A MAN has been arrested after two teenage girls were raped and sexually assaulted near a train station.
Both vile attacks took place in Exeter, Devon, and were within an hour of each other.
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Two teenage girls were targeted and sexually assaulted in ExeterCredit: Getty
A 16-year-old girl was raped on Clyst Halt Avenue at around 9pm on Friday night.
Half an hour later, a 17-year-old girl was sexually assaulted twice in the Digby and Sowton train station area.
A 19-year-old man from Exeter has been arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault and is in police custody where he will be questioned.
Devon and Cornwall police said both incidents occurred in the area of the Digby and Sowton train station in Exeter between 8.45pm and 10pm on Friday night.
Det Chief Insp Dave Pebworth said: “Detectives are investigating reports of two very serious incidents which occurred in Exeter last night.
“We are not seeking anyone else in relation to these incidents.”
Police urged anyone with information to contact them on 101 or via the police website, quoting reference 50250116456.
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SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — International human rights organizations on Friday filed a lawsuit with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asking that the commission order El Salvador’s government to release Venezuelans deported from the United States and held in a maximum-security prison.
In March, the U.S. government deported more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants alleged to have ties to the Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador, paying the Salvadoran government to imprison them.
Since then, they have had no access to lawyers or ability to communicate with their families. Neither the U.S. nor Salvadoran governments have said how the men could eventually regain their freedom.
“These individuals have been stripped from their families and subject to a state-sponsored enforced disappearance regime, effectively, completely against the law,” said Bella Mosselmans, director of the Global Strategic Litigation Council, which helped bring the suit. “We’re hoping that this case might help put pressure on El Salvador to put basic guardrails in place.”
El Salvador has been living under a state of emergency for more than three years, which has suspended some fundamental rights and given the administration of President Nayib Bukele extraordinary powers. More than 85,000 Salvadorans have been arrested over the period for alleged ties to the country’s once-powerful street gangs.
The improvement in El Salvador’s security has won Bukele widespread domestic support and some admirers in the region who seek to imitate his success. But the lack of due process and numerous arbitrary arrests have drawn international condemnation. Bukele has dismissed those critics as defenders of criminals.
A spokesperson for Bukele’s office declined to comment Friday.
With the administration of President Trump taking a hard line on immigration and portraying migrants broadly as criminals, neither government has been swayed by legal maneuvers in their own country to seek the men’s release or return to the U.S.
A judge in Washington this week said he would order the U.S. government to provide more information about its prison deal with El Salvador as he moved closer to requiring the government to return the men to the U.S.
The human rights organizations hope that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will accept this emergency petition. The commission is an arm of the regional Organization of American States. The groups presented the case on behalf of the families of 18 of the men sent to El Salvador, who provided sworn statements about their cases.
Some of the men had pending asylum applications in the U.S., while others had been vetted and approved for refugee resettlement by the U.S. government, still others had temporary protected status allowing them to work in the U.S., according to the lawsuit.
Bukele has said he has the room to hold the men and the payments from the U.S. will help cover the costs of his new prison.
While both the Venezuelan government and nongovernmental organizations have filed habeas corpus petitions — essentially compelling the government to prove someone’s detention was justified — in El Salvador’s courts, none have advanced.
The groups are asking the human rights commission to order precautionary measures, basically an emergency action to prevent irreparable harm. Among them are the ability to communicate with their families, access to legal counsel and return to the United States. The commission would seek a response from El Salvador’s government before making a decision, but is expected to move quickly.
The other organizations involved in the lawsuit are the Boston University School of Law International Human Rights Clinic, the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
Alemán writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Christopher Sherman contributed to this report.
A BRITISH boxer faces five years in prison over an alleged road rage attack in Bali, police said today.
Liam Orme, 22, allegedly nearly struck passing driver’s front tyre while doing wheelies as he sped on a rented motorcycle on May 2.
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A British boxer is facing a five-year prison sentence over an alleged road rage attack in Bali, police said todayCredit: AsiaPacificPress via ViralPress
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We keep hearing that we’re in a male-loneliness epidemic. The agonizing and hilarious “Friendship” makes it feel like the Black Death. Written and directed by debuting filmmaker Andrew DeYoung (TV’s “PEN15,”“Shrill”), this bromance trembles as guy meets man-child, guy dumps man-child and man-child burns everything down. It’s a reflection of the adult struggle to make new friends as seen through a spook-house mirror.
Tim Robinson plays Craig, a dad who is delighted to pal around with his new neighbor, Austin (Paul Rudd), until a boys’ night ends in a punch and, eventually, someone calling the cops. Craig’s grief over his lost BFF makes him fume with denial, anger, bargaining and depression. Acceptance is impossible. Spontaneous nose bleeds happen twice.
