Chelsea are in talks to sign Atalanta defender Honest Ahanor.

The Blues expressed an interest in the 18-year-old Italian when they signed right-back Marco Palestra from the Serie A side in July.

BBC Sport has been told Atalanta are willing to sell Ahanor if their 40m euro (£34.3m) valuation is met.

Ahanor, who mainly plays at left-back, joined Atalanta from Genoa on a three-year deal last summer for a reported fee of 16m euros, plus 4m euros in add-ons.

He made 28 appearances in Serie A for Atalanta last season, establishing himself as a regular starter for the Italian club. He also made his Champions League debut in a 2-1 win against Club Brugge in September.

In May, he was called up by Italy for friendly matches against Luxembourg and Greece.

Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso has been building his squad since taking over at Stamford Bridge in July, signing England midfielder Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa for a club record £117m, and adding experienced Premier League players Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson.

Chelsea face Brighton at home in the Premier league on Sunday after beating Fulham 3-2 in their opening match of the season on Monday.

OpenAI detected its artificial intelligence models communicating with each other and gaining internet access without authorisation months before they hacked the start-up Hugging Face, the creator of ChatGPT has announced following an internal probe.

In a report released on Wednesday, OpenAI said its AI agents exploited vulnerabilities in Artifactory, a software repository tool, to post notes and access the internet without human prompting as far back as May.

OpenAI said its agents went on to exploit a separate Artifactory vulnerability on July 8 to facilitate communication among themselves, setting in motion a chain of actions that culminated in the July 11 attack on AI company Hugging Face.

OpenAI’s findings come amid growing concern about the potential for AI to inflict serious real-world harm, including self-directed cyberattacks.

OpenAI said in its report that its agents collaborated and delegated work in the lead-up to the attack, sometimes referring to themselves as a “swarm” or “collective”.

METR and Redwood Research, two security research organisations contracted by OpenAI to investigate the incident, said in a separate report released on Wednesday that about 1200 agents had communicated with each other and roughly 700 participated in the attack.

After discovering how to escape OpenAI’s controlled environment, agents shared their methods via a “inter-agent message board”, enabling additional agents to exploit the company’s infrastructure, the tech giant said.

When one AI agent found Hugging Face user credentials that had been exposed online, it shared them with the group, enabling an agent to “discover and chain together several security exploits” that provided access to Hugging Face’s severs, according to the report.

“An internal team observed an agent engaging in message board activity and instances of disallowed internet access as early as late May, and with the benefit of hindsight, some early signals identified in our report should have triggered an earlier response,” OpenAI said.

OpenAI said agents created by an unreleased AI model were the primary participants in the attack, but publicly available GPT-5.6 Sol was also involved.

The company also revealed that it took its security team 11 days to detect the malign activities leading up to the attack, which the company uncovered on July 19 and publicly disclosed on July 21.

OpenAI, which described the incident as a “warning shot” for the world, said it would take several steps to strengthen its safeguards for its models, including restricting internet access, creating more secure testing environments and placing “stricter requirements on alignment throughout a model’s lifecycle”.

“We are also investing significantly more compute resources into chain-of-thought monitoring⁠ to more quickly intervene on misaligned behavior,” the San Francisco-based firm said.

Hugging Face, which operates a platform for hosting open-source AI models, did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of business hours.

Toby Walsh, an expert in AI and professor at UNSW Sydney, said the public should be concerned that OpenAI had missed warning signs and allowed the malicious activity to go undetected for so long.

“We cannot depend on either their goodwill or their competence. This needs regulatory oversight. Now!” Walsh told Al Jazeera.

“They ignored some troubling early evidence like this,” Walsh said.

“External auditing is the only appropriate response.”

Walsh said the incident also highlighted the “inherent conflict of interest” at the heart of AI development.

“Labs are locked in a relentless race to push the boundaries,” he said.

Tim Miller, a professor specialising in AI at the University of Queensland, said OpenAI’s report left him more concerned than before about AI’s dangers.

“More concerned because they demonstrate that these models are very good at hacking, and that everyone has access to them,” Miller told Al Jazeera.

“I’m surprised how good these are,” Miller said.

“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised that OpenAI engineers were somewhat negligent.”

Bangladesh is moving toward formal negotiations with China over a potential purchase of J-10CE fighters and attack helicopters, in what could become one of the country’s most significant defense acquisitions in years. The development also underscores the growing international interest in a Chinese fighter that has gained considerable attention since seeing combat in Pakistani service last year.

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister’s Information and Broadcasting Adviser Zahed Ur Rahman said Tuesday that a government panel is preparing a draft agreement that could pave the way for negotiations with Beijing. The government has not disclosed how many aircraft it intends to acquire, the potential value of the deal, or a delivery schedule, with those details expected to be determined during negotiations.

Local reporting has previously pointed to a potential requirement for as many as 24 J-10CEs.

If ultimately contracted and delivered, Bangladesh would become only the second confirmed foreign customer of the export version of the J-10C, after Pakistan. However, there has been growing speculation about other potential customers, too, fueled by imagery showing apparent export-standard J-10s being tested in China.

The potential acquisition comes as Bangladesh seeks to modernize its aging combat aircraft fleet. Dhaka already maintains a long-standing defense relationship with Beijing, which has supplied Bangladesh with combat aircraft, naval vessels, tanks, missile systems, and other military equipment over the past two decades.

The J-10CE is a much more capable proposition than many of the older fighters still operated by air forces that have historically relied on Chinese or Soviet-designed equipment, of which Bangladesh is a prime example. Currently, the Bangladesh Air Force’s fighter fleet is made up of different versions of the Chengdu F-7 (an updated Chinese version of the MiG-21 Fishbed) and much smaller numbers of MiG-29 Fulcrums.

Maintaining aging Soviet-designed fleets increasingly presents challenges in terms of airframe life, avionics, spare parts, weapons, and overall readiness. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine and accompanying sanctions serve to make Russia an even less reliable source of military aircraft and other arms.

The J-10C is a single-engine multirole fighter equipped with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, modern avionics, electronic warfare capabilities, and the ability to employ a growing range of Chinese precision-guided weapons. The export J-10CE also provides access to weapons such as the much-vaunted PL-15 beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile.

