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Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Times
Trump Russiagate papers found in secret room, FBI director claims
Thousands of documents relating to a 2016 investigation into Donald Trump's links with Russia have been found at the FBI, the agency's director said. Kash Patel's staff allegedly found the sensitive papers in 'burn bags' earmarked for destruction in a secret room at the FBI headquarters, Fox News reported, in the administration's latest suggestion of a deep state conspiracy. Claims of a secret room at the Hoover Building in Washington were first made by Patel on Joe Rogan's podcast in early June. Patel claims there is a secret room inside the J Edgar Hoover building, the FBI headquarters in Washington ERIC LEE/GETTY IMAGES A controversial choice to lead the US domestic security service because of his history of fanning conspiracy theories, Patel's latest claim was amplified on social media by pro-Trump voices and branded a distraction by critics. 'Apparently the 'burn bag' system is used to destroy documents designated as classified or higher,' wrote Charlie Kirk, founder of the Maga student movement Turning Point Action, on X. 'Sources confirm that the burn bags were found filled with thousands of documents. What was the FBI hiding in those bags marked for destruction?' Patel's claims follow recent allegations of 'treason' levelled by Trump at Barack Obama and some of his senior officials for their role in initiating the inquiry into Russian election interference and links with the 2016 Trump campaign. This resulted in the Mueller report which found numerous examples of 'sweeping and systematic' Russian interference but no proof of collusion with the Trump campaign. Obama's office called the treason allegations 'outrageous' and 'a weak attempt at distraction' at a time when the president and his team are battling criticism for failing to release all the material they have on Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who was friends with many powerful people including Trump. The investigation into Russian involvement in the US elections was led by Robert Mueller AP/CAROLYN KASTER The latest documents were reported to include a classified annex to the Durham report, the investigation into the origins of the Mueller inquiry which concluded that the FBI suffered from 'confirmation bias' in rushing ahead with its Russia investigation and that it was not merited. Unnamed sources told Fox News that the annex showed that 'the US intelligence community had credible foreign sources indicating that the FBI would play a role in spreading the alleged Trump–Russia collusion narrative'. The foreign sources are not identified and there is no indication as to whether the information was assessed as reliable or not. Washington seems awash with conspiracy theories this summer and Trump appeared to muddle the latest Patel claims with the swirling Epstein controversy. Trump said on Wednesday that the Epstein files controversy was a 'scam set up by the Democrats' REUTERS/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN During an Oval Office event on Wednesday, Trump did not understand a reporter who asked: 'Did you know Kash Patel reportedly found burn bags of Russiagate materials — I'd love to get your thoughts on that.' Trump replied: 'He said what? … I don't know what you mean by that statement.' The reporter clarified: 'Bags full of Russiagate documents.' Trump then replied: 'Oh, burn bags, I thought you said 'appointed a man named Burn Bag'.' He then seemed to give his standard response to questions about his role in the Epstein document controversy, saying: 'I want everything to be shown, as long as it is fair and reasonable … the whole thing is a scam. It is a scam set up by the Democrats … I would like to see people exposed that might be bad.'
Time Out
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
This monumental cinema in Mumbai is Asia's greatest Art Deco building
If you've ever stopped to admire a building for its clean lines, geometric forms, bold colours, and opulent materials, you're likely gawping at a piece of art deco architecture. A style that became popular in the 1920s and 1930s, art deco works still number among some of the most prominent buildings in the world: think the Empire State Building in America and the Hoover Building in the UK. To mark the centenary of a landmark Paris exhibition: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) in 1925, our expert in architecture and design has done the tough job of whittling down the 10 finest examples of art deco architecture in the world. Picks range from the Art Deco Historic District in Miami to the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, with just one building from all of Asia making the list. That honour goes to the Eros Cinema, located at Churchgate, Mumbai, India. Commissioned in 1935 by the Parsi businessman Shiavax Cawasji Cambata in 1935, it was designed by architect Shorabji Bhedwar and officially opened in February 1938. This is one building you can't miss. The cinema is immense, with an imposing stepped facade of ivory cream and red Agra sandstone protruding onto Marine Drive. The theatre is just as magnificent on the inside: black and white marble covers the foyer, marble staircases with chromium handrails lead up to the upper floor, and elaborate murals, cloud patterns, and relief sculptures adorn the walls of the floors and auditoriums. The Eros Cinema is a significant building in Mumbai's architectural landscape. It's part of the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. Though it was closed in 2017, you'll be glad to know that you can visit it now to catch a movie. It was reopened in 2024 after restoration and renovation works by conservation architects, boasting a brand spanking new 1,300-seat theatre and IMAX screen. Check out all 10 of the world's greatest art deco buildings here.
