Britain’s counterterrorism police are leading the investigation into the cause of the fire near Heathrow Airport, signaling that the possibility of sabotage was being taken seriously, at least as a precaution. But officials said there was no immediate evidence that foul play was involved.

After the blaze at the electrical substation and subsequent power outage, the scale of the resulting chaos raised uncomfortable questions for Britain’s government about the security measures protecting key transport hubs and the resilience of the country’s aging infrastructure.

The Metropolitan Police in London said that counterterrorism specialists had taken charge “given the location of the substation and the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure.”

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said it was “not unusual” for the specialized officers to be involved in an investigation of such a major incident, and he told Sky News that there was “no reason at all for anyone to be concerned or alarmed.”

With the fire under control but still burning, nonetheless, nothing has been ruled out.

In a statement, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “receiving regular updates” about the situation at Heathrow and was “in close contact with partners on the ground.” He added that he knew the outage was “causing distress and disruption, especially for those traveling or without power in their homes.”

A spokeswoman for Heathrow said on Friday afternoon that some flights would resume later in the day, adding that officials hoped the airport would be fully operational by Saturday.

John McDonnell, a lawmaker who represents Hayes, the area where the fire broke out, said on Friday afternoon that any investigation would need to look at “why backup arrangements have not worked” and how the infrastructure could be so vulnerable.

“There are lessons that have got to be learned here,” he told reporters.

A rediscovered painting of an African prince by Gustav Klimt that captured visitors’ attention at the TEFAF Maastricht fair in the Netherlands is under negotiation for sale, the Vienna-based gallery offering the work said as the event closed on Thursday evening.

The early, almost photorealistic head-and-shoulders portrait of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona, shown against a floral background, had been on display at the booth of Wienerroither and Kohlbacher, priced at 15 million euros, or about $16.4 million.

“We are in active negotiations with a major museum,” said Lui Wienerroither, the gallery’s co-founder, though he declined to name the institution. Unlike at contemporary art fairs, high-value sales at TEFAF Maastricht, which specializes in older art, are often finalized after the event to allow buyers time to investigate questions of provenance or attribution. “Processes of due diligence have to be followed,” Wienerroither said.

The man depicted in this 26-inch-high painting was a member of a group of Africans from the Gold Coast (a former British colony now known as Ghana) who were live exhibits in colonial “human zoos” that toured Europe at the end of the 19th century. In the summer of 1896, they were put on display in a mock-African village in Vienna’s Zoological Garden, where Klimt might have seen them. The highly popular show, which attracted 5,000-6,000 visitors a day, was vividly evoked by the contemporary Austrian writer Peter Altenberg in his novel “Ashantee.”

Wienerroither and Kohlbacher says Klimt’s painting came to light in 2023 when an Austrian couple brought the unsigned work, crudely framed and in a grimy condition at the time, into the gallery. The dealers say they discovered a barely legible Gustav Klimt estate stamp on the back of the canvas and confirmed with Alfred Weidinger, the author of a definitive catalog of Klimt’s works, that Klimt was known to have painted a portrait of a prince of the Osu people in what is now Ghana, though the painting’s whereabouts had been unknown for many years.

Subsequent research revealed that the painting was still in Klimt’s possession when he died in 1918 and was sold by auction from his estate in 1923. Five years later, it was listed among the works in a Klimt memorial exhibition in Vienna, on loan from a local collector, Ernestine Klein.

Because she was Jewish, Klein and her husband, Felix, were forced to leave Austria in 1938 when it was annexed by Nazi Germany, and they survived the war in Monaco. Wienerroither and Kohlbacher said in a statement that the painting was being offered for sale “pursuant to a settlement agreement” between Klein’s heirs and the work’s current owners, who it also declined to name. The statement added that the Austrian authorities had granted the work an export license.

The gallery had originally intended to show the Klimt at last year’s TEFAF Maastricht, but withdrew it before the event’s opening.

“There were issues with the contract, and we had to make sure there were no other heirs with a claim on the painting,” Wienerroither said. “Percentages are always a question,” he added, referring to the potentially contentious issue of dividing the proceeds of a restitution sale between claimants. “It needed time.”

Experts say that the painting, made in the year that Klimt and other forward-looking artists formed the Vienna Succession group, represents a significant moment in the artist’s career.

“The portrait of the Ghanaian prince marks the transition to a new stage in his artistic development,” Weidinger, the Klimt scholar, said in an email. “It anticipates key elements of his later portraiture. In particular, the use of symbolic floral motifs in the background establishes a stylistic principle that Klimt would develop consistently from this point onward.”