Elsewhere, Robinson has become the poster boy for male social anxiety: the pariah who is so flummoxed by the rules of polite chitchat that he crosses the line and bursts into tears. On his cult sketch show “I Think You Should Leave,” he’s won two consecutive Emmys for the way he layers vulnerability under anger, like the skit in which he gets himself kicked out of an adults-only ghost tour and blubbers, “I don’t know what is going on, but somehow our wires got crossed!” Robinson has never claimed that his characters are on the spectrum, but autistic viewers have made fan videos about how much they relate to his confusion.
Only 5’ 8”, Robinson can appear threateningly huge. Choices that would diminish other actors — oversized jackets, hunched shoulders, public mockery — only make him puff up bigger. When Craig senses humiliation on the horizon, he goes on the attack. He wants desperately to fit in, but he’d rather interrupt, challenge and correct than let the tension relax. “Friendship” looks and feels so much like a feature-length extension of “ITYSL” that it’s worth pointing out that DeYoung came up with the script idea in 2018 before that show existed. The movie would be a totally different animal if it starred, say, Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell. Perhaps working in television has trained DeYoung to adapt to other’s sensibilities before insisting on his own.
“Friendship” surrounds Robinson with normalcy: filler talk, obliging laughter and the kind of handsome lighting you’d see in a home-insurance commercial. Craig somehow has a lovely wife (Kate Mara) and believable son (the always engaging Jack Dylan Grazer). Mara’s sensible Tami sets up the tone in the opening scene, which takes place at a couples’ support group. She delivers the kind of halting, relatable monologue about sexual dysfunction and malaise that you could find in an earnest indie movie. Craig, naturally, quashes the mood. “I’m orgasming fine,” he blurts.
It’s impossible to imagine why Tami ever agreed to marry him in the first place, as she chooses to spend most of her time with her ex (Josh Segarra), a hunky and sensitive fireman. Meanwhile, Craig swoons over Austin, a local weatherman whose hang-out ideas — mushroom harvesting, urban spelunking, starting a punk rock garage band — give Craig genuine joy. No one’s ever wanted to be his friend before. (Craig is so tough to be around that we’re more likely to side with his bullies, like Eric Rahill, who has a great bit part as a nasty co-worker.) When Craig spots Austin cracking a corny one-liner on the nightly news, he smiles like Santa Claus is real.
Austin’s lush mustache and hammy Southern drawl aren’t quite in sync with the tone; Rudd seems stuck in the Ferrell version of the film. I’m fine with the idea that Austin is a bit of a phony who pretends he doesn’t own a cellphone. But when he admits to the lie, nothing happens. (At least the fib leads to several scenes at a phone store with Billy Bryk’s very funny clerk.) The film doesn’t really care about anyone else’s psychology; it wants to keep Craig marooned on Oddball Island. Empathy would be too easy.
Still, Rudd and Robinson’s scenes together are great. They get laughs even going through the ritual of ordering a sandwich at Subway. And Rudd’s made an inverted version of this movie before, 2009’s sweeter and raunchier “I Love You, Man,” where he played the wallflower with a buddy (Jason Segel) who teaches him to scream. There won’t be any learning here, although Craig tries and fails to mimic Austin in his absence.
Robinson didn’t invent this kind of cringe comedy. One of the most sublime examples of the form traces back to Anton Chekhov’s wordless short play, “The Sneeze,” a proto-“SNL” skit about a man who accidentally wheezes on the back of a government official’s neck and in his escalating desperation to normalize his oopsie suffers a breakdown and dies. But “Friendship” feels exactly right for exactly right now. Cultural norms are shifting just as in-person communities are breaking down. At any given second in public, you could go from invisible to starring in a viral video that puts you on blast.
It’s hard to be a human. No wonder Craig feels more like a bunch of possums in a skin suit. By everything I’ve seen of Robinson off-camera (he doesn’t seem to enjoy press), he’s a lovely man raising two teenagers with his high school sweetheart. He plays gauche on our behalf.
Although this is his first major movie role after his show’s breakout success, I can see him on that clown-to-thespian trajectory that ends with an Oscar to go with his Emmy. For now, however, I want to apologize to DeYoung. He won’t get the credit he deserves for this terrific comic torment because it just feels like another Tim Robinson masterclass in self-immolation. Maybe that’s an awkward thing to say. Maybe it’s fine.
A bison on Wednesday gored a Florida man visiting Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Jim Peaco/NPS/UPI
May 9 (UPI) — A 47-year-old man was gored by a bison in Yellowstone National Park, according to park rangers, marking the first reported bison-related injury this year.
The man, from Cape Coral, Fla., was gored by the bison at about 3:15 p.m. local time on Wednesday, the National Park Service said in a statement.
The man was injured after approaching the animal too closely, the statement said.
