conflict

Russia bombards Kyiv after rejecting peacekeeping plan

shooting

US immigration agent's fatal shooting of woman leaves Minneapolis in shock

BY ELODIE SOINARD

  • The street where Good was killed, Portland Avenue, runs from downtown Minneapolis to its southern neighborhoods. 
  • The snow-lined street in the midwestern city of Minneapolis where Renee Nicole Good was gunned down by an immigration agent Wednesday lies less than a mile from the site of another slaying that shook Americans.
  • The street where Good was killed, Portland Avenue, runs from downtown Minneapolis to its southern neighborhoods. 
The snow-lined street in the midwestern city of Minneapolis where Renee Nicole Good was gunned down by an immigration agent Wednesday lies less than a mile from the site of another slaying that shook Americans.
In 2020, George Floyd was killed by a police officer in the same neighborhood, sparking a wave of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests here and across the country, as the United States examined bias in law enforcement and generations of fractured race relations.
But some now fear the act of protest itself, saying it has grown more dangerous under the Trump administration.
"I'd like to, but it's scary, you don't want to get shot in the face," 26-year-old Grace told AFP, adding: "I'm not surprised that they shot and killed someone here."
"I went to a protest before Christmas, and I was very scared about even going to that, even before anyone was shot."
Grace said she joined BLM protests in the past and feared being tracked by the government then, but those concerns have grown "under this administration, where Trump just relentlessly pursues anyone in contrast to him." 
What's worse, some comments online "are horrific, people saying she deserved it," Grace said.
"I don't know how we're going to come back from this as a country."

'People are tired'

Like many Minneapolis natives, 36-year-old Anthony Emanuel was deeply shaken when George Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by a white police officer who knelt on his neck.
Floyd's dying words -- "I can't breathe" -- were chanted at protests across the country, and Emanuel took part. 
But Emanuel, who works as a ride-share driver, is uncertain about protesting this time.
"I think people are just tired. And I think people are tired and still figuring it out, still going to work... still behind on bills," Emanuel said, citing political and financial pressures that only grow in hard economic times.
"We're still exhausted from George Floyd. We've still been rebuilding. And now another wave has come, and some people who had the energy don't anymore." 
The street where Good was killed, Portland Avenue, runs from downtown Minneapolis to its southern neighborhoods. 
It's a road driven daily by Jessica Dreischmeier, 39, who works in children's mental health care.
Despite the biting cold Thursday, she stopped to pay her respects at the makeshift memorial for Good, where dozens of bouquets and candles have been laid in the snow.
With wet eyes she confides she has mixed feelings: the awe of seeing those gathered to share her community's grief "in such a kind of profound and respectful way" and the harsh contrast of knowing outsiders can "come and create havoc."
From a distance, US President Donald Trump and his Vice President JD Vance were quick to defend the federal agent's actions as self-defense, while local Democratic leaders strongly refuted that version of events.
"I don't think that is a helpful approach for the leader of our country, to take that stance really recklessly. I think makes people feel a lot of deep rage," Dreischmeier said.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez on Thursday called for the immediate arrest and firing of the ICE agents who "were complicit in the act," adding: "They need to be held accountable for their atrocities. And we will take nothing less than that."
es/sla/abs

Global Edition

After fire tragedy, small Swiss town mourns 'decimated generation'

BY AGNèS PEDRERO

  • "These are young people they've known since they were four years old," Sophie Bise said.
  • A tiny Swiss village is reeling from the "unimaginable" loss of numerous young people in the New Year inferno at a ski resort bar, including seven players on the same football team. 
  • "These are young people they've known since they were four years old," Sophie Bise said.
A tiny Swiss village is reeling from the "unimaginable" loss of numerous young people in the New Year inferno at a ski resort bar, including seven players on the same football team. 
The fire that ripped through Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana as it was packed with revellers ringing in 2026 killed 40 people, most of them teenagers, and injured 116.
Seven of those who perished in the blaze were members of the local football club in Lutry, an idyllic town of around 10,500 people on the shores of Lake Geneva.
"We have a generation here that has been decimated," FC Lutry president Stephane Bise told AFP at the club.
"It will be very, very difficult for those who remain to recover." 
In a nearby church, dozens of people turned out on Thursday evening to say a final goodbye to 16-year-old Arthur, a junior and a coach at the club.
Dozens of candles and flowers were placed on the steps, along with small footballs decorated with hearts. 
On the other side of the entrance, a giant poster displayed a drawing of Arthur with his little brother, smiling and embracing him from behind, flanked by the words: "Your little brother and your family will never forget you."
Arthur was about to turn 17. 
His mother, Laetitia Brodard-Sitre, herself a coach at FC Lutry, spoke out in the days following the tragedy to describe her desperate quest to find her son.
Six young people carried Arthur's light-wooden coffin out of the church, with his younger brother bringing up the rear.
Paramedics and police officers stood at attention as the hearse passed.

Entire community affected

"It was very important that the young people be there" and that they could speak and "share their affection for Arthur", pastor Alain Brouze told AFP after the ceremony.
"They are the ones on the front lines." 
This was not the first church service these young people had attended this week -- and it likely would not be the last.
In addition to the seven football players, several other members of the small community died in the fire.
Others are among the injured and some "helped rescue people from Crans-Montana", the pastor said.
"They witnessed truly harrowing scenes. It's really an entire community that has been affected."
Shortly after the tragedy, parishioners mobilised to set up a memorial so people could leave messages of support or prayers on the wall behind the alter.
One message read: "May you rest in peace, little angels," while another said: "Thinking of you. You're my favourite coach".

'Fly free to paradise'

Five other FC Lutry players were still in hospital, and the girlfriend of one of the players has died.
Nearby private international school Champittet has also reported deaths among its students and four among its alumni, some of whom played for FC Lutry, according to Swiss media. 
"We are experiencing an unimaginable tragedy," the FC Lutry president said.
The club has created a hotline and is providing ribbons cut from the sail of a legendary ship in Lutry port for people to write messages and attach to the fence around the pitch.
"You are children, fly free to paradise," reads one message, accompanied by a drawing of a peace dove and two hearts.
"This initiative came from members of our community who indicated that they needed to be useful, that they also needed to come together, to talk, to hug each other, to share their feelings about this horrific tragedy," Bise said.
His wife, Sophie Bise, and their son, who knew all of the young people who died, were also attending the funeral.
"These are young people they've known since they were four years old," Sophie Bise said.
"They all crossed paths at school more or less, and then on the soccer fields, and now at parties."
apo/nl/phz/lb

bar

Switzerland mourns Crans-Montana fire tragedy

BY NINA LARSON WITH ALEXANDRE GROSBOIS IN GENEVA

  • Inhabitants of the plush ski resort town will meanwhile be able to watch the ceremony as it is livestreamed to large screens, including at the congress centre that for days after the tragedy accommodated families seeking news of missing loved ones.
  • All of Switzerland will mark a national day of mourning Friday for the dozens of mostly teenagers killed when fire ravaged a ski resort bar crammed with New Year revellers.
  • Inhabitants of the plush ski resort town will meanwhile be able to watch the ceremony as it is livestreamed to large screens, including at the congress centre that for days after the tragedy accommodated families seeking news of missing loved ones.
All of Switzerland will mark a national day of mourning Friday for the dozens of mostly teenagers killed when fire ravaged a ski resort bar crammed with New Year revellers.
Just over a week after the tragedy at the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, which left 40 dead and 116 injured, the wealthy Alpine nation will come to a standstill for a minute of silence at 2:00 pm (1300 GMT).
A chorus of church bells will then ring throughout the country.
The moment of silence will stand as a "testament to the shared grief felt by the entire nation with all the families and friends directly affected", the Swiss government said in a statement.
At the same time, a memorial ceremony for the victims will be held in Martigny, a town about 50 kilometres (31 miles) down the valley from Crans-Montana, which had been rendered all but inaccessible by a large snowstorm.
Inhabitants of the plush ski resort town will meanwhile be able to watch the ceremony as it is livestreamed to large screens, including at the congress centre that for days after the tragedy accommodated families seeking news of missing loved ones.

