Month: July 2019

What makes Pablo Picasso such a quintessential 20th-century artist? It’s partly down to the visual ground he broke with his Cubist painting, but some also has to do with the fact his interests extended far beyond painting.

Picasso’s innovations in perspective and technique dazzled the art world for decades, paving the way for many of the important artistic movements of the last century.

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As art historians and critics emphasize the visual ground he broke with his Cubist painting, Picasso’s poetry and other written works are often overlooked in discussions of his long and varied career.

The artist did not begin to write until the age of 53. His literary endeavors resulted in hundreds of poems with a unique fusion of words and visual imagery.

A recent exhibition tour, organized by the Instituto Cervantes and the Museo Picasso Málaga, frames Picasso as a poet and analyzes his fascination with Chinese art forms through a variety of documents and photos.

A newly produced documentary, screened at the exhibition hall, offers visitors a comprehensive view on Picasso’s poems. “In this documentary of 30 minutes, you will discover how experts of Picasso and lovers of Picasso think about his poetry,” said José Lebrero Stals, artistic director of Museo Picasso Málaga.

In an interview with China Daily, Lebrero talked about Picasso’s experiments with poetry, his love for Chinese ink and the interactions between Picasso and a number of Chinese artists.

Oil painter Pang Jun remembers that more than 60 years ago Luo Gongliu, his teacher at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, told him that many art critics in the West said that oil painting did not belong to China and that the Chinese could not produce good oil works.

And it ignited in Pang a strong desire to create a style of oil painting that would showcase Chinese culture.

In his career spanning nearly seven decades, Pang has always believed that the charm of oil painting does not lie in a change in theme, excellence of technique or a choice between figurative and abstract styles, but whether the palette can touch people.

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LIMA – Peru’s ex-president Alejandro Toledo, who is wanted in his country on corruption charges, was arrested early Tuesday in the United States, Peruvian judicial officials said.

“The attorney general’s office … reports that the former president Alejandro Toledo Manrique was arrested this morning in the United States over an extradition request (by Peru),” the attorney general’s office wrote on its official Twitter account.

Toledo was being brought before US authorities “as part of the process aimed at securing his return to the country,” said prosecutors.

The former head of state, who has been living in the United States since 2017, is accused of various crimes, including accepting bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht in exchange for a government contract to build the Interoceanic Highway linking Peru and Brazil.

Charges have also been brought against his wife Eliane Karp, and his former head of security Avraham Dan On, and his son Shai Dan On.

Extradition proceedings could take up to a year and a half.

Revelations that Odebrecht regularly bribed officials in Latin America to secure lucrative government contracts have tainted a string of Peruvian presidents, including Ollanta Humala, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and the late Alan Garcia during his second term in office.

Humala was arrested in 2017 and is awaiting trial. Kuczynski resigned to avoid an impeachment trial in 2018.

A spider with a humanlike face on its back has sparked a social media storm.

The spider was found in a potted plant by a woman surnamed Li at her home at Yuanjiang city of Hunan province. Li said the black lines on the spider’s back resemble human hair.

The spider is said to be poisonous, but its poison is nearly the same as ordinary spiders.

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Customs in East China’s Shandong province has cleared 16.2 tonnes of beer imported from Germany on Monday for the upcoming 29th Qingdao International Beer Festival, the largest of its kind in China.

The German brew, filled in 540 barrels in two containers, will be specially provided for the annual carnival scheduled from July 26 to Aug 18, said Wang Xiaolin, head of the logistics department of Qingdao Sino-German Ecopark.

To speed up custom clearance, Huangdao Customs in Qingdao has confirmed in advance with the importer on the required information of the goods, including types, package forms and labels.

This year’s festival will offer more than 1,400 types of beer from around the world, including top brands like Heineken, Russell, Er Boqueron, Carlsberg and Jeju as well as China’s premium brand of Tsingtao.

The festival, held in the coastal city of Qingdao, the birthplace of Tsingtao beer, received 6.2 million tourists last year.

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LOS ANGELES – Medieval fantasy Game of Thrones scored a record 32 Emmy nominations on Tuesday, but the contenders for the highest honors in television were dominated by newcomers, many of them women, and shows about political and social justice.

The 2019 lineup for the Emmys represented the widest array of first-time nominees in eight years, the Television Academy said, with nine new shows contending for the top prizes of best drama and best comedy series.

They included female-driven BBC America thriller Killing Eve, which also won nods for stars Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh; dark comedy Fleabag, from Amazon.com’s Amazon Studios, which got 11 nominations including for its British creator and star, Phoebe Waller-Bridge; and surreal Netflix time-loop comedy Russian Doll, written by its star, Natasha Lyonne.

