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Author: AFP

  • French court convicts ex-President, orders him to wear electronic tag

    French court convicts ex-President, orders him to wear electronic tag

    France’s highest appeals court ordered former president Nicolas Sarkozy to wear an electronic tag for a year Wednesday — a first for a former head of state — after confirming his convictions for corruption and influence peddling.

    It also barred him from public office for three years.

    The verdict means he could face 12 months under house arrest, depending on what a judge later decides.

    Sarkozy, 69, who had been found guilty of illegal attempts to secure favours from a judge, will “evidently” respect the sentence, his lawyer Patrice Spinosi told AFP.

    But he will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights within weeks, Spinosi added.

    That will not, however, hold up Wednesday’s sanction, Sarkozy having exhausted all the legal avenues in France.

    Spinosi said it was a “sad day” when “a former president is required to take action before European judges to have condemned a state over whose destiny he once presided.”

    He said his client was “calm and determined”.

    But Sarkozy himself said he was “not ready to accept the profound injustice that is being done to me”.

    His appeal to the European court in Strasbourg “could, alas, lead to a condemnation of France”, he said. This could have been avoided, he added, “if I had benefitted from a level-headed legal analysis”.

    ‘Corruption pact’ 

    In 2021, a lower court found that Sarkozy and his former lawyer, Thierry Herzog, had formed a “corruption pact” with judge Gilbert Azibert to obtain and share information about an investigating judge, in a case uncovered by wiretapping.

    The deal was done in return for the promise of a plum retirement job for the judge.

    The trial came after investigators looking into a separate case of alleged illegal campaign financing wiretapped Sarkozy’s two official phone lines, and discovered that he also had a third, unofficial one.

    It had been taken out in 2014 under the name “Paul Bismuth”, and only used for him to communicate with Herzog. The contents of these phone calls led to the 2021 corruption verdict.

    Before Sarkozy, the only French leader to be convicted in a criminal trial was his predecessor Jacques Chirac, who received a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for corruption over a fake jobs scandal. But Sarkozy is France’s first post-war president to have been sentenced to serve time.

    The court sentenced him to a three-year jail term, two of which were suspended with one to be served in home detention with an electronic tag allowing his movements to be monitored.

    That verdict had already been upheld once, by an appeals court, last year.

    Other cases pending 

    The former president is to be summoned before a judge who will determine the details of his house arrest.

    Sarkozy has always insisted he was innocent.

    The right-winger was president for one term between 2007 and 2012, failing to win re-election. He has been embroiled in legal troubles ever since leaving office.

    The “Bismuth” case comes on top of separate cases about campaign overspending, and the alleged financing by Libya of Sarkozy’s victorious 2007 election campaign.

    Financial crimes prosecutors accuse Sarkozy and 12 others of seeking millions of euros from the regime of then Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

    That case is to go to trial in January.

    Despite his legal problems, Sarkozy continues to enjoy considerable influence and popularity on the right of French politics and has the ear of President Emmanuel Macron, with whom he is known to meet on occasion.

    Sources have told AFP that Sarkozy held talks at the Elysee earlier this month in a bid to persuade Macron not to appoint veteran centrist Francois Bayrou as prime minister. The former president is widely known to despise him.

    After a long hesitation, Macron went ahead and named Bayrou.

  • Dutch authorities fine Netflix 4.75 million euros over personal data use

    Dutch authorities fine Netflix 4.75 million euros over personal data use

    Dutch authorities fined video streaming giant Netflix 4.75 million euros ($4.98 million) Wednesday over its handling of subscribers’ personal data, which it said was unclear or incomplete in several respects.

    Netflix said it had appealed against the fine, noting it had cooperated with the data protection authorities and already changed its policies.

    “Between 2018 and 2020, Netflix did not provide customers with enough information about what the company does with their personal data,” said the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) in a statement.

    “And the information that Netflix did provide was unclear in some areas,” the AP added.

    The authorities also noted that Netflix had since updated its privacy statement and improved its information to subscribers over the use of data.

