pope

Leo XIV celebrates first mass as pope in Sistine Chapel

BY ALEXANDRIA SAGE

  • Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost on Thursday became the 267th pope, spiritual head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics and successor to Argentina's Pope Francis, after a secret conclave by his fellow cardinals in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.
  • Leo XIV celebrated his first mass as pope on Friday, the day after becoming the first US head of the Catholic Church, with the world's eyes watching for signs of what kind of leader he will be.
  • Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost on Thursday became the 267th pope, spiritual head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics and successor to Argentina's Pope Francis, after a secret conclave by his fellow cardinals in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.
Leo XIV celebrated his first mass as pope on Friday, the day after becoming the first US head of the Catholic Church, with the world's eyes watching for signs of what kind of leader he will be.
Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost on Thursday became the 267th pope, spiritual head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics and successor to Argentina's Pope Francis, after a secret conclave by his fellow cardinals in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.
"The American pope," blazed headlines from the front pages of Italy's newspapers Friday after the announcement from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica introducing the modest, soft-spoken former missionary to the world.
The 69-year-old, sometimes referred to in Rome as the "Latin Yankee" for his decades-long missions in Peru, returned Friday to the Sistine Chapel to preside over a private mass with cardinals, broadcast by the Vatican.
Leo entered the chapel in a white papal robe trimmed in gold, carrying a ferula, or cross-topped staff, stopping occasionally to greet cardinals before commencing the mass.
A day after his election, signalled by white smoke billowing from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, many were still digesting the choice by the conclave's 133 voting cardinals.
"A pope from the United States is almost more surprising than an Argentine and Jesuit pope," such as Francis, wrote the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Friday. Francis was the first pope ever named from the Americas.

Missionary in Peru

The Vatican released video images of the moments after Leo's secret election on Thursday, showing him praying at a chapel altar and shaking hands and receiving congratulations in a sea of scarlet-robed cardinals.
Tens of thousands of well-wishers cheered Leo for his first appearance at the balcony of St Peter's Basilica on Thursday evening -- despite many having no idea who the man before them was.
The American, a member of the Augustinian order who spent two decades in Peru and was only made a cardinal in 2023, had been on many Vatican watchers' lists of potential popes, although he is far from being a globally recognised figure.
Over the coming days, from Friday's mass in the Sistine Chapel to Sunday's midday Regina Coeli prayer and a meeting with journalists at the Vatican on Monday, his actions and words will be closely scrutinised.
Across the globe in Peru, well-wishers including the bishop of El Callao outside Lima, Luis Alberto Barrera, saluted the Augustinian's engagement in the Andean country.
"He showed his closeness and simplicity with the people," Barrera told AFP.
"He was a very simple person who adapted to everything, like any good missionary."
In Chicago, locals celebrated his love of baseball, deep-dish pizza and his working-class South Side neighbourhood in the United States' third-largest city.
The Chicago Tribune called him "the pride and joy of every priest and nun" at his local parish, where he went to school and served as an altar boy, while a debate erupted over which of the city's rival baseball teams Leo supported: the White Sox, his brother ultimately confirmed.

Build bridges

In his first speech to the crowds packed into St Peter's Square Thursday, Leo echoed his predecessor Francis with a call for peace.
"Help us, and each other, to build bridges through dialogue, through encounter, to come together as one people, always in peace," he said.
"We must seek together how to be a missionary Church, a Church that builds bridges, which holds dialogues, which is always open."
World leaders raced to welcome his election and promised to work with the Church on global issues at a time of great geopolitical uncertainty.
Leo faces a momentous task. As well as asserting his moral voice on a conflict-torn world stage, he must try to unite a divided Church and tackle burning issues such as the continued fallout from the clerical sexual abuse scandal.
As Cardinal Prevost, the new pope defended workers and the poor and reposted articles online critical of US President Donald Trump's anti-migrant policies.
But Trump nevertheless welcomed his election, saying on Thursday it was a "great honour" to have a pope from the United States.
It was not known how many ballots it took to elect Leo XIV, but the conclave followed those of recent history, wrapping up in less than two days.

Consensus candidate

The crowds erupted with cheers when white smoke billowed into the sky from the Sistine Chapel chimney, the traditional sign that a new pope has been elected.
"I'm not an overly religious person but, being here with all these people just blew me away," said 39-year-old Joseph Brian from Belfast in Northern Ireland.
With the choice of Prevost, experts said, the cardinals had opted for continuity with the late Francis, a progressive who shook up the Church in his 12-year papacy.
"He (Leo) is a moderate consensus candidate who fits into a soft continuity, a gentle continuity with Pope Francis, who will not alienate conservatives," said Francois Mabille, a researcher at the Paris-based think tank IRIS and author of a book on Vatican strategy.
"At least, he has not alienated them" so far.
Vatican watchers agreed that Prevost's more soft-spoken style should help him as he faces turbulent times on the international stage, acting as a counterpoint to more divisive voices.
Italian cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi told the Corriere della Sera that Leo was "a very simple person, intensely kind. He is in the vein of Francis, but less spiky".
bur-ams/ar/rlp

religion

'A blessing': US Catholics celebrate first American pope

BY GREGORY WALTON AND GUILLAUME LAVALLEE, WITH MOISES AVILA IN HOUSTON, MARC ANTOINE BAUDOUX IN WASHINGTON AND BASTIEN INZAURRALDE IN LOS ANGELES

  • Having an American pope "will help bring more people to the Catholic Church, and even those that have walked away -- maybe they'll get reengaged," added Vigorito.
  • US Catholics flocked to churches across the country in a celebratory mood to mark the "excitement" of the first-ever American pontiff following Thursday's election of Pope Leo, who worshippers hoped would bring back lapsed believers.
  • Having an American pope "will help bring more people to the Catholic Church, and even those that have walked away -- maybe they'll get reengaged," added Vigorito.
US Catholics flocked to churches across the country in a celebratory mood to mark the "excitement" of the first-ever American pontiff following Thursday's election of Pope Leo, who worshippers hoped would bring back lapsed believers.
Outside Manhattan's imposing St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rosaria Vigorito, 66, said she could "feel the excitement just in the few minutes I've been walking around."
The Miami artist said she hoped Pope Leo, a 69-year-old from Chicago who spent much of his career in Peru, would be a reformist.
"I have one issue with the Catholic Church that I'm hoping they'll correct, and that is allowing women to become priests," she said, a crucifix around her neck.
"I think Mary Magdalene was an important apostle. There was a press release issued by the Vatican years ago -- they called her the apostle to the apostles."
Crowds of faithful and journalists had gathered outside the church that first opened its doors in 1879, with hundreds of worshippers filing in to pray and light candles.
Oscar Salvador, 45, a laborer from Mexico, said he hoped Leo would be able to stem the tide of people leaving the church.
"I believe it is a blessing for the people of America," he said. 
"Hopefully, he will leave a good legacy... so that more people stay in Catholicism, since lately we have seen many people leave for other religious sects."

'A bit surprised'

In Houston, the sprawling Texas city where more than a quarter of residents reportedly identify as Catholic, Azul Montemayor said she was "a bit surprised."
"I was not expecting an American to be elected and I'm just hoping that he carries on (pope) Francis's legacy of just being more inclusive" and "doesn't get swayed by more conservative ideology" popular now under US  President Donald Trump, said the 29-year-old examinations officer.
Analyst Ciro Benitez, 41, told AFP that Leo's multiculturalism was a sign "that we can expand to different kinds of cultures, (and) I guess, to the world." 
In Washington, Peruvian diplomat Julio Aiana, 32, said "we are happy that now we have a pope who is half Peruvian" -- referring to the nationality Robert Francis Prevost acquired while ministering there years before becoming pope.
"I believe that the times are changing," Aiana said.
Reverend Monsignor W. Ronald Jameson, director of St. Matthews cathedral, told AFP Leo "was a friend of pope Francis -- and he has the ability to really listen and reflect on what was said, and to implement those various ideas he heard."
In Los Angeles, Francis Fah attended a special mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to offer special prayers for Leo, as the first American pope.
"I think that maybe this is a sign that hopefully he can do something to get some peace and stability in the country," she told AFP.
Back in New York, worshipper Tim Anderson, 61, said Leo's strength would lie in his languages -- reportedly speaking English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese -- in addition to reading Latin and German.
"I'm still working on English so I think it's gonna be interesting in this day and age where there's so much craziness," he laughed.
"Maybe he can bring back a little bit of what I remember as a child growing up a Roman Catholic -- and how full the churches were back then."

'Welcoming to everybody'?

