'New king of Las Vegas' is celebrated with Strip parade

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Riding down the Las Vegas Strip in a pink low-rider with two showgirls at his side, Bruno Mars was declared the “new king of Las Vegas" on Friday.

The city honored Mars, who has become one of Sin City's iconic performers, with a parade and naming a street “Bruno Mars Drive." Officials declared Friday “Bruno Mars Day” for Mars, who is kicking off his global Romantic Tour in Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium.

“It’s such a privilege, and I want to thank you guys from the bottom of my heart for giving me this today," Mars said to a large crowd on the Las Vegas Strip.

Mars joins a select few who have a Las Vegas street in their name — Elvis and Rat Pack singers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

Bill Hornbuckle, CEO and president of MGM Resorts International, said Mars has shown he has the “legacy and legs” to perform in Las Vegas years from now.

The singer has played on Las Vegas stages for more than 15 years, with over 140 shows during his residency between 2016 and 2025. Two years ago, he opened The Pinky Ring, a cocktail lounge and nightclub at the Bellagio.

“I love this city so much,” Mars said.

The singer pledged to donate $1 million to the Las Vegas Children’s Hospital, with MGM Grand, his partner, matching his donation. The celebration ended with a brief performance by him and his band “The Hooligans,” a taste of what fans can expect at Allegiant Stadium later that night.

“My dream was to always have a block party and get everybody dancing,” Mars told the crowd.

Hundreds of people waited for hours see to the performer in hot temperatures. Las Vegas resident Deedee Jenkins was pumped to see Mars and loves that he is joining the ranks of Sinatra and Elvis.

“But they’re old school. This is new blood, and I’m ready for it with my old self,” Jenkins said.

Bruno Mars performs for fans in Toshiba Plaza after a parade down the Las Vegas Strip Friday, April 10, 2026, in Las Vegas, on "Bruno Mars Day." (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Bruno Mars, wearing cowboy hat, and his band The Hooligans perform for fans in Toshiba Plaza after a parade down the Las Vegas Strip Friday, April 10, 2026, in Las Vegas, on "Bruno Mars Day." (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Bruno Mars Drive is shown at the Las Vegas Strip Friday, April 10, 2026, in Las Vegas, on "Bruno Mars Day." (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Bruno Mars, center, rides in a parade on the Las Vegas Strip Friday, April 10, 2026, in Las Vegas, on "Bruno Mars Day." (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Bruno Mars performs for fans in Toshiba Plaza after a parade down the Las Vegas Strip Friday, April 10, 2026, in Las Vegas, on "Bruno Mars Day." (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

CAIRO (AP) — Iranians began to regain internet access on Wednesday after authorities ended a monthslong shutdown. But users said service was slow and spotty in some areas, with apps like YouTube and Instagram heavily restricted, as they were before the cutoff began during nationwide protests in January.

Authorities justified the outage as a military imperative after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Their decision to lift some restrictions this week came as negotiators appeared to be closing in on a more permanent truce. But many Iranians feared access could be cut off again at a moment's notice.

Internet tracking company Netblocks said Iran’s connectivity, which measures the ability of devices to connect to the internet, is at around 86% of capacity from before the cutoff. Internet analysis firm Kentik said internet traffic, which measures the amount of data transferred and is a good illustration of usage, was at around 40%.

Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity analyst, said there were still widespread disruptions. “It's too early to say the shutdown is over,” he wrote on X.

Iran’s roughly 90 million people have been cut off from the internet for most of 2026, one of the world’s longest and strictest national shutdowns. Young people with online careers saw their incomes evaporate. Job losses and the closure of online businesses added to the war's steep economic costs.

The cutoff made it difficult for Iranian families to communicate through months of unrest and war. At some points, phone lines were also cut off, though they were later restored.

A woman living in Tehran said that for months she was barely able to speak to her sons living abroad. She couldn't believe authorities had restored access, saying she had assumed they would find some justification to prolong the outage.

A taxi driver said service was restored but weak. He expressed hope it would improve so he could use messaging apps with family and friends. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Prices spiked during the shutdown, with residents in Tehran at times paying around $7.50 per gigabyte. Prices are back down to around $2.25 for 30 gigabytes, roughly where they were before the protests.

Even then, Iran tightly controlled access to popular social media sites, leading many to rely on virtual private networks, or VPNs. The cost of those workarounds soared during the shutdown, making them unaffordable for many as the economy was battered.

Businesses have started reappearing online, announcing their return with posts on sites like Instagram and Telegram.

A gamer and tech influencer in the central city of Isfahan said the shutdown had caused him to lose a lot of his audience on YouTube and Instagram, where he had spent years building up a large following.

“All my views and interactions are way down. I’ve been erased from the algorithm,” he said in a voice note sent by WhatsApp, adding that his internet connection was still slower than before the shutdown.

“The situation is such that many content producers have had their income reduced to zero, have moved on to other jobs, or have been forced to sell their equipment to survive,” he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Iranian authorities first shut down the internet in January during mass anti-government protests that were eventually stamped out in a violent crackdown. Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands detained.

That cutoff was just starting to ease when the government imposed a complete internet blackout after the start of the war, when U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader and other top officials.

The government faced criticism for the prolonged shutdown, which caused even more harm to an economy devastated by inflation, strikes on key industries and a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.

The internet cutoff cost an estimated $30-40 million daily, with indirect losses likely twice that much, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Afshin Kolahi, told a local newspaper last month. About 10 million people have jobs that depend on internet connectivity, according to Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi.

Iranians still had access to a national net, but that has a far narrower reach, and users complained of poor service and heavy censorship. Senior government officials are given SIM cards granting them access to the global internet. Under pressure, the government expanded access to the SIM cards to some professions during the shutdown.

A woman checks her smartphone while sitting on a bench along a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)