===== The Vatican closes the Sistine Chapel to the public and prepares for a papal conclave =====
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===== Austria welcomes JJ back home with cheers, hugs and roses after he wins the Eurovision Song Contest =====
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By VANESSA GERA Associated Press
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By PHILIPP JENNE and KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press
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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Exit tourists. Enter cardinals.
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VIENNA (AP) — Austrian fans enthusiastically welcomed classically trained singer JJ back home at Vienna airport on Sunday after he won the 69th Eurovision Song Contest with "Wasted Love."
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The Vatican has closed the Sistine Chapel, where cardinals will gather for the conclave to elect the next pope after the death of Pope Francis on April 21 at age 88.
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As JJ walked through the gate, hundreds of fans cheered, some played his song and others surrounded the new star, hugging him and asking for autographs.
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Francis was buried Saturday after a funeral in St. Peter's Square that gathered world leaders and hundreds of thousands of others, and a nine-day period of mourning is continuing before the conclave can start.
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The 24-year-old countertenor, whose winning song combines operatic, multi-octave vocals with a techno twist, and who also sings at the Vienna State Opera, held up his trophy in one hand and a big bouquet of roses in the other. He smiled, wiped away tears and told the crowd "that victory is for you."
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But the church is at the same time turning its attention to the next steps.
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JJ, whose full name is Johannes Pietsch, was Austria's third Eurovision winner, after bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst in 2014 and Udo Jürgens in 1966.
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Key is preparing the Sistine Chapel for the red-robed cardinals who will gather at the Vatican in the heart of Rome to choose the next pope in an ancient process fictionalized in the 2024 film "Conclave."
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"This is beyond my wildest dreams. It's crazy," said the singer when being handed the microphone-shaped glass Eurovision trophy after his win in the Swiss city of Basel on Saturday night.
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One key task: installing the chimney where ballots will be burned after votes.
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On Sunday night, JJ told reporters in Vienna that "I don't think you'll realize that you did it at all until you're on your deathbed."
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Those visitors who managed to enter on Sunday considered themselves lucky, since there is no telling how long the conclave will last, and how long the gem of the Vatican Museums will remain off-limits.
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**'All of Austria is happy'**
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"I think we felt very lucky to be able to be the last group of visitors to come in today," said Sumon Khan, a tourist from the United States. "You know, our trip would not have been complete without seeing this beautiful place."
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Austria's president, Alexander van der Bellen, celebrated JJ in a video posted on X.
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According to a schedule determined by church law, the conclave can only begin after the nine-day mourning period. It is expected to start between May 5 and May 10.
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"What a success! What a voice! What a show!" he exclaimed. "All of Austria is happy."
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When it does, the cardinals will enter solemnly to participate in a secretive process said to be guided by the holy spirit that will result in the selection of the next leader of the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic church. The choice will determine whether the next pontiff will continue Francis' reforms, with his focus on the poor and marginalized and the environment, or whether they will choose a pontiff closer in style to conservative predecessors like Benedict XVI focused on doctrine.
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Chancellor Christian Stoecker wrote on X: "What a great success — my warmest congratulations on winning #ESC2025! JJ is writing Austrian music history today!"
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For inspiration, the cardinals will also have the great beauty of the frescoes painted by Michelangelo and other renowned Renaissance artists. The most recognizable is Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, showing God's outstretched hand imparting the divine spark of life to the first man.
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The Vienna State Opera also expressed joy over the win. "From the Magic Flute to winning the Song Contest is somehow a story that can only take place in Austria," opera director Bogdan Roscic told the Austrian press agency APA.
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The chapel is named after Pope Sixtus IV, an art patron who oversaw the construction of the main papal chapel in the 15th century. But it was a later pontiff, Pope Julius II, who commissioned the works by Michelangelo, who painted the ceiling depicting scenes from Genesis from 1508 and 1512 and later returned to paint the Last Judgement on one of the walls.
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Several Austrian cities were quick to show their interest in hosting next year's contest. Innsbruck Mayor Johannes Anzengruber told APA that "not everything has to take place in Vienna. ... Austria is bigger than that," and the towns of Oberwart in Burgenland and Wels in Upper Austria also threw their hats into the ring.
