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Eurovision’s unity message tested by backlash over Israel

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Eurovision’s unity message tested by backlash over Israel

Eurovision organisers are braced for thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters to flood the Swedish city of Malmö this weekend to protest against Israel’s participation in the song contest.

This year will be the most politically charged event in its history after Israel’s contestant Eden Golan qualified for Saturday’s final.

The broadcasting union that runs the contest maintains Eurovision is “a unifying force, bringing together nations and cultures through the power of music”. But while the annual party often carries an undertone of geopolitics — and has included Israel for half a century — Israel’s involvement this year has increased tensions amid the country’s offensive in Gaza.

Heavily armed police have been deployed to monitor the pro-Palestinian protests in the Eurovision Village, which serves the 100,000 fans expected to descend on Sweden’s third-largest city for the event.

On Thursday, ahead of Golan’s semi-final performance, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters — including climate activist Greta Thunberg — staged demonstrations in the city. Golan, who was booed by audience members during dress rehearsals, said she was focused on “giving the best performance”.

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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the singer had “already succeeded . . . you face a wave of antisemitism while standing and representing the State of Israel with respect”.

The tensions have already coloured the competition. Ireland’s contestant, nonbinary “goth gremlin” Bambie Thug who has already qualified for the final, said on Instagram they had been asked to remove pro-Palestinian body paint from their costume. The writing in a medieval script had included the words “Free Palestine” and “ceasefire”.

Ireland’s Bambie Thug performing at the Eurovision semi-final on Tuesday © Jens Büttner/dpa

The European Broadcasting Union, which runs the event, has said it will bar flags and symbols apart from those of participating countries and the LGBT+ community.

Bambie Thug added in the post: “My heart and prayers are with the people of Palestine . . . I am anti-war, anti-occupation, anti-oppression and anti-killing of innocent civilians and children!!”

Hundreds of artists in each of the five Nordic countries including Sweden signed separate petitions earlier this year urging Eurovision to ban Israel from the competition, while many of the 26 artists performing in Malmö have faced social media abuse for taking part alongside the Israeli act.

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Britain’s Eurovision artist Olly Alexander was among those who signed a letter in response to calls for a boycott, arguing instead for the “unifying power of music”.

Israel’s national security council urged its citizens not to travel to Malmö, calling it “an anti-Israel protest hub”. Israeli media reported that the Shin Bet security service advised Golan not to leave her hotel room for anything other than her performances.

She has already changed the words of the song “Hurricane”, initially called “October Rain”, after it was seen to refer to the devastating October 7 attacks by Hamas last year that killed 1,200 people and sparked the war in Gaza. Almost 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.

Earlier in the contest, Swedish singer Eric Saade was reprimanded by organisers after he wore a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf around his wrist during a performance.

Jean Philip De Tender, deputy director-general of the EBU, said the organiser acknowledged “the depth of feeling and the strong opinions that this year’s Eurovision Song Contest — set against the backdrop of a terrible war in the Middle East — has provoked”. 

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But De Tender said online abuse and harassment of artists was “unacceptable and totally unfair, given the artists have no role” in deciding which broadcasters take part.

Eric Saade performing his song during the Eurovision semi-final
Swedish singer Eric Saade at the Eurovision semi-final © Martin Meissner/AP

The EBU represents Europe’s broadcasters, including Israeli’s Kan, a member since 1957 and a participant in the song contest since 1973.

Eurovision is the latest cultural event to face controversy over the inclusion of Israel, with similar calls for a boycott at the Venice Biennale late last year and clashes over other film and artistic events in Europe.

The singing competition, which is broadcast to more than 200mn people worldwide, maintains it is “non-political” but is no stranger to being used for political motives. Pacts between groups of similarly minded or geographically close nations often ensure that their acts progress, while rivals are handed “nul points”.

Russia, a former participant, was banned a day after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Ukraine won the contest the following year, an outcome seen as an outpouring of support for the war-torn nation rather than the quality of its musical offering. Another political flashpoint was the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In 2009, Georgia tried to submit a song “We Don’t Wanna Put In”, widely interpreted as a criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Organisers rejected the song.

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After Israel was included in the 1970s, Arabic broadcasters refused to show Israeli artists and threatened not to show the contest at all in years when it was hosted by the Jewish state. Israel has won several times, including with transgender singer Dana International in 1998.

Dana International performing
Israel’s Dana International won in 1998 © Peter Bischoff/Getty Images

Local dynamics have compounded the pressure this year. Home to one of Sweden’s largest immigrant populations, many of them Muslims, Malmö has suffered from a reputation for antisemitic incidents. That culminated in videos of cars driving around the city celebrating Hamas’s attack on Israel in October, as well as protesters burning an Israeli flag next to Malmö’s synagogue in November.

