The nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has been plunged into renewed controversy after it emerged that one of its members posed for photographs on a “pilgrimage” of sites associated with Adolf Hitler.

The politician in question, who has not been named under German privacy laws, posed holding a candle outside Hitler’s birthplace in the Austrian town of Braunau am Inn.

He also posed with a picture of the Fuhrer close to his mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden in the Alps, and with a banner bearing a swastika and SS runes. 

Details of the pictures, which were taken on a tour of Nazi sites the politician made with colleagues in 2015, emerged this week in a report in Thüringer Allgemeine newspaper.

The AfD admitted the existence of the photographs and said the politician concerned had resigned from the party.

Although he has not been publicly named, he is understood to be a senior figure in the party’s regional association in Thuringia, and an associate of Björn Höcke, one of the most controversial figures in the AfD.

There were calls for Mr Höcke to be expelled from the party last year after he called for a “180-degree turn” in German attitudes to the Second World War. The politician involved in the latest controversy is understood to have served on the panel that found in Mr Höcke’s favour.

The AfD has known about the existence of the photographs since September and took immediate action, the party said in a statement.

“The person concerned was clearly reminded by the state board that such incidents are unacceptable and incompatible with AfD membership,” Torben Braga, a party spokesman said. The politician had resigned from the party the same day, he said.

Details of the pictures emerged only days after another AfD politician was caught up in a scandal over old photographs of her posing alongside wine bottles with Hitler’s image on the labels.

Jessica Biessmann, a member of the Berlin regional parliament, is facing moves to expel her from the party over the wine bottle photographs, which were originally posted on the internet ten years ago but re-emerged this week.

The twin scandals come amid press reports that several AfD members who were elected to the Bavarian regional parliament last weekend are under surveillance by the German intelligence servives as a possible threat to national security.

Only certain individuals are under surveillance, and not the party as a whole, a spokesman for the Bavarian regional intelligence service told Münchner Merkur newspaper.

Paris has finally found a place for a sculpture of a giant bunch of gaudy tulips offered by American artist Jeff Koons in the wake of the terror attacks but which purists complained would lower the tone of the City of Light.

Mr Koons had described Bouquet of Tulips, a 10-metre (34-foot) work of bronze, stainless steel and aluminium weighing 33 tons as a token of “remembrance to the victims of the terrible tragedies” that rocked the capital in 2014 and 2015, adding that he wanted “to give hope to the surviving family members”.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo initially said the multi-coloured sculpture would be installed for all to see opposite the Eiffel Tower and in front of the Palais de Tokyo and the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris near Trocadéro.   

She hailed it as a "symbol of generosity and sharing", which shows "our capital’s ties with the United States are unbreakable”.

The Bouquet of Tulips features a hand holding the huge flowers in a gesture designed to ape the Statue of Liberty grasping her torch.

However, critics failed to see eye to eye with the mayor.

In an op-ed in Libération newspaper, some 23 figures from France’s art and culture world slammed the choice of a prime location – at the heart of the city’s modern and contemporary art offerings – adding that the museums had no symbolic connection with the Paris attacks.

While Mr Koons was a "brilliant and inventive" artist in the 1980s, he had since morphed into a symbol of "industrial", assembly-line art, they scoffed.

Françoise Nyssen, the culture minister, pledged to find a home for the sculpture at a location that was "popular, visible and shared by everyone”, while the mayor has defended her choice and has been backed by the French government.

"Can you just imagine the international controversy if the city had told the Americans ‘We don’t want your present?’," she said.

After months of dithering, on Friday, Christophe Girard, Paris’ deputy mayor in charge of culture announced that the sculpture would no doubt be installed in the municipal gardens of the of the Beaux-Arts museum in the Petit Palais, opposite the Grand Palais by the Champs-Elysées.

He said the position near the American Embassy was “a very strong symbol and a reaffirmation of our friendship with the American people”.

"We were split between various options… but Jeff Koons never changed his mind about wanting it in the centre of Paris, near where the attacks took place," he added.

Private foundations would pay for installation but as for its upkeep, Parisian taxpayers would foot the bill, he said.

Mr Koons was the subject of controversy of a different kind last month in Paris, where he was accused in court of plagiarising an iconic French clothing advertisement for one of his celebrated sculptures, Fait d’Hiver.

Advertising creative director Franck Davidovici sued Mr Koons, among the world’s most bankable living artists, for €300,000 (£270,000) for copyright infringement, saying he had produced what his lawyer called a “servile copy” of a famous advertising campaign he ran in 1985 for French clothing brand Naf-Naf.

A verdict is due on November 8.

