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  • How Demet and Alphan Eşeli’s INSTANBUL’74 Reimagines Turkey’s Role in the Global Arts Scene

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    In this context, the festival takes on an especially timely theme—not only relevant in Turkey but globally—by examining the increasingly blurred, liminal space between perception and truth. At its core lies a question as old as philosophy yet more urgent than ever: “What is real?” In a world increasingly mediated and digitalized, with performative social rituals and shifting modes of perception, the festival provides a platform for artists, philosophers, intellectuals and creatives to explore how reality is shaped, fractured and reimagined.

    Reality, after all, has never been fixed—it is molded, manipulated and continually bent to the needs of those who construct it. Art becomes a tool for reshaping and reimagining reality, offering alternative visions, subverting dominant narratives and exposing the fragile seams of perception. In doing so, it underscores our vulnerability at sensorial, cognitive and emotional levels.

    The 15th edition of the IST. Festival, titled “What is Really Real?”, will unfold through a series of thought-provoking panels, conversations and debates. Bridging disciplines and opening space for critical thinking, speculation and exchange, it invites artists, thinkers and audiences alike to interrogate the fault lines between the authentic and the artificial today. This year’s lineup features notable figures from across creative industries, including celebrated artist José Parlá, Judd Foundation artistic director Flavin Judd, collector Désiré Freule, actor Waris Ahluwalia, director Paweł Pawlikowski and Cultured editor Julia Halperin, among others.

    Close-up of attendees at a panel discussion, with a diverse audience listening attentively in a warmly lit venue.
    IST. FESTIVAL is a multidisciplinary festival with panels and talks, screenings, workshops and exhibitions in a free-admission program covering art, design, architecture, film, fashion, photography, music and literature. Will Ragozzino/BFA.com

    Over the past fifteen years, the IST. Festival has staged events across a wide range of venues—museums, cultural institutions, historic buildings—hosting gala dinners at sites like Topkapı Palace and panels at Istanbul Modern. Deeply embedded in the city’s cultural fabric, the festival has consistently received support from the government and the Ministry of Culture. For the first time, the festival is also partnering with Istanbul Globetrotter, which will launch a new city guide during the event, offering a curated perspective on Istanbul’s creative and cultural landscapes.

    Alongside its nomadic programming, the organization maintains a permanent home at the restored ’74 Gallery in Arnavutköy, a Bosphorus-side neighborhood in the Beşiktaş district. Housed in a three- to four-story historical yalı (waterside mansion), the space hosts contemporary exhibitions while honoring the ties to tradition and history embedded in the building itself. Presenting a diverse range of exhibitions and interdisciplinary events, the gallery has become a creative hub and connector for both local and international artists. For this edition of the festival, however, the goal is to move beyond the gallery’s walls—activating the neighborhood and transforming the city into a living laboratory, where installations, performances and ephemeral interventions disrupt and reframe the rhythms of everyday life.

    Ultimately, one of the festival’s core aims is to reclaim its role as an international platform—inviting people from abroad, connecting them with local creatives, and demonstrating just how vibrant and alive the cultural scene in Istanbul, and in Turkey more broadly, still is.

    Gallery interior featuring contemporary artworks, including sculptures and wall pieces, by artists such as Bosco Sodi and Ahmet Doğu İpek.Gallery interior featuring contemporary artworks, including sculptures and wall pieces, by artists such as Bosco Sodi and Ahmet Doğu İpek.
    “WE BELONG” was the first exhibition at ISTANBUL’74’s new space in Clubhouse Bebek, with works by Bosco Sodi, Jorinde Voigt, Anselm Reyle and Ahmet Doğu İpek, among others. KAMiL ONEMCi

    As the conversation turns to how the art and cultural ecosystem is evolving—not only in Turkey but globally—Demet Müftüoğlu Eşeli and Alphan Eşeli agree that we are witnessing a sweeping transformation across creative industries. Technological shifts, the pandemic and the rise of A.I. have accelerated changes already underway. “I’m a filmmaker, and if you just look at cinema, the landscape has completely changed,” Alphan Eşeli noted. “I believe we’re living through a historic moment of profound change—something as seismic as the Industrial Revolution, which didn’t just reshape production but altered how people thought and how they engaged with the world.”

    Today, we stand on the cusp of a similarly radical transformation, this time driven by computers and digital technology. “I don’t think it’s possible to remain untouched by it—especially in the arts. The way we create, think and communicate is already changing,” he said. “In cinema alone, the rise of streaming platforms, social media and algorithm-driven content has been a total shift. And I see Turkish artists and creatives at the forefront—many actively explore and embrace new technologies in their work.”

    Black-and-white photo of the exterior of ISTANBUL’74’s Arnavutköy gallery, a historic multi-storey Bosphorus-side yalı with ornate details.Black-and-white photo of the exterior of ISTANBUL’74’s Arnavutköy gallery, a historic multi-storey Bosphorus-side yalı with ornate details.
    Since 2024, ISTANBUL’74 has had a permanent space in a renovated five-story traditional wooden building in Arnavutköy. Courtesy ISTANBUL’74

    After a surprising detour into the global rise of Turkish soap operas—currently and somewhat unexpectedly, outpacing even K-movies in popularity—Demet Müftüoğlu Eşeli and Alphan Eşeli return to a core point: Turkey has a huge youth population, and with it a growing wave of young artists who are deeply attuned to what’s new. “There’s definitely still an underground scene evolving, especially in a city like Istanbul,” they noted. The younger generation is also far more connected to global currents, largely thanks to social media. “That kind of access and awareness is moving so much faster than it did 20 years ago, back when the internet was still limited,” Demet added. “Now, communication between international communities happens almost instantly, and I think the arts are becoming increasingly interconnected because of it.”

    Through ISTANBUL’74, the Eşelis are working to amplify and facilitate these exchanges, building bridges through new formats and channels—including Instagram, where they are notably active. Their extended ecosystem, ’74GROUP, produces culturally relevant stories across multiple divisions, spanning everything from the festival itself to ’74PODCAST, which hosts ongoing talks with creatives from around the world, and ’74ONLINE, a shop dedicated to curated collaborations with artists, galleries and designers. Also under its umbrella is ’74STUDIO, a creative agency that specializes in brand direction, strategy, design and communications across art, fashion, gastronomy and hospitality.

    A modern listening room featuring a record player, vinyls displayed on white shelves, and vintage speakers under natural light.A modern listening room featuring a record player, vinyls displayed on white shelves, and vintage speakers under natural light.
    Located in ISTANBUL’74’s Arnavutköy space, Listening Room bridges generations of music, offering era-defining classics alongside pioneering compositions. ILAY.ARTWORKS

    As if that weren’t enough, they also co-founded the arts and social club CLUBHOUSE BEBEK in Istanbul and launched a seasonal creative space in Bodrum: 74ESCAPE, a community-based platform that features a store championing craft and design alongside an online diary spotlighting travel and culture from around the world.

    Even the permanent gallery, ISTANBUL’74, has evolved into a year-round site for activations and creative connections—not only through an artist residency program for international talents but also as a gathering place for Istanbul’s younger generation. “That’s really the spirit behind what we’re doing, with the art combining with book clubs and the record and vinyl listening room,” Demet concluded. “It’s about creating spaces where people can come together, share ideas and build something meaningful.”

    The Istanbul International Arts and Culture Festival (IST. FESTIVAL) takes place October 10-12, 2025.

    Drone shot of Steve Messam’s installation on a seaside jetty in Bodrum, featuring modular platforms, pink inflatable spheres, and lush greenery.Drone shot of Steve Messam’s installation on a seaside jetty in Bodrum, featuring modular platforms, pink inflatable spheres, and lush greenery.
    Jetty, a work by Steven Messam in “BETWEEN HUMANKIND AND NATURE” at ESCAPE’74, Brodrum. © Volkan Calisir

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  • NASA Northrop Grumman resupply mission faces delay in reaching space station

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    A delivery headed for astronauts on the space station has been delayed.

    Launched at 6:11 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 14, fromLaunch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft was set to dock to the International Space Station Wednesday morning with more than 11,000 pounds of supplies and science.

    But the docking did not happen on time.

    NASA announced Sept. 16 that the spacecraft had experienced engine trouble on its way to the space station, with the main engine cutting off earlier than planned.

    “NASA and Northrop Grumman are delaying the arrival of the Cygnus XL to the International Space Station as flight controllers evaluate an alternate burn plan for the resupply spacecraft. The Cygnus XL will not arrive to the space station on Wednesday, Sept. 17, as originally planned, with a new arrival date and time under review,” a statement by NASA read.

    NASA said that everything else is performing as expected with the spacecraft.

    Once the Cygnus spacecraft does arrive at the International Space Station, astronauts Jonny Kim and Zena Cardman will use the space station’s robotic Canadarm2 to grab and dock it.

    When is the next launch? Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, NASA, ULA, rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral

    This mission — refrred to as NG-23 — is the first flight of the company’s new Cygnus XL spacecraft. It is described as solar-powered, larger and a more capable cargo spacecraft compared to previous Cygnus models, which have flown multiple NASA resupply missions in the past.

    It is not the first time a Cygnus spacecraft experienced an issue in flight. In 2022, a Cygnus spacecraft flying as part of the NG-18 mission failed to deploy a solar array, putting the spacecraft’s power levels at risk. Northrop Grumman and NASA were able to work around the issue, and the spacecraft was successfully captured by astronauts onboard the station.

    As of the morning of Sept. 17, NASA had not released an update on the current issue.

    Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or on X: @brookeofstars.

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  • U.S. and China reach framework deal for ownership of TikTok

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    MADRID — A framework deal has been reached between China and the U.S. for the ownership of popular social video platform TikTok, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said after weekend trade talks in Spain.

    What You Need To Know

    • A framework deal has been reached between China and the U.S. for the ownership of TikTok
    • U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday after trade talks in Madrid that U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would speak Friday to possibly finalize the deal
    • Bessent said the objective was to switch to U.S. ownership from China’s ByteDance
    • China’s international trade representative told reporters that the sides have reached “basic framework consensus”
    • During Joe Biden’s presidency, Congress and the White House used national security grounds to approve a U.S. ban on TikTok unless its Chinese parent company sold its controlling stake

    Bessent said in a press conference after the latest round of trade talks between the world’s two largest economies concluded in Madrid that U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would speak Friday to possibly finalize the deal. He said the objective was to switch to U.S. ownership from China’s ByteDance.

    “We are not going to talk about the commercial terms of the deal,” Bessent said. “It’s between two private parties. But the commercial terms have been agreed upon.”

    Li Chenggang, China’s international trade representative, told reporters the sides have reached “basic framework consensus” to resolve TikTok-related issues in a cooperative way, reduce investment barriers and promote related economic and trade cooperation.

    The meeting in Madrid is the fourth round of trade talks between U.S. and Chinese officials since Trump launched a tariff war on Chinese goods in April. A fifth round of negotiations is likely to happen “in the coming weeks,” Bessent said, with both governments planning for a possible summit between Trump and Xi later this year or early next year to solidify a trade agreement.

    However, nothing has been confirmed, and analysts say possible trade bumps could delay the visit.

    Why a TikTok deal is needed

    In Madrid, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the team was “very focused on TikTok and making sure that it was a deal that is fair for the Chinese” but also “completely respects U.S. national security concerns.”

    Wang Jingtao, deputy director of China’s Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, told reporters in Madrid there was consensus on authorization of “the use of intellectual property rights such as (TikTok’s) algorithm” — a main sticking point in the deal.

    The sides also agreed on entrusting a partner with handling U.S. user data and content security, he said.

    During Joe Biden’s Democratic presidency, Congress and the White House used national security grounds to approve a U.S. ban on TikTok unless its Chinese parent company sold its controlling stake.

    U.S. officials were concerned about ByteDance’s roots and ownership, pointing to laws in China that require Chinese companies to hand over data requested by the government. Another concern became the proprietary algorithm that populates what users see on the app.

    Trump, a Republican, has repeatedly extended the deadline for shutting down TikTok. The current extension expires Wednesday, two days before Trump and Xi are scheduled to discuss the final details of the framework deal.

    Although Trump hasn’t addressed the forthcoming deadline directly, he has claimed that he can delay the ban indefinitely.

    Wendy Cutler, senior vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said it appears that “both sides have found a way forward to transfer ownership to a U.S. company.”

    “If accurate, this would represent an important step forward in resolving a lingering bilateral dispute,” she said.

    Fentanyl and other issues are still unresolved

    Other long-running issues like export controls, Chinese investments in the U.S. and restrictions on chemicals used to make fentanyl also came up. Bessent indicated that money laundering, related to drug trafficking, “was an area of extreme agreement.”

    Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, who led the Chinese delegation, said the sides held “candid, in-depth and constructive” communications, according to China’s official news agency Xinhua.

    But Li, China’s international trade representative, said Beijing opposes the “politicization” and “weaponization” of technology, trade and economic issues, adding that China would “never seek any agreement at the expense of principle, the interests of the companies, and international fairness and justice.”

    He criticized the U.S. for overstretching the concept of national security and imposing sanctions on more Chinese companies. Calling it “a typical, unilateral, bullying practice,” Li said China demanded restrictive measures be removed.

    “The U.S. side should not on one hand ask China to accommodate its concerns, whilst at the same time continue to suppress Chinese companies,” Li said.

    As the weekend talks were underway, Trump said the war in Ukraine would end if all NATO countries stopped buying Russian oil and placed tariffs on China of 50% to 100% for doing so. The Chinese Commerce Ministry on Monday called the demand “a classic example of unilateral bullying and economic coercion.”

    A leaders’ summit may be in sight

    China’s foreign ministry on Monday did not say if Beijing has invited Trump for a state visit.

    Analysts have suggested that the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries in South Korea at the end of October could provide an opportunity.

    The plan for another round of trade talks is “encouraging but seems to be cutting things close,” Cutler said, adding that more work is needed at lower levels for a Trump-Xi meeting to take place and that there are other opportunities for them to meet next year.

    For now, “there is little time to hammer out a meaningful trade agreement,” she said. “What we are more likely to see is a series of ad-hoc deliverables, possibly a Chinese commitment to buy more U.S. soybeans and other products, a U.S. agreement to hold back on announcing certain further U.S. high-tech export controls, and another 90-day rollover of the tariff pause.”

    A previous version of this Associated Press story misstated Chinese President Xi Jinping’s title.

