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Friends, the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth hype train has left Midgar station and is barreling toward us at a fever pitch in the run-up to the RPG’s PlayStation 5 release date of February 29, 2024. Y’all see that new trailer? If you haven’t, you’ve probably at least heard fans squealing about the first look at Vincent Valentine, Zack not being dead like he’s supposed to be, and several other cool moments. All that’s well and good, but there’s one moment in the trailer we are not talking about enough. And we should be, because the best character in all of Final Fantasy VII is coming back in Rebirth: Andrea Rhodea, the king of the Honeybee Inn.
Andrea is one of the best additions in Final Fantasy VII Remake’s new spin on an old story. He’s the owner and lead dancer of the Honeybee Inn, which was a brothel in the original 1997 Final Fantasy VII. In Remake the Honeybee Inn is a lavish nightclub, complete with extravagant dance routines, stunning costumes based on the titular bug, and a hunky pansexual king running the place.
The changes worked on a few fronts. It made the Honeybee Inn a more memorable touchstone of Cloud and Aerith’s time in the Wall Market rather than a weird, uncomfortable detour tinged with gay panic. Now it’s a celebratory moment about the freedom of expression and breaking down gender norms. The updated scene let Cloud dress in drag without shame and felt like a real queer space in a game that was otherwise willing to assume Cloud was involved with a woman as long as they were in each other’s proximity. Sure, Cloud and Aerith are just passing through, but it was a meaningful moment for Final Fantasy VII’s larger world to show that queer people and places exist.
Pre-order Fantasy VII Rebirth: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop
Even as a person who doesn’t love Final Fantasy VII Remake for a lot of reasons we won’t get into—don’t get me started on my lack of faith in Square to pull off an Evangelion-style meta-commentary after nearly every extended universe it’s done in Final Fantasy has undermined the source material in some way—the Honeybee Inn scene remains an all-time great moment for me in the series. It’s joyful to watch unfold, and Andrea is one of the most captivating characters for as little screentime as he gets.
Given that he’s a side character and pretty tied to a specific location the party is departing at the end of Final Fantasy VII Remake, I didn’t think we’d see Andrea again in Rebirth, or the third game that will wrap up this revamped story. But it looks like we’re heading to the Gold Saucer in Rebirth, and Andrea is about to dance his ass off once again.
And look at this king fucking go. He was a charismatic dancer in Remake, even when saddled with a newbie dance partner like Cloud. Whenever I heard a catchy pop song back in 2020 (say, anything from Lady Gaga’s “Chromatica”) images of Andrea and Cloud dancing immediately entered my mind, like an old screensaver or music video. So I’m sure the new choreography he and his crew are working on in Rebirth will stamp itself onto any pop album I listen to in 2024.
I really loved Dion and his gay relationship in Final Fantasy XVI, but because of a few disappointing decisions Square Enix made with the character, I still left that game a bit saddened by its apparent hesitance to showcase his love story with the same confidence as it did his straight counterparts’. Fresh off Remake’s Andrea, an incredibly proud queer man in the Final Fantasy universe, Dion’s treatment felt like two steps forward and one step back. I don’t expect Andrea will play a huge role in Rebirth, but I’m very glad to see he’s back, killing it on the stage, and looking fine as hell in white.
Pre-order Fantasy VII Rebirth: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop
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Kenneth Shepard
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ROME (AP) — Italians are using social media to denounce a court verdict clearing a school janitor of a sexual assault charge for groping a 17-year-old student because it only lasted “around five to 10 seconds.”
The teenager said the man came up from behind her as she was pulling up her trousers while walking with a friend up the stairs in a Rome high school, and slipped his hand beneath her underpants, according to court documents. Pulling on the undergarments, he then lifted her slightly in the air. He admitted to groping her in the April 2022 incident but claimed it was a joke.
A court in Rome ruled last week that the groping was “just a few seconds” and wasn’t sexual, and that it was so brief that his argument that it was a joke was convincing even if “inopportune.”
A U.S. Army soldier from Massachusetts reported missing in action while his unit was involved in fighting against German forces in Italy during World War II has been accounted for.
An American tourist tells The Associated Press he was “dumbfounded” when he found a fellow tourist carving graffiti in the wall of Rome’s Colosseum.
Exactly 40 years after the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee disappeared, the Vatican announced new leads “worthy of further investigation” have surfaced.
The verdict will be appealed, the teen’s lawyer, Andrea Buitoni, told The Associated Press. Italian law allows acquittals to be appealed by both the prosecutor and the defense.
Actor and comedian Paolo Camilli, who appears in The White Lotus, posted a video on TikTok this week fondling his chest in front of the camera as a chronometer counts down 10 seconds. “If this is not molestation, I don’t know what is,’’ he said.
The video has spawned copycats, with both men and women fondling their chests to a countdown clock.
Other satirical videos include a woman apologetically excusing a man who has grabbed her rear end after he said he touched her for fewer than 10 seconds, so had committed no crime.
The victim has been following the social media reaction “with mixed feelings,’’ her lawyer said, ”even if she is heartened by knowing that the judge’s decision is seen by many as an injustice.”
The case has been criticized by women’s rights organizations.
“This kind of verdict is unacceptable. It makes us go backward, and we cannot allow that,’’ Cristina Ercoli, who heads the anti-violence center at Differenza Donna, told The Associated Press.
She said that the younger generation mobilizing on social media were making clear that “they have no doubt” that decision was wrong. “They don’t need us to say that it was a crime,’’ she said of the janitor’s action.
In a similar case, Italy’s highest court in 2001 upheld an appeals court decision overturning the conviction of a manager of sexual assault for patting a female employee’s bottom. While the court acknowledged the pat had occurred, it ruled that there was no evidence it was “an act of libido.” He had been found guilty by a lower trial court and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The same court in 1999 ruled that it was impossible to rape a woman wearing jeans, since tightness makes them impossible to remove without help. The ruling prompted female lawmakers to wear jeans to Parliament in protest.
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea’s U.N. ambassador defended his country’s recent long-range missile launch in a rare appearance at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday where he also accused the United States of driving the situation in northeast Asia “to the brink of nuclear war.”
Kim Song told the council that Wednesday’s test-flight of the developmental Hwasong-18 missile was a legitimate exercise of the North’s right to self-defense. He said the United States was raising regional tensions with nuclear threats and deploying a nuclear-powered submarine to South Korea for the first time in 14 years.
Kim said the missile launch had “no negative effect on the security of a neighboring country,” pointing to Japan’s announcement that the ICBM — which flew at a steep angle — landed in open waters outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to bolster his country’s nuclear fighting capabilities as he supervised the second test-flight of a new intercontinental ballistic missile designed to strike the mainland United States.
North Korea has test-fired its first intercontinental ballistic missile in three months after it threatened “shocking” consequences to protest alleged spying by United States military flights.
The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has alleged that the country’s warplanes repelled a U.S. spy plane that flew over its exclusive economic zone.
South Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook countered, asking: “How can an ICBM launch ever make neighboring countries appear safe?”
Diplomats said Kim’s appearance was the first time a North Korean diplomat addressed the Security Council since 2017.
Hwang said each of North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches allow the country to advance its technology toward its goal of having an arsenal of nuclear-armed weapons.
Immediately before the meeting, a statement from nine council members including the U.S. and Japan, joined by South Korea, was read to reporters condemning the launch “in the strongest possible terms” and stressing that it was the 20th ballistic missile launch this year in blatant violation of multiple Security Council resolutions banning such tests.
In Pyongyang, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, slammed the U.N. Security Council for convening a meeting to “pick a quarrel with” her country’s self-defense step while ignoring the U.S. push to increase the danger of a nuclear war. In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo Jong called the council “a new Cold War mechanism totally inclined to the U.S. and the West.”
She also warned that the United States would pay a price for its hostility toward the North. “I do not conceal the fact that very unlucky things will wait for the U.S.,” she said without elaborating but reiterated her country’s push to build up its nuclear deterrence capability.
The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking — so far unsuccessfully — to cut funds and curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The last sanctions resolution was adopted by the council in December 2017, and China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over a spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches.
The two veto-wielding permanent members have blocked any council action including statements to the media since then.
The statement by the 10 countries said the Security Council cannot remain silent in the face of so many North Korean provocations and must send a message to all proliferators “that this behavior is unlawful, destabilizing, and will not be normalized.” It also called on all countries to confront North Korea’s illicit activities to generate revenue such as cybercrime.
But Russia and China remained opposed to any council action.
China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun took note of the latest missile test but criticized the heightened U.S. military pressure on North Korea and its deployment of strategic weapons to the Korean Peninsula.
He said the long-time view of the U.S. and other countries that North Korea poses a security threat and their obsession with sanctions put North Korea under “existential pressure,” while the country’s own legitimate concerns “have never been addressed.”
Zhang said history since the 1990s clearly shows that dialogue and negotiation are the only way to ease tensions, and he urged the U.S. and North Korea to resume talks.
The statement from the 10 countries said they remain committed to diplomacy without preconditions. Song made no mention of talks, which have been stalled since 2018.
Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
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GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — The Guatemalan government’s clumsy interference with its presidential election has turned a global spotlight on rampant corruption that previously had received only limited international attention.
President Alejandro Giammattei was deeply unpopular at home, but other than occasional reprobation from the United States and Europe, had managed to consolidate his control of the justice system, completely upending a longstanding anti-corruption campaign in the country with little consequence.
The June 25 presidential election may have changed all that. In the days leading up to the vote, it appeared there would be a runoff between a small number of right and extreme right candidates, including Giammattei allies. But with a large number of null votes, many cast in protest, and a campaign that resonated especially with young Guatemalans, progressive candidate Bernardo Arévalo placed second, ensuring his participation in an Aug. 20 runoff.
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A coalition of press freedom groups expressed concern Wednesday about what they called the “historic” threats facing Guatemalan journalists because of government prosecutions.
Suddenly, it seemed there was a real possibility of choice for Guatemalans who want to change the status quo. That stunned the powers that be, who quickly reacted.
“I think that fear clouded him, blinded him,” Katya Salazar, executive director of the Due Process Foundation, said of Giammattei. She added that Arévalo’s surprise support was “a demonstration of the dissatisfaction” in the Central American country.
“I think he (Giammattei) thought that it would be the same as always,” she said.
Late Wednesday, a federal prosecutor announced that Arévalo’s party, the Seed Movement, had been suspended for allegedly violating election laws. Prosecutors followed up on Thursday morning by raiding the offices of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal just hours after it certified the election results that put Arévalo in the runoff.
At a news conference on Friday, special anti-corruption prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche defended his investigation as serious, objective and impartial. He said the inquiry had taken a year to complete and it was a coincidence that he announced it on the same day the Supreme Electoral Tribunal certified the election results.
“That idea they have that this case arises from political issues is completely false,” Curruchiche said. “We don’t get involved in political issues.”
The prosecutor said his office’s raid of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal on Thursday had produced very valuable information, but he did not go into specifics. He did say that the tribunal’s own documents showed it was aware that 12 signatures collected by the Seed Movement when it was being established in 2018 were those of dead people, yet still allowed them to be registered.
“They didn’t take their responsibility like they should have,” he said.
Earlier Friday, the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that it was carrying out its duty to enforce the country’s laws and not trying to interfere with the second round of voting or keep any candidate from participating in the runoff. Curruchiche said his investigation would continue.
The government’s actions have triggered a domestic and international uproar. In addition to statements of concern from the United States, European Union and Organization of American States, criticism came from other Latin American governments as well as Guatemala’s most powerful private business association.
Even Arévalo’s runoff opponent, conservative former first lady Sandra Torres, joined in, announcing that she would suspend her campaign activities because the competition was uneven while authorities pursued the Seed Movement.
Torres’ UNE party has been a key force in allowing Giammattei to advance his legislative agenda, but it appeared she felt the attack on the Seed party could undermine her own candidacy.
“We want to demonstrate our solidarity with the voters of the Seed party and also with those who came out to vote,” she said. “As a candidate, I want to compete under equal conditions.”
Not long after that, the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest tribunal, provided another blow to the Giammattei administration, granting the Seed Movement’s request for a preliminary injunction against its suspension. That quickly, if temporarily, lowered tensions.
Giammattei, who was barred by law from seeking reelection, kept out of sight. His office issued a statement saying it respects the separation of powers and would not be involved in any judicial processes.
His response had little effect on a population that witnessed how the president had dramatically transformed a nation that until four years ago had hosted an aggressive and productive anti-corruption effort supported by the United Nations. After Giammattei’s predecessor forced out the U.N. mission that supported the fight against graft, the current president systematically forced out prosecutors and judges who were continuing that effort, replacing them with loyalists. Even those who had grown critical of the zealous anti-corruption effort concede the country is much worse off now.
Hundreds protested in front of the Attorney General’s Office on Thursday afternoon.
“We are fed up with the corruption in Guatemala,” said Adolfo Grande, a 25-year-old repair technician. “We want them to let us choose and not to impose who they want.”
Dinora Sentes, a 28-year-old sociologist, said she supports the Seed Movement but was protesting in defense of Guatemala.
“It’s not about defending a party but rather an entire country,” she said. “We have so many needs in education, health, urgent necessities to attend to.”
Arévalo thanked the Constitutional Court as well as the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, which promised to defend the will of voters against government interference.
“The corrupt who have tried to steal these elections from the people today find themselves marginalized,” he said. “Today we are starting the first day of the campaign.”
Sherman reported from Mexico City.
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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Central America is experiencing a wave of unrest that is remarkable even for a region whose history is riddled with turbulence. The most recent example is political upheaval in Guatemala as the country heads for a runoff presidential election in August.
A look at various events roiling Central American countries:
Despite a dissuasion campaign by the U.S. government, migrants are headed toward its southern border in growing numbers ahead of the end of pandemic-era asylum restrictions and proposed new restrictions on those seeking asylum.
Costa Rica’s president is promising to put more police in the streets and he wants legal changes to confront record-setting numbers of homicides that have shaken daily life in a country long known for peaceful stability.
Guatemala is locked in the most troubled presidential election in the country’s recent history. The first round of elections in June ended with a surprise twist when little known progressive candidate Bernardo Arévalo of the Seed Movement party pulled ahead as a front-runner.
Now headed to an August runoff election with conservative candidate and top vote-getter Sandra Torres, Arévalo has thus far managed to survive judicial attacks and attempts by Guatemala’s political establishment to disqualify his party. It comes after other moves by the country’s government to manage the election, including banning several candidates before the first-round vote.
While not entirely unprecedented in a country known for high levels of corruption, American officials call the latest escalation a threat to the country’s democracy.
El Salvador has been radically transformed in the past few years with the entrance of populist millennial President Nayib Bukele. One year ago, Bukele entered an all-out war with the Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatruchas, or MS-13, gangs. He suspended constitutional rights and threw 1 in every 100 people in the country into prisons that have fueled allegations of mass human rights abuses.
The sharp dip in violence that followed Bukele’s actions, combined with an elaborate propaganda machine, has ignited a pro-Bukele populist fervor across the region, with other governments trying to mimic the Bitcoin-pushing leader.
At the same time, Bukele has announced he will run for reelection in February next year despite the constitution prohibiting it. He has also made moves that observers warn are gradually dismantling the nation’s democracy.
President Daniel Ortega is in an all-out crackdown on dissent. For years, regional watchdogs and the U.S. government raised alarms that democracy was eroding under the leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front. That came to a head in 2018 when Ortega’s government began a violent crackdown on protests.
Most recently, Ortega forced hundreds of opposition figures into exile, stripping them of their citizenship, seizing their properties and declaring them “traitors of the homeland.” Nicaragua has thrown out aid groups such as the Red Cross and a yearslong crackdown on the Catholic Church has forced the Vatican to close its embassy. The tightening chokehold on the country has prompted many Nicaraguans to flee their country and seek asylum in neighboring Costa Rica or the United States.
President Xiomara Castro took office last year as the first female president of Honduras, winning on a message of tackling corruption, inequality and poverty. The wife of former President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a military coup, she won a landslide victory.
But her popularity has dipped as many of her promises for change have gone unfulfilled. At the same time, the government has sought to mimic neighboring El Salvador’s crackdown on gangs, responding fiercely to a grisly massacre in a women’s prison in June.
Once known as the land of “pura vida” and mild politics compared to the surrounding region, Costa Rica has seen rising bloodshed that threatens to tarnish the country’s reputation as a secure haven. Homicides have soared as the nation has become a base for drug traffickers. President Rodrigo Chavez, who took office last year, has promised more police in the street and tougher laws to take on the uptick in crime.
