often fails to save women before it is too late. Without structural reform that prioritizes women’s safety, the law will continue to lag behind the escalating violence. UN data proves that 60% of femicides are committed by someone close to the victim; therefore, law enforcement must be directed not just at punishing perpetrators but at saving women before the risk turns into death.

The Need for Systemic, Not Just Symbolic, Prevention Strategies

The viral campaign in several countries, particularly South Africa, the Purple Profile Picture (PFP), certainly plays a role in building public awareness, and that is important. However, a symbol alone cannot replace the state’s strategies or policies. Therefore, what we need is systemic prevention that works before the victim is murdered, not just solidarity after the tragedy has occurred. This systemic prevention can begin with the provision of integrated public services. The state needs to provide responsive emergency hotlines, safe and adequate shelters, and even 24-hour specialized gender police units operating with high standards of care regarding this issue.

Many femicide cases originate from threats that are ignored by the public and authorities. If initial violence reports were handled decisively and with a risk-based mechanism, the potential for murder could be curtailed. Good examples are seen in several countries, such as Oslo, which has begun using risk-based policing algorithms based on previous police reports. The result is that preventive intervention can be carried out before fatal violence occurs. Furthermore, the education and health systems should also be involved. Teachers, health workers, and social workers need to be trained to recognize the signs of femicide risk, which can then be disseminated for systemic prevention efforts.

The Still-Rooted Normalization of Patriarchal Culture

However, regardless of the forms of systemic prevention that can be implemented as mentioned above, no policy will be effective if the source of the problem remains entrenched. That root is the culture that still places women as the party who must accept, bear the blame, remain silent for the family’s sake, or forgive violence that is considered “normal.” This is the main structural root that makes femicide difficult to eradicate. Patriarchy works not only through institutions but also through social norms that regulate daily behavior, such as who is allowed to speak, who is trusted, and who is considered worthy of being saved.

In Indonesian society itself, pressure from family to “save face” often makes it difficult for women to leave dangerous relationships. In South Africa, the legacy of violence, economic inequality, and aggressive masculinity norms play a major role in the high rate of women’s murder. Meanwhile, Mexico faces a deeply rooted culture of “machismo,” complicating efforts to change social norms. When violence is considered a private matter, the state loses the social legitimacy to intervene.

Considering this crucial situation, cultural change cannot be achieved with short-term campaigns. It requires knowledge and awareness about gender from an early age, the involvement of men in anti-violence movements, and the state’s courage to push for curricula and public policies that challenge harmful patriarchal norms. The state must participate in grassroots communities, such as through women’s organizations, local advocacy institutions, and community groups, because cultural change can only happen if the community becomes the agent of change itself.

The three arguments above show that femicide is a structural failure rooted in a weak legal system, minimal systemic prevention, and the cultural normalization of patriarchy that allows violence against women to be considered commonplace. When a state chooses to respond to violence with symbolism without a tangible strategy, women’s lives will continue to be victims. If one woman is still being murdered every 10 minutes, the world is not yet safe for women, and the state has not fulfilled its obligation to ensure the security of its citizens, especially women. Femicide is not a calamity but a strategic failure that can and must be stopped. The state can only save women if it dares to move beyond visual campaigns towards firm policies, a strong prevention system, and sustainable cultural transformation. Women must no longer die in silence while the state merely watches from afar.

DAME Esther Rantzen has shared a heartbreaking health update after stopping treatment for lung cancer.

The veteran TV star, 85, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in January 2023 and had been undergoing experimental medication, though is no longer receiving any treatment.

She had previously joined a Swiss assisted dying clinic, Dignitas, in late 2023, stating her desire for a peaceful death if her treatment failed.

She has now revealed in a heartbreaking health update that she is celebrating Christmas early this year in case she doesn’t make the actual day.

Speaking to The Times, she said: “This year I am planning an ‘official’ Christmas with my children and five grandchildren, slightly ahead of the real Christmas so that there will be more chance that I am actually alive to enjoy it with them.

“Although I live alone, Rebecca (her daughter) will come and decorate the house beautifully, as she has done every year with all my old baubles and bits of tinsel.”

