Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Why is ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ facing backlash and calls for boycott?

By David Mouriquand

Published on 27/04/2026 - EURONEWS

'The Devil Wears Prada 2' - out this week - is facing a boycott in Asia after a social media clip released before the film hits cinemas presents a character deemed to be an offensive stereotype.

The hotly anticipated sequel to 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada hits theatres this week, and a 38-second clip from the film has already sparked backlash online.

The extract shows “the former assistant’s new assistant” Jin Chao, played by Chinese-American actress Helen J Shen. She introduces herself to Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs, who is back at work at the fictional Runway magazine.

During their interaction, Chao displays the characteristics of social awkwardness, is eager to please, dressed in unflattering clothing, and proceeds to list her academic achievements...

“If you don’t want me, you can interview someone else, I don’t mind,” she tells Hathaway’s character. “I did go to Yale, 3.86 GPA, lead soprano of the Whiffenpoofs and my ACT score was 36 on the very first try.”

This clip has been viewed over 26 million times and has been blasted online for being guilty of caricaturing Asian behaviour and leaning on dated stereotypes, with accusations of “blatant anti-Asian racism”.

“Hollywood is so out of touch it’s embarrassing. It’s 2026 and THIS is your Asian rep? The name, styling, whole look. Lazy stereotypes,” wrote one X user, while another commented: “Child-like dress, glasses, overqualified, Ivy League credentials and at top of her game yet obsequious and insecure of her competency: these are not Asian American stereotypes, they’re white women’s fantasies.”

Other social media posts have also highlighted that the character’s name sounds like a racist slur.

One Japanese post, which has been viewed over a million times on X, states:

“The Devil Wears Prada 2

・Asian (Chinese)

・Name is Chinchon

・Glasses

・Nerdy bookworm

・Even if they graduated from a prestigious school, they’re uncool

Hits us with the most blatant racial stereotype racism in 2026 and it gives me chills. Did they use this scene in the promo because it’s “funny”? #BoycottTheDevilWearsPrada2″

On the Reddit forum r/asianamerican, one commenter said the name “is what a white person thinks a Chinese name should sound like”, before drawing comparisons to Cho Chang - the name of the Asian student at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 sees Hathaway joined by returning cast members Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci.

The Devil Wears Prada grossed $326 million globally and became a streaming hit.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is out on 30 April in China and on 1 May worldwide.

Venice opera house La Fenice fires music director Beatrice Venezi after 'offensive' comments

WHEN I HEAR THE WORD CULTURE I REACH FOR MY GUN

HERMAN GOERING

By David Mouriquand

Published on 28/04/2026 - EURONEWS

Famous Venice opera house Teatro La Fenice has fired the incoming music director Beatrice Venezi after months of protests and following “repeated and serious public statements that were offensive and harmful” to the theater.

After months of opposition, The Teatro La Fenice – Venice's renowned opera house – has dropped the incoming Musical Director Beatrice Venezi over statements “deemed offensive and detrimental to the artistic and professional standing of the Teatro La Fenice Foundation”.

Venezi was appointed permanent Musical Director and the first female conductor at La Fenice in September 2025. The following month, the theatre trade unions demanded Venezi’s resignation, arguing that the 36-year-old lacked the necessary experience to lead the orchestra.

Concerns were also raised over her affiliations to Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government.

Venezi, whose father is a former member of the neofascist political party Forza Nuova, was appointed as an adviser to the culture minister after Meloni came to power in 2022.

Then came Venezi’s recent statements accusing the orchestra of nepotism.

On 23 April, Venezi gave an interview to Argentinian newspaper La Nación in which she said that “this is an orchestra in which positions are passed down practically from father to son”.

She added that orchestra members “never leave the island” of Venice and that they didn’t know how to appeal to younger audiences.

“They’re afraid of change, of renewal.”

Following these statements, Teatro La Fenice terminated Venezi’s contract.

Workers and orchestra members of Venice's La Fenice opera house demanding the resignation of Beatrice Venezi - 10 November 2025 AP Photo

General manager Nicola Colabianchi cited Venezi’s “repeated and serious public statements that were offensive and harmful” to the theater and its orchestra.