At the same time, a migratory flight from Nicaragua has overwhelmed the country, which is known as one of the world’s great refuges for people fleeing persecution. The government has since tightened its asylum laws.
Panama is headed into presidential elections in May, with simmering frustration at economic woes, corruption and insecurity acting as a potential harbinger for change. Any shift could have global significance due to Panama’s status as a financial hub.
The nation has also become the epicenter of a steady flow of migration through the perilous jungles of the Darien Gap running along the Colombia-Panama border.
Belize is often seen as a place of relative calm in a region that is anything but. A former British colony named British Honduras, Belize’s government system is still tightly tethered to the country. But Prime Minister Johnny Briceño has sought to distance his nation from the monarchy. The nation is also one of the few in the Americas that maintains formal ties with Taiwan amid a broad effort by China to pull support away from the island country by funneling money into Central America.
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A powerful summer storm lashed the Netherlands and parts of Germany on Wednesday, killing at least two people, blowing trees onto houses and forcing one of Europe’s busiest airports to cancel or delay hundreds of flights.
The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute issued its highest-level alert in three provinces as Storm Poly hit the country with heavy rain and powerful winds. One gust, on the coast west of Amsterdam, was recorded at just over 145 kilometers per hour (90 mph), the institute said.
The alert level was scaled back early in the afternoon as the storm headed northeast and weakened.
More than a half-dozen people were rescued as torrential rain deluged central Mississippi and sent water over roads and into homes and businesses.
Even desert residents accustomed to scorching summers are feeling the grip of an extreme heat wave smacking the Southwest this week.
Lethal flooding has simultaneously hit India, Japan, China, Turkey and the U.S. Northeast. Scientists have long warned that more extreme rainfall is expected in a warming world.
Dutch media showed pictures of uprooted trees and wind-blown debris littering streets in Amsterdam, The Hague and the city of Haarlem as the storm barreled through during the normally busy morning rush hour.
A woman was killed in Haarlem when a tree fell on a car, police spokesperson Nina Moers said. In Amsterdam, a tree fell on a houseboat moored in one of the city’s historic canals.
Strong gusts of wind also hit some areas of northwestern Germany. Police said a pedestrian died in Rhede, a municipality near the Netherlands border, after a tree fell on her. Police initially identified the victim as a man.
Videos showed trees scattered across highways, toppled on a row of houses in Haarlem and uprooted onto a tram in The Hague. Amsterdam municipality closed parks as the storm hit the Dutch capital.
Emergency services in North Holland province, which includes the capital Amsterdam, sent a push alert to mobile phones urging people to stay indoors as the storm passed. Traffic authorities also advised motorists to avoid driving, if possible.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs, said on its website that it expected “very limited air traffic will be possible” into the afternoon, leading to cancellations and delays for incoming and departing flights.
With the wind easing by mid-afternoon, the airport said more planes could take off and land but disruptions would continue.
“Together with airlines, we are trying to get as many travelers as possible to their destinations today,” Schiphol said in a message to passengers.
The national railway company halted all trains in the northern Netherlands.
In Germany, some ferries to islands just off the North Sea coast were canceled, and trees fell on a railway line between the city of Emden and the town of Leer. A line that runs between Hamburg and Sylt, a popular vacation island, was also shut between the towns of Husum and Niebuell.
Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Appeals court judges in Amsterdam ruled Friday that the Dutch government can order Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs, to reduce the number of flights from 500,000 per year to 460,000.
The Amsterdam Court of Appeal overturned a lower court that concluded in April the government of the Netherlands did not follow the correct procedure when it told Schiphol last year to cut flights.
The airport, civil aviation organizations and airlines that included Dutch flag carrier KLM challenged the government’s order. Friday’s decision can be appealed to the Dutch Supreme Court.
Netherlands forward Quincy Promes has been convicted of stabbing his cousin in the leg and has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
AMSTERDAM (AP) — An alliance of northern European nations pledged Tuesday to do more to protect critical undersea and offshore infrastructure in the face of shared challenges, including what they alleged was Russian ships conducting mapping that indicated “preparations for possible disruption and, a
In “Occupied City,” a young woman with an even voice narrates Nazi encounters and crimes throughout Amsterdam during World War II.
The Amsterdam appeals court said in a statement Friday that it “attaches considerable weight to the interests of local residents” in the densely populated region where people have complained for years about noise pollution from the airport.
In a written response, Schiphol said it accepted the ruling and hopes for a new aviation traffic order from Dutch authorities “as soon as possible with clear and enforceable environmental limits that provide clarity and perspective for all parties involved.”
The airport said that “the most important thing for us is that Schiphol becomes quieter, cleaner and better.”
KLM said it was “disappointed about the ruling” and studying it.
The carrier said it would “continue to engage with other stakeholders in seeking the best way to reduce the number of people affected by aircraft noise.”
Schiphol already is attempting to address the issue. Earlier this year, the airport announced plans to phase out all flights between midnight and 5 a.m., to ban private jets and the noisiest planes, and to abandon a project for an additional runway.
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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s top diplomat said Friday her country has sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. government expressing concern that Texas’ deployment of floating barriers on the Rio Grande may violate 1944 and 1970 treaties on boundaries and water.
Foreign Relations Secretary Alicia Bárcena said Mexico will send an inspection team to the Rio Grande to see whether any of the barrier extends into Mexico’s side of the border river.
She also complained about U.S. efforts to put up barbed wire on a low-lying island in the river near Eagle Pass, Texas.
Texas has started rolling out what is set to become a new floating barrier on the Rio Grande. The state’s move on Friday is the latest escalation of Republican Gov.
The drug cartel violence that citizen self-defense leader Hipolito Mora gave his life fighting against has flared anew just one day after he was buried.