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    Associated Press

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  • US designates Colombia as failing to cooperate in the drug war for first time in nearly 30 years

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    The Trump administration on Monday added Colombia to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years, a stinging rebuke to a traditional U.S. ally that reflects a recent surge in cocaine production and fraying ties between the White House and the country’s leftist president.Even as it determined that Colombia had failed to comply with its international counternarcotics obligations, the Trump administration issued a waiver of sanctions that would have triggered major aid cuts, citing vital U.S. national interests.Nonetheless, it is a major step against one of the United States’ staunchest allies in Latin America, which analysts said could hurt the economy and further hamper efforts to restore security in the countryside.President Gustavo Petro, who has said on several occasions that whisky kills more people than cocaine, lamented Trump’s decision during a televised cabinet meeting Monday, saying Colombia was penalized after sacrificing the lives of “dozens of policemen, soldiers and regular citizens, trying to stop cocaine” from reaching the United States.“What we have been doing is not really relevant to the Colombian people,” he said of the nation’s antidrug efforts. “It’s to stop North American society from smearing its noses” in cocaine.The U.S. last added Colombia to the list, through a process known as decertification, in 1997 when the country’s cartels — through threats of violence and money — had poisoned much of the nation’s institutions.”Decertification is a blunt tool and a huge irritant in bilateral relations that goes well beyond drug issues and makes cooperation far harder in any number of areas,” said Adam Isacson, a security researcher at the Washington Office on Latin America. “That’s why it’s so rarely used.”The president at the time, Ernesto Samper, was facing credible accusations of receiving illicit campaign contributions from the now-defunct Cali cartel and a plane he was set to use for a trip to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly session was found carrying 4 kilograms of heroin.A remarkable turnaround began once Samper left office. Successive U.S. administrations — both Republican and Democrats — sent billions in foreign assistance to Colombia to eradicate illegal coca crops, strengthen its armed forces in the fight against drug-fueled rebels and provide economic alternatives to poor farmers who are on the lowest rungs of the cocaine industry.Cocaine production surgesThat cooperation, a rare U.S. foreign policy success in Latin America, started to unravel following the suspension a decade ago of aerial eradication of coca fields with glyphosate. It followed a Colombia high court ruling that determined the U.S.-funded program was potentially harmful to the environment and farmers.A 2016 peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the nation’s largest rebel group known as FARC, also committed Colombia to rolling back punitive policies likened to the U.S. spraying of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War in favor of state building, rural development and voluntary crop substitution.Since then, cocaine production has skyrocketed. The amount of land dedicated to cultivating coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, has almost tripled in the past decade to a record 253,000 hectares in 2023, according to the latest report available from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. That is almost triple the size of New York City.Along with production, drug seizures also have soared to 654 metric tons so far this year. Colombia seized a record 884 metric tons last year.But unlike past governments, manual eradication of coca crops under Petro’s leadership has slowed, to barely 5,048 hectares this year — far less than the 68,000 hectares uprooted in the final year of his conservative predecessor’s term and well below the government’s own goal of 30,000 hectares.A critic of U.S. policyPetro, a former rebel himself, also has angered senior U.S. officials by denying American extradition requests as well as criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and its efforts to combat drug trafficking in neighboring Venezuela.“Under my administration, Colombia does not collaborate in assassinations,” Petro said on Sept. 5 after the U.S. military carried out a deadly strike on a small Venezuelan vessel in the Caribbean that the Trump administration said was transporting cocaine bound for the U.S.“The failure of Colombia to meet its drug control obligations over the past year rests solely with its political leadership,” Trump said in a presidential memo submitted to Congress. “I will consider changing this designation if Colombia’s government takes more aggressive action to eradicate coca and reduce cocaine production and trafficking, as well as hold those producing, trafficking, and benefiting from the production of cocaine responsible, including through improved cooperation with the United States to bring the leaders of Colombian criminal organizations to justice.”Under U.S. law, the president annually must identify countries that have failed to meet their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements during the previous 12 months.In addition to Colombia, the Trump administration listed four other countries — Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma and Venezuela — as among 23 major drug transit or drug-production countries that have failed to meet their international obligations. With the exception of Afghanistan, the White House determined that U.S. assistance to those countries was vital to national interests and therefore they would be spared any potential sanctions.The redesignation of Venezuela as a country that has failed to adequately fight narcotics smuggled from neighboring Colombia comes against the backdrop of a major U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean that has already led to two deadly strikes on small Venezuelan vessels that the Trump administration said were transporting cocaine bound for the U.S.“In Venezuela, the criminal regime of indicted drug trafficker Nicolás Maduro leads one of the largest cocaine trafficking networks in the world, and the United States will continue to seek to bring Maduro and other members of his complicit regime to justice for their crimes,” Trump’s designation said. “We will also target Venezuelan foreign terrorist organizations such as Tren de Aragua and purge them from our country.”___Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia. AP writer Manuel Rueda contributed to this report from Bogota.

    MIAMI —

    The Trump administration on Monday added Colombia to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years, a stinging rebuke to a traditional U.S. ally that reflects a recent surge in cocaine production and fraying ties between the White House and the country’s leftist president.

    Even as it determined that Colombia had failed to comply with its international counternarcotics obligations, the Trump administration issued a waiver of sanctions that would have triggered major aid cuts, citing vital U.S. national interests.

    Nonetheless, it is a major step against one of the United States’ staunchest allies in Latin America, which analysts said could hurt the economy and further hamper efforts to restore security in the countryside.

    President Gustavo Petro, who has said on several occasions that whisky kills more people than cocaine, lamented Trump’s decision during a televised cabinet meeting Monday, saying Colombia was penalized after sacrificing the lives of “dozens of policemen, soldiers and regular citizens, trying to stop cocaine” from reaching the United States.

    “What we have been doing is not really relevant to the Colombian people,” he said of the nation’s antidrug efforts. “It’s to stop North American society from smearing its noses” in cocaine.

    The U.S. last added Colombia to the list, through a process known as decertification, in 1997 when the country’s cartels — through threats of violence and money — had poisoned much of the nation’s institutions.

    “Decertification is a blunt tool and a huge irritant in bilateral relations that goes well beyond drug issues and makes cooperation far harder in any number of areas,” said Adam Isacson, a security researcher at the Washington Office on Latin America. “That’s why it’s so rarely used.”

    The president at the time, Ernesto Samper, was facing credible accusations of receiving illicit campaign contributions from the now-defunct Cali cartel and a plane he was set to use for a trip to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly session was found carrying 4 kilograms of heroin.

    A remarkable turnaround began once Samper left office. Successive U.S. administrations — both Republican and Democrats — sent billions in foreign assistance to Colombia to eradicate illegal coca crops, strengthen its armed forces in the fight against drug-fueled rebels and provide economic alternatives to poor farmers who are on the lowest rungs of the cocaine industry.

    Cocaine production surges

    That cooperation, a rare U.S. foreign policy success in Latin America, started to unravel following the suspension a decade ago of aerial eradication of coca fields with glyphosate. It followed a Colombia high court ruling that determined the U.S.-funded program was potentially harmful to the environment and farmers.

    A 2016 peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the nation’s largest rebel group known as FARC, also committed Colombia to rolling back punitive policies likened to the U.S. spraying of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War in favor of state building, rural development and voluntary crop substitution.

    Since then, cocaine production has skyrocketed. The amount of land dedicated to cultivating coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, has almost tripled in the past decade to a record 253,000 hectares in 2023, according to the latest report available from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. That is almost triple the size of New York City.

    Along with production, drug seizures also have soared to 654 metric tons so far this year. Colombia seized a record 884 metric tons last year.

    But unlike past governments, manual eradication of coca crops under Petro’s leadership has slowed, to barely 5,048 hectares this year — far less than the 68,000 hectares uprooted in the final year of his conservative predecessor’s term and well below the government’s own goal of 30,000 hectares.

    A critic of U.S. policy

    Petro, a former rebel himself, also has angered senior U.S. officials by denying American extradition requests as well as criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and its efforts to combat drug trafficking in neighboring Venezuela.

    “Under my administration, Colombia does not collaborate in assassinations,” Petro said on Sept. 5 after the U.S. military carried out a deadly strike on a small Venezuelan vessel in the Caribbean that the Trump administration said was transporting cocaine bound for the U.S.

    “The failure of Colombia to meet its drug control obligations over the past year rests solely with its political leadership,” Trump said in a presidential memo submitted to Congress. “I will consider changing this designation if Colombia’s government takes more aggressive action to eradicate coca and reduce cocaine production and trafficking, as well as hold those producing, trafficking, and benefiting from the production of cocaine responsible, including through improved cooperation with the United States to bring the leaders of Colombian criminal organizations to justice.”

    Under U.S. law, the president annually must identify countries that have failed to meet their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements during the previous 12 months.

    In addition to Colombia, the Trump administration listed four other countries — Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma and Venezuela — as among 23 major drug transit or drug-production countries that have failed to meet their international obligations. With the exception of Afghanistan, the White House determined that U.S. assistance to those countries was vital to national interests and therefore they would be spared any potential sanctions.

    The redesignation of Venezuela as a country that has failed to adequately fight narcotics smuggled from neighboring Colombia comes against the backdrop of a major U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean that has already led to two deadly strikes on small Venezuelan vessels that the Trump administration said were transporting cocaine bound for the U.S.

    “In Venezuela, the criminal regime of indicted drug trafficker Nicolás Maduro leads one of the largest cocaine trafficking networks in the world, and the United States will continue to seek to bring Maduro and other members of his complicit regime to justice for their crimes,” Trump’s designation said. “We will also target Venezuelan foreign terrorist organizations such as Tren de Aragua and purge them from our country.”

    ___

    Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia. AP writer Manuel Rueda contributed to this report from Bogota.

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  • Schröder takes over late as Germany tops Turkey for EuroBasket gold

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    RIGA, Latvia — The Orlando Magic’s Franz Wagner and Tristan da Silva combined for 31 points, and Dennis Schröder took over to deliver more gold for Germany.

    Schröder, who will play for the Sacramento Kings in the upcoming season, had the game’s final six points, Isaac Bonga scored a team-best 20 points and Germany topped Turkey 88-83 on Sunday in the gold medal game at the European championship.

    It was Germany’s first EuroBasket title since 1993 and comes two years after the team — largely with the same core — won the World Cup title in 2023.

    “We never shy away from the big moments. … Everybody is so confident,” Schröder said. “Just big-time plays from big-time character people.”

    Wagner scored 18 points, pulled down eight rebounds and blocked two shots, and Schröder finished with 16 points and 12 assists for Germany, which finished the tournament 9-0. Da Silva added 13 points and four rebounds for Germany.

    The game had 15 lead changes and 11 ties, with the final lead change coming when Schröder scored on a drive to put Germany up by one with 1 minute, 15 seconds left.

    He added a jumper with 18.7 seconds remaining and after Turkey’s Alperen Sengun of the Houston Rockets hit a 3-pointer that would have tied it, Schröder sealed gold with a pair of free throws.

    “To be a World Cup winner and a European champion, that’s big time,” Schröder said.

    Sengun had 28 points for Turkey, which got 23 from Cedi Osman and a 13-point, nine-assist, six-rebound game from Shane Larkin, who played for Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando and for the Miami Hurricanes. Larkin is the son of baseball Hall of Famer Barry Larkin.

    Schröder, Wagner, Sengun, Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, Slovenia’s Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers were named to the Eurobasket 2025 All-Tournament Team.

    Bronze: Greece 92, Finland 89

    Antetokounmpo scored 30 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, leading Greece past Finland for the bronze medal earlier Sunday.

    It was Greece’s first EuroBasket medal since winning bronze in 2009.

    “We did it. This is probably one of the biggest accomplishments that I’ve ever accomplished as an athlete,” said Antetokounmpo, a past NBA champion and MVP. “I know I’ve won an NBA championship, but there’s no feeling like representing your national team and representing 12 million people that breathe and live this national team. This is probably the greatest accomplishment so far in my life.”

    It was the sixth time that Greece finished on the podium at the EuroBasket, with two golds, one silver and three bronze medals.

    Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen had 19 points and 10 rebounds for Finland.

    Greece — which never trailed and led by 17 at one point — had an 11-point lead with less than two minutes remaining, but Finland rallied.

    Elias Valtonen had a chance to tie the game with three free throws with five seconds left but missed the third. Antetokounmpo eventually controlled the rebound for Greece and sealed the game with a pair of free throws.

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    Spectrum Sports Staff, Associated Press

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  • Oldenburg: Czech Drama ‘Broken Voices’ Wins Best Film at German Indie Fest

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    Ondřej Provazník’s Broken Voices has won the German Independence Award for best film at this year’s Oldenburg International Film Festival. The Czech drama, inspired by real events, follows a renowned youth choir whose musical director is a sexual predator.

    Presenting the award, the Oldenburg jury praised the film as a subtle and intense coming-of-age story, noting how it “masterfully guides us through the delicate yet profound journey of a young girl whose dreams and hopes are threatened by forces seeking to silence her.”

    Oldenburg’s acting awards, named after legendary American character actor Seymour Cassel, went to Irish actor John Connors for his performance in Jason Byrne and Kevin Treacy’s Crazy Love, and Sabrina Amali for her turn in Nancy Biniadaki’s Maysoon.

    In Crazy Love, Connors plays a suicidal man who voluntarily checks in to a mental hospital for treatment, only to fall in love with a schizophrenic patient who can never leave. “In every seemingly unremarkable moment on screen, the full complexity of the human heart and soul resonates,” the jury said of Connors’ performance.

    John Connors in ‘Crazy Love’

    Courtesy of the Oldenburg Film Festival

    Amali in Maysoon plays the titular character, a young Egyptian archaeologist, almost 10 years after the Arab Spring, now living in Berlin with her German boyfriend and their two children. An unexpected threat to her political status unearths old fears that she, again, might lose everything that is dear to her, leading Maysoon to again fight for her independence as a woman and as a citizen. The Oldenburg jury called Amali’s performance “flawlessly authentic and full of nuance… a true tour de force into the soul of a character and the heart of a story that must be heard.”

    Sabrina Amali in ‘Maysoon’

    Courtesy of the Oldenburg Film Festival

    Yun Xie’s Under the Burning Sun received Oldenburg’s Audacity Award, which recognizes originality and boldness. The jury highlighted the director’s debut as a boundary-pushing work combining “painful brutality and visual poetry” in a sweeping epic they compared to John Ford and David Lean.

    ‘Under the Burning Sun’

    Courtesy of the Oldenburg Film Festival

    Alejandro Castro Arias took home the Hans Ohlms Award for best debut film with Harakiri, I Miss You. The jury praised its unflinching approach to loneliness and alienation, calling it “an unfiltered and honest reflection on the depths of human despair and the necessity of overcoming it.” Jorge Florez Arcila’s The Flower of Fear won the German Independence Award for best short film, described by the jury as “an extraordinary achievement” that transforms the horrors of child abuse into a work of “magical realism, beauty, and art.”

    The audience selected Vincent Grashaw’s Keep Quiet as the winner of the Spirit of Cinema Award.

    This year’s retrospective honored American director and music producer James William Guercio, best known for producing Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears and for his sole directorial feature, Electra Glide in Blue (1973). Actor Scott Glenn received a lifetime achievement tribute, with the festival screening four of his films alongside his new feature Eugene the Marine, which opened the event. Don Keith Opper was also honored as a cult figure of the 1980s, presenting four films together with his brother and producing partner Barry Opper.

    With support from the Irish embassy in Berlin and Screen Ireland, the festival also highlighted contemporary Irish cinema, with ambassador Maeve Collins attending the opening and participating throughout the program.

    Attendance at the Oldenburg Film Festival was up nearly 10 percent this year, with more than 13,000 visitors across the 4-day event, which wrapped on Sunday.

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    Scott Roxborough

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  • Rubio seeks answers from Israel on way forward in Gaza after Qatar strike

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    JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he will be seeking answers from Israeli officials about how they see the way forward in Gaza following Israel’s attack on Hamas operatives in Qatar that has upended efforts to broker an end to the conflict.

    What You Need To Know

    • U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he will be seeking answers from Israeli officials about how they see the way forward in Gaza following Israel’s attack on Hamas operatives in Qatar

    • Rubio told reporters on Saturday before leaving for Israel that President Donald Trump remained unhappy with the Israeli strike but that it would not shake U.S. support for Israel

    • Both Rubio and Trump met on Friday with Qatar’s prime minister to discuss the fallout from the Israeli operation

    • Rubio has meetings in Jerusalem on Sunday and Monday


    Rubio told reporters on Saturday before leaving for Israel that President Donald Trump remained unhappy with the Israeli strike but that it would not shake U.S. support for Israel.

