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The Cannes Film Festival unveiled its roster of films for this year's edition on Thursday packed with historical dramas, "gentleness" and even football, with the absence of major Hollywood studios set to dial down the American razzle-dazzle of previous editions.

Festival director Thierry Fremaux unveiled 21 films in competition for the main Palme d'Or prize, featuring former winners, newcomers and strong showings from Spain and Japan.

Frontrunners for the top prize will include Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda with AI-themed "Sheep in the Box", Cristian Mungiu from Romania with "Fjord", and Russian auteur Andrey Zvyagintsev, whose film "Minotaur" focuses on wealthy Russians confronted with conscription.

Spanish veteran and Cannes favourite Pedro Almodovar will appear for the seventh time with Spanish civil war drama "Amarga Navidad" ("Bitter Christmas"), while exiled Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi will represent Iran with "Histoires Paralleles" ("Parallel Tales").

Commenting on the selection for the festival, set for May 12 to 23 in the posh French Riviera resort city, Fremaux said many Western films were a form of escapism from the grim reality of current affairs, with a focus on "gentleness, songs, nature", while others were "bringing history into the present".

Introducing the French film "Quelques Mots d'Amour" ("A Few Love Words") by Rudi Rosenberg, he quipped: "You see? We all need some love and gentleness."

Around 2,500 films were submitted for selection in total, which Fremaux said underlined the vitality of the cinema industry, which is struggling with viewers switching to streaming and home entertainment.

- Hollywood -

Out of competition, there will be a surprising amount of football at the high temple of French cinema, with documentaries about legendary forward Eric Cantona and the England-Argentina 1986 World Cup match featuring a notorious handball from Diego Maradona.

American A-listers look set to be less prominent than in recent history at the 79th edition of Cannes, although Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart are set to star in the Paris-set "Full Phil" by French director Quentin Dupieux.

"The United States will be represented. The (Hollywood) studios a bit less," Fremaux said, while recalling the world premieres of "Top Gun: Maverick" and the last edition of "Mission: Impossible" in previous editions.

Tom Cruise arrived on the red carpet by helicopter in 2022 as eight French fighter jets flew overhead.

Some industry insiders have speculated that Hollywood majors are turning away from European festivals as platforms for film premieres, preferring their own social media-led launches as less risky options.

Plane-mad US movie legend John Travolta will bring some serious stardust to Cannes, however, when he presents his directorial debut, "Propeller One-Way Night Coach", about a young boy's journey in the "golden age of aviation".

Hollywood and Broadway legend Barbra Streisand will also be on Cannes' famed waterfront boulevard to receive the festival's Honorary Palme d'Or, as will New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson, best known for "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

American director Steven Soderbergh will present a documentary on John Lennon, titled "The Last Interview".

- Politics -

Last year's Cannes, like other European festivals in Berlin and Venice in previous years, was the scene of fierce wrangling about whether the industry and organisers should take a stronger stand on Israel's devastation of Gaza.

Hundreds of film figures, including "Schindler's List" actor Ralph Fiennes and Richard Gere, denounced "genocide" in the territory in an open letter released on the eve of the event.

The Berlin Film Festival in February found itself at the centre of a storm after jury president Wim Wenders, when asked about the German government's support for Israel, replied: "We cannot really enter the field of politics."

"People often say that Cannes is political when the films are political, when the filmmakers are political," Fremaux told AFP on Thursday, saying that in his view art was "very often political".

The festival itself needed to remain neutral and "does not take political positions", he added.

South Korean filmmaker Park Chan‑wook ("Oldboy" and "No Other Choice") will be head of the competition jury this year.

The 2025 edition gave the top prize to dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and his wry thriller "It Was Just an Accident".

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Alana Anisio Rosa, 20, politely turned down the man from her gym who kept sending her flowers and chocolates. A month later, he burst into her home and stabbed her around 50 times with a pocket knife.

Her mother, Jaderluce Anisio de Oliveira, 53, was confronted by the scene in February after returning early to their home in Sao Goncalo, a city across the bay from Rio de Janeiro.