Vigorito said she wanted Leo "to bring us together."
She acknowledged the new pontiff would have a daunting task to "do as much as (he) can as a religious leader, because we deal with a lot of secular politics and issues."
"I would love the new pope to help, especially with conflicts in any way possible, like in Ukraine," she said.
Salvador also voiced hope Leo "can reconcile the countries that are at war and help them to reach peace so that we do not continue on this violent path."
Having an American pope "will help bring more people to the Catholic Church, and even those that have walked away -- maybe they'll get reengaged," added Vigorito.
Annie Elm from North Carolina paid tribute to Francis, calling him "wonderful" and praising his legacy.
"He loved everybody. He lived very modestly," she said. "He was very humble." 
Elm also said she hoped Leo would be "very kind and caring -- welcoming to everybody."
gw-burs/sla

pope

First US pope as Robert Francis Prevost becomes Leo XIV

BY ALICE RITCHIE

  • "Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named pope," Trump said in a social media post.
  • Robert Francis Prevost became Pope Leo XIV on Thursday after cardinals from around the globe chose him to be the first leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics from the United States.
  • "Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named pope," Trump said in a social media post.
Robert Francis Prevost became Pope Leo XIV on Thursday after cardinals from around the globe chose him to be the first leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics from the United States.
Tens of thousands cheered as Leo, successor to the late pope Francis, appeared on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica to deliver his first address.
"To all people, wherever they are, to all peoples, to the whole Earth, peace be with you," the smiling 69-year-old Chicago native told the crowd.
"Help us, and each other, to build bridges through dialogue, through encounter, to come together as one people, always in peace."
Leo's speech drew warm applause, especially a section where the prelate -- who spent more than two decades in Peru -- broke into Spanish, and also when he paid tribute to the popular Francis.
"We still keep in our ears that weak, but always courageous, voice of pope Francis blessing Rome," he said, referring to the ailing Argentine's Easter Sunday address, a day before his death.
"We must seek together how to be a missionary Church, a Church that builds bridges, which hold dialogues, which is always open," he said.

'Great honour'

Prevost's election was greeted with elation in Peru, where he was bishop in the northern city of Chiclayo and had acquired nationality, as well as the United States.
Outside New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rosaria Vigorito, 66, said she could "feel the excitement just in the few minutes I've been walking around." She hoped Leo XIV would be a reformer who would allow women priests.
"He loved goat, duck with rice and ceviche. Those were his favorite dishes," Chiclayo's current bishop Edison Farfan told a press conference highlighting the new pope's deep links to the South American nation.
Prevost had been talked about as among the "papabili" -- cardinals thought qualified for the papacy -- and as someone who could defend and further Francis's legacy.
But he was not a globally-recognised figure among the Catholic rank and file.
World leaders raced to welcome the 267th pope and promised to work with the Church on global issues at a time of geopolitical uncertainty.
Leo now faces a momentous task. As well as asserting his moral voice on a conflict-torn world stage, he must try to unite a divided Church and tackle burning issues such as the continued fall-out from the sexual abuse scandal.
As Cardinal Prevost, the new pope had defended the poor and underprivileged and had reposted articles online critical of US President Donald Trump's anti-migrant policies. But the White House chief nevertheless welcomed the election.
"Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named pope," Trump said in a social media post.
"It is such an honour to realise that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country."
It was not known how many ballots it took to elect Leo XIV, but the conclave followed recent history in wrapping up in less than two days.
While the details of the election will forever remain secret, the new pope had to secure at least two-thirds of votes to be elected.

'Amazing'

The crowds swelled with emotion when white smoke billowed into the sky from the Sistine Chapel chimney, signalling an election on the second day of voting.
The bells of St Peter's Basilica and churches across Rome rang out and crowds rushed towards the square to watch the basilica balcony, fitted out with red curtains for the first address from the new pope, who was introduced in Latin.
"It's an amazing feeling," said Joseph Brian, a 39-year-old chef from Belfast in Northern Ireland, who came with his mother to Rome for the spectacle.
"I'm not an overly religious person but, being here with all these people just blew me away," he told AFP as people around him jumped in excitement.

'Habemus Papam'

"Habemus Papam, woooo!" howled Bruna Hodara, 41, from Brazil, echoing the words to be spoken on the balcony as the new pope is introduced.
She, like others, recorded the historic moment on her phone, as others waved flags and cried out "Viva Il Papa!" -- "Long live the pope!" in Italian.
The papal inauguration usually takes place less than a week after the election with a mass celebrated before political and religious leaders from around the world.
Ahead of that, Leo will lead a mass Friday for cardinals in the Sistine Chapel and recite the Regina Caeli prayer in St Peter's Square on Sunday.
He will hold an audience for the media on Monday.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told journalists Prevost's choice of papal name was "a clear reference to the social doctrine of the Church".
Leo XIII, who was pope at the end of the 19th century, was a determined defender of the rights of workers.
Francis died aged 88 after a 12-year papacy during which he sought to forge a more compassionate Church.
While he provoked anger from conservatives with his progressive approach, there had been many Catholics calling for a successor in his vein.
Some 80 percent of the cardinals who voted for Prevost were appointed by Francis.
With electors hailing from 70 countries, it was the most international conclave ever.
ide-ams-ar/dc/tw/jbr 

television

Eurovision week's opening parade set to start the party

BY ROBIN MILLARD

  • Bracing for more protests this year, more than 1,300 police officers will be on duty in Basel during Eurovision week.
  • The Eurovision Song Contest comes shimmering into Basel on Sunday with a glitzy parade kicking off a week of high-octane revelry building up to the May 17 grand final.
  • Bracing for more protests this year, more than 1,300 police officers will be on duty in Basel during Eurovision week.
The Eurovision Song Contest comes shimmering into Basel on Sunday with a glitzy parade kicking off a week of high-octane revelry building up to the May 17 grand final.
The Swiss city is pulling out the stops as it hosts the 69th edition of the light-hearted TV spectacular that celebrates kitsch and pushes the boundaries of taste.
While Europop beats, dramatic staging and earworm choruses dominate on stage, the geopolitical backdrop always looms large, with protests again possible over Israel's participation as it ramps up its war in Gaza.
Eurovision is the world's biggest annual live televised music event, reaching around 160 million viewers.
The glamfest begins with Sunday's opening ceremony, when all 37 competing countries' entrants will parade through Basel, starting at the iconic 500-year-old city hall.
"This will create a unique spectacle in the middle of Basel's old town," says the city, which sits right on the border with France and Germany.

Israel and security

Last year's contest in Malmo, Sweden saw street protests over the Gaza war. Israel's entrant Eden Golan -- who finished fifth -- performed under tight security amid threats, and was largely confined to her hotel.
Bracing for more protests this year, more than 1,300 police officers will be on duty in Basel during Eurovision week.
Israel's entrant this year is Yuval Raphael. She survived the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, hiding beneath dead bodies as Hamas gunmen attacked a music festival, killing hundreds.
The 24-year-old said she hoped her song "New Day Will Rise" would send a message of healing and solidarity.
Since the Hamas attack, music has been "something that heals my soul", she told AFP in a recent interview.
But more than 70 former Eurovision competitors called this week for Israel to be banned over the war in Gaza, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
Spain's public broadcaster has also asked the European Broadcasting Union, which organises Eurovision, to open a "debate" on the appropriateness of Israel taking part.
Israel's National Security Council meanwhile warned Israelis travelling to Eurovision that such high-profile events were a "prime target for threats and attacks".
It said there had been "360 protests and anti-Israeli demonstrations" in Switzerland over the past year. 
"These are expected to continue during the Eurovision Song Contest, directed at Israelis or the Israeli delegation," it added, urging Israelis to "stay away from these centres of friction and demonstrations, which may escalate into violence."

Celine Dion mystery

The semi-finals on Tuesday and Thursday will see 11 countries bow out, leaving 26 nations to contest Saturday's final at the St. Jakobshalle arena.
Switzerland is hosting after Swiss vocalist Nemo won Eurovision 2024 in Malmo with the highly personal song "The Code", about discovering non-binary gender identity.
Switzerland won the inaugural song contest in 1956, then triumphed again when Canada's Celine Dion competed for the Alpine nation in 1988, launching her career internationally.
Organisers are tight-lipped as to whether Dion, in fragile health, might spring a surprise star turn.
Swiss newspaper Le Matin, citing internal documents, said there was a two-minute slot in the grand final reserved for Dion -- but cautioned that the script was changing regularly.