Bárcena said that if the buoys impede the flow of water, it would violate the treaties, which requires the river remain unobstructed. Mexico has already asked that the barriers be removed.
Texas began rolling out the new floating barrier on the Rio Grande in early July. It is part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s multibillion-dollar effort to secure the U.S. border with Mexico, which already has included busing migrants to liberal states and authorizing the National Guard to make arrests.
Migrant advocates have voiced concerns about drowning risks from the buoys and environmentalists questioned the impact on the river.
Once installed, the above-river parts of the system and the webbing they’re connected with will cover 1,000 feet (305 meter) of the middle of the Rio Grande, with anchors in the riverbed.
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PARIS (AP) — France is staging a seduction campaign for visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, guest of honor at Friday’s annual Bastille Day parade, with the French president calling India a “key” player “in our future.”
France is looking to further strengthen cooperation on an array of topics ranging from climate to military sales and the strategic Indo-Pacific region. But human rights, seen as an increasingly pressing subject for Modi’s India, was missing from the vast agenda.
President Emmanuel Macron praised India in a speech Thursday evening before French defense officials as a “key partner.”
India’s top opposition leader Rahul Gandhi is visiting communities hit by weeks of violence and living in relief camps in a remote northeastern state.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt has bestowed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Egypt’s highest honor as the two nations tightened their partnership.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has kicked off a two-day visit to Egypt in a trip that underscores the growing ties between the two countries.
“It is a giant in the history of the world that will have a determining role in our future,” Macron said, ahead of a dinner with Modi at the Elysee Palace. India “is also a strategic partner and friend.”
Macron, with Modi at his side, will preside over Friday’s grandiose annual military parade to mark France’s national day. Indian troops will march and three French-made Indian Rafale jets will do a fly-by.
As Modi arrived Thursday, India’s Defense Acquisition Council approved the purchase of 26 Rafales for the Indian Navy, an accord in principle announced by the Indian Defense Ministry. The price is to be negotiated with the French, a statement said. The purchase of three Scorpene submarines, developed by France and Spain, was also approved.
Critics have voiced concern about France giving such a perch to Modi. India’s 72-year-old prime minister is widely viewed as increasingly authoritarian and his Hindu nationalist party as divisive. In a report in April, the campaign group Amnesty International said freedom of expression had declined under Modi.
The European Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday for “human rights to be integrated into all areas of the EU-India partnership, including in trade.” The resolution called on member states “to systematically and publicly raise human rights concerns” at the highest level.
Modi’s two-day visit comes as Paris and New Delhi mark the 25th anniversary of their strategic partnership. Crucially, it precedes Macron’s trip this month to the Indo-Pacific region, home to 1.5 million French nationals. Talks with Modi are aimed at ensuring the vast region remains a space where security, notably of the seas, and other key concerns like climate are preserved. Macron called it “an essential strategy for the balance of the planet.”
Modi is being courted by other nations. His two-day visit to France comes on the heels of his June trip to the United States, where President Joe Biden offered Modi a lavish welcome. Modi was recently in Egypt and he is to head to the United Arab Emirates after leaving France.
Ten personalities, including noted economist Thomas Piketty and former French ambassador to Denmark France Zimeray, implored Macron in a commentary Thursday in the newspaper Le Monde to “encourage Prime Minister Modi to end repression of the civil society, assure freedom of major media (outlets) and protect religious liberty.”
Modi, who governs the world’s largest population, rarely talks to the press at home or abroad. But responding to a human rights question at a rare news conference during his Washington trip, he said that “democracy runs in our veins” and insisted that there is ”absolutely no space for discrimination.”
Youcef Bounab in Paris contributed to this report.
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KANO, Nigeria (AP) — The suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria was charged after a month in detention under a court directive Thursday that officials act against the man or let him go, the secret police agency announced.
Godwin Emefiele was charged after being investigated for alleged “criminal infractions,” said Peter Afunanya, spokesman for the secret police, the Department of State Services.
Afunanya’s statement, however, did not specify the charges filed against Emefiele in the capital, Abuja. The police agency had in 2022 accused him of terrorism financing and economic crimes, both of which carry long jail terms.
Authorities in Nigeria say they have activated a national response plan ahead of what’s expected to be another round of deadly floods blamed mainly on climate change and infrastructure problems.
Hundreds of people remain homeless in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja after losing their shanties to government bulldozers.
Nigeria’s removal of a subsidy that helped reduce the price of gasoline has increased costs for people already struggling with high inflation.
Shortly after he took office in June, new President Bola Tinubu directed Emefiele’s suspension, saying the move was related to the investigation of his office as the central bank governor and planned reforms in the financial sector.
Emefiele was then taken into custody and has been detained since, prompting him to sue the secret police recently on the grounds of illegal detention and a breach of his human rights.
While ruling on his application earlier Thursday, a high court in Abuja directed that the former central bank governor either be charged within one week or be released.
“The continued detention of the applicant cannot be justified in the absence of any charge against him. At the very least, justice demands that applicant (Emefiele) should be released on administrative bail,” the local judge said.
It is unclear what the duration of Emefiele’s trial could be though such high-profile trials in Nigeria typically last for several months.
The secret police said it would ensure professionalism, justice and fairness in handling the matter.
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BANGKOK (AP) — A Japanese tourist reaches into a baggie of cannabis he’s just bought in a central Bangkok weed shop, pulling out a gram of buds to chop down in a small black grinder, before rolling them neatly into a joint.
Only the slight spillage onto the smoking lounge’s table — and his cough as he lights up and inhales deeply — betray the fact that until two weeks ago, he’d never tried marijuana.
