Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada celebrate idiosyncrasy, while Ian Griffiths foregrounds mathematical tailoring

A Prada show is never a straightforward beauty pageant, so when co-designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons go out of their way to be contrary and challenging, the result is, frankly, pretty weird.

Thick woollen tights with belt loops. A boob tube with snap pockets on the nipples. Shoes that peel back at the heels like curls of butter. In the cavernous concrete of Prada’s Milanese headquarters, the catwalk was twisted into hairpin bends, so that the audience couldn’t see what was coming next. Each outfit was crazier than the last. A strapless lemon ballgown with sunglasses the size of a gas mask was followed by black jeans tucked into dirty white cowboy boots.

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Piece dating from 1760s, probably composed when Mozart was in his early teens, uncovered by researchers in Leipzig

A previously unknown piece of music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he was probably in his early teens has been uncovered at a library in Germany.

The piece dates to the mid- to late-1760s and consists of seven miniature movements for a string trio lasting about 12 minutes, the Leipzig municipal libraries said in a statement on Thursday.

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Tributes paid to Kesaria Abramidze, as ruling party and allies are accused of state campaign against minorities

A well-known Georgian transgender model has been murdered, local officials said, a day after the government passed legislation that will impose sweeping curbs on LGBTQ+ rights in the country.

Georgia’s interior ministry said Kesaria Abramidze, 37, was believed to have been stabbed to death on Wednesday in her apartment in the suburbs of the capital Tbilisi.

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Judges ruled investigation into then-MP that found he repeatedly engaged in improper lobbying was fair

The European court of human rights has dismissed an appeal by the former MP Owen Paterson against the parliamentary report that preceded his political downfall.

Paterson, a former environment secretary and influential pro-Brexit Conservative, resigned as an MP in 2021 after an investigation by the parliamentary commissioner for standards established that he had repeatedly engaged in improper lobbying.

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Private equity group to control classified business while Mathias Döpfner and Friede Springer will run digital operation

Axel Springer has struck a €13.5bn (£11.3bn) deal that will see its media assets, which include Politico, Business Insider and newspapers Bild and Die Welt, hived off into a private company with the aim of building an international digital news media powerhouse.

The move will see the German conglomerate, which last year decided against bidding for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph because its focus is a “digital first, digital only” acquisition strategy, become fully privately owned for the first time since its flotation in 1985.

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The European Commission president’s new team reflects her ruthlessness in crushing critics showing everyone who is the boss

With six executive vice-presidents balancing political families, geography and gender, Ursula von der Leyen has cemented her personal power in her second term as European Commission president while subtly tilting the EU executive to the right politically and to the east geographically.

The new 27-member commission unveiled on Tuesday illustrates her commitment to making the European economy greener, more competitive and more secure, and her ruthlessness in wielding power to crush critics, reward loyalty and punish those who do not cooperate with her. Her eviction of the powerful French industry commissioner Thierry Breton , who had criticised her personal governance style, and the demotion of Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi to the health and animal welfare job in a snub to the nationalist Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, illustrate her determination to show who is the boss.

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Campaigners criticise decision to scrap tax introduced in 2018 amid rise of ‘flight shame’ movement

Campaigners have accused the Swedish government of doing “everything in its power to stop climate action” after it cut a tax on flying, despite admitting that it would increase emissions.

The flight tax, aimed at cutting pollution from aviation, was introduced in 2018, amid the rise of the “flight shame” ( flygskam ) movement popularised by Greta Thunberg.

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Automotive lobby group warns ‘multi-billion-euro fines’ will punish manufacturers without relaxation of rules

Europe’s car industry has called for the relaxation of EU emissions targets after sales of electric cars stalled further in August, adding to growing political pressure that threatens to slow the transition away from fossil fuels.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), a lobby group, said that its members could face “multi-billion-euro fines” because the shift to electric production has not been quick enough to meet the EU targets.

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Anger as Meloni government accused of lacking will to confront climate crisis

About 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna overnight after devastating floods and landslides, as Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government was accused of lacking the will to confront the climate crisis.

The flooding was brought on by Storm Boris, which had earlier wreaked havoc in central and eastern Europe , killing at least 24 people. Several major cities in central Europe were bracing for swollen rivers to peak on Thursday.

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