Sweden steaming hot favourites

Sweden's entry KAJ are the hot favourites to win, with "Bara bada bastu" ("Just have a sauna") a comical take on the Swedish tradition driven by accordion licks and a catchy chorus.
Their number features the three singers in brown suits, surrounded by dancers in lumberjack shirts first grilling sausages over a bonfire before appearing in a mock sauna with towels around their waists, slapping their backs with birch branches.
"It's about relaxing with your friends, going into the sauna and having a nice time and coming out on the other side feeling great," one of the trio, Jakob Norrgard, told AFP.
It is Sweden's first entry in Swedish since 1998, when Eurovision removed the national language requirement.
If Sweden wins, "it's going to motivate more countries to send songs in their national languages", historian and Eurovision expert Dean Vuletic told AFP.
Austria's JJ is the second favourite with "Wasted Love", a song in the mould of "The Code", flipping between operatic vocals and modern beats.
France, the Netherlands and Israel round out the chasing pack, according to bookmakers.
rjm-nl-burs/jj

company

Global cult following keeps Le Creuset simmering

BY ETIENNE BALMER

  • - Social media success - Le Creuset has 575 retail outlets in the world, with online sales having received a boost from a home cooking craze during the Covid pandemic.
  • They feature in the Duchess of Sussex's "With Love, Meghan" Netflix cooking show.
  • - Social media success - Le Creuset has 575 retail outlets in the world, with online sales having received a boost from a home cooking craze during the Covid pandemic.
They feature in the Duchess of Sussex's "With Love, Meghan" Netflix cooking show. They've been spotted in rapper Snoop Dogg's kitchen. Top chefs can't live without them, and TikTok posts draw millions.
For a maker of pots and pans, Le Creuset has had an astonishing global run and cult-like following that nobody could have predicted when the company first set out to produce staple kitchenware in Fresnoy-le-Grand, a modest village in northern France, in 1925.
Two Belgian entrepreneurs built what, a century later, is still Le Creuset's home factory in the village of barely 3,000 inhabitants, home of the company's trademark enamelled cast-iron cookware.
The flagship Dutch oven model, now available in about 100 colours, started out exclusively in flaming orange, which still makes Le Creuset pots instantly recognisable.
With a price tag in the region of 250 euros ($280) for basic cast-iron models -- rising fast for elaborate models or special editions -- Le Creusets are high-end designer creations with a reputation for indestructibility.

'Crucible'

All the company's cast-iron cookware is still exclusively made in the Fresnoy-le-Grand factory, the centrepieces of which are two giant electric furnaces -- also called "creuset", which is French for "crucible".
The furnaces heat molten cast iron to 1,550 degrees Celsius (2,822 Fahrenheit), the melting point for this iron and carbon alloy.
The blindingly bright liquid, hotter than lava, is then poured into a transfer recipient, which is automatically carried along a rail.
The cast iron is poured quickly into sand moulds shaped by metal patterns to make raw products. The remaining cast iron and sand are recycled back into the manufacturing process.
After being ground by robots and stripped by being exposed to bombardment with tiny steel beads, the utensils are glazed with enamel -- a mixture of glass, quartz, clay, water and colorants -- before vitrification at nearly 800C.
The resulting variety of shapes and colours presents an industrial challenge, but "really embodies the strength and DNA of the brand," said Frederic Salle, manager of the site.
Le Creuset now sells 95 percent of its production abroad, in more than 80 countries, but keeps a tight lid on financial data, which the privately held company is not obliged to disclose.
Things weren't always upbeat. When Paul van Zuydam, a Briton with a South African background, bought Le Creuset in 1988, customers had gone cool on the brand.
But Van Zuydam, who is still Le Creuset's president, pushed the company's international expansion, established it at the high segment of the market and diversified production sites for non-cast iron products to foreign countries, including China and Thailand.

Social media success

Le Creuset has 575 retail outlets in the world, with online sales having received a boost from a home cooking craze during the Covid pandemic.
"The brand is doing very well pretty much everywhere in the world," said Marie Gigot, managing director for France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Like for many global companies, US President Donald Trump's tariff threats are a concern, she acknowledged. "The situation changes every day, so we follow it very closely."
But US buyers wealthy enough to purchase Le Creuset products in the past will probably not be put off by any tariff hikes, said Nick Stene, head of home and garden research at Euromonitor, a market research company.
"Homes that can afford to invest in the higher price points, especially over $300 for luxury cookware, are the last households to feel the pain when buying power is under pressure," he told AFP.
Le Creuset has been "one of the strongest performers" in the homeware category, which has seen around 4.5-percent annual growth since 2019, he said.
One major factor of success has been social media, where proud owners like to showcase their Le Creuset to prove they can afford it, but also that they "know how to use it properly", accompanied by hashtags like #LeCreuSlay, he said.
"There is nothing quite as efficient as having your customers also act as your ambassadors and marketing team," added Stene.
etb/jh/as/lth/jhb

television

Depoliticising Eurovision 'impossible', experts say

BY NINA LARSON

  • Carniel agreed, pointing out that there had been "a bit of a backlash against so-called identity politics at the song contest, and criticism of the extent to which Eurovision has really leaned into queer fandom".
  • The Eurovision Song Contest is meant to be about celebrating music and cultural diversity, but politics inevitably seeps in, challenging the competition's long-standing claim to neutrality.
  • Carniel agreed, pointing out that there had been "a bit of a backlash against so-called identity politics at the song contest, and criticism of the extent to which Eurovision has really leaned into queer fandom".
The Eurovision Song Contest is meant to be about celebrating music and cultural diversity, but politics inevitably seeps in, challenging the competition's long-standing claim to neutrality.
Hopeful artists drawn from 37 countries will compete in this year's contest in the Swiss city of Basel starting next week, with the big finale on May 17.
Politics is officially barred from the event, but as with most years, organisers will have their hands full striving to keep tensions over culture wars and conflicts like Israel's war in Gaza from spilling into the glitzy festivities.
Experts agree that is a tall order.
"It's impossible to depoliticise the event," Dean Vuletic, a historian and the author of the book "Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest", told AFP.
"It is completely impossible," agreed Jess Carniel, an associate professor at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia.
"With everyone competing under their national flag... there is always an undercurrent of politics." 
From the inception of the contest nearly 70 years ago, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises Eurovision, has insisted on its non-political nature.
But politics have been omnipresent, from an Austrian protest over Spain's Franco dictatorship in 1969 to calls for European unity as the Soviet Union broke apart and Eastern European countries joined the contest in the early 1990s.

Mass protests

Before 1998 when Eurovision stopped requiring countries to perform in their national language, some strong political sentiments expressed in songs garnered little attention.
Greece submitted a song in 1976 slamming Turkey over its invasion of Cyprus, "but it was in Greek and there was not much attention", Lisanne Wilken, an associate professor in European studies at Denmark's Aarhus University, told AFP.
Since then, increased media attention and the possibility to put forth messages in English has meant that for "anyone who wants attention for a cause, Eurovision is a really good place to go", she said.
More recent expressions of political condemnation have certainly not gone unnoticed.
Russia's war in Ukraine dominated the discourse around the events in 2022, when Ukraine won the contest and Russia was barred, and again in 2023.
And last year, Israel's war in Gaza cast a long shadow over the event, when thousands of demonstrators protested in the Swedish city of Malmo against Israeli entrant Eden Golan taking part.
Demonstrations are already planned against Israel's participation this year, with Yuval Raphael -- who survived Hamas's deadly attack inside Israel on October 7, 2023 that sparked the war in Gaza -- due to perform her song "New Day Will Rise".

New flag rules

Experts say they do not expect protests on the same level as last year.
One reason, Vuletic suggested, was that "the campaign against Israel last year was not successful".
"No country boycotted Eurovision because of Israel" and the country garnered a high score, he pointed out.
Experts also said the EBU's introduction of new rules may have an impact.
The organisers have adopted a new flag policy, barring contestants from displaying flags other than that of the nation they represent, but loosening restrictions on the flags audience members can display.
Eurovision explained that it aimed to "strike a balance to ensure that our audiences and artists can express their enthusiasm and identities, (while providing) more clarity for the delegations when it comes to official spaces".
"I think the decision was mostly inspired by the references to Palestine last year," Vuletic said.

Trump effect?

Wilken meanwhile warned that the new policy could "backfire a little bit", with the ban on contestants waving Pride flags, for instance, possibly read as part of "the war on woke".
Carniel agreed, pointing out that there had been "a bit of a backlash against so-called identity politics at the song contest, and criticism of the extent to which Eurovision has really leaned into queer fandom".
By barring contestants from waving Pride flags or other symbols supporting LGBTQ rights, the organisers might "oddly be trying to bring more people in" by emphasising that the contest "is not an exclusively queer event".
The United States may not be part of the contest, but experts said President Donald Trump's anti-diversity messaging could energise efforts by conservative forces in Europe eager to rid Eurovision of its LGBTQ-friendly identity.
At the same time, the Trump administration's attacks on European countries could strengthen the contest's focus on forging a common European identity, Carniel suggested.
"Given the current political climate," she said, "that idea of European unity against the outside is a strong thing."
nl/rjm/giv/sco

Kurdistan

A bitter return for Iraqis kicked out of Europe

BY TONY GAMAL-GABRIEL

  • Mohammed Ismail, 29, left for Germany in 2016, hoping for a better life and a European passport.
  • Iraqi Mohammed Jalal lost 10 years of his life seeking asylum in Germany, without success.
  • Mohammed Ismail, 29, left for Germany in 2016, hoping for a better life and a European passport.
Iraqi Mohammed Jalal lost 10 years of his life seeking asylum in Germany, without success. Instead of being granted refuge, he was sent back to the land he had fled.
He now faces the same challenges that drove him to leave the northern Kurdistan region of Iraq. More than a year has passed, and he is still without a job.
Jalal is just one of thousands of Iraqis and migrants from many other countries who have been forced out of Europe as it tightens its migration policies, driven by the rise of the extreme right.
European states are now working closely with Iraq to support returns by funding programmes primarily aimed at tackling unemployment.
In the town of Ranya in autonomous Kurdistan, Jalal moved back in with his elderly father to a cramped two-room apartment where they sleep on mattresses on a cold concrete floor.
"If I could return to Europe I would," 39-year-old Jalal told AFP.
He still dreams of a day when German authorities grant him asylum.
"I could become legal and work in a Kurdish restaurant," he said.
"Here I don't have a job."
In 2015, Jalal undertook the perilous journey across the Mediterranean from the Turkish city of Izmir to Greece.
He went to North Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia before finally reaching Germany. There, he settled in a centre for asylum seekers and received 300 euros ($385) a month.
Despite restrictions on asylum seekers getting jobs, Jalal travelled to cities including Nuremberg and Munich where he worked illegally and had to be careful not to be caught.

