Before Swedish slow TV hit “The Great Moose Migration” began airing Tuesday, Ulla Malmgren stocked up on coffee and prepared meals so she doesn’t miss a moment of the 20-day, 24-hour event.

“Sleep? Forget it. I don’t sleep,” she said.

Malmgren, 62, isn’t alone. The show, called “ Den stora älgvandringen ” in Swedish, and sometimes translated as “The Great Elk Trek” in English, began in 2019 with nearly a million people watching. In 2024, the production hit 9 million viewers on SVT Play, the streaming platform for national broadcaster SVT.

The livestream kicked off a week ahead of schedule due to warm weather and early moose movement. Malmgren was ready.

From now until May 4, the livestream’s remote cameras will capture dozens of moose as they swim across the Ångerman River, some 300 kilometers (187 miles) northwest of Stockholm, in the annual spring migration toward summer grazing pastures.

Not much happens for hours at a time, and fans say that’s the beauty of it.

“I feel relaxed, but at the same time I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s a moose. Oh, what if there’s a moose? I can’t go to the toilet!’” said William Garp Liljefors, 20, who has collected more than 150 moose plush toys since 2020.

Slow TV success

“The Great Moose Migration” is part of a trend that began in 2009 with Norwegian public broadcaster NRK’s minute-by-minute airing of a seven-hour train trip across the southern part of the country.

The slow TV style of programming has spread, with productions in the United Kingdom, China and elsewhere. The central Dutch city of Utrecht, for example, installed a “ fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets livestream viewers alert authorities to fish being held up as they migrate to spawning grounds.

Annette Hill, a professor of media and communications at Jönköping University in Sweden, said slow TV has roots in reality television but lacks the staging and therefore feels more authentic for viewers. The productions allow the audience to relax and watch the journey unfold.

“It became, in a strange way, gripping because nothing catastrophic is happening, nothing spectacular is happening,” she said. “But something very beautiful is happening in that minute-by-minute moment.”

As an expert and a fan of “The Great Moose Migration,” Hill said the livestream helps her slow down her day by following the natural rhythms of spring.

“This is definitely a moment to have a calm, atmospheric setting in my own home, and I really appreciate it,” she said.

Nature in your living room

The calming effect extends to the crew, according to Johan Erhag, SVT’s project manager for “The Great Moose Migration.”

“Everyone who works with it goes down in their normal stress,” he said.

The moose have walked the route for thousands of years, making it easy for the crew to know where to lay some 20,000 meters (almost 12 miles) of cable and position 26 remote cameras and seven night cameras. A drone is also used.

The crew of up to 15 people works out of SVT’s control room in Umeå, producing the show at a distance to avoid interfering with the migration.

SVT won’t say how much the production costs, but Erhag said it’s cheap when accounting for the 506 hours of footage aired last year.

Erhag said Swedes have always been fascinated by the roughly 300,000 moose roaming in their woods. The Scandinavian country’s largest animal is known as “King of the Forest.” A bull moose can reach 210 centimeters (6 feet 10 inches) at shoulder height and weigh 450 kilograms (992 pounds).

Despite their size, the herbivores are typically shy and solitary.

“We actually don’t see it very often. You often see it when you’re out driving maybe once or twice in your life,” Erhag said. “I think that’s one thing why it has been so, so popular. And then you bring in the nature to everyone’s living room.”

Hanna Sandberg, 36, first began watching the show in 2019, though she didn’t spot any moose. She tuned in the following year, finally saw some and got hooked.

“You can watch them and be a part of their natural habitat in a way that you could never be otherwise,” she said.

Moose mega-fans

After hours of showing an empty forest, a camera captures footage of a moose approaching the riverbank. Suddenly, slow TV turns urgent.

The push alert hits SVT’s app — “Första älgarna i bild!” which translates to “First moose on camera!” — as viewers worldwide tune in. The livestream’s chat explodes as commenters type encouragement for the animal, now making its way into the water.