"He just kept stabbing her, over and over again," Oliveira told AFP. "I pulled him off her. My entire living room was covered in blood."

As Alana emerged from an induced coma and recovered from multiple surgeries in the following weeks, videos on TikTok went viral in Brazil of men beating and stabbing mannequins with the slogan: "Training in case she says 'no.'"

Oliveira said that her daughter's attacker "followed this specific type of content," on social media.

In Brazil, alarm is rising about a surge in misogynistic "Red Pill" content online, which experts warn may be contributing to crimes against women in a country already struggling with high rates of gender-based violence.

In January, after a 17-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by five teenagers in Rio, one of the suspects turned himself in to police wearing a T-shirt that read "Regret Nothing" -- a phrase linked to prominent "Red Pill" influencers.

Two months later, a military policeman was arrested for allegedly shooting his wife, who wanted a divorce. In text messages published by local media, he describes himself as an "alpha male," saying she should be an "obedient, submissive, beta female."

Daniel Cara, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) who has researched "Red Pill" culture -- an international phenomenon -- said it both "legitimizes and encourages," violence against women.

- 'Radicalization of men' -

Brazil recorded 1,568 murders of women in 2025, the highest number since femicide -- a specific, aggravated form of homicide -- became a crime a decade ago.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said recently that "men are becoming increasingly inhuman and violent."

Estela Bezerra, the head of Brazil's office on violence against women, told AFP she believes online misogyny plays a big role.

"This 'Red Pill' content is, fundamentally, hate speech. It propagates a set of values that threatens to drag our society... back into an era of barbarism."

The term comes from the 1999 hit film "The Matrix", in which taking a red pill reveals a hidden and often uncomfortable truth.

A study by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro showed that 123 YouTube channels containing hate speech and promoting control over women had 23 million subscribers in March 2026.

This number grew 18 percent in two years.

Flavio Rolim, head of the police's cyber hate crime unit, told AFP that while not everyone consuming this kind of content turns to violence, there was a "process of radicalization," of men.

This starts with exposure to an ideology of "veiled violence" in which men aggrieved by feminism promote a return to traditional gender roles and male dominance in relationships.

Some men then migrate to online communities that share "videos of women being physically assaulted. All day long, content depicting women being raped circulates there."

-'Dehumanization of an entire gender'-

Once hidden in the dark recesses of the web, this content is now easy to find.

A quick scroll by AFP through one Telegram group showed memes about rape or videos of women being beaten. On some platforms, it has become commonplace to describe women as "rapeable," or not.

"This gives rise to a phenomenon that goes beyond mere desensitization: it is the dehumanization of an entire gender," said Rolim.

In February, a police operation targeted Brazilian men involved in an international network who would drug and rape women and share videos of the abuse.

Some conservative commentators argue the "Red Pill" movement is primarily about male self‑improvement and has no link to femicide.

"They've just made the Red Pill movement a scapegoat, blaming them for this and that, even though this sort of thing has been going on for years," Raiam Santos, a Brazilian influencer frequently associated with the community, said on YouTube.

Experts are particularly concerned about how this content has seeped into the algorithms of young people.

Rolim said the police had found groups of 15 or 16-year-olds in chat groups saying: "Why would I date a girl when I can just rape her?"

At a school in Rio de Janeiro, Ana Elizabeth Barcelos Barbosa, 13, told AFP that influencers pushing the idea that "a women's sole purpose is to serve men" is eroding girls' self-esteem.

"We start wondering: Are they actually telling the truth?" she said.

Growing concern over the phenomenon has led to a flurry of recent legislative proposals.

Lawmaker Reimont Luiz Otoni Santa Barbara has introduced the "Red Pill Bill," aimed at criminalizing content that he says promotes violence against women.

Another bill approved by the Senate last month aims to classify misogyny as a crime similar to racism.

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Defending champion Rory McIlroy was set for an early start on Thursday as golf legends Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson made ceremonial tee shots to begin the 90th Masters.

Firm and fast conditions are expected for the field of 91 at Augusta National, where McIlroy will try to become only the fourth back-to-back green jacket winner after Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods.

Golf's elder icons drew applause from a crowd gathered near the first tee in the early morning light for the honorary starters.

Nicklaus, 86, won six of his record 18 major titles at the Masters while 90-year-old South African Player captured three of his nine majors at Augusta National and Watson, 76, took two Masters titles and five British Opens among his eight major wins.

Second-ranked McIlroy, a five-time major winner from Northern Ireland, tees off in the first round at 10:31 a.m. (1431 GMT) alongside Americans Cameron Young, the world number three who won last month's Players Championship, and Mason Howell, last year's US Amateur winner.

World number one Scottie Scheffler, a four-time major champion, launches his quest for a third Masters crown in five seasons at 1:44 p.m. in the penultimate group alongside fellow American Gary Woodland and Scotsman Robert MacIntyre.

Conditions are expected to produce a hard surface with lightning-fast greens where approach shots will struggle to stay in position.

Other expected challengers for the title include LIV Golf stars Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, both two-time major champions.

American Xander Schauffele and England's Matt Fitzpatrick are among other past major winners expected to contend.

A host of golfers seeking their first major victory include Sweden's Ludvig Aberg and England's Tommy Fleetwood.

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Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, Spain's Pedro Almodovar and Russia's Andrey Zvyagintsev will be among 21 directors vying for the coveted Palme d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival next month, organisers said on Thursday.

Festival director Thierry Fremaux revealed a list of films in the main competition, including three from Japan and three from Spain, while major Hollywood studios are set to be notable in their absence on the French Riviera. 

Other frontrunners for the top prize will include Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda, who won the 2018 competition with "Shoplifters", and former winner Cristian Mungiu from Romania, whose new film "Fjord" is set in Norway and stars Renate Reinsve.

Out of competition, there will be a surprising amount of football at the high temple of French cinema, with documentaries about legendary forward Eric Cantona and the England-Argentina 1986 World Cup match featuring a notorious handball from Diego Maradona.

American A-listers will be thin on the ground at the 79th edition of Cannes, although Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart are set to star in the Paris-set "Full Phil" by French director Quentin Dupieux.

"The United States will be represented. The studios a bit less," Fremaux told a press conference in Paris.

Organisers had already announced that plane-mad US movie legend John Travolta will present his directorial debut "Propeller One-Way Night Coach" out of competition about a young boy's journey in the "golden age of aviation".

Fremaux noted the high number of historical films at Cannes this year, as well as movies that provide some escapism from the grim realities of current affairs.

"We realised that the Western world needs gentleness, songs, nature, and that the countries of the Global South, as people say... need security, need prosperity and need to provide care for children and families," he added.

Hollywood and Broadway legend Barbra Streisand will be awarded the festival's customary Honorary Palme d'Or this year, as will New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson, best known for "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Filmmaker Park Chan‑wook will be head of the jury that will award the Palme d'Or, the most prestigious prize in the film industry after the Oscar for best film.

The director of "Oldboy" and "No Other Choice" most recently is the first South Korean to hold the position and replaces French acting legend Juliette Binoche who held the role last year.

The 2025 edition gave the top prize to dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and his wry thriller "It Was Just an Accident".

European film festivals have recently found themselves drawn into the conflicts raging in the Middle East and Israel's bombardment of Gaza in particular.

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The emperor penguin has been declared an endangered species as climate change pushes the icon of Antarctica a step closer to extinction, the global authority on threatened wildlife announced on Thursday.

Its change of status from "near threatened" to "endangered", made by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), underscores the existential threat for ice-dependent species as global warming profoundly reshapes the frozen continent.

Emperor penguins rely on stable sea ice -- essentially platforms of frozen ocean water -- to live, hunt and breed.

Their numbers have plummeted as warming driven by greenhouse gas emissions has caused sea ice to break up earlier in the year. 

The IUCN -- a global network of scientists, governments and conservation groups -- said changes in sea ice were expected to halve the emperor penguin population by the 2080s.

