It's that bizarre time of the year again, when Europe eccentrically sings and dances while the rest of the world stares in awe.
It's Eurovision, and contestants are gearing up for the first round of the semi-finals.
But with one foot out of Europe, will the UK be affected by Brexit's bad blood?
For Lucie Jones, the 26-year-old hopeful representing the UK in the contest, the thought hasn't crossed her mind.
"I am really not thinking about Brexit," she said.
"There is this political vote every year that people talk about and yes, this year is slightly different with the sort of political climate going on, but it is something that I am not concentrating on.
"It's out of my hands so there is no point in worrying or thinking about it, I am just letting it pass me by."
The former X Factor contestant will perform the song Never Give Up On You in Tuesday's first round, hoping to claim victory for the UK for the first time in 20 years.
With accusations of tactical voting every year, this year's competition - the first since the EU referendum in June 2016 and the triggering of Article 50 in March - could mean we are facing a bigger challenge than ever before.
But according to analysts, our chances this year are unlikely to be affected by Brexit.
Two of the five UK winners in the contest's 61-year history took the crown before we joined the EU.
And in recent years, being a member has hardly done the UK any favours, with Spain continuously awarding 'nul points' and France giving its nod of approval just three times since 1999.
But while Brexit may not have an impact, that is not to say politics won't come into it.
This year, Russia pulled out of the contest after Ukraine authorities banned its entrant, Julia Samoylova, because she had previously toured in Crimea after its annexation.
So what's the secret to Eurovision success?
"You need that dream team, the support from the public and, obviously, a good song," Jones said.
"It's a different feel outside the UK this year, and also within the UK about Eurovision in general - but haters are going to hate and it's not for everyone.
"There is a really great team of people working for the UK in Eurovision now and the British public are behind us this year, which feels great."
ABUJA, May 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Some of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted three years ago by Islamist Boko Haram militants refused to be part of a group of 82 girls freed at the weekend, a mediator involved in the release said on Monday.
The militants on Saturday released 82 schoolgirls out of the more than 200 they kidnapped in April 2014 from northeast Nigeria in exchange for prisoners.
Yet mediator and lawyer Zannah Mustapha said some of the abducted girls had refused to go home, fuelling fears that they have been radicalised by the jihadists, and may feel afraid, ashamed or even too powerful to return to their old lives.
"Some girls refused to return ... I have never talked to one of the girls about their reasons," said 57-year-old Mustapha, who acted as an intermediary in the latest negotiations between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram.
"As a mediator, it is not part of my mandate to force them (to return home)," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in the capital Abuja.
The return of the 82 girls on Saturday marked the second group release of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram - with both deals brokered by Switzerland and the International Committee of the Red Cross - after 21 young women were released in October.
A few others have escaped or been rescued, and 113 of the girls are believed to be still held in captivity by Boko Haram.
The latest release may give a boost to President Muhammadu Buhari, who made crushing the militants' insurgency a pillar of his election campaign in 2015, and said in April that the state was in talks to secure the release of the remaining captives.
Yet many women and girls abducted by Boko Haram identify with their captors, may not want to give up their new lives with their militant husbands, or feel forced to stay due to fear or shame, according to Nigerian psychologist Fatima Akilu.
"They develop Stockholm syndrome, identify with captors and want to remain," said Akilu, who has run deradicalisation programmes for Boko Haram militants and women abducted by them.
"Some are afraid of what to expect, the unknown. We don't know how much influence their husbands have in coercing them not to go back," added Akilu, head of the Neem Foundation, a non-profit group aimed at countering extremism in Nigeria.
NEGOTIATING FOR PEACE
Future talks between Nigeria and Boko Haram militants will extend beyond the release of the remaining Chibok girls in captivity and focus on negotiating peace in the conflict-hit northeast, according to Mustapha.
His role as a mediator dates back to 2007, when he founded the Future Prowess primary school in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state. When conflict broke out in 2009, the school remained open and even enrolled those children born to Boko Haram fighters.
The Islamists have killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year insurgency aimed at carving out an Islamic caliphate in mainly Muslim northeastern Nigeria.
"We are not just talking ... we are still actively working towards peace," Mustapha said.
"Even though we have got (some of) the girls back, I don't feel we have made much progress. After the (release of) the 21 girls, how many hundreds have been killed by suicide bombings?"
Although the army has retaken much of the territory initially lost to Boko Haram, large parts of the northeast, particularly in Borno, remain under threat from the militants, who have ramped up bombings and attacks in recent months.