Tourists landed by the boatload Friday on the Philippines’ Boracay island, which re-opened with a slew of new rules after a six-month shutdown aimed at undoing the impact of years of unrestrained mass tourism.

Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine president, shuttered the tiny white-sand island in April, declaring it a "cesspool" where businesses flushed raw sewage into the once pristine turquoise waters and trash soiled in beaches.

Among the first to land after the government threw open the doors just past dawn were first-timers attracted by the prospect of a spruced up, less crowded island.

Once a quiet hideaway favoured by backpackers, the tiny island was transformed by overdevelopment into a mass destination seeing some two million visitors per year.

Under the new regime, the beachfront is cleared of the masseuses, vendors, bonfires and even the builders of its famous photo-op sandcastles that once crowded it.

All water sports save for swimming are also banned for the time being, while Boracay’s three casinos have been permanently shut down in line with Mr Duterte’s wishes.

Buildings were bulldozed and businesses pushed back to create a 30-metre (98-foot) buffer zone from the waterline.

Away from the water the sound of machinery and hammering echoed in the air as resorts made improvements to meet new requirements and crews toiled away on a widened main road.

Boracay, which major travel magazines consistently rate as among the world’s best beaches, measures a mere 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres).

Yet it was seeing up to 40,000 sun worshippers at peak times, with tourists spending $1 billion (£780,455) a year but also leaving mountains of garbage and overwhelming the sewage system.

The new rules say 19,200 tourists will be allowed on the island at any one time, with the government aiming to enforce that by controlling the number of available hotel rooms.

Scores of hotels and restaurants were ordered to close because they did not meet standards, while just under 160 tourism-related businesses have been approved to re-open.

Drinking and smoking are banned and the huge multi-day beach parties dubbed "LaBoracay" that drew tens of thousands of tourists during the May 1 Labour Day weekend will be a thing of the past.

The Boracay Foundation, the main business industry group on the island, said the sector supports the new regulations aimed at cleaning up the resort.

"The rules and ordinances are really perfect… it’s just a matter of implementation," its executive director Pia Miraflores told AFP.

"For a long time we’ve been asking for the political will to implement the rules and regulations," she added.

Tens of thousands of workers were left unemployed when the island’s tourism machine was deprived of visitors. They cheered as the guests began to arrive.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has called the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi "heinous" and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice, in his first public address since the death.

The prince spoke at the Future Investment Initiative conference in the Saudi capital of Riyadh to a packed auditorium, which had waited patiently to hear whether he would comment on one of the kingdom’s worst scandals in recent history.

Prince Mohammed called the death of the Washington Post columnist “painful for both the Saudi people and the world”, but claimed it was being exploited by some to drive a wedge between Saudi and Turkey.

“I want to send them a message: They will not be able to do that as long as there is a king called King Salman bin Abdulaziz and a crown prince called Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, and a president in Turkey called Erdogan,” said the prince, who was part of a panel discussing economic reforms in the region.

The heir-apparent said the two countries would work together to bring the perpetrators to court, without addressing accusations he ordered the killing of one of his most prominent critics.

To add to the oddity of the event, Prince Mohammed appeared on stage alongside Lebanese prime minister-designate Saad Hariri, whom he is accused of kidnapping and forcing to resign live on air from Riyadh last year in an apparent disagreement over growing Iranian influence in Lebanon.

He joked that Mr Hariri would only be staying in the kingdom for two days this time. 

The Saudis have tried to portray business as usual at the forum – viewed as the jewel in the crown prince’s Vision 2030 plan for the country.

Prince Mohammed claimed during his address that the country’s growth would be much better in 2019 than this year, as kingdom begins to see through his plans to diversify away from oil.

To a standing ovation, MBS, as he is nicknamed, said economic transformation in Saudi would "restore the Middle East to its past glory".

But missing from the audience were Western politicians, top world bankers and company executives, who declined to attend in an attempt to distance themselves from the saga.

Saudi has tried to reassure foreign banks who have chosen to boycott the forum that they would not be penalised.

Beyond the conference, the drip-drip of revelations in the case has tested ties between Saudi and its traditional Western allies.

While US President Donald Trump has offered a degree of protection to the 33-year-old crown prince, it appeared today that this would not be unconditional.

President Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published late on Tuesday that Prince Mohammed bore ultimate responsibility for the operation that led to Khashoggi’s killing. 

In his toughest comments yet, Mr Trump she he wanted to believe the prince when he said that lower level officials were to blame for the killing at the Saudi mission.

But he suggested responsibility lay higher up: "Well, the prince is running things over there more so at this stage. He’s running things and so if anybody were going to be, it would be him."

