Russia and the United States will have their own version of the Eurovision contest.
Quote:The Russian president will revive an old Soviet-era songfest called Intervision this month after his country was booted out of the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2022. Taking part in the inaugural event will be a number of authoritarian states with close ties to Russia, including China, Iran, and Belarus - as well as the United States.
In a bid to avoid any embarrassing empty seats at the concert, which will be hosted at the Live Arena in Novoivanovskoye near Moscow, Russian authorities have now put out social media adverts which promise to pay audience members to take part. Officials will carry out strict vetting of attendees to ensure political opponents and Ukrainian sympathisers are barred, anyone wearing yellow and blue clothing will be barred from entry.
Russia - who are widely expected to win - will be represented by pro-war patriotic signer Shaman, real name Yaroslav Dronov, 33. His girlfriend is Kremlin stooge Yekaterina Mizulina, 40, head of Russia’s Safe Internet League.
The 20 countries taking part in Intervision 2025 are Azerbaijan, Belarus, Venezuela, Vietnam, Egypt, India, Kazakhstan, Qatar, China, Colombia, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, the UAE, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, the US, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and South Africa. Ukraine has not been invited.
The United States - whose surprise entry was confirmed in June - will be represented by Brandon Howard, 44, rumoured to be Michael Jackson’s secret lovechild.
Intervision previously ran between 1965 and 1968, and later between 1977 and 1980, as the Warsaw Pact's answer to Eurovision.
In its heyday, its bizarre communist-era voting system involved TV viewers turning their lights on or off to cast votes, with the results measured by electricity consumption.
Before being booted out of the contest following the invasion of Ukraine, Russia participated in Eurovision from 1994 to 2021, winning in 2008 with Dima Bilan's ballad ‘Believe’.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news...i-35833726
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
