Author: Morgan

Sir Terry Farrell, the “nonconformist” architect and planner, whose bold designs defined the “hi-tech” era and included the MI6 headquarters in London, has died aged 87.

The architect’s studio in London confirmed the death in an Instagram post, writing: “It is with deep sadness that, on behalf of his family, the partners and practice of Farrells acknowledge the death of our founder, Sir Terry Farrell.”

Farrell was, along with Nicholas Grimshaw, one of the key minds behind the “hi-tech” movement of the 1980s and 90s, creating futuristic buildings, including one of his best known, the TV-am studios in Camden, London.

Grimshaw, who died earlier this month, was a longtime collaborator with Farrell, with the pair creating the Herman Miller Factory in Bath and the 125 Park Road residential building in London – both considered emblematic of their style and approach.

Farrell was born in Sale, Cheshire, in 1938. His family moved to Newcastle and he grew up on what he described as “the edge of the edge” of the city, “on a building site next to the fields”, in a council estate called the Grange.

He stayed in the city, graduating with a degree in architecture from the Newcastle University School in 1961, before crossing the Atlantic to attend the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where he obtained a master’s degree in urban planning.

Farrell would come back to the UK, working briefly with the architects department of the Greater London Council, by which he was unimpressed. He told the Observer: “It was astonishing, leaderless and rudderless; people just invented their own solutions.”

It was away from the public sector that Farrell would flourish.

In 1965 he moved to London, forming a partnership with Grimshaw. Dubbed the Farrell/Grimshaw Partnership, they also shared a studio with experimental British architecture collective Archigram.

Grimshaw would go on to design the Eden Project in Cornwall, while Farrell was often described as the “less assertive” of the pair. “For 15 years I tagged along in Nick’s wake,” he once said.

Despite his modesty, Farrell’s buildings were often bold and loud.

The MI6 headquarters in Vauxhall, which opened in 1994, is perhaps Farrell’s best-known building. Once described by the architecture critic Rowan Moore as a “flesh-coloured ziggurat” of a building, it was typical of “the big, imposing buildings for powerful institutions” that Farrell specialised in.

Other Farrell buildings include Embankment Place and the Home Office headquarters in London as well as the Deep in Hull, and Alban Gate – the “shoulder-padded office block” that defined the “big bang architecture” in the City of London.

He also worked in east Asia, designing Beijing railway station and Guangzhou South railway station in China. He also created the 442-metre KK100 tower in Shenzhen – the world’s tallest building by a British architect.

“Terry was frequently called a maverick and a nonconformist, which he relished,” his studio continued in its social media post. “He was an architect who was never quite part of the ‘club’. He will be remembered as the UK’s leading architect planner whose enduring commitment to urbanism has helped shape government policy on key built-environment issues.”

He was 84 when the Farrell Centre, part of Newcastle University, opened. It includes a gallery and an “urban room” – a place where “local people can go to learn about the past, present and future of where they live”, something that was important to Farrell, who invested £1m of his own money in the project.

Farrell campaigned for conservation but was also keen on buildings being adapted. “Conservation is a mind thing rather than a designation,” he said in 2023, when the Farrell Centre was opened. “A cardboard house,’’ he added, if people are motivated to take care of it, “lasts for ever.”

The private equity firm which owns Hobbycraft has signed a deal to rescue half of the UK and Irish stores of the accessories chain Claire’s but warned some job losses and shop closures were “inevitable”.

Modella Capital said it had bought 156 Claire’s stores in the UK and Ireland from administrators, securing the immediate future of 1,000 employees, “in the hope that it will be able to rescue this well-known and highly regarded brand”.

However, the private equity firm warned it was “inevitable that this acquisition will result in some store closures and job losses” as it negotiates with landlords over how many outlets it can keep open.

About 1,000 jobs also remain at risk at a further 145 UK Claire’s stores which have not been taken on by Modella. They will continue to be run by the administrators at Interpath, who stepped in after the group’s US parent collapsed in August.

Modella, which bought Hobbycraft last year, recently acquired WH Smith’s high street arm, which it has renamed with a fictitious “family” brand name, TG Jones, and has previously backed the fashion brand Ted Baker’s ill-fated UK licensee.

Will Wright, Interpath’s UK chief executive and joint administrator, said: “Our intention is to continue to trade the remaining portfolio of stores for as long as we can, while we explore the options available.”

The jewellery and ear-piercing retailer’s UK arm called in administrators last month after sales fell in the face of competition from online retailers such as Amazon as well as the rise of sales via social media such as TikTok.

