Guardian photographer David Levene was at the Royal Albert Hall to snap Cate Blanchett, John Lithgow, Lesley Manville, Naomi Campbell and many more

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With its Iranian melodies, instrumentation and backing singers, Sheeran’s joyful new single is a reminder of how culture transcends borders

The Farsi word “azizam” – meaning my dear or my darling in English – may not have the same level of global resonance as habibi or ma chérie, but to us Persians it’s a daily refrain. We use it with our family, partners, friends; my cat probably thinks it’s her middle name by now. So it felt huge when Ed Sheeran announced that the lead single from his new album would be called just that: Azizam .

The track, inspired by the Iranian heritage of Stockholm-based producer Ilya Salmanzadeh, has divided critics, with a Telegraph review calling it “a slice of pure pop froth that couldn’t be any more generic and upbeat if it was written by an AI programme”. But these reproaches are missing a whole other dimension: that the song has triggered a huge emotional response from millions of Iranians around the world. “Hearing a beloved artist embrace our language with such care? We feel it. And we’re here for it,” said one popular comment on Sheeran’s Instagram.

There is no action star quite like Jackie Chan, who made his name in the Hong Kong movie industry starting in the late 1970s and developed his own signature style: combining slapstick physical comedy with acrobatics and martial arts, and designing astonishing stunts—all of which he performed himself along with his own handpicked stunt team. His stunt sequences and fight choreography have influenced everything from The Matrix and Kill Bill to the John Wick franchise and Kung Fu Panda (in which he voiced Master Monkey).

Born on April 7, 1954, Chan studied acrobatics, martial arts, and acting as a child at the Peking Opera School's China Drama Academy and became one of the Seven Little Fortunes. Those skills served him well in his early days as a Hong Kong stuntman, which eventually landed him a gig as an extra and stunt double on Bruce Lee's 1972 film, Fist of Fury . He also appeared in a minor role in Lee's Enter the Dragon (1973).

Initially, Hong Kong producers, impressed by Chan's skills, wanted to mold him into the next Bruce Lee, but that just wasn't Chan's style. Chan found his milieu when director Yuen Woo-ping cast him in 1978's kung fu comedy Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and gave Chan creative freedom over the stunt work. It was Drunken Master , released that same year, that established Chan as a rising talent, and he went on to appear in more than 150 movies, becoming one of Hong Kong's biggest stars.

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Speaking after his best actor victory, Lithgow said Donald Trump’s administration ‘has done some shocking, destructive things’ especially its takeover of the Kennedy Center

The actor John Lithgow has described Donald Trump’s second presidency as “a pure disaster” for the arts in the US. Lithgow, speaking after his best actor victory at the Olivier awards in London on Sunday, singled out Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center , Washington DC’s national institution for the performing arts. “Our administration has done some shocking, destructive things,” he said, “but the one that grieves me most is taking over the Kennedy Center.”

The US president is now chair of the prestigious cultural complex (which was founded as a government-funded, bipartisan venue) and has installed new board members and a new interim leader, loyalist Ric Grenell. The board had been in the process of selecting a successor to outgoing leader Deborah Rutter, who in January announced her intention to step down after 11 years.

Atmospheric fantasy sees paladin Bhodie enter a cursed realm and die on repeat to rescue a red-haired maiden

Maybe it’s because of a sense that we are expendable parts in the great capitalist machine, that the endlessly repeating death trope has been increasingly respawning in movies – from Edge of Tomorrow to Mickey 17 and now this Canadian sword’n’sorcery caper. With its sisyphean vibe and implacable mood, it also owes a fair bit to the Dark Souls video games; though it’s not a masterpiece on that level, it nevertheless has a grim self-conviction that grips despite its low-budget limitations.

Paladin Bhodie (Jeremy Ninaber) – who apparently asked the barber for the Gondor bob and beard trim – agrees to enter a cursed realm to rescue red-haired maiden Avalon (Kristen Kaster), who is central to a humanity-saving prophecy. Needing to collect three magic stones to open up an exit portal, he makes a pact with the Keeper demon (Shane Nicely) for a magic talisman that can resurrect him enough times to beat the stones’ guardians. It turns out Avalon – no slouch with the steel herself – has made the same arrangement, only to die multiple deaths at the hands of the first adversaries: a pair of bloodthirsty witches.

Bandmates pay tribute to friend and ‘Ace of Bass’ who helped forge the post-punk band’s sound

Dave Allen, the bassist for British post-punks Gang of Four, has died aged 69. His surviving bandmates, vocalist Jon King and drummer Hugo Burnham, said that Allen had been suffering from early-onset mixed dementia.

Burnham said in a statement: “It is with broken yet full hearts that we share the news that Dave Allen, our old music partner, friend, and brilliant musician, died on Saturday morning. He was at home with his family.”

Kate Folk on Sky Daddy, a book about sex, death and plane crashes that’s taking off in these turbulent times

If we told our forebears that we could soar in the sky nearly seven miles above the ground, they would stare at us agog. But now air travel is one big grumble: it’s degrading, everyone is ill-mannered and you used to get free peanuts in this country, but now the peanuts are not free. Air travel, like everything else, is about the politics of resentment. The skies are feeling a lot less friendly, and that’s before you get to a year in which Americans have experienced profound tragedy in the air , as well as significant cuts to an already strained Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

In this turbulent time for flying lands Sky Daddy, the unusual debut novel by Kate Folk, a San Francisco author and screenwriter whose short story collection Out There was released in 2022. Sky Daddy is narrated by a woman called Linda who, like many of us, lives her life in dogged pursuit of love. She just wants that love to come from a commercial airplane in free fall. “I believed this was my destiny,” Linda tells us, “for a plane to recognize me as his soulmate mid-flight and, overcome with passion, relinquish his grip on the sky, hurtling us to earth in a carnage that would meld our souls for eternity.”

The actor said he was ‘barbecued’ after a complaint on the set of Being Mortal in 2022, which shut down production on the film

Bill Murray has said he feels he was “barbecued” by a sexual misconduct allegation on the set of a 2022 comedy, which led to the film being cancelled and his reaching a financial settlement with the woman who accused him of straddling her and kissing her.

“It wasn’t like I touched her,” said Murray to the New York Times in a new interview. “I gave her a kiss through a mask. And she wasn’t a stranger.”

Murray defended his actions to the paper, saying that the complainant was “someone that I worked with, that I had had lunch with on various days of the week”. The actor put his actions down to trying to be amusing in a strained and claustrophobic setting.

Kings Place, London
A chamber reduction of Das Lied von der Erde formed the centrepiece of this spring-themed concert

Back when Mahler’s symphonies were still rarely played in Britain – and, yes, there really was such a time – Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) was the most familiar of his major orchestral works. Much of that was the legacy of Kathleen Ferrier’s inimitable recording of Das Leid’s final song, Der Abschied (The Farewell) under Bruno Walter before her early death in 1953. But then came the Mahler renaissance of the 1960s and performances of The Song of the Earth – in effect a six-movement song symphony for tenor and alto – became part of the new and much more varied Mahlerian picture.

Renewed interest in chamber reductions of Mahler has been part of this change. Iain Farrington’s version of Das Lied for the Aurora Orchestra is the latest example, and formed the centrepiece of this spring-themed concert under Nicholas Collon. As with Arnold Schoenberg’s 20th-century version, completed by Rainer Riehn, the reduction is abrupt, with just a handful of solo strings and winds in place of a full orchestra. But most of the detail is still there, allowing the winds to be heard with particular clarity, and, under Collon’s fluent and vigorous direction, it still packs a true Mahlerian punch.