    “A company like that, with a turnover of billions and millions of customers worldwide, has to explain properly to its customers how it handles their personal data,” said AP chairman Aleid Wolfsen.

    “That must be crystal clear. Especially if the customer asks about this. And that was not in order.”

    The data protection watchdog said Netflix was unclear or provided insufficient information in several areas.

    It said Netflix was not clear over why it was collecting personal data, which is shared with other parties, how long the data is kept, and how the data is kept secure when transmitted outside Europe.

    “Since this investigation began over five years ago, we have cooperated with the Dutch Data Protection Authority and proactively evolved our privacy information to provide even greater clarity to our members,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.

    “We have objected to this decision.”

     
  • No quitting: Bollywood’s Aamir Khan wants to keep acting

    No quitting: Bollywood’s Aamir Khan wants to keep acting

    During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bollywood superstar and filmmaker Aamir Khan considered quitting cinema for good after dominating the Indian film industry for more than four decades.

    “It was in the middle of Covid and I was… thinking of a lot of things, and I suddenly felt that I had spent all of my adult life in this magical world of cinema,” Khan told AFP in London, draped in a heavy purple shawl and sporting a handlebar moustache.

    He is not wrong, having helped shape Indian cinematic culture for years, becoming one of Bollywood’s most popular actors.

    He has amassed a formidable oeuvre of Hindi-language films, including “Lagaan”, nominated for best foreign language film at the Oscars in 2002, as well as movies such as “3 Idiots”, “Dangal” and “Taare Zameen Par” (Like Stars on Earth).

    Starting as a child actor in the 1970s and synonymous with Bollywood ever since, Khan realised he had “not really given the kind of bandwidth to my personal life that I would have liked to”.

    “The realisation that I’ve lost all that time was something that I was finding difficult to come to terms with and I was going through a lot of guilt… My knee-jerk reaction to that was that I’ve had enough of film,” Khan said.

    However, his family, including two children, eventually convinced him not to retire. “In my head, I quit. And then I didn’t,” said Khan.

    Now, turning 60 in March, Khan, who lives in Mumbai, wants to “continue to act and produce for some time”.

    He also wants to use his company Aamir Khan Productions “as a platform to encourage new talent… whose sensibility is close to mine. And (who) want to tell stories which affect me.”

    – ‘Jumping genres’ –

    One of those stories was “Lost Ladies”, a Hindi-language comedy about two young brides, which he co-produced with his ex-wife Kiran Rao and was recently promoting in London.

    It was released this year, becoming India’s entry for the Oscars foreign film category.

    Khan and Rao’s partnership on “Lost Ladies” began when Khan spotted its script at a screenwriting competition which he was judging, leading him to suggest that Rao direct the film.

    “I like to react organically to material that comes my way. I feel that a film should begin with the writer, the thought,” Khan said.

    “I like that the story should emerge from the writer and then, as a producer or as an actor,

     I come in at the right time, when I deserve to,” he added.

    Many of his films touch on social issues in India, from women’s rights in rural areas and the sports industry, to the toxic culture in higher education and disability rights.

    However, Khan has refused to be boxed into just one type of movie or role.

    “I’m happy to jump genres and, experiment with different kinds of stories. I like to surprise myself and my audience.”

    He is also not afraid to admit slip-ups, and has been vocal about his disappointment with his last performance in “Laal Singh Chaddha”.

    The 2022 Indian adaptation of Tom Hanks’s “Forrest Gump” was a rare blip in the otherwise glowing critical reception of Khan’s work.

    “I’m not really happy with my last performance, actually,” said Khan, adding that he thought he was too high-pitched in the role.

    “I hope this one’s better,” he said of his upcoming film “Sitaare Zameen Par”, which he says is a “thematic” sequel to “Taare Zameen Par”, a drama about special needs education.

    Despite winning dozens of Indian film awards as well as India’s third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan, Khan still grounds his idea of success in the film itself.

    “Filmmaking is very difficult… telling a story through so many art forms which come together to form cinema,” he said.

