English top flight’s forwards are not well represented on the list, reflecting a season of set-piece grapple, but 2026-27 already looks brighter

Premier League representation is low when it comes to the 16 attacking players on this year’s Ballon d’Or shortlist. Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland are there but Cole Palmer, one of the nominees in 2025, is out after an injury-hit year and English football’s shift towards physicality and set pieces last season is summed up by none of the forwards from the best team in the country making the cut.

The trio giving Arsenal a presence – Gabriel Maghalhães, Declan Rice and William Saliba – are all defensive minded. Arsenal won the league but their forwards are not regarded as elite. Injuries played a part, denying Martin Ødegaard, Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka fluency, but Mikel Arteta’s side were not loved by neutrals. There was respect rather than admiration for their defensive rigour. There was an argument that a lack of ambition after going 1-0 up stopped Arsenal from beating Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final.

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England reached World Cup semis yet midfielder did not play a minute. But he is key to Manchester United in derby

It was a sight the England press pack became increasingly used to seeing after the team’s World Cup matches over the summer. Kobbie Mainoo was invariably the first to leave the dressing room, walk through the mixed zone – eyes dead ahead, features impassive – and board the bus.

It was as if he could not get out of the stadiums quick enough and the further England progressed the more pronounced it started to feel. There was a real gap between Mainoo and the next England player to depart the stadium in the knockout rounds. The Manchester United midfielder is inscrutable, even in the heat of battle. It is part of his enviably unflappable temperament. It was no great leap to imagine what lay behind the mask – tremendous frustration as Thomas Tuchel kept on leaving him out.

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The 25th anniversary of 9/11, Russian strikes in Kyiv, wildfires in Indonesia and Sabalenka at the US Open – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images some readers may find distressing

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Patric was in New York toen de torens instortten. Jaap zag de aanslag met eigen ogen. Catherine zag hoe vliegtuigen zich in de Twin Towers boorden. Bloemist Mikey ontsnapte aan de dood. Edward miste op een paar seconden een lift. Max stond tussen de tranen in New York. Louise overleefde de aanslagen van 11 september. De vader van Caitlin kwam om het leven. Brianna maakte als kind de aanslagen mee. Greg overleefde 9/11 en werkt nu weer op dezelfde plek. Al die verhalen! En toen vond Trouw het allergrootste slachtoffer van 9/11. Abdelkader Benali. "Benali noemt de herinnering aan 9/11 traumatisch, een ‘doos van Pandora’ die zich elk jaar weer opent. Hij praat er met zijn dochters van zes en tien liever nog niet over, en ook zijn generatiegenoten mijden het. 'Ze zijn banen misgelopen, beledigd, bespuugd, door 9/11, doordat ze een islamitische naam als Jihad, Osama of Mohammed dragen. Zij willen niet aan die gebeurtenissen herinnerd worden'." Niet de oorlogsverklaring van radicale moslims aan het vrije westen, maar de nasleep, och jongens de nasleep. En die akelige PIM FORTUYN! Heel erg was het allemaal, voor Abdelkader Benali. Gelukkig is het morgen weer morgen. 12 september.

Cabaret Voltaire

Through brilliant oranges and moody shades of blue, Los Angeles-based artist Roberta Gentry renders vivid, balanced compositions that, as she says, take the senses seriously. Gentry has long been interested in the relationship between the constructed and the natural, cultivating abstract, biomorphic forms scaffolded by tall columns.

Gravitating toward symmetry and restricted palettes, Gentry paints rhythmic pieces that adhere to an underlying grid. Every painting is the result of multiple layers of thinned acrylic, which build into subtle gradients that dissipate across the canvas.

The paintings shown here are part of that artist’s upcoming solo exhibition, Blood Orange. Lush with color and texture, Gentry’s pieces reference the 16th-century La Dame à la licorne tapestries, comprised of six fiber works featuring a blond, lavishly dressed noblewoman flanked by a unicorn on one side and a lion on the other. Each piece correlates with one of the five senses, with text on the sixth reading “À Mon Seul Désirm,” or “to my only desire.”

While Blood Orange references the tapestries’ bold color palettes, Gentry also renders various elements they depict. The velvet gown the noblewoman wears, a towering pipe organ, and the orange trees anchoring the backdrop become central forms.

Although scholars interpret the tapestries as directly referencing the sense, others take a broader, more nuanced approached. The latter posit that the fiber works speak to how we gather knowledge and information about the world—particularly through the sixth, more mysterious piece related to emotion—and this is another place where Gentry’s interests align. She often considers “how we construct mythologies to interpret and explain our lived experiences,” that emerges on the canvas through a tension between the order of the grid and the roving, unpredictable nature of organic growth.

Blood Orange runs through October 24 at Track 16’s East Hollywood location. Find more from the artist on Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Symmetry and Biomorphic Forms Characterize Roberta Gentry’s Sensual Paintings appeared first on Colossal.

Door nu de scherpste randjes van de plannen voor komend jaar af te halen, hoopt het kabinet de kans op steun van oppositiepartijen te vergroten.

Bij de Miljoenennota zit dit jaar een brief aan de oppositie, die in de Haagse wandelgangen ‘de liefdesbrief’ is gaan heten.

Four unlikely friends share the same city, but rarely the same frequency. A wolf who looks dependable but hates trouble. A rabbit who looks harmless but has the shortest fuse. A buffalo who looks intimidating but avoids conflict. And a snake who looks distant but never misses a chance to get involved. Somehow, despite all the mixed signals, they always end up together.