They "concluded that human-induced climate change poses the most significant threat to emperor penguins", Philip Trathan, part of the IUCN expert group who worked on the Red List assessment, said in a statement.

The Red List of Threatened Species is maintained by the IUCN and is the global reference on the extinction status of plants, animals and fungi.

There are six classifications from "least concern" to "extinct". 

Emperor penguins now rank two steps below "extinction in the wild" -- a species surviving in captivity only, and not in nature.

The Antarctic fur seal -- once hunted to near extinction for their pelts -- was also moved to "endangered", their numbers having dropped more than 50 percent since 1999.

"The ongoing decline is due to climate change, as rising ocean temperatures and shrinking sea ice are pushing krill to greater ocean depths in search of colder water, reducing the availability of food for seals," the IUCN said.

- 'Icons on ice' - 

The largest and heaviest of the penguin species, boasting a brilliant golden-orange streak on the neck, emperor penguins have become symbolic of the fight to survive in Antarctica's harsh climes.

They breed on the sea ice in the dead of winter, the males keeping their eggs warm beneath their feet. 

The frozen surface also provides a habitat for their chicks during moulting season before they are waterproof.

Antarctic sea ice undergoes huge seasonal changes, expanding during winter and shrinking in summer.

But as global temperatures have reached new highs, sea ice has retreated earlier in the spring and become less stable. 

Sea ice has been at record low levels since 2016 and the impact on emperor penguins has been well documented.

Satellite imagery indicates around 20,000 adults -- some 10 percent of the population -- disappeared between 2009 and 2018 alone, the IUCN said.

"This species is closely associated with sea ice and ice packs," Christophe Barbraud, a scientist at French research institute CNRS, told AFP.

"However, since 2016-2017, there has been a significant decrease in the extent of sea ice around Antarctica, and therefore without sea ice, it will have great difficulty surviving." 

"The fate of these magnificent birds is in our hands," Rod Downie from conservation group WWF said in a statement.

"With the shocking decline in Antarctic sea ice that we are currently witnessing, these icons on ice may well be heading down the slippery slope towards extinction by the end of this century -- unless we act now."  

The IUCN also moved the southern elephant seal from "least concern" to "vulnerable" following sharp population declines caused by a deadly contagious pathogen.

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The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Spain embassy - 

Spain will reopen its embassy in Iran, which was closed in March due to the war, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said.

- China on Lebanon - 

A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said "Lebanon's sovereignty and security should not be violated. The safety of civilian lives and property must be guaranteed" and that Beijing was urging "a cooling down of the regional situation."

- UK on Lebanon - 

British Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper said "we do strongly want to see the ceasefire extended to Lebanon."

"I'm deeply troubled about the escalating attacks that we saw from Israel in Lebanon yesterday," she told Sky News.

- France on Lebanon -

France's foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, condemned Israel's continuing strikes on Lebanon, calling them "all the more unacceptable as they undermine the temporary ceasefire reached yesterday between the United States and Iran."

- Lebanon day of mourning -

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam declared Thursday a national day of mourning after Israeli strikes pummelled the country, killing at least 182 people and wounding 890, according to the health ministry.

The strikes were Israel's heaviest on neighbouring Lebanon -- including in densely packed central Beirut -- since the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah joined the war in early March.

- Hezbollah fires at Israel -

Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said it had fired rockets towards Israel in response to its "violation" of the US-Iran truce.

It came a day after the Lebanese group said it has a "right" to respond to a deadly wave of Israeli strikes across Lebanon.

- Alternative Hormuz routes -

Iran announced alternative routes for ships travelling through the Strait of Hormuz, citing the risk of sea mines in the main zone of the vital waterway.

The statement shared instructions for an alternative entry and exit route through the strait.

- 'Outraged' -

The Red Cross said it was "outraged by the devastating death and destruction" caused by Israeli strikes in densely populated areas across Lebanon on Wednesday.

