WHEN ART BECOMES A COMMODITY FETISH

Pablo Picasso painting of muse Marie-Thérèse Walter fetches $67.5M at auction


"Femme nue couchée" is a surrealistic and abstract depiction of Pablo Picasso's lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter, in 1932. Photo courtesy of Sotheby's

May 18 (UPI) -- An abstract painting of a nude woman by Pablo Picasso has sold for $67.5 million, leading Sotheby's auction of Modern art that netted $408.5 million total.

With Tuesday night's sale, the 1932 painting, Femme nue couchée (Naked woman lying), became one of the most valuable paintings of Picasso's lover Marie-Thérèse Walter. It was sold as part of Sotheby's Modern evening auction, which also included the sale of Claude Monet's Le Grand Canal et Santa Maria della Salute for $56.6 million, a record for one of the French artist's paintings of Venice.

Picasso and Walter were in a romantic relationship from 1927 to 1935, during which time Walter served as the artist's model. He completed more than a dozen paintings featuring her likeness.

Together, they had a daughter -- Maya Widmaier-Picasso.

Femme nue couchée was among the first of a dedicated series of paintings Picasso completed of Walter in 1931 and 1932. The artwork was completed during a period when Picasso was heavily influenced by surrealism, featuring figures with twisted bodies and disorganized faces.

"A crowning achievement of painterly verve, energy and manipulation of the human form, the present work succinctly synthesizes the artist's groundbreaking achievements of the late 1920s and early 1930s into one colorful, dynamic canvas," Sotheby's said of the painting on its website.

Another six artworks by Picasso sold at Tuesday night's auction, including L'Étreinte (The Embrace), a painting of a couple in the middle of a tryst, for $14.1 million, and a sculpture titled Femme debout (Standing woman), for $2.1 million.

Other notable sales at Tuesday's auction included Paul Cézanne's Clairière (The Glade) for $42 million, Willem De Kooning's Leaves in Weehawken for $10 million and Henri Matisse's Fleurs ou Fleurs devant un portrait (Flowers or Flowers in front of a portrait) for $15.3 million.

Grand Canal painting fetches $56.6M, a record for Monet Venice work


"Le Grand Canal et Santa Maria della Salute" is one of six nearly identical paintings Claude Monet completed of this particular view of Venice's Grand Canal in 1908. Image courtesy of Sotheby's

May 17 (UPI) -- A Claude Monet painting of the Grand Canal in Italy sold at auction Tuesday for $56.6 million, the highest one of his Venice paintings has fetched, Sotheby's in New York announced.

The 1908 painting, Le Grand Canal et Santa Maria della Salute, sold as part of the auction house's Modern evening auction.

The painting is one of six artworks Monet completed of the Grand Canal and the Santa Maria della Salute, a Roman Catholic church near the waterway. All six are from nearly the exact same view and differ only in color palette depending on the time of day.

One is held by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, another by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the rest are in private hands. The identity of the buyer in Tuesday's auction has yet to be revealed.

Monet spent several weeks in Venice with his wife, Alice Hoschedé Monet, in the fall of 1908.

He completed dozens of artworks, often painting the same scenes at varying times of day, exploring how the city's waterways combined with the changing sunlight to alter the views' colors. This was a common approach to art throughout Monet's career as seen in his haystacks, cypress trees and water lilies series.

"The work stands as one of the finest paintings ever created by the artist, and the pinnacle of the series produced during the artist's Venetian sojourn," a release from Sotheby's said.

"Channeling the magic of the city on canvas, Le Grand Canal showcases a breath-taking view pure brushstrokes of color and light. As Monet continues to be recognized as one of the key progenitors of abstract art that would develop in the mid-20th century, Le Grand Canal is a pivotal work that bridges the artist's ground-breaking Impressionist innovations and their continued evolution into a more freeform abstract approach."

Other notable sales at Tuesday's auction include Paul Cézanne's Clairière (The Glade) for $42 million, Pablo Picasso's Mousquetaire à la pipe, buste (Musketeer with a pipe, bust) for $8.5 million, Willem De Kooning's Leaves in Weehawken for $10 million and Henri Matisse's Fleurs ou Fleurs devant un portrait (Flowers or Flowers in front of a portrait) for $15.3 million.