Among 'worst tragedies'

A memorial that has sprung up in front of the bar, loaded with flowers, candles and messages of grief and support, was covered in an igloo-like tarp Thursday to protect it from the heavy snowfall.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who has declared the fire "one of the worst tragedies that our country has experienced", will be joined for the ceremony by his French and Italian counterparts, whose countries lost nine and six nationals respectively in the fire.
Top officials from Belgium, Luxembourg, Serbia and the European Union were also due to participate in the ceremony.
Most of those impacted by the inferno at Le Constellation were Swiss, but a total of 19 nationalities were among the fatalities and the wounded.
Half of those killed in the blaze were under 18, including some as young as 14.
Of those injured, 83 remain in hospital, with the most severely burned airlifted to specialist centres across Switzerland and abroad.
Prosecutors believe the blaze started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to sound insulation foam on the ceiling in the bar's basement section.
Experts have suggested that what appeared to be highly flammable foam may have caused a so-called flashover -- a near-simultaneous ignition of everything in an enclosed space, trapping many of the young patrons.
Video footage which has emerged from the tragedy shows young people desperately trying to flee the scene, some breaking windows to try to force their way out.
On Tuesday, municipal authorities acknowledged that no fire safety inspections had been conducted at Le Constellation since 2019, prompting outrage.

'Staggering'

The investigation underway will seek to shed light on the responsibilities of the authorities, but also of bar owners Jacques and Jessica Moretti.
The French couple, facing charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence, have been called in for questioning on Friday, sources close to the investigation told AFP.
The pair, who have not been detained, said in a statement Tuesday that they were "devastated and overwhelmed with grief", and pledged their "full cooperation" with investigators.
They will need to answer numerous questions about why so many minors were in the bar, and whether fire safety standards were adhered to.
There has been much focus on the soundproofing foam, which, according to photos taken by the owners, had been added during renovations in 2015.
A video filmed by a member of the public, screened Monday by Swiss broadcaster RTS, showed that the danger was known years ago.
"Watch out for the foam!", a bar employee said during 2019 New Year's Eve celebrations, as champagne bottles with sparklers were brought out.
"This video is staggering," Romain Jordan, a lawyer representing several affected families, told AFP, saying it showed "there was an awareness of this risk -- and that possibly this risk was accepted".
ag/nl/cc/lb

conflict

Russia bombards Kyiv after rejecting peacekeeping plan

  • In Kyiv, drone strikes across the city killed four people and wounded at least 19 others, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said early Friday.
  • Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine's capital, setting apartment blocks alight and killing at least four people, Kyiv's mayor said Friday after Moscow rejected the latest post-war peacekeeping plan.
  • In Kyiv, drone strikes across the city killed four people and wounded at least 19 others, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said early Friday.
Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine's capital, setting apartment blocks alight and killing at least four people, Kyiv's mayor said Friday after Moscow rejected the latest post-war peacekeeping plan.
Ukraine and its Western allies, scrambling to bring an end to the war as it approaches the four-year mark, agreed this week that Europe would deploy troops after a ceasefire.
But Moscow, which says it launched its February 2022 invasion in part to prevent Kyiv from joining the NATO defence treaty, has repeatedly rejected the idea of any Western forces stationed in Ukraine.
Such troops would be "considered legitimate military targets", Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned on Thursday, branding Ukraine and its American and European allies an "axis of war".
As diplomats wrangle for a breakthrough in what has been Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II, Russia has continued to press forward with its assault, bombarding Ukraine daily.
In Kyiv, drone strikes across the city killed four people and wounded at least 19 others, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said early Friday.
At a residential building on the city's left bank, a medic was killed while responding to a strike as the site was hit a second time.
Some neighbourhoods were plunged into darkness during what Klitschko described as a "massive enemy missile attack".
The country's military warned "all of Ukraine is under a missile threat" after confirming Russian bombers were airborne.
In the western city of Lviv, the Ukrainian Air Force said a ballistic missile traveling at hypersonic speed struck "infrastructure facilities" just before midnight.
It said the missile had been travelling at about 13,000 kilometres (8,000 miles) per hour.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy said it was up to the Ukrainian military to determine if a nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile had been used in the strike near the border with Poland.
The regional military administration said afterwards that radiation levels were within normal range.
Russia used an Oreshnik with a conventional warhead to strike the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine in late 2024.

' Quite far' from any deal

Russia's latest barrage came after the US Embassy in Kyiv warned on Thursday that a "potentially significant air attack" could occur any time within the next several days.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had echoed the rare warning in his evening address.
Ukraine was still scrambling to restore heating and water to hundreds of thousands of households after strikes targeted energy facilities in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
"This is truly a national level emergency," Borys Filatov, mayor of Dnipropetrovsk's capital Dnipro, said as families were left without power in the frigid depths of winter.
While Zelensky has said an agreement between Kyiv and Washington for US security guarantees was "essentially ready for finalisation", German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged a ceasefire deal was still "quite far" given Russia's position.
Moscow balked after European leaders and US envoys announced this week that post-war guarantees for Ukraine would include a US-led monitoring mechanism and a multinational force.
In its first response after a summit in Paris, Russia called the plan dangerous" and "destructive".
Key territorial issues also appear to remain unresolved.
Russia, which occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine, has insisted on full control of the Donbas region as part of any settlement, a term Kyiv rejects.
Russia's army claimed to have captured another village in the Dnipropetrovsk region on Thursday as its grinding advance continues.
bur-lb/mjw

agriculture

Crunch time for EU's long-stalled Mercosur trade deal

BY UMBERTO BACCHI

  • Sefcovic has stressed the accord is expected to boost EU agri-food exports to South America by 50 percent, in part by protecting more than 340 iconic European products -- from Greek feta to French champagne -- from local imitations.
  • The EU is expected Friday to give a long-delayed go ahead to a huge trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur championed by business groups but loathed by many European farmers.
  • Sefcovic has stressed the accord is expected to boost EU agri-food exports to South America by 50 percent, in part by protecting more than 340 iconic European products -- from Greek feta to French champagne -- from local imitations.
The EU is expected Friday to give a long-delayed go ahead to a huge trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur championed by business groups but loathed by many European farmers.
Country representatives will vote on the divisive accord in Brussels, likely paving the way for it to be inked in Paraguay next week, more than 25 years after negotiations were launched.
The European Commission sees the deal as crucial to boost exports, support the continent's ailing economy and foster diplomatic ties at a time of global uncertainty.
"It's an essential deal, economically, politically, strategically, diplomatically, for the European Union," commission spokesman Olof Gill said on Thursday.
But Brussels has failed to win over all of the bloc's nations.
Leading the opposition is key power France, where politicians across the divide are up in arms against a deal attacked as an assault on the country's influential farming sector.
President Emmanuel Macron confirmed late Thursday that France will vote against the treaty, saying France's political forces were "unanimous" in their rejection of the deal. 
Paris and its allies seemed short of a blocking minority, but the vote could go down to the wire.
The deal would create a vast market of more than 700 million people, making it one of the world's largest free trade areas. 
Part of a broader push to diversify trade in the face of US tariffs, it would bring the 27-nation EU closer together with Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay, removing import tariffs on more than 90 percent of products. 
This would save EU businesses four billion worth of duties per year and help exports of vehicles, machinery, wines and spirits to Latin America, according to the EU.
"This is the biggest free trade agreement we have negotiated," EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said Wednesday after 11th-hour talks to allay the concerns of some member states, describing it as a "landmark" pact.

'Enormous benefits'

Germany, Spain and others are strongly in favour, believing the deal will provide a welcome boost to their industries hampered by Chinese competition and tariffs in the United States.
"We have in our hands the opportunity to send the world an important message in defence of multilateralism, and to reinforce our strategic position in a global environment that is more and more competitive," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in December.
But France, Poland and Ireland oppose it over concerns that their farmers would be undercut by a flow of cheaper goods, including meat, sugar, rice, honey and soybean, from agricultural giant Brazil and its neighbours.
The pact needs to be green-lit by at least 15 of the European Union's 27 member nations representing 65 percent of the EU population.
Italy is widely believed to hold the decisive vote. 
Having demanded and obtained a last-minute delay in December, Rome struck a more positive note this week, saying the accord offered "enormous benefits". 
Failure to sign off on the deal could spell the end of it: Brazil last month threatened to walk if the EU kicked the can down the road.