New Statesman
25-06-2025
- General
- New Statesman
Overcrowded housing is tearing communities apart
Perivale, in Ealing, west London. Photo by Jason Alden / Bloomberg via Getty Images Medway Village is a neat estate of 1930s semis in Perivale, a town bordering the outer west-London borough of Ealing. Under the drone of the A40 and the Heathrow flight path, it murmurs with the sounds of suburbia: lawnmowers, good mornings, an occasional wood pigeon's coo. But the optimism of Metroland feels far away today. Perivale's library, a handsome coat-of-armoured redbrick, has been abandoned by the council. Its iconic art deco Hoover Building is a Tesco superstore. And the Medway Villagers now have a lot more noise to contend with: sirens, helicopters, fights, 24/7 music, revving Lamborghinis. Locals have seen armed police and snipers on rooftops, witnessed near-daily drug deals and individuals naked in the street. Why? Anyone you ask produces the same obscure bit of housing jargon: HMOs. Houses in multiple occupation have spiked in the area in the past five years. Ealing Council officials believe there could be double the officially registered number of 28 on this estate. An HMO is a house share: a flat or house rented to three or more people who aren't from the same household but who share amenities such as a bathroom and kitchen. They are handy for students, young professionals, singles and couples who can't afford to live alone. But they are fast becoming a political problem. The Home Office houses approximately 28,000 asylum seekers in 6,000 HMOs in England. They are a go-to for low-paid migrant workers and vulnerable people the council or state has a duty to shelter – the mentally unwell, ex-convicts, addicts, the homeless. Although the overall official number is falling, illegal bedsits are widespread: in 2023, councils calculated that at least 159,340 tenants were living in such unlicensed properties. In Perivale, freshly shorn privet and Golf-cloistering drives repeatedly give way to scruffier addresses, all pebbledash crumbs and weeds reaching through cracks in crazy paving. Outside one, a satellite dish and computer chair are fly-tipped on the pavement. At another, there are six pigeonholes for each 'flat' crammed into a three-bedroom house. Tenants are charged £1,200 a month. Some of the landlords are investors based as far away as New York. 'We once had to flee in the middle of the night and sleep in the car,' said Dragana Tomasevic, a 40-year-old school support worker with two young sons who lives next door to a problematic HMO. A local of 20 years, she has had prison-leavers as neighbours. She was threatened with rape, one of her sons developed asthma from cannabis fumes seeping through the wall, and the whole family is sleep-deprived: hearing brawls and screaming in the night, her children have nightmares. Another Perivale resident, Agata Michalewicz, 38, who has a six-year-old and a baby, remembers the house next to hers being divided up into a HMO a year after she bought her home in 2016. One of the new tenants shot her pet cat with an air rifle. 'We just wanted a peaceful life, to have kids, be safe, and it's a little hell.' Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Resentment builds in places with high concentrations of HMOs. Squalid conditions caused by neglectful landlords – overflowing bins, fly-tipping, disrepair – and the chaos of desperate strangers living in close quarters can rob a place of its neighbourly feel. In some areas, this unease mingles with the perception that asylum seekers are crowding out locals and receiving preferential treatment. One Labour MP recently told me new-build flats under construction in the centre of town in his constituency are assumed by locals to be for Afghan refugees (they're not). Exploitative landlords carve up a house into as many rooms as possible, cram in no-wage and low-wage workers, and collect guaranteed rent directly through their housing benefit. This appears to be what's happening south of the Tube tracks in Perivale, which is on the outer – and therefore cheaper – edge of the inner west-London local housing allowance zone. Properties are relatively cheap to buy in this area, but the benefit paid is a zone-wide average pegged to rates in upmarket locales like Fulham. So landlords clean up on above-market rents. Labour is aware of the problem. It's not new. Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer's chief of staff, helped see off the advance of the far-right British National Party in Barking and Dagenham in the late 2000s, partly by cracking down on landlord neglect of HMOs on once-proud council estates. More recently, a 2022 Housing Select Committee exposed the recent explosion of problem HMOs in Birmingham and warned ministers to tighten up regulations. Earlier this year, the Culture Secretary and Wigan MP, Lisa Nandy, told the New Statesman that 'more and more houses have been turned into HMOs' in her patch alongside asylum accommodation with 'several families in accommodation that's only meant for one', creating 'a very transient community in what used to be a very settled community'. Problem HMOs are more easily spotted than solved, however. Council budgets, shredded to confetti since 2010, cannot stretch to proper planning enforcement, and Britain's chronic housing shortage makes it hard to limit house shares. 'You can't solve the housing crisis with HMOs,' said Tomasevic. 'These people need love and support, they can't function on their own – but we are not equipped as a community to help them. I've been through five years of war in Bosnia and I have never experienced this level of stress and fear. This is 21st-century Britain.' [See also: State of emergency] Related
