Models take to the runway in dramatic power-dressing silhouettes reminiscent of Tudor court fashion
Nicolas Ghesquière, designer of the biggest luxury brand in the world, says that what he does is time travel, not fashion.
Louis Vuitton is 170 years old but fashion only works when it is about the future, which makes time travel an essential part of the job description. Also, fancy travel is what Louis Vuitton luggage is all about, and time travel is the fanciest travel of all.
The two often-memed US vice-presidential candidates took the stage, and people on social media had things to say
Two of social media’s most talked-about characters faced off during the vice-presidential debate. On one side: the folksy, avuncular, pet-loving Minnesota governor Tim Walz. On the other: Ohio senator JD Vance, whose campaign trail gaffes – awkwardly ordering donuts, railing against “childless cat ladies” – are top-tier meme fodder. Whatever happened on the debate stage or in the spin rooms, the most widely-viewed analysis lives on social media.
Right from the start, viewers and commentators noticed the difference between Walz and Vance’s debating style. During the first question about the unfolding crisis in the Middle East, Walz came off as nervous, fumbling over talking points. Vance tried to avoid the question. Because why talk about Iran when you can remind folks you wrote New York Times bestseller Hillbilly Elegy?
The Dutch guru denies allegations of domestic violence. But work has stopped on his biopic
The “Iceman” is in hot water. Wim Hof, a Dutch athlete famous for his ability to withstand extreme temperatures, has built a devoted and celebrity-studded following by extolling the benefits of cold plunges and breathing exercises. His trademark Wim Hof Method is billed as a way to “keep your body and mind in its optimal natural state”. Behind his image of a clean-living guru, however, Hof is now accused of being a dirtbag whose life is in an extremely suboptimal state. On Saturday, de Volkskrant, a Dutch newspaper, published a shocking report about the wellness influencer, accusing him of horrific domestic violence. Hof denies ever having been violent, has said that he intends to take legal action against the newspaper, and has already filed a complaint for alleged defamation against one of his accusers.
There is a reason these allegations are coming out now. A biopic about the self-styled Iceman, with the actor Joseph Fiennes in the lead, is in the works. When Hof’s ex-partner, Caroline, was told about the film, she wanted to tell her side of the story. On Monday, de Volkskrant reported that production of the biopic had been temporarily halted due to “the seriousness of the accusations”.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Documentary about Maya Gabeira’s record-breaking feats almost accidentally tells a story too about the endemic sexism in sport
This film is ostensibly about Maya Gabeira, a Brazilian competitive big-wave surfer (ie towed on special boards into waves of 20ft and over), and her struggle to compete again after a devastating injury in 2013. And yes, it certainly is about her, but it’s almost as if everyone involved – Gabeira, people who were supposedly her closest associates, and even the director Stephanie Johnes – aren’t quite conscious of the fact that they’re also making a documentary about endemic sexism in sport. You can almost see awareness of that latter theme coming to mind in the last half of the film, when Maya goes to battle with the organisation that’s meant to champion athletes in her field but which seemingly closes ranks against her lest her achievement makes that of her male peers seem less impressive. To explain further risks spoiling the film, which transcends its by-numbers sports doc set-up and evolves into something more thoughtful.
In fact, it’s kind of a disappointment that Johnes, whose previous credits include several other sports docs as well as work with muckraking film-maker Alex Gibney, doesn’t lean harder into a feminist perspective. Maybe that’s not something Gabeira actually wanted; she is a woman who comes across as easygoing, forgiving and, in the early runnings, seemingly happy to be made famous not just for her surfing prowess but also for the good looks that made her such a promotable figure in the sport. Even former sporting partner Carlos Burle, a surfer himself who operated the jet ski that towed Gabeira to the waves in the early part of her career, is seen here praising how she had “nice tits” and a “nice ass”, as a montage of surf magazine covers fly by, all featuring Gabeira in a bikini.
This keenly observed debut brilliantly captures the internal monologue of a misanthrope, in a portrait of intellectual melancholia
Henry, the middle-aged narrator of Mark Bowles’s debut novel, is ensconced in a Soho cafe, trying to write a memoir about his late father. To his considerable irritation, a digital entrepreneur at a nearby table is prattling loudly into his phone about his startup and his recent travels in the far east, while deploying inordinate amounts of business speak. (When he begins one sentence with “As per yourself,” we can place the type exactly.) Distracted from his task, Henry’s mind wanders, brooding on, among other things, mass tourism in the Instagram age (“The flattening of the world to wallpaper for the grinning head”), the marketisation of education and the perniciousness of corporate jargon. We remain inside his head for most of the next 200-odd pages, intermittently checking back in with the voluble tech bro, who embodies everything Henry hates about the 21st century; his animus builds to almost psychotic proportions as the novel progresses.
