London artist helps endangered animals with colourful murals

Tortoise callipers and camel scales are put to good use at ZSL London Zoo, which is holding its annual animal weigh-in. While keepers put on a show for the cameras, it is important that the zoo keeps up-to-date size and weight information on its animals to compare them with animals in the wild and in other zoos, as well as to have an indication of which animals are pregnant.

Music, spoken word and theatre are among the many artistic mediums that allow people from different backgrounds to connect. But spaces centering on the experiences of under-represented minorities can often be hard to come by, inspiring a variety of artists and activists hoping to change that. Among them is Irish-Nigerian artist Osaro Azams. She's the founder of the Fried Plantains Collective, which celebrates the voices of the LGBT and African communities in Dublin in a "cozy" and fun way. She joined us for Perspective.

With just a knife, brush and pencil, 30-year-old Egyptian sculpture artist Ibrahim Belal is a master of his tools, creating miniature sculptures of the most prominent Pharaonic and Egyptian landmarks at his home in the city of Rashid, in the Beheira Governorate, some 300 kilometres south of Cairo. He dreams of creating one of the first first museum's of miniature sculptures in the Middle East.

Our guest is known for her classical paintings of beautiful Black women from another era. Not servants, or slaves, nor fetishized or exoticised, her opulent portraits are redefining the women of colour in art history. With her latest work, "Queenie, the godmother of Harlem", the French-born, New York-based artist Elizabeth Colomba continues to rediscover and represent Black people erased by history. The book retraces the life of Martinican Mafia boss Stéphanie St. Clair in 1930s Harlem.

A Kosovar artist creates a portrait of the outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel using some 100 kilogrammes of seeds.

Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta praises his team and the impact of having fans in the stadium after his team struck three times inside 35 minutes to beat Tottenham 3-1 and move above their north London rivals in the Premier League table.

A pop-up store dedicated to Queen gets ready to open in London to mark the 50th anniversary of the legendary British rock band, which continues to perform despite the death of iconic singer Freddie Mercury in 1991. Called "Queen The Greatest", the store takes visitors back to the beginnings of the band formed in 1971 and whose hits are known the world over.

Spectators leaving a 7am screening of the new James Bond 'No Time To Die' at a cinema on London's Leicester square share their enthusiasm about the film, which has finally hit movie theatres after a 18 months delay due to Covid-19.

London launches multi-function buses to provide 'vital services' to homeless people, such as doctor and dentist appointments as well as haircuts and showers.

The sculpture, named "Pillar of Shame," mourns those who were killed by Chinese troops at Tiananmen Square in 1989. It was installed at the University of Hong Kong in 1997, when the territory was handed back to China.

In a hot and stuffy room at her house in Hanoi, Tran Thanh Thuc holds up a delicate silk scarf and begins snipping it into tiny pieces, ready to paste onto her works of art. For four decades, Thuc has been recreating Vietnamese landscapes using vibrant shades of fabric cut from scarves, traditional ao dai -- or whatever material she could find during years of poverty in the 1980s.

Hailing from the Netherlands, artist Tessa Douwstra performs under the name Luwten, which means "a place without wind" in Dutch. Her music channels traditional indie songwriting through a kaleidoscope of modern pop and experimental R&B. She recently released her second LP entitled "Draft", which features 11 complex and well-crafted tracks. She tells FRANCE 24’s Florence Villeminot about wanting to writing about the transition from introspection to a more outward-focused life.