ASEAN

Indonesia's Widodo says no real progress on Myanmar peace plan

Martin Abbugao and Allison Jackson
Wed, May 10, 2023 

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (C) said ASEAN member nations have made no real progress in bringing an end to the bloodshed in Myanmar

Southeast Asian nations have made "no significant progress" on implementing a peace plan aimed at ending bloodshed in Myanmar, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said Thursday, on the final day of a summit.

Escalating violence in junta-ruled Myanmar has dominated the three-day meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the Indonesian island of Flores.

The regional bloc has spearheaded diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, though it has yet to enact a five-point plan agreed upon with Myanmar two years ago.

Since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government it has overseen a bloody crackdown on dissent, killing thousands of people and battling armed resistance to its rule.

As ASEAN leaders began their final day of talks in the fishing town of Labuan Bajo, Indonesian President Joko Widodo admitted they had made "no significant progress" on implementing the peace plan.

"We need the unity of ASEAN to chart our way forward," Widodo said through a translator.

Divisions among ASEAN members at the summit appear to have hampered those efforts.

An internal report on the foreign ministers' discussions said some countries wanted to invite the junta back to ASEAN meetings because "the time for isolation has served its purpose".

"There was also an observation that ASEAN might be experiencing a 'Myanmar fatigue', which might distract ASEAN from larger goals of ASEAN Community-building," said the document seen by AFP.

"Patience, flexibility and creativity are therefore required since there will be no quick fix to the crisis."

- Hamstrung -

Myanmar still belongs to the 10-member ASEAN bloc but has been barred from its summits due to the junta's failure to implement the peace plan.

The junta has spurned international criticism and refused to engage with its opponents, which include ousted lawmakers, anti-coup "People's Defence Forces" and armed ethnic minority groups.

An air strike on a village in a rebel stronghold last month that reportedly killed about 170 people sparked global condemnation and worsened the junta's isolation.

Jakarta's chairing of the bloc this year had raised hopes ASEAN could push for a peaceful solution, using its economic weight as well as its diplomatic experience.

Sunday's armed attack on a convoy carrying diplomats and officials coordinating ASEAN humanitarian relief in Myanmar had increased pressure for tougher action.

ASEAN has long been decried by critics as a toothless talking shop, but its charter principles of consensus and non-interference have hamstrung its ability to stop the violence in Myanmar.

The latest draft of the end-of-summit statement seen by AFP has left the paragraph on Myanmar open, reflecting diplomatic difficulties over the issue.

A review of the charter was "long overdue", said Lina Alexandra of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.

"When you see your next-door neighbour's house is burning, what will you do? Can you just stay silent, it's not my problem?" she said.

mba-amj/lb

Streaming giants battle for anime supremacy


Tomohiro OSAKI
Wed, May 10, 2023 

Producer Haruyasu Makino's Netflix series "Ultraman S3" is part of a rapidly expanding landscape of anime shows populating global streaming giants

From R-rated sci-fi to teen biker gang adventures, streaming platforms are locked in an intensifying battle for dominance in one of the entertainment sector's hottest and most lucrative mediums: anime.

Fuelled in part by the pandemic, the popularity of the cartoons pioneered in Japan has created a goldmine for streaming giants such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime.

The global anime market was valued at $28.6 billion in 2022, according to Grand View Research, and is forecast to double in value by 2030.

"The peak may still be ahead of us," Aya Umezu, CEO of Tokyo-based entertainment consulting firm GEM Partners, told AFP.

"We doubt the competition in anime will slow down soon."

Globally, demand for anime increased by 35 percent from 2020 to 2021, according to industry specialist service Parrot Analytics.

It is little wonder, then, that international streamers are scrambling for ways to capitalise on the surging interest.

Recent years have seen Disney+, a relative latecomer to anime, start offering fan favourites also found elsewhere like "Demon Slayer", "Spy x Family" and "Jujutsu Kaisen".

"Having them can prevent subscription cancellations -- that's how strong these IPs (intellectual properties) are," Umezu said.