The sociological ruminations soon give way to a personal narrative. We learn that Henry hails from Bradford, attended Oxford University and, after a decade in a soul-crushing telesales job, completed a philosophy doctorate to become an academic. A self-styled autodidact, he once resolved to learn about the great composers by listening to them in alphabetical order. (“I did not get very far … today I listen almost exclusively to Bach, Bartók and Beethoven”.) Because of his working-class background, he suffered from impostor syndrome; his assimilation into academia was “a trajectory of imitation and rebuff, of overzealous imitation compensating for prior exclusion”. There is indeed a hint of affectation in the narrator’s slightly mannered prose style: he is fond of “whilst” and “wherein”, and prone to the occasional throwback sentence structure (“I … opened ever so gently the window”). Fully conscious of this, he quips: “I wore my learning, such as it was, like a trench coat on a summer’s day.”
Iran is bracing itself for likely Israeli attacks on its nuclear sites as the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged the west to leave the Middle East.
Khamenei met students and scientists on Wednesday in his first public appearance since ordering a high-risk missile attack on Israel in response to Israel’s attacks on the leadership of Hezbollah, the armed group Tehran has funded in Lebanon.
“100” was spelled out in giant numbers on the White House north lawn on Tuesday. It was a birthday tribute to the former US president Jimmy Carter, who served only one term after being buffeted by external events such as high inflation and a hostage crisis in Iran.
The current occupant of the White House, Joe Biden, must know the feeling as he fights three fires at once. Iran has launched at least 180 missiles into Israel, six US states are still reeling from Hurricane Helene, and ports from Maine to Texas shut down as about 45,000 dockworkers went on strike.
The Rijksmuseum has used techniques including neutron tomography to shed fresh light on 75 treasures dating back millennia
A small Buddhist object sits quietly, its three-headed masculine figure locked in tantric union with a feminine one. But the nitty gritty of their enlightened sexual activity isn’t the only thing that this 15th-century Tibetan bronze is hiding.
The 32cm-high object is full of tiny scrolls and sacred objects – revealed only when the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam used hi-tech imaging to peer inside. They may have been around for millennia but Asian bronzes still have secrets to reveal, and this is the message of the Rijksmuseum’s latest exhibition.
Boxy blazers and wide-leg trouser stormed the AW24 runway in shows like Stella McCartney and Dior. Here’s how to successfully incorporate oversized tailoring into your autumnal wardrobe
Villa Vie Odyssey set sail on three-and-a-half-year voyage on Monday after repairs but departure delayed again
The luxury cruise liner stranded in Belfast for four months remains anchored off the coast of Northern Ireland after two failed attempts to finally set sail on a round-the-world voyage.
The Villa Vie Odyssey was originally due to embark on a “perpetual” three-and-a-half-year trip on 30 May but was marooned after requiring repairs, leaving passengers stranded in Belfast over summer.
Helping someone to die should only be a very last resort, not a normalised part of our healthcare system
Thoughts of ending your life are a common response to human suffering. Yet with care and support, they can usually be overcome. That’s why our usual reaction to someone wanting to end their life is to try to prevent suicide – including showing them we value their life at a time when they’re struggling to do so themselves. Lord Falconer’s assisted dying bill, which will soon be debated in the House of Lords, represents a radical departure from this approach: it proposes circumstances in which we should assist someone to end their life, rather than try to prevent them from doing so. But what circumstances could warrant this?
For Lord Falconer, the answer is simple: terminal illness. In his bill, as long as someone has mental capacity and is likely to have less than an arbitrarily chosen six months to live, they can receive assistance to end their life. There is no requirement that the causes of their suffering be explored, let alone addressed, nor that they receive care or support of any kind.
Lucy Thomas is a palliative care and public health doctor
The league has ended its resistance to institutional capital. The Premier League has shown the chaos and rot that the relationship can bring
The last of the holdouts has fallen. A few weeks ago, the National Football League passed a resolution to allow private equity investment in individual teams, thereby bringing to an end to the league’s long resistance to the incursion of institutional capital. The NFL joins the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer, all of which have opened up to institutional investment in recent years. Only one of the league’s 32 owners, the Cincinnati Bengals’ Mike Brown, voted against the proposal – a decision, reports suggest, born of his longstanding desire to maintain the financial viability of smaller franchises in a league where growth in team valuations and media revenues shows no sign of slowing down.
The effects of the new ownership regime will be minimal, for now at least. The NFL will not be transformed overnight from a league in which teams are owned by wealthy individuals and families and managed for the benefit of fans and communities to one run according to the whims of private equity’s bullies and money grubbers. But it seems hard to imagine that a shift of this nature won’t take shape eventually. The league has been careful to limit the initial scope of private equity investment in the league: individual funds can buy no more than 10% in a given franchise; will acquire purely passive stakes, stripped of any decision-making, governance or voting rights; and will have to hold on to their investments for at least six years. Only four participating funds are allowed to invest for now; they are all long-dated (meaning they generally have long investment horizons and are not, in theory, looking to generate quick returns) and have a lot of money to burn. Sovereign wealth funds, asset management firms, endowments, and pension funds are barred from investing in the league – a marked contrast to the NBA, which opened up to this bigger class of investors in 2022.