    “We’re going to talk about what the future holds, and I’m going to get a much better understanding of what their plans are moving forward,” Rubio said. “Obviously we’re not happy about it. The president was not happy about it. Now we need to move forward and figure out what comes next.”

    Both Rubio and Trump met on Friday with Qatar’s prime minister to discuss the fallout from the Israeli operation, in a demonstration of how the Trump administration is trying to balance relations between key Middle East allies days after Israel targeted Hamas leaders in a strike on Doha.

    The attack has drawn widespread international condemnation and appears to have ended attempts to secure an Israel-Hamas ceasefire and the release of hostages ahead of the upcoming U.N. General Assembly session at which the Gaza war is expected to be a primary focus.

    Trump “wants Hamas defeated, he wants the war to end, he wants all 48 hostages home, including those that are deceased, and he wants it all at once,” he said. “And we’ll have to discuss about how the events last week had an impact on the ability to achieve that in short order.”

    Rubio will have meetings in Jerusalem on Sunday and Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others.

    Despite tensions between Trump and Netanyahu over the strike, Rubio will be in Israel for the two-day visit. It is a show of support for the increasingly isolated country before the United Nations holds likely contentious debate on the creation of a Palestinian state, which Netanyahu opposes.

    On Friday, Rubio and Vice President JD Vance met Qatari Prime Ministers Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at the White House. Later Friday, Trump and special envoy Steve Witkoff had dinner with the sheikh in New York, where Trump went to commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

    The Trump administration is walking a delicate line between two major allies after Israel took its fight with Hamas to the Qatari capital, where leaders of the militant group had gathered to consider a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in the nearly two-year-old war in Gaza. Qatar is a key mediator, and while its leaders have vowed to press forward, the next steps are uncertain for a long-sought deal to halt the fighting and release hostages taken from Israel.

    Condemning the strike but supporting Israel

    Israel’s attack Tuesday also has ruptured Trump’s hopes to secure a wider Middle East peace deal, with the rulers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar all uniting in anger.

    Trump himself has distanced himself from the strike, saying it “does not advance Israel or America’s goals” and has promised Qatar that it would not be repeated. The U.S. also joined a U.N. Security Council statement condemning the strike without mentioning Israel by name.

    While in Israel, Rubio plans to visit the City of David, a popular archaeological site and tourist destination built by Israel in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in contested east Jerusalem.

    It contains some of the oldest remains of the 3,000-year-old city. But critics accuse the site’s operators of pushing a nationalistic agenda at the expense of Palestinian residents.

    Israel captured east Jerusalem, home to the city’s most important religious sites, in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the area.

    Israel claims the entire city as its eternal, undivided capital while the Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The competing claims lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and frequently boil over into violence.

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    Associated Press

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  • Hockey Drama ‘Pink Light’ Tackles Transgender Athlete Debate for “Villainizing the Community”  

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    Harrison Browne, the first-ever publicly transgender pro hockey player, now has the challenge of boosting trans representation as he brings his directorial debut Pink Light for a world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival this weekend.

    “It’s really important to show trans athletes as people, because that’s the best way to humanize this community and create those pathways for empathy,” Browne told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday.

    Pink Light takes the inspiring sports drama genre, where athletes have to overcome obstacles in their sport and personal lives, in a new direction as Browne tackles the worsening debate around trans athletes in the media and political spaces.

    “This is not an issue of trans people taking over sports. This is an issue being magnified and being disproportionately used for a moral panic,” the director argued as he pointed to the number of trans athletes in school and pro sports, including the Olympics, being vanishingly small, compared to the total number of athletes in sports.

    Pink Light

    Toronto Film Festival

    “Society is villainizing the community. And its really easy to use that community as a scapegoat when you don’t know anybody, when you don’t have a face for that term,” Browne added. Pink Light centers on Scott, a trans man and an ex-pro hockey player who is left disoriented after being hit while playing in a beer league hockey game.

    His head injury seemingly sparks flashbacks in the film to his 18 year-old self, Scotty, at a college frat party as he talks with a fellow party-goer for the first time about possibly leaving women’s hockey to transition to becoming a man.

    The dramatic tension in Pink Light comes from Scotty feeling stuck being a young woman to remain in hockey and the only comfortable space he had ever known in life, but also being unable to feel openly comfortable as a man after he completes a transition. “I really see this film as my goodbye to hockey. It feels like it’s a closure for me in a way I wasn’t expecting when making this film as a love letter to my younger self,” Browne explained.

    Pink Light

    Toronto Film Festival

    The gender-blending short has a dazed and confused Scott, as he time travels to his pre-transition past as Scotty, discovering his earlier self as he waited for his life as a man to begin had already become the person Scott longed to be. “We wanted to highlight some of the struggles that transgender people go through. Scott feels lost. And as he gives up his identity as an athlete, he’s kind of floating and doesn’t know he fits in,” Harrison insisted.

    Browne plays Scott in Pink Light, while CJ Jackson, a first-time actor and the first non-binary professional hockey player to come out in real life, plays Scotty. Donald MacLean Jr., Nicolette Pearse, Max Amani and Shaun Benson also feature in the ensemble cast.

    Browne is also developing a feature length version of Pink Light to be set in a college athletic space and to expand on Scotty’s story line against the backdrop of locker room, athlete-coach and dating dynamics.

    Pink Light is produced by Macaulee Cassaday and Nicolette Pearse, with David Palumbo and Rachel Browne executive producing, and Emily Zhang serving as the cinematographer. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, owners of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors pro teams, helped finance the short film.

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    Etan Vlessing

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  • Highlights from RendezVous, the First Citywide Edition of Brussels Art Week

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    Julien Creuzet’s “Nos diables rouges, nos dérives commotions” at Mendes Wood DM. © Hugard & Vanoverschelde

    Last week, Brussels Art Week’s inaugural full-city edition, RendezVous, animated the Belgian capital with exhibitions, performances, screenings and talks across more than 65 venues. Founded by curators Laure Decock and Evelyn Simons, the initiative transformed the city into a walkable constellation of art spaces spanning downtown, uptown and midtown neighborhoods. The week pulsed with ambition and wit, balancing international names with local voices and institutional heft with grassroots initiatives. And while many of the art week exhibitions remain open through October, the concentrated energy of the opening days set the tone for the city’s autumn art season, shaking off the summer lull.

    Decock and Simons’ manifesto captures the ethos behind the project: “For us and for many, Brussels is a unique place. Conveniently central, discreetly humble—surrounded by big sisters such as London and Paris, but brimming with a creative energy that is ferocious… A city defined by an enriching diversity, a charming chaos, an avant-garde that has been going steady for over 100 years and where new trends inscribe themselves onto a canvas of strong art historical traditions.”

    At the heart of the 2025 programming was The Tip Inn, a temporary salon conceived by Zoe Williams as artwork and gathering point. Equal parts dive bar, nightclub and installation, the venue had candlelit tables, satin curtains and an atmosphere pitched between decadence and parody. A monumental print of Jan Sanders van Hemessen’s Prodigal Son (1536) presided over the room, while sausages hung like garlands and a video loop showed a girl casually relieving herself among glasses of champagne. Visitors ordered the artist’s signature whiskey-Montenegro cocktail, pocketed lighters inscribed with “Can I show you my portfolio?” and drifted between conversations, poetry readings, screenings and DJ sets.

    A crowded bar-like installation at “The Tip Inn” shows visitors gathered under a mural of Renaissance-style figures, with sausages strung like garlands and people drinking and talking at small tables.A crowded bar-like installation at “The Tip Inn” shows visitors gathered under a mural of Renaissance-style figures, with sausages strung like garlands and people drinking and talking at small tables.
    The Tip Inn, a salon-style installation by Zoe Williams. Courtesy the artist

    Williams, a Marseille-based British artist, has long explored the performative dimension of hospitality. By staging a bar, she foregrounded the dynamics of service, consumption and rebellion, while The Tip Inn itself captured Brussels humor and irreverence, reminding everyone that art weeks need not be confined to white cubes.

    RendezVous unfolded across three main zones. Downtown, centered around the city center and Molenbeek, there was a strong mix of historical reflection and contemporary experimentation. At Harlan Levey Projects, Amélie Bouvier’s exhibition “Stars, don’t fail me now!” (on through December 13) examined humanity’s enduring fascination with the cosmos. Working with archival solar images from the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, the Brussels-based artist transformed deteriorating glass plate negatives into meticulously drawn “photodessinographies.” Graphite and ink captured both celestial forms and the fragile material traces of scratches and fingerprints. Hanging textiles such as Astronomical Garden #1 and #2 extended this investigation into fictionalized landscapes, oscillating between scientific observation and poetic imagination.

    Nearby, Galerie Christophe Gaillard opened “Le Contenu Pictural,” Hélène Delprat’s first solo show in Belgium (on through October 31). Borrowing its title from René Magritte’s irreverent ‘période vache,’ the exhibition highlighted Delprat’s own commitment to risk-taking and play. Alongside new works, rarely seen gouaches from the late 1990s testified to a two-decade hiatus in her practice, their intensity sharpened by that rupture. The presentation follows her major retrospective at Fondation Maeght and precedes a forthcoming exhibition at Centre Pompidou-Metz in 2027.

    A painting by Hélène Delprat depicts a cartoonish figure holding a red flag, set against a dense black grid background with red and white patterns.A painting by Hélène Delprat depicts a cartoonish figure holding a red flag, set against a dense black grid background with red and white patterns.
    Hélène Delprat, Personne, 2024. Pigment, acrylic binder and glitter on canvas, 250 x 200 cm. Courtesy de l’artiste & Galerie Christophe Gaillard. © Hélène Delprat, Adagp, Paris Photo: Rebecca Fanuele

    Grège Gallery offered a different model altogether. Founded in 2021 by Marie de Brouwer, the initiative bridges art, design and architecture, and twice annually it hosts site-specific exhibitions in extraordinary locations—from medieval farmhouses to brutalist landmarks—while its Brussels space functions as a showroom and meeting point. For RendezVous, the gallery highlighted this nomadic, cross-disciplinary ethos, underscoring how entrepreneurial visions are reshaping Brussels’ cultural landscape.

    Galerie Greta Meert revisited the late career of Sol LeWitt with “Bands, Curves and Brushstrokes” (through October 25). The works on paper from the 1990s and 2000s charted his shift from rigorous geometry to more fluid gestures, balancing spontaneity with systematic logic. Upstairs, the gallery previewed an online viewing room devoted to British artist James White. His forthcoming series “Indoor Nature” features photorealist paintings on aluminum, presented in plexiglass boxes, capturing domestic interiors where plants introduce subtle tension between artifice and vitality.

    A fantastical painting by Kenny Scharf features neon blue and purple cartoon-like creatures interwoven with trees and plants against a dark cosmic background.A fantastical painting by Kenny Scharf features neon blue and purple cartoon-like creatures interwoven with trees and plants against a dark cosmic background.
    Kenny Scharf, JUNGLENIGHTZ, 2025. Oil, acrylic & silkscreen ink on linen with powder-coated aluminum frame, 213.4 x 243.8 x 7.6 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech. Photo: Hugard & Vanoverschelde photography

    Ixelles, the heart of uptown Brussels, was buzzing. At Almine Rech, Kenny Scharf’s “Jungle jungle jungle” (on through October 25) presented the artist’s unmistakable universe of cartoonish ecologies and consumerist critique. Scharf, a veteran of the New York Downtown Scene that saw Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat rise to fame, continues to expand his cosmic pop language. Works such as JUNGLENIGHTZ (2025) exemplified his lush, frenetic engagement with nature, nightlife and dystopian exuberance.

    Johanna Mirabel’s “I Wish,” at Galerie Nathalie Obadia through October 25, highlights the tradition of ex-voto painting. Drawing on both European and Latin American precedents, the French artist of Guyanese descent wove together sacred motifs and secular imagery. Scenes of disaster and recovery conveyed gratitude, anchoring her first Brussels solo exhibition in a rich cross-cultural lineage.

    Bernier/Eliades Gallery showcased Martina Quesada with “If This Is a Space” (through October 25). Her geometric wall sculptures and pigment-on-paper works established rhythmic systems of variation and resonance. Pieces like The verge was always there (2025) interacted with shifting sunlight in the gallery, blurring distinctions between material presence and atmospheric suggestion.

    At Xavier Hufkens, Charline Von Heyl’s debut exhibition in Brussels affirmed her reputation as one of the most inventive painters working today. The canvases danced between exuberance and rigor, improvisation and discipline. Rather than resolving into answers, they insisted on painting as an open-ended inquiry—a dialogue as mischievous as it is profound.

    An exhibition view at Galerie Nathalie Obadia shows two large paintings by Johanna Mirabel, one depicting a domestic scene and the other a lush garden setting with figures among plants.An exhibition view at Galerie Nathalie Obadia shows two large paintings by Johanna Mirabel, one depicting a domestic scene and the other a lush garden setting with figures among plants.
    Johanna Mirabel’s “I Wish” at Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Courtesy of Johanna Mirabel and the Galerie Nathalie Obadia Paris / Brussels. Photo: © Ben Van Den Berghe / We Document Art

    Moving toward midtown neighborhoods like Sablon, Forest and Saint-Gilles, Gladstone Gallery presented “In the Absence of Paradise,” Nicholas Bierk’s contemplative still lifes and portraits. Drawn from personal photographs, the Canadian artist’s oil paintings addressed grief, transformation and memory with understated intensity.

    At Mendes Wood DM, Julien Creuzet unveiled “Nos diables rouges, nos dérives commotions,” his first Brussels solo show, on through October 25. Anchored by the figure of the Red Devil from Martinican carnival, the immersive installation combined films, wallpapers, sculptures and sound. Creuzet reimagined the masked body as a fluid, untamed entity traversing mythologies and diasporic histories. Rice, tridents and fragmented limbs recurred as potent symbols, layering ancestral spirituality with contemporary politics. His cosmology was unsettling yet emancipatory, opening unexpected pathways of imagination.

    Design also had a strong presence. Spazio Nobile staged a joint exhibition by Kiki van Eijk and Joost van Bleiswijk, curated by Maria Cristina Didero. Celebrating two decades of collaboration, “Thinking Hands” highlighted the duo’s whimsical yet precise approach, rooted in Eindhoven’s design culture. Furniture, lighting and installations demonstrated how their practice resists mass production in favor of intuition and shared invention.

    Institutional programming added depth. At WIELS, the group exhibition “Magical Realism: Imagining Natural Dis/order” explored ecological precarity through myth and dream. Curated by Sofia Dati, Helena Kritis and Dirk Snauwaert, it assembled more than thirty artists. Highlights included Gaëlle Choisne’s Ego, he goes, a talking fridge filled with decaying goods that critiqued consumer waste while invoking Creole cosmologies. Works by Marisa Merz, Cecilia Vicuña and Jumana Manna reinforced the exhibition’s call for alternative ways of inhabiting the planet.

    n exhibition view at Harlan Levey Projects shows large black-and-white textile works by Amélie Bouvier hanging in a white gallery space with small framed works on the walls.n exhibition view at Harlan Levey Projects shows large black-and-white textile works by Amélie Bouvier hanging in a white gallery space with small framed works on the walls.
    Amélie Bouvier’s “Stars, don’t fail me now!” at Harlan Levey Projects. Courtesy of the artist & Harlan Levey Projects. Photo credit: Shivadas De Schrijver

    Outside, Sharon Van Overmeiren’s The Farewell Hotel transformed the WIELS garden into an inflatable castle open to children and adults alike. Referencing pre-Columbian motifs, museological displays and Pokémon, the installation invited visitors to bounce, explore and reconsider what art can be. Its playful verticality epitomized the week’s spirit of porous boundaries between seriousness and delight.

