film

Brigitte Bardot to be buried in Saint-Tropez cemetery

film

Brigitte Bardot to be buried in Saint-Tropez cemetery

BY FANNY CARRIER WITH JEAN-FRANCOIS GUYOT AND ALICE HACKMAN IN PARIS

  • "Brigitte Bardot was an iconic actor of the New Wave.
  • Cinema icon Brigitte Bardot is to be buried in a graveyard in her hometown of Saint-Tropez, an official said Monday, as France wrestles with how to pay tribute to a cultural legend who in later years championed far-right views.
  • "Brigitte Bardot was an iconic actor of the New Wave.
Cinema icon Brigitte Bardot is to be buried in a graveyard in her hometown of Saint-Tropez, an official said Monday, as France wrestles with how to pay tribute to a cultural legend who in later years championed far-right views.
Bardot, who died on Sunday aged 91 after decades as an animal rights campaigner, had said she wanted to be laid to rest in her garden with a simple wooden cross on her grave -- like those of her pets.
"I'd rather be there than in the Saint-Tropez cemetery, where a crowd of idiots might damage the graves of my parents and grandparents," she told Le Monde newspaper in 2018.
Despite her wishes, an official at the Saint-Tropez town hall said the plan is for her to be laid to rest in the town's seaside cemetery, without giving a date for the funeral.
Bardot shot to fame in her early twenties in the 1956 film "And God Created Woman" and went on to appear in about 50 films, but turned her back on cinema in 1973 to throw herself into fighting for animal welfare.
Her anti-immigration views and embrace of the far right however stirred controversy.
Bardot was convicted five times for hate speech, mostly about Muslims, but also about the inhabitants of the French island of Reunion whom she described as "savages". 
She passed away before dawn on Sunday morning with her fourth husband, Bernard d'Ormale, a former adviser to the far right, by her side.
"She whispered a word of love to him... and she was gone," Bruno Jacquelin, a representative of her foundation for animals, told BFM television.

'Cynicism'

Right-wing politicians paid gushing tributes to the film star, but leftists were more reserved, given her racist remarks in later years.
President Emmanuel Macron, a centrist, hailed the actor as a "legend" of the 20th century cinema who "embodied a life of freedom".
Three-time presidential candidate Marine le Pen, whose far-right National Rally party is riding high in the polls, called her "incredibly French: free, untameable, whole".
Bardot backed Le Pen for president in 2012 and 2017, describing her as a modern "Joan of Arc" she hoped could "save" France.
Conservative politician Eric Ciotti called for a national farewell like the one organised in 2018 for French rock legend Johnny Hallyday. He started a petition online that had garnered more than 9,000 signatures on Monday afternoon.
But Socialist party leader Olivier Faure was against the idea, saying such public tributes were for people who had rendered "exceptional services to the nation".
"Brigitte Bardot was an iconic actor of the New Wave. She was radiant, and left her mark on French cinema," he said.
"But she also turned her back on (French) republican values and was several times convicted for racism," he added.
Communist party leader Fabien Roussel said at least all could agree she made French cinema "shine throughout the world".
But Greens lawmaker Sandrine Rousseau was more critical.
"To be moved by the fate of dolphins but remain indifferent to the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean -- what level of cynicism is that?" she quipped on BlueSky.

Fame to 'protect animals'

Born on September 28, 1934 in Paris, Bardot was raised in a well-off traditional Catholic household.
Married four times, she had one child, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, with her second husband, actor Jacques Charrier.
After quitting the cinema, Bardot withdrew to her home in the Saint-Tropez to devote herself to animal rights.
Her calling apparently came when she encountered a goat on the set of her final film, "The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot". To save it from being killed, she bought the animal and kept it in her hotel room.
"I'm very proud of the first chapter of my life," she told AFP in a 2024 interview ahead of her 90th birthday.
"It gave me fame, and that fame allows me to protect animals -- the only cause that truly matters to me."
burs-ah/rmb