The aircraft’s growing reputation has been helped considerably by Pakistan.

Pakistan became the first foreign operator of the J-10CE, and the aircraft received intense international attention during the May 2025 conflict between Pakistan and India. Pakistan said its Chinese-made fighters were involved in shooting down several Indian aircraft, while the precise circumstances, numbers, and tactics involved remain the subject of competing claims and outside analysis.

Nevertheless, the conflict provided the J-10CE with an unusual degree of combat visibility for a Chinese export fighter. Now, Bangladeshi officials have explicitly acknowledged that the aircraft’s reported performance during that conflict has attracted attention in Dhaka.

The J-10CE is also particularly well positioned within China’s emerging fighter-export portfolio.

China is developing more advanced stealth aircraft, including the FC-31/J-35 family, but that program represents a different proposition for prospective customers, coming with greater cost and potential uncertainty attached. The J-10C is a much more mature design already in operational foreign service, giving China an aircraft that can be offered today rather than relying entirely on future capabilities.

That combination of modern systems and an established production line could prove attractive to countries that need to replace aging fighters without taking on the financial, political, or industrial commitments associated with acquiring a Western combat aircraft.

As well as the potential Bangladesh deal, Uzbekistan has been linked to the J-10CE.

For months, Chinese military aviation observers have speculated that Tashkent could become another customer for the fighter. More recently, imagery of an aircraft carrying the serial number 1020 has generated renewed interest, with low-visibility markings on its tailfin appearing to resemble the Uzbek flag.

TWILIGHT star Taylor Lautner’s wife Taylor has revealed their unborn baby could ALSO be called Taylor.

She admitted the parents-to-be, who are expecting a baby girl, hadn’t ruled out the moniker – and confirmed it is “in the mix”.

The couple revealed they were expecting their first child in March.

During a chat on the Call Her Daddy podcast, registered nurse Taylor was asked about potential baby names.

Host Alex Cooper asked: “Was there any consideration of naming your child Taylor?”

Taylor replied: “It may be in the mix.

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“We will find out when the baby comes”.

She then added: “I feel like if I don’t name my baby Taylor, the Internet’s literally gonna cancel me.

“I’m gonna get cancelled”.

Taylor added the name had been in line if the duo had learned they were welcoming a little boy, too.

She added: “We used to always joke that if we’re having a boy, we’d name him Taylor and call him T.J”.

In their baby reveal actor Taylor, 34, shared a sweet snap of him planting a kiss on his wife’s blossoming baby bump.

The glowing couple also posted a baby scan in an adorable family photo.

Taylor cheekily captioned the post: “What’s better than two Taylor Lautners?” – a nod to the fact his wife shares his first name and surname.

The two tied the knot in a lavish November 2022 wedding.

A woman has praised Primark’s clever £25 cabin suitcase which can supposedly save travellers money at the airport – and it’s even perfect if you fly with Ryanair regularly

Anyone travelling with Ryanair will know how hard it can be trying to keep within the hand luggage size limits. Often passengers have to spend extra money on not taking any luggage in the hold – or upgrading to priority travel.

That’s why one woman was thrilled to find a piece of hand luggage that doesn’t break the bank, and also fits in the Ryanair baggage policy. Primark’s £25 suitcase, complete with detachable wheels, means you can get through the priority lane supposedly without having to spend extra money at the gate.

Ryanair Priority allows passengers to bring a 55cm x 40cm x 20cm cabin bag (up to 10kg) for the overhead locker, plus a small personal under-seat bag – and this Primark suitcase ticks all the boxes.

TikTok user Denic joked: “Ryanair has got nothing on me,” as she popped the wheels off her pink suitcase before testing it against the recommended measurements.

And sure enough, it slotted in perfectly – meaning she was able to board her flight without any unnecessary stress or hassle.

The dimensions of the case are 48.5cm x 30cm x 20cm, making it a perfect fit for Ryanair priority boarding passengers.

The under-seat personal bag you’re also permitted must measure 40cm x 30cm x 20cm. Many commenters suggested she wouldn’t be allowed the white bag shown in the clip – but rest assured, an additional personal bag is permitted.

In the comments, one user clarified: “The top hole is a personal bag (small bag 40 x 30 x 20, no maximum weight, but you have to carry it yourself). You can only take 1 per person. But you have 2, the one in the hole on top and the one on the floor next to you. The bottom hole is the carry-on bag (the name speaks for itself, 55 x 40 x 20, 10kg).”

One fuming commenter wrote: “Acting like you tricked Ryanair when you bought a suitcase specifically sized for Ryanair?”

Another hit back: “It’s still better than paying 70€ for 2cm.”

A third chimed in: “If your luggage is going in the top bin, that suggests it’s your handbag allowance, so what are you doing with the second bag?

“If you’ve paid for overhead, then you’ve just demonstrated what a completely useless feature that is, as such a small bag would easily have fit in the bigger bin with the wheels.”

Others said the bag was a smart idea.

What is Ryanair’s baggage policy?

Ryanair travellers can carry a free cabin bag no larger than 40 x 30 x 20cm, provided it fits under the seat in front.

To upgrade baggage to priority, this allows passengers to keep a small under-seat bag plus a larger 10kg trolley bag (55 x 40 x 20 cm) in the cabin.

Alternatively, a 10kg bag can be checked in and dropped at the airport desk before security. While anyone who goes for checked baggage, this includes a 20kg bag or 23kg. No single checked bag can exceed 32kg, and any excess weight can lead to an airport fee.

Beth Hackman came across the idea by accident

A British woman shipped 8kg of clothes from her wardrobe to Australia for £4 – using a Vinted hack.

Beth Hackman, 25, moved the 10,000 miles from Windsor in Berkshire to Sydney with her partner, Nathan Riley, 25, while travelling in the region from March 2026. The physiotherapist moved with just two large rucksacks worth of clothes, but realised she needed more.

Instead of spending a fortune buying new clothes or on shipping, she downloaded Vinted to see if she could see what her mum, Mel Belsdon, 49, was selling, as she was an avid poster on the app. She then realised she could ship the clothes for free as part of Vinted’s launch in Australia.

