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What to know as UK hosts Eurovision Song Contest for Ukraine

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Last week, Britain crowned a king. This week, it will help bestow Europe’s pop crown.

The Eurovision Song Contest is returning to the U.K. for the first time in 25 years, but the heart of the glitzy music competition will be in Ukraine.

Britain is hosting the event on behalf of the war-battered country, and organizers have vowed to make it a celebration of Ukrainian spirit and culture.

The contest will see musical acts from 37 countries perform original songs in the English city of Liverpool, with semi-finals Tuesday and Thursday and a grand final on Saturday watched by an estimated 160 million people.

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For fans and first-timers alike, here’s an essential Eurovision guide:

WHAT IS EUROVISION, ANYWAY?

First staged in 1956, Eurovision was founded to help unite a shattered continent after World War II and to test nascent live-broadcasting technology.

Initially a sedate affair featuring crooners in ballgowns and tuxedos, it began to let its hair down during the swinging 60s and reached pop perfection in 1974, when ABBA won with “Waterloo,” propelling the band toward superstardom and jump-starting Sweden’s music industry.

Since then, the contest has expanded across Europe and beyond – Israel and Australia are both entrants – with ever-more elaborate staging and eye-popping costumes.

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Eurovision also has become a celebration of diversity, with a huge LGBTQ+ following that celebrated when Israel’s Dana International became the contest’s first transgender winner in 1998.

Above all, the competition is a crash course in the continent’s wonderfully varied musical tastes. Winners have ranged from Canadian chanteuse Celine Dion, who competed for Switzerland in 1988, to fright mask-wearing Finnish metalheads Lordi in 2006 and bearded Austrian drag performer Conchita Wurst in 2014.

Last year, Ukrainian folk-rap band Kalush Orchestra triumphed, delivering a morale boost for a country battling Russia’s invasion.

Paul Jordan, an expert on the contest who is known as “Dr. Eurovision,” said the competition has become a treasured part of European culture.

“You can go to Spain, Slovenia, wherever — everyone’s heard of it,” he said. “They may not love it, they may not like it, they may not watch it, but everyone’s heard of it. Everyone’s got an opinion. I think it’s really powerful, and it’s a brilliant icebreaker.”

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WHERE POP MEETS POLITICS

Eurovision is about much more than music. It’s diplomacy with a disco beat, a forum in which countries can boost their profiles and play out regional rivalries.

Organizers strive to keep pop and politics apart; overtly political symbols and lyrics are prohibited. But global tensions have often imposed themselves on the contest. Ukraine has several times used its entries to criticize Russia, winning in 2016 with a song about the expulsion of Crimea’s Tatars by Stalin in 1944.

Russia was banned from the contest last year after it invaded Ukraine. Belarus had been kicked out the previous year over its government’s clampdown on dissent.

Dean Vuletic, an academic expert on Eurovision, said that by banning Russia, Eurovision lost one of its biggest national audiences and “one of its most enthusiastic participants.”

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“But Eurovision is also a platform on which values are expressed, around which values are constructed,” Vuletic said, and pressure from member nations forced the European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, to act.

Eurovision “has always reflected cultural, political and social change in Europe,” he said. “(It’s) a way to measure the zeitgeist in Europe.”

A MUSICAL MELANGE

Eurovision was long associated with fluffy 3-minute pop songs — previous winners include the likes of “La, La, La” and “Boom Bang-a-Bang.”

But Vuletic says it’s no longer “the contest with silly songs, innocuous lyrics that it perhaps used to be.” He says a third of this year’s entries deal lyrically with “toxic relationships, anxiety” and other mental-health issues. Another batch of songs are about war.

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Musically, contestants range from pop ballads like “Power” by Iceland’s Diljá and relationship-breakup dance track “I Wrote a Song” by Britain’s Mae Muller to the electronica of “Heart of Steel” by Ukraine’s Tvorchi. Austrian duo Teya & Salena offer an offbeat tribute to Edgar Allen Poe, “Who the Hell is Edgar?” while Croatia’s Let 3 belts out antiwar rock opera “Mama ŠČ!”

Eurovision’s complex voting system, which awards points from juries of music industry professionals as well as viewers across Europe, makes winners notoriously hard to predict.

