A Monet sold for nearly $35 million at auction Wednesday evening, Sotheby's said, marking a solid start to New York's spring art sales.

Both Sotheby's and rival auction house Christie's launched their spring season Monday. Though the global art market softened last year, strong sales in London and Paris have sparked optimism for 2024.

Claude Monet's "Meules a Giverny," which the French impressionist painted in 1893, went for $34.8 million after a bidding war.

Meanwhile, British-Mexican artist Leonora Carrington broke her own auction record when her "Les Distractions de Dagobert" sold for $28.5 million.

The new record places Carrington among the top five most valuable women artists at auction, Sotheby's said -- and among the top four surrealist artists, "overtaking Max Ernst and Salvador Dali."

Christie's, meanwhile, sold some $115 million in contemporary art the prior evening, including a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting for $32 million.

At the Phillips auction house, Basquiat's "Untitled (ELMAR)" sold for $46.5 million.

Amid the war in Ukraine and its fallout -- which has led to a drop in Russian buyers -- art auction sales worldwide fell to $14.9 billion last year, compared with $16 billion in 2022.

Another masterpiece emerging from chaos, or just a chaotic mess? One of Hollywood's most mythologised directors, Francis Ford Coppola, returns Thursday to the Cannes Film Festival with the almost impossibly hyped "Megalopolis".

He has been in this position before, 45 years ago, when the shoot for "Apocalypse Now" turned into now legendary mayhem and looked destined for disaster.

Instead it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, became one of the most celebrated films of all time and burnished the reputation Coppola had made with "The Godfather".

Will history repeat itself as Coppola, 85, returns to the French Cote d'Azur to premiere "Megalopolis", a $120-million project he self-funded by selling part of his California wine estate and which has been gestating for some 40 years?

It is billed as an Ancient Roman epic transplanted to modern-day America with Adam Driver as a visionary architect seeking to rebuild a crumbling city.

The trailer's portentous voiceover intones: "When does an empire die? Does it collapse in one terrible moment? No, no, but there comes a time when its people no longer believe in it."

Coppola -- who also won a Palme d'Or in 1974 for "The Conversation" -- shows no worries that his own imperial reputation is crumbling.

In a statement to Vanity Fair, he gave a list of 40-plus influences for the film that included Voltaire, Plato, Shakespeare, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Kurosawa, "Moses and the prophets all thrown in".

But tales of crew walkouts and complaints over Coppola's maniacal behaviour -- as well as worried reactions from Hollywood execs over the final results -- are already legion.

The cast includes Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf and Dustin Hoffman, but the film has been in production so long that some actors who read for roles are long dead, including Paul Newman and James Gandolfini.

"I wanted to make a film about a human expression of what really is heaven on Earth," Coppola said at the Lumiere Festival in Lyon back in 2019. "I would say it's the most ambitious film (I've worked on) -– more than 'Apocalypse Now'."

Although Coppola has created several duds since his 1970s heyday, many still believe in his genius.

"Cannes is important to him and he is important to Cannes. He comes as an artist," said festival head Thierry Fremaux.

- Race for the Palme -

"Megalopolis" is one of 22 films competing for the Palme d'Or, facing a jury led by "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig, who will announce their verdict on May 25.

Other entries include a Donald Trump biopic, "The Apprentice", and new films from arthouse favourites David Cronenberg ("The Shrouds"), Italy's Paolo Sorrentino ("Parthenope"), as well as "Emilia Perez", an unlikely sounding musical about a Mexican cartel boss having a sex change from French Palme d'Or-winner Jacques Audiard.

The competition started strongly on Wednesday with "Wild Diamond", about a fragile teenage girl desperate to find fame on social media and reality TV.

Movie magazine Variety said it "announces the arrival of a major filmmaker" in first-time French director Agathe Reidinger.

There were also great reviews for the other early entry -- "The Girl with the Needle" -- one of the grimmest stories ever shown at Cannes.

The bleak Danish-set period drama about a factory worker who desperately tries to get an abortion after becoming pregnant by her boss -- with a serial killer twist -- was described as "a poetic and dark fairytale".

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was trying to send a message of defiance and hope when he took to the stage of a Kyiv bar on Tuesday night for a guitar performance of "Rockin' in the Free World".

But some Ukrainians have reacted angrily, chastising Washington's top diplomat for an ill-judged jam session in the capital while Ukrainian troops are fighting in trenches, struggling to hold back a Russian advance amid a shortage of weapons.

"One word is enough to describe US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's evening in Kyiv yesterday: inappropriate," said Svitlana Matviyenko, head of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives NGO.

Blinken is on a surprise trip to Kyiv weeks after Washington approved a $61 billion package of aid for the country following months of delays in Congress.

In a speech earlier on Tuesday he said the United States would back Ukraine until its security was "guaranteed".

A guitar player who has launched a musical diplomacy initiative at the State Department, Blinken later joined Ukrainian musicians at a famed Kyiv bar, Barman Dictat, for a rendition of Neil Young's 1989 "Rockin' in the Free World".

"I know this is a really, really difficult time. Your soldiers, your citizens, particularly in the northeast in Kharkiv are suffering tremendously," he said on stage, holding a red electric guitar.

"But they need to know, you need to know, the Untied States is with you... They're fighting not just for a free Ukraine but for the free world," he added.

Ukrainian lawmaker Bogdan Yaremenko, a former diplomat and MP from President Volodymyr Zelensky's party, said the performance was ill-timed, coming after delays to US aid cost Ukraine lives and territory.

"The message is not hard to understand, but it's not getting through," he said in a Facebook post.

Images of Blinken's performance sparked an angry backlash on social media.

"With all due respect, it's a mistake. The message is wrong," said Valeriy Chaly, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States from 2015 to 2019.

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was critically injured in an assassination attempt on Wednesday, has regained consciousness after an operation lasting several hours, local media reported.

However, neither the television station TA3 nor the newspaper Dennik provided any further information on Fico's state of health late on Wednesday night.

Earlier on Wednesday evening, according to official information, the 59-year-old's life had been in danger.

There has been no new statement or explanation from the government since then.

A museum in Denmark has settled its dispute with an artist after it was presented with blank canvases despite lending him over 70,000 euros ($76,000) in cash for the works, it said Wednesday.

In 2021, the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg in western Denmark agreed to lend a large sum of cash to Jens Haaning so that he could recreate one of his old artworks that depicted a year's salary in Denmark and Austria.

Haaning, 58, was due to exhibit nearly 72,000 euros worth of banknotes glued to two canvases but upon receiving the works, employees found they were blank and the artwork renamed "Take the Money and Run".

The museum's director Lasse Andersson, nevertheless, decided to present the two artworks as part of a temporary exhibition but took legal action against the artist who was ordered to reimburse the museum.

"The Obel Family Foundation has resolved the Gordian knot that neither Jens Haaning nor Kunsten have been able to untie since the 'Work it Out' exhibition in 2021, which included the 'Take the Money and Run' work," Andersson said in a statement.

He added: "Jan Haaning's 'Take the Money and Run' (2021) is protected for posterity as part of the Kunsten collection and can be shown to the public."

The artwork will now go on permanent display at the museum.

Meryl Streep shared intimate anecdotes from her career at the Cannes Film Festival Wednesday, including falling in love when Robert Redford washed her hair and leaving her Oscar in the toilet.

A long-standing critic of gender inequalities in Hollywood, she also said why she thinks there were so few good roles for women in the past...

'Out of Africa'

Streep recalled the famous scene in which co-star Redford washed her hair in a river.

"We had lions. They were imported from California and supposedly tame, but they were not... And we were shooting in the river and there were hippopotamuses right up above it," she said.

Redford took some time to learn how to do the job with passion.

"But he really got into washing my hair," she said. "By take five, I was so in love. It's a sex scene in a way, it's so intimate. I didn't want it to end that day, even in spite of the hippos."

'The Devil Wears Prada'

"The first movie I ever made where a man came up to me afterwards and said, 'I know how you felt' was 'The Devil Wears Prada'," Streep said of her beloved role as a fashion magazine boss.

"That was fascinating to me. No man watches 'The Deer Hunter' and feels like the girl. But I can watch it and identify with Chris Walken's character or De Niro's. We (women) can do that, we speak that language, but it's very hard for them to feel us."

'Kramer vs. Kramer'

Streep won her first Oscar for the 1979 film about a divorce, which was groundbreaking at the time for showing a man (played by Dustin Hoffman) having to look after a child on his own.

Streep famously rewrote a key scene to explain why her character felt the need to leave her suffocating life as a housewife.

"It was the beginning of the women's movement -- that didn't make everyone happy... There was a lot of vitriol about these women stepping out of the role that was prescribed, leaving this poor man to raise the child," Streep recalled.

Streep, Hoffman and director Robert Benton all decided to write a speech for her character that would explain her reasons for leaving.

"And then we voted, and I won!" said Streep, to cheers from the Cannes crowd.