Most Asian nations have strict drug laws with harsh penalties, and Thailand’s de facto legalization of marijuana last year has brought a wave of tourists from the region like the visitor from Japan, intrigued by the lure of the forbidden leaf.
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“I was curious about how I would feel after smoking,” said the 42-year-old tourist who spoke on condition that his name not be used, for fear his experimentation in Bangkok could lead to legal issues at home.
“I wonder why Japan bans it?” he pondered. “I wanted to try it.”
Even as more countries around the world legalize marijuana, Thailand has been the outlier in Asia, where several countries still have the death penalty for some cannabis offenses. Singapore has already executed two people this year for trafficking marijuana and its Central Narcotics Bureau has announced plans to randomly test people returning from Thailand.
Japan does not have the death penalty for drug offenses, but has warned that its laws on cannabis use may apply to its nationals even when they are abroad.
China’s embassy in Thailand has warned that if Chinese tourists consume marijuana abroad and are “detected upon returning to China, it is considered equivalent to using drugs domestically. As a result, you will be subject to corresponding legal penalties.” It issues similar warnings for travel to other countries where marijuana is readily available, such as the United States, Canada and the Netherlands.
On a recent flight from the Chinese city of Shanghai, passengers were cautioned not to “accidentally” try marijuana in Bangkok, with an announcement that in Thailand “some food and drink can include cannabis, so please pay attention to the leaf logo on the package of food.”
Neither Chinese nor Singaporean authorities would detail how frequently they test citizens returning from countries where marijuana has been decriminalized, responding to queries from the AP simply by reiterating their previously announced policies.
It’s no wonder that weed dispensaries in Bangkok say that customers from Singapore and China are among the most cautious, asking questions about how long traces of the drug remain in the system and whether there are detox products.
But many remain undeterred, and Thailand’s cannabis industry has grown at lightning speed, with weed dispensaries now almost as common as the ubiquitous convenience stores in some parts of the capital. Through February, nearly 6,000 licenses for cannabis-related businesses have been approved, including more than 1,600 in Bangkok alone, according to official figures.
There are no government figures on how many tourists come specifically to smoke marijuana, but Kueakarun Thongwilai, the manager of a weed shop in central Bangkok, estimates at least 70%-80% of his customers are foreigners, primarily from Asian countries like Japan, Malaysia, China and Philippines, and some from Europe.
Most cannabis shops, including his, now only hire employees who speak English, the lingua franca of the industry.
“You don’t need to speak perfect English, but you need to communicate with foreigners,” Thongwilai said.
About half of his customers are first-time weed users and most of them are Asians, he said.
Some want to try edible cannabis products, but Thongwilai said he tries to steer them toward smoking.
“Edibles take more time to take effect, and during that time people may eat more and more, leading to an excessive experience for beginners,” he said.
Not all are new to the drug, said Thongwilai, remembering a Malaysian customer who snuck away from a meal with his wife and daughter at a nearby restaurant. The man said he smoked marijuana secretly at home, but had heard the Thai product was better quality and wanted to try it.
“He bought the cheapest weed in our shop and tried it in a mall, and then he came back and bought more,” Thongwilai recalled.
Not far from Thongwilai’s shop at Dutch Passion, a newly opened retail branch of a Netherlands seed distributor that has been in business for more than three decades, about half the customers are also first-time users, said Theo Geene, a Dutch shareholder in the business.
Cannabis has been available in coffee shops in the Netherlands since the 1970s, and Geene said he has used his experience to train his staff how to serve those unfamiliar with the drug.
“For beginners, it’s not good to use a bong,” he said. “It’s too much for them. We don’t want anyone to pass out here.”
Most customers refused to talk about their experiences, with the Japanese tourist in Geene’s shop the only one who agreed to — and only on the condition his name not be used.
Most of the shop’s Asian customers are similarly discreet, choosing to smoke their purchases inside rather than on the streets like many Westerners do, which is common but a violation of Thai regulations, Geene said.
“They are more cautious and afraid,” he said. “They don’t want to be seen when they smoke weed.”
Before he embarked on his trip to Thailand, the 42-year-old Japanese tourist said he researched extensively online and determined that while customs might randomly check bags and luggage for marijuana being smuggled into Japan, there was no testing going on in line with government policy.
Since his first puff two weeks ago, he said he’s been smoking every day, visiting different shops, comparing prices and trying different strains.
Dispensary staffers taught him how to grind buds and roll a joint and he’s been having fun perfecting the technique.
“I practice it every day,” he said, looking down at the joint he was rolling and repeating the word “practice” twice before bursting into laughter.
AP journalist David Rising contributed to this story.
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VENICE, Italy (AP) — Tourists are waiting more than two hours to visit the Acropolis in Athens. Taxi lines at Rome’s main train station are running just as long. And so many visitors are concentrating around St. Mark’s Square in Venice that crowds get backed up crossing bridges — even on weekdays.
After three years of pandemic limitations, tourism is expected to exceed 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations this summer, from Barcelona and Rome, Athens and Venice to the scenic islands of Santorini in Greece, Capri in Italy and Mallorca in Spain.
While European tourists edged the industry toward recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, boosted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. Many arrive motivated by “revenge tourism” — so eager to explore again that they’re undaunted by higher airfares and hotel costs.
Lauren Gonzalez, 25, landed in Rome this week with four high school and college friends for a 16-day romp through the Italian capital, Florence and the seaside after three years of U.S. vacations. They aren’t concerned about the high prices and the crowds.
“We kind of saved up, and we know this is a trip that is meaningful,” said Gonzalez, who works at a marketing agency. “We are all in our mid-20s. It’s a (moment of) change in our lives. … This is something special. The crowds don’t deter us. We live in Florida. We have all been to Disney World in the heat. We are all good.”