Bookmakers’ favorites include Finnish entry Käärijä’s pop-metal party tune “Cha Cha Cha” and power ballad “Tattoo” by Sweden’s Loreen, who previously won the contest in 2012. Singer La Zarra, competing for France, is also highly ranked for her Edith Piaf-esque chanson “Évidemment.”

U.K.-UKRAINE FUSION

The U.K. stepped in to host the contest for Ukraine after last year’s British entry, Sam Ryder, finished second. As Ryder put it: “It’s Ukraine’s party. We’re just inviting them to throw it at our house.”

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The final will be co-hosted by Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina and will feature a performance by Kalush Orchestra and other representatives of Ukrainian culture. Several thousand Ukrainian refugees in Britain have received tickets to attend.

Ryder’s strong showing last year with “Spaceman” helped transform Eurovision’s image in the U.K. Long viewed as a guilty pleasure – amid perennial grumbling over the country’s poor results — it now a source of pride and celebration.

Several U.K. cities competed to host the event, and winner Liverpool is in party mood. The port city that gave birth to The Beatles went through tough times as U.K. industry collapsed in the late 20th century. It has since reinvented itself as a hub for sports, culture and nightlife – a resilience that fits well with Ukraine, Jordan says.

“It’s a real creative hub, and I think it’s going to be a brilliant host city — apart from the weather,” he said. 

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Harvey Weinstein expected in New York court after rape conviction overturned

Harvey Weinstein expected in New York court after rape conviction overturned

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Harvey Weinstein expected in New York court after rape conviction overturned

Harvey Weinstein is due to appear in state court in Manhattan on Wednesday for the first time since New York’s highest court threw out his 2020 rape conviction last week.

The hearing before Judge Curtis Farber will give prosecutors and Weinstein’s lawyers a chance to address the next steps for the former film mogul, which could include a new trial.

“Harvey is looking forward to his day in a fair court,” said Weinstein’s spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer.

Weinstein, 72, has been serving a 23-year sentence in a prison in upstate Rome, New York. He is currently at Bellevue Hospital, where he was transferred following last week’s order, according to Engelmayer.

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Jurors in Manhattan convicted Weinstein in February 2020 of sexually assaulting former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 and of raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013. They are among more than 80 women who have accused him of sexual misconduct.

The conviction included charges of first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape. Weinstein, who has denied having non-consensual sexual encounters with anyone, was acquitted on other charges.

The verdict was hailed as a milestone for the #MeToo movement, in which women accused hundreds of men in entertainment, media, politics and other fields of sexual misconduct.

Last week, the New York Court of Appeals found that Judge James Burke, who presided over the trial, made a critical mistake by allowing three women to testify about alleged sexual assaults by Weinstein that were not part of the criminal charges against him. The court said this “prior bad acts” testimony violated his right to a fair trial.

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has signaled it plans to retry Weinstein.

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“We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” Emily Tuttle, a spokesperson for Bragg, said in an email last week.

The case was brought by Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance.

Regardless of whether he is retried, Weinstein is not likely to be released from jail because he was also sentenced to 16 years following his separate rape trial in California. The two sentences cannot be served concurrently.

Burke is no longer on the bench, so any retrial would be before a different judge.

Weinstein co-founded the Miramax film studio, whose hit movies included “Shakespeare in Love” and “Pulp Fiction.” His own eponymous film studio filed for bankruptcy in March 2018.

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‘Operation Madonna’: Rio readies for singer’s free mega-concert

‘Operation Madonna’: Rio readies for singer’s free mega-concert

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'Operation Madonna': Rio readies for singer's free mega-concert

Madonna’s long-awaited free concert on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach has upended the neighborhood, with over a million fans expected — but for retired resident Mario Renato Borges, it’s the least the singer deserves.

“Welcome, Queen,” read some posters near the huge stage erected on the Brazilian beach, where Madonna will on Saturday give the biggest show of her 40-year career and the last of her “Celebration Tour.”

The 65-year-old American singer arrived in the coastal city on Monday after more than 80 shows in Europe, the United States and Mexico. This will be her only stop in South America.

