A swan appears to sing the aurora borealis into existence in this visionary nature poem with an unexpected war connection

The Stopover

A swan sings. From the marshes’
far reaches, its sharp call rings
in a coppery snare of cymbals.

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Pop radio DJ and presenter who recorded the last interview with John Lennon in December 1980

Andy Peebles, who has died suddenly aged 76, was for 14 years a disc jockey on BBC Radio 1, where he presented shows across the schedule, switching between mornings, afternoons and evenings.

In 1981, three years after joining Radio 1, he settled into a Friday evening spot with a programme combining music and a preview of the weekend’s sporting action. “I never dreamed that I’d get to talk to all those incredible people,” he said in a 2017 Radio Today podcast to mark the station’s 50th anniversary. “Ian Botham was about to become a worldwide star, Billy Beaumont was just about to lead his English rugby team to a grand slam, Kevin Keegan – great character – was at the forefront, captaining the England football side.”

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Rereleased documentary study of the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre is an epic story of success and failure

After 20 years, Ondi Timoner has rereleased her riveting and colossal documentary study of two psych rock bands, the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and their epic dual story of success and failure. There is about 40 minutes of extra material and a present-day coda that reveals, among other things, that each band has a member who now sells real estate. That ending, brutally and suddenly visiting grey-haired middle age on these gorgeous rock’n’roll exquisites, reminded me of the Fellini-esque dream opening to Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories in which two trains, one carrying life’s winners and the other with hapless losers, wind up at the same dusty rubbish heap.

Dig! XX, which took years to shoot, is alternately narrated by the Warhols’ frontman, Courtney Taylor-Taylor, and the BJM’s relentlessly goofy tambourine player, Joel Gion, and it shows the complex “frenmity” of the two bands. Almost from the outset, it seemed as if the Dandy Warhols were destined for commercial success tainted by feelings of selling out, and their pals the Brian Jonestown Massacre were heading for failure redeemed by a magnificent and self-destructive kind of integrity.

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Actor, 76, is accused of groping two women on set during the filming of The Green Shutters in 2021

Gérard Depardieu arrived in court in Paris on Monday for his trial over alleged sexual assaults on a film set, a case that places one of France’s best-known film stars at the heart of the country’s broader reckoning over sexual violence.

Depardieu, 76, has faced allegations of rape or sexual assault from more than a dozen women, all of which he has denied, but this is the first time he has appeared in court to answer accusations.

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The comic on idolising Russell Howard, spending summer away from the Edinburgh fringe and lying to cabbies

Why did you get into comedy?
I started standup as a teenager despite being painfully shy. I loved the feeling of making people laugh, but the thought of it being a job had never crossed my mind. A career started to snowball without me even realising and I’ve been delighted and astounded by that ever since. I’ve grown up in this job, and 18-year-old me would never have believed it possible.

Who did you admire when you were starting out?
Rob Rouse. To this day, if I see I’m on a lineup with him I’m buzzing. I’ve also been in awe of Ross Noble’s ludicrous genius since before I even started comedy.

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A carbon crime or bright new future? For nearly four years, a fierce debate raged over the future of the site’s high-rise flats

For nearly four years, a fierce debate raged over the future of the Wyndford estate in Glasgow, dividing residents and sparking wider national controversy. Was the demolition of its high-rises an environmental travesty or the first step toward much-needed regeneration?

The dispute began in November 2021, days after the city hosted Cop26, where politicians and businesses promised to curb wasteful building destruction. Yet, residents of Wyndford soon found leaflets on their doorsteps heralding a “bright new future” – one that involved the demolition of all four high-rise blocks on the estate. The decision set off years of protests, legal challenges and community divisions.

The four high-rise blocks of the Wyndford estate one week before demolition. Three blocks were demolished by controlled explosion on 23 March – – the block on the left will be brought down floor by floor owing to its proximity to other homes on the estate.

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Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire
Hélène Binet’s haunted photographs of spectacular country residences built by Jewish people across Europe are filled with the melancholic grandeur of fallen empires

All things considered, we Jews haven’t done too bad. Not that you need reminding. Every corner of the internet, from Reddit to X, is desperate to point out that Jewish people are apparently in control of the banks, Hollywood, the government and, ahem, art criticism. That’s the price you pay for being a successful immigrant.

And that success is nothing new. Swiss-French photographer Hélène Binet ’s latest body of work documents a sweeping array of opulent, lavish country houses owned or built by Jews across Europe. Bankers, textile merchants, stockbrokers, politicians, the story of post-medieval Jewry is a tale filled with an awful lot of high achievers, and they built themselves some seriously swanky houses. A selection of Binet’s images has been hung in the most appropriate of settings; Waddesdon Manor , the wildly over the top 19th-century weekend party house of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild .

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The Mexican director of La Cocina on making movies under the Trump-Vance administration, why Oscars don’t matter and his time as a khaki-shorted waiter at the Rainforest Cafe

Anyone who visited the Rainforest Cafe, a now defunct Piccadilly Circus tourist trap serving overpriced burgers among plastic foliage and animatronic wildlife, may have met a future auteur without realising it. In the early 00s, Alonso Ruizpalacios was not the gifted, ingenious director he is today – the man behind A Cop Movie, a slippery psychodrama that breaks the laws of documentary, and the new La Cocina, starring Rooney Mara as a waitress at a hectic New York restaurant. Back then, he wore baggy khaki shorts and welcomed customers to the Rainforest Cafe. “Hi, I’m Alonso and I’ll be your safari guide today,” he would say. “You guys been here before? No? Well, this is Bamba, our gorilla. Occasionally there will be rain showers, but – hey – don’t be afraid, you won’t get wet!”

Sitting in a London hotel room with a view of the Thames, the film-maker grimaces at the memory. “You had to give the whole spiel,” he says. “It was fucking horrible.” Ruizpalacios, who was raised in a suburb of Mexico City by parents who are both doctors, is 47, with dense stubble, curly black hair and chunky-framed Harry Palmer-style glasses. Give or take the same lopsided smile, he doesn’t look much like the budding matinee idol in his Rada headshot . “I got into acting because I wanted to be a director,” he says. “And I needed to understand actors.”

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Trump was responding to Clooney’s call to defend press freedoms while promoting his new stage version of Good Night, and Good Luck

Donald Trump has taken aim at the actor and prominent Democrat activist George Clooney, dismissing his interview on US TV news programme 60 Minutes as a “total puff piece”.

The Oscar-winning star was the subject of Sunday’s show to promote his Broadway debut, in a stage version of the film Good Night, and Good Luck, in which he plays veteran journalist Edward R Murrow, who took part in a historic TV showdown with Senator Joseph McCarthy.

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