Month: April 2019

The "Children’s Foodstuffs" factory in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, has a proud tradition of nourishing generations of the country’s children with its fresh and powdered milk and delicious soybean yogurt drinks.

Every morning at 7am, dozens of delivery vans set out from its regional branches to deliver nutritional products to thousands of kindergartens. Such is the importance of their mission that the vans are afforded the same status as ambulances on North Korea’s, admittedly empty, roads.

“Cars need to give way to the soy milk delivery vans. They are called ‘kings’ cars’ because our Great Leader said that the children of our country are king,” said Cha Song-Chol, the chief of technology,…

Jamal Khashoggi’s two daughters have written a poignant tribute to their father, vowing that “his light will never fade”.

Noha Khashoggi, a graphic designer based in Dubai, and her sister, Razan Jamal, describe life with the man they call “Baba”, who was killed in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

“Dad was no dissident,” they wrote in the newspaper where he was a columnist, The Washington Post, emphasising his passionate love of his homeland.

“It was vitally important to him to speak up, to share his opinions, to have candid discussions.”

The pair recall their childhood, when the celebrated journalist would take them to bookshops and allow them to rifle through his paper-filled office.

They also recall travelling to his Virginia home, after his death.

“The hardest part was seeing his empty chair,” they wrote. “His absence was deafening.”

On Saturday, as the article was published, a senior Saudi prince cast doubt upon the reported CIA finding that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s murder, saying the agency could not be counted on to reach a credible conclusion.

“The CIA is not necessarily the highest standard of veracity or accuracy in assessing situations. The examples of that are multitude,” said Prince Turki al-Faisal, a senior member of the royal family, speaking in Abu Dhabi.

Donald Trump, the US president, has also disputed that the agency reached a conclusion on the murder, saying instead “they have feelings certain ways.”

France’s “yellow vest” movement spread to Belgium on Friday, as police turned water cannon on stone-throwing protesters who torched two police vehicles in central Brussels.

The Belgian protests came as France prepared for “Act 3” of nationwide protests against “green” fuel tax hikes and the high cost of living. These are showing little sign of abating after talks between yellow vest representatives and the prime minister ended in fiasco.

In Brussels, around 300 people demonstrated near major EU buildings with at least 60 arrested in possession of box-cutters, smoke bombs or tear gas canisters.

Two police vans were tipped over and torched as the stand-off continued and the protestors blocked off the tunnels that ease Brussels’ notorious congestion. 

Metro stations were closed as a precaution as the protest teetered on the brink of street-fighting, despite the demonstrators’ repeated insistence their march was peaceful.

Troublemakers were chased away from the Belgian equivalent of Downing St by riot police, water cannons and tear gas. Stones were thrown in return, but some insisted by masked troublemakers and not the "yellow vests". 

"Incomprehensible violence towards the police who do their best every day to protect citizens and society. Scandalous," tweeted Belgian interior minister Jan Jambon.

Later, loud bangs rang out as protesters marched down Brussels’ busiest road throwing firecrackers, chanting football songs and being honked by supportive and furious drivers.

“We want this movement to spread,” said Gilles, who did not want to give his surname. “It began in France, it is here now, and we want it to continue to Germany and the Netherlands, across Europe, even to England.”

Charles Michel, the Belgian prime minister, has pushed ahead with unpopular reforms since the Liberal formed a coalition government with the Flemish nationalist NVA.

“The thugs and looters will have to be punished,” said Mr Michel.

Over in Paris, builders were busy boarding up flagship banks and stores along the Champs-Elysées as “the world’s most beautiful avenue” braced for its third straight Saturday of violence.

In what President Emmanuel Macron called “war scenes”, a peaceful protest descended into riots and tear gas, leaving many of the avenue’s windows smashed by cobblestones and other objects.

Caught woefully off guard last Saturday, police are taking no chances this time: they have mobilised up to 5,000 officers, are banning traffic and allowing in pedestrians only after ID checks.

Christophe Castaner, the interior minister, said access would be "very tight", with bag searches and systematic requests for identity papers from anybody trying to enter. 

Despite the extra measure, the avenue’s new Apple store, its global flagship outlet which opened earlier this month, will be shutting for the whole day.

“Nobody’s going to come to the Champs-Elysées on Saturday, it’s probably going to be an empty place because look what happened last week,” said one manager who declined to be named. 

“I’ve seen a lot of tourists who said we came today because we’re not coming tomorrow, because they all saw what happened on the news. Even if they filter there are so many side streets. Lots of stores are closing.”

But Benjamin Bouchard, 37, manager of La Maison du Danemark restaurant, said his would be opening.

“After all the mess of last week, which was anarchy and very poorly handled, things should go better with the checkpoints,. But if it kicks off, we’re shutting,” he said.

The violence has meant restaurant had a “catastrophic month of November with sales down 30 per cent down compared to last year at the least,” he said.

“Customers are scared and wonder what’s going on. I’ve had people ring from Denmark ring to say they’ve cancelled their trip to France.”

He added: “As usual this is going to offer a negative image of Paris. We were just rising from the ashes after a wave of terrorism and now we have the yellow vests. I don’t think it will stop tomorrow the way things are going.”