- Misplaced Oscar -

Streep admitted she almost lost that Oscar, however, leaving it in a toilet cubicle at the ceremony.

"Yes, I did leave it in the restroom. It was a very big dress. And I had to lift it up, and put the thing down, and then forgot that it was underneath there. But someone found it!"

'The Deer Hunter'

Streep said she was unaware of how important the Vietnam War drama would become when they were filming.

"I didn't think about that. My job was on the human side, in the family side. The limited view of a small-town girl," she said.

"I'm a small-town girl from New Jersey. My boyfriend went to Vietnam as a medic and came back a heroin addict... so I was familiar with the effect, the emotional, personal, microcosmic effect of this story."

Women in film

Streep said there had been huge progress: "The biggest stars in the world are women right now."

She pointed out that her early roles were often so memorable "because she was the only woman in the film".

The reason for that lay with the male-dominated studios.

"Even movie executives have dreams. They're living their fantasy and so it was very hard -- before there were women in green-light positions at studios -- for men to see themselves in women protagonists," she said. "They just didn't get it."

Streep chose to focus on her family -- she has four children -- rather than the business side, and says she is "in awe" of women like Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman who have set up their own production companies.

"I had my own production company –- of babies –- and I didn't want to get calls after seven o'clock at night."

© 2024 AFP

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico has been injured in a shooting and taken to hospital, news agency TASR reported.

The shooting took place after a Cabinet meeting in the town of Handlová, the agency reported, citing the deputy leader of Fico's left-wing nationalist Smer party, Ľuboš Blaha.

"Utterly shocked by today's brutal and reckless attack on Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, which I condemn in strongest possible terms," wrote President Zuzana Čaputová on X. "I wish him lot of strength in this critical moment and early recovery."

Taylor Swift's worldwide Eras Tour will boost the UK economy by almost £1 billion ($1.3 billion) as fans splash the cash to see the US music star, Barclays bank estimated Wednesday.

A study entitled "Swiftonomics" said almost 1.2 million fans would each shell out about £848 on tickets, travel, accommodation and merchandise to see the singer and songwriter perform in the UK over 15 summer dates.

This figure is 12 times the amount someone would spend on an average night out in the country, according to Barclays.

"When it comes to cultural icons like Taylor Swift -- like we saw with Elvis and Beatlemania in the 50s and 60s -- supporters have such a strong connection to the artist that the desire to spend becomes even more powerful," said Peter Brooks, behavioral scientist at Barclays.

Swift is on the European leg of her tour that began more than one year ago, with the performer having played to sold-out arenas across North and South America as well as Asia.

In the UK, Swift will perform at sporting arenas in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Liverpool and London.

By the end of 2023, the tour became the first to sell more than $1 billion in tickets. It is on track to more than double the amount by the time it concludes at the end of this year.

© 2024 AFP

Britain's Queen Camilla has promised not to buy any more fur for her wardrobe, according to a letter from Buckingham Palace that animal rights group PETA released Wednesday.

Camilla -- a keen fox hunter before it was made illegal in the UK -- follows in the footsteps of late Queen Elizabeth II, who announced she would stop buying fur in 2019.

The letter, on Buckingham Palace headed notepaper, said: "I can confirm that Her Majesty will not procure any new fur garments."

AFP contacted the palace for comment.

PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk welcomed the move as being "right and proper for the monarchy", and said it was in line with the overwhelming majority of British people who also refuse to wear animal fur.

The activist group has been calling for years for the Ministry of Defence to end the use of bearskin for the hats worn by ceremonial guards.

The tall, black hats are worn by the elite regiments, including for the Changing of the Guard outside Buckingham Palace, and are one of the best-known symbols of the UK.

The MoD has argued that faux fur alternatives do not meet their standards.

Camilla's decision is the latest royal move to address animal welfare concerns, with her husband King Charles III a lifelong environmentalist.

Charles and Camilla were presented this month with the "Coronation Roll", a written record of their coronation last year.

It was the first time it was written on paper rather than vellum from animal skin in its 700-year history.

However, the king and queen wore ermine-trimmed capes and crowns made from stoats at the ceremony.

Camilla's pledge does not require her to stop wearing fur items she already owns.

A blood-splattered "Mad Max" heroine, a Meryl Streep masterclass, a #MeToo figurehead -- the Cannes Film Festival showed the progress women have made in cinema on its first full day on Wednesday.

The festival was bracing for the world premiere of "Furiosa", the latest instalment of the post-apocalyptic "Mad Max" franchise, with Anya Taylor-Joy in the no-holds-barred title role playing alongside "Thor" star Chris Hemsworth.

While "Furiosa" plays out-of-competition, the race for festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, also gets underway on Wednesday with two films that put women's stories centre-stage.

They are being judged by a jury led by Greta Gerwig, the first woman to direct a $1 billion movie with "Barbie".

First up are "The Girl with the Needle", billed as the story of a Danish woman who set up an underground adoption agency after World War I, and "Wild Diamond" about a French teenager seeking fame on a reality TV show, from first-time director Agathe Riedinger.

- Streep masterclass -

One of the most iconic women in cinema, Meryl Streep, will also be delivering a masterclass a day after receiving an honorary Palme d'Or at the opening ceremony.

"I'm just so grateful that you haven't gotten sick of my face," Streep, 74, joked as she received the award from French actor Juliette Binoche.

And there is a screening of a short film about sexual violence, "Moi Aussi" ("Me Too"), by French actor Judith Godreche.

She has become a leading figure in France's #MeToo movement after accusing two directors of assaulting her when she was a teenager in the 1980s -- even appearing before the French Senate this year to call for greater protections on film sets.

It comes amid a wave of new allegations in France, most notably against veteran actor Gerard Depardieu, and persistent rumours that more big names will face accusations.

Godreche told AFP she has a nuanced view of the #MeToo movement.

"There is growing awareness, but sometimes things are announced in a way that feels too staged. It's not very spectacular being abused, it's not very funny, it's not very theatrical," she said.

- Gerwig hopeful -

The host of the opening ceremony, Camille Cottin, star of hit series "Call My Agent!" and an outspoken feminist, also took digs at the "biggest bad guy of all time: the patriarchy".

"The late-night work meetings in hotel rooms of all-powerful gentlemen are no longer part of the Cannes vortex," she said in her welcome address.

Gerwig, meanwhile, struck an optimistic note.

"Every year I cheer when there are more and more women being represented," she told reporters on Tuesday.

"Fifteen years ago, I couldn't have imagined the number of women represented not only at international festivals but in distribution and board conversations, and so I'm hopeful that it's just continuing."

Still to come at the 77th edition of the festival is the hotly anticipated return of "The Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola with his decades-in-the-making epic, "Megalopolis", on Thursday.

Also in the running for the top prize is a Donald Trump biopic, "The Apprentice", and new films from arthouse favourites David Cronenberg ("The Shrouds"), Italy's Paolo Sorrentino ("Parthenope"), as well as "Emilia Perez", an unlikely-sounding musical about a Mexican cartel boss having a sex change from French Palme d'Or-winner Jacques Audiard.

Thousands of residents of Fort McMurray, a city in Canada's major oil-producing region, fled as an out-of-control wildfire drew near and thick smoke filled the skies.

Shifting winds gusting to 40 kilometers per hour (25 miles per hour) fanned the flames, scorching 9,600 hectares of surrounding forests as it advanced to within 13 kilometers of the city in the western province of Alberta that had been gutted by wildfires in 2016 -- one of the biggest disasters in the nation's history.

Four neighborhoods were ordered to evacuate and by mid-afternoon, a highway south was jammed with cars and trucks fleeing to safety against a backdrop of plumes of dark smoke glowing orange in the distance.

Resident Ashley Russell was packed and ready to leave on a moment's notice, as the rest of the city was put on alert. "I'm experiencing a lot of anxiety. In 2016, my place burned down, so I'm reliving that," she told AFP.

"We're seeing extreme fire behavior," Alberta Wildfire spokeswoman Josee St-Onge told a news conference.

"Smoke columns are developing and the skies are covered in smoke," she said. "Firefighters have been pulled from the fire line for safety reasons."

Officials said the fire had grown significantly in multiple directions since Monday.

Regional fire chief Jody Butz, however, assured residents that crews were prepared, having cleared brush and erected fire barriers over the winter, and that water bombers were now dropping retardant to slow its advance.

"We are confident that we have the resources to defend these areas, but we need people out of harm's way," he said.

- Fears of 2016 repeat -

In 2016, the entire city with a population of more than 90,000 was evacuated while production of one million barrels of oil per day -- almost one third of Canada's total output at the time -- stopped. Canada is the world's fourth largest producer and a leading exporter of crude to the United States.

More than 2,500 homes and businesses were razed, with damage assessed at more than Can$3.7 billion. Thousands of residents never returned to the city.

Authorities have been bracing for another possibly devastating wildfire season, after Canada's worst ever last year that saw flames burning from coast to coast and charring more than 15 million hectares (37 million acres) of land.