An adviser to Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Prince Mohammed had "blood on his hands" over Khashoggi, the bluntest language yet from someone linked to Turkey’s president.

Mr Erdogan himself kept up his pressure on Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

"We are determined not to allow the murder to be covered up and for those responsible – from the person who gave the order to those who executed it – not to escape justice," he said.

On Wednesday, Saudi officials finally granted permission to Turkish police to search a well in the garden of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul as part of their investigation.

The well was at centre of speculation yesterday that it may contain body parts belonging to the journalist.

Donald Trump is expected to wield the axe in the wake of Tuesday’s midterm elections, with figures close to the president predicting that cabinet members will be forced out. 

The US president did not push back on suggestions he would reshuffle his administration when talking to reporters earlier this week, saying pointedly: “For the most part, I love my cabinet.”

Another shake-up would likely further consolidate power under Mr Trump, removing moderating forces who at times have urged caution over policy, much to the president’s frustration.

It would also once again push up the turnover figures for Mr Trump’s White House, already one of the highest for a modern-day president. 

More than 38 million Americans voted early in the elections – a huge rise on the 27 million who did so in the 2014 midterms.

In Texas, Arizona and Nevada early ballots alone exceeded the entire 2014 voting totals, showing a country energised by this year’s congressional and state-wide elections. 

The results offer an insight into the mood of the electorate two years after Mr Trump’s shock victory, which put a man with no government or military experience into the White House. 

With the election now over, Mr Trump is predicted to make widespread personnel changes. Sebastian Gorka, Mr Trump’s former deputy assistant, predicted one or two cabinet members could go. 

"Every White House has some changes in year three. This one will be no exception,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

Speaking to reporters on Monday before a final day of campaigning, Mr Trump made little effort to downplay the possibility of a shake-up. 

"Administrations make changes usually after midterms and probably we’ll be right in that category. I think it’s very customary,” he said. 

Jeff Sessions, the US attorney general who Mr Trump has repeatedly chastised for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, is among those in the most precarious position. 

Mr Sessions has become a frequent target for Mr Trump’s tweeted criticism and key Republican senators who had been publicly backing him now seem resigned to his departure. 

Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general overseeing the Russia probe, could also be at risk. He appeared on the eve of leaving in September before a decision was delayed. 

Mr Rosenstein faced embarrassing reports that he proposed wearing a wire when meeting the president at the height of the fallout over FBI director James Comey’s sacking.

He said the comment was a joke.  However his departure would complicate Robert Mueller’s probe on Russian meddling in the 2016 election, which has dogged the Trump presidency, as a new overseer would need to be picked. 

Mr Mueller has made few public moves in recent weeks as the election came to a head, but his probe is expected to reenter the spotlight before Christmas.

He continues to push for an interview with Mr Trump, a row that has played out behind the scenes all year. 

Other question marks hang over Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary whose failure to drive down immigration has angered Mr Trump, and Jim Mattis, the defence secretary seen as a moderating force who the president publicly suggested could leave last month. 

A new US ambassador to the United Nations is also due to be announced this week after Nikki Haley decided to leave.

Heather Nauert, the top State Department spokesman and former Fox News reporter, is the front-runner for the job. 

Speaking before the polls opened, Mr Trump suggested he could soften his tone after an election campaign where he deployed heated warnings over the threat posed by illegal immigration. 

Asked about regrets from his time in office during an ABC7 interview, Mr Trump said: "I would like to have a much softer tone. 

"I feel to a certain extent I have no choice, but maybe I do. Maybe I could have been softer from that standpoint."

Indian government minister MJ Akbar filed a defamation suit against one of at least 10 women accusing him of sexual harassment on Monday, calling her allegations false and malicious.

The lawsuit, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, names journalist Priya Ramani as the sole accused and says that she "intentionally put forward malicious, fabricated and salacious" allegations to harm his reputation.

Ramani was not immediately reachable for comment.

The lawsuit comes amid widespread calls on social media for Akbar’s resignation from his post as the minister of state for external affairs.

Akbar, 67, a veteran editor who founded several publications, has been accused of a range of inappropriate behaviour by female journalists who previously worked as his subordinates.

Many journalists have called for Akbar to be sacked and have threatened to boycott events he is attending until he resigns.

More than 200 protesters from the youth wing of the opposition Congress party waved placards and chanted slogans outside Akbar’s Delhi home on Monday. Some jumped barricades and clashed with police and dozens were detained, a Reuters witness said.

Akbar is one of the highest-profile figures so far to face accusations in India’s burgeoning #MeToo movement. Several powerful men from the worlds of media, entertainment and the arts have been snared in sexual harassment and assault allegations, which have led to a string of ousters.

