In Turkey’s earthquake disaster zone, anger at the death and destruction was expected to sway the May 14 elections toward the opposition. But as Turkey heads into a runoff, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s support in the region is stronger than it is nationwide. VOA’s Heather Murdock reports from southeastern Turkey with videographer Yan Boechat.
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Category: European Union
European Union news. The place name Euros was first used by the ancient Greeks to refer to their northernmost province, which bears the same name today. The principal river there – Euros (today’s Maritsa) – flows through the fertile valleys of Thrace, which itself was also called Europe, before the term meant the continent
Russia Halts Release of Iranian Film About Serial Killer, Distributor Says
Russian authorities have suspended the release of an award-winning film about a serial killer who targets sex workers in Iran, a distributor said on Tuesday.
“Holy Spider,” directed by Danish Iranian Ali Abbasi, was inspired by a true story about a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war who killed 16 sex workers in the early 2000s in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city and a main shrine city of Shiite Islam.
The move comes as Russia and Iran are seeking closer ties amid Moscow’s growing isolation in the West over its war on Ukraine.
Russia has become increasingly conservative since President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022.
The film hit theaters in Russia on May 11, but less than a week later the culture ministry withdrew the film’s distribution license.
“Unfortunately, that’s true,” Anastasiya Kruglyakova, a representative of Exponenta Film, told AFP in written comments.
The ministry said that the release was canceled “due to the presence in the specified film of materials, containing information whose dissemination is prohibited by the legislation of the Russian Federation.”
Kruglyakova did not provide further details.
There was no immediate comment from the culture ministry.
Abbasi was denied permission to film in Iran, and “Holy Spider” was eventually shot in Jordan.
Last year, Zar Amir Ebrahimi won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in “Holy Spider” as a journalist who investigates the murders.
Iran protested to France after the Cannes film festival selected the film, slamming the move as “wrong and completely political.”
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Salman Rushdie Warns Free Expression Under Threat in Rare Public Address After Attack
Writer Salman Rushdie has made a public speech, nine months after being stabbed and seriously injured onstage, warning that freedom of expression in the West is under its most severe threat in his lifetime.
Rushdie delivered a video message to the British Book Awards, where he was awarded the Freedom to Publish award on Monday evening. Organizers said the honor “acknowledges the determination of authors, publishers and booksellers who take a stand against intolerance, despite the ongoing threats they face.”
Rushdie, 75, looked thinner than before the attack and wore glasses with one tinted lens. He was blinded in his right eye and suffered nerve damage to his hand when he was attacked at a literary festival in New York state in August.
His alleged assailant, Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and attempted murder.
He told the awards ceremony that “we live in a moment, I think, at which freedom of expression, freedom to publish has not in my lifetime been under such threat in the countries of the West.”
“Now I am sitting here in the U.S., I have to look at the extraordinary attack on libraries, and books for children in schools,” he said. “The attack on the idea of libraries themselves. It is quite remarkably alarming, and we need to be very aware of it, and to fight against it very hard.”
Rushdie spent years in hiding with police protection after Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, in 1989 calling for his death over the alleged blasphemy of the novel “The Satanic Verses.”
He gradually returned to public life after the Iranian government distanced itself from the order in 1998, saying it would not back any effort to kill Rushdie, though the fatwa was never officially repealed.
Rushdie won the Booker Prize in 1981 for his novel “Midnight’s Children,” and in 2008 was voted the best-ever winner of the prestigious fiction prize. His most recent novel, “Victory City” — completed a month before the attack — was published in February.
In his speech, Rushdie also criticized publishers who change decades-old books for modern sensibilities, such as large-scale cuts and rewrites to the works of children’s author Roald Dahl and James Bond creator Ian Fleming.
He said publishers should allow books “to come to us from their time and be of their time.”
“And if that’s difficult to take, don’t read it, read another book,” he said.
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Germany: 5 Sentenced to Prison for $129 Million Jewelry Heist
A German court convicted five men Tuesday of breaking into a Dresden museum and stealing 21 pieces of jewelry containing more than 4,300 diamonds.
The men, ages 24 to 29, received prison sentences ranging from four years and four months to six years and three months, German news agency dpa reported. One defendant was acquitted.
The Dresden state court ruled that the five were responsible for the theft of the 18th-century jewelry from the Green Vault Museum on Nov. 25, 2019. Officials said at the time that the stolen items included a large diamond brooch and a diamond epaulet.
The crime was considered one of Germany’s most spectacular jewelry heists in recent history. The pieces taken had a total insured value of at least $129 million.
The men were accused of starting a fire just before the break-in to cut the power supply to street lights outside the museum, and also setting fire to a car in a nearby garage before fleeing to Berlin. They were caught several months later during raids in Germany’s capital.
The court convicted them of particularly aggravated arson in combination with dangerous bodily injury, theft with weapons, damage to property and intentional arson.
The judges who heard the case observed that some of the men had acted with “considerable criminal energy,” dpa reported. The aim was “to get rich,” the judges said.
More than 100 witnesses and 11 experts gave testimony during the trial’s main proceedings, according to the news agency.
The Green Vault is one of the world’s oldest museums. It was established in 1723 and contains the treasury of Augustus the Strong of Saxony, comprising around 4,000 objects of gold, precious stones and other materials.
In January, the defense, prosecution and court reached a plea bargain after most of the stolen jewels were returned. However, some of the most important pieces featuring large diamonds remain missing, according to dpa.
Four defendants who agreed to the plea bargain subsequently admitted their involvement in the crime through their lawyers. The fifth defendant also confessed, but only to helping to procure objects such as the axes used to make holes in the museum display case, dpa reported.
The returned pieces do not erase the fact that the museum’s collection of complete jewelry sets “is probably destroyed forever,” Presiding Judge Andreas Ziegel Ziegel said.
The state of Saxony, where Dresden is located, claimed damages of almost 89 million euros to cover the cost of pieces that were returned damaged, the missing jewelry and repairs to the destroyed display cases and the museum building.
In his remarks Tuesday, Ziegel directly addressed the defendants, saying it is up to them to decide whether to continue committing crimes.
“There are things in your life that are worth living a different life for,” the judge said, according to dpa. “It’s your choice what you do with your life.”
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US: China, Iran, Russia, Myanmar Top Violators of Religious Freedom
An annual U.S. government report finds religious freedom under assault throughout the world, notably in what the State Department calls Countries of Particular Concern —China, Iran, Russia, Myanmar — among others. VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching has more.
