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House prices: Is UK property market about to crash? Latest data shows 'volatility'



IT WAS the inevitability that we were merely waiting to have confirmed. Latest data released this morning by mortgage lender Halifax indeed confirms that house prices cooled in April, as one would expect given the economic impacts of the current health crisis.




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Royal Caribbean makes changes to instil customer confidence and reduce financial losses



ROYAL CARIBBEAN has made further changes to their policy in a bid to instil confidence in customers and reduce the risk of financial losses for customers.




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Coronavirus won’t change us. We still stand out from the crowds, says VANESSA FELTZ



WE ARE astounding, we human beings. There's a global pandemic. We have no idea when we'll see, let alone hug, the people we love most in the world.




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Why must we still shame our heroes, says NICK FERRARI



HE'D BEEN a military hero. Serving with the 1st battalion of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, he'd survived being blown up at least once by the IRA and also served in Iraq.




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Letters: Be kind to those still working during the coronavirus crisis

I want to publicly thank all the other workers who continue to make life tolerable for those of us who are stuck at home, a letter to the editor says.

      




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Without fans, Butler will try to end Big East futility against nemesis Providence

Providence has dominated the series with Butler,12-4

      




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Even after some misses, Butler still taking swings at transfer shooters

The Bulldogs missed out Saturday on a couple of transfers: Louisiana-Monroe's Michael Ertel to UAB and Santa Clara's Trey Wertz to Notre Dame.

       




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Indiana storm damage: Poles down in Hamilton County as thousands still without electricity

Thousands remain without power after severe storms moved through Hamilton County. Westfield reported several transmission poles were down in the area.

       




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Columnist Matt Tully on leave until next year

Tully plans to return to work in early 2018.

      




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IHSAA basketball: Plainfield spoils Greenwood party as Mid-State title still up for grabs

Plainfield picked up a 59-42 win over Greenwoon on Friday night, and still has eyes on Mid-State title.

      




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All Indiana schools will remain closed until May 1, state testing canceled

Gov. Eric Holcomb announced new steps to combat the spread of the coronavirus Thursday, including the prolonged closure of schools.

      




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Schools are closed in Indiana until at least May 1. What parents need to know.

Gov. Eric Holcomb announced that all Indiana schools are closed until May 1, possibly beyond that.

      




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'Coronavírus pode acabar com minha oportunidade de ser mãe': mulheres sofrem com suspensão de tratamento de fertilidade

Casais com problemas de fertilidade que estavam passando por processo de fertilização in vitro no Brasil temem perder chance de ter filhos por causa da pandemia.




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Mike Pence to visit Indiana GM plant now making ventilators to fight the coronavirus

Vice President Mike Pence will visit Indiana next week to spotlight an automotive plant making ventilators to fight the COVID 19 pandemic.

       




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Biden campaign calls Pence visit to Indiana ventilator factory an undeserved victory lap

Mike Pence will visit Kokomo Thursday to highlight the administration's response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

       




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Insider: Colts improve roster in free agency, draft but are there still holes?

"Every team in this league has holes."

       




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Colts still waiting on Adam Vinatieri's rehab, even though he'd like to kick again

No final decision has been made by the Colts, but Indianapolis does have two young kickers on the roster in Chase McLaughlin and Rodrigo Blankenship.

       




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Trump assails GM, putting in question plan to have Indiana plant build ventilators

General Motors has partnered with Ventec Life Systems to rapidly boost the production of ventilators. It is considering GM's plant in Kokomo, Indiana.

      




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'They still want you to come in': Some workers, businesses disagree on what's 'essential'

Some employees disagree with employers who say their businesses are essential. Experts say the definition's gray area makes it hard for workers.

      




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NBA suspends season until further notice due to coronavirus

According to the news release, the NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic.

      




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Portillo's makes its Hendricks County debut as Avon location opens

Italian beef and Chicago-style hot dogs are now being sold near Ronald Reagan Parkway and U.S. 36.

      




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After opening week setback, Carmel out to prove it's still a title contender

The Greyhounds were run off the field by Louisville Trinity in a 41-14 opening week loss. Since then, Carmel is 2-0 and outscored opponents 57-14.