Offering these titles is seen as a baseline, and far from sufficient to win the loyalty of anime fans with increasingly diverse options available.

That has meant platforms are looking to either secure exclusive rights to content or co-produce their own original anime in a bid to stand out.

- Breaking open the market -

Last year, Disney+ announced exclusive streaming rights to season two of smash-hit teen biker gang saga "Tokyo Revengers", part of a lucrative deal with publishing giant Kodansha.

Amazon Prime has also sought to "monopolise" blockbusters, said anime expert Tadashi Sudo, including "One Piece Film: Red" -- Japan's highest-grossing movie last year.

Netflix has proven something of an outlier in this market, going beyond snatching up existing hits to work directly with animation studios, granting them an unusual amount of creative leeway to make new stories.

Traditionally, Japanese anime emerges from "production committees" made up of publishers, TV broadcasters, toy-makers and other industry players.

These have long had a key role in broadening revenue possibilities for a series, from character merchandising to gaming.

Netflix ruffled industry feathers when it teamed up directly with Tokyo animation studio Production I.G in 2018, bypassing the system.

"Some (in the anime industry) were upset because they thought we would destroy what they had built over all these years," Production I.G president Mitsuhisa Ishikawa said.

He went as far as likening Netflix to the "Black Ships" -- the 19th-century US vessels that forced the opening of Japan after hundreds of years of trade isolation.

"The domestic way of making anime was suddenly forced open," he said.

Netflix has reaped the rewards, with its original content making it "the platform that drove the largest increase in global demand for anime in 2021", said Christofer Hamilton of US-based Parrot Analytics.

- 'Experimental' push -

But even streaming goliaths with worldwide influence have comparatively small audience numbers in Japan.

That raises red flags for some industry players, especially publishers who want maximum exposure for anime adaptations of their manga titles and worry exclusive streaming deals would limit their reach in Japan.

There is "a clash of two opposing interests -- between platforms who want more exclusives and production committee players who want as little of a monopoly (for streaming services) as possible", said anime specialist Sudo.

Experts say this conflict often leads to Netflix original deals being based on works that are less likely to become national sensations like "Demon Slayer".

None of Netflix's original anime made their top-20 most-watched list for Japan users in 2022, according to GEM Partners senior data analyst Shota Ito.

The streamer is, however, an attractive prospect for studios with more commercially challenging projects that the traditional market could find too niche.

Early original content on Netflix reflected this, and was heavy on shows critics say evoked the hardcore sci-fi anime of a few decades ago.

Among these was "Devilman Crybaby", the tale of a "demon-boy" that featured violence and nudity galore.

"My sense is that creators wanted to do something with us that they had little chance to do under the existing system," Netflix chief anime producer Taiki Sakurai told AFP.

That initial "experimental" push has since given way to a broader roster, including comedy, traditional "shonen" targeting young boys and even a stop-motion project starring a teddy bear.

Long-standing fans also have other dedicated services to turn to, including the huge online anime library Crunchyroll.

Netflix content director Yuji Yamano is convinced the market is far from saturated, though, and believes competition will only make "the industry even more exciting".

"Globally, I only see more room for growth in anime."

tmo/sah/kaf/aha/cwl

European Parliament votes on curbs for ChatGPT and other AI

Daniel ARONSSOHN
Wed, May 10, 2023

The emergence of ChatGPT, Midjourney and other AI applications have greatly focused the parliament's attention

EU lawmakers hold a crucial vote Thursday towards setting restrictions on how AI such as ChatGPT can be used in the European Union.

European Parliament committees will set out their position for upcoming negotiations with EU member states that aim to create a law to prevent abuses in the way artificial intelligence is used, while still giving room for innovation.

The bloc wants to be the global pioneer in regulating the technology, which has ignited public and corporate interest in the past few months.

Brussels' move towards that goal actually started two years ago, with a European Commission proposal. EU member states came up with their negotiation position at the end of last year.

But the emergence since then of ChatGPT, Midjourney and other AI applications has greatly focused the parliament's attention on the issue, resulting in an avalanche of amendments that have to be considered.