Beth FaceTimed her mum so she could buy four bundles of her own clothes for £1 each as her mum listed them, so they didn’t get nabbed by anyone else.

All four 2kg parcels, within the confines of Vinted’s weight limit, arrived within nine days.

Beth said: “It was such a good hack to discover! I could literally picture the clothes I wanted to wear in my wardrobe back home and really didn’t want to have to waste money on new ones.

“I had just redownloaded Vinted on my phone with its location now showing as Australia and it came up saying there was no shipping fees for packages from the UK.

“I couldn’t believe it was true and immediately worked with my mum to get it sorted.

“All my stuff ended up arriving just over a week later on my birthday, which was just perfect.”

Vinted has since removed the free shipping in Australia, with the average parcel now costing £1.50 ($3.03 AUS) to deliver.

Jet2 regularly keeps its passengers informed

Jet2 has reissued a “12 hours” update to all passengers who have flights and holidays booked with the carrier.

The travel operator regularly keeps passengers informed, including flagging any events likely to cause disruption or delays, and the latest travel information section of its website continues to update travellers. The alert reads: “Please check this section of the website at least 12 hours before your flight for the latest flight information. Customers are advised to arrive at their departure airport at least 2 hours before their scheduled departure time.

“In the event of any flight delays further information can be found by using the above search panel by entering your flight number or route. As a reminder check in desks will close 40 minutes before your scheduled departure time. Rest assured, in the event of flight disruption our dedicated Operations teams are always working hard behind the scenes at our UK-based HQ to get you on your way as soon as possible.”

Jet2 check-in desks typically open a minimum of two hours and 30 minutes before your scheduled departure time. Passengers are advised to arrive at the airport with plenty of time to spare, as the check-in process must be completed at least 40 minutes before take-off.

At certain UK airports, Jet2 provides a Twilight Check-in service, allowing you to drop off your luggage the evening before your flight if it’s scheduled to depart before midday. You can also check in online anytime from 28 days up to six hours before departure via the website or app.

Should you opt to check in online, you’ll need to either print your boarding passes or download them to your device. Jet2 reminds passengers that online check-in is not available for flights departing from Turkey.

“You can still complete the process and get your pre-allocated seats, but you’ll need to visit our airport check-in desks to collect your boarding pass before you go to security.”

An investment firm owned by the two youngest sons of late Lakers owner Jerry Buss has bought into the new ownership group of the San Diego Padres.

Buss Sports Capital, which was started in September by Jesse and Joey Buss, joins a Padres ownership group that includes husband-and-wife controlling owners José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones. Although neither the team nor the firm supplied financial details of the deal, multiple media outlets are reporting that the Buss brothers’ stake in the Padres is around 5%.

“We are honored to join Kwanza and José and have the opportunity to contribute to the future of a team that Jesse and I have loved since we were kids growing up in San Diego,” Joey Buss, 41, said in a statement. “Sports have always been a part of our family’s story, and great organizations have a unique ability to bring people together and create a lasting sense of community. …

“The Padres are on the cusp of something special, and through Buss Sports Capital, we look forward to bringing our experience and perspective to the ownership group and doing our part to build on the strong foundation already in place.”

Like their four older siblings, Jesse and Joey Buss took part in the family business of running the Lakers. When the Buss family sold the controlling stake to Mark Walter for $10 billion last year, team controlling governor Jeanie Buss told ESPN, the siblings were told their roles with the team wouldn’t change for five years.

In November, however, Jesse and Joey Buss, as well as the rest of their siblings except for Jeanie, were let go by the Lakers. At the time of their dismissal, Jesse had been the team’s assistant general manager and Joey was vice president of research and development.

Earlier this month, Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger agreed to buy the majority ownership of the Lakers from Walter for $12.5 billion. Soon after, ESPN reported that the Buss siblings had agreed to sell their remaining 17.8% stake in the team to Kushner and Iger. Jeanie Buss, however, filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Wednesday to block such a sale.

The Padres are the first major acquisition for the brothers’ investment firm.

“Joey and I had the privilege of learning from our father and then spending nearly two decades building our own careers in professional basketball operations,” Jesse Buss, 38, said. “We saw firsthand what it takes to build a championship organization, and throughout our careers have applied those lessons across talent evaluation, roster construction, player development and long-term organizational planning. While every sport is different, we believe the principles behind building sustained success are universal. …

“We look forward to bringing that experience to the ownership group, supporting Kwanza and José’s vision for the Padres and doing everything we can to help bring a World Series championship to San Diego.”

Farah, Mohammed and Jawad are getting ready for the new school year in Masafer Yatta in the southern occupied West Bank.

The children, aged 17, 8, and 7 respectively, attend Shaab al-Butum school in a village with the same name. But the building they’ll return to will be missing two administrative rooms and a storage room after Israeli forces demolished them on August 4.

According to the United Nations, Israel justified the demolitions by saying that the structures were constructed without Israeli-issued building permits. These are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain in the Area C of the occupied West Bank, which is under Israeli administrative and military control.

The rest of the school isn’t safe either – it has also been threatened with demolition, with a court case scheduled for September 15.

The children’s return to education is now uncertain, as they worry about losing the village’s only school completely, and more confrontations with Israeli forces.

Constant fear

The start of the academic year at the beginning of September is supposed to mean a return to learning, but enthusiasm in Shaab al-Butum has now been mixed with anxiety.

Farah explained to Al Jazeera that the school was the only one she had ever attended, and was fearful about what would now happen.

Mohammed echoed that fear and said that he was worried Israeli forces would “return to demolish what remains” of the school. Jawad, meanwhile, spoke of his sadness at seeing the school damaged and said he hoped it could “return as it was”.

For Nidal Younis, the head of the Masafer Yatta local council, those concerns reflect a much wider threat facing education across the area, which has repeatedly been targeted by the Israeli state and settlers over the years. Masafer Yatta was declared part of a closed Israeli military firing zone in the 1980s, which has been used as justification in repeated attempts to force local Palestinians out.

“It is a test renewed with every school year, amidst unprecedented escalation by the occupation authorities,” Younis told Al Jazeera.

“This year comes amid the tightening of the occupation’s policy of demolishing schools, and rampant settler violence that targets everything in these villages,” he added.