      




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Its old town charm is still evident, but Bargersville will be expanding along with I-69

Town leaders and residents prepare for what's to come as the interstate replaces Ind. 37 as the direct route from Martinsville to Indianapolis.

      




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Even after some misses, Butler still taking swings at transfer shooters

The Bulldogs missed out Saturday on a couple of transfers: Louisiana-Monroe's Michael Ertel to UAB and Santa Clara's Trey Wertz to Notre Dame.

       




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Peek inside Sun King Distillery, now open in Carmel

      




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Look inside craft distilleries around Indiana

      




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Sun King Distillery in Carmel: What to know before you go

How to maneuver Sun King's food hall maze of bars, dining areas and distillery operations.

      




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Portillo's brings back its luscious lemon cake for limited time

Indy residents just getting acquainted with Portillo's Chicago-style hotdogs will get to try another new delicacy starting Tuesday: lemon cake

      




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Portillo's opens on Indianapolis' south side

The Greenwood Portillo's will have 2 drive-thru lanes and serve beer.

       




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Coronavirus: Dutch sporting events without fans until there is vaccine

Sporting events in the Netherlands will have to take place without fans until there is a coronavirus vaccine, Dutch Health Minister Hugo de Jonge says.




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Brandon Routh thought his Superman days were over. Until he got a phone call.

Routh's return as Superman was as healing as it was unexpected: "It was almost more special than the first time."




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Don’t like ‘The Rise of Skywalker’? ‘The Mandalorian’ shows the Force is still strong with Star Wars.

The brand will live on, thanks to Jon Favreau and Baby Yoda.




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He endured 20 surgeries after the Charlie Hebdo shooting — and is still trying to reckon with his survival

“I can’t go back,” says Philippe Lançon, who wrote a memoir about his recovery from the massacre.




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Fan conventions are being postponed amid covid-19 concerns — but Comic-Con is still a go

Big fan-culture events in Florida and California have just been postponed. May's Awesome Con D.C. takes a wait-and-see approach.




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‘Resident Evil 3’: Great graphics and good level design, but it’s still the zombie apocalypse

The true star of “Resident Evil 3” is its supurb graphics engine.




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Alabama is still more likely to lose the national title than win it

People are talking about some College Football Playoff scenarios as though they're certainties. That needs to stop. As good as the Tide are, the odds are still not in their favor. (Yet.)




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These 19 enterprise tech companies are still hiring during the coronavirus crisis — including AWS, Slack, Box, and Okta

  • Business Insider surveyed enterprise technology companies to determine who's still hiring amid the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Companies like Amazon Web Services, Slack, Okta, Box, and Zoom are actively hiring, while others like Microsoft, Google, and SAP have slowed hiring to prioritize recruiting in key areas.
  • Below is a list of 19 enterprise tech companies that are hiring, and the types of roles they are trying to fill.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As companies across industries slow or stop hiring amid the public health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus, Business Insider surveyed enterprise technology companies to find out who is still hiring, and the types of roles they're trying to fill.

The results include companies actively hiring — such as Amazon Web Services, Slack, Okta, Box, and Zoom — while others like Microsoft, Google, and SAP have slowed hiring to prioritize recruiting in key areas.

Responses come directly from companies, but be aware that hiring alone may not paint a complete picture of what's going on at each one. VMware, for example, told Business Insider that it's hiring, particularly in a few key areas related to its cloud business — but also told employees in an internal memo that it was freezing all salaries.

Oracle, Nvidia, and Palo Alto Networks declined to comment on whether they are still hiring. Workday, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Stripe, Qualcomm and HP did not reply to requests for more information.

Here are 19 enterprise companies still hiring in some form amid the pandemic, and what they're looking for:

Amazon Web Services is actively hiring, with no hiring freezes in place, the company says. Amazon at large has more than 20,000 job postings in US corporate roles.

 

 

 



Slack is "actively hiring," in a range of positions including engineers, data scientists, designers and customer experience experts, a spokesperson told Business Insider.

The company has moved to a virtual hiring process – all interviews are conducted over video and onboarding happens remotely.

Slack has 213 open positions listed on its website at the time of this writing.



Box is "currently hiring," a spokesperson said, across roles in engineering, sales, marketing, customer success, finance, compliance, business operations, product and product design.

Box's website listed 76 open jobs at the time of this writing.