conflict

Thai army accuses Cambodia of violating truce with over 250 drones

  • The Thai army said on Monday "more than 250 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were detected flying from the Cambodian side, intruding into Thailand's sovereign territory" on Sunday night, according to a statement.
  • Thailand's army accused Cambodia on Monday of violating a newly signed ceasefire agreement, reached after weeks of deadly border clashes, by flying more than 250 drones over its territory.
  • The Thai army said on Monday "more than 250 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were detected flying from the Cambodian side, intruding into Thailand's sovereign territory" on Sunday night, according to a statement.
Thailand's army accused Cambodia on Monday of violating a newly signed ceasefire agreement, reached after weeks of deadly border clashes, by flying more than 250 drones over its territory.
The Southeast Asian neighbours agreed to the "immediate" ceasefire on Saturday, pledging to end renewed border clashes that killed dozens of people and displaced more than a million this month.
But the fresh allegation from Bangkok and its threat to reconsider releasing Cambodian soldiers held by Thailand left a sustained truce in doubt, even as their foreign ministers wrapped up two days of talks hosted by China.
The Thai army said on Monday "more than 250 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were detected flying from the Cambodian side, intruding into Thailand's sovereign territory" on Sunday night, according to a statement.
"Such actions constitute provocation and a violation of measures aimed at reducing tensions, which are inconsistent with the Joint Statement agreed" during a bilateral border committee meeting on Saturday, it said.
The reignited fighting this month spread to nearly every border province on both sides, shattering an earlier truce for which US President Donald Trump took credit.
Under the truce pact signed on Saturday, Cambodia and Thailand agreed to cease fire, freeze troop movements and cooperate on demining efforts and combatting cybercrime.
They also agreed to allow civilians living in border areas to return home as soon as possible, while Thailand was to return 18 Cambodian soldiers captured in July within 72 hours, if the ceasefire held.

'Small issue'

Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn described the drone incident as "a small issue related to flying drones seen by both sides along the border line".
He said on Cambodian state television on Monday that the two sides had discussed the issue and agreed to investigate and "resolve it immediately".
Thai army spokesman Winthai Suvaree said in a statement the drone activity reflected "provocative actions" and a "hostile stance toward Thailand", which could affect the security of military personnel and civilians in border areas.
Thailand's army "may need to reconsider its decision regarding the release of 18 Cambodian soldiers, depending on the situation and the behaviour observed", it said.
Several family members of soldiers held by Thailand for six months had little faith they would be released, even before Bangkok raised fresh doubts.
Heng Socheat, the wife of a soldier, told AFP on Monday she worried the Thai military might renege on its pledge.
"Until my husband arrives home, then I will believe them," she said.

Prayers for peace

Five days of border clashes in July killed dozens of people before a truce was brokered by the United States, China and Malaysia, the chair of the ASEAN regional bloc.
Trump witnessed the signing of a follow-on declaration between Thailand and Cambodia in October but it was broken within months, with each side blaming the other for instigating the fresh fighting.
The conflict stems from a territorial dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of the 800-kilometre (500-mile) Thai-Cambodian border, where both sides claim centuries-old temple ruins.
While the two nations agreed on Saturday to stop fighting, they still need to resolve the demarcation of their border.
Cambodia, Thailand and China issued a statement at the end of talks in China's Yunnan province on Monday, saying they had discussed "working step by step through mutual efforts to resume normal exchanges, rebuild political mutual trust, improve Cambodia-Thailand bilateral relations, and safeguard regional stability".
Cambodia also said on Monday it had called on Thailand to join another bilateral meeting in Cambodia in early January "to discuss and continue survey and demarcation work" at the border.
More than a hundred Buddhist monks and hundreds of others dressed in white shirts met at a war monument on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital on Monday evening to pray for peace with their neighbour.
Mok Sim, 73, said she joined the gathering to show the world that Cambodians wanted peace.
"We also pray that our soldiers will be released soon, but we don't know the mind of the Thai army," she said. "We hope they will be back home soon."
tp-suy-sco/ane/pbt

conflict

US offered Kyiv 15 years of security guarantees, Zelensky says

  • He had told Trump the 15-year offer was too short a period for Kyiv. 
  • The US has offered Ukraine "solid" security guarantees for 15 years with a possibility of an extension but Kyiv is seeking a longer period, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday after meeting Donald Trump. 
  • He had told Trump the 15-year offer was too short a period for Kyiv. 
The US has offered Ukraine "solid" security guarantees for 15 years with a possibility of an extension but Kyiv is seeking a longer period, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday after meeting Donald Trump. 
Zelensky held talks with Trump in Florida, where the US leader said a deal to end almost four years of war with Russia was closer than ever. 
The wartime president said the issue of territory and the future of Ukraine's Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant were the remaining unresolved parts of a plan to end the war. 
But Zelensky added that he considered the presence of international troops in Ukraine a necessary part of the guarantees, which Russia has rejected in the past.
Still, the Kremlin agreed with Trump's assessment that talks were in their final stages, while repeating its maximalist demand for Kyiv to withdraw from eastern Ukraine.  
Kyiv was hoping for a meeting with European and American officials in Ukraine in the "coming days" to work on documents to end the conflict, Zelensky said. 
Any deal to end Europe's worst conflict since WWII "must be signed by Ukraine, Russia, the US and Europe", he said. 
Security guarantees were a priority for Kyiv.
"Without security guarantees, this war cannot be considered truly over. We cannot acknowledge that it has ended, because with such a neighbour there remains a risk of renewed aggression," Zelensky said.
He had told Trump the 15-year offer was too short a period for Kyiv. 
"I told him that we really want to consider the possibility of 30, 40, 50 years," he added. "The president said he would think about it." 
- 'Strikes us with missiles' - 
Zelensky spoke as Russia continued its relentless attacks into the holiday season and pressed on with its maximalist demands in Ukraine.   
Zelensky repeated that Kyiv was ready for "any" format of meetings -- including with Putin if necessary -- but said he still did not think the Kremlin chief wanted peace.  
He accused Putin of misleading Trump.
"On the one hand, he tells the president of the United States that he wants to end the war and that this is his desire," Zelensky said. 
"And on the other hand...he strikes us with missiles (and) gives instructions to his generals about where to advance."
Putin has for weeks told Russians Moscow was intent on achieving its aims in Ukraine by force if diplomacy fails. 
Moscow wants to keep all the territory it occupies in Ukraine as well as be handed lands in eastern Ukraine still controlled by Kyiv. 
The Kremlin on Monday again called for Ukraine to withdraw from unoccupied parts of Donbas, warning that "Ukraine is losing territory and will continue to do so." 
It said it expected Putin and Trump to speak by phone in the "very near future."  

