A record release of strategic oil reserves has been agreed in a bid to help offset supply disruption since the Middle East conflict began.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said it would coordinate a flow of 400 million barrels into the market, with the UK government contributing 13.5 million barrels.

The body has barrels at its disposal following talks with ministers from the G7 group of advanced industrialised nations, including the UK.

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The move, however, made little difference to oil prices.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, has eased back from highs this week above $118 per barrel on news that the aid was being considered.

It was trading at $92 a barrel shortly before the details were confirmed on Wednesday afternoon and dipped only to $90.63 after the announcement.

It’s not clear when the emergency stocks will come on stream, with the IEA saying they will be made available to the market “over a timeframe that is appropriate to the national circumstances of each member country”.

Implementation details for the policy will be announced in due course, the IEA said.

Why’s it been announced?

The Gulf region usually exports about 15 million barrels of oil and five million barrels of oil products per day but output and deliveries have been shattered by Iranian attacks on energy infrastructure since US-Israeli military strikes against the regime in Tehran began last month.

The threat to shipping has effectively closed the narrow Strait of Hormuz, off the Iranian coast, which usually handles a fifth of the world’s energy shipments and export volumes of crude and refined products are currently less than 10% of pre-conflict levels.

How much do members hold?

The 32 IEA members, of which the UK is one, hold emergency stockpiles of over 1.2 billion barrels, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held.

The announcement is the sixth coordinated stock release since the IEA was founded in 1974.

Previous actions were taken during the Gulf War in 1991, due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, intervention in Libya in 2011, and twice in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine.

The Cheltenham Festival is underway and each day features a championship race: the Champion Hurdle on Tuesday, the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Wednesday, the Stayers’ Hurdle on Thursday and of course Friday’s Gold Cup.

When is the 2026 Cheltenham Festival? Start and end dates

The Cheltenham Festival began on Tuesday, March 10 and ends on Friday, March 13. The Festival was extended from three to four days in 2005. There have been tentative proposals to add a fifth day, but the idea is unpopular among racing’s core audience. Moving Gold Cup day to the Saturday has been mooted as a compromise, but for now we stick to the same format.

How many races are there?

There are 28 races across the week, seven each day.

Race schedule: Times for every race in the 2026 Festival

Wednesday

1.20: Turners Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1)
Race conditions: £150,000 | 2m5f | 10 hurdles | Old Course

2.00: Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase (Grade 1)
Race conditions: £200,000 | 3m½f | 20 fences | Old Course

2.40: Coral Cup (Grade 3. handicap)
Race conditions: £100,000 | 2m5f | 10 hurdles | Old Course

3.20: Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase (Listed)
Race conditions: £75,000 | 3m6f | 32 obstacles | Old Course

4.00: Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase (Grade 1)
Race conditions: £400,000 | 2m | 13 fences | Old Course

4.40: Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase (Grade 3)
Race conditions: £150,000 | 2m½f | 14 fences | Old Course

5.20: Weatherbys Champion Bumper (Grade 1)
Race conditions: £80,000 | 2m½f | 14 fences | Old Course

Thursday

1.20: Ryanair Mares Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 2)
Race conditions: £105,000 | 2m1f | 8 hurdles | New Course

2.00: Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase (Grade 2)
Race conditions: £125,000 | 2m4f | 17 fences | New Course

2.40: Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle (Grade 1)
Race conditions: £120,000 | 2m4f | 10 hurdles | New Course

3.20: Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle (Grade 1)
Race conditions: £325,000 | 3m | 12 hurdles | New course

4.00: Ryanair Chase (Grade 1)
Race conditions: £375,000 | 2m4½f | 17 fences | New Course

4.40: Pertemps Final (Grade 3, handicap)
Race conditions: £100,000 | 3m | 12 hurdles | New course

5.20: Kim Muir Challenge Cup (Listed, handicap)
Race conditions: £75,000 | 3m2f | 21 fences | New Course

