city

City clung on to a nervy victory against the Sky Blues to maintain their 100% winning start to the season, but managed to get the job done courtesy of a string of saves from goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Haaland continued his fine start to the season by converting his third goal in as many games from Antoine Semenyo’s deep cross, which came after Fernandez played through a slide-rule pass to the Ghanaian.

Playing in the number eight role, Argentina international Fernandez was given licence to roam and make late bursts into the box – he touched the ball six times in the opposition area, with only Haaland managing more with 11.

Fernandez could have had a dream debut but saw two shots blocked, before being replaced after 76 minutes by fellow summer signing Ayyoub Bouaddi.

The 18-year-old Morocco international was part of City’s midfield rebuild and highlights the options available to Maresca despite the departures of Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Tijjani Reijnders and Nico Gonzalez.

Ndiaye, meanwhile, became the first Senegalese player to represent City and is bound to give opposition defenders with his trickery and pace. No player attempted more dribbles in the match than his eight.

Maresca said: “Enzo and Iliman [played their] first game with us and then Ayyoub and Ryan [McAidoo] their first game in front of our fans.

“That is why I said there are many reasons I am happy about our win. I think they were all good.

“Ili just had two sessions with us. He needs to understand how to move. Most of the time he was moving in the wrong way, wrong position, but he needs to learn and for sure he is going to learn.”

Asked to elaborate on Ndiaye’s performance, Maresca said: “When Marc Guehi has the ball and he was dropping a lot and we don’t need that.

“We need him in the last third so he can be a little bit more higher. That space was more for Josko Gvardiol.

“It is the same thing in this [other] side. But it is normal and with time they will learn the way we want them to play.”

Erling Haaland score the only goal of Manchester City’s unconvincing home win against newly promoted Coventry City.

Manchester City maintained their winning start to the season to move to the top of the Premier League, but Erling Haaland’s solitary strike against newly promoted Coventry City couldn’t hide the nerves in the Etihad Stadium.

The Enzo Maresca era has started with three consecutive Premier League wins, but it was a far from perfect performance on Saturday as the hosts needed a pair of late saves from Gianluigi Donnarumma to deny Coventry a first top-flight point for 25 years.

Haaland’s header midway through the first half proved decisive for his third goal in as many games this season.

Maresca was able to unleash summer signings Enzo Fernandez and Iliman Ndiaye after their arrivals completed a record outlay by any club of £460 million ($622m) in the transfer market to refresh the City squad after Pep Guardiola’s decade in charge.

Fernandez was supposed to start on the bench after completing his £125 million move from Chelsea to match the Premier League transfer record.

However, an injury to Nico O’Reilly in the warm-up meant the Argentine was thrust into the starting line up.

Ndiaye was also handed his City debut by Maresca alongside Haaland, Antoine Semenyo and Rayan Cherki in a fearsome front four.

Coventry had failed to score in three consecutive defeats to mark their return to the top flight after 25 years.

Yet, Frank Lampard’s men could not have come closer to breaking their duck early on thanks to a gift from Donnarumma.

The giant Italian miscontrolled a backpass and recovered to clear off his own line with inches to spare.

Taiwo Awoniyi and Jack Rudoni also missed big chances to give the visitors the lead before City began to find their stride.

Cherki smashed off the post before Fernandez was involved in the opening goal.

His pass fed Semenyo sprinting down the right and his cross was hung up perfectly for Haaland to head home at the back post.

The Norwegian was denied a second by Carl Rushworth before half-time, but City failed to build on their advantage and were left clinging on for the three points.

Donnarumma was needed to produce two huge saves to deny Loum Tchaouna and Ellis Simms an equaliser and a historic moment for Coventry.

Despite another defeat, there was plenty of encouragement for Lampard that Coventry can compete back in the big time.

Maresca will know City will need to be much improved when they travel to local rivals Manchester United next weekend.

But the blue half of the city move to the top of the table ahead of champions Arsenal’s clash against Chelsea on Sunday.

Sometimes travel delivers a real shock. I’m moving along the boulevards in the Polish city of Łódź, enjoying the excellent cafes and warm sunshine, when I spot the vans. They are parked up on the verge, with racks of clothing and heavily laden tables behind. I can’t resist a Sunday morning market and walk towards a group of men huddled around a car that is covered in blankets. And then it happens. They turn – and I see they are weighing pistols in their hands. I recognise the lean profile of a German Luger, and then the bulkier Colt 45.