    RendezVous demonstrated how Brussels’ art scene thrives on contrasts—between the polished and the raw, the historical and the experimental, the institutional and the independent. It unfolded not just as a showcase of exhibitions but as a lived experience of the city itself, weaving fluidly through neighborhoods and communities. Far from another entry in the crowded calendar of art weeks, RendezVous affirmed Brussels’ singular position in the cultural landscape: cosmopolitan yet intimate, grounded in tradition yet insistently forward-looking. With this momentum, anticipation for next year’s edition is already mounting.

    An installation view at WIELS shows hanging string and organic materials suspended in front of framed works by Cecilia Vicuña, including figurative paintings and drawings of human and mythic forms.An installation view at WIELS shows hanging string and organic materials suspended in front of framed works by Cecilia Vicuña, including figurative paintings and drawings of human and mythic forms.
    “Magical Realism: Imagining Natural Dis/order” at WIELS. Photo: Eline Willaert

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    Highlights from RendezVous, the First Citywide Edition of Brussels Art Week

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    Nicolas Vamvouklis

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  • Prince Harry makes surprise visit to Ukraine in support of wounded troops

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    LONDON — Britain’s Prince Harry has arrived in Ukraine for a surprise visit in support of wounded service members.

    What You Need To Know

    • Britain’s Prince Harry arrived in Ukraine on Friday for a surprise visit in support of wounded service members

    • Harry’s representatives confirmed they were in the capital, Kyiv, on Friday, though they declined to discuss the prince’s schedule for security reasons

    • This is the second time Harry has visited Ukraine in support of his Invictus Games

    • Harry founded the games in 2014 as a Paralympic-style event designed to inspire military veterans around the world as they work to overcome battlefield injuries

    Harry’s representatives confirmed they were in the capital, Kyiv, on Friday, though they declined to discuss the prince’s schedule for security reasons.

    This is the second time Harry has visited Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full scale invasion in 2022. He made a trip to the western city of Lviv in April.

    “We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process,” Harry told the Guardian newspaper while on an overnight train to Kyiv.

    Harry, a British Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, is the founder of the Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style event designed to inspire military veterans around the world as they work to overcome battlefield injuries. Ukraine is bidding to host the games in 2029.

    The Archewell foundation set up by Harry and his wife Meghan announced this week that it had donated $500,000 to projects supporting injured children from Gaza and Ukraine. The money will be used to help the World Health Organization with medical evacuations and to fund work developing prosthetics for seriously injured young people.

    The Guardian said that Harry will visit the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, spend time with 200 veterans and meet Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

    His visit coincided with a trip to Ukraine by British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who announced a new set of U.K. sanctions targeting Russia’s oil revenues and military supplies.

    Cooper said the visit is a show of solidarity with Ukrainians facing intensified assault from Russia – including 6,500 drones and missiles in July, 10 times the level of a year ago.

    Harry’s appearance in Ukraine follows a four-day trip to the U.K., where he met his father, King Charles III, for the first time in 19 months. The meeting was seen as a first step in repairing frigid relations between Harry and other members of the royal family, which deteriorated after he and his wife, the former Meghan Markle, gave up royal duties and moved to California in 2020.

    Harry and his father last met in February 2024, when the prince flew to London after receiving news that Charles had been diagnosed with cancer. Harry spent about 45 minutes with Charles before the king flew to his Sandringham country estate to recuperate from his treatment.

    Prince Harry’s last trip to Ukraine included a visit to the Superhumans Center, an orthopedic clinic in Lviv that treats wounded military personnel and civilians. The center provides prosthetic limbs, reconstructive surgery and psychological help free of charge.

    Harry’s visit Friday come as Russia escalates its war against Ukraine.

    It is less than a week after Russia’s largest aerial attack on Ukraine since its all-out invasion began more than three years ago — an attack in which the main Ukrainian government building was hit. It also comes just days after numerous Russian drones entered the airspace of NATO member Poland — the country Harry traveled through to reach Ukraine.

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    Associated Press

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  • NATO scrambles jets to shoot down Russian drones in Poland

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    WOHYN, Poland — Multiple Russian drones crossed into Poland in what European officials described Wednesday as an deliberate provocation, causing NATO to send fighter jets to shoot them down. A NATO spokesman said it was the first time the alliance confronted a potential threat in its airspace.

    What You Need To Know

    • Multiple Russian drones crossed into Poland in what European officials described as an deliberate provocation, causing NATO to send fighter jets to shoot them down

    • A NATO spokesman said it was the first time the alliance confronted a potential threat in its airspace

    • The incursion happened late Tuesday and into the early hours of Wednesday during a wave of strikes by the Kremlin on Ukraine
    • The NATO response swiftly raised fears that the war could spill over — a fear that has been growing in Europe as Russia steps up its attacks and peace efforts go nowhere

    The incursion, which occurred during a wave of strikes by the Kremlin on Ukraine, and the NATO response swiftly raised fears that the war could spill over — a fear that has been growing in Europe as Russia steps up its attacks and peace efforts go nowhere.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry said it did not target Poland, while Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, said it tracked some drones that “lost their course” because they were jammed.

    However, several European leaders said they believed the incursion amounted to an intentional expansion of Russia’s assault against Ukraine.

    “Russia’s war is escalating, not ending,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters in Brussels. “What (Russian President Vladimir) Putin wants to do is to test us. What happened in Poland is a game changer,” and it should result in stronger sanctions.

    Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but never on this scale in Poland or anywhere else in NATO territory.

    Poland said some of the drones came from Belarus, where Russian and Belarusian troops have begun gathering for war games scheduled to start Friday.

    It was not immediately clear how many drones were involved. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament 19 violations were recorded over seven hours, but he said information was still being gathered. Polish authorities said nine crash sites were found, with some of them hundreds of kilometers from the border.

    “There are definitely no grounds to suspect that this was a course correction mistake or the like,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told parliament. “These drones were very clearly put on this course deliberately.”

    Dutch fighter jets came to Poland’s aid and intercepted some drones. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski later thanked the Dutch government “for the magnificent performance of Dutch pilots in neutralizing” the drones.

    NATO met to discuss the incident, which came three days after Russia’s largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began.

    Poland says some drones came from Belarus

    Tusk told parliament that the first violation came at approximately 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and the last around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. Earlier, Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X that more than 10 objects crossed into Polish airspace.

    “What is new, in the worst sense of the word, is the direction from which the drones came. This is the first time in this war that they did not come from Ukraine as a result of errors or minor Russian provocations. For the first time, a significant portion of the drones came directly from Belarus,” Tusk said in parliament.

    The Russian Defense Ministry said its overnight strikes targeted Ukraine’s military-industrial complex in the western regions of the country — which border Poland — with no planned targets on Polish territory.

    In an unusual message of outreach, the ministry said it was ready to hold consultations with Poland’s Defense Ministry.

    Belarusian Maj. Gen. Pavel Muraveiko, the chief of the country’s general staff and first deputy defense minister, appeared to try to put some distance between his country and the incursion.

    In an online statement, he said that as Russia and Ukraine traded drone strikes overnight, Belarusian air defense forces tracked “drones that lost their course” after they were jammed, adding that Belarusian forces warned their Polish and Lithuanian counterparts about “unidentified aircraft” approaching their territory.

    Drones or parts of drones were found in eight locations in Poland, according to Polish officials. At a ninth site, objects of unknown origin were found.

    A house was hit in the village of Wyryki in the Lublin region near the Ukrainian border, Mayor Bernard Blaszczuk told the TVP Info television news channel. The roof was severely damaged, but no one was hurt.

    Rattled NATO members vow support

    NATO air defenses supported Poland in what spokesman Col. Martin O’Donnell called “the first time NATO planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace.” That included the Dutch F-35 fighter jets that intercepted drones, according to Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans.

    The alliance “is committed to defending every kilometer of NATO territory, including our airspace,” O’Donnell said.

    Tusk told parliament consultations took place under Article 4 of the NATO treaty — a clause that allows countries to call for urgent discussions with their allies. The consultations happened Wednesday at a previously planned meeting. They do not automatically lead to any action under Article 5, which is NATO’s collective security guarantee.

    Mark Lyall Grant, U.K. national security adviser from 2015 to 2017, said the incursion was obviously an escalation of Russia’s war in Ukraine, but there was not yet enough evidence to say it was an attack on a NATO member.

    But many European leaders expressed deep concern, including those in the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that are the NATO members most nervous about Russian aggression.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it an “extremely dangerous precedent for Europe” and called for Russia to “feel the consequences.”

    “Moscow always tests the limits of what is possible and, if it does not encounter a strong response, remains at a new level of escalation,” he said. “Not just one Shahed (drone), which could be dismissed as an accident, but at least eight attack drones that were aimed in the direction of Poland.”

    By midday in Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump’s only public comments about the incursion was a short post on social media: “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!”

    Trump was set to speak later Wednesday to Polish President Karol Nawrocki, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

    Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said the incident underscored the failure of NATO member states to accurately assess the threat posed by Russia and properly prepare for war.

    “NATO states, even front line ones, have clearly not prepared for war of the type that is happening now,” he said in his Substack newsletter.

    Poland has complained about Russian objects entering its airspace during attacks on Ukraine before.

    In August, Poland’s defense minister said that a flying object that crashed and exploded in a cornfield in eastern Poland was identified as a Russian drone, and called it a provocation.

    In March, Poland scrambled jets after a Russian missile briefly passed through Polish airspace on its way to a target in western Ukraine. And in 2022, a missile that was likely fired by Ukraine to intercept a Russian attack landed in Poland, killing two people.

    Russian attacks hit central and western Ukraine

    Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 415 strike and decoy drones, as well as 42 cruise missiles and one ballistic missile overnight.

    Ukrainian air defenses intercepted or jammed 386 drones and 27 cruise missiles, according to the report.

    One person was killed and at least five wounded, while several homes and businesses were damaged, according to local officials.

    The Russian Defense Ministry said in its morning report Wednesday that it had destroyed 122 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions overnight, including over the illegally annexed Crimea and areas of the Black Sea.

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    Associated Press

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  • 250 arrested in France as protesters clash with police

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    PARIS — Protesters blocked roads, lit blazes and were met with volleys of tear gas on Wednesday in Paris and elsewhere in France, heaping pressure on President Emmanuel Macron by attempting to give his new prime minister a baptism of fire.

    What You Need To Know

    • Protesters have blocked roads and set fires in Paris and across France, clashing with police in a bid to pressure President Emmanuel Macron

    • The protests on Wednesday are challenging Macron’s new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu

    • The interior ministry reported 250 arrests during the nationwide demonstrations

    • The “Block Everything” movement, which started online over the summer, aims to disrupt the country
    • It opposes budget cuts and other grievances

    The government’s interior ministry announced 250 arrests in the first hours of what was a planned day of nationwide demonstrations against Macron, budget cuts and other complaints.

    Although falling short of its self-declared intention to “Block Everything,” the protest movement that started online over the summer caused widespread hot spots of disruption, defying an exceptional deployment of 80,000 police who broke up barricades and swiftly made arrests.

    Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said that a bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes. In the southwest, fire damage to electrical cables stopped train services on one line and disrupted traffic on another, government transport authorities said.

    Spreading protests

    The protests appeared so far to be less intense than previous bouts of unrest that have sporadically rocked Macron in both his first and ongoing second term as president. They included months of nationwide so-called yellow vest demonstrations against economic injustice in 2018-2019.

    After his reelection in 2022, Macron faced firestorms of anger over unpopular pension reforms and nationwide unrest and rioting in 2023 after the deadly police shooting of a teenager on Paris’ outskirts.

    Nevertheless, demonstrations and sporadic clashes with riot police in Paris and elsewhere Wednesday added to a sense of crisis that has again gripped France following its latest government collapse on Monday, when Prime Minister François Bayrou lost a parliamentary confidence vote.

    Macron was installing a new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, on Tuesday, and the protests immediately presented him with a challenge.

    Groups of protesters repeatedly tried to block Paris’ beltway during the morning rush hour and were dispersed by police and tear gas. Elsewhere in the capital, protesters piled up trash cans and hurled objects at police officers. Paris police reported 159 arrests through the morning.

    Around 100 others were taken into police custody elsewhere in France, according to the interior ministry count. Road blockades, traffic slowdowns and other protests were widely spread — from the southern port city of Marseille to Lille and Caen in the north, and Nantes and Rennes in the west to Grenoble and Lyon in the southeast.

    A weary nation

    With France gripped by a prolonged cycle of instability, where minority governments installed by Macron have lurched from crisis to crisis, the movement also had support from people who didn’t protest.

    “There’s a lot of weariness, shared weariness, a lot of frustration that things aren’t moving forward,” said Lila, a Paris office worker who asked that her family name not be published. “That, in part, explains these blockades and this generalized unhappiness.”

    Some criticized the disruptions.

    “It’s a bit excessive,” said Bertrand Rivard, an accounting worker on his way to a meeting in Paris. “We live in a democracy and the people should not block the country because the government doesn’t take the right decisions.”

    The “Bloquons Tout,” or “Block Everything,” movement gathered momentum over the summer on social media and in encrypted chats. Its call for a day of blockades, strikes, boycotts, demonstrations and other acts of protest came as Bayrou was preparing plans to massively slash public spending — by 44 billion euros ($51 billion) — to rein in France’s growing deficit and trillions in debts. He also proposed the elimination of two public holidays from the country’s annual calendar — which proved wildly unpopular.

    Lecornu, the new prime minister who previously served as minister of defense, now inherits the task of addressing France’s budget difficulties, facing the same political instability and widespread hostility to Macron that contributed to Bayrou’s undoing.

    Macron’s governments have been on particularly shaky ground since he dissolved the National Assembly last year, triggering an unscheduled legislative election that stacked the lower house of parliament with opponents of the French president.

    A spontaneous movement

    “Block Everything” grew virally online with no clear identified leadership and a broad array of complaints — many targeting budget cuts, broader inequality and Macron himself.

    Retailleau, a conservative who allied with Macron’s centrist camp to serve as interior minister in Bayrou’s government and is now in a caretaker role until Lecornu puts his Cabinet together, alleged Wednesday that left-wing radicals have hijacked the protest movement, even though it has an apparent broad range of supporters. Appeals for non-violence accompanied its online protest calls.

    Retailleau alleged that elected politicians who have backed the movement are attempting “to create a climate of insurrection in France” and he said some protesters appeared hell-bent on fighting with police.

    “We have, in fact, small groups that are seasoned, mobile, often wearing masks and hoods, dressed in black, which in reality are the recognized signs, the DNA, of … extreme-left and ultra-left movements,” Retailleau said.

    The spontaneity of “Block Everything” is reminiscent of the yellow vests. That movement started with workers camping out at traffic circles to protest a hike in fuel taxes, sporting high-visibility vests. It quickly spread to people across political, regional, social and generational divides angry at economic injustice and Macron’s leadership.

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  • Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas Talk Beatles, Abba and Brotherhood in Anders Thomas Jensen’s ‘The Last Viking’

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    The Last Viking, the latest collaboration between Danish writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen and his longtime muses Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas, is a wild, darkly comic fable about brotherhood, identity and the limits of sanity.

