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Mae Muller, UK’s Eurovision contestant, is applying for German passport because grandfather fled Nazis
(JTA) — Mae Muller, the United Kingdom’s representative in the Eurovision Song Contest this week, said that she is applying for German citizenship under Germany’s laws that afford passports to descendants of Nazi persecution.
In an interview published Sunday in The Times, a British newspaper, the 25-year-old pop star said that a European Union passport would help her perform throughout the continent more easily in the wake of Brexit, the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the union. She said her family also wants to relocate to Spain.
Muller has previously said that her grandfather Robert fled Germany as a 12-year-old and survived the war in Wales. In 2021, Germany passed legislation that made it easier for descendants of Jews and others who were stripped of citizenship during World War II to regain it. Holocaust survivors have been permitted to regain German citizenship since 1949.
Muller, who grew up in a Jewish household in northern London, will sing “I Wrote A Song” on Saturday in the finals of Eurovision, an annual pop song competition that involves representatives from dozens of countries located mostly in Europe. The contest is usually held in the country whose representative won the previous year’s competition, but because last year’s prize went to a Ukrainian rap group, this year’s event is being held in Liverpool. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made holding the contest there a security hazard.
The other Jewish Eurovision contender, Israeli Noa Kirel, has also made it to the final round after performing her song “Unicorn” on Tuesday night. In 2020, Kirel had signed what was called the largest record deal ever for an Israeli artist. At last year’s MTV Europe Music Awards, she wore an outfit mocking Kanye West, the rapper who went on an antisemitic social media spree in the fall.
Muller, who has voiced support for Jeremy Corbyn — the former British Labour leader who was booted from the party over a years-long antisemitism controversy — has also called out a rapper over antisemitic remarks. In 2020, she tweeted about Wiley, who had said that Jews “run the earth,” writing: “I stand with all my Jewish friends, family, supporters and always will.”
If you didn’t see it on insta pic.twitter.com/k4H3kr0mty
— Mae Muller (@maemuller_) July 25, 2020
Muller has not performed yet, but she will on Saturday because contestants from the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany and Italy automatically make the final round every year.
The last Jewish performer to win the contest was Israeli Netta Barzilai, in 2018.
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.