Christie’s (May 11, 2023) – From Zhang Daqian’s atmospheric masterpiece ‘Ancient Temple in Misty Mountain’ to Qiu Ying’s ‘Celestial Mountains and Pavilions’, a rare and exquisite painting that belonged to the personal collection of Zhang Daqian, enter the beautiful world of Zhang Daqian as an artist and a collector.
Works by Zhang Daqian at Sotheby’s
Chang Dai-chien or Zhang Daqian was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a guohua painter, by the 1960s he was also renowned as a modern impressionist and expressionist painter.
The Globalist, May 4, 2023: Lynne O’Donnell reports from Goa as the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation nations meet. Plus: Drone strikes Kremlin and anti-mafia raids across Europe, a flick through today\’s papers and the latest theatre news.
The Globalist, April 28, 2023: China’s defence minister, Li Shangfu, attends a security summit in India. Also, the latest on the situation in Sudan with Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Ukraine’s looming counteroffensive and Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, visits London.
The Globalist, April 27, 2023: China pushes ahead with the largest-ever expansion of its nuclear arsenal, while Asean nations discuss a nuclear-free zone. Men in Belarus are summoned for military training and tensions are rising between Serbia and Kosovo.
The Globalist, April 25, 2023: An update on the war in Ukraine as Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, visits New York. Also, leaders from the largest-ever coalition around energy in the North Sea meet in Belgium.
Wall Street Journal (April 21, 2023) – At this year’s auto show in Shanghai, international automakers like Volkswagen Group and Porsche are trying to keep up with Chinese EV manufacturers like BYD and Li Auto, who dominate China’s EV market.
Video timeline: 0:00 EVs and plug-in hybrids are in the spotlight at Auto Shanghai 0:37 BYD’s Seagull and Li Auto’s L8 on display 1:58 How international companies like Volkswagen and Porsche are trying to keep up with Chinese EV companies 3:07 What’s next for China’s EV market?
WSJ’s Yoko Kubota heads to the most prestigious car show in China and takes a look at what’s driving the latest trends.
The Globalist, April 19, 2023: The strategies behind China’s attempts to control Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, the Norwegian environmental NGO branded as “undesirable” by Moscow and the halting of Absolut Vodka exports to Russia.
The Atlantic Magazine – May 2023 issue – In “American Madness,” appearing as the cover story of the May issue of The Atlantic, Jonathan Rosen writes about the extraordinary turned tragic trajectory of Michael’s life and illness, and makes a broader argument that how we treat people with severe mental illness in this country must change.
As countries in the global South refuse to take a side in the war in Ukraine, many in the West are struggling to understand why. Some speculate that these countries have opted for neutrality out of economic interest. Others see ideological alignments with Moscow and Beijing behind their unwillingness to take a stand—or even a lack of morals. But the behavior of large developing countries can be explained by something much simpler: the desire to avoid being trampled in a brawl among China, Russia, and the United States.
For China, Russia, and the West, the last year has been one of fear and conflict. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, of people. It has prompted the United States and Europe to rearm and has pushed Moscow and Washington back into Cold War–style competition.
World Economic Forum (April 15, 2023) – This week’s top stories of the week include:
0:15 China build’s the world’s largest container ship – Mediterranean Tessa is nearly 400 metres long. Her deck area is the size of 4 football pitches. She can carry up to 240,000 tonnes of cargo or more than 24,000 standard containers. The ship is fitted with an air lubrication system. It blows tiny bubbles along the hull to reduce its resistance in the water.This reduces the ship’s CO2 emissions by up to 4% saving around 6,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.
1:36 The first cellphone call was made 50 years ago – On 3 April 1973, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper stood on a Manhattan street and called the landline of a rival who was racing to develop the cellphone, too. This was the world’s first mobile phone call. “I’m calling you on a cellphone,” Cooper said. ‘‘A personal, handheld, portable cellphone” the race was over. Cooper’s prototype became the first commercially available mobile phone. Motorola released the DynaTAC 8000x a decade later, in 1984. It was about the size of a shoebox and cost $11,500 in today’s money. Since then, mobile technology has transformed our lives. Watch to learn more about the first mobile phone call in the world.
3:40 South Korea to pay its citizens to have children – South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate. The average South Korean woman will have 0.78 babies in her lifetime. While the average fertility rate in OECD countries is 1.59. South Korea’s population is shrinking as a result. More people die each year than are born. Left unchecked, the country’s working-age population will almost halve by 2070. Globally, the fertility rate is declining it stands at 2.3 today. In 2000 it was 2.7. The UN predicts the global population will peak at 10.4 billion by 2080, but a recent study suggests the peak could be much lower and could arrive much sooner.
5:01 Why sleeper trains are being revived across Europe – The EU has provisionally agreed to call 2021 the European Year of Rail. It says boosting rail travel could help the bloc reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
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