Dozens of zombie fires sustained by layers of dried peat continued to smolder beneath the surface of the boreal forest through the winter, which was warmer than usual and left a smaller snowpack, while drought has persisted across the region.

In British Columbia, thousands of residents of remote towns remained under evacuation orders, while CN railway on Tuesday suspended rail service between Fort St. John and Fort Nelson, and north of High Level in Alberta "due to wildfire activity."

Rob Fraser, the mayor of Fort Nelson told AFP: "It's cool, it's overcast and the wind is just very slight. If everything continues like this, you know, we just might corral this beast."

Air quality warnings, meanwhile, have been issued across Canada and the United States as smoke from the Canadian wildfires wafted as far south as the US state of Oklahoma and over to Quebec province in the east.

Taiwanese drag queen Nymphia Wind and winner of hit TV series "RuPaul's Drag Race" performed a rousing medley of songs for outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen, thanking her for being the island's "mother".

During Tsai's two terms in power, her Democratic Progressive Party had been a strong proponent of social issues particularly on LGBTQ rights, making the island the first place in Asia to legalise gay marriage in 2019.

She will step down as president on Monday with that under her belt, as well as having been Taiwan's first woman president -- two milestones that Nymphia Wind tearfully highlighted in a speech Wednesday at the presidential office.

"Thank you so much for your eight years of dedication, for becoming Taiwan's mother," the Taiwanese-American drag queen said.

The first East Asian winner of "RuPaul's Drag Race" performed three songs in the main entrance of the presidential office -- the first by Taiwanese songstress Huang Fei, and then "Marry the Night" by Lady Gaga.

For the final song, Nymphia Wind was joined by five other Taiwanese drag queens as they danced and lipsynced to pop star Jolin Tsai's LGBTQ-centred song "Womxnly", which includes the lyrics "Never let anyone change who you are".

"This is probably the first presidential office in the world to host a drag show," Nymphia Wind quipped as Tsai applauded her after the performance.

The president said the performance "shows resistance to social discrimination, resistance to prejudice".

"I want to thank all the drag queens for speaking up for themselves, breaking the barriers and showing their beauty of fearlessness," Tsai said.

Nymphia Wind's win last month sent the island's social media into a frenzy when she said "Taiwan, this is for you!"

Tsai congratulated her then on social media site X, praising her "for being so accomplished in the difficult art form of drag, and for being the first Taiwanese to take the stage and win" "RuPaul's Drag Race".

"Taiwan thanks you for living fearlessly," she said in a tweet.

Indonesian rescuers raced Wednesday to find dozens of people still unaccounted for after heavy rains caused flash floods and washed volcanic debris into residential areas over the weekend, sweeping away houses and leaving 67 people dead.

Hours of torrential rain on Saturday caused mud and rocks to flow into districts near one of Indonesia's most active volcanos, destroying dozens of houses and damaging roads and mosques.

"Some of the missing ones have been found. According to the police identification, 67 people died," national disaster agency chief Suharyanto said Wednesday in a press conference, raising the death toll from 58.

He added that 20 people remained missing, with rescuers saying many of the retrieved bodies were found in or around rivers after being swept away by the deluge of volcanic material, mud and rain.

The mixture of ash, sand and pebbles carried down a volcano's slopes by rain is known in Indonesia as lahar, or cold lava.

Heavy equipment was deployed to clear debris from the areas worst hit by flooding and cold lava flows, which have affected transport access in six districts, said Suharyanto, who goes by one name.

More than 3,300 people have been forced to evacuate from affected areas.

To aid the rescue effort, authorities on Wednesday deployed weather modification technology, the term Indonesian officials use for cloud seeding.

In this case, it is being used in a bid to make clouds rain earlier so the precipitation's intensity is weakened by the time it reaches the disaster-struck area.

Indonesia is prone to landslides and floods during the rainy season.

In 2022, about 24,000 people were evacuated and two children were killed in floods on Sumatra island, with environmental campaigners blaming deforestation caused by logging for worsening the disaster.

Trees act as a natural defence against floods, slowing the rate at which water runs down hills and into rivers.

The European Union's top diplomat has said that the United States is showing "fatigue" in its Middle East diplomacy and called for greater EU efforts toward a Palestinian state.

On a visit to California, the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell again strongly criticized Israel's war campaign, saying Gazans were "dying and starving and suffering in unimaginable proportions" and that it was a "man-made disaster."

"I see a certain fatigue from the US side to continue engaging in looking for a solution," Borrell said in a speech Monday at Stanford University that was publicly released on Tuesday.

"We are trying to push with the Arab people in order to build together, the Arabs and Europeans, to make this two-state solution a reality," he said in English.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made seven trips to the Middle East since the unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas which prompted a relentless Israeli military campaign in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

He has nudged Israel to allow in more aid, pushed against a regional escalation and pleaded for Israel to accept a two-state solution as part of a broader eventual deal that includes normalization with Saudi Arabia.

But the United States vetoed a Security Council bid to give Palestine full UN membership, arguing that statehood can only come though negotiations that address Israel's security concerns.

The General Assembly last week passed a symbolic vote for Palestinian membership with the United States one of only nine countries to vote against.

The others opposed included two European Union members -- the Czech Republic and Hungary. Among EU heavyweights, France voted in favor and Germany abstained.

Borrell acknowledged that the vote showed the European Union was "very much divided" over Gaza, unlike on the Ukraine war, and cited "historical reasons."

"But it doesn't mean that we don't have to take a stronger part of responsibility because we have delegated (to) the US looking for a solution," he said.

Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister, in February sharply criticized the US arms flow for Israel, pointing to President Joe Biden's own words that too many people were dying in Gaza.

Biden last week for the first time threatened to cut military aid to Israel, with one shipment of bombs already halted, if Israel defies US warnings and assaults the packed city of Rafah.

Alice Munro, the Nobel Prize-winning author known as "Canada's Chekhov" for her mastery of the short story, has died at 92, Canadian media reported Tuesday.

Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013 and the International Booker Prize for her body of work in 2009, Munro had suffered from dementia in recent years. According to the Globe and Mail, she died late Monday at her care home in Ontario.

Munro set her taut, acutely observed stories in the rural Ontario countryside where she grew up, focusing a stark lens on the frailties of the human condition.

Despite her vast success and an impressive list of literary prizes, however, she long remained as unassuming and modest as the characters in her fiction.

"She is not a socialite. She is actually rarely seen in public, and does not go on book tours," commented American literary critic David Homel after she rose to global fame.

That shy public profile contrasted with another Canadian contemporary literary giant, Margaret Atwood.

Born on July 10, 1931, in Wingham, Ontario, Munro grew up in the countryside. Her father Robert Eric Laidlaw raised foxes and poultry, while her mother was a small town schoolteacher.

At just 11 years old, she decided she wanted to be a writer, and never wavered in her career choice.

"I think maybe I was successful in doing this because I didn't have any other talents," she explained in an interview once.

"I'm not really an intellectual," Munro said. "I was an okay housewife but I wasn't that great. There was never anything else that I was really drawn to doing so nothing interfered in the way life interferes for so many people."

"It always does seem like magic to me."

Munro's first story "The Dimensions of a Shadow" was published in 1950, while she was studying at the University of Western Ontario.

Munro was three times awarded the Governor General's Award for fiction, first for "Dance of the Happy Shades" published in 1968. "Who Do You Think You Are" (1978) and "The Progress of Love" (1986) also won Canada's highest literary honor.

Her short stories often appeared in the pages of prestigious magazines such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic, with her last collection "Dear Life" appearing in 2012.

Critics praised her for writing about women for women, but without demonizing men.

Her subjects and her writing style, such as a reliance on narration to describe the events in her books, earned her the moniker "our Chekhov," in reference to the 19th century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov -- a term affectionately coined by Russian-American short story writer Cynthia Ozick.

A deadly attack on a convoy of World Central Kitchen aid workers which killed 7 people last month was not a one-off occurrence, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday, but rather representative of a documented pattern in which Israel military forces have targeted relief personnel and infrastructure despite being informed of the exact locations of those operations.

"Even though aid groups had provided their coordinates to the Israeli authorities to ensure their protection," an analysis by HRW found that eight such attacks on such operations, including the April 1 bombing of the WCK in Deir al-Balah, have been carried out by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) over the last seven months.

According to the group's report, "Israeli authorities did not issue advance warnings to any of the aid organizations before the strikes, which killed or injured at least 31 aid workers and those with them."

"Israel's allies need to recognize that these attacks that have killed aid workers have happened over and over again, and they need to stop." —Belkis Willi, HRW

Details of the various attacks, said HRW, show that the WCK bombing was "far from being an isolated 'mistake,'" as the Israeli government has claimed.

Citing figures from the United Nations, HRW notes that over 250 aid workers have been killed in Gaza by Israel since the Hamas-led attack on October 7 of last year.

