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Eurovision Host Austria Backs Israel’s Participation, Aims to Stage Record Event

A view of the main hall of Wiener Stadthalle the venue of next year's Eurovision Song Contest, in Vienna, Austria, November 18, 2025. (Reuters)
A view of the main hall of Wiener Stadthalle the venue of next year's Eurovision Song Contest, in Vienna, Austria, November 18, 2025. (Reuters)
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Eurovision Host Austria Backs Israel’s Participation, Aims to Stage Record Event

A view of the main hall of Wiener Stadthalle the venue of next year's Eurovision Song Contest, in Vienna, Austria, November 18, 2025. (Reuters)
A view of the main hall of Wiener Stadthalle the venue of next year's Eurovision Song Contest, in Vienna, Austria, November 18, 2025. (Reuters)

Austrian national broadcaster ORF, which will host next year's Eurovision Song Contest, said it wants Israel to take part despite several countries' objections and hopes it can host the biggest event in years despite boycott threats.

Eurovision, an annual feast of pop music and high camp from around Europe and as far afield as Australia, became embroiled in a dispute over the war in Gaza in 2025 and 2024 and was hit by street protests over Israel's participation.

The national broadcasters of five countries - the Netherlands, Slovenia, Iceland, Ireland and Spain - have called for Israel to be excluded from the contest over the number of civilians killed during Israel's war against Hamas.

Those broadcasters have said they will boycott the 70th song contest in Vienna or consider not taking part if Israel does.

"Now is the time for diplomacy," ORF Director General Roland Weissmann told a press conference when asked about talks ahead of next month's annual meeting of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), at which the issue will be discussed and potentially voted on.

The EBU is an alliance of public broadcasters that organizes and co-produces the annual event.

"We have used the time wisely, we have held diplomatic talks behind the scenes, and I am very, very optimistic that we will have a record number of participating broadcasters," he added.

Austria and Germany are among Israel's staunchest allies in the European Union, on account of their historical atonement for the Nazi Holocaust. They hope a US-brokered ceasefire that took effect in Gaza on October 10 will soften opposition to Israel taking part.

Hamas-led fighters took 251 hostages during the October 7 attacks on southern Israel and killed another 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed nearly 69,000 Palestinians, health officials in the enclave say.

Three countries' broadcasters are likely to rejoin the song contest next year, organizers said: Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova. They withdrew over costs. Canada has also been reportedly considering joining, which would make it the Americas' first participant.

Asked if Canada should join, Weissmann said: "Hurrah, hurrah, Canada! Yes, of course. Everyone is welcome. We are happy to host the world."

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Entertainment

'Fired and Festive': 'Late Show' Host Stephen Colbert Bows Out

CBS has said its decision to cancel "The Late Show," hosted by Stephen Colbert, was purely financial. Rich Fury / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
CBS has said its decision to cancel "The Late Show," hosted by Stephen Colbert, was purely financial. Rich Fury / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
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'Fired and Festive': 'Late Show' Host Stephen Colbert Bows Out

CBS has said its decision to cancel "The Late Show," hosted by Stephen Colbert, was purely financial. Rich Fury / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
CBS has said its decision to cancel "The Late Show," hosted by Stephen Colbert, was purely financial. Rich Fury / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

"The Late Show" frontman Stephen Colbert will host the final edition of the 33-year-old US cultural institution on Thursday night, after it was cancelled by CBS as the network courted President Donald Trump.

The show, which Colbert has hosted since 2015, was axed after he mocked the broadcaster for a $16 million settlement with Trump for allegedly "maliciously" editing an interview with his Democratic election rival Kamala Harris.

Colbert called it a "big fat bribe."

CBS has insisted the decision to cancel "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," the ratings leader in the time slot, was purely financial -- and that it was a coincidence the move came as CBS parent company Paramount lobbied for government approval of its $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media.

Around that time CBS brought in Bari Weiss, a right-wing journalist without significant TV experience, to run its news division, AFP reported.