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Death Toll Climbs in Serbia Shootings, Wounded Schoolgirl Dies
A girl who was gravely wounded in a mass shooting in a school in Belgrade earlier this month has died, bringing the death toll to 10, authorities said Monday.
The girl died Monday morning at a children’s clinic in Belgrade, Serbia’s health ministry said, according to official media. The girl had been in critical condition with head injuries following the May 3 attack, said a statement.
The shooting happened in the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school in central Belgrade when a 13-year-old boy took his father’s gun and opened fire, initially killing eight children and a school guard, and wounding six students and a teacher.
The first ever school shooting in Serbia stunned the Balkan country. A day later a 20-year-old randomly fired from an automatic weapon in two villages south of Belgrade, killing eight people and wounding 14.
The two mass killings in as many days triggered calls for action. Tens of thousands of people have marched in protests in Belgrade and other towns and cities demanding resignations of top officials and a ban on pro-government television stations that air violent content and host war criminals and crime figures.
Serbia’s populist government has launched a gun crackdown that includes a one-month amnesty for those who voluntarily hand over unregistered weapons, as well as stricter control of gun owners, a moratorium on new licenses and prison sentences for possession of illegal guns.
Police have said that citizens handed over some 13,500 various weapons by Sunday. The amnesty period will last until June 8, but analysts have warned that similar actions in the past have had limited success.
Critics of populist President Aleksandar Vucic say the increasingly authoritarian Serbian leader who is a former pro-Russian ultranationalist, has contributed to an atmosphere of intolerance in society by fostering hate speech against opponents and taking strict control over mainstream media and state institutions.
Vucic has denied this. He has suggested that he might call an early election for September in response to the protests and mounting public pressure over the shootings.
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South African Army Chief Visits Moscow for Bilateral Talks
The South African National Defense Force (SANDF) said Monday that its army chief, Lawrence Mbatha, was in Moscow for a bilateral meeting, where he will visit Russian military academies and hold talks with officials.
“It must be noted that South Africa has military-to-military bilateral relations with various countries in the continent and beyond,” the SANDF said in a statement, adding that the meeting in Russia was planned well in advance.
Earlier Monday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the country’s non-aligned position did not favor Russia over other states and reiterated its call for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine.
Ramaphosa made the comments in a weekly presidential newsletter. Last week, the United States alleged that weapons were loaded onto Russian ship Lady R from a naval base in Cape Town late last year, which sparked a diplomatic row.
South African officials swiftly rejected claims made by the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, who also said senior U.S. officials had “profound concerns” over South Africa’s professed policy of non-alignment and neutrality over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“We do not accept that our non-aligned position favors Russia above other countries. Nor do we accept that it should imperil our relations with other countries,” Ramaphosa said.
South Africa would continue to honor international agreements and treaties to which it is a signatory and its approach to U.S. allegations of arms shipment would abide by them, he added.
Ramaphosa’s office has said no concrete evidence has been provided to support the claims made by the ambassador, but that an inquiry led by a retired judge would examine the matter.
Several ministers, including the one responsible for arms control, a foreign ministry spokesman and the communications minister have said South Africa had not approved any arms shipment to Russia in December.
Brigety was summoned Friday to meet South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor and he apologized “unreservedly” to the government and the people of South Africa, a foreign ministry statement said.
“I was grateful for the opportunity to speak with Foreign Minister Pandor … and correct any misimpressions left by my public remarks,” Brigety said in a tweet that did not confirm whether he had apologized.
South Africa, which has abstained from voting on U.N. resolutions on Russia’s war in Ukraine, says it is impartial. Western countries, however, consider it one of Moscow’s closest allies on the continent.
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Momentum Shifts Toward Erdogan as Turkey Heads to Presidential Runoff
Turkey appears set for a presidential runoff after an inconclusive Sunday vote. But the political momentum seems to be with incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who narrowly failed to secure an absolute majority but is set to win a majority in parliament. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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UN in Talks to Keep Black Sea Grain Deal Alive
The United Nations aid chief said Monday that the organization is engaged in “intensive discussions” to keep alive the deal that facilitates the export of Russian and Ukrainian grain and fertilizer through the Black Sea, as the May 18 deadline Russia has set to possibly leave the deal draws closer.
“I hope you will agree that continuation of the Black Sea Initiative is critically important, as is recommitment by the parties to its smooth and efficient operation,” Martin Griffiths told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Ukraine. “We will continue to call on all parties to meet their responsibilities as the world watches us very closely.”
On Thursday, the four parties to the deal — Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations — met in Istanbul to discuss its future. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday that talks would continue this week at a technical level.
Since it was signed on July 22 in Istanbul, the Black Sea Grain Initiative has facilitated the safe export of more than 30 million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs from three Black Sea ports in Ukraine to global markets, helping to supply markets and lower wheat prices.
A corresponding Memorandum of Understanding between Russia and the United Nations has made inroads in easing concerns of anxious banks, insurers, shippers and other private-sector actors about doing business with Russia. But Moscow has repeatedly complained that it is not benefiting enough from the deal.
Russia’s U.N. ambassador reiterated some of Moscow’s demands Monday, including the export of its ammonia — a key component in fertilizer — via the TogliattiAzot pipeline in Odesa and the return of the Russian agriculture bank to the SWIFT financial transaction network.
“For almost a year, we see that there has been no progress in the second part of the package deal,” Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia complained of the Memorandum of Understanding between Russia and the U.N.
Ukraine’s envoy said Russia’s obstruction of inspections at the joint inspection facility in Istanbul meant Ukraine only exported half their agricultural capacity in April.
“It is disgusting that Russia still pretends to be on the losing side of the deal,” said Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya. “I will not even remind the council of the immorality of such complaints from the aggressor state, which has been and remains the only threat to food shipments in the Black Sea.”
Under the terms of the initiative, the deal should be renewable every 120 days, but at the last renewal in March, Russia agreed to only a 60-day extension, which expires on May 18. Kyslytsya called it Moscow’s “blackmail deadline.”
Of the 15 Security Council members, of which Russia is a member, 14 emphasized the importance of the grain deal and called for its full implementation and extension.
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Turkish Opposition Supporters Voice Dismay Over Presidential Vote
Opposition voters expressed dismay and disbelief on Monday after Tayyip Erdogan took a solid lead in the first round of Turkey’s election, while the president’s overjoyed supporters expressed confidence that he would prevail in the May 28 runoff.
