Lionel Messi faces possible 22 months in jail after judge orders Barcelona star to stand trial October 8, 2015 Barcelona star Lionel Messi learned today that he will have to stand trial on tax fraud charges, even after the prosecutor said he should be cleared earlier this week. The judge handling the case at Barcelona Provincial High Court overruled the prosecutor and turned down a request from Messi's lawyers that he should avoid trial [...]
Art review: Frank Auerbach, Tate Britain October 8, 2015 Walking through Frank Auerbach’s retrospective at Tate Britain is rather like flicking through a family photo album. It’s full of personal subjects that change incrementally over decades, of self-portraits, friends, his wife Julia and Mornington Crescent, where his studio has been since 1954. There’s also another reason to get up close and personal with [...]
Goya: The Portraits explores the legendarily dark artist’s less nightmarish output October 8, 2015 GOYA: THE PORTRAITS NATIONAL GALLERY RATING ★★★★☆ Goya is perhaps best known for his scary painting of a giant naked fella munching down on a little man, voraciously chomping his arm and head off with the wide-eyed expression of somebody who’s just remembered he left the patio door unlocked. It’s spooky business round Goya’s house, [...]
Suffragette movie review: Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan star in this worthy tribute October 8, 2015 Cert 12A | ★★★★☆ “If we give women the vote, where will it end?” says a disgruntled Cabinet minister in Suffragette. “They’ll be wanting to be Members of Parliament next.” Well, here we are, not quite at the end, but closer to it than we were in 1912, when a faction of the women’s suffrage [...]
Medea, Almeida Theatre review: This tragedy will hit home, even if Euripides is all Greek to you October 8, 2015 The Almeida has saved the fiercest play in its ambitious Greek season for last. Medea – widely considered a proto-feminist text – was never going to be the hardest tragedy to drag into the 21st century. Even so, playwright Rachel Cusk’s modern re-telling is uncomfortably familiar. Her version of the titular Medea is a playwright [...]
Sicario movie review: Emily Blunt is embroiled in a brutally violent cartel drug war in this cloak and dagger thriller October 8, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ Benicio Del Toro rocks some seriously distracting camel-toe in one harrowing scene, but that’s only the third or fourth most visceral image in Sicario. It’s a violent drug cartel thriller in which Emily Blunt plays Kate Macer, a steely FBI door-kicker who finds herself drafted into a highly secretive, off-the-books government [...]
Sepp Blatter suspended: Fifa bans its president and Uefa boss Michel Platini for 90 days October 8, 2015 Sepp Blatter's hold on power at Fifa appears to be slipping after he was banned from the organisation for 90 days along with Uefa boss Michel Platini over alleged corruption. Blatter's 17-year reign at the top of football's under-fire governing body has hit its biggest crisis yet, while Platini's hopes of eventually succeeding him in [...]
Rugby World Cup 2015: England chiefs play down training ground spat between Mike Catt and Danny Cipriani October 7, 2015 England chiefs have denied that a pre-World Cup training ground spat between coach Mike Catt and overlooked fly-half Danny Cipriani left the squad on the verge of mutiny. The Rugby Football Union confirmed that the flashpoint occurred the day before England announced their 31-man squad for the tournament, and hours after Sale’s Cipriani had learned [...]
Rugby World Cup 2015: Warren Gatland hands Wales licence to attack Australia in Pool A decider October 7, 2015 England's World Cup demise at the hands of Australia has given Wales the licence to attack the Wallabies in their Pool A decider at Twickenham on Saturday, according to fitness coach Paul Stridgeon. The winners will face either Scotland or Japan in the quarter-final, while the losers will face two-time world champions South Africa, who [...]
England need to exorcise their familiar demon in foreign climes October 7, 2015 I was in the squad the last time England played Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates. We were No1 in the Test rankings but it was an embarrassment. We couldn’t cope with spin and we were comprehensively beaten 3-0. Going overseas and playing in subcontinental conditions is something which England have struggled with for some [...]