Spanish painter Nieves González arrives in Los Angeles for her first U.S. solo exhibition having already experienced a taste of fame.

The 29-year-old caught the attention of the art and fashion worlds last year after being discovered on Instagram and commissioned to paint the cover of Lily Allen’s album “West End Girl.” Depicting the singer as a Baroque aristocrat clad in contemporary designer fashion, the portrait helped propel González onto an international stage.

Collectors have taken notice. The 13 paintings in “A Friendship Story,” opening Saturday at Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica, have already sold out, according to the gallery, with prices ranging from $4,000 to $20,000.

• Share via Close extra sharing options

Elle magazine dubbed González “Fashion’s Favorite New Artist,” while exhibitions in Rome, Paris, Belfast and Bilbao, Spain, expanded her reputation across Europe.

González developed her classic yet defiantly modern approach while studying at the University of Seville, where Spanish masters such as Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán painted in the naturalist Baroque tradition. Drawing liberally from fashion, art history and everyday life, she often dresses the subjects of her portraits in puffer jackets — garments she wears herself during the cold winters of Granada, Spain, where she lives. The material, she said, recalls the sculptural rendering of fabric in paintings by Zurbarán and Velázquez: the folds, the volumes, the high shine.

Nieves González often dresses her subjects in puffer jackets.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

“It works beautifully from a visual standpoint,” she said, speaking Spanish during an interview at Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station a few days before the exhibition opened. Wearing blue jeans and a pink button-down blouse, she echoed the pastel blues and pinks that appear throughout many of the works surrounding her.

“Fashion inspires me,” she said. “Just as 17th century artists drew inspiration from the fashion of their day — often creating paintings that served as catalogs of current styles — I do the same,” she said. “The goal is to not merely convey a specific message or ideology but to create a testament to a generation and the era in which we live.”

This fall, González’s painting “La Sfida” (2025) will appear in the Städel Museum’s exhibition “Mary Magdalene. Sin. Pray. Love” in Frankfurt, Germany, alongside works by Lady Gaga, Marlene Dumas and Auguste Rodin. The painting depicts Mary Magdalene with long, flowing hair, draped in a regal red garment and clutching a skull — a contemporary interpretation of one of Christianity’s most enduring figures.

“Nieves González is the youngest of these artists and, at the same time, probably the one who most closely follows in the tradition of the Old Masters,” curators Bastian Eclercy and Stefan Roller wrote in an email.

The Santa Monica exhibition marks an evolution from the paintings that established González’s reputation. Earlier works often centered on solitary women posed with the self-possession of royal portraits or religious icons. “A Friendship Story” focuses on relationships between pairs of women, exploring friendship, intimacy, support and shared experience.

For González, friendship is one of the most profound aspects of women’s lives and a subject she felt deserved greater attention in painting.

Victoria Rios, a curator who works with González, said the artist’s paintings “rewrite the narratives of the past, rewrite the history of martyrdom and place women at the center.”

“Nothing in her painting is arbitrary,” Rios said in an email. “Every formal decision is also an ethical one.”

“The horse elevates the art; symbolically, it carries connotations of elegance and nobility,” Nieves González said. “It seemed like a way to elevate the concept of friendship.”

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

González frequently turns art historical conventions on their head. In “Salir a robar caballos: Go out to steal horses,” she replaces the archetypal portrait of a gallant man on horseback with two young women dressed in puffer and vinyl jackets, posed like contemporary Amazons atop rearing horses.

“The horse elevates the art; symbolically, it carries connotations of elegance and nobility,” González said. “It seemed like a way to elevate the concept of friendship. It also has an element of play, adventure and fun, since having fun is part of the bond too.”

The artist also sees her work through a feminist lens.

“We live in a patriarchal society, and so, unfortunately, I belong to the oppressed segment of that society, and my work relates to that,” she said. “It stems from a struggle, an understanding and a process of redefining concepts that we have historically established as normal, natural and habitual.”

“I am interested in portraying us as brave and powerful, sometimes even with an air of haughtiness,” she said.

Another painting, “Something’s crossed over me and I can’t go back” (2026), captures González’s fusion of historical and contemporary references. Two women dressed in green and pink fur cradle each other’s heads, reimagining medieval depictions of cephalophores — Christian martyrs who carry their severed heads while continuing to preach or pray.

The title comes from a pivotal line in the 1991 film “Thelma & Louise,” marking the turning point for Geena Davis’ character Thelma, fully committing to her ultimately fatal adventure with Susan Sarandon’s Louise.

Nieves González, “Holding You,” 2026 (oil on canvas).

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

González builds each painting from what she calls a “Frankenstein” — a digital composite assembled from archival photographs, found images and reference material. The painting process then takes over. A mid-project visit to the Prado Museum in Madrid, for instance, might send her back to the digital sketch to pull in a compositional element from Velázquez before returning to the canvas. “The final result often ends up being completely different from what I initially envisioned,” she said.

Heller began representing González, whom he calls an “original voice,” last year after being introduced to her work by another painter.

Staging her first U.S. solo exhibition in Los Angeles rather than New York reflects what he sees as a more relaxed environment for an emerging artist, without the glare and expectations of the New York art world.

“L.A. feels a little less constrained,” Heller said. “It feels a little more free.”

González’s portrait of Allen is currently on view at London’s National Portrait Gallery, hanging in the same room as a self-portrait by David Hockney. She said while it “has been very significant in terms of media exposure,” exhibitions and professional opportunities were already in motion before the album cover brought wider attention.

“I’ve always said that what I want to do in life is make a living from painting,” she said.

Mission accomplished.

WASHINGTON — The paint is peeling from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after the renovation ordered by President Trump, and he is now alleging, without substantiation, that someone damaged it intentionally.

“We’ve had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool,” he posted on his social media site Friday night. “Just like three days ago, they destroyed the grass outside of the Pool, they’ve also done everything possible to hurt the inside surface that was just installed.” He offered no details to substantiate his claim.

Agencies responsible for law enforcement and upkeep on the National Mall — the U.S. Park Police, National Park Service and Department of the Interior — did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Washington Post reported that Park Police officers arrested someone Friday who they said was peeling paint from the pool, an act that would not explain the clouds of algae in green water and swaths of loose blue paint detached from the bottom.

Trump insisted something nefarious was going on. “No different than the chemicals that were used on the National Mall, they used something similar in the Reflecting Pool to try to destroy and demean our beautiful work,” he posted.

That was a reference to the discovery of large numbers etched in discolored grass on the National Mall the week before: “86 47,” apparently advocating to “86” — get rid of, in restaurant lingo — the 47th president.