La Fenice's unions welcomed the decision, calling it “a necessary act of respect” and underlining that the theater's professionalism had been “subject to serious, unfounded public statements damaging to the dignity of labor.”

Meloni's office issued a statement denying a newspaper report that she had authorised Venezi's sacking. Daily Corriere della Sera had said Meloni had approved Venezi's axing due to the "accumulation of controversy".

However, Italy’s Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, expressed support for the decision, stating that he hoped it would “clear the field misunderstandings, tensions and instrumentalization of every kind and degree; in the interests of the theatre and the city of Venice”.

Explained: Why Elon Musk and Sam Altman are facing off in trial over OpenAI

By Pascale Davies

Published on 27/04/2026 - EURONEWS

The trial will see Elon Musk face off against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over allegations that the AI company abandoned its nonprofit roots in favour of profit — with Microsoft also named in the suit.

Technology titans Elon Musk and Sam Altman will face off in a high-stakes trial on Monday in the culmination of a years-long battle.

Billionaire Musk, an early investor in the artificial intelligence company, is suing OpenAI’s CEO, Altman, its president Greg Brockman, and Microsoft for allegedly betraying an agreement about keeping OpenAI as a nonprofit that benefits humanity.

Musk alleges he was misled when Altman transformed the company from a nonprofit into a for-profit enterprise. The company now has a valuation of almost $1 trillion and is expected to go public.

Here’s everything to know about the trial.

The trial will happen at the US District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland, with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.

The court hearing begins on Monday and is expected to last around two to three weeks.

The witness stand is expected to gather Musk, Altman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

What does Musk allege?

Altman, Musk, and other founders launched OpenAI in 2015 as a non-profit organisation.

Musk was the biggest individual financial backer of OpenAI in the beginning, contributing more than $44 million to the then-startup.

Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018 after clashing with Altman. A year earlier, he reportedly made a failed bid to get more control over the company.

In 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT and grew to become one of the most valuable and important AI companies with major investment from Microsoft.

Then in 2025, OpenAI restructured its main business to become a for-profit company.

Musk’s lawsuit was filed in 2024 and claims OpenAI had breached an agreement to make breakthroughs in AI “freely available to the public” by forming a multibillion-dollar alliance with Microsoft, which invested $13 billion (€12 billion) into the company.

“OpenAI, Inc has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft,” Musk’s lawsuit alleges.

The Tesla boss, who also has his own generative AI company xAI, says this constitutes a breach of a contract.

What does OpenAI say?

OpenAI released a trove of emails in 2024 that show Musk supported its plans to create a for-profit company, which he wanted to be the head of, have board control, and merge it with Tesla.

OpenAI has always denied Musk’s allegations, saying that he agreed in 2017 that establishing a for-profit entity would be necessary.

Which country in Europe has the most data centres driving the AI boom?

By Servet Yanatma

Published on 27/04/2026 -EURONEWS

The US is the clear global leader of data centres, with more than double the EU total. Germany and the UK rank ahead of China. Euronews Next takes a closer look at the number of data centres and the factors driving investment.

Data centres are the backbone of artificial intelligence and power everything from AI chatbot queries, streamed video, and cloud-stored files.

They are large facilities that house servers, storage systems and networking equipment used to store, process, and distribute data. The more data centres, the more AI. But they use large amounts of energy and require a lot of land.

Data centres are “where compute is housed”, according to the AI Index Report 2026, published by Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. The report emphasises that “their capacity, geographic distribution, and underlying supply chains shape what AI systems can be built and where.”

Which countries host the most data centres worldwide? How many are located in Europe? And how does Europe compare in the global distribution of data centres?

US leads by a wide margin

Most of the world’s data centre infrastructure is concentrated in a small number of countries. According to Cloudscene, which the report also uses, the United States (US) leads by a wide margin with 5,427 data centres in 2025. This is more than ten times the number in any other country, showing the scale of US leadership.

Germany and UK ahead of China

Two major European economies, Germany (529) and the United Kingdom (523), follow behind the US. It is striking that they rank ahead of China, which hosts 449 data centres, despite its strength as a technology and innovation power.

Canada (337), France (322) and Australia (314) are other countries with over 300 data centres. The Netherlands is also close to that level with 298 centres.

