Woland

From Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi to Andy Warhol’s Four Marilyns, it amounts to an art collection that could grace any gallery in the world.

But rather than being the highlights of a blockbuster exhibition at a major gallery, these are just some of the 300, and counting, pieces known to have been recently owned by Russian nationals under western sanctions that have been entered into a searchable database set up by Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP).

The agency’s “war and sanctions portal” lists paintings and sculptures thought to have been bought and sold in recent years by the Russian super-rich accused by the west and Kyiv of aiding and abetting Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The purpose of the tool, the agency said, was to “make it easier for virtuous art market participants to carry out sanctions checks and make it difficult for Russian oligarchs to sell such assets”.

Western economic sanctions imposed on hundreds of Russian individuals are designed to restrict the ability of those who are profiting from or fuelling the war to move their fortunes around the world.

Artworks can be relatively easily sold across national borders without alerting the authorities, with the subjective nature of the value allowing prices to be easily inflated or deflated.

The pink wave has yet to crest, the 'Barbie' movie has sold more than a billion dollars worth of tickets at the global box office, after just 17 days on general release. The milestone makes Greta Gerwig the first woman to reach the such heights as a solo director.

About 2,000 people participated in the events last weekend, which included a swim off Sunderland’s blue flag Roker beach. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it would be testing samples from those who were ill to establish the cause of the illness and any common pathogens.

An Environment Agency sampling at Roker beach on Wednesday 26 July, three days before the event, showed 3,900 E Coli colonies per 100ml, more than 39 times higher than typical readings the previous month. E coli is a bacterial infection that can cause stomach pain and bloody diarrhoea.

But British Triathlon, the governing body for triathlons in Great Britain, said the agency’s sampling results were not published until after the weekend’s events and were outside the body of the water where its competitions took place. It said its own testing results passed the required standards for the event.

The event was on a stretch of coastline that has been at the centre of a long-running battle over sewage discharges between campaigners and the government concerning regulatory failures.

Tennessee Republican David Hooven has vowed not to be alone with "a member of another sex" if elected to the state's House of Representatives, as "from Presidents to janitors all are tempted." Hooven made the pledge on his official campaign website, where he said that if elected "my primary focus will be to honor God."

A winter heat wave bringing historically high temperatures to Chile is a "window" to an increasingly warm future, according to scientists.

Globally, July was already the hottest month on record and the first days of August brought a heat wave to parts of northern and central Chile, bringing springlike weather to the capital in the dead of the Southern Hemisphere winter.

For some women in China, "Barbie" is more than just a movie — it's also a litmus test for their partner's views on feminism and patriarchy.

The movie has prompted intense social media discussion online, media outlets Sixth Tone and the China Project reported this week, prompting women to discuss their own dating experiences.

One user on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu — a photo-sharing site similar to Instagram that's mostly used by Gen Z women — even shared a guide on Monday for how women can test their boyfriends based on their reaction to the film.

According to the guide, if a man shows hatred for "Barbie" and slams female directors after they leave the theatre, then this man is "stingy" and a "toxic chauvinist," according to Insider's translation of the post. Conversely, if a man understands even half of the movie's themes, "then he is likely a normal guy with normal values and stable emotions," the user wrote.

For some women in China, "Barbie" is more than just a movie — it's also a litmus test for their partner's views on feminism and patriarchy.

The movie has prompted intense social media discussion online, media outlets Sixth Tone and the China Project reported this week, prompting women to discuss their own dating experiences.

One user on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu — a photo-sharing site similar to Instagram that's mostly used by Gen Z women — even shared a guide on Monday for how women can test their boyfriends based on their reaction to the film.

According to the guide, if a man shows hatred for "Barbie" and slams female directors after they leave the theatre, then this man is "stingy" and a "toxic chauvinist," according to Insider's translation of the post. Conversely, if a man understands even half of the movie's themes, "then he is likely a normal guy with normal values and stable emotions," the user wrote.

The Voyager mission team at NASA has been able to detect a signal from Voyager 2 after losing contact with the spacecraft, which has been operating for nearly 46 years.

“We enlisted the help of the (Deep Space Network) and Radio Science groups to help to see if we could hear a signal from Voyager 2,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “This was successful in that we see the ‘heartbeat’ signal from the spacecraft. So, we know the spacecraft is alive and operating. This buoyed our spirits.”

NASA’s Voyager 2 has lost communication with Earth due to an unintentional shift in its antenna direction. The next programmed orientation adjustment on October 15 is expected to restore communication, while Voyager 1 continues to operate as usual.

A series of scheduled commands directed at NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft on July 21 led to an unintentional change in antenna direction. Consequently, the antenna moved 2 degrees off course from Earth, causing the spacecraft to lose its ability to receive commands or transmit data back to our planet.

France will "very soon" start to evacuate its nationals from Niger, where a coup last week has unleashed protests against the former colonial power, the French embassy in Niamey said Tuesday. Earlier, junta-led Burkina Faso and Mali warned that any military intervention in Niger to restore deposed President Mohamed Bazoum would be considered a "declaration of war" against their two countries.