AFP

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Untitled” 1982 sold for $85 million at auction in New York Wednesday, well above its pre-sale estimate and netting Japanese billionaire space tourist Yusaku Maezawa a tidy profit.

Phillips auction house sold the 16-foot-wide painting on behalf of Maezawa, who purchased it in 2016 for $57.3 million.

The auctioneers had tipped it to go for around $70 million.

Phillips announced in a statement in March that it would put the artwork under the hammer.

Maezawa, the mega-rich founder of Japan’s largest online fashion mall, said in the statement that the past six years of owning the painting were “a great pleasure.”

But art “should be shared so that it can be a part of everyone’s lives,” he added.

Ahead of its sale, the massive artwork went on an international tour, being displayed in London, Los Angeles and Taipei.

Maezawa, who in 2017 set a new auction record for Basquiat works when he paid $110.5 million for another painting by the 20th century giant, has said he plans to create a new museum to exhibit his collection.

He founded the Contemporary Art Foundation in Tokyo and was on the 2017 list of “Top 200 Collectors” by the ARTnews magazine based in New York.

He has been in the headlines more recently for becoming the first space tourist to travel to the International Space Station with Russia’s space agency.

His odyssey is believed to have cost around 10 billion yen ($87 million), and he plans to follow it up with a trip around the Moon organized by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Social media posts are urging parents who face baby formula shortages to make it themselves. But pediatricians told AFP they do not advise patients to use homemade formula, warning it may lack vitamins and nutrients key to helping infants grow and thrive.

One formula recipe, said to be from 1960, has been shared on Facebook hundreds of thousands of times, urging parents to mix evaporated milk, water and Karo corn syrup.

Parents in the United States say purchasing restrictions and price gouging have left them increasingly desperate to get their hands on the food required for infants who are not breastfed. But the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) cautions against formula made at home.

Tanya Altmann, author of several parenting books and founder of Calabasas Pediatrics in California, agreed.

“I advise my patients not to make homemade infant formula,” she told AFP. “It won’t meet your baby’s essential nutritional needs, can be very dangerous to their growth and development and can even make your baby sick.”

Looking at the recipe circulating online, Altmann said the added sugar would not be safe or healthy for infants.

“Karo syrup was once used to help ease constipation, but it is not advised as it’s not effective and can even contain harmful bacteria,” she said.

Azza Ahmed, an associate professor of nursing at Purdue University, said homemade formula can put a baby at risk of “contamination and infection.”

And although parents are feeling stressed by shortages, formula should never be watered down, as this can quickly lead to an imbalance of nutrition, she added.

Social media posts prompted by shortages also claim orange juice mixed with water can be introduced at three weeks of age.

But the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine warned against juice and other formula substitutes.

“Do not give your baby under six months of age any water, tea, or juice,” it said.

Other Facebook posts are recommending that parents substitute goat’s milk for formula. 

But goat milk lacks nutrients necessary for human babies, according to Gabrina Dixon from Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. She pointed to its lack of folate and vitamin B12 — which is necessary to stave off anemia, or a low red blood cell count.

Experts told AFP that concerned parents should consult their pediatricians about feeding options, but urged more open attitudes about switching formula brands or using generic products, especially for children who have not shown signs of sensitivity to ingredients.

Johnny Depp grabbed his then-wife Amber Heard by the hair and repeatedly struck her in the face during a heated argument about a month after their marriage, her sister said Wednesday.

Heard also punched Depp during the March 2015 fight at their Los Angeles penthouse, Whitney Henriquez testified at the high-profile defamation case between the celebrity couple.

Henriquez, Heard’s 34-year-old younger sister, said the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star sought to have her sign a non-disclosure agreement after the incident, but she declined to do so.

The 58-year-old Depp filed suit against Heard over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”

Heard, who had a starring role in “Aquaman,” did not name Depp in the op-ed, but he sued her for implying he was a domestic abuser and is seeking $50 million in damages.

