Kerala’s Calicut University plans ‘ASCENT’ to boost academic standards of affiliated colleges

Church Hill theatre, Edinburgh At the Edinburgh international festival, Olivier Rannou’s lone cowboy encounters desert dangers in a mix of clowning, mime and visual trickery The lone ranger at the centre of Olivier Rannou’s family-friendly western initially appears as stranded and desolate as one of Samuel Beckett’s anti-heroes. Parched and prone across a table, with a knotted handkerchief on his head, he is marooned in a desert landscape with a water bottle full of sand, a desperate thirst and a scattering of human skeletal remains. He retains an edge of existential angst, struggling to survive in extremis, but also becomes more clown-like by turns. Rannou shows us, through movement, expression and sound, that this cowboy is a wanted man, on the run, wrestling with the dangers of his barren, unpeopled surroundings...

The EU says the tit-for-tat border restrictions between Spain and Italy are temporary and will have no lasting impact on the Schengen zone. Spain began checking travellers from Italy in retaliation for similar controls imposed by Rome after a surge of migrants into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta. Madrid says most of those migrants were swiftly returned and has accused Italy of allowing “persistent irregular migration”. France24 correspondent Sarah Morris tells us the latest from Spain.

Summerhall, Edinburgh Sohrab Haghverdi takes pleasure at winding up the audience in a subversively funny ‘anti-comedy’ of autobiographical insight and political provocation Sohrab Haghverdi says he wants to be liked. I’m not so sure. Would a needy actor be willing to try the audience’s patience by coughing and coughing, then coughing some more? Would they push their way through a hole in a Persian rug, while shouting about snakes and balancing empty suitcases on their head? Or wander off stage at random? No – this is a man who takes pleasure in winding us up. Whether it is collecting his own bodily fluids or launching into a splenetic rant in favour of Trump’s bombing of Iran, he has no interest in giving us an easy ride. This is punk theatre: irritating and brash...