Once the committees' vote is held on Thursday, the full European Parliament will have its say with a plenary vote next month.

"I think we are putting forward a very good and balanced text" that protects people while allowing innovation, said Brando Benifei, one of the lead MEPs on the text to be voted on Thursday.

- Double-edged sword -

While the promise of AI is vast, it is also a double-edged sword as a tech tool. It could save lives by advancing medical evaluations, for instance, or it could be used by authoritarian regimes to perfect mass surveillance.

For the general public, the arrival of ChatGPT at the end of last year provided a source of curiosity and fascination, with users signing on to watch it write essays, poems or carry out translations within seconds.

Image-generation AI such as Midjourney and DALL-E likewise sparked an online rush to make lookalike Van Goghs or a pope in a puffy jacket, while AI music sites have impressed with their ability to even produce human-like singing.

Nefariously, though, the tech carries great potential for fakery, to fool people and sway public opinion.

That has spurred Elon Musk and some researchers to urge a moratorium until legal frameworks can catch up.

The European Parliament's stance follows the main directions set out in the commission's proposal, which was guided by existing EU laws on product safety that put the onus of checks on the manufacturers.

The core of the EU's approach is to have a list of "high risk" activities for AI.

The commission suggests that designation should cover systems in sensitive domains such as critical infrastructure, education, human resources, public order and migration management.

Some of the proposed rules for that category would ensure human control over AI and that technical documentation is provided, and that there is a system of risk management.

Each EU member state would have a supervising authority to make sure the rules are abided by.

Many MEPs, however, want to limit the criteria of what constitutes "high risk" so that it only covers AI applications deemed to threaten safety, health or fundamental rights. Others, such as the Greens grouping, oppose that.

When it comes to generative AI such as ChatGPT, the parliament is looking at a specific set of obligations similar to those applied to the "high risk" list.

MEPs also want AI companies to put in place protections against illegal content and on copyrighted works that might be used to train their algorithms.

The commission's proposal already calls for users to be notified when they are in contact with a machine, and requires image-producing applications to state that their output was created artificially.

Outright bans would be rare, and would only concern applications contrary to values dear to Europe -- for example, the kind of mass surveillance and citizen rating systems used in China.

The lawmakers want to add prohibitions on AI recognising emotions, and to get rid of exceptions that would allow remote biometric identification of people in public places by law enforcement.

They also want to prevent the scraping of photos posted on the internet for training algorithms unless the authorisation of the people concerned is obtained.

aro/rmb/imm/smw

Winds of change buffet Iran's wooden boat building tradition

Jerome Rivet and Ahmad Parhizi
Wed, May 10, 2023 

The potbellied silhouette of Iran's lenj vessels is emblematic of regional maritime traditions

Iranian captain Hassan Rostam has braved the Strait of Hormuz aboard his lenj for four decades, but now watches with despair as the wooden ships are being replaced by cheaper, faster boats.

The sturdy vessels, built by hand, have sailed Gulf waters for centuries, their potbellied silhouette emblematic of regional maritime traditions like the dhows of the Arabian Peninsula.

But these days, "there are fewer and fewer" of them, said Rostam, 62, who has spent his life travelling the waterway between Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

With a lean body and weathered face, he gazes at the calm seas that are criss-crossed by huge tankers taking Gulf oil to the world's markets, and naval vessels patrolling the strategic waterway.

But the island of Qeshm off Bandar Abbas is also home to the much older tradition of building wooden boats, around 30 of which were resting at low tide in the coastal village of Guran.

This small port has long housed several shipyards specialising in their maintenance and repair. But that morning, fewer than two dozen workers were there, barefoot in the mud.

A half-built lenj hull propped on beams will not be finished for lack of money, as its owner plans to dismantle it and use the boards for other projects.

"Today, a new lenj is very expensive" because "the wood comes from abroad" and construction is done entirely by hand, said Ali Pouzan, who supervises the Guran site.

Each lenj is unique and the ships vary in size, with the craft "transmitted from generation to generation", he said.

UNESCO back in 2011 recognised the lenj as intangible cultural heritage requiring "urgent safeguarding".