Basquiat owned by Japan's Maezawa sells for $85 mn

The Jean-Michel Basquiat artwork sold for $85 million at auction in New York 

(AFP/Tolga Akmen) 

Wed, May 18, 2022,

Jean-Michel Basquiat's "Untitled" 1982 sold for $85 million at auction in New York Wednesday, well above its pre-sale estimate and netting Japanese billionaire space tourist Yusaku Maezawa a tidy profit.

Phillips auction house sold the 16-foot-wide painting on behalf of Maezawa, who purchased it in 2016 for $57.3 million.

The auctioneers had tipped it to go for around $70 million.

Phillips announced in a statement in March that it would put the artwork under the hammer.

Maezawa, the mega-rich founder of Japan's largest online fashion mall, said in the statement that the past six years of owning the painting were "a great pleasure."

But art "should be shared so that it can be a part of everyone's lives," he added.

Ahead of its sale, the massive artwork went on an international tour, being displayed in London, Los Angeles and Taipei.

Maezawa, who in 2017 set a new auction record for Basquiat works when he paid $110.5 million for another painting by the 20th century giant, has said he plans to create a new museum to exhibit his collection.

He founded the Contemporary Art Foundation in Tokyo and was on the 2017 list of "Top 200 Collectors" by the ARTnews magazine based in New York.

He has been in the headlines more recently for becoming the first space tourist to travel to the International Space Station with Russia's space agency.

His odyssey is believed to have cost around 10 billion yen ($87 million), and he plans to follow it up with a trip around the Moon organized by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

pdh/wd

Sketch breaks Michelangelo record, selling at auction for €23 million

Issued on: 18/05/2022 

People sit during the auction of a recently rediscovered drawing by Michelangelo, the artist's first known nude, that was adjudicated 20 millions euros, at the Christie's auction house in Paris on May 18, 2022. 

© Emmanuel Dunand, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

A recently rediscovered sketch by Michelangelo, the artist's first known nude, sold at auction at Christie's in Paris on Wednesday for 23 million euros ($24 million), a record for one of the Italian master's drawings.

Representing a naked man with two other background figures, the late 15th-century sketch in pen and brown ink recently resurfaced in a private French collection after more than a century.

Including the buyer's premium, the sale price far outstripped the Renaissance artist's previous record for a drawing of 9.5 million euros for "The Risen Christ" at Christie's in London in 2000 but fell short of the list price of 30 million euros.

"There are fewer than 10 drawings by Michelangelo which exist in private hands," Helene Rihal, director of Christie's ancient and 19th-century drawings department, told AFP ahead of the auction. The sketch was last put up for sale in 1907 at Paris's Hotel Drouot.

The nude, partly based on a fresco by Masaccio in the Brancacci chapel in Florence, had thus far managed to "escape the attention of specialists", according to Christie's, which has declared it to be very well preserved.

It was only in 2019 that experts identified it as the work of the Italian Renaissance genius (1475-1564) during an inventory of a private French collection.

In September that year it was declared a "national treasure of France", which prevented its exit from French territory for 30 months, while giving the French government and museums the opportunity to buy it.
No offer was forthcoming, however, and recent weeks saw the work exhibited in Hong Kong and New York to drum up interest ahead of the auction.

The sketch is the size of an A4 sheet of paper (eight by 12 inches, 21 by 30 centimetres) and closely resembles a figure in Masaccio's fresco "The Baptism of the Neophytes" (1426-27).

But "it's so much more than a copy", Christie's Old Masters expert Stijn Alsteens said on the auctioneer's website.

"Michelangelo has decided to make the figure into something that corresponded more to his aesthetic by making him much more robust and monumental, while at the same time keeping the fragility of the figure, who is exposed and shivering" as he awaits baptism, he said.

Alsteens added that the artist might have made the sketch aged around 21, on the cusp of his high-profile career.

