London (AFP) – In the heart of London’s Covent Garden, 130 members of a Ukrainian choir file into St Paul’s Church, ready for their latest rehearsal. Some are professionals while others are relative novices. The collective is due to perform on March 16 in a sold-out concert at the Royal Opera House, dedicated to Ukraine.
The Hague (AFP) – “It’s such a difficult question, what is art, and what is not art?” asks Boris de Munnick, spokesperson of the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, as he responds to controversy surrounding the AI version of 1665 original by Vermeer “Girl with a Pearl Earring”. The work — one of several fan recreations replacing the 1665 original while it’s on loan for a huge Vermeer show at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum — was made using artificial intelligence (AI), and has sparked fierce debate over whether it belongs in the gallery.
Hamburg (AFP) – A shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness centre in the German city of Hamburg has left eight people dead, including the suspected gunman, police said, as the motive for the attack remained unclear.
Bangkok (AFP) – Thai capital Bangkok, home to an estimated 11 million people and one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, has been blanketed for days by an unpleasant yellow-grey mix of vehicle fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from agricultural burning. More than 1.3 million people have fallen sick in Thailand since the start of the year as a result of air pollution, with nearly 200,000 admitted to hospital this week alone, according to the public health ministry. +COMPLETES VIDI33AT97N_EN+
Hamburg (AFP) – German police are at a Jehovah’s Witnesses centre in Hamburg where a shooting killed several people, with the gunman believed to be among the dead. IMAGES
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Russia unleashed a barrage of high-precision missile and other attacks on Ukraine Thursday, triggering a wave of power cuts, including at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation that “no matter how treacherous Russia’s actions are, our state and people will not be in chains”.
Fukushima (Japan) (AFP) – The Japanese region of Fukushima is hoping to attract more visitors to its snow resorts and try to shed the stigma that lingers more than a decade since the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster.
Beijing (AFP) – Xi Jinping was handed a third term as Chinese president on Friday, capping a rise that has seen him become the country’s most powerful leader in generations. IMAGES
Nations unies (Etats-Unis) (AFP) – UN Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner says the United nations has bought a ship to remove oil and avoid a potentially catastrophic spill from a tanker decaying for years off the coast of war-ravaged Yemen. SOUNDBITE
Tbilisi (AFP) – Georgians rally outside the parliament in capital Tbilisi despite the ruling party’s promise to drop a controversial “foreign agent” bill reminiscent of Russian legislation used to silence critics. IMAGES