In the weeks leading to Thursday's curtain call, 62-year-old Colbert has at times cut a subdued figure, lacking some of his usual cheerful flair.

"Sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense you might be losing it," Colbert said while accepting an Emmy award last year.

Colbert was clearly moved when he was joined in his studio by fellow late night hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver, who paid tribute in the penultimate week.

Kimmel was briefly taken off the air in September 2025 by his network ABC after complaints about a remark he made over the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Trump has repeatedly attacked media and press freedom since returning to office, using lawsuits and regulatory threats to retaliate for unflattering news coverage and jokes.

The US president has long been a fierce critic of late-night talk show hosts and their jabs at him. Trump has called Colbert a "pathetic trainwreck" who should be "put to sleep."

One late night host who did not join the gathering of funnymen who pillory the US president night after night was Greg Gutfeld, host of "Gutfeld!" on Fox News -- the network popular with conservatives.

Asked in November about both the cancellation and Kimmel's suspension, Gutfeld said, "Why did it take so long?"

- 'Can't take a man's voice' -

Colbert made his name playing a fictitious version of himself, embodying the type of conservative blowhard beloved by Fox News viewers -- and derided by the left.

He first played the sharp-suited but dim-witted character on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" before getting a spin-off, "The Colbert Report."

Colbert ascended to the pinnacle of US late-night TV when he was named host of the CBS flagship, shedding the character and employing his own voice.

In the weeks leading to Thursday, Colbert auctioned off a raft of props and costumes featured on the show, as well as pieces of set including a giant illuminated sign. Proceeds will go to World Central Kitchen.

Colbert has been coy about his next steps but announced he will be a writer on a forthcoming "Lord of the Rings" movie -- as well as lying down and taking a breather.

Details of the last broadcast were scant, with show insiders tight-lipped when contacted by AFP.

One guest has eluded Colbert: the pope. The host, a devout Catholic, has called the pontiff his "white whale."

While an impromptu trip to New York seems unlikely, Pope Leo XIV's public schedule is clear on May 21.

Colbert's fellow late-night hosts were all due to air re-runs Thursday out of respect for Colbert's swansong.

And the theme of the after-party? "Fired and festive!"

Ahead of the final show, Colbert brought back former "Late Show" host David Letterman who steered the ship from 1993 until 2015.

The pair ascended to the roof of the show's Ed Sullivan Theater to throw furniture at a giant logo of CBS, describing it as "wanton destruction of CBS property."

"You can take a man's show," said Letterman. "You can't take a man's voice."

Entertainment

Havana-born Star Andy Garcia Says Cubans Dream of Change

US actor Andy Garcia poses during a photocall of the film "Diamond" at the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France on May 20, 2026. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)
US actor Andy Garcia poses during a photocall of the film "Diamond" at the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France on May 20, 2026. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)
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Havana-born Star Andy Garcia Says Cubans Dream of Change

US actor Andy Garcia poses during a photocall of the film "Diamond" at the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France on May 20, 2026. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)
US actor Andy Garcia poses during a photocall of the film "Diamond" at the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France on May 20, 2026. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)

Havana-born Hollywood star Andy Garcia told AFP that the overwhelming majority of Cubans would support an intervention to overthrow their government as he presented his directorial debut at the Cannes Film Festival.

The star of films "The Godfather Part III" and "Ocean's Eleven" said he still woke up every morning dreaming of a Cuba "free from repression" after 67 years of communist rule on the island.

"Nobody wants war, but absolute repression and suffering of the people in that country is not the alternative, that's not something to embrace," he said during an interview on Tuesday to promote his film noir "Diamond" which features an A-list cast.

"If you were to ask the Cuban people, not the Cuban government... would they want us (the United States), France, anybody, to intervene and save them? You would get a unanimous 90 percent people saying, 'Please come and invade our country and get rid of these people'," Garcia said.

