SEOUL: The head of a hugely popular North Korean girl band crossed the heavily fortified border into South Korea on Sunday to check preparations for rare performances by an art troupe she also leads during next month’s Winter Olympics.
Appearing live on South Korean television, Hyon Song Wol didn’t speak when she walked past a crowd of reporters, onlookers and a barrage of camera flashes before boarding an express train at Seoul’s railway station for the eastern city of Gangneung, where her art troupe is to perform during the Pyeongchang Olympics.
She is the leader of Pyongyang’s all-female Moranbong Band, which was hand-picked by leader Kim Jong Un. She’s been the subject of intense South Korean media attention since she attended last week’s talks at the border that struck an agreement on the 140-memer Samjiyon art troupe’s two performances — one in Seoul and the other in Gangneung, where some of the games will take place. After the talks, North Korea said Hyon would also lead the Samjiyon art troupe, whose performances would be the first by a North Korean group in South Korea since 2002.
With no official media access given to Hyon, TV stations broadcast live footage of her bus moving on Seoul’s roads before arriving at the railway station, where hundreds of police officers were mobilized to maintain order. Photos showed a smiling Hyon shaking heads with a South Korean official upon arrival at the border. Later Sunday, wearing a dark winter coat and fur scarf and with half her hair tied to the back, she looked more serious with an expressionless face.
Hyon’s arrival came hours after the International Olympic Committee allowed 22 North Korean athletes to take part in the Olympics in exceptional entries given to the North. Among the 22 are 12 women who will join South Korea’s female hockey team in the Koreas’ first-ever unified Olympic team. The other sports events the North Koreans will compete in are figure skating, short track speed skating, Alpine skiing and cross-country skiing.
The 22 North Korean athletes will march together with South Korean players under a single “unification flag” depicting their peninsula during the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang. “Such an agreement would have seemed impossible only a few weeks ago,” IOC chief Thomas Bach said in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The current mood of reconciliation between the Koreas flared after Kim abruptly expressed his willingness to improve ties and send a delegation to the Olympics during his annual New Year’s address. Outside critics dismissed Kim’s overture as a tactic to use improved ties with Seoul to weaken US-led international sanctions over North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile programs.
Hyon, who is also an alternate member of the ruling party’s Central Committee, is traveling with six other North Koreans. Her delegation had been expected in South Korea on Saturday, but North Korea canceled that plan on Friday night before it proposed a two-day trip starting Sunday. It wasn’t clear why the visit was rescheduled.
Hyon’s advance team is to inspect a venue for her art troupe’s performance in Gangnenug later Sunday. The team is expected to stay overnight at Gangneung before returning to Seoul to check another venue in the capital on Monday, according to Yonhap news agency.
The Samjiyon art troupe, which comprises orchestra members, singers and dancers, is part of North Korea’s Olympic delegation that also includes athletes, officials, journalists and a taekwondo demonstration team.
North Korea on Sunday offered to send another advance team across the border on Thursday to look at accommodation facilities, a press center and the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry. South Korea is to send its own advance team to North Korea on Tuesday to review logistics for a joint cultural event at the North’s Diamond Mountain and their non-Olympic skiers’ joint practices at the North’s Masik ski resort, the ministry said.
Hyon was a popular singer before she was appointed to lead the Moranbong Band, which serves as the “soft” public face of the Kim government. Its members in short skirts and high heels or stylish military uniforms sing and dance odes to Kim. There is speculation that some of the Moranbong members may also appear in the Samjiyon art troupe, which observers say was likely hastily formed ahead of Olympics-related talks with South Korea.
Under a deal with South Korea, the Samjiyon group is to play folk songs and classic masterpieces that are well-known to both Koreas and fit in with the theme of unification. An attempt by the group to perform any propaganda piece would trigger protests from conservatives in South Korea. The Moranbong Band canceled its planned 2015 performance in Beijing at the last minutes after Beijing wanted to replace a missile launch scene from the background of the stage, according to South Korea media.