Friday

1.20: JCB Triumph Hurdle (Grade 1)
Race conditions: £150,000 | 2m1f | 8 hurdles | New Course

2.00: William Hill County Hurdle (Grade 3, handicap)
Race conditions: £98,370 (2024) | 2m1f| 8 hurdles | New Course

2.40: Paddy Power Mares’ Chase (Grade 2)
Race conditions: £120,000 | 2m4½f | 17 fences | New Course

3.20: Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1)
Race conditions: £150,000 | 3m | 12 hurdles | New course

4.00: Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup (Grade 1)
Race conditions: £625,000 | 3m2½f | 22 fences | New Course

4.40: St James’s Place Hunter Chase (Listed)
Race conditions: £50 | 3m 2½f | 22 fences | New Course

5.20: Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle
Race conditions: £75,000 | 2m4½f | 10 hurdles | New Course

Champion Chase (Wednesday)

Marine Nationale, two-time Festival winner including this race last year, has been ruled out of Cheltenham with a sore neck.

That should leave this two-mile chase at the mercy of Majborough, who delivered an impressive performance in the Irish Arkle at the DRF. Majborough, owned by JP McManus, was well-fancied for last year’s Arkle when he a bad mistake at the second-last fence, but the addition of cheekpieces this season has helped address those jumping flaws.

Il Etait Temps got the better of Jonbon in the Tingle Creek at Sandown in December, but came unstuck in the Clarence House at Ascot in January (with Jonbon going on to win).

Jonbon would be a very popular winner for Nicky Henderson having been the bridesmaid so many times at previous Festivals. Jonbon was also second to Skelton’s L’Eau du Sud over this course and distance in the Shloer Chase in November.

Henderson has trained some Champion Chase legends, including Altior and Sprinter Sacre.

North Yorkshire Police said one suspect remains at large following shots being fired at the unoccupied car by an unknown man on Saturday night (March 7) in Starkey Crescent, Tang Hall.

No one was harmed in the shooting which police are treating as an isolated incident with no threat to the wider community.

North Yorkshire Police said a 34‑year‑old man has been arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm and criminal damage.

A 32‑year‑old man has been arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm.

And a 29‑year‑old woman has been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.

“All three have been released on bail while enquiries continue. One suspect remains outstanding,” a police spokesperson said on Wednesday afternoon.

Police in Starkey Crescent, York, on Sunday morning (March 8) (Image: Newsquest)

North Yorkshire Police has said its suspect in the shooting “approached the car on foot and ran from the scene” at about 9.25pm on Saturday.

A blue Nissan car could be seen parked in the driveway of a home in Starkey Crescent with a smashed windscreen and a hole in its front grille on Sunday.

The home, near the street’s junction with Cosmo Avenue, was cordoned off on Sunday morning after the shooting. A green piece of tarpaulin had been put over the car’s damaged windscreen and bonnet by Monday.

There was a heavy police presence in Tang Hall following the shooting while officers carried out inquiries to identify the alleged shooter.

Police on the Tang Hall cycle path in York on Wednesday (March 11) (Image: Newsquest)

A cordon remains in place on the cycle path in Tang Hall, where police officers and sniffer dogs could be seen searching shrubs to the rear of properties in Fifth Avenue earlier in the week.

The police spokesperson said firearms officers have also been deployed in York as part of the searches.

“Extensive searches have been carried out over the past few days to locate the suspect and anyone connected to the incident,” they said. “These searches, focused predominantly in and around York, have included the deployment of our specialist armed firearms officers.

“A scene remains in place on the Tang Hall cycle track while further enquiries continue.”

Officers continue to urge anyone with information about the shooting to contact North Yorkshire Police.

“Our investigation continues at pace,” the force’s spokesperson said. “We are appealing for witnesses to come forward and those with any relevant recorded footage who have not yet assisted the police.

“If you can help, please call North Yorkshire Police on 101.

“If you would prefer to remain anonymous, you can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or make an online report.”

