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☆ Rare Chinese Buddha statue up for auction at Bonhams in Paris
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Yiming Woo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PARIS, June 10 (Reuters) - A rare Chinese Buddha statue, found in a French family home and part of a set thought to have been lost, is expected to fetch 1 million euros ($1.1 million) when it is auctioned on June 13 in Paris. According to auction house Bonhams, the piece is a very rare wood figure, a religious work depicting the Buddhist Bodhisattva Guanyin made in the 12th-13th century under the Jin dynasty. Over a metre high, the piece was last sold in the 1930s to a family in Boulogne, a suburb near Paris. [1/4] Head of Chinese Art Caroline Schulten at Bonhams auction house looks at a rare Buddha statue, believed to be from the 12th century in China, before its auction in Paris, France, June 9, 2023. Bonhams auction house says there are likely only a handful of such pieces left in the world, which are mostly in museums.

Persons: Guanyin, Jin, Caroline Schulten, Yiming Woo, Schulten, We’ve, Yming Wood, Dominique Vidalon, Hugh Lawson Organizations: REUTERS, Thomson Locations: Paris, Boulogne, China, France, Belgium, Switzerland

☆ Stars at Cannes take break from red carpet to support AIDS research
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

CANNES, May 25 (Reuters) - Celebrities including Queen Latifah, Jeffrey Wright and Heidi Klum escaped the Cannes Film Festival's crowded Croisette Boulevard for a night to attend a fundraiser for AIDS research at a secluded luxury hotel in the nearby resort town of Antibes. In addition to Rexha, Gladys Knight, Adam Lambert and Halsey entertained the high-paying guests while Queen Latifah played host for the evening that included a fashion show and auction. The goal of the luxury evening was to raise money on behalf of amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, which also supports HIV prevention, treatment education and advocacy. [1/5] The 76th Cannes Film Festival - The amfAR's Cinema Against AIDS 2023 charity gala - Antibes, France, May 25, 2023. Queen Latifah and Eboni Nichols pose.

[1/2] The 76th Cannes Film Festival - Opening ceremony and screening of the film "Jeanne du Barry" Out of competition - Red Carpet arrivals - Cannes, France, May 16, 2023. Gong Li poses. REUTERS/Gonzalo... Read moreCANNES, May 17 (Reuters) - Gong Li, one of China's best actors, told Reuters on Wednesday that Michelle Yeoh's recent success at the Oscars and Golden Globes was particularly encouraging for Asian actors. "Since the beginning of the epidemic to now, in fact, the film industry has not been so vibrant, not like it was before, so her award is also an encouragement," Gong said. "Well, congratulations to her, because I also take it as an encouragement to fellow Asian actors to enter the world."

☆ TikTok ban is the least palatable of options
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Montana is following a movement around the United States to try to keep Americans from using TikTok. That has consequences: The United States has never pulled a platform used by so many people to communicate. China, which before TikTok had never cracked the U.S. market with a successful social media network, is unlikely to let ByteDance part with TikTok. More recently the company had been working with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to ease concerns. TikTok users in the United States could still binge on short videos, but the company – and its rivals – would face tougher constraints.

☆ Meet China's 10 richest tech billionaires, from the CEO of ByteDance to the 'Steve Jobs of China'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

ByteDance's founder is the richest tech billionaire in China. These are the 10 richest Chinese billionaires in tech, per Bloomberg's 2023 Billionaire Index. He is one of many Chinese billionaires who got rich from starting successful tech giants. These Chinese billionaires are also navigating policies in their own country. From the CEO of ByteDance to the founder of WeChat, here are the 10 wealthiest Chinese tech billionaires.

