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President Donald Trump said on Friday afternoon that he had fired Kim Sajet, director of Washington, D.C.’s National Portrait Gallery. It is now unclear who will lead the museum, one of many run by the Smithsonian Institution, a museum network Trump has targeted since returning the presidency in January. “Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform owned by the Trump Media & Technology Group. “She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. Her replacement will be named shortly.” Sajet has led the National Portrait Gallery since 2013. Prior to that role, she had served as director and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and as deputy director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Right now, the museum has an exhibition called “America’s Pre...

A art museum has removed an artwork composed of New Zealand’s national flag printed with a message that invited viewers to walk on it. The artwork, a new version of a 1995 piece titled Flagging the Future , was on view in a solo show for artist Diane Prince (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Whatua and Ngāti Kahu) at the Suter Art Gallery in Nelson. The show was organized by the Pātaka Art + Museum in Porirua City, which experienced no such controversy for exhibiting the work last year. In addition to a flag printed with the words “PLEASE WALK ON ME,” the piece also includes an assortment of found objects. The 1995 version included korari, a form of flax that is common New Zealand, and harakeke flowers, which Māori communities have woven to form mats, clothes, and baskets. This week, the Prince piece gained negative attention in the New Zealand media when Ruth Tipu, a Nelson resident, said she would pick the flag up off the ground every day in protest of the work. “When they come into the gallery ...

Aaradhna, wearing a Zambesi dress, on the red carpet at the 2025 Aotearoa Music Awards in Auckland.Photo credit:RNZ / Marika Khabazi. For the second year running, award winning musician Aaradhna won the Best Soul/RnB artist for her 2024 album Sweet Surrender. The record saw Aaradhna take full creative control, as both songwriter and producer. Aaradhna was among the big names who gathered in Auckland at the Viaduct last night for the star studded awards.  Recorded Music New Zealand CEO Jo Oliver says, “Congratulations to all the winners of the 2025 Aotearoa Music Awards. These outstanding artists illustrate the breadth and depth of musical talent we have here in Aotearoa, and the impact our artists and music are having at home and beyond. “It has been a privilege this year to mark an incredible 60 years of the Music Awards in Aotearoa, and 50 years of the Official Music Charts. Produced by Recorded Music NZ, the Awards and the Charts reflect our rich musical heritage and inspi...

By Kevin McCarthy  You can read any number of analyses of what the eight still viable teams need to make the Super Rugby Pacific top six, or improve their standing for those five already locked in. It makes for one of those ideal scenarios for the last weekend where all but two of the sides...

James Rondeau will return as director of the Art Institute of Chicago following reports that he had undressed on a plane to Germany. CBS News first reported the news on Thursday. Rondeau had taken a voluntary leave from the museum’s top post, which he has held since 2016. According to CBS , he will resume his role on Monday. “Board leadership of the Art Institute of Chicago has conducted an independent investigation of this incident and is confident in James Rondeau’s leadership and ability to continue as the President and Director of the museum,” the institution said in a statement. CBS previously reported that the investigation arose from an incident that occurred on a plane from Chicago to Munich in April. It said that police had been “called to the plane following reports of a passenger stripping off his clothes.” The passenger was reportedly Rondeau, who “drank alcohol and took prescription medication.” In a statement of his own, Rondeau said, “I deeply regret this incident...

Harvard University has released ownership of what scholars consider the earliest surviving photographs of enslaved African Americans, settling an eight-year dispute with a lone descendant of the subjects captured in the images. Under a confidential settlement announced on Wednesday, the Cambridge, Massachusetts school said it will transfer fifteen daguerreotypes dated around 1850, long kept in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, to the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, The Charleston museum plans to display the early copper-plate produced images in cooperation with Tamara Lanier, the woman behind the legal dispute. In legal filings, Lanier has claimed the images depict her great-great-great-grandfather, Renty, and his daughter, Delia and that independent research confirms her genealogical links to them. The dispute began in 2019 when Lanier sued Harvard, arguing the university had no legal claim to images she describes as “dehumanizin...

John Utanga | Senior Journalist The Auckland investiture ceremonies for those recognised in the 2025 New Years Honours list took place last week. Among those to receive their awards from Governor General Dame Cindy Kiro were a husband and wife pair from Central Auckland, a suicide prevention advocate from South Auckland and a stalwart of the Otara, Cook Islands community.

This week’s Club Rugby Performer of the Week is Petone openside flanker Braith Ingram, who had a busy match for his side against Old Boys University on Saturday in their Mark Verhoeven Trophy and Billy Brien Challenge defence win on Saturday. Ingram scored three tries and was the unofficial Player of the Match in Petone’s...