“The individual sustained minor injuries and was treated by emergency medical personnel,” the National Park Service said. “The incident is currently under investigation.”
There are between 3,500 and 6,000 bison in Yellowstone, according to park statistics. Bulls can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds while cows can weigh up to 1,000 pounds.
The National Park Service said there were two reported bison-related injuries last year and one in 2023.
Since 1989, 25 people have been injured by bison, according to the park. Only two people have died as a result of bison encounters since 1872, it said.
The agency warns visitors to stay more than 25 yards away from bison and other large animals and at least 100 yards from bears or wolves.
“Bison will defend their space when threatened and have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other animal,” it said.
On Instagram, the park posted a warning that reads: “Bison may look friend-shaped, but they already have all the friends they want. Keep your distance and don’t make it awkward.”
Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim says the belief that would come with winning the Europa League is worth more to his side than any financial gain.
United survived a first-half wobble on Thursday to eventually beat Spanish side Athletic Bilbao 7-1 on aggregate and set up an all-English final against Tottenham.
Beating Spurs would also result in Champions League qualification for 2025-26, which would drive an additional £100m into United’s coffers at a conservative estimate.
“The money is not the most important thing,” Amorim said. “To win a title as a coach brings a feeling, a feeling we can do good things, that we can give something to our fans.
“I agree it is not just playing Champions League next season. It is that feeling we can change things.”
After winning 3-0 in Bilbao, Amorim said he could not be sure which version of his United side would turn up for the second leg and so it proved as they struggled for 70 minutes against the Basque outfit.
United were 1-0 down and looking nervous before rallying late on thanks to two goals from Mason Mount either side of efforts from Casemiro and Rasmus Hojlund.
For a coach brought in because he has a certain style of play, the admission he does not know what will happen at any given moment must make Amorim shudder.
“I should be a better manager at this moment,” the Portuguese said. “The team should be better at this moment.
“But we are trying. We did quite well in Europe but we struggled a lot in the Premier League.”
Amorim’s side has certainly struggled against Tottenham this season.
They have already lost three times to Ange Postecoglou’s men and have won only twice in the Premier League – against Ipswich and Leicester – since the third of those reverses, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in February.
However, Tottenham have been no better overall this season than United and remain behind Amorim’s side in the table.
Postecoglou is widely expected to leave his job at the end of the season, win or lose.
“Both teams are going to play all or nothing,” said Amorim, who was appointed as United head coach in November 2024..
“The position of the coach is similar, I know Ange has one more year [in his job] but both of us are struggling. That is the good thing.”
Mason Mount scores twice as Manchester United come from behind to win 4-1 against Athletic in their semifinal.
Manchester United produced a dramatic late comeback to beat Athletic Club 4-1 in the Europa League and complete an emphatic 7-1 aggregate semifinal victory, setting up a mouthwatering showpiece against Tottenham.
Fireworks crackled and red smoke filled an expectant Old Trafford on Thursday following an impressive 3-0 win against 10-man Athletic in northern Spain last week.
But the air of excitement was tinged by the knowledge that Ruben Amorim’s United have shown a startling ability to implode during a horrendous Premier League season.
Perhaps, little to anyone’s surprise, Amorim’s United, much like most of the club’s teams that preceded him, had to do it the hard way. Trailing with 18 minutes to play, the substitutes were thrown on – including Mason Mount, who produced two brilliant goals to illuminate the Theatre of Dreams and turn the game on the night.
Mason Mount of Manchester United scores a goal to make it 1-1 on the night [Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images]
Amorim reverted to the team that started in the first leg, making eight changes following Sunday’s 4-3 defeat against Brentford.
Dani Vivian was suspended after his red card last week, and coach Ernesto Valverde was also hamstrung by the absence of brothers Nico and Inaki Williams, as well as top-scorer Oihan Sancet.
Mikel Jauregizar silenced the home fans and gave the visitors hope on the night with a stunning strike in the 31st minute.
For long periods of the match, the visitors looked more dangerous, and the game needed substitute Mount to settle the home supporters’ nerves with his 72nd-minute strike.
The match totally changed complexion as Casemiro, Rasmus Hojlund and Mount again scored.
Rasmus Hojlund of Manchester United tapped in his side’s third goal of the game [Adam Vaughan/EPA]
It means United have kept alive their hopes of eking something out of a terrible season.
Winning Europe’s second-tier club trophy crucially guarantees a place in the Champions League, which would boost United’s chances of attracting top talent as Amorim attempts a monumental rebuild.
United were heavy favourites to complete the job on home turf, but injury-hit Athletic nursed a grievance after defender Vivian was sent off in Spain.
They enjoyed the bulk of the early possession but struggled to fashion clear-cut chances and looked nervous when the visitors attacked.