Similar symbolic floral motifs characterize the background of an enigmatic, long-lost 1917 portrait of a young woman that sold for $37 million at auction in Vienna last April.

Klimt is one of the most admired and coveted of all modern artists and auction prices for his work have recently climbed as high as $108.4 million. Wienerroither and Kohlbacher’s more modest price tag reflects that this latest Klimt painting to appear for sale is a relatively small, unsigned early work lacking the decorative sumptuousness of the artist’s later works.

“It’s the only Klimt painting on the market and it’s a key work,” Wienerroither said.

At least 1,300 flights in and out of London’s Heathrow Airport were disrupted on Friday as the airport, Europe’s busiest, was shut down after a major nearby fire caused a power outage.

More flights are expected to be canceled or delayed in the coming days as airlines navigate the ripple effects of the airport’s closure, which is affecting air travel worldwide. About 220,000 passengers had been expected to travel through Heathrow on Friday, according to Flightrader24, the live flight tracking service.

Heathrow said it had no choice but to keep the airport closed until 11.59 p.m. on Friday. “We know this will be disappointing for passengers, and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation,” an airport spokesman said in a statement.

If your travel has been affected by the closure, here’s what you need to know.

Should I go to the airport?

Passengers scheduled to travel in and out of Heathrow have been advised not to go to the airport, and to contact their airline for further information.

On Friday, the police turned away passengers trying to reach Heathrow, and cars in the area were diverted.

Most major airlines have updated information on their websites with details about flight disruptions and instructions for rescheduling canceled flights. You can also check their social media channels for updates.

What are my rights?

If your flight departs from an airport in Britain, arrives there on a British or European Union airline, or arrives in an E.U. airport on a British airline, you are covered by British law.

Airlines are legally required to provide care and assistance for delays of more than two hours for short-haul flights, more than three hours for medium-haul flights and more than four hours for long-haul flights. You can check how the law applies to your flight here.

Under the regulations, airlines must provide a reasonable amount of food and drink, a means of communication, accommodations for passengers delayed until the next day, and transportation to and from the accommodations or a passenger’s home.

“The airline must provide you with these items until it is able to fly you to your destination, no matter how long the delay lasts or what has caused it,” the U.K Civil Aviation Authority says on its website.

What if my airline doesn’t give me proper care?

Sometimes during major disruptions like the Heathrow Airport closure, airlines find themselves understaffed, overwhelmed and unable to keep up with passenger demand.

In such cases, the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority advises passengers to pay out of pocket and keep receipts to apply for reimbursement, and to ensure that costs are reasonable. Luxury hotels and alcohol will not be covered by airlines.

More detailed guidelines on how to claim costs or submit a complaint if a reimbursement request is rejected can be found here.

Can I get a refund if my flight is canceled?

Usually, airlines are required to offer a refund or alternative routing if a flight is canceled, but only if the cancellation is the airline’s fault.

“Disruptions caused by things like extreme weather, airport or air traffic control employee strikes or other ‘extraordinary circumstances’ are not eligible for compensation,” according to the U.K Civil Aviation Authority.

Call your airline to see what options it has. British Airways, which has the most flights out of Heathrow, said it contacted its customers to offer flexible rebooking options — including with other airlines — or a full refund.

The airline is also offering all customers who booked to travel to or from Heathrow March 22 and 23 the option to rebook for free, a British Airways representative said.

Two carriers based in the United States also issued guidance for passengers stranded by the disruptions at Heathrow. Delta Air Lines said it would waive fare differences for flights rebooked on or before March 26. The airline advised passengers unable to reschedule flights within the guidelines to cancel and apply for credit at the value of the ticket, which can be used within one year of the ticket’s issue date. American Airlines said it would also waive change fees.

Comprehensive travel insurance policies usually cover flight delays and cancellations, so if you have coverage, be sure to read the conditions carefully.

As Ukraine and Russia prepare for talks that would put in place a temporary halt on strikes on energy infrastructure, each side has continued to accuse the other of fresh attacks on the power grid, underscoring the deep mistrust between them.

Overnight into Friday, part of a major Russian gas station near the Ukrainian border was set ablaze in an attack that each country accused the other of launching. Unverified videos shared by Russian military bloggers showed a large fire at the station, which once pumped gas to Europe through Ukraine, with what appeared to be pipelines engulfed in flames.