    “So when I look at the film that we’ve made, and then I look at the script that we set out with, (I ask): has the film reached where we thought it would?”

    “And if we’ve reached where we wanted to, and we’ve made the film that we set out to, then it’s a big relief.”

  • German chancellor sent packing after losing confidence vote

    German chancellor sent packing after losing confidence vote

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote on Monday, spelling the effective end of his troubled government and putting Europe’s biggest economy on the path to elections on February 23.

    Scholz had called the vote, expecting to lose it, weeks after his coalition collapsed. Later Monday he asked President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to dissolve the legislature soon and ask voters to head back to the ballot box.

    Although the centre-left chancellor continues in a caretaker role and with a minority in parliament, the political turmoil threatens months of paralysis until a new coalition government is formed.

    Embattled Scholz, 66, lags badly in the polls behind conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz who heads the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of ex-chancellor Angela Merkel.

    After more than three years at the helm, Scholz was plunged into crisis when his unruly three-party coalition collapsed on November 6, the day Donald Trump won re-election to the White House.

    The political turbulence has hit Germany as it struggles to revive a stuttering economy hammered by high energy prices and tough competition from China.

    Berlin also faces major geopolitical challenges as it confronts Russia over the Ukraine war and as Trump’s looming return heightens uncertainty over NATO and trade ties.

    – ‘Deplorable state’ –

    Those threats were at the centre of a heated debate between Scholz, Merz and other party leaders ahead of the vote in the lower house, in which 207 MPs expressed confidence in Scholz against 394 who did not, with 116 abstentions.

    After Scholz outlined his plans for massive spending on security, business and social welfare, Merz demanded to know why he had not taken those steps in the past, asking: “Were you on another planet?”

    Scholz argued that his government had boosted spending on the armed forces which previous CDU-led governments had left “in a deplorable state”.

    “It is high time to invest powerfully and decisively in Germany,” Scholz said, warning about Russia’s war in Ukraine that “a highly armed nuclear power is waging war in Europe just two hours’ flight from here”.

    But Merz fired back that Scholz had left the country in “one of the biggest economic crises of the post-war era”.

    “You had your chance, but you did not use it … You, Mr. Scholz, do not deserve confidence”, charged Merz.

    Merz, a former corporate lawyer who has never held a government leadership post, lambasted the motley alliance of the chancellor’s Social Democrats (SPD), the left-leaning Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP).

    Coalition bickering over fiscal and economic woes came to a head when Scholz fired his rebellious FDP finance minister Christian Lindner on November 6.

    Scholz on Monday again lashed out at Lindner for the “weeks-long sabotage” that finally imploded the alliance and damaged “the reputation of democracy” itself.

    The departure of Lindner’s FDP left Scholz running a minority government with the Greens that has been limping along, unable to pass major bills or a new budget.

    Berlin’s troubles come as Germany’s main EU partner France is also mired in a government crisis.

    – ‘Plagued by doubt’ –

    German politics in the post-war era was long staid, stable and dominated by the two big-tent parties, the CDU-CSU alliance and the SPD, with the small FDP often playing kingmaker.

    The Greens emerged in the 1980s, but the political landscape has been further fragmented by the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), a shock for a country whose dark World War II history had long made right-wing extremist parties taboo.

    The AfD has grown in the past decade from a eurosceptic fringe party into a major political force when it protested against Merkel’s open-door policy to migrants, and now has around 18 percent voter support.

    While other parties have committed to a “firewall” of non-cooperation with the AfD, some have borrowed from its anti-immigration rhetoric.

    After the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, some CDU lawmakers were quick to demand that the around one million Syrian refugees in Germany return to their home country.

    Political scientist Claire Demesmay of Sciences Po Paris said Germany was now in a sweeping process of reorientation which is “feeding fears within society that are reflected on the political level”.

    “We can see a political discourse that is more tense than a few years ago. We have a Germany plagued by doubt.”

  • Voice of ‘The Lion King’ returns for Disney prequel

    Voice of ‘The Lion King’ returns for Disney prequel

    Born into poverty in apartheid-era South Africa and propelled to Hollywood heights, Lebohang Morake became the voice of Disney’s classic film “The Lion King” with his powerful Zulu cry.