As modern alternatives have taken the wind out of its sails, "the philosophy, the ritual context and the traditional knowledge linked to navigation in the Persian Gulf... are gradually fading", the UN body warned.

- Open-air museum -

In their golden age, the rustic lenjes were used to transport cereals, dates, dried fish, spices, wood and textiles across the Gulf and as far as the coasts of East Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

But commercial shipping has been taken over by engine-powered boats made of fibreglass or steel, navigating the turquoise waters where huge oil tankers now roam.

Lenj vessels were also used for fishing, as well as the lucrative pearling tradition, which has nearly disappeared altogether.

Younes, a 42-year-old Guran resident, has been repairing lenjes in his native village for more than 20 years.

"It's a painful job," he said in the baking heat, as he used an old technique called "kalfat koobi" to waterproof a vessel with strips of cotton soaked in sesame and coconut oil.

Recognising the demise of shipbuilding in Guran, Pouzan is betting on tourism instead, a promising sector on Qeshm as the island attracts a growing number of visitors.

"We have restored several boats to adapt them to sea trips," he said.

An old ship was being repurposed into a cafe, and there are plans to transform the scenic port, with coloured lenj hulls lying in the sand, into an open-air museum.

Near mangroves on the beach, Pouzan plans to build lenj-inspired huts for tourists. Each will bear the name of the most famous destinations the ships once reached -- from Zanzibar and Mombasa to Kolkata.

Iraqi Kurds keep nervous eye on Turkish election race

Kamal Taha
Wed, May 10, 2023 

A Turkish citizen living in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, casts his ballot for the presidential and parliamentary elections, at the Turkish embassy

As Turkey's presidential vote nears, Iraqi Kurds are keeping a close watch on the tightest electoral battle yet for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the outcome of which could have major security and economic implications for their region.

For many years, fighting between Turkey's armed forces and Kurdish militants has spilled over into Iraq's autonomous Kurdish north, a rugged mountain region where both sides operate military bases.

Many Kurds in war-scarred Iraq sympathise with the ethnic minority in Turkey, but their own region also relies on the big neighbour for business, with its crucial oil long exported via a pipeline that runs through Turkey.

Political leaders in Arbil are not officially commenting on Turkey's tight electoral race between Erdogan and his challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who has pledged to "bring democracy to this country by changing the one-man regime".

But, whatever the outcome of the Turkish presidential vote, with the first round to be held Sunday, Iraq's Kurdish region will look to preserve its strategic partnership with Ankara, analysts say.

"The media, the political scene, everyone is highly preoccupied with the Turkish elections," said Adel Bakawan, director of the French Centre for Research on Iraq, who stressed that Ankara's role in the region is "fundamental".

Iraq's Kurdish leaders have built relationships with Erdogan, he said, adding that, if "the president changes, the whole relationship between Arbil and Ankara changes... The diplomatic world hates the unknown."

- 'Direction of the war' -

Erdogan, after two decades in power as premier and then president, has strengthened Turkey as a regional player that at times challenges Europe and the United States and negotiates with Russia on Syria's war.

When he first took office, Erdogan launched talks aimed at ending the Kurdish armed struggle for broader autonomy in Turkey's southeast. But the community, estimated to be 15 to 20 million strong, came under pressure when those talks collapsed, and violence resumed in 2015.

Turkey's battle against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), classified as a "terrorist" group by Ankara and its Western allies, has long since flared again across its borders into Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Turkish military maintains dozens of bases in northern Iraq and carries out air strikes and ground operations against the PKK, which operates rear bases in the region.

Iraq's regional Kurdish government rarely rebukes Ankara, despite Turkey routinely bombarding its territory and causing civilian casualties. Instead, Arbil usually limits its public response to press releases condemning violations of Iraq's sovereignty and their impacts on the population.

Kilicdaroglu, while making no concrete proposals to resolve Turkey's Kurdish question, has accused Erdogan of "stigmatising" Kurds.

He has also pledged to free the Kurdish leader of the left-wing Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas, who has been incarcerated since 2016 for spreading "terrorist propaganda".

