The world of sport appears to be softening the hardline stance it took when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Russian athletes are back competing under their own flag at the Paralympics. Fifa president Gianni Infantino said the international ban on Russian soccer teams “has not achieved anything”. And his counterpart at the International Olympic Committee, Kirsty Coventry, insists all athletes should be allowed to “compete freely.”
Their sporting dominance is all the more striking after winning just a solitary medal eight years ago but no country can match them now
With two days of competition left at the Winter Paralympics there is no doubt who will finish top of the medal table. At close of play on Friday, China had a total of 33 medals, the same as their nearest rivals the USA and Italy combined. They have won gold in four of the Games’ six sports – cross-country skiing, curling, snowboarding and biathlon – and are in line for a medal in para-ice hockey too. This sporting dominance is all the more striking because, only eight years ago, China was nowhere.
At the Pyeongchang Games, the Chinese won a solitary medal, gold in the mixed team curling. Three of that team are competing here at Milano Cortina and a fourth, Wang Meng, already has a gold medal around her neck after winning the inaugural mixed doubles alongside her partner Yang Jinqiao. “I’m very, very proud, very, very honoured, and also very grateful,” she said after beating the Korean pair 9-6 following a tie-break end. “I’m so grateful to so many people who have helped us along the way, and [to be] finally standing on this podium”.
The United States defeated Czechia 6-1 on Friday in the semi-finals of the Paralympic sled hockey tournament in Milan, advancing to the gold medal game for a fifth consecutive Games.
Declan Farmer scored three goals and assisted on the other three as the Americans pulled away after conceding the opening goal. Farmer’s hat trick – his fourth in four games at these Paralympics – set records for most goals and most points in a single Paralympic tournament. He now has 14 goals and 24 points in Milan.
BEIJING (ANP/RTR) - China waardeert de "positieve signalen" die het nieuwe Nederlandse kabinet heeft afgegeven over de betrekkingen met China en is bereid de communicatie en wederzijds vertrouwen te verdiepen. Dit heeft de Chinese minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Wang Yi gezegd, die vrijdag met zijn Nederlandse evenknie Tom Berendsen heeft gebeld.
De relatie tussen Nederland en China staat al maanden onder druk vanwege het conflict rond de Nijmeegse chipfabrikant Nexperia en zijn Chinese moederbedrijf Wingtech. Zo plaatste de toenmalige minister van Economische Zaken Nexperia vorig jaar onder curatele, uit angst dat de Chinese topman het Europese deel naar China zou verplaatsen.
Wang zei vrijdag dat China en Nederland belangrijke partners zijn en dat "het bevorderen van wederzijds voordelige samenwerking in het gemeenschappelijk belang is van beide landen", aldus een verklaring van het Chinese ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken.
Berendsen meldt op X dat de relatie met China "van groot belang" voor Nederland is.
NEW DELHI (ANP/BLOOMBERG) - India reserveert miljarden om nadelige gevolgen voor de economie van de oorlog in het Midden-Oosten op te vangen. Dat maakte de Indiase minister van Financiën Nirmala Sitharaman vrijdag bekend. India heeft veel last van de fors gestegen olieprijzen, het land importeert bijna 90 procent van zijn jaarlijkse ruwe oliebehoeften.
In totaal zet India 6,2 miljard dollar opzij (5,4 miljard euro). "Het stelt ons in staat om economische schokken van verschillende aard op te vangen", zei Sitharaman over de reserves.
De regering neemt ook maatregelen om de importafhankelijke economie van India te beschermen tegen de gevolgen van de sterk gestegen olieprijzen. De prijzen van diesel en benzine zijn bijvoorbeeld niet veranderd. Ook heeft de regering extra voorraden veiliggesteld nadat de Verenigde Staten enkele importen van Russische olie toestonden.
Joy Machine is pleased to present Life Forms, a solo exhibition by Janny Baek, on view from March 20 to May 9, 2026.
How do we conceive of change? With fear, excitement, or uncertainty? As Janny Baek builds sculptural ceramics of speculative beings and imagined landscapes, she grapples with these questions. The work follows its own dream logic, one that accepts incongruity and dissonance as necessary to play and experimentation. Marbling hunks of colored clay, coiling bases, and molding a singular material into something new is part of an exploratory practice that embraces transformation and its often strange outcomes.
Detail of “Dream State” (2024)
Life Forms emerges from this dual meaning, invoking both the act of creation and the fantastical works it produces. Neither wholly abstract nor representational, Baek’s sculptures draw on natural structures and processes and invite us to question how we interpret the world around us. Recognizable forms like open blossoms, birds, and creatures are met with the unexpected. These lively components make even the more abstract works appear animate, like ambiguous organisms that might decide to scuttle away. They evoke something primordial and yet are exhilaratingly new.
Baek paints in the way she sketches, as a means of developing ideas and visualizing their potential. For her ceramics, she incorporates hand building alongside the Japanese pottery technique known as nerikomi, which involves splicing and designing patterns with strips of colored clay. “My material choices are a way of thinking about natural processes: color gradients as the continuous nature of change, a multitude of colors as potential, abundance, and vitality, and patterns as signals and communications,” she says.
Hovering between worlds, Baek’s work populates a speculative environment in which beings morph, mutate, and blossom, their individual features forming an otherworldly lineage that’s recognizable but not identical. While “temporarily and imperfectly captured in a moment of many possible transformations,” the works beckon us into a world in which change is not only inevitable but also the most alluring proposition.
“Future Blossoms” (2023), colored porcelain, 13 x 13 x 12 inches“Landscape” (2025), colored stoneware with glazed interior, 15 x 8 x 8 inchesDetail of “Dream State” (2024)“Dream State 2” (2025), stoneware, colored slip, porcelain, and glaze, 21 x 17 x 16 inchesDetail of “Landscape” (2025)“Plant Life” (2025), stoneware, colored stoneware, and glaze, 21.5 x 15 x 15 inchesDetail of “Plant Life” (2025)