'Parmesao' no more

Over the past months, the commission has been at pains to reassure farmers and their backers that pros outweigh cons.
It has made a series of concessions, including plans to set up a 6.3 billion euro ($7.3 billion) crisis fund and safeguards allowing for the suspension of preferential tariffs on agricultural products in case of a damaging surge in imports.
Sefcovic has stressed the accord is expected to boost EU agri-food exports to South America by 50 percent, in part by protecting more than 340 iconic European products -- from Greek feta to French champagne -- from local imitations.
"We will no longer have 'Parmesao' competing with Parmesan cheese," Italian agriculture minister Francesco Lollobrigida said on Wednesday.
Still, French farmers rolled into Paris on tractors and their Belgian colleagues blocked major roads across the country in a show of anger against the signing on Thursday. 
Ignacio Garcia Bercero, a former top EU trade negotiator now with Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, said the deal's advantages were self-evident.
"Even more important is the geopolitical signal of EU readiness to reinforce relations with Latin America," he told AFP. "Failure to sign will condemn the EU to irrelevance and fundamentally undermine its external credibility".
ub-adc/ec/jh/lb

shooting

Protesters, US law enforcers clash after immigration agent kills woman

BY ELODIE SOINARD, WITH DANNY KEMP AT THE WHITE HOUSE

  • Wednesday's incident came during protests over immigration enforcement in southern Minneapolis, where locals are expressing widespread anger over Trump's vow to arrest and deport "millions" of undocumented people.
  • Protesters clashed with law enforcement in Minneapolis Thursday after the fatal shooting of a US woman further deepened the divide over President Donald Trump's deployment of federal forces to crack down on illegal immigration.
  • Wednesday's incident came during protests over immigration enforcement in southern Minneapolis, where locals are expressing widespread anger over Trump's vow to arrest and deport "millions" of undocumented people.
Protesters clashed with law enforcement in Minneapolis Thursday after the fatal shooting of a US woman further deepened the divide over President Donald Trump's deployment of federal forces to crack down on illegal immigration.
Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot in the head on Wednesday as she apparently tried to drive away from agents in the northern US city as they approached her car, which they said blocked their way.
Vice President JD Vance said, without providing evidence, Good was part of a "broader left-wing network" opposed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and insisted the officer acted in "self-defense."
The White House asserted that US law enforcement was under "organized attack" and presented a version of the shooting disputed by officials in Minnesota, who contend that federal forces are making the streets more dangerous.
Large, noisy crowds gathered around Minneapolis in protest on Thursday, chanting slogans against ICE. Federal immigration officers armed with pepperball guns and tear gas wrestled several protesters to the ground.
In a separate incident Thursday afternoon, US federal agents shot and wounded two individuals in the western city of Portland, Oregon, local police said.
"Two people are in the hospital following a shooting involving federal agents," a statement from Portland Police said, adding a man and a woman were wounded by "apparent gunshot wounds."
Speaking at a news conference late Thursday, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek voiced concern about the use of force by federal agents in Portland and called for a full investigation into the shooting. 

'Smoke and mirrors'

Trump and senior officials have claimed that in the Minneapolis incident, Good was trying to kill the ICE agents.
"I want to see nobody get shot. I want to see nobody screaming and trying to run over policemen either," the president told The New York Times.
Footage from Wednesday shows an agent attempting to open Good's car door before another officer, standing near the front bumper, fires three times into the moving Honda SUV.
The vehicle veers into parked cars, as horrified onlookers hurl abuse at the federal officers before her bloodied body appears slumped at the wheel. 
Good leaves behind a wife and a six-year-old, officials said. More than $800,000 has been fundraised for her family.
A US citizen, Good was not the target of immigration enforcement action and was only suspected of blocking traffic, police said.
Vance alleged Thursday that Good was part of a broader effort "to attack, to doxx, to assault and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job."
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said "law enforcement are under organized attack."

Immigrant deportations

Protests in Minneapolis grew after Minnesota's Democratic Governor Tim Walz called it a "patriotic duty" to demonstrate.
"Watching that woman get murdered yesterday -- no more. This can't continue to happen. And I can't sit home and just watch it," 62-year-old Shanda Copeland told AFP at a protest in the city on Thursday. 
"I feel like at least I'm here and I'll raise my voice as loud as I can."
Minneapolis schools were closed Thursday and Friday in anticipation of unrest.
Walz said Minnesota must participate in the shooting probe alongside federal investigators -- otherwise Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "is judge, jury and basically executioner."
But Vance suggested the officer would be cleared by a federal probe that would exclude state-level officials.
"The idea that this was not justified is absurd," he said.
Wednesday's incident came during protests over immigration enforcement in southern Minneapolis, where locals are expressing widespread anger over Trump's vow to arrest and deport "millions" of undocumented people.
The victim's mother, Donna Ganger, told the Minnesota Star Tribune her daughter "was probably terrified" and "not part" of anti-ICE activity.
Religious leaders addressed crowds at the scene of Good's death, where a memorial of flowers and candles was growing.
Nearby, Abdinasir Abdullahi, 38, a naturalized US citizen originally from Ethiopia, told AFP he goes nowhere without his passport for fear of ICE.
"They don't trust if I say I'm a citizen, they don't want to trust you," he said.
es-gw/sla/msp/jgc

cybercrime

'Sever the chain': scam tycoons in China's crosshairs

BY SALLY JENSEN

  • Some analysts pointed to limitations in China's justice system that might prevent the full extent of the cyberscam schemes from being brought to light.
  • China is moving against the cyberscam tycoons making fortunes in Southeast Asia, driven by mounting public pressure and Beijing's desire to keep control of judicial processes, analysts say.
  • Some analysts pointed to limitations in China's justice system that might prevent the full extent of the cyberscam schemes from being brought to light.
China is moving against the cyberscam tycoons making fortunes in Southeast Asia, driven by mounting public pressure and Beijing's desire to keep control of judicial processes, analysts say.
Across Southeast Asia, scammers lure internet users globally into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments.
Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers -- from whom they have extracted billions, prompting rising public anger -- the scammers have expanded their operations into multiple languages to steal vast sums from victims around the world.
Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing volunteers, sometimes trafficked foreign nationals who have been trapped and forced to work under threat of torture.
Last year, a series of crackdowns largely driven by Beijing -- which wields significant economic and diplomatic influence in the region -- saw thousands of workers released from scam centres in Myanmar and Cambodia and repatriated to their home countries, many of them to China.
Now Beijing has turned its focus to the bosses at the apex of the criminal pyramids, netting its biggest player so far with the arrest and extradition of Chen Zhi from Cambodia this week.
The arrests were "almost certainly a result of Chinese pressure... coordinated behind closed doors", according to Jason Tower, senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
Chen, a Chinese-born businessman, was indicted in October by US authorities, who said his Prince Group conglomerate was a cover for a "sprawling cyber-fraud empire".
Phnom Penh said it detained him following a request from Beijing, and after "several months of joint investigative cooperation" with Chinese authorities.
Analysts say Phnom Penh's inaction became intolerable to Beijing, which also wanted to avoid the embarrassment of Chen going on trial in the US.
Jacob Sims, a transnational crime expert and visiting fellow at Harvard University's Asia Center, added that Chen "has a number of reported ties to Chinese government officials".
"China acted in order to prevent him from being extradited to the US given the political sensitivities," he told AFP.

'Cut off the flow'

Beijing made a show of the tycoon's extradition, with video released by China's public security ministry on Thursday showing the 38-year-old in handcuffs with a black bag over his head being escorted off a plane with black-clad armed security forces waiting on the runway.
The sudden extradition of Chen from Cambodia –- where he had close ties to political elites before his naturalised citizenship was revoked by the Southeast Asian nation last month –- follows China scooping up other wanted fugitives abroad to mete out justice on its own soil.
In November, She Zhijiang -- the Chinese-born founder of Yatai Group, which allegedly built a notorious scam hub on the Thai-Myanmar border –- boarded a flight to China in handcuffs after spending three years behind bars in Bangkok.
The same month Beijing held talks with law enforcement agencies from Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam agreeing to "intensify joint efforts against transnational telecom and online fraud".
China earlier publicly handed down death sentences to over a dozen members of powerful gang families with fraud operations in northern Myanmar, with their confessions of grisly crimes broadcast on national television.
There could be more high-profile arrests to come: weeks ago the public security ministry issued arrest warrants for 100 more fugitives seen as the scam industry's key financial backers, pledging Thursday to "cut off the flow", "pull out the nails", and "sever the chain".
But while the alleged leaders of some major scam groups have been arrested, Sims said the status quo for the wider industry was unlikely to change without sustained and "extremely high" pressure from the international community.
"The vast majority of Cambodia's hundreds of scam compounds are operating with strong support from the Cambodian government," he said.
Cambodian officials deny allegations of government involvement and say authorities are cracking down. Authorities had said in July that the tally of arrests had already reached 2,000. 
While in prison, She Zhijiang claimed to have previously acted as a spy for Beijing's intelligence agency before he and his Myanmar urban development project were "betrayed" by the Chinese Communist Party.
His lawyer told AFP that he had been pleading for Thai authorities to allow him to face trial in the US and said he feared "he will be deprived of due process" and "ultimately disappeared".
Some analysts pointed to limitations in China's justice system that might prevent the full extent of the cyberscam schemes from being brought to light.
"China is not an open society where investigation will reveal the true nature of things," said Cambodian academic and former ambassador Pou Sothirak.
burs-sjc/slb/sco/ceg/abs

