Bennet-Martins, who lives in Boston with her wife, explains that the business started out as a silent protest against a bigoted neighbor.

"I was out of work because of the lockdown and we had just recently moved into this condominium complex that we live in," Maura says. "We were talking to a neighbor and I don't necessarily think she's homophobic, I think she's just ignorant, but she was talking about these other women that lived in the complex that she does not like and she kept calling them dykes." Gathering together her existing gnome collection, Bennet-Martins got to work making them as gay as possible. "I just started painting all of my garden gnomes so that if she was talking to someone else, and referring to us as those dykes, they would know exactly who she's talking about. There's 25 gay gnomes in my front yard!"

Ali B schittert donderdag door afwezigheid bij het belangrijkste moment in zijn strafzaak. Terwijl het gerechtshof uitspraak doet in het hoger beroep tegen de rapper, blijft hij weg uit de rechtszaal. Zijn advocaat Bart Swier bevestigde dat aan het AD.

Daarmee kwam meteen een nieuwe stroom speculaties op gang: zou Ali B zich uit de voeten maken als het vonnis tegenvalt? Namen als Dubai en Marokko vielen al snel op sociale media en in talkshows.

Vluchten kan niet meer

Maar volgens Swier is daar helemaal niets van waar. "Allemaal absolute onzin, hij heeft hier zijn kinderen", zegt de advocaat tegen het AD. Daarmee reageert hij op uitspraken van Rutger Castricum in Vandaag Inside. Castricum beweerde daar dat Ali ooit gezegd zou hebben dat hij niet zou gaan ‘zitten’ voor iets wat hij niet heeft gedaan.

Swier zegt niets van dat gesprek te weten en noemt ook die bewering "absolute onzin". Waarom Ali donderdag niet aanwezig is, blijft onduidelijk. Volgens zijn advocaat kan de emotionele impact van de uitspraak een rol spelen. Dat Ali het nieuws liever eerst met zijn familie verwerkt, "is een prima analyse", aldus Swier.

Hoge Raad

Het Openbaar Ministerie eist in hoger beroep 2,5 jaar cel voor twee verkrachtingen en één aanranding. In 2024 veroordeelde de rechtbank in Haarlem hem al tot twee jaar cel.

Direct de cel in hoeft Ali B bij een veroordeling waarschijnlijk niet. Er is geen onmiddellijke gevangenneming geëist en hij kan nog naar de Hoge Raad stappen.

Bron: AD

BRUSSEL (ANP/BELGA) - ING schikt de Belgische witwaszaak rond oud-politicus Didier Reynders voor 1,6 miljoen euro. Dat heeft het Brusselse parket naar buiten gebracht.

In april vorig jaar deed de Belgische centrale bank aangifte tegen ING België voor mogelijke medeplichtigheid aan witwassen van geld. Het Brusselse parket begon eveneens een onderzoek om na te gaan waarom de bank eerder geen melding had gemaakt van 245 contante stortingen en 779 e-Lotto-overschrijvingen van Reynders, een voormalig Eurocommissaris. Daarmee was in totaal ruim 1 miljoen euro gemoeid.

Hij bloeit overweldigend, met wolken witte bloesems, maar heeft ook venijnige doornen die in het verleden reuzenneushoorns en olifanten op afstand hielden. Het maakt de meidoorn zowel geschikt voor lieflijke, decoratieve toepassingen in jugendstil en art deco, als om symbool te staan voor zelfkastijding.

In ‘Donkey Days’ strijden twee zussen om de affectie van hun rijke, excentrieke moeder die een landhuis buiten Hamburg bewoont. Talent Rosanne Pel heeft iets verfrissends te melden over familie in een film die – ongebruikelijk – de troost van rolpatronen viert.

As a cheap, easy solution for when you’re away from home for a few days, it quietly does its job

The problem
Going away for a week and leaving your plants to fend for themselves is a specific kind of anxiety. You water thoroughly before you leave, move them out of direct sunlight, group them together and then spend your holiday picturing a wilted peace lily.

The hack
One hack suggests wrapping damp towels around the base and sides of your pots, creating a slow-release moisture jacket that keeps the root zone cooler and hydrated, while also acting as an insulating layer that slows evaporation from the soil surface. Unlike wicking systems that actively draw water in, this is purely about retention – holding on to the moisture that’s already there.

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An exodus of workers will be damaging – and electoral change might help Britain escape instability and low growth

While all eyes are on the Middle East and the risk of a global recession, a possible scenario with significant downside risk for the UK economy after the next general election is building: the impact of anti-immigration policies.

We do not know enough about the actual policy changes a Reform UK-led government would impose, but if we get forced repatriation (including of some who were born in Britain) combined with a climate of fear, the economic disruption could be highly significant.

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Robert Cyr Jr, a US navy airman, had gone missing in 1944 when his seaplane crashed in the Segond channel

The remains of a US military aviator who went missing after his crew crashed during the second world war were recovered and identified through DNA analysis and his family recently laid him to rest in Florida, according to officials.

US navy airman Robert Cyr Jr’s burial in Clearwater, Florida, brought to an end a decades-long saga that began on 22 January 1944, when he and eight fellow crewmates crashed while they were aboard a seaplane as it took off in the Segond channel in what is now the south Pacific’s Republic of Vanuatu.

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The film’s villain is a conniving tech oligarch seeking to buy his way into fashion’s inner circle. Sound familiar?

In The Devil Wears Prada 2, we’re introduced to a very different Miranda Priestly. There was a time where the all-powerful queen of fashion – who is played by Meryl Streep and based on Vogue’s longest-serving editor, Anna Wintour – could end careers with a glance. But this time, she spends most of the movie taking orders herself. First, we see her at the behest of advertisers, then publishing magnate Irv Ravitz and his irritating nepo baby son. And it isn’t long before Benji Barnes, an eccentric billionaire, shows up and threatens to dismantle the excellence she has spent her entire career championing.

In the film, Benji is played – scarily well, I should add – by Justin Theroux. After a high-profile divorce, he has had a “glow-up”, which loosely translates to losing weight and boasting a deep mahogany tan. Post-divorce, he is now in a relationship with Emily – Miranda’s acerbic former assistant, played by the scene-stealing Emily Blunt, who is described as “every girl who ignored him in high school”. Benji’s inclusion in the story feels representative of the wider media landscape, where the whims of billionaires decide which parts of the old, pre-social media world get to survive. And for Emily, she’s learning that being associated with someone so powerful has the potential to help her finally step out of Miranda’s shadow. The romance between these diametric opposites – Type A fashion queen and a nerd who grew up to become one of the world’s richest men – provides a stream of comic relief. But beyond the laughs are a deeper – and bleaker – statement about how people with enough money can buy cultural power.

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