Territory issue unresolved

Trump on Sunday acknowledged the issue of territories were unresolved between the warring countries, showing little sign of a breakthrough. 
"It's unresolved, but it's getting a lot closer. That's a very tough issue, but one that I think will get resolved," Trump said.  
Zelensky also said it was a remaining issue and offered little detail, only saying: 
"We will act in accordance with the interests of Ukraine." 
The current plan, revised after weeks of intense US-Ukrainian negotiations, would stop the war at the current frontlines in the eastern Donbas region and set up a demilitarized area, while Russia has long demanded territorial concessions.
But the Kremlin has shown no sign of compromise, with Putin repeatedly saying his troops will seize the rest of Ukrainian land he has proclaimed as Russian. 
Outnumbered and exhausted Ukrainian troops have struggled to hold back a Russian advance, which picked up pace since autumn.   
Moscow on Monday said it took another village, Dibrova, in the Donetsk region. 
bur-oc/gv 

defense

China holds military drills around Taiwan simulating ports blockade

BY PETER CATTERALL, WITH ISABEL KUA IN PINGTAN AND JOY CHIANG IN TAIPEI

  • China's military last held large-scale drills involving live firing around Taiwan in April -- surprise manoeuvres condemned by Taipei.
  • China launched live-fire drills around Taiwan on Monday that it said would simulate a blockade of the self-ruled island's key ports, prompting Taipei to condemn Beijing's "military intimidation".
  • China's military last held large-scale drills involving live firing around Taiwan in April -- surprise manoeuvres condemned by Taipei.
China launched live-fire drills around Taiwan on Monday that it said would simulate a blockade of the self-ruled island's key ports, prompting Taipei to condemn Beijing's "military intimidation".
Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its sovereign territory and has refused to rule out using military action to seize the island democracy.
The latest show of force follows a bumper round of arms sales to Taipei by the United States, Taiwan's main security backer.
Beijing warned on Monday that "external forces" arming Taipei would "push the Taiwan Strait into a perilous situation of imminent war", but did not mention any countries by name.
Foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said any attempts to stop China's unification with Taiwan were "doomed to fail".
AFP reporters in Pingtan -- a Chinese island that is the closest point to Taiwan's main island -- saw two fighter jets soaring across the sky and a Chinese military vessel in the distance.
Visitors said they had been unaware of the drills as they milled around snapping photos. 
A tourist surnamed Guo, from Inner Mongolia, told AFP she thinks a unification will "definitely happen".
"It's just a matter of time," she said.

'Live-fire training'

China said early on Monday it was conducting "live-fire training on maritime targets to the north and southwest of Taiwan" in large-scale exercises involving destroyers, frigates, fighters, bombers and drones.
Military spokesman Shi Yi said Beijing would send army, navy, air force and rocket force troops for drills code-named "Justice Mission 2025".
He said the drills would focus on "sea-air combat readiness patrol, joint seizure of comprehensive superiority, blockade on key ports and areas, as well as all-dimensional deterrence outside the island chain".
Chinese authorities published a map of five large zones around Taiwan where the war games would take place.
Taiwan said China's designated exercise zones, some of which are within 12 nautical miles of its coast, have affected international shipping and aviation routes.
The island's government condemned China's "disregard for international norms and the use of military intimidation to threaten neighbouring countries", Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo said.
Its defence ministry said it had detected 89 Chinese military aircraft near its shores on Monday -- the highest number in a single day since October 2024.
It also said it had detected 28 warships and coastguard vessels.
Taiwan's Civil Aviation Administration said China had declared a "Temporary Danger Area" for 10 hours on Tuesday.
It also said "more than 100,000 (air) passengers" on 857 domestic, international and transit flights would be affected by the drills on Tuesday.
Taiwan's military said it had established a response centre, deployed "appropriate forces" and "carried out a rapid response exercise", while its coastguard said it "immediately deployed large vessels".
The drills by China's ruling Communist Party "further confirm its nature as an aggressor, making it the greatest destroyer of peace", Taipei's defence ministry said.