Tensions have risen further since Swedish police allowed a couple — one of them wrapped in an Israeli flag — to burn a Koran at the weekend. Sweden’s successful bid to join Nato was delayed for more than a year over multiple incidents involving Koran burning by anti-Islam activists.

Malmö officials apologised this week after cleaning away pro-Palestinian graffiti ahead of the competition, saying it was “an unfortunate mistake”.

Protesters marching in Stockholm
Pro-Palestinian protesters holding a rally in Stockholm in February © Fredrik Persson/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP/Getty Images

The contest’s organisers have also sought to defuse the situation. EBU boss Noel Curran said it was a “competition between public service broadcasters who are members of the EBU. It is not a contest between governments.”

Curran said the EBU had been aware “of the many voices calling to exclude Israel in the same way as we excluded the Russian broadcaster in 2022 “.

But he added: “Comparisons between wars and conflicts are complex and difficult and . . . not ours to make. In the case of Russia, the Russian broadcasters themselves were suspended from the EBU due to their persistent breaches of membership obligations and the violation of public service values.”

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Trump Says Israel and Lebanon Agree to Extend Cease-Fire by Three Weeks

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Trump Says Israel and Lebanon Agree to Extend Cease-Fire by Three Weeks

President Trump announced a three-week extension of a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon that had been set to expire in a few days, after hosting a meeting between Israeli and Lebanese diplomats at the White House on Thursday.

Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that has been attacking Israel from southern Lebanon, did not have representatives at the meeting and did not immediately comment on the announcement. The prime minister of Israel and the president of Lebanon also did not comment.

A successful peace agreement would hinge upon Hezbollah halting attacks, which Lebanon’s government has little power to enforce because it does not control the militia. Lebanon’s military has mostly stayed out of the fighting and is not at war with Israel.

The cease-fire, which was scheduled to end on April 26, would last until May 17 if it takes effect as Mr. Trump described it. Before the cease-fire was brokered last week, nearly 2,300 people were killed in Lebanon and 13 in Israel. Since then, the number of Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah attacks have been dramatically reduced, though the two sides have continued exchanging fire.

The Lebanese Ambassador to the United States, Nada Hamadeh, credited Mr. Trump for extending the cease-fire, saying that “with your help and support, we can make Lebanon great again.” Mr. Trump replied, “I like that phrase, it’s a good phrase.”

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Asked about the potential of a lasting peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon, Mr. Trump said that “I think there’s a great chance. They are friends about the same things and they are enemies on the same things.”

But Lebanon and Israel have periodically been at war since Israel’s founding in 1948. Israel has invaded Lebanon for the fifth time since 1978, incursions that have destabilized the country and the delicate balance of power between Muslim, Christian and Druze communities.

In the hours before the president’s announcement on social media, Israel and Hezbollah were trading attacks in southern Lebanon, testing the existing cease-fire.

Mr. Trump said the meeting at the White House had been attended by high-ranking U.S. officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the U.S. ambassadors to Israel and Lebanon.

Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli strike near the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh killed three people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Hezbollah claimed three separate attacks on Israeli troops who are occupying southern Lebanon, though none were wounded or killed.

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Hezbollah set off the latest round of fighting last month by attacking Israel soon after the start of the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran. Israel responded to Hezbollah’s attacks by launching airstrikes across Lebanon and widening a ground invasion of the country’s south.

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U.S. soldier charged with suspected Polymarket insider trading over Maduro raid

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U.S. soldier charged with suspected Polymarket insider trading over Maduro raid

Smoke rises from Port of La Guaira in Venezuela on Jan. 3, 2026 after U.S. forces seized the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

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Jesus Vargas/Getty Images

Federal prosecutors on Thursday unsealed an indictment against a U.S. Army soldier, accusing him of using his insider knowledge of the clandestine military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January to reap more than $400,000 in profits on the popular prediction market site Polymarket.

The Justice Department says Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, who was stationed at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, was part of the team that planned and carried out the predawn raid in Caracas earlier this year that resulted in the apprehension of Maduro.

The Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed the actions against Van Dyke, the first time U.S. officials have leveled criminal charges against someone over prediction market wagers.

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According to the indictment, Van Dyke now faces counts of wire fraud, commodities fraud, misusing non-public government information and other charges.

Trading under numerous usernames including “Burdensome-Mix,” Van Dyke allegedly traded about $32,000 on the arrest of Maduro, resulting in profits exceeding $400,000.

“Prediction markets are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York. “Those entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets have a duty to protect them and our armed service members, and not to use that information for personal financial gain.”

Van Dyke’s defense lawyer is not yet publicly known. Polymarket did not return a request for comment.

The charges against Van Dyke come at a sensitive time for the prediction market industry, which has been growing exponentially, despite calls in Washington and among state leaders for the sites to be reined in.

