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Facebook Tweet Email Link Behind the elegant but unassuming entryway to an apartment near London’s Hyde Park, one of Europe’s most prominent collectors has amassed a remarkable trove of Surrealist and postwar art in a home bursting with color and eclectic design. Now in her 80s, Pauline Karpidas is selling nearly all of the art and custom furniture housed in her dwelling, where major contemporary artists and other cultural figures have socialized among works by René Magritte, Salvador Dalí, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. As a patron, she’s been an influential and connecting force in the…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Taichung, Taiwan  —  There are more than 3,000 restaurants in the world with at least one Michelin star. Only one of them is dedicated solely to ice cream, and you’ll have to travel to Taiwan to experience it. Located in an alley in the city of Taichung, next to the tree-lined Calligraphy Greenway boulevard, Minimal’s spartan gray and dark charcoal façade is a stark contrast to the sweet, colorful treats served inside. Founded by chef Arvin Wan in 2021, it’s included in the Michelin Guide’s 2024 Taiwan edition, which was unveiled last August. But just a…

Facebook Tweet Email Link In the fashion industry, where styles are cyclical and the same trends are repeatedly served up in TikTok and Instagram feeds, coming up with a unique and identifiable look is no small feat. Yet, it’s what Danish fashion designer Cecilie Bahnsen has achieved, with puffy sleeves, lace-up details, organza frills and textured jacquard being among the visual signatures of the namesake brand she founded in 2015. For Bahnsen, developing that aesthetic has been an organic process — one that draws from her Scandinavian heritage (she was born and raised in Denmark, just outside of Copenhagen). While…

Facebook Tweet Email Link London Reuters  —  Britain said it will begin implementing a deal to return some migrants who arrive on small boats to France within days, a key part of its plans to cut illegal migration, after a treaty on the arrangement is ratified on Tuesday. Under the new deal, France has agreed to accept the return of undocumented people arriving in Britain by small boats, in exchange for Britain agreeing to accept an equal number of legitimate asylum seekers with British family connections. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron announced the “one in, one…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Brett McGurk is a CNN global affairs analyst who served in senior national security positions under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Even as someone who helped negotiate the only two ceasefires of the terrible war in Gaza, including the release of nearly 150 hostages, the situation today seems hopeless and destined to simply continue with no clear end in sight. That is not acceptable. This war must end. The hostages must come home. Humanitarian aid must surge. Gaza needs a multiyear recovery without Hamas in charge. This all needs to…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Six months after he published “On the Origin of Species,” Charles Darwin wrote a letter to his friend, Asa Gray. He was troubled by a family of parasitic wasps, the ichneumonidae, that lays its eggs in the body of another insect, such as a caterpillar; when the young hatch, they devour the host. “I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae,” he wrote. The creature is cited as one of the factors that led him to question divine creation. Hatred of wasps goes back thousands of years —…

Facebook Tweet Email Link A court in Moldova has sentenced a Kremlin-friendly regional politician to seven years in prison for funneling money from Russia to finance a political party. Evgenia Gutul, the leader of Gagauzia, a historically pro-Russian ethnic region in southern Moldova, was detained in March on suspicion of electoral fraud and sentenced on Tuesday. Prosecutors said that from 2019 to 2022, Gutul channeled undeclared funds into the country to finance a political party founded by Ilan Shor, Reuters reported. Shor is a pro-Russian businessman who has been convicted of fraud in Moldova and now lives in exile. Gutul’s…

Facebook Tweet Email Link After years of renovations, Dior has re-opened the doors to its flagship store in New York City. And unlike its other global boutiques, this one houses its first permanent spa. Located on the corner of East 57th Street and Madison Avenue, Dior’s revamped space is designed by architect Peter Marino, a longtime collaborator of the French luxury house. And, spanning an expansive four floors, it showcases the brand’s womenswear, menswear, fine jewelry and more. The re-opening comes amid a continued luxury downturn where brands have been looking to US shoppers to spur growth, with some (including…

CNN  —  You can listen to this story on CNN’s Chance Encounters podcast. When American teenager Kerri Cunningham was dragged by her parents to Europe in the summer of 1993, she was less than impressed. Dragged might sound like dramatic wording, but that’s how 14-year-old Kerri saw it at the time. Kerri reacted to the vacation plans “from the teenage point of view of ‘Oh, it’s taking away from my summer break, and I want to hang out with my friends.’” Leaving her beachside hometown in the Hamptons, in New York, was the last thing she wanted. “I was dreading…

Facebook Tweet Email Link A former NFL player has been convicted for running an operation that bred and trafficked “grand champion” dogs and their offspring for dogfighting, the Department of Justice said. LeShon Johnson, 54, a former running back for the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants, was convicted by a federal jury in Oklahoma on six felony counts of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act’s prohibitions against “possessing, selling, transporting, and delivering animals to be used in fighting ventures,” the department said. Following the verdict, the ex-NFLer surrendered 190 dogs from his “Mal Kant Kennels,” the…