'Stern warning'

Chinese military spokesman Shi said the drills were "a stern warning against 'Taiwan Independence' separatist forces, and... a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China's sovereignty and national unity".
Beijing's military released a poster about the drills showing "arrows of justice" -- one engulfed in flames -- raining down on a geographical outline of Taiwan.
And in an AI-generated video published by the force, eagles, sharks, wolves and bees transformed into Chinese military equipment, lashing Taiwan from the sea and air.
Another Pingtan sightseer, surnamed Lin, said she hoped to see mainland China and Taiwan unify eventually.
"I hope things can keep getting better and develop, and our relationships can become closer and closer," said the 22-year-old from the southwestern province of Sichuan.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that a core theme of the exercises was a "blockade" of key Taiwanese ports, including Keelung in the north and Kaohsiung in the south.
China's military last held large-scale drills involving live firing around Taiwan in April -- surprise manoeuvres condemned by Taipei.
Beijing said this month it would take "resolute and forceful measures" to safeguard its territory after Taiwan said the United States had approved a major $11 billion arms sale.
It announced fresh sanctions on 20 American defence companies last week, although they appeared to have little or no business in China.
Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a backlash from Beijing last month when she said the use of force against Taiwan could warrant a military response from Tokyo.
bur-je/ane/pbt

Global Edition

Myanmar pro-military party claims huge lead in junta-run poll

  • Official results have yet to be posted by Myanmar's Union Election Commission and two more phases are scheduled for January 11 and 25.
  • Myanmar's dominant pro-military party claimed an overwhelming victory in the first phase of the elections, a senior party official told AFP, after democracy watchdogs warned the junta-run poll would entrench military rule.
  • Official results have yet to be posted by Myanmar's Union Election Commission and two more phases are scheduled for January 11 and 25.
Myanmar's dominant pro-military party claimed an overwhelming victory in the first phase of the elections, a senior party official told AFP, after democracy watchdogs warned the junta-run poll would entrench military rule.
The armed forces snatched power in a 2021 coup, but on Sunday opened voting in a phased month-long election they pledge will return power to the people.
"We won 82 lower house seats in townships which have finished counting, out of the total of 102," a senior member of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) told AFP.
The figure implies that the party -- which many analysts describe as a civilian proxy of the military -- took more than 80 percent of the lower house seats that were put to the vote on Sunday.
It won all eight townships in the capital Naypyidaw, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to disclose the results.
At the last poll in 2020, the USDP was trounced by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), which was dissolved after the coup and did not appear on Sunday's ballots.
The Nobel laureate has been in detention since the putsch, which triggered a civil war.
Campaigners, Western diplomats and the United Nations' rights chief have condemned the vote -- citing a stark crackdown on dissent and a candidate list stacked with military allies.
"It makes sense that the USDP would dominate," said Morgan Michaels, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.
"The election is not credible," he told AFP. "They rig it ahead of time by banning different parties, making sure that certain people don't turn up to vote, or they do turn up to vote under threat of coercion to vote a certain way."
Official results have yet to be posted by Myanmar's Union Election Commission and two more phases are scheduled for January 11 and 25.
"My view on the election is clear: I don't trust it at all," Yangon resident Min Khant said Monday.
"We have been living under a dictatorship," said the 28-year-old. "Even if they do hold elections, I don't think anything good will come of them because they always lie."
After voting on Sunday, military chief Min Aung Hlaing -- who has ruled by diktat for the past five years -- said the armed forces could be trusted to hand back power to a civilian-led government.
"We guarantee it to be a free and fair election," he told reporters in Naypyidaw. "It's organised by the military, we can't let our name be tarnished."
The coup triggered a civil war as pro-democracy activists formed guerrilla units, fighting alongside ethnic minority armies which have long resisted central rule.
Sunday's election was scheduled to take place in 102 of the country's 330 townships -- the most of the three phases of voting.
But amid the war, the military has acknowledged that elections cannot happen in almost one in five lower house constituencies.
hla-jts/slb/lb