Jasmine Harrison finished the 26,000-nautical mile Mini Globe Race aboard her 5.8-metre plywood yacht, Numbatou, after 381 days at sea.

She arrived in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua, on March 11, a year and 16 days after departing from Antigua in 2025.

Jasmine Harrison at the finishing line (Image: Lucy Tulloch)

Miss Harrison said: “I’m relieved to have finished, but also sad that’s it’s over.

“It’s been an incredible journey.

“I took one stage at a time, never really absorbing the totality of the journey until now.

“To think that I’ve sailed solo around the world, across four oceans, is surreal.

Jasmine Harrison, a solo sailor from North Yorkshire, has become the first British woman to circumnavigate the globe in the smallest boat known to complete the voyage (Image: Lucy Tulloch)

“It shows that if you really want to do a challenge, then anything is possible, and it’s only by trying that you can succeed.”

She began her global circumnavigation with a solo qualifying passage from Lagos, Portugal.

She crossed the Atlantic Ocean before joining 14 other competitors at the starting line for the Mini Globe Race.

Jasmine Harrison, a solo sailor from North Yorkshire, has become the first British woman to circumnavigate the globe in the smallest boat known to complete the voyage (Image: Lucy Tulloch)

Miss Harrison became the first British woman to sail solo around the world in such a small vessel, and one of only two female entrants in the race.

She and Spanish sailor Pilar Pasanau, aboard Peter Punk, are the only women known to have completed a solo circumnavigation in such small boats.

Her route took her through 15 countries and across four oceans, beginning in Antigua before sailing to Panama and then across the Pacific Ocean.

Jasmine Harrison, a solo sailor from North Yorkshire, has become the first British woman to circumnavigate the globe in the smallest boat known to complete the voyage (Image: Lucy Tulloch)

She made stopovers in the Marquesas, Tahiti, Tonga and Fiji.

After a “terrifying” night-time passage through the Great Barrier Reef, she continued via Thursday Island to the remote Cocos (Keeling) Island, Rodrigues, and Mauritius.

From there, she rode fast currents to Durban and continued down the east coast of South Africa, stopping in East London, Mossel Bay and Cape Town.

After leaving Cape Town in December, her only South Atlantic stop was St

Jasmine Harrison, a solo sailor from North Yorkshire, has become the first British woman to circumnavigate the globe in the smallest boat known to complete the voyage (Image: Lucy Tulloch)

Helena.

During a seven-day break on the island, Miss Harrison attempted to become the first person to swim around St Helena – a 30-mile effort in open water frequented by sharks.

She completed the challenge in 18.5 hours, despite having done no exercise, or swimming training for a year.

Her final two stops were in Recife, Brazil, and Antigua, completing the circumnavigation in March.

Miss Harrison faced numerous challenges during the voyage, including severe weather, equipment failures, torn sails, a flooded cockpit and close encounters with large cargo vessels.

She also dealt with unlit fishing boats, pirates, uncharted oil rigs and marine pollution.

Creature comforts were almost non-existent.

She used solar panels for power, carried all her water in containers, and had a bucket for a toilet.

She returned to port only occasionally for fresh food, which rarely lasted more than a week at sea.

Sleep came in short bursts of 20 minutes to two hours.

Despite the hardship, she recalled many highlights.

She said: “The highs included dolphins swimming at the bow, whales, turtles and sharks as well as the friendship and hospitality of people across the world.”

While Miss Harrison was often completely alone at sea, she said the camaraderie between fellow Mini Globe Race sailors endured through radio and phone calls and meetings in port.

Miss Harrison is no stranger to endurance feats.

In 2021, at age 21, she became the youngest woman to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

A year later, she became the first woman – and only the third person ever – to swim from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

She is listed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 (Sports, Europe, 2021) and holds the Freedom of Thirsk and Sowerby in North Yorkshire.

An active supporter of environmental and humanitarian causes, she has raised more than £30,000 for charity.

