JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s top Islamic council met with government officials Wednesday to voice its opposition to two upcoming concerts by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, arguing that the singer's past support for Israel is incompatible with the views of many in the Muslim-majority country.
The Indonesian Ulema Council, or MUI, the country’s highest and most influential body of Islamic scholars, demanded the cancellation of Bocelli’s scheduled performances at the UNESCO-listed Borobudur Temple in Central Java’s Magelang city on Oct. 31 and in the capital Jakarta on Nov. 3.
The council, which initially announced its opposition on Oct. 10, met with Indonesia's Ministry of Tourism to discuss Bocelli’s Romanza 30th Anniversary World Tour Indonesia, including the Borobudur performance at one of Indonesia's most iconic historical sites.
The council said its objection is in response to Bocelli’s past support for Israel, including his participation in a 2010 fundraiser in Los Angeles for the Israel Defense Forces and a 2022 concert in Tel Aviv.
“Giving a platform to a figure who has funded or supported military actions linked to humanitarian abuses in Gaza runs contrary to the values of the Indonesian nation and MUI’s religious guidance,” the council said in a statement.
Public sympathy for Palestinians is widespread in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, and the government has long supported an independent Palestinian state.
Tourism Ministry Secretary Bayu Aji said the discussions with MUI were aimed at reaching a consensus.
“The government’s stance is clear: we support Palestine, and there are directives from the MUI leaders that we will try to communicate further,” Aji said, ”But if the MUI has already made a statement, we will certainly be aligned with the MUI’s decision.”
At the local level, police in Magelang on Wednesday withdrew a recommendation to issue a permit for the Borobudur complex concert. Opposition from several Islamic groups also has intensified, adding pressure on the event organizers.
Neither Bocelli nor the concert organizers did not immediately issue a public response to MUI’s objections.
The Indonesia performances are part of Bocelli’s Romanza 30th Anniversary World Tour, celebrating "Romanza," the album that launched the singer to international stardom and included one of his signature songs, “Con Te Partirò.”
FILE -Italian singer Andrea Bocelli performs during the "Canticle of Peace" prayer and fraternity meeting with Pope Leo XIV at Borgo Laudato Si' in Castel Gandolfo, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) southwest of Rome, Italy, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were trading mixed early Wednesday, as market interest in computer chips and artificial intelligence continued to support some global shares.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.6% to 68,193.13. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.7% to 8,723.40. South Korea's Kospi rose 2.0%, recouping some of the losses from recent volatile trading. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.1% to 24,377.61, while the Shanghai Composite was virtually unchanged at 3,801.13.
Wall Street indexes finished little changed near their records Tuesday. The first big batch of summertime profit reports from U.S. companies made waves on Wall Street after topping analysts’ expectations, but many canceled each other out.
The S&P 500 edged down by less than 0.1% and pulled a bit further from its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 180 points, or 0.3%, while the Nasdaq composite dipped 0.2%.
Goldman Sachs jumped more than 4% at the start of trading after the bank delivered a profit for July through September that blew past analysts’ expectations. But its stock quickly erased all of it and then flipped between gains and losses before finishing with a dip of 0.2%.
Expectations are high for profits across all kinds of U.S. companies. Analysts are forecasting overall growth of nearly 30% for companies in the S&P 500 during the summer from a year earlier, according to FactSet.
And companies need to hit those high numbers to justify the record-setting runs for their stock prices despite the many worries on Wall Street about high inflation, increased pressure from the bond market and the conflicts in the Middle East.
Worries have been high for a while about whether chip stock prices have shot too high in the frenzy around AI technology.
China’s memory chipmaker CXMT, which is making advances that could challenge industry heavyweights, rose about 1.0% in early Wednesday trading in Asia. In South Korea, Samsung Electronics Co. stocks were also rising, but SK Hynix fell.
All told, the S&P 500 edged down by 1.79 points to 7,805.45. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 180.45 to 51,670.10, and the Nasdaq composite fell 41.52 to 27,204.38.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after oil prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 5.21% from 5.24% late Friday. Trading in the U.S. bond market was closed Monday for a holiday.
Yields sank following a 0.9% dip for the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil to $105.69. Oil prices have been yo-yoing because of uncertainty about when conflicts in the Middle East will allow the global energy industry to return to normal.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 0.89% to $94.88 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, edged up 0.81% to $106.55 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar inched down to 158.24 Japanese yen from 158.32 yen. The euro cost $1.1210, up from $1.1203.
AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.
Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama
FILE - An entrance to the New York Stock Exchange is shown on June 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
People walk past an electronic board displaying Japan's Nikkei stock index at a securities firm Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person passes an electronic board displaying Japan's Nikkei stock index at a securities firm Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People pass an electronic board displaying Japan's Nikkei stock index at a securities firm Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