Athletic midfielder Alex Berenguer had a good early opportunity after the home side failed to clear, but his curling shot sailed over the bar as he aimed for the top corner.
The midfielder created another chance after a surging run midway through the half, but fired wide of Andre Onana’s post from just outside the area.
United feel the nerves in Manchester
But the visitors broke the deadlock in sensational style after half an hour to give themselves hope when Jauregizar picked his spot from outside the box and curled past Onana.
The goal came after some sloppy work from United’s defence. Harry Maguire played a ball across the box and Alvaro Djalo smashed a shot against Leny Yoro.
The ball fell to Jauregizar, who could not have hit the ball more sweetly.
United struggled for attacking rhythm but should have been level shortly before half-time.
The stadium held its breath as Alejandro Garnacho was put through by the lively Patrick Dorgu, but his attempted dink over the goalkeeper went wide.
Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho spurned his side’s best chance of the first half [Jason Cairnduff/Reuters]
United offered little going forward in the early stages of the second half as Athletic made the running, forcing United to hack clear on multiple occasions.
Both teams made a triple change just after the hour mark. Shortly afterwards, Unai Gomez headed the ball across the goal and it bounced just wide of the post.
Injury-hit Mount has been a peripheral figure in his two seasons at Old Trafford, but produced a fine finish, swivelling and curling the ball into the far corner for his first.
Casemiro scored a second with his head from a Bruno Fernandes cross as United’s earlier nerves were completely forgotten.
Hojlund poked home in the 85th minute before Mount scored an outrageous second from near the halfway line after Athletic goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala came out of his box and made a poor clearance.
United will face Tottenham in the final in Bilbao on May 21.
Ruben Amorim is worried about losing to Athletic Bilbao as his team have a tendency to “lose our minds”.
The manager admitted in his pre-match press conference: “We cannot control, we cannot say what is going to happen.
“There are some teams that understand the game is going to be like this.
“It can change a little bit but the story is going to be like this and you can control the narrative of the game. But we cannot do that.
“We have to face the game as one more game, to win it, I feel we need to score to go to the next round.
“We use Brentford, we are near a draw then we suffer a goal and another goal quite fast.
“We will have to suffer a bit to go to the final and we are ready to suffer.”
Garna stay
Alejandro Garnacho has vowed to stay at Manchester United and could now smash one of his idol Cristiano Ronaldo’s records.
The Argentine brushed off comparisons with Ronaldo as he stands on the brink of surpassing one of the Portuguese superstar’s many feats.
Yet he knows he will likely have to deal with them for as long as he remains a United player.
After all, it was Ronaldo who created the Argentinian winger’s first goal for the Red Devils back in November 2022.
And when the six-time Ballon d’Or winner left Old Trafford for the second and final time a few weeks later, the Stretford End immediately gave his song to Garnacho.
But deep down he probably would not have it any other way.
Manta Stay
Manchester United’s young Saka-like starlet Bendito Mantato has signed his first professional contract with the club.
Mantato, 17, was named on the bench for the first time last week as he travelled to Spain for the first leg of United‘s Europa League semi-final against Athletic Bilbao.
The special edition changed tops will also be used for Manchester United Women’s WSL clash with Arsenal on Saturday.
The one-off shirts from the matches will then be sold off on online auction site MatchWornShirt to raise funds, with net proceeds going to (Red)’s campaign against health injustice.
Welcome!
We have a big night in store for Manchester United with a place in the Europa League final up for grabs.
Ruben Amorim’s side were incredible last week in the Basque country, putting Athletic to the sword with a superb 3-0 win.
Surely even they can’t blow a lead from this position…
We’ll bring you all the build-up to a huge night at Old Trafford.
Attorney General Pam Bondi (pictured speaking during a press conference on immigration enforcement at the Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C., in February) said, “If you fund terrorism, we will prosecute you and put you behind bars for decades.” File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
May 8 (UPI) — A Virginia man has been sentenced spend more than 30 years in prison for a crypto scheme that poured thousands of dollars into the hands of ISIS.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa of Springfield, Va., was convicted of one count of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and four counts of providing and attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
He received a sentence Wednesday of 364 months behind bars for “his efforts to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and [ISIS].”
Chhipa was found guilty of having sent money to female ISIS members located in Syria, which was partially used to support ISIS fighters and to help female ISIS members escape from prison camps.
Chhipa used social media to raise funds online, then both receive the money electronically or by hand, and then convert the cash into cryptocurrency and send it to Turkey, where it would be further smuggled to ISIS in Syria.
From approximately October of 2019 through October of 2022, Chhipa sent more than $185,000 to ISIS.
“This defendant directly financed ISIS in its efforts to commit vile terrorist atrocities against innocent citizens in America and abroad,” said Attorney General Pam Bondiin a press release Thursday. “This severe sentence illustrates that if you fund terrorism, we will prosecute you and put you behind bars for decades.”