conflict

Venezuela frees ex-presidential candidate in 'large' prisoner release

BY ANDREA TOSTA WITH DANNY KEMP IN WASHINGTON

  • Former Venezuelan opposition candidate Enrique Marquez -- who opposed Nicolas Maduro in the contested 2024 presidential election -- was among those released Thursday. 
  • Venezuela on Thursday began releasing a "large number" of political prisoners, including several foreigners, in an apparent concession to the United States after its ouster of ruler Nicolas Maduro.
  • Former Venezuelan opposition candidate Enrique Marquez -- who opposed Nicolas Maduro in the contested 2024 presidential election -- was among those released Thursday. 
Venezuela on Thursday began releasing a "large number" of political prisoners, including several foreigners, in an apparent concession to the United States after its ouster of ruler Nicolas Maduro.
The releases are the first since Maduro's former deputy Delcy Rodriguez took over, with the backing of President Donald Trump, who says he is content to let her govern as long as she gives Washington access to oil.
Former Venezuelan opposition candidate Enrique Marquez -- who opposed Nicolas Maduro in the contested 2024 presidential election -- was among those released Thursday. 
"It's all over now," Marquez said in a video taken by a local journalist of him and his wife, accompanied by another released opposition member Biagio Pilieri.
The White House credited Trump with securing the prisoners' freedom.
"This is one example of how the president is using maximum leverage to do right by the American and Venezuelan people," Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP.
Trump broadened his threat to drug traffickers in a Fox News interview that aired Thursday night, saying he would target cartels in land strikes -- the US military has already destroyed at least 31 vessels in maritime attacks in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean, killing at least 107 people.
"We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico," Trump told broadcaster Sean Hannity.
Interim leader Rodriguez's brother, parliament speaker Jorge Rodriguez, said "a large number of Venezuelan and foreign nationals" were being immediately freed for the sake of "peaceful coexistence."
He did not say which prisoners would be released, nor how many or from where.
Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Corina Machado hailed the announcement, saying in an audio message on social media: "Injustice will not last forever and... truth, although it be wounded, ends up finding its way."
Trump told Fox he plans to meet with the Nobel Peace Prize winner "next week."

Relatives await prisoners 

Renowned Spanish-Venezuelan activist Rocio San Miguel was among five Spanish citizens freed, according to Spain's foreign ministry.
She was imprisoned since February 2024 over a purported plot to assassinate Maduro, which she denied.
Security was stepped up Thursday afternoon outside the notorious El Helicoide detention center in Caracas, used by the intelligence services to jail political and other prisoners.
Families gathered outside on Thursday for news of their loved ones.
"I'm nervous. Please God let it be real," the mother of a detained activist from Machado's party told AFP.
On Tuesday, Trump had told Republican lawmakers that Rodriguez's administration was closing a "torture chamber" in Caracas but gave no further details.
His remarks had sparked speculation that Venezuelan authorities had agreed to close El Helicoide.
Venezuelan rights NGO Foro Penal estimates over 800 political prisoners are in the country's jails.

Venezuela denies being 'subjugated'

Maduro was seized in a special forces raid accompanied by airstrikes, operations that left 100 people dead, according to Caracas.
US forces took Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores to New York to face trial on drugs charges.
Trump said the US would "run" the Caribbean country for a transitional period and tap into its oil reserves for years.
Delcy Rodriguez insisted Thursday her country was "not subordinate or subjugated."
"Nobody surrendered. There was fighting for the homeland" when the US forces attacked, she said during a ceremony for the Venezuelans killed.
Thousands of Maduro's supporters waving red flags rallied in Caracas on Thursday, demanding his release.
Meanwhile, the US Senate on Thursday took a major step toward passing a resolution to rein in military actions against Venezuela, but it is expected to face resistance in the Republican-dominated House.

Millions of oil barrels

Oil has emerged as the key to US control over Venezuela, which has the world's largest proven reserves.
Trump announced a plan earlier this week for the United States to sell between 30 million and 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, with Caracas then using the money to buy US-made products.
Delcy Rodriguez defended the planned oil sales to Washington, saying on Wednesday they were not "unusual."
On the streets of Caracas, opinions were mixed.
"I feel we'll have more opportunities if the oil is in the hands of the United States than in the hands of the government," said Jose Antonio Blanco, 26.
Trump is scheduled to meet oil executives on Friday.
Trump has warned Rodriguez she will pay "a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro" if she does not comply with his agenda.
"Her power comes from Washington," Venezuela's former information minister Andres Izarra told AFP in an email.
"If Trump decides she's no longer useful, she'll go like Maduro."
bur-rlp/jgc/msp

Global Edition

Christ icon's procession draws thousands to streets of Philippine capital

BY CECIL MORELLA

  • The annual religious parade commemorates the arrival of the wooden statue of Christ from Mexico in the early 1600s.
  • Tens of thousands of Philippine Catholics twirled white cloths and chanted "Viva, viva" as a historic statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila on Friday in the nation's biggest annual religious event.
  • The annual religious parade commemorates the arrival of the wooden statue of Christ from Mexico in the early 1600s.
Tens of thousands of Philippine Catholics twirled white cloths and chanted "Viva, viva" as a historic statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila on Friday in the nation's biggest annual religious event.
The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers.
Thousands of police have been deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time it reaches its home in central Manila's Quiapo church around midnight.
This year's festival of Jesus the Nazarene comes on the heels of deadly typhoons, earthquakes and a high-level corruption scandal that has rocked the archipelago nation of 116 million people.
"For this year, my wish is for the (political) system in the Philippines to change and for the corrupt people to disappear from the face of the earth," Manila resident Jose Borbon, a 23-year-old who drives a horse carriage for tourists, told AFP.
"Nothing is impossible if you pray to him," he said.
Scores of politicians and officials have been implicated in a scandal over "ghost" flood-control projects that purportedly cost taxpayers billions of dollars but were either never built or shoddily constructed.
In a homily before Friday's procession started, Bishop Rufino Sescon called on those involved to stand down.
"In our country today, some people refuse to step down despite having done bad things or become deadweights, or made the poor suffer, even though the country is drowning in floods," Sescon said.
"Shame on you. Please step down for the people's sake."
The annual religious parade commemorates the arrival of the wooden statue of Christ from Mexico in the early 1600s.
Many believe the statue got its dark colour when it survived a fire aboard the Spanish ship that carried it to the Philippines, leading to it being known colloquially as the "Black Nazarene".
Fishmonger Josefina Ancheta, 66, brought her grown children and grandchildren to Manila from nearby Cavite province to witness the procession and seek God's blessings.
"We wish to remain healthy," she told AFP.
"I wish... for them to be spared from danger and accidents, and for them to grow up into upstanding men and women who have God in their hearts."
Gerry Asuncion, 62, a traffic officer in a Manila suburb, took two days off along with many of his co-workers to be at the parade, which already had an estimated crowd of 139,000 by early morning.
"We were poor once, but I have achieved all my dreams -- a car, a good family, a house... My children are healthy and we never want for anything. Each Friday, I go to Quiapo church to pray, and give thanks," he told AFP.
cgm/cwl/mjw

