PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, June 10: British papers talk about the unrest in Belfast in the aftermath of a knife stabbing. Next: what does it mean to be a trillionaire? Elon Musk might soon find out. Also: Pope Leo met with Bad Bunny, but the Vatican says it won't be releasing the photos. Finally, donkeys enjoy new socks from Arsenal Football Club.
Papers are discussing the violent protests that erupted in Belfast after a stabbing there. The Scottish Sun writes that it sees "evil" in the eyes of the Sudanese migrant who attacked a man in Belfast. On the front page, we can also read "Barbarism on British street" and "Crazed migrant hacking at helpless victim". Messages like these have fuelled calls for anti-immigration protests, backed by the far right. The Independent cites the pleas for calm after the "sickening attack". Northern Ireland's Prime Minister Michelle O'Neill wrote on X: "There are dangerous attempts to exploit that (the stabbing) to target and attack innocent people (...) Racism, intimidation and violence are wrong wherever they occur". The same message is echoed in the headline of The Irish News, which reads "violence is never the solution". The Belfast Telegraph writes that the world's richest man, Elon Musk, has backed the anti-immigration protests in Belfast, seizing the opportunity to promote his own anti-immigration agenda.
Speaking of Musk, the billionaire could soon become the world's first trillionaire if the initial public offering of his rocket company SpaceX goes as planned. The headline of an opinion piece in The Guardian reads "Think Musk the billionaire was bad? Brace yourself for Musk the trillionaire". To put it in perspective: to a trillionaire, $100 million feel like what $19 feel like for ordinary people. The author says that the big issue isn't how this will affect Musk's inner world – he seems pretty angry all the time – but what it's going to do to democracy. The New York Times says that Musk's case demonstrates "why there has been such a rapid rise in the concentration of wealth at the top". Fifteen years ago, the top billionaires had together around $4.5 trillion. Today, their combined wealth totals a bit more than $20 trillion – that's nearly one-fifth of the entire world's total yearly output. The paper explains that one reason for this rapid rise is the boom in artificial intelligence, which has attracted massive capital investment in a handful of companies.
We turn next to Barcelona, where Pope Leo XIV has arrived for a two-day visit and the inauguration of the Sagrada Familia basilica. The New York Times spoke to one of the pope's best friends who lives in Spain, Armando Jesus Lovera. They became close friends in the 1990s in Peru. They stayed tight, the paper says, and share a love for music, mathematics and long road trips. Lovera says that now they love to call and talk about cars. Rolling Stone reports that the pope also met with Bad Bunny, since both are touring Spain. The Vatican doesn't plan to release any images of the tête-à-tête meeting. A journalist from The Cut begs: "Please show us the photos". She says that they certainly had a lot to talk about, like human rights and being on Trump's personal hit list.
Finally, The Washington Post reports that rescue donkeys have been spotted wearing socks from Arsenal Football Club after a generous donation.
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