"Israel's killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers was shocking and should never have happened under international law," said Belkis Wille, associate crisis, conflict, and arms director at Human Rights Watch. "Israel's allies need to recognize that these attacks that have killed aid workers have happened over and over again, and they need to stop."

The other seven attacks documented in the report are:

• Attack on a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors without Borders) convoy, November 18, 2023
• Attack on a guest house of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), December 9, 2023
• Attack on an MSF shelter, January 8, 2024
• Attack on an International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) guest house, January 18, 2024
• Attack on an UNRWA convoy, February 5, 2024
• Attack on an MSF guest house, February 20, 2024
• Attack on a home sheltering an American Near East Refugee Aid Organization (Anera) employee, March 8, 2024

Human Rights Watch sent a letter to Israeli authorities requesting more information about these documented incidents, but said it received no response.

"Israel should make public the findings of investigations into attacks that have killed and injured aid workers, and into all other attacks that caused civilian casualties," the group said on Tuesday. "The Israeli military's long track record of failing to credibly investigate alleged war crimes underscores the importance of the International Criminal Court's (ICC) inquiry into serious crimes committed by all parties to the conflict."

In addition to military targeting of relief operations, the Israeli military has been accused of various crimes, including indiscriminate bombing of civilian populations, forced displacement, and the targeting of medical facilities.

Also on Tuesday, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) released a report documenting Israel's pattern of attacking its facilities, including hospitals, clinics, and ambulance services in Gaza during the current campaign.

"In view of this extensive timeline of reprehensible actions, MSF once again calls on all parties to respect and protect healthcare facilities, healthcare workers and patients in Gaza and the West Bank," the group said Tuesday. "An immediate and sustained ceasefire must be implemented in Gaza now to put an end to the suffering of people and the destruction of Gaza. We demand an immediate and unfettered flow of aid into the entirety of the Gaza Strip. We demand accountability for our colleagues and their family members who have been killed and wounded, and for patients."

In early May, following a month pause of Gaza operations following the deadly attack, WCK announced it was resuming its relief efforts in the area. It has also started construction on a new kitchen facility to elevate and support its mission to feed the people of Gaza as Israel's assault not only continues but intensifies.

"We have spent the past few weeks honoring the lives of Saif, Zomi, Damian, Jacob, James, John, and Jim. We are restarting our operation with the same energy, dignity, and focus on feeding people as these seven heroes brought to their work every single day," the groups said on May 5. "As our work in Gaza resumes, our demand for an impartial and international investigation into the April 1 attack remains."

Gunmen on Tuesday attacked a prison van at a motorway toll in northern France, killing at least two prison officers and freeing a convict who had been jailed last week.

President Emmanuel Macron vowed that everything would be done to find those behind the attack as hundreds of members of the security forces were deployed for a manhunt to find the attackers and the inmate who were all still at large.

Two prison officers were killed in the attack and two others are receiving urgent medical care, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement.

The incident took place late morning at a road toll in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France, a source close to the case added.

The inmate was being transported between the towns of Rouen and Evreux in Normandy.

A police source said several individuals, who arrived in two vehicles, rammed the police van and then fled.

One of them was wounded, the police source said.

It was not immediately clear how many attackers there were in total.

“Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime,” Macron wrote on X.

“We will be uncompromising,” he added, describing the attack as a “shock”.

‘All means used’

Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti immediately headed to a crisis cell at his ministry.

“These are people for whom life counts for nothing. They will be arrested, they will be judged and they will be punished according to the crime they committed,” he said.

Both the officers killed were men and they were the first prison officers to be killed in the line of duty since 1992, he added.

One of them was married and had two children while the other “left a wife five months pregnant”, he said.

“I am frozen with horror at the veritable carnage that took place at the Incarville toll,” said Alexandre Rassaert, the head of the Eure region council.

“I hope with all my heart that that the team of killers which carried out this bloody attack will be arrested quickly.”

A unit of the GIGN elite police force has been despatched to apprehend the suspects.

Traffic was stopped on the A154 motorway where the incident took place.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X he had ordered the activation of France’s Epervier plan, a special operation launched by the gendarmerie in such situations.

“All means are being used to find these criminals. On my instructions, several hundred police officers and gendarmes were mobilised,” he said.

Prosecutor Beccuau named the inmate as Mohamed Amra, born in 1994, saying that last week he had been convicted of aggravated robbery and also charged in a case of abduction leading to death.

The case has been handed to prosecutors from France’s office for the fight against organised crime known by their acronym JUNALCO.

Law and order is a major issue in French politics ahead of next month’s European elections and the incident sparked fierce reactions from politicians, especially the far right.

“It is real savagery that hits France every day,” said Jordan Bardella, the top candidate for the far-right National Rally (RN) which is leading opinion polls for the elections.

(AFP)

Israeli troops have advanced deeper into Rafah, eyewitnesses in Gaza's overcrowded southernmost city said on Tuesday.

Israeli tanks were said to have moved from the east of the city into neighborhoods further west including the al-Janina district.

The Israeli army did not initially comment on the reports.

Israel's allies, including its main backer the United States, have been warning Israel for weeks against a ground offensive into Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had been sheltering from fighting elsewhere in the coastal strip.

A French court on Tuesday acquitted French-Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski of defaming British actor Charlotte Lewis after she accused him of raping her when she was a teenager.

Polanski, 90, was not in court for the verdict at the Paris criminal court.

Lewis told the court in March that she became the victim of a “smear campaign” that “nearly destroyed” her life after she spoke up about abuse that took place in the 1980s.

“He raped me,” the 56-year-old actor told the court, explaining it had taken her time to put a name on the incident that occurred in Paris when she was 16.

The verdict by this court, which specialises in media cases, relates strictly to the charge of defamation and not over the actor’s rape accusation against Polanski.

The filmmaker, whose titles include the Oscar-winning “Rosemary’s Baby”, “Chinatown” and “The Pianist”, did not attend any hearings of the trial.

Polanski is wanted in the United States over the rape of a 13-year-old in 1977 and faces several other accusations of sexual assault dating back decades and past the statute of limitations—all claims he has rejected. He fled to Europe in 1978.

Lewis in 2010 accused Polanski of abusing her “in the worst possible way” as a 16-year-old in 1983 in Paris after she travelled there for a casting session. She appeared in his 1986 film “Pirates”.

The France-born filmmaker retorted that it was a “heinous lie” in a 2019 conversation with Paris Match magazine.

According to Paris Match, he pulled out a copy of a 1999 article in now-defunct British tabloid newspaper News of the World, and quoted Lewis as saying in it: “I wanted to be his lover.”

Lewis has said the quotes attributed to her in that interview were not accurate.

She filed a complaint for defamation, and the film director was automatically charged under French law.

‘Not the interview’

Stuart White, who wrote the 1999 News of the World article to which Polanski referred, was also present in court.

“The interview I gave to Stuart White was not the interview that was in the newspaper,” Lewis said, adding she discovered the article only years later.

White said he interviewed Lewis twice after the paper paid 30,000 pounds ($38,000 at today’s rates) for exclusive rights.

He insisted she had agreed to a “vice girl” angle to the 1999 story, but said he could not remember if she had asked to approve the text before it was published.

In 2010, Lewis said she decided to speak out to counter suggestions from Polanski’s legal team that the 1977 rape case was an isolated incident.

Switzerland, France and Poland have refused to extradite Polanski to the United States.

Between 2017 and 2019, four other women came forward with claims that Polanski also abused them in the 1970s, three of them as minors. He has denied all the allegations.

(AFP)

Hollywood stars jetted into Cannes on Tuesday as the world's premier film festival got under way in dramatic circumstances, including a fugitive director's daring escape from Iran, and a looming cloud of fresh #MeToo allegations.

The 12-day festival officially kicks off in the evening with an honorary award for Meryl Streep -- just one of a host of international A-listers flocking to the sun-drenched Cote d'Azur, where legendary directors George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola top the VIP guest list.

Coppola's decades-in-the-making epic "Megalopolis," an Ancient Rome-inspired saga set in a corrupt modern-day city, is the most anticipated of this year's entries for the top prize Palme d'Or.

"Cannes is important to him and he is important to Cannes. He comes as an artist," said festival head Thierry Fremaux, praising the 85-year-old director of "The Godfather".

Twenty-two films are competing for the affections of a jury led by "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig.

Richard Gere will star in Paul Schrader's "Oh Canada", recent Oscar winner Emma Stone reunites with Yorgos Lanthimos in "Kinds of Kindness", and Demi Moore tries her hand at horror in "The Substance".

Outside the race for the Palme d'Or, George Miller's latest "Mad Max" instalment, "Furiosa", will get its world premiere on Wednesday, while Kevin Costner returns to the Western genre with "Horizon, an American Saga".

But darker, off-screen plotlines have emerged on the eve of the festival's 77th edition.

In a last-minute twist, director Mohammad Rasoulof -- also competing for the Palme d'Or -- announced on Monday he had escaped in secret from Iran, just days after being sentenced to eight years in prison on security offences.

