The 61st Venice Biennale vernissage began on Tuesday under grey clouds and rain showers, as political tension, parties and protest dominated proceedings at one of the art world’s biggest events.

Lubaina Himid, the British entrant, who has spent a career creating work that picks at her country’s colonial past, took over the UK’s pavilion with her large-scale paintings and sound collage that recalls a “perfect British summer’s day”.

Just down the hill from the British pavilion, as rain fell during an inclement Venetian spring day, techno music pumped out of the Russian pavilion, which had large crates of prosecco stacked outside as drinks flowed within.

The celebration was understandable for a country that, despite mounting calls for it to be barred, had managed to pull off an appearance at the most high-profile art event in Europe, after not showing in the past two editions because of outcry over its war in Ukraine.

Before the event, the jury – which selects the winner of the Golden Lion prizes – resigned en masse after stating they would not consider entries from countries whose leaders were subject to international arrest warrants (a move that would bar them from including Russia and Israel).

On Monday, the Italian ministry of culture confirmed that the Russian pavilion would not be open to the public when the event opens fully on 9 May. However, the work, which comprises flower sculptures, will be visible through the windows.

Tetyana Berezhna, a Ukrainian culture minister, told the Guardian that not opening the Russian pavilion to the public was a “meaningful step” but that the country’s “symbolic presence” was still powerful.

“Cultural platforms shape global perception,” she said. “They define what is considered acceptable and whose voices are amplified. In this context, every form of representation matters.”

There were other visible geopolitical vibrations across the event. The Iranian entry pulled out without giving a reason, as a fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran appears to be fracturing.

At midday in the giardini – the Napoleon-era garden where the national pavilions sit and the art world descends every two years – there was a protest by artists who are part of the In Minor Keys show. About 60 artists took part in Solidarity Drone Chorus, humming a song and walking slowly in procession through the garden to protest against Israel’s participation.

More than 200 artists, including Lubaina Himid and Alfredo Jaar, signed an open letter demanding the cancellation of the Israeli pavilion, which opened on Tuesday.

This year’s event is without its curator, Koyo Kouoh, the Cameroonian-Swiss arts leader who died in May 2025. The curatorial team she installed – made up of Marie Hélène Pereira, Rasha Salti, Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Rory Tsapayi and Siddhartha Mitter – have delivered the event, following her plans.

There are several works that either depict or reference her, including a Derrick Adams mural opposite the entrance to the Arsenale, the other main site of the event.

When asked about the jury’s decision to resign because of the inclusion of Israel and Russia, Mitter said the team “100% respect the jury” but would not be drawn on whether they thought it was right or wrong.

“It’s not an exhibition that is a commentary on world affairs or geopolitics,” said Salti, who has family based in Beirut. “But I think our principles, where we come from, what the world conflicts have done to our consciousness, is tangible and is manifested in the exhibition.”

“Of course there is an upping of the ante because rightwing politics has gained a lot of currency,” she added. “Perhaps that has made everybody hyper-sensitive.”

On the first day of the preview, the Austrian pavilion was the big draw, with large crowds gathering to watch the choreographer Florentina Holzinger in her Seaworld Venice performance. For five-minute spells, once an hour, she hung from inside a bell suspended from a crane above the pavilion and rocked from side to side, using her body to ring it.

Inside, there were several chambers filled with water. One included a jet ski being driven at increasing speed, while outside an artist was submerged in a water tank apparently filled with purified urine. Another tank featured an explosive sewage spill.

Nextdoor to the Austrian pavilion was the other most popular part of the biennale so far: a seagull that had created a nest on the ground. Staff had placed a wooden fence around the bird, which some people mistook for an artwork in its own right.

An increased windfall tax should be imposed on the UK’s largest banks according to trade union leaders, after the big four lenders reported almost £14bn in first-quarter profits, partly fuelled by market turbulence caused by the Iran war.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) renewed its call for an increase in the current bank surcharge, which was reduced from 8% to 3% of profits above £100m by the Conservative government in 2023, as banks benefit from the high interest rate environment.

The Bank of England held interest rates at 3.75% last week, with markets pricing in up to two increases by the end of this year. The average two-year fixed mortgage rate was 5.77% on Tuesday according to Moneyfacts, compared with 4.83% before the start of the conflict in the Middle East.

Over the past week, the UK’s big four banks – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest – reported combined profits of £13.8bn for the first quarter.

“Getting banks to pay more tax on their profits is plain common sense when they’re raking in billions and the rest of the country is struggling to get by,” said Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC.

“With Donald Trump’s war abroad unleashing economic chaos at home, it’s only right that banks’ bumper profits are taxed fairly and used to shield households and firms from the damaging impacts of the war.”