Most of the remaining countries each have fewer than 300 facilities.

Russia (251) and Japan (222) complete the top 10 in the number of data centres. Brazil and Mexico also host between 150 and 200 centres.

EU’s total is less than half of the US

EU countries together host 2,269 data centres. This is 42% of the US total. When the UK is included, the figure rises to around 51% of the US level. This emphasises the strong position of the US again.

Distribution of data centres across Europe

Following the strong positions of Germany, the UK, France and the Netherlands, only a few other European countries host more than 100 data centres. These are Italy (168), Spain (144), Poland (144) and Switzerland (121).

Sweden (95), Belgium (81), Austria (68), Ukraine (58), Ireland (55) and Denmark (50) host between 50-100 data centres.

Regional patterns are clear in the distribution of data centres in Europe. Western Europe dominates, while Northern Europe is smaller but strategically important. Central and Eastern Europe are more fragmented and less developed.

Several EU countries have fewer than 35 data centres. Among the EU candidate countries, Turkey leads with 35.\

FLAP-D markets

Europe’s data centre industry is centred around a familiar group of cities: Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin, the so-called FLAP-D markets. They attract most investment, infrastructure and operator activity according to Atlas Edge.

These locations dominate because they combine major internet exchange points, strong demand from finance and tech sectors, excellent connectivity, a strong cloud presence, and stable regulatory and business environments.

While the FLAP countries rank among the top across Europe, including the EU, candidate countries, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the UK, Ireland lags behind in the total number of data centres.

Capacity matters

These figures reflect only the number of data centres. “The U.S. may show a clear lead, but the other country rankings should be assessed with the understanding that data centre counts do not capture differences in facility size, computing capacity, or utilisation,” the report notes.

According to the World Bank’s “Advancing Cloud and Data Infrastructure Markets” report, four factors determine cloud and data infrastructure investment decisions:

reliable and affordable energy,
resilient broadband connectivity,
favourable geography and access to land,
and a stable political and business environment.

“Low- and middle-income countries face challenges in attracting investments in data centre infrastructure because of weaknesses in power and broadband infrastructure, and in the strength of their business environments,” the report finds.

Viral backfire: Melania Trump called out as hypocrite after Jimmy Kimmel joke criticism

By David Mouriquand

Published on 28/04/2026 - EURONEWS

The First Lady posted that “people like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate", following a joke the talkshow host made three days before the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Now, her comments have backfired online...

What a difference a few hours make...

Following calls for his firing from The White House and Melania Trump, US talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel has defended a joke he made, in which he called the First Lady an “expectant widow” just days before the recent shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

The host made the joke last Thursday (23 April), during his show Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

“Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” he said.

On Saturday (25 April), a gunman fired several shots at the Hilton in Washington, before being apprehended.

Posting on Truth Social yesterday, the US president said Disney and ABC should immediately sack the comedian – and not for the first time.

Kimmel’s show was temporarily suspended by ABC last year following the murder of Charlie Kirk and Trump’s calls for the talkshow host to be fired.

The First Lady also posted on X that “people like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate”.

“His monologue about my family isn’t comedy – his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America. (...) How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behaviour at the expense of our community.”

Kimmel has defended the joke as a “very light roast”, saying that “obviously, it was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together.”

“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not – by any stretch of the definition – a call to assassination. And they know that. I’ve been very vocal for many years, speaking out against gun violence, in particular.”

“But I understand that the first lady had a stressful experience over the weekend, and probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house,” he continued. “And also, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it. Donald Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you and as am I. Because under the First Amendment, we have, as Americans, a right to free speech.”

Check out the clip below:

Now, the tables have turned, with Melania Trump finding herself at the centre of a textbook and viral example of tables turning.

The First Lady has been accused of hypocrisy, as many are pointing out that her husband's violent rhetoric are routinely “corrosive” and responsible for the “political sickness within America.”

“This is your husband by the way,” someone posted along with a screengrab of Trump celebrating the death of former director of the FBI Robert Mueller.

“You know this guy?” asked another who shared a screenshot of Donald Trump sharing a post which called for Democrats to be hanged.

Check out some of the viral reactions below:

As of publication, Jimmy Kimmel still has a job.

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