Rasoulof had been under pressure from Iranian authorities to withdraw his latest film, "The Seed of the Sacred Fig", from Cannes.

"I am grateful to my friends, acquaintances, and people who kindly, selflessly, and sometimes by risking their lives, helped me get out of the border and reach a safe place on the difficult and long path of this journey," he wrote on Instagram.

Cannes director Thierry Fremaux said the festival was working with the French foreign ministry in the hope of ensuring Rasoulof can attend his premiere next week.

- 'Festive moment' -

Meanwhile, France's film industry is in the midst of a belated #MeToo reckoning, with a string of accusations against its biggest star, Gerard Depardieu, and rumours in the run-up to Cannes of more accusations to come against high-profile figures.

Actor Judith Godreche, who has accused two directors of assaulting her when she was a teenager, is presenting a short film, "Moi Aussi" (Me Too) aimed at encouraging more women to come forward.

A major French producer, Alain Sarde, became the latest to face multiple assault allegations on Monday, published by ELLE magazine.

Camille Cottin, star of hit television series "Call My Agent!" and an outspoken feminist, will host this year's festival.

She said there were a lot of issues she would like to address in her opening speech.

"But it's also supposed to be a festive moment... and I've only got four minutes," she told AFP.

Adding to the off-screen drama, a group of festival employees have called for a strike over pay and conditions that could cause disruption.

- Trump, Coppola, Stone -

Among the other entries for the Palme d'Or is "The Apprentice" -- a biopic of Trump's formative years from Iranian-born director Ali Abbasi, starring Sebastian Stan, known for playing the Winter Soldier in Marvel films.

Film fans are also excited for new works from body-horror maestro David Cronenberg ("The Shrouds"), Italy's Paolo Sorrentino ("Parthenope"), as well as "Emilia Perez", an unlikely-sounding musical about a Mexican cartel boss having a sex change from French Palme-winner Jacques Audiard.

But the hot ticket is undoubtedly Coppola's "Megalopolis", starring Adam Driver, on Thursday.

There is a growing anticipation over whether the veteran director -- who self-funded the lavish epic -- can match his masterpieces of the 1970s, when he twice won the Palme d'Or for "Apocalypse Now" and "The Conversation".

Playing out of competition is "She's Got No Name", one of China's biggest-ever productions, which features megastar Ziyi Zhang tackling the highly sensitive topic of women's rights.

Legendary Japanese animators Studio Ghibli -- makers of "Spirited Away", "My Neighbour Totoro" and "Howl's Moving Castle" -- will receive an honorary Palme d'Or, the first offered to a group.

And the festival will round off on May 25 with a final honorary award for "Star Wars" creator George Lucas.

A French climber died on Mount Makalu, the world's fifth-highest peak, expedition organizers said Tuesday, the second fatality of this year's spring climbing season and both on the same mountain.

Johnny Saliba, 60, died at an altitude of 8,120 metres (26,640 feet) during his summit push on Sunday.

"He was heading to the summit but his guide brought him down after he suffered symptoms of altitude sickness. And then he passed away," said Bodha Raj Bhandari, expedition organizer at Snowy Horizon Treks and Expedition.

Bhandari added that Saliba's family had been informed and efforts were underway to retrieve his body.

He was part of a French team on the 8,485-meter-tall (27,838-feet) mountain and the other members safely returned to the base camp.

Last week, a 53-year-old Nepali guide died on Makalu as he was descending after reaching the summit.

Nepal has this year issued 59 permits to foreign climbers for Makalu -- costing $1,800 each, compared to $11,000 for Everest -- and dozens have reached the top after a rope-fixing team summited the peak last month.

Hundreds of climbers have flocked to the Himalayan country -- home to eight of the world's 14 highest peaks -- for summits in the spring climbing season when temperatures are warm and winds are typically calm.

Nepal has issued more than 900 permits for its mountains this year, including 414 for Everest, earning over $5 million in royalties.

Inside his Abu Dhabi gastro pub, Chad McGehee inspects shiny steel tanks fermenting a special brew: the first beer made in the conservative Arab Gulf, where alcohol has long been taboo.

The 42-year-old American is one of the founders of Craft pub in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the only licensed microbrewery in a region that is generally as dry as its desert climate.

As they seek to overhaul their image and economies in preparation for a post-oil future, some Gulf petro-states are relaxing alcohol restrictions, with entrepreneurs such as McGehee looking to benefit from the changes.

Just a few hours' drive from Abu Dhabi lies Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, which has just one licensed alcohol store, open only to non-Muslim foreign diplomats.

Alcohol sales are heavily restricted in Oman and Qatar and are outright banned in Kuwait, and in Sharjah, one of the UAE's seven emirates and a neighbor to cosmopolitan Dubai.

"We hope that we can make Abu Dhabi a destination people come to for beer, like Germany, New York or San Diego," McGehee told AFP on a recent visit to Craft, as patrons sipped beer nearby.

"We want to be part of that."

The UAE has steadily loosened laws around alcohol. Last year, Dubai scrapped a 30 percent tax on alcohol and removed charges on the permits that allow non-Muslims to use its licensed stores.

In 2021, Abu Dhabi became the only emirate to allow licensed venues to brew on-site, stipulating that the beer be served only on the premises.

Rules are slowly changing elsewhere: Saudi Arabia opened its store in the capital Riyadh this year, prompting speculation it may further relax alcohol laws in the future.

However, Tourism Minister Ahmed Al Khateeb told AFP last month that the national ban will remain in place.

- 'Whatever we find at the souq' -

McGehee founded Side Hustle Brews and Spirits in 2019, at that point offering the UAE's first home-branded -- albeit imported -- beer.

After Abu Dhabi allowed brewing, he co-founded Craft, which offers between eight and 14 beers at a time, many of them rich in local flavors such as karak tea, a popular drink in the Gulf.

"Whatever we find at the local souq (market), we try to make something out of it," McGehee said at Craft, where beer taps are linked directly to the brewing tanks.

"We have used local honey, local dates, and coffee... we have another (beer) that uses black tea and saffron and cardamom," added McGehee, referring to the ingredients of karak tea.

In the UAE, whose population of around 10 million is 90 percent foreign, the sale and consumption of alcohol was once confined to hotel bars frequented by expatriates.

According to Alexandre Kazerouni, associate professor at France's Ecole Normale Superieure, the Gulf monarchies began to skew heavily towards conservatism and a commitment to religion after Iran's shah was toppled in the Islamic revolution of 1979.

It was only in the 2000s that Abu Dhabi, the dominant emirate in a country with more than 9,000 mosques, began to cultivate a more liberal image, gradually relaxing social curbs including those around alcohol, which is forbidden in some interpretations of Islam.

The change of alcohol regulations "breaks with the bans that were consolidated in the '80s and '90s," Kazerouni said.

"There is competition... with Qatar and Saudi Arabia over who will embody change in the region," he added.

- Party hub -

Abu Dhabi, which aims to attract nearly 40 million tourists by 2030, up from 24 million last year, is also competing with Dubai, renowned as the UAE's holiday and party hub which commands a higher international profile.

Craft customer Andrew Burgess, a Briton who has lived in the UAE for 17 years, said he has watched the country transform before his eyes.

When he first moved there, expatriates were barred from eating or drinking in public during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.

"To come to a bar, you had to go at night-time after everything was covered," he said.

All that has since changed, but Western attitudes towards Gulf countries have yet to catch up.

"If I go back to England, my friends say 'How do you live in a Muslim country? Your wife must be suppressed and you can't drink'," Burgess told AFP.

Microbreweries like Craft "will just open their eyes", he added.

"It's about reconstructing people's mindsets."

Following the start of his fifth term in office, Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to China this week for a rare visit abroad and his first official trip to a foreign country as part of his new tenure.

The Kremlin leader is expected to arrive in Beijing on Thursday at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping and stay until Friday, China's state news agency Xinhua reported.

The Kremlin also confirmed the planned visit.

alks will centre on bilateral ties as well as international politics, it said.

Celebrities who have remained silent on the crisis in Gaza are feeling the wrath of angry fans wielding the "digital guillotine" to block them on social media and streaming platforms.

Taylor Swift, Drake and many more have become targets of the "Block Out 2024" movement, which began on TikTok in response to the perceived disconnect between the glamorous Met Gala and the grim realities of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

For months, pro-Palestinian activists have flooded the comments sections of social media sites, urging stars to join calls for a ceasefire in Gaza's deadliest war.

But matters came to a head after last week's Met Gala, a glitzy fundraiser and the biggest night in fashion featuring A-list stars from screen, stage, sports and the world's runways.

Dressed in an extravagant gown, influencer Haley Kalil posted on TikTok lip-synching "Let them eat cake" -- a phrase notoriously associated with Marie Antoinette that symbolizes the callous disregard of 18th century French aristocrats towards the poor.

Fellow TikToker ladyfromtheoutside, who started the movement, responded: "It's time for the people to conduct what I want to call a digital guillotine, a digitine, if you will," referring to the execution apparatus used during the French Revolution.