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When the conclave opens, cardinals will chant the Litany of Saints, the solemn, mystical Gregorian chant imploring the intercession of the saints, as they file into the chapel and take an oath of secrecy. The chapel's thick double doors will close and the master of liturgy will utter the Latin words "Extra omnes," meaning "everyone out."
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JJ himself said he hoped that Vienna would get the next ESC which he would love to host together with his mentor, Conchita Wurst.
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The secretive process is part of a tradition aimed at preserving the vote from external interference.
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**A nail-biting final**
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The world will then wait for a sign that a successor to Francis has been chosen. Black smoke coming from the chimney in the Sistine Chapel will indicate that they haven't achieved the two-thirds majority for a new pope.
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Israeli singer Yuval Raphael came second at an exuberant celebration of music and unity - JJ won after a nail-biting final that saw Raphael scoop up a massive public vote from her many fans for her anthemic "New Day Will Rise."
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But when a pope is finally chosen, white smoke will rise and bells will toll.
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At a post-victory press conference, JJ said the message of his song about unrequited romance was that "love is the strongest force on planet Earth, and love persevered.
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Associated Press video reporter Pietro De Cristofaro contributed from Rome.
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"Let's spread love, guys," said JJ, who added that he was honored to be the first Eurovision champion with Filipino heritage, as well as a proudly queer winner.
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===== Don't like a columnist's opinion? Los Angeles Times offers an AI-generated opposing viewpoint =====
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**Eclectic and sometimes baffling**
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The world's largest live music event, which has been uniting and dividing Europeans since 1956, reached its glitter-drenched conclusion with a grand final in Basel that offered pounding electropop, quirky rock and outrageous divas.
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Acts from 26 countries — trimmed from 37 entrants through two elimination semifinals — performed to some 160 million viewers for the continent's pop crown. No smoke machine, jet of flame or dizzying light display was spared by musicians who had three minutes to win over millions of viewers who, along with national juries of music professionals, picked the winner.
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Estonia's Tommy Cash came third with his jokey mock-Italian dance song "Espresso Macchiato." Swedish entry KAJ, which had been favorite to win with jaunty sauna ode "Bara Bada Bastu," came fourth.
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The show was a celebration of Europe's eclectic, and sometimes baffling, musical tastes.
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Grieshaber reported from Berlin. Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in Basel, Switzerland contributed to this report.
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===== The UK and the EU hail a new chapter as they sign fresh deals 5 years after Brexit =====
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By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press
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LONDON (AP) — Britain and the European Union hailed a new chapter in their relationship Monday after sealing fresh agreements on defense cooperation and easing trade flows at their first formal summit since Brexit.
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Five years after the U.K. left the EU, ties were growing closer again as Prime Minister Keir Starmer met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other senior EU officials in London for talks.
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The deals will slash red tape, grow the British economy and reset relations with the 27-nation trade bloc, Starmer said, while von der Leyen called the talks a "historic moment" that benefits both sides.
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"Britain is back on the world stage," Starmer told reporters. "This deal is a win-win."
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He hailed Monday's agreements — the third package of trade deals struck by his government in as many weeks following accords with the U.S. and India — as "good for jobs, good for bills and good for our borders."
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By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer
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But Britain's opposition parties slammed the deals as backtracking on Brexit and "surrendering" anew to the EU. "We're becoming a rule-taker from Brussels once again," Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said.
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In a colorful commentary for the Los Angeles Times, Matt K. Lewis argued that callousness is a central feature of the second Trump administration, particularly its policies of deportation and bureaucratic cutbacks. "Once you normalize cruelty," Lewis concluded in the piece, "the hammer eventually swings for everyone. Even the ones who thought they were swinging it."
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Here are the main takeaways from the summit:
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Lewis' word wasn't the last, however. As they have with opinion pieces the past several weeks, Times online readers had the option to click on a button labeled "Insights," which judged the column politically as "center-left." Then it offers an AI-generated synopsis — a CliffsNotes version of the column — and a similarly-produced opposing viewpoint.
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**Cutting red tape on food trade**
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One dissenting argument reads: "Restricting birthright citizenship and refugee admissions is framed as correcting alleged exploitation of immigration loopholes, with proponents arguing these steps protect American workers and resources."