Authorities claimed the numbers may be a threat against Trump, and they are investigating. Trump’s Department of Justice has tried — unsuccessfully so far — to prosecute Trump foe and former FBI Director James B. Comey for posting a photo of seashells arranged in the numerals “86 47.”

Trump’s claims of vandalism came after days of negative attention to the state of the Reflecting Pool, which has raised concerns about the no-bid contract of more than $14 million to refurbish. The president has said the pool rehab was needed as the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations ramp up.

The pool was swiftly beset by an algae bloom that returned its waters to the greenish color that Trump had tried to replace by having the bottom painted “American flag blue.”

Federal workers treated the pool with hydrogen peroxide to kill the algae. Now, chunks of the blue paint are gone, exposing its rocky bottom.

GUADALAJARA, Jalisco — Before the World Cup, critics and fans of the Mexican national team debated whether Javier Aguirre’s third stint as head coach was the right decision. Two games later, the coach has led Mexico to the tournament’s knockout round.

Thursday’s 1-0 victory over South Korea at Guadalajara Stadium made the World Cup co-host the first in the tournament to advance while also clinching the top spot in Group A with one group play game remaining. After South Korea’s goalkeeper fumbled a ball, Luis Romo scored the goal that gave the Mexicans six points and pushed them to the top of the standings.

El Tri will close out the first round against Czechia (6 p.m.) at Azteca Stadium on Wednesday.

During his post-match news conference, Aguirre spoke less about the result and more about the journey that led him to this moment. At 67 and having coached Mexico in three World Cups, he explained that his experience allowed him to approach a match he described as eminently tactical.

Mexico goalkeeper Raul Rangel reaches back to stop the ball from entering his goal during his team’s 1-0 World Cup win over South Korea Thursday.

(Silvia Izquierdo / Associated Press)

“I’ve always tried to get my team to play well and to help the players and the national team develop,” Aguirre said.

For the coach, advancing to the knockout round represents the culmination of more than three decades of work on the sidelines and the support of a group of players who rose to the occasion under the most demanding circumstances.

The coach also acknowledged that advancing to the next round has eased the tension surrounding the team after the doubts that existed before the World Cup. Without mentioning personal vindication, he noted that soccer tends to judge solely based on the most recent result.

“If you win, you’re the best; if you lose, you’re the worst,” Aguirre said.

Aguirre said he remains calm because he believes his approach to coaching hasn’t changed and that the team was rewarded Thursday night against South Korea in a match marked by limited space and a high degree of tactical discipline.

With qualification secured, Aguirre said he will not alter his soccer philosophy during Mexico’s final group stage match even though it no longer faces the pressure of securing a spot in the next round.

He said Czechia will enter the game with a different competitive need and a drive to advance, while Mexico will work to maintain a high level of performance that allowed it to record two consecutive wins and keep two clean sheets at the start of the tournament.

On the South Korean side, coach Hong Myung-bo avoided making excuses and focused his analysis on the play that decided the match. Although he explained that he had not yet reviewed the goal sequence in detail, he knew the team made a series of small errors in an area of the field where he had previously warned that losing possession could prove decisive.

Mexico goalkeeper Raul Rangel blocks a shot by South Korea’s Son Heung-min during the World Cup match on Thursday.

(Natacha Pisarenko / Associated Press)

The coach said that one of the central focuses of their preparation had been avoiding turnovers near South Korea’s box in the face of Mexico’s high press.

Myung-bo said that during the pre-match talk, he emphasized that the first 20 minutes would be crucial and believed his players had executed that part of the plan. He said that as the minutes passed, South Korea managed to create chances and was gaining strength until its critical turnover.

“After the momentum of the match shifted in our favor … both in terms of overall pressure and the play itself, we were able to create many opportunities,” Myung-bo said. “Although it ended up being a very frustrating match and we’re left with a bitter taste in our mouths over the lost possession, there’s no time to dwell on it. We have one last match ahead of us, so we’ll prepare well.”

Cody Gakpo and Brian Brobbey both scored twice as the rampant Netherlands thrashed Sweden 5-1 in a World Cup warning to the favourites.

The big win on Saturday in front of nearly 69,000 at Houston Stadium put the delighted Dutch on the cusp of the knockout rounds and gave them lift-off after being held by Japan.

Ronald Koeman’s side top Group F with four points from two games, ahead of Sweden on three, Japan (one) and Tunisia (zero).

Despite the sobering loss, the Swedes had plenty of chances but were denied by good goalkeeping and wasteful finishing.

Sunderland striker Brobbey got his first start of the tournament and repaid Koeman with predatory goals after five and 17 minutes.

Before that, the 24-year-old had scored only once for his country since making his debut three years ago.

In a game full of top Premier League talent, Liverpool’s Gakpo – who set Brobbey up for the opener – scored twice early in the second half.

Substitute Anthony Elanga from Newcastle United pulled one back for Sweden just before the hour with a classy finish.

West Ham’s Crysencio Summerville had the last word for the five-star Dutch.

Two crew members from the historic Artemis II lunar mission were among the VIP guests, a nod to Houston’s place as the home of space flight.

There was no problem here as the Dutch, twice pegged back in a lively 2-2 draw with Japan to start their title bid, made the brighter start in front of their orange-clad fans and King Willem-Alexander.

Brobbey, who came in for Summerville despite the winger scoring against Japan, started and finished the first goal.

It was made in the Premier League, with goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen, midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and Gakpo all involved.

Brobbey exchanged passes with Gakpo, before the Anfield attacker crossed in low from the left for his team-mate to stab in from close range.

Sweden, who thrashed Tunisia 5-1 in their first game, could not handle Brobbey’s muscular presence.

Up front, the much-vaunted attack of Liverpool’s Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres of Arsenal were feeding on scraps for Sweden.

Gakpo’s half

Twelve minutes after his opener, Brobbey made it 2-0 when a deflected Denzel Dumfries cross from the right fell perfectly into his path and he toe-poked past Kristoffer Nordfeldt.

Sweden’s English coach, Graham Potter, was in deep discussions with his backroom staff as the game threatened to run away from them.

At the unpopular hydration break, Potter made a beeline for left-sided defender Gabriel Gudmundsson of Leeds United, who was being overrun by the flying Dumfries and Donyell Malen.

Sweden then had their best chance, Gyokeres crossing for an unmarked Yasin Ayari, who completely miscontrolled the ball with his chest.

Gyokeres was next to fluff a good chance, failing to make proper contact after being played in by the largely anonymous Isak.

Gyokeres and Ayari both had further sights of goal, only to be denied by the increasingly overworked Verbruggen.

The Netherlands were hanging on by the end of the half.

Koeman sent on Summerville for Malen at the break and two minutes later it was mission impossible for Sweden, Gakpo prodding in from close range after yet another dangerous low cross from Dumfries.