The Hurricanes edged the Reds in their Super Rugby fixture at Brisbane on Saturday night. Facts and figures from the game by Hurricanes statistics managing director Peter Marriott.  Round 15 v Reds: Won 31-27  The Hurricanes and the Reds have now played 27 matches together: the Hurricanes have won 21 and the Reds just six....

Neueli Mauafu | Reporter “Mental health means a lot to me – I’ve experienced its impact firsthand when it goes untreated. I’m grateful for my faith, which keeps me grounded and is a core value I share to support others facing similar struggles” Caleb Fatialofa (CAYZA) For a lot of music artists, their love for music resonates deeper than just their tunes or lyrics. With every song and word they piece together, they weave together a story that is spoken truly from themselves.  This is the case for Maraenui based artist Caleb Fatialofa. Born and raised in a Samoan cultural upbringing, Cayza as he is known through his artist name was involved around music right from an early age. “Being raised in a musically gifted family and in church, I knew music was going to be a passion of mine for life. Though I had other interests during my journey, I found that I always found my way back to music” Fatialofa said. “It all started as a bit of fun – freestyling with my mates – and th...

The Upper Hutt Rams Premiers beat Northern United 36-19 in their Premier Swindale Shield fixture at Porirua Park on Saturday, for the Terry Farrow Memorial Cup. The match was played in bright sunshine at Jerry Collins Stadium, with the Rams having advantage of the little wind on offer in the first half and racing to...

A lighter weekend of rugby across the board coming up, owing to the upcoming King’s Birthday break. The only club grades in play this weekend are Premier Men and Women and Premier 2 Men. There is one Colts game, that between HOBM and Norths that was originally defaulted by North last Saturday and there is...

The lobby of the Whitney Museum in New York became the site of a protest by arts and culture workers on Friday (May 23) following the institution’s recent cancellation of a pro-Palestine performance. The protest, which was announced on Instagram by the group Writers Against the War on Gaza, began around 8 p.m. during the Whitney’s “Free Friday Night” event, which offers a pay-what you-wish admission between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. From the mezzanine level, protestors quietly unfurled a Palestinian flag and a banner reading “Creativity Does Not Have to Rely on Death.” On the ground floor, activists distributed brochures with text printed in the Whitney’s house font that demanded “the removal of board members tied to genocide, militarism and apartheid,” as well as an end to “institutional artwashing, censorship, surveillance and policing of artists.” Museum security briefly barred entry to the museum and its galleries. Meanwhile, activists formed a circle in the lobby and called out Wh...

Soana Aholelei | Reporter / Director Spark Arena was host to the sound of Pasifika songs from the past at the Mana Moana showcase recently. Mana Moana is the fusion of the NZSO, the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra and the Signature Choir led by music directors Helen and Jadrah Tupai. “Makes me feel excited because those two things are quite distinct, you know, Pasifika music. You associate it (with) the world opposite to the kind of orchestra music, but they share a lot of similarities,” Jadrah says.  “Theres storytelling, there’s emotional drive and there’s all those things that kind of, that bring emotion to life.   “It’s it’s really cool that we get to to sing our music, be supported by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and bring it to thousands of people at Spark Arena, The concert was held earlier this month and is the second  for Mana Moana.   The choir was made up of around 80 participants from Auckland and Wellington, the majorit...

Sebastiao Salgado, a photographer whose memorable images of worker exploitation, environmental destruction, and human rights abuses gained him widespread acclaim, has died at 81. His death was announced on Friday by Instituto Terra, the organization he cofounded with his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado. The New York Times reported that he had health issues since contracting malaria in the 1990s. Salgado was considered one of the most beloved photographers working today. His lush black-and-white pictures were taken in seemingly every corner of the world, from the Sahel desert to the Amazonian rainforest to the farthest reaches of the Arctic. In bringing his camera to places many hear about but rarely see, Salgado provided the world with irrefutable glimpses of all the horrors man had unleashed upon the earth. He worked within a lengthy tradition of documentary photography, using his images to tell the truth about the sights he observed. But whereas many documentary photographers and phot...

Selina Camillo at her school prizegiving last year, surrounded by the family she proudly calls her ‘why’. Photo: Supplied Local Democracy Reporting | Free Public Interest News Service By Mary Afemata of Local Democracy Reporting Māngere teen Selina Camillo, 18, migrated from Fiji to Māngere just a few years ago, but she’s already making academic waves as she works towards becoming a heart surgeon. Since setting foot in Aotearoa for the first time in December 2022, Camillo has topped her class, served as head girl at Southern Cross Campus, and is now studying at the University of Auckland – the first of her family to do so. Studying a Bachelor of Biomedical Science, she is one of only 16 students awarded a Milford Foundation Scholarship this year, which provides up to $10,000 annually. She also received a University of Auckland Top Achiever Scholarship. The funding has helped ease the cost pressure of studying, as she didn’t want to be a financial burden for her parents, ...