“Until now I have witnessed many elections. My 14-year-old daughter who waited up all night for the election results went to bed disappointed. They have left me devastated this time,” said 55-year-old Menser Ozakdag, a taxi driver.
“All I want is freedom, democracy, justice… I wish I had been born in another country,” he said.
By contrast, Erdogan voters were upbeat about his chances of extending his 20-year rule into a third decade in the runoff vote against main opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
“In the second round of the presidential election, Tayyip Erdogan will sweep to victory,” said retiree Sabri Seker.
The mood in the opposition camp was subdued overnight as votes were being counted. Before the election, opinion polls had put Kilicdaroglu slightly ahead, with two polls on Friday showing him above the 50% threshold to win outright.
The opposition had expected to benefit from voter anger over Turkey’s economic woes after an unorthodox policy of low interest rates triggered a lira crisis and soaring inflation. A slow government response to earthquakes that killed 50,000 people in February had also been expected to influence voters.
DEFIANCE
Some opposition supporters remained defiantly hopeful that Kilicdaroglu, candidate of the six-party Nation Alliance, could win in the second round. He has promised to revive democracy after years of increasingly authoritarian rule under Erdogan.
“Nothing stays the same. I believe there are people in Turkey to resist all this corruption, injustice, repression and fascist regime,” Huseyin Koseoglu said. “And I believe with the support of these people, the second round will be won by the Nation Alliance.”
However Firdevs Aydin, a 55-year-old retiree, did not share that optimism.
“I am very disappointed. Even though I knew it could go to a second round, I also believed that Kilicdaroglu would be ahead of Erdogan (in the first round),” she said.
With 99% of ballot boxes counted, Erdogan led with 49.4 of votes and Kilicdaroglu on 44.96%, High Election Board chairman Ahmet Yener said.
Pro-government media cheered the outcome, with Yeni Safak newspaper proclaiming “The people won”, referring to Erdogan’s People’s Alliance, which seemed to have won a majority in the new parliament, boosting his hopes for the presidential runoff.
The results suggested Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party had been able to rally conservative voters despite the cost-of-living crisis.
The prospect of five more years of Erdogan as president will be upsetting for civil rights activists campaigning for reforms to undo the damage they say he has done to Turkey’s democracy.
Erdogan has amassed power around an executive presidency, muzzled dissent and seized control of the media, judiciary and the economy.
Victory for Erdogan on May 28 would also dash the hopes of thousands of political prisoners and activists of being released from jail.
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Discovery of Europe’s Biggest Cocaine Factory in Spain Marks New Trend
The packets of cocaine were marked with the Superman shield, but this was no accident.
In an effort to make the illicit merchandise look like it had been gift wrapped before being sent from Colombia, the gang wanted to hide the fact it was produced closer to home.
The drug with apparent superpowers was made in a factory hidden in an isolated cottage in Galicia, northwestern Spain.
A gang of eight “cooks” worked around the clock, seven days per week, in almost total isolation to produce 150 kilograms of the drug. But police officers who busted the gang said the sophisticated production line could have turned out 200 kilograms of cocaine a day, with a street value of $5.4 million.
Spanish police and crime analysts said this was the biggest cocaine factories discovered in mainland Europe to date, marking a new tactic among cartels.
Instead of making the drug in the jungles of Colombia or Peru, then getting past police to ship cocaine across the Atlantic, they are setting up factories in Europe to save money and cut risks.
“This is part of a new tendency which we should be aware of,” the head of the Spanish police Central Narcotics Brigade told VOA on condition of anonymity as is customary in Spain.
“The factory which we discovered in Pontevedra in Galicia was the largest which has been discovered so far in Europe,” he said. “We estimate that this gang could have produced about 200 kilograms every day. Other police forces have said there are laboratories elsewhere.”
The gang hid 1.3 tons of cocaine paste, which is used to make cocaine powder sold on the streets, in stone crushing machines, shipped from South America.
Police said it was largest amount of this ingredient ever discovered in Europe in a drugs factory based on the continent.
Well hidden
“It took us 14 hours to get the coca paste out of these machines. This gives you an idea of how well it was hidden,” said the drugs squad officer.
The Superman logo was pasted on the packets of drugs intended for buyers to give the impression that it had been packed in Colombia in case buyers doubted its quality.
Police arrested 18 suspects in Pontevedra in Galicia in March, but the raid was only made public recently. All the suspects are being held on remand awaiting trial at a later date.
Eight Colombians worked all week long in the factory after the gang stripped them of their passports and telephones so they could not give away the location of the drugs operation to police. Each member of the gang was given a nickname to hide their real identities.
Different strategy
Laurent Laniel, principal scientific analyst at the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, a European Union organization based in Lisbon, said the Spanish factory was the latest in a series of drugs operations in mainland Europe.
“I think it is a different strategy. It may not replace the traditional trafficking of ready-made cocaine to Europe. But there is definitely a trend to manufacture large amounts of cocaine [in Europe]. This is not just an isolated incident,” he told VOA.
He said Dutch police said they raided ten laboratories between 2018 and 2021. Each one was making over 100 kilograms of cocaine per day. There has also been raids on smaller factories in Belgium and Spain.
“It seems that the large proportion of the cocaine paste is smuggled in carrier materials like plastics, wood, coal, cement and asphalt which means that it’s impossible to trace for police,” Laniel said.
“It is probably cheaper and less risky to have these massive laboratories in Europe, than smuggling the drug from Colombia.”
Laniel said authorities should make it harder for criminals to get access to chemicals which are essential to make cocaine.
In 2021, the United Nations estimated that every year about 2,000 tons of pure cocaine was produced in the world — worth about $5.4 billion. That estimate, however, is impossible to verify.
Laniel said the cocaine trade was “on the up” as the extraction process from the coca plant is more sophisticated than ten years ago meaning profit margins for drugs gangs are higher.
“It is a business which is very profitable. It is used to buy weapons, cause violence and corruption also in Europe,” he said.
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Turkish Election Appears to be Headed for Runoff
With first-round vote tallies appearing to show Turkey heading to a runoff presidential election, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed confidence Monday he will prevail while top rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu said he will “absolutely win the second round.”
Erdogan, who has been in power for 20 years and is the country’s longest-serving leader, performed better than had been expected, but fell short of the 50% threshold needed to win in Sunday’s vote.
With more than 99.4% of ballot boxes counted, Erdogan led with 49.4% of votes and Kilicdaroglu had 45%, Ahmet Yener, the head of the Supreme Electoral Board, told reporters.