conflict

Netanyahu to meet Trump in Florida for talks on Gaza, Iran

BY JIM WATSON WITH DANNY KEMP IN WASHINGTON

  • - 'Frustrated with Netanyahu' - The Axios news outlet reported on Friday that Trump wanted to convene the first meeting of a new Gaza "Board of Peace" that he will chair at the Davos forum in Switzerland in January.
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Donald Trump in Florida on Monday, with the US president pushing to move to the next stage of his fragile Gaza truce plan.
  • - 'Frustrated with Netanyahu' - The Axios news outlet reported on Friday that Trump wanted to convene the first meeting of a new Gaza "Board of Peace" that he will chair at the Davos forum in Switzerland in January.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Donald Trump in Florida on Monday, with the US president pushing to move to the next stage of his fragile Gaza truce plan.
Netanyahu is also expected to try to shift some focus onto Iran, amid reports he will call for more US strikes on the Islamic republic.
The meeting at Trump's lavish Mar-a-Lago resort -- the fifth between the two leaders to be held in the United States this year -- comes as some White House officials fear both Israel and Hamas are slow-walking the second phase of their ceasefire.
Trump, who said Netanyahu had asked for the talks, is reportedly keen to announce -- as soon as January -- a Palestinian technocratic government for Gaza and the deployment of an international stabilization force.
The two leaders are to meet at 1 pm (1800 GMT), the White House said.
Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian said Netanyahu would discuss the second phase of the agreement, which involves making sure that "Hamas is disarmed, Gaza is demilitarized."
He will also bring up the "danger Iran poses not only to the region of the Middle East, but the United States as well," Bedrosian said before flying out with the Israeli premier. 
In recent months, Israeli officials and media have expressed concern that Iran is rebuilding its ballistic missile arsenal after it came under attack during the 12-day war with Israel in June.
But Sina Toossi, a researcher at the Center for International Policy (CIP) in Washington, said Trump's insistence that US strikes in June destroyed Tehran's nuclear program had "removed Israel's most powerful historical justification for US support for war with Iran".
Netanyahu's new focus on Iran's missiles is "an effort to manufacture a replacement casus belli," Toossi told AFP.
Iran on Monday denounced the reports as a "psychological operation" against Tehran, emphasizing it was fully prepared to defend itself, and warning renewed aggression would "result in harsher consequences" for Israel.

'Phase two has to begin'

Netanyahu's visit caps a frantic few days of international diplomacy in Palm Beach, where Trump hosted Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday for talks on ending Russia's invasion.
The Gaza ceasefire in October is one of the major achievements of Trump's first year back in power, but his administration and regional mediators want to keep up the momentum.
Trump's global envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner hosted senior officials from mediators Qatar, Egypt and Turkey in Miami earlier this month.
The timing of the Netanyahu meeting is "very significant," said Gershon Baskin, the co-head of peacebuilding commission the Alliance for Two States, who has taken part in back-channel negotiations with Hamas.
"Phase two has to begin," he told AFP, adding that "I think the Americans realize that it's late because Hamas has had too much time to re-establish its presence."  
The first phase of the truce deal stipulated that Hamas release the remaining hostages, both dead and alive, taken during its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. The group has so far returned all the living captives and the remains of all but one. 
Under the second stage, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, while Hamas is supposed to lay down its weapons -- a major sticking point for the Islamist movement.
An interim authority is meanwhile meant to govern the Palestinian territory, and the international stabilization force (ISF) is to be deployed.
Both sides, however, have alleged frequent ceasefire violations.

'Frustrated with Netanyahu'

The Axios news outlet reported on Friday that Trump wanted to convene the first meeting of a new Gaza "Board of Peace" that he will chair at the Davos forum in Switzerland in January.
But it said that senior White House officials were growing exasperated with what they viewed as efforts by Netanyahu to stall the peace process.
"There are more and more signs that the American administration is getting frustrated with Netanyahu," said Yossi Mekelberg, a Middle East expert at London-based think-tank Chatham House.
"The question is what it's going to do about it," he added, "because phase two is right now going nowhere."
Israel is continuing to strike Hamas targets in Gaza, as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon despite another ceasefire there. Syria will also be on the agenda.
Mekelberg said Netanyahu could be attempting to shift attention from Gaza onto Iran as Israel enters an election year.
"Everything is connected to staying in power," he said of the long-time Israeli premier.
dk/sla/lga/rkh/smw