(AFP)

Identical twins give birth on the same day at same hospital

May 18 (UPI) -- A pair of identical twins in California have something new in common after they both gave birth to baby boys at the same hospital on the same day.

Jill Justiniani and Erin Cheplak each gave birth to a 7-pound, 3-ounce baby boy at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Anaheim

Both baby boys measured 20 inches long at birth.

The twins said Justiniani has been scheduled for a C-section on May 5, and Cheplak's water broke that same day -- 10 days before she was due.

"Sharing our pregnancy together was really special because we really had the support of each other through every step of the process," Justiniani told Good Morning America. "Even just going through the day-to-day changes of pregnancy, all of the unknowns and the questions and the natural worries that come up, we were constantly able to check in with each other and support each other."

RICH WHITE BOY JUSTICE

Martin Shkreli released early from prison to halfway house


Former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli (R) smiles as he exits the courthouse with attorney Benjamin Brafman on August 2, 2017, in New York City. Shkreli was released early from his seven-year prison sentence, Brafman confirmed Wednesday.

 File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

May 18 (UPI) -- Former pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli was released from a Pennsylvania prison early Wednesday after serving part of a seven-year sentence for fraud, the federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed.

Shkreli was released to a halfway house, his lawyer confirmed in a statement to UPI, and is expected to remain in federal custody until Sept. 14.

"While in the halfway house I have encouraged Mr. Shkreli to make no further statement, nor will he or I have any additional comments at this time," Brafman said.

A jury convicted Shkreli in August 2017 on charges he ran a Ponzi scheme from 2009 to 2014 and bilked investors out of $11 million. He was found guilty on three out of the eight charges he faced after a week of deliberations, including securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud.

Prosecutors said Shkreli illegally took stock from his biotechnology firm, Retrophin Inc., and used it to pay off debts from a failed hedge fund -- which is illegal. The Retrophin board of directors later sued Shkreli and he was ousted from the company for which he served as CEO.

Shkreli was accused of fraudulently reclassifying a $900,000 equity investment as a loan from his defunct hedge fund, MSMB Capital Management, after it lost millions -- and made Retrophin pick up the tab.

Defense attorneys argued that Shkreli's investors were repaid.

Shkreli came to unrelated notoriety in 2015 after his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, hiked the price of anti-parasite medication Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per tablet. The drug is often used to treat HIV patients and others with compromised immune systems.

Angler reels in ‘freaking scary’ fish in Texas marsh, photos show. It’s a rare beast

Mitchell Willetts
Wed, May 18, 2022,

An angler recently reeled in a rare and “freaking scary” fish after casting his hook into a murky Texas marsh, photos show.

The scaly creature’s striking look, jet black from tail to toothy tip, took the fisherman and his guide by surprise, according to a post by Lotus Guide Service.

“Well … (we) found out melanistic gar do exist,” said the May 16 post, sharing photos of the fish whipping and thrashing against the fishing line.

Lotus Guide Service wouldn’t say exactly where the fish was caught, but said it was in a southeast Texas marsh.

Long-established residents of Texas waterways, the prehistoric and prized alligator gar is typically brown or olive in color. But seemingly every inch of the one recently hooked in the “southeast Texas marsh” is dark black, save for the impressive teeth and pale gullet revealed by its open jaws.

Though harmless to humans, alligator gar are fierce enough in appearance and in name to inspire fearful myths about them — and this strange variation is particularly stirring to some, even those familiar with the fish.

“Freaking scary,” one commenter said. “Caught alligator gar growing up in Louisiana … put up a hell of a fight.”

“I like this, looks hella mean,” another said.

“Them thangs look deadly,” another read.

Melanism, a genetic anomaly that causes darker fur, hair, skin or scales, is known to occur across the animal kingdom, though it is exceptionally rare, McClatchy News reported.

How rare is melanism? Rare enough that experts generally lack enough data to offer exact figures. But there are reports of other gars with the condition having been caught or killed in the U.S.

While the black alligator gar has some locals vowing to keep their toes out of the water for the foreseeable future, others were simply impressed.

“Man that’s gorgeous,” a commenter said.