The Hellas Verona glory days were the early 1980s. Promoted in 1982, they immediately took Serie A by storm as a well-drilled, talented team with something to prove. Mavericks and misfits, sublime talent and unconventional outsiders, they took on the likes of Diego Maradona, Zico, Michel Platini, Sócrates and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. And won. Crowned champions of Italy in 1985, an achievement that remains one of the greatest sporting upsets of all time, I have recently been speaking to the players involved with a book to follow next year to commemorate the 40th anniversary. In the meantime, it was a fun picking the best of them for a Hellas Verona fantasy five-a-side team!
We want to hear about your uncommon name, where it comes from and why you, or your parents, chose it
We’d like to find out more about you or your child’s unusual names after Robert Jenrick revealed his daughter’s middle name is Thatcher. What was the inspiration behind the name and why did you, or your parents, choose it?
Israel could target Iranian oil refineries in retaliation for Tuesday night’s attack, in which Tehran launched an estimated 180 ballistic missiles at Tel Aviv and other targets across the country in a dramatic escalation of the conflict between the two countries.
The US website Axios has reported that Israeli officials are considering a “significant retaliation” to the Iranian attack within days that could target oil production facilities inside Iran and other strategic sites.
We would like to hear from US voters living in swing states and their thoughts on how the debate went
Three weeks on from the presidential debate, Tim Walz and JD Vance took to the stage on Tuesday night for a vice-presidential head-to-head. The two candidate largely avoided attacks on each other in what was a more policy-driven discussion.
If you live in a swing state such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, we would like to hear what you thought of the debate. How do you think it went and do you feel the candidates addressed the issues important to you? What other issues would you like them to have addressed in the debate? What was your favourite moment? Did anything change your mind in any way?
Swansea midfielder returns for Nations League ties
He stepped down shortly after 2022 World Cup in Qatar
Joe Allen is to come out of international retirement and return to the Wales squad for this month’s Nations League double header against Iceland and Montenegro. Craig Bellamy will confirm his squad on Wednesday morning.
The 34-year-old Swansea midfielder stepped down from Wales duty a couple of months after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, after which the former captain Gareth Bale and defender Chris Gunter retired altogether.
Public reacts to news that Russia is to spend more than 40% of its budget on defence and security; Russian troops occupy most of Vuhledar and raise flags. What we know on day 952
Live coverage of business, economics and financial markets as bank gave accounts to 49,000 high-risk customers and oil prices rise after Iranian missile attacks on Israel
The UK financial regulator has fined app-based Starling Bank £29m for “shockingly lax” failures related to financial sanctions screening.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that Starling had reported “multiple potential breaches of financial sanctions” despite its financial checks process being under scrutiny by the regulator.
Starling’s financial sanction screening controls were shockingly lax. It left the financial system wide open to criminals and those subject to sanctions. It compounded this by failing to properly comply with FCA requirements it had agreed to, which were put in place to lower the risk of Starling facilitating financial crime.
The unemployment rate remains at the lowest level recorded since the eurozone began in 1999. The low rate remains remarkable given the sluggish economic environment that the eurozone has been in since late 2022. But labour demand remains high despite a weak economic environment. That results in worrisome productivity developments, but also boosts household income growth and confidence in the short-term.
The actor, known best for TV roles in Quantum Leap and Star Trek, plays the well-loved president in a one-man show
Scott Bakula has just finished a noon student matinee. The audience included fidgety fourth graders (aged nine or 10).“They can be very challenging and this piece I wouldn’t say is necessarily kid friendly,” he says by phone. “But they did pretty well.”
Then he reflects: “You always know that in the midst of that group of kids, regardless of how some are not great at behaving and sitting – and I don’t blame them necessarily – a show strikes a chord in some children. That’s all you need. That gets you through it. You know there are kids that are glued to it and you do the work for them.”
A Maga lion in sheep’s clothing and a coach with debate nerves brought brief hope of civility returning to politics
There was a strange feeling as the vice-presidential debate got under way in the CBS News studios on Tuesday night that only intensified as 90 minutes of detailed policy discussion unfolded: was the United States in danger of regaining its sanity?
After weeks and months of being assailed by Donald Trump’s dystopian evocation of a country on the verge of self-destruction, amplified by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s dire warnings of democracy in peril, here was something very different. The two vice-presidential nominees were embracing that most endangered of American political species: agreement.
Connexion