    Now, 30 years after his chant of “Nants’ Ingonyama” soared above the film’s memorable opening sequence, the 60-year-old South African singer, producer and composer known as Lebo M is back.

    This time he sings another opener for the prequel “Mufasa: The Lion King”, which tells the story of orphaned lion Mufasa who grows up to be the king of the Pride Lands and the father of Simba.

    Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the music for the film — due to be released worldwide on December 18-20 —  said on the red carpet he would not have done it without Lebo M.

    “That was the dream. I sort of insisted on that the moment I took the job because I think he is the secret sauce,” he said at the world premiere in Los Angeles this week.

    “I think he is the sound of ‘The Lion King’ and his choral arrangements, that were in addition to the songs I wrote, I think really make the movie feel of a piece with the original,” he added.

    The film, directed by Barry Jenkins, premiered in Los Angeles and London this week and opens with Lebo M’s composition “Ngomso”.

    After the enormous impact of his work on the 1994 film, Lebo M told AFP in an interview he had felt the pressure to produce a worthy successor.

    “I loved writing the first opening… but having to write and perform a new opening for ‘The Lion King’ after 30 years… it’s quite a big challenge,” he said.

    In the end, he said, writing “Ngomso” turned out to be a remarkably similar process.

    The “Nants’ Ingonyama” cry heard at the start of the “Circle of Life” song in the earlier film, he said, had been a demo for which he simply turned up, performed and left without expecting much to come of it.

    Three decades later, he arrived at the studio early in the morning and just started making music “with a hi-hat (cymbals) and a bongo”.

    “By the time the director and everyone else came in at 11 am I’d written the entire song.”

    He said committing to the film had the advantage of allowing him to finally work with Miranda, something he had been keen to do for many years.

    “It’s just amazing energy non-stop. Very little discussion about these chords, this melody. We do! Just go in and everything flows… it allowed us to both to be very, very authentic to the movie,” he said.

    – Gangster or nightclub singer? –

    Born in Soweto in South Africa in 1964, Lebo M has built a reputation as the go-to artist for directors wanting authentic African flair for their productions.

    He produced and composed for the 2010 football World Cup opening and closing ceremonies in South Africa.

    A long creative association with composer Hans Zimmer, who has written the music for more than 150 films, has seen him feature as a special guest on all Zimmer’s world tours.

    But success was hard won with low points including racism he experienced, including in the entertainment industry, and two years living on the streets in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s.

    “I’m constantly conscious of the fact that I’m a refugee, I’m non-American,” he said.

    “It was very difficult when Lion King became big in 1994. It was always about the three white guys, Elton John, Tim Rice and Hans Zimmer.

    “Being born into extreme poverty was never here or there for me. I had music,” he said, adding that as a teenager he had the choice of being a “gangster, a soccer player or the nerd”.

    This meant immersing himself in music and the arts and by the age of just 14 he was the youngest nightclub singer in South Africa.

    Despite an illustrious career, Lebo M said he still bears the scars of the years when he was homeless.

    “I’ve been in survival mode all the way…. Even with the perception of success that one is believed to have, it’s still survival mode,” he said.

    He believes, however, that the US entertainment industry allowed him to “flourish more than I think I would have flourished anywhere else in the world”.

    After decades mostly behind the scenes, he said he is finally ready to meet his audience with his first of a series of concerts scheduled for next April in South Africa.

    “I’m ready because I know there’s anticipation in a global audience that would like to experience Lebo M live, not as a guest, not through movies,” he said.

    “And I also would like to experience that,” he added.

  • Turkiye to reopen embassy in Syria amidst raging crisis and diplomatic talks

    Turkiye to reopen embassy in Syria amidst raging crisis and diplomatic talks

    Turkiye is set to reopen its embassy in Damascus on Saturday, nearly a week after President Bashar Assad was toppled by forces backed by Ankara and 12 years after the diplomatic outpost was shuttered early in Syria’s civil war.


