News

Séamas McSwiney is our guest film correspondent and is currently reporting for us directly from Cannes. He has decades of experience in film journalism, with work published in some top international publications.   

For two weeks in May, Cannes is the home of razzamataz and red-carpeted fantasies. It is also a global crossroads where culture, politics, art and business intersect. In Cannes, the global entertainment industry pays homage to cultural diversity because, during this French Riviera honeymoon, it is good business to do so. As jury president, Robert De Niro says, the Competition jury undertakes to choose “films that are represented in the world of film at its highest level, and these types of festivals help connect the international film community and have a lasting cultural impact”. This year, his fellow jury members include Jude Law and Uma Thurman from the UK and the US as well as Mahamat Saleh Haroun and Johnnie To, from Chad and China.

When I received the admissions letter in 2005, Harvard was already a familiar place. Even before I applied, I had visited the university, checked out the campus party scene, attended information sessions, met my admissions officer, and gotten involved in the Cuban student group events. I thus began my undergraduate career with a fairly accurate sense of what awaited me in the next four years.

Arriving at LSE

My introduction to LSE was contrastingly abrupt. Before I knew it, classes arrived and I saw myself in Houghton Street absorbing everything for the first time. Of course, I was unprepared for the rushed course selection process, and the unavailability of professor and course evaluations as a public guide for students did not make the task easier. I was surprised to find that there were virtually no British people in my classes, as the majority of my classmates came from other European countries and North America. The school calendar shocked me; my unthinkable number of holidays included two months to study for finals!

A new global ranking table of medicine courses places British universities among the very best.

Cambridge comes second and Oxford fourth on the list published by QS (a higher education company), whilst Imperial takes ninth. However, it is US schools that dominate the rest of the top 10, filling the other six spots, with Harvard also taking the coveted top position.

A crowd of royal wedding fans started gathering outside Westminster Abbey last night, a full two and a half days (!) before the event.

Ranging from small children to pensioners, the committed Royalists were dressed in their finest British clothing (especially the man above). We went to go and have a look whilst they all enjoyed their fifteen minutes of fame with the world's media surrounding them.  

The Most Loyal Royal Wedding Fans

Some people have gone to great lengths to catch a glimpse of Prince William and Kate on their big day. Below you can see our favourites:

Estibalis Chavez: a high-school student that became famous in February when she decided to camp for two weeks outside the British Embassy in Mexico City. Why? Chavez believed that her perseverance would win her an invitation to the Royal Wedding. Although her name might not have made it to the select guest list, a good Samaritan that walked by as she protested was so moved as to lend her $1,250 for a flight to London!

It is the wedding of the decade on Friday and what better place to watch Prince William and Kate Middleton get married than in London. Whether you plan to join the millions hoping to catch a glimpse of the couple in real life or if you simply want to watch the wedding on a big screen in London, you have a number of different options.

Here we go through some of the best locations and top tips: