内容摘要：The overall rise in prices charged for goods and services in May was the steepest since August 2022, according to the S&P Global report.

The overall rise in prices charged for goods and services in May was the steepest since August 2022, according to the S&P Global report.

The huge 17th-century painting shows the Infanta Margarita, her young ladies-in-waiting, a dwarf, a buffoon with a dog, a nun, a mysterious man exiting through a door, a mirror reflecting King Phillip IV and his queen — and also Velazquez, stepping back from his canvas and looking straight down at the viewer.Novelist John Banville poses in front of Tiziano’s ‘The Emperor Charles V at Muhlberg’ at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville poses in front of Tiziano’s ‘The Emperor Charles V at Muhlberg’ at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)The painting — a paragon of Baroque sophistication — has fascinated generations of artists. Banville, with his love of poetic detail, is no different.“I find that ‘Las Meninas’ is always a surprise to me, and a challenge,” Banville told The Associated Press during a recent stroll through the Prado.

“It’s the enigma of it, the strangeness of it. Every time I look at it, it becomes stranger again,” he said, surrounded by throngs of museumgoers. “Velázquez looks at you, saying, ‘Look what I did. Would you have been able to do anything like this?’”Banville’s privileged access to the Prado — including after hours and off-limits areas such as its restoration workshops — over the past month is part of the museum’s “Writing the Prado” program.

The program, sponsored by the Loewe Foundation, started last year and counts Nobel prize winners John Coetzee and Olga Tokarczuk, as well as the Mexican American author Chloe Aridjis, as its first fellows.

Novelist John Banville looks at Diego Velazquez’s ‘Vulcan’s Forge’ at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)NEW YORK (AP) — The affection

is palpable from the moment they sit down together. When the two prolific recording artists are asked where the chemistry comes from, Shaggy simply says they make each other laugh.The pals have worked together on several projects, including their

in 2018 and on Shaggy’s 2022 album “Com Fly Wid Mi,” where Sting encouraged Shaggy to depart from his trademark “toasting” on reggae/dancehall hits to sing Frank Sinatra songs.Their latest collaboration is “Til A Mawnin” — an upbeat reggae track showcasing some of the pair’s playfulness released Feb. 27. Sting, 73, and Shaggy, 56, spoke to The Associated Press recently about the new song and finding friendship and musical inspiration in each other. Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.