    The move came as Middle Eastern and Western diplomats gathered in Jordan for high-level talks on Syria, and a day after nationwide celebrations at Assad’s ouster.


    Ankara has been a major player in Syria’s conflict, holding considerable sway in the northwest and financing armed groups there, and maintaining a working relationship with the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which spearheaded the offensive that brought down Assad.


    Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the new charge d’affaires, Burhan Koroglu, left for Syria on Friday, with the embassy expected to be “operational” the following day.
    Fidan also said Ankara had urged Assad backers Russia and Iran not to intervene as the Islamist-led militants mounted their lightning advance last week.


    “The most important thing was to talk to the Russians and Iranians to ensure that they didn’t enter the equation militarily… They understood,” Fidan told private television network NTV.


    Turkish diplomats joined counterparts from the European Union, the United States and the Arab world on Saturday for talks in the Jordanian city of Aqaba.


    A day before the meetings in Jordan, Syrians had celebrated what they called the “Friday of victory,” with fireworks heralding the fall of the Assad dynasty.


    Celebrations continued into the night on the first Friday — the Muslim day of rest and prayer — since Assad was ousted.


    Umayyad Square in Damascus was jammed with vehicles, people and waving flags as fireworks shot into the air, AFPTV footage showed.


    Crowds also gathered in the squares and streets of other Syrian cities, including Homs, Hama and Idlib.

    UN envoy warns against Syria collapse at crisis talks

    Meanwhile, a UN envoy urged foreign powers to work to avoid a collapse of vital Syrian institutions following the downfall of leader Bashar al-Assad, as diplomats gathered in Jordan for a conference on the crisis.

    Geir Pedersen, the UN’s special envoy for Syria, also backed a “credible and inclusive” political process to form the next government as he met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

    “We need to make sure that state institutions do not collapse, and that we get in humanitarian assistance as quickly as possible,” Pedersen said. “If we can achieve that, perhaps there is a new opportunity for the Syrian people.”

    Top Arab, Turkish, EU, and US diplomats are holding talks in the Jordanian Red Sea resort city of Aqaba less than a week after Syrian opposition forces toppled al-Assad.

    Blinken, on a trip in which he has met the leaders of Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq, has repeatedly called for an “inclusive” process that reflects all the diverse ethnic and religious communities in Syria.

    Meeting Pedersen, Blinken said that the United Nations “plays a critical role” in humanitarian assistance and protecting minorities in Syria.

  • South Korean lawmakers impeach President Yoon over martial law bid

    South Korean lawmakers impeach President Yoon over martial law bid

    South Korean lawmakers on Saturday voted to remove President Yoon Suk Yeol from office for his failed attempt to impose martial law last week.

    Out of 300 lawmakers, 204 voted to impeach the president on allegations of insurrection while 85 voted against.

    Three abstained, with eight votes nullified.

    Yoon is now suspended from office while South Korea’s Constitutional Court deliberates whether to uphold his removal.

    Prime Minister Han Duck-soo steps in as the interim president.

    The court now has 180 days to rule on Yoon’s future.

    If it backs his removal, Yoon would become the second president in South Korean history to be successfully impeached.

    South Korean PM vows to ‘ensure stable governance’ after Yoon impeached

    South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Saturday vowed to “ensure stable governance” after the country’s parliament voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol.

    “I will devote all my strength and efforts to ensure stable governance,” Han, who becomes the country’s interim leader in Yoon’s place, told reporters.

    S. Korea’s Yoon: from rising star to impeachment

    South Korean’s Yoon Suk Yeol rose from public prosecutor to the nation’s highest office in just a few years, but as president he staggered from scandal to scandal before plunging the country into crisis by declaring martial law.

    The lurch back to South Korea’s dark days of military rule only lasted a few hours, and after a night of protests and high drama last week Yoon was forced into a U-turn.

    But polls show a huge majority of citizens want him out and lawmakers voted Saturday to impeach him. He is now the third South Korean president to be impeached by parliamentary vote, and if upheld by the Constitutional Court would be the second to be removed from office.