”I would actually like to be a little fly on the wall in every household that watches the moose migration. Because I think there is about a million people saying about the same thing: ‘Go on! Yes, you can do it!’” Malmgren said.

Mega-fans like Malmgren, who is in a Facebook group of 76,000-plus viewers, are committed to watching as many hours as possible. Some viewers on Tuesday posted photos of their dogs and cats staring at their televisions, enthralled by the moose on the screen.

“I was late to school because I saw moose and my teacher was like, ‘What, you saw moose in the city?’ And I was like, ‘No, it’s on the TV,’” Garp Liljefors said ahead of Tuesday’s showing.

Malmgren said friends and family have learned not to bother her when the moose are on the move.

“When someone asks me, ‘What are you doing? Oh, never mind, it’s the great migration,’” she said. “They know.”

Putting prisoners of war in front of reporters and news cameras is almost certainly a violation of international humanitarian law.

But Ukraine clearly felt any reputational damage it might suffer by doing so in a news conference this week would be outweighed by the fact that it featured two alleged captured fighters from China.

There was more value in giving them a platform to speak, the argument presumably ran, than protecting them “against insult and public curiosity” – something the International Committee of the Red Cross says includes protection from the media.

China has always claimed neutrality in Russia’s war on Ukraine and repeatedly tells its citizens not to get involved in foreign conflicts. All the same, as a key diplomatic and economic lifeline for Moscow, Beijing’s actions are watched closely in Kyiv.

Dressed in combat fatigues and answering questions in Mandarin, the POWs were watched over by armed Ukrainian security personnel, while a translator sat beside them.

One said he had been looking for a way to earn money after losing his job during the coronavirus pandemic. The prospect of 250,000 rubles (around $3,000) per month in Russia was more than double what he could expect to earn at home.

As someone with experience in medical rehabilitation, he said he told the recruiter he wanted to do the same with the Russian military. But when he got to Moscow, he was forced into training for a combat role.

Documents were only in Russian, which neither man said they understood. One said that he communicated mainly through hand signals.

Once they reached the battlefield, instruction there was also non-verbal. One of the men recounted the chaotic moments that lead up to their capture in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

“When we reached a forest, my captain told me, ‘Da, da, da’ (“Yes, yes, yes” in Russian), signaling me to start the attack. But I did not know where the target was. We passed many Russian positions, and I thought we were heading toward our own bunker. I thought he was joking, so I hid. Then I saw the captain of (another Russian unit) throw in a grenade, and suddenly there were (Ukrainian) drones everywhere.”

The men surrendered. They had been fighting for only three days.

The role of foreign fighters

Foreign fighters have been a part of this war – on both sides – since the beginning.

In January, Ukraine also captured two North Koreans, part of an estimated force of about 14,000 troops sent by Pyongyang to help Moscow’s war effort.

“It is unable to maintain the long front line with its own soldiers alone and is taking every opportunity to recruit whoever it can,” the source said.

Since the announcement of the Chinese men’s capture last week – which was followed by Ukraine declaring it had information on a further 155 Chinese citizens fighting for Russia – considerable interest has focused on how they were recruited and whether China’s government had played an active role in some way.

Certainly, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did nothing to tamp down such speculation when asked by reporters whether he thought the presence of Chinese nationals in Ukraine was the result of official Beijing policy.

“I don’t have an answer to this question yet. The Security Service of Ukraine will work on it,” he said last week, adding, “We are not saying that someone gave any command, we do not have such information.”

But Zelensky went on to say that Kyiv believed that Beijing was aware of what was happening.

The POWs were at pains to indicate otherwise, both saying that they were acting as individuals, pointing to slick recruitment videos posted to TikTok as the source of their inspiration.

One such clip has been circulating on Chinese social media networks for more than a year and appears to have originally been created for a domestic Russian audience, with Chinese subtitles added later.

It shows what appear to be Russian soldiers training and dressed in combat fatigues in the field. “You’re a man, be a man,” it says in Russian, alongside Chinese subtitles, which also explain the payments on offer for signing up.