Hugely popular pop star leads North Korean team to South Korea
Hugely popular pop star leads North Korean team to South Korea

Netherlands returns 119 looted artifacts known as Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria: The Netherlands on Thursday returned 119 artifacts looted from Nigeria, including human and animal figures, plaques, royal regalia and a bell.
The artifacts, known as the Benin Bronzes and mostly housed in a museum in the city of Leiden, were looted in the late 19th century by British soldiers.
In recent years, museums across Europe and North America have moved to address ownership disputes over artifacts looted during the colonial era. They were returned at the request of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments.
During the handover ceremony in Edo State, Oba Ewuare II, the monarch and custodian of Benin culture, described the return of the artifacts as a “divine intervention.” The Benin Bronzes were returned at the request of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments.
The restitution is a testament to the power of prayer and determination, the monarch said.
The Dutch government is committed to returning artifacts that do not belong to the country, said Marieke Van Bommel, director of the Wereld Museum.
Olugbile Holloway, the commission’s director, said the return of 119 artifacts marks the largest single repatriation to date and that his organization is working hard to recover more items looted during colonial times.
Nigeria formally requested the return of hundreds of objects from museums around the world in 2022. Some 72 objects were returned from a London museum that year while 31 were returned from a museum in Rhode Island.
The Benin Bronzes were stolen in 1897 when British forces under the command of Sir Henry Rawson sacked the Benin kingdom and forced Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, the monarch at the time, into a six-month exile. Benin is located in modern-day southern Nigeria.
Napoleon’s iconic bicorne hat and personal treasures expected to fetch millions in Paris

PARIS: After Hollywood’s “Napoleon” exposed the legendary emperor to a new generation, over 100 relics — which shaped empires, broke hearts and spawned centuries of fascination — are on display in Paris ahead of what experts call one of the most important Napoleonic auctions ever staged.
His battered military hat. A sleeve from his red velvet coat. Even the divorce papers that ended one of history’s most tormented romances — with Josephine, the empress who haunted him to the end.
Two centuries after his downfall, Napoleon remains both revered and controversial in France — but above all, unavoidable. Polls have shown that many admire his vision and achievements, while others condemn his wars and authoritarian rule. Nearly all agree his legacy still shapes the nation.
“These are not just museum pieces. They’re fragments of a life that changed history,” said Louis-Xavier Joseph, Sotheby’s head of European furniture, who helped assemble the trove. “You can literally hold a piece of Napoleon’s world in your hand.”
From battlefields to boudoirs
The auction — aiming to make in excess of 7 million euros — is a biography in objects. The centerpiece is Napoleon’s iconic bicorne hat, the black felt chapeau he wore in battle — with wings parallel to his shoulders — so soldiers and enemies could spot him instantly through the gunpowder haze.
“Put a bicorne on a table, and people think of Napoleon immediately,” Joseph said. “It’s like the laurel crown of Julius Caesar.”
The hat is estimated to sell for at least over half a million dollars.
For all the pageantry — throne, swords, the Grand Eagle of the Legion of Honor — the auction’s true power comes from its intimacy. It includes the handwritten codicil of Napoleon’s final will, composed in paranoia and illness on Saint Helena.
There is the heartbreakingly personal: the red portfolio that once contained his divorce decree from Josephine, the religious marriage certificate that formalized their love and a dressing table designed for the empress. Her famed mirror reflects the ambition and tragedy of their alliance.
“Napoleon was a great lover; his letters that he wrote are full of fervor, of love, of passion,” Joseph said. “It was also a man who paid attention to his image. Maybe one of the first to be so careful of his image, both public and private.”
A new generation of exposure
The auction’s timing is cinematic. The 2023 biopic grossed over $220 million worldwide and reanimated Napoleon’s myth for a TikTok generation hungry for stories of ambition, downfall and doomed romance.
The auction preview is open to the public, running through June 24, with the auction set for June 25.