The Texas-born Heard countersued, asking for $100 million and claiming she suffered “rampant physical violence and abuse” at his hands.

Depp, during his four days on the witness stand, denied ever striking Heard and claimed that she was the one who was frequently violent.

Henriquez testified on behalf of her sister on Wednesday — day 18 of the trial being heard by a seven-person jury in Virginia.

Henriquez, who lived for a time in the same penthouse complex as Depp and Heard, said the couple had a volatile relationship.

“When he was sober things were wonderful,” she said. “When he wasn’t sober they were terrible.”

“If he was using or if he was drinking there was almost always a fight,” she said.

– ‘Saying really nasty things’ –

Henriquez recounted in detail the March 2015 incident at the Los Angeles penthouse complex owned by Depp.

She said Heard woke her up in the middle of the night to tell her that Depp had been cheating on her and that the newly married couple then got into a fight.

“They were saying really nasty things to one another,” Henriquez said.

“Johnny runs up the stairs,” she said. “He comes up behind me, strikes me in the back kind of.”

“I hear Amber shout ‘Don’t hit my fucking sister,'” she said. “She smacks him, lands one.”

Henriquez said Depp’s bodyguard moved to intervene, “but by that time Johnny had already grabbed Amber by the hair with one hand and was whacking her repeatedly in the face with the other.”

The bodyguard pulled them apart, she said, and Depp then proceeded to trash the penthouse, breaking numerous items in the kitchen and emptying racks of Heard’s clothes on the ground.

Depp’s lawyers have put experts on the stand who testified that he has lost millions because of the abuse accusations, including a $22.5-million payday for a sixth installment of “Pirates.”

Depp filed the defamation complaint in the United States after losing a separate libel case in London in November 2020 that he brought against The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater.”

Depp, a three-time Oscar nominee, and Heard met in 2009 on the set of “The Rum Diary” and were married in February 2015. Their divorce was finalized two years later.

Judge Penney Azcarate has scheduled closing arguments in the case for May 27, after which it will go to the jury.

The United States gave its full support Wednesday for Sweden and Finland’s bids to join NATO, promising to stand by them if threatened by Russia and pressing Turkey to not block their membership.

Hours after the two Nordic countries formally submitted their applications to enter the Atlantic alliance, President Joe Biden welcomed the move and said he would work with other NATO members and with the US Congress to ensure the process moved quickly.

“I warmly welcome and strongly support the historic applications,” Biden said, calling the two countries “longtime, stalwart partners.”

“While their applications for NATO membership are being considered, the United States will work with Finland and Sweden to remain vigilant against any threats to our shared security, and to deter and confront aggression or the threat of aggression,” he said in a statement.

Biden made the comments a day before welcoming Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson to the White House for meetings that will likely underscore the geopolitical shift of their decision to join NATO in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

US officials pledged to work with them to overcome key issues on their way to membership, including the need for some security guarantees before they are accepted into the alliance, and Turkey’s opposition to their joining.

Turkey, which like all NATO members has the right to veto a nation’s candidacy, has raised objections, and ambassadors meeting in Brussels failed Wednesday to reach consensus on starting formal membership negotiations.

Turkey has accused the two countries, especially Sweden, of giving safe haven to members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in New York Wednesday as the NATO question loomed.

They met “to reaffirm their strong cooperation as partners and NATO allies,” the State Department said in a statement, not mentioning the controversy over Sweden and Finland.

Following their meeting, Cavusoglu told journalists the talks were “extremely positive,” saying he was assured by Blinken that Washington would pass on the messages necessary to address Turkey’s concerns.

He repeated Ankara’s view that NATO cannot accept members that support “terrorist organizations.”

– White House ‘confident’ –

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the Biden administration was “confident” that Turkey’s concerns can be addressed and that the two countries will join the alliance.

“We feel very good about where this will track to,” he said.

Meanwhile, Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist met Wednesday at the Pentagon with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, where they discussed joining NATO and interim security cooperation.