There is a second of doubt. I hesitate. They replace the weapons on the display and walk away laughing. I approach. On the car roof is a row of dusty soldiers’ helmets. “We were repairing a pavement in the centre of town,” says the seller cheerfully, handing me a badge to inspect. “Imagine! For 80 years, all this stuff was just under our feet.”

It’s a Wehrmacht shoulder badge from Kuban 1943, a last-ditch post-Stalingrad action on the Crimean peninsula. Who wore this, I wonder? A veteran of the Russian front who almost made it home? Nothing is clear, except that in Łódź, the past is never far away.

I arrive the previous night, a little disoriented, whizzing past unlit buildings, huge brick structures like Victorian factories. “Are we in the city yet?” I ask.

The taxi driver gives me a quizzical look. “Yes, this is Łódź.” I note the pronunciation, like “wudge”. I glimpse five-storey blocks, tree-lined streets, a tramline. “I could never live anywhere else,” he adds. A huge blue graffito is caught in the headlights, like a monstrous alien creature.

“Why?” I ask, but we are already pulling up outside an immense red-brick building, my hotel, and he never answers my question. The reception area is huge, with a strange scalloped ceiling in red brick that hints at a previous incarnation as a factory.

This is my first visit to Łódź, a city about 75 miles (120km) south-west of Warsaw. My interest has been piqued by a list of notable people associated with the place. It features an astonishing number of Oscar-winning or nominated film directors connected to the city: Andrzej Wajda (The Promised Land), Roman Polanski (The Pianist), Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida), Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa), Krzysztof Kieślowski (Three Colours trilogy) and Zbigniew Rybczyński (Tango).

But under the bonnet there is a vast array of talent in acting, production and technical excellence. The city’s film school is responsible, of course, but Łódź itself features as a setting, too, notably in David Lynch’s Inland Empire and Wajda’s masterpiece The Promised Land.

Łódź, I had decided, must be fascinating. Any visit starts with Piotrkowska Street, the longest shopping street in Europe at about 2½ miles. My guide, Anna, takes me through Plac Wolności (Freedom Square), where a dance festival is in progress, with hooded hip‑hoppers rubbing shoulders with troupes of line dancers and girls in colourfully embroidered traditional dress. This is a city where music and dance are never far away. We dodge down a side alley and emerge in a striking art installation – an entire street, Pasaż Róży (Rosa’s Passage), covered in mirrors by the artist Joanna Rajkowska. Back on the main pedestrianised route, the mix of ancient and modern continues: 19th‑century porticoed palaces adorned with colourful graffiti.

I ask Anna how Łódź fared in the second world war. “It was not too badly damaged,” she says. “Both the Germans and the Russians wanted the industry intact.”

There is no medieval heart, no ornate houses like in Wrocław or Kraków. What Łódź possesses is an impressive array of 19th-century factories, mostly textiles, built to show off their owners’ power, wealth and architectural aspirations. Now, this heritage has become a stunning example of urban regeneration.

We turn into OFF Piotrkowska, a complex of beautiful old textile mills reborn as a hive of small businesses. There are lots of vibrant restaurants and bars, but Anna wants to show me a shop that she likes: Pan Tu Nie Stał. “It was a saying in communist times: ‘You’re not in the queue.’ We said it to people trying to push in,” Anna says.

This is the spot to pick up a T-shirt featuring Soviet combine harvesters or some Czas Pokaże (Time Will Tell) socks. The shop says a lot about the Polish attitude to communist times: none of the maudlin ostalgie of East Germany; this nostalgia comes with healthy dashes of colour and humour.

It did all start, however, with a disaster. The old mills had survived two world wars, but died in the economic collapse after communism ended in 1989. “Everything closed down,” says Anna. “We call that time the transformacja. It was very hard.”

We stroll into the Manufaktura area, once the site of a vast textile business started by a local scrap metal dealer, Izrael Poznański, in 1872, and now another beautifully restored collection of red-brick buildings housing restaurants, bars, shops and the fascinating Museum of the Factory. Next door is the palace that Poznański built, a neo-baroque monstrosity of bulging wealth, now the city museum.

After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Łódź became part of the Russian empire, a melting pot of German, Jewish, Polish and Russian influences. In the 1870s, Poznański was one of a group of men who saw the potential of steam power. They imported looms from England and were soon amassing unimaginable wealth, constructing a city of handsome red-brick factories, the core of which still remains.