☆ TikTok's Chinese owner boosts annual profits to a record $25 billion, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

ByteDance posted a profit of $25 billion last year, the Financial Times reported. The TikTok owner increased its bottom line by almost 80% compared with 2021's $14 billion result. Revenues jumped more than 30% to about $85 billion as advertisers increased their spending on TikTok and its Chinese equivalent called Douyin. ByteDance has been threatened with a US TikTok ban by the Biden administration if it doesn't sell the app. ByteDance did not respond to a request for comment from the Financial Times and didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

☆ Dusty painting hidden behind door turns out to be Brueghel 'masterpiece'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Yiming Woo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] A man looks at the painting "Le paiement de la dime" (The Payment of the Yearly Dues) by the artist Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564-1636) before its auction at Drouot auction house in Paris, France, March 27, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo FuentesPARIS, March 27 (Reuters) - A rediscovered painting of Flemish 17th-century painter Pieter Brueghel the Younger, for years hidden in a family house, will be presented for auction in Paris on Tuesday and is expected to fetch 600,000 ($647,340.00) to 800,000 euros. "I found this painting [in the house], behind a door in the television room," de Lussac told Reuters, calling it one of the biggest surprises in his career. Brueghel the Younger, whose father Brueghel the Elder died when he was only five, didn't use one of his father's compositions for this painting as he usually did but did revisit the popular theme of the village lawyer. ($1 = 0.9269 euros)Reporting by Yiming Woo, writing by Charlotte Van Campenhout, editing by Christina FincherOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Angry youths challenge Macron and his pension law
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Yonathan Van Der Voort | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS via Reuters TVPARIS, March 27 (Reuters) - Teenager Charles Chauliac is angry that French President Emmanuel Macron plans to delay the retirement of hard-working folk like his parents, and that he bypassed parliament to do so. Most evenings for the past few weeks, the 18-year-old has taken to the streets of Paris to try and force a U-turn. Marching through Paris, dodging police, he joins other young people in spontaneous protests, chanting: "We are here, we are here, even if Macron does not want it, we are here." Tags sprayed on the walls of Paris in recent days have targeted Macron, or simply read: Democracy. While some protesters have torched bins, thrown rocks at police or smashed shop windows and bus stops, Chauliac insists he hasn't.

Both are owned by Beijing-based parent company ByteDance, but Douyin launched before TikTok and became a viral sensation in China. Like TikTok, it’s a short-form video app. Then in 2017, the privately-owned tech company bought a US-based video startup and released TikTok as the overseas version of Douyin. The download page for the TikTok app displayed on an Apple iPhone. Besides TikTok, there’s also shopping app Temu, fast fashion retailer Shein and video editing app CapCut, which is also owned by ByteDance.

Protests against the bill have drawn huge crowds in rallies organised by unions since January. Most have been peaceful, but anger has mounted since the government pushed the bill through parliament without a vote last week. The ongoing protests could impact a planned state visit next week of Britain's King Charles, a Buckingham Palace source said. While the opposition has called for Macron to fire his prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, who has been at the forefront of the pension reform, Macron backed her and said that he had tasked her to work on new reforms. "Tomorrow we will be on the streets again to demonstrate against the pension reform and demand its withdrawal," said one of them, CFDT union member Sophie Trastour.

The president, the government and the majority," a senior MP in Macron's camp, Gilles Le Gendre, told Liberation newspaper. Another MP in Macron's camp, Patrick Vignal, bluntly urged the president to suspend the pension reform bill, which will raise the retirement age by two years to 64, given the anger it has triggered, and its deep unpopularity. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes 1 2 3 4 5While Borne said the administration would try in future to better involve citizens and unions in lawmaking, she gave no specifics, and both said they had devoted as much time to dialogue on the pension bill as possible. Other opposition MPs urged Macron to fire Borne, call snap elections and hold a referendum on the pension bill because of the widespread anger. Polls show a wide majority of French are opposed to the pension reform, as well as the government's decision to push the bill through parliament without a vote.

☆ It's wild that Western governments have decided that TikTok might spy for China. The app hasn't helped itself.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

TikTok denies it feeds user data to China, but the drip-drip of revelations hasn't helped. The suspicion is that TikTok's owner ByteDance is in cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party and shares data about Western users with China. TikTok has maintained the app doesn't spy on individuals, and has pointed to the steps it's taking to hive off user information. FCC commissioner Brendan Carr responded to Bertram asking if "any member of the CCP accessed non-public US or EU user data from inside China." US social-media services normalized the aggressive harvesting of user data, and routinely hand over information to international governments.