According to Bakawan, given the gestures Kilicdaroglu has already made to the Kurdish community, there is "the possibility of appeasement" in the conflict should he win.

"The result of the election will directly impact the direction of this war," said Bakawan, a French-Iraqi political scientist of Kurdish origin.

- 'Betting on relaxation' -

Political scientist Botan Tahseen argued that Turkey's opposition is "betting on relaxation" and wants "to turn a new page" after Erdogan, at a time when the Middle East is thirsty for "political, security and economic stability".

If Erdogan is re-elected, he added, Turkey will still "need an initiative to normalise its relations with its neighbours, especially (Iraqi) Kurdistan".

Ankara remains a strategic economic partner to Arbil. For years, all of Kurdistan's oil exports -- some 450,000 barrels per day -- were sent to Turkey, without the approval of Iraq's federal government.

A legal dispute between Baghdad and Ankara interrupted the trade, but it is expected to resume once technical and financial details are settled.

"Whoever governs in Ankara will obviously have an influence on this issue," said Bakawan.

Illustrating the close ties between Ankara and Arbil, a Turkish HDP parliamentarian was on Sunday turned away from Arbil's airport, local media reported. The provincial government later explained he had been subject to a Baghdad-issued "travel ban".

For Iraq's Kurds, notions of ethnic solidarity and hopes for an end to discrimination of Kurds in Turkey are tempered with caution.

"We hope that the next Turkish government will sit down at the dialogue table with the Kurds," said Nizar Soltan, 60, who works at a university in Arbil.

"Dozens of times they tricked the Kurds and used them to achieve their ends," he said, sitting in a cafe, complaining that the minority invariably ends up being "marginalised".

"This time let's hope they keep their promises, and that the Kurdish regions will regain security and stability."

kt/tgg/noc/fz/smw

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M: THE OLYMPICS

Two more handed suspended jail terms in Tokyo Olympics scandal

AFP
Wed, 10 May 2023 

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics took place a year late because of the pandemic

Two Japanese businessmen were handed suspended prison sentences on Thursday in the latest convictions in a bribery scandal surrounding the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Corruption allegations have spiralled in the aftermath of the pandemic-delayed Games, implicating major companies and damaging Japan's bid to host the 2030 Winter Olympics in Sapporo.

Shigeharu Hisamatsu, a 64-year-old former executive at advertising firm ADK Holdings, received a sentence of 18 months, suspended for three years, a Tokyo District Court spokesman told AFP.

His former assistant, 61-year-old Toshiaki Tada, was given a sentence of one year, also suspended for three years.

The pair did not contest charges during their first hearing in March that they bribed a Tokyo Olympics committee member, according to local media.

The pair were arrested along with former ADK president Shinichi Ueno in October last year.

Local media reported that Ueno admitted in a court hearing in February that he paid over $100,000 to Haruyuki Takahashi, who is facing several separate bribery charges and has reportedly pleaded not guilty.

Last month, the former chairman of a high-street business suit retailer and sponsor of the Tokyo Games became the first person to be convicted in the bribery scandal.

Hironori Aoki, the 84-year-old head of Aoki Holdings, received a suspended prison sentence of two and a half years.

Other parties involved in bribery allegations include a major publishing firm and a merchandise company licensed to sell soft toys of the Games' mascots.

As investigations continue, the country's Olympic chief warned last month that Japan could push its Winter Olympics bid back four years to 2034.

Japanese Olympic Committee president Yasuhiro Yamashita said it would be "difficult to move ahead without gaining people's understanding" following the scandals.

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US panel recommends nonprescription use of contraception pill

Issued on: 10/05/2023

A student holds a sign calling for reproductive freedom at an event in Washington, DC, in April 2023 © Stefani Reynolds / AFP/File

Washington (AFP) – A US panel of health experts voted Wednesday in favor of making birth control pills available without a prescription, a move backed by reproductive rights advocates especially in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling overturning the national right to abortion.

The independent panel voted unanimously that the benefits of allowing the medicine, Opill, to be sold over the counter, outweighed the risks and would reduce hurdles associated with visiting a doctor that impact lower income groups disproportionately.