In additional to moving interviews online, the company has introduced new practices like virtual coffee chats with candidates and videos from employees to learn more about Box's culture. For new hires, the company has switched start dates to once per month and started a buddy system to help with onboarding.

 



Zoom is hiring across the US and internationally for positions including in sales, engineering, legal, and security.

"We did have an extremely ambitious hiring goal already for this year," Lynne Oldham, Zoom's chief people officer, recently told Business Insider. "So where we're seeing additional need is around the places that we touch the customer."

The company had 81 open positions listed on its website as of this writing.



DocuSign "has moved forward with its hiring as previously planned," a spokesperson said, and is hiring in roles across customer services, sales and business development, engineering and IT, marketing, finance, legal, and workplace teams.

The company is also continuing its internship program virtually and plans to bring on more than 100 interns this summer.

DocuSign had 338 positions listed on its careers website as of this writing.



Dell-owned VMware is still hiring, a spokesperson said, and has "hundreds of open roles across R&D, IT, sales, customer services and support, marketing, finance, HR, legal, and business administration."

But the company is also freezing salaries and suspending retirement matching, according to a memo obtained by Business Insider. A spokesperson confirmed that "there have been a number of cost management changes impacting the VMware workforce."

VMware interviews take place virtually.



Microsoft has frozen hiring for some roles, citing uncertainty related to the coronavirus crisis.

"We continue to seek industry-leading talent in a range of disciplines as we continue to invest in certain strategic areas," a Microsoft spokesperson told Business Insider last month. "However, in light of the uncertainties presented by COVID-19, we are temporarily pausing recruitment for other roles."

Microsoft declined to provide more information about for which positions it's still hiring, and which roles are seeing a pause in hiring.

Microsoft's subsidiaries include LinkedIn and GitHub.



German software giant SAP is still hiring in essential areas, but has pledged to reduce hiring and discretionary spending as "precautionary measures" during the pandemic.

The company "will continue to hire carefully selected people into roles that will rapidly contribute to our competitive edge,"a spokesperson said, which it said include in "essential areas" such as innovation, and research and development. 

SAP said its candidate selection has remained the same, but the interviews are conducted virtually. New hires are onboarded virtually and sent SAP-issued equipment to their private addresses so they don't have to go to the office.



Google is slowing down hiring for the remainder of the year, CEO Sundar Pichai told the company in an email seen by Business insider.

Pichai said the company is enacting a hiring freeze on all but a select few "strategic areas" for the remainder of 2020. He wrote in the email that the company needed to "carefully prioritize" recruiting employees to serve its "greatest user and business needs."



Dell Technologies is not "hiring broadly," but subsidiary companies like VMware and Secureworks still are, a Dell spokesperson told Business Insider.

Dell Technologies is still continuing its early-in-career programs and summer internships, although they've become remote. 

"We are constantly evolving our hiring strategy based on business needs," the spokesperson said.



Okta is still actively hiring, Okta's chief people officer Kristina Johnson confirmed to Business Insider.

"We're continuously evaluating what we need as a business during this time, listening to customers, and tailoring our hiring plans to meet those needs," Johnson said. "Okta is in a unique position during this uncertain time in that we had the right infrastructure in place from the get-go to make remote work and remote on-boarding fairly routine."

Okta's main hiring focus areas are in customer service, engineering, and sales, Johnson said. 



Dropbox has temporarily halted its recruiting efforts to figure out the process for onboarding people remotely.

"What we actually ended up doing was we took a pause to just take stock of our onboarding and our approach to onboarding because we wanted to make sure that we weren't bringing people on and that they actually weren't effectively able to onboard," Dropbox COO Olivia Nottebohm told Business Insider.

It's still hiring but has slowed down, only hiring for targeted roles, meaning it's up to managers to hire for key, business critical roles.

"We're trying to just be prudent and nd not get ahead of ourselves given the macro environment that we're in, but we are moving forward to hiring targeted roles," Nottebohm said.

While Dropbox plans to honor pending offers and ongoing interview processes, interviews for new applicants have been put on hold. The college internship program will also take place in the summer remotely.

"Fully remote recruiting and onboarding into a new company comes with unique challenges — bringing new hires into Dropbox takes a great deal of collaboration between many teams, including hiring managers, learning and development, IT, benefits, and recruiting," a Dropbox spokesperson told Business Insider.  