Some overseas ballots were yet to be counted. A runoff election, if necessary, would take place May 28.
More than 64 million people, including the overseas voters, were eligible to vote Sunday and nearly 89% voted, according to The Associated Press.
Both Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu claim the election is the most important in the country’s history.
With inflation at more than 40% and people experiencing a cost-of-living crisis, the economy was seen as the most crucial issue for many voters.
Erdogan has turned the government into a powerful executive presidency that allows him to rule by decree.
Critics blamed such centralized powers for failing to react swiftly to February’s deadly earthquakes that claimed more than 50,000 lives, a charge Erdogan denies.
However, Kilicdaroglu is pledging to return Turkey to a parliamentary democracy.
Erdogan insists his executive powers are vital, given that the country is in a neighborhood of turmoil.
In his last campaign speech Friday, Erdogan accused U.S. President Joe Biden of trying to oust him from power through the elections.
Washington has said it does not take sides in elections.
Relations between Turkey and its traditional Western allies have become strained in recent years over Ankara’s deepening ties with Moscow and concerns over democracy.
Kilicdaroglu is vowing a reset with Turkey’s Western allies.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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French Club Holds Emotional Tribute for AFP Reporter Killed in Ukraine
French topflight football club Rennes on Sunday held an emotional homage to Arman Soldin, their former youth player and the AFP video reporter killed Tuesday in Ukraine.
Soldin’s mother and brother live in the western city and Rennes held the tribute to his memory at the Breton club’s home match with Troyes.
Rennes invited around 30 of Soldin’s friends and family — including a sister living in the Bosnian city of Mostar — to pay tribute to his sacrifice.
Fans joined them in warmly applauding as images of the slain reporter were shown on giant screens at the stadium while the announcer saluted Soldin’s courage and commitment to “informing as many as possible about the realities of a conflict.”
Bosnian-born French citizen Soldin, 32, was on assignment with an AFP team as the global news agency’s video coordinator in Ukraine when they came under fire from Grad rockets while with Ukrainian soldiers near Bakhmut.
Before becoming a journalist, Soldin, who as a toddler left war-torn Bosnia with his mother on a humanitarian flight to France, had been a keen footballer as a teenager.
Growing up in the western region of Brittany he earned a place on the Rennes youth team between 2006 and 2008 in his mid-teens — only giving up on a professional career due to knee injuries.
“Football was a big part of his life,” his brother Sven told AFP. “He was extremely good, extremely talented. He had something extra.”
Even after launching a career as a journalist, Soldin never lost his passion for the round ball.
Starting off with AFP in the agency’s Rome bureau in 2015 he would enjoy weekly games with other journalists as well as a kickabout with migrants whose fate he was reporting on in the Italian Mediterranean island of Lampedusa.
He also had a four-year spell away from political reporting working for Canal Plus television’s ‘Match of ze Day’ program covering English Premier League football.
The broadcaster, where some colleagues nicknamed him “The Nutmeg Machine” for his skill of playing the ball between an opponent’s legs, put out a tribute to his time there in its Saturday night edition.
Soldin also had a spell working for AFP in London.
While in Britain, he posted a tweet of him soaking up the atmosphere at a Tottenham match — not forgetting to keep an eye on his tablet with his beloved Rennes simultaneously meeting Marseille.
The death of Soldin brought to at least 11 the number of journalists, fixers or drivers for media teams, killed since Russia invaded Ukraine more than a year ago, according to advocacy groups.
French anti-terror prosecutors said Wednesday they were launching a war crime investigation into Soldin’s death.
Hundreds of AFP staff observed a minute of silence Friday at Paris headquarters and from bureaus around the world via video conference.
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VOA on the Scene: Southeastern Turkey Votes Amid Earthquake Ruins
Many voters in southeast Turkey lost their homes, valuables and loved ones in February’s earthquakes. Still, they came out to vote Sunday in what analysts say could be the country’s most pivotal elections in decades. VOA’s Heather Murdock reports on the scene with videographer Yan Boechat.
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Serbia: 13,500 Weapons Collected in Amnesty, Including Rocket Launchers
Serbian authorities on Sunday displayed many of around 13,500 weapons they say people have been handed over since this month’s mass shootings, including hand grenades, automatic weapons, and anti-tank rocket launchers.
The authorities have declared a one-month amnesty period for citizens to hand over unregistered weapons or face prison sentences as part of a crackdown on guns following the two mass shootings that left 17 people dead, many of them children.
Populist President Aleksandar Vucic accompanied top police officials on Sunday for the weapons’ display near the town of Smederevo, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital, Belgrade.
Vucic said approximately half of the weapons collected were illegal while the other half were registered weapons that citizens nonetheless handed over. He added the weapons will go to Serbia’s arms and ammunitions factories for potential use by the armed forces.
“After June 8, the state will respond with repressive measures and punishments will be very strict,” he said of the post-amnesty period. “What does anyone need an automatic weapon for? Or all these guns?”
Serbia is estimated to be among the top countries in Europe in guns per capita. Many are left over from the wars of the 1990s and held illegally.
Other anti-gun measures are to include stricter controls of gun owners and shooting ranges.
Authorities launched the gun crackdown after a 13-year-old boy on May 3 took his father’s gun and opened fire on his fellow-students in an elementary school in central Belgrade. A day later, a 20-year-old used an automatic weapon to shoot randomly in a rural area south of Belgrade.
The two mass shootings left 17 people dead and 21 wounded, stunning the nation and triggering calls for changes in the country that has been through decades of turmoil and crises.
Tens of thousands of people have rallied in two protest marches in Belgrade since the shootings, demanding resignations of government ministers and a ban on television stations that promote violent content and host war criminals and crime figures.
Vucic on Sunday rejected opposition calls for the resignation of Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic, who was also present at Sunday’s weapons display. But the president suggested that the government might resign and that he will announce an early election at a rally he has planned for May 26 in Belgrade.
“We have no intention of replacing [interior minister] Gasic, who is doing a great job,” said Vucic. “What have police done wrong?”
Opposition politicians have accused Vucic’s populist authorities of fueling violence and hate speech against critics, spreading propaganda on mainstream media and imposing autocratic rule in all institutions, which they say stokes divisions in society.
On Friday, the protesters in Belgrade blocked a key bridge and motorway in the capital to press their demands. Protests also have been held in other Serbian cities and towns, in an outpouring of grief and anger over the shootings and the populist authorities.