    The frankly bonkers plot follows two brothers. Kaas plays Anker, a bank robber whose loot is entrusted to his traumatized younger brother Manfred (Mikkelsen). But by the time Kaas is released from prison, Manfred — a former Viking obsessive — has been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder. He now believes he’s John Lennon. To jog his memory as to where he stored the cash, Kaas decides to find a collection of similarly afflicted patients — ones that think they’re George, Ringo and Paul — and bring the Fab Four back together.

    For Mikkelsen and Lie Kaas, who have previously pushed Jensen’s brand of lunatic sincerity in films like Men & Chicken and Riders of Justice, The Last Viking was another chance to dive headfirst into the madness while keeping hold of something real. “The brother story was, I thought, really beautiful,” Mikkelsen notes. “That way we could be allowed to do all the insanity, but we needed these anchors, these moments where they saw each other for who they were.”

    The Hollywood Reporter sat down with Mikkelsen and Lie Kaas to talk about why they keep returning to Jensen’s universe, how they found the reality inside these extreme characters, and whether they’re team Beatles or team Abba.

    What made you decide to come on to this absolutely nuts movie? What about the story pulled you in?

    NIKOLAJ LIE KAAS For me, it was basically the question about identity and how we have to accept that we are different people. We’re in the same community, and we have to coexist with all our differences. I think it’s a great question to raise, and that was the main reason I saw this as a great project. We also talked about the brothers and how they have to accept each other because they have this huge difference from the start.

    MADS MIKKELSEN I was attracted to these guys, and because it’s Anders Thomas. This theme of being yourself, as well, but the brother story was, I thought, really beautiful. We enhanced it, made sure it was the heart of the film. That way, we could be allowed to do all the insanity, but we needed these anchors, these moments where [the two brothers] saw each other for who they were.

    KAAS Because Anders’ universe is so crazy, full of all these wild personalities, we knew we had to focus on the bond. What is their profound connection? That was where we kept our attention.

    You’ve both pushed the limits with Anders Thomas before, in films like Men & Chicken and Riders of Justice.

    MIKKELSEN We’ve both gone to the edge of what’s possible with Anders. We might even have crossed it a few times. But it’s a nice place to be — in Anders’ universe, with friends who know how far to go. You feel comfortable reaching for that limit because you know they’ll pull you back if it’s too much. I don’t think I’d do that with any other director.

    How did you approach Manfred — a grown man who thinks he’s John Lennon?

    MIKKELSEN I approached him as a child — a kid seven, eight, nine years old — with the same impulses, the same narcissism, and the same sense of poetry and beauty in places no one else sees. That also makes him very difficult to live with. That informed everything I did, how he moves, how he talks, how he reacts to things. He’s a guy who tends to throw himself out of windows when things don’t go his way.

    Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas in The Last Viking.

    Courtesy of TrustNordisk

    The film touches on identity and even identity politics. How does that discussion play out in Denmark, and how does it connect to the film?

    MIKKELSEN Everything that comes to Denmark comes five years later, and with a smaller wave. So yes, the discussion is there too. But it hasn’t influenced my life in a big way. It was very important for the media to deal with it constantly for a period. I don’t know if that’s why Anders made the film but, for me, it’s not the main theme. It’s more the “hat” the film is wearing. If you make films about politics — and you just called it “identity politics” — it’s boring. Everything is boring when it’s about politics. It has to be about human beings and their behavior. That’s the heart of a film. Then you can put a political hat on top. But it can’t be the core.

    KAAS I think the film raises a big question mark about the idea of identity. It doesn’t make a statement. It asks: Can we accept our differences? That is so important. We have to coexist. That’s the main plan for everyone — to find a way, because we all have to be here.

    MIKKELSEN Exactly. And Anders also shows how quickly we build walls, because somebody says, “They’re the problem.”

    Which Beatle do you self-identify as?

    MIKKELSEN Which one is alive? Ringo. I’d be Ringo.

    KAAS I’d say the same. He’s a really nice guy; everybody talks about how nice he is. He seems to have the best time.

    MIKKELSEN And he’s got no gray hair.

    KAAS Exactly. I’d choose Ringo as well.

    A major conflict in the film is between Abba and Beatles fans. Are you team Abba or team Beatles?

    KAAS You can’t put them up against each other.

    MIKKELSEN Exactly — why does there have to be a conflict? They’re great for different things. We grew up with Abba and were proud of our neighbors making music that went global. But in terms of the music itself, that’s really up to a musician to answer.

    KAAS I love both worlds. You can’t say one is better than the other.

    What was the most fun moment on set?

    MIKKELSEN The funny thing is, if you play the “straight guy,” as Nikolaj does, then you’re standing next to complete insanity. That’s a hard job, because you’re not part of it. Being in that insanity is easier — you rarely crack up because you’re in that bubble. But being the one looking at it can be absurd.

    KAAS Definitely. But honestly, we held it together better on this one. On Men & Chicken, that was tougher. You have to remind yourself that these characters don’t see their world as absurd or comedic. This is reality to them. That’s the most important thing in Anders’ films — to keep it real, even in the midst of insanity.

    What makes Anders Thomas Jensen’s films so different?

    KAAS I don’t think he has a choice, that’s how his mind works. In Denmark, a lot of directors envy the fact that he’s that bold. His storytelling has something of the fable about it. He creates his own realm every time.

    MIKKELSEN It’s there even in his first film, Flickering Lights, that poetry was there. He didn’t really get the credit for it — people called it a “boys’ film.” But he’s always been dealing with big subjects: Family, death, life, God, Satan. Enormous things. For him, the only way to tell those stories without being pretentious is to wrap them in insanity. But inside there’s big honesty and big poetry. That’s what makes him unique.

    Many of Anders Thomas’ films have been adapted into English. Do you think his work translates well internationally?

    KAAS That’s a good question. I’ve seen some of his films received in the U.S., and the approach is completely different. His films tend to be received very differently in different countries. Even Canada receives them differently from the U.S.. And I honestly don’t know how Sweden will take this one.

    MIKKELSEN I once accepted an award on his behalf for The Green Butchers. For Best Drama. Now, that film is obviously not a drama. But that’s how they travel sometimes. Anders is also very wordy, and subtitles can only capture maybe 30 percent of it. Those words are very important to his universe. If people still like the film despite missing that layer, then they’re getting something else out of it. But it’s hard to say what.

    KAAS That’s why I’m always curious to see what happens abroad. And yes, maybe even a little worried.

    MIKKELSEN Especially with Sweden. They’re so close to us, yet sometimes the establishment there interprets things very differently. But I hope they’ll love it.

    Speaking of adaptations — Mads, one of your most acclaimed films, Another Round, is being remade in the U.S. What are your thoughts on that?

    MIKKELSEN I’m fine with people doing it — as long as I don’t have to. (Laughs.) I don’t know how it works, honestly. Another Round had a very specific Danish approach: It looks at heavy drinking not by condemning it, but by finding comedy in it. Finding comedy in the drama without making it into a comedy. That tonality is hard to replicate. My fear is they’ll turn it into a straight comedy or a finger-wagging “don’t drink” story. But if they can’t find the same balance Thomas did, then why do it? Maybe they’ll change it completely. But then it becomes a different story.

    You both work internationally but keep returning to Denmark. What brings you back?

    MIKKELSEN My language, my friends, and this kind of storytelling. Anders Thomas’ films are unlike anything else. It’s just nice to come home. I love being abroad, but I love being home too. So far, I’m lucky enough to do both.

    KAAS For me, it’s specifically Anders Thomas. You don’t find his kind of storytelling anywhere else. That’s a big reason to keep working with him in Denmark.

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    Scott Roxborough

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  • Trump asks Supreme Court for emergency order to keep foreign aid frozen

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    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid frozen.

     

    What You Need To Know

    • The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court for an emergency order to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid frozen

    • The Republican administration filed its appeal Monday

    • The crux of the legal fight is over nearly $5 billion in congressionally approved aid President Donald Trump last month said he would not spend, invoking disputed authority last used by a president roughly 50 years ago

    • Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge last month that another $6.5 billion in aid would be spent before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30

     

    The crux of the legal fight is over nearly $5 billion in congressionally approved aid that President Donald Trump last month said he would not spend, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago.

    Last week, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled that the Republican administration’s decision to withhold the funding was likely illegal.

    Trump told House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in a letter on Aug. 28 that he would not spend $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid, effectively cutting the budget without going through the legislative branch.

    He used what’s known as a pocket rescission. That’s when a president submits a request to Congress toward the end of a current budget year to not spend the approved money. The late notice means Congress cannot act on the request in the required 45-day window and the money goes unspent.

    Ali said Congress would have to approve the rescission proposal for the Trump administration to withhold the money. The law is “explicit that it is congressional action — not the President’s transmission of a special message — that triggers rescission of the earlier appropriations,” he wrote.

    The Trump administration has made deep reductions to foreign aid one of its hallmark policies, despite the relatively meager savings relative to the deficit and possible damage to America’s reputation abroad as foreign populations lose access to food supplies and development programs. The administration turned to the high court after a panel of federal appellate judges declined to block Ali’s ruling.

    Solicitor General D. John Sauer called the ruling “an unlawful injunction that precipitates an unnecessary emergency and needless interbranch conflict.” He urged the justices to immediately block it.

    But lawyers for the nonprofit organizations that sued the government said it’s the funding freeze that violates federal law, noting that it has shut down funding for even the most urgent lifesaving programs abroad.

    “This marks the third time in this case alone that the Administration has run to the Supreme Court in a supposed emergency posture to seek relief from circumstances of its own making — this time to defend the illegal tactic of a ‘pocket rescission,’” attorney Lauren Bateman of Public Citizen Litigation Group, lead counsel for the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition plaintiffs, said in a statement. “The Administration is effectively asking the Supreme Court to bless its attempt to unlawfully accumulate power.”

    Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge last month that another $6.5 billion in aid that had been subject to the freeze would be spent before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

    The case has been winding its way through the courts for months, and Ali said he understood that his ruling would not be the last word on the matter.

    “This case raises questions of immense legal and practical importance, including whether there is any avenue to test the executive branch’s decision not to spend congressionally appropriated funds,” he wrote.

    In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out an earlier injunction Ali had issued to require that the money be spent. But the three-judge panel did not shut down the lawsuit.

    After Trump issued his rescission notice, the plaintiffs returned to Ali’s court and the judge issued the order that’s now being challenged.

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    Associated Press

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  • Venice Film Festival Awards: Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’ Wins Golden Lion

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    The undeniably robust 82nd edition of the Venice International Film Festival has come to a triumphant finish.

    Heading into Saturday night’s awards ceremony, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab was widely viewed as the movie to beat for this year’s Golden Lion. The powerful Gaza-set drama, which tells the story of a 6-year-old Palestinian girl’s desperate pleas for rescue after Israeli forces killed her relatives, received a thunderous 21-minute standing ovation at its world premiere, one of the longest in the Venice Film Festival‘s history.

    But the film ended up going home with the festival’s Silver Lion for the Grand Jury prize, aka second place.

    “I dedicate this award to the Palestinian Red Crescent and to all those who have risked everything to save lives in Gaza. They are real heroes,” Ben Hania said in her powerful acceptance speech. “The voice of Hind is the voice of Gaza itself, a cry for rescue the entire world could hear, yet no one answered.
    Her voice will continue. Her voice will continue to echo until accountability is real, until justice is served.”

    Hollywood heavyweights Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Alfonso Cuarón boosted the movie’s profile ahead of the festival by joining its team as executive producers, while critics on the Lido hailed it as an “intensely involving and resounding” indictment of Israel’s genocidal campaigns against the Palestinian population.

    Jim Jarmusch‘s delicate triptych Father Mother Sister Brother, celebrated for its effortless poignancy, was the night’s dark horse champ, handing the American indie film icon his first Venice Golden Lion.

    “Oh shit,” Jarmusch said as he accepted his trophy, before quickly adding, “All of us here who make films, we’re not motivated by competition, but I truly appreciate this unexpected honor.”

    “Art does not have to address politics directly to be political,” Jarmusch went on. “It can engender empathy and a connection between us, which is really the first step for solving things and problems that we have. So I thank you for appreciating our quiet film.”

    Father Mother Sister Brother is composed of three separate but thematically linked stories, each exploring adult siblings and their strained relationships with their parents. The film’s outstanding ensemble cast includes Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps and Indya Moore, among others. The Hollywood Reporter‘s lead critic summed the film up as “a funny, tender, astutely observed jewel.”

    Jim Jarmusch receives the Golden Lion for Best Film for “Father Mother Sister Brother” at the closing ceremony during the 82nd Venice International Film Festival.

    Benny Safdie brought home the festival’s best director prize for his offbeat MMA biopic The Smashing Machine, his first feature as a solo director without his brother Josh Safdie, and Dwayne Johnson’s first movie as a serious dramatic actor.

    Safdie gave an emotional shoutout to his star as he accepted his trophy, saying, “Oh my God, Dwayne, my friend, my brother, my partner — ‘shoulder and shoulder,’ that’s what we called it. I just want to thank you for diving in headfirst with a blindfold and X-ray vision. You truly performed with no net, and we jumped off the cliff together. We grew together, learned together.”

    Chinese actress Xin Zhilei took home the festival’s first major awards category earlier in the evening, winning the best actress prize for her heart-wrenching performance in Chinese director Cai Shangjun’s drama The Sun Rises on Us All. The trophy was handed to Xin by jury member and fellow Chinese arthouse star Zhao Tao (Ash Is the Purest White).

    And as many on the Lido predicted over the past week, best actor honors landed in the hands of the great Italian theater actor turned film icon Toni Servillo for his humane and hilarious performance as the president of Italy in Paolo Sorrentino’s meditative drama La Grazia. Critics have praised the film as a return to form for the Italian director and his muse, sparking talk of a potential repeat of their awards season magic in 2013, when their breakthrough collaboration, The Great Beauty, won the Oscar in the best international film category.

    French filmmaker Valérie Donzelli and her co-writer Gilles Marchand won the best screenplay prize for At Work, an adaptation of a novel of the same name by author Franck Courtès. The film is a drama about a successful photographer who gives up everything to pursue a dream of becoming a writer.

    Speculation was especially heated heading into the awards ceremony thanks to the absurd number of must-see movies that festival boss Alberto Barbera had secured for the 2025 program. Netflix brought its strongest slate in years to Italy, including Noah Baumbach’s George Clooney star vehicle Jay Kelly, Kathryn Bigelow’s gripping geopolitical thriller A House of Dynamite and Guillermo del Toro’s dark reimagining of Frankenstein, starring Jacob Elordi as the creature. And scores of the world’s top auteurs came to compete with strong new titles — many of them instant Oscar contenders the moment the customary standing ovations wound down each night inside Venice’s Sala Grande cinema.

    Venice’s takeaway after nearly two weeks of peerless moviegoing was resounding: The business model of theatrical film may be under relentless assault, but the art form remains as vital as ever.

    Korean maestro Park Chan-wook’s wildly inventive black comedy No Other Choice was possibly the festival favorite with critics, while Yorgos Lanthimos’ bonkers Bugonia and Sorrentino’s aching La Grazia were also celebrated as exquisite returns to form. Show-stopping performances that went home empty-handed came in the form of Julia Roberts in Luca Guadagnino’s provocative #MeToo-themed thriller After the Hunt and Amanda Seyfried as the riveting lead of Mona Fastvold’s visionary period drama Ann Lee.