She is a member of the Ocean Cruising Club and Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland and was named Rotary UK Young Citizen of the Year in 2023.

Miss Harrison works as a swimming teacher and lifeguard and is a Squadron Sailing Associate of the Royal Yacht Squadron.

She was also awarded the Ocean Cruising Club Jester Trophy in 2025.

Despite being alone while sailing, she credited the Mini Globe Race community for its support.

She kept in touch with fellow participants through radio and phone calls and shared camaraderie and fun during port stops.

Her solo journey builds on a growing record of endurance achievements.

She has rowed, swum, and sailed record distances—each time pushing the boundaries of human possibility.

Arsenal will take on Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League with the German side seeing the funny side of their opponent’s quality from corners as they bid to stop them

Bayer Leverkusen has seen the funny side of Arsenal’s set piece genius by placing a sign that said “no corners allowed” ahead of their Champions League clash.

The German side will host the Premier League leaders on Wednesday, hoping to secure an upset victory that would give them a chance of progressing beyond the last 16. They will need to contain Arsenal and, particularly, their quality from dead ball situations.

Arsenal’s tactics and route to goal has been widely criticised, but the Bundesliga outfit saw the funny side and posted a picture of their sign covering the corner spot and included the words: “Worth a try”.

The north Londoners sit top of the table in England, have a perfect record in Europe and are in contention for both domestic cups. It means the quadruple is still on the cards, even if their methods have proved very divisive.

Nearly 38 percent of their 58 league goals have stemmed from balls into the box, be that from corners of free-kicks. Tottenham frontman Mathys Tel has criticised the tactic and claimed that is makes for very boring viewing.

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In an interview with Zack Nani the Spurs star said: “I’ll tell you the truth, yes, it’s not exciting. It’s boring to watch; it’s really just a clash between two teams with their own ideas.

“There’s less spectacle. There’s no Vinicius pulling off a sombrero flick, no dribble, no Kylian [Mbappe] accelerating past you. Here, I’d say it’s more structured, maybe too much so. All those set-pieces, little details that can sometimes make the difference. But sometimes you think it might be too much. I told the assistant coach in charge of set-pieces, ‘Don’t put me on that one,’ because it’s a zoo.”

Arsenal don’t see it that way with their players hailing the work of set piece coach Nicolas Jover. Ex-Leverkusen star Piero Hincapie said: “We pay attention to the details. Our set-piece strength is talked about all over Europe. That’s the result of daily training with our set-piece coach, Nico Jover.”

The Gunners are favourites to claim the Champions League and have been placed on the so-called easier side of the draw. If they can get past Leverkusen they will face either Sporting Lisbon or Bodo/Glimt in the quarter-final.

Arteta knows that he cannot face the likes of Barcelona, PSG, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid or Manchester City until the final.

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CAIRO (AP) — An explosive-laden drone blamed on Sudanese paramilitaries struck a secondary school and a health care center in southern Sudan Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, mostly schoolgirls, a hospital official and a medical group said.

At least 10 people were wounded in the strike in the village of Shukeiri in the White Nile province, according to Dr. Musa al-Majeri, director of the Douiem Hospital, the nearest major medical facility to the village.

Al-Majeri told The Associated Press three girls suffered serious injuries; two of them underwent surgeries at the hospital while the third was evacuated to the capital, Khartoum.

The war-tracking Sudan Doctors Network reported the strike first, saying those killed included two teachers and a health care worker. The group said there was no military presence in the village.

Both the medical group and al-Majeri blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for the strike. The RSF didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“This horrific crime represents a continuation of the violations committed by the RSF in the White Nile,” said Dr. Razan Al-Mahdi, a spokeswoman for the medical group, adding that the paramilitaries attacked several civilian facilities in the past two days, including a student dormitory and a power station.

The strike in the village of Shukeiri in the White Nile province was the latest deadly attack in Sudan’s nearly three-year war.

Sudan slid into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.