Laura Linney, a best actress nominee for her role in Netflix drug smuggling drama Ozark, said she was “thrilled that I somehow ended up in this group of kick-ass women, who all raise the bar over and over again.”

In a crowded landscape of top-quality shows, A-list stars Julia Roberts and George Clooney were seen as the biggest snubs on Tuesday, failing to get nominations in their high-profile returns to the small screen in Homecoming and Catch-22 respectively.

The Big Bang Theory, which ended its run in May as the most-watched comedy on US television, was shut out of the major categories.

HBO got a leading 137 nominations, an Emmy record.

The Emmy awards will be handed out at a ceremony in Los Angeles on Sept 22.

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Chinese swimmer Xin Xin won the first gold medal for China in open water swimming at the 18th FINA World Championships on Sunday in South Korea.

The 22-year-old finished first in one hour 54 minutes and 47.20 seconds in the women’s 10km open water swimming, becoming the first to grab a gold medal for China in the history of the swimming world championships.

Xin was just 0.90 second ahead of Haley Anderson of the United States who came in second on the third day of the worlds. Rachele Bruni of Italy came away with bronze in 1:54:49.90.

Xin’s title lifted the number of China’s gold medals at FINA to four.

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Earlier,  the Chinese divers swept the first three gold medals on offer as Lian Junjie/Si Yajie and Chen Yiwen took easy victories while Cao Yuan/Xie Siyi struggled to be crowned until the last dive here on Saturday.

Among the three events, only the men’s 3m springboard synchro was an Olympic event so far at the World Championships and evolved into the only hard battle in which three pairs took the lead in turns.

The 18th FINA World Championships Gwangju runs from July 12 to 28, attracting 15,000 people including officials and athletes from about 200 countries and regions.

A video that went viral last week on Chinese social media that showed a woman from Maanshan, Anhui province, wailing about being sexually harassed and threatened with violence by a man surnamed Guo, turned out to be staged, local police said on Tuesday.

The woman, surnamed Pei, has been criminally detained by police for disorderly behavior, and the case is under further investigation, the police bureau of Maanshan’s Huashan district said.

On Thursday, Pei posted a three-and-a-half minute video on Sina Weibo, sobbing and complaining that she had been receiving death and rape threats from Guo for half a year, and she hoped to ask netizens for protection because the police had turned a blind eye to the threats.

The local police said the video received more than 50 million views and spurred a massive online backlash against the police for dereliction of duty. The video and the Weibo account from which it was posted have been deleted.

The police bureau said it organized an investigation after the controversy broke and discovered that Pei was an online merchant who sold a fake bracelet for 1,000 yuan ($145) to Guo via WeChat in January.

After Guo found out the bracelet was only worth about a few dozen yuan, he tried to contact Pei to return the item and ask for a refund. But Pei declined Guo’s contact attempts and blacklisted his phone number and WeChat account, so Guo used his friends’ phones to call Pei.

The police found that the threats mentioned in the video, as well as claims that the local police refusing to deal with the case, were all fabricated by Pei. Nevertheless, the video has caused “severe negative social impact”, the statement said.

Zhao Min, an actor, said on his Sina Weibo that he felt something was sketchy the moment he opened Pei’s video. “First, Pei gave no evidence. The police not arresting people based solely on your side of the story cannot count as not doing their job.”

The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China said on its WeChat account on Tuesday that police and legal authorities are not tools to manipulate public opinions.

“It is the unshrinkable responsibility of the police and law enforcement to protect the safety of the people and society,” it said, adding that it is despicable for someone to “take advantage of the police authorities for their selfish goals, toy with the emotions of millions of people and throw baseless shade at the police”.

Last year, more than 12,000 police staff were injured during missions. Of those 12,000, 301 officers and 141 assistants were killed, it said.

“They have proved with their blood and lives that their paramount mission is to protect the interests of the people,” the commission said.

“Those who are creating and spreading rumors will inevitably pay the price,” it said. “Even if they received short-lived fame by mongering fear and anxiety, netizens will eventually stop buying into their chaos-inducing content.”

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The Ajax teenager is set to join the Sere A champions despite being heavily linked with a move to Camp Nou during the final months of the season

Mino Raiola, the agent of Matthijs de Ligt, has hit out at those in the media who reported his client would be signing for Barcelona as he closes in on a move to Juventus.

De Ligt landed in Turin on Tuesday evening and underwent a medical on Wednesday ahead of completing a move from Ajax that will cost the Bianconeri €75 million (£68m/$84m) if all add-ons and bonus requirements are met.