'Path of death'

Jalal's asylum requests were denied twice and Germany expelled him in January last year.
Back home, following a failed attempt to open a bakery, he worked for two months at a falafel kiosk earning $7 a day.
Unemployed again, he now receives $150 from his family abroad. 
"I live on this meagre amount," he said.
In the last quarter of 2024, around 125,000 non-Europeans were ordered to leave a country in the European Union, 16 percent more than during the same period in 2023.
"As a matter of principle, Germany repatriates people who are required to leave the country," the German embassy in Baghdad told AFP.
It said Germany "has given protection and shelter to millions of people who have fled war and violence in their home countries", including many Iraqis, mostly from the north.
But the embassy warned that "there are no prospects of residence for people who enter Germany irregularly in the hope of a better life and who have no need for protection".
Despite presenting itself as an oasis of stability in turbulent Iraq, Kurdistan is grappling with economic challenges that push its young people to seek opportunities elsewhere.
Many have lost their lives while trying to reach Europe.
Hardi Ahmed left Ranya, east of the Kurdistan capital Arbil, in 2021.
He called his journey to the United Kingdom the "path of death" after losing three friends to drowning, one in the Channel between France and Britain.
Upon arrival, Ahmed quickly realised he was not welcome. He was turned back to France, where the Iraqi embassy helped him return home.
Back in Kurdistan, the 39-year-old is now unemployed, and believes the authorities should provide jobs.
"If not, youth will be forced... to go to Europe," he said.

'Stay in Iraq'

After decades marred by conflict, including a US-led invasion followed by insurgencies and the rise of Islamic State group jihadists, Iraq has now regained some stability.
The German government-linked development agency GIZ supports centres in Arbil and Baghdad that provide returnees with counselling and help in job searches, training and providing financial aid for small businesses.
Funded by Germany, Switzerland and the EU, the centres assisted 350 people between June 2023 and August 2024.
The EU ambassador to Iraq, Thomas Seiler, told AFP that "some member states have agreed on bilateral return and readmission agreements with Iraq", and the EU is finalising a similar deal.
The capacity of many European cities and villages "to receive and integrate" migrants "has long been reached", Seiler warned.
"Irregular migration should now clearly be prevented."
Seiler said the EU funds programmes to assist Iraq in welcoming back returnees. It also provides tens of millions of euros to support initiatives aimed at helping "Iraqis stay in Iraq".

Indebted migrants

With funding from Denmark and Finland, the Kurdish Rwanga Foundation launched a programme to reintegrate returnees.
It has so far trained 120 people on starting small businesses and provided grants of up to $5,600 to 15 of them.
Kamiran Shivan, head of the foundation's programmes, said beneficiaries' sectors include construction, carpentry, mobile and electronics repair, restaurants and beauty salons.
Many Iraqis return home burdened with debt from the cost of their journey to Europe.
"They come back without having a source of income or assets that would allow them to repay their debts," Shivan said.
Mohammed Ismail, 29, left for Germany in 2016, hoping for a better life and a European passport.
But more than five years later, nothing has changed for him.
Germany rejected his asylum requests three times on the basis that Arbil is considered safe.
Back home in Kurdistan, he received a grant from Rwanga to become a partner in a mechanic's workshop, which provides him with $550 a month -- enough to support his wife and three-year-old child.
"I no longer consider emigrating," Ismail said. "If I return to Europe, it will be as a tourist."
tgg/rh/srm/sco

Sports

Mexico City prepares to welcome millions for 2026 World Cup

  • The iconic Azteca Stadium, which has hosted two FIFA World Cup finals, is on track to be renovated by the time the whistle blows for the opening match on June 11, according to organizers.
  • Mexico City is gearing up to welcome more than five million visitors for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, whose opening match will be played in the sprawling megacity, authorities said Wednesday.
  • The iconic Azteca Stadium, which has hosted two FIFA World Cup finals, is on track to be renovated by the time the whistle blows for the opening match on June 11, according to organizers.
Mexico City is gearing up to welcome more than five million visitors for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, whose opening match will be played in the sprawling megacity, authorities said Wednesday.
The top football tournament will be held in Mexico, the United States and Canada, marking the first time that three countries co-host the event.
Three of the 16 venues will be in the Latin American nation, with the central city of Guadalajara and northern industrial hub of Monterrey sharing Mexico's host duties with the capital.
Eleven other venues will be in the United States and two in Canada.
Mexico's government and city authorities are working together "to ensure that the experience is safe and smooth," Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez said at a presentation.
"More than five million people are expected to arrive" for the matches in Mexico City, which has around nine million residents and is more than 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) above sea level, she said.
The iconic Azteca Stadium, which has hosted two FIFA World Cup finals, is on track to be renovated by the time the whistle blows for the opening match on June 11, according to organizers.
More than $100 million is being invested in the stadium, its general director Felix Aguirre said, promising that it "will be ready."
The renovation triggered controversy after the venue was renamed after the bank that funded the work.
FIFA ordered the stadium to be referred to as Mexico City Stadium because of its branding rules.
Addressing security concerns in a country plagued by criminal violence, Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada said 40,000 new security cameras would be acquired, bringing the total to 123,000.
"We will be the most video-surveilled city in all of the Americas," she said.
Organizers called for a World Cup free of homophobia, racism and other attacks on civil liberties.
FIFA has repeatedly sanctioned Mexico for homophobic chanting by its fans in stadiums.
jla-dr/mlm

police

Ex-US police officers acquitted in beating death of Black motorist

  • Five Black police officers were charged in connection with the January 2023 death of Tyre Nichols, 29, who was kicked, punched, tased and pepper sprayed.
  • Three former Memphis police officers were found not guilty of all charges Wednesday in the beating death of a Black motorist that sparked calls for police reform, local media reported.
  • Five Black police officers were charged in connection with the January 2023 death of Tyre Nichols, 29, who was kicked, punched, tased and pepper sprayed.
Three former Memphis police officers were found not guilty of all charges Wednesday in the beating death of a Black motorist that sparked calls for police reform, local media reported.
Five Black police officers were charged in connection with the January 2023 death of Tyre Nichols, 29, who was kicked, punched, tased and pepper sprayed.
The five officers, members of a since-disbanded special anti-crime squad called the Scorpion Unit, were captured on video beating Nichols during a traffic stop near his home in the Tennessee city of Memphis.
He died at a hospital three days later.
Two of the officers pleaded guilty to state and federal charges while the three others -- Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith -- chose to go to trial.
A jury acquitted Bean, Haley and Smith on Wednesday of all of the state charges they faced, including the most serious charge of second-degree murder, the Commercial Appeal reported.
The Memphis newspaper said the mostly white jury deliberated for eight and a half hours before delivering the not guilty verdict.
Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, prominent civil rights attorneys who have represented the Nichols family, condemned the verdict as a "devastating miscarriage of justice."
"Tyre's life was stolen, and his family was denied the justice they so deeply deserve," they said in a statement. "We are outraged, and we know we are not alone."
Bean, Haley and Smith have already been convicted of federal charges including witness tampering and could face up to 20 years in prison. Haley was also convicted of using excessive force.
Sentencing was delayed until the conclusion of the state trial.
The two other former Memphis police officers, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills, reached plea agreements in the state and federal cases in which they pleaded guilty to using excessive force and witness tampering.
Then-vice president Kamala Harris attended Nichols's funeral and his relatives were invited to president Joe Biden's State of the Union address in Washington.
cl/mlm

