
Slovakian music festival featuring Kanye ‘Ye' West cancelled
Organizers announced the news on Instagram, with the Rubicon Festival Team saying: 'This was not an easy decision. Due to media pressure and the withdrawal of several artists and partners, we were unable to deliver the festival at the standard of quality you deserve. We are truly grateful for your support and trust. For those who have purchased tickets, please be patient – all refund information will be sent via email within 14 days.'
They added: 'This is not the end of Rubicon. We are not giving up. We're already working to come back stronger.'
Une publication partagée par RUBICON FESTIVAL (@rubiconfestival)
The festival cited unspecified and unforeseen circumstances, including logistical challenges and external pressures – which could refer to the petition that was launched last month opposing Ye's performance.
Their petition described the Ye booking as 'an insult to historic memory, a glorification of wartime violence and debasement of all victims of the Nazi regime'.
The Rubicon festival, which bills itself as a cultural event of 'vision and provocation,' had previously revealed plans for an exclusive mid-July performance by what it called a 'hip-hop visionary, cultural icon, and controversial genius.'
They claimed the Bratislava show would be Ye's only European performance in 2025.
Last week, we reported that Ye had his Australian visa cancelled, following the release of the rapper's song titled 'Heil Hitler'.
In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the country's home affairs minister Tony Burke said: "If someone argued that anti-Semitism was rational, I would not let them come here. (...) [West] has been coming to Australia for a long time… and he's made a lot of offensive comments. But my officials looked at it again once he released the Heil Hitler song, and he no longer has a valid visa in Australia."
The rapper's song, released on 8 May - coinciding with the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat - has been widely condemned and banned on most music streaming platforms.
Ye has previously identified as a Nazi and his anti-Semitic comments have been numerous over the years. This year alone, he made a shocking string of antisemitic posts, which included comments like 'I love Hitler' and 'I'm a Nazi.'
He has also come under fire for selling a white t-shirt with a large swastika emblem on the chest – an item listed as 'HH-01' on his website, a reference to the 'Heil Hitler' chant.
Following the online rampage and the posting of a KKK photo, he was dropped by his talent agency.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

LeMonde
5 hours ago
- LeMonde
Donald Trump is on the verge of winning his trade war
When Donald Trump decided, in early spring, to abruptly suspend his unilateral tariffs after triggering a financial panic, the Financial Times published a sarcastic comment about the US president in early May, calling him "TACO" for "Trump always chickens out" in trade negotiations. This infuriated the head of state. "That's a nasty question," he said in the Oval Office of the White House after a journalist asked him about it. On July 15, Wall Street Journal columnist Greg Ip offered a less humorous but more direct evaluation: "Forget TACO. Trump is winning his trade war." The issue is not to defend Trump's trade policy – the WSJ called it "the dumbest trade war in history" – but to analyze whether the president is achieving the goals he set for himself. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, is set to meet the US head of state in Scotland on Sunday, July 27, in a last-ditch effort to reach a deal before the August 1 deadline to avoid 30% tariffs on European goods. The WSJ columnist recalled that the president's intention was to impose the highest possible tariffs to protect American industry and fund all or part of the income tax. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent used the argument of tariffs as a negotiating tool in an attempt to reassure US partners. But that was not Trump's concern.


Euronews
12 hours ago
- Euronews
Trump's birthright citizenship restrictions blocked for third time
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from ending birthright citizenship for the children of parents who are in the US illegally, issuing the third court ruling blocking the birthright order nationwide since a key Supreme Court decision in June. US District Judge Leo Sorokin, joining another district court as well as an appellate panel of judges, found that a nationwide injunction granted to more than a dozen states remains in force under an exception to the Supreme Court ruling. That decision restricted the power of lower-court judges to issue nationwide injunctions. The states have argued Trump's birthright citizenship order is blatantly unconstitutional and threatens millions of dollars for health insurance services that are contingent on citizenship status. The issue is expected to move quickly back to the nation's highest court. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement the administration looked forward to 'being vindicated on appeal.' New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who helped lead the lawsuit before Sorokin, said in a statement he was 'thrilled the district court again barred President Trump's flagrantly unconstitutional birthright citizenship order from taking effect anywhere.' 'American-born babies are American, just as they have been at every other time in our Nation's history,' he added. 'The President cannot change that legal rule with the stroke of a pen.' Sorokin acknowledged his order would not be the last word on birthright citizenship. The Trump administration has not yet appealed any of the recent court rulings. The president's efforts to deny citizenship to children born to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily will remain blocked unless and until the Supreme Court says otherwise. A federal judge in New Hampshire issued a ruling earlier this month prohibiting Trump's executive order from taking effect nationwide in a new class-action lawsuit. US District Judge Joseph LaPlante in New Hampshire had paused his own decision to allow for the Trump administration to appeal, but with no appeal filed, his order went into effect. On Wednesday, a San Francisco-based appeals court found the president's executive order unconstitutional and affirmed a lower court's nationwide block. A Maryland-based judge said last week that she would do the same if an appeals court signed off. The justices ruled last month that lower courts generally can't issue nationwide injunctions, but it didn't rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states. The Supreme Court did not decide whether the underlying citizenship order is constitutional.

LeMonde
a day ago
- LeMonde
'European citizens under US sanctions are being erased economically and socially within the EU'
In recent months, the US has added several judges and International Criminal Court prosecutors to the list of "Specially Designated Nationals" maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which is responsible for enforcing US international financial sanctions. On July 9, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, joined them on the list. The individuals listed have had their assets frozen in the US, and American nationals and companies are prohibited from doing business with them. Neither criminals nor fugitives, but rather respected professionals in international law who have been sanctioned – not for wrongdoing, but for carrying out their duties, in ways that are clearly displeasing to Washington. This development is not just a diplomatic affront; it is an alarming signal. A small but growing number of European citizens – who are innocent under all legal standards of the European Union (EU) – also appear on the OFAC list. They are not under investigation in their own countries. No court has convicted them. And yet, they and their families have been treated as pariahs. Not only in the US, but – more seriously still – in their own countries, within the EU itself. These individuals have become Europe's living dead: legally alive, but erased economically and socially. They are victims of a kind of "civil death" penalty. Their inclusion on the OFAC list, often for opaque or arbitrary reasons, triggers a cascade of consequences far beyond American borders. It is in Europe that banks close their accounts; that IT companies cut off access to email, software, and cloud services; that delivery companies refuse to drop packages at their door. Families have been ruined. Careers destroyed. However, it is perhaps understandable that people subject to OFAC sanctions should be restricted in their travel to, or trade with, the US. After all, it is the prerogative of the US government to exercise sovereignty on its own territory. It is unacceptable, however, that European citizens – some of them above any suspicion in the eyes of their own authorities – lose everything at home due to excessive caution on the part of European companies. These businesses blindly enforce US sanctions. Two trends explain the phenomenon.