All three goals were strikingly similar.

Gakpo scored a lovely fourth on 54 minutes, turning inside his defender before firing low into the bottom corner.

Elanga pulled one back five minutes later when he raced clear of the Dutch defence and rattled the ball past Verbruggen.

Summerville made it five in the dying minutes with his second goal in North America.

Sweden are still in with a good chance of progressing into the last 32.

Japan and Tunisia play later Saturday in Monterrey, Mexico.

Sweden face Japan next, while the Netherlands play Tunisia.

Bolivia’s president announces a state of emergency after weeks of nationwide protests and road blockades crippled the country’s economy. Protesters are demanding fuel subsidies be reinstated and increased funding for education.

BROOKLYN Beckham reportedly raked in £753k for his savage World Cup ad that left his estranged family fuming.

The aspiring chef, 27, appeared in an advert for the fast food delivery service DoorDash and took a swipe at his dad David in it.

He said to the camera: “You’re probably wondering why I’m watching the FIFA World Cup 2026 from home…”

Smirking Brooklyn then laughed: “It’s a long story.”

He went on to throw down his tickets onto the coffee table.

The advert then said: “It’s complicated. More soon.”

READ MORE ON BROOKLYN BECKHAM

CLOUD DECLINE

Brooklyn Beckham detailed business struggles weeks before his World Cup ad

BECKLASH

Brooklyn Beckham’s ad ‘could backfire disastrously & tar him as nepobaby FOREVER’

It’s now been claimed that the nepo baby was paid a whopping $1 million dollars, which equates to £753k, according to Mail Online.

The Sun have contacted Brooklyn’s representatives for a comment.

The advert poked fun at Brooklyn’s estrangement from his famous parents David, 51, and Victoria, 52, as well as his brothers and sister and wider family for over a year.

Beloved England player Becks famously played in three FIFA World Cups in 1998, 2002 and 2006.

He’s been out in America promoting the World Cup – watching the opening match with Tom Cruise.

A source close to the Beckhams said: “To do an ad based on estrangement from family as if it’s a joke when his family is devastated and sister and grandparents are inconsolable…

“It just seems a tad hypocritical from someone claiming to want peace and privacy and the trying to cash in on it all.

“He says he wants nothing to do with his family, but is now trading off them by using one of his footballing father’s legacies – the World Cup – as an advertising selling point.

“Brooklyn is absolutely entitled to go and make his own money – his parents laud such ambition – but taking the mick out of a deep-rooted, heartbreaking family situation is not the one.”

DoorDash replied to the video, which quickly gained thousands of views online, saying: “We have a guess on why you’re watching from home…”

The ad came after Brooklyn failed to acknowledge his dad’s Hollywood Walk of Fame honour.

Instead, he took to Instagram to share a story of himself enjoying a run in the park while in New York.

Brooklyn and his wife Nicola, 31, incidentally actually only live down the road from the Los Angeles location that the event took place at.

But he was out of town for a few days as he was at the Tribeca Film Festival promoting his hot sauce range, called ‘Cloud 23’.

Brooklyn has been estranged from his family – including his siblings – for more than a year.

In January, the Beckhams’ eldest son made a dozen explosive accusations in a ruthless statement hitting out at his family.

He called out his famous parents for their “inauthenticity”, accused them of making bribes and scolded the family for their treatment of his wife on their wedding day.

He sent his parents a legal notice warning they can only contact him via lawyers.

In the extraordinary “desist” letter, he also instructed them not to “tag” him on social media.

T20 World Cup, Group 2, Headingley

England 200-5 (20 overs): Dunkley 57 (37), Capsey 40 (25); Gordon 2-30

Scotland 162-7 (20 overs): S Bryce 34 (24)

England won by 38 runs

Scorecard. Tables

England’s batting sparkled again as the hosts closed on a place in the T20 World Cup semi-finals with an 38-run victory over Scotland at Headingley.

Sophia Dunkley ensured injured captain Nat Sciver-Brunt was not missed by capitalising on three dropped catches in making 57 on her return to the side.

Alice Capsey stroked 40 and Heather Knight 25 but most impressive was a barnstorming unbroken partnership of 61 from just 21 balls from Freya Kemp and Dani Gibson.

Together they took England from 141-5 after 17 overs to 200-5 after 20 – with Kemp hitting an unbeaten 39 from 16 balls and Gibson an 11-ball 30 not out.

After an edgy chase over Ireland in their second match, this was more reminiscent of England’s performance on the opening night of the tournament when they piled up 219-1 against Sri Lanka.

The Kemp-Gibson pyrotechnics pushed the target beyond Scotland and, despite an admirable effort, they finished on 162-7 – their highest score batting second in T20 internationals.

A win in either of England’s last two matches, against West Indies on Wednesday or New Zealand next Saturday, will likely be enough to secure a top-two finish.

Scotland, who have a win and two defeats, play New Zealand on Tuesday.

June 20 (UPI) — Police arrested a man after stabbing five people in Edinburgh, Scotland, in suspected anti-Muslim attacks.

The man was allegedly roaming the streets of the city Friday night and stabbed five people and damaged a car and business. The attacks began near a mosque in the west of Edinburgh, where two men were injured. The Scottish Association of Mosques said two worshippers were attacked in a park after leaving the Broomhouse mosque.

Police said that five men in total, two of them 22 years old, and others ages 24, 27 and 39, suffered a range of injuries. Three of them were treated at a hospital, though none of the injuries was life-threatening.

A 36-year-old white man was arrested, and counter terrorism officers have joined local Police Scotland in an investigation.

Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Paton said in a statement that there is “no place for racism or faith-based hate in Scotland.”

Police got reports of attacks near shops in the west and north of the city, and said three other men were attacked in the Telford Road and Leith Walk areas. Police eventually confronted the man with a taser and arrested him, though they said the taser was never used.

“There is a profound sense of shock, alarm and anger within Muslim communities across Scotland today,” Omar Afzal, director of public affairs for the Scottish Association of Mosques, told The Scotsman. “These latest attacks are deeply disturbing. However, they do not exist in a vacuum. For years, Muslim communities have warned about the consequences of anti-Muslim hatred becoming normalized in public discourse. When prejudice is left unchallenged, it creates an environment in which some individuals feel emboldened to act on that hatred.”

Analyst Alexandru Hudisteanu warns that Iran’s overuse of Strait of Hormuz as leverage could transform the strategic chokepoint from a deterrence tool into an instrument of extortion, potentially turning the country into an international pariah.

Jennie Bond was BBC Royal Correspondent for 14 years and struck up a friendship with Lady Diana.

Jennie Bond’s illustrious journalism career stretches back over five decades, during which she has covered a vast array of remarkable stories.