migration

Germany's new govt orders border police to reject most asylum seekers

BY JASTINDER KHERA

  • Germany's new government, installed on Tuesday, has moved to boost its border police and ordered officers to reject undocumented migrants including asylum seekers, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said.
  • Germany's new government on Wednesday said that it would reject most asylum seekers at its borders as conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz seeks to limit irregular immigration and curb the rise of the far-right.
  • Germany's new government, installed on Tuesday, has moved to boost its border police and ordered officers to reject undocumented migrants including asylum seekers, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said.
Germany's new government on Wednesday said that it would reject most asylum seekers at its borders as conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz seeks to limit irregular immigration and curb the rise of the far-right.
The move is a key part of Merz's plans to wrest the initiative away from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), which came second in February's general election and has continued to climb in the polls.
Merz said he had informed French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in advance, telling Welt TV that the "temporary" measures "are necessary as long as we have such high levels of irregular migration in the European Union".
Germany's new government, installed on Tuesday, has moved to boost its border police and ordered officers to reject undocumented migrants including asylum seekers, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said.
Exceptions would be made for "vulnerable groups" including pregnant women and children, he added.
To implement the move, Dobrindt reversed a directive from 2015, at the height of the European migration crisis when Germany welcomed more than a million people mainly from Syria and Afghanistan.
Bild daily said that Dobrindt had given an order for 2,000 to 3,000 extra federal officers to be sent to Germany's borders, in addition to the 11,000 already in place.
News outlet Der Spiegel said police would have to work shifts of up to 12 hours a day to enforce the new regime.
Federal police union chief Andreas Rosskopf told the Rheinische Post newspaper that the "the reinforcement... has started" in line with the new instructions.
The aim was to guarantee "humanity and order" in migration, Dobrindt said, adding that order should be "given greater weight and strength than may have been seen in the past".

AfD 'agitation'

The new government's move upset some neighbours, with Switzerland saying it "regrets" that the measures were taken "without consultation".
Speaking alongside Merz at a press conference in Warsaw, his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk urged Germany to "concentrate on the EU's external borders" and preserve the Schengen zone.
Merz stressed that the controls would be "carried out in a way that will not cause problems for our neighbours", adding that Germany wanted to "solve this problem together" with other EU countries.
Domestically, Merz has argued that tough measures are needed to ease voters' concerns and to halt the rise of the AfD.
The AfD won a record of more than 20 percent in the elections, second only to Merz's conservative CDU/CSU alliance, and has since risen further in opinion polls, at times coming first.
The coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) also says that all people arriving at German borders without documents will be refused entry, including those seeking asylum.
This last point has raised controversy, with some in the SPD voicing concerns that it may not be compatible with European Union law.
The agreement also says increased border checks are to remain in place until "there is effective protection of external EU borders".
Amid a spate of violent attacks blamed on foreign nationals in the run-up to February's election, Merz made a crackdown on irregular migration a key theme of his campaign.
At one point, he relied on AfD support in parliament to push through a motion demanding a crackdown on immigration, a manoeuvre widely seen as breaching a "firewall" of non-cooperation with the party.  
Last week, Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency said it had designated the AfD a "right-wing extremist" organisation.
It based the designation on a lengthy internal report given to the interior ministry but not made public.
Der Spiegel said the report refers to statements made by hundreds of AfD members at all levels, proving that the party is carrying out "continuous agitation" against migrants, refugees and Muslims.
It also points to AfD figures taking up the slogan of "remigration", a reference to large-scale deportations of foreigners.
The BfV's move sparked fresh calls for the party to be banned and an indignant reaction from the AfD itself, which mounted a legal challenge to the designation on Monday.  
clp-jsk/fz/bc

pope

Pink smoke signals in Rome call for women priests

BY DAVE CLARK

  • In the global church as a whole, women have begun to take some senior lay roles, a process that accelerated a little under Pope Francis's papacy.
  • Excluded from the conclave to elect a new pope Wednesday -- and more broadly from the Church's entire global priesthood -- some Catholic women were determined that their voices will be heard.
  • In the global church as a whole, women have begun to take some senior lay roles, a process that accelerated a little under Pope Francis's papacy.
Excluded from the conclave to elect a new pope Wednesday -- and more broadly from the Church's entire global priesthood -- some Catholic women were determined that their voices will be heard.
In a park on a hill overlooking the dome of St Peter's and the church's Vatican headquarters, campaigners released pink smoke from flares, and demanded that women be allowed to seek ordination.
"We are saying to the cardinals, you cannot keep ignoring 50 percent of the Catholic population, you cannot go into a locked room and discuss the future of the Church without half of the Church," said Miriam Duignan.
"Whoever they elect needs to be brave enough to properly tackle the question of women's inclusion, because so far it has not been, even by Pope Francis," said Duignan, of the Wijngaards Institute in Cambridge.
Duignan was briefly detained in 2011 after she attempted to enter the Vatican to deliver a petition in support of a priest backing the activists' cause.
Had the activists taken their Wednesday protest -- a nod to the black and white smoke used by the Holy See to announce voting results -- to the Vatican, they believe a similar fate would have awaited them. 
"Whenever we go down to St Peter's Square, we are detained by the police ... and we are certainly not invited to go into the conclave," Duignan said 
"The only women that those 133 men will see in the next few days will be nuns who are cleaning their rooms and serving them food and tidying up after them."
The cardinals meeting Wednesday behind closed doors in the Sistine Chapel will not hear any female opinions during deliberations expected to last days, with multiple rounds of voting.
The only women they will see before white smoke rises to announce their decision has been made will be the nuns who cook, clean and serve upon them in the Santa Marta guesthouse.
In the global church as a whole, women have begun to take some senior lay roles, a process that accelerated a little under Pope Francis's papacy.
But even those who have studied theology and church ministry are excluded from the priesthood, and only priests hold the most senior leadership roles.
"Yes, Pope Francis elevated and promoted a few women into roles of responsibility, but they are always lower in status and authority than a man," said Duignan. 
"Even the youngest priest in the room is the boss of the oldest, more experienced woman."

'A sin and a scandal'

The campaigners say women took equal roles in worship in the early Church, before medieval reforms, and that, in Duignan's words, "the men who are going into the Sistine Chapel this afternoon know that, and they don't want everyone else to know that." 
Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference campaign group, described this as an injustice and a "crisis" for the church.
"While the world may wait for white smoke or black smoke, we send up pink smoke as our hope that the Church may someday welcome women as equals," she said. 
French activist Gabrielle Fidelin called it "a sin and a scandal that women are kept out of priesthood and the conclave."
According to Duignan, even after Francis's relatively reformist 12-year pontificate, only one of the 133 cardinal electors to be sequestered in conclave has taken a positive stance on women's ordination.
And she was reluctant to identify him by name, in case he found himself expelled from the gathering.
This despite the once taboo issue being given an airing in the Synod -- an assembly of clergy, clerics and laypeople -- which under Francis has included female members.
In October last year, a report was issued after Francis approved a working party to look into the idea of allowing women to become deacons -- a step before the priesthood.
It acknowledged that "the question of women's access to diaconal ministry remains open" but concluded that it was too soon to make a decision.
dc/ub/giv

UAE

Disney announces new theme park in Abu Dhabi

  • The announcement comes ahead of US President Donald Trump's upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next week.
  • The Walt Disney Company announced plans Wednesday for a new theme park in the United Arab Emirates, highlighting the country's growing prominence as a global financial and entertainment hub.
  • The announcement comes ahead of US President Donald Trump's upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next week.
The Walt Disney Company announced plans Wednesday for a new theme park in the United Arab Emirates, highlighting the country's growing prominence as a global financial and entertainment hub.
The waterfront resort will be located on Abu Dhabi's Yas Island and developed in partnership with local firm Miral. 
Disney stated that it aims to attract tourists from "the Middle East and Africa, India, Asia, Europe, and beyond."
The announcement comes ahead of US President Donald Trump's upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next week.
"Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati," said Disney CEO Robert Iger in a statement, promising "an oasis of extraordinary Disney entertainment at this crossroads of the world."
The company stated that the new resort will blend Disney's "iconic stories, characters and attractions with Abu Dhabi's vibrant culture, stunning shorelines, and breathtaking architecture."
Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be the seventh Disney resort since the original Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California in 1955. 
Other Disney destinations are located in Florida, Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Iger told analysts that the location was chosen to bring the Disney experience closer to hundreds of millions of customers for whom visiting its other six locations "was pretty lengthy in nature and expensive."
He also noted the success of existing attractions in Abu Dhabi, including the Louvre museum and the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim, which is currently under construction.
Miral group operates numerous hotels, resorts, and amusement parks in Abu Dhabi including Warner Brothers World, Ferrari World and Sea World.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Disney Experiences chairman Josh D'Amaro described the new park and resort as the company's most "modern" and "tech-forward" destination. 
He added that in an unusual arrangement for Disney, the park would be funded, built, and ultimately operated by the Miral group "with oversight of course from us."
"But we're very confident in this part of the world, with this partner, that this is the appropriate business arrangement," he added.
The new park announcement coincided with Disney reporting a robust increase in quarterly revenues, which sent its shares skyrocketing.
The company said overall sales increased seven percent to $23.6 billion in the January to March period. 
Crucially, subscribers to its Disney+ streaming service grew to 126 million, adding 1.4 million new subscriptions, contrary to analysts' expectations of a decline. 
The Experiences segment, which includes theme parks, saw revenue increase to $8.9 billion.
da-bgs-arp/bfm