Read More about Dame Esther

ESTHER’S FIGHT

Terminally ill TV legend Dame Esther Rantzen shares sad health update

LEGEND’S BATTLE

Dame Esther Rantzen too ill to attend Westminster debate on assisted dying

In the candid interview, Dame Esther said: “When I was diagnosed with lung cancer in January 2023, I did not expect to last until the next Christmas, so the fact that I am still here and looking forward to this one is a wonderful surprise.”

She then revealed how she is no longer receiving treatment, and her cancers are progressing.

“Right now I am not receiving any treatment, which was my doctor’s decision, as the side-effects outweigh the benefits,” she explained.

“So the cancers are progressing but, according to my most recent scan, very slowly.

“Incidentally, I have also discovered a mental health issue I never expected, scanxiety,” she added.

Dame Esther went on to explain: “Since I have no idea what is actually happening inside my own body, but every scan, every three or four months, carries with it the possibility of bad news, as the date approaches my anxiety levels rise — and we cancer patients have christened it scanxiety.”

She also revealed her “great hope” for the coming year, and what she would really want to happen.

“My great hope for 2026, which I do not expect to survive long enough to witness, is the final passing of the Assisted Dying Bill through all its stages in parliament,” she said.

Dame Esther is a big supporter of the Assisted Dying Bill, which narrowly passed through Parliament back in June.

At the time of the Bill passing through the House of Commons in June 2025, Dame Esther said the terminally ill are “truly voiceless” and face an “agonising death” – adding: “This is a crucial debate for the truly voiceless.”

She went on to say: “They are the terminally ill adults for whom life has become unbearable and who need assistance, not to shorten their lives but to shorten an agonising death – and their loved ones who under the current law will be accused of committing a crime if they try to assist or even stay alongside to say goodbye.”

Dame Esther also spoke about how she is in the midst of planning her memorial service, in her most recent interview this weekend.

She said how it is “quite fun to put together” as she is ruthless about asking favours from friends.

“Fortunately I have friends who are wonderful readers, Tom Conti, for instance, and Imelda Staunton and Judi Dench.

“It’s going to be quite an event!

“Pity I can’t be there myself,” she added.

Dame Esther previously questioned whether her stage four lung cancer might have been caused by exposure to asbestos at the BBC’s Lime Grove Studios in West London, where she filmed That’s Life! for 21 years.

Speaking to The Times in 2023, Dame Esther said: “Some time in the late-Eighties or early-Nineties, workmen wearing white spacesuits arrived to take down walls and ceilings along the corridors where I wrote our scripts to remove the asbestos.

“This did not surprise any of us since my team had called our route to the canteen ‘asbestos alley’.”

Authorities also designate Anti-Corruption Foundation as ‘terrorist’ group and consider total ban on WhatsApp.

Russian authorities have outlawed Human Rights Watch as an “undesirable organisation”, a label that, under a 2015 law, makes involvement with it a criminal offence.

Friday’s designation means the international human rights group must stop all work in Russia, and opens those who cooperate with or support the organisation to prosecution.

HRW has repeatedly accused Russia of suppressing dissenters and committing war crimes during its ongoing war against Ukraine.

“For over three decades, Human Rights Watch’s work on post-Soviet Russia has pressed the government to uphold human rights and freedoms,” the executive director at Human Rights Watch, Philippe Bolopion, said in a statement.

“Our work hasn’t changed, but what’s changed, dramatically, is the government’s full-throttled embrace of dictatorial policies, its staggering rise in repression, and the scope of the war crimes its forces are committing in Ukraine.”

The decision by the Russian prosecutor general’s office is the latest move in a crackdown on Kremlin critics, journalists and activists, which has intensified since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In a separate statement on Friday, the office said it was opening a case against Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot that would designate the group as an “extremist” organisation.

Separately, Russia’s Supreme Court designated on Thursday the Anti-Corruption Foundation set up by the late opposition activist Alexey Navalny as a “terrorist” group.

The ruling targeted the foundation’s United States-registered entity, which became the focal point for the group when the original Anti-Corruption Foundation was designated an “undesirable organisation” by the Russian government in 2021.