Vucic has described the bridge blockade as harassment, while he and other officials and media under his control sought to downplay the numbers of protesters.
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Polls Close in Turkey With Erdogan’s Fate in Balance
Turkey is voting in presidential and parliamentary elections Sunday, in what is predicted to be one of the closest votes in decades and one of the most important, both domestically and internationally. The poll will decide the political fate of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has ruled for more than 20 years.
Sunday’s elections are predicted to see a record turnout in a country with one of the world’s highest voting participation rates. Both incumbent President Erdogan and his primary challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, claim the election is the most important in the country’s history.
In Istanbul’s Kadikoy district, voting was brisk, starting when polling stations opened. The economy was the main concern for voter Mustafa, who only wanted to be identified by his first name.
He said, “the economy is most important. You just need to look and see everywhere how bad things are.”
With inflation at more than 40% and a cost of living crisis, the economy is seen as the most crucial issue for many voters. However, Zehra, a pharmacist who also wanted to be identified only by her first name, democracy was the most important issue.
She said, “for me, the main issue is to move from one-man rule and return to a pluralist democracy so that all the opinions will be represented.”
Erdogan has turned the government into a powerful executive presidency that allows him to rule by decree. Critics blamed such centralized powers for failing to react swiftly to February’s deadly earthquakes that claimed more than 50,000 lives, a charge Erdogan denies. However, Kilicdaroglu is pledging to return Turkey to a parliamentary democracy. Erdogan insists such powers are vital, given that the country is in a neighborhood of turmoil, an argument backed by voter Ali Demir.
He said, “In this election, the foreigners are trying to divide and break up Turkey; they are trying to undermine us.”
In his last campaign speech Friday, Erdogan accused U.S. President Joe Biden of trying to oust him from power through the elections.
Washington has said it does not take sides in elections.
Relations between Turkey and its traditional Western allies have become strained in recent years over Ankara’s deepening ties with Moscow and concerns over democracy. Kilicdaroglu is vowing a reset with Turkey’s Western allies.
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Ukraine’s Zelenskyy in Berlin as Germany Announces Billions in New Military Aid
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has held crucial meetings with German leaders in Berlin, shortly after Germany announced a $3 billion military aid package to help Kyiv in its fight against the Russian invasion.
“Already in Berlin. “Weapons. Powerful package. Air defense. Reconstruction. EU. NATO. Security,” Zelenskyy tweeted early on May 14, after arriving amid tight security from Italy.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed Zelenskyy at Schloss Bellevue, his official Berlin residence, where the two leaders were scheduled to hold talks along with four advisors each.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz greeted the Ukrainian leader with military honors at the chancellery before holding one-on-one talks.
Zelenskyy is also expected to travel to the city of Aachen to receive the prestigious Charlemagne Prize.
Zelenskyy expressed his thanks to Germany as he signed the visitor’s book at the German president’s residence.
“In the most challenging time in the modern history of Ukraine, Germany proved to be our true friend and reliable ally, which stands decisively side-by-side with the Ukrainian people in the struggle to defend freedom and democratic values,” Zelenskyy wrote.
On the eve of his arrival, Germany announced a new package of military aid for Ukraine worth more than $3 billion, including tanks, antiaircraft systems and ammunition.
“We all hope for a rapid end to this terrible war by Russia against the Ukrainian people, but unfortunately this is not in sight,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement.
The package includes 20 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, 30 Leopard 1 tanks, 15 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, 200 reconnaissance drones, four additional Iris-T antiaircraft systems including ammunition, additional artillery ammunition and more than 200 armored combat and logistics vehicles.
Germany has been criticized by many in Ukraine for its reluctance to send heavy armaments to Kyiv for its battle against Russian forces. The latest aid package is Berlin’s largest since the invasion of February 2022.
Zelenskyy’s trip to Germany comes after the Ukrainian leader received vocal support on May 13 from Italian leaders in Rome and at the Vatican, where Pope Francis called for “humanitarian gestures toward the most fragile persons, innocent victims of the conflict.”
On the war front, at least one Russian SU-34 warplane and a military Mi-8 helicopter had crashed in the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine, Russian emergency services were quoted by TASS news agency as saying, with several reports claiming the craft had been shot down.
Later, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that a Russian SU-35 jet and a second Mi-8 helicopter also crashed on May 13, but that report could not immediately be confirmed.
Ukraine did not comment on the reports. Kyiv normally does not comment directly on any incidents occurring within Russia’s borders.
If confirmed that the aircraft were shot down, it would represent a major coup for the Ukrainian military and an embarrassment for the Kremlin.
On the war front, Ukrainian forces intercepted and destroyed three missiles and 25 drones overnight in the latest aerial attack by Russian forces, Ukraine’s air force said on May 14.
Russia attacked “from different directions with Shahed attack drones, Kalibr missiles from ships in the Black Sea, [and] cruise missiles from Tu-95 strategic aircraft,” the air force said in a statement.
Russia has increased the number of missile and drone strikes since the beginning of May, which Ukrainian authorities attribute to Moscow’s fear of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Late on May 13, Russian missiles hit the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, which is home to the electro-pop duo Tvorchi, this year’s contestants from Ukraine at the Eurovision 2023 Song Contest, local authorities said.
The attack came as the contest was under way in Britain because Ukraine, last year’s winners, could not host it due to the war.
The strike hit warehouses owned by commercial enterprises and a religious organization, injuring two people, local officials in Ternopil reported on Telegram.
Melinda Simmons, Britain’s ambassador to Kyiv, praised Tvorchi for their Eurovision entry.
“The staging was brilliant. And poignant as their university home town of Ternopil was targeted by Russian missiles this evening,” Simmons tweeted.
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Hobbit Houses Spring Up in Bosnia Hills
Four sisters are building the first Hobbit-style village in southeast Europe in the green hills of central Bosnia, hoping to attract fans of “The Lord of the Rings” books and movies as well as sharing their childhood memories.
“We have often held family gatherings on this hill and discussed what would be the best way to make use of this view for tourism purposes,” said Milijana, the eldest of the Milicevic sisters, pointing to the stunning view of a valley and a lake nestled among the hills.
The Kresevo Hobbiton, as the Hobbits’ village is called, is located in the village of Rakova Noga (The Crab’s Leg) near the old royal and mining town of Kresevo, some 40 minutes drive from the capital of Sarajevo.