media

Hit by Trump cuts, journalists at Dubai-based US channel face uncertain future

BY MAHA LOUBARIS

  • Another Alhurra journalist in Dubai, who also did not want to be named, said he was facing an "uncertain professional future" after eight years at the channel. 
  • Sara, a Dubai-based journalist, joined the US-funded Alhurra TV news channel hoping for job security.
  • Another Alhurra journalist in Dubai, who also did not want to be named, said he was facing an "uncertain professional future" after eight years at the channel. 
Sara, a Dubai-based journalist, joined the US-funded Alhurra TV news channel hoping for job security. But after it abruptly stopped broadcasting and fired most staff, she's wondering how to make ends meet.
Alhurra, the only Arabic-language US station in a region where anti-American feeling is common, went off-air last month, hit by widespread cuts under President Donald Trump.
The station, which has struggled to compete in a crowded market that includes Qatar's Al Jazeera, had already sacked 25 percent of its workforce after budget cuts last September.
It is also out of kilter with Trump, a frequent critic of traditional media who will visit the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf monarchies this month.
But Alhurra's sudden closure came as a shock. On April 12, all 99 employees in Dubai, its Middle East headquarters, received an email titled "Thank you for your service", informing them of their immediate dismissal.
Sara, who asked to use a pseudonym to speak freely about the situation, said they are now fighting for the end-of-service payments mandated by law in the UAE.
"We're living a horror movie," she told AFP. 
"My income was suddenly cut off, and I have family commitments and a bank loan. What will happen if I can't pay the instalments?"
The defunding of Alhurra, along with other outlets under the federal US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) such as Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, is being challenged in US courts.
But the Dubai staff hold out little hope of being reinstated. Meanwhile, the stress has "driven us into psychological ruin", said Sara, who is in her thirties.

'Dialogue between leaders'

Dubai's authorities are closely monitoring the case and providing assistance, including by relaxing the usual practice of quickly cancelling residence permits for those without a job, Alhurra journalists told AFP.
According to Mutlaq al-Mutairi, a media specialist at Saudi Arabia's King Saud University, the cuts were in line with shifts in messaging under Trump.
The United States no longer uses media as "they used to do in the past to communicate their political vision, especially on the question of terrorism", Mutairi said.
Instead, Trump now directly "relies on dialogue between leaders and governments" to get his message across, he told AFP.
Washington established Alhurra in 2004, the year after the invasion of Iraq, as a soft power tool to counterbalance the influence of Al Jazeera, which had been broadcasting since 1996.
The US news channel claims a weekly audience of more than 30 million people in 22 Arab countries.
It is the flagship of Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), part of USAGM -- an independent federal agency that funds media outlets.
However, the Trump administration -- which placed USAGM under the leadership of Kari Lake, an ultra-conservative former TV news anchor -- condemned it as a "corrupt giant and a burden on American taxpayers".
USAGM had 3,384 employees in fiscal year 2023 and had requested $950 million in funding for the current fiscal year. 

'Kill strategy'

Jeffrey Gedmin, MBN's president and CEO for just over a year, said the company had gone from around 500 employees to "about 40".
"The Trump administration, in my view, is not particularly fond of this kind of independent media," he told AFP, describing the cuts as a "kill strategy".
"I think what the Trump administration is doing is simply unwise. I think it's going to harm, reputationally, the United States of America."
Given the recent job losses, many of Alhurra's staff were not surprised it closed. But they were taken aback by the speed of events.
"The decision (to close) was expected, but we didn't imagine it would happen so quickly," said an employee at MBN's Virginia headquarters.
"They threw us out into the street," the employee added.
Michael Robbins, director of the Arab Barometer research network, pointed to Alhurra's limited success competing with Al Jazeera, as well as the BBC, which "already provided news in Arabic from a Western perspective and had a much longer reputation". 
"Few in the region turn to Alhurra as their primary source of information," he added.
Another Alhurra journalist in Dubai, who also did not want to be named, said he was facing an "uncertain professional future" after eight years at the channel. 
"We are shunned (by media) in most Arab countries because we worked for the Americans," said the 56-year-old. 
Gedmin said he was "in complete solidarity" with the laid-off employees. "We're fighting to see if we can help them at least somewhat," he said.
ml/th/jsa/cms

auction

Sotheby's postpones historical gems auction after India backlash

  • The Indian Ministry of Culture issued a legal notice on Monday calling the jewels "inalienable religious and cultural heritage of India and the global Buddhist community" and said the sale violated Indian and international law.
  • Sotheby's in Hong Kong postponed an auction of gems with ties to early Buddhism on Wednesday after opposition from India, which said the jewels were the country's religious and cultural heritage.
  • The Indian Ministry of Culture issued a legal notice on Monday calling the jewels "inalienable religious and cultural heritage of India and the global Buddhist community" and said the sale violated Indian and international law.
Sotheby's in Hong Kong postponed an auction of gems with ties to early Buddhism on Wednesday after opposition from India, which said the jewels were the country's religious and cultural heritage.
The Piprahwa gems, which the auction house said dated back to around 200 BC and were unearthed in 1898 by Englishman William Claxton Peppe in northern India, were scheduled to go under the hammer in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
The Indian Ministry of Culture issued a legal notice on Monday calling the jewels "inalienable religious and cultural heritage of India and the global Buddhist community" and said the sale violated Indian and international law.
It asked for the auction to be cancelled and the jewels repatriated to India, as well as an apology and full disclosure of provenance documents, according to the notice posted on X.
Sotheby's said on Wednesday morning that the auction has been postponed "in light of the matters raised by the Government of India and with the agreement of the consignors".
"This will allow for discussions between the parties, and we look forward to sharing any updates as appropriate," the auction house said in a statement.
Sotheby's said the night before that the auction would "proceed as planned".
The Indian Ministry of Culture wrote on X that it was "pleased to inform" readers that the auction was postponed following its intervention.
The gems in the Hong Kong auction were part of a collection of close to 1,800 gems and precious metal sheets -- including amethysts, pearls and gold pieces worked into small beads.
They were excavated at the Piprahwa village near the Buddha's birthplace and have been attributed to a clan linked to the religious figure.
Indian authorities said an inscription on one of the caskets confirms the contents -- which include bone fragments -- as "relics of the Buddha, deposited by the Sakya clan".
In an article written for Sotheby's, Chris Peppe said his ancestor "gave the gems, the relics and the reliquaries to the Indian government" and that his family kept "a small portion" of the discovery.
hol/cms

agriculture

Tobacco town thrives as China struggles to kick the habit

BY AGATHA CANTRILL AND MATTHEW WALSH

  • Named for a centuries-old pagoda painted scarlet after the country's communist takeover, it is owned by state-run monopoly the China National Tobacco Corporation and offers visitors factory tours, a museum and a tobacco-themed cultural park.
  • Visitors mill around a bright red hilltop pagoda in southwestern China, gazing down at a sprawling cigarette factory whose deadly output has put an otherwise unremarkable city on the map.
  • Named for a centuries-old pagoda painted scarlet after the country's communist takeover, it is owned by state-run monopoly the China National Tobacco Corporation and offers visitors factory tours, a museum and a tobacco-themed cultural park.
Visitors mill around a bright red hilltop pagoda in southwestern China, gazing down at a sprawling cigarette factory whose deadly output has put an otherwise unremarkable city on the map.
China is home to a third of the world's smokers and tobacco-related diseases are a major cause of death in the country -- a trend likely to worsen as its population rapidly ages.
Beijing hopes to dramatically reduce that by the end of the decade, but even the government machine is struggling to achieve that as it clashes with a powerful state tobacco monopoly and local economies reliant on the crop.
That contradiction smoulders in Yuxi, Yunnan province, whose nascent tourism businesses and local farmers thrive on its history of cigarette production.
A mostly agricultural area where incomes lag behind the national average, the city has firmly hitched its fortunes to tobacco, which accounted for almost a third of its gross domestic product in the first quarter of last year, according to official figures.
That income helps "pay for our children's schooling or to build a house", farmer Li told AFP as her husband ploughed furrows into a hilltop field.
She said her family can earn up to 60,000 yuan ($8,300) annually from the tobacco harvest, far exceeding other crops with more variable prices.
Tobacco also brings tourists to Yuxi -- local firm Hongta, or "red tower", is one of China's most prominent cigarette brands.
Named for a centuries-old pagoda painted scarlet after the country's communist takeover, it is owned by state-run monopoly the China National Tobacco Corporation and offers visitors factory tours, a museum and a tobacco-themed cultural park.

