The World Aquatics Championships in Singapore — and other news in pictures
SOLENT NEWS
CPL JANET PAN/DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE
La Clique limber up for a performance at the Famous Spiegeltent during the Edinburgh Fringe festival, which begins in August
SALLY ANDERSON/ALAMY
Participants in the Sacred Magdalene Festival make the pilgrimage of light to the top of Glastonbury Tor, Somerset, where they will light a beacon
BEN BIRCHALL/PA
The new Yeoman Gaoler John Donald, left, and the new Chief Yeoman Warder Paul Langley, mark their first day in post at the Tower of London. Langley now leads the tower's body of 34 Yeoman Warders and Donald becomes his second in command. The Yeoman Gaoler was historically in charge of prisoners in the Tower and still carries his axe for ceremonial duties
AARON CHOWN/PA
The Royal Air Force's E-7 Wedgetail AEW Mk1 performed its first flypast with the Red Arrows at the Royal International Air Tattoo in Fairford, Gloucester
CPL PHIL DYE/MOD
Xin-Xin, the world's oldest giant panda, lives at Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico and has recently turned 35 — a panda's lifespan is between 15-20 years in the wild and 22 years in captivity
JORGE NUNEZ/ZUMA PRESS/SHUTTERSTOCK
Nicole Scherzinger steps out in New York City. On Sunday she gave her final performance as Norma Desmond in the hit Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Sunset Boulevard
BAUER-GRIFFIN/GETTY IMAGES
JUAN HERRERO/EPA
Queen Mathilde and King Philippe of Belgium with their children, from left, Princess Elisabeth, Prince Emmanuel, Princess Eléonore and Prince Gabriel during National Day celebrations in Brussels
RUT/SPLASH NEWS
A young cowboy demonstrates his skills at the Bill Pickett Soul Country Rodeo weekend in Los Angeles
EMMA MCINTYRE/GETTY IMAGES
Mario Barrios, left, fights Manny Pacquiao in a welterweight title boxing match in Las Vegas. The fight ended in a draw, with Barrios keeping his WBC title
JOHN LOCHER/AP
Riders celebrate World BMX Freestyle Day with gravity-defying stunts at the Red Bull Pura Calle event in San Jose, Costa Rica
JEFFREY ARGUEDAS/EPA
GUY BELL/ALAMY
Eight years of excavations near Lima, Peru, have revealed the 3,800-year-old city of Peñico, which is believed to have been a cultural and commercial hub for people from the coast, the highlands and the rainforest
KLEBHER VASQUEZ/ANADOLU/GETTY IMAGES
High-rise tea gardens cover office roofs in Hangzhou, China
UO DONGCHEN/VCG/GETTY IMAGES
Bedouins are driven from Taarah, in the Syrian province of Sweida, to safety in Daraa after government forces moved in to quell violence between tribal factions and Druze fighters
RAMI AL SAYED/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
ZUMA PRESS WIRE/SHUTTERSTOCK
Typhoon Wipha brought torrential rain to Quezon City, Philippines, leaving streets flooded, dams overflowing and two people missing
AARON FAVILA/AP
Jennifer Lopez performs at the MVM Dome in Budapest, Hungary, during her her Up All Night Live tour
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
28 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Kate Forbes on exiting Holyrood: hear her story at Unspun Live
This Thursday, on August 7th, she'll take the Dissection Room stage in Summerhall at The Herald's Unspun Live as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe, tasked by our political editor Andrew Learmonth and provided with questions from our audience. Tickets for Unspun Live at the Fringe are £18, but our readers can take advantage of a special 2-for-1 offer. Buy them here through the Summerhall website using 'UNSPUN' in the promotion code box. It is a fascinating time to get the Deputy First Minister's perspective, with Forbes saying she will not stand at next year's Holyrood election. In a post on social media, the MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch said that after "careful thought" over Summer, she had "decided not to seek re-election" but would "continue to serve the First Minister, the Government and my constituents to the best of my ability until May 2026". In a letter to the First Minister, Forbes – whose daughter Naomi turns three this month – said she did not want to "miss any more of the precious early years of family life". Forbes is the fourth of four high-profile guests joining The Herald's Unspun Live at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 🎟️ Book now for The Herald's Unspun Live at the Edinburgh Fringe – featuring John Swinney, Anas Sarwar, Kate Forbes and more Audiences have already heard from Professor Sir John Curtice, but be sure not to miss First Minister [[John Swinney]] and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, respectively. Forbes is a skilled debater with a reputation for straight-talking, but how will she handle not having a say in the future of a party she helped to carry? Come along to Summerhall and find out.