That violence, Younis said, follows children throughout their daily lives, targeting “students going to their schools, students while in class, and even inside the home”.

According to Younis, all seven schools in the wider Masafer Yatta area are now threatened with demolition.

“We do not know whether these schools will survive to the end of this academic year, let alone still be standing when the next one begins,” he said, stressing the determination of local Palestinians to stay “despite the pain and [Israeli] barbarism”.

Settler violence

Activist and teacher Tariq Hathaleen said the uncertainty surrounding demolitions, coupled with the continued expansion of settlement outposts, had deepened the sense of insecurity among residents.

“The occupation authorities do not usually tell the residents or the school administration in advance when the bulldozers will arrive,” Hathaleen told Al Jazeera.

Hathaleen added that settlers had stormed Ras Ein al-Auja school in the Jordan Valley the previous academic year, assaulting staff and students.

The attack and the demolition confirmed that schools are “no longer immune from attack”, Hathaleen said.

“[Israel’s actions] do not target merely one aspect, but affects education, housing, freedom of movement and livelihoods,” Hathaleen explained.

Hathaleen described the targeted schools – built by the Palestinian Ministry of Education to serve marginalised areas – as “more than just educational buildings”.

Systematic pattern

Figures from the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission underscore the scale of the threat, with 84 Palestinian schools serving nearly 13,000 students currently facing Israeli demolition or stop-work orders.

Amir Dawoud, a senior official with the commission, said the schools facing the most immediate legal threats were concentrated in the southern Hebron area, particularly Masafer Yatta, as well as at al-Walaja school near Bethlehem, which Israel says lacks a building permit.

“These are not schools that can simply be closed and their students easily transferred elsewhere,” Dawoud told Al Jazeera.

The impact of demolition orders, he said, begins long before any building is actually destroyed, creating uncertainty and disruption for students, teachers, and their families.

“The psychological and educational impact begins before the bulldozer arrives,” he said.

“It is a systematic pattern that transcends individual cases,” Dawoud added, noting that it starts with planning restrictions, accompanied by road restrictions and settler attacks.

“It does not only threaten school buildings,” he said. “It targets the ability of Palestinian communities to survive.”

According to the company’s travel logs, shared with the Press Association, the age of the missing British citizens ranges from 13 to 65.

Alpine Eco Trek said the youngest member of the group is believed to be a 13-year-old girl, according to PA.

It also reported four of the firm’s Nepali tour guides are also missing.

The company’s manager Kumar Adhikari said he was in contact with the guides until 08:40 when they were expected to be at Tibet’s immigration office, but their phones were disconnected.

“We were hoping that inside it was safe,” he told PA, “but later the video came from China’s government which [showed] even Tibet’s side was hit by the flood.”

Adhikari said he was “slowly responding to” the families of the Britons but has been unable to give them any updates, adding he has been in contact with the British consulate and forwarded them copies of the clients’ passports.

“I feel so sad. We are just thinking about what to do next…We are in pain at the moment, deep pain.”

Another tour company impacted by the flash floods, Himalayan Glacier US, told the BBC they have lost contact with a group of 47 guests and staff who where making a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, which included two British citizens.

Kailash Journeys also reported a group of 27 guests and staff missing, with a spokesperson saying they were last in contact with them early Wednesday morning local time.

A list of names provided to the BBC included two men who are British citizens.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said he is “deeply concerned” by news of the flash flooding, and wrote on social media: “All my thoughts are with those affected and with British nationals in the area and their relatives here at home”.

In a joint statement with Australia, the EU, Finland, France, Norway and Switzerland, the UK embassy in Nepal urged British nationals in Nepal to “exercise caution in affected areas”.

KYLIE Jenner has confronted her BFF Stassie in a tense podcast moment as they addressed weeks of fighting and fall-out rumours.

It’s been speculated that the once inseparable pair have been feuding as fans were left convinced they’d fallen out.

Now the two women have finally addressed the rumours as Kylie, 29, has appeared on a new episode of Stassie’s Better Half podcast, which he hosts alongside Victoria Villarroel.

A teaser clip of the episode has been shared on their Instagram and it looks like fans are in for a wild ride.

In a heavily-edited video, the ladies are seen putting it all out on the table as dramatic music plays in the background.

Mum of two Kylie says: “I think we’re just going down different paths.”

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The words “It’s time to clear the air,” appear on the screen in a pink fancy font.

Stassi expresses: “I just think you were being such a b***h,” as Kylie adds: “That really rubbed me up the wrong way.”

“I think we’re at a different phase of life from each other,” Stassi, also 29, tells her bestie as she agrees.

Kylie shoots back: “I just don’t like how…,” before the clip dramatically ends.

Fans have been left unconvinced by the clip and think Kylie and Stassie are rage-baiting them.

One person commented: “Oh pleaseeeeeeeeeee. Cute acting.”

Another follower expressed: “Ya’ll play too much.”

Somebody else stated: “I love that you guys rage bait like this.”

Yet another penned: “I can’t wait to click on this clickbait.”

While a fifth added: “Don’t play with us like this.”

Earlier this month, Kylie threw herself a party to commemorate her 29th birthday but Stassie was noticeably absent from the festivities.

Instead, she was in Ibiza with her new pal Alix Earlie as Kylie partied with Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber and many more.

This raised eyebrows as fans flocked to social media to share their thoughts.

“Stassie is currently in Ibiza with her new bestie Alix & will not be attending Kylie’s birthday party. Another one bites the dust,” said one fan on Reddit.

Another fan added: “Maybe Stassie got tired of paying for everything. Didn’t she say that Kylie always forgets her wallet whenever they go out.”

“Alix is more famous than Kylie now imo. Gen Z or A doesn’t care about Kylie,” added a third.

“Kylie having no real friends left is very telling. Her former assistant and lash tech are her besties how pathetic,” slammed a fourth.

An issue everyone has faced at one time or the other led to a nightmare for Karen Cassidy, after tour operator Jet2 cancelled her entire booking due to the ‘no-show’

A mum who overslept and missed her holiday flight to Spain was left “in tears” after discovering that her entire all-inclusive package holiday had been cancelled without her knowledge. Karen Cassidy and her husband George Gale had been due to fly out to Malaga at just after 7am on August 14 but overslept.