    And there was much more: Jude Law as Vladimir Putin in Olivier Assayas’ The Wizard of the Kremlin, France’s François Ozon back in fine form with Albert Camus adaptation The Stranger, Willem Dafoe pulling double-duty with characteristic excellence in Late Fame and The Souffleur, Julian Schnabel’s must-see, Megalopolis-like misfire In the Hand of Dante (with a cast including Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese and Jason Momoa), and the one and only Werner Herzog receiving a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the start of the fest from none less than fellow uber-auteur Francis Ford Coppola.

    Two-time Oscar-winning director Alexander Payne (The Holdovers, Sideways) chaired the panel of global film figures tasked with the difficult duty of selecting this year’s winners. Payne’s jury included Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres, Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof, French director Stéphane Brizé, Italian filmmaker Maura Delpero (Vermiglio), Chinese actress Zhao and Palme d’Or winning Romanian director Cristian Mungiu. 

    Saturday’s ceremony included a tribute and prolonged standing ovation for the late, great Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who died Thursday at the age of 91.

    “Thank you, Giorgio Armani, for teaching us that creativity thrives in spaces where disciplines meet —fashion, cinema, art, new materials, architecture — just like they do every day here at the Venice Biennale,” said Carlo Ratti, curator of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, which is currently underway alongside the film festival.

    The 2025 Horizons section (Orizzonti) — which highlights the latest aesthetic trends in cinema with special attention to debut films — honored Mexican director David Pablos’ hauntingly original road movie En El Camino (On the Road) with its best film prize. The film follows a young drifter and a taciturn trucker who link up and forge a precarious bond on Mexico’s dangerous highways.

    “This film comes from a very personal place — from the guts — and it’s beautiful to see that it connects with other people,” said Pablos in his brief acceptance speech.

    This year’s Horizons jury was chaired by French director and Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau of Titane fame.

    Italy’s Benedetta Porcaroli took Horizons’ best actress prize for the drama The Kidnapping of Arabella and Giacomo Covi nabbed best actor for his turn in the Italian-French coming-of-age film A Year of School. Indian filmmaker Anuparna Roy won best director for Songs of the Forgotten Trees, a moving drama set in Mumbai about an unlikely bond that forms between a part-time sex worker and a corporate employee. And the Orizzonti jury prize was handed to Japanese director Akio Fujimoto for his drama Lost Land, the story of two Rohingya child refugees on a perilous journey to reach Malaysia.

    The 2025 Venice Film Festival ran Aug. 27-Sept. 6. A complete list of this year’s winners follows.

    Main Competition

    Golden Lion — Best Film
    Father Mother Sister Brother

    Silver Lion — Grand Jury Prize
    The Voice of Hind Rajab

    Silver Lion — Best Director
    Benny Safdie for The Smashing Machine

    Special Jury Prize
    Below the Clouds by Gianfranco Rossi

    Best Actor
    Toni Servillo for La Grazia (Italy)

    Best Actress
    Xin Zhilei for The Sun Rises on Us All (China)

    Best Screenplay
    Valérie Donzelli & Gilles Marchand for At Work (France)

    Best Young Actress
    Luna Wedler for Silent Friend (Germany, France, Hungary)

    Armani Beauty Audience Award
    Calle Málaga by Maryam Touzani

    Lion of the Future (Venice Award for Debut Film)
    Short Summer by Nastia Korkia

    Orizzonti (aka Horizons Section)

    Best Film
    En El Camino by David Pablos (Mexico)

    Special Jury Prize
    Lost Land by Akio Fujimoto (Japan, France, Malaysia, Germany)

    Best Director
    Anuparna Roy for Songs of the Forgotten Trees (India)

    Best Screenplay
    Ana Cristina Barragan for The Ivy (Ecuador, Mexico, France, Spain)

    Best Actress
    Benedetta Porcaroli for The Kidnapping of Arabella (Italy)

    Best Actor
    Giacomo Covi for A Year of School (Italy, France)

    Best Short Film
    Without Kelly, Lovisa Sirén (Sweden)

    Venice Classics Section

    Best Documentary on Cinema
    Mata Hari, Joe Beshenkovsky, James A. Smith (USA)

    Best Restored Film
    Bashu the Little Stranger, Bahram Beyzaie (Iran)

    Vennice Immersive Section

    Venice Immersive Achievement Prize
    The Long Goodbye, by Victor Maes and Kate Voet (Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands)

    Special Jury Prize
    Less Than 5gr of Saffron, by Négar Motevalymeidanshah (France)

    Grand Prize
    The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up, by Singing Chen and Shuping Lee (Taiwan)

    This story was first published on Sept. 6 at 10:01 a.m.

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    Patrick Brzeski

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  • Despite Global Reach, Art-o-rama Is Keeping the Spotlight Squarely on Marseille

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    Marseille’s distinctive character sets the backdrop for the fair’s experimental energy. ©margotmontigny

    In 2013, Marseille was appointed Capitale Européenne de la Culture—a program intended to strengthen European locales through the prism of the arts. Since then, the city has increasingly drawn interest from within (and even without) France. That interest reached an inflection point after COVID, as people in Paris were drawn to the idea of living adjacent to the sea after being agonizingly shut in during lockdown. This southward movement has spurred territorial tensions and accusations of gentrification, with an article this spring in French newspaper Libération fueling the controversy (“Les Parisiens qui débarquent à Marseille prennent leurs clics et une claque”) about whether this mass shift was denaturing the “caractère” of the city.

    Whether Marseille is accepting of this draw from other regions or not, the city has been trying to gain a foothold in the arts. Although it is the second-largest city in France, Marseille’s arts scene does not match its scale. Art-o-rama, a contemporary art fair that recently closed its nineteenth edition, is trying to rally participation locally, although only three galleries from Marseille brought work to this edition (just one independently), which featured fourteen countries. The fair is an outgrowth of the loose invitational salon started by local gallerist Roger Pailhas in the 1990s; today, it’s a three-day fair held in late August that partners with regional players, such as Carré d’Art in Nîmes, Villa Carmignac in Porquerolles, Fondation Luma in Arles and Villa Noailles in Hyères. The press notes point out that eight of the nineteen galleries selected for this year’s Art Basel Statements section previously participated in Art-o-rama.

    Jérôme Pantalacci, director of Art-o-rama, said the fair’s signature is that the scenography of the stands is left quite open and that a lot of new work is produced specifically for it. As for Marseille as a backdrop, he noted the acceleration of the arts scene within less than a decade. “There’s a form of effervescence,” he told Observer. The city is notoriously less polished than Paris: “Marseille is disorganized—it’s a bit sauvage. It’s something that people used to not like, but now it’s sought-after. There’s a kind of freedom. It’s not neat, so there are, of course, inconveniences in terms of organization; it’s sometimes chaotic. But that’s also its charm.” The makeup of the city is also different, with a huge community from North Africa. Moreover, there are no banlieues: “the quartiers populaires are in the city, not outside of it,” he said of the socio-economic realities. Asked if the city tends to be misperceived, he admitted that “it’s considered a city that has a lot of crime and is dirty. The contemporary art public and collectors will more easily go to Monaco. But the image of Marseille has changed due to the quality of life, with the sun and the sea and being close to Italy.”

    Art-o-rama is hosted in La Friche, a sprawling former tobacco factory turned cultural center in the Belle de Mai neighborhood behind the train station. Upon arrival, one encounters a basketball court and a skate park; its vast floors contain artist studios, exhibition spaces and a large rooftop, linked by heavily graffitied stairwells (“no to war,” “lesbians everywhere”).

    An art fair booth with a long white wall displaying seven small rectangular paintings spaced widely apart, with one painting hung close to the floor.An art fair booth with a long white wall displaying seven small rectangular paintings spaced widely apart, with one painting hung close to the floor.
    Giovanni’s Room, Los Angeles-PRESS-3553 ©margotmontigny

    Giovanni’s Room, a Los Angeles gallery existent for over three years, exhibited this year for the first time. Gallerist Jeremy Maldonado, however, attends fairs as a visitor in New York, London, Paris and Miami “year-round, seasonally, as it’s crucial as an American business.” He was encouraged to join Art-o-rama by his friends at Parisian gallery Sans Titre, which also brought work to the fair. Maldonado was showing Los Angeles-born New York-based artist Jackie Klein (whose work ranged from $1,000-2,500). “It’s a wonderful atmosphere,” Maldonado told Observer. “Being in Europe and having those dialogues with European art patrons, art dealers, artists… Business comes second. And I feel like the business comes from that integrity. I’m not thinking of selling anything; I’m thinking of presenting a really effective body of work, and that alone should be the focus.” He wagered that he would participate again at Art-o-rama next year.

    DS Galerie, a Parisian space in the Marais, was participating in its fourth edition. Gallery representative Ulysse Feuvrier said that Marseille is “an ecosystem that’s growing more and more,” yet the size of the fair was manageable. “It doesn’t bring an overdose in its format, which means there’s more time to see everything and to exchange… It’s a different way to start the year than Frieze Seoul.” The first year DS Galerie participated, they showed sculpture duo Xolo Cuintle, which, based on a meeting at the fair, led to their first solo show in France. This year, Antoine Conde’s drawings were the star, culled from a bank of images of erotica, porn and pop culture and priced from €900-1600.

    An art fair booth with four large square red canvases featuring black spray-painted graffiti-like text and shapes, their reflections visible on the polished floor.An art fair booth with four large square red canvases featuring black spray-painted graffiti-like text and shapes, their reflections visible on the polished floor.
    DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM out of Berlin. ©margotmontigny

    Galeria Sabot is a longstanding participant, capping their sixth edition, partly anchored by the “friendly organization.” The Romanian gallery has previously participated in Liste, Artissima, NADA Miami and Paris Internationale, but during the pandemic began “rethinking the ways we should survive,” founder Daria Dumitrescu told Observer. The gallery was showing three artists: young painter Daniel Moldoveanu, conceptual artist and critical abstractionist Pepo Salazar and drawings by Alexandra Zuckerman inspired by fabrics, with work ranging from €1,300-12,000. Dumitrescu’s experience was that the sales did not come immediately but that the gallery “built a collector base in France.” The gallery, she noted, “works with very young artists and we grow together—it’s more difficult. You have to create the need in the market, then things happen. Some are older now and more well-known, and things are a bit easier.”

    Longtermhandstand from Budapest enjoyed its second outing at the fair. Last year, the gallery showed five artists and “got some really nice opportunities for our artists institutionally,” gallery representative Peter Bencze told Observer. “We also made some sales, but Art-o-rama is not Basel or Frieze—if you know this, you can enjoy it very much. We like vibrancy and also the philosophy of the fair. Nowadays, all artwork is really pushed by the market. Of course, you can sell here as well, but the main thing you realize is that it really helps your artists.” This year, the gallery mounted a themed booth inspired by the correspondence between Marcel Duchamp and Constantin Brâncuși, specifically focused on the latter’s U.S. career. The fourteen artists were selected in a curatorial nod to this reference, although the works were not created purposefully with this in mind. Among those shown were Hungarian artist Áron Lőrincz, French artist Julie Béna and Hungarian artist Omara Mara Oláh, whose work was the most expensive on the stand at €20,000.

    MICKEY, a Chicago gallery, returned for the second time to Art-o-rama; gallerist Mickey Pomfrey had been advised to participate on the recommendation of fellow American gallery Good Weather (also at the fair). “What we liked about it was the vibe: there’s a lot of license that they give galleries to be able to exhibit in a different way than a lot of other fairs do. The crowd seemed very engaged. And of course, Marseille is just the most lovely place to be at this time of the year,” Pomfrey said. He further remarked, admiringly, that in Marseille, “the post-internet aesthetic never died like it did in America—they didn’t get hit by the same culture shift experience.” Last year, the stand was dedicated to gouache-on-cardboard paintings by Ryan Nault; this year, Michael Madrigali’s works—made from wood, fiberglass, foam, plastic and paint to resemble renderings—were inspired by a trip to a Mexican artifact museum and exhibited akin to a woman’s shoe display. Pieces were priced at €2,000.

    Anchoring the local presence, Marseille gallery sissi club was at the art fair for the fourth time; the gallery was founded in 2019, and the founders initially attended Art-o-rama as visitors. “Art-o-rama is very important because an art scene is formed around it, an international one,” said Anne Vimeux, who spearheaded the gallery alongside Elise Poitevin. During their first year, the booth was dedicated to Inès di Folco Jemni, who they brought back for Liste in Basel this spring. This year, they featured two artists at different points in their careers: photos by Marion Ellena (€800-1,500) and a batik by Amalia Laurent, who just finished a year at Villa Medicis (€10,000). “There are few galleries in the Marseille ecosystem, so when we go elsewhere we represent the scene,” Vimeux said of participating internationally at Material in Mexico City, ARCO in Madrid and Paris Internationale. “Choosing a fair is choosing a scene—that’s how we think about it.”

    With both founders being from Marseille, they’ve been happy to see the ongoing growth of curatorial projects and ateliers accompanying artist practices. “What we hope for is that the scene will become more structured around institutions. That’s how we’ll be able to anchor it,” Vimeux said. “We’ve experienced the off-peak moments, but a new generation is bringing a new dynamic.”

    An art fair booth with brightly colored works including a painted folding screen with red and yellow tones, two small framed still life paintings, and a large framed image of pink blossoms on a blue background.An art fair booth with brightly colored works including a painted folding screen with red and yellow tones, two small framed still life paintings, and a large framed image of pink blossoms on a blue background.
    Les Filles du Calvaire out of Paris. ©margotmontigny

    More in art fairs, biennials and triennials

    Despite Global Reach, Art-o-rama Is Keeping the Spotlight Squarely on Marseille

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    Sarah Moroz

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  • Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’ Is a Monster Made in Canada

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    As Guillermo del Toro earned another Oscar for his 2018 sci-fi romance The Shape of Water shot in Ontario, J. Miles Dale, the film’s producer, proudly said of most key creative positions, from the production and costume designers to the sound team and editor: “They’re all Canadian.”

    Now, after del Toro shot his latest creature feature, Frankenstein, on soundstages in Toronto, Dale says his creative artists and department heads not only are world-beaters but also part of “our film family.” That close-knit community of artists — many of whom are members of the Directors Guild of Canada — Ontario — follows del Toro’s long collaboration with Canadian crews on movies he shot locally.   

    Their challenge on Frankenstein was bringing to the big screen the horror-meister’s vision of egotistical scientist Victor Frankenstein and his monster as part of a diabolical experiment. “Look, the worst fear on a Guillermo del Toro movie is letting him down because ultimately he’s the hardest working guy on the movie,” Dale says.

    With Frankenstein, an endlessly driven del Toro fulfilled a lifelong passion to adapt Mary Shelley’s classic gothic novel about Dr. Frankenstein, played in the movie by Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi as the creature he gives birth to, with Mia Goth as Elizabeth. As the lavishly shot Frankenstein lurches toward a TIFF premiere, THR sat down with Dale to talk about the local talent behind del Toro’s passion project.

    You’re a big supporter of Canadian talent. Tamara Deverell, a best production design Oscar nominee for Nightmare Alley, designed Frankenstein. Talk about her contribution.

    I really think of it as our film family. I’m old. I’ve been at this a long time. And a lot of these people I’ve been working with a long time. Tamara Deverell, for example. We first worked together on Blizzard in 2001, one of her first jobs as a production designer. She was an art director on [1997’s] Mimic, so she goes back with Guillermo even further.

