2024-05-08 08:14:42
Saade proved the most controversial act of the evening, which saw Ukraine and Croatia advance to the finals.
The whole contest has been clouded by the participation of Israel, which has faced criticism over humanitarian conditions in Gaza amidst the war against Hamas.
Saade, whose father is of Palestinian origin, wore a keffiyeh scarf – a Palestinian and Arab symbol – on his arm. He had warned before the show that he wanted to make some kind of protest against Israel being allowed to take part.
Swedish broadcaster SVT and the main organisers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), condemned his gesture.
“It is regrettable that he used his participation in this way,” SVT’s executive producer for the contest, Ebba Adielsson, told AFP.
EBU said in a statement: “The Eurovision Song Contest is a live TV show. All performers are made aware of the rules of the contest, and we regret that Eric Saade chose to compromise the non-political nature of the event.”
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Saade hit back at the criticism.
“I got that scarf from my dad as a little boy, to never forget where the family comes from. I didn’t know then that it one day would be called a ‘political symbol’. That’s like calling the She gave a horse a political symbol. To my eyes, it’s nothing but racism. I just wanted to be inclusive and carry something that’s real to me – but EBU seems to think that my ethnicity is controversial. That says nothing about me, but everything about them. I repeat this year’s Eurovision Song Contest slogan: United by music,” Saade responded in a text message to SVT.
Other acts in the contest have made calls for a ceasefire or comments against Israel but were told not to show political messages during their performances.
Irish entry Bambie Thug told reporters on Tuesday they were “ordered” by the EBU to remove pro-Palestine messages written in the ancient Irish alphabet Ogham on their face and legs during the semi-final.
Because of security fears, Israel’s competitor Eden Golan has reportedly been told to stay in her hotel room in Malmö before competing in the second semi-final on Thursday.
Demonstrations calling for Israel to be excluded are expected to be held in the Swedish city around the performance.
Among the qualifiers were Ukrainians Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil with their rap song “Teresa and Maria”. Croatia’s Baby Lasagna, singing “Rim Tim Tagi Dim”, one of the early favourites, also made Saturday’s final.
Serbia, Portugal, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Cyprus, Ireland and Luxembourg were all voted places in the final.
Sweden as the reigning winners, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – the main contributors to the EBU – all get automatic places in Saturday’s final.
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Swedish pop star Eric Saade hits back at EBU criticism of Palestinian scarf
About the Dagestan riots and the “Russian paradox”
– 2024-05-08 07:27:55
One of the Sri Lankan ships. |
Fourteen Sri Lankans are found guilty of illegal fishing by the Mahajanga court. Each will have to pay a fine of more than a billion ariary.
One billion fifty million ariary per accused and nine hundred million ariary per dolphin caught. These are fines that fourteen Sri Lankans are ordered to pay. The sentence from the Mahajanga court fell on May 2.
All these defendants guilty of illegal, undeclared and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Malagasy waters also receive two months’ imprisonment, according to the verdict. Their two longliners flying the Sri Lankan flag, named “Ruth Baby” and “Ruth Baby 3”, were permanently withdrawn from them and offered to the Ministry of Fisheries and Blue Economy (MPEB).
These vessels made a long voyage from Sri Lanka and carried out their illegal activities off the coast of Tambohorano in the Melaky region. They got there, one after the other. The first entered our maritime zone on March 24 with ten people on board. The other appeared on March 29 with four occupants.
They were spotted as part of the Indian Ocean Commission’s 62nd Regional Fisheries Monitoring Mission. They do not have any fishing license.
Marine mammals
However, any foreign boat is supposed to have one before being able to fish in our territorial waters. The thieves also used unauthorized equipment to catch protected marine mammals. Several dolphins were seized on board their fishing gear.
“These ships now belong to Madagascar. We now have twenty-five that we can use to fight IUU fishing,” communicates the MPEB.
Another longliner confiscated in October 2023 in Nosy Be is already one of them. Its crew, made up of eight men, all Sri Lankan nationals, was hunting not far from Mitsio Island when the French Navy with its coast guard “RC Trozona” intercepted it.
Three tons of sharks were found inside. The eight responsible were arrested and investigated by inspectors from the Fisheries Surveillance Center in Nosy Be. They were able to leave the Big Island without their boat after paying heavy fines.
Embroidery Leonard
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Some 600,000 children crammed into the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip face “a new catastrophe” after Israel ordered an evacuation before launching a long-threatened ground invasion, UNICEF warned Monday. .
“Given the high concentration of children in Rafah… UNICEF warns of a new catastrophe for them, as military operations will cause large numbers of civilian casualties and totally destroy the few basic services and infrastructure they need to survive,” the agency stated. the UN for children in a statement.
Gaza’s youth are already “on the brink of survival” and many in Rafah – where, according to the agency, the population has ballooned to 1.2 million people, half of them children – have already been displaced several times and have no where to go, he highlighted. “More than 200 days of war have taken an unimaginable toll on children’s lives,” said Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“Rafah is now a city of children, who have nowhere safe to go in Gaza,” he declared, warning that a large-scale military operation by Israel would bring “chaos and panic, and at a time when “The mental and physical state is already weakened.”
UNICEF estimates that Rafah’s population has increased to almost five times its pre-war figure of 250,000.
After again calling for a ceasefire, the agency highlighted that there are some 78,000 babies under two years of age sheltered in the city, along with 175,000 children under five years of age affected by infectious diseases.
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