U.S. Attorney Erik S. Siebert for the Eastern District of Virginia said that “Chhipa knowingly and persistently collected and provided a considerable amount of money to fund the violence of an organization bent on forcing their extremist ideology on others.”
I ask my students: What would an essay be like if it were structured like a grid? What would it be like to structure it as a lopsided, organic shape?
I am teaching a class called “On Collage.” Every time I do, we make a new center of gravity for the course together. One or two students will explain collage each week, introducing a collage or an artist, but first I offer my own version: a slideshow I have no notes for. Depending on the way I’ve prepared for class that week, I’ll compose a narrative about the slides in a way that articulates what collage might offer us.
The slideshow begins with a black-and-white photograph of a man with light hair, a cap and glasses standing behind a tall rattan chair where an older woman is seated. She smiles broadly, her chest puffed out like a robin in early spring. His face is a bit more fluid, untraceable, tucked into itself, echoed by the arm he holds across his body, drawing his striped tie askew. His glasses hold a reflection that must include the photographer, but when I zoom in, the shadow and light become a bunch of shapes, and I get distracted by an unsettling look in the man’s eyes, which have an air of surprise or warning. His ears are quotation marks. His mouth is as close as a mouth can come to a sideways question mark, punctuated by a cautious smile line. I’ve watched enough documentaries to know that this is as likely a response to the photographer as it is to the woman whose shoulder he is grasping with his other hand. David Hockney and his mother.
In the 1980s, my father, Lester Sloan, was a photojournalist for Newsweek magazine assigned to photograph Hockney for a story about artists designing posters for the 1984 Olympics. Hockney made a poster of a swimmer underwater, captured through 12 Polaroid photographs arranged in a grid. Swimming figures ripple through Hockney’s early paintings as if swimming from one frame to another. When I read from an essay that I wrote on Hockney’s swimming pools once, two scholars wondered aloud about John Cheever’s “The Swimmer,” and I am often haunted by this moment, as if I should have known better than to write about swimming pools without reading more things great men had said about them. But what I notice now, looking literally over my shoulder as if I’ll see the memory, is that the essay as a genre favors the unique thread of one person’s associations. As Hockney puts it, “We always see with memory. Seeing each person’s memory is a bit different. We can’t be looking at the same things, can we?”
Art offers or asks us to sketch a thing that has moved through us too quickly to capture it completely. It should throw a shadow of chemical memory across our faces like the smell of chlorine.
On the day he took this photograph, my father went to Hockney’s California home, tucked into the Hollywood Hills. The artist wanted to show him the Polaroid collages — what he coined “joiners” — he had begun to make. My father has recalled Hockney’s sense of wonder at this new approach to artmaking so many times over the course of my life that I can see it — the sun-lit table on which Hockney laid those pieces. Hockney has said that he was so distracted by the joiners that he couldn’t sleep at night. “I used to get up in the middle of the night and sit and look at them to find out what I was doing,” he told Paul Joyce. He bought thousands of dollars’ worth of film and roamed his own house in search of compositions. “Time was appearing in the picture. And because of it, space, a bigger illusion of space.”
Some of the photographs are arranged in a grid, though the dissonance between them — one square depicting a table from inches away, another from across the room — creates an ethereality, a wind within the frame. Some of the photographs are arranged freely, as if to follow the line of sight as it traces figures in a space — wind-scattered. Overlapping, stuttering, arcing upward.
When I first asked my father about this day, he recalled the degree to which Hockney oriented toward his mother when he came to take this portrait. The painter was orbiting her, asking her thoughts on the conversation, nodding toward her with his body.
At this point in the slide show, I show some frames from the film “Blow-Up,” wherein a London photographer snaps some pictures of a couple kissing in the park. As he develops the film later, he tries to zoom in more and more on a particular frame. He realizes that there is a man with a gun in the bushes. There is, perhaps, at the heart of every composition, the door to a great mystery you might not even have realized you were bracketing.
The Hockney joiner that most haunts me is called “My Mother, Bolton Abbey.” This is not a grid but a scatter. The same woman my father met that afternoon is seated in a cemetery, and the Polaroids of her begin to spill downward, giving the whole frame a gravitational pull. Hockney’s sister describes their mother in the documentary “David Hockney: A Bigger Picture”: “She was a very great power. She had a very great emotional power that’s a bit hard to describe. That pulled you in.”
When I recently ask my father about the portrait he shot of Hockney and his mother, he begins to reminisce about his own late mother sitting on the porch of the house where he grew up. He recalls a man who would visit: “I asked him once, ‘What’s the deal with you coming around here, hanging around my mother?’ He said, ‘You know, when I was in jail, my mother died, and they wouldn’t let me out to come and see her. So I picked somebody to be a mother to me, and it was your mother.’” The image he took of Hockney has become a hall of mirrors, an entrance into the very notion of what a mother means. What it means to lose her.