Tourists visit the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Friday, June 30, 2023. Crowds are packing the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Acropolis and other major attractions as tourism exceeds 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations. While European tourists helped the industry on the road to recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, who are lifted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Americans appear equally unperturbed by recent riots in Paris and other French cities. There was a small drop in flight bookings, but it was mainly for domestic travel.
“Some of my friends said, ‘It’s a little crazy there right now,’ but we thought summer is really a good time for us to go, so we’ll just take precautions,” Joanne Titus, a 38-year-old from Maryland, said while strolling the iconic Champs-Elysees shopping boulevard.
The return of mass tourism is a boon to hotels and restaurants, which suffered under COVID-19 restrictions. But there is a downside, too, as pledges to rethink tourism to make it more sustainable have largely gone unheeded.
“The pandemic should have taught us a lesson,” said Alessandra Priante, director of the regional department for Europe at the U.N. World Tourism Organization.
Instead, she said, the mindset “is about recuperating the cash. Everything is about revenue, about the here and now.”
“We have to see what is going to happen in two or three years’ time because the prices at the moment are unsustainable,” she said.
Tourists stabd behind a fence, visit the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, July 4, 2023. Crowds are packing the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Acropolis and other major attractions as tourism exceeds 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations. While European tourists helped the industry on the road to recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, who are lifted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
The mayor of Florence is stopping new short-term apartment rentals from proliferating in the historic center, which is protected as a UNESCO heritage site, as mayors of Italy’s other art cities call for a nationwide law to manage the sector.
Elsewhere, the anti-mass tourism movements that were active before the pandemic have not reappeared, but the battle lines are still being drawn: graffiti misdirected tourists in Barcelona away from — instead of toward — the Gaudi-designed Park Guell.
Despite predictable pockets of overtourism, travel to and within Europe overall is still down 10% from 2019, according to the World Tourism Organization. That is partly due to fewer people visiting countries close to the war in Ukraine, including Lithuania, Finland, Moldova and Poland.
In addition, Chinese visitors have not fully returned, with flights from China and other Asia-Pacific countries down 45% from 2019, according to travel data company ForwardKeys.
Tourism-dependent Greece expects 30 million visitors this year, still shy of 2019’s 34 million record. Still, the number of flights are up so far, and tourist hotspots are taking the brunt.
The Culture Ministry will introduce a new ticketing system for the Acropolis this month, providing hourly slots for visitors to even out crowds. But no remedy is being discussed for the parking line of cruise ships on the islands of Mykonos and Santorini on busy mornings.
Thanassis Stavrakis/AP
Alvaro Barrientos/AP
Spain’s tourism minister, Héctor Gómez, called it “a historic summer for tourism,” with 8.2 million tourists arriving in May alone, breaking records for a second straight month. Still, some hotel groups say reservations slowed in the first weeks of summer, owing to the steep rise in prices for flights and rooms.
Costs are growing as flights from the U.S. to Europe are up 2% from 2019 levels, according to ForwardKeys.
“The rising appetite for long-haul travel from America is the continued result of the ‘revenge travel’ boom caused by the pandemic lockdowns,” said Tim Hentschel, CEO of HotelPlanner, a booking site. “Big cities within these popular European countries are certainly going to be busy during the summer.”
Americans have pushed arrivals in Italian bucket-list destinations like Rome, Florence, Venice and Capri above pre-pandemic levels, according to Italy’s hotel association, Federalberghi.
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They bring a lot of pent-up buying power: U.S. tourists in Italy spent 74% more in tax-free indulgences in the first three months of the year, compared with same period of 2019.
“Then there is the rest of Italy that lives from Italian and European tourism, and at the moment, it is still under 2019 levels,” Federalberghi president Bernabo Bocca said.
He expects it will take another year for an across-the-board recovery. An economic slowdown discouraged German arrivals, while Italians “are less prone to spending this year,” he said.
And wallets will be stretched. Lodging costs in Florence rose 53% over last year, while Venice saw a 25% increase and Rome a 21% hike, according to the Italian consumer group Codacons.
Even gelato will cost a premium 21% over last year, due to higher sugar and milk prices.
Perhaps nothing has encouraged the rise in tourism in key spots more than a surge in short-term apartment rentals. With hotel room numbers constant, Bocca of Federalberghi blames the surge for the huge crowds in Rome, inflating taxi lines and crowding crosswalks so that city buses cannot continue their routes.
Tourists on a boat sail the Seine River in Paris, France, Tuesday, July 4, 2023. Crowds are packing the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Acropolis and other major attractions as tourism exceeds 2019 records in some of Europe’s most popular destinations. While European tourists helped the industry on the road to recovery last year, the upswing this summer is led largely by Americans, who are lifted by a strong dollar and in some cases pandemic savings. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
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In Rome and Florence, “walking down the street, out of every building door, emerges a tourist with a suitcase,” he said.
While Florence’s mayor is limiting the number of short-term rentals in the historic center to 8,000, no action has been taken in Venice. The canal-lined city counts 49,432 residents in its historic center and 49,272 tourist beds, nearly half of those being apartments available for short-term rental.
Inconveniences are “daily,” said Giacomo Salerno, a researcher at Venice’s Ca’ Foscari University focusing on tourism.
It difficult to walk down streets clogged with visitors or take public water buses “saturated with tourists with their suitcases,” he said.
Students cannot find affordable housing because owners prefer to cash in with vacation rentals. The dwindling number of residents means a dearth of services, including a lack of family doctors largely due to the high cost of living, driven up by tourist demand.