Not far from the Arc de Triomphe monument dedicated to the general’s victories, Djamal Oussedik, 22, shrugged: “Everyone grows up with Napoleon, for better or worse. Some people admire him, others blame him for everything. But to see his hat and his bed, you remember he was a real man, not just a legend.”
“You can’t escape him, even if you wanted to. He’s part of being French,” said teacher Laure Mallet, 51.
History as spectacle
The exhibition is a spectacle crafted by celebrity designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, famed for dressing Lady Gaga and Pope John Paul II.
“I wanted to electrify history,” Castelbajac said. “This isn’t a mausoleum, it’s a pop culture installation. Today’s collectors buy a Napoleon artifact the way they’d buy a guitar from Jimi Hendrix. They want a cabinet of curiosities.”
He’s filled the show with fog, hypnotic music and immersive rooms. One is inspired by the camouflage colors of Fontainebleau. Another is anchored by Napoleon’s legendary folding bed. “I create the fog in the entrance of the Sotheby’s building because the elements of nature were an accomplice to Napoleon’s strategy,” the designer said.
Castelbajac, who said his ancestor fought in Napoleon’s Russian campaign, brought a personal touch. “I covered the emperor’s bed in original canvas. You can feel he was just alone, facing all he had built. There’s a ghostly presence.”
He even created something Napoleon only dreamed of. “Napoleon always wanted a green flag instead of the blue, white, red tricolore of the revolution,” he said, smiling. “He never got one. So I made it for Sotheby’s.”
Trump shows off giant new flagpoles, boasts of them as ‘the largest you’ll ever see’

- At 27 meters tall, the flagpoles are nowhere close to the world’s tallest, including one from Jeddah
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump took time out Wednesday from deliberating on whether to bomb Iran to unveil two huge new flagpoles that he claimed are among the best in the world.
Trump, 79, saluted as a giant Stars and Stripes flag was raised on one of the 88-foot (27-meter) poles in a brief ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House.
The billionaire real estate tycoon, who built his career on brash displays of wealth, said he was personally paying for each of the $50,000 poles.
And he could not resist some nationalistic hyperbole about the size and quality of the new additions.
“This is about the largest you’ll ever see,” Trump told reporters. “These are the best poles anywhere in the country — in the world actually.”eeeeee
The poles are, however, 12 feet shorter than originally advertised by the White House, which said when it announced Trump’s plan in April that they would be 100 feet tall.
They are also nowhere close to the world's tallest flagpoles, including Saudi Arabia's (561-feet (171-meter) high Jeddah Flagpole, which was completed in September 2014, this was previously the world record holder for several years.
Trump also said the pole on the South Lawn — the famed expanse of grass with a vista that leads to the Jefferson Memorial — was “very far” from where Marine One lands, when asked if it could cause any issues for the helicopter.
WORLD'S TALLEST FLAGPOLES
1. Egypt's Cairo flagpole (New Administrative Capital, Cairo: 201.952 meters (662.57 feet) - completed in December 2021.
2. Azerbaijan's National Flag Square flagpole 2 (Baku, Azerbaijan): 191 meters (626.64 feet) unveiled in August 2024.
3. Saint Petersburg Flagpoles (Saint Petersburg, Russia): 175 meters (574 feet) - unveiled in June 2023.
4. Jeddah Flagpole (King Abdullah Square, Jeddah): 171 meters (561 feet) - completed in September 2014.
5. Dushanbe Flagpole (Dushanbe, Tajikistan): 165 meters (541 feet) - completed in May 2011. 6. Kijong-dong Flagpole (Kijong-dong, North Korea): 160 meters (525 feet) - Built in 1982, this flagpole held the record for the tallest for many years.
( Source: Google Gemini compilation)
The second flagpole was being installed on the North Lawn at the front of the White House.
The giant flags are the latest part of Trump’s sweeping makeover of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since he returned to power in January.
The Republican is paving over the famed Rose Garden and has blitzed the Oval Office with gaudy gold decorations. He also has plans to build a new ballroom.