The next slide is a quotation by Roland Barthes about his own mother in “Camera Lucida”: “I dream about her, I do not dream her. And confronted with the photograph, as in the dream, it is the same effort, the same Sisyphean labor: to reascend, straining toward the essence, to climb back down without having seen it, and to begin all over again.” In the first essay I wrote about collage, I talked about how they have an air of mistake. Like spilling something. Capturing the weird way that one moment is every moment, which is also death. Or as Hockney puts it in the “The Bigger Picture,” “It’s now that’s eternal, actually.”
I am writing this while visiting Santa Monica, which exists through the collage of memory since I left years ago. The first thing I do when I get here is drive through my old neighborhood, hungry to see the way time and distance have warped the familiar contours of buildings and trees and streets that served as the entirety of my early childhood world. I enter into my old neighborhood with a fluttering in my periphery where new construction or paint camouflages lines and angles and patches of scenery until the unmistakability of my childhood street reveals itself. I look for the jade plant in front of our apartment building, whose leaves I would press with my thumbnail while waiting for my parents to come downstairs. I look for the grate that would make a cha-choonk sound as the car passed over it on the way into the garage, signaling home when I was a child asleep in the backseat. I weep my ugliest, snottiest cry at an awkward intersection, looking for the place where Blockbuster used to be, happy that the library is still there. Parsing which businesses remain. Which left turns are the way I left them, framed by the corner of a blue-gray building I can only see when I’m dreaming.
Even though many of Hockney’s joiners were taken in his own California home, they blur with our own family photographs. They are the slippage of places and people, the grief you can feel for the way someone’s face was held by a particular slant of light only moments ago. If you tear yourself away from a place too quickly, the maw of memory will ask you to re-leave it over years and years.
My students and I end the semester by reading a book where poems and essays and operas arrange themselves across the page like children on a preschool floor. Some cup, some rove, some cascade.
Aisha Sabatini Sloan is an essayist and the author of four books, including “Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit” and “Captioning the Archives,” which she co-authored with her father, photographer Lester Sloan.
JACK GREALISH could be the latest to quit the Premier League for Italy.
SunSport can exclusively reveal that Serie A leaders Napoli are tracking the England and Manchester City star amid growing uncertainty over his future.
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Jack Grealish is open to a move to NapoliCredit: Getty
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Antonio Conte is an admirer of the Man City aceCredit: Getty
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Scott McTominay has flourished since moving to NapoliCredit: Rex
Antonio Conte is believed to be a “huge fan” of the talented winger, whose chances for City this year have been limited.
It’s also unclear if he forms part of manager Pep Guardiola’s plans as he gets set for a major Summer rebuild at the Etihad.
Conte, who saw Grealish’s talents first-hand when he coached in England, believes the ex-Aston Villa ace would be a marquee signing for the Italian giants.
And he thinks the player could help his side make the next step and become Champions League contenders next season. Sources close to Grealish say the player is open-minded to leaving
City and recognises a move could be the key to refreshing his career and boosting his England chances.
And a switch abroad is believed to be Grealish’s preference rather than staying in the Premier League.
Spurs and his former club Villa have been previously linked with a move but City are believed to be reluctant to let a Premier League rival have a star who remains unplayable when in top form.
Napoli are unlikely to be the only club racing to sign Grealish though.
He whisked his family and friends away on a private jet to watch a Rob Stewart gig in an extravagant £100,000 splurge.
Clubs in America and Saudi Arabia are also monitoring Grealish – but the player believes he can still play at the very highest level and nail down a position as an England starter.
If Grealish does make the switch to Napoli he’d follow in the footsteps of Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour who have become massive favourites among fans of Conte’s Napoli side.
The Met Gala is always something of a performance art spectacle. The 2025 edition was no different. What was unique was that it sought to celebrate not just clothes or ideas, but an entire culture. The Met Gala stepped outside the typical focus on couture womenswear to highlight men’s tailoring and the Black dandy as a historical figure.
But what is a dandy, exactly? A dandy is, simply, someone with an all-encompassing devotion to fashion, style and tidiness. Society has called these people fussy, or in more recent times, metrosexual. But the crucial element of dandyism is its antagonism toward class, race and sexual boundaries. This is especially crucial for Black people, who have and continue to use the trappings of fashion to signal success, self-worth and pride. That pride is, at many times throughout history, a subversive act.
Actor and Met Gala co-chair Colman Domingo in Valentino.
(ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Jeremy O. Harris in Balmain, tailored by Lionel Nichols.