[1/6] Ukrainian servicemen of the 17th Independent Tanks Brigade are seen atop of a T-64 tank, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, near the frontline town of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine February 23, 2023. "Using Ukraine, the collective West is seeking to dismember Russia, to deprive it of its independence. U.S. President Joe Biden will meet virtually on Friday with G7 leaders and Zelenskiy to mark the anniversary and announce new sanctions against those aiding Russia's war effort, the White House said. Ukraine and its Western partners have brushed off the nuclear talk as a diversion from a stalled military campaign. Some U.S. and Western officials estimate Russia's military casualties at nearly 200,000 dead or wounded, while in November the top U.S. general said more than 100,000 troops on each side had been killed or wounded.

"We withstand all threats, shelling, cluster bombs, cruise missiles, kamikaze drones, blackouts and cold ... And we will do everything to gain victory this year." "Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko 1 2 3 4 5Igor, walking through Moscow, said Russia must win: "We're looking forward to it ending successfully. Despite strong support for Ukraine in the West, big developing nations, above all China and India, have kept clear of imposing sanctions on Moscow. Learn more about the Ukraine war.

BUCHA, Ukraine/VILNIUS, Feb 22 (Reuters) - The brightly painted nails were what gave the identity of the body away. A year on from the full-scale invasion, her family and friends have parted ways, their lives upended by the conflict. Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of war crimes in Bucha, an allegation the Kremlin denies. February 24 is the day when life was taken away from all Ukrainians, but we are trying to get it back." Additional reporting by Yiming Woo in Bucha; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Alexandra HudsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ukraine troops prepare for threat of Russia capturing Bakhmut
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SIVERSK, Ukraine, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Ukrainian troops conducting weekend exercises near the small town of Siversk, in the country's east, said they were preparing to defend one of the possible targets of a new Russian offensive. Ukrainian forces have appealed for more advanced weapons from Kyiv's Western allies to help defend Bakhmut, which is being attacked by Russia's Wagner mercenary group. "We have one artillery attack from our side, and the Russians can do it five times more," said 30-year-old Stefan. Capturing Bakhmut would give Russian forces a stepping stone to advance on two bigger cities further west, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. But Ukraine and its Western allies say success there would be a largely Pyrrhic victory for Moscow, given the time taken and losses sustained.

KYIV, Feb 19 (Reuters) - A hairdresser by day and a "drone hunter" by night, Oleksandr Shamshur, 41, is among tens of thousands of volunteers helping defend the skies over Ukraine against Russian attacks. [1/7] Hairdresser and Ukrainian Territorial Defence unit volunteer Oleksandr Shamshur, 41-year-old, prepares to guard sky over capital against Russian suicide drones in the beginning of his shift, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 2, 2023. "With the enemy at the doorstep, I had to do something, I had to act in defence," he said. During the night of Dec. 29-30, Shamshur said, his rooftop unit shot down two drones over Kyiv. Reporting by Margaryta Choronkondratenko and Yiming Woo; writing by Mark Heinrich; editing by John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Of at least 36 missiles that Russia fired about 16 were shot down, the air force said, a lower rate than normal. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris are among many top officials attending the Munich Security Conference. As Russian troops massed on Ukraine's borders, Western leaders in Munich urged President Vladimir Putin not to invade and warned of dire consequences if he did. Russian leaders will be notable by their absence at the conference, which runs until Sunday, but senior Ukrainian officials are expected to address it. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address his priority was to hold off Russian attacks and get ready for an eventual Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Following a pattern of heavy bombardments after Ukrainian battlefield or diplomatic gains, Russia launched 36 missiles in the early hours, Ukraine's Air Force said. The Russian missiles triggered air-raid sirens and landed across Ukraine, including at the Kremenchuk refinery, where the extent of damage was unclear. Ukraine said the barrage included three KH-31 missiles and one Oniks anti-ship cruise missile, which its air defences cannot shoot down. [1/6] Ukrainian servicemen of the 80th Air Assault Brigade fire M119 Howitzer artillery weapon towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near Bahmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, February 16, 2023. Its capture would give Russia a stepping stone to advance on two bigger Donetsk cities further west, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