It is impossible to say if the subtitles were added by an official entity or by social media users, but one of the men said the videos resonated in China, where military prowess is highly prized, but opportunities for direct combat experience are rare.

Why the timing matters

Though Ukraine has hosted news conferences with POWs previously, including one involving combatants from Nepal and several African countries, its decision to platform its Chinese POWs is still unusual.

The timing is important.

It comes amid Kyiv’s attempts to get the upper hand in its battle with Moscow for the ear of US President Donald Trump, whose administration appears to be making little headway in its efforts to convince the Kremlin to agree to a full ceasefire.

Washington has also been heavily focused on China, which some in the White House see as the United States’ main global adversary, and which the administration has been hitting with progressively larger import tariffs.

From Zelensky’s perspective, there is a clear interest in amplifying anything that suggests China’s support for Russia might be more than diplomatic and economic.

But it might not just be the US that Ukraine’s leader is sending a message to.

Anders Puck Nielsen of the Royal Danish Defence College believes Kyiv is also anxious about recent European Union overtures to China, as the two economic powerhouses look for possible joint solutions in the face of Trump’s trade wars.

“It has clearly been a political move to really emphasize this aspect (of Chinese fighters in the Russian army),” he added.

Beijing certainly saw it like that.

“We urge the relevant parties concerned to correctly and soberly understand the role of China and to not release irresponsible remarks,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said, without mentioning names.

The Maldives has banned Israeli passport holders from entering its territory, the president’s office said on Wednesday, accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war, an allegation Israel has repeatedly denied.

Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu ratified an amendment to the country’s immigration law after it was passed by parliament on Tuesday, a statement from his office said.

The amendment introduces a new provision to the Immigration Act, expressly prohibiting the entry of visitors with Israeli passports into the Maldives, it added.

“The ratification reflects the government’s firm stance in response to the continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people,” the statement said.

The Israeli foreign ministry and the country’s consular office in Colombo did not respond to requests for comment.

Israel has consistently rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that prompted the war.

South Africa has brought a case against it at the UN’s International Court of Justice and Amnesty International accused it of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in a report last December, charges it has denied.

Maldives’ Muizzu initially made the call to ban Israeli passport holders in June 2024 after a cabinet recommendation, which prompted the Israeli foreign ministry to recommend that its citizens avoid the archipelago famous for its pristine beaches and plush resorts.

Tourism is a major driver of the Maldives economy, accounting for about 21% of its GDP and earning $5.6 billion in 2024, according to government data. The island nation is expecting earnings of about $5 billion this year.

Nora Aunor, who became one of the biggest stars of Philippine cinema during a career that spanned seven decades, has died.

Aunor died Wednesday, according to social media posts from her children. She was 71. No further details on the cause or place of her death were immediately given.

Filipina actor Lotlot de León said on Instagram that her mother “touched generations with her unmatched talent, grace, and passion for the craft. Her voice, presence, and artistry shaped a legacy that will never fade.”

De León said funeral plans and other details will be shared later.

Aunor, born Nora Cabaltera Villamayor to an impoverished family in eastern Camarines Sur province, sold water in a train station in her hometown in her youth.

She first gained fame in her teens as a singer in the 1960s before moving on to movies. She amassed more than 200 credits in film and television that included many classics of Philippine cinema, and won dozens of acting awards.

Memorable roles included 1976’s “Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos” (“Three Years Without God”), 1984’s “Bulaklak sa City Jail” (“Flowers of the City Jail”) and 1995’s “The Flor Contemplacion Story.”

She swept best actress awards in the country for her performance in 1990’s “Andrea, Paano ba ang Maging Isang Ina?” (“Andrea, What is It Like to be a Mother?”) and won best actress at the Asian Film Awards for her portrayal of a midwife in 2012’s “Thy Womb.”

Aunor was still acting as recently as last year, starring in the film “Mananambal” (“The Healer”) and appearing on the TV series “Lilet Matias, Attorney-at-Law.”

Aunor was named a National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts – the country’s biggest honor for actors – in 2022. In 2014, then-President Benigno Aquino III had denied her the honor because of a previous drug arrest in the US, provoking broad outcry.