Some were so impressed that, had they been the one to catch the gar, they said they’d have it mounted in their man cave or trophy room for all to see.

The gar is safe from that fate, at least for now.

The angler let the fish go after catching it, Lotus Guide Service said, with the photos as the only trophies taken.

Spain issues nationwide alert over possible monkeypox outbreak


Spain issued a nationwide alert over a possible monkeypox outbreak Wednesday, after 23 people have shown symptoms.

 Photo courtesy of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

May 18 (UPI) -- Health officials in Spain issued a nationwide alert Wednesday, warning about a possible outbreak of monkeypox, after 23 people showed symptoms of the virus detected in Britain and Portugal.

The new cases in the Madrid region are being analyzed by Spain's National Microbiology Center and are not confirmed. The health ministry said the nationwide alert was issued "to guarantee a swift, coordinated and timely response."

While it is unlikely monkeypox would spread significantly, it "can't be ruled out," according to Fernando Simon, an epidemiologist in charge of Spain's health emergencies center.

In Portugal, five cases have been confirmed and health authorities are investigating another 15 suspected cases. Seven cases have been confirmed in Britain since May 4.

RELATED Maryland health officials confirm case of monkeypox in traveler

Early symptoms of monkeypox can include fever, headache, fatigue and chills, with a facial rash and lesions that develop days later and spread to other parts of the body, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While there is no cure for monkeypox, most people recover from the virus within a few weeks. Monkeypox is more prevalent in Africa, where one in 10 people die after contracting the virus.

"Generally speaking, monkeypox is spread by respiratory transmission, but the characteristics of the 23 suspected cases point towards transmission through mucus during sexual relations," Madrid's health department said in a statement.

RELATED CDC, Texas health officials confirm case of monkeypox in Dallas

"Eight suspected cases in Madrid are among men who have sex with men. They are doing well and are isolating at home, but a close eye is being kept on them in case they need hospital treatment," department officials said.

Monkeypox can also be transmitted from animals to humans through bites, scratches and direct contact through body fluids or lesions, according to the CDC.

Rare monkeypox outbreaks detected in N America, Europe

Updated / Thursday, 19 May 2022 

The monkeypox virus has been reported in the US and Canada, as well as Eutrope

Health authorities in North America and Europe have detected dozens of suspected or confirmed cases of monkeypox since early May, sparking concern the disease endemic in parts of Africa is spreading.

Canada was the latest country to report it was investigating more than a dozen suspected cases of monkeypox, after Spain and Portugal detected more than 40 possible and verified cases.

Britain has confirmed nine cases since 6 May and the United States verified its first yesterday.

The US health authorities said a man in the eastern state of Massachusetts had tested positive for the virus after visiting Canada.

The illness, from which most people recover within several weeks and has only been fatal in rare cases, has infected thousands of people in parts of Central and Western Africa in recent years but is rare in Europe and North Africa.


The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it was coordinating with UK and European health officials over the new outbreaks.


A handout image issued by the UK Health Security Agency of the stages of monkeypox

Speaking this morning on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, WHO infectious disease epidemiologist Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said they are concerned about the virus and stated there needs to be a greater focus on understanding transmission patterns.

She said "very little attention" has been paid to monkeypox as it is not something that is perceived as a global risk, but that the WHO considers it to be a "priority pathogen".

Ms Van Kerkhove appealed to countries globally "to be ready" to be able to detect cases of monkeypox and offer appropriate care to prevent any onward spread.

She said they are concerned about the spread to non-endemic areas who do not have the virus "on their radar" after a number of cases were reported in European countries and the US without travel links.

"So we are trying to expand our understanding of the circulation of this virus which typically is transmitted between people through contact, physical contact with lesions, with open sores.

"And so we are working with a number of countries to identify who is infected and of course to prevent onward transmission and they receive the appropriate care," she said.

The first case in Britain was someone who had traveled from Nigeria, though later cases were possibly through community transmission, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said in a statement.

"These latest cases, together with reports of cases in countries across Europe, confirms our initial concerns that there could be spread of monkeypox within our communities," said UKHSA Chief Medical Adviser Dr Susan Hopkins.