Up in smoke

"Yuxi's cigarettes are quite famous, so we've always wanted to come and have a look," said a tourist surnamed Dong from the northeastern city of Dalian.
Foreign cigarettes, he claimed, "don't put the same demand on quality".
China is the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco and has more than 300 million smokers, according to the World Health Organization.
As trains pull into stations across China, passengers frequently jump off for a quick cigarette on the platform before continuing their journey.
Indoor smoking bans are loosely enforced and the stench of tobacco smoke is commonplace, from public toilets to taxis and late-night eateries.
Beijing says it aims to reduce the number of smokers from around a quarter of the population to a fifth by 2030.
Progress has been slow. The number of smokers fell just 14 percent between 2010 and 2022, well below the average for richer nations, a study by a Chinese think tank found last year.
Policymakers must also navigate the interests of China Tobacco, which controls virtually all of the domestic production, processing and distribution.
The company has a chokehold on a domestic tobacco sector that last year generated a record 1.6 trillion yuan ($220 billion) in taxes and profits.
The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, responsible for industry oversight, has been criticised by researchers for being essentially the same organisation under a different name.
This means the country's largest cigarette manufacturer is its own regulator, in what has been decried by public health advocates as a clear conflict of interest and an impediment to effective tobacco controls.
The firm touts its contribution to the economy, but researchers into China's tobacco market argue that the revenue does not outweigh the health costs.

Changing times

A recent study found that the annual economic cost of cigarette smoking in China -- estimated at 2.43 trillion yuan in 2020 -- was approximately 1.6 times greater than the gains from the industry.
"Stronger tobacco control policies can reduce smoking prevalence without severely harming government revenue," Qinghua Nian at the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told AFP.
Efforts to curb cigarette consumption at home have coincided with an overseas push from Hongta and other tobacco brands.
The country exported more than $9 billion in tobacco and tobacco products in 2023, up from less than $1.5 billion five years prior, according to the United Nations.
Beneath Yuxi's looming red pagoda, tourist Dong said smoking was slowly losing its appeal among younger generations.
"As society develops, some things are progressing and it's better to smoke less," he said.
"My children and grandchildren don't smoke at all."
But nearby, a worker surnamed Long watching over tobacco seedlings in a greenhouse at a plant nursery said the crop was still a good way to earn a living.
"Tobacco used to be a couple of yuan per pound, but now it's a couple of dozen yuan," the 54-year-old said.
"This critical industry is still a good source of income for farmers."
ac-mjw/oho/je/dan/pst

economy

Indonesia's silvermen beg to make ends meet

BY BAPTISTE ANSE

  • When the cars come to a stop they strike robotic poses in front of the drivers. 
  • On a rainy day in Indonesia's capital Jakarta, three men coated in metallic paint known as the "manusia silver", or silvermen, brave the elements at an intersection near a mall to ask drivers for change.
  • When the cars come to a stop they strike robotic poses in front of the drivers. 
On a rainy day in Indonesia's capital Jakarta, three men coated in metallic paint known as the "manusia silver", or silvermen, brave the elements at an intersection near a mall to ask drivers for change.
It is an arresting act that comes with health risks, one some young Indonesians feel is necessary to make ends meet as the cost of living worsens and jobs dwindle after the Covid pandemic. 
"I'm ashamed to earn money like this. I want to find a real, more dignified job," said Ari Munandar, 25.
"But the embarrassment disappears when you remember that your daughter and your wife are at home."
Barefoot, dressed only in shorts and daubed head to toe by the irritating paint, Ari, his brother Keris and their friend Riyan Ahmad Fazriyansah each take a lane in the road.
When the cars come to a stop they strike robotic poses in front of the drivers. 
"Good afternoon, have a nice drive," says Ari.
The poses have little meaning other than to attract cash.
"I do them because one day I saw a friend earn more by doing them," he said, moving between cars, holding out a bucket for donations.
On a good day they can pocket up to 200,000 rupiah ($12), but typically earn around 120,000. 
That's much less than Jakarta's monthly minimum wage of five million rupiah and barely enough to cover daily expenses.
"I'm not going to eat lunch, just drink and smoke," said Ari.
Every penny counts in a country where prices have risen steadily in recent years. 
A kilogram (two pounds) of rice, the archipelago's main staple, jumped by 27 percent between 2015 and 2025, according to statistics agency data.
And behind the paint, the friends are clearly undernourished. 
None are taller than 172 centimetres (five feet eight inches) nor weigh more than 55 kilograms.

 'Stings my eyes'

A lack of employment opportunity is the main cause of young men and women taking to the streets, they say.
"Since I was made redundant in 2019 I've been begging," said Ari.
"Before that, I worked cleaning toilets."
According to government data, the number of people living below the poverty line in metropolitan Jakarta -- a megalopolis of 11 million people -- was up from 362,000 in 2019 to 449,000 as of September 2024.
"Many young people with few qualifications between the ages of 20 and 40 have found themselves unemployed," said Bhima Yudistira, executive director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies.
"Even though there is no national count, there has been a huge rise in begging in Jakarta after the pandemic of 2021."
After five hours at the intersection, the group returns home by hitchhiking a ride from a tuk-tuk.
The three pile into the back, counting their meagre earnings and lighting a cigarette to share.
Once dropped off, they walk by a polluted river and across a railway line to their Jakarta slum.
Far from the capital's high-rises, children play near the tracks to the rhythm of the trains as Ari makes his way back to remove the silver.
The paint, similar to that used for screen-printing on fabric, is not easy to remove.
Squatting in front of a well and buckets filled with water, he splashes his body before scrubbing fiercely, his one-year-old daughter Arisya watching. 
"At first the paint burned and I had a blister on my neck, but now it only stings my eyes," he said.
The shower reveals a new, younger man.
Once dry, he heads home to play with Arisya.
"As soon as I'm here I forget all the fatigue and the hardship," he says, smiling.
"But I hope she never does what I do."
btp/jfx/fox/pst

military

Top US court allows Trump's ban on trans troops to take effect

BY W.G. DUNLOP

  • The Supreme Court's decision to allow the ban to take effect means thousands of currently serving troops could be removed from the ranks.
  • A divided US Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump's ban on transgender military personnel to take effect while litigation plays out, putting thousands of troops at risk of dismissal.
  • The Supreme Court's decision to allow the ban to take effect means thousands of currently serving troops could be removed from the ranks.
A divided US Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump's ban on transgender military personnel to take effect while litigation plays out, putting thousands of troops at risk of dismissal.
The ruling -- which the court's three liberal justices opposed -- is a significant victory for Trump, who has made rolling back transgender rights a major part of his second term in office, and has railed against judges who blocked parts of his agenda.
Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation -- which filed the lawsuit that had resulted in a lower court temporarily blocking the implementation of the ban -- slammed the Supreme Court's decision.
The ruling "is a devastating blow to transgender servicemembers who have demonstrated their capabilities and commitment to our nation's defense," the organizations said in a statement .
"Transgender individuals meet the same standards and demonstrate the same values as all who serve. We remain steadfast in our belief that this ban violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection and will ultimately be struck down," they said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt hailed the ruling as "another MASSIVE victory in the Supreme Court," saying in a post on X that Trump and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth "are restoring a military that is focused on readiness and lethality -- not DEI or woke gender ideology."
Hegseth meanwhile responded to the news with a post on his personal X account that said: "No More Trans @ DoD."
In a January 27 executive order, Trump stated that "expressing a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service."

Shifting policies

The Pentagon followed that up with a memo issued in late February stating that it would remove transgender troops from the military unless they obtain a waiver on a case-by-case basis, as well as prevent transgender people from joining.
The Supreme Court's decision to allow the ban to take effect means thousands of currently serving troops could be removed from the ranks.
The restrictions in the Pentagon memo are aimed at those who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria -- of whom there were 4,240 serving in the military as of late last year, according to a senior defense official -- as well as those who have a history of the condition or exhibit symptoms of it.
Transgender Americans have faced a roller coaster of changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to permit them to serve openly, while Trump has sought to keep them out of the ranks.
The US military lifted a ban on transgender troops in 2016, during Democrat Barack Obama's second term as president.
Under that policy, trans troops already serving were permitted to do so openly, and transgender recruits were set to start being accepted by July 1, 2017.
But the first Trump administration postponed that date to 2018 before deciding to reverse the policy entirely.
Trump's restrictions on transgender military service -- which underwent changes in response to various legal challenges -- eventually came into force in April 2019 following a protracted legal battle that went all the way to the nation's top court.
His Democratic successor Joe Biden moved to reverse the restrictions just days after he took office in 2021, but Trump was reelected last year after making clear he would again seek to target transgender rights.
Transgender issues have roiled US politics in recent years, as states controlled by Democrats and Republicans have moved in opposite directions on policies ranging from medical treatment to what books on the topic are allowed in public or school libraries.
wd/md

