China’s foreign minister will be in Russia this week for security talks, arriving in Moscow just a day after North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un wrapped up his own visit to the country. Wang Yi’s visit comes as an increasingly isolated Russia seeks support from its international allies for its war against Ukraine. Running from Monday to Thursday, the visit will involve a “strategic security consultation” between China and Russia, the Chinese foreign ministry said. It comes after Mr Kim spent six days in Russia, touring a variety of military and technology sites including the country’s most state-of-the-art cosmodrome, where he met with Vladimir Putin. Their talks sparked global concerns that North Korea will supply weapons to Russia to use in Ukraine. Mr Wang, the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s top foreign policy official, arrives in Russia just two days after talks in Malta with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Washington and Beijing described those talks as candid, substantive and constructive. Both nations are looking to stabilise their rocky relationship, having seen bilateral tensions soar due to their conflicting views on multiple issues in Europe and East Asia. China and the US disagree on their stance over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the former has shifted closer to Russia. Beijing maintains the West has to consider Russia’s security concerns about Nato’s expansion in Europe. China has also accused the US of prolonging fighting in Ukraine as it has aided the nation with arms and weaponry which the Joe Biden administration has repeatedly said are necessary in the face of Russian aggression. Russia may be looking to brief Mr Wang on the details of Mr Putin and Mr Kim’s discussions, with experts saying Moscow would want China’s support before going ahead with any major shift in the Russia-North Korea relationship. Also on the agenda could be plans for Vladimir Putin to visit Xi Jinping in Beijing. Mr Putin hasn’t left Russia since the International Criminal Court put out a warrant for his arrest – China is not a signatory to the court – but has previously said he plans to pay Mr Xi a visit, without specifying a date. Mr Kim left Russia on Sunday after a grand farewell ceremony at the train station in Artyom, about 200km from the North Korea border. During his visit, Mr Kim secured an offer of Russian support with North Korea’s floundering and UN-sanctioned satellite launch programme. In return, experts suggest, Russia may be eyeing up a North Korean stockpile of tens of millions of ageing artillery shells and rockets based on Soviet designs that could significantly aid Russian forces in Ukraine. Mr Kim said North Korea would offer its “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s fight to defend its security interests, an indirect reference to the continuing war in Ukraine, despite the West’s warnings against doing so. Read More Biden's national security adviser holds two days of talks in Malta with China's foreign minister Why support for Ukraine is in danger of splitting the EU With Russia isolated on the world stage, Putin turns to old friend North Korea for help Chinese Premier Li Qian takes a test ride on Indonesia's new high-speed railway China's 'full-time children' move back in with parents, take on chores as good jobs grow scarce

Brendan Malone, a former NBA head coach and longtime assistant coach, died Tuesday at 81, per NBA.com.

Time travel, or just an illusion? Eagle eyed art lovers have spotted what appears to be a satellite in a four-century old painting of Jesus Christ. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are depicted in the ‘Glorification of the Eucharist’, a painting by Ventura Salimbeni from 1595. But in the background is something surprising – a blue sphere with spikes sticking out of it, which some people have interpreted as Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth in 1957. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Steve Mera, chairman of the Manchester Association of Paranormal Investigation & Training (MAPIT) and a paranormal specialist and lecturer, said at a conference: “You start to find a lot of religious connotation linked in with the UFO phenomenon. “This painting [the Eucharist] was painted in the 1600s and nobody ever really knew what that was a painting of, until we kind of looked at Sputnik, which was the first satellite to pass round the Earth,” he said. “What is really, really interesting is it is surprisingly similar to Sputnik, even to the point there is a little nodule there (on Sputnik) and the exact same nodule on the side there [on the object in the painting].” Clearly, Salimbeni wouldn’t have known about Sputnik. Or would he…? Mera added: "Did they somehow have knowledge of future events?" Well, we can probably assume not. Instead, experts think the ball is a representation of the so-called celestial sphere (or the universe), while the spikes indicate God’s power over it. But for conspiracy theorists, it’s yet another win for time travel. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had got his way, the scorer of the most famous goal in Manchester United’s history may now only be deemed the second best Norwegian striker to play for the club. He was Molde manager in 2018 and had a young centre-forward to recommend, and for a bargain price. “They didn’t listen, unfortunately,” he said in May. “They never signed him. Four million! Don’t ask [where he is now].” The answer, as Solskjaer knew all too well, is Manchester City. Perhaps, as a self-proclaimed fan of the club whose father had an altogether less prolific spell in their midfield, Erling Haaland would have always preferred the blue half of the city anyway. Maybe, like Jude Bellingham – another United target, another who found Borussia Dortmund a deluxe finishing school – he would have plotted a path to the top via places where potential tends to be realised. Whichever, Haaland scored