Aunor’s lawyer said the 2005 arrest at the Los Angeles airport came because of a pipe found in a bag she did not pack, noting she was traveling with four assistants at the time. The charges were dropped in 2007 after she completed a diversion program, her lawyer said in 2014.

Aunor was married to actor Christopher de León from 1975 until 1996.

She is survived by their children Lotlet, Ian, Matet, Kiko and Kenneth de León.

The proposal, received by Hamas on Monday, outlines an initial framework for a 45-day truce in the Palestinian enclave during which the two sides would aim to negotiate a permanent ceasefire, according to the official.

The Israeli proposal also calls for the disarmament of Gaza, previously a red line for Hamas. It does not include a guarantee of a permanent end to the war, which Hamas has demanded as part of a comprehensive agreement.

The Hamas official said the group will not agree to any Israeli ceasefire proposal that calls for its disarmament or sees Israeli forces return to Gaza after an initial withdrawal, making it unlikely that the group will accept it.

The offer marks Israel’s first proposal to bring back hostages from Gaza since it resumed the war in March. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under intense pressure from hostage families and a growing number of military reservists to reach a deal.

Under the proposal, the hostages would be released in stages, starting with Israeli American Edan Alexander on the first day of the truce as a “special gesture” to the United States, the Hamas official said.

A further nine Israeli hostages would be released in two stages in exchange for 120 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and more than 1,100 detainees held without charge since October 7, 2023, the official added.

Israel’s proposal also demands that Hamas provide information about the remaining living Israeli hostages held by the group, “in exchange for information about the Palestinian detainees,” and the release of the bodies of 16 deceased Israeli hostages in exchange for the remains of 160 deceased Palestinians held by Israel.

The “temporary ceasefire lasting 45 days” would also include the cessation of military operations and the entry of aid into Gaza as well as “an agreed mechanism to ensure that aid reaches only civilians,” the Hamas official said.

The proposal would also include the entry of equipment necessary for sheltering Palestinians displaced in Gaza.

A Hamas delegation met with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo over the weekend. Israel has not publicly acknowledged whether it sent a team to the negotiations.

Since early March, Israel has cut Gaza off from the supply of humanitarian aid including food, with aid agencies warning that the situation for the strip’s 2 million civilians has deteriorated dangerously, only worsened by intensive Israeli military operations.

Israel’s move to block aid came ahead of its renewed military offensive in the enclave, in what it said was a bid to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages and impose new conditions on a ceasefire that was in effect at the time. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since mid-March, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave.

Under the new ceasefire proposal, the Israeli military would withdraw for seven days from parts of Gaza including the southern city of Rafah, some areas of the north and the east of Gaza City, according to the Hamas official.

“Negotiations for a permanent ceasefire should be completed within 45 days,” after which the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas, both living and deceased, would be released to Israel, the official said.

“If an agreement is reached on the temporary ceasefire, it can be extended under conditions and for a duration agreed upon by the two parties… if the period ends without an agreement, it will be extended in exchange for new prisoners.”

‘Steps are underway’ to reach a deal

On Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said that “steps are underway” to reach a new hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza, while speaking to the family of hostage Eitan Mor.

One of the groups representing hostages’ families, the Tikva Forum, confirmed the conversation and said that Netanyahu had updated the Mor family “on the progress of the negotiations for the release of 10 abductees alive.”

Israeli media have also reported that the negotiations are for the release of 10 hostages, but the prime minister’s office has not confirmed the number.

Also on Sunday, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said on Telegram that while Hamas had a positive attitude to any proposal “based on halting the aggression and the withdrawal of occupation forces… we will not accept a shift toward a fragmented process limited to a food-for-prisoners (hostages) deal.”

Police have arrested two people suspected of breeding and selling exotic cats in Spain.

Officers detained the pair at a property in Manacor, on the island of Majorca, after finding 19 exotic cats including a desert lynx and two servals, according to a statement from the Guardia Civil on Monday.