The devastating war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to U.N. figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

The fighting has centered in the sprawling Kordofan region, where deadly attacks, mostly by drones, were reported daily.

The war has been marked by atrocities including mass killings, gang rapes and other crimes, investigated by the International Criminal Court as potential war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The most recent atrocities happened in October when the RSF and its Janjweed allies overran the Darfur city of el-Fasher. The RSF attack there bore “ hallmarks of genocide,” according to United Nations-commissioned experts.

At least 6,000 people were killed in three days in October in el-Fasher, the U.N.’s Human Rights Office said.

A 75-year-old death row inmate in Alabama has just been spared execution — a matter of days before he was due to be killed by the state.

Governor Kay Ivey stepped in to commute the sentence of Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton, who had been scheduled to be executed this week. Burton, who now uses a wheelchair, had spent the past few weeks preparing for his death at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

Officials were already arranging the execution process for tomorrow night (Thursday) until news broke. Burton had even chosen his final meal and had begun writing his last will and testament.

The execution was set to use nitrogen gas, a controversial method Alabama first began using back in 2024, which relies on death by hypoxia. Instead, the governor ruled that Burton will now spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The decision came after concerns were raised about Burton’s precise role in the 1991 robbery that resulted in the death of Douglas Battle. Burton organised the armed robbery, according to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, but wasn’t inside the building when the fatal shooting occurred.

Prosecutors relied on a state law that allows accomplices to receive the death penalty if a killing happens during another serious crime, such as armed robbery.

Another man involved in the crime, Derrick DeBruce, was the person who actually pulled the trigger. Both men were originally convicted of capital murder. However, DeBruce later had his death sentence overturned during an appeal. He was resentenced to life in prison without parole.

DeBruce later died while serving that sentence. The difference in punishments between the two men became central to calls for clemency in Sonny’s case.

Governor Ivey said she still supports capital punishment but argued that the law must always be applied fairly. In a statement explaining her decision she said the case raised serious concerns about fairness.

‘I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not,’ Ivey said. ‘To be clear, Mr. Burton will not be eligible for parole and will rightfully spend the remainder of his life behind bars for his role in the robbery that led to the murder of Doug Battle. He will now receive the same punishment as the triggerman.’

Sonny’s daughter Lois Harris broke down in tears while speaking to the Associated Press shortly after the decision was announced. ‘I’m just so happy, so happy. It’s just tears of joy.’

Burton himself also issued a short message of thanks to the governor through his lawyers. ‘Just saying thank you doesn’t seem like much. But it’s what I can give her.’

Supporters and death penalty abolitionists had pushed for clemency for many months. Several jurors who sat on his original trial in 1992 had also urged the governor to spare his life.

Even members of the victim’s family questioned the decision to carry out Burton’s death sentence.

Battle’s daughter, Tori, wrote to Governor Ivey asking her to intervene and grant a pardon. She asked ‘how does it legally make sense’ to execute Burton. Her letter became one of several appeals submitted during the clemency campaign. Burton’s legal team argued that carrying out the death penalty against someone who hadn’t carried out the shooting would be grossly unfair.

Matt Schulz, an assistant federal defender who represented Burton, later said that the governor had made the correct decision after reviewing the case.

Schulz said that the contrast between Burton’s sentence and the outcome for the man who fired the fatal shot was impossible to ignore. ‘This was absolutely the right decision for the governor to make for any number of reasons,’ he said.

‘The biggest one is the fact that this dichotomy of executing a non-shooter who did not even see the shooting take place after the state itself had resentenced the shooter to life without parole.’

Burton had spoken about the robbery during an interview with Associated Press last month. He said the plan had never been for anyone to be harmed during the crime.

‘I didn’t know anything about nobody getting hurt until we were on the way back. No, nobody supposed to get hurt,’ he said from Holman Correctional Facility.

He also expressed regret over the death of Douglas Battle. Burton said he wanted to apologise to the victim’s relatives for their loss. ‘I’m so sorry. If I had the power to bring him back, I would,’ he said.