The Netherlands international had been heavily tipped to join Barcelona for much of the season and follow fellow Ajax youngster Frenkie de Jong to Camp Nou.

But Juve have won the race to sign the 19-year-old centre-back, and Raiola believes playing in Serie A will offer De Ligt the best chance to improve as a player.

“Barcelona? You all wrote so much bullsh*t!” he told reporters in Turin when asked whether De Ligt was making the right choice in joining the Italian champions.

“It’s not a question of who wanted him most, but Juve are the best team for him. For a defender it is important to come to Italy. If you are to become the greatest in the world, it is a necessary stage.

“He’s the number one among the youngsters. He’s like [Pavel] Nedved, maybe more than him, for his mentality and he’s like Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] for his ambition. He has it all.”

While the saga around De Ligt is set to come to an end, the speculation around another Raiola client in the shape of Paul Pogba is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

Both Pogba and Raiola have stated their desire for the France international to leave Manchester United this summer, with Real Madrid keen to bring him to Santiago Bernabeu.

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Pogba’s former club Juventus have also been linked with a move for the midfielder, but Raiola refused to give anything away.

When asked whether Pogba would be leaving United, he said: “I live one day at a time, we’ll see what happens. I’m here today, I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow.”

Pogba is set to be in action for the Red Devils when they take on rivals Leeds United in their latest pre-season friendly on Wednesday in Perth.

The former Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa boss has been handed the manager’s job at St James’ Park following Rafa Benitez’s recent departure

Newcastle United have named former Manchester United captain Steve Bruce as their new manager.

The announcement comes in the wake of Rafa Benitez’s departure from St James’ Park last month and his subsequent switch to Chinese Super League outfit Dalian Yifang.

Bruce has put pen-to-paper on a three-year deal with the Magpies and will fly out to China to meet up with his new squad ahead as they participate in the Premier League Asia Trophy in Nanjing and Shanghai. 

The 58-year-old completed the move to his native north east after Newcastle agreed compensation terms with Sheffield Wednesday, who finished 12th under Bruce in the Championship last season.

“I’m delighted and incredibly proud to be appointed as head coach of Newcastle United,” Bruce said in a statement. “This is my boyhood club and it was my dad’s club, so this is a very special moment for me and my family.

“There is a huge challenge ahead of us, but it’s one that my staff and I are ready for. We’ll roll our sleeves up and we’ll be giving it everything from the off to ensure supporters have a successful team that they can be proud of.”

His appointment comes amid a summer of turmoil at the Premier League club, with the loss of fan-favourite Benitez still fresh in the minds of their loyal fanbase.

Talk of an apparent takeover bid from the Dubai-based Bin Zayed Group has done little to settle the nerves on Tyneside, while their managerial situation means Newcastle are the only top-flight club in England yet to make a signing in the current transfer window.

One of Bruce’s first jobs in his new role will be to determine the future of midfield starlet Sean Longstaff, who has been the subject of much transfer speculation following his breakthrough season in 2018-19.

The 21-year-old has caught the attention of Bruce’s former club Manchester United this summer, though it remains to be seen whether Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and co are willing to meet Newcastle’s reported valuation of around £50 million ($62m).

Much will also be made of Bruce’s affiliation to Newcastle’s north-east rivals Sunderland, whom he managed between 2009 and 2011 before being sacked due to his squad’s perilous position in the Premier League table.

Yet Bruce is no stranger to crossing such divides. The former centre-back began his managerial career at Sheffield United – the club he ended his playing days with – and would go on to take the hot-seat at cross city rivals Sheffield Wednesday.

He also managed Birmingham City from 2001 to 2007, leading them to promotion to the Premier League twice, only to join their fierce rivals Aston Villa in 2016.

The Newcastle job, however, is one that has eluded the Northumberland-born boss on more than one occasion.

Bruce was originally linked to the role as far back as 2004, when he was approached to take the St James’ Park hot-seat following the dismissal of Sir Bobby Robson. 

Fast-forward to February 2006, and he was once again installed as the bookies’ favourite to take the Newcastle job after Graeme Souness was sacked by chairman Freddy Shepherd.

A no-nonsense central defender during his playing days, Bruce played for Gillingham and Norwich City, where he won the League Cup in 1985, before making his career-defining move to Manchester United in December 1987.

He would go on to form a formidable defensive partnership with Gary Pallister and pick up no fewer than nine major trophies during his nine-year stay at Old Trafford under Sir Alex Ferguson, including three Premier League titles, three FA Cups and the European Cup Winners’ Cup.  

During a 21-year managerial career to date, Bruce has also enjoyed spells at Huddersfield Town, Wigan Athletic, Crystal Palace and Hull City.

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