内容摘要：He wanted paramedics to help him corral the toothy reptile.

He wanted paramedics to help him corral the toothy reptile.

They will go up against contenders selected in Tuesday’s first semifinal including, representing Sweden with serenade to the sauna “Bara Bada Bastu”; Dutch singer Claude with soulful ballad “C’est La Vie”; and

with “Bird of Pray.”Australia, Montenegro, Ireland, Georgia, Czechia and Serbia were eliminated on Thursday.Eleven of the 37 acts who traveled to Basel have now been sent home, leaving 26 finalists. Twenty were picked by viewers’ votes, while six countries automatically qualify for the final: the host, Switzerland, and the “Big Five” who pay the most to the contest — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K.

Music fans across Europe and beyond have traveled to the northern Swiss city of Basel, which is hosting Eurovision becausewon last year’s contest in Sweden.

The contest, whose motto is “united by music,” has been roiled for a second year by disputes over Israel’s participation. Dozens of former participants, including

have called for Israel to be excluded over its conduct in the, which prohibits the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors aged under 18.

That law also allows authorities to use facial recognition tools to identify individuals that attend prohibited events — such as— and can come with fines for violators of up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($546).

Some legal experts have argued that such a restriction on assembly rights violates Hungary’s constitution. In order to bring the Pride ban in line with constitutional protections, the amendment declares that children’s rights to moral, physical and spiritual development supersede any other fundamental right other than the right to life — including that to peacefully assemble.The amendment also declares that “a person’s sex at birth is a biological characteristic and can be either male or female” — an expansion of an earlier amendment that prohibits same-sex adoption by stating that a mother is a woman and a father is a man.