    This week Yoon had vowed to fight “until the very last minute” in a defiant public address in which he doubled down on claims the opposition was in league with South Korea’s communist enemies.

    Born in dictatorship 

    Born in Seoul in 1960 months before a military coup, Yoon studied law and went on to become a star public prosecutor and anti-corruption crusader.

    He played an instrumental role in Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s first female president, being impeached in 2016 and later convicted for abuse of power and imprisoned.

    As the country’s top prosecutor in 2019, he also indicted a senior aide of Park’s successor, Moon Jae-in, in a fraud and bribery case.

    The conservative People Power Party (PPP), in opposition at the time, liked what they saw and convinced Yoon to become their presidential candidate.

    He duly won in March 2022, beating Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party, but by the narrowest margin in South Korean history.

    Halloween to handbag 

    Yoon was never much loved by the public, especially by women — he vowed on the campaign trail to abolish the ministry of gender equality — and scandals have come thick and fast.

    This included his administration’s handling of a 2022 crowd crush during Halloween festivities that killed more than 150 people.

    Voters have also blamed Yoon’s administration for food inflation, a lagging economy and increasing constraints on freedom of speech.

    He was accused of abusing presidential vetoes, notably to strike down a bill paving the way for a special investigation into alleged stock manipulation by his wife Kim Keon Hee.

    Yoon suffered further reputational damage last year when his wife was secretly filmed accepting a designer handbag worth $2,000 as a gift. Yoon insisted it would have been rude to refuse.

    His mother-in-law, Choi Eun-soon, was sentenced to one year in prison for forging financial documents in a real estate deal. She was released in May 2024.

    Yoon himself was the subject of a petition calling for his impeachment earlier this year, which proved so popular the parliamentary website hosting it experienced delays and crashes.

    ‘You can sing!’ 

    As president, Yoon has maintained a tough stance against nuclear-armed North Korea and bolstered ties with Seoul’s traditional ally, the United States.

    Last year, he sang Don McLean’s “American Pie” at the White House, prompting US President Joe Biden to respond: “I had no damn idea you could sing.”

    But his efforts to restore ties with South Korea’s former colonial ruler, Japan, did not sit well with many at home.

    Yoon has been a lame-duck president since the opposition Democratic Party won a majority in parliamentary elections this year. They recently slashed Yoon’s budget.

    In his televised address declaring martial law, Yoon railed against “anti-state elements plundering people’s freedom and happiness”, and his office has subsequently cast his imposition of martial law as a bid to break through legislative gridlock.

    But to use his political difficulties as justification for imposing martial law for the first time in South Korea since the 1980s was absurd, an analyst said.

    “Yoon invoked Article 77 of the South Korean constitution, which allows for proclaiming martial law but is reserved for ‘time of war, armed conflict or similar national emergency’, none of which appears evident,” Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told AFP.

    “Yoon’s action is a damning reversal to decades of South Korean efforts to put its authoritarian past behind it,” he said.

  • ‘Into the New World’: the K-pop song that became South Korea’s protest anthem

    ‘Into the New World’: the K-pop song that became South Korea’s protest anthem

    A cheerful song by one of the most successful K-pop girl groups has emerged as a protest anthem for thousands of South Koreans rallying for President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment.

    “There’s a rough road ahead of us,” sang the demonstrators in unison, gathered daily outside parliament since last week after Yoon briefly imposed martial law, only to reverse the decision after facing pressure from lawmakers.

    As an impeachment vote for the embattled president looms, protesters chant mocking rhymes and sing K-pop in their daily demonstrations, with one song serving as a clarion call for his removal – Girls’ Generation’s “Into the New World”.

    “With the unknowable future and obstacles, I won’t change and I can’t give up,” protesters sing, dancing to the upbeat song with hopeful lyrics.

    “We will (do it) together no matter how long it takes in my new world.”

    This is not the first time the Girls’ Generation’s bop has made an appearance in politics – the single released in 2007 first got harnessed nine years later during student demonstrations at Ewha Womans University.