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Officials said they will remove some routine border checks on animal and plant products and align with EU regulations, which will reduce costs on food imports and exports and make it easier for goods to flow freely across borders.
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The feature symbolizes changes to opinion coverage ordered over the past six months by Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who's said he wants the famously liberal opinion pages to reflect different points of view. Critics accuse him of trying to curry favor with President Donald Trump.
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Businesses have complained about trucks waiting for hours at borders with fresh food that cannot be exported to the EU because of laborious post-Brexit certifications.
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**Publisher says he doesn't want an "echo chamber"**
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The changes will mean the U.K. can sell products like raw British burgers, sausages and seafood to the EU again, officials said. The benefits will apply also to movements between the British mainland and Northern Ireland, where post-Brexit customs checks have been a thorny issue for years.
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Soon-Shiong, a medical innovator who bought the Times in 2018, blocked his newspaper from endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris for president last fall and said he wanted to overhaul its editorial board, which is responsible for researching and writing Times editorials.
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While the EU is the U.K.'s largest trading partner, the government said the U.K. has been hit with a 21% drop in exports since Brexit because of more onerous paperwork and other non-tariff barriers.
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"If you just have the one side, it's just going to be an echo chamber," Soon-Shiong told Fox News last fall. He said broadening the outlook is "going to be risky and it's going to be difficult. I'm going to take a lot of heat, which I already am, but I come from the position that it's really important that all voices be heard."
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**Defense procurement pact**
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Three of the six people who researched and wrote Times editorials, including editorials editor Mariel Garza, resigned in protest after the Harris non-endorsement. The other three have since left with the last holdout, Carla Hall, exiting after writing a last column that ran March 30 about homeless people she met while covering the issue. Soon-Shiong's decision caused a similar unrest with subscribers as happened when Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos decided the newspaper would not back a presidential candidate.
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A new security and defense partnership will pave the way for the U.K. defense industry to access a new EU loan program worth 150 billion euros ($170 billion.) That will allow Britain to secure cheap loans backed by the EU budget to buy military equipment, in part to help Ukraine defend itself.
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The Times used to run unsigned editorials — reflecting a newspaper's institutional opinion — six days a week. The paper lists only two editorial board members, Soon-Shiong and executive editor Terry Tang. They're usually too busy to write editorials. Soon-Shiong has said he will appoint new board members, but it's unclear when.
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The EU has said that the loan program will help boost the readiness of European defense as well as enable more coordinated support for Ukraine.
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He also said he was seeking more conservative or moderate columnists to appear in the paper. Lewis, a self-described Reagan Republican who just began as a columnist, believes he's part of that effort. Soon-Shiong has also brought up CNN commentator Scott Jennings, a Republican consultant who has already contributed columns for a few years.
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**Fishing rights**
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Los Angeles Times spokeswoman Hillary Manning was asked recently about editorial policy, but reportedly lost her job in a round of layoffs before she could answer. There has been no reply to other attempts at seeking comment from Times management, including how readers are responding to "Insights."
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The deal included a 12-year extension of an agreement allowing EU fishing vessels to operate in U.K. waters until 2038, which angered U.K. fishermen and their supporters.
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There were some initial questions about whether a "bias meter" as described by Soon-Shiong would apply to news articles as well as opinion pieces. But the publisher told Times reporter James Rainey in December it would only be included on commentary, as it has remained since "Insights" was introduced to readers on March 3.
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While economically minor, fishing has long been a sticking point and symbolically important issue for the U.K. and EU member states such as France. Disputes over the issue nearly derailed a Brexit deal back in 2020.
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**A gimmick that insults the intelligence of readers?**
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Elspeth Macdonald, head of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, called the agreement a "horror show for Scottish fishermen" that was granted in order to secure other objectives. Scottish First Minister John Swinney said the deal was "the direct opposite of what was promised by Brexit."
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In practice, the idea feels like a gimmick, Garza, the former editorials editor, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
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**Easing movement for young people**
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"I think it could be offensive both to readers ... and the writers themselves who object to being categorized in simple and not necessarily helpful terms," she said. "The idea of having a bias meter just in and of itself is kind of an insult to intelligence and I've always thought that the readers of the opinion page were really smart."