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
FBI Director Kash Patel sues MSNBC columnist Frank Figliuzzi for ‘fabricating a specific lie' with outlandish nightclub claim
FBI Director Kash Patel has filed a lawsuit in Texas against an MSNBC columnist who falsely claimed the official spent more time in 'nightclubs' than inside the Bureau's headquarters in Washington, DC. Patel is suing Frank Figliuzzi for 'fabricating a specific lie' about him, according to court documents, namely that 'reportedly (Patel has) been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover Building.' Defendant knew that this was a lie when he said it,' Patel's attorneys alleged. '…Since becoming Director of the FBI, Director Patel has not spent a single minute inside of a nightclub.' The suit also claimed 'there was no basis for Defendant's fabrication, and Defendant's use of the weasel word, 'reportedly,' is itself a fabrication.' 'Defendant did not rely on reporting by any other person,' attorneys said in the filing. 'Defendant made up the story out of whole cloth, and by using the word 'reportedly,' attempts to distance himself from what is a maliciously false and defamatory statement.' The attorneys allege Figliuzzi's claim constituted defamation, noting that Figliuzzi previously wrote, 'Patel is one of the most ill-suited Cabinet nominees—not just now, but of all time.' 'Defendant fabricated this story to discredit Director Patel because of Defendant's clear animus toward Director Patel,' his attorneys said. 'Defendant previously wrote, 'Patel is one of the most ill-suited Cabinet nominees—not just now, but of all time.' And, 'The FBI's motto is Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity. The record suggests that Patel doesn't possess any of those traits.'' 'Defendant also wrote, 'It isn't just that Patel is wholly unqualified to lead the pre-eminent law enforcement and intelligence agency in the nation and perhaps the world … Patel's particular problem goes far beyond competence: His record shows no devotion to the Constitution, but blind allegiance to Trump.'The FBI director's suit also alleged that 'as a partisan commentator, (Figliuzzi) was motivated to sensationalize, and in this case, fabricate a story to self-promotingly advance his own name recognition, at the expense of Director Patel.' Representatives for Patel declined to comment. The lawsuit came just a month after MSNBC was forced to retract Figliuzzi's claim on May 5. 'This was a misstatement,' MSNBC anchor Jonathan Lemire said at the time. 'We have not verified that claim.' The NBC and MSNBC national security analyst had alleged that Patel's absence from the FBI headquarters was 'a blessing and a curse.' 'Because if he's really trying to run things without his experience, without any experience level, things could be bad,' Figliuzzi said. 'If he's not plugged in, things could be bad. But he's allowing agents to run things, so we don't know where this is going.' Figliuzzi didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Telegraph
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
100 years of Art Deco
'It's exactly 100 years this month since Art Deco entered the picture – and never left. In the Roaring 1920s, an era of gin, jazz and joie de vivre, 'les arts décoratifs' (the English term took a few decades to catch on) were the focus of a major exhibition in Paris. Leaving Victoriana and Edwardiana in its wake with its geometric patterns, bold colours and innovative materials, Art Deco would come to influence the design of everything from necklaces to skyscrapers. The Hoover Building in Perivale is an archetypal example of Art Deco architecture 'It was ground-breaking and shocking – a distinct rejection of the old-fashioned styles and establishment that had led Europe into a horrific war,' says the historian and author Melanie Backe-Hansen. 'It was part of an alluring world full of glamour, music, dancing and prestige. And it still holds that place as being 'modern' and distinct, while also reminiscent of a 'golden age'.' All over London, you can see monuments from this period of innovation: from the Isokon flats in Belsize Park, the Hoover Building in Ealing and Battersea Power Station to the city's most famous five-star hotels, including the Dorchester and Savoy, and Fleet Street's imposing paeans built in the heyday of newspapers. The decor of 45 Park Lane's lobby lounge is an homage to the energetic decadence of the Roaring 20s A century on, Art Deco continues to make a splash in London's prime property scene, with the transformation of two landmark buildings – 60 Curzon in Mayfair, and The Whiteley in Bayswater – combining modern luxury living with 1920s architectural pizzazz. The design hallmarks of this era are instantly familiar, including its curving facades and experimental use of chrome, marble and walnut. 