News in pictures: Thursday May 8, 2025
'Silvermen' street performers Ari Munandar, left, his brother Keris, right, and their neighbour Riyan Ahmad Fazriyansah hitch a ride on a lorry to the road junction in Jakarta where they will ask drivers for small change
YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Carlos Acosta's Ballet Celebration perform Les Sylphides, part of a gala production at Birmingham Hippodrome that draws from the repertory of Sergei Diaghilev's troupe of dancers, musicians and designers who fled Russia to set new standards in the world of dance
GARRY JONES/GETTY IMAGES
This picture of a Humboldt penguin surfacing at the Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling, Scotland, won the bird category in the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums' annual photography competition
BERNIE CATTERALL
A man inspects the damage to a building in Kolti, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which was hit in a series of missile strikes launched by India in retaliation for a militant attack on tourists a fortnight ago
SOHAIL SHAHZAD/EPA
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, leads exiles in prayers for his longevity in Tsuglakhang temple, Dharamshala, India — the largest Tibetan temple outside the country
ASHWINI BHATIA/AP
The Sainsbury wing of the National Gallery, in London, is reopening after a three-year renovation during which it was rehung with more than 1,000 paintings tracing the western European tradition from the 13th to the 20th century
NEIL HALL/EPA
Rodolfo Liprandi, an Italian artist, made this sculpture from branches and twigs for an exhibition at Lazienki Park, Warsaw, to mark the 25th anniversary of the World Wildlife Fund's Poland office
XINHUA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
Ruxy Cantir, a Glasgow-based performer from Moldova, kicks off the inaugural Summerhall Arts Festival Fringe with her show Pickled Republic at the Anatomy Lecture Theatre, a former veterinary school
RICH DYSON/ALAMY
Joyce Loote Lokonyi, 29, of Kapokor, Kenya, lost a foot to mycetoma, a fungal or bacterial infection that enters the body through an open wound, often as tiny as a thorn prick, and slowly erodes muscle and bone. The fungal variety is endemic across Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and northern Kenya, but attracts little funding or research
LUIS TATO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The Patchwork Collective is an installation of more than 1,500 hand-embroidered squares, on display at Liberty London to mark the department store's 150th anniversary.
JACK TAYLOR FOR THE TIMES
Salford's Lowry arts centre is celebrating its 25th anniversary with LOWRY 360, an immersive experience that brings to life the painter's Going to the Match as football fans head to Burnden Park, which was home to Bolton Wanderers until 1997. Lowry's 1953 painting can be viewed afterwards
JAMES SPEAKMAN FOR THE TIMES
Usher brings his tour Past Present Future, which celebrates his 30-year career, to the O2 Arena in London
JIM DYSON/GETTY IMAGES
Security staff remove a pro-Palestinian demonstrator from the Barclays Group' AGM at the QEII conference centre in Westminster. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign wants Barclays to stop providing financial services to defence companies that supplying the Israeli government
TOLGA AKMEN/EPA
Rowers on the River Main in Frankfurt, Germany, might wish they could take to water with the ease that these Egyptian goslings have taken to land
MICHAEL PROBST/AP
Shakira, accompanied by Wyclef Jean, performs her hit Hips Don't Lie on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
TODD OWYOUNG/NBC/GETTY IMAGES
A total of 94 carriage drivers are competing in this year's exhibition at the Maestranza bull ring in Seville, Spain, showing off their handling skills and the vehicles themselves, many of which are restored antiques
JOSE MANUEL VIDAL/EPA
The reclining Buddha at the Maha Vihara Mojopahit temple in Indonesia gets a wash before the Vesak festival, which commemorates his birth, enlightenment and death
JUNI KRISWANTO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Visitors to the Orsay Museum in Paris can watch conservators at work on Gustave Courbet's A Burial at Ornans, painted between 1849 and 1850. Having received no restoration work for at least 50 years, the painting was no longer deemed to be in a satisfactory condition
THIBAUD MORITZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Art For Your Oceans is an exhibition at Sotheby's of specially-commissioned works by 16 artists using ink made in Scotland from seaweed. It will raise funds for the WWF's ocean conservation projects
BETTY LAURA ZAPATA FOR THE TIMES