For the flag-raising ceremony, Trump was accompanied by a group including Charles Kushner, the new US ambassador to France and father of Trump’s son-in-law.
Kushner, a real estate executive who spent time in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2004 to tax evasion, among other crimes, was pardoned by Trump in 2020, near the end of his first term.
Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka in 2009, served as the president’s adviser during his first term, notably on conflict in the Middle East. The Middle East overshadowed the debut of Trump’s new flagpoles, with the president facing a series of questions from reporters about whether the United States would join Israel’s airstrikes on Iran.
“I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump said when asked.
Review: Shawn Chidiac’s stand-up comedy shows London what ‘Laughing in Translation’ is

- Shawn Chidiac is one of the best up-and-coming Arab comedians with over 645,000 followers on Instagram
- His comedic qualities stem from his ability to perform personas and accents inspired by the people he interacts with in Dubai
LONDON: The stand-up comedian Shawn Chidiac’s first challenge upon arriving in London last week was getting used to looking right before crossing the road. However, when he finally did, he bumped into a cyclist who swore at him and sped off.
Chidiac, who is based in the UAE, swore back angrily at the cyclist, an act he would not do in Dubai but felt compelled to since he was on an island where 57 percent of people swear most days. He was in the UK to perform “Laughing in Translation,” his first solo stand-up comedy show since he became a full-time comedian and content creator in 2023.
With over 645,000 followers on his @myparents_are_divorced page on Instagram, he is one of the best up-and-coming Arab comedians. Chidiac’s parents are, indeed, divorced, and the audience at the nearly sold-out show at Shaw Theatre needed no reminder of this. Some of them were eager to share with him that their parents were also divorced.

In a previous conversation with Arab News, the comedian said he likes “connecting as many people as possible through (comedy stories about my) upbringing. Whoever has lived in the Gulf will have a similar story or narrative in their minds.”
Before delving into his childhood and adult life experiences in Dubai, he guided the audience through a brief inner journey, using the commanding, deep voice of an Indian yoga guru, asking them to close their eyes, take a deep breath, and exhale. The audience — mostly young people, some of whom were Arabs or had Arab roots — struggled to maintain a sense of calm.
One of Chidiac’s comedic qualities is his ability to perform personas and accents inspired by the people he interacts with or has witnessed throughout his life in the Gulf, which became a melting pot of nationalities, languages, religions, and cultures. He was born in Canada to a family originally from Lebanon, but they later moved to Dubai, where he was primarily raised by his mother.
He told the crowd that he went to the Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, expecting an English narrator dressed in a three-piece suit, similar to those he had seen in “Downton Abbey” and other historical TV dramas. Instead, he encountered a man from Punjab complaining about the increasing number of immigrants in the UK.

Thanks to the “Chinese DVD man” who roamed the neighborhoods of Dubai, Chidiac was able to keep up with the latest comedy shows and newly released films that his classmates were watching while he attended an expensive school where he was the poorest student. As he was known, the “Chinese DVD man” always had a secret compartment in his suitcase, which did not contain action, racing, or historical movies but another, unnamed genre that sold out quickly.
Chidiac told Arab News that such stories “(come from) the people I know and see, and the things I do, and my interaction with them. So, the more interaction I have, the better it is, which is hard because I’m a massive introvert.”
His interactions in Dubai span many nationalities and cultures. Whether in hospital, where he recently endured the ordeal of kidney stones and had to communicate with a Filipino nurse and an Egyptian doctor, or on a horse riding date with a British woman, which unexpectedly landed him in the sand. When the doctors presented him with options for removing the kidney stones, he chose the shockwave lithotripsy. “As an Arab, I chose the explosives,” he said.
Trump booed and cheered at the Kennedy Center while attending ‘Les Misérables’

WASHINGTON: A tuxedo-wearing President Donald Trump was booed and cheered as he took his seat for the opening night of “Les Misérables” at the Kennedy Center, bringing his own dose of political drama to the theatrical production that was unfolding onstage.