Russia’s list of “undesirable organisations” currently covers more than 275 entities, including prominent independent news outlets and rights groups.

Among those are prominent news organisations like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, think tanks like Chatham House, anticorruption group Transparency International, and environmental advocacy organisation World Wildlife Fund.

Founded in 1978, Human Rights Watch monitors human rights violations in various countries across the world.

WhatsApp might be ‘completely blocked’

Meanwhile, Russia’s state communications watchdog threatened on Friday to block WhatsApp entirely if it fails to comply with Russian law.

In August, Russia began limiting some calls on WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, and on Telegram, accusing the foreign-owned platforms of refusing to share information with law enforcement in fraud and “terrorism” cases.

On Friday, the Roskomnadzor watchdog again accused WhatsApp of failing to comply with Russian requirements designed to prevent and combat crime.

“If the messaging service continues to fail to meet the demands of Russian legislation, it will be completely blocked,” Interfax news agency quoted it as saying.

WhatsApp has accused Moscow of trying to block millions of Russians from accessing secure communication.

Russian authorities are pushing a state-backed rival app called MAX, which critics claim could be used to track users. State media have dismissed those accusations as false.

Istanbul, Turkiye – Pope Leo XIV has chosen Turkiye for his first foreign trip as the head of the Roman Catholic Church, a deeply symbolic move that minority community representatives say is taking place at a time of renewed openness in the Muslim-majority country.

During his visit this week, the pontiff held talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met religious leaders and visited places of worship in the country where Christianity’s deep roots sit alongside a long and influential Islamic tradition.

Today, Turkiye’s population of more than 80 million people is at least 99 percent Muslim, yet the country remains home to centuries-old Greek, Armenian, Syriac and Latin Christian communities that have long been part of its social fabric.

After decades shaped by political tensions, demographic change and property disputes, representatives of minority foundations say today’s climate offers greater visibility and confidence than they have experienced in decades. They also see the timing of Pope Leo’s visit as reflective of a period in which historic foundations feel more able to restore properties, organise religious life and engage directly with state bodies.

“This is, first of all, a great honour for Turkiye,” Manolis Kostidis, vice president of the Greek Foundations Association, told Al Jazeera of the pope’s visit.

“It’s also extremely important for the Ecumenical Patriarchate and for the Greek community. Istanbul has hosted empires for centuries, and welcoming such a guest shows the value of the patriarchate – especially with the support the Turkish government has given in recent years,” he said.

In the early decades of the Turkish Republic, Turkiye’s Greek, Armenian and Syriac populations numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Their decline over the 20th century was shaped by a series of political ruptures – from the 1942 Wealth Tax, which disproportionately targeted non-Muslims, to the 1955 Istanbul pogrom that devastated Greek, Armenian and Jewish neighbourhoods, and the 1964 deportation of more than 12,000 Greek citizens amid tensions over Cyprus.

Other administrative restrictions and legal rulings followed in subsequent decades, gradually accelerating emigration. Today, the remaining communities are far smaller, yet their representatives stress resilience, continuity and a deep sense of belonging to the country they have lived in for centuries.

“If Turkiye’s population is 85 million, we are about 85,000 – one in a thousand,” Can Ustabası, head of the Minority Foundations Representative Office, told Al Jazeera.

“Communities that were once in the millions are now tiny. We’re citizens of this country, but history brought us to this point.”

While the pressures affecting minority groups through the 20th century are widely documented, community representatives agree that the atmosphere of the past two decades stands in sharp contrast.

From the 2000s onward, minority foundations benefitted from a number of legal changes.

The Foundations Law, first drafted in the Ottoman era and later adapted by the Republic, governs how non-Muslim charitable foundations own, manage and inherit property. A series of European Union-driven harmonisation packages between 2003 and 2008 expanded their ability to register assets, reclaim properties seized under earlier rulings, and receive donations and inheritances again.

This culminated in a 2011 government decree instructing the return – or compensation – of properties that had been taken from foundations under the 1974 Court of Cassation ruling and earlier administrative practices.