The WHO said it was also investigating that many cases reported were people identifying as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men.

"We are seeing transmission among men having sex with men," said WHO Assistant Director-General Dr Soce Fall at a press conference earlier this week.

"This is new information we need to investigate properly to understand better the dynamic of local transmission in the UK and some other countries."

'No risk to the public'

The UKHSA noted that monkeypox has not previously been characterised as a sexually transmitted disease, underscoring that "it can be passed on by direct contact during sex".

"Anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, can spread monkeypox through contact with body fluids, monkeypox sores, or shared items (such as clothing and bedding) that have been contaminated with fluids or sores of a person with monkeypox," a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statement said, adding that household disinfectants can kill the virus on surfaces.

The illness often starts with flu-like symptoms such as fever, muscle ache and swollen lymph nodes before causing a chickenpox-like rash on the face and body, the US agency explained.

The Massachusetts Department of Health, said that the case there - the first confirmed this year in the US - occurred in a patient who had recently travelled to Canada and "poses no risk to the public, and the individual is hospitalised and in good condition".

Health authorities in Canada's Quebec province announced they were investigating at least 13 suspected cases of monkeypox, the public broadcaster CBC reported yesterday.

The cases were flagged to Montreal authorities after diagnoses were made in several clinics specialising in sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) told CBC it had called on "public health authorities and laboratory partners across Canada to be alert for and investigate any potential cases".

According to the CDC, there were no reported cases of monkeypox for 40 years before it re-emerged in Nigeria in 2017.

JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY ANTI VAX POSTER 1953

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/what-is-monkeypox-and-should-uk.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/07/first-human-death-due-to-monkey-b-virus.html

Hamas students celebrate West Bank university poll win

• AFP
•  May 19, 2022

Students who support Hamas wave flags ahead of council elections at Birzeit University

Ramallah – Hamas supporters celebrated Thursday a landslide student election win at a top West Bank university, results experts said further points to the Islamists’ growing support in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Hamas’s Al Wafaa’ Islamic bloc won 28 of the 51 seats on the student council at Birzeit University, marking the first time Islamist-aligned candidates have gained control of the body.

The bloc aligned with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s secular Fatah movement won just 18 seats.

The general Palestinian population has not been to the polls since 2006.

Abbas scrapped elections scheduled for last year citing Israel’s refusal to allow voting in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as their capital.

But Palestinian analysts said Abbas baulked out of fear that Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, would also trounce Fatah across the West Bank.

Birzeit’s vice president, Ghassan al-Khatib, said some saw the campus vote as “a test for measuring public opinion”, with no general elections on the horizon.

Hugh Lovatt, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the Birzeit polls were perceived as a type of bellwether because the make-up of the student body was “seen as more representative of Palestinian society”.

“The fact that you have a democratic mechanism and the voter pool is seen to be representative of Palestinian dynamics — that’s why it matters,” he told AFP.

Fatah used to dominate student councils in the West Bank.

Hamas praised the results as “a rejection of the normalisation” and “security coordination,” in a reference to the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority’s ties with Israel.

Dr Fathi Hammad, a member of the group’s political bureau, said “the student movement has proven that (the youth) is the fuel to the revolution.

1.5 tonnes of elephant ivory seized in southeast DR Congo

SELL IT CHEAP CRASH THE MARKET


AFP - 

Authorities in southeastern DR Congo have seized one and a half tonnes of elephant ivory, legal and environmental officials said, in one of the largest hauls in Africa in years.

Officers discovered the smuggled tusks aboard trucks in the city of Lubumbashi on Saturday, according to a legal official who declined to be named due involvement in an ongoing investigation into the affair.


Police arrested five people but two fled after questioning, the official said. He added that the haul amounted to 1.5 tonnes.

Both the origin and intended final destination of the ivory remain unclear.

Sabin Mande, a lawyer for a coalition of environmental groups, told AFP that he had seen 18 bags of seized ivory in the state prosecutor's office in Lubumbashi on Wednesday.

The contraband represents 80 to 100 slaughtered elephants, he said.

