Singer Nick Cave says he has ‘feelings of culpability’ over the deaths of his sons
Nick Cave has said he has “feelings of culpability” over the deaths of his sons.
The Bad Seeds singer, 66, made the comments after losing two of his children in the space of seven years.
His son Arthur died aged 15 after he fell from a cliff near his home in Brighton in 2015. It came after he took the drug LSD for the first time, an inquest heard.
Then in 2022 his 31-year-old son Jethro, who had schizophrenia, died in Melbourne.
The 66-year-old, speaking during an interview with The Guardian, said it was “against nature” for a parent to bury their child.
When asked if he feels culpable for their deaths, including Arthur’s given Cave’s own struggles with substance abuse, he said: “There could be some element of that”.
He added: “Look, these things are in our DNA, they’re inherited. I don’t want to make any assumptions about Arthur, who was just a young boy. It’s not like he was into drugs.
“On a fundamental level, it’s against nature to be burying your children. And there can’t help but be feelings of culpability.”
Soon after Arthur died, Cave and his family moved to Los Angeles because they found it too difficult living down the road from where the tragedy took place.
Cave and his fashion designer wife Susie Cave
Cave said he felt like he had to grieve publicly after the death was widely reported.
However, he said the experience of bereavement after Arthur’s death helped when Jethro died, because he knew he “could get through [it]”.
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The musician also addressed accusations that he has previously sided with the extreme alt-right online movement.
He said: “The concept that there are problems with the world we need to address, such as social justice, I’m totally down with that.
“However, I don’t agree with the methods that are used in order to reach this goal – shutting down people, cancelling people…
“The problem with the right taking hold of this word is that it’s made the discussion impossible to have without having to join a whole load of nutjobs who have their problem with it.”
Cave also denied he was a Tory and said he had never voted for the party.
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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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