Also on Friday, Russian authorities in the southwestern Krasnodar region reported a secondary explosion at a fuel depot that had been burning for two days after a Ukrainian drone attack. Russian officials said the fire had spread to more than 100,000 square feet.

Kyiv and Moscow agreed this week to a limited 30-day cease-fire on strikes against energy infrastructure — the first major step toward de-escalation in more than three years of war. The agreement followed calls between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, and Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, to broker the partial cease-fire.

But the details of how and when this partial truce would take hold remain unresolved and are expected to be hammered out in U.S.-mediated talks in Saudi Arabia on Monday. Mr. Zelensky said his country would draw up a list of infrastructure facilities that could be covered by the cease-fire to avoid misunderstandings.

Strikes on energy facilities have been central to each side’s strategy to weaken the other throughout the war. Russia has pounded Ukraine’s power grid, aiming to make life unbearable for civilians and hinder the country’s war effort. Ukraine’s strikes on Russian facilities focus on crippling its vast oil industry, cutting off revenues that finance its military operations.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian national railway said its power system had been attacked. The same day, Russia said Ukrainian drones attacked the fuel depot in the Krasnodar region. Neither claim could be independently verified.

Both sides have an interest in blaming the other for violating the cease-fire before it even begins, seeking to portray their opponent as untrustworthy. Against that backdrop, Friday’s attack on the Russian gas station fit neatly into this propaganda war.

The gas station sits just across the border from Ukraine, near the town of Sudzha, in territory that Ukrainian forces seized during their incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region last summer. But recent Russian advances have pushed back Ukrainian troops in the area from all but a sliver of land, and it was unclear whether they still controlled the station as of Friday.

The Russian defense ministry said Ukraine had “deliberately” blown up the Sudzha gas metering station as its military retreated from the area. It called the attack “a deliberate provocation” designed to “discredit the peace initiatives of the U.S. president.”

The Ukrainian Army, though, suggested the explosion was a Russian “false flag” operation designed to put the blame on Ukraine. It said Russia had “repeatedly shelled” the station in the past as it counterattacked Ukrainian troops in the area.

“Russians continue to create numerous fakes and seek to mislead the international community,” the army said in a Facebook post.

Until recently, the station was the sole transit point for Russian gas to the European Union through Ukraine. It ceased operations on Jan. 1, after Ukraine refused to renew the transit agreement, part of a broader push by Kyiv and its allies to reduce reliance on Russian energy.

That means Friday’s attack on the station will not immediately affect Russian gas exports. But if the damage is severe, it could have long-term consequences and hinder a potential resumption of exports after the war.

Damien Ernst, an energy expert and professor at the University of Liège in Belgium, said videos of the aftermath of the attack suggested that some equipment, including pipelines, had been hit, in what he described as “significant” damage that could take several months to repair.

Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting.

A South Korean court on Friday approved an injunction against the K-pop group NewJeans’ attempt to cut ties with its record label, Ador, blocking members from engaging in commercial activities without the label’s consent.

In the latest twist in a long-running feud between the two sides, a panel of judges in the Seoul Central District Court on Friday recognized Ador’s rights as the group’s manager. The ruling could halt the group’s plans to release new songs, organize its own appearances and sign independent advertising deals.

The five members of NewJeans announced their split from Ador last November, accusing the label of mistreatment, and have since renamed the group NJZ. In response, Ador filed a lawsuit to assert its contract rights over the group.

NewJeans said it will challenge the court decision, insisting that the label continued to treat the group unfairly and unequally.

“We believe that the decision did not fully take into account the complete breakdown of trust the members have experienced toward Ador,” NJZ said in a statement. “We did not have sufficient opportunity to fully present the factual background to the court.”

Ador, which disputes the group’s claims of mistreatment, welcomed what it called the court’s decision to “confirm its status as the exclusive management agency of the NewJeans members.”

“With our status as NewJeans’ exclusive agency now legally affirmed, we are fully committed to supporting the artists going forward,” it said in a statement. “We eagerly anticipate meeting with the artists for a heartfelt conversation at the earliest opportunity.”

Both Ador and NewJeans confirmed that the group will participate in the ComplexCon festival in Hong Kong this weekend.

NewJeans and Ador have been embroiled in a dramatic feud that has mesmerized its fans since August 2024. The dispute is centered on Min Hee-Jin, the girl group’s executive producer. Hybe, the parent company of Ador, replaced Ms. Min as Ador’s chief executive last year. NewJeans members went public with their demand for Ms. Min’s reinstatement. When Hybe refused, the group decided to leave Ador.

Hybe is also home to BTS, another global K-pop sensation.