Alice Marie Johnson, who was appointed by Donald Trump as a ‘pardon czar’ after receiving clemency herself, praised the governor and her decision on social media.

She said Ivey had ‘showed what courageous and common sense leadership looks like,’ adding: ‘By commuting the death sentence of Charles “Sonny” Burton, she ensured that justice — not technicalities — guides the most serious decision a state can make.’

Campaign groups also welcomed the decision. Laura Porter from the US Campaign to End the Death Penalty said: ‘We are grateful that Governor Ivey recognized that Charles “Sonny” Burton should not be executed.

‘The death penalty process is deeply flawed when someone who was not present for the killing faces execution, while the person who committed the murder does not. It is uplifting to see that more and more governors across the ideological spectrum are recognising problems with death penalty cases.’

Conservative campaigner Demetrius Minor added: ‘This brings tremendous relief to his family and so many across the country. Conservatives know that government power can be abused and should not be used to execute someone who was not in the building when the murder was committed. Governor Ivey acted on these conservative principles.’

Not everyone welcomed the decision, however. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall criticised the move shortly after it was announced. He said Burton still carried responsibility for the killing. ‘There has never been any doubt that Sonny Burton has Douglas Battle’s blood on his hands,’ Marshall said.

Prosecutors had long argued Burton organised the robbery that led to the shooting. Marshall said Burton had ‘held a gun to the store manager’s head’ before the stolen money was divided among those involved.

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Dreaming in Colour, a new exhibition at the Opera Gallery in London, revisits the surrealists of the previous century, more in homage than imitation.

I suspect few of the emerging artists included here – and certainly none of those I spoke to on opening morning – would consciously describe themselves as surrealists. Yet the surrealist aspiration to evoke a sense of the marvellous and mysterious in the everyday is certainly present.

Take Sretenko (2025-2026) by the Spain-based Russian artist Sasha Zimulin, a vivid landscape of his home suburb of Moscow. In this piece, Zimulin conjures up not the sight of the city, but its ambience, and the feelings stirred in someone standing on the edge of the scene.

He is one of 25 international artists showcasing new works in this exhibition. These works are complemented by the inclusion of a range of historic pieces by figures such as Picasso and Ron Arad. Some of them, notably Chagall’s Multicoloured Clown (1974), certainly reflect the exhibition’s theme. Yet there is no attempt to place these in dialogue with the newer works on which I will concentrate here.

The artists on show

Probably the most consciously surreal work is that which also most directly addresses the exhibition’s theme: Dreaming of the Taste of Colour (2025) by the Dutch artist Arjen. This offers an exuberant expression of synaesthesia – a neurological phenomenon where stimulation of one sense triggers an experience in another sense that isn’t being directly stimulated, such as the sensation of tasting colour.

Exhibited nearby are the two paintings included from the Warsaw-born, Paris-based artist Oh de Laval. Taste has often been foregrounded in her work, as has the influence of Francis Bacon. The latter is palpable here, both in the colour palette used in Untitled (2025) and in the act of violation, minutely captured in a tear.

As with surrealism, the artists exhibited here use a range of styles and artistic language. For instance, Break in the Clouds (2025) by US-based Salvadorian artist Daniella Portillo typifies her emotional engagement with landscapes rendered almost abstract by her use of colour and form.

More consciously abstract are pieces such as Paraiso #33 and Paraiso #34 by American-born, Spain-based Adrián Navarro. The ironic titles add to their disturbing allusions to the familiar in unfamiliar settings.

This unsettling quality is also marked in the more figurative work in the exhibition. Mexican-American artist Anna Ortiz is known for her consciously surreal landscapes evocative of the erased pre-Columbian past, here reflected in the dream-like Jaguar Reflejado (2025). A similar uneasiness is also present in the contribution of London-based May Watson. She specialises in vibrant and humorous art of the everyday, but here is apparently Busy Dreaming (2025) of a shark, albeit one playfully surrounded by multicoloured balls.