Kurds

Syrian government announces ceasefire in Aleppo after deadly clashes

  • "To prevent any slide towards a new military escalation within residential neighbourhoods, the Ministry of Defence announces ... a ceasefire in the vicinity of the Sheikh Maqsud, Ashrafiyeh and Bani Zeid neighbourhoods of Aleppo, effective from 3:00 am," the Ministry of Defence wrote in a statement. 
  • Syria's defence ministry announced a ceasefire in Aleppo on Friday after days of deadly clashes between the army and Kurdish fighters forced thousands of civilians to flee.
  • "To prevent any slide towards a new military escalation within residential neighbourhoods, the Ministry of Defence announces ... a ceasefire in the vicinity of the Sheikh Maqsud, Ashrafiyeh and Bani Zeid neighbourhoods of Aleppo, effective from 3:00 am," the Ministry of Defence wrote in a statement. 
Syria's defence ministry announced a ceasefire in Aleppo on Friday after days of deadly clashes between the army and Kurdish fighters forced thousands of civilians to flee.
The violence, which has killed at least 21 people, is the worst to erupt since the Islamist authorities took power just over one year ago. 
The Syrian government forces have been fighting the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the country's second city since Tuesday.
Both sides have traded blame over who started the fighting, which comes as they struggle to implement a deal to merge the Kurds' administration and military into the country's new government.
The SDF controls swathes of Syria's oil-rich north and northeast, and was key to the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019.
"To prevent any slide towards a new military escalation within residential neighbourhoods, the Ministry of Defence announces ... a ceasefire in the vicinity of the Sheikh Maqsud, Ashrafiyeh and Bani Zeid neighbourhoods of Aleppo, effective from 3:00 am," the Ministry of Defence wrote in a statement. 
Kurdish fighters were given until 9:00 am Friday (0600 GMT) to leave those areas.
The goal is for civilians who were displaced by the fighting to be able "to return and resume their normal lives in an atmosphere of security and stability," the ministry added.
The governor of Aleppo, Azzam Algharib, told the official SANA news agency that he had inspected the security arrangements in the Ashrafiyeh neighbourhood.
There was no immediate comment from Kurdish forces in response to the government statements. 

'No to war'

An AFP correspondent reported fierce fighting across the Kurdish-majority Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsud districts into Thursday night.
Syria's military had instructed civilians in those neighbourhoods to leave through humanitarian corridors ahead of launching the operation.
State television reported that around 16,000 people had fled.
"We've gone through very difficult times... my children were terrified," said Rana Issa, 43, whose family left Ashrafiyeh earlier Thursday.
"Many people want to leave", but are afraid of the snipers, she told AFP.
Mazloum Abdi -- who leads the SDF -- said attacks on Kurdish areas "undermine the chances of reaching understandings", days after he visited Damascus for talks on the March integration deal.
The agreement was meant to be implemented last year, but differences, including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule, have stymied progress.
Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite Kurdish fighters agreeing to withdraw from the areas in April.
Turkey, which shares a 900-kilometre (550-mile) border with Syria, has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.
Aron Lund, a fellow at the Century International research centre, told AFP that "Aleppo is the SDF's most vulnerable area".
"Both sides are still trying to put pressure on each other and rally international support," he said.
He warned that if the hostilities spiral, "a full Damascus-SDF conflict across northern Syria, potentially with Turkish and Israeli involvement, could be devastating for Syria's stability".
Israel and Turkey have been vying for influence in Syria since the December 2024 toppling of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad. 
In Qamishli in the Kurdish-held northeast, hundreds of people have protested the Aleppo violence. 
"We call on the international community to intervene," said protester Salaheddin Sheikhmous, 61, while others held banners reading "no to war" and "no to ethnic cleansing".
In Turkey, several hundred people joined protests in Kurdish-majority Diyarbakir.
bur-lb/hmn

kakapo

New Zealand's rare flightless parrot begins breeding again

  • "Kakapo are still critically endangered so we'll keep working hard to increase numbers," Vercoe said.
  • New Zealand's critically endangered flightless parrot, the kakapo, started breeding last week for the first time in four years, the government conservation department said. 
  • "Kakapo are still critically endangered so we'll keep working hard to increase numbers," Vercoe said.
New Zealand's critically endangered flightless parrot, the kakapo, started breeding last week for the first time in four years, the government conservation department said. 
Only 236 of the rotund and regal-looking green parrots remain in three breeding populations on some of New Zealand's most remote southern islands.
That includes 83 breeding age females, with high hopes this year could bring the most hatched chicks since records began.
"It's always exciting when the breeding season officially begins, but this year it feels especially long-awaited after such a big gap since the last season in 2022," said Deidre Vercoe, the Department of Conservation's kakapo recovery operations manager.
"Now it is underway, we expect more mating over the next month and we are preparing for what might be the biggest breeding season since the programme began 30 years ago."
In 1995 the Department of Conservation and indigenous Maori tribe Ngai Tahu launched the Kakapo Recovery Programme, with a population of just 51 birds at serious risk of extinction.
By 2022, numbers had rebounded to 252, but 16 birds died over the past four years.
This mating season is the 13th in the past 30 years, with the bird breeding every two to four years.
"Kakapo are still critically endangered so we'll keep working hard to increase numbers," Vercoe said.
"But looking ahead, chick numbers are not our only measure of success. We want to create healthy, self-sustaining populations of kakapo that are thriving, not just surviving. 
"This means with each successful breeding season we're aiming to reduce the level of intensive, hands-on management to return to a more natural state."
Tane Davis, a Ngai Tahi representative on the recovery programme, said it was hoped kakapo would one day thrive throughout New Zealand's South Island.
The first chicks are expected to hatch in mid-February.
bes/sft/abs

weather

'Hectic' bushfires threaten rural towns in Australian heatwave

BY STEVEN TRASK

  • The worst bushfires have so far hit sparsely populated rural areas where towns might number a few hundred people at the most.
  • Bushfires threatened dozens of rural towns in southeast Australia on Friday, firefighters said as hot winds fanned "hectic" conditions in the tinder-dry countryside.
  • The worst bushfires have so far hit sparsely populated rural areas where towns might number a few hundred people at the most.
Bushfires threatened dozens of rural towns in southeast Australia on Friday, firefighters said as hot winds fanned "hectic" conditions in the tinder-dry countryside.
Temperatures are forecast to soar past 40C as a heatwave blankets the region, creating some of the most dangerous bushfire weather since the "Black Summer" blazes of 2019-2020.
Dozens of rural hamlets in the state of Victoria were urged to evacuate while they still could.
"If you don't leave now, it could result in your life being lost," Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch told reporters.
Powerful wind gusts of over 100 kilometres (60 miles) per hour would temporarily ground firefighting aircraft trying to contain some 30 different blazes, Wiebusch said.
Country Fire Authority boss Jason Heffernan said the fire danger was "catastrophic" -- the most severe rating possible.
"Victorians should brace themselves for more property loss or worse.
"Today is going to be quite a hectic and volatile day for firefighters, fire authorities and communities."
Police said three people including a child were missing inside one of the state's worst fire grounds.
One of the most destructive bushfires has already razed some 28,000 hectares (70,000 acres) near the town of Longwood, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Victoria's capital Melbourne.
"Some properties have lost everything," said local fire captain George Noye.
"They've lost their livelihoods, they've lost their shearing sheds, livestock, just absolutely devastating," he told national broadcaster ABC.
"But thankfully, at the moment, no lives have been lost."
The worst bushfires have so far hit sparsely populated rural areas where towns might number a few hundred people at the most.

'Black Summer'

Photos taken this week showed the night sky glowing orange as the fire near Longwood ripped through bushland.
"There were embers falling everywhere. It was terrifying," cattle farmer Scott Purcell told the ABC.
Another bushfire near the small town of Walwa crackled with lightning as it radiated enough heat to form a localised thunder storm, fire authorities said.
"Today represents one of the most dangerous fire days that this state has experienced in years," said state premier Jacinta Allan.
Allan urged people to flee rather than stay put and try to save their homes. 
"You will simply not win against the fires of these magnitudes that are created on days like today."
Millions of people across Australia's two most populous states -- Victoria and New South Wales -- will swelter through the heatwave, including in major cities Sydney and Melbourne.
Hundreds of baby bats died earlier this week as stifling temperatures hit the state of South Australia, a local wildlife group said.
The "Black Summer" bushfires raged across Australia's eastern seaboard from late 2019 to early 2020, razing millions of hectares, destroying thousands of homes and blanketing cities in noxious smoke.
Australia's climate has warmed by an average of 1.51C since 1910, researchers have found, fuelling increasingly frequent extreme weather patterns over both land and sea.
Australia remains one of the world's largest producers and exporters of gas and coal, two key fossil fuels blamed for global heating.
sft/djw/mjw