Gems with ties to early Buddhism are being exhibited at Sotheby's in Hong Kong after an auction was opposed by India, which said the jewels were part of its religious and cultural heritage
TOMMY WANG/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Legoland used 85 million bricks to build the models at its largest resort, which opens in Shanghai, China, in July
VCG/GETTY IMAGES
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Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Brittany Hockley left heartbroken by 'burned pizza' wedding cake after paying $1,000 for culinary eyesore: 'We ordered from a French patisserie... and got Temu'
Brittany Hockley has been left broken-hearted after she shelled out $1,000 for a lavish wedding cake - only to be delivered a culinary disaster. The former Bachelor star, 37, married Swiss footballer Ben Siegrist in a clifftop ceremony in Bali last week. While Brittany's nuptials went off without a hitch, the genetically blessed couple were left red-faced at the reception when they came face to face with their 'Temu' sponge that looked like a 'four-stacked pizza'. On Wednesday, Brittany shared an image of the ornate sponge she ordered, complete with piped dollops of rich white cream and a vibrant topping of fresh berries, and an image of what was delivered to illustrate her heartache. Instead of the berry-laden showstopper she hoped for, the final product resembled 'four burned pizzas slapped together' - dull, brown, and uninspired. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. The disappointing dessert left Brittany and her guests in shock. Brittany's co-host Laura Byrne did not hold back when describing the disaster on their Life Uncut podcast. 'I kid you not, this cake looked like a four-stacked pizza,' she began. 'It looked like someone had gotten four humongous supreme pizzas and layered them on top of each other,' she continued. 'It was covered in little cut-up strawberries which looked like tomatoes!' 'It was like we went to a French patisserie... and got Temu!' added Brittany. 'We tried to cut it, but it was so burned it just crumbled everywhere.' The presenter added she was so horrified by the cake she pleaded with guests not to take any photos of it. The couple's wedding took place last week at Pandawa Cliff Estate, which promises a 'dramatic and romantic clifftop setting overlooking the Indian Ocean' and stunning views of Bali's Bukit Peninsula. Brittany was ever the blushing bride on her big day, walking down the aisle in a strapless dress by Steven Khalil which featured a lace corset with dramatic long train. Brittany and Ben gave followers a glimpse into the nuptials, sharing a duo of loved-up snaps from the big day to Instagram. One showed Ben romantically embracing his new bride as he leaned in for a newlywed kiss. 'From the very first day, it was you,' Brittany captioned the images. 'Across any ocean, it is you. For the rest of our lives, it will always be you. Mr and Mrs Siegrist 4.6.2025,' she added, augmenting the sentiment with love heart emojis.
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Brittany Hockley showcases wild outfit changes at wedding to Ben Siegrist and the shock measures she had in place to make it down the aisle
Brittany Hockley has shared more details about her breathtaking Bali nuptials, including the number of outfit changes she did on the big day. The former Bachelor star we d Swiss footballer fiancé Ben Siegrist last Wednesday in a romantic clifftop ceremony overlooking the Bukit Peninsula. For the glamorous nuptials, the 37-year-old wore not one, not two, but three wedding dresses by bridal designer Steven Khalil, which featured in an Instagram post by her Life Uncut podcast co-host Laura Byrne. 'At one point for my dress change – I had three dresses – Laura [Byrne] had to take me behind the toilet wall,' she revealed on the latest episode of the podcast. The dress she wore for the ceremony bragged a lace, cinched corset that showed off her tiny waist and a full floral-ruffled skirt that was so big that it required a 'four-metre wide aisle', she told Marie Claire Australia. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Walking her down the very big aisle were both her mum and dad, the latter of whom was also the celebrant who married Brittany and Ben. Meanwhile, her radio presenter pal Mitch Churi acted as MC for the eventful evening. Brittany accessorised her dramatic frock with a large flower choker, pearl earrings and a veil that cascaded across the floor. Her hair was slicked back into an elegant bun, highlighting her natural makeup look and undeniable wedding glow. For her second number, Brittany slipped into another sleeveless, corseted dress, this time foregoing the lace for a mini floral skirt, complete with a sheer, lace fringe that fell to the floor. Later on, she ditched the lacy maxi skirt to show off her long, trim pins on the dancefloor while also flaunting a fashion-forward anklet which seemed to be the same choker she wore when saying 'I do'. The wedding took place at Pandawa Cliff Estate which promises a 'dramatic and romantic clifftop setting overlooking the Indian Ocean.' Brittany and Ben gave followers a glimpse into the nuptials, sharing a duo of loved-up snaps from the big day to Instagram on Friday. Brittany and Ben gave followers a glimpse into the nuptials, sharing a duo of loved-up snaps from the big day to Instagram on Friday One showed Ben romantically embracing his new bride as he leaned in for a newlywed kiss. The second showed the happy couple beaming as they held hands and hugged each other close. 'From the very first day, it was you,' Brittany captioned the images. 'Across any ocean, it is you. For the rest of our lives, it will always be you. Mr and Mrs Siegrist 4.6.2025,' she added, augmenting the sentiment with love heart emojis. The post was met with an outpouring of congratulations from friends, fans and followers. Brittany's Life Uncut podcast co-host Laura Byrne was quick to chime in with: 'HERE SHE IS!!!!! The most stunning bride and groom ever. What a day.' NRL WAG Zoe Marshall also offered a simple 'ahhh beautiful', while Brittany's former KIIS FM co-star Mitch Churi revealed the ceremony moved him to tears.
Spectator
8 hours ago
- Spectator
How do you exhibit living deities?
The most-watched TV programme in human history isn't the Moon landings, and it isn't M*A*S*H; chances are it's Ramayan, a magnificently cheesy 1980s adaptation of India's national epic. The show has a status in India that's hard to overstate. Something like 80 per cent of the entire population watched its original run; in rural areas entire villages would crowd around a single television hooked up to a car battery. When the show ended, omitting the 'Uttara Kanda', the fairly controversial last book of the original poem, street sweepers across the country went on strike, demanding the government fund more episodes. The government caved. But while every country has its pieces of cult media, in India the cult is literal. Some viewers would take a ritual bath before tuning in. Others would decorate their TV sets with garlands of flowers, or light oil lamps in front of the screen and perform aarti, a devotional rite in which a flame is waved in circles in front of an image of a god. And why not? There was an image of a god on the screen. He might have been played by an actor in a plastic crown, but Ramayan was a representation of Lord Ram. Abrahamic faiths can be quite iffy about this kind of thing. At my maniacally Orthodox Jewish primary school, I was told in no uncertain terms about all the terrible punishments God periodically imposed on those of his followers who tried to make images of Him. At one point, in an art lesson, we were told to draw a picture of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments; one boy who made the mistake of depicting Yahweh as an enormous stick figure had to watch his effort being ripped up in front of the entire class. Christianity has traditionally been more relaxed, but it has its own long history of recurring iconoclasms: Byzantine monks burning images of Christ; black-clad Puritans bursting into English churches to smash all the stained glass. In America, Catholic churches might have deposited heaving busloads of their parishioners outside suburban cineplexes to see The Passion of the Christ, but nobody got on their knees and started worshipping the screen. You could venerate an image of the crucifixion in a church, but Raphael's version in the National Gallery is only a work of art. As it happens, Indian religions used to be fairly similar. The earliest form of Hinduism was the Vedic religion that existed from around 1500 to 300 BC, and which was, as far as we know, firmly aniconic. If they did make any images of their gods, we haven't found them. What we do know, from the writings they left behind, is that their worship was focused around a sacrificial fire. The oldest collection of Hindu texts, the Rig Veda (c.1500-1000 BC), consist of hymns to be sung in front of these fires and extremely detailed descriptions of the sacrifices to be thrown into the flames. From there, the fire-god Agni would share out the sacrifice with the rest of the pantheon. Mostly, Agni was given gifts of ghee, grains and soma. Sometimes there were animal sacrifices. It might have never been actually carried out, but there's one more, the Purushamedha sacrifice, in which you offer the gods human flesh. It's likely that the Hindu tradition of devotional images came about in response