Senior Russian officials and business figures, including a former graduate of Russia’s Federal Security Services Academy, cultivated relationships with Jeffrey Epstein, according to a trove of documents newly released by the Justice Department, expanding the scope of international contacts by the late financier and convicted sex offender. Source link
Zhang Youxia, first vice president of the Central Military Commission, at Place Tiananmen in Beijing, September 30, 2025. FLORENCE LO / REUTERS As the highest-ranking officer in the military hierarchy after Xi Jinping himself, Zhang Youxia appeared to be the only general able to evade purges thanks to his status and his close relationship with the Chinese leader. Yet, he too has now fallen. On Saturday, January 24, the Ministry of Defense announced that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was opening an investigation into the 75-year-old, who, as first-ranking vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, held responsibilities equivalent to those of a chief of the General Staff and a defense minister – though in China, the role of minister is much weaker than in other systems. His removal has sparked deep concerns about loyalty and stability within the world’s second most powerful military. Appointed to the highest rank with Xi’s backing, and as one of the few generals with real combat experience – his father fought alongside Xi’s father during the civil war – …
Despite his public threats about taking control of Greenland, including potentially by military force, President Donald Trump arrived in Davos on Wednesday looking to negotiate a deal that would give the United States more control over security of the island and the broader Arctic region, a congressional official and two former U.S. officials told NBC News. Trump dispatched senior U.S. officials to Davos ahead of his trip to lay the groundwork for an agreement, the officials said. Trump’s pressure campaign rattled longtime U.S. partners, and his threat to impose tariffs on countries standing in his way on Greenland escalated the clash into a transatlantic crisis. He backed off that threat after meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday, saying in a Truth Social post that he would not proceed with the tariffs and announcing the pair had agreed to the “framework of a future deal” on Greenland. Trump went into the meeting with the expectation that he would announce a broad framework of a deal on Greenland, the congressional official and one of …
Yet more details have emerged surrounding the abrupt cancelation of Gabrielle Goliath‘s planned Venice Biennale pavilion for South Africa, with the Daily Maverick publishing a report about the allegations that a foreign nation tried to interfere in her exhibition. Gayton McKenzie, the South African culture minister, controversially said in a statement that he canceled Goliath’s pavilion not because it was to deal with Israel’s war in Gaza, but because another country had attempted to purchase the work being shown there at the end of the show’s run. His statement appeared to conflict with reporting from a previous Daily Maverick article that stated that McKenzie had privately labeled Goliath’s pavilion “polarizing.” Related Articles After McKenzie’s statement, the Israeli outlet Ynetnews ran unconfirmed claims that the foreign nation in question was Qatar. But according to the Daily Maverick, that report was not entirely accurate. In fact, the Daily Maverick reported, it was the state-operated Qatar Museums, not Qatar more generally, that wanted to acquire a video recording of Elegy, the performance Goliath was to present. The piece …
Longstanding questions about an episode surrounding a Robert Motherwell painting in Spain have finally been answered: the Franco regime really did try to censor the Abstract Expressionist’s work, proposing an altered title for one work with a name that explicitly referred to the Spanish Republic. The drama centered around Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 35 (1954–58), one of more than one 150 paintings in a series of abstractions that obliquely refer to the Spanish Civil War via black ovals and expanses of white. Related Articles Now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the painting was one of several by Motherwell that appeared in “The New American Painting,” a legendary exhibition organized by the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition’s tour, which was facilitated by the US government, has been credited with bringing Abstract Expressionism beyond the United States. (Many have claimed the show was American propaganda, with ArtCurious podcast host Jennifer Dasal writing that it was “a way to cement alliances among like-minded Cold Warriors and to promote the much-lauded cultural preeminence of …
TAIPEI, Jan 7 (Reuters) – China’s war game exercises around Taiwan last week were part of a campaign to counter growing international support for the island and an attempt to divert attention away from Beijing’s economic troubles, Taiwan’s top security agency said on Wednesday. As part of its exercises, called “Justice Mission 2025,” China fired dozens of rockets towards Taiwan and deployed a large number of warships and aircraft near the island. That caused dozens of domestic flights in Taiwan to be cancelled and drew concern from allies in the region and the West. “The Taiwan-focused drills carried clear political intent: to push back in the international arena against democratic partners’ support for Taiwan,” the National Security Bureau said in a report to Parliament. A copy of the report was reviewed by Reuters. The drills, China’s most extensive war games to date by coverage area, were also meant to “redirect public anger over economic setbacks and social disorder at home into nationalist sentiment framed as ‘resisting external interference,’” the report said. The report said China …