conflict

Russia reopens theatre devastated by siege of Mariupol

  • "Mariupol Drama Theatre has reopened its doors to spectators" after a three year redevelopment, said Denis Puchilin, the pro-Russian leader in the Donetsk region that includes the city.
  • A theatre that became one of the bombed out symbols of a Russian siege of the city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine in 2022 has reopened after a huge redevelopment, Russian authorities have announced.
  • "Mariupol Drama Theatre has reopened its doors to spectators" after a three year redevelopment, said Denis Puchilin, the pro-Russian leader in the Donetsk region that includes the city.
A theatre that became one of the bombed out symbols of a Russian siege of the city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine in 2022 has reopened after a huge redevelopment, Russian authorities have announced.
A special ceremony and a show by performers from Mariupol and the Russian city of Saint Petersburg were held on Sunday, with Russian television showing images of the gala event as well as the theatre's rebuilt marble staircase and columns, and a 2.5 tonne crystal chandelier hanging in the auditorium.
Russian forces rolled into Mariupol, a bustling Black Sea coast city, in the first months of its assault in 2022 and imposed a brutal, nearly three month siege that resulted in thousands of deaths -- 8,000 according to Human Rights Watch, and 22,000 according to the city's exiled Ukrainian mmunicipal council.
Amnesty International said at least 12 people were killed in the bombing of the theatre.
The city on the Sea of Azov was devastated and some 300,000 of the pre-conflict population of 540,000 fled. The UN said 90 percent of the buildings were destroyed or damaged in the siege. Russia has since sought to turn Mariupol into a new symbol of prosperity in the parts of Ukraine it controls.
Amnesty International said at least 12 people were killed in the bombing of the theatre in 2022. 
"Mariupol Drama Theatre has reopened its doors to spectators" after a three year redevelopment, said Denis Puchilin, the pro-Russian leader in the Donetsk region that includes the city.
The theatre's "historic image" has been restored with its sculptured facade and "modern equipment of the highest level", he added in comments on Telegram.
The former Russian imperial capital of Saint Petersburg was a major contributor to the restoration, sending workers and architects to Mariupol, according to Saint Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov.
Beglov, who was in the 500 audience on Sunday, called the rebuilding project "a question of honour".
In September 2022, Russia announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions -- Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia -- even though it does not fully control the areas.
bur/tw/jh

election

New year brings new mayor for New York City

BY RAPHAëLLE PELTIER

  • - Policy agenda - The mayor-elect, an avowed socialist, campaigned on addressing the prohibitive cost of living in the metropolis of 8.5 million. 
  • New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is set to become the US city's first Muslim mayor, and the youthful optimism of his Democratic Socialist platform will be put to the test as he takes office Thursday for a four-year term that faces high expectations.
  • - Policy agenda - The mayor-elect, an avowed socialist, campaigned on addressing the prohibitive cost of living in the metropolis of 8.5 million. 
New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is set to become the US city's first Muslim mayor, and the youthful optimism of his Democratic Socialist platform will be put to the test as he takes office Thursday for a four-year term that faces high expectations.

Festive swearing in

Just after the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, New York Attorney General Letitia James -- friend to Mamdani, foe to President Donald Trump -- will swear in the new mayor. In a high-stakes tit-for-tat, James recently sued Trump, and he tried to have her indicted in return.
At midday, left-wing icon and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will preside over a ceremony outside City Hall.
At a neighborhood celebration, festivities will echo "one of his core messages... that this is a great city, and we like living here," said Lincoln Mitchell, a Columbia University political science professor. 

Policy agenda

The mayor-elect, an avowed socialist, campaigned on addressing the prohibitive cost of living in the metropolis of 8.5 million. 
One of his key proposals is freezing rent on more than a million apartments, but it's unclear if the city board that handles rent control -- packed with appointees of outgoing Mayor Eric Adams -- will be supportive.
Details of Mamdani's other campaign promises -- the construction of 200,000 units of affordable housing, universal access to childcare, publicly owned supermarkets and free buses -- have yet to be spelled out.
But Mamdani has one ace in his pocket: an excellent relationship with New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who approves measures like the tax hikes he seeks.
Once an election is over, "symbolism only goes so far with voters. Results begin to matter a whole lot more," New York University lecturer John Kane said.

Opposition to Trump

Despite expectations to the contrary, the late November Oval Office meeting between Trump and Mamdani was cordial and calm. 
Mamdani "wisely sought a point of common ground with Trump: wanting to make New York City a better place to live," Kane said.
Trump can "be surprisingly gregarious toward those that he perceives to have little leverage over," Kane added.
Federal immigration officers are increasingly active in New York, which could become a flashpoint.

Reassuring the public

At 34, Mamdani is one of New York's youngest mayors and his political resume is short -- he's held office once previously, as a local representative in the State Assembly.
To compensate, he is surrounding himself with seasoned aides, recruited from past mayor's offices and former president Joe Biden's administration.
Mamdani has also already opened dialogue with business leaders, some of whom predicted a massive exodus of wealthy New Yorkers if he won. Real estate sector leaders debunked those claims in recent weeks.
As a defender of Palestinian rights, the mayor -- Muslim and of Indian origin -- will also have to reassure the Jewish community of his inclusive leadership style. 
Recently, one of his hires resigned after it was revealed she had posted antisemitic tweets years ago.

