Artist and activist Ai Weiwei has cautioned against seeing COP26 as the answer to the world’s climate problems, insisting “we cannot depend on one meeting”.
It is the “responsibility of being a human” that we all look after the planet, he told Sky News.
Speaking about the climate conference, which begins on Sunday in Glasgow, the leading Chinese dissident said it “probably is too late and most likely nothing will change… we cannot depend on one meeting”.
As known for his political activism as his art, Weiwei came to prominence designing the Bird’s Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
His life in China became increasingly difficult after he spoke out against the Chinese government and he left his home country in 2015.
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However, the artist defends how China’s greenhouse emissions have come to exceed all developed nations – saying that China’s 1.4 billion people per capita produce less greenhouse emissions than the US.
“I think what we have to understand is what China did, every nation did before… so to use one standard to measure certain areas is very colonial and very discriminating,” he said.
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Whatever agreements are reached at COP26, Ai Weiwei believes China is capable of change.
“China is aware of the challenge ahead… on the basis of a sectarian state, once they make a clear policy, they can follow up their decisions, and if they really want to they can do anything to achieve their plan.”
The artist was speaking as his latest work, a digital project starting from the year he was born until now, goes on public display at Piccadilly Circus in London as part of the Circa art movement.
He also joins leading creatives – including Hans Ulrich Obrist, Indy Johar, Katharine Hamnett and Sir David Adjaye – in giving his thoughts to the art platform’s first print publication, a manifesto called “Where do we go from now?”
In it, he answers: “Do we ever go anywhere? I think we are going nowhere, we are staying. And the question is, can we really stay here?”
The artist says we all need to take a stand on climate change.
“Deforestation and pollution is all done by a human. We always point a finger to others but, in that sense, everybody’s involved. Everybody contributed to the damage of the planet.
“If you don’t act or if you’re not conscious about what has been going wrong, I think that’s so tragic… I think this is a responsibility of being human to take care of all human conditions.”
Davina McCall has said her short-term memory is “a bit remiss” as she recovers from brain tumour surgery.
Speaking from her bed, the visibly emotional TV presenterposted a short video updating her Instagram followers on her condition, saying it had been a “mad” time.
She expressed an “enormous heartfelt thank you” to people who had messaged her after she revealed this month she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.
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Looking bright, but with a visibly bruised left eye, McCall said: “My short-term memory is a bit remiss.
“But that is something I can work on, so I’m really happy about that. I’m writing everything down, to keep myself feeling safe.”
She added: “It’s been mad, and it’s just really nice to be back home, I’m on the other side.”
In a message posted with the video, she reiterated her thanks for all the support she has received, adding: “Had a great night’s sleep in my own bed. Have a couple of sleeps during the day which keeps my brain clear… Slowly, slowly…”
When she first shared her diagnosis, she said chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.
The 57-year-old star said support from her fans had “meant the world”.
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She said she was being “brilliantly looked after” by her partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and her stepmother, Gabby, who she calls mum.
Becoming tearful, the presenter said: “I’d quickly like to say big up the stepmums. I don’t really say thank you to Gabby enough. She’s been an amazing rock my whole life.”
McCall was estranged from her birth mother, Florence McCall, who died in 2008.
With a catch in her voice, McCall went on: “I’ve got a massive dose of vitamin G – I’m just really grateful. I’ve always been really lucky in my life, but I feel unbelievably grateful right now. So, thanks for everything, all of you.
“I’m on the mend, I’m resting and sleeping loads and I feel really good. I’m just very lucky.”
Stars including presenter Alison Hammond, singer Craig David and radio host Zoe Ball quickly shared their delight at the positive update.
McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.
She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, the most recent being ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.
Last year, McCall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.
Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.
She has lived with Douglas since 2022, and they present a weekly lifestyle podcast together, Making The Cut.
Barbara Taylor Bradford, the bestselling novelist who wrote A Woman Of Substance, has died at the age of 91.
The Leeds-born author, who sold more than 90 million books, died peacefully at her home on Sunday after a short illness and was “surrounded by loved ones to the very end”, a spokeswoman said.
Taylor Bradford, who was often labelled “the grand dame of blockbusters”, hit the big time when A Woman Of Substance was published in 1979, making her an overnight success.
The story sold millions of copies and traced the journey of Emma Harte from life as a servant in rural Yorkshire to heading a business empire.
The rags to riches story was followed by many other successful books with the author’s works being published in more than 40 languages across 90 countries.
Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of publisher HarperCollins, said the author was a “natural storyteller”, adding: “Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first book, the international bestseller A Woman Of Substance, changed the lives of so many who read it – and still does to this day.”
Taylor Bradford, who was made an OBE in 2007 for services to literature, wrote a total of 40 novels during her career – her most recent was The Wonder Of It All, published last year.
Born in May 1933 as the only child of Winston and Freda Taylor, she worked as a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post before becoming a reporter and then the paper’s first woman’s editor.
At the age of 20, she moved to London and worked in Fleet Street for Woman’s Own and the London Evening News.
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She met her husband, American film producer Robert Bradford, in 1961 and they married in London on Christmas Eve in 1963 before moving to New York the following year.
Adele has bid a tearful farewell to her Las Vegas residency show, as the Someone Like You star admitted she doesn’t know when she’ll perform again next.
The British singer-songwriter, 36, launched Weekends with Adele at Caesars Palace in November 2022 and performed her 100th show there on Saturday.
Her mammoth run of sell-out shows at the venue, which seats around 4,000 people, has been a success but has taken its toll.