"I believe that the efficacy and safety of this birth control form was established over half a century ago," said panelist Jolie Haun of the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital.

"We now have been presented with ample data demonstrating the effective safe use and benefits for people who want to have access to reproductive autonomy."

The committee's votes are usually accepted by the Food and Drug Administration, which means the pill, which is made by HRA Pharma, might be available without prescription in the coming weeks.

While likely, approval is not assured. FDA scientists highlighted safety concerns, such as the potential impact on people with a history or current diagnosis of breast cancer, or whether they would understand the pill needs to be taken the same time every day to prevent pregnancy.

"There is also concern that some consumers may not consistently use the product correctly on a chronic basis and be at risk for pregnancy, but not recognize that they are pregnant because of the irregular bleeding that would be ascribed to the known side effect," the FDA wrote in a document.

The push for a non-prescription pill has taken on new urgency in light of a Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion, leading to numerous bans and severe restrictions in conservative states.

It has received support from health groups such as the American Medical Association and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

If the pill is approved, the US would join more than 100 other countries where the pill is available without a prescription, including the UK which requires a consultation with a pharmacist.

Opill is known as a "mini pill" because it contains progestin only.

Another company, Cadence, is in talks with the FDA about making its combination pill, which contains both estrogen and progestin, available over the counter.

FRENZIED FINAL DAYS OF VAN GOGH FEATURE IN NEW SHOW

Van Gogh Museum is exhibiting a new show to mark the 50th anniversary of the most famous Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh. His masterpieces that he worked during his feverish final months in a French village are the subject of the one-off exhibition opening this week in Amsterdam.

Titled "In Auvers - his final months", the collection highlights his last 70 days spent in the town of Auvers before he took his own life - a fitting topic to mark the Van Gogh Museum's 50th anniversary. The Museum’s Curator said it is still amazing by not just the number of paintings that he did in Auvers in this short period but also the great quality of it and the great audacity, the expressiveness, the experiment until the very last day shows how great of a painter he was.

Amsterdam (AFP) – Vincent Van Gogh's feverish final months in a French village, when he churned out masterpieces even as he spiralled into despair, are the subject of a one-off exhibition opening this week in Amsterdam.

The show at the Van Gogh Museum in the Dutch capital, which opens Friday, features 50 of the 74 works produced in his frenzied last days in Auvers-sur-Oise, just northwest of Paris, before his death at the age of 37.

More than 30 drawings are also featured among the works that have been loaned from museums and private collections all over the world and have never previously been shown together, curators said.

"It is fair to say that this is a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition about Van Gogh's very last period, his last 70 days," museum director Emilie Gordenker said at a press preview on Wednesday.

"During that period, he worked like a man possessed," producing some of his best works including the ominous "Wheatfield with Crows" and the melancholic portrait of his friend and physician Dr Paul Gachet.

Vincent Van Gogh is buried next to his brother Theo in Auvers-sur-Oise, a northwestern suburb of Paris where the Dutch painter spent his final days © MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP

The painting "Dr Paul Gachet", which the museum's researchers said was made on 6 and 7 June 1890, is one of eight works provided by the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, along with "The Church at Auvers".

What makes the exhibition unique is that all its paintings are arranged in chronological order, from the first painting when Vincent arrived in the village until his very last work, "Tree Roots", painted two days before his death.

Van Gogh arrived in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris on May 20, 1890, after spending time in Arles and Saint-Remy-de-Provence in southern France, where he already struggled with bouts of mental illness.

The painter arrived in Auvers full of hope and fresh enthusiasm, mainly because of the presence of Dr Gachet, a physician specialising in the treatment of "melancholia".

Once there, the painter entered one of his most productive periods.

"Vincent had a really tough time before he came to Auvers. He really suffered very much from his mental condition," Gordenker told AFP.

"He comes to Auvers and he really has a new energy and he really gets to work," she said.
'The audacity'

"He must have worked very fast. But he knew exactly what he was doing," added Nienke Bakker, senior curator at the Van Gogh Museum.