Last year Marija, a 28-year-old geology engineer, proposed to her sisters Milijana, Vedrana and Valentina that they build house in the style of the Hobbit homes in J.R.R. Tolkein’s “The Lord of the Rings” tales. The “hole houses” are built into the ground.
The sisters decided that their houses must include characteristics of the area where they live and that each sister would decorate one dwelling as she likes.
They have already built two houses and three others are under construction.
The first house, with a round green door and window, was named Lipa after the village where Milijana had spent most of her childhood with their grandparents. Lipa is also the name for the linden tree.
“Lipa is my nostalgia, the memory of a healthy childhood where garden planting was a social game, domestic animals friends and a tin barrel the Adriatic Sea,” Milijana said in the wood-decorated house.
The second house is named Ober after a cave in Kresevo. Its ceiling is decorated with stalactites to provide the feeling of being in the cave.
“Ober in history has been the mine from which Kresevo miners had extracted cinnabar and melted it to get gold,” said Marija.
Her house’s door and window is painted red after the coloring of the cinnabar ore.
The other three houses, which should be completed soon, will also be named after local attractions.
For example Bedem, with towers on its corners, is named after the fortress where Bosnia’s last queen, Katarina, had stayed while in Kresevo.
Tourists from across the region and other European countries have already started visiting, Marija said.
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Turkey’s Elections For Presidency, Parliament Under Way
Voters in Turkey are heading to the polls Sunday for landmark parliamentary and presidential elections that are expected to be tightly contested and could be the biggest challenge Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces in his two decades in power.
The vote will either grant the increasingly authoritarian Erdogan a new five-year term in office or set the NATO-member country on what his opposition contender calls a more democratic path.
Polling began at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and will close at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT). Media organizations are barred from reporting partial results until an embargo is lifted at 9 p.m. (1800 GMT). There are no exit polls.
For the first time in his 20 years in office, opinion polls indicate that the populist Erdogan, 69, is entering a race trailing behind an opponent. Opinion surveys have given a slight lead to Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the 74-year-old leader of the center-left, pro-secular Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and the joint candidate of a united opposition alliance. If neither candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, the presidential race will be determined in a run-off on May 28.
More than 64 million people, including 3.4 million overseas voters, are eligible to vote in the elections, which are taking place the year Turkey marks the centenary of the establishment of the republic. Voter turnout in Turkey is traditionally strong, showing continued belief in this type of civic participation in a country where freedom of expression and assembly have been suppressed.
The elections come as the country is wracked by economic turmoil that critics blame on the government’s mishandling of the economy and a steep cost-of-living crisis.
Turkey is also reeling from the effects of a powerful earthquake that caused devastation in 11 southern provinces in February, killing more than 50,000 people in unsafe buildings. Erdogan’s government has been criticized for its delayed and stunted response to the disaster as well as the lax implementation of building codes that exacerbated the misery.
Internationally, the elections are being watched closely as a test of a united opposition’s ability to dislodge a leader who has concentrated nearly all powers of the state in his hands.
Erdogan has led a divisive election campaign, using state resources and his domineering position over media as in previous years. He has accused the opposition of colluding with “terrorists,” of being “drunkards” and of upholding LGBTQ rights which he says are a threat to traditional family values.
In a bid to woo voters hit hard by inflation, he has increased wages and pensions and subsidized electricity and gas bills, while showcasing Turkey’s homegrown defense industry and infrastructure projects.
He has extended the political alliance of his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, with two nationalist parties to include a small leftist party and two marginal Islamist parties.
Kilicdaroglu’s six-party Nation Alliance, has promised to dismantle an executive presidential system narrowly voted in by a 2017 referendum that Erdogan installed and return the country to a parliamentary democracy. They have promised to establish the independence of the judiciary and the central bank, institute checks and balances and reverse the democratic backsliding and crackdowns on free speech and dissent under Erdogan.
The alliance includes the nationalist Good Party led by former interior minister Meral Aksener, and two parties that splintered from the AKP and are led by former prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu and former finance minister Ali Babacan, as well as a small Islamist party.
The country’s main Kurdish political party, currently Turkey’s second largest opposition grouping that the government has targeted with arrests and lawsuits, is supporting Kilicdaroglu in the presidential race.
Also running for president is Sinan Ogan, a former academic who has the backing of an anti-immigrant nationalist party. One other candidate, the center-left politician Muharrem Ince dropped out of the race on Thursday following a significant drop in his ratings but his withdrawal was considered invalid by the country’s electoral board and votes for him will be counted.
Voters will also be casting ballots to fill seats in the 600-member parliament. The opposition would need at least a majority to be able to enact some of the democratic reforms it has promised.
Balloting in the 11 provinces affected by the earthquake has given rise to concern about the registration of nearly 9 million voters.
Around 3 million people have left the quake zone for other provinces, but only 133,000 people have registered to vote at their new locations. Political parties and non-governmental organizations planned to transport voters by bus but it was not clear how many would make the journey back.
Many of the quake survivors will cast votes in containers turned into makeshift polling stations erected on school yards.
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Voters Divided in Earthquake Zone Ahead of Turkey Election
Driving through the city of Hatay in Turkey is like touring a war zone in the months after a battle. Some apartment buildings are gutted, others are massive piles of rubble and tangled metal.
“This city was a rose garden,” says Ali Kandenir, a 62-year-old truck driver, in a settlement of tents housing families displaced in the February earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria. “Now the city is gone.”
Kandenir says he is among those who intend to show his anger at the polls this weekend, when Turkey votes in what could be its most significant election in decades. But other voters in this tent city say the opposite, that they will proudly reelect their current leader for another term.
Kandenir lives about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) away in a temporary metal housing unit known as a container. He is trying to collect small amounts of humanitarian aid because his home — along with billions of dollars in property — was destroyed in the earthquakes.
As Kandenir describes how he fled his home in the rain in early February as the earth shook beneath him, his wife, Gul Kandenir, wipes tears from her face.
“The people here are in pain,” she says.
Divided voters
Ali Kandenir’s face grows slightly redder as he continues telling his story.
Too many people died in the earthquakes, he says, and there was too much destruction. He says Turkey’s refugee population — the largest in the world — is taking resources from people who are suffering.
“Rescue teams came but it was not fast enough,” he says. “My brother survived because we could pull him from the rubble ourselves.”
As he speaks, Devlet Ipek, a 48-year-old mother of four pops out of her nearby tent and watches us through a chain link fence. She invites us in.
