Banksy artwork appears on side of flats in north London
The artist Banksy has confirmed he created his latest work – a large green mural of a tree with apparent environmental overtones – which appeared in north London over the weekend.
Residents said they woke up on Sunday to the massive mural on the side of a block of flats in Hornsey Road near Finsbury Park.
Pic: PA
The elusive artist – who shares his work on his Instagram page – posted a picture of the site on his official page on Monday, showing the wall before the work was completed.
The large-scale painting is a green splatter-effect shape, painted behind a cut-back tree – giving the appearance of adding a halo of leaves and foliage to the bare branches.
The green paint drips down to the floor, where a figure of a young girl painted with a stencil in green and black is looking up at the work.
She appears to be holding a pressure sprayer.
The shade of bright green paint used in the piece matches the colour of Islington Council branding, and also seems likely to be a nod to St Patrick’s Day, which was on Sunday 17 March.
Trainee clinical psychologist Amy wrote on X: “Proud new caretakers of an apparent new #Banksy piece in Finsbury Park… Woke up this morning to it on the side of flat.”
She added: “You can just about see us smiling proudly on our balcony.”
She also found a handful of black zip ties left outside by the work, and speculated: “Potentially Banksy’s zip ties left at the painting?”
Another resident, James Roe, joked on X: “Banksy came overnight and now my rent will skyrocket.”
Islington councillor Flora Williamson shared images of the art on X, and said she was a fan of Banksy’s work.
She wrote: “By far the most exciting thing to happen on today’s canvass session on Hornsey Road was seeing that Banksy had come to Tollington overnight. Lots of local interest – I’m a fan of it.”
Lidia Guerra, another Hornsey Road resident, told PA news agency: “The way it’s been done with the paint spraying down reminds me of a weeping willow, so there’s perhaps a message about the struggle of nature with the dead tree in front.
“It’s just great – when we read about it last night, we knew we had to come and see it as soon as possible.
“We feel so proud to think he chose our street.”
Banksy posts his artwork on his Instagram account, with his last confirmed work – a stop sign in Peckham, south London, with three military drones painted across it – shared just before Christmas.
However, the work was removed less than an hour after it was confirmed to be genuine on the artist’s social media, with witnesses reporting it was taken down by a man with bolt cutters.
Two men were later arrested on suspicion of theft and criminal damage.
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Om Fahad: Iraqi social media influencer shot dead by gunman on motorbike who posed as food delivery rider – report
A well-known Iraqi social media influencer has reportedly been shot dead in her car by a gunman on a motorbike.
Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed outside her home in Baghdad’s Zayouna district on Friday, according to the AFP news agency, citing security officials.
It appears the unidentified attacker pretended to be delivering food to the victim, one security source said.
Om Fahad, who has nearly half a million TikTok followers, became famous for posting light-hearted videos where she dances to Iraqi music.
Six days ago, she shared footage of herself driving in a car and also posing in front of a mirror. They have each been watched hundreds of thousands of times.
The influencer was sentenced to six months in prison in February last year for sharing videos that a court ruled contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.
A campaign was launched in 2023 by the Iraqi government to clamp down on social media content which broke the country’s “morals and traditions”.
The interior ministry set up a committee to look for “offensive” clips on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, with several influencers being arrested.
“This type of content is no less dangerous than organised crime,” the ministry declared in a promotional video which asked the public to help by reporting such content.
“It is one of the causes of the destruction of the Iraqi family and society.”
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Speaking last year, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan argued the morality campaign has “nothing to do with freedom of expression”.
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In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad shot dead Tara Fares, who was a model and influencer.
After years of war and sectarian conflict following the 2003 US invasion that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality despite sporadic violence, political instability and corruption.
But civil liberties, particularly among women and sexual minorities, are still constrained in a conservative and male-dominated society.
R Kelly’s challenge against a 20-year sentence for child sex convictions has been quashed by an appeals court.
The singer was correctly sentenced to 20 years in prison, a Chicago court ruled on Friday.
He was convicted in 2022 on three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.
In his appeal, Kelly, 57, argued Illinois’ old statute of limitations – which required prosecution of child sex crime charges within 10 years – should have applied, rather than the current law permitting charges while an accuser is still alive.
The appeals court rejected this, labelling it an attempt by Kelly to elude the charges entirely after “employing a complex scheme to keep victims quiet”.
He also argued that charges involving one accuser should have been tried separately from the charges tied to three other accusers due to video evidence that became a focal point of the Chicago trial.
Prosecutors have said the video showed Kelly abusing a girl. The accuser, only identified as Jane, testified for the first time that she was 14 when the video was taken.
The three-judge panel from the appeals court noted jurors acquitted Kelly on seven of the 13 counts against him “even after viewing those abhorrent tapes”.
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In a written statement, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean said they plan to seek a US Supreme Court review of the decision and “pursue all of his appellate remedies until we free R Kelly”.
“We are disappointed in the ruling, but our fight is far from over,” she said.
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