During a results call last week with the media, William Chalmers, chief financial officer at Lloyds Banking Group, was asked whether banks were “profiteering” from the Iran war.

The FTSE 100 group, whose brands include Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, reported a 33% increase in year-on-year profits to £2bn in the first quarter.

“Banks have had many years of very low margins, of low profitability in the context of a low-rate environment,” said Chalmers. “The sector always expected a gradual increase in the profitability of banks when rates rise. That is the way the financial services industry works.”

The TUC estimates that returning the bank surcharge back to the 8% level it was at three years ago, what it calls the “bare minimum”, would raise £9bn over four years. Doubling that to 16% would deliver £24bn over four years.

The big four banks made profits of almost £46bn last year, resulting in bumper annual pay packets for bosses.

“After the Tories cut the bank surcharge tax, banks enjoyed a profits bonanza because of high interest rates,” said Nowak.

“Now they could be set to make even more if interest rates remain high for longer.

“The last economic shock caused by [Vladimir] Putin’s illegal invasion in Ukraine led to a bumper payday for banks at the expense of mortgage payers – we can’t allow the same thing to happen again.”

Last year, the IPPR thinktank argued for a new bank tax to be introduced by chancellor Rachel Reeves in the November budget, a proposal that the industry managed to see off after intense lobbying.

On Tuesday afternoon in New York, the Rolling Stones gathered friends, journalists and fellow artists for a preview of their forthcoming 25th album Foreign Tongues.

Before the trio stepped on stage, host Conan O’Brien deadpanned that perhaps, finally, this is the album where the band will “finally make it after decades of obscurity”. The audience, which included Leonardo DiCaprio, director Baz Luhrmann and actor Odessa A’zion, laughed appreciatively.

Seven decades into their career and with over 250m albums sold, the band hardly need to cement their legacy. But recent years have seen the group – now a three-piece in the wake of drummer Charlie Watts’ death in 2021 – creatively re-energized. Hackney Diamonds, their 2023 album, was praised by the Guardian’s Alexis Petridis as a return to form which “crackles with a sense of purpose”.

On Foreign Tongues, the band once again team up with Hackney Diamonds producer Andrew Watt (Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber), as well as a slew of special guests including Steve Winwood, Paul McCartney, The Cure’s Robert Smith and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers.

At the New York event, Mick Jagger said that Foreign Tongues’ 14 songs would span numerous genres. “The thing about this record is – the Stones are a rock band that also has the capacity to do ballads, country music or dance music. So we don’t get stuck in one kind of style.”

“When it’s not working, that’s when we bring in the referee,” says Keith Richards, pointing at producer Watt, who laughed along. “He kicks us up the arse.”

Jagger described new song Ringing Hollow as a “country tune” inspired by his and Richards’ lifelong love of Hank Williams, while Beautiful Delilah draws from the delta blues. The singer also teased Hit Me in the Head, “a real punk rocker” with parts recorded by Watts before his death.

On stage, the three-piece were in good spirits and spry, with Jagger happy to play along when O’Brien joked that the singer’s striped blazer was “from the estate of Willy Wonka”.

“It kicks ass,” said O’Brien of the new album, adding that it is reminiscent of the band’s 1972 classic Exile on Main St, and he has listened to the record “25 times” since receiving it a few days ago. “There’s a vibrancy, an urgency to it.”

That’s partly due to the fact that the album was recorded in about a month, said Jagger: “Only having four weeks gave us an urgency. We’re having fun most of the time in the studio, but it’s a lot of concentration too – you’ve really got to make [a song’s] five minutes count.”

When asked how he keeps his octave-spanning singing voice in tip-top shape, Jagger said wryly: “I was taking a lot of drugs in 1968 … so it’s practice.”

“Riffs, you can’t force them,” said Richards. “They come to you.” Meanwhile, guitarist Ronnie Wood compared the interplay with his fellow guitarist to “an ancient form of weaving”.

The cover art for Foreign Tongues is a painting by New York-based artist Nathaniel Mary Quinn, who described the image as an “amalgamation” of the band. “I call it Mr Ugly,” joked Jagger. “It’s not computer-generated,” he added, to whoops and applause from the audience.

The band also reflected on the loss of longtime drummer Watts with affection and humor. “Charlie handed the baton to Steve [Jordan],” said Wood, of the Stones’ new drummer. Richards was more blunt, saying: “When Charlie hit the bucket, he said: ‘Steve’s your man.’”

More than 60 years into their career, the band said that it was important for them to keep things fresh. “You don’t just want to sit on what you’ve done before,” reflected Richards. “We put it together, we love to do it, and there is always something more in there.”