Ipek says she thinks the government has responded to the disaster as well as possible and that she plans to vote for it to remain in power.
She says the Islamic nature of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration is welcomed, as are, in her opinion, the millions of refugees in Turkey.
“They are afraid because there is no security in Syria,” she says. “Why should they go?”
Opposition issues
Erdogan has led Turkey for more than 20 years, and some political parties say they believe this election may be their chance to step in.
“It’s possible for us to win in the first round,” says one member of the Republic People’s Party, the leading opposition party, who does not want to be identified. If one presidential candidate does not win more than 50% of the first vote, a second round will be held in two weeks.
If his party wins, he says, they have promised to reform the justice system and to expel refugees within two years.
But analysts say Turkey’s skyrocketing prices are the voters’ biggest concern. The cost of food and rent has doubled, tripled or even quadrupled in some parts of Turkey.
“It’s not a normal time to have an election,” says Ipek, as the wind loudly flaps her plastic tent walls. “But that’s what we are doing, so we will do it.”
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Turkish Presidential Candidates Trade Accusations Ahead of Sunday Vote
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan held his last election rallies in Istanbul on Saturday, accusing the opposition of working with U.S. President Joe Biden to topple him while making a final appeal ahead of the biggest challenge to his 20-year rule.
Polls show Erdogan trailing the main opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu a day ahead of one of the most consequential elections in Turkey’s modern history. However, if neither of them wins more than 50% of the vote and secures an outright win, the vote will go to a runoff May 28.
Voters will also elect a new parliament, likely a tight race between the People’s Alliance comprising Erdogan’s conservative Islamist-rooted AK Party (AKP) and the nationalist MHP and others, and Kilicdaroglu’s Nation Alliance formed of six opposition parties, including his secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), established by Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Polls will open at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and close at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT). By late on Sunday there could be a good indication of whether there will be a runoff vote for the presidency.
Erdogan’s campaign over the past month has focused on his government’s achievements in the defense industry and infrastructure projects, and his assertion that the opposition would roll back such developments.
One of his talking points has been that the opposition is receiving orders from the West, and that they will bow down to Western nations’ wishes if elected.
At a rally in Istanbul’s Umraniye district, Erdogan recalled comments made by Biden and published by The New York Times in January 2020, when he was campaigning for the White House. At that time, Biden said Washington should encourage Erdogan’s opponents to defeat him electorally, stressing he should not be ousted in a coup.
“Biden gave the order to topple Erdogan, I know this. All my people know this,” said Erdogan, 69. “If that is the case, then the ballots tomorrow will give a response to Biden too,” he added.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Turkey was a long-standing U.S. ally and Washington would be following the election closely but added: “The United States does not take sides in elections.
“Our only interest is in the democratic process, which should be both free and fair. We trust that Turkish authorities will carry out the election in keeping with its long, proud democratic tradition and its laws,” the spokesperson said.
Erdogan also criticized Kilicdaroglu for his comments on Russia, calling Moscow an important partner for Turkey. “Russia has been one of our most important allies regarding agriculture products,” he said.
Kilicdaroglu told Reuters on Friday that his party has concrete evidence of Russia’s responsibility for the release of “deep fake” online content ahead of Sunday’s elections. He did not present the evidence and Reuters could not independently verify it.
But he added that if he wins the presidency, he will maintain Ankara’s good ties with Moscow. Turkey is a member of NATO, but it has not imposed sanctions on Russia.
Russia categorically rejects Kilicdaroglu’s accusations of election interference, domestic news agencies cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Saturday.
Anticipation and excitement are running high among Turks in the run-up to the vote with some concerned about rising tensions, even violence, when the results come in.
While there has been concern about how Erdogan might react if he loses, the president said in a televised interview on Friday that he would accept the outcome of the election, no matter the result.
Kilicdaroglu, a 74-year-old former civil servant, did not hold a rally Saturday but visited Ataturk’s mausoleum in Ankara. He was accompanied by crowds of his supporters each carrying a single carnation to lay on the tomb.
The president’s re-election efforts have relied heavily on accusing the opposition of cooperating with Kurdish militants and those Ankara holds responsible for a 2016 coup attempt.
Kilicdaroglu is a “separatist,” Erdogan later said in Kasimpasa, an AK Party stronghold where he grew up. “Whatever the terrorists in Qandil are, unfortunately, that is what (Kilicdaroglu) is,” he added, referring to the location where leaders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are based.
Kilicdaroglu has denied such accusations.
Tension has risen in the days leading up to the election, with Kilicdaroglu wearing a bulletproof vest to his rallies on Friday in response to intelligence his party received about an attack.
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Frenchman ‘Weakened’ by Iran Prison Ordeal
The family of a Frenchman released this week after he had been jailed by Iran said on Saturday he was “relieved” to be back in France.
On Friday, Benjamin Briere, whose ordeal in Iran lasted three years, and French-Irish citizen Bernard Phelan, held since October, were freed from their prison in the northeastern city of Mashhad, the French foreign ministry said.
There had been grave concerns about the health of the men, both of whom had been on hunger strikes to protest their conditions.
‘Relieved’
Briere, 37, was first detained while traveling in Iran in May 2020 and later sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage.
“We were able to hold him in our arms at 1930 (1730GMT) on Friday, May 12, after three years of hell,” Briere’s family said in a press release.
“He is, like all of us, relieved, calm, and he is trying to realize that he’s really here, with us,” they said. “He is, however, very weak, physically and morally, a return to normal life will be long and certainly difficult, but now he is in good hands.”
Dozens of foreigners jailed
The pair were among some two dozen foreigners jailed in Iran, who campaigners see as hostages held in a deliberate strategy by Tehran to extract concessions from the West.
Four more French citizens, described previously as “hostages” by the French foreign ministry, are still in prison by Iran.
A fifth individual, French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah was released from prison in February but appears still unable to leave the country.
Several U.S., German, British, Swedish and other European citizens, such as Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele — who was arrested in February 2022 — also remain detained.
“All our thoughts now turn toward the five other French hostages still held in Iran,” Briere’s family said.
“Our thoughts are also with other families of European hostages held in Iran, with whom we share this heavy and painful battle,” they said. “We send them strength and courage, and we continue to fight alongside them,” they added.
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Latest in Ukraine: Zelenskyy in Rome for Meetings with Italian Officials, Pope
New developments:
Germany says it is preparing a new weapons package for Ukraine worth $3 billion, reportedly the nation’s largest package since Russia invaded its neighbor last year.