“Erdogan’s instruction to ‘return what rightfully belongs to them’ changed the attitude of every state body. Previously, getting permission to paint a church took years. Now, doors open easily,” Ustabasi said.

‘One of most comfortable periods’

Lawyer Kezban Hatemi, who has advised minority foundations for decades, agreed that this has been “a major reform” but noted that more needed to be done. “Some cases are still ongoing – this kind of historical process never ends quickly,” Hatemi told Al Jazeera.

According to Hatemi, the earlier reluctance of state institutions was rooted in a decades-old mentality shaped by security fears and restrictive legal interpretations. She said minority foundations faced layers of bureaucratic obstacles for years, with even basic repairs or property registrations blocked. This only began to shift when EU harmonisation reforms created a new legal framework and political resolve emerged to act on it.

“The EU process gave real momentum – but it also took political will,” she said, noting that “a major blockage was removed” even as old fears loom for some.

“People abroad still say: ‘Don’t buy property in Istanbul, you never know what could happen.’ The memory from the 40s to the 70s is still very strong.”

Ustabasi noted that while the process has not always been straightforward, some 1,250 properties “were returned through EU harmonisation reforms and changes to the Foundations Law” between 2003 and 2018.

Kostidis said the impact of the return of the properties has not only been material. “It makes us feel like full citizens,” he said, noting that “minorities have lived one of their most comfortable periods” since Erdogan came to power in 2003.

One of the clearest signs of renewed confidence is among Syriacs, particularly in Tur Abdin – the historic heartland of Syriac Christianity in southeastern Turkiye that stretches across Midyat and the wider Mardin region. In these villages, return migration has slowly begun to reverse.

“People who emigrated to Europe are building homes again in Midyat and its villages,” Ustabasi said. “The roads are better than Istanbul, security is solid, and some are even preparing to live there long term.”

He linked the shift directly to improved security conditions in the southeast, a region that for decades was affected by clashes between the Turkish state and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, making travel and daily life unpredictable. “A Turkiye without terrorism opens many doors. People feel safe travelling, restoring homes, returning to their villages,” he said.

Kostidis said returns to Turkiye’s largest city of Istanbul are also possible – but require practical fixes.

“Large-scale returns are unlikely. But yes, some will come back if residency issues are fixed,” he said, calling for “a special regulation” for Greeks from Istanbul with Greek citizenship.

“All communities – Muslim, Jewish, Armenian, Syriac, Greek – should live in this city. Istanbul’s strength has always been its plurality.”

‘Powerful message’

Despite significant progress, several legal and administrative issues remain unresolved, with the representatives citing foundation board elections, legal ambiguity around autonomy and longstanding cases in some properties’ handover.

Ustabasi called for changes in the legal framework, while Hatemi noted the state “still intervenes in foundation governance in ways it never does with Muslim foundations. This mentality hasn’t fully changed – but I’m hopeful.”

Turkish-Armenian journalist and writer Etyen Mahcupyan said the pace of reform shifted after a failed coup attempt in 2016, when state bureaucracy regained influence over politics and decision-making.

He believes restitution slowed as a result, but said momentum could return if Turkiye “brings EU membership back to the forefront”. Turkiye started talks to join the bloc in 2005, but the accession bid has effectively been frozen.

Mahcupyan views Pope Leo’s visit as carrying political and symbolic resonance, given that the pope is seen not only as a religious figure but also as a political actor.

“Considering Turkiye’s foreign policy ambitions, this visit offers positive contributions. Ankara wants to shape a Turkiye that is accepted in global politics – and the world seems ready for it.”

Mahcupyan noted the pope’s “clear position” on Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza “aligns closely with Turkiye’s own line. This kind of convergence is important. It prevents Turkiye from turning inward, helps the world look at Turkiye more gently – and softens attitudes towards non-Muslims.”

He also said the visit helps ensure minority communities “are not forgotten”.

Kostidis agreed.

“A Muslim-majority country hosting the leaders of the Christian world – you can’t give a more powerful message than this,” he said.