The Museum of the Factory houses a collection of working looms that date back to the 1880s. Only four machines are ever turned on due to noise pollution laws – in the old days, one factory might have had hundreds. This was the city of the deaf, but the deafest of all were the bosses, oblivious to the terrible hardships of their workforce, from the founders through to their communist successors. When Wajda came to these mills in the early 1970s, planning The Promised Land, he needed to make only minor adjustments to start filming. The tired faces, the crashing looms, the heat and the dust – it was all very much like 1880.

Is that your favourite film, I ask Anna? She shakes her head. “Cold War by Pawlikowski,” she says. “I love that film.”

This 2018 masterpiece is the story of a tragic love affair conducted across the Iron Curtain in the years following the second world war. Based on the lives of Pawlikowski’s parents, it is dark and sensuous, full of great music and dance. Pawlikowski has used Łodż as a location.

We move on to the Museum of Cinematography, a tour de force that warrants some preparation (watch films by Polish directors). They have everything from early working equipment to props from the most recent Oscar triumphs. By the time I get to the end, I have only a few minutes to rush to the Central Museum of Textiles.

There I find a technician, Przemysław, about to start up a 1893 Greenwood loom. He’s a former policeman with a few tales to tell, but right now one question is bothering me. “Why did film-making succeed so brilliantly in this city of textiles?” I ask him.

He taps the cast iron loom and chuckles. “I’ll show you.”

With the flick of a switch, the loom begins to clank and turn. The noise is incredible. Przemysław is moving around, adjusting and calibrating, his face concentrated. I see the spools of thread begin to unwind, the shuttle dashing back and forth, the warp and weft rhythmically rising and falling. The different colours, each no more than a thin line, but magically coming together. And from the lip of the machine spills a beautiful multicoloured cloth.

Przemysław looks at me and raises a questioning eyebrow. “Like weaving a story, right?”

The trip was provided by the Polish Tourism Organisation, with Holiday Extras lending travel support in car parking, insurance, airport transfers and hotels

On the night of the June primary, standing before cheering supporters at a downtown brewery, Nithya Raman was in a familiar position:

Outspent by rivals. Mocked by online haters. Her political career left for dead.

In early returns for Los Angeles mayor, Raman was in third place behind incumbent Karen Bass and reality TV villain Spencer Pratt. The City Council member thanked everyone for helping her “little campaign” but seemed resigned to defeat.

“We may not get an answer we like,” Raman said. “But regardless of what happens next, nobody — nobody — can take away what all of us have built together.”

She ended her short speech by going on the dance floor to greet well-wishers and boogie for a bit. The move came off to me as someone losing herself in happiness so she didn’t have to think about the sad reality.

But when I think about that moment now, it seems clear that she was embracing another familiar position:

Confident in what was ahead. Content with being underestimated. Ready to upend City Hall yet again.

As more votes were counted, Raman overtook Pratt to face Bass in the November runoff. Raman’s last-minute decision to enter the race had shocked L.A.’s political class and drawn accusations of betrayal for challenging Bass, a longtime ally whom she had endorsed. Yet Raman managed to pull off a hard-fought campaign, with Pratt as an unexpectedly strong insurgent from the right — a winning streak that continued this week when she scored two key endorsements.

The L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and Unite Here Local 11, the powerful hospitality workers union, will now bring their renowned get-out-the-vote operations to L.A. doorsteps, street corners and smartphone screens on Raman’s behalf. Unite Here gives Raman’s campaign a working class cred it has sorely lacked. The DSA will unleash the democratic socialist trade winds that have swept across elections nationwide and helped five of its six endorsed candidates in L.A. County either win outright in the June primary or move on to the general election.

Neither endorsement was guaranteed. Even though Raman is a member and the L.A. chapter had endorsed her two City Council campaigns, the group didn’t officially support her in the mayoral primary. Some members openly questioned whether having a democratic socialist run a city seemingly destined for the dumpster was the best look for their movement. Raman’s positions on police funding, the mansion tax and the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks also ran counter to the party orthodoxy.

Unite Here had regularly endorsed Bass throughout her 22-year political career and seemed likely to join the dozens of other unions backing the mayor.

But with the one-two punch, Raman has shown yet again that she’s the comeback kid of L.A. politics. Every time critics throw her a curveball, she smacks it to the opposite field and gets on base, ready to grind her way to a win.