"Take our views away, our likes, our comments, our money," she urged.

Her message was taken up as a rallying cry for the pro-Palestinian movement, and early signs suggest the boycott may be having an impact.

- Some impact, but for how long? -

Reality star Kim Kardashian -- who attended the ball in New York -- has lost hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers in recent days, according to analytics site Social Blade.

Global music superstar Taylor Swift, who opted to focus on her Eras Tour rather than appear at the event, has also seen a decline of more than 200,000 followers since last Thursday.

"This is about lives and justice -- if she can rally all of us to vote, she has the power to speak up about injustice," said a TikToker who described herself as a "Palestinian Swiftie" and said it was time to block, unfollow and stop streaming her idol.

It's uncertain whether the movement is directly responsible for the social media hits seen by some celebrities, or if other trends are at play.

Moreover, the losses could be short-lived, Natasha Lindstaedt, a University of Essex professor who has studied celebrity activism, told AFP.

"Sometimes people make a decision based on an emotional response to an issue and decide that if a celebrity isn't on the same side... they don't want to follow them anymore, but that takes a second," she says.

This phenomenon is known in academic circles as "slacktivism" -- substituting low-stakes online actions like posting memes or liking posts, or choosing to unfollow a favorite star -- for meaningful political engagement.

Instead of responding, celebrities might find it wiser to wait out the backlash, especially given the sensitive nature of the Gaza conflict, which has proven perilous for many stars.

Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon was dropped by her talent agency UTA after speaking at a pro-Palestine rally in November.

More recently, Jerry Seinfeld, long the model of an apolitical celebrity, has faced criticism for affiliating himself more closely with Israel.

That backlash against the Jewish comedian intensified after a report said his wife Jessica donated to a group of pro-Israel counter-protesters at UCLA, where violence broke out against pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

She later wrote on Instagram that she supported a peaceful rally days earlier and did not support or contribute to any violent actions.

- One-way relationships -

According to David Jackson, a professor at Bowling Green State University who has studied how the political positions taken by stars affect their approval ratings, told AFP "there's a history of celebrity involvement in politics that goes back a hundred years or more in the US."

But with the advent of social media, it's become easier for people to develop "parasocial" relationships with stars -- essentially one-way connections that feel reciprocal.

"You have your network of people you follow, and some of them are people you know, and some of them are celebrities, and the boundaries, I suppose, can be blurred," Jackson said.

That false sense of closeness makes the feeling of betrayal all the more acute when celebrities take a position you disapprove of, or don't take any position at all.

Even appearing to respond to fan demands can be risky.

When rapper Lizzo promoted a fundraiser to aid a Gazan doctor and his family in leaving the besieged Palestinian territory, she was criticized by many for her perceived opportunism.

KYIV, Ukraine — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Tuesday in Kyiv on an unannounced visit to assure Ukraine of continued American support and the flow of much-needed weapons as Russia presses on with its new offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Blinken arrived by overnight train from Poland and was due to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his fourth visit to Kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, according to an AFP journalist accompanying him.

In his 101 years on Earth, Jack Hausman has seen a lot: eight decades ago he endured the battlefields of World War II before returning home and taking over the family business, all the while remaining a lifelong pacifist.

But when he was honored recently in his small New York home with France's Legion of Honor for his wartime service, a flood of memories left him sobbing.

His voice breaking with emotion and tears streaming down his cheeks, Hausman, surrounded by friends and family members in his home of 80 years, expressed the pain he felt "for those who are no longer here today."

As the 80th anniversary of the Allies' D-Day landing in Normandy approaches on June 6 -- and that of Nazi Germany's surrender the following May 8 -- French embassy officials in the United States have been doing their best to honor the dwindling number of surviving American veterans who fought in the European theater.

The men Hausman wanted to honor on a radiant afternoon in late April, as he himself was honored by the acting French consul in New York, were the 250 members of his regiment of US army engineers and sappers who fought alongside legendary General George Patton in Algeria, Italy, southern France, Central Europe and the Rhineland from 1943 to 1945.

"You've made me an important guy," the Brooklyn-born Hausman said, his voice slightly quaking -- but with a mischievous gleam in his eye that brought laughter to his two daughters, both in their 70s, as well as his grandchildren, great-grandchildren and friends.

"I felt that I was accepting this for 250 men," he told acting French consul Damien Laban. "They did all the hard work. I was included. But believe me, they worked hard. And I... wouldn't accept the award without them."

He was fully deserving, replied Laban, because of his "role in liberating France and Europe during World War II."

- WWII veterans dying out -

The youngest veterans are 96 or 97 years old, many in shaky health, and the ceremonies honoring them inevitably unleash powerful memories and emotions.

"We feel it is our duty to thank the heroes who helped liberate our nation during World War II while we still can," said Laban.

"We owe them our freedom, democracy and way of life."

Some veterans have been invited to the D-Day commemoration in Normandy on June 6, but Hausman has no plans to go.

He said he has had no desire to return to Europe since the end of the war.

Despite joining the army at age 20 to help build roads and bridges and remove mines, Hausman said he had always been a pacifist.

"We want the world to be peaceful," he said softly.

- 'Didn't know how to shoot' -

"When I went to the army, I didn't know how to shoot," he told AFP. "I wasn't mad at the Germans. I was a youngster... So I shot above their heads in the army, scared the hell out of them. They gave up. And then we captured them."

He added: "They were starving. I gave them part of my rations. And it was my pleasure to try to help people out."

But while he saw a lot of death in Europe, "Thank God, thank God, I learned how to stay alive," he said, visibly happy as he sat in his wheelchair.

- Retirement at 98 -

Returning from the war in 1945, Hausman took up again with his high-school sweetheart. They were married for 76 years.

Taking over the family business -- and helping build it into one of the largest makers of corrugated cardboard boxes on the East Coast -- Hausman finally retired in 2020 at the ripe old age of 98.

His daughters Sandy Gottfried and Linda Margolis shared photos of their father, looking elegant in his army uniform in 1943. "We're so proud," Margolis said.

"It was long overdue," added Gottfried, after a French-speaking daughter-in-law sang a cappella the anthems of both countries.

Asked about the war in Ukraine and whether he thought the Americans should intervene, Hausman shrugged: "Nobody wins. Remember, when you shoot, one gets killed and another one gets killed -- on both sides. There's no winners."

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan wrapped up their three-day visit to Nigeria on Sunday, arriving in the country's economic capital Lagos during a trip to promote his Invictus Games for wounded military veterans.

The Duke of Sussex arrived with his wife on Friday in Nigeria's capital Abuja where they visited a school event on mental health, in a trip that also saw the prince meet wounded Nigerian soldiers in the country's northwest.

On day three of the visit, Prince Harry and Meghan took part in a basketball event with the Giants of Africa Foundation in Lagos, an organization helping youth through engagement in the sport.

The prince practiced dribbling basketballs with children at the exhibition event for the foundation, which is run by vice-president of an NBA team Masai Ujiri.

"The power of sports can change lives, it brings people together and creates community and there are no barriers which is the most important thing," the prince said.

Harry, a former army captain who flew helicopters in Afghanistan, founded the Invictus Games 10 years ago to help bring wounded veterans into sporting events to aid with their recuperation.

The couple also met with Lagos State governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

"He has seen a lot and is still soaking in a whole lot," the governor said of the prince's experience of Nigeria.

Later, the couple watched a charity exhibition match at Lagos polo club and presented prizes to young participants.

- Nigerian heritage -

On Friday afternoon, Meghan sat on an event for women in leadership with Nigerian-born World Trade Organization director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, where the Duchess discussed her Nigerian heritage and being a role model to women.

"I want to start by saying thank you very much for just how gracious you've all been in welcoming my husband and I to this country," she said to applause, before adding, "my country".

"It's been really eye-opening and humbling to be able to know more about my heritage and to be able to know, this is just the beginning of that discovery."

In Abuja, the prince had also taken part in a seated volleyball match with Nigerian veterans, some of who were missing limbs from combat in the country's north where troops battle jihadists and heavily armed criminal gangs.

On the Duke's volleyball team was former Nigerian soldier Peacemaker Azuegbulam, who lost his leg in combat in the northeast, and became the first African to win gold at the Invictus Games in Germany last year.

Before Nigeria, Prince Harry was in London on Wednesday to mark the 10th anniversary of the games.

His trips to the UK since he moved to the United States in 2020 always prompt fresh speculation over a potential reconciliation with his family. But he did not meet with his father King Charles on this trip.

Nigeria's military forces are battling armed groups on several fronts.

A long-running jihadist insurgency in the northeast has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced another two million since 2009. Militants have been pushed back from areas they once controlled, but they now target convoys with roadside bombs.

In northwestern and central states, heavily armed criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, carry out mass kidnappings for ransom and raid villages from camps hidden deep in remote forests.