US President Donald Trump has imposed an oil blockade on Cuba, aggravating the impoverished island's worst economic and energy crisis in decades, while making repeated threats that the US might forcibly topple the government.

In Cuba, young people have told AFP privately they favor a US intervention, seeing it as the only chance to transform the island's fortunes, despite fears it would lead to bloodshed.

But older Cubans tend to reject the threats, pointing to over six decades of tensions between Havana and Washington that never bubbled over into open conflict, despite coming perilously close to a nuclear confrontation in 1962.

Garcia, 70, left Cuba as a child and his film "Diamond" serves as a sort of "love letter" to his adopted hometown Los Angeles where he has lived for most of his life.

His first turn behind the camera is a project 20 years in the making, based on an idea which started out as a homework project for his daughter.

It grew into a film about fedora-wearing and hard-drinking private detective Joe Diamond who is stuck in the past while trying to crack a case about a billionaire's death in contemporary Los Angeles.

Garcia's actor friends Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman agreed to play roles as a barman and coroner, while the rest of the cast includes "The Whale" star Brendan Fraser as a detective, with Rosemarie DeWitt and Vicky Krieps the female leads.

Garcia said he had learned from many industry legends over his career, including "The Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola who handed him his first major break in a once-stellar career that has stalled in recent decades.

"I always wanted to make movies, not just be in them," Garcia told AFP.

Reviews were mostly positive about his first effort, with Deadline calling it a "wonderfully atmospheric, nostalgic and entertaining contemporary noir". The Wrap said "at times it betrays its amateur beginnings with clunky plotting."

Entertainment

‘The Four Seasons’ Star Tina Fey Says Old Friends Are Gold

Cast members Tina Fey and Will Forte attend a premiere for season 2 of the television series "The Four Seasons" at the Egyptian Theatre Hollywood in Los Angeles, California, US, May 19, 2026. (Reuters)
Cast members Tina Fey and Will Forte attend a premiere for season 2 of the television series "The Four Seasons" at the Egyptian Theatre Hollywood in Los Angeles, California, US, May 19, 2026. (Reuters)
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‘The Four Seasons’ Star Tina Fey Says Old Friends Are Gold

Cast members Tina Fey and Will Forte attend a premiere for season 2 of the television series "The Four Seasons" at the Egyptian Theatre Hollywood in Los Angeles, California, US, May 19, 2026. (Reuters)
Cast members Tina Fey and Will Forte attend a premiere for season 2 of the television series "The Four Seasons" at the Egyptian Theatre Hollywood in Los Angeles, California, US, May 19, 2026. (Reuters)

American actress Tina Fey hopes the latest installment of Netflix comedy "The Four Seasons" will inspire viewers to pick up the phone and check in with old friends.

"Lifelong friendships are what really hold it together," Fey told AFP at a premier for the new season, which drops on May 28.

"It's great to be married but you also meet your friends to keep the married people safe," she said from the red carpet at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre.

"The Four Seasons," which first premiered a year ago, is based on the Alan Alda film of the same name that follows a group of friends as they navigate life's challenges.

The new season will take the group -- played by Fey, Colman Domingo, Will Forte, Marco Calvani, Kerri Kenney-Silver and Erika Henningsen -- on an adventure through Italy as they deal with the death of their friend Nick (Steve Carell).

The group's on-screen connection extends to the real world, cast members said.

"We are friends in real life as well... I think you feel that, I think it comes off the screen," Kenney-Silver said, adding that "the universal story of friendship" is key to the show's success.

While the show sees the friends -- who stay in touch via group chat even when they are not filming -- face the challenges of adulthood, they believe it has the potential to attract a multigenerational audience.

"We're a bunch of oldies, but everyone gets stressed, everyone suffers loss and gets sad, everyone's happy, everyone has people in their life they love and people who annoy them," Forte said.

"So, you know, it's all relatable stuff."

"Even if you're not the age we are, we're like a museum piece," the actor added. "Check out these old artifacts, learn something."