"People across Lebanon were holding their breath for a ceasefire agreement, but a wave of deadly strikes plunged the country into panic and chaos," said Agnes Dhur, the ICRC's head of delegation in Lebanon.

- Macron on Lebanon -

French President Emmanuel Macron urged US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to include Lebanon in the ceasefire the two sides had reached.

"I expressed my hope that the ceasefire will be fully respected by each of the belligerents, across all areas of confrontation, including in Lebanon," Macron wrote on X after speaking with both leaders.

- 'Relieved' -

Some in the Iranian capital feared the ceasefire will come to naught, but others declared victory and most breathed a sigh of relief after weeks of bombardment.

"Everyone is at ease now, we are more relaxed," Sakineh Mohammadi, a 50-year-old housewife, told AFP, saying she was "proud" of her country.

- Iran demands Lebanon truce - 

Pezeshkian said a halt to Israeli attacks in Lebanon was one of the key conditions of the Islamic Republic's 10-point plan for securing an end to the Middle East war, state media reported Wednesday. 

- Vance to Islamabad -

US Vice President JD Vance will lead talks with Iran beginning Saturday in Islamabad, and will be joined by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, the White House said.

Speaking to reporters in Hungary, Vance urged Iran not to let the truce fall apart over Lebanon, insisting that a halt to Israel's fighting there had never been a part of the agreement reached the night before.

- UN outrage - 

The UN rights chief and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) voiced outrage over Israel's attacks on Lebanon.

"The scale of the killing and destruction in Lebanon today is nothing short of horrific," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said. "Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief."

The ICRC said it was "outraged by the devastating death and destruction."

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Nepal's ex-prime minister KP Sharma Oli offered a defiant message on Thursday after he was released from custody following questioning over his alleged role in a deadly 2025 crackdown on protesters.

Oli and former interior minister Ramesh Lekhak were arrested on March 28, a day after Prime Minister Balendra Shah took office following the first elections since the September uprising brought down Oli's government.

Lekhak was also released from custody on Thursday, police said. Neither man has been formally charged, and both deny responsibility for the violence.

"Although the government filed a criminal case with prejudice and vindictiveness and illegally detained me... I have finally been released after not having enough grounds and evidence to prosecute," 74-year-old Oli said in a statement posted on social media.

The arrests came after an inquiry commission recommended prosecuting Oli -- a four-time prime minister -- and other officials for failing to stop security forces from opening fire on demonstrators.

The commission's report said statements given by the two men suggesting they did not know about the violence were part of a bid to shift responsibility and amounted to "criminal negligence".

Oli was taken to hospital soon after his arrest for what police described as a procedural check-up, adding that he suffers from heart and kidney problems.

"Due to my health condition, I will remain in the hospital for a few more days for treatment," Oli added.

"At this moment, I extend my heartfelt thanks to all party leaders, cadres, and well-wishers for their goodwill and support."

- 'Vengeful' -

After their arrests, their wives filed habeas corpus petitions at the Supreme Court, challenging the legality of their detentions.

"Both former prime minister KP Sharma Oli and the former home minister have been released today on the condition that they will present themselves to the police when required," Kathmandu Police spokesperson Pawan Kumar Bhattarai told AFP.

Oli's CPN-UML party has described the arrests as "a vengeful act" and called for protests.

The youth-led uprising in September began in Kathmandu and was triggered by a brief social media ban.

It spread countrywide the following day, fuelled by longstanding frustration over corruption and economic hardship.

Protesters set fire to the parliament building and offices and eventually toppled the government.

In a separate case, Nepal has issued an arrest warrant for former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba for alleged corruption, officials said Thursday.

Deuba, 79, is abroad for medical treatment and said that "an investigation on money laundering has been initiated against me and my family". He rejected the accusation of corruption.

"False propaganda is being spread concerning my family's property," he said in a statement on social media.

Authorities also issued a warrant for Deuba's wife, former foreign minister Arzu Rana Deuba, court officials in Kathmandu told AFP, following a request from the Department of Money Laundering Investigation.