Russia says its forces launched attacks on Ukrainian troops and military facilities on front lines in Kupyansk, Bundman and western Bakhmut.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Rome on Saturday for expected talks with Italian political leaders and the pope.
Zelenskyy’s trip comes as Russia again launched a drone attack on Kyiv and shelled cities in central and southern Ukraine, causing material damage, amid reports of some Ukrainian gains in Bakhmut, where heavy fighting has been under way for months.
Kyiv’s air defenses shot down all the drones launched by Russia overnight, the capital’s military administration reported Saturday, without specifying the number of drones.
There were no reports of damage or casualties, it said. It was the sixth drone attack on Kyiv this month.
In the central city of Khmelnytskyy, people were wounded and critical infrastructure was damaged by Russian shelling overnight, the region’s military administration reported early Saturday.
Khmelnytskyy Mayor Oleksandr Symchyshyn said schools, medical facilities, administrative buildings, industrial objectives, and high-rise residential buildings were damaged. “The number of wounded is currently being established,” he said.
The mayor of the southern city of Mykolayiv, Oleksandr Syenkevych, said three people were wounded in overnight shelling that damaged a factory and several residential buildings.
In Rome, Zelenskyy is to meet President Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, and Pope Francis during his visit, whose details have not been revealed for security reasons.
Zelenskyy on Sunday is due to receive the prestigious Charlemagne Prize in the northern German city of Aachen.
It remains unclear if he will attend the ceremony in person and if he would also travel to Berlin for meetings with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Germany’s Der Spiegel reported Saturday that Berlin has put together a new package of military equipment for Ukraine worth $3 billion, the biggest since Russia’s invasion began.
The package will include 20 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, 30 Leopard 1 tanks, 15 Gepard antiaircraft tanks, 200 reconnaissance drones, four additional Iris-T antiaircraft systems including ammunition, additional artillery ammunition, and more than 200 armored combat and logistics vehicles, the article said.
Zelenskyy’s trip to Italy comes a day after Ukraine said it had recaptured some territory in the bitterly contested city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.
Russia has acknowledged its forces retreated from positions north of Bakhmut, with Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov telling the media that Russian forces “occupied a new frontier” at the Berkhivske reservoir, some 2 kilometers from Bakhmut.
Konashenkov said Friday that Ukraine had launched an assault with more than 1,000 troops and up to 40 tanks after advancing the day before in the Soledar direction “along the entire line of contact” with a length of more than 95 kilometers.
The gains, if confirmed, would be the biggest for Ukraine in six months.
It is unclear if the developments were part of a long-planned counteroffensive.
There also were reports of Ukrainian advances to the south, suggesting a coordinated push by Kyiv to encircle Russian forces in Bakhmut.
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It’s Eurovision Time! Here’s How the Contest Works and Who to Watch For
Sprinkle the sequins and pump up the volume: The 67th Eurovision Song Contest reaches its climax on Saturday with a grand final broadcast live from Liverpool. There will be catchy choruses, a kaleidoscope of costumes and tributes to the spirit of Ukraine in a competition that for seven decades has captured the changing zeitgeist of a continent.
Here’s what to expect as acts from across Europe — and beyond — vie for the continent’s pop crown.
Who’s Competing?
This year, 37 countries sent an act to Eurovision, selected through national competitions or internal selections by broadcasters. The host country is usually the winner of the previous year’s event, but 2022 runner-up Britain is hosting this time around on behalf of the winner, Ukraine.
Twenty-six countries will compete in Saturday’s final at the Liverpool Arena, beside the River Mersey in the port city that gave birth to The Beatles. Six countries automatically qualify: last year’s winner and the “Big Five” who pay the most to the contest — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K.
The other 20 finalists, chosen by public votes in two semifinals on Tuesday and Thursday, are: Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Israel, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland.
Wait — Australia?
Eurovision is about spirit, not just geography. Eurovision is hugely popular in Australia, and the country was allowed to join the competition in 2015. Other entrants from outside Europe’s borders include Israel and Azerbaijan.
Who Are This Year’s Favorites?
It’s hard to predict victors in a contest whose past winners have ranged from ABBA to Finnish cartoon metal band Lordi, but bookmakers say Swedish diva Loreen, who won Eurovision in 2012, is favorite to score a double with her power ballad “Tattoo.”
Finland’s Käärijä was a crowd-pleaser in the semifinals with his pop-metal party tune “Cha Cha Cha,” and Canadian singer La Zarra, competing for France, is also highly ranked for her Edith Piaf-esque chanson “Évidemment.”
And never underestimate left-field entries like Croatia’s Let 3, whose song “Mama ŠČ!”is pure Eurovision camp: an antiwar rock opera that plays like Monty Python meets “Dr. Strangelove.”
What Happens During The Final?
Around 6,000 fans will attend the final, hosted by long-time BBC Eurovision presenter Graham Norton, “Ted Lasso” star Hannah Waddingham, British singer Alesha Dixon and Ukrainian rock star Julia Sanina.
Each competing act must sing live and stick to a three-minute limit, but otherwise is free to create its own staging — the flashier the pyrotechnics and more elaborate the choreography, the better.
Russia’s war in Ukraine will lend a solemn note to a contest famed for celebrating cheesy pop. The show will open with a performance by last year’s winner, Ukrainian folk-rap band Kalush Orchestra. Ukrainian singer Jamala, who won the contest in 2016, will perform a tribute to her Crimean Tatar culture.
One person who won’t be appearing is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He asked to address the final by video — but organizer the European Broadcasting Union said “regrettably,” that would breach “the nonpolitical nature of the event.”
How Is The Winner Decided?
After all the acts have performed, viewers in participating nations can vote by phone, text message or app – though they can’t vote for their own country. This year for the first time, viewers in nonparticipating countries can also vote online, with the combined “rest of the world” votes being given the weight of one individual country.
National juries of music industry professionals also allocate between one and 12 points to their favorite songs, with an announcer from each country popping up to declare which has been granted the coveted “douze points” (12 points).
Public and jury votes are combined to give each country a single score. Ending up with “nul points” (zero points) is considered a national embarrassment. It’s a fate the U.K. has suffered several times.
How Can I Watch?
Eurovision is being shown by national broadcasters that belong to the European Broadcasting Union, including the BBC in Britain, and on the Eurovision YouTube channel. In the United States, it’s being shown on NBC’s Peacock streaming service.
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