News and Society

Valérie Trierweiler said media coverage about her tweet had been disproportionate. Photograph: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty ImagesValérie Trierweiler, the partner of the French president, François Hollande, has issued her first public apology for the controversial tweet that caused a scandal in June, just as a poll showed the majority of French people have a negative view of her.After three and a half months of no interviews and few public comments, Trierweiler appeared to be back on a media offensive...

The £4.5bn complex would have 339 turbines covering 300 square kilometres off Caithness. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesThe world's biggest offshore windfarm could be built off the northern Scottish coast, after a scheme with enough capacity to power 40% of Scottish households was submitted for planning permission.The £4.5bn complex would have 339 turbines covering 300 square kilometres off Caithness, making it 50% bigger than the giant London Array scheme off Kent. It is expected...

Venice kicks off with The Reluctant Fundamentalist, adapted by Mira Nair from Mohsin Hamid's novel and screening out-of-competition. Riz Ahmed plays the Pakistan-born Princeton graduate, chasing his dream on Wall Street but pulled back by past ties Photograph: PR View the original article h...

Serious flaws mean the competition to run the west coast line will be re-run, leaving Britain’s most lucrative train service in limbo. Photograph: composite The Department for Transport has been left reeling after three senior civil servants were suspended over the collapse of the west coast main line franchise deal, leaving Britain's most lucrative train service in limbo and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin group triumphantly vindicated.Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, the government was forced...

"You equate retirement with death," Woody Allen's character is informed, by his psychiatrist wife, in the opening minutes of his new comedy To Rome With Love. The line is blatant self-diagnosis on Allen's part. In December, the director will turn 77 – well past the point at which "death enters your basic timeframe", as he puts it – and this morning finds him in his editing suite on Park Lane, Manhattan, dressed in khaki slacks and khaki shirt, toiling hard to keep the reaper at bay. In a week or...

People on Lambeth bridge near the Houses of Parliament during a downpour in London. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Environment Agency prepared to issue dozens of flood warnings as the warm September sunshine came to a damp end over the weekend. Forecasters predict up to 60mm rainfall and 60mph winds over the next 36 hours, with pockets of the south-west, northern England and Scotland particularly susceptible to flooding. The Environment Agency has already put out several flood alerts,...

Russian president Vladimir Putin inspects a weapon during a visit to an army base in Dagestan in 2008. Photograph: Ria Novosti/ReutersRussia needs a "leap forward" to rejuvenate its sprawling defence industry, Vladimir Putin said on Friday, harkening back to the ambitious industrialisation carried out by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in the runup to the second world war."We should carry out the same powerful, all-embracing leap forward in modernisation of the defence industry as the one carried...