In 1989, she took on the role of Royal Correspondent for the BBC, a position she held for 14 years before stepping down in 2003 to dedicate more time to her family and pursue freelance work.

During her time as a royal reporter, however, she forged a close friendship with Lady Diana, which she discussed with Raj Bisram during her appearance on Celebrity Antiques Road Trip. A repeat of that episode aired this evening (June 20) on BBC Two.

The BBC antiques expert quizzed her on just how close their relationship was, to which she responded: “I was a journalist that she got along with and shared confidences with.

“You know, ‘There were three of us in this marriage,’ all this sort of stuff.”

“Then, at the end, annoyingly, she’d say, ‘Of course, Jennie, this is just between you and me and these four walls.’ I’d think, ‘Ugh!’ So I kept it that way.”

Raj then asked which interview throughout Jennie’s career had left the greatest impression on her, reports Devon Live.

She answered: “I suppose, when I challenged her in Angola on the land mine mission, when she was trying to get an international ban on land mines.

“I said, ‘Ma’am, you’ve been accused of being a loose cannon,’ and she was very shocked and said, ‘I’m just trying to be a humanitarian. That’s it.'”.

“That was pretty momentous. It made an awful lot of news.”

At the time, Lady Diana was described as a ‘loose cannon’ by a junior government Cabinet minister who condemned her position on landmines.

The tense exchange, which took place in 1997, was captured in a documentary of the time, showing Lady Diana’s response to Jennie’s pointed question.

She said: “I’m only trying to highlight a problem that’s going on all around the world. That’s all.”

She was subsequently filmed climbing into a waiting car, visibly moved by Jennie’s remark, as she told the camera team: “I might really burst into tears now. Who said I’m a loose cannon?”

Celebrity Antiques Road Trip is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

The controversy around the Pride Night protest by three San Francisco Giants pitchers continues to grow.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) entered the fray Tuesday, demanding answers from Major League Baseball after it issued warnings to Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker about writing on their uniforms. The players added a Bible verse on their specialty caps for the night.

In a letter addressed to MLB commissioner Robert Manfred, the Republican senator also accused the league of “a pattern of discrimination … against baseball players who profess their Christian faith.”

“I write with grave concern over your reported decision to issue a formal warning to three Major League Baseball (MLB) players for publicly expressing their Christian faith,” Hawley says in his letter. “MLB has said this is a content-neutral policy and that MLB ‘respect[s] players’ right to free expression.’ But this is dubious, given that MLB is openly promoting a political viewpoint and possibly compelling adherence to that viewpoint.”

The Missouri senator referenced the league’s “sweeping, judicially manufactured exemption from the federal antitrust laws” as justification for his inquiries.

A number of other Republican politicians also called out MLB for its actions, including North Carolina Rep. Greg Murphy, Florida Atty. Gen. James Uthmeier and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

“Trump won we don’t have to do this anymore,” Vice President JD Vance wrote on social media.

The San Francisco Giants’ pride logo is displayed on the scoreboard at Oracle Park before its Pride Night game against the Chicago Cubs.

(Scott Marshall / Associated Press)

In Friday’s Pride Night game against the Chicago Cubs, Roupp, the Giants’ starting pitcher, wore a hat with “Gen 9:12-16” written alongside the rainbow “SF” logo. Relief pitchers Brubaker and Walker also added similar references to the Old Testament passage about rainbows being a “covenant between God and every living creature” on their caps. (Fellow Giants pitcher Sam Hentges chose to wear a cap with the team’s standard logo instead of the Pride Night version.)

“That’s just kind of something I believe in, and I stand firm in that,” Roupp told reporters after the game. “I’m thankful we live in a country where, you know, we have the freedom to believe what we want … and express what we want.

“The verse says … the rainbow is a symbol of God’s covenant to us, and us as believers to stand firm in that,” he added after confirming he never had previously inscribed it on his cap before. “There’s no hate at all. It’s just what I stand for and what I stand in. I believe in God, and that’s me.”

Rainbows have been associated with LGBTQ+ pride since the rainbow flag was introduced by activists and artists in San Francisco in the 1970s. The verse Roupp mentions often is cited by Christian conservatives in their effort to “reclaim” the rainbow’s symbolism. (Former Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw added the same Bible verse to his Pride Night cap last season.)

Following the Pride Night actions of Roupp and his fellow Giants pitchers, the team’s fans, members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies expressed their hurt, anger and disappointment in the players and the organization. The Giants have a history of supporting the LGBTQ+ community and causes.

The MLB issued the players who added inscriptions to their caps a warning Monday for violating the league’s uniform policy.

“To be clear, this routine verbal warning not to wear the hat in future games is not disciplinary and had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message,” MLB clarified in a widely reported follow-up statement issued Tuesday.

“We respect players’ right to free expression. However, writing of any kind, with any message, is prohibited per Major League Baseball’s Uniform Regulations which provides in part that, ‘(a) Player may not write, attach, affix, embroider or otherwise display nicknames or messages on apparel or playing equipment…’. We have given the same warning numerous times in the past to players for messages such as ‘Dad’, ‘Happy Mother’s Day, I Love Mom,’ and names of family members.”

A number of fans expressed anger and disappointment after the actions by pitchers for the Giants, a team with a history of supporting the LGBTQ+ community and causes.

(Scott Marshall / Associated Press)

The Giants have not addressed the fallout beyond their statement following the game Friday.

“The San Francisco Giants are proud to support Pride Night and the LGBTQ+ community. Baseball should be a place where everyone feels welcome, respected, and valued,” the statement provided to numerous outlets reads. “We also respect that individuals may make personal choices about participating in team activations. We understand that the choices by individual players has caused pain and anger to many in the LGBTQ+ community and we are sorry for that. Those choices do not change our organization’s commitment to inclusion, belonging, and creating a welcoming environment for all. We remain grateful to our fans, partners, employees, players and coaches who help make Pride Night a meaningful celebration.”

The team was among the first in professional sports to host an HIV/AIDS awareness game in the 1990s and the first MLB team to incorporate the Pride rainbow in its on-field uniforms for its Pride game in 2021.

California state Sen. Scott Wiener has continued to call out both the Giants and Republican politicians regarding the Pride Night protest and the aftermath.

“MAGA leaders like JD Vance and Josh Hawley are now glomming on and declaring an anti-LGBTQ culture war, in an attempt to bully MLB from enforcing its rules,” Wiener wrote in an lengthy post on social media, calling them out for their “Bigotry against LGBTQ people.”

“This isn’t an issue of religious freedom. People have a right to whatever religious beliefs they want — even if those beliefs dehumanize other people — but they don’t have a right to hijack their employer to promote those hateful beliefs at a job-related event.”