Most tourists were aware of the impending protest. 

Britons Jason and Sharon Ellidge from Keffering, Northampton were visiting the Champs-Elysées in their first ever trip to Paris to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. “We only learned about the protests on the news this morning,” they said, relieved to have missed any trouble.

Vera Elfent, a tourist from Cologne, was posing for a photo outside the Louis Vuitton store, whose window was damaged.

“We came to Paris to celebrate my birthday. We decided to go to the Champs-Elysées today because we saw on TV what happened last week. We’re going to the Moulin Rouge instead. I understand people want to protest but it’s not a good thing to destroy things. I hope things will calm down,” she said.

Lionel Guglieri, manager of L’Alsace restaurant, welcomed the extra measures after losing €100,000 last weekend in business and damage.

He said: “We went from the Armistice commemoration of November 11 with all the heads of states to scenes of war. When they put their mind to it, police can protect the avenue. What happened last week must not happen again.”

He said that hotels, such as Fouquet’s and Marriott, were having an even worse time. While these declined to comment, research firm MKG estimate the violence is likely to cost hotels around the city at least €10 million due to cancellations.

"Images showing riot scenes on the world’s most beautiful avenue and broadcast around the world led a number of tourists planning to come to Paris in December to cancel their trip," said MKG.

"Most hotels have had booking cancellations for at least one day in December, or a revenue shortfall of up to 20 percent," it said.

French government attempts to negotiate with the "yellow vest" movement collapsed on Friday after just two representatives turned up for a meeting with the prime minister and one immediately walked out after being told he could not invite TV cameras in to broadcast the encounter live to the nation.

Mr Macron has refused to back down on his anti-pollution taxes. Speaking on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina, he said he understood "the legitimate anger, the impatience and the suffering of some people”.

But he warned that any measures announced "in the coming weeks and months" would "never be a retreat" on policy.

In a sign of seething anger, minister for overseas territories, Annick Girardin, was forced to cut short a meeting with demonstrators in the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion after being booed by protesters shouting "Macron, resign!"

A David Hockney painting has been sold for $90 million (£70 million), smashing the auction record for a living artist.

Hockney’s 1972 work Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) went under the hammer at Christie’s in New York on Thursday.

It emphatically surpassed the previous record for a work by a living artist, which was held by American Jeff Koons and one of his Balloon Dog sculptures which sold for $58.4 million (£45.6 million) in 2013.

Portrait of an Artist was sold to an unknown buyer and the identity of the seller is also unconfirmed.

British artist Hockney, 81, was inspired to paint the picture by two photographs he found on his studio floor, one of a swimmer in Hollywood in 1966 and another of a boy staring at an item on the ground.

The painting shows two men, one doing the breaststroke under water while the other watches from the side of the pool.

The standing figure is said to represent Hockney’s former partner Peter Schlesinger, whom the British artist met in 1966 while teaching art classes in California.

Hockney had already begun the painting when they split up in 1971. After a break, he resumed the piece the following year.

Alex Rotter, co-chairman of post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s in New York, told the Associated Press in September that it is "the holy grail" of Hockney’s work.

He said: "It has all the elements that you would want in a Hockney painting.

"The California landscape, the beautiful trees and flowers and the sky, and then what we know him most for, which is the pool."

The sale come six months after his  “Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica sold for $28.5 million.  

The painting drew a huge amount of interest during the presale viewing in Christie’s Rockefeller Centre. “I’m only here for this,” Post Villafane, 32, a young collector from Queens, told the New York Times on Wednesday.

“The colours are so realistic,” he said. “They blend so well. Look how the paint shimmers. It’s beautiful.”

The work went far towards boosting the success of Christie’s post-war and contemporary art auction, which took in a total of $357.6 million, with 41 of the 48 lots on offer finding buyers.

Other highlights included Francis Bacon’s "Study of Henrietta Moraes Laughing," which sold for $21.7 million against a pre-sale estimate of $14 million to $18 million, and Alexander Calder’s "21 Feuilles Blanches," which more than doubled its high estimate, selling for just under $18 million. 

The Walter Reed military medical center in Maryland was on lockdown on Tuesday, during an active shooter drill that many believed to be real.

The US Navy says a mistake using a mass notification system led to reports of an active shooter at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

A statement released Tuesday evening says that while preparing for an upcoming drill at Naval Support Activity Bethesda, the notification system was inadvertently activated without the words "exercise" or "drill."

According to the statement, people who saw the notification contacted security at NSA Bethesda, which launched an active shooter response.

Dutch Ruppersberger, a congressman for Maryland, told NBC News that he was at the site, which specialises in treating members of the military.

He said he was safe, and sheltering in a room with others.

Police only confirmed after the drill was over that it was a rehearsal.

NSA Bethesda spokesman Jeremy Brooks says the incident "was an accident. It was not something that was planned."

The hospital, named after the pathologist who discovered the link between mosquitoes and yellow fever, opened in 1909.

It is a frequent destination for presidents, who regularly visit wounded servicemen and women.