The release of the 82 Chibok girls could be a sign that the militants are weakening further, raising hopes that the remaining captives will be freed one day, said security analyst Ryan Cummings, head of risk management consultancy Signal Risk.
"While Boko Haram may indeed hold out in releasing all of the hostages to maintain some form of leverage, the reality is that the girls have limited value to the sect outside of public relations capital and are likely placing a strain on resources."
(Reporting By Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, Additional Reporting and Writing By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith and Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
North Korea's ambassador to the UK has told Sky News his country will go ahead with its sixth nuclear test at the time and place of its leader's choosing.
In his first interview in the role, ambassador Choe Il said his country would continue its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes in spite of intentional warnings against them, and dismissed UN sanctions as having no legal grounds, and no effect.
"In regards to the sixth nuclear test, I do not know the scheduled time for it, as I am here in the UK, not in my home country," Mr Choe said.
"However, I can say that the nuclear test will be conducted at the place and time as decided by our supreme leader, Kim Jong-Un."
Sky News asked the ambassador whether he was concerned about the prospect of US military action, which President Donald Trump's administration has said is one of the options now being considered.
"If we were afraid of it, we probably would not have started conducting nuclear tests or launching ballistic missiles," the ambassador said.
He added: "We are developing our nuclear strength to respond to that kind of attack by the US.
"If the US attack us, our military and people are fully ready to respond to any kind of attack."
He said a pre-emptive strike on his country would not be possible because they would turn US assets in the region "to ashes" at the first sign of movement towards an attack.
"The US cannot attack us first," the ambassador said, adding: "If the US moves an inch, then we are ready to turn to ashes any available strategic assets of the US."
Mr Trump has sent what he calls a "powerful armada" led by the USS Carl Vinson to the waters off the Korean Peninsula, where it has been carrying out exercises with South Korea's navy.
The United States is thought to be readying new sanctions in the event of another nuclear test.
But the ambassador said his country had been living under sanctions for the last six decades, and more sanctions would make no difference to their nuclear ambitions.
He denied his government's pursuit of nuclear weapons was making the lives of his people harder.
"I do not think our nuclear development has made our people's lives difficult. Our nuclear power is a result of the US hostile policy against us," the ambassador said.
"Our nuclear power is our sovereign right. It is the only way to protect the peace of the Korean Peninsula and the region."
He claimed UN Security Council sanctions were evidence of a double standard and had no basis in international law.
"The UN Security Council has been sanctioning against us whenever we launch missiles or satellites and carry out nuclear tests," he said.
"As the sanctions do not have any legal grounds, we do not care about them, nor accept them."
Sky News asked the ambassador whether his country would be prepared to stop anywhere short of a deliverable nuclear warhead - whether a formal peace treaty or the protection of China's nuclear deterrent would convince them to suspend their programme and return to negotiations.
"The only way to protect our country is that we strengthen our power enough to suppress any enemy countries," Mr Choe said.
"This is the only way to protect our peace and security. This is a lesson we felt in our bones."
He said his country had learned the lesson of US military interventions elsewhere.
"As you have read on newspapers, the US has been attacking only the weak countries, including Afghanistan and Libya," he said.
"They cannot actually attack the strong countries, although they talk about it.
"We have to have nuclear power. We have shown our strong military power and nuclear power this April. Because of our strong military power, the US could not attack us first."
This was a rare and frank interview, and the bottom line is clear - North Korea intends to continue pursuing nuclear weapons - regardless of the consequences.
Theresa May says she is "fed up with rip-off energy prices" and will cap bill increases if the Conservatives win the next election.
Writing in The Sun newspaper, the Prime Minister confirms plans unveiled last month to protect gas and electricity customers on standard variable tariffs from "sudden and unjustified" increases.
"It is clear to me that the energy market is not working for ordinary working families. Too many people simply aren't getting a fair deal," she says.
"So I am making this promise: if I am re-elected on June 8, I will take action to end this injustice by introducing a cap on unfair energy price rises".
Mrs May quotes a government backed report last year which found "households are already paying £1.4bn a year more than they need to".
But political rivals have accused the Conservatives of hypocrisy.
In 2015 Labour made capping utility bills a central policy in its manifesto which David Cameron cited as proof the leader wanted to live in a "Marxist universe".
The Liberal Democrats' Ed Davey said: "It is never a good idea to copy the economic strategy of Ed Miliband.
Jeremy Corbyn says he hopes the General Election will be a "day of reckoning" for those he says have been "asset stripping our industry, crashing our economy through their greed".