(Michael Loccisano/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty)
In the introduction to her book “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” Monica L. Miller (who was a guest curator for the accompanying exhibition at the Costume Institute) says that “Black dandyism has always been practiced by those interested in much more than materialism and the latest style.” She goes on to say that dandyism is a “truly radical kind of freedom, accessible perhaps only through a constant, playful, yet studied change of clothes.” It is, as she says, both appropriation of the trappings of the upper class and a challenge to the order they’ve subjected the world to.
“Slaves to Fashion” is a dense book, filled with history and reference. It looks back at the novelty of slaves wearing finely tailored clothes, which it connects to the explosion of Blackness and queerness in the Harlem Renaissance. The thesis (and ultimate challenge) of the book is drawing a straight line between an enslaved Black child in elaborate clothes far beyond his station in life to a modern hip-hop celebrity like Andre 3000. To Miller, both the slave and the star are examples of Black identity and masculinity transcending the boundaries and barriers set up around them by society. Blackness itself becomes a performance, a concept invented by those who sought to turn Africans into an other. And a performance almost always requires the appropriate uniform.
Rihanna in Marc Jacobs.
(Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Tessa Thompson wearing Prabal Gurung.
(Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum)
While the theme of this Gala might have leaned more toward men, that didn’t prevent women from finding a way to creatively connect to it, as the dandy’s role is to perform an exaggerated form of masculinity — twisted, contorted and pumped. Zendaya’s creamy white Louis Vuitton suit popped for its elegant, understated tailoring. Doechii, also rocking Vuitton, went for a more outre LV-monogrammed suit and trouser shorts with a maroon bow tie. Wide shoulder pads on Alton Mason, Doja Cat, Lupita N’yongo and Teyana Taylor recalled the broad, hyper-male suits one might see on a Sunday trip to church.
Alton Mason in custom Boss ensemble.
(Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
Doja Cat wearing Marc Jacobs.
(Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Lupita Nyong’o wearing Chanel.
(Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Zendaya in Louis Vuitton.
(Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
And then there were the hats. Whoopi Goldberg’s Thom Browne outfit was punctuated by a hat that wouldn’t have been out of place on a Victorian-era dandy intellectual. Singer and actor Janelle Monáe’s Thom Browne fit included a contrasting color suit, hat, monocle and cape adorned with the outline of a totally different suit splashed across it. Multiple suits, to be exact — a pinstripe and a plain navy blazer with white piping. It was a Russian nesting doll of menswear, with allusions to every tool in Browne’s prodigious toolbox of suiting. This is masculinity as posturing, as provocation and as protection. Presenting masculine symbols while tweaking them or reappropriating them is a potent subversion of the norm.
(Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
Whoopi Goldberg in Thom Browne
(Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Janelle Monáe wears Thom Browne.
(Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Tracee Ellis Ross wears Marc Jacobs.
(Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
The Met Gala — a lavish, invite-only party that gathers the most famous people in the world for one night to raise money for the arts — is far from subversive. Instead, it’s a worldwide announcement about who matters most, who is affecting society most deeply, and who has the money to attend. It is inherently about the establishment. The men wearing the luxurious suits Monday were not breaking class barriers. The clothes on display were not accessible to the masses. In many cases, the outfits were bespoke, custom and never to be replicated.
But it would be too easy to dismiss the Met as some sort of “Hunger Games”-like spectacle of wealth. The idea of Black dandyism goes beyond extreme displays of status. It means that you care — about how you look, but also about yourself. In an interview with GQ about the Met, legendary designer Dapper Dan described how he became a dandy. “I’m from the poorest neighborhood in Harlem, right by the banks of the Harlem River. Everybody in my little enclave was all poor. We had rats and roaches. Goodwill was our Macy’s. Whenever I was lucky and fortunate enough to have something to wear, I went to 125th Street. Nobody went there who wasn’t dressed. At 125th Street, nobody knew I had rats, nobody knew I had roaches, and that for me was the birth of dandyism because I saw the power of transformation that could take place with your clothes.”
Brian Tyree Henry
(Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Angela Bassett
(Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Alicia Keys, left, and Swizz Beatz, both wearing Moncler.
(Kevin Mazur/MG25/Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The)
Colman Domingo wearing Valentino.
(Theo Wargo/FilmMagic)
This year’s Met Gala theme allowed the spectator to think not just of the clothes, but what those clothes mean to them and to the wearer. To dress up is to project power, possibility and preeminence. A Black person dressing up for church can reclaim their place in the cultural hierarchy as much as a hip-hop star uses clothes to signal their wealth. The table sponsored by Jerry Lorenzo’s Fear of God label spotlighted Black celebrities as disparate as filmmaker Ryan Coogler and artists Amy Sherald and Lauren Halsey. Their outfits, many of them custom by the house, were as challenging and avant-garde as anything the fashion establishment has to offer. Coogler and actor Adrien Brody both wore broad-shouldered suits paired with T-shirts and more formalist cummerbunds — a house style of Fear of God. As always, Lorenzo is more than happy to muss up the expected, to push the boundaries while still respecting the core traditions of the art form.