☆ The Federal Reserve is likely to hike interest rates again. What that means for you
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Jessica Dickler | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

What the Fed's rate hike means for youThe federal funds rate, which is set by the central bank, is the interest rate at which banks borrow and lend to one another overnight. As the federal funds rate rises, the prime rate does, too, and credit card rates follow suit. After rising at the steepest annual pace ever, the average credit card rate is now 19.9%, on average — an all-time high. Student loans Federal student loan rates are also fixed, so most borrowers won't be impacted immediately by a rate hike. Savings accounts On the upside, the interest rates on some savings accounts are higher after a run of rate hikes.

☆ TikTok’s best U.S. charm offensive involves an IPO
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Lauren Silva Laughlin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

But even if proposed fixes get past federal officials – no sure thing – it still must contend with activist state leaders. That’s problematic, given that trust between Chinese and American government officials is at a low. To make matters worse, ByteDance said late last year that some employees had improperly accessed TikTok user data of two journalists. More than 40% of American states, including Wisconsin and Texas, have banned the app on government-owned devices. But if an IPO helps TikTok to keep operating in the United States, it’s worth a try.

☆ China central banker calls for strengthening property sector policies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SHANGHAI, Dec 24 (Reuters) - A top advisor to the People's Bank of China on Saturday called for strengthening of real estate policy in light of sluggish economic growth over the past several years as China has pursued its zero-COVID policy. China has in recent weeks ramped up support for the industry to relieve a liquidity squeeze that has stifled companies in the sector, including lifting a ban on fundraising via equity offerings for listed property firms. The property sector has also got a slight boost from China's abandonment of the zero-COVID policy. But sluggish demand is still a major constraint on full recovery. Reporting by Shuyuan Wang in Beijing and Josh Horwitz in Shanghai; Editing by Bradley PerrettOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Foie gras or 'faux gras'? Paris chef offers festive vegan alternative
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

French chef Fabien Borgel, who manages the "42 Degres" vegan restaurant in Paris, created what he calls a "faux gras" two years ago as a substitute to the foie gras traditionally made from fattened duck and goose livers. Foie gras is considered part of France's culinary heritage, but the practice of force-feeding ducks or geese to enlarge their livers is condemned by animal activists. "You have people that have never tasted foie gras and will never taste it and they want something festive for the year-end parties. Borgel's veggy foie gras, containing cashew nuts, sunflower and coconut oil, looks like the traditional foie gras but is more creamy. A poll released by French foie gras producers on Wednesday showed 77% of domestic consumers were not ready to switch from the original to one made from plant-based products.

☆ Europe names world's first disabled astronaut
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Member of ESA's new class of astronauts John McFall attends the European Space Agency (ESA) Council at Ministerial level (CM22) at the Grand Palais Ephemere in Paris, France, November 23, 2022. REUTERS/Benoit TessierPARIS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The European Space Agency on Wednesday named the first ever "parastronaut" in a major step towards allowing people with physical disabilities to work and live in space. The 22-nation agency said it had selected former British Paralympic sprinter John McFall as part of a new generation of 17 recruits picked for astronaut training. He will join five new career astronauts and 11 reserves in training after ESA replenished its astronaut ranks for the first time since 2009. It received 257 applications for the role of astronaut with a disability, a parallel role that it terms "parastronaut".

☆ One of China's biggest retailers is cutting executive pay to create a fund to help lower-level employees buy homes
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The e-commerce titan will allocate $1.4 billion to help rank-and-file employees buy homes. The move comes amid China's "common prosperity" campaign to reduce economic inequality in the country. The billionaire's philanthropy is part of China's "common prosperity" campaign to close the income gap and bolster social equality in the country. He brought up the slogan "common prosperity" multiple times in his opening speech, Insider reported. ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming donated 500 million yuan, or $77.3 million, in June of 2021 to Fangmei Education Development Fund, named after Zhang's grandmothers in his hometown of southeastern Longyan city.

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