Karen explained: “The baby had kept me up so I don’t think I ended up going to sleep until 2:00am then we were supposed to get up at 4:00am but just slept through our alarms.”

As soon as she realised that that they had missed their flight, Karen wasted no time in getting ‘straight on the internet’ and booked an alternative flight to Malaga for that afternoon.

But after finally arriving at the hotel at midnight, the “exhausted” mum-of-three, 36, says she was left “in tears” to discover her entire all-inclusive package holiday had been cancelled.

After calling holiday organisers Jet2 and “crying for 20 minutes” Karen says she was told there was “absolutely nothing they could do” and she had to pay another €350 (£300) to stay the night in the hotel.

Karen says that she and George ended up paying over £1,500 for alternative accommodation and travel – meaning the cost of their £1,114 family holiday ballooned to more than £2,600.

Sharing her experience on TikTok, Karen wants to raise awareness so that other people don’t make the same mistake she did.

She explained: “Our new flight was around 4:00pm then we were delayed for over an hour so by the time we got to the hotel it was midnight. Obviously they were like ‘we can’t find your booking.’ Then they explained ‘actually there is a booking but it’s a past booking.’ Jet2 had cancelled our entire holiday at 3pm.

“After everything I felt we had gone through, I was just shocked.”

A spokesperson for Jet2holidays said: “We’re sorry to hear about Ms Cassidy and Mr Gale’s experience and we understand how disappointing it must have been to arrive in Malaga and find that their holiday arrangements had been cancelled.

“Unfortunately, as the customers did not travel on their booked outbound flight or let us know that they planned to make their own way to Malaga, their remaining holiday arrangements were cancelled in line with the terms and conditions of their booking. When they got in touch with us after arriving in resort, our team offered to try to help and support them.”

Karen said that when they finally arrived at they hotel she was “exhausted and just in tears.”

She explained: ”They [Jet2] came back to me and said there’s absolutely nothing they can do, they have a no-show policy, because it’s been cancelled, they can’t go back on that.”

They had arrived at their hotel so late, Karen added, that they had very few alternatives. ”At this time, midnight, we don’t have that luxury option of going to shop around,” she said.

Karen shared her story on TikTok, saying that even though she had received critical comments from some other users, she wanted to make others aware of what she called Jet2’s “unclear” policy. She continued: “Through loads of rubbish comments from people calling me an idiot or people saying ‘what grown up can miss a flight’, there’s hundreds of people that don’t know.

“If I could save one person, I’m happy.”

My dream holiday is a trip back in time. Not to see the results of seismic Pompeii or 15th-century Machu Picchu – although I love both – but somewhere created specifically between the mid 1950s and 1970s, when cities were getting weird. I love postwar architourism, exploring urban planning at its most frenzied and optimistic. I have relished trips to Niemeyer’s Brasília and Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh in India, where the monumental and visionary modernist architecture and interiors are at odds with the minimal population. So La Grande-Motte, the retro futurist folly of a resort town on the southern coast of France, a 30-minute drive from Montpellier, had long been on my “must visit” list.

The tourist board of this Occitanie seaside town likes to flag up some superficial parallels between it and the aforementioned cities, but this isn’t a high-concept capital city or administrative hub. It was built in the late 1960s and early 1970s purely to persuade the French to stop going south to the Costa Brava in Spain. As part of an initiative by the French government, a stretch of windswept mosquito-infested coast between Montpellier and Perpignan, including Gruissan and Port Leucate, was reimagined as an alternative to the Côte d’Azur with several new-build beach towns. La Grande-Motte would be the weirdest project. It was made for fun. It’s also well positioned to visit the nearby salt marshes and 13th-century walled-in town of Aigues-Mortes, for when you want to feel as if you’ve ticked a few more holiday boxes.

The mastermind behind the town’s architecture, Jean Balladur, took inspiration from temples and Mesoamerican pyramids from the first century, imagining what the 21st century would look like in the 1970s. Why shouldn’t modernist apartments be arranged in the shape of a Maya pyramid, or an intergalactic curve? I rented a tiny studio with my husband in the Incas building for part of my trip, and while there was nothing in the way of high design about the interior, being on that terrace immersed us in a timewarp.

Walking around Point Zéro (named for being the site of the earliest construction), home to La Grande-Motte’s main beach, all looks fairly standard: families playing on the sand, couples drinking cocktails outside cafes. The beach gained a Blue Flag award for environmental management and water quality in 2025. But the place is unique: the ferris wheel is solar powered and the buildings suggest you’re on another planet entirely – there are no rectangular blocks and few right angles to be seen. The urban planning has been driven by pedestrian pathways and cycle routes, punctuated by thousands of trees.

On the beach there are concrete sculptures by artist Joséphine Chevry, which look like the tips of the wartime sound mirrors in Dungeness, Kent. Chevry created them to help shape the dunes (AKA “the big mound”) but also to serve as functional wind breakers and shade when Point Zéro was created. They’re now mostly buried in the sand. Time has moved on but they will for ever be core to the town’s concept.

The place has had cyclical fortunes. As with many seaside towns, it fell from grace in the 1980s. It was gauche. In 2014 the fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus created a nostalgic collection and book in homage to the town and talked to AnOther Magazine of its “trashy reputation”, but he also said he found it “inspiring and exciting” and remembered his holidays there as a child. And it seems a renaissance is under way as the grandchildren of people who first bought apartments here are discovering it.

I’d recommend the fabulously vintage three-star Hotel Le Quetzal (doubles from €114 room-only) as an interesting base. It feels brilliantly 1970s, being part of the original wave of development in the town, but was refurbished a few years ago so the essentials are fresh and modern. Its design is as interesting as anywhere in town: the balconies jut out like theatre boxes and create an optical illusion of the building being slanted. There’s no restaurant but people microwave meals in the lobby or bring back a margherita from nearby L’Atelier de la Pizza to have on their balcony.

A couple of days by the pool here are great, fending off seagulls from your pain au chocolate at breakfast and watching stray cats wander around the loungers; the same families have been coming for years. Nearby, L’innatendu is a better restaurant than anything on the seafront (I particularly recommend the squid with black rice), although the most enjoyable meal I had was a bunch of simple marinated skewers at La Guinguette des Alizés, opposite the seafront carousel on Avenue du Couchant that looks like a piece of pop art.