Venice has delayed plans to charge day-trippers a tax to enter the city, meant to curb arrivals. But activists like Salerno say that will do little to resolve the issue of a declining population and encroaching tourists, instead cementing Venice’s fate as “an amusement park.”
“It would be like saying the only use for the city is touristic,’’ Salerno said.
AP reporters Aritz Parra in Rome, Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Ciaran Gilles in Madrid, Angela Charlton in Paris and Kelvin Chan in London contributed.
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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A government office in Hungary on Thursday levied a hefty fine against a national bookseller over a LGBTQ+ graphic novel, saying it violated a contentious law that prohibits the depiction of homosexuality to minors.
The bookseller, Lira Konyv, is Hungary’s second-largest bookstore chain. It was fined 12 million forints ($35,930) for placing the popular “Heartstopper” by British author Alice Oseman in its youth literature section, and for failing to place it in closed packaging as required by a 2021 law.
The Budapest Metropolitan Government Office, which issued the consumer protection fine, told state news agency MTI that it had conducted an investigation into the store’s selling of the title.
“The investigation found that the books in question depicted homosexuality, but they were nevertheless placed in the category of children’s books and youth literature, and were not distributed in closed packaging,” the office said.
The fine is based on Hungary’s 2021 “child protection” law, which forbids the display of homosexual content to minors in media, including television, films, advertisements and literature. It also prohibits LGBTQ+ content in school education programs, and forbids the public display of products that depict or promote gender deviating from sex at birth.
Hungary’s government insists that the law, part of a broader statute that also increases criminal penalties for pedophilia and creates a searchable database of sex offenders, is necessary to protect children. But it is seen by critics of the country’s right-wing government as an attempt to stigmatize lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
In April, 15 countries of the European Union backed legal action against the law in the European Court of Justice, and the bloc’s top executive, Ursula von der Leyen, has called it “a disgrace.”
The fine against Lira Konyv comes just two days before the Budapest Pride march, an annual event that draws thousands of LGBTQ+ people and their supporters in Hungary’s capital.
In a statement, the Budapest Metropolitan Government Office said it had ordered Lira Konyv to ensure the lawful distribution of the book, and that it “will always take strict action against companies that do not comply with the law.”
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Helen Mirren, who plays Israel’s first female prime minister in her latest film, says she has been inspired by the widespread protests underway against the country’s current premier, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mirren, who portrays the late Golda Meir during the 1973 war between Israel and a coalition of Arab states in “Golda,” is visiting an Israel similarly beset by crisis as mass demonstrations take place against Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the country’s judicial system.
Mirren told a news conference before the opening of the Jerusalem Film Festival that she is inspired by the protests.
A longtime dispute between Israel and Lebanon over a small border village is beginning to heat up. Israel has been building a wall around a part of Ghajar village that lies inside Lebanon.
A Lebanese security official says an explosion ear Lebanon’s border with Israel lightly wounded three members of the militant Hezbollah group.
Nissim Kahlon has transformed a tiny cave on a Mediterranean beach into an elaborate underground labyrinth.
“I’m personally very moved and excited when you see these huge demonstrations,” she said. “I think it’s a pivotal moment in Israeli history.”
Netanyahu’s coalition government, which took office in December, is the most hard-line ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox in Israel’s 75-year history.
For over six months, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest the proposed judicial overhaul. Netanyahu’s allies say the plan is needed to rein in the powers of an unelected judiciary. His opponents say it is a thinly veiled power grab that will destroy the country’s fragile system of checks and balances.
Mirren contrasted the leadership of Meir — who often served coffee to her military advisers as they convened in her kitchen to discuss strategy — with that of Netanyahu, who has a reputation for being aloof and out of touch with everyday Israelis.
“She had immense power, but she was perfectly happy to toddle around in the kitchen, making everyone coffee and being the grandmother,” Mirren said. “It’s a very different attitude toward power — from the male, Netanyahu type of power to the Golda Meir kitchen power.”
Mirren’s visit also comes at a time when Netanyahu’s government is moving to deepen its hold on the West Bank. His government has approved plans for thousands of homes in West Bank settlements, and tensions with the Palestinians are rising.
Over 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year in the occupied West Bank, and Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis have killed at least 25 people. Israel says most of the Palestinians who were killed were militants, though stone-throwers and people uninvolved in violence have also been among the dead.
Some of Netanyahu’s allies are West Bank settler leaders who have sought to deny the national aspirations of Palestinians, a sentiment which Meir famously expressed in 1969.
“There was no such thing as Palestinians,” Meir said in an interview with the Sunday Times. Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich echoed Meir recently, stating, “there is no such thing as a Palestinian people.”
Lior Ashkenazi, the Israeli actor who plays the head of the Israeli army in the film, said he thought Meir would support efforts to annex the West Bank.
“Even though she was a socialist,” Ashkenazi said, “I think she would definitely support the settlers.”
The film, directed by Guy Nattiv and written by Nicholas Martin, focuses on Meir’s leadership during the 1973 Mideast war, when a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria launched an attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
Under the leadership of Meir and Israeli military officials, Israel emerged victorious from the war, its forces standing within 70 miles (120 kilometers) of the Egyptian capital of Cairo. The war’s outcome laid the groundwork for a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.
But Israel suffered heavy losses during the war, and Meir was criticized for the government’s lack of preparation and refusing to act on intelligence indicating an attack was imminent. Meir resigned the following year, and the national trauma in the wake of the war set off a process that would bring the right-wing Likud party, which Netanyahu currently leads, to power in 1977.
Mirren, a British-born actor, has won both Oscar and Emmy awards for performances ranging from Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen,” and Sofia Tolstoy in “The Last Station.”
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