New Delhi, India – On a searing hot afternoon in a dense working class neighbourhood of the Indian capital, Shehnaz Bano sits on the dilapidated floor of her one-room home, deftly stitching pieces for a new leather jacket.

To make each piece – a sleeve, a front or back panel or a shoulder yoke – the 38-year-old mother of two teenage sons spends hours, but is paid a mere 100 rupees (about $1) for each piece.

“Imagine if I was a regular employee and I did the same work for the same hours, but on a factory floor. I would have been paid more, right?” Bano asked.

“Just because I work from home, I don’t get equal pay or rights.”

That is because Bano, like nearly 260 million others across the world, is a home-based worker (HBW) – people employed to produce goods or services in or near their homes. The HBWs are part of what is referred to as the global informal economy. Such a form of employment is characterised by low wages, denial of workers’ rights, lack of social security or established hours of work, or paid leave.

The HBWs are also a highly-feminised workforce, with nearly 57 percent being women, according to a 2024 estimate by Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO), a United Kingdom-based global research organisation focused on improving conditions for the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy.

On this day 30 years ago, however, an effort was made to change the condition of the HBWs – with little success so far.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), a United Nations’ body, during a conference at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, adopted the landmark “Convention 177”, or the Home Work Convention on June 20, 1996, recognising HBWs at the same level as traditional wage earners.

It was the first comprehensive call to set an international standard for the HBWs. The convention called upon ILO members to adopt and implement policies that promote equality of treatment between HBWs and other wage earners.

Convention 177 officially came into force on April 22, 2000.

However, only 13 countries have ratified it so far and none from South Asia. That is despite Asia and the Asia-Pacific regions accounting for the largest concentration of HBWs, as well as being the hub of global fashion and manufacturing supply chains.

Renana Jhabvala was in the room in Geneva – along with hundreds of government and non-government delegates – when the home-based worker Convention was adopted.

As a member of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a prominent Indian trade union of women workers, the 73-year-old activist was at the ILO’s International Labour Conference (ILC), and still remembers the exhilaration and optimism in the room.

“Discussions had gone on for nearly 21 days, but none of us knew whether the Convention would get adopted or not. We were all in a really big hall at the ILC… There was a majority in the final vote and the Convention got passed,” she told Al Jazeera.

But labour rights activists, experts and labour economists say a lack of recognition of the HBWs despite three decades of adopting the ILO convention has deepened structural inequalities among the workers, especially in a developing country like India.

According to them, the HBWs, especially women, remain largely “invisible” to the policymakers, while they are forced to work for inadequate wages under unsafe and exploitative working conditions.

“Convention 177 has been instrumental in recognising home work as ‘real work’ and home workers as workers entitled to labour rights,” Deepa Bharathi, a senior specialist of gender and non-discrimination at ILO’s Bangkok-based Decent Work Team, emailed Al Jazeera.

“In South Asia, home-based work is often embedded in complex subcontracting arrangements, making employment relationships difficult to identify and regulate. Challenges in labour inspection, gaps in data and the invisibility of home workers in policy frameworks have also slowed progress,” Bharathi said in response to a question on the low ratification of the Convention, particularly in South Asia.

With most home-based workers in the region being women, their work is often seen as an extension of household responsibility, Bharathi said. “This undervaluation, combined with broader gender inequalities, has been a significant barrier to ratification and implementation,” she added.

When asked about the ILO’s priorities for strengthening the Convention’s implementation, Bharathi said: “For women home-based workers in particular, the focus must remain on visibility, fair pay, social protection, safe working conditions, access to training and childcare and a stronger collective voice.”

‘I cannot go out and work’

Bano lives in New Delhi’s Kapashera area, a settlement of mainly migrant workers on the city’s southwestern edge whose name literally translates to a “cotton settlement” in English. The area is known for its cotton and leather garment manufacturing units.

In its congested alleys lie buildings that rent out single room units to informal worker families. In one such room lives Bano with her sons and her husband who works as a lift operator in an upscale mall in Gurugram, a business district housing several Fortune 500 companies on the outskirts of New Delhi.

Bano epitomises the arc of a typical HBW in India. She began working as a beedi (a tiny, hand-rolled cigarette) roller in her village in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh state’s Azamgarh district. After marriage, she joined her husband in New Delhi and took to stitching leather jacket pieces from home.

The move from her rural employment as a beedi roller to a piece-rate worker in the city did not change her continuing precarious situation: long hours, irregular work, low wages and work that leaves her eyes strained and fingers aching.

She is paid barely one dollar for her work on each piece of a leather jacket that is sold in a foreign market for $200 or more – more than double Bano’s average monthly income. Moreover, to cut costs and maximise profit, the contractors often split such work among several workers.

“Only those who are in distress do this kind of work. We have rent, bills, grocery and school fees to pay. How much will my husband do alone?” Bano told Al Jazeera.

The HBWs fall into two categories: own account workers with direct access to markets and piece rate workers who are usually employed through intermediaries. Bano belongs to the latter, which is considered more vulnerable due to low and arbitrary piece rate payments.

In another corner of Kapashera, Sangeeta Devi, 30, puts the final touches – buttoning, repairing, finishing – before the garments she makes return to the factories.

She is doing all this inside an 8×8 foot (2.4m) room, where her family of six, including four schoolchildren sleep, eat, work and study. She cooks, cleans and even bathes in the same room.

“I cannot go out and work because then who will take care of my children?”

“On any given day, there are 100 pieces of clothing in this tiny room. Each time, I have to keep them aside while doing household chores,” the migrant worker from Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, told Al Jazeera.

Sangeeta Devi gets a dollar for every 100 garment pieces she completes.

“I really want to do a job where I can work easily from home, take care of my children and get paid well. I don’t know if that’s even possible,” she told Al Jazeera.

Her neighbour, Putul Devi, does similar work and earns about $20 a month.

“I have been cooking on firewood because of high fuel costs. And when it rains, I don’t know what to save from spoiling – the firewood or the cloth pieces that I bring home,” she told Al Jazeera.

Shalini Sinha, home-based work sector specialist at WIEGO, said female HBWs in India face “continued invisibility” even after three decades of recognition of their work.

“Home continues to be seen as a place of habitat and not as a place of work,” Sinha told Al Jazeera.

“There is also the broader issue of women’s economic work not being adequately recognised in labour discourse when it is done from home. It is often seen as an extension of her care work,” she added.

From an Indian perspective, said Sinha, there is an “urgent need for better statistics and a dedicated policy or law for home-based workers, which still does not exist”.

Elizabeth Khumallambam, who works for Community for Social Change and Development (CSCD), an NGO that works with women HBWs in Kapashera, said a social security code introduced in India in 2020 mentions HBWs, but “no one knows” how it will be implemented on the ground.