Balls also feature prominently in Red Composition with Butter (2025) by Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based Andy Dixon. This voluptuous image reimagines the historic depiction of the reclining female nude, although this juxtaposition instead seems to ironically recollect seedy sex scenes from the movie Last Tango in Paris (1972).

There are several filmic references. Spanish artist Xevi Sola defines his work as being like “filming a horror movie using relaxing pastel colours”. His work sits squarely within a surrealist tradition in its efforts to provoke a Jungian exploration of the darkest areas of consciousness. Yet here he moves away from the collage-based approach of previous works. Instead, Backstage I (2024) and Backstage II (2024) disturb by depicting awkwardly adjacent figures, with one staring unnervingly straight out of the canvas at the viewer.

Eshu (2025) by the Brazilian artist Gustavo Nazareno is more subtly subversive. He has become rightly celebrated for lush, powerful depictions of Black bodies in works that challenge the canon of western portraiture and religious art. Black spirituality, dignity and beauty are all powerfully evoked in this richly textured painting.

Another artist who subverts historic images is London-based Greek artist Niovi Kafantari. Her work, He Was Already Leaving (2026) reverses the gaze in Titian’s Venus and Adonis (1553-1554) to focus not the energy of the hunter, but the protecting arms flung around him.

A different kind of subversion is presented in I’m Free Tuesday (2025) by Brazilian-American Jonni Cheatwood. He is noted for using a diverse range of materials and images, yet this is a more muted piece in which the colours of the food on the table recur in the faces of the diners. Capturing mood in the visage is also a feature of several other works here, not least those by Geneva-based Cameroonian artist Maurice Mboa and Nigerian portraitist Collins Obijiaku.

Not all of these works are colourful, particularly the sombre architectural forms of Misty Days (2025) by Spanish artist Borja Colom. Yet that certainly has a dreamlike quality.

Nor are all these works necessarily surreal. Some, such as Conjura (2024) by Spanish artist Miguel Sainz Ojeda, also draw on influences such as street art to create an image that is fantastical and disquieting.

This suggests that another theme of the exhibition is magical realism. More often seen as a literary or cinematic genre, magical realism is nonetheless invoked here in the filmic atmosphere and implicit storytelling embedded in many of these works.

In art, magical realism provides a haunting and distorting perspective that challenges our perceptions. This is most conspicuously the case in Hitchcock’s Glass (2025) by Italian artist Mattia Barbalaco.

Brilliantly hung to maximum effect as you descend to the lower ground floor, this luminous painting recreates both a scene from Hitchcock’s 1941 thriller Suspicion and conveys the suspenseful, unsettling quality of dreams.

Dreaming in Colour is at London’s Opera Gallery until April 6

Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, on Beech Avenue, sent a text out to parents at 9.29am to inform them that local schools had been placed in lockdown.

The message read: “Due to a police incident all local schools are locked down, we will keep you informed of the situation. 

“Everyone is safe and we will stay in touch.”

But just a minute later, at 9.30am, a second text was sent out telling parents that the incident had been resolved and the school was no longer in lockdown.

It read: “Police incident is resolved and school is no longer in lockdown. Sorry for any upset.”

It added that an arrest had been made.

St James CE Primary School, on nearby Hillside Avenue, also let parents know the incident was over in a post to Facebook.

It stated: “There was an incident nearby and we did an invacuation as a precautionary measure. We have been informed by the police that the incident has now been resolved.”

An invacuation is an emergency procedure used to quickly move students and staff from outside to inside, or to keep them inside.

One parent said: “My son’s school was on lockdown this morning.”

She added that St James’ CE Primary School dealt with the situation ‘amazingly’.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed that they had arrested a man with “some sort of air rifle” who appeared to be shooting rats in the area.

They said schools in the area were notified and may have locked down out of precaution due to the police nearby.