to Buddhism, but Buddhism was also, originally, very strict about images. This makes sense, given early Buddhism's focus on nothingness and impermanence. During his life, the Buddha didn't call himself 'me' or 'I', since the self doesn't exist, but Tathagata, which means something like 'the one who has thus gone'. For the first few centuries of the religion, there was a strong taboo on any direct representation of the Buddha as a man. The preferred way to show him in stone carvings was as an absence. You could symbolise the Buddha with the image of an empty crown, or a riderless horse. The most popular image was the Buddhapada, a pair of footprints: the hollow left by something that no longer exists. The familiar smiling, seated figure didn't emerge until more than 500 years after Siddhartha Gautama achieved enlightenment. It's as if we had started depicting Henry VIII in 2025. The preferred way to show the Buddha in stone carvings was as an absence The situation is very different today. Hinduism still has room for interesting abstract forms, like the phallic lingam that represents the god Shiva, but most Indian religions are intensely visual religions. When Hindus visit a temple, they won't usually say they're going for puja (prayer), but for darshan, which means 'vision'. The most important element in worship is to look at the image of the god. But it goes both ways: there's darshan dena and darshan lena, giving and receiving sight. You look at the god, the god looks at you. The murti or idols in Hindu temples often have large, brightly painted eyes. The representation does not have to be exact, but the idea is that any image of a deity will be inhabited by that deity. Sometimes small street-corner shrines in India will consist of a small, roughly carved disc, or even just a corn husk, watching you with painted eyes as you pass. This makes exhibiting some of these objects difficult: how are you supposed to display a historical artefact that is also a living deity? At the British Museum, Ancient India: living traditions tries hard to accommodate their dual status. There's a room dedicated to each of three major Indian religions, Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, and along with some of the treasures of the British Museum's archives there's also a short video in which a modern-day British practitioner explains their worship. Some of these treasures really are extraordinary. A tiny gold reliquary that contains the first-ever figurative representation of the Buddha ( 1st century). There's a magnificently fluid Ganesh, carved out of volcanic stone a thousand years ago (see below). Stranger are the fierce, grimacing yakshas, teeming nature-spirits that might have evolved into the more stately Hindu gods. But there's also a plasticky Ganesh statue from 2007 owned by an events company called Om Creatives Ltd, and a photo of the god being paraded on the banks of the Mersey in 2014. Many of the figures of gods and sages are displayed on wide plinths, giving visitors space to leave an offering in front of the murti if they want. When I went, none of the visitors had done so. The museum is its own kind of religion, with its own rituals. Statue of Ganesh, made in Java from volcanic stone, 1000–1200. © THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM But if we're considering these works as part of a living religion, and not just objects from the past, it's striking that India's second-largest religion doesn't appear anywhere in the exhibition. Islam has been an Indian faith for more than a thousand years, and in that time plenty of uniquely Indian traditions have emerged. There are Sufi shrines, dargahs, that are also sacred to Hindu deities, where strange new forms of syncretic worship have taken shape over the centuries. Islam tends to be strongly aniconic, but then so does Sikhism, another autochthonous Indian faith that doesn't get a look-in here. Part of the problem is that the curators are a little too eager to make a clear identification between the religions of two millennia ago and their practitioners today. There is no straight line between them; religions, like everything else in the world, constantly change. These objects might have meaning for modern-day Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains, but the people who actually made them are gone. Maybe my favourite object in the exhibit was a tiny first-century copper statuette of a four-armed goddess found in the Deccan, central India. She has flowers in her hair and a girdle around her hips, but we no longer know her name. Whatever cult worshipped her is now extinct. But maybe her presence is still in there, looking out at the new kind of devotee that shuffles around the museum, seeing and being seen.