aid

Colombia's desert north feels the pain of Trump's cuts

BY VALENTíN DÌAZ

  • But even rich Western aid groups are also feeling the pain of US spending cuts.
  • For residents of Colombia's largest migrant camp, an already tough life is getting tougher thanks to Donald Trump's aid cuts.
  • But even rich Western aid groups are also feeling the pain of US spending cuts.
For residents of Colombia's largest migrant camp, an already tough life is getting tougher thanks to Donald Trump's aid cuts.
Eight months pregnant and 20 years old, Astrid lives on an abandoned dust-blown airstrip in Colombia's Guajira desert.
Home is a lean-to shack, cobbled together from tin sheets and lumber.
It is not much, but it protects her and her five-year-old son -- who is paralyzed with encephalopathy -- from the blistering equatorial sun.
"What do I lack? Everything," the Venezuelan single mother tells AFP. "Nothing here is mine."
Like many of La Pista's 10,000-14,000 residents, Astrid fled nearby Venezuela, where poverty, hardship and organized crime are endemic.
Without running water, a bathroom, or even money to attend prenatal checkups, Astrid dreams of working and giving her children "a home."
But in La Pista malnutrition is common and many depend on aid handouts to survive. 
Since Trump returned as US president in January, cuts to aid arm USAID have been keenly felt in this ad-hoc settlement, where children skip barefoot past dogs and cows rummaging in the garbage for food.
Trump and his cost-cutting sidekick Elon Musk have argued that the US federal budget is bloated, that spending is unsustainable and that Americans, not foreigners, should benefit from any tax-payer largesse.
USAID was effectively shuttered and its annual budget of close to $43 billion -- providing more than 40 percent of the world's humanitarian aid -- was decimated.
Local mayor Miguel Aragon said the US cuts felt like "a cold bucket of water." 
Of the 28 non-governmental groups that existed in the area last year, only three remain today, he said.
"Today we feel alone," says the 37-year-old politician, who fears disaster is on the way.
- 'Rice with cheese' - 
Inside a local medical center, several women with babies wait to be attended. 
Luz Marina, a 40-year-old Colombian, is there with her five-year-old son who is underweight. She has experienced US politics first-hand. 
Earlier this year, she was chosen to receive aid, only to be told it was cancelled due to decisions in Washington.
"I didn't get to receive anything," she says through tears. "It's so sad, it was something I truly needed." 
With the help of nutritional supplements, Luz Marina's son had managed to gain some weight.
But that progress is now at risk due to a lack of food.
"It's not the same to eat rice with chicken as it is to eat rice with cheese," she told AFP. 
Humanitarian groups have tried to alleviate some of the hardships, and the Colombian state provides potable water once a week to households. 
But even rich Western aid groups are also feeling the pain of US spending cuts.
At a local school, until recently kids played instruments, sang and took workshops.
But the Save the Children-run project closed after the cuts reduced its Colombia budget by 40 percent.
Country director Maria Mercedes Lievano fears that the closure of such projects will create a "greater risk of people entering criminal groups."
"Having to turn our backs on the people we were supporting is very difficult," Lievano says, her voice choking. "It hurts a lot.
vd/lv/arb/st

libel

'Wagatha Christie': Vardy and Rooney settle on legal costs

  • Rebekah is married to English footballer Jamie Vardy, while Coleen is the wife of former Manchester United star Wayne Rooney.
  • The years-long libel battle between England footballer wife Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney drew to a close on Tuesday with a specialist UK court ordering Vardy to pay some £1.4 million to her rival.
  • Rebekah is married to English footballer Jamie Vardy, while Coleen is the wife of former Manchester United star Wayne Rooney.
The years-long libel battle between England footballer wife Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney drew to a close on Tuesday with a specialist UK court ordering Vardy to pay some £1.4 million to her rival.
In the final leg of the "Wagatha Christie" saga, Vardy's lawyer told a court she was willing to pay £1.2 million of Rooney's legal costs for a failed libel suit.
Rebekah is married to English footballer Jamie Vardy, while Coleen is the wife of former Manchester United star Wayne Rooney.
Rebekah Vardy launched the libel case against Coleen Rooney over a 2019 social media post alleging that Vardy's Instagram account had leaked Rooney's personal information to The Sun newspaper.
In 2022, a High Court judge found the allegations made by Rooney were "substantially true", and that Vardy was complicit in the release of information to The Sun by her agent.
The judge had ordered Vardy to pay 90 percent of Rooney's legal bill, or some £1.5 million in the 2022 verdict.
Now, after years of wrangling over the legal costs, Vardy's lawyer told a specialist court she had agreed to pay £1.2 million towards Rooney's legal costs.
A costs judge ruled she must pay an additional £212,000, bringing the total to around £1.4 million.
Three years ago, the trial laid bare tabloid double-dealing and the lives of the rich and famous. 
Huge interest in the very public falling-out of the two WAGs, or wives and girlfriends of high-profile footballers, generated wall-to-wall coverage.
The internet dubbed Coleen Rooney "Wagatha Christie" for her elaborate sleuthing to determine who was behind the media leaks.
Costs Judge Mark Whalan said he was "generally happy" the outcome was a "commercially satisfactory conclusion for both sides".
He said there had been an "extraordinary expenditure" by both parties.
"I do mean it when I say that I hope that this is the end of a long and unhappy road," the judge added.
aks/jkb/cw

pope

Move over Met Ball. For fashion wow head to the Vatican

BY ALEXANDRIA SAGE

  • And don't forget the Swiss Guards, the papal garrison wearing the Vatican's loudest colours.
  • Forget feathers, fringe and sparkles.
  • And don't forget the Swiss Guards, the papal garrison wearing the Vatican's loudest colours.
Forget feathers, fringe and sparkles. But if bold and brash colour is your thing, look no further than the conclave at the Vatican.
While the world's fashionistas have been eyeing the 2025 Met Gala in New York -- with audacious looks from leather-clad Kim Kardashian and Madonna in ivory satin -- in Rome another display of pageantry is poised for its moment in the sun. 
Starting on Wednesday, 133 cardinal electors charged with naming the next leader of the Catholic Church will be ablaze in the colour palette's most vibrant tone -- scarlet. 
The dazzling red, symbolising the blood of Christ, is the colour that marks cardinals out from lower-ranking prelates.
But for special occasions -- like the conclave to choose the next pope, held under Michelangelo's frescoed ceiling in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel -- they pull out all the stops.
The base of their so-called "choir dress" is the full-length red cassock, with 33 buttons down the front, partially covered by a rochet, a white garment with a lace border.
Covering the torso to the elbows is the red mozzetta, or short cape, atop which the cardinal wears his imposing pectoral cross.
The zucchetto, or silk skullcap, is worn on the head, covered by the biretta, the rigid, square-sided cap.  
In St Peter's Square on Tuesday, British tourist Stephanie Linnell, 56, marvelled at "the colours they'll use (and) this setting".
Michael Archibald, 54, added that irrespective of one's religion, "it's still an occasion that will blow you away".
But Lidia Spiezia, 75, grumbled that anyone not born into the Latin Catholic tradition wouldn't understand the rituals preceding the new pope's election. 
"For our culture it's a sacred thing," said the Roman.
"It's not a theatrical spectacle."

Vatican's loudest colours

The cardinals will on Wednesday afternoon walk in procession to the Sistine Chapel for their vote.
They will be accompanied by lower-ranking members of the church, whether bishops or monseigneurs dressed in another eye-popping shade -- fuchsia. 
And don't forget the Swiss Guards, the papal garrison wearing the Vatican's loudest colours.
Their uniforms, characterised by a cinched vest and roomy breeches, carry the Medici family colours in vertical stripes of red, dark blue and orange-yellow. 
The procession may be a colourful affair but it's hardly frivolous, with centuries of tradition and the solemnity of the event behind each ritual, liturgical object and item of clothing. 
"It's not the building. It's not the vestments. It's the spirituality," said Capuchin friar Kaisar Sihombing.
"There is something deeper."
The Indonesian friar, 35, was milling in St Peter's Square on Tuesday, dressed in the sober brown tunic and cord around the waist that mark the Franciscan orders, which take a vow of poverty.
The conclave's pomp and circumstance, he said, is "all part of the identity of the Church -- there's nothing wrong with it".
In his forward to a 2018 exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art -- site of the Met Gala -- on "Fashion and the Catholic Imagination", curator Andrew Bolton called dress "fundamental" to any discussion about religion.
"Although some might regard fashion as a frivolous pursuit far removed from the sanctity of religion, most of the vestments worn by the secular clergy and religious orders of the Catholic Church actually have their origins in secular dress," he wrote.
Throughout the Church's history, such garments have "affirmed religious allegiances, asserted religious differences, and functioned to distinguish hierarchies as well as gender," he wrote. 
ams/ar/gil