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Van Dyke is the first to be charged in the U.S. for suspected Polymarket insider trading, but Israeli authorities in February arrested several people and charged two on suspicion of using classified information to place bets about military operations in Iran on Polymarket.

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Senate Adopts GOP Budget, Laying the Groundwork to Fund ICE and Reopen DHS

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Senate Adopts GOP Budget, Laying the Groundwork to Fund ICE and Reopen DHS

The Senate early Thursday morning adopted a Republican budget blueprint that would pave the way for a $70 billion increase for immigration enforcement and the eventual reopening of the Department of Homeland Security.

Republicans pushed through the plan on a nearly party-line vote of 50 to 48. It came after an overnight marathon of rapid-fire votes, known as a vote-a-rama, in which the G.O.P. beat back a series of Democratic proposals aimed at addressing the high cost of health care, housing, food and energy. The debate put the two parties’ dueling messages on vivid display six months before the midterm elections.

Republicans, who are using the budget plan to lay the groundwork to eventually push through a filibuster-proof bill providing a multiyear funding stream for President Trump’s immigration crackdown, used the all-night session to highlight their hard-line stance on border security, seeking to portray Democrats as unwilling to safeguard the country.

Democrats tried and failed to add a series of changes aimed at addressing cost-of-living issues, seizing the opportunity to hammer Republicans as out of touch with and unwilling to act on the concerns of everyday Americans.

Here’s what to know about the budget plan and the nocturnal ritual senators engaged in before adopting it.

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The budget blueprint is a crucial piece of Republicans’ plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security and end a shutdown that has lasted for more than two months. After Democrats refused to fund immigration enforcement without new restrictions on agents’ tactics and conduct, the G.O.P. struck a deal with them to pass a spending bill that would fund everything but ICE and the Border Patrol. Republicans said they would fund those agencies through a special budget bill that Democrats could not block.

“We can fix this with Republican votes, and we will,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and the Budget Committee chairman. “Every Democrat has opposed money for the Border Patrol and ICE at a time of great peril.”

In resorting to a new budget blueprint, Republicans laid the groundwork to deny Democrats a chance to stop the immigration enforcement funding. But they also submitted themselves to a vote-a-rama, in which any senator can propose unlimited changes to such a measure before it is adopted.

The budget measure now goes to the House, which must adopt it before lawmakers in both chambers can draft the legislation funding immigration enforcement. That bill will provide yet another opportunity for a vote-a-rama even closer to the November election.

Democrats took to the floor to criticize Republicans for supercharging funding for federal immigration enforcement rather than moving legislation that would address Americans’ concerns over affordability.

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“This is what Republicans are fighting for,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the Democratic leader. “To maintain two unchecked rogue agencies that are dreaded in all corners of this country instead of reducing your health care costs, your housing costs, your grocery costs, your gas costs.”

Democrats offered a host of amendments along those lines, all of which were defeated by Republicans — and that was the point. The proposals were meant to put the G.O.P. in a tough political spot, showcasing their opposition to helping Americans afford high living costs. Fewer than a handful of G.O.P. senators crossed party lines to support them.

The G.O.P. thwarted an effort by Mr. Schumer to require that the budget measure lower out-of-pocket health care costs for Americans. Two Republicans who are up for re-election this year, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, voted with Democrats, but the proposal was still defeated.

Republicans also squelched a move by Senator Ben Ray Lujan, Democrat of New Mexico, to create a fund that would lower grocery costs and reverse cuts to food aid programs that Republicans enacted last year. Ms. Collins and Mr. Sullivan again joined Democrats.

Also defeated by the G.O.P.: a proposal by Senator John Hickenlooper, Democrat of Colorado, to address rising consumer prices brought on by Mr. Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran; one by Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, to require the budget measure to address rising electricity prices, and another by Mr. Markey to create a fund to bring down housing costs.

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Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat who is up for re-election in Georgia, also sought to add language requiring the budget plan to address health insurance companies denying or delaying access to care, but that, too was blocked by Republicans.

While Republicans had fewer proposals for changes to their own budget plan, they also sought to offer measures that would underscore their aggressive stance on immigration enforcement and dare Democrats to vote against them.

Mr. Graham offered an amendment to allocate funds toward a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to the apprehension and deportation of adult immigrants convicted of rape, murder, or sexual abuse of a minor after illegally entering the United States. It passed unanimously.

Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, sought to bar Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion and other services, and criticized the organization for providing transgender care to minors. Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, also attempted to tack on the G.O.P. voter identification bill, known as the SAVE America Act. Both proposals were blocked when Democrats, joined by a few Republicans, voted to strike them as unrelated to the budget plan.

The Republicans who crossed party lines to oppose their own party’s proposals for new voting requirements were Ms. Collins along with Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

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Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski also opposed the effort to block payments to Planned Parenthood.

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