'Cultural figure'

"The mayor of New York is always a cultural figure," Mitchell said.
Mamdani has already captured some of his generation's cultural trappings with his brief forays into rap music, improv classes in Manhattan, and wearing what the New York Times called "the quintessential entry-level suit for a 30-something striving to be taken seriously."
New Yorkers have also noted his enthusiastic support of his wife, Syrian-born artist Rama Duwaji, with approval.
Her Instagram account has gained more than a million followers since November, according to Social Blade statistics.
And on the cover of The Cut, New York magazine's revered fashion and culture publication, she recently marked her own path -- the hallmark of every young generation of city dwellers striving to make it there.
"At the end of the day, I’m not a politician. I'm here to be a support system for Z and to use the role in the best way that I can as an artist," she said.
pel/sla/ksb/lb

Global Edition

Myanmar pro-military party 'winning' junta-run poll first phase: source

  • The military overturned the results of the last poll in 2020 after Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, trounced the Union Solidarity and Development Party.
  • Myanmar's dominant pro-military party is "winning a majority" in the first phase of junta-run elections, a party source told AFP Monday, after democracy watchdogs warned the poll would entrench military rule.
  • The military overturned the results of the last poll in 2020 after Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, trounced the Union Solidarity and Development Party.
Myanmar's dominant pro-military party is "winning a majority" in the first phase of junta-run elections, a party source told AFP Monday, after democracy watchdogs warned the poll would entrench military rule.
The armed forces snatched power in a 2021 coup, but on Sunday opened voting in a phased month-long election they pledge will return power to the people.
The massively popular but dissolved party of democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi did not appear on ballots, and she remains jailed since the military putsch which triggered a civil war.
Campaigners, Western diplomats and the United Nations' rights chief have condemned the vote -- citing a stark crackdown on dissent and a candidate list stacked with military allies.
"The USDP is winning a majority of seats around the country according to different reports," said a party official in the capital Naypyidaw, requesting anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to media.
Official results have yet to be posted by Myanmar's Union Election Commission and there are two more phases scheduled for January 11 and 25.
The military overturned the results of the last poll in 2020 after Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, trounced the Union Solidarity and Development Party.
The military and USDP then alleged massive voter fraud, claims which international monitors say were unfounded.
But on Sunday military chief Min Aung Hlaing -- who has ruled by diktat for the past five years -- said the armed forces could be trusted to hand back power to a civilian-led government.
"We guarantee it to be a free and fair election," he told reporters after casting his vote in Naypyidaw. "It's organised by the military, we can't let our name be tarnished."
The military's coup triggered a civil war as pro-democracy activists formed guerrilla units, fighting alongside ethnic minority armies which have long resisted central rule.
Sunday's election was scheduled to take place in 102 of the country's 330 townships -- the largest of the three rounds of voting.
But amid the war, the military has acknowledged that elections cannot happen in almost one in five lower house constituencies.
hla-jts/sco/mtp

conflict

Trump says Ukraine deal closer but no talks breakthrough

BY JIM WATSON, WITH SHAUN TANDON IN WASHINGTON AND STANISLAV DOSHCHITSYN IN KYIV

  • "I really believe we're, Mr. President, probably closer than -- far closer than -- ever before with both parties," Trump said with Zelensky at his side in the tea room of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
  • US President Donald Trump said Sunday that a deal was closer than ever to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine but reported no apparent breakthrough on the flashpoint issue of territory after new talks with the warring countries' leaders.
  • "I really believe we're, Mr. President, probably closer than -- far closer than -- ever before with both parties," Trump said with Zelensky at his side in the tea room of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
US President Donald Trump said Sunday that a deal was closer than ever to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine but reported no apparent breakthrough on the flashpoint issue of territory after new talks with the warring countries' leaders.
Trump, who had promised a peace deal on day one of his nearly year-old presidency, said it would become clear within weeks whether it was possible to solve the conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people.
In a pre-New Year's diplomatic sprint, Trump brought to his Florida estate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who described a peace plan as 95 percent complete despite Russia unleashing major new attacks a day before on Kyiv's residential areas.
Much like when Zelensky last met Trump in October, Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke shortly beforehand by telephone with the US leader, who immediately insisted that Moscow was "serious" about peace despite the assault.
"I really believe we're, Mr. President, probably closer than -- far closer than -- ever before with both parties," Trump said with Zelensky at his side in the tea room of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
"Everybody wants it ended," Trump said.
Zelensky looked on politely, only betraying the slightest look of disbelief as Trump told him that Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion that has included major attacks on infrastructure, "wants to see Ukraine succeed."
"President Putin was very generous in his feeling toward Ukraine succeeding, including supplying energy, electricity and other things at very low prices," Trump said.
Zelensky has been careful not to annoy Trump, mindful of his disastrous White House meeting on February 28 where he pushed back and saw the United States briefly snap off key support.
Zelensky also nodded politely as Trump insisted the Ukrainians enjoyed the club's food but stayed stoic as Trump digressed into familiar grievances about his predecessor Joe Biden.