Introduced as part of India’s labour reform laws, the code consolidated nine social security-related laws into a single framework to ensure social security protection for all workers, including those in the unorganised sector.

“Frankly, for us the challenge begins at making workers understand the value of their own work. Many don’t consider this as work and so they do not think it needs due rights and protection,” Khumallambam told Al Jazeera.

Alakh N Sharma, a labour economist and director at New Delhi-based non-profit, the Institute for Human Development, said there is a “bias in the system”, due to which women’s work is being left behind in statistics and official counting.

According to him, technology-aided counting, probing questions and sensitivity among investigators, could help in addressing the statistical blind spot.

“Safety concerns, mobility constraints and social norms – all these factors stop women from joining formal workplace-based employment. But the single biggest reason is often care work responsibility, particularly childcare,” Sharma told Al Jazeera.

In 2022, Sandosh Kumar P, a Communist Party of India (CPI) parliamentarian moved a legislation aimed at the welfare of the BHWs, but the parliament did not take it up for discussion.

In December 2024, India’s ministry of labour and employment was again asked in parliament whether it has an official assessment of the HBWs, and if it was proposing to enact a law on them. It replied that the Code on Social Security 2020 provides social security to the unorganised workers, including the HBWs. It also said the government has created a national database of such workers.

Looking back at the 30 years since the historic recognition of HBWs, Jhabvala said she did not view such Conventions or laws from the lens of success or failure.

“It is like a weapon, a tool of change. If we want to fight, this option is available,” she said.

A landslide win, only two years ago – yet now British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is resisting calls to step down.

The return to parliament of Andy Burnham makes a leadership challenge more likely.

What’s gone wrong, so fast, for Starmer? And why is there so much turmoil at the top of British politics?

Presenter: Per Nyberg

Guests:

Peter Oborne – UK political commentator and associate editor of Middle East Eye – a digital news organisation

Jonathan Tonge – Professor of politics at the University of Liverpool and author of numerous books on British and Northern Irish politics

Peter Geoghegan – Editor of Democracy for Sale, an investigative news site in London

Unlike the movies, where directors get the glory, TV directors sit lower in the hierarchy, below creators, producers and actors. In most series, which might employ several over a season, they are interchangeable — which isn’t to say they aren’t valuable, transforming words on a page into a four-dimensional living thing. But a director hired to helm a pilot, as James Burrows, who died Friday at 85, was again and again — almost as a lucky charm — helps set the tone for the series. Jake Kasdan’s input was crucial to the feel (and philosophy) of “Freaks and Geeks,” as Hiro Murai’s was to “Atlanta” (and most recently “Widow’s Bay”). In some cases a director is a co-creator in all but title and union affiliation. A show might subsequently pass to later hands, but they’ll be honoring its established look and feel.

But Burrows was more than a little well known. If you sat through the opening credits of “Taxi,” whose pilot he directed along with 74 other episodes — and why wouldn’t you, with its pleasing Bob James theme and Checker Cab crossing the Queensboro Bridge — you would have seen his name for weeks on end. You might have noticed it on “Cheers,” which he co-created and for which he directed 236 episodes, or on “Will & Grace” (246 episodes), or “Frasier,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “3rd Rock From the Sun,” “Caroline in the City,” “Two and a Half Men,” “2 Broke Girls,” “The Neighborhood” or, just last year, “Mid-Century Modern” — all series whose pilots he directed. You might have caught it on episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Phyllis,” “Rhoda” or “Laverne & Shirley,” until you began to think that maybe there was nobody else directing network multi-camera situation comedies, the most human of television formats and a specialty from which he rarely strayed.

And you might have seen him as himself this year in the third season of Lisa Kudrow’s “The Comeback,” as the man she enlists to save a television pilot from hacky AI jokes. “Surprising only comes from a group of writers huddled in a corner, beating themselves up to beat out a better joke,” he says.

“As director, I am there to help create the ensemble, to do everything I can to foster a community among the company, and to train a new set of actors to behave as a group and respect one another,” he wrote in his 2022 memoir, “Directed by James Burrows.” He famously took the cast of “Friends” to Las Vegas before the show premiered in order to foster bonds in a soon-to-be-impossible state of anonymity. “I guess I have a gift for creating families,” he told the New York Times in 2023.

But if “Friends” refers to the characters and the people who play them, it includes the audience too. Burrows’ talent was to midwife a real relationship between the viewer and the viewed, “You want to go where everybody knows your name,” runs the “Cheers” theme, and where you know everyone’s name. The families he excelled at creating were yours as well, and one watched knowing that these things happened in real time in real space, and that you could be in the room, if you made the effort. Tickets were available.

The son of Abe Burrows, who wrote or co-wrote the books for “Guys and Dolls,” “Can-Can” and “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” and co-created the radio comedy “Duffy’s Tavern” — set, like “Cheers,” in a bar, though the younger Burrows denied any influence — he’d been directing dinner theater when he had the idea to write to Mary Tyler Moore, whom he’d met on the set of a never-opened “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” musical. His stage experience (and his Yale School of Drama degree, presumably) proved eminently transferable to the proscenium reality of multi-camera situation comedy.

What Burrows shows share — the ones we remember, at least, out of many we don’t — is that they’re fundamentally joyful. They lack cynicism. They’re expressive of their times without being showily edgy. They walk a line between freshness and familiarity, which makes one want to return week after week. They may push an envelope — “Friends” was something new, after all — but subtly. We can assume, given his reputation and the fact that he could have retired on “Cheers” alone, that he liked what he did and did what he liked, and regard his choice of projects as a form of personal expression in itself, the basis of a body of work that has and will live on.

We’ll never know, of course, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Yoshinobu Yamamoto was relieved to lose the no-hitter in the ninth inning so that Mookie Betts wouldn’t have to bear the stigma of spoiling a perfect game. Yamamoto is a 100% class act.

Jay James
Pico Rivera

There’s only one MLB club that could possibly overcome all the Dodgers injuries in the first half of the season.

That team is in fact the Dodgers.

Fred Wallin
Westlake Village

I thought Bill Shaikin’s column on the Dodgers ruining baseball was good and provocative. For me, I do not believe the Dodgers are ruining baseball, but sports are much more fun and compelling to watch when they are competitive and each game means more.

It is easier to sustain competitiveness when one team or a few teams do not have a huge financial edge over other teams. I think the NFL, NBA, and NHL have been better at dealing with this issue than baseball.

Bill Francis
Pasadena

June 20 (UPI) — A train driver is dead and nine people are still in critical condition after two passenger trains collided in England.