ISS

International Space Station crew to return early after astronaut medical issue

  • NASA had previously said it was postponing a spacewalk planned for Thursday due to the medical issue.
  • NASA crewmembers at the International Space Station will return to Earth within days after an astronaut suffered a health issue, the US space agency said Thursday, the first such medical evacuation in the orbital lab's history.
  • NASA had previously said it was postponing a spacewalk planned for Thursday due to the medical issue.
NASA crewmembers at the International Space Station will return to Earth within days after an astronaut suffered a health issue, the US space agency said Thursday, the first such medical evacuation in the orbital lab's history.
Officials did not provide details of the medical event but said the unidentified crewmember is stable. They said it did not result from any kind of injury onboard or from ISS operations.
NASA chief medical officer James Polk said "lingering risk" and a "lingering question as to what that diagnosis is" led to the decision to return early. Officials insisted it was not an emergency evacuation.
The four astronauts on NASA-SpaceX Crew 11 -- US members Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman along with Japan's Kimiya Yui and Russia's Oleg Platonov -- would return within the coming days to one of the routine splashdown sites.
Amit Kshatriya, a NASA associate administrator, said it was the "first time we've done a controlled medical evacuation from the vehicle. So that is unusual."
He said the crew deployed their "onboarding training" to "manage unexpected medical situations."
"Yesterday was a textbook example of that training in action. Once the situation on the station stabilized, careful deliberations led us to the decision to return Crew 11... while ensuring minimal operational impact to ongoing work aboard."

'Trained professionals'

The four astronauts set to return have been on their mission since August 1. Such journeys generally last approximately six months, and this crew was already due to return in the coming weeks.
Officials indicated it was possible the next US mission could depart to the ISS earlier than scheduled, but did not provide specifics.
Chris Williams, who launched on a Russian mission to the station, will stay onboard to maintain US presence.
Russians Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev are also there.
NASA had previously said it was postponing a spacewalk planned for Thursday due to the medical issue.
Astronauts Fincke and Cardman were to carry out the approximately 6.5-hour spacewalk to perform power upgrade work.
Continuously inhabited since 2000, the ISS functions as a testbed for research that supports deeper space exploration -- including eventual missions to Mars.
The ISS is set to be decommissioned after 2030, with its orbit gradually lowered until it breaks up in the atmosphere over a remote part of the Pacific Ocean called Point Nemo, a spacecraft graveyard.
mdo/aha

environment

Rare gorilla twins born in conflict-hit DR Congo nature park

  • Eight other mountain gorilla births were registered in Virunga in 2025, according to park spokesman Bienvenu Bwende. mbb-cld/sbk/jhb
  • An endangered mountain gorilla has given birth to twins in the Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, whose remarkable biodiversity has long been threatened by the region's litany of conflicts.
  • Eight other mountain gorilla births were registered in Virunga in 2025, according to park spokesman Bienvenu Bwende. mbb-cld/sbk/jhb
An endangered mountain gorilla has given birth to twins in the Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, whose remarkable biodiversity has long been threatened by the region's litany of conflicts.
Fewer than one percent of mountain gorilla pregnancies result in twins, according to scientists, with the DRC recording a previous case in 2020, also in the UNESCO-listed Virunga reserve.
"The two newborns are both male," park official Methode Uhoze told AFP by phone on Thursday.
"Despite the challenges, life triumphs," the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, which manages the DRC's national parks, said on social media, posting a photo of the mother with the two minuscule babies in her arms.
According to wardens, a team of trackers spotted the twins on Saturday, with monitoring and protection measures in force to increase their chances of survival.
The Virunga park, which was inaugurated in 1925, holds the distinction of being Africa's oldest nature reserve.
Stretching across 7,800 square kilometres (around 3,000 square miles) near the borders with Rwanda and Uganda, the reserve includes territory controlled by the M23 militia.
The M23 has seized swathes of the Congolese east with Rwanda's backing, and has expanded its influence in the region in recent months.
Virunga's forests are also believed to have been used as a hideout by fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State jihadist group.
Just over 1,000 mountain gorillas are estimated to live in the wild.
According to the reserve's authorities, the Virunga park was home to 350 of the great apes in 2021.
Eight other mountain gorilla births were registered in Virunga in 2025, according to park spokesman Bienvenu Bwende.
mbb-cld/sbk/jhb

shooting

After Minneapolis shooting, AI fabrications of victim and shooter

BY BILL MCCARTHY AND ANUJ CHOPRA

  • The victim of Wednesday's shooting, identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, was hit at point-blank range as she apparently tried to drive away from masked agents who were crowding around her Honda SUV. AFP found dozens of posts across social media platforms, primarily the Elon Musk-owned X, in which users shared AI-generated images purporting to "unmask" the agent from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
  • Hours after a fatal shooting in Minneapolis by an immigration agent, AI deepfakes of the victim and the shooter flooded online platforms, underscoring the growing prevalence of what experts call "hallucinated" content after major news events.
  • The victim of Wednesday's shooting, identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, was hit at point-blank range as she apparently tried to drive away from masked agents who were crowding around her Honda SUV. AFP found dozens of posts across social media platforms, primarily the Elon Musk-owned X, in which users shared AI-generated images purporting to "unmask" the agent from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
Hours after a fatal shooting in Minneapolis by an immigration agent, AI deepfakes of the victim and the shooter flooded online platforms, underscoring the growing prevalence of what experts call "hallucinated" content after major news events.
The victim of Wednesday's shooting, identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, was hit at point-blank range as she apparently tried to drive away from masked agents who were crowding around her Honda SUV.
AFP found dozens of posts across social media platforms, primarily the Elon Musk-owned X, in which users shared AI-generated images purporting to "unmask" the agent from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
"We need his name," Claude Taylor, who heads the anti-Trump political action committee Mad Dog, wrote in a post on X featuring the AI images. The post racked up more than 1.3 million views.
Taylor later claimed he deleted the post after he "learned it was AI," but it was still visible to online users.
An authentic clip of the shooting, replayed by multiple media outlets, does not show any of the ICE agents with their masks off.
Many of the fabrications were created using Grok, the AI tool developed by Musk's startup xAI, which has faced heavy criticism over a new "edit" feature that has unleashed a wave of sexually explicit imagery.
Some X users used Grok to digitally undress an old photo of Good smiling, as well as a new photo of her body slumped over after the shooting, generating AI images showing her in a bikini.
Another woman wrongly identified as the victim was also subjected to similar manipulation.

 'New reality'

Another X user posted the image of a masked officer and prompted the chatbot: "Hey @grok remove this person's face mask." Grok promptly generated a hyper-realistic image of the man without a mask.
There was no immediate comment from X. When reached by AFP, xAI replied with a terse, automated response: "Legacy Media Lies."
Disinformation watchdog NewsGuard identified four AI-generated falsehoods about the shooting, which collectively amassed 4.24 million views across X, Instagram, Threads, and TikTok.
The viral fabrications illustrate a new digital reality in which self-proclaimed internet sleuths use widely available generative AI tools to create hyper-realistic visuals and then amplify them across social media platforms that have largely scaled back content moderation.
"Given the accessibility of advanced AI tools, it is now standard practice for actors on the internet to 'add to the story' of breaking news in ways that do not correspond to what is actually happening, often in politically partisan ways," Walter Scheirer, from the University of Notre Dame, told AFP.
"A new development has been the use of AI to 'fill in the blanks' of a story, for instance, the use of AI to 'reveal' the face of the ICE officer. This is hallucinated information." 
AI tools are also increasingly used to "dehumanize victims" in the aftermath of a crisis event, Scheirer said.
One AI image portrayed the woman mistaken for Good as a water fountain, with water pouring out of a hole in her neck.
Another depicted her lying on a road, her neck under the knee of a masked agent, in a scene reminiscent of the 2020 police killing of a Black man named George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked nationwide racial justice protests.
AI fabrications, often amplified by partisan actors, have fueled alternate realities around recent news events, including the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and last year's assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The AI distortions are "problematic" and are adding to the "growing pollution of our information ecosystem," Hany Farid, co-founder of GetReal Security and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told AFP.
"I fear that this is our new reality," he added.
ac-bmc/msp

Lula

Brazil's Lula vetoes bill reducing Bolsonaro's sentence

BY RAMON SAHMKOW

  • His allies in Brazil's conservative-dominated Congress late last year pushed through a bill reducing his prison sentence from 27 years to a little over two.
  • Brazil's left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday vetoed a measure that would have dramatically reduced the prison sentence of former far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, convicted last year of coup plotting.
  • His allies in Brazil's conservative-dominated Congress late last year pushed through a bill reducing his prison sentence from 27 years to a little over two.
Brazil's left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday vetoed a measure that would have dramatically reduced the prison sentence of former far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, convicted last year of coup plotting.
Lula vetoed the legislation, adopted by Congress late last year, on the third anniversary of major riots by Bolsonaro supporters in the capital Brasilia over his defeat by Lula in 2022 elections.
In scenes reminiscent of the US Capitol riots two years earlier, thousands of demonstrators ransacked government buildings in Brasilia on January 8, 2023, a week after Lula's inauguration for a third term.
The rioters called on Brazil's military to overthrow Lula.
"January 8th is etched in our history as the day of our democracy's victory," Lula said at the presidential palace, which was among the buildings targeted by the rioters.
He added that it was a "victory over those who tried to seize power by force, disregarding the will expressed at the ballot box."