'Art Deco captures the optimism and energy of a transformative era, blending artistic expression with functionality in a way that still feels modern,' comments Lee Polisano, founding partner and president of PLP Architecture, the architects behind 60 Curzon. Once a storied Mayfair nightlife institution, 60 Curzon Street's rebirth as super prime London real estate, plays up its Art Deco DNA The Mayfair site that previously housed the celebrity-studded Mirabelle restaurant has been 'romantically reimagined' as a boutique scheme of 32 residences with top-notch concierge services and wellness amenities. And underpinning the design, says Polisano, are the basic principles of Art Deco: 'A sleek, streamlined aesthetic reflecting a newfound fascination with innovation, globalism, and luxury,' he says, pointing out the intricately detailed Portland Stone facade handcrafted bronze balustrades and entranceways. The building also brings back a slice of upper-class living in its 'service spaces', Polisano explains, 'where back-of-house functions are kept entirely separate, without interfering with the choreography of the resident. This is lost in contemporary luxury buildings over the past century.' For Joyce Wang, who has designed an apartment priced £17.25m at The Whiteley, whose £1.2bn renovation is nearing completion, it's the 'enduring opulence' of the Art Deco era that has inspired her vision for this private residence with six-metre-high ceilings. 'The Whiteley's original style evokes a sense of classic luxury and elegance,' says Wang, who has also curated a selection of accessories that reflect the global outlook of the department store's founder William Whiteley, from antique Georgian chandeliers to modern mixed-media artworks. Some property hunters can't resist homes from this era, says Becky Fatemi, executive partner at UK Sotheby's International Realty. She mentions American buyers who are familiar with such landmarks from the era as New York's Chrysler Building or Miami's vibrant Art Deco district, and Middle Eastern buyers 'who are drawn to the grandeur and opulence inherent in the style'. The era's rich individuality also resonates with younger wealthy buyers, adds Claire Reynolds, managing partner at UK Sotheby's International Realty. 'In a period marked by rapidly changing trend cycles, the enduring sense of quality and longevity, paired with a design language that feels both modern and nostalgic, has allowed Art Deco to evolve without losing its essential character,' she says. Art Deco design complements settings from different eras too. Architect David Hartley from OWN London draws influence from Art Deco, 'which is both elegant and modern' – and cites Eltham Palace as 'a prime example of the style blending with a separate era of architecture – medieval in this case'. Its rotunda even served as inspiration for the billionaire John Caudwell, who has installed a replica in his revival of the iconic 1920s Le Provençal hotel on the French Riviera. Revamped in the 1930s, Eltham Palace and Gardens marries its medieval foundations with Art Deco signatures Accessories from the era can also add an eye-catching touch to a contrasting backdrop. Interior designer Portia Fox suggests adding a Lalique vase to a table setting, 'or an ornately decorative upholstery fabric or beautiful vintage lamps give a fresh take on Art Deco in a building from a different time'. Buildings from the Roaring 20s come with some practical plus points too, says Simon Barry from Harrods Estates. 'Many feature large windows that flood interiors with natural light – and Art Deco mansion blocks were the first in London to use steel and concrete construction, providing much better levels of sound insulation than their Victorian predecessors.' For those who don't want to go the full Deco, 'gestures and nods towards the simplicity and refinement of it' may provide a happy medium, suggests Guy Meacock from Prime Purchase buying agency. 'The subtle adoption of Art Deco is all the rage among design schemes. Crittall windows, for example, are everywhere.' They are indeed – and many owners are likely unaware of the origins of the trendy glazing adorning their kitchen extensions. It's a mark of quality, however, that a century on, Art Deco innovations look as good as ever. Art deco in the sun Love Art Deco? The apartments, penthouses and garden villas at Le Provençal enjoy a beachfront Cap d'Antibes location and an illustrious history. Once a glamorous hotel dating from the 1920s, where guests included Coco Chanel, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Charlie Chaplin, its reimagining into residences exudes the Jazz Age era. Its design is inspired by both Eltham Palace and Manik Bagh, the Bauhaus palace of the Holkar Maharaja of Indore State. Developed by Caudwell into 35 residences priced €4.5m to 15m, it's selling through Beauchamp Estates. The London Magazine celebrates prime property and luxury lifestyle in the world's greatest city. Sign up to the newsletter