For 60 years, San Diego’s Timken Museum of Art has stood in Balboa Park — a travertine-clad Modernist jewel box showcasing priceless Russian icons and masterworks from the likes of Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck and Fragonard, floating among the park’s exuberant Spanish Revival fantasies. But beneath its calm exterior lies an architectural mystery that has captivated Stephen Buck and Keith York, local architecture lovers who have spent the last year obsessively piecing together evidence suggesting that the Timken’s true authorship has been misunderstood, if not deliberately obscured, since the day it opened in 1965.

Their investigation — which has caught the attention of the soon-to-expand museum, not to mention the city’s tight-knit cultural community — began with a secret. In 2013, York, founder of Modern San Diego, a digital archive devoted to the region’s Midcentury design, received a call from one of San Diego’s most respected architects, Robert Mosher. Then in his 90s, Mosher asked to meet for lunch in La Jolla. “I have something I need to tell you,” he said.

Mosher, recorded by York (who was sworn to secrecy until after Mosher’s death in 2015) recounted a story told to him decades earlier by his friend and colleague Richard Kelly, the lighting designer of some of American modernism’s most iconic buildings, including Philip Johnson’s Glass House, Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum and Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building. Kelly had been hired to design the lighting for the Timken. But according to Mosher, during an early meeting Walter Ames, the project’s patron, made a surprising suggestion to Kelly: “You’re the architect — why don’t you design it yourself?”

Kelly, who trained at the Yale School of Architecture but had never designed a building, found himself out of his depth, Mosher added. He turned to his close friend and frequent collaborator Johnson, who helped him sketch a concept that Kelly would refine into a design Ames approved. The plans were handed off to San Diego’s Frank L. Hope & Associates to produce the working drawings.

When completed, the rigorously composed, historically inspired stone pavilion bore all the hallmarks of Johnson and Kelly’s more than half dozen collaborations. Yet when the Timken opened, only Hope’s firm was credited. One of Hope’s architects, John R. Mock, later took credit as the leader of the design. This remained the accepted story until last December, when Buck, a medical research entrepreneur and architecture buff, stumbled on a long-ago post by York about Mosher’s tale. He couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Architect Philip Johnson with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in front of New York’s Grand Central Terminal in 1977.

(Dave Pickoff / Associated Press)

“Why would someone like Robert Mosher, at the end of his life, make this up?” Buck asked. “If he was telling the truth, this is one of the most important uncredited works of Midcentury architecture in California.”

Buck and York joined forces, combing through Kelly’s archives at Yale (with Yale student Macarena Fernandez Diaz) and through the Timken’s own files. In addition to evidence of copious correspondence between Ames, Kelly and Johnson, they found Kelly’s detailed architectural drawings of the museum, and a 1959 contract asking Kelly to prepare elevations, plans and other design-related documents. Hope’s firm, according to a separate contract, would “prepare working drawings.” Together the body of evidence seemed to confirm much of Mosher’s story.

It also pointed to why Kelly (and potentially Johnson) was left out. In one letter, Ames wrote that “due to local political cross currents, it was advisable that all plans be filed locally.” In other words, bringing in East Coast modernists like Kelly and Johnson risked a public outcry. “Ames wanted the best design he could get,” Buck says. “But he also wanted the museum built.”

The Timken definitely feels familiar to someone who has visited several Johnson/Kelly collaborations: the bronze accents, the H-shaped pavilion, the glass walls that allow you to see straight through the building, and the pristine travertine — light-colored limestone that originated from the same quarry in Tivoli, Italy, used for Johnson’s New York State Theater (renamed the David H. Koch Theater in 2008) at Lincoln Center. All echo the minimalist precision and classical proportions of their museums across the country. At the Timken, Kelly incorporated downlighting to accentuate the building’s travertine walls, and engineered grids of soffits and louvers that wash the galleries in soft, ethereal light.

Keith York of Modern San Diego.

