Author: staff
French authorities launched the investigation in August following a formal complaint by Jolly, who reported receiving numerous threats after the opening ceremony, which generated a backlash centered primarily around a segment titled “Festivity,” featuring dancers and drag performers in a scene some saw as reminiscent of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” The performance sparked outrage among various Christian groups, who accused Jolly of disrespecting Christianity, and drew criticism from right-wing politicians such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and former U.S. President Donald Trump. French DJ Barbara Butch, who performed during part of the ceremony, also filed several complaints…
Every year, Germany selects their annual ‘Youth Word of the Year’, which is voted for by youngsters around the country. Groovy. Fab. Boss. Swell. Awesome. Lit. There’s a new word quantifying coolness on the block, and it’s been selected by Germany’s youth as their trendy word of the year: “Aura”.German dictionary publisher Langenscheidt made the announcement, and while the word continues to refer to the Oxford Dictionary’s definition as “a distinctive ambience or quality generated by a person or thing,” Gen Z & Alpha have imbued the term with an extra layer to describe a person who has done something good. The cool…
Farage, who heads up the populist Reform UK party, is a close British ally of the former president and has frequently campaigned alongside him. The first British politician to meet Trump after his election win in 2016, Farage has also interviewed him on his GB News show and was sent a fawning birthday message by the ex-Oval Office occupant when he turned 60. The Reform UK leader — who was elected to parliament for the first time this year — ruled himself out of succeeding Karen Pierce as the next British ambassador in Washington, an unlikely outcome given the deep…
The Hungarian PM currently holds the rotating EU presidency, much to the consternation of many in Brussels. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has suggested that Poland’s government and its prime minister, Donald Tusk, were installed in power by the EU as part of a plot to remove the country’s previous right-wing populist leadership.The Tusk government was elected in 2023 in an election that saw voter turnout of nearly 74%, a record high.Orbán, who faces national elections in early 2026, likened what he believes to be Brussels’ meddling in domestic politics to that of the former Soviet Union.”They’re going to be…
Climate change is often associated with numbers and scientific reports, but through her photos, Esther Horvath wants to portray the humans who are collecting the data in Arctic expeditions. Esther Horvath’s photographs forming the centre of a new exhibition were taken at a research village said to be the epicentre of global warming. She stressed that climate change does not happen overnight. The research observing its effects is arduous and needs patience and Horvath’s photography documents the process.Since the 1990s, more and more women have become involved in that work. “You can be a fragile woman and still love the…
PSG was sanctioned last year after fans sang the same chant at their home field, the Parc des Princes, before a match against Marseille. This time, the stadium announcer attempted but failed to interrupt the chant, saying that the Qatari-owned club stands against homophobia and discrimination. Homophobic chants are a persistent issue in French football, not limited to the Parc des Princes. “Homophobic chants, clashes between supporter groups, assaults on law enforcement officers— we can no longer tolerate seeing intolerable behaviors every weekend in sports,” Retailleau wrote on X earlier this week. Unlike the sports minister, who proposed a strict…
Georgia’s parliamentary elections have been framed as an existential moment for democracy by activists who want to see the pro-Russian Georgian Dream ousted from power. “You can see these all over Tbilisi,” says Ana Tavadze, pointing to the blue and yellow European flag. The 27-year-old activist has been campaigning for three different organisations in the run-up to Georgia’s parliamentary elections on Saturday. “This election is an existential moment in Georgia’s history,” she said, reflecting on Georgians’ chance to shape the country’s future in the EU — or outside it.When polls open on Saturday, millions of Georgians at home and abroad…
The crew members completed more than 3,700 orbits around Earth. SpaceX’s Crew-8 successfully returned to Earth on Friday after staying at the International Space Station (ISS) for nearly eight months.A capsule carrying the crew parachuted before dawn into the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast after undocking from the ISS mid-week.The three Americans and one Russian should have been back two months ago.But their homecoming was stalled by problems with Boeing’s new Starliner astronaut capsule, which came back empty in September because of safety concerns.Then Hurricane Milton interfered, followed by another two weeks of high wind and rough…
Allowed only three twenty-minute stints outside each week, Floderus organized his life in his cell. When out of solitary confinement (Floderus spent a total of eight months alone), he became the undisputed boss of his cell. Fluent in Farsi, he set co-living rules to keep the cramped space clean, taught English and fashioned chess sets and playing cards out of cardboard. He filled his time by making decks of cards, playing poker sometimes (“That’s super illegal, according to Islamic law,” he added.) On Iranian State TV, Floderus watched the film Papillon about a wrongfully convicted man who escapes his imprisonment. …
The bombshell claims land at a critical time in the U.S. election campaign, but the businessman’s influence extends far beyond politics, via his social network platform X and his tech company SpaceX, through which he has megabucks government contracts and high-level security clearance to classified U.S. information. His Starlink satellite internet service highlights a key aspect of Musk’s influence: The billionaire gave Ukraine free access to his system after Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It was hailed as an important tool in Ukraine’s ability to fight back against Russian forces, but relations between Musk and…