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Post-Brexit visa restrictions have hobbled cross-border activities for professionals such as bankers or lawyers, as well as academic and cultural exchanges, including touring bands.
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The online feature created problems instantly when it was applied to columnist Gustavo Arellano's piece about the little-noticed 100th anniversary of a Ku Klux Klan rally that drew more than 20,000 people to a park in Anaheim, California.
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The U.K. and EU said they agreed to co-operate on a youth mobility plan that's expected to allow young Britons and Europeans to live and work temporarily in each other's territory, though no details were provided.
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One of the AI-generated "Insights" said that "local historical accounts occasionally frame the 1920s Klan as a product of 'white Protestant culture' responding to societal changes rather than an explicitly hate-driven movement." Another said that "critics argue that focusing on past Klan influence distracts from Anaheim's identity as a diverse city."
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British officials insisted that numbers would be capped and stays would be time-limited.
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Some at the Times believe an ensuing backlash — Times defends Klan! — was inaccurate and overblown. Still, the perspectives were removed.
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The free movement of people remains a politically touchy issue in the U.K., with the youth mobility plan seen by some Brexiteers as inching back toward completely free movement for EU nationals to move to the U.K. The U.K. has similar youth mobility arrangements with countries including Australia and Canada.
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Often, "Insights" have the flat, bloodless tone of early AI. After contributor David Helvarg's column about potential cuts to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the opposing viewpoint noted that Trump supporters "say it aligns with broader efforts to shrink government and eliminate programs deemed nonessential."
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**Cutting airport waits**
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A better way to improve opinion offerings is to hire more journalists and put them to work, said Paul Thornton, former letters editor for the Times' opinion section.
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British passport holders will be able to use e-gates at more European airports as part of the deal.
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Media columnist Margaret Sullivan argued in The Guardian that Soon-Shiong talks about promoting viewpoint diversity but really wants to push the newspaper toward Trump. "His bias meter should — quickly — go the way of hot type, the manual typewriter and the dodo," Sullivan wrote.
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Since Brexit, many British travelers cannot use automated gates when they arrive at EU airports. The new measure will end "the dreaded queues at border control," officials said.
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Soon-Shiong, in his interview with Rainey, dismissed claims that he was scared of Trump or trying to appease him. People need to respect different opinions, he said. "It's really important for us (to) heal the nation," he said. "We've got to stop being so polarized."
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**Opposition objects to a 'surrender'**
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**A writer amused by the label attached to him**
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Britain's opposition parties have criticized Starmer's bid to reset relations with the EU. The pro-Brexit and anti-immigration Reform U.K. party, which recently won big in local elections, and the Conservatives have called the trade-offs in the deals a betrayal of Brexit.
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One writer who doesn't mind "Insights" is Lewis — with one caveat.
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Starmer is "taking us backwards. We left the European Union. That was settled, we drew a line under that," said Badenoch, the Conservative leader. "This deal is taking us to the past and that is why we call it surrender."
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"I like it," he said. "I didn't know what to expect but I was pretty pleasantly surprised. It does provide additional context for the reader. It provides counterpoints, but I think they're very fair counterpoints."
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Starmer stressed that he did not violate his "red lines": The U.K. won't rejoin the EU's frictionless single market and customs union, and will not agree to the free movement of people between the U.K. and the EU.
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Lewis, who once worked for Tucker Carlson's "Daily Caller," was amused to see "Insights" judge his most recent column as "center-left." He figured it was because he was critical of Trump. Instead, Lewis said it points to the relative meaninglessness of such labels.
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David Henig, a U.K. trade policy expert at the European Centre for International Political Economy, suggested that while some will continue to argue against agreeing to EU regulations, most Britons likely believe it's time to move forward.
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"I guess I'm a center-left columnist," he said. "At least for a week."
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"Simply following EU rules in some areas is going to be controversial to those who thought that Brexit means casting off all influence from the EU entirely," he said. "That wasn't realistic for a trading nation like the UK., where 50% of our trade is with the EU."
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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social
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Pan Pylas and Jill Lawless in London and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed reporting.