In a one-page statement on Sunday, Akbar described allegations against him as "wild and baseless" and questioned if they were politically motivated.

"Why has this storm risen a few months before a general election? Is there an agenda? You be the judge," he said in the statement.

Shutapa Paul, one of the women who has accused Akbar of sexual misconduct, told Reuters on Sunday that she was dismayed by Akbar’s response.

"Akbar’s brazen shaming of all of us is evidence of his sense of entitlement and power. I feel let down by the powers that be," Paul said. "Truth and justice will prevail."

It is safe to say that the work of William Shakespeare is performed and celebrated somewhere in the English speaking world and beyond on a daily basis.

Few, however, would expect to find his plays staged throughout the year in a former industrial mill town, in the southern US state of Virginia.

All the more surprising is the fact the plays are performed in the world’s only authentic recreation of Shakespeare’s long lost Blackfriars Playhouse.

Three hours drive south of Washington DC lies the small town of Staunton (pop. 24,363), where you will find Blackfriars Playhouse, home of the American Shakespeare Center.

The company celebrated its 30th anniversary in September and boasts a reputation as one of the most accomplished Shakespeare companies in the United States.

Its theatre has even attracted the attention of Dame Judi Dench, who on visiting Blackfriars Playhouse declared:  "Crikey! Why isn’t this in England?"

She later added: “I was instantly captivated by its atmosphere and by the amazing work that goes on there. It is a center of excellence and should be protected and cherished.”

The company began life as a travelling repertory group in 1988, when Jim Warren and Ralph Alan Cohen founded the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express to perform the playwright’s work in towns along Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.

In 1996 the company travelled to Britain to stage work in primary and secondary schools, returning in 2009 to take part in events at Shakespeare’s Globe on London’s South Bank, which its founders still regard as “our big brother”.

Ten years after the touring company was founded it decided to create a permanent base in Staunton, where the liberal arts students of Mary Baldwin University provided a regular and appreciative audience.

In 2001 Shenandoah Shakespeare began work on recreating as a base for the company Shakespeare’s original Blackfriars Playhouse, which was sited until its demolition in 1655 near what is now the edge of the City of London.

The original building was a Tudor renovation of a 13th Century hall and was the fourth largest meeting space in the City, capable of holding 500 people. Parliament even met there on occasion.

But with no reliable records of what Blackfriars Playhouse looked like, or even its basic dimensions, architect Tom McLaughlin had to rely on plans for other 17th century theatres, surviving halls from the period, Shakespeare’s own stage directions and the work of scholars and historians.

The Blackfriars Playhouse cost $3.7 million to complete and the result is a breathtaking evocation of a 16th century London theatre in the most unlikely of locations.

The town of Staunton sits beneath the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, close to some of the most bitterly contested sites of the American Civil War, including Lexington, Fredericksburg and Appomattox, the scene of the Confederacy’s eventual surrender on April 9, 1865.

Indeed local legend has it that the only reason Staunton escaped the destruction that befell so many other towns as the warring armies crisscrossed Virginia, was that it was home to dozens of prostitutes who entertained the soldiers of both sides.

Though Shakespeare himself might well have made something of that paradox, today’s bawdy entertainment is more likely to be found in a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor or As You Like it.

A unique feature of performances at the Blackfriars Playhouse is the decision to stage each production under the bright lights of a dozen candelabras, recreating the lighting conditions seen in the time of Shakespeare and his contemporaries Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe.

“Shakespeare’s actors could see their audience; our actors can see you,” states the playhouse’s 2018/2019 season programme. “Leaving you in the dark can literally obscure a vital part of the drama.”

In keeping with what is known of performances of the period there are no special effects or elaborate set designs to detract from the actors and their material. Stools and benches placed on the stage for members of the audience emphasise a sense of interactions between performers and observers.

The rest of the 300-strong audience sit directly in front of the stage and in two wooden galleries around the edge of the auditorium, just as they would have at the original Blackfriars Playhouse, 400 years ago and nearly 4,000 miles away across the sea.

Mr Cohen, now Director of Mission at the American Shakespeare Center, said: “The American Shakespeare scene is vigorous and growing, and it’s almost a grassroots movement.  

“As to the likelihood of Staunton being a center for that movement, it’s fair to point out that the two largest Shakespeare companies in North America are Stratford, Ontario, and Ashland, Oregon, both with populations smaller than Staunton’s.

He added: “Staunton, which from the 19th century has had a rich and deep history in the performing arts, is a beautiful small city the Shenandoah Valley, a city celebrated for its architecture and setting. In short, the perfect place for a Shakespeare getaway.”