"In order to ensure we're onboarding new hires effectively and managing the strain on these teams during the shelter-in-place orders in effect across the globe, we've paused recruiting efforts temporarily," the spokesperson added.  



In April, ServiceNow promised not to lay off any of its 11,000 employees and also said it plans to keep hiring worldwide this year.

"With this new no layoffs pledge for its 11,000-plus global workforce, ServiceNow continues to take a leading role in how technology companies are responding to this health crisis by helping its own employees and customers get through these challenging and uncertain times," Shane Driggers, vice president of Global Talent Acquisition at ServiceNow, said in a statement to Business Insider.

The company expects to create and fill more than 1,000 new jobs in the US and more worldwide by the end of the year, Driggers says.

"We are leaning into hiring for engineering and sales roles as well as other functions across the business," Driggers said.



Splunk is still hiring for a number of positions across the organization, a spokesperson told Business Insider. Open roles include positions in engineering, sales, finance, accounting, and information technology.



Square is still hiring and focusing on roles like software engineering, data science, product design, sales, marketing, operations, and finance, a spokesperson told Business Insider.

"We are continuing to hire in the US and internationally, focusing on roles that we believe will be the most important to our customers and our business in the coming months," a Square spokesperson said. 

Currently, Square has over 100 open roles. 



Twilio is still hiring across the board and not slowing down, a company spokesperson told Business Insider. There are still open roles in engineering, services, sales, product, and more.



Intel has slowed down external hiring, a spokesperson said. "We have slowed external hiring, but we currently have approximately 1000 open positions that we are actively hiring for."

 

 



Atlassian is still hiring across the board, a spokesperson confirmed. This past March was its strongest month of hiring in its history, the company said, as it brought on about 200 new hires. At the end of March, Atlassian had 4,457 employees.



Zendesk is still hiring roles that are "key to our business," but "deprioritizing" the ones that are not as critical.

Zendesk is still hiring roles that are "key to our business," but "deprioritizing" the ones that are not as critical, a Zendesk spokesperson said.

"In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Zendesk has been focused on helping our employees, customers, and community at large navigate their immediate needs and plan for the future in this new world," the spokesperson told Business Insider.

The spokesperson said that Zendesk is continuously looking at how to manage its operations to become more efficient and productive, while minimizing disruption to customers. 

"This is standard for all businesses that are looking at their immediate and long-term strategies in order to position themselves for growth," the spokesperson said. "We believe in the strength of our business and our employees, and the resiliency of our customer base, and are in a good position to weather this crisis and emerge as a better, stronger company."






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Wolf Blitzer, Kellyanne Conway and members of Congress celebrate Bastille Day at the French ambassador’s house

Despite the potential of, um, awkwardness among the diplomatic core and official Washington, elbows were ripe for rubbing at the French ambassador’s residence.




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Alex Acosta gave a pass to Epstein years ago. He’s still at it as labor secretary.

His department has ignored visas for trafficking victims.




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Ending the TOC Conference, But Still Pushing Tools of Change for Publishing

O’Reilly has been publishing books since 1986, but I’ve often said that we consider ourselves more of a technology transfer company than a typical publisher. Twenty years after our first book, Unix in a Nutshell, we realized that the insights …




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How to Use Tile Window Multitasking in MacOS Catalina

MacOS Catalina introduced a handy way to tile windows for multitasking, improving upon the split screen multitasking features that were available in previous MacOS releases. These new simple tiling window multitasking options are available from any window, and now you can easily choose to tile a window to the left or right side of the ... Read More




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oscon: There's still time left to apply for #OSCON scholarships from @github + @newrelic. Deadline is 6/15 http://t.co/xQwx30jnaN

oscon: There's still time left to apply for #OSCON scholarships from @github + @newrelic. Deadline is 6/15 http://t.co/xQwx30jnaN




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AT#386 - Travel to the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean

Hear about travel to the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean as the Amateur Traveler  talks again to Gary Arndt of Everything-Everyhwere.com. Gary just finished an island hopping tour that took him to most of the islands in the Caribbean. We will cover the islands of St. Martin, Anguilla, Saba, St. Barts, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Barbuda, and Montserrat on this episode.