The Mediterranean Alliance for Wetlands launched a campaign to protect the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve from an extension of the Guggenheim Museum, which has been trying to expand its Bilbao outpost. “A planned extension of the Guggenheim Museum into the Special Area of Conservation of the Biosphere Reserve risks undermining biodiversity, water quality, and the integrity of conservation frameworks,” a social media post explains of the situation as “77 organisations warn UNESCO, Ramsar Secretariat and the Spanish government about the irreversible consequences of this expansion on biodiversity and water resources.” Linked to the post is a petition that has been signed by some 2,400 people and counting as of the time of this post. “It is a project that has been imposed from outside, that does not respond to the needs of the inhabitants of the area and is intended to benefit only a few people. Nor is it related to the conservation, social and economic objectives of the reserve...

On Sunday, following his first Sunday mass as leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who marked the occasion with a gift: An image of the Madonna and child painted on a wood panel from an artillery crate used on the frontlines of its war against Russia.   “For many peoples, the image of a mother with a child is a symbol of life that must be protected. Today, we presented Pope Leo XIV with a special icon— The Mother of God with the Infant , painted on a fragment of a box from heavy artillery weapons,” Zelensky wrote on  Telegram . “It is about our children. About those who suffered from the war, whom Russia deliberately kidnapped and deported, and whom they are very much waiting for at home, in Ukraine.” Three years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the two nations appear no closer to a ceasefire. This week, following a phone call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladmir Putin, Trump announced ...

Jean Siméon Chardin’s 1760 painting The Cut Melon is officially headed to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, after a failed attempt to win it at auction. Last June, the Chardin painting set a new record for the artist when it sold for $30.3 million at Christie’s France to then-unknown Italian real estate investor Nanni Bassani Antivari. At the time, it seemed like a disappointing miss for the Kimbell Art Museum, who was the underbidder on the work. In 2022, the museum had tried and failed to acquire Chardin’s Basket of Wild Strawberries (1761), after France declared the work a national treasure, allowing the Louvre to step in to purchase the work for its collection. But then, this past December, the Art Newspaper revealed that not only had Antivari not paid for The Cut Melon , but that Christie’s was suing him for non-payment. While that case has not yet been settled, the future of The Cut Melon has. On Wednesday, the Kimbell announced that it had acquired the work...

The Canadian Coast Guard’s Inshore Rescue Boat (IRB) stations in Atlantic Canada and British Columbia opened recently. Inshore Rescue Boat stations, staffed by post-secondary students trained by the Canadian Coast Guard, enhance search and rescue during the busy summer boating season. The stations, which will remain open until early September, are in: ATLANTIC CANADA Prince Edward Island Charlottetown Nova Scotia Halifax Mahone Bay Pictou New Brunswick Saint John Shediac Newfoundland and Labrador Conception Bay (in Conception Bay South) Bonavista Bay (in Terra Nova National Park) Notre Dame Bay (in Lewisporte) BRITISH COLUMBIA Cortes Island Malcolm Island Nootka Sound Kelsey Bay   Waterways remain very cold at this time of year.  Transport Canada’s Safe Boating Guide  provides information for the recreational boating season. On water emergencies can be reported 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, t...

The Getty will reopen the Getty Villa on June 27 with a large exhibit on art and artifacts from the Late Bronze Age in Greece, per an announcement from the institution. The Villa closed on January 7 due to the threat of the Palisades Fire , which burned the grounds, destroyed 23,448 acres as well as consumed the homes of many artists and art professionals . On January 7, 17 members of the Getty’s facilities, grounds, and security staff volunteered to stay on site to protect the museum. They sealed the villa’s galleries and put out small fires. The Getty said targeted water drops and firefighting efforts from Los Angeles Fire Department Staff in surrounding neighborhoods helped spare the institution. During the months of the Getty Villa’s closure, the institution’s facilities and grounds teams “coordinated an extensive cleanup” which included deep cleaning of indoor and outdoor spaces as well as the removal of more than 1,300 fire-damaged trees from the property. “It is with the u...

Wellington’s ‘Ace of Matchwinners’. There have been many outstanding wings to have played for Wellington, and in recent years the Hurricanes, but it would be a hard-pressed decision to dislodge Ron Jarden from a fictious all-time playing XV. At the least, Jarden would be amongst the first selections in an ‘Excitement XV’, such was his...