“The secretary made it very clear that we have a comfort level with their military, going back many years,” said spokesman John Kirby, noting the Pentagon’s willingness “to have a discussion with them about security and capability needs that they might have to help assure them and to deter Russia, should that be necessary.” 

“We need to remember these are not two militaries that are strangers to us. We know them very well. We operate with them, we exercise with them,” Kirby said.  

“So being able to provide some security assurances will not be a giant leap for us at all.”

Asked about the issue of Turkey — also an important US defense partner — Kirby said they were “still working with Turkey to clarify” the specifics of its opposition to Sweden and Finland entering NATO.

Joe Biden leaves Thursday for his first trip as president to Asia convinced that the confrontation with Russia has reinvigorated US leadership, while wary that a rogue North Korean nuclear test could tear up the optimistic script.

The Democrat is going to South Korea, then Japan on Sunday to hold summits with the leaders of both countries, as well as joining a regional summit of the Quad group — Australia, India, Japan, and the United States — while in Tokyo.

During the first leg, he will visit US and South Korean troops, but will not make the traditional presidential trek to the fortified frontier known as the DMZ between South Korea and the unpredictable, isolated dictatorship of North Korea, the White House said.

The trip is being touted as proof that the United States is further building on recent moves to cement its years-long pivot to Asia, where rising Chinese commercial and military power is increasingly pushing back against decades of US leadership.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan rejected the idea that the war in Ukraine is distracting Biden from that mission.

Underlining the competing demands from two sides of the world, Biden will be meeting Thursday morning at the White House with the leaders of Finland and Sweden to celebrate their applications for joining NATO right before he boards Air Force One for Seoul.

But Sullivan said there was no “tension” in the twin focus. “We regard this as mutually reinforcing,” Sullivan told reporters.

“There’s something quite evocative about going from meeting with the president of Finland and the prime minister of Sweden to reinforce the momentum behind the NATO alliance and the free world’s response to Ukraine, then getting on a plane and flying out to the Indo-Pacific.”

– North Korean wild card –

Briefing reporters on the aims of the trip, Sullivan said Biden is headed to Asia with “the wind at our back” after successful US leadership in creating the tough Western response to President Vladimir Putin’s now almost three-month long invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

The high military, diplomatic and economic cost facing Russia is seen in Washington as a cautionary tale for China to digest as it eyes ambitions to gain control over democratic-ruled Taiwan, even if that means going to war.

But for all the White House’s evident self-confidence, officials admit that North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is a wild card on the trip.

Sullivan said it was possible that North Korea, which has defied UN sanctions in conducting an array of nuclear-capable missile tests this year, could use Biden’s visit to stage “provocations.”

This could mean “further missile tests, long range missile tests or a nuclear test, or frankly both, in the days leading into, on or after the president’s trip to the region,” he said.

The Biden administration is prepared to “make both short and longer term adjustments to our military posture as necessary to ensure that we are providing both defensive deterrence to our allies in the region and that we’re responding.”

Sullivan said a potential response was being “closely” coordinated with South Korea and Japan and that he had also spoken about the issue with his Chinese counterpart earlier Wednesday.

– West meets East –

Sullivan said the administration wants not so much to confront China on the trip as to use Biden’s diplomacy to show that the West and its Asian partners will not be divided and weakened.

He pointed to cooperation from South Korea and Japan, among others, in the sanctions regime against Russia led by European powers and the United States. He also referred to Britain’s role in the recently created security partnership AUKUS.

“European countries are increasingly invested in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

“So for us, there is a certain level of integration and symbiosis in the strategy we are pursuing in Europe and the strategy we’re pursuing in the Indo-Pacific. And President Biden’s unique capacity to actually stitch those two together, I think, is going to be a hallmark of his foreign policy,” Sullivan said.

This “powerful message” will be “heard in Beijing,” Sullivan said, “but it’s not a negative message and it’s not targeted at any one country.”