(Keith York)

“He was experimenting — making light itself architectural,” says York. This was a trademark of Kelly’s, notes Dietrich Neumann, professor of the history of modern architecture and urbanism at Brown University and author of “The Structure of Light: Richard Kelly and the Illumination of Modern Architecture.” “He emphasized materials in a very skillful way. His lighting creates spatial depth. You get a different idea of what the architecture consists of.” Neumann notes that Johnson liked to exclaim: “Kelly is my guru. He’s the greatest lighting designer ever.”

Noted Buck: “There’s nothing in Frank Hope’s body of work that resembles this.” Hope’s firm is best known for its designs of McGill Hall at UC San Diego, the Union-Tribune Building in Mission Valley, and the all-concrete San Diego Stadium, later known as Qualcomm Stadium.

When Buck and York presented their findings to the Timken’s leadership earlier this year, the initial response was enthusiastic. But as the museum began its own review, the tone grew more cautious. Trustees revisited Buck and York’s research and conducted checks in the Timken’s archives. Executive director Megan Pogue later summarized their position in a letter to the researchers:

Stephen Buck at the Timken Museum of Art.

(Stephen Buck)

“Based on these findings, we reached the unfortunate conclusion that Mr. Johnson was not ultimately involved in the building’s design, although the specific architect or architects within Frank Hope & Associates responsible for the final design seem to remain unidentified. We continue to welcome and encourage further scholarly investigation into this question, particularly given that John Mock has long been credited as the architect — an attribution he personally confirmed in recent years.”

When asked later why the museum didn’t confirm or deny Kelly’s connection, Pogue noted, “Everything in our files is that he was limited to the lighting.” When pressed on the research unearthed at Yale, she acknowledged, “we were so focused on Philip Johnson I don’t know that we did as deep a dive on this issue.”

“I can find no reason why they wouldn’t want to look through this research [at Yale] and come to their own conclusion,” responded Buck.

The interior of a gallery at the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego.

(Timken Museum of Art)

Behind the scenes, practical considerations loom. The Timken is preparing to launch an underground expansion designed by Gensler, which will double its square footage and provide much-needed new exhibition, office and learning spaces. It’s a process that has taken seven years to navigate through the city’s (and Balboa Park’s) public process. The adjacent San Diego Museum of Art is about to embark on its own expansion, replacing Mosher’s west wing with a design by Norman Foster.

“Any new attention, especially about the building’s authorship, could reignite old debates,” Pogue said in an earlier interview. “We’re fascinated by this history, but we have to be careful about how it’s shared.” After consulting with the board, Pogue later noted that proof of a new architect, particularly someone of Johnson’s stature, “could be really good for the museum.”

The museum’s nebulous, careful positioning in many ways mirrors the politics that may have buried Kelly’s and Johnson’s involvement six decades ago. In the early 1960s, Ames faced fierce opposition from civic groups, who decried modernism as a threat to Balboa Park’s Spanish heart. To get his project approved, he appears to have localized the credit.

“It’s the same story, says York. “Silence as strategy. But silence also erases the people who made this building extraordinary.”

Neumann pointed to the long history of architectural creators who have been left out, whether it be a firm owner taking credit for his underlings’ work or a name being omitted to avoid political crosswinds. “It’s a system driven by the old idea of the master architect … and the actual work is often done by others,” he says.

Neither Buck nor York wants to strip all credit from Hope’s firm. “We think of it as a collaboration,” York says. “Together they made something greater than the sum of its parts.”

While the pair are confident that their research has proven Kelly’s authorship, Johnson’s role remains a mystery.

“We know Johnson and Kelly were working together at exactly this time,” says Buck. “Whether or not his name appears on a drawing, it’s clear that he was advising.”

Until that evidence emerges, the Timken remains an architectural whodunit.

“We’re always searching for this elusive drawing by Philip Johnson that’s gonna be a smoking gun,” says Buck. “But this wasn’t necessarily a formal thing. Sometimes that piece of paper doesn’t exist.”

‘I am a terrorist’

A UK activist group has released a video of protesters who were arrested by police for supporting Palestine Action, as part of a campaign calling on the government to lift the ‘disproportionate’ ban. A major legal challenge is currently underway on whether the ban was lawful.

No immediate response from Venezuela after President Trump’s makes the announcement on social media on Saturday.