    What started as a campus protest on South Korea’s top women’s university in 2016 intensified due to the school’s link to former president Park Geun-hye’s corruption scandal, eventually leading to Park’s dramatic impeachment the following year.

    Viral footage showed Ewha students singing “Into the New World” and linking arms while engaged in a standoff with the police.

    The song’s “grassroots power made (it) an emblem for the various protests since then,” Jiyeon Kang, a Korean studies professor at University of Iowa, told AFP.

    It “encapsulates… the courage to stand against perceived injustice even when the odds of success are slim, and the comfort of finding a supportive community,” she said.

    Used as an activism tool, “Into the New World” is frequently featured in South Korea’s annual queer parade and also blared during a rally supporting the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

    ‘Raise their voices’

    Girls’ Generation, whose youngest member was 16 when they debuted in 2007, remains one of the most successful K-pop groups of all time.

    Member Yuri said in a 2017 interview she had cried while watching the video of their song sung during the university protests.

    “It was a moment when I felt a great sense of pride as a singer,” Yuri said.

    For protester Han You-jin, the song is a familiar one as she was just a year old when it debuted.

    “Singing this song, which I’ve known my whole life, alongside so many other people from different age groups has been special,” the 18-year-old told AFP after she sang it with thousands outside parliament.

    This reception is a far cry from how the song was received in 2016 by some commentators calling it inappropriate for protests, said Ewha University alumna Kim Ye-ji, who recalled it as a way for students to “raise their voices”.

    “I have seen the world change first-hand a few years ago,” she told AFP, remembering her friends being removed by authorities and “a sense of violence” epitomising her protest days, before it resulted in a presidential impeachment.

    “I believe we will navigate well through this as well.”

  • Indian teen becomes world’s youngest chess champion

    Indian teen becomes world’s youngest chess champion

    Newly crowned world chess king Gukesh Dommaraju said becoming a champion was a dream that was more than a decade in the making, as he underlined his ambition to strive for “greatness”.

    Gukesh was just seven when he watched compatriot Viswanathan Anand lose the world chess title in November 2013 to challenger Magnus Carlsen of Norway — a match that fired up his dream to bring the crown back to India.

    Eleven years later, on Thursday, in Singapore, the 18-year-old beat China’s Ding Liren after a gruelling tournament of 14 match days to become the youngest undisputed world chess champion.

    Speaking to reporters after the match, Gukesh cited the 2013 game as a defining episode for his success.

    “I was in the stands and I was looking inside the glass box (where the players were) and I thought it will be so cool to be inside one day,” he said of the tournament in his hometown of Chennai.

    “When Magnus won, I thought I really want to be the one to bring back the title to India. And this dream that I had more than 10 years ago has been the most important thing in my life so far,” he added.

    “I’ve been dreaming about… living this moment for like more than 10 years.”

    And this is just the beginning, Gukesh said, underlining his plan to be more than a one-hit wonder.

    He wants to stay at the top “for the longest time possible”, to ultimately attain Carlsen’s eminence as the highest rated chess player in history.

    The teenager said he felt the jitters in the opening game in Singapore on November 25 which his more experienced opponent won.

    But as the tournament wore on, he gained more confidence, winning a total three matches, including the dramatic final game, and settling for a draw in nine.

    Thursday’s final match was already heading for a draw and most pundits and spectators at Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa were resigned to the tournament extending to rapid-fire tiebreaker games on Friday, which would have favoured Ding.

    The Chinese grandmaster became world champion last year in similar fashion by beating Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in Kazakhstan in the quick-fire playoffs — akin to a penalty shootout in football.

    But the teenager tenaciously pressed on, forcing a blunder by Ding.

    Gukesh admitted that it was “humiliating” losing the first game.

    “No matter how you prepare for it, you come here as an 18-year-old and you lose the first game like the way I did… It was quite tough to handle that,” he said.

    But he chanced upon his idol Anand in the lift who told him he had 13 more games to go.

    “It was a nice reminder… I needed some mental toughness at that point,” he said.