Strolling around La Grande-Motte’s apartment blocks was as fascinating to me as a visit to the Colosseum. I walked through the open-air theatre that looks like a derelict World’s Fair site but is used for shows regularly, around the elegant white bow shape of Saint-Augustin’s church, down to the water and the Big Pyramid apartment complex facing the yachts on the dock, and to the low and curved buildings of Le Couchant. I spent hours photographing stairwells and walkways, and the hundreds of balconies that make the town the sum of its geometric parts – graphic beauty reminiscent of the Bauhaus, Saul Bass posters and Verner Panton furniture. La Grande-Motte is a sunny, gleaming white vision of a future that we could never live up to. Or perhaps deserve.

Aug. 26 (UPI) — The Justice Department and FBI announced Wednesday that they seized two platforms used to target U.S. critical infrastructure and other sensitive networks.

The seizures were of two hacking platforms called QScan and QTRouter, which were used to hack U.S. infrastructure sites, the press release said. The affidavit described a Chinese state-sponsored group known as QTFY whose members are employed by China-based Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company that has hacked into NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Energy, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Senate.

“Federal law enforcement investigated and disabled [China’s] malicious software, the latest in a series of technical operations to dismantle indiscriminate hacking activities sponsored by the People’s Republic of China,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.

“These court-authorized seizures deny [China]-linked hackers access to tools they use to mount online attacks against our Nation’s critical infrastructure,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg in a statement.

According to court documents, QTFY offers computer hacking services to its paying customers, including China’s army and Ministry of State Security. These computer hacking services include QScan and QTRouter, which work in conjunction, the press release said.

QScan scans and automatically infects thousands of internet-of-things devices worldwide, which are then added to the QTRouter network of QTFY-controlled devices. QTRouter consists of these compromised IoT devices, as well as commercial proxy service devices and leased virtual private servers. QTRouter then serves as an obfuscation network — meaning it allows QTFY and other malicious cyber actors to conceal the China-origin of their computer intrusion activities because the malicious communications appear to originate from computers that are outside of China and may even be local to the targeted networks.

Because the seized domains were hard-coded into the QScan and QTRouter malware and used for essential tasks such as communication and authentication, the court-authorized seizures made QScan and QTRouter inoperable.

MODEL Kaia Gerber serves up a fashion treat at the US Open in New York.

The beauty, 24, looked fab in shades and a black dress at a Roger Federer exhibition tennis match.

Kaia, daughter of supermodel Cindy Crawford, watched with Homer Gere, 26, above, her co-star in TV thriller The Shards.

His actor dad Richard Gere dated Kaia’s mum in the 1990s.

Now that’s two great matches.

Kaia, who stars in the new FX series The Shards recently claimed she was possessed as a child before undergoing an exorcism.

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She told The Mitch Churi Chat Show podcast: “I do feel as though I attract beings from the other dimension, in a very casual and chill way.”

The star then revealed the bizarre way in which the ancient ritual was performed.

“They played a didgeridoo all over me.

“That’s how they did the exorcism,” Kaia revealed.

“I’ve never talked about it, but it actually did happen.

“I’m all healed.”

Steven Kwan hit a tying double in the ninth inning, Travis Bazzana followed with a sacrifice fly and the Cleveland Guardians rallied past the Angels 4-3 on Wednesday for their seventh straight victory.

Hunter Gaddis (2-3) retired the final two batters in the eighth to earn the win. Erik Sabrowski worked a scoreless ninth for his second major league save and first since 2024.

With a runner on second, Sabrowski struck out pinch-hitter Travis d’Arnaud and got pinch-hitter Oswald Peraza to pop up to second as Cleveland completed a three-game sweep.

Chase DeLauter, slowed this week by left hamstring tightness, sparked the winning rally with a one-out single off reliever Ryan Watson (1-1) in the ninth.

Petey Halpin ran for DeLauter and went to second on Brayan Rocchio’s single. Kwan roped a ground-rule double to right field for a 3-all tie, and Bazzana’s sacrifice fly sent the Angels to their 10th loss this season when leading after eight innings.

Angels starter Grayson Rodriguez gave up one run and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings, striking out four and walking one. Guardians starter Joey Cantillo gave up two hits in six innings but issued a career-high seven walks and committed a first-inning error that led to a run.

Zach Neto led off the bottom of the first with a single and scored when Cantillo fielded Vaughn Grissom’s one-out dribbler and threw the ball into right field.

The Angels extended the lead to 3-0 in the second when Cantillo walked the bases loaded with one out, hit Neto with a pitch to force in a run, and Mike Trout added a sacrifice fly.

Cleveland cut it to 3-1 in the fifth when Rocchio doubled, went to third on Kwan’s groundout and scored on Bazzana’s sacrifice fly. The Guardians pulled to 3-2 in the eighth when Bazzana bunted for a single, Jo Adell walked and Nathaniel Lowe flared an RBI single to left-center.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani is due to visit Tehran on Thursday for talks on de-escalating tensions and reviving dialogue between Iran and the United States.

A spokesman for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the visit in a statement on X on Wednesday.

Majed al-Ansari said Sheikh Mohammed, who is also Qatar’s foreign minister, will meet with “a number of Iranian officials” in Tehran to “discuss ways to de-escalate tensions” and “create the conditions conducive to dialogue”.

“The visit comes in line with the State of Qatar’s firm position that the diplomatic path is the best means of resolving differences & promoting security & stability in the region,” he added.

Iran also confirmed the visit, saying the discussions will cover “the continuation of Qatar’s mediation efforts and initiatives, as well as other regional developments”.

Qatar has served as a back-channel negotiator between Washington and Tehran and helped secure a memorandum of understanding in June that briefly paused hostilities. The agreement collapsed in July, and the conflict is now nearing its sixth month, with fighting largely paused but no diplomatic breakthrough in sight.

The US has, meanwhile, promised to increase economic pressure on Tehran by sanctioning its trade partners.

US President Donald Trump told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that he was in “no hurry” to resume talks with Iran, saying that he believed economic and military action against Tehran were both effective.