People line up to attend a Democratic Socialists of America fundraiser May 17 in Los Angeles.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

In 2020, the city’s establishment initially dismissed Raman, then a political novice, as a wokosa fluke, until she beat David Ryu, who became the first L.A. council incumbent to lose in 17 years.

A year later, Raman was seen as such a threat that the powers that be sought to torpedo her for good. In the infamous City Hall leaked audio, then-Councilmember Kevin de León suggested to then-Councilmember Gil Cedillo, then-council President Nury Martinez and labor leader Ron Herrera that Raman’s district could be “put in the blender and [chopped] up, left and right” during redistricting to dampen her reelection chances.

On the recording, Martinez enthusiastically endorsed the plan, telling the other three that Raman had complained about her redrawn district.

“Go f— do the work,” Martinez said she told Raman, “and see if you can” win again.

Raman did win, scoring an outright victory in the 2024 primary (Martinez, of course, resigned in disgrace). A censure from DSA-LA because Raman accepted the endorsement of a pro-Israel group proved no more debilitating than a stray eyelash.

In this year’s mayoral primary, Raman raised less money than Bass and Pratt and flopped during their one debate against each other. Her fellow democratic socialist council members — Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado and Hugo Soto-Martínez — all endorsed the mayor.

None of it mattered. Raman is now easily scoring off of Bass mishaps, like the mayor’s response to the Lineage warehouse fire and her random broadside against street vendors during a debate in Sherman Oaks last month. The Dodgers should sit Raman in their dugout come playoff time, because her knack for rallying from behind is almost preternatural.

The road to victory remains hard, of course. Bass has never lost an election and won’t easily fold, even as her first term has careened from one crisis to another. Raman’s fiercest critics on the council — Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Traci Park and Monica Rodriguez — lord over South L.A., the Westside and the eastern San Fernando Valley, respectively, regions where Raman needs strong showings. The DSA endorsement will make it easier for critics to paint Raman as left of Lenin, even though her record is more pragmatist than pinko puppet.

She’s even drawing the ire of Pratt, who spent most of his campaign deriding the mayor as “basura” — trash — but is now blasting Raman, while the 26% of Angelenos who voted for him and are a key swing constituency are waiting to see who, if anyone, he’ll favor.

Raman anticipated all of this when she jumped into the race, she told supporters on primary night.

“These powerful interests spent millions of dollars against this little campaign, spent millions trying to preserve this city’s broken and unjust status quo,” she said. “And we said no.”

But the words I recall the most from that party at Boomtown Brewery came from Raman’s father, Venkit. After joking that his daughter didn’t go into a profession that most Indian immigrant parents wish for their children, he explained that her full name — Nithya Varsha — means “forever monsoon” in Sanskrit.

“If you think about it more, that’s exactly what she is,” Venkit said to cheers. “A constant, unstoppable force that brings life to the land.”

Let’s see how far the Raman storm goes.

Renaissance art without the crowds in Italy

Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna won me over precisely because it feels like Italy with the volume turned down. I stayed in a small family-run hotel near Via delle Volte, where mornings began with quiet cobbled streets and the smell of fresh pastries. The Palazzo dei Diamanti was almost empty when I visited, giving me space to enjoy its Renaissance art without crowds. Evenings meant cycling past terracotta walls to tiny trattorias serving pumpkin cappellacci, a traditional pasta dish. It’s a city that lets you slow down, breathe and enjoy its beauty.
John

One of Germany’s greenest cities

Next to flashy Munich or cool Berlin, Hanover in northern Germany has a reputation of being boring. It is totally undeserved: there are world-class museums, such as the modern art gallery Sprengel, one of the best-preserved baroque gardens in Europe – the Great Garden at Herrenhausen – impressive Victorian era architecture, 640 hectares (1,680 acres) of city forest (the Eilenriede, nearly double the size of New York’s Central Park) and a large artificial lake just south of the centre that you can travel on with a bus ticket (or hire a boat). Explore the city and its surroundings on more than 600 miles of cycle paths, find independent shops in the well-heeled art nouveau district of List or the multicultural Linden, and relax in a deck chair on Ballhofplatz with tea and cake at the Teestübchen.
Ulrike

The Algarve’s city of crafts

Bursting with Portuguese charm, Loulé is 10 miles inland from Faro, capital of the Algarve. The small city has a rich history of preserving traditional crafts, supported by Loulé Criativo, a network of community-driven artisans that keeps alive and celebrates the identity of Loulé and the Algarve. It includes the House of Weaving (Casa da Empreita) and the Watchmakers (Oficina do Relojoeiro) and Stringed Instrument Workshop (Oficina de Cordofones). In these vibrant spaces – where visitors can interact with artisans – the city’s heritage is preserved and passed down through generations.
Sue

