News Headlines - 12 June 2019
▽Japan's Shinzo Abe Meets With Iranian Leaders Amid Tensions With U.S. : NPR
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to arrive in Iran on Wednesday to begin a historic trip to the Middle Eastern country where he is expected to try to mediate escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Abe's two-day visit is the first to Iran for a Japanese premier since Takeo Fukuda in 1978.
▽Trump says he's still considering slapping sanctions on Nord Stream 2
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he is still considering using sanctions to block a controversial pipeline that would increase natural gas flows from Russia to Germany... The U.S. and many European nations fear the pipeline would help Russia bypass infrastructure in Ukraine, allowing Moscow to use energy supplies as a weapon against its neighbors without disrupting flows to Western Europe.
Russia and Germany assert Nord Stream 2 is a purely economic project.
▽The Ebola virus has reached Uganda | DW
Ebola has reached Uganda. A 5-year-old boy vomiting blood has become the first cross-border victim of the virus; another two family members tested positive for the highly contagious disease that has killed more than 1,400 in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Uganda's Minister of Health Ruth Acieng confirmed the existence of Ebola in the area.
Since its sale for a record US$450 million, the whereabouts of the Salvator Mundi, said to be painted by Leonardo da Vinci, has become one of the art world’s greatest mysteries.
On Monday, London-based art dealer Kenny Schachter, writing for the website Artnews, offered answers: the painting now resides on the gargantuan yacht owned by powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Since its record-setting sale at Christie’s in 2017, the painting, in which Jesus Christ is depicted emerging from darkness blessing the world with one hand while holding a transparent globe in the other, has never been exhibited in public, triggering doubts about its ownership, whereabouts and authenticity.
In stark contrast to official statements offered more than a decade ago, a 2008 fire at Universal Studios Hollywood destroyed a staggering number of original master recordings stored there by the Universal Music Group, according to an investigation published Tuesday by the New York Times Magazine.
The devastation, which company officials downplayed or outright dismissed after the fire was extinguished 11 years ago this month, is breathtaking in scope, amounting to what the new report describes as “the biggest disaster in the history of the music industry.”