"Working on this exhibition, we are not just amazed by the number of paintings that he did in Auvers in this short period, but also the great quality of it and the audacity, the expressiveness, the experimenting that was there until the very last day," Bakker told AFP.

"It shows what an amazing artist he was," she said.

But as time went on, a feeling of unease again crept over Van Gogh, as seen in paintings like "Wheatfield with Crows", which was followed by another ominous landscape, "Wheatfield under Thunderclouds".

Indeed, Van Gogh, in one of his last letters to his brother Theo, says about his final painting, "Tree Roots", that "my life too is attacked at the very root, my step is also faltering".

Feelings of failure, loneliness and melancholy gradually gained the upper hand.

Van Gogh shot himself in the chest shortly after finishing "Tree Roots" and died two days later.

The exhibition "Van Gogh in Auvers. His Final Months" runs from May 12 to September 3 before moving to the Musee d'Orsay from October 3 until February 4, 2024.

New York's Met Museum to probe possibly looted art

AFP
Wed, May 10, 2023

The United States has returned to China two stolen 7th-century antiquities that had been loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by a private art collector

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art said Wednesday it would examine the provenance of "several hundred or more" objects that were possibly stolen from their country of origin, and then return them where necessary.

The move comes as Manhattan prosecutors work to repatriate hundreds of artifacts worth millions of dollars to dozens of countries across the world.

The Met will hire additional "provenance" researchers to study some of the museum's 1.5 million works of art, director Max Hollein told staff in a letter published on the institution's website.

"We will broaden, expedite, and intensify our research into all works that came to the museum from art dealers who have been under investigation," he wrote.

Hollein said most of the suspect pieces were acquired between 1970 and 1990, "when there was less information available and less scrutiny on the provenance of many of these works."

The Met has been cited in court cases related to stolen works.

On Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney returned to China two 7th-century stone carvings worth $3.5 million that were smuggled out of the country in the early 1990s.

Authorities had earlier this year seized the artifacts from the Met, where they had been since 1998.

The carvings were among 89 antiquities from 10 different countries purchased by Shelby White, a private art collector in New York and Met trustee.

Since January 2022, the DA has returned more than 950 antiquities worth over $165 million to 19 countries.

"The Met has a longstanding history in the rigorous review of our collection and, when appropriate, the return of art," said Hollein, citing returns to Egypt, Greece, Italy, Nepal, Nigeria, Turkey, and India.

nr/arb/pdh/st

Brazilians say emotional goodbye to rock icon Rita Lee

AFP
Wed, May 10, 2023 

People file past the coffin of Brazilian singer Rita Lee during her wake at the planetarium in a Sao Paulo park

Fans flocked to a Sao Paulo park Wednesday to say an emotional farewell to Brazil's "Queen of Rock," the trailblazing singer-songwriter Rita Lee, who died this week at age 75.

Brazil is holding three days of national mourning for the Latin Grammy-winning icon, who shot to fame in the 1960s with legendary band Os Mutantes and captivated the country across a five-decade career with her rebellious spirit and irreverent songs on sex, love and freedom.

Standing in the rain, hundreds of fans joined a long line that formed early Wednesday outside the planetarium at Sao Paulo's Ibirapuera Park, where a public wake was held for Lee, as she had requested.

"She was a woman before her time, a genius," said 27-year-old fan Barbarhat Sueyassu.

"She's our biggest national symbol of women's rock," she told AFP.

Inside the planetarium dome, fans filed past Lee's simple brown coffin -- some in tears, some singing her songs.

Lee, a leading figure in the "Tropicalismo" movement that revolutionized Brazilian music amid the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021.

She died Monday at home in Sao Paulo, her family said.

With her eye-grabbing outfits, bright red hair and colored sunglasses, Lee was a national fixture across the decades in Brazil, releasing more than 30 albums and racking up hits including "Ovelha Negra" (1975), "Mania de Voce" (1979) and "Lanca Perfume" (1980).

Her body will be cremated in a private ceremony, in line with her wishes, her family said.

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