Call to Europeans

After their talks, Zelensky and Trump spoke jointly by telephone with key European leaders, who have been particularly alarmed about any decisions that would embolden Russia.
Zelensky said that he and European leaders could return jointly for talks with Trump in Washington in January.
French President Emmanuel Macron also announced a new meeting of Kyiv's allies in early January in Paris.
Trump acknowledged continued disagreement between Kyiv and Moscow on territory. The current plan, revised after weeks of intense US-Ukrainian negotiations, would stop the war at the current frontlines in the eastern Donbas region and set up a demilitarized area, while Russia has long demanded territorial concessions.
"It's unresolved, but it's getting a lot closer. That's a very tough issue, but one that I think will get resolved," Trump said.
Trump offered to address the Ukrainian parliament to promote the plan  -- an idea, however unlikely, that Zelensky quickly welcomed.
Zelensky's openness to the revised US plan marks Kyiv's most explicit acknowledgement yet of possible territorial concessions, although Ukrainians would need to vote in a referendum.
By contrast, Russia has shown no signs of compromise, as it sees hope in the grinding gains it has made over four years against tough Ukrainian defenses.
The Kremlin in its readout of talks between Putin and Trump called on Kyiv to make a "bold and responsible decision" and immediately withdraw troops from Donbas and cast European leaders as the impediment to Trump.
Trump and Putin agree that a "temporary ceasefire" would "merely prolong the conflict and risk a renewed escalation on the battlefield," Kremlin diplomatic advisor Yuri Ushakov said.
He said that Trump and Putin would speak again "promptly" after the Zelensky meeting, although there was no immediate news of a second call.

'90 percent' agreed by Ukraine

Trump's advisors have previously floated the idea of offering NATO-like security guarantees to Ukraine, meaning in theory that the alliance's members would respond militarily if Russia attacks again.
Zelensky said that the peace framework laid out by Trump was "90 percent agreed" and that "US-Ukraine security guarantees: 100 percent agreed."
Russia had adamantly rejected any entrance of the former Soviet republic into NATO.
bur/sct/sla

crime

South Korea's ex-first lady accused of taking over $200,000 in bribes

  • They alleged that bribes from businesses and politicians received by Kim totalled up to 377.25 million won ($263,000).
  • South Korea's former first lady was alleged by prosecutors Monday to have accepted lavish bribes totalling over $200,000, including fine art, jewellery and a handbag, as well as meddling in state affairs.
  • They alleged that bribes from businesses and politicians received by Kim totalled up to 377.25 million won ($263,000).
South Korea's former first lady was alleged by prosecutors Monday to have accepted lavish bribes totalling over $200,000, including fine art, jewellery and a handbag, as well as meddling in state affairs.
Kim Keon Hee, the wife of disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol, was arrested in August and is under investigation for alleged stock manipulation and receiving gifts from the cult-like Unification Church.
She has also been accused of meddling in parliamentary elections.
In an announcement concluding their investigation, prosecutor Min Joong-ki said South Korea's institutions were "severely undermined by abuses of power" by Kim.
Kim allegedly "illegally intervened in state affairs behind the scenes, beyond the public's view," said prosecutor Kim Hyung-geun.
They alleged that bribes from businesses and politicians received by Kim totalled up to 377.25 million won ($263,000).
Investigators alleged Kim had received two Chanel bags and a Graff necklace from the leader of the Unification Church.
She also allegedly received luxury jewellery, a painting by famed South Korean minimalist painter Lee Ufan, a Dior handbag and a wristwatch.
Former president Yoon denied that he was aware of these transactions when pressed by investigators, "a claim that many find difficult to accept", said the prosecutor Kim Hyung-geun.
Prosecutors demanded a 15-year prison term for the former first lady in early December, saying she had "stood above the law" and colluded with the Unification Church to undermine the "constitutionally mandated separation of religion and state".
They also asked the court to fine her two billion won ($1.4 million).
The former first lady has denied all the charges.
In her final testimony, she said the allegations were "deeply unjust".
"Yet when I consider my role and the responsibilities entrusted to me, it seems clear that I have made many mistakes," she said.
Ex-president Yoon declared martial law last December in a short-lived bid to suspend civilian rule that plunged South Korea into political turmoil.
He was removed from office then arrested this year on insurrection charges, which he denies, the first time that a South Korean former president and his wife had both been detained.
A Seoul court is set to sentence Kim on January 28.
hs/oho/abs

attack

Bondi victims' families demand national probe into antisemitism

BY LAURA CHUNG

  • Seventeen families urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in an open letter to "immediately establish a Commonwealth Royal Commission into the rapid rise of antisemitism in Australia" and examine "law enforcement, intelligence, and policy failures that led to the Bondi Beach massacre".
  • Families of the victims of Australia's Bondi Beach mass shootings called Monday for a national inquiry into antisemitism and alleged failures in policing, intelligence and policy they blame for the attack.
  • Seventeen families urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in