Longtime Donald Trump friend and confidant Roger Stone came under fire on Sunday after posting an unrelated photo in an effort to show that the state of New Jersey could be won by Trump in the upcoming 2024 election.

Trump spoke in the Garden state on Saturday, and was criticized for his apparent slurring of speech. Conservative lawyer George Conway went as far as to challenge the mainstream media for failing to properly report on the former president's "aphasia."

Trump bragged about the size of the crowd in New Jersey, but it was also reported that some people started leaving early.

ALSO READ: Marjorie Taylor Greene delays financial disclosure day after motion-to-vacate debacle

Stone attempted to Bolster Trump's New Jersey rally on Sunday.

"Yeah, New Jersey is in play for [Trump]. Could Joe Biden draw a crowd like this?" Stone asked, including a photo of a large crowd.

The problem for Stone, however, is that the commenters instantly identified the photo as fake.

@ben_the_dem wrote, "Except this picture is a fake. Go take a shower and put your helmet back on."

"Hey Roger, why you showing us 30 year old pictures of a Rod Stewart concert and trying to pawn it off as a Trump rally? You know A LOT OF people were walking out of Trump's rally while he was speaking, right?" another user wrote Sunday. "He was SO BAD even his own fans got disgusted and left."

The social media platform X ultimately posted a note below Stone's message.

"This is a photo from a Rod Stewart concert almost 30 years ago," according to the platform's alert.

According to Listverse, the photo is actually a representation of a record for what is deemed the "largest music concert in history."

"On December 31, 1994, Rod Stewart performed at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro in front of an estimated 3.5 to 4.2 million people. The event became the largest free concert in recorded history. It was produced by MTV and performed on New Year’s Eve," the report says.

Conway poked fun at Stone being corrected, saying, "I’ve always wanted to visit Rio de Newjersio. Someday, I’ll get around to it."

Someone asked Conway, "Why do they feel the need to lie?"

The attorney replied, "Why do rest of us feel the need to breathe?"

Donald Trump suffers more and more "aphasia every day," but the mainstream media is talking about President Joe Biden instead, according to conservative attorney and activist George Conway.

Conway, a one-time supporter of Trump's political ambitions who has since become one of the former president's most prominent critics, on Sunday pointed to a line from Trump's rally the day before. The ex-president was talking about Biden's border policies, insisting that people who cross into the U.S. do not "speak English!"

"They don't speak English!" Trump said at his New Jersey rally, referring to migrant children.

ALSO READ: Trump told to pay up before rallying in N.J. town he previously stiffed

"They're sitting in chairs, listening to a teacher talk in English, and they don't speak English. And it will be Biden's," Trump added before slurring his words. He then self-corrected, and said, "Biden's border invasion..."

The mistake was flagged by a Biden campaign-affiliated account on social media.

"Trump: They don’t speak English! Biden’s bordeninriviv," Biden-Harris HQ wrote on Saturday.

Conway shared that quote, suggesting the media isn't treating the two presidential candidates the same way.

"More aphasia every day, as many mental health professionals have continually been pointing out. But hey, MSM, let’s talk about Robert Hur’s report some more," he wrote on Sunday. "C’mon guys, do you really think this is normal? And how much coverage would you be giving to Joe Biden if he slurred gibberish like this?"

Conway went on to say that Trump made numerous mistakes while reading from a teleprompter.

"Oh, looky, he’s doing this while reading from a telepromptisherathingamajigacovfefe …. Come on, folks, do your jobs," the lawyer added.

The border slip-up wasn't the only one from Trump's weekend rally. He was also mocked online after failing to pronounce a different sentence.

Watch below or click the link here.

The death toll has risen to 143 following the devastating floods in southern Brazil.

A further 125 were missing and 806 people injured, the Rio Grande do Sul State Civil Defence Department said on Sunday.

As it also rained this weekend, the number of people who had to leave their homes has risen to over 618,000.

In total, over 2 million people have been affected by the floods.

According to the regional government, the largest warship in Latin America arrived in the harbour of the city of Rio Grande on Saturday for humanitarian aid operations.

With a widespread telecoms blackout already in place, emergency help and humanitarian aid at risk if satellite service withdrawn, say NGOs

Nearly 100 humanitarian groups in Sudan have warned Elon Musk he risks “collectively punishing” millions of Sudanese by shutting down his vital Starlink satellite internet service in the war-ravaged country.

Sudan has been grappling with a widespread telecommunications blackout for several months, with many aid groups using Starlink to operate during the humanitarian crisis which the UN has warned is the largest in decades.

UK and Rwanda agree deal to extend cohort of those eligible to be forcibly removed to east African country

• UK politics live – latest updates

Tens of thousands of people who have been refused asylum in the UK have been added to the group of people at risk of being forcibly removed to Rwanda, the Home Office has announced.

The UK and Rwandan governments have agreed a deal to extend the cohort of those eligible to be forcibly removed to the east African country to refused asylum seekers. Lawyers have condemned the development and said it would drive asylum seekers underground.

Anger over Israel’s seizure of Palestinian side of crossing raises fears Cairo may downgrade relations

• Israel-Gaza war – live updates

Israel and Egypt are embroiled in a growing diplomatic row over the Rafah border crossing after Israel’s takeover of the Gaza side of the crossing, amid warnings Cairo may be planning to downgrade relations.

In recent days Egypt has announced it will no longer participate in allowing the transit of aid into Gaza and said it planned to join the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel at the UN’s top court.

Exclusive: Last two fugitives are deemed to be dead, ending a remarkable exercise in international justice

The war crimes tribunal for Rwanda has accounted for the last remaining fugitives indicted for genocide, bringing to an end the court’s 29-year mission to deliver justice for the 1994 slaughter that killed more than 800,000 Rwandans.

The historic moment passed without drama, not with an arrest or the exhumation of a body, but in a video conference on 30 April between the tribunal’s prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, and the two leaders of its fugitive tracking team, dedicated to resolving the cold cases left in the wake of the genocide.

Family law has not kept up with social shifts, with marital rape, child marriage and lack of property and custody rights persistent problems, research finds

Discriminatory family laws across parts of Africa are stalling progress on women’s rights in some countries, according to new research.

The human rights organisation Equality Now studied family law and practices in 20 African countries and found progress in recent decades, but said inequalities persisted in marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance and property laws.

Human-caused climate crisis brought soaring temperatures across Asia, from Gaza to Delhi to Manila

The record-breaking heatwave that scorched the Philippines in April would have been impossible without the climate crisis, scientists have found. Searing heat above 40C (104F) struck across Asia in April, causing deaths, water shortages, crop losses and widespread school closures.

The extreme heat was made 45 times more likely in India and five times more likely in Israel and Palestine, the study found. The scientists said the high temperatures compounded the already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where displaced people are living in overcrowded shelters with little access to water.

Four women were set on fire in Buenos Aires in alleged hate crime as demonstrators accuse Milei of promoting intolerance

Activists in Argentina have accused the country’s far-right government of stoking homophobia after an alleged hate crime in which four gay women were set on fire, killing three and seriously injuring the fourth.

A man in his 60s is alleged to have thrown burning rags into the women’s shared bedroom of a boarding house in Buenos Aires early on 6 May.

As new exhibition opens in Amsterdam exploring the settlement of North America, original Manhattanites demand apology

Representatives for some of the Lenape people have called for an apology and reparations for the 17th-century Dutch “settling” of New Amsterdam, the place that is now New York.

Precisely four centuries after the Dutch established a colony at the mouth of the Hudson River, some descendants of Indigenous Americans believe it is time for a fuller story of the wars on their people, slavery, exploitation and dispersal.

Remote communities suffer total loss of communications after fires damage critical fibre optic cables

Shortly before sunset on Friday, residents of Canada’s Yukon territory discovered their connection to the outside world had vanished. Internet access had gone. Mobile phones showed no signal. Landlines had failed.

Chaos quickly set in. Electronic payments couldn’t be processed. In Whitehorse, the capital, most ATMs couldn’t function and the few that did were quickly drained of cash from panicked residents. City officials warned that the ability to call police, ambulance or fire services was non-existent.

British fashion retailer hit by drop in sales in Asia and Americas, and expects challenging first half of 2025

• Business live – latest updates

Burberry’s profits have slumped by 40% in a year amid a wider slowdown in demand for luxury goods that has pushed down sales in Asia and the Americas.

The high-end UK fashion retailer posted a pre-tax profit of £383m for the year up to 30 March in its preliminary results on Wednesday, a 40% drop on the £634m in the previous 12 months. Global sales fell by 8% in the second half of the year.

Residents of suburbs in Fort McMurray ordered to leave as officials monitor a fire nearby that has grown to cover 9,600 hectares

Residents of four suburbs in the Canadian city of Fort McMurray have been ordered to evacuate as a wildfire approaches the city, stirring grim reminders of the country’s costliest natural disaster.

Officials in the western province of Alberta issued evacuation orders for the neighbourhoods of Beacon Hill, Abasand, Prairie Creek and Grayling Terrace on Tuesday, telling all residents to leave by 4pm MT.