“I have no time schedule; whatever it takes,” he said.

‘Economic terrorism’

Iran has continued to denounce the economic pressure campaign.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote to the United Nations on Wednesday calling the new sanctions an “act of state and economic terrorism” and urging member states not to implement them.

“The sanctions deliberately harm civilians by restricting access to food, medicine, medical equipment, energy and other essentials, violating rights including the rights to life, health, food and an adequate standard of living”, he said.

The two sides also remain at odds over the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway that handled one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments before the US-Israel war on Iran began in February.

Iran wants control over the strait, while the US wants it to remain an international waterway that is free for all. That disagreement in part led to the collapse of the memorandum signed in June.

Oil flows through the strait have since fallen to a three-month low, with just 5 million barrels per day (bpd) transiting on Monday. Before the war, the strait carried roughly 20 million bpd of crude oil.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said Sheikh Mohammed will also discuss the waterway in his meetings in Tehran on Thursday, focusing on “the need for it to return to the status quo prior to February 28”.

Regional diplomacy

Sheikh Mohammed’s visit comes two days after Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi met his Iranian counterpart, Araghchi, in Tehran.

Following those talks, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said the two countries had agreed on a new temporary route for shipping in the strait.

But he insisted that the waterway will not reopen until the US fulfils its commitments under the June deal, including the lifting of sanctions and the release of frozen assets.

Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, also visited Tehran earlier in the week in a bid to “end the stalemate” in the conflict, with Islamabad reporting “significant progress” in those talks.

Mostafa Khoshcheshm, a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Tehran, said that regional countries were pushing for dialogue because “they believe that the situation is moving towards escalation”.

“They know that if war breaks out, it would be a fully-fledged war and the fire would spill over into the entire region and beyond, leaving a detrimental impact on the global economy,” he said. “So there are hectic diplomatic moves on the part of these countries.”

Faced with having to fight as technology rapidly transforms the nature of warfare, the U.S. Marine Corps on Wednesday unveiled its vision for the future of ground combat. Dubbed Ground Combat Element (GCE) 2040, the document lays out how Marines will fight and what kinds of equipment and training they will need to succeed, down to the squad level. Though the document doesn’t mention a specific adversary, it focuses heavily on the kind of littoral, anti-access battle a future Pacific fight would entail.

“I think that you would agree that the global security landscape today demonstrates an intensity for that kind of modernization,” Lt. Gen. Jay M. Bargeron, Deputy Commandant, Plans, Policies, and Operations, said today during a media roundtable to introduce GCE 2040 that TWZ attended virtually. “It’s a landscape that’s defined by rapid technological change and the reemergence, importantly, of peer-level adversaries like China and Russia.”

A working concept of the plan was presented for the first time back in April during a panel at the Modern Day Marine Expo held in Washington, D.C. 

Ground Combat Element 2040 Teaser

In a future fight against enemies with ubiquitous sensors, advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) capabilities, waves of expendable drones, offensive and defensive electronic warfare systems and long-range precision weapons, smaller Marine units like rifle squads will have to act more independently to defend themselves and execute successful attacks.

The new plan recognizes that “widespread use of drones underscores the need for effective organic protective measures across the GCE, down to the squad level. The evolving drone threat presents the most significant risk to ground maneuver, requiring layered active and passive counter-UAS capabilities to retain the initiative. Survivability must be addressed by comprehensively encompassing improved training, updated doctrine, and technological advancements.”

You can see an example of how small drones are being used against Ukrainian forces in the following video.

The ubiquity of drones on the battlefield has devastated both Russian and Ukrainian forces, which are each using these weapons to create an ever-growing no-go zone. Bargeron acknowledged that providing protection from drones for smaller Marine units presents a major challenge.

“The ability for our lowest echelon units – squad, platoon, company – to defend themselves against one-way attack systems is really maybe one of the biggest holes in our swing, and so we’re working hard on that,” the general admitted.

Protecting these forces will require a forward, layered approach involving ground-based air defenses (GBAD) and other means, Bargeron explained. From longer ranges, systems like the Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS), Light Marine Air Defense Integrated Systems (LMADIS) and Medium-Range Intercept Capability [MRIC], will defend Marines, he said.

In addition, Bargeron said the Marines will also rely on a system called “Home Alone,” which a spokesman for the service told us “is a Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft System (CsUAS) that is a semi-fixed site GBAD solution that supports our layered defense structure.” The Marines declined to provide any details about how that system works, citing its classified nature.

For protection at the squad level, “the GCE 2040 integrates both active and passive measures to ensure organic protection,” a Marine official told us. “A key component of this is the Organic Counter-small UAS, or O-CsUAS, initiative. This program has fielded dismounted kits directly to the squads. These kits provide Marines with the ability to actively and passively detect drone threats and to defeat them using both kinetic and non-kinetic means.”

Those kits are “complemented by the use of frangible 5.56 ammunition for standard-issue rifles, which is more effective against aerial targets, and the continued employment of passive countermeasures like multi-spectral camouflage, dispersion, and displacement to degrade enemy targeting,” the official added.

Bargeron noted that the Marines have already purchased 400,000 of the frangible counter-drone rounds and that they are undergoing training on how to use them.

You can read more about the Marines’ emerging doctrine for devolving air defense down to the individual Marine in our story here.

Drone Round: The Next Evolution of Counter-UAS

As noted earlier in this story, GCE 2040 also calls for providing squads with longer-range offensive weapons.

“What we’re trying to do is to bring precision strike capabilities down to the lowest level,” the general noted. “That’s a great example of using advanced technology to enhance the lethality of Marines that are already doing that job. The OPF [Organic Precision Fires] increases the individual Marine’s or Marine rifle squads’ ability to strike targets, at ranges that you had previously needed fixed-wing air or aviation fire support or indirect fire.”

The goal is for squads to be able to strike targets at a range of about 20 kilometers, Bargeron stated. 

“So in the hands of the individual Marines to be able to strike targets like that…will be dramatic,” he exclaimed.

Bargeron added that the Marines are currently using the Neros Archer first-person view (FPV) drones for this purpose. They are “capable of carrying a 2 kg/4.5 lb payload over 20 kilometers,” the company asserts on its LinkedIn page.