a hat-trick in his first Manchester derby last year. He goes into his fourth with nine Premier League goals already this season. Or, to put it another way, nine times as many as United’s various forwards have between them. Admittedly, it excludes Bruno Fernandes’ sumptuous winner at Burnley, scored when he was standing in as a right winger, but even that lone goal, from Marcus Rashford at Arsenal, came in defeat. Rasmus Hojlund, Anthony Martial, Alejandro Garnacho and Antony are all yet to find the net in the league. Rashford has had 33 shots, Antony 16, Garnacho 13, Hojlund 11 and Martial three. It amounts to one goal from 76 attempts, a 1.31 per cent chance conversion rate. The law of averages suggests some will start scoring soon. “The goals will come in the Premier League,” Hojlund, who has three in the Champions League, said on Tuesday. The contrast with Haaland may be particularly jarring for him. “I don’t want to be compared to him,” the Dane said. Yet he is another Scandinavian, equipped with some of the same consonants, arriving at a cost of £72m – not the 2018 Haaland’s £4m - and also playing as a No 9. It may be both unfair and inevitable. His fellow forwards’ failings have made it harder for the 20-year-old to ease into life at Old Trafford, though. “I’m convinced with the quality from our [forward] players that they will go and score more goals,” Ten Hag said. The first step is to hit the target: Hojlund has done it with just three of 11 attempts, Antony three from 16, Garnacho two from 13 and Rashford seven from 33. There are reasons why United rank third for shots, but only joint eighth for efforts on target; only 29.4 per cent of their shots have been on target, the fifth lowest average. The forwards are not the only culprits, but a quintet of attackers with a combined xG of 6.95 have one goal between them. Ten Hag was keener to cite other statistics. “The pressing is quite good,” he said. “We have the most ball regains and the most middle [third] regains in the whole Premier League. But we don’t take benefit in attacking transition moments.” For him, the problem lies partly in decision-making, partly in execution. Certainly Hojlund is still trying to get to know his teammates, though there were signs against FC Copenhagen on Tuesday that he and Rashford are starting to strike up an understanding. But United, Ten Hag thinks, should have had more chances. “The cooperation has to click, but we showed this week in the week some examples where they are so many we have overload positions, going in overload position to the opponents’ goal and we don’t net or don’t even hit the target,” he rued. It has led to a disjointed feel, to a sense that United have been less than the sum of their parts. Rashford has veered between arguably the best form of his career, scoring 30 goals last season, to some of the worst. “I play him every game and so I have a strong belief he will return to scoring a lot of goals,” Ten Hag said. Rashford delivered a winner, albeit a controversial one, on City’s last trip to Old Trafford in January, but then he had also scored in his six previous games. Now he has no goals in his last eight outings for United. Yet Rashford’s struggles have overshadowed the enduring ineffectuality of Antony. The Brazilian’s season was interrupted by a leave of absence while he addressed allegations of assault from three women, which he denied. On the pitch, however, he has been dismal: his United drought stretches back 17 matches and Ten Hag’s best option on the right against City may be Fernandes, particularly if shifting the captain into a wider role allows him to bolster his midfield. And there are other reasons to select midfielders. Casemiro is an injury doubt but remains United’s top scorer in all competitions this campaign. Their leading marksman in the Premier League, somewhat improbably, is Scott McTominay, who got more goals in injury-time against Brentford than their five main forwards – six if the absent Jadon Sancho is included – have mustered between them in the top flight all season. It is hardly a Haaland-esque haul. And while - when Hojlund was still with Atalanta, and Rashford managed 30, the quartet of the Mancunian - Antony, Martial and Garnacho equalled the Norwegian’s total of 52 goals for a Manchester club between them last season, now they are very much trailing in his wake. And whether or not Haaland would actually have joined United, they have added reasons to regret the one who got away and subsequently joined their neighbours as long as their own forwards are misfiring. Read More Kyle Walker says Manchester City will be wary of Marcus Rashford in derby Wolves v Chelsea on Christmas Eve means ‘unhappy wife’ for Mauricio Pochettino Pep Guardiola condemns Man City fans who sang offensive Sir Bobby Charlton chant Erik ten Hag reveals Casemiro injury latest ahead of Manchester derby Man Utd will deliver fitting celebration in house that Sir Bobby Charlton built Ronnie O’Sullivan to release David Beckham-produced behind-the-scenes film

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Rioting raged in cities around France for a fourth night despite massive police deployment, with cars and buildings set ablaze and stores looted, as family and friends prepared Saturday to bury the 17-year-old whose killing by police unleashed the unrest. The government suggested the violence was beginning to lessen thanks to tougher security measures, but damages remained widespread, from Paris to Marseille and Lyon and French territories overseas, where a 54-year-old died after being hit by a stray bullet in French Guiana. The interior ministry announced 994 arrests around France by early Saturday. France’s national soccer team — including international star Kylian Mbappe, an idol to many young people in the disadvantaged neighborhoods where the anger is rooted — pleaded for an end to the violence. “Many of us are from working-class neighborhoods, we too share this feeling of pain and sadness” over the killing