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That’s me in the £45m Hockney! The man in the masterpiece relives sitting for David back in the heady LA party days | David Hockney

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‘Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh!” Laughter explodes down the line from California. “It was a very long time ago!” says the painter Don Bachardy. His voice is high and rasping. Listening to him, you could be forgiven for thinking that the late Truman Capote was still with us. As for what happened “a very long time ago”, Bachardy is referring to the parties he threw with his partner, the British novelist Christopher Isherwood. Their home in Adelaide Drive, Santa Monica, was a salon thronged by movie stars and writers as well as Bachardy’s fellow artists.“Yes, we had a good time…

A break down of the H-1B changes — and why more changes could come

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A few weeks ago, President Trump announced the application fee for an H-1B visa would increase to $10,000. The price tag sent shock waves through, especially the tech ecosystem, which heavily utilizes the visa to bring talent in from other countries. On this week’s Equity, we sat down with Jeremy Neufeld, the director of immigration policy at the Institute for Progress, to talk about the visa changes, what it means, and why it’s happening. He said the intention of the visa change makes sense, but the implementation of it has “left a lot to be desired.” “Some of the proposals…

Judd Trump suffers surprise second-round defeat by Matthew Stevens in China

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World number one Judd Trump suffered a surprise defeat in the second round of the Xi'an Grand Prix as he fell 5-4 to Matthew Stevens in China.From 3-1 behind against 2019 world champion Trump, Welshman Stevens won the next three frames to take a 4-3 lead.Trump was trailing by 38 points with 27 left on the table in the eighth frame but earned a decider by forcing a foul on the blue and then on the pink before clearing up and sinking the respotted black.Both players had opportunities to win the decider, but 47-year-old former Masters and UK Championship winner…

2025 box office headed for best post-Covid haul

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"Zootopia 2", "Wicked: For Good", and "Avatar: Fire and Ash."Courtesy: Disney Enterprises, Inc. | Universal PicturesThe box office is about to heat up.After a sizzling summer of action-packed blockbuster fare, theatrical momentum stalled in the fall. But, the winter slate is poised to deliver a consistent spark of ticket sales, pushing the 2025 domestical haul above $9 billion and toward a post-pandemic high, according to the latest estimates."The box office year-to-date domestically is running about 4% ahead of last year and, if we can expand on that lead, we could be looking at the biggest post-pandemic year for movies," said…

The weaponization of travel blacklists – Papers, Please!

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[A Federal Air Marshal (FAM) tasked with surveillance of an airline passenger targeted by Quiet Skies lists and/or rules followed the traveler out to the curb and recorded the license plate number of the vehicle in which she left the airport, so that her airline reservations could be integrated with license plate reader data into an uninterrupted multi-modal travel history.]On September 30, 2025, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs held a hearing on Examining the Weaponization of the Quiet Skies Program. Coming just hours before the partial shutdown of Federal government operations, this hearing was sparsely attended,…

Trump threatens no back pay for furloughed federal workers after shutdown ends

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As the government shutdown hits the one-week mark with no end in sight, President Trump issued a new threat, saying that furloughed federal workers may not be reimbursed with back pay once the government reopens. It reverses what's been a long-standing policy and possibly goes against a 2019 law that ensures back pay for federal workers. White House correspondent Liz Landers reports. Geoff Bennett: As the government shutdown hits the one-week mark with no end in sight, President Trump today issued a new threat, saying that furloughed federal workers may not be reimbursed with back pay once the government reopens.Donald…

The turbulent history of the union jack

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Stewart continues: "This was another means of smoothing national sensibilities by ensuring that the precedence given to the Irish saltire – because it lay over the Scottish saltire – was balanced by the Scottish saltire having precedence in the more prestigious half of the design." The flag was first flown on 1 January 1801, when the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland came into being. Since the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, the red has represented Northern Ireland.AlamyThe Death of Major Peirson by John Singleton Copley (1783) portrays a moment of British victory against a French invasion of Jersey (Credit:…

Google’s Search Live comes to India, AI Mode gets more languages

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Google is bringing its AI-powered conversational search feature, Search Live, to India — launching in English and Hindi — and expanding AI Mode to seven new Indian languages, as the company strengthens its presence in one of its fastest-growing markets. First introduced in the U.S. in July, Search Live builds on Google’s Project Astra technology and is available through the company’s AI Mode. The feature lets users point their phone camera at objects to get real-time assistance, supporting back-and-forth conversations that draw on the visual context from the camera feed. With this launch, India becomes the second market after the…

NFL: Keenan Allen – why coaches love record-breaker over star receivers

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Allen was selected by the Chargers - then based in San Diego - in the third round of the 2013 draft, but he has outlasted many of the wide receivers that were drafted after him."This record basically speaks to his consistency and his availability," said McGeoghan, who was the Chargers' wide receivers coach from 2018-2020."But his intelligence and his sophistication are what has allowed him to catch that number of passes over time. He's great on third down, he's one of the best chain movers in the history of the game."Allen currently has 11,563 receiving yards - fifth among current…

Impacts on commercial real estate

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The sunset is reflected in the windows of the US Capitol as a man runs on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on October 1, 2025, the first day of the US federal government shutdown.Andrew Caballero-reynolds | Afp | Getty ImagesA version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.When the government shuts down, real estate watchers tend…