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AT#402- Travel to the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean

Hear about travel to the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean as the Amateur Traveler talks to Gary Arndt about his journey to visit many of the islands in the Caribbean on a single trip. In this episode we talk about Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados, and Trinidad. This episode is a continuation of episode 386 which talked about the Leeward Islands.




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How To Be Efficient As a Busy Mom And Still Chase Your Dreams

Haven’t we all been there? Going from being frazzled and all over the place to being efficient and feeling like a super-woman, then back down again? I’ve been through my fair share of daily vicissitudes that have left me in shambles plenty of times. Being a mom of two kids or having a professional career […]

The post How To Be Efficient As a Busy Mom And Still Chase Your Dreams appeared first on Dumb Little Man.




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77-Yr-Old MI Barber Defies Gov Whitmer’s Shutdown Order: ”I don’t need another mother” Shop Will Stay Open Until “Jesus walks in or until they arrest me” [VIDEO]

The following article, 77-Yr-Old MI Barber Defies Gov Whitmer’s Shutdown Order: ”I don’t need another mother” Shop Will Stay Open Until “Jesus walks in or until they arrest me” [VIDEO], was first published on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Emergency orders that “non-essential businesses” remain closed during the Covid-19 crisis have devastated small business owners across America. A wave of business owners across the nation are defying executive orders by their governors and opening their businesses anyhow. Yesterday, we reported about a small business owner in the state of Michigan, where Governor Gretchen Whitmer […]

Continue reading: 77-Yr-Old MI Barber Defies Gov Whitmer’s Shutdown Order: ”I don’t need another mother” Shop Will Stay Open Until “Jesus walks in or until they arrest me” [VIDEO] ...




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Webinar: Can the Justice and Development Party Still Absorb Popular Anger in Morocco?

Webinar Research Event

8 April 2020 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm

Event participants

Mohammed Masbah, Director, Moroccan Institute for Policy Analysis; Associate Fellow, MENA Programme, Chatham House
Moderator: Lina Khatib, Director, MENA Programme, Chatham House

Ever since independence, the Moroccan monarchy has used political parties to legitimize the country’s authoritarian political process and structure, and to absorb social and political anger. The palace puts successive governments and other elected institutions, such as local and regional councils, at the frontline of public blame, and replaces them once they fail this function.

In a recent article, MENA Programme Associate Fellow, Mohammed Masbah, examines how the Moroccan monarchy has used this strategy with the ruling Justice and Development Party (PJD) so that the palace remains the centre of political power, while the PJD – and other political parties before it– takes responsibility for coping with the mounting socio-economic crisis.

In this webinar, part of the Chatham House project on The Future of the State in the Middle East and North Africa, the article’s author will discuss the risks this approach presents for the long-term stability of Morocco and what reforms are needed to increase citizens’ dwindling confidence in the political process.

You can express your interest in attending by following this link. You will receive a Zoom confirmation email should your registration be successful.




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The NHS Is Not for Sale – But a US–UK Trade Deal Could Still Have an Impact

29 November 2019

Dr Charles Clift

Senior Consulting Fellow, Global Health Programme
Charles Clift examines what recently leaked documents mean – and do not mean – for healthcare in transatlantic trade negotiations.

2019-11-29-NHS.jpg

Kings College Hospital in London. Photo: Getty Images.

The leaked record of the five meetings of the UK–US Trade & Investment Working Group held in 2017–18 has led to a controversy in the UK election campaign around the claim that ‘the NHS is up for sale’.

But a careful reading of the leaked documents reveals how remarkably little concerns the NHS – in five meetings over 16 months, the NHS is mentioned just four times. The patent regime and how it affects medicines is discussed in more depth but largely in terms of the participants trying to understand each other’s systems and perspectives. For the most part, the discussions were overwhelmingly about everything else a trade deal would cover other than healthcare – matters such as subsidies, rules of origin and customs facilitation.

But this does not mean there will be no impact on Britain’s health service. There are three main concerns about the possible implications of a US–UK trade deal after Brexit – a negotiation that will of course only take place if the UK remains outside the EU customs union and single market and also does not reach a trade agreement with the EU that proves incompatible with US negotiating objectives.