The seizure marks one of the largest in Africa in years. In 2013, Kenyan officials made several seizures including one of four tonnes. Togolese authorities likewise seized four tonnes of ivory over the course of one week in 2014.

In 2019, Vietnamese officials discovered over nine tonnes of elephant ivory in a shipment carrying timber from the Republic of Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, in the largest recent haul worldwide.

China and Southeast Asia are major markets for African ivory, which is mainly used for purported cures in traditional medicine.

lk/at/eml/ri

Green ministers outshine Scholz as stars of German government
 

Olaf Scholz
German politician and 9th Federal Chancellor of Germany

 

Annalena Baerbock
German politician and minister of foreign affairs

Economy Minister Robert Habeck has impressed with his dedication to weaning Germany off Russian energy (AFP/Tobias SCHWARZ)

Mathieu FOULKES
Wed, May 18, 2022

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has seen his popularity slide over his cautious stance on the war in Ukraine, eclipsed by two ministers from the Green party who have taken a more decisive approach.

Scholz, whose Social Democrats (SPD) are in power with the Greens and the liberal FDP, has faced a barrage of criticism over his perceived weak response to the war, including his hesitancy over sending heavy weapons to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Green party Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Economy Minister Robert Habeck have impressed with their more vocal approach, topping a recent survey of the country's most popular politicians.

Scholz sought to redress the balance with a speech to the Bundestag parliament on Thursday.

"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin still believes that he can forge peace by dictatorship, but he is wrong -- just as he was wrong about Ukraine's determination and the unity of our alliances," he said.

Scholz also tried to shake off accusations that he is dragging his feet in dealing with Moscow over fears of escalating the crisis.

"I want to say clearly that helping a brutally attacked country to defend itself is not an escalation but a contribution to repelling an attack and thereby ending the violence as quickly as possible," he told parliament.

But the chancellor has his work cut out to turn around public opinion.

- Sitting tight -

In a nod to just how badly this reticent stance has played with the public, the SPD suffered a crushing defeat in a key regional election at the weekend -- losing to the conservative CDU with its worst-ever result in Germany's most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Greens, meanwhile, almost tripled their score compared with five years ago to finish in third place and look almost certain to be part of the next regional government.

Der Spiegel magazine called the result a "personal defeat" for Scholz after he was heavily involved in the election campaign, appearing on posters and at rallies.

In a bid to win back the public, Scholz has in recent days given lengthy television interviews.

But in a devastating reading of his performance on screen, the weekly Focus said "his language is poor, his facial expressions monotone and his body language too understated."

According to Der Spiegel, the chancellor's communications strategy seems to revolve around one mantra: "Repeat, repeat, repeat."

Other media have accused him of stubbornly sticking to the same plan and ignoring what is going on around him.

"His party is plummeting, but the chancellor feels that he has done everything right... Doubts and questions rain down on him, but Olaf simply sits tight," said Der Spiegel.

- 'Strong moral underpinning' -

Scholz's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit has defended the chancellor, suggesting that the public value his calm demeanour and would find it "inauthentic" if he tried to turn himself into Barack Obama.

But for political scientist Ursula Muench, Scholz does not come across as calm and measured but rather "imprecise" compared with his colleagues from the Green party.

Baerbock, meanwhile, has turned around her public image after a series of blunders during the 2021 election campaign, coming across as clearer and more decisive than Scholz in her response to the Ukraine crisis.

The 41-year-old former trampolinist has become the face of Germany at international summits, from the G7 to NATO, and in early May became the first German minister to visit Kyiv.

Habeck, meanwhile, has impressed with his dedication to weaning Germany off Russian energy.

For the first time in their 42-year history, according to Der Spiegel, the Greens are being judged not on "expectations and promises" but on their performance in government.

"The strong moral underpinning of the Greens' policies and the fact they openly struggle with their own principles comes across as approachable and therefore very credible," according to Muench.

"Of course, this increases their clout compared with the chancellor."