.png%3Fwidth%3D1200%26auto%3Dwebp%26quality%3D75%26trim%3D359%2C0%2C1%2C0%26crop%3D&w=3840&q=100)
Scotsman
an hour ago
- Scotsman
Edinburgh Fringe theatre reviews Shell Batty! K Mak at the Planetarium A Most Pressing Issue
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Shell ★★★★ ZOO Southside (Venue 82) until 24 August Shell, created by Ana Evans and Linnea Scott, will likely figure among – if not top – the most unforgettable shows of this year's Edinburgh Fringe. Evans, who also performs, captivates as the pioneering 'hockey bro' Andy, leader of a new, inclusive sex ed club to Break Reproductive Oppression (B.R.O). Part play, part interactive workshop, Evans also assumes the role of Peanut, a cute yet deadly embodiment of their childhood nickname, who asks the audience to consider honestly their relationship with desire. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ana Evans and Linnea Scott How this question is answered, and who answers it, will depend entirely on the audience, who can engage in as much or as little detail as they want. The narrative behaves like a peanut – one must first crack it open – and this intertwines with the focus of Andy's sex ed sessions, which examine the common pitfalls that arise when talking about gender, sex and identity, a knowledge form with a glossary that is growing by the day. 'I'm here to change my life,' we chant. 'What I don't know, I have the power to learn.' The piece satirises lad culture in the most exciting and endearing of ways, turning it over like a stone in the light, it becomes exactly what it is: a mutable category with the fear at its core transformed. The sword is pulled from its centre; the peanut coaxed from its shell. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The action shifts from character to character, class to Anonymous Safe Space (A.S.S), safe space to outer space, and finally to a concert, where we enact Evans's deepest fantasy – to be a famous rockstar. One thing is for certain: one day, wherever you may be, the song Sweet Child o' Mine will come on, and suddenly, you will be reminded of them and the shell that you shared, that time in 2025. Josephine Balfour-Oatts Batty! ★★★ Zoo Playground (Venue 186) until 16 August You have to look long and hard in theatre for a frank but positive representation of women's mid-life experience. For that reason alone Batty!, by writer and performer Victoria Firth, is a gift. Batty is coming round to the idea that she might be a witch, especially if she could pick the bits of witchiness she likes rather than take the whole package. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In Emma Williams' charming witches' cottage set, Firth and her accomplice Kathryn Hanke bicker and banter, sing raucously, and howl along to Kate Bush's Hounds of Love. There's an odd scene where she tries to eat a plastic bottle, but we won't dwell on that At times, the show feels like a sequence of sketches, as if Batty represents a number of different characters. In one scene she mentions a girlfriend. In another she seems to live alone with a dog and work in a stressful job. Does Hanke play her partner? Alter-ego? Inner witch? Not knowing the answers to these questions leaves one a little unmoored, but Batty! is still a gift, sincere, frequently funny, and a reminder that there is much more to mid-life than the hot flushes. Susan Mansfield K Mak at the Planetarium ★★★ Summerhall (Venue 26) until 24 August This year, the blank canvas of Summerhall's Demonstration Room has been taken on by K Mak, aka Brisbane-based singer and multi-instrumentalist Kathryn McKee, for rolling daily concerts which offer some soothing respite from the usual Fringe hustle. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad McKee mans the keyboards, accompanied by drummer, cellist and violinist, for a wouldbe cosmic mini-concerto embellished by projections of macro and micro images which take up the entire wall behind them. The mostly ambient suite begins with gentle bowing and the tap of drums before layering on vocoder effects and twinkly arpeggios, pizzicato strings and beefier beats. Over the course of an hour, McKee offers more texture than tuneage. Her budget Bjork/punky Enya vocal style is clipped, rhythmic and somewhat mannered, while the vanilla chill-out vibes and mellow electro-pop mantras can't compete with the graceful footage of timelapse flora or neon deep sea creatures as it bleeds out round the room. The music picks up pace and a touch of drama towards the end of the set but, for all the intention to provide an immersive experience, this is a really just a calming concert with some mesmeric visuals. Fiona Shepherd A Most Pressing Issue ★★★ Theatre 3 and Stephenson Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall (53) until 16 August Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Prison Warden Penton and his lackey Orly are panicking. Not only are they about to undergo an inspection, but they've also just received a call that the cell block they're standing in is currently aflame. As the minutes tick by and the fire creeps ever closer, we watch the pair become paralysed by indecision - will they ever call for help? Or will they be consumed in an avoidable tragedy entirely of their own making? Given that A Most Pressing Issue bills itself as a political farce, you can probably guess the answer from the get-go - but that doesn't make the journey any less enjoyable. Despite the accomplished clownery, however, the performance doesn't quite achieve its emotional denouement; after 40 minutes of viewing Penton as nothing more than a cardboard cutout for the incompetence of bureaucracy, it's difficult to have much sympathy for him as his (self-inflicted) end draws near. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The tonal shift may have felt less incongruous if the show were less invested in its own sincerity, or more committed to fleshing out its characters from the start - fundamentally, though, A Most Pressing Issue is still a humorous and prescient satire about political accountability (or the lack thereof). Ariane Branigan A Poem and a Mistake ★★★ Assembly Rooms (Venue 20) until 24 August Modern-day sexism meets Metamorphosis in this intergalactic melting pot in which the experiences of Myrrha, a committed first-year classics student, are paired with those of female characters from Greek mythology. Sharply written by Cheri Magid and punchily performed by Sarah Baskin, who shifts between genders and realities in playing all the many characters, it explodes the theme of metamorphosis to demonstrate how sexual violence is minimised by the narratives of its time and driven by a quest for power. As Myrrha's male professor is turned into his female student before being turned into cow, from the comfort of an 'all gender' bathroom, it's humorous as well as thought provoking, pummelling through time, space, identity, myth and modernity. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'When something shrinks you, you want to experience something epic,' Myrrha says. And it's the grandiosity of the piece that is both its appeal and, eventually, challenge as it expands through a myriad of mythical characters, drawing in evermore references to Ovid and denying the opportunity for a more singular development of Myrrha and her story. The construction shifts between impressive and self-conscious, but as a constellation of insights shaped around a thoughtfully explored theme, it's a refreshing, bold and enlightening experiment in theatrical form. Sally Stott Cody and Beau: A Wild West Story ★★ theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39) until 16 August This curious two-hander is best seen as a showcase for its writers and performers Dylan Kaueper and Will Grice, but what they're aiming for isn't entirely clear. Cody and Beau are two teenagers in 1889 Texas who dream of becoming cowboys, but what begins as an ostensible comedy (albeit one without much in the way of decent gags) veers sharply into tragedy. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Kauper and Grice are very capable physical performers but their characters are thinly drawn (Cody is a bit more intelligent than Beau and that's all). It's admirable that they don't undercut their own dark ending, but it just makes what precedes it even more puzzling. Rory Ford
Daily Record
2 hours ago
- Daily Record
Edinburgh Fringe star blames Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for 'serious problem'
Alison Jackson, a photographer known for her snaps of celebrity lookalikes, including Donald Trump and the Royal Family, has claimed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have caused an issue for her upcoming Edinburgh Fringe show An Edinburgh Fringe star has claimed that she's hit a "serious problem" in her preparations for the stage, and it's all due to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Alison Jackson, an acclaimed photographer renowned for her images of celebrity doppelgängers, including Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Royal Family, is set to put on a show at the iconic arts festival this month. However, an unexpected snag has cropped up due to the controversies surrounding the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, whose lookalikes were slated to appear in her forthcoming show. Richard Eden of the Mail characterised this as a "serious problem," with Alison explaining her struggle to find actors to portray Harry and Meghan, especially with the show's premiere looming. Yet, it seems there could be two specific reasons why it's proven to be a difficult task, both of which apply to the public's perception of the Duke and Duchess. Alison shared with the Mail: "I have a couple of 'Prince Williams' who've come forward and they look quite good, but no 'Meghan' or 'Harry' has turned up." She noted that lookalikes often "relate" to their characters and suggested that no one wants to impersonate Harry and Meghan due to their perceived toxicity. Alison added: "I think that people don't like Meghan, they don't trust her and they think she's an operator who sucks everything she can out of Harry." She also speculated that Harry's recent BBC interview, where he stated that his father, King Charles, "won't speak" to him due to "this security stuff" following his lost legal battle over UK security in May, might be the cause. Harry has "gone too far", she claims, adding that his so-called digs at his father King Charles, who is battling cancer, are "beyond the pale". She also said Meghan's lookalikes "disappear" as she becomes "more assertive". The Duke and Duchess caused a global stir when they stepped back from Royal duties in January 2020 and relocated to Montecito, California, with their children, Archie and Lilibet. In news that may disappoint Royal enthusiasts, it has been claimed in reports that Harry and Meghan will not be spending Christmas with the Royal Family at Sandringham this year. According to Express US, this will be the sixth consecutive year they have missed the gathering. Commenting on the supposed absence, Vanity Fair's Eve Batey cautioned that people should "prepare for disappointment". Batey remarked: "For those who hoped that the British Royal Family's difficult year might end with a happy reunion should prepare for disappointment." She then explained that the news came from an anonymous source, paraphrasing that they'd claimed the Duke and Duchess had been "intentionally left off" the Sandringham guest list.