They are also being sent to Ukraine, where the use of these systems by small units is a daily fact of life, not a vision for the future.

Bargeron offered no other details on specific offensive squad-level longer-range weapons options that will be developed and fielded over the coming years.

The plan itself is vague in terms of overall timelines, noting that there will be a “phased approach to modernization” occurring across “three overlapping time periods.”

• Near-Term (2026-2030): This period focuses on refining and accelerating ongoing Force Design modernization efforts, addressing the immediate threat of drones, and setting conditions for future investments.
• Mid-Term (2031-2035): Investments in AI and autonomous systems will mature, enhancing headquarters functions, streamlining logistics, and improving operational tempo. Drone/unmanned formations and layered counter-UAS capabilities become critical.
• Long-Range (2036-2040): The GCE is transformed by AI-enabled command and control, widespread Human-Machine Teaming, and resilient, dispersed formations. It operates with increased combat power and survivability, providing the Joint Force with a decisive advantage on key littoral terrain.

Ukraine has shown American troops up close and personal how difficult it is to defend against drones. In a recent training exercise in Germany, U.S. Army soldiers were trounced by Ukrainian drone operators, only improving their performance after the lessons learned from initial engagements. While there are still many unknowns about the goals and rules put in place for that exercise, which accomplished its mission of learning, it underlines long-standing questions about why the U.S. military has taken so long to adapt to a glaringly different battlefield. Whether the new Marine Corps plan will do so fast enough, especially as major foes, especially China, are moving aggressively in employing new weapons and tactics based on lessons learned in global conflicts, is still up for debate.

That being said, the Marines acknowledge that GCE 2040 is a work-in-progress, but the changes it is trying to address are critical to operating against threats the U.S. military has yet to face at the scale it would against China or Russia.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

TOKYO — Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who splashed her signature polka dots on paintings, sculptures and museum installations around the world, has died, her company said Thursday. She was 97.

Kusama died Aug. 14 at a hospital in Tokyo, Yayoi Kusama Studio said in a statement.

Kusama, one of Japan’s most respected contemporary artists, was widely exhibited around the world, including at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Repetitive motifs in various shapes were her trademark, resembling netting, swirls or worms, but most often dots, dancing proudly on her canvases or as sparkling balls or dots of light in her installations in all their vibrant, psychedelic glory.

Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrored Room — The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away,” 2013.

(EPW Studio / David Zwirner, New York)

In 2017, the Los Angeles Times wrote about the first U.S. museum survey of the Tokyo artist’s Infinity Mirror Rooms at the Broad. The rooms generated “Hamilton”-scale hype.

Kusama told The Times: “I believe that people are attracted by the infinite mysterious beauty that the artwork has. I am also attracted.”

Now two of Kusama’s pieces on permanent display at the Broad draw, on any given day, a line of visitors to see the immersive art pieces for mere moments. “Infinity Mirrored Room — The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away,” on the first floor, requires reservations to stand for one minute in a small mirrored room full of bouncing LED lights that make you feel like you’re floating in the Milky Way. “Longing for Eternity,” on the third floor, also draws lines but does not require a reservation to peek inside a chamber that gives off a purple disco dance floor vibe.

Both conjure a sense of awe, of boundless imagination. Millions have entered the “Souls” room, snapping photos and video that elicit floods of Instagram likes, since its opening in 2017.

Kusama, known for her fiery red wig, lived by choice in a Tokyo psychiatric hospital for decades. She had opened her own museum in Tokyo yet remained very private, granting limited interviews.

Kusama insisted she drew the way she saw the world — covered with spots, part of the hallucinations she said she had from childhood. She was one of the first Japanese women to go to New York to pursue her art, in 1957.

Although soft-spoken and shy in her mannerisms, she was always unabashedly bold in the assertion of her dotty vision, not only in sticking to the style for decades but also in making it accessible to the masses.

In her later years, as the times caught up with her art, she enjoyed fame. She signed on with fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton as well as other licensed products including teacups, T-shirts and key chains with her illustrations and replicas of her likeness that were used in show windows and other marketing.

In 2008, Christie’s auctioned her work for $5.8 million. In 2016, she won the most prestigious award Japan gives its artists, the Order of Culture.

Upon receiving the award, she told reporters she was more determined than ever to pursue her art, stressing that the sincerity and devotion she had demonstrated in her personal life were crucial parts of her artistic legacy.

“I feel there is little left in my life, but I am now still fighting to the death for my art,” she said. “I am giving all I have so that many people will continue to be interested in my art, even after I am dead.”

Kusama was called pop, avant-garde, feminist, just to name some of the categories thrown at her, most of which Kusama brushed off as not quite representative of her art.

She was born in a middle-class family but felt misunderstood, as her parents wanted her simply to get married. They wanted to buy her kimono, not paints and brushes. She knew she had to get away. She chose America.

When she arrived in New York, the fad was “action painting,” characterized by dribbles, swooshes and smears, not dots. She suffered years of poverty and obscurity. But she kept painting dots.

She put circles of paper on people’s bodies, and once a horse, in “happening” antiwar performances in the late 1960s, which got some people arrested for obscenity but helped get media attention for her art. While in New York, she befriended artists including Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keefe and Joseph Cornell, who praised her innovative style.

Over the years, Kusama has made quirky but stunningly celebratory works such as “Macaroni Girl,” a female figure plastered with macaroni, which expresses the fear of food; “The Visionary Flowers,” giant sculptures of twisting tulips; and “Mirrored Corridor,” a room with mirrors that delivers an illusion of a field of phallic protrusions speckled with dots.

Kusama, who has also made films and published several novels, said she wasn’t sure where she got her ideas. She just picked up her brush and started drawing. The process was so mysterious sometimes she surprised herself, she told the Associated Press.

“I think, ‘Oh, I drew that? I was thinking that,’” she said.

She appeared happy to have her art be the focus of media attention and praise, reading one of her poems to a reporter or tackling her artworks with gusto for photos.

But she was also a charmingly disarming mix of vulnerability and defiance — at one moment declaring herself “an artistic revolutionary” and then, the next, mumbling: “I am so afraid, all the time, of everything.”

Times staff writer Deborah Vankin contributed to this report.