    You speak about this tight film family. But that’s reflected across an Ontario industry that has weathered the storms of the pandemic and Hollywood strikes to become a major production hub for Hollywood and other foreign producers — thanks in part to you and del Toro.

    The thing I’m most proud of is having started in this business as a kid when we didn’t know much. And all these big American DPs and production designers and costume designers came up and we studied them, and we learned from them, at their feet. Now Canadian artists and talents and producers and artisans are in that league. Having watched that development of our talent pool from early days to now, it’s just remarkable to see. The level at which some of these people are working. You look at Craig Lathrop, a local production designer who got nominated for Nosferatu last year. Paul Austerberry won an Oscar for The Shape of Water. Luis Sequeira, our costume designer, is twice-nominated. Not that that’s the be-all and end-all. But it’s certainly recognition from peers at the very highest level that you’re doing something that is among the best in our industry. That’s gratifying to be able to stand with these people and say they are operating at that high level, and now they are there to train other Canadians, other Torontonians, to be doing the same thing. That’s a generational kind of passing of knowledge and a really lovely thing. I’m just happy to have been a part of it, and I think we can stand pretty tall right now where we are as an industry, and where our folks rank.

    Walter Gasparovic, first assistant director on Frankenstein, is another longtime collaborator with del Toro and yourself.

    Walter Gasparovic, whom I’ve done many films with, was the first AD on Mimic. You know, Guillermo first came here in 1997 with a notoriously difficult shoot with the Weinsteins on Mimic. That was only his third movie, and his first big studio movie. But the crew made an impression on him. And even though he and I didn’t know each other at that time, many of that crew were people I had worked with — Gilles Corbeil, the steadicam operator, Penny Charter, second AD.  So when we came together in 2011 as Guillermo was directing Pacific Rim, he had also agreed with Universal to produce Mama. He said we’ll do it in Toronto. And he needed a producer. I had just produced Scott Pilgrim. And Edgar Wright, a good friend of Guillermo, told him about me. We met. He said, “Yeah, you produce that movie. I’ll be down the hall if you need me.” And that was the beginning of our relationship.

    Jacob Elordi as The Creature and Oscar Isaac as Dr. Victor Frankenstein in ‘Frankenstein.’

    Cr. Ken Woroner/Netflix

    And the film family you have brought along for the ride, they must by now get del Toro’s visual and design aesthetics?  

    Some of my crew and some of his crew were the same crew. So in 2011, we started to build that film family. [Gasparovic] didn’t come back until Frankenstein, but Tamara came back right away on The Strain and Nightmare Alley and Cabinet of Curiosities. And then, of course, Frankenstein. Luis Sequeira, our costume designer, he and I have been working together since he was a PA on Friday the 13th in 1987. So I brought Luis in for Mama, and Guillermo liked him, and he did The Strain and The Shape of Water, Cabinet of Curiosities, Nightmare Alley. He’s part of the family.

    We always hear Guillermo del Toro has high expectations for his creative talent but trusts those he brings on board, making it a tight production.

    That’s what happens when you have a very easy shorthand in a group instead of a bunch of new people being thrust together. You have trust relationships that make it easy because you’ve been down the road with the same people. They trust you. You trust them. Everyone’s not kind of having to cover their ass in case something messes up.

    Guillermo has been called a true visionary director. What does that mean in practical terms for Canadian creatives charged with bringing his directorial vision to the screen?

    Here’s the thing. More than any other director I’ve ever worked with, he is very design-
    oriented — and in a very specific way. Nothing is arbitrary, down to the color scheme, down to characters and associated colors for them. Red is a key color in the film — as in all his films. But in Frankenstein, it’s Oscar Issac’s. Red gloves, scarf and, of course, all the blood making the creature. It’s the memory of his mother in red. Whether it’s conscious or not for Victor, that’s what he gravitates to because he’s always missing his mother. For an art department, for a production designer, set decorator, costume designer and a cinematographer and hair and makeup even, having those specifics and being able to have those conversations to that degree of specificity is great. Because now you’ve got a direction to go in. And, also, he can speak about any era and any research. He knows the difference between baroque and art deco and art nouveau — and very specifically. So, where people have to go, he will steer them down research roads that will give them a direction, and then they come back.

    I sense del Toro and his creatives speak their shorthand very much with visuals and backed by ample research and film references. 

    It’s a beautiful two-way street where, instead of a director saying, “Yeah, just give me something that is good and flashy,” he’s doing a deep dive. That’s what makes it not easier, but certainly a more fruitful relationship that’s going to lead to something better. He knows what he wants. He can show pictures. He can show drawings. He can give books of his own to say, “This is kind of what I want.” Now go and use that inspiration to kick it up a notch, because the standard is very high.

    Talk about building Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory, where he created a monster as part of a mad experiment on lavish sets.

    We knew what Guillermo wanted to do with the lab and Victor’s workshop. We’d need a sculpture here, a painting there, these wax figures here, and all of those things. We used artists in Mexico and in France and a painter over here to do a family portrait. So having had many years to curate these ideas in his head, that bore fruit. And, of course, the novel — he also was obviously moved by the novel. The drawings of [comic book artist] Bernie Wrightson from many years ago were a big part of his visual inspiration for the movie, and they informed the production design. I really think our film stays much truer to the novel than any of the other many Frankenstein films that have been made.

    Besides being a master storyteller, del Toro is also legendary for his work ethic.

    Look, the worst fear on a Guillermo del Toro movie is letting him down because ultimately he’s the hardest-working guy on the movie. He never stops, and he’s going to answer any question — he answers a million a day — and he’s always the smartest guy in the room. That is just going to either make all of us better or we’ll fail and we won’t make the cut, and we won’t make be part of the film family, the film family that everyone so desperately wants to be a part of. Because he’s the best. 

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    Etan Vlessing

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  • DHS: 475 detained in immigration raid at Georgia Hyundai plant

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    SAVANNAH, Ga. — About 475 people were detained in an immigration enforcement action at a Hyundai factory in Georgia on Thursday, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

    In a press briefing Friday, the special agent in charge of the effort said the department executed a judicial search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices at the factory where the South Korean auto giant manufactures electric vehicles.

    What You Need To Know

    • About 475 people were detained in an immigration enforcement action at a Hyundai factory in Georgia on Thursday, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

    • In a press briefing Friday, the special agent in charge of the effort said the department executed a judicial search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices at the factory where the South Korean auto giant manufactures electric vehicles.

    • No criminal charges have been filed in what Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Steven Schrank said was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of DHS investigations
    • A majority of the 475 people who were detained were South Korean nationals, and all were illegally present in the United States or working unlawfully in the country, Schrank said

    “This operation underscores our commitment to protecting jobs for Georgians and Americans, ensuring a level playing field for businesses that comply with the law, safeguarding the integrity of our economy and protecting workers from exploitation,” Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Steven Schrank said Friday.

    No criminal charges have been filed in what Schrank said was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security investigations.

    A majority of the 475 people who were detained were South Korean nationals, and all were illegally present in the United States or working unlawfully in the country, Schrank said. He added that they had entered the country through a variety of means, including illegally crossing the border, entering through a visa waiver that prohibited them from working and overstaying visas. 

    “Each individual was questioned on their status,” Schrank said. “Their documents were checked.”

    Those determined to be illegally present have been turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal.

    The arrests were the result of a monthslong investigation conducted through a collaboration of agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security; ICE; the U.S. Labor Department; the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the IRS; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Georgia State Patrol. 

    Thursday’s raid targeted one of Georgia’s largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites, touted by the governor and other officials as the largest economic development project in the state’s history. Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s biggest automaker, began manufacturing EVs a year ago at the $7.6 billion plant, which employs about 1,200 people, and has partnered with LG Energy Solution to build an adjacent battery plant, slated to open next year.

    ICE spokesman Lindsay Williams confirmed that federal authorities conducted an enforcement operation at the 3,000-acre site west of Savannah, Georgia. He said agents were focused on the construction site for the battery plant.

    In a televised statement, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jae Myung said the country is taking active measures to address the case, dispatching diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in Atlanta to the site, and planning to form an on-site response team centered on the local mission.

    “The business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed in the process of U.S. law enforcement,” he said.

    At an event with President Donald Trump earlier this year, Hyundai announced it would invest an additional $5 billion in the United States, on top of an already announced $21 billion it had committed for U.S. investments from 2025 to 2028. The company plans to build a new steel plant in Louisiana, expand its U.S. auto production and create a robotics innovation hub.

    Trump’s administration has undertaken sweeping ICE operations as part of a mass deportation agenda. Immigration officers have raided farms, construction sites, restaurants and auto repair shops.

    The Pew Research Center, citing preliminary Census Bureau data, says the U.S. labor force lost more than 1.2 million immigrants from January through July. That includes people who are in the country illegally as well as legal residents.

    Hyundai and LG’s battery joint venture, HL-GA Battery Company, said in a statement that it’s “cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities” and paused construction of the battery site to assist their work.

    Operations at Hyundai’s EV manufacturing plant weren’t interrupted, said plant spokesperson Bianca Johnson.

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    Susan Carpenter, Associated Press

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  • Frieze and Kiaf SEOUL Scale Back in Spectacle While Still Securing Sales

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    Kiaf SEOUL and Frieze Seoul each opened at the COEX Center with a VIP preview on September 3. Courtesy of Kiaf SEOUL

    For those who’ve attended Seoul’s art week since Frieze arrived in 2021, the contrast this year was unmistakable. The chaotic entrance lines at Kiaf SEOUL and the overcrowded aisles of last year’s Frieze are gone. Attendance feels lighter, and the booths more subdued, though major brands like Adidas, BMW, Ruinart and American Express still held prime positions at the entrance—a clear indication that the fair’s popularity is now firmly rooted in Korean society four years after its debut.

    At the opening of Frieze Seoul on Wednesday, September 3, the mood was distinctly more muted and contained—a reflection of the art world adjusting to a new chapter in South Korea’s post-boom market. Slightly more lively in the afternoon was the historical Korean fair Kiaf, where collectors remain loyal to longstanding traditions and their local dealers.

    A view through colorful beams reveals a packed aisle at Frieze Masters, with visitors standing and walking among gallery booths.A view through colorful beams reveals a packed aisle at Frieze Masters, with visitors standing and walking among gallery booths.
    This year marks the 4th edition of Frieze Seoul. Courtesy of Frieze and Wecap Studio

    Blue-chip gallerists like Larry Gagosian and Emmanuel Perrotin skipped the trip this year, leaving their booths staffed solely by regional teams during the preview—a stark contrast to previous editions, when they flew in with much of their global staff. When gallery owners or lead partners from spaces focused on Korean artists, such as Gladstone and Mennour, did attend, it signaled that international galleries have already recognized the need to tailor their offerings to a local audience attuned to the market’s slower collecting pace and shifting attitude.

    While Korean collectors remain engaged with the international art circuit, this has undeniably been a turbulent year for the country. With President Yoon Suk-yeol ousted after attempting to declare martial law and an economy still reeling from the effects of U.S. tariffs, Korean collectors are understandably more cautious in their buying.

    Fairgoers gather around a booth featuring Yayoi Kusama’s signature pumpkin sculpture in black and gold dots, with visitors chatting in the crowded aisle.Fairgoers gather around a booth featuring Yayoi Kusama’s signature pumpkin sculpture in black and gold dots, with visitors chatting in the crowded aisle.
    This year, Frieze Seoul hosted over 120 galleries. Courtesy of Frieze and Wecap Studio.

    Private buyers and institutions remain active, but spending habits have shifted, as Observer gathered from early press preview conversations. The once-rampant appetite for ultra-contemporary works has given way to a more measured approach, focusing on institutional-grade pieces and blue-chip artists. Speaking with resigned pragmatism, dealers noted that this trend extends beyond South Korea, echoing across Asia and the global market.

    So what’s the new mantra for galleries? Cultivate your own relationships in the place you show. Those who have spent years building ties in South Korea can still make it work, as can local players. But for newcomers, entering the market now may feel like they’re arriving just as the music stopped.

    That was not the case for the dynamic Los Angeles gallery Make Room, which marked its first appearance in Frieze Seoul’s main section with a shared booth alongside Apalazzo and a celebrity-filled dinner party steeped in a witchy atmosphere. Between drinks and bites of Korean fried chicken, K-pop and K-drama stars made appearances that set social media alight—including SUHO from EXO, actor Lomon Park, Tony Hong and members of the girl group Lovelyz.

    A dimly lit, crowded restaurant or lounge filled with people dining and socializing. Groups of friends sit at dark wooden tables with food, drinks, and soda cans, while others stand and mingle in the background. The atmosphere is lively and energetic, with warm golden lighting from a patterned wall installation creating a cozy ambiance.A dimly lit, crowded restaurant or lounge filled with people dining and socializing. Groups of friends sit at dark wooden tables with food, drinks, and soda cans, while others stand and mingle in the background. The atmosphere is lively and energetic, with warm golden lighting from a patterned wall installation creating a cozy ambiance.
    Make Room hosted a K-pop and K-drama star-filled dinner on Tuesday night. Courtesy Make Room | Photo: Studio Monday Naked

    Park Seo-Bo, a foundational figure in postwar Korean abstraction and the father of Dansaekhwa, was one of the names resonating most strongly at Kiaf and Frieze this year, following his recent passing. At Frieze, LG OLED honored his legacy in collaboration with the artist’s foundation, dedicating an entire booth to rarely seen later Écriture paintings from the estate, paired with ultra high-resolution video works that captured the textures in striking detail. The sharp contrast between the digital reinterpretations on screen and the tactile surfaces of the paintings underscored how, in his later years, Seo-Bo was already reflecting on the role of painting in a world saturated by screens and shaped by emerging digital realms that influence perception and aesthetics. As he once described it, standing on a “cliff edge” in the early 2000s, Seo-Bo confronted the question of how painting could evolve as the boundaries between different worlds began to blur.

    Dynamic lower tiers and Focus Asia offer opportunities for discovery

    Noteworthy results at both Frieze and Kiaf weren’t limited to the highest price points. Lindseed from Shanghai quickly sold out works by Chinese-born, Paris-based visionary Fu Liang at the Focus Asia sector, with prices ranging from $6,500 to $34,000. Similarly, Hong Kong-based gallery Kiang Malingue, which recently opened a space in New York, nearly sold out its solo booth of work by Taiwanese talent Tseng Chien Ying, priced between $15,000 and $25,000—a current sweet spot for collectors.

    Returning to Seoul from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s leading contemporary gallery, Galerie Quynh, took a bold step with a solo presentation in the main section, showcasing the layered work of Lien Truong, a Vietnamese-born artist based in North Carolina. Her intricate canvases—exploring the intersection of body, identity and environment through the lens of diasporic trauma and societal pressure—drew early interest from collectors.

    Galerie Quynh presents Lien Truong at Frieze Seoul 2025, Booth B21.Galerie Quynh presents Lien Truong at Frieze Seoul 2025, Booth B21.
    Galerie Quynh presenting Lien Truong, Booth B21, Frieze Seoul 2025. Courtesy Galerie Quynh

    Seoul gallery Cylinder made a striking debut in the main section, securing multiple sales, including a work by Jennifer Carvalho ($9,000), three works by Sunwon Chan ($2,500-4,800), two works by Eunsil Lee ($12,000 and $5,000) and two works by Jongwhan Lee ($2,200 and $5,000). Next for the fast-growing gallery is its debut at Frieze London with a solo booth by Rim Park.

