5 CULTURE THINGS TO KNOW

• Just Stop Oil activists jailed for targeting Vermeer painting: Two Belgian members of the Just Stop Oil Belgium organization have been each sentenced to two months in prison, after one of them glued his head to the glass covering Johannes Vermeer’s painting Girl with a Pearl Earring at the Mauritshuis museum.

• Japan’s Ghibli Park opens: Fans of Studio Ghibli have begun flocking to the new long-awaited theme park dedicated to the popular animation company’s anime that opened on Nov. 1 near Kyoto, in Japan. The park has no rollercoasters or other rides but immerses visitors into the various worlds created by the studio’s co-founder and director, Hayao Miyazaki.

• A peek into a dancer’s life on World Ballet Day: As part of the ninth edition of the World Ballet Day on Nov. 2, more than 50 of the world’s top ballet companies virtually opened their doors with live streaming events featuring dancers’ classes, rehearsals and training sessions.

• In memoriam: The culture world mourned this week the deaths of U.S. rapper Takeoff, who was shot dead at 28 in Houston, American author Julie Powell, who had inspired the film Julie & Julia, and South Korean actor and K-pop singer Lee Ji-Han, who was among the victims of the crush that left more than 150 people dead in Seoul.

• New Zulu king crowned in South Africa: Misuzulu ka Zwelithini was crowned as the new Zulu king in South Africa’s coastal city of Durban, and formally acknowledged as monarch by the country’s president Cyril Ramaphosa. The ceremony marked the first Zulu coronation since South Africa became a democracy in 1994, after King Goodwill Zwelithini, who reigned for almost 50 years, died last year.