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Rihanna, Zuckerberg in India for Party Thrown by Asia's Richest Man

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg with his wife Priscilla Chan upon arrival at Jamnagar Airport. Reliance/AFP
Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg with his wife Priscilla Chan upon arrival at Jamnagar Airport. Reliance/AFP
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Rihanna, Zuckerberg in India for Party Thrown by Asia's Richest Man

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg with his wife Priscilla Chan upon arrival at Jamnagar Airport. Reliance/AFP
Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg with his wife Priscilla Chan upon arrival at Jamnagar Airport. Reliance/AFP

Pop star Rihanna and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg were in India Friday for an extravagant party hosted by Asia's richest man, with celebrations expected to include other globally influential figures.
Global tech bosses, industry titans, Bollywood stars, pop icons and politicians are also due for the three-day gala celebrations hosted by billionaire tycoon Mukesh Ambani.
This weekend's party is an elaborate pre-wedding ceremony for younger son Anant and fiancee Radhika Merchant, the daughter of wealthy pharmaceutical moguls.
Photos published by Indian media confirmed the arrival of Rihanna, Zuckerberg and the Facebook founder's wife Priscilla Chan in Ambani's hometown of Jamnagar.
"Umbrella" singer Rihanna, who gave birth to her second child in August, is slated to lead Friday's entertainment in her first public performance since last year's Superbowl, local media reported.
Broadcaster India Today reported that the Barbadian-born musician and women's beauty entrepreneur had been offered up to $9 million to appear at the event.
Ambani, 66, is chairman of oil-to-telecoms giant Reliance Industries and the world's 10th-richest person according to the Forbes billionaires list, worth more than $116 billion.
On Wednesday the family launched a three-day feast for villagers at the Reliance Township in Jamnagar, in India's western state of Gujarat.
The Ambanis are building a Hindu temple complex in the city, the Reliance Foundation said on social media.
Anant, 28, who also serves as a director on the boards of several Reliance-owned firms, is expected to marry Merchant, 29, later this year.
Ambani held the most expensive wedding to date in India for his daughter in 2018, which reportedly cost $100 million and saw US pop megastar Beyonce perform.
US illusionist David Blaine is also expected to be part of the entertainment for guests, who include Microsoft founder Bill Gates and several current and former political leaders.
Also among the invitees is Disney chief Bob Iger, following a deal agreed Wednesday between Reliance Industries and Walt Disney to merge their Indian media businesses.
The merger will create an $8.5 billion entertainment giant in the world's most populous nation and fifth-largest economy.
Other guests invited include Ivanka Trump, daughter of former US president Donald, as well as Sweden's ex-prime minister Carl Bildt, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper and the King of Bhutan.
Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, cricket icons Sachin Tendulkar and M.S. Dhoni, and industry titan Gautam Adani are also invited in a who's-who of India's super-rich elite.
The main celebrations, running until Sunday, will have different themes, events and dress codes -- including a "jungle fever" day with a visit to an animal rescue center run by Ambani, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

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How the World’s Press Rated Paris’s Olympics Opening Ceremony

Former French football player Zinedine Zidane holds the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Former French football player Zinedine Zidane holds the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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How the World’s Press Rated Paris’s Olympics Opening Ceremony

Former French football player Zinedine Zidane holds the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Former French football player Zinedine Zidane holds the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Paris broke with tradition on Friday by turning the Olympic Opening Ceremony into a parade down the River Seine rather than a stadium-based show.

TV viewers around the world were treated to a spectacle performed on bridges, the riverbank and rooftops, culminating with French athletes Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Riner lighting the Olympic cauldron and a performance from Canada's Celine Dion.

However, the 6,000-odd athletes, 3,000 performers, 300,000 spectators and dozens of world leaders had to endure heavy rain for much of the event.

Here's how the world's media judged Paris's ambitious ceremony:

FRANCE

Newspaper Le Monde wrote in a rave review that director Thomas Jolly "succeeded in his challenge of presenting an immersive show in a capital transformed into a gigantic stage".

Right-leaning Le Figaro said the show was "great but some of it was just too much". It said viewers "could have been spared" images including an apparent recreation of the painting of The Last Supper of Jesus and his apostles in front of a fashion show.

UNITED STATES

"Opening Ceremony Misses the Boat" headlined the New York Times's television review.

It wrote that the river parade "turned the ceremony into something bigger, more various and more intermittently entertaining. But it also turned it into something more ordinary — just another bloated made-for-TV spectacle".

The Washington Post was more glowing, noting that the organizer's "bold thinking" brought a shine back to an event that has seen its popularity wane in recent years.

CHINA

China's Xinhua state news agency said the ceremony succeeded in showcasing France.

"There were Can-Can girls, a homage to the reconstruction of Notre Dame and of course the French Revolution, with fireworks, heavy metal and singers who appeared to have lost a battle with the guillotine.

"If there was a downside to the ceremony, it is that any event performed over such a long distance has to struggle with continuity, and the big difference between this ceremony and others is that the parade of athletes was mixed in with the performances."

SOUTH KOREA

South Korean media noted the "impressive" imagination of using the whole city as the backdrop but the event was overshadowed by the country's team being misintroduced as North Korea.

South Korea's CBS radio said while the incident was no doubt an honest mistake, it was disappointing the Paris organizers failed at what should have been a very basic part of the event.

GERMANY

"As beautiful as it was mad," wrote Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine. "France revolutionized the opening ceremony ... by the end even the rain had been defeated."

Tabloid Bild was bowled over by Celine Dion's return to the stage after four years, defying illness to "sing just as in the best of times. She deserves a gold medal for this performance."

BRITAIN

British tabloid The Sun joked "Wet The Games Begin!" on its front page alongside an image of the Eiffel Tower surrounded by laser beams, and described the ceremony as spectacular.

The Daily Mail's headline read "La Farce!", mainly in reference to the train disruption earlier in the day, but the paper also judged Paris's gamble on the weather had "backfired spectacularly".

A writer for the Guardian newspaper described the parade of boats on the Seine as "like watching an endless series of weirdly nationalistic office parties" but concluded Celine Dion had rescued the event with a "jaw dropping" performance.

ITALY

La Gazzetta dello Sport said the ceremony was "something unprecedented, even extraordinary. A great show or a long, tedious work, depending on your point of view and sensibility."

The mainstream Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera likened the show to a contemporary art performance, noting that "some (spectators) were bored, others were amused, many found the spectacle disappointing".

The left-leaning Italian daily La Repubblica said the ceremony overshadowed the athletes.

"A lot of France, a lot of Paris, very little Olympics.... a mirror that the immortal Paris turned on herself and discovered that she was so much, too much and soaking wet".