Exhibits in Bishop Auckland range from immersive work featuring burning iris, to Binchester ring and Bodleian bowl

Early visitors to a dramatic, immersive work by Mat Collishaw have talked of it prompting emotional and cathartic responses – which is music to the ears of the artist. “That would be the ultimate reward,” he said. “If someone can take some sort of solace from the work then that really is amazing.”

Collishaw’s work features a blue iris burning before you, accompanied by a choral soundtrack. The iris is engulfed by flames but never consumed by them, which visitors may, the artist hopes, imagine is the moment before the death of Christ or a martyr.

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Che Lovelace paintings in St James’s church are first permanent art commission to honour Quobna Ottobah Cugoano

A permanent artwork to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the baptism of Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, one of Britain’s most important abolitionists, has been unveiled at a church in central London.

The paintings by the Trinidad-based artist Che Lovelace are the first permanent art commission to commemorate Cugoano, a significant but largely forgotten figure in the history of Black Britain.

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The 350 women of the Drukpa dragon order are highly skilled in martial arts, which they practise six days a week. They also help the sick, rescue animals, pick up litter and can rewire a temple

Photographs and text by Skanda Gautam

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Khalistani groups who want independence of Punjab accuse India of killings in UK and elsewhere

Months before Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in a carpark in Canada , three other Indians associated with the Sikh separatist movement had died on foreign soil – in circumstances deemed, at least by some, as suspicious.

On Monday, Justin Trudeau alleged there was “credible evidence” that the Indian government was behind the assassination of Nijjar, an explosive accusation that torpedoed already frayed diplomatic relations between India and Canada . India called the allegation “absurd” and both sides expelled senior diplomats in response.

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Canada’s PM alleges India responsible for fatal shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar on country’s soil

Justin Trudeau has said there is “credible evidence” India is responsible for the alleged assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Canadian Sikh leader.

The allegations from Canada’s prime minister is likely to further strain relations between the two nations. On Monday, Trudeau told the House of Commons of Canada that, in recent weeks, national security authorities had been probing allegations that New Delhi was behind a state-sponsored assassination.

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YouGov found 77% in favour of proposal to allow terminally-ill people to take their own lives

A large majority of Scottish voters support proposals to allow terminally-ill people to take their own lives, according to a poll released by campaigners for assisted dying laws.

A new bill to legalise assisted dying in Scotland is due to be published by the Scottish parliament later this year, in a fresh attempt by its supporters to get the measure enacted for the first time in the UK.

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Annotations in eighth-century manuscript point to work of revered English monk, scholar and saint

His life of service through scholarship earned him the title “venerable”. He is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the post-Roman world, and acknowledged as a saint in the Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican traditions.

Now a leading academic believes she has identified an example of the handwriting of Bede, the medieval theologian revered as the father of English history, along with his “lost” Old English translation of the St John’s Gospel.

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The annual pilgrimage brings both prayers and partying to Uman. Many have been undeterred by official pleas to stay away this year

Unfazed by the bombs, undeterred by the warnings, and in the face of the ongoing raging conflict, more than 35,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews from across the world have journeyed to Uman, Ukraine, to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.

“Going to celebrate in a war zone en masse is crazy,” said Azoulay Ruben, a 22-year-old trainee dentist from Paris. “But at the same time, it’s a beautiful thing.”

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The ultimate in low-budget film-making, the Ormonds specialised in bad-taste drive-in movies until a plane crash turned their attention to God. Now, with a major reevaluation, their time has come

In 1986, Jimmy McDonough, the acclaimed biographer of Neil Young, Tammy Wynette, Al Green and Russ Meyer , was sent a photo in the post. It was a black-and-white still from an obscure 1963 movie, of “a very voluptuous dame leaning over a guy without a shirt on,” he says, speaking from his home in Portland, Oregon. “The guy has a ‘Myrtle’ tattoo on his arm, and she’s lighting a cigarette.” The words “and after the cigarette, we’ll …” ran across the image. “It looked very seamy,” says McDonough. Yet the title of the film, Please Don’t Touch Me, suggested otherwise.

There was a mysterious credit at the bottom: “Distributed by the Ormond Enterprises.” “My mind danced,” says McDonough. They were a family, he found out: husband and wife Ron and June Ormond, and their son, Tim, from Nashville. Operating independently on shoestring budgets, they handled almost every aspect of production themselves, as well as often appearing in the films alongside nonprofessional actors drawn from their social circle. Their output spanned a dizzying array of genres – westerns, country music jamborees, documentaries, monster movies and other grindhouse fare. But what really set the Ormonds apart was their commitment to a higher cause: God.

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