Standoff with Congress

Bolsonaro, 70, was sent to prison in November after being convicted of trying to cling onto power in a landmark coup trial seen as a test of Brazilian democracy.
Bolsonaro denied the charges.
He and his supporters, including US President Donald Trump, have argued Bolsonaro is the victim of a left-wing "witch hunt."
His allies in Brazil's conservative-dominated Congress late last year pushed through a bill reducing his prison sentence from 27 years to a little over two.
Lula had made no secret of his plan to strike down the legislation.
Bolsonaro's son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro whom the former president has endorsed to represent the conservative camp in October 2026 presidential elections, on his X account denounced Lula's veto as "blatant, selective, and unjust political persecution."
He vowed to overturn the veto in Congress, which has the last word on whether a law is enacted.
Bolsonaro was convicted over a scheme to stop Lula from taking office after the right-winger's razor-thin loss in the bitter 2022 election that highlighted Brazil's stark political divisions.
The plot allegedly involved a plan to assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
Prosecutors said the scheme failed because of a lack of support from military brass.
Bolsonaro's lawyers have appealed, in vain, for him to be allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest, on health grounds.
The former army captain, who has suffered serious health complications related to a 2018 stabbing on the campaign trial, spent a week in hospital in December following surgery for a groin hernia and treatment for recurring hiccups.
On Wednesday he returned to hospital for check-ups following a fall in prison. Doctors gave him a clean bill of health.
Under current rules, he is expected to serve at least eight years behind bars before being eligible for a reduction of his sentence.
The bill passed by Congress on his early release also aims to benefit others convicted over the coup plot, as well as more than 100 people imprisoned for their role in the 2023 riots.
rsr-lg/cb/mlm

conflict

Russia slams Western peacekeeping plan for Ukraine

  • Describing the plan as "dangerous" and "destructive", she accused Kyiv's allies of forming an "axis of war".
  • Russia on Thursday slammed a plan for European peacekeepers to be deployed to Ukraine as "dangerous" and branded Kyiv and its allies an "axis of war", dousing hopes for a speedy end to the almost four-year-long conflict.
  • Describing the plan as "dangerous" and "destructive", she accused Kyiv's allies of forming an "axis of war".
Russia on Thursday slammed a plan for European peacekeepers to be deployed to Ukraine as "dangerous" and branded Kyiv and its allies an "axis of war", dousing hopes for a speedy end to the almost four-year-long conflict.
US President Donald Trump has been pushing the warring sides to strike a deal to halt the fighting, running shuttle diplomacy between Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia's Vladimir Putin to try to get an agreement across the line.
An initial 28-point plan that largely adhered to Moscow's demands was criticised by Kyiv and Europe. Now Russia has condemned attempts to beef up protections for Ukraine should an elusive deal be reached.
Underscoring the ongoing danger facing civilians from the fighting, the US Embassy in Kyiv warned Thursday that a "potentially significant air attack" could occur at any time within the next several days.
Zelensky echoed the rare warning in his evening address, telling Ukrainians that "there may be another massive Russian attack" during the night, without elaborating.
"It is very important to pay attention to air raid alerts," he added, advising Ukrainians to take shelter when asked.
A Russian missile strike on Ukraine's central city of Kryvyi Rig earlier Thursday injured almost two dozen people, including six children, emergency services said.

Moscow rejects NATO presence

European leaders and US envoys announced earlier this week that post-war guarantees for Ukraine would include a US-led monitoring mechanism and a European multinational force to be deployed once the fighting stops.
But Moscow has repeatedly warned that it would not accept any NATO members sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.
"All such units and facilities will be considered legitimate military targets for the Russian Armed Forces," Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday, repeating a threat previously uttered by Putin.
Describing the plan as "dangerous" and "destructive", she accused Kyiv's allies of forming an "axis of war".
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday said a ceasefire in Ukraine was still "quite far" away given Russia's position.
"The order must be: First a ceasefire, then security guarantees for Ukraine for a long-term agreement with Russia," Merz told reporters.
"All of this is impossible without Russia's consent, which we are probably still quite far from," he added.
Zelensky said Thursday that an agreement between Kyiv and Washington for US security guarantees was "essentially ready for finalisation at the highest level with the President of the United States" following talks between envoys in Paris this week.
Kyiv says legally binding assurances that its allies would come to its defence are essential to convince Russia not to re-attack if a ceasefire is reached.
But specific details, including on the size of the European force and how it would engage, have not been made public.
Zelensky said earlier this week he was yet to receive an "unequivocal" answer from Kyiv's partners on what steps they would take if Russia does attack again after a deal.
Zelensky has also said that the most difficult questions in any settlement -- territorial control of the eastern Donbas region and the fate of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant -- were still unresolved.

Russian strikes cut heating

Ukraine was scrambling to restore heating and water to hundreds of thousands of households on Thursday after a new barrage targeted energy facilities in its Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
"This is truly a national level emergency," Borys Filatov, mayor of Dnipropetrovsk's capital Dnipro, said of the earlier strikes.
He announced power was "gradually returning to the hospitals" after blackouts had forced them to run on generators. The city authorities also extended school holidays for children.
About 250,000 households in the region remained cut off from power in Dnipropetrovsk on Thursday evening, officials said, with one million affected earlier in the day.
In a post on social media, Zelensky said the attacks "clearly don't indicate that Moscow is reconsidering its priorities".
A separate Russian attack on the southern city of Kherson killed three people, local officials said.
Russia's army also claimed to have captured another village in the Dnipropetrovsk region as its grinding advance continued.
bur/yad/cc

diplomacy

French researcher back in France after prisoner swap with Russia

BY DELPHINE TOUITOU AND CELINE CORNU WITH THE MOSCOW BUREAU

  • Vinatier was released in exchange for 26-year-old basketball player Daniil Kasatkin, arrested by France last June on US hacking charges.
  • French researcher Laurent Vinatier arrived in France on Thursday following a prisoner exchange involving a Russian basketball player wanted in the United States, officials said.
  • Vinatier was released in exchange for 26-year-old basketball player Daniil Kasatkin, arrested by France last June on US hacking charges.
French researcher Laurent Vinatier arrived in France on Thursday following a prisoner exchange involving a Russian basketball player wanted in the United States, officials said.
The prisoner swap took place after both Moscow and Paris had signalled they were ready to re-establish dialogue nearly four years after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Vinatier was released in exchange for 26-year-old basketball player Daniil Kasatkin, arrested by France last June on US hacking charges.
"Our compatriot Laurent Vinatier is free and back in France," President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X. "I share the relief felt by his family and loved ones."
He was reunited with his parents and received by France's top diplomat Jean-Noel Barrot at the French foreign ministry after arriving at a military base near Paris.
Vinatier -- who was working for a Swiss conflict-mediation NGO at the time of his arrest -- was arrested in Russia in June 2024 while gathering what prosecutors said was information about Russia's military activities.
Sentenced to three years for failing to register as a "foreign agent", he faced new spying charges that could have seen him sentenced to up to 20 years in jail.
Russian state television outlets published a video of a smiling Vinatier being released from jail, dressed in black and carrying a large black holdall.
The researcher's mother, Brigitte Vinatier, told French television broadcaster LCI of her "immense relief".
His family's lawyer, Frederic Belot, told AFP Vinatier was "doing well" and undergoing standard medical checks.