Artist Lauren Halsey wearing Fear of God.
(Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
What defines dandyism is a willingness to play by a set of rules, whatever those might be for the time and temperature of the world around it. While the celebrities in these clothes aren’t explicitly transgressive figures, their presence in this world of high status is in a sense a form of transgression. Their mere existence in a place like the Met Gala signals that there is a sliver of an opening to greatness, no matter how small it might look in the moment. There will always be that spirit of Dapper Dan at Goodwill to hold on to, and that style is not about how much the clothes cost, but what it says about the person wearing them.
Lauryn Hill wears Jude Dontoh.
(Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Khaby Lame wearing Boss.
(Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Myha’la Herrold, left, and Raul Lopez of LUAR.
(Savion Washington/Getty Images)
Bad Bunny wears Prada.
(Michael Loccisano/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty)
Laura Harrier wearing Ecru Gap, left, and Zac Posen.
(Michael Loccisano/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty)
A man was detained by Los Angeles police after crashing his car through the gates of Jennifer Aniston’s Bel-Air mansion Monday afternoon, according to the police and property records. Police said the homeowner was at home during the incident.
The Los Angeles Police Department received a call regarding a crash in the 900 block of Airole Way at 12:20 p.m., according to department spokesperson Officer Tony Im. When officers arrived, a security guard was holding the suspect at gunpoint; the individual was lying on the ground.
The suspect, described as an adult man, was taken into police custody, Im said. Information on any booking charges was not immediately available.
Jennifer Aniston owns the 3.4-acre lot where someone crashed into the front gates Monday afternoon. Police said the homeowner was at home at the time.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Aniston is the owner of the 3.4-acre lot in Bel-Air, according to property records.
The 56-year-old “Morning Show” actor purchased the midcentury mansion for just under $21 million in 2012, according to reporting by Architectural Digest. The property, built in 1965, was designed by prestigious architect A. Quincy Jones and renovated by architect Frederick Fisher shortly before Aniston bought it.
Set on a promontory, the parcel has unobstructed ocean and city views, The Times reported in 2012. When Aniston bought it the grounds included a guesthouse, swimming pool and vineyards.
In 2015, Aniston married actor Justin Theroux in an intimate ceremony at the home. The couple lived in the property together before divorcing in 2018, according to Architectural Digest.
OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER has revealed that only three of his former Manchester United players have spoken to him since his sacking.
The Red Devils icon took charge as manager in 2018, initially on a caretaker contract before he was given the job full-time.
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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has revealed only three of his old Man Utd squad have spoken to him since he leftCredit: X formerly Twitter / @BBCSport
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He said one of them was his captain Harry MaguireCredit: Marc Aspland – The Times
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He also said Bruno Fernandes had got in touchCredit: AFP
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Solskjaer called the pair ‘top human beings’Credit: X formerly Twitter / @BBCSport
The Norwegian then remained in charge of the team until November 2021, with a dramatic dip in performances after two years of finishing in the top four.
The 52-year-old spent years away from the dugout before landing a managerial gig in Turkey with Besiktas in January.
However, in a recent BBC interview, he has revealed that only three of his former players have spoken to him since his Man Utd sacking.
Solskjaer started with his appointed captain Harry Maguire, who he called a “leader” and a “fighter”.
The second star he was highlighted was his star signing and current club captain, Bruno Fernandes, before he finally referenced Victor Lindelof.
He said: “For me, Harry [Maguire] has always been a leader and a fighter.
“I was never in doubt when I signed him and he walked in the door he would be captain for us.
“There is another captain there in Bruno [Fernandes]. The two of them are top human beings.
Authorities were searching Saturday for a kayaker who fell into the water along the American River near Auburn, Calif., the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said.
The missing man was on a kayak with another man when their vessel capsized Friday evening in fast-running water beneath the No Hands Bridge near Auburn, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The other man reached nearby rocks and safely made it back to shore, the Sheriff’s Office said. The missing man wasn’t identified, and officials said it wasn’t known whether he might still be alive.
“It’s tough to say,” said Elise Soviar, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office. “You never want to give up hope until you know.”
Authorities started to search for the missing kayaker on Friday. A dive team also went out on the water on Saturday morning, she said.
While the river might look inviting during a sunny day, authorities say people should avoid going into the water during this time of year.
“The water is very, very swift and it’s very, very cold because it’s coming from the mountains and this is a known dangerous portion of the American River,” she said.
The Sheriff’s Office teamed up with Cal Fire’s Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit on the search. State Parks, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol also offered assistance, according to a social media post from the Placer County Sheriff’s Office on Friday.