Deuba said he and his wife were "currently abroad for long term medical treatment", without giving further details.

Former energy minister Deepak Khadka was also arrested last month as part of a money laundering investigation.

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Buffeted by six weeks of war in the Middle East, airlines have scrambled to trim routes and costs as fuel bills explode and wary clients think twice about their travel plans, a situation that could persist even if a fragile truce holds.

Carriers have largely halted flights in the Gulf region, with Air France announcing this week that it was extending its suspensions until May 3 -- a decision a source said was made before this week's ceasefire between the United States and Iran.

With no certainty that jet fuel prices will return to pre-war lows, chief executives are having to rethink expansion plans and plane orders.

"The airline sector is being hit with two simultaneous shocks: the steep rise in fuel prices, which is the biggest or second-biggest expense for a carrier, and a demand shock, with passengers deciding to wait and see," said Paul Chiambaretto, a professor and aviation expert at the Montpellier Business School in France.

Jet fuel, which cost around $830 a ton before the war erupted, surpassed $1,800 a ton in early April, and was still at $1,786 on Wednesday.

"It's absolutely colossal," Pascal de Izaguirre, president of the French aviation federation (FNAM), told business daily La Tribune published Tuesday.

He said fuel usually represents 25 percent to 30 percent of an airline's operating costs, but at current prices it now accounts for 45 percent.

- Sticky surcharges? -

To maintain profitability, ticket prices have been hiked and some routes where planes are not routinely full have been suspended or scrapped indefinitely.

Vietnam Airlines went so far as to cancel around 20 domestic flights per week starting in April, because of a lack of jet fuel.

Many airlines have already imposed fuel surcharges that could prove sticky, especially if they do not lead to marked declines in ticket sales in the coming months.

De Izaguirre said that while fuel surcharges so far are "far too low" to offset the higher costs, "airlines are afraid of a negative impact if the increases become too excessive".

But Hong Kong aviation giant Cathay Pacific has raised its surcharges several times since February, even as it announced extra flights to Europe for what it called an "upsurge in market demand".

Industry executives are wondering if the Middle East turmoil will prompt people to change their travel plans over the longer term, possibly balancing out the impact of regional route suspensions.

Some carriers say they do not plan on resuming flights to the Middle East until October. 

And if oil prices stay high and lead to widespread inflation that crimps spending power, both businesses and individuals could decide to limit spending on airline tickets. 

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said last month that flying habits are already shifting. 

"I think the people who were originally planning to either go to the Middle East or overfly the Middle East for their Easter school holidays are switching now and coming back to Portugal, Spain, South France, Italy, Greece," he told AFP at a European airline association meeting in Brussels.

- A new normal? -

The outbreak of war also wreaks havoc on the business model of massive hubs in the Middle East, which rely on a steady stream of passengers on long-haul flights to and from the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Airports in Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi have been forced to close because of Tehran's retaliatory strikes across the region, resulting in tens of thousands of flights cancelled, affecting millions of passengers.

Before the war, Dubai was the world's second-biggest airport in terms of passengers transiting, after Atlanta, while Doha had passenger levels rivalling those of Hong Kong or Frankfurt.

Since then, European and Asian carriers that have long-distance planes available have started direct flights between the two regions, bypassing Gulf hubs altogether.

Even after reopening, the airports are unlikely to return to full capacity anytime soon, and only if fuel prices recede as hoped.

Willie Walsh, director of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), warned this week that if the ceasefire succeeds, it will still take months for jet fuel supplies and prices to normalise.

"I don't think it's going to happen in weeks," Walsh said.

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An Australian couple has moved house, literally, after realising it was placed on the wrong plot of land.

Melanie and David Moor said they set up their home to "relax" at a five-acre block two hours' drive west of Melbourne.

They put up the pre-fabricated house in March 2024, including installing the plumbing and electricity, for a new life in rural Victoria.

Five months later, they got the bad news.

"We got the call from the council to say that we had to stop works because it was on the wrong block -- and we actually owned the block next door," Melanie Moor told AFP on Thursday.

