US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says she is visiting Beijing "with the spirit of being practical and finding concrete opportunities" to advance mutual interests at her Monday meeting with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.

Ariana Grande and Dalton Gomez settle payments after filing divorce on September 18

A second-hand deader in France is facing a lawsuit for allegedly deceiving a couple by selling an African mask at almost a 2,800,000 per cent markup. An unnamed pensioner couple, who live in Eure-et-Loir, south-west of Paris, sold the rare mask to the dealer at €150 (£130) who further sold it at €4.2m (£3.7m). As the case brought by the French couple opened on Tuesday, the dealer appeared in court. But the Gabon government and campaigners have said that the rare artefact should instead be returned to its country of origin. The rare 19th-Century "Ngi" mask which was made by the Fang people of Gabon was lying in dust in the attic of the couple’s holiday home in Gard, southern France. The couple had called the dealer as they had decided to sell their home. The wooden mask was found in a cupboard in the house that belonged to the man’s grandfather, René-Victor Fournier, who had been a colonial administrator in Africa in the early 20th Century. The dealer bought several items from the couple, including the wooden mask. It was six months later that the couple while reading a newspaper found out that the mask had been in action in Montpellier and that it was an artefact even rarer than Leonardo da Vinci’s painting. The couple said they had “almost fallen off their chairs” when they recognised the photo and the auction catalogue said it was collected around 1917, in unknown circumstances by the French colonial governor René-Victor Edward Maurice Fournier (1873-1931), probably during a tour in Gabon”. The discovery prompted excitement among art dealers and media, with one expert telling a French TV that only 10 such items were made by Fang masters. “This type of mask is even rarer than a Leonardo da Vinci painting – we know of 22 paintings by the great master, but we only know of 10 to 12 masks created by the different Fang masters in Gabon,” the expert said. At an auction in March 2022, the mask was bought for £3.7m by an unnamed person bidding by phone after being initially valued at £2,60,860. The couple later filed a civil suit against the dealer for giving them an unfair price and demanded the sale be annulled. During the hearing in an Ales court, the lawyers for the couple contended that the couple should receive the profits from action fairly after they unknowingly sold it at £130. “One has to be in good faith and honest; my clients would never have given up this mask at that price if they knew it was an extremely rare object,” their lawyer, Frédéric Mansat Jaffré, said this month to French outlets. Representatives of the Gabon government however said that the mask was stolen in the first place and should be returned. Solange Bizeau of the Collectif Gabon Occitanie said: “That mask was stolen at the time of colonisation … All these works of art – and so many that we see in museums – were taken, and the people who made them were told they were the devil’s work and they should instead believe in the Bible. And from that point on, these artefacts have appeared in Europe, enriching people who have made money from them for decades.” “This mask has a soul, it was used to establish justice in our villages. The discussion in court has been about morality, but what about the morality of the spoliation of works of art and our dignity? Where is the morality in that?” A decision by the court is expected in December. Read More US removes four African countries from trade deal for ‘gross human rights violation’ UN Security Council fails again to address Israel-Hamas war, rejecting US and Russian resolutions Kyiv preparing for ‘new wave’ of attacks on Avdiivka’ - latest Kyiv preparing for ‘new wave’ of attacks on Avdiivka’ - latest Nato chief says Russia must not be allowed ‘to take pieces of Ukraine’ Family of nine shot dead as they slept in Russian-occupied Ukrainian town

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What the papers say Arsenal’s Thomas Partey reportedly wants out of the Premier League club with Italian giants Juventus considering tabling an offer in the January transfer window, the Daily Mail reports. The 30-year-old has played 85 games for Arsenal since his arrival in 2020. Chelsea and Manchester United are interested in Inter Milan defender Denzel Dumfries but – according to the Daily Mail via Italian newspaper CalcioMercato – the club has slapped a £43million asking price on the 27-year-old Netherlands international. Social media round-up Players to watch Lloyd Kelly: The 25-year-old Bournemouth defender has attracted interest from Tottenham, Liverpool, Newcastle and AC Milan, but his club will reportedly turn down any approaches for him, Teamtalk reports. Andre: Liverpool, Arsenal and Fulham have sent representatives to watch the 22-year-old Fluminense midfielder in the Copa Libertadores final. The Brazilian reportedly has an agreement to leave the South American champions in January for around £30million, Portuguese outlet Globo Esporte says. Read More On this day in 2004: Jason Robinson named as England’s first black captain John Stones blow dampens Manchester City joy at Champions League progress Eddie Howe knows Newcastle need two wins to keep Champions League hopes alive

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Donald Trump and 16 other co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case will be tried separately from lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, the judge in the case has ruled. “Defendants Chesebro and Powell will join each other at trial, however, the other 17 defendants are severed from these two. Additional severances may follow. All pretrial deadlines will proceed as scheduled without a stay of proceedings,” Judge Scott McAfee at the Superior Court of Fulton County wrote in a ruling issued on Thursday. The trial for Mr Chesebro and Ms Powell is set to go ahead on 23 October. The move comes after Mr Chesebro and Ms Powell invoked their right to a speedy trial, the judge noted. Their motions to severance their cases from each other were denied but the court found that “severing the remaining 17 co-defendants is simply a procedural and logistical inevitability,” leading to the motions to sever from Mr Chesebro and Ms Powell being “granted in part”. The judge wrote that joint trials are “generally favoured” because they “promote judicial efficiency and prevent inconsistent verdicts”. He added that any defendant who doesn’t waive their right to a speedy trial before 23 October, as Mr Trump has, will “immediately” be added to that trial. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis attempted to get all 19 defendants in the case, including the former president, to be tried together, citing the “enormous strain on the judicial resources” separate trials would create. But Judge McAfee wrote in his order that “the precarious ability of the Court to safeguard each defendant’s due process rights and preparation ensure adequate pretrial preparation on the current accelerated track weights heavily, if not decisively, in favor of severance”. More follows...