About 80 people were injured in the crash Friday evening. As of Saturday morning, 28 were still hospitalized after a moving train crashed into a stopped train on the tracks in Bedford, England, north of London.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers said it was “devastated to learn that a train driver and former RMT rep has tragically died,” The Times of London reported.

Eddie Dempsey, RMT general secretary, wrote on X: “The thoughts of RMT are with their family, friends, colleagues and the ASLEF trade union at this awful time.”

The trains collided in Bedford, one from Corby and the other from Nottingham en route to London St. Pancras.

One passenger told The Times that the scene was “carnage.”

“We had to walk through farmers’ fields to get to an A-road,” he said. “There is a huge emergency service presence and loads of air ambulances.”

Another unidentified passenger told the times that it looked like an explosion.

“The front carriage collided into the front of another one, and when I got up I saw all of the chairs everywhere and it felt like I’d been in a bomb explosion. When I got up I saw people with bloodied faces and people’s legs looked broken, and there was smoke everywhere,” the passenger said.

Passenger Pete Knapp added that he saw smoke in the cabin.

“There was a moment of being flung into the chair in front, and then I saw smoke. People were crying, screaming, people were so scared and confused,” Knapp said.

A helicopter arrived within about 5 or 10 minutes, he added. Emergency services had to cut through a hedge with shears to reach the area, and he said passengers were triaged into different groups based on their injuries.

“I was triaged by some paramedics and they said that I had a muscular damage to my back and the gouges on my shins, they hadn’t broken my legs so hopefully they will heal over time. I’m extremely grateful for that because so many people in that carriage I was in had their legs broken, and there was blood everywhere and people crying and screaming.”

Pakistan says talks between the United States and Iran which were postponed on Friday will begin in Switzerland on Sunday, as Tehran announced it was again closing the Strait of Hormuz because of continued Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, confirmed on Saturday that an Iranian delegation, including Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi and other senior officials, was heading to Switzerland.

In Washington, Vice President JD Vance confirmed that the top US negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were already in Switzerland working through technical details of anticipated negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Vance told Fox News that he expects to leave for Switzerland “sometime in the next couple of days” but acknowledged that “it’s always a delicate coordination dance.”

The planned meeting on Sunday will start technical-level negotiations towards a final US-Iran deal. That is after both sides signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) earlier in the week declaring a permanent end to “military operations on all fronts”, including in Lebanon.

The MoU stipulates that a final deal should be reached within 60 days, “extendable with mutual consent”.

But even getting to the negotiating table following the MoU proved difficult. A round of talks originally planned for Friday was pushed back after Iran failed to send its delegation, as deadly Israeli strikes persisted in Lebanon.

Although Israel agreed to a renewed ceasefire with Hezbollah on Friday, its attacks in Lebanon continued into Saturday, killing at least 32 people, according to Lebanon’s civil defence and state media reports.

On Friday, Israeli attacks killed 83 people and wounded 141, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Saturday announced it was re-imposing restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz over Israeli “crimes” in Lebanon and what it called a US violation of commitments to establish a ceasefire.

It warned ship crews not to approach the strategic waterway, saying their security would be at risk ⁠if they do.

Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, warned that the flow of energy in the Middle East would halt so long as the US-Iran agreement “remains only on paper”.

The US military said its forces were still operating in the “general area” of the Strait of Hormuz and “remain present and vigilant” to make sure “all aspects of the agreement with Iran are adhered to”. It said 55 commercial vessels had transited the strait on Saturday and that safe passage was still “intact”.

‘Things are moving backwards’

According to Pakistan’s foreign ministry, Pakistani and Qatari mediators will join the US-Iran talks on Sunday in the Swiss mountain resort of Burgenstock.

Reporting from there, Al Jazeera’s Osama bin Javaid said there has been a flurry of behind-the-scenes diplomatic activity ahead of the formal negotiations, with Qatar’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, already holding meetings. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar, has been holding talks in Egypt and Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Mohsin Naqvi, travelled to Iran.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Baghaei has signalled that progress may be scarce until Iran feels the US is living up to its end of the interim deal.

In comments broadcast by Iran’s IRIB, Baghaei said Iran “must naturally be very firm and serious in demanding fulfilment of obligations” considering the US’s past “failure to honour commitments”.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from Burgenstock, said there are indications “things are moving backwards from when the MoU was signed”, citing Israel’s continued bombardment of southern Lebanon.

“The Iranians see this as a serious breach of the MoU,” he said. “Their first sanction was by not coming here. They have now utilised their best weapon by closing the Strait of Hormuz.

“Iran believes this tactic will help get things back on track with regard to southern Lebanon,” added Bays.

PARIS — There’s a present-day answer to the question that was posed in verse by the French medieval poet and street brawler François Villon: “Where are the snows of yesteryear?”

They’re right here, in high summer, on Paris’ oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf, where an enormous art installation, a trompe l’oeil inflatable snow-clad mountain range, has arisen over the river Seine.

Using about 200,000 square feet of printed fabric, Paris-born street artist JR has created “La Caverne du Pont Neuf.” It’s his version of and homage to the innovative work of groundbreaking environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

They’re the fabled duo who first wrapped the arches of this same bridge in straw-colored fabric in 1985. Over the years, they also surrounded 11 islands in Florida’s Biscayne Bay with flamingo-pink cloth, hung saffron-colored fabric “gates” in New York’s Central Park, installed a “running fence” of billowing white material across nearly 25 miles of Sonoma and Marin counties and, in 1991, planted 3,100 yellow umbrellas, blooming like 20-foot-tall poppies, through the Tejon Pass north of L.A.

I interviewed Christo in 2011, and he was eloquent about how his and his wife’s work alters perceptions of nature, and about the deliberately transient character of the art itself. JR, an acolyte of their work, told me in an email that “an ephemeral artwork forces you to come now, and usually to come with other people. The visit becomes a shared moment … and this moment becomes a memory.”

In a city celebrated for artworks that have survived for centuries, this installation was very nearly too transient. A kooky hailstorm in late May, a heat wave in June, followed by ruthlessly ripping winds, delayed the opening by days. At last, beginning one midnight, the air pumps began and the work arose like a limestone-colored soufflé. It will be open around the clock until June 28.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Back in 1985, Christo’s engineer on the Pont Neuf project, Ted Dougherty, pointed out that above 25 mph, “wind is not our friend.”

The piece works from two vantage points: from afar — visible from a lot of central Paris — and also from inside it, in the “cave” part. Pedestrians crossing the bridge pass through a fabricated interior, a cavern-like space printed in 3D realism and enhanced with a specially designed scent to evoke the dank, earthy aroma of humankind’s early habitations.

JR and Thomas Bangalter in “La Caverne du Pont Neuf” in Paris.