Today the Labour Leader will launch his battle bus saying the Conservative Party is to blame for "tax cheats" and "greedy bankers" - and he wants to "ruin their party".
He will say: "When Labour wins there will be a reckoning for those who thought they could get away with asset stripping our industry, crashing our economy through their greed and ripping off workers and consumers."
He will add: "Don't wake on up on 9 June to see celebrations from the tax cheats, the press barons, the greedy bankers, Philip Green, the Southern Rail directors and crooked financiers that take our wealth, who have got away with it because the party they own, the Conservative Party, has won.
"We have four weeks to ruin their party. We have four weeks to take our wealth back."
While being clear that the super-rich will be his target for greater scrutiny and taxation, Mr Corbyn will claim that a Labour win would be a victory for nurses, teachers, builders and office workers.
On the EU negotiations he will talk about negotiating a "jobs-first Brexit".
On Monday, Theresa May made clear one of her Brexit red lines was controlling immigration and hitting the long-failed tens of thousands target. The Labour camp believe this is a real contrast in their priorities.
However, in an interview for the New Statesman, Labour's London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, said there was "an issue on the doorstep, which is people are unclear about the Labour position (on Brexit) nationally".
He added "Everyone's clear about my position in London, you know where you stand with the Tories - extreme hard Brexit - you know where you stand with the Lib Dems: they wish the referendum had never happened and want a second one. People are less clear about Labour's position nationally."
The White House was warned that Donald Trump's national security adviser Michael Flynn "could be blackmailed" after apparently lying to his bosses about contacts with Russian officials.
The former acting attorney general Sally Yates has spoken publicly for the first time about her concerns over Mr Flynn's conduct in the early days of the Trump administration.
Her testimony to a hearing of a Senate sub-committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election was the most detailed account yet of events that led to Mr Flynn leaving the White House in February.
The Trump administration, including vice president Mike Pence, had repeatedly insisted that the former US Army general had not discussed American sanctions in conversations with the Russian ambassador to the US.
But Ms Yates went to the White House to warn officials that they had been misled about the nature of those calls between Mr Flynn and Sergey Kislyak, which took place before Mr Trump was inaugurated.
It took 18 days before he was relieved of his duties, after the story was revealed by the Washington Post.
Ms Yates told the hearing: "We felt like it was critical that we get this information to the White House, in part because the vice president was making false statements to the public and because we believed that General Flynn was possibly compromised.
"This was a problem because not only did we believe that the Russians knew this but that they likely had proof of this information.
"And that created a compromise situation where the national security adviser could be blackmailed by the Russians."
The conversation took place two days after the FBI interviewed Mr Flynn about those contacts. He is also facing questions about business connections to Russia and Turkey.
Ms Yates was fired by Mr Trump after refusing to enforce the president's controversial travel ban on people from a number of majority Muslim countries.
The hearing took place hours after former Obama administration officials revealed that the outgoing president had warned Mr Trump against hiring Mr Flynn during an Oval Office meeting after the 2016 election.
The hearing brought the issue of the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russian officials back into the public eye.
The president himself had earlier tweeted that it was Obama administration which had given Mr Flynn "the highest security clearance" when he worked at the Pentagon. Mr Flynn had been fired by the Obama administration in 2014.
Mr Trump has dismissed FBI and congressional investigations into his campaign and Russia as a "hoax". He says he has no ties to Russia, but the investigations are expected to last into next year.
The former director of national intelligence, James Clapper, told the hearing that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election.
"They must be congratulating themselves because this exceeded their wildest expectations," he said.
He said the lessons of 2016 should be a "clarion call" for vigilance and action in future elections.
A Royal Navy warship has shadowed a Russian submarine through the English Channel.
HMS Somerset located the Kilo-class Krasnodar vessel off the east coast of the UK on Friday morning.
The Plymouth-based Type 23 frigate then followed it through the Strait of Dover over the weekend.
Commander Tim Berry, who is in charge HMS Somerset, said: "Policing the sea both in home waters and further afield is core business for the Royal Navy.
"Escorting foreign warships, in this case a Russian submarine, through UK waters is just part of our ongoing effort to protect our island nation."
The ships' weapons include a 4.5in main gun that can fire 40kg shells more than a dozen miles away, and a Hapoon missile than travels at Mach 0.9 and can hit targets at a distance of 80 miles.
RAF jets are also often scrambled to watch Russian military planes that fly close to UK airspace.
In February, Typhoons were deployed from Lossiemouth in Scotland and Coningsby in Lincolnshire to monitor two nuclear-capable Tupolev TU-160 Blackjack bombers