    Equally successful, the young and dynamic Seoul gallery G Gallery sold six works by Choi Yoonhee on the first day ($2,400-19,000), a work by Moon Isaac for $12,000 and a piece by Cindy Ji Hye Kim for $10,000.

    Another first-time exhibitor in Focus Asia was Shanghai- and Beijing-based Hive Contemporary, which showcased emerging names including Yuan Fang, Xia Yu, Zhang Mingxuang and Tan Yongqing, drawing a strong response: by evening, the gallery had sold 18 paintings and one sculpture priced between $20,000 and $100,000.

    A contemporary art fair booth featuring two large textile-based works. On the left, a vividly colored fabric piece shows an erupting volcano with flames, factories, and a mountain landscape rendered in blue, red, and yellow tones with ornate borders. On the right, a large painted banner titled Djoeroes Kramat depicts stylized figures in masks and vibrant costumes, referencing Indonesian film poster aesthetics, with bold text in Malay/Indonesian across the top and bottom.A contemporary art fair booth featuring two large textile-based works. On the left, a vividly colored fabric piece shows an erupting volcano with flames, factories, and a mountain landscape rendered in blue, red, and yellow tones with ornate borders. On the right, a large painted banner titled Djoeroes Kramat depicts stylized figures in masks and vibrant costumes, referencing Indonesian film poster aesthetics, with bold text in Malay/Indonesian across the top and bottom.
    Timoteus Anggawan Kusno was presented by the Kohesi Initiative at Frieze Seoul Focus Asia. Photo: Elisa Carollo

    Despite this year’s reduced footprint—and tucked into a narrow corridor wedged between the main booths—the Focus Asia section at Frieze offered some of the most compelling opportunities for regional discoveries inside the COEX.

    Jakarta-based gallery Kohesi Initiatives presented Indonesian filmmaker and multimedia artist Timoteus Anggawan Kusno, whose work revisits censored narratives from 1960s films to explore liminality and historical erasure, examining the blurred lines between fact and fiction. Rooted in post-colonial and post-dictatorship Indonesia, Kusno’s practice reflects the country’s ongoing unrest and protests, shaped by the long-term consequences of the very issues his work confronts.

    A group of visitors engage with a booth installation at an art fair; one man in a suit gestures toward a hanging structure made of lightbulbs and wires, while others examine a screen on the wall.A group of visitors engage with a booth installation at an art fair; one man in a suit gestures toward a hanging structure made of lightbulbs and wires, while others examine a screen on the wall.
    Parcel (F3) at Frieze Seoul, Focus Asia. Courtesy of Frieze Seoul

    Tokyo-based PARCEL is presenting the multilayered practice of Side Core, a Japanese collective that critiques forced urbanization and restless public development through thoughtful multimedia guerrilla interventions. The works on view confront contradictions in public funding for the Tokyo Olympics and the broader paradoxes of Japan’s rapid urban expansion. Among them, the Rode Work series—launched in 2017 in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture—juxtaposes post-disaster reconstruction landscapes with the repetitive motions of skateboarding, highlighting the enduring bond between land and people. In the film, flashing lights and hazard signs guide drivers to a skate park built on a damaged industrial site, where skaters in high-visibility jerseys grind a half-pipe—subtly revealing how grassroots creativity can emerge from destruction and corruption.

    Another standout in the section is PTT Space, presenting the sharp satire of Taiwanese American artist Christine Tien Wang, who explores millennial diaspora anxieties and the recent volatility of the bitcoin bubble through one of the most diffuse yet persistent forms of contemporary ephemera: memes. Her Tiger series addresses diasporic anxiety and societal mobility within Asian communities, while her Bitcoin series critiques the NFT apocalypse and the fleeting nature of digital culture, transforming the disposable aesthetics of memes into what the artist calls “historical paintings,” reflective of our time and its contradictions. Working at the intersection of institutional critique, politics and popular culture, Tien Wang is gaining international recognition, with acquisitions by LACMA and exhibitions at both Night Gallery and Naxos Draxler.

    The image features a vibrant gallery space with a striking green wall, displaying a series of contemporary artworks. The back wall is adorned with large, fiery wall decals and a prominent artwork featuring a group of people with exaggerated facial expressions. On the left side, there are T-shirts with graphics hanging on a rack, and on the right, a TV screen plays a visual titled "Everything's COMPUTER!" showcasing an image of President Trump. The artworks appear to engage with pop culture and humor, incorporating bold, graphic elements.The image features a vibrant gallery space with a striking green wall, displaying a series of contemporary artworks. The back wall is adorned with large, fiery wall decals and a prominent artwork featuring a group of people with exaggerated facial expressions. On the left side, there are T-shirts with graphics hanging on a rack, and on the right, a TV screen plays a visual titled "Everything's COMPUTER!" showcasing an image of President Trump. The artworks appear to engage with pop culture and humor, incorporating bold, graphic elements.
    Christine Tien Wang’s “BDSM (Bitcoin Daddies Seek Memes),” presented by PTT Space in Frieze Seoul’s Focus Asia section. Courtesy of PTT Space

    Korean and international galleries stake a claim on Kiaf’s first-day buzz

    When comparing Kiaf with Frieze, several Korean dealers appeared to place even more emphasis on their presentations, spotlighting the top names in their rosters. On the lower level of the historic Korean fair, Kukje Gallery reported a complete sell-out of Ugo Rondinone’s work (the artist also has a show at Gladstone this week), along with an iconic green Kapoor piece (£550,000-660,000) and a later work by Park Seo-Bo ($250,000-300,000). Known as a leading gallery for Korean art, Johyun Gallery made a strong showing with artists like Lee Bae and Park Seo-Bo, reporting early sales directly from the floor. Blue-chip names also anchored Gana Art’s presentation, which included works by Alex Katz, Chiharu Shiota and Yayoi Kusama.

    Seoul-based EM Gallery drew attention with Moonassi, the Korean artist recognized for his black-and-white existential compositions. The gallery sold out pieces priced between $20,000 and $32,000—Moonassi’s works have remained in high demand since his last presentation, often with waiting lists.

    The oldest work on view at Kiaf this year was a painting by Palma Il Vecchio, dated 1525-1528, presented by Die Galerie alongside drawings and sculptures by Marino Marini and works on paper and lithographs by Picasso. The historic canvas drew attention on the floor with a price tag of €750,000, standing out amid the fair’s modern and contemporary offerings. Long part of the gallery owner’s personal collection, the masterpiece was originally acquired from a nobleman in Hungary, and now everyone’s wondering whether it will find a new home this edition.

    A Renaissance-style oil painting of a woman in a richly patterned red and white gown with voluminous sleeves, standing against a dark background. She has light skin, long wavy brown hair partially covered by a headpiece, and gazes forward with a calm expression. One hand rests on a ledge while the other folds across her waist, adding to her poised and dignified stance. The ornate details of her dress and the subtle play of light emphasize her elegance. The painting is framed in a simple dark wooden frame with gold accents.A Renaissance-style oil painting of a woman in a richly patterned red and white gown with voluminous sleeves, standing against a dark background. She has light skin, long wavy brown hair partially covered by a headpiece, and gazes forward with a calm expression. One hand rests on a ledge while the other folds across her waist, adding to her poised and dignified stance. The ornate details of her dress and the subtle play of light emphasize her elegance. The painting is framed in a simple dark wooden frame with gold accents.
    The oldest work on view at Kiaf this year was a Palma Il Vecchio painting from 1525-1528, presented by Die Galerie. Courtesy of Die Galerie

    In general, however, a pop aesthetic and lower price points seemed to be the winning formula for maintaining Kiaf’s floral energy on the first day. Gallery Delaive reported early sales of several works by Ayako Rokkaku, priced between €50,000 and €200,000.

    Among the standout presentations of new names, Space Willing N Dealing showcased quietly contemplative scenes of human interaction and exchange, all priced between $2,500 and $3,500. Busan-based gallery Nara Cho Busan presented Anomalisa, an exploration of love and entanglement through thread, with works priced at $7,800-12,000. Intimacy and suspended atmospheres—rendered through soft, delicate paint—also defined the work of Japanese painter Shimpei Yoshida, shown by Shibuya-based Hide Gallery. Thanks to very accessible pricing under $1,500, several pieces had sold or were on hold by day’s end.

    KORNFELD, participating in its fifth Kiaf, also reported a strong start. Works by Korean artists Wonhae Hwang and Seong Joon Hong found new collectors on day one, totaling €10,000, while a major piece by Etsu Egami sold within the first hour to a new Korean collector for €22,000. “After participating at Kiaf for more than five years, we are very pleased with the successful start of this edition and the positive response from collectors and institutions,” gallery owner Alfred Kornfeld told Observer.

    Returning to Kiaf with a strong grasp of the rhythm and habits of Korean collectors, the Milan-based Cassina Project had a particularly promising first day—even with just one confirmed sale. “We had good conversations. From our experience in past years, the following days are usually more intense—clients who show interest often return, and the final days are when deals close,” Irene Cassina told Observer.

    A hall at Kiaf Seoul 2025 with a banner overhead reading “Kiaf Seoul 2025.9.3–9.7,” as visitors browse colorful paintings and sculptures in the booths.A hall at Kiaf Seoul 2025 with a banner overhead reading “Kiaf Seoul 2025.9.3–9.7,” as visitors browse colorful paintings and sculptures in the booths.
    Kiaf SEOUL runs through September 7. Courtesy Kiaf SEOUL

    Among the additional sales reported by dealers at Kiaf by the start of the second day, Gallery Palzo sold Byeong Hyeon Jeong’s Ambiguous Inclination 25008 for $5,250 and two works by Lee Daecheon—Berg, Wasser (산, 수) for $3,000 and Gardener for $450—along with two paintings by Haru. K, each sold for $675. Galerie PICI placed two works by Dukhee Kim: Gold Desire-Bag for $4,000 and Keep Going (pump) for $2,000. SAN Gallery sold Jenkun Yeh’s Back and Forth I for $2,085 and Huihsuan Hsu’s Chasing a Lush Cave for $1,875. SH Art reported a complete sell-out of works by Backside—a street artist from Fukuoka, Japan, whose true identity remains anonymous—including VIVA, PINEAPPLE, SMILE, VINYL and QUIET, each priced at $17,250.

    Frieze and Kiaf SEOUL continue through Sunday, September 7, at the COEX Center. 

    More in art fairs, biennials and triennials

    Frieze and Kiaf SEOUL Scale Back in Spectacle While Still Securing Sales

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    Elisa Carollo

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  • Death toll in Lisbon streetcar crash rises to 16 amid day of mourning

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    LISBON, Portugal — The death toll in the crash of a famous Lisbon streetcar popular with tourists stood at 16 on Thursday after another person died from their injuries while receiving hospital care, an emergency services official said.

    What You Need To Know

    • The death toll in the crash of a famous Lisbon streetcar popular with tourists stood at 16 on Thursday after another person died from their injuries while receiving hospital care, an emergency services official said.

    • A Portuguese emergency services official said Thursday that the dead were all adults. The head of Lisbon’s Civil Protection Agency declined to provide their names or nationalities

    • The official said that their families would be informed first, and she said that another 21 people were injured in Wednesday’s crash

    • More than half were foreigners

    Officials revised the death toll lower after saying earlier it was 17.

    The dead were all adults, Margarida Castro Martins, head of Lisbon’s Civil Protection Agency, told reporters. She didn’t provide their names or nationalities, saying that their families would be informed first.

    Another 21 people were injured in Wednesday’s crash, she said, adding that they were men and women between the ages of 24 and 65 as well as a 3-year-old child.

    The injured included Portuguese people as well as two Germans, two Spaniards and one person each from France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Morocco, South Korea and Cape Verde, she said.

    The range of nationalities reflected how big a draw the renowned 19th-century streetcar was for tourists who are packing the Portuguese capital during the summer season. Portugal observed a national day of mourning Thursday after the capital’s worst disaster in recent history.

    British tourist heard a ‘horrendous crash’

    Felicity Ferriter, a 70-year-old British tourist, had just arrived with her husband at a hotel near the crash site and was unpacking her suitcase when she heard “a horrendous crash.”

    “We heard it, we heard the bang,” she told The Associated Press outside her hotel.

    The couple had seen the streetcar when they arrived and intended to ride on it the next day.

    “It was to be one of the highlights of our holiday,” she said. “It could have been us.”

    She said that the emergency response was “amazing.” Police and ambulances quickly “flooded in,” she said.

    The yellow-and-white streetcar, known as Elevador da Gloria, was lying on its side on the narrow road that it travels on, its sides and top crumpled. It crashed into a building where the road bends, leaving parts of the mostly metal vehicle crushed.

    Italian tourist won’t ride one again

    The electric streetcar, technically called a funicular, is harnessed by steel cables, with the descending car helping with its weight to pull up the other one. The car can carry more than 40 people, seated and standing. It is also commonly used by Lisbon residents.

    Francesca di Bello, a 23-year-old tourist from Italy on vacation in Lisbon with her family, had been on the Elevador da Gloria a few hours before the derailment.

    They walked by the cordoned-off crash site on Thursday, shocked by the crumpled wreckage. Asked if she would ride a funicular again in Portugal or elsewhere, Di Bello was emphatic. “Definitely not,” she said.

    Though authorities gave no details about those killed, the transport workers’ trade union SITRA said that the streetcar’s brakeman, André Marques, was among the dead.

    One of Lisbon’s big tourist draws

    The 19th-century streetcar is one of Lisbon’s big tourist attractions and is usually packed with foreigners at this time of year for its short and picturesque trip up and down one of the city’s steep hills.

    Teams of pathologists at the National Forensics Institute, reinforced by colleagues from three other Portuguese cities, worked through the night on autopsies, which were expected to be concluded early Thursday, officials said. The injured were admitted to several hospitals in the Lisbon region.

    Detectives from Portugal’s judicial police force, which investigates serious incidents, photographed the rails and the wreckage on the deserted road.

    Officials declined to speculate on whether a faulty brake or a snapped cable may have caused the derailment.

    “It hit the building with brutal force and fell apart like a cardboard box,” witness Teresa d’Avó told Portuguese television channel SIC. She described the streetcar as out of control and seeming to have no brakes, and said she watched passersby run into the middle of the nearby Avenida da Liberdade, or Freedom Avenue, the city’s main thoroughfare.

    The crash occurred at the start of the evening rush hour, around 6 p.m. local time. Emergency officials said all victims were pulled out of the wreckage in just over two hours.

    Service halted as inspections ordered

    The service, inaugurated in 1885, goes up and down a few hundred meters of a hill on a curved, traffic-free road in tandem with one going the opposite way. It goes between between Restauradores Square and the Bairro Alto neighborhood renowned for its nightlife.

    Lisbon’s City Council halted operations of three other famous funicular streetcars in the city while immediate inspections were carried out.

    The Elevador da Gloria is classified as a national monument.

    Lisbon hosted around 8.5 million tourists last year, and long lines of people typically form for the brief rides on the popular streetcar.

    Carris, the company that operates the streetcar, said that scheduled maintenance had been carried out. It offered its deepest condolences to the victims and their families in a social media post, and promised that all due diligence would be taken in finding the causes.

    President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa offered his condolences to affected families, and Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas said the city was in mourning. “It’s a tragedy of the like we’ve never seen,” Moedas said.

    “A tragic accident … caused the irreparable loss of human life, which left in mourning their families and dismayed the whole country,” the government said in a statement.

    European Union flags at the European Parliament and European Commission in Brussels flew at half-staff. Multiple EU leaders expressed their condolences on social media.

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    Associated Press

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