(Tara-Jay Bangalter)

JR intended it to be both. “From the start I designed two works in one. There is the silhouette — what you catch from the quais, from the bridges, from a boat on the Seine or simply walking past on your way somewhere else. That image belongs to everyone, including the people who never chose to look at art that day.”

And then, he said, “there is the inside, which is slower and more intimate, almost in the dark, hard to photograph.” That aspect is “a journey to cross the bridge, to go from darkness to light.”

When Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the arches of the Pont Neuf more than 40 years ago, it took years of planning and permits to make it happen. “La Caverne du Pont Neuf” was a breeze by comparison.

JR, whose other vast outdoor works have delivered double-takes of humans’ scale and their architecture, told me that cities have come to understand “that public art brings people together and that the image travels around the world. Once Christo showed it could be done safely and beautifully, the conversation changed. It was much easier for me to have my project accepted, thanks to them. They also proved the economic positive impact to the cities they worked in. I believe there should be more large-scale, ambitious public art projects.”

It’s one thing to conceive of such a project and another altogether to make it happen — so much technology, compared to, say, mixing paints and choosing a paintbrush. But the science that “La Caverne” required “is the art, not an obstacle to it,” JR said.

“Trompe l’oeil turns adults back into children,” JR said.

(Elea Jeanne Schmitter)

All the canvas, the engineering, the meticulous assembly, the permits — “none of that is preparation for the work, it is the work. Christo taught me this. The process is visible, and even more after the storm we experienced a couple of days before opening to the public. Nature always reminds you who is in charge. When the wind tore the canvas before we opened, we took it down, re-sewed it, reinforced it,” all in full public view.

“Where I stay careful is in not letting the technology become the subject. The augmented reality by Snap’s AR Studio adds to the project, doesn’t take you away from it.”

That air should be JR’s vital collaborator — no complex and costly scaffolding for these magic mountains — is nothing new in Paris.

The first free flight of humans above the earth, on Nov. 21, 1783, sent aloft two men in a hot-air balloon crafted by the Montgolfier brothers from silk fancifully painted in blue and gold with figures of the zodiac. It wafted across Paris for about 25 minutes at about 3,000 feet. Ephemeral, yes — and unforgettable.

Artists and couturiers are fond of the whimsy of trompe l’oeil, the trick of the eye, the illusion of reality. I am a sucker for it, for fashion like that of clothing designer Elsa Schiaparelli. JR has used it often, as a massive-scale magical deception to make the Louvre Pyramid “disappear” into the old Louvre, and opening up an imaginary subterranean world below the Eiffel Tower.

“Trompe l’oeil turns adults back into children,” he told me. “You know it isn’t real, you know that ‘La Caverne du Pont-Neuf’ is not made of rock, that this is printed canvas. And yet your eye wants to believe it, and for a moment you let yourself. That gap between knowing and believing is where the play happens, and people love being inside that gap.”

Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson told BBC Sport:

“We were outstanding throughout the season, it’s nice now to be able to put a full stop on it with a big tin cup and say ‘we were the best side in the league’.

“I think it looked like a final.

“That was a proper final where it was nip and tuck, there were opportunities, we got held up, they got held up.

“We maybe weren’t as clinical as we’d have liked to have been, and that can certainly change the pressure.

“But I thought at 60 minutes to go we felt in a good space and the messages that were coming back to the coaching group from how the players were talking to each other and connecting was very positive.

“You bring on people like Callum Chick and Fraser Dingwall, who have been there before, and the last 20 minuets we looked very strong.”

Departing Northampton captain George Furbank told BBC Sport:

“I said to the boys I don’t really know how to feel after the final whistle.

“It was a mix of relief, happiness, sadness, all merged into one.

“It was a different feeling to the last time we won it – I think we’re going to have a good few days to celebrate and it’ll all sink in.

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Sport:

“The first thing you have to do in a final is congratulate the opposition because otherwise when you just talk about yourself – it just feels like you’re critiquing and criticising yourself, and thinking these are the things we could have done.

“We had them deep into the game, under pressure, scores behind, they’ve kind of stuck with what they do.

“I’ll look back and I’ll go ‘we must have been pretty good because we forced two tries out of kicks through’, one where for whatever reason we don’t get our comms quite right and we actually just bump the ball out of our own hands into their hands for one try, and then the last try where they slide it through and it’s almost on a pinpoint.

“You look and go ‘well, we forced Northampton to score 12 points with two relatively speculative kicks through, that’s a pretty pretty good performance from us’.”

Northampton: Furbank (c); Freeman, Litchfield, Hutchinson, Hendy; Smith, McParland; Iyogun, Langdon, Millar Mills; Coles, Prowse, Kemeny, Pearson, Pollock.

Replacements: Wright, Fischetti, Green, Van der Mescht, Lockett, Chick, Mitchell, Dingwall.

Yellow card: Kemeny (51)

Exeter: Woodburn; Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Ikitau, Ridl; Skinner, Varney; Sio, Norey, Iosefa-Scott; Jenkins (c), Zambonin, Hooper, Roots, Fisilau.

Replacements: Dweba, Burger, Tchumbadze, Tshiunza, Vintcent, James, Cairns, Haydon-Wood.

Yellow card: Jenkins (57)

Referee: Matthew Carley.

June 20 (UPI) — An Italian woman was killed, nine injured and more than 1,700 evacuated from a massive fire at a beachfront resort in the Dominican Republic Friday.

Francesca Valentino, 46, of Italy, died in the fire that broke out around 11 a.m. AST at the Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach, a four-star resort in Bayahibe in the La Altagracia province, officials said. Three people were taken to medical facilities and six others were treated on site, Juan Manuel Mendez, head of the Dominican Republic’s Emergency Operations Center, said in a press conference.

No cause of the fire has been reported, but the Emergency Operations Center said a preliminary investigation found that portions of the resort’s buildings were made of cane roofs, which are combustible, and windy conditions contributed to the fire’s spread.

The Italian ambassador to the Dominican Republic met the dead woman’s husband at the hospital, the Italian news agency Ansa reported. There were about 285 Italian tourists staying at the resort or nearby, and the embassy in Santo Domingo was working to help them get new passports and arrange flights home.

Wyndham Hotels and Resorts franchises some 8,400 hotels worldwide.

“At this time, we are actively gathering the facts regarding the incident and coordinating with the appropriate authorities and on-site teams,” a spokesperson for Viva Resorts by Wyndham told CBS News. “As this process is ongoing, we will not be providing comment at this time.”

The Emergency Operations Center said in a statement that the about 1,690 guests at the resort were evacuated to other hotels and nearby housing facilities, CBS News reported. It also said that Viva Wyndham’s Dominicus Palace, which is nearby, was not damaged and was operating as normal.