    Former five-time world chess champion Anand was among the first to congratulate the young champion, along with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    “It’s a proud moment for chess, a proud moment for India… and for me, a very personal moment of pride,” Anand said in a post on X.

    Modi described Gukesh’s feat as a “remarkable accomplishment” which he said was “the result of his unparalleled talent, hard work and unwavering determination”.

    Ding resigned after making an endgame blunder, and took home $1.15 million while Gukesh got $1.35 million of the $2.5 million prize fund.

    But the teenager underlined that the world title crown was just part of a bigger dream.

    “Becoming world champion does not mean I’m the best player in the world,” said Gukesh.

    “Obviously, there’s Magnus. So it’s also a motivating factor that… there is someone at a very, very high level and someone that will keep me doing the right things, working hard and trying to reach the level of greatness that Magnus has achieved.”

  • Taylor Swift delivers final performance in record-breaking ‘Eras’ tour

    Taylor Swift delivers final performance in record-breaking ‘Eras’ tour

    Taylor Swift took the stage in Vancouver on Sunday for the final show of her record-shattering “Eras” tour, a cultural phenomenon that has easily become the highest-grossing musical tour in history.

    The globe-spanning event kicked off in the US state of Arizona on March 17, 2023.

    Sunday’s show in Canada was the 149th Eras performance, following stops in cities ranging from Buenos Aires to Paris and Tokyo.

    Swift appeared on stage at a sold-out BC Place stadium shortly before 8:00 pm (0400 GMT) and told the crowd “it’s feeling like a pretty cool night to be in Vancouver,” according to the Vancouver Sun newspaper.

    Swift’s camp has not publicly released ticket revenue numbers for the tour but the widely cited trade magazine Pollstar has estimated the figure at more than $2 billion. 

    That smashes the record previously held by Elton John’s pandemic-interrupted “Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour,” which sold an estimated $939 million in tickets over 328 shows spread across five years.

    Beyond the concerts, Swift’s presence in venue cities has supercharged local economies.

    Her second-last tour stop was Toronto, where she performed six shows over two weekends.

    She generated an additional Can$282 million ($199 million) in economic activity in Canada’s largest city, tourism promotion organization Destination Toronto estimated.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended one of the Toronto shows with his family.

    Last year, before the announcement that Eras would include Canadian stops, Trudeau issued a public appeal urging Swift to come.

    “I know places in Canada would love to have you. So, don’t make it another Cruel Summer. We hope to see you soon,” Trudeau posted on X in July 2023, referring to a hit song from Swift’s 2019 album, “Lover.”

    Not all the political attention Swift attracted during Eras was positive.

    Shortly after the US presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in September, Swift endorsed the Democrat for president.

    That triggered an all-caps Trump post on the Republican former president’s Truth Social platform that simply said, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT.”

    – ‘Super Bowl suspense’ –  

    Eras also earned sterling critical acclaim, with reviewers praising Swift’s stamina and energy through shows that have averaged just under four hours.

    The New York Times called opening night in Glendale, Arizona, a “master class.” The Vancouver Sun called Friday’s show, her third last, “spectacular.”

    A setback came in Vienna this summer when three shows were cancelled after authorities arrested a man in connection with an Islamist attack plot.

    And tragedy struck when a fan died from heat exhaustion during a show in Rio de Janeiro in November last year.

    Unprecedented ticket demand led to frustration for many fans and forced Ticketmaster initially to scrap presale plans.

    Eras also included a “will she, won’t she” moment of suspense that transcended the world of pop music.

    The question was whether Swift had enough time after finishing a show in Tokyo on February 10 to make it to Las Vegas in time for kickoff at football’s Super Bowl to see her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, play for the Kansas City Chiefs.

    It is rare for a non-football storyline to dominate discussion ahead of America’s premier sporting event.

    But concern about Swift’s schedule was so acute that the Japanese embassy in Washington issued a statement affirming she would “comfortably” make the game. 

    From a private box, along with Kelce’s mother, Donna, Swift chugged a beer and watched the Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers as more than 200 million TV viewers watched her.