The “Like A Virgin” and “Material Girl” performer traveled to Brazil with three planes and 270 tons of equipment, according to her production company.

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She has set up camp at the luxurious Copacabana Palace hotel, connected to the stage by a suspended catwalk that dozens of fans crowded under this week, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pop star.

The biggest dance floor

Thanks to free admission, organizers expect Madonna’s concert to produce the “world’s biggest dance floor” of up to 1.5 million people — a figure only reached on the same beach by the Rolling Stones in 2006.

“The traffic is chaos but the concert will be great, especially because it’s Madonna, the queen of pop,” says resident Borges, who lives in Leme, a neighborhood at the end of Copacabana Beach.

Madonna’s fourth performance in Rio will contribute some 293 million reais (US$57 million) to the local economy, an income 30 times higher than what city authorities invested, according to the mayor’s office.

Around 150,000 foreigners are expected to swarm the city, with most hotels already fully booked.

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“This will undoubtedly be one of Rio’s biggest international events. It will boost our economy and attract tourists from Brazil, Latin American and all over the world,” said the city’s Tourism Secretary Daniela Maia.

Return of the conical corset

Madonna fever is clear to see in Rio — the so-called “Marvelous City” — as the hours tick down to her performance.

At the Lix printing shop in the popular downtown Saara shopping district, the songs of the “Material Girl” are playing on loop to inspire devotees who can choose from personalized fans, hats or mugs.

Manager Livia Reis, 23, tells AFP that her store went viral on social media shortly after the concert was announced thanks to an influencer who visited the Madonna-inspired shop.

“A guy came in, took a photo and a video, and sent them to a fan club with 150,000 followers in Portugal. From there, it jumped to TikTok and Instagram,” she says.

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One particularly popular item is a replica of the conical corset created by French designer Jean Paul Gaultier, which Madonna famously wore on stage in 1990.

Sold as a bra or a top, the item is “doing very well,” says Reis, who expects there will be “queues out of the door” in the days ahead of the concert.

Patrols on the corners

“All this activity is good for tourism, hotels and restaurants. But let’s hope the security is up to the task,” says 68-year-old Rio local Borges.

The mayor’s office has prepared an operation equivalent to New Year’s Eve celebrations in Copacabana, one of the most famous in the world that typically brings down some one million people.

“Operation Madonna” will see some 4,500 agents deployed, working with drones and facial recognition cameras. There will be police patrols on almost every street corner in the neighborhood.

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Nagila Alves, 54, who works for a pest control company, was on her way to a client’s home when she stopped to take a photo of the impressive stage set up for Madonna.

“I will always love her. Madonna is timeless,” she tells AFP, adding she plans to delay her arrival on Saturday to dodge the crowds swarming to the front of the stage.

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Selena Gomez on social media: ‘I find it frustrating’

Selena Gomez on social media: ‘I find it frustrating’

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Selena Gomez on social media: 'I find it frustrating'

Selena Gomez feels frustrated by social media. The 31-year-old star has a huge online following, but Gomez often takes breaks from social media platforms to escape the negativity.

The brunette beauty – who has more than 400 million followers on Instagram – said at the TIME100 Summit: “I find it frustrating. Then I get a little mouthy and I want to defend the people I love.”

Gomez believes it’s important to take breaks from social media to retain a sense of perspective.

The actress – who is currently dating record producer Benny Blanco – explained: “I took four years off of Instagram, and I let my team post for me for those years. I felt like it was the most rewarding gift I gave myself.”

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Meanwhile, Gomez previously claimed that there’s “so much strength in being vulnerable”.

The Only Murders In The Building star has spoken openly about her mental health struggles over recent years, and Gomez admitted that she’s found it to be a “very freeing” experience.

She told Wondermind: “I don’t love giving advice because I don’t have all of the answers.

“I’d say, though, find a friend or a family member you feel comfortable talking with and open up about what you are feeling. It’s very freeing to open up to someone. There is so much strength in being vulnerable.”

Despite this, Gomez doesn’t have any regrets over how she’s dealt with her own struggles.

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The actress – who first found fame as a child – explained: “I try and not look back and wish anything could have been different. What I am happy about is that more people are opening up about their mental health.”

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