of 17-year-old Nahel, the players said in a statement. “Violence resolves nothing. … There are other peaceful and constructive ways to express yourself.” They said it's time for “mourning, dialogue and reconstruction” instead. The fatal shooting of Nahel, whose last name has not been made public, stirred up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing projects who struggle with poverty, unemployment and racial discrimination. The subsequent rioting is the worst France has seen in years and puts new pressure on President Emmanuel Macron, who appealed to parents to keep children off the streets and blamed social media for fueling violence. Family and friends were holding a funeral gathering Saturday for Nahel in his hometown of Nanterre. Anger erupted in the Paris suburb after his death there Tuesday and quickly spread nationwide. Early Saturday, firefighters in Nanterre extinguished blazes set by protesters that left scorched remains of cars strewn across the streets. In the neighboring suburb Colombes, protesters overturned garbage bins and used them for makeshift barricades. Looters during the evening broke into a gun shop and made off with weapons in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, police said. Officers in Marseille arrested nearly 90 people as groups of protesters lit cars on fire and broke store windows to take what was inside. Buildings and businesses were also vandalized in the eastern city of Lyon, where a third of the roughly 30 arrests made were for theft, police said. Authorities reported fires in the streets after an unauthorized protest drew more than 1,000 people earlier Friday evening. The Interior Ministry said 994 arrests were made during the night, with more than 2,500 fires. The night before, 917 people were arrested nationwide, 500 buildings targeted, 2,000 vehicles burned and dozens of stores ransacked. While the number of overnight arrests was the highest yet, there were fewer fires, cars burned and police stations attacked around France than the previous night, according to the Interior Ministry. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin claimed the violence was of “much less intensity.” Hundreds of police and firefighters have been injured, including 79 overnight, but authorities have not released injury tallies for protesters. Nanterre Mayor Patrick Jarry said France needs to “push for changes” in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Despite repeated government appeals for calm and stiffer policing, Friday saw brazen daylight violence, too. An Apple store was looted in the eastern city of Strasbourg, where police fired tear gas, and the windows of a fast-food outlet were smashed in a Paris-area shopping mall, where officers repelled people trying to break into a shuttered store, authorities said. In the face of the escalating crisis that hundreds of arrests and massive police deployments have failed to quell, Macron held off on declaring a state of emergency, an option that was used in similar circumstances in 2005. Instead, his government ratcheted up its law enforcement response, with 45,000 police deployed overnight. Some were called back from vacation. Darmanin ordered a nationwide nighttime shutdown Friday of all public buses and trams, which have been among rioters’ targets. He also said he warned social networks not to allow themselves to be used as channels for calls to violence. “They were very cooperative,” Darmanin said, adding that French authorities were providing the platforms with information in hopes of cooperation identifying people inciting violence. “We will pursue every person who uses these social networks to commit violent acts,” he said. Macron, too, zeroed in on social media platforms that have relayed dramatic images of vandalism and cars and buildings being torched. Singling out Snapchat and TikTok, he said they were being used to organize unrest and served as conduits for copycat violence. The violence comes just over a year before Paris and other French cities are due to host 10,500 Olympians and millions of visitors for the summer Olympic Games. Organizers said they are closely monitoring the situation as preparations for the Olympics continue. The police officer accused of killing Nahel was handed a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide. Preliminary charges mean investigating magistrates strongly suspect wrongdoing but need to investigate more before sending a case to trial. Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache said his initial investigation led him to conclude that the officer’s use of his weapon wasn’t legally justified. Nahel’s mother, identified as Mounia M., told France 5 television that she was angry at the officer but not at the police in general. “He saw a little Arab-looking kid, he wanted to take his life,” she said. “A police officer cannot take his gun and fire at our children, take our children’s lives,” she said. The family has roots in Algeria. Race was a taboo topic for decades in France, which is officially committed to a doctrine of colorblind universalism. In the wake of Nahel’s killing, French anti-racism activists renewed complaints about police behavior. Thirteen people who didn’t comply with traffic stops were fatally shot by French police last year. This year, another three people, including Nahel, died under similar circumstances. The deaths have prompted demands for more accountability in France, which also saw racial justice protests after George Floyd’s killing by police in Minnesota. This week’s protests echoed the three weeks of rioting in 2005 that followed the deaths of 15-year-old Bouna Traoré and 17-year-old Zyed Benna, who were electrocuted while hiding from police in a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois. ___ Joly reported from Nanterre. Associated Press journalists Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Climate change keeps making wildfires and smoke worse. 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