Health minister makes announcement following revelations that a man who killed his children legally changed his name

Canada’s westernmost province has says it will stop people who committed serious crimes from changing their names, following revelations that a child-killer tried to keep his new identity secret.

British Columbia’s health minister said on Monday his government would introduce legislation to amend the province’s name act.

Ukrainian military says its has forced Russia to reduce tempo of offensive; Russian president thanks Xi Jinping for ‘trying to solve Ukraine crisis’

• Full report: Putin arrives in China

Vladimir Putin has said that Russia-China cooperation is not directed against any other power and is a stabilising factor for the world, during his meeting with Xi Jinping.

It is of crucial significance that relations between Russia and China are not opportunistic and are not directed against anyone. Our cooperation in world affairs today acts as one of the main stabilising factors in the international arena.”

In our new journey we intend to remain good neighbours, trusted friends and reliable partners, consistently strengthening the relationship between our two nations … defending international equality.”

Russian leader praises ‘comradely’ talks with Chinese president ahead of concert to mark 75 years of ‘friendship’

• Russia, China and Ukraine - latest updates

Russia and China have announced they will deepen their already close military ties, as Vladimir Putin met Xi Jinping in Beijing on his first foreign trip since being inaugurated for a new term as Russia’s president.

It is the latest in a string of statements and signals that the warm relationship between the two countries is as strong as it has ever been.

State of emergency in place because of deadly unrest over bill that will let French people vote in provincial elections after 10 years of residence

Armed forces were protecting New Caledonia’s two airports and port and hundreds of French police were on their way to the Pacific territory after a third night of violent riots that have killed four people.

In three municipalities of the French collectivity, gendarmes faced about 5,000 rioters, including between 3,000 and 4,000 in the capital, Noumea, said France’s high commissioner, Louis Le Franc.

During the Russian leader’s two-day visit, the war in Ukraine, energy and trade will be on the agenda

• Putin arrives in China for state visit – live updates

President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart and “old friend” Xi Jinping as he seeks to deepen ties after launching some of Russia’s most significant incursions into Ukraine since its invasion in 2022.

It is Putin’s second visit to Beijing in less than a year, and his first foreign visit since being sworn in for a new term that will keep him in power until at least 2030. The visit will also celebrate 75 years since the Soviet Union recognised the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Macron holds crisis meeting amid unrest over plan to increase number of French nationals eligible to vote in Pacific territory

France has said it will impose a state of emergency in New Caledonia for at least 12 days, after a second night of unrest over changes to voting rights in the overseas territory that has resulted in the deaths of at least four people.

More than 130 people have been arrested and more than 300 injured, according to the french high commission.

Court order compels Google subsidiary to block local access to 32 videos of Glory to Hong Kong, judged to be prohibited content

Alphabet’s YouTube on Tuesday said it would comply with a court decision and block access inside Hong Kong to 32 video links deemed prohibited content, in what critics say is a blow to freedoms in the financial hub amid a security clampdown.

The action follows a government application granted by Hong Kong’s court of appeal requesting the ban of a protest anthem called Glory to Hong Kong. The judges warned that dissidents seeking to incite secession could weaponize the song for use against the state.

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• Peter Dutton promises to slash permanent migration by 25% in short term in populist budget reply
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‘We don’t think production tax credits is way to go’: Angus Taylor on Future Made in Australia

Is the Coalition going to vote against the Future Made in Australia policy, which was fleshed out in the budget and includes tax credits (in 2028) for things like critical minerals mining and green hydrogen?

We haven’t seen the act. We don’t think production tax credits is the way to go in order to have a strong manufacturing sector.

It’s about getting those fundamentals right whether it be approvals, whether it be getting rid of red tape or making sure the construction costs are competitive with the rest of the world.

Oh, but it’s also a drop in the ocean, you know. What are we saying? It’s a Band-Aid on a bullet wound compared to the pain that mum and dads in Australia are actually feeling.

I can tell you, they’ve paid a lot more than $300 under Mr. Albanese for their electricity. For the life of me, though, what it does show is Mr Albanese, [and the government] they’ve got their priorities all wrong.

Opposition leader also calls for crime crackdown while offering support for cost-of-living measures

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Peter Dutton has promised to cut permanent migration by one-quarter in the short term in a populist budget reply largely mismatched with the scale of fears he has raised over net arrivals.

On Thursday the opposition leader called for a crackdown on crime including creating new offences for causing an intimate partner or family member to fear for their safety, tracking them, or engaging in coercive behaviours, and posting criminal acts online.

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Upgrades to existing structures are required to address a ‘surge’ of need, especially among young people, professor says

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The youth mental health champion and former Australian of the year Patrick McGorry has welcomed the federal budget’s new investment in psychology, saying upgrades to existing structures are required to address a “surge” of need, especially among younger people.

But he said the government needs to move with a greater sense of urgency in its reforms, with questions raised about plans for a “low intensity” free online service which won’t start for two more years.

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Comments come just hours after Senate passes motion urging senators to ‘engage in debate and commentary respectfully’

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A Coalition senator accused the Labor backbencher Fatima Payman of “supporting terrorists” and then withdrew the claim, just hours after the Senate passed a motion opposing “inflammatory and divisive comments”.

The NSW Liberal senator Hollie Hughes denied she had directly referred to Payman as a “terrorist”, which is what was alleged by some senators who were sitting in the chamber at the time and did not wish to be named.

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Exclusive: Report says members are strongly against admitting women on an equal basis, but are open to having more ‘lady guests’

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Just four members of the exclusive male-only Melbourne Savage Club say they support women being admitted as members, according to a “members’ satisfaction survey”.

But more “lady guests” could visit for “mixed dining”, breaking a 130-year tradition, if suggestions included in the survey were taken up.

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Chris Minns said Labor MP Anthony D’Adam’s comments in a speech to parliament were ‘absolutely reprehensible’

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A Labor politician who criticised the actions of New South Wales police officers towards pro-Palestinian protesters has been sacked from his role as parliamentary secretary by the premier, Chris Minns.

Minns took aim at the comments made by the upper house MP Anthony D’Adam, saying that D’Adam had never raised his concerns about the police commissioner, Karen Webb, and officers before making his speech in parliament on Wednesday night.

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Hospital director says Slovakia PM has stabilised but remains in a critical condition after he was shot several times on Wednesday

Here are the latest images from Slovakia.

The former president Dmitry Medvedev praised Robert Fico today, writing that there were few politicians like him in Europe and that he had “reasonable” positions regarding Russia, Reuters reported.

Japan’s economy contracts in Q1, leaving UK as fastest-growing G7 member, while ECB warns policy uncertainty is high

A group of business leaders have warned Rishi Sunak that the government’s migration policies risk weakening the UK university sector, the Financial Times reports, undermining a key reason for companies to invest in the country.

The FT explains:

In a letter to Rishi Sunak, bosses at groups including miners Anglo American and Rio Tinto and industrial conglomerate Siemens, said they were “deeply concerned” by widening funding gaps and declining international student applications that were “a result of government policy”.

They said this risked “undermining the positive impact that international students have on our skills base, future workforce, and international influence”, as well as reducing the funding available for research and industry collaboration.

Company’s social media platforms, which also include Instagram, may have addictive effects, says European Commission

• Business live – latest updates

The European Commission has opened an investigation into the owner of Facebook and Instagram over concerns that the platforms are creating addictive behaviour among children and damaging mental health.

The EU executive said Meta may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA), a landmark law passed by the bloc last summer that makes digital companies large and small liable for disinformation, shopping scams, child abuse and other online harms.

Hospital director says Fico underwent five hours of surgery with two teams to treat gunshot wounds

• Slovakia PM shooting – latest updates

The Slovakian prime minister, Robert Fico, is in a stable but serious condition, officials have said, as the country’s security council was set to meet to discuss what has been described by officials as the darkest day in Slovakia’s modern history.

At least five shots were fired at Fico, 59, on Wednesday as he met a small group of supporters after a government meeting in the town of Handlová, about 90 miles (150km) north-east of the capital, Bratislava.

Zoraya ter Beek, who has has chronic depression, anxiety, trauma and unspecified personality disorder, expected to end her life soon

• Europe’s slowly shifting attitudes towards assisted dying

A 29-year-old Dutch woman who has been granted her request for assisted dying on the grounds of unbearable mental suffering is expected to end her life in the coming weeks, fuelling a debate across Europe over the issue.

Zoraya ter Beek received the final approval last week for assisted dying after a three and a half year process under a law passed in the Netherlands in 2002.

Sir Graham Watson says rise of far right has led him to stand in North-East Italy

A former British MEP is hoping to stage a return to the European parliament in June after being invited to run in Italy by an alliance backed by the country’s former prime minister Matteo Renzi.

Sir Graham Watson, a Liberal Democrat, used to represent South West England between 1994 and 2014 and is running with the pro-European coalition Stati Uniti d’Europa (United States of Europe).