Vinatier 'pardoned'

The Kremlin announced last month that it had made an offer to France regarding Vinatier, raising hopes he could be freed.
Russia's FSB security service said Vinatier had been "pardoned" by presidential decree.
Paris informed Washington of the basketball player's return to Russia, a source familiar with the case said.
In December, the Kremlin said Vladimir Putin had "expressed readiness to engage in dialogue" with Macron, after the French leader said Europe should reach out to Russia over ending the war in Ukraine.
Asked on Thursday about a possible resumption of bilateral talks with Russia, French diplomats declined to comment.
Western countries have long accused Russia of arresting their citizens to use as bargaining chips to secure the release of alleged Russian spies and cyber criminals jailed in Europe and the United States.
Kasatkin, who France released in the deal, was arrested last year at a Paris airport at the request of the United States.
The United States accused him of having allegedly taken part in a ransomware hacking ring, a charge he denied.
Video posted by the FSB security service showed Kasatkin arriving in Russia and entering a minibus.

'Huge relief'

Relations between France and Russia have deteriorated dramatically since Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022. 
Moscow has directed much of the blame for the war at Paris and other European capitals.
France, one of Ukraine's key backers, says Russia is solely responsible for the conflict and could end it if it wished.
An expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union, Vinatier penned more than a dozen academic papers and had previous experience working at NATO and the European Parliament, according to his resume.
At the time of his arrest, he was working for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Swiss NGO that mediates conflicts outside official diplomatic channels, particularly pertaining to Ukraine.
The NGO welcomed the release of "our dear colleague".
"Laurent's colleagues and friends are overjoyed at his return and stand in solidarity with him and his family as they move forward," it said.
During his trial, Vinatier had pleaded guilty and asked for a "merciful" sentence, while quoting Russia's national poet, Alexander Pushkin.
Belot, the Vinatier family's attorney, earlier said his return was a "huge relief".
"We are extremely happy that he has been released for Orthodox Christmas," Frederic Belot, who also represents the basketball player, told AFP. "It's a strong sign."
Orthodox Christians marked Orthodox Christmas on January 7 Wednesday.
bur-cco-Dt-as/ah/cc

Global Edition

Heavy wind, rain, snow batters Europe

  • The Norwegian Meteorological Institute meanwhile said there was only one region in Norway with temperatures above freezing on Thursday: the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. burs-cc/st/phz
  • Severe winds, snow and freezing temperatures buffeted Europe with the arrival of Storm Goretti on Thursday, prompting forecasters from Britain to Germany to issue weather warnings.
  • The Norwegian Meteorological Institute meanwhile said there was only one region in Norway with temperatures above freezing on Thursday: the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. burs-cc/st/phz
Severe winds, snow and freezing temperatures buffeted Europe with the arrival of Storm Goretti on Thursday, prompting forecasters from Britain to Germany to issue weather warnings.
Britain's Met Office issued a "rare" red wind warning for the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall in southwestern England between 1600 GMT and 2300 GMT -- its highest level of alert.
"Exceptionally strong winds" of up to 160 kilometres (100 miles) per hour were expected, it said, warning that "very large waves will bring dangerous conditions to coastal areas".
It also issued an amber snow warning in Wales, central England and parts of northern England, predicting snow of up to 30 centimetres (11 inches) in some areas.
The UK's National Rail has said train services will be affected over the next two days, and called on people to avoid travel unless necessary.
No disruptions to air travel from London had yet been announced.

School cancelled, travel disruption

France was also bracing for Storm Goretti, which will bring gusts of up to 160 kilometres per hour in the northern Manche department.
Schools there will remain closed Friday, and weather alerts have been issued in 30 other northwestern regions.
"Take shelter and do not use your vehicle," the Manche prefecture warned on X, urging residents to prepare emergency lighting and a drinking water supply.
Europe's current extreme weather conditions have caused at least eight deaths, and on Thursday police in the Albanian city of Durres pulled a man's body from floodwater following days of heavy snow and torrential rain across the Balkans.
In Germany, heavy snow and winds in the north were set to affect schools, hospitals and transport links.
Up to 15 centimetres of snow (six inches) could fall in the north, and there was a risk of icy conditions in the south, according to the German Weather Service (DWD).
Temperatures this weekend could plunge to as low as -20C in certain areas, DWD meteorologist Andreas Walter told AFP.
Some areas have announced schools will shut on Friday, including in the northern cities of Hamburg and Bremen.
In Hamburg, the weather had already caused delays and cancellations on the public transport network on Thursday.
The national rail company Deutsche Bahn warned of significant delays in the coming days and has mobilised more than 14,000 employees to clear snow from tracks and platforms.
Leading car manufacturer Volkswagen will shut its northwestern Emden factory on Friday due to the snow, spokesman Christian Schiebold told AFP.

'Consequence of climate change'

The DWD said the storm is expected to last until Saturday, with snowfall stopping on Monday.
Walter said the storm was an exception when compared to the last few years of milder winters, which were a "consequence of climate change".
"It's still possible to have a cold month with snow, even as temperatures rise due to climate change, but such events will become rarer in the future," he said.
The Norwegian Meteorological Institute meanwhile said there was only one region in Norway with temperatures above freezing on Thursday: the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.
burs-cc/st/phz

climate

UN climate chief says Trump scores 'own goal' with treaty retreat

BY ISSAM AHMED WITH LAURENT THOMET IN PARIS

  • Critics warned Trump's move will further isolate the country on the global stage. 
  • The UN climate chief led a chorus of criticism Thursday over President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from a bedrock climate treaty, calling it a "colossal own goal" that will only harm his country.
  • Critics warned Trump's move will further isolate the country on the global stage. 
The UN climate chief led a chorus of criticism Thursday over President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from a bedrock climate treaty, calling it a "colossal own goal" that will only harm his country.
Trump released a presidential memorandum Wednesday ordering the withdrawal from 66 global organizations and treaties -- roughly half affiliated with the United Nations -- for being "contrary to the interests of the United States."
Most notable among them is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which underpins all major international climate agreements.
UNFCCC executive secretary Simon Stiell said Trump's decision would "only harm the US economy, jobs and living standards."
"It is a colossal own goal which will leave the US less secure and less prosperous," Stiell said in a statement.
His remarks were followed by comments from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said he "regrets" the US decision to withdraw from multiple international bodies, without naming any one organization.
"The United Nations has a responsibility to deliver for those who depend on us, and we will continue to carry out our mandates with determination," Guterres said, while reminding member states of their legal obligations to fund the world body's budget.
Critics warned Trump's move will further isolate the country on the global stage. 
"It's critical the United States is a participant in and is actively trying to reduce climate change -- it's the world's largest economy, the world's biggest historical emitter," Jake Schmidt of the Natural Resources Defense Council told AFP, noting that the United States would be the first of 198 parties to ever leave. 
The treaty adopted in 1992 is a global pact by nations to cooperate to drive down planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
"The decision by the world's largest economy and second-largest emitter to retreat from it is regrettable and unfortunate," European Union climate chief Wopke Hoekstra said.
Trump has thrown the full weight of his domestic policy behind fossil fuels and derides climate science as a "hoax."

Fight looms

His administration sent no representative to November's UN climate summit in Brazil, which is held annually under UNFCCC auspices.
The US Treasury Department announced Thursday it was also pulling out of the UN's Green Climate Fund, the world's largest multilateral climate fund.
The UNFCCC was adopted 34 years ago at the Rio Earth Summit and approved by the US Senate by a 92-0 vote during George H.W. Bush's presidency.
The US Constitution allows presidents to enter treaties "provided two thirds of Senators present concur," but it is silent on the process for withdrawing from them -- a legal ambiguity that could invite court challenges.
Trump has already withdrawn from the landmark Paris climate accord since returning to office, just as he did during his first term from 2017–2021 in a move later reversed by his successor, Democratic president Joe Biden.
"A future US administration could both rejoin the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement on day one, without needing to go back to the Senate for another round of advice and consent," Schmidt said. But this would be uncharted territory and legal scholars are not in full agreement.

'Gift to China'

Jean Su, a senior attorney for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, told AFP: "It's our contention that it's illegal for the president to unilaterally pull out of a treaty that required two thirds of the Senate vote," she continued. "We are looking at legal options to pursue that line of argument."
California Governor Gavin Newsom, an outspoken Trump critic who is widely seen as a presidential contender, said "our brainless president is surrendering America's leadership on the world stage and weakening our ability to compete in the economy of the future -- creating a leadership vacuum that China is already exploiting."
China is the world's biggest polluter, but it has also become the global leader in renewable energy.
Trump's memorandum also directs the US to withdraw from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN body responsible for assessing climate science, alongside other climate-related organizations.
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