“The detainees sold different animal species such as white tigers, black leopards, hyenas and pumas to different parts of the world via the internet,” police said.

Investigators seized extensive documentation as well as more than 40 animal passports from Russia, Belarus and China, as well as two computers, three cellphones and two pen drives, according to the statement.

“The operation has uncovered a global criminal organization which included breeders, traffickers and veterinarians,” it added.

The investigation started in March when the nature protection service (Seprona) received reports that a couple were breeding exotic cats at a property in Majorca before selling them online.

Authorities said that the couple had an “extremely active” presence on social media and that the breeding operation in Majorca was just “the tip of the iceberg.”

The couple are accused of being part of an international wildlife trafficking network that saw the majority of animals being smuggled into the European Union from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine via the Poland-Belarus border, according to the Guardia Civil.

Species offered for sale included a clouded leopard with an asking price of 60,000 euros ($68,000), police said.

The seized animals, which included 16 mixed breeds, have been temporarily placed at the Safari Zoo de Son Servera in Majorca.

They will later be permanently rehomed in Alicante, mainland Spain.

These species require lots of space and can also be dangerous to humans, the Guardia Civil said.

As a result, traffickers have started trying to breed species such as desert lynx with domestic cats in order to produce exclusive but less dangerous animals, added the statement.

All of the seized animals are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international agreement for the protection of certain species.

The couple are accused of wildlife crimes, smuggling, falsifying documents and criminal conspiracy.

According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the European Union is thought to be the third largest destination for illegal wildlife as well as “a crucial transit hub for illegal wildlife trade.”

Several French prisons were attacked overnight in response to government efforts to clamp down on drug trafficking, senior officials said on Tuesday, as authorities grapple with what they have called a “tsunami” of cocaine coming into the country.

Unknown assailants fired automatic weapons at the prison in the southern city of Toulon, while vehicles were burned outside other lockups across the country and staff were threatened. It was not immediately clear whether the attacks were coordinated, or who carried them out.

Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, who has led efforts to toughen prison security and crack down on gangsters who run their empires from behind bars, said he would travel to Toulon.

“Attempts have been made to intimidate staff in several prisons, ranging from burning vehicles to firing automatic weapons,” Darmanin wrote on X. “I am going to Toulon to support the officers concerned. The French Republic is facing up to the problem of drug trafficking and is taking measures that will massively disrupt the criminal networks.”

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he had instructed local prefects, alongside the police and gendarmerie, to immediately step up the protection of staff and prisons.

“The State’s response must be implacable,” he wrote on X. “Those who attack prisons and prison officers should be locked up in these prisons and watched over by these officers.”

French media reported that the prisons targeted included Toulon, Aix-En-Provence, Marseille, Valence, and Nimes in southern France and Villepinte and Nanterre, near Paris.

Years of record South American cocaine imports to Europe have supercharged local drug markets, sparking a wave of drug violence across the continent.

France has not been spared, with record cocaine seizures, and gangs reaping windfalls from the white powder as they expand from traditional power bases in cities like Marseille into smaller regional towns unaccustomed to drug violence.

The rise in gang crime has lifted support for the far-right National Rally party, and helped drag French politics rightward. Darmanin, a former interior minister, and Retailleau have prioritized tackling drug trafficking.

In February – as he announced record cocaine seizures of 47 tonnes in the first 11 months of 2024, versus 23 tonnes in all of 2023 – Retailleau said France had been hit by a “white tsunami” that had rewritten the rules of the criminal landscape.

Darmanin has proposed a series of measures to tighten prison security, including isolating the country’s top 100 kingpins.

Lawmakers are also close to approving a sweeping new anti-drug trafficking law that would create a new national organized crime prosecutors’ office and give greater investigative power to police probing narcos.

French authorities scored a win against drug crime in February, when they recaptured Mohamed Amra, a French fugitive known as “The Fly.” His escape as he was being transported from prison to a court hearing resulted in the deaths of two prison guards and was seized upon by right-wing politicians as evidence that France had lost its grip on drug crime.