"It's just been a nightmare."

The couple said the plot's boundaries were unclear and they had relied on the local council and the real estate agent for the right advice. 

A spokesperson for the Corangamite Shire Council declined to comment.

AFP was unable to reach the real estate agent.

The couple moved their house about 100 metres (330 feet) by truck to the right plot on April 2.

They are now living in a caravan while the home is secured to the correct site.

They also need to connect the house's power, water and septic amenities -- at a heavy financial cost.

Melanie Moor has an autoimmune disease, and her husband has liver disease, the couple said.

"The idea was that I could actually relax a little bit and work from home," David Moor said.

Under an agreement with the owners of the plot where the house was originally put, the couple said they have until May 2 to restore that land to its original state.

But they are thankful their home is now in the right place.

"It was a relief seeing the truck take the house across the property," Melanie Moor said.

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Russia is expected to label the Nobel Prize-winning human rights group Memorial "extremist" on Thursday, a designation that will make it easier to prosecute the group's supporters and those who work with it.

Russia had already liquidated the group's operations in 2021, forcing it to work largely in exile.

Here's what we know about the history of Russia's most prominent rights group and its work over the past 35 years:

- What does Memorial do? -

Memorial was founded in the late 1980s to document victims of Soviet-era political repression, during which millions of people perished in the Gulag penal system.

Its first chairman was the Nobel Prize-winning Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov and the group established the largest publicly available database on Gulag victims.

A symbol of hope during Russia's chaotic transition to democracy in the early 1990s, it has since documented the country's slide into authoritarianism under Vladimir Putin.

It has compiled a list of hundreds of political prisoners in modern Russia, among them critics of Putin and opponents of the Ukraine war.

Memorial has also documented rights violations linked to Russia's brutal wars in Chechnya and Syria, the plight of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia, as well as kept a list of prisoners persecuted for their religion -- among them more than 200 Jehovah's Witnesses.

It counts more than 1,000 political prisoners held in Russian jails as of 2026 -- up from 46 in 2015, as Moscow has intensified its crackdown on dissent amid the Ukraine war.

- Banned in Russia -

As Russia's most prominent human rights group, it has repeatedly found itself in the government's crosshairs.

It was put on the government's register of "foreign agents" in 2015.

The label, akin to being an enemy of the state, requires individuals or groups to disclose sources of funding and mark all publications -- including social media posts -- with a tag.

Then in 2021, Russia's Supreme Court liquidated Memorial for failing to properly identify itself as a "foreign agent" and for justifying "terrorist and extremist" activities.

Memorial described claims it broke the law or supported "terrorist and extremist" groups as "absurd".

Formally designating the group "extremist" would harden the legal punishments that could be laid out to any Russian to cooperate with the organisation's network in exile or donate money to it.

- Nobel Peace Prize -

The group received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 -- months after Russia launched its offensive on Ukraine -- for its work, alongside jailed Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski and Ukraine's Centre for Civil Liberties.

Hours later a court in Moscow ordered Memorial's headquarters to be seized and took the premises into state ownership.

The Nobel Committee said the group, along with its co-winners, had "made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human right abuses and the abuse of power".

- Staff persecuted -

Memorial's crusading work at home has come at a huge personal cost to those involved.

Natalya Estemirova, one of the group's main employees in Chechnya, was found dead in 2009 with gunshot wounds hours after she was seen being bundled into a car outside her home.

Another Memorial employee, Yury Dmitriyev, who spent decades locating mass graves in the northwestern region of Karelia, was jailed in 2020 on a controversial child sex charge.

Supporters say the 70-year-old historian was targeted for his work.

The group's co-chair Oleg Orlov was jailed in 2024 for protesting the war in Ukraine. He was released in a prisoner exchange with the United States several months later.

- Work in exile -

The group, whose bank accounts have been frozen, has since outsourced its work to satellite offices across Europe and the world.

Russia declared the international arm of Memorial an "undesirable organisation" in February -- outlawing Russians from working with or donating to the group. 

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