One concern is that the US aim of securing ‘full market access for US products’, expressed in the US negotiating objectives, will affect the ability of NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) to prevent the NHS from procuring products that are deemed too expensive in relation to their benefits. It could also affect the ability of the NHS to negotiate with companies to secure price reductions as, for instance, happened recently with Orkambi, a cystic fibrosis drug.

A peculiarity of the main US government healthcare programme (Medicare) is that it has historically not negotiated drug prices, although there are several bills now before Congress aiming to change that. US refusal to negotiate or control prices is one reason that US drug prices are the highest in the world.  

A second concern is that the US objective of securing ‘intellectual property rights that reflect a standard of protection similar to that found in US law’ will result in longer patent terms and other forms of exclusivity that will increase the prices the NHS will have to pay for drugs.

However, it is not immediately apparent that UK standards are significantly different from those in the US – the institutional arrangements differ but the levels of protection offered are broadly comparable. Recent publicity about a potential extra NHS medicine bill of £27 billion resulting from a trade deal is based on the NHS having to pay US prices on all drugs – which seems an unlikely outcome unless the UK contingent are extraordinarily bad negotiators.

Nevertheless, in an analysis section (marked for internal distribution only), the UK lead negotiator noted: ‘The impact of some patent issues raised on NHS access to generic drugs (i.e. cheaper drugs) will be a key consideration going forward.’

A third concern is that the US objective of providing ‘fair and open conditions for services trade’ and other US negotiating objectives will oblige the UK to open up the NHS to American healthcare companies.

This is where it gets complicated. At one point in a discussion on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) the US asked if the UK had concerns about their ‘health insurance system’ (presumably a reference to the NHS). The UK response was that it ‘wouldn’t want to discuss particular health care entities at this time, you’ll be aware of certain statements saying we need to protect our needs; this would be something to discuss further down the line…’

On this exchange the UK lead negotiator commented:  ‘We do not currently believe the US has a major offensive interest in this space – not through the SOE chapter at least. Our response dealt with this for now, but we will need to be able to go into more detail about the functioning of the NHS and our views on whether or not it is engaged in commercial activities…’

On the face of it, these documents provide no basis for saying the NHS would be for sale – whatever that means exactly. The talks were simply an exploratory investigation between officials on both sides in advance of possible negotiations.

But it is a fact that US positions in free trade agreements are heavily influenced by corporate interests. Their participation in framing agreements is institutionalized in the US system and the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries in the US spend, by a large margin, more on lobbying the government than any other sector does. Moreover, President Donald Trump has long complained about ‘the global freeloading that forces American consumers to subsidize lower prices in foreign countries through higher prices in our country’.

It is when (and if) the actual negotiations on a trade deal get under way that the real test will come as the political profile and temperature is raised on both sides of the Atlantic.




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A Versatile Nanotrap for Biochemical and Functional Studies with Fluorescent Fusion Proteins

Ulrich Rothbauer
Feb 1, 2008; 7:282-289
Research




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The multilevel identity politics of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest

7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3

Galia Press-Barnathan and Naama Lutz

This article uses the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) that took place in Tel Aviv to explore how cultural mega-events serve both as political arenas and as tools for identity construction, negotiation and contestation. These processes of identity politics are all conducted across national–subnational–international–transnational levels. The hosting of mega-events fleshes out these multiple processes in a very strong manner. We first discuss the politics of hosting mega-events in general. We then examine the identity politics associated more specifically with the Eurovision Song Contest, before examining in depth the complex forms of identity politics emerging around the competition following the 2018 Israeli victory. We suggest that it is important to study together the multiple processes—domestic, international and transnational—of identity politics that take place around the competition, as they interact with each other. Consequently, we follow the various stakeholders involved at these different levels and their interactions. We examine the internal identity negotiation process in Israel surrounding the event, the critical actors debating how to use the stage to challenge the liberal, western, ‘normal’ identity Israel hoped to project in the contest and how other stakeholders (participating states, national broadcasting agencies, participating artists) reacted to them, and finally we examine the behaviour of the institution in charge, the European Broadcasting Union, and national governments. We contribute to the study of mega-events as fields of contestation, to the understanding of the complex, multilevel nature of national identity construction, negotiation and contestation in the current era, and more broadly to the role that popular culture plays in this context.