Unesco sites in northern France

Arras, 35 minutes on the train from Lille, has two Unesco world heritage sites: the belfry of the Hotel de Ville and the Vauban Citadel. Exploring the Boves, a 10th-century network of tunnels which played roles in the first and second world wars, is an amazing experience. Above are two magnificent large squares in the Flemish style with a wide variety of alfresco cafes, restaurants and indie shops. Arras also holds one of the biggest Christmas markets north of Paris, noted for its amazing range of international gourmet foods.
Bryan Boese

Artistry and cake in Sweden’s beautiful south

Malmö is easily accessible (being connected by bridge to Copenhagen) and very walkable. We enjoyed the free Malmö Konsthall arts centre with contemporary exhibitions and also the skateboard artistry in the square outside. The Western Harbour contains architectural gems, such as the twisted skyscraper Turning Turso, restaurants and swimming piers in a former industrial area. The cafe Hollandia offered classic Swedish cakes and a lovely atmosphere. The Disgusting Food Museum next door was an interesting cultural experience showing food considered to be delicacies in some countries, not so much in others. A sign shows the number of people who have thrown up (visit Hollandia first)!
Elisabeth

Brilliant beach and seafood in Sardinia

If you can tear yourself away from Poetto – surely one of the prettiest city beaches in Europe – you’ll find a lot more to love in Cagliari, capital of Sardinia. The huge indoor produce market is a riot of glistening seafood, local pecorino and sweet, nutty Sardinian treats. The town centre strides uphill from the port, with the elegant bulwark of Bastione St Remy delineating the ancient Castello district and serving up epic rooftop and coastal views. We missed the renowned archaeological museum, but that just gives us the perfect excuse to go back. Cagliari’s affordable seafood was a definite highlight, and Trattoria Lillicu’s chargrilled bream and calamari is another tempting reason to hurry back.
Martha

Stained glass wonder in north-west Spain

In León, colours grab your attention and take away words. León cathedral completely wrongfooted me. This city seems to be under the British tourist radar. I thought I’d already seen stained glass that was worthy of heaven – this was another level. Coupled with this was how visitors were reacting. Everyone was using the free audio guide. No one was just marching round and ticking off the sights. People were learning and savouring the experience. The humble ninth-century San Isidoro church, one of the most important romanesque buildings in Spain, is a refreshing contrast.
Deborah

Norway’s art nouveau gem

Ålesund is one of Norway’s most beautiful stops on an already spectacular western coast, despite having been devastated by fire in 1904. We reached the small, rebuilt art nouveau city via the breathtaking winding roads of the Trollstigen (the “Troll’s Path”) and had our first sighting from the top of the panoramic Aksla mountain viewpoint. Exactly 418 steps lead down to the historic centre where museums, cafes, restaurants and shops cluster around the Brosundet Canal in renovated warehouses and ornate buildings. Kayaking, a rib boat ride or a trip to the stunning Geirangerfjord? We couldn’t choose so did them all!
Teresa Stansby

The French city with a bit of everything

I spent five days in Saint-Malo this August. It has everything: a beautiful walled city with lots of history, a variety of beaches offering shifts in light and character throughout the day, a modernist tidal pool with a high diving platform. The city has so much pride, and the art inspired by its famous landmarks make for great souvenirs. My favourite thing, though? The wonderful cider at La Passage (on Instagram) with my sister. And despite the heat everywhere else, the temperature never got above 25C.
Sophie Amos

Winning tip: a watery Dutch master of a city

Leiden starts badly. The walk from the station is grim. Scruffy bars and vape shops. And then, suddenly, this watery Dutch gem reveals itself. Canals shoot off from a boat-filled basin, each one lined with grand brick mansions tapering to elegant finials under the sort of blue lowland skies that typify every good (and bad) Flemish painting. Dig deeper into its narrow traffic-free courtyards and squares with cafes spilling out light and chatter, much as they did when Rembrandt trudged to the school that still stands here, just round the corner from his first tutor’s studio. He’d find it mostly unchanged if he walked back. At Christmas, an ice rink spreads across the main canal, and the smell of warm wine, cloves and crepes hovers over the market stalls.
Bill Jones