She therefore predicts an "increase in tensions" between the Greens, the SPD and the FDP, with life not expected to get easier for Scholz any time soon.

mat-fec/hmn/spm

Chinese chess checks in with hushed SEA Games debut

Thailand's Radtai Lokutarapol plans a move in xiangqi at the SEA Games 

(AFP/Nhac NGUYEN) 

Patrick LEE
Thu, May 19, 2022, 

When Sim Yip How first came across xiangqi as a little boy he looked on mesmerised as grandmasters puzzled over the ancient Chinese game.

The 38-year-old Malaysian is now an SEA Games silver medallist in a pastime which, according to players at the regional competition, is growing in popularity.

Also known as Chinese chess, xiangqi is a two-player board game dating back thousands of years but it is making its debut at the SEA Games in Vietnam.

Hailing from the city of Kuching in eastern Malaysia's Sarawak state, Sim said he picked up the game at the age of seven after watching masters battle each other in matches.

"All the best players came from Kuching and at my father's coffee shop the Sarawak champions came and played," he told AFP at the SEA Games, where players silently peered at pieces over thick fabric boards.

"I idolised them when I saw them. I saw international grandmasters and I was like 'Wow, I want to be like them one day.'"

Its fans say that xiangqi is more complex than its Western counterpart.

While chess is played on an eight-by-eight grid, xiangqi's board is nine lines wide and 10 long, with pieces moved on the lines' 90 possible intersections.

It also makes use of terrain with a valley in the middle where certain units cannot cross, and a safe zone where a side's general, the critical piece, cannot leave.

Games last anything from 10-15 minutes in a "blitz" version to up to five hours.

Xiangqi's four medal events were possibly the quietest at the regional games, with almost no spectators at the hillside resort a three-hour drive outside Hanoi, aside from a few volunteers watching.

Despite a muted physical presence, Sim said the matches were viewed intently online and in Malaysia, where there are "thousands" of enthusiasts.

Originally limited to parts of East Asia, xiangqi today enjoys a growing global status, those at the Games say.

A biennial world championship has been played since 1991 and it made its Asian Games debut in 2010 in China.

In SEA Games host Vietnam, the country’s shared border and long history with China has made the game wildly prolific here, game arbiter Quach Phuong Minh said.

"Each province, each city (in Vietnam) has events for children," the 34-year-old, who started playing when he was just six, told AFP.

With the game set to return at the SEA Games next year in Cambodia, Minh predicts more pick-up "in just a few years".

"It’s not only for old people," he added.

pl/pst

Cyprus police arrest one after protesting farmers set hay ablaze

Cypriot goat and sheep farmers face a squeeze driven on one side by higher input costs and on the other side by halloumi producers opting largely in favour of cheap cow milk (AFP/Amir MAKAR) (Amir MAKAR)

Thu, May 19, 2022,

Cyprus police said Thursday they had arrested one man a day after farmers set hay bales ablaze outside the presidential palace to protest against high input prices and a milk glut.

The goat and sheep farmers also emptied milk churns at the gates of the palace and police say they have issued arrest warrants for two other people who took part in the 300-strong demonstration.

The farmers face a unique squeeze driven in part by the war in Ukraine, which has propelled the cost of wheat and fuel higher, making it more expensive to feed and transport their animals.

On top of that, farmers have been unable to sell all their sheep and goat milk because, they complain, producers of the Mediterranean island's renowned halloumi cheese are opting largely in favour of cow milk, a cheaper alternative.

Halloumi exports earned Cyprus 266.5 million euros ($279 million) in 2020 and last year won Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status from the European Union, giving the country a monopoly on producing halloumi branded cheese.

The PDO status is also meant to ensure minimum quotas for the use of goat and sheep milk in the production process, but the farmers accuse halloumi makers of flouting that.

Police spokesperson Christos Andreou told state broadcaster CyBC that video footage of Wednesday's protest was being reviewed and suspects face charges of reckless behaviour and conspiracy to commit a crime.

The one man arrested so far is 42 and has been charged in writing and released to appear in court at a later date.

Agriculture Minister Costas Kadis said goat and sheep farmers' anger was "justified" and pledged more financial support.

cc/dwo