John Pulu | Presenter/ Reporter/Director A youth leadership conference for young Pacific People was held in French Polynesia earlier this year. Focusing on ocean prosperity, security and sustainability, it was part of the ‘Young Pacific Leaders programme’ which is funded by the US State Department. Addressing the conference, French Polynesia President Moetai Brotherson was delighted to welcome the 44 delegates from 22 nations. “Being associated with young people from all over Oceania exchanging views, exchanging ideas, cultures and realising that we have so much in common,” he says.  “When I speak to those young people they have this epiphany when they realise that they are part of the same ensemble that is what unites us, this Pacific ocean, Moana Nui a Kiva.”  The participants are from all corners of the blue continent where many face similar threats to their oceans and livelihood.  French Polynesia delegate Ihirau Piton was stoked to meet and connect...

The net worth of Top 200 collector, businessman and art patron Leonard Blavatnik has fallen by more than £3.5 billion ($470 billion) in the last year, according to the latest edition of the Sunday Times ’s “Rich List.” The annual ranking of the wealthiest people based in the UK showed Blavatnik’s net worth fell to £25.725 billion ($34.4 billion) last year, causing his ranking to fall one spot to #3. The Ukrainian businessman made his money from early investments in aluminum and energy companies as they were being privatized during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Blavatnik’s wealth also comes from the sale of his stake in a Russian oil company, TNK-BP, for $7 billion , as well as the purchase of Warner Music for $3.3 billion in 2011. In 2017, Blavatnik donated £50 million to the Tate Modern for its new extension, which was renamed the Blavatnik Building. The patron also donated £10 million through his family foundation to the Courtauld Institute of Art in London for its galler...

The Marist St Pat’s Premiers beat Wainuiomata 22-20 in their Premier Swindale Shield fixture at William Jones Park on Saturday, for the Rona-Morrissey Cup. This was a tight and gritty fixture in blustery conditions. There was no scoring until after 25 minutes when the home side kicked a penalty. After 90 seconds of phase play,...

Above: Joyner Gaualofa scores for Tawa against HOBM on Saturday. There have now been over 200 individual try-scorers in Wellington Premier club rugby this year. Photo: Stewart Baird. We have breezed through the halfway stage of the first round Swindale Shield competition. Round 8 games this coming Saturday at a glance are: Wellington v Johnsonville...

Halfback Cam Roigard scores for the Hurricanes on fulltime against the Highlanders in their last-gasp win over them in Wellington in May 2025. Recapping some of the memorable late wins or wins after the hooter by the Hurricanes throughout the history of Super Rugby. This article was first published in 2018 and has been updated. ...

The last three years have been a period of profound sadness for Teresa Iarocci Mavica, the former director of the Moscow-based V-A-C Foundation, which she co-founded in 2009 with Leonid Mikhelson. He’s one of Russia’s richest men and a close ally of Vladimir Putin. At V-A-C, Mavica was responsible for building the GES-2 House of Culture, Russia’s biggest contemporary art museum, of which she was also director. In November 2021, however, just one month before it opened, Mavica resigned, citing “exhaustion.” Then, three months later, just as Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Italian curator left her adopted home and returned to Italy. For 30 years, Mavica worked to build deep cultural ties between Russia and Europe. All that work unraveled in a heartbeat, as the world quickly distanced itself from anything Russian in the wake of the invasion. As she told ARTnews in a recent interview, her first since disappearing from the art world, she was devastated. “The div...

A Magna Carta classified by Harvard as an unofficial copy for almost 80 years has been declared as an original issued by Edward I from 1300, the university has announced. The discovery means that there are now seven surviving copies of the first document to effectively establish that no English monarch was above the law.   According to the Guardian , the discovery was made by David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King’s College London, who examined the 1327 document via the Harvard law school online library. “I was trawling through all these online statute books trying to find unofficial copies of the Magna Carta,” he said, adding that he “immediately thought: my god this looks for all the world like an original of Edward I’s confirmation of Magna Carta in 1300, though of course appearances are deceptive.” Together with Nicholas Vincent, a professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia, Carpenter tested the document for authenticity using, among oth...

Irving Shipbuilding awarded Newfoundland-based engineering firm Score a $89 million contract to support construction of Canada’s future River-class destroyer (RCD) fleet. The Royal Canadian Navy’s newest fleet of RCD ships will become the core of Canada’s naval combat forces replacing the current Halifax-class frigates. Construction was ramped up to full production in April with these vessels featuring cutting-edge technology designed to support and protect sailors as they carry out their missions. As the largest and most intricate shipbuilding initiative in Canada, the RCD program is expected to rejuvenate the navy’s operational strength while simultaneously revitalizing the domestic shipbuilding sector. In March 2025, Irving Shipbuilding secured a contract from the Government of Canada to construct the first three destroyers for the Royal Canadian Navy. The contract with Score includes supplying all the valves for the first three RCD ships, a critical component in the vessels’ pi...