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Shakira thrills 2 million on Rio beach

o US$160m boost for local economy

grossing tour for a Latin artist. Rio has been readying for the concert for days, with huge posters blanketing the city. Copacabana vendors were busy on Saturday hawking beer, caipirinhas, T-shirts and little vials of “Shakira’s tears”, a nod to her “Women No Longer Cry” tour. Security was also tight, with nearly 8,000 officers deployed, along with drones, facial recognition cameras and 18 screening points with metal detectors. Last year, after Lady Gaga’s performance, police said they had foiled a bomb plot by a group that disseminated hate speech. Some Shakira fans camped out in front of the Copacabana Palace, where she was staying, hoping to glimpse her at a window. City officials estimated the event would inject more than US$160 million (RM635 million) into the local economy. National tourism officials said airline bookings were up 80% this week compared to 2024. – AFP

divas in pop in recent years, with Madonna striking a pose for 1.6 million in 2024 and Lady Gaga singing her greatest hits to 2.1 million fans last year. Shakira on Saturday performed hits such as Hips Don’t Lie , La Bicicleta , La Tortura and Estoy Aqui on a huge stage outside the legendary Copacabana Hotel measuring 1,345 sq m. The concert, featuring 10 outfit changes, saw Shakira performing local-style funk with Brazilian pop star Anitta, and featured guests including Brazilian pop music legends Caetano Veloso and Maria Bethania. With more than 90 million records sold, four Grammys, 15 Latin Grammys and a generation spanning repertoire including bangers Waka Waka and Whenever, Wherever , Shakira enjoys unique popularity in Brazil, where she has performed numerous times. Shakira’s 2025 tour kicked off in Rio and has already earned a Guinness World Record for highest

RIO DE JANEIRO : Latin pop queen Shakira delighted crowds of two million that packed Rio’s famed Copacabana beach under a full moon on Saturday, delivering fan favourite hits and words of love for Brazil. The 49-year-old Colombian superstar took the stage dressed in Brazil’s national colours late at night, heralded by drones overhead forming the image of a she-wolf, Shakira’s nickname. “Brazil, I love you! It’s magical to think that here we are, millions of souls together, ready to sing, dance, be moved and remind the world what really matters,” Shakira told the crowd in Portuguese. “Two million people. The she wolf made history in Rio,” city mayor Eduardo Cavaliere wrote on X, citing the official tourism body. The beach has hosted the biggest Man charged over death of Aborigine girl SYDNEY: Police in Australia’s Northern Territory said yesterday they had charged a man with murdering an indigenous girl, days after the 5-year-old’s death sparked violent clashes in an outback town. Jefferson Lewis, 47, was also charged with two other offences, which cannot be publicly disclosed for legal reasons, over the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby, the name by which the victim is known in line with indigenous custom, police said in a statement. “This is an horrific event and an horrific set of circumstances, and our thoughts remain strongly with the family,” Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole said in televised remarks from Alice Springs. Lewis, who had presented himself to one of the camps on the outskirts of the outback town, was charged on Saturday evening and will appear in court in the territory’s capital, Darwin, tomorrow. The girl’s killing and subsequent capture of the suspect, after he was found and beaten unconscious by locals, sparked protests by roughly 400 indigenous people near Alice Springs late on Thursday. Lewis has past convictions for physical assault and had recently been released from prison. Some demonstrators threw projectiles and lit fires, injuring a number of police officers and medical workers and damaging police vehicles, ambulances and fire trucks. Members of the crowd called for payback – traditional, mostly physical, punishment in aboriginal societies. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, local officials and a spokesperson for the victim’s family appealed for calm. The victim’s body was located on Thursday. – Reuters

Shakira dressed in Brazil’s national colours. – AFPPIC

Peru audits election results LIMA: Election officials in Peru said on Saturday they are launching an audit of the first round of the presidential election, three weeks after a vote marred by irregularities. With more than 97% of ballots counted, radical left-wing candidate Roberto Sanchez (12%) and ultraconservative Rafael Lopez Aliaga (11.9%) are neck and-neck, separated by about 27,500 votes. They both trail right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori (17.12%), and only the top two candidates advance to the June 7 runoff. Thousands of tally sheets have been challenged and are under review. The National Jury of Elections (JNE) will carry out a “full and exhaustive IT audit of the first round electoral process” to be conducted by a committee of independent experts from Peru and international specialists, the electoral authority said in a statement. The move aims to strengthen “transparency, integrity and reliability of the electoral results”, JNE said. Election day was marred by logistical problems in the capital, preventing tens of thousands of people from voting until the following day. A slow ballot count followed, during which boxes of ballots were found in a Lima dumpster. Aliaga has called for a new vote to be held in Lima, a city he was once mayor of, but JNE officials rejected his request. Voting is mandatory in Peru, where more than 27 million Peruvians were called on to select new leadership. – AFP

Japanese rally in defence of ‘peaceful’ constitution TOKYO: Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Tokyo for a peace rally and in defence of the “peaceful” Article 9 of the constitution, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported yesterday. renounces war as a means of settling international disputes and forgoes maintaining its own military forces. reading “No to war!”, “No to changing the constitution!” ,“No to militarisation!”, and “Let’s defend the constitution and Article 9”. The rally organisers said that leaflets and placards, which are usually handed out to

The protest took place amid such a dense crowd, compared with previous years, that even first-time participants did not need to find their way, as they could simply follow the crowd leaving the station. Demonstrators held signs

May 3 marks the 79th anniversary of the adoption of the Japanese constitution, known as “peaceful” because of its Article 9, in which Japan

participants, ran out before the event even began. After the rally, participants marched through the city streets. – Bernama

Japanese citizens marking Constitution Memorial Day in Tokyo yesterday. – AFPPIC