It was his first time attending a show there since becoming president, reflecting his focus on remaking the institution in his image while asserting more control over the country’s cultural landscape.
“We want to bring it back, and we want to bring it back better than ever,” Trump said while walking down the red carpet with first lady Melania Trump.
The Republican president has a particular affection for “Les Misérables,” the sprawling musical set in 19th-century France, and has occasionally played its songs at his events. One of them, “Do You Hear the People Sing?,” is a revolutionary rallying cry inspired by the 1832 rebellion against the French king.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom noted Trump’s attendance at the musical and posted on social media, “Someone explain the plot to him.” Newsom, a Democrat, has been feuding with Trump over the president’s decision to send National Guard troops to respond to protests in Los Angeles over his deportation policies.
Opening night had a MAGA-does-Broadway feel. Ric Grenell, the Trump-appointed interim leader of the Kennedy Center, stood nearby as the president spoke to reporters. Attorney General Pam Bondi chatted with other guests. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took selfies with attendees. Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, were also there.
There were more precautions than usual, given the guest list, and ticketholders had their bags searched after walking through magnetometers. Canned soda was on sale for $8, while a glass of wine cost $19.
Terry Gee, a bartender, bought his ticket for the show in November and didn’t mind Trump’s presence. It’s his sixth time seeing “Les Misérables,” and he said, “I’m going to enjoy the show regardless.”
Hannah Watkins, a nurse, only learned that Trump would be there when the Kennedy Center distributed information about extra security and she searched online to see what was happening.
“I’ve seen a lot of famous people so far, which is exciting,” said Watkins, who had claimed a spot near the VIP entrance with her mother. “Honestly, we just like ‘Les Mis’ and are excited to be here.”
However, when the lights went down and the show began, there were empty seats in the balconies and even in the orchestra section.
Before Trump, presidential involvement in the Kennedy Center’s affairs had been limited to naming members to the board of trustees and attending the taping of its annual honors program in the fall.
But after returning to office in January, Trump stunned the arts world by firing the Kennedy Center’s longtime director and board and replacing them with loyalists, who then named him as chairman. Trump promised to overhaul its programming, management and even appearance as part of an effort to put his stamp on the national arts scene.
His latest moves have upset some of the center’s patrons and performers.
In March, the audience booed the Vances after they slipped into upper-level seats to hear the National Symphony Orchestra. Trump appointed Usha Vance to the Kennedy Center board along with Bondi, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Fox News Channel hosts Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham, among other supporters.
Sales of subscription packages are said to have declined since Trump’s takeover, and several touring productions, including “Hamilton,” have canceled planned runs at the center. Actor Issa Rae and musician Rhiannon Giddens scrapped scheduled appearances, and Kennedy Center consultants including musician Ben Folds and singer Renée Fleming resigned.
Understudies may have performed in some roles Wednesday night because of boycotts by “Les Misérables” cast members, but Trump said he wasn’t bothered by anyone skipping the performance.
“I couldn’t care less,” he said.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has adopted a more aggressive posture toward the arts. The White House has taken steps to cancel millions of dollars in previously awarded federal humanities grants to arts and culture groups, and Trump’s budget blueprint proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Trump has also targeted Smithsonian museums by signing executive orders to restrict their funding and by attempting to fire the director of the National Portrait Gallery.
Trump characterized previous programming at the Kennedy Center as “out of control with rampant political propaganda” and said it featured “some very inappropriate shows,” including a “Marxist anti-police performance” and “lesbian-only Shakespeare.”
The Kennedy Center, which is supported by government money and private donations, opened in 1971 and for decades has been seen as an apolitical celebration of the arts.
It was first conceived in the late 1950s during the administration of Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, who backed a bill from the Democratic-led Congress calling for a National Culture Center. In the early 1960s, Democratic President John F. Kennedy launched a fundraising initiative, and his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed into law a 1964 bill renaming the project the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Kennedy had been assassinated the year before.