That came shortly after Claire’s in the US and Canada filed for bankruptcy for the second time in seven years.

Founded in 1961, Claire’s has been a staple in British shopping centres and high streets. The group, which operates more than 2,750 stores across 17 countries in North America and Europe, offers ear-piercing services and jewellery which have made it particularly popular among teenagers.

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Joseph Price, the managing director of Modella, said: “As a firm, we strongly believe that this much-loved brand deserves the chance to remain on the high street in the UK and Ireland. The issues that Claire’s is facing are significant, and we will need to work collaboratively with all interested parties if our proposed rescue plan is to succeed.”

Modella said it had separately reached a deal for the licence to trade the Claire’s brand in the UK and Ireland from Ames Watson, the US-based brand specialist which owns the intellectual property.

Moldova’s pro-European ruling party held on to its parliamentary majority after Sunday’s pivotal election, strengthening the country of 2.4 million’s attempt to move towards the EU and away from Moscow.

With more than 99.9% of ballots counted, president Maia Sandu’s pro-western Action and Solidarity party (PAS) had 50.03% of the vote, putting it on track to win 55 of the 101 seats in parliament. That compared with 24.26% for a Moscow-leaning alliance of Soviet-nostalgic parties led by the former president Igor Dodon, according to results published on the election commission’s website.

Sandu’s PAS party outperformed pre-election polls, which predicted it would stay the largest party but risk losing its majority – a result that could have curbed her push to deliver EU membership within a decade.

The result marks a significant victory for Sandu, who has staked her presidency on a pro-European course and accused Russia of deploying unprecedented underhand tactics to sway voters in the impoverished country squeezed between Ukraine and Romania.

Results chart

In Moldova, power is shared between the directly elected president and a prime minister appointed by parliament, with Igor Grosu, the PAS leader and a close ally of Sandu, expected to take the post.

The results will be greeted with a sigh of relief in Brussels and other European capitals, where there had been fears that Moscow could regain a foothold in a strategically vital region as it steps up its hybrid campaign across the continent.

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, wrote on X: “Moldova, you’ve done it again. No attempt to sow fear or division could break your resolve.”

She added: “You made your choice clear: Europe. Democracy. Freedom. Our door is open. And we will stand with you every step of the way.”

While Sunday’s election is a major boost for those hoping Moldova joins the EU, the path to membership remains uncertain. The country still needs to push through a series of reforms and address the unresolved issue of Transnistria, the breakaway region where 1,500 Russian troops are stationed.

Other European leaders struck a similar congratulatory tone. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, wrote on X: “Despite attempts at interference and pressure, the choice of the people of the Republic of Moldova has asserted itself with force.

“France stands by Moldova in its European project and in its momentum of freedom and sovereignty.”

This year’s parliamentary campaign was overshadowed by mounting allegations of Russian interference. Moldovan authorities accuse Moscow of funnelling billions of dollars into pro-Russian parties, vote-buying schemes and propaganda campaigns aimed at stoking anti-western sentiment.

Two pro-Russian parties were barred from the election on Friday over financing irregularities, a move that angered the opposition and drew sharp criticism from Moscow.

Polling stations on Sunday closed after a turbulent day marked by officials reporting attempts to disrupt the vote, including cyber-attacks on election systems and fake bomb threats at polling sites abroad.

Stanislav Secrieru, Sandu’s national adviser, wrote on X that Moldovans were voting “under massive pressure from Russia and its proxies”.

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Secrieru said bomb threats had been called in to voting stations in Brussels, Rome and the US. The ballots of Moldova’s sizeable diaspora, which tends to back closer ties with Europe, were expected to play a decisive role in the outcome.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, accused Moldova of curbing the voting rights of its citizens in Russia by providing only three polling stations there, compared with far more in Europe and the US.

Dodon, who heads the Patriotic bloc opposing Sandu’s pro-European course, rejected the results, saying his allies had documented electoral violations and were compiling evidence. He called on opposition parties to join a peaceful protest outside parliament on 29 September.

Moscow has consistently rejected claims of interference in Moldova, labelling them “anti-Russian” and “unsubstantiated”. Yet the outcome will come as a setback for the Kremlin, which Moldovan officials say invested unprecedented time and resources in supporting pro-Russian parties.

A western intelligence official told the Guardian that in recent months Moscow had made Moldova its “key foreign policy priority after Ukraine”, noting that the Kremlin had reshuffled the team handling Moldova earlier this year to pursue a more aggressive strategy.

Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Moldova has oscillated between building closer ties with Brussels and clinging to Soviet-era relations with Moscow.

Sandu is a former World Bank official who was elected as president in 2020 on a wave of anti-corruption sentiment. Her government oversaw a referendum last October in which Moldovans voted narrowly to enshrine EU membership as a constitutional goal. On the same day, Sandu was re-elected as president for a four-year term.

She will now hope to tackle her administration’s main vulnerability: the economy. Inflation remains stubbornly high, emigration shows no sign of slowing and GDP growth has been modest.

Her supporters argue these problems stem largely from external shocks, with Russia’s war in Ukraine disrupting trade routes, triggering an energy crisis and forcing Moldova to take in tens of thousands of refugees.

Dolly Parton has postponed her upcoming Las Vegas concert residency due to health issues.

Parton, 79, was due to begin a six-concert run at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace on 4 December. She announced on social media that she has “been dealing with some health challenges, and my doctors tell me that I must have a few procedures”.

She did not give details about the procedures but added light-heartedly: “As I joked with them, it must be time for my 100,000-mile checkup, although it’s not the usual trip to see my plastic surgeon!”

She continued: “In all seriousness, given this, I am not going to be able to rehearse and put together the show that I want you to see, and the show that you deserve to see. You pay good money to see me perform, and I want to be at my best for you. While I’ll still be able to work on all of my projects from here in Nashville, I just need a little time to get show ready, as they say. And don’t worry about me quittin’ the business because God hasn’t said anything about stopping yet. But, I believe He is telling me to slow down right now so I can be ready for more big adventures with all of you. I love you and thank you for understanding.”

It was set to be Parton’s first extended run of concerts in Las Vegas in 32 years.

Parton has kept up a regular release schedule in recent years, and reached the US and UK Top Five with her 2023 album Rockstar, featuring collaborations with pop and rock legends including Elton John, Debbie Harry, Sting and, on a cover of Let It Be, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. In 2024, the album Smoky Mountain DNA: Family, Faith and Fables, featured collaborations with Parton family members.

More recently, Parton collaborated with rockers Mötley Crüe on a new version of their song Home Sweet Home, released in June. A musical based on her life, Dolly: A True Original Musical, premiered in Nashville in July, ahead of a hoped-for Broadway run.

Her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, died in March aged 82.

Four teenage boys have been arrested after a car chase through Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and into the city centre, which ended when they abandoned the allegedly stolen BMW in the middle of Bourke Street mall.

Police said they had first become aware of the teenagers about 12.30pm on Monday, when they saw them allegedly driving erratically in a BMW on the Eastern Freeway in Doncaster.

Police pursued the vehicle to the central business district, where a pedestrian was allegedly struck on Exhibition Street, before the teenagers stopped the car on the busy mall and ran from the scene.

The teenagers – a 15-year-old, a 16-year-old and two 17-year-olds from the Bendigo and Yarra Ranges areas – were arrested a short time later outside a shopping centre on Lonsdale Street.

They were being interviewed by police on Monday afternoon.

The pedestrian, a woman, was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police said they believed the car had allegedly been stolen on Sunday from the Boroondara local government area in Melbourne’s east.

Footage posted on social media showed the BMW 4WD in the middle of the tram tracks on Monday afternoon, surrounded by tactical police officers, with its windscreen smashed.

Dozens of pedestrians were gathered at the scene.

Route 86 and 96 trams were briefly suspended along Bourke Street but resumed just after 2.30pm, according to Yarra Trams. It said delays may occur as it worked to restore the timetable.

The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, does not believe Andrew Hastie is after her job and has subtly rebuffed his claims that immigration levels are making Australians feel like “strangers in our own home”.

Ley declined to endorse Hastie’s comment when asked about it on Monday, instead blaming the government for not building the infrastructure needed to cope with a growing population.

“You see for yourself how the lack of infrastructure is contributing to the struggles that people are facing every day,” she told reporters in Albury.

“This has nothing to do with any migrant or migrant community, but this is a reprehensible failure of government to put the infrastructure and services in place that Australians deserve.”

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Ley refused to be drawn on whether Hastie’s comments were divisive or unhelpful for the Liberal Party as it conducts a post-election review of its policy agenda.

“I’m very confident that all of my colleagues are expressing strongly held views, and they do that in many ways,” she said.

On Monday, she faced questions for the first time about Hastie’s recent string of provocative policy statements, which have prompted speculation the shadow home affairs minister is positioning himself for a future leadership challenge.

Hastie – who has repeatedly declared his aspirations to one day lead the party – last week said he supported Ley and anyone suggesting otherwise was “being mischievous”.

Asked on Monday if she was worried the former solider was angling for her job, Ley told reporters: “No, I’m not”.

In his most recent policy intervention, the West Australian MP used social media to warn that the Liberal Party could “die” as a political movement if it did not commit to curb net overseas migration, which he blamed for the housing crisis.

Hastie claimed the rate of net overseas migration, which has subsided since a post-pandemic surge, was making Australians start to “feel like strangers in our own home”.

The line echoed the former UK MP Enoch Powell’s infamous “rivers of blood speech” in 1968, in which he imagined a future multicultural Britain where the white population “found themselves made strangers in their own country”.

The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, used a similar “island of strangers” line in a speech in June – for which he later expressed regret.

The 42-year-old’s actions have one again exposed the divisions inside the party, with some MPs privately frustrated at Hastie’s freelancing while others, such as Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, openly praising his outspokenness.

Opposition parties, Palestinian groups and a former prime minister have expressed dismay over New Zealand’s decision not to recognise Palestinian statehood, saying it places the country on the wrong side of history and puts it at odds with its traditional allies.

Last week, the UK, Canada, Australia and others formally declared their recognition of statehood ahead of a special UN conference in New York. As of this month, 157 of the 193 UN member countries have recognised a Palestinian state.

It had been anticipated that the New Zealand coalition government would follow suit, particularly in light of previous comments from prime minister Christopher Luxon and other senior ministers that recognising statehood would be a matter of “when, not if”.

But during his address to the UN general assembly on Saturday, foreign affairs minister Winston Peters said while New Zealand was committed to a two-state solution, it would not yet recognise the state of Palestine.

“With a war raging, Hamas remaining the de facto government of Gaza, and no clarity on next steps, too many questions remain about the future state of Palestine for it to be prudent for New Zealand to announce recognition at this time,” Peters said, adding he was concerned recognition could complicate efforts to secure a ceasefire.

The failure to recognise statehood has angered many New Zealanders, some of whom took to social media to share their dismay after the announcement. On Monday, members of the Anglican and Catholic clergy chained themselves to the immigration minister’s Auckland office in protest at the decision.

Former prime minister Helen Clark said New Zealand had placed itself “very much on the wrong side of history.”

“As more and more countries move to see that the recognition of Palestine is part of a process of moving towards a solution, New Zealand is lagging behind for reasons which make very little sense at all,” she told broadcaster RNZ.

The growing number of declarations for statehood come as Israel intensifies its assault on Gaza City and amid fears it could annex the West Bank in retaliation for the recognition from the UK, Australia, France and others. Earlier this month a United Nations independent international commission of inquiry found that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

Israel has killed more than 66,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, and injured more than 160,000 since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 incursion into Israel. Israel’s actions have decimated vast swathes of the territory and blockades on aid have caused widespread famine, according to international experts.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “finish the job” in Gaza and said the recognition of a Palestinian state was “insane” as delegations walked out of his address to the United Nations.

New Zealand’s coalition government has faced increasing demands from opposition parties to recognise statehood, with pressure mounting after tens of thousands of New Zealanders marched through Auckland’s central city earlier this month.

Human rights organisation, Justice for Palestine, said New Zealand has shown a profound lack of leadership on the issue, appearing on the world stage “as a country confused about its position in the world”.

The Green party said the government’s refusal to recognise Palestine was “a stain” on New Zealand’s reputation as a voice for peace and justice, while the Labour party labelled it an “embarrassment”.

“Luxon had a chance to stand up for what is right, but he failed,” said Peeni Henare, Labour’s foreign affairs spokesperson.

“Recognition of Palestine and sanctions on Israel send a clear message to Israel and the world: New Zealand will not stand by while Israel disregards human life and dignity, and international law.”

On Monday, Luxon told broadcaster RNZ, that New Zealanders would have strong views on the situation but that the country could be proud the government had made independent decision.

“We’re not pro-Palestine, we’re not pro-Israel, we’re friends to both, but we are pro-peace and that’s what New Zealand’s continued to advocate for with 80-plus ministerial statements.”

Responding to the criticisms, a spokesperson from Peters office told the Guardian that New Zealand did not question the “good intentions of those who have chosen to recognise Palestine,” and that New Zealand had a shared objective of trying to bring about a two-state solution.

“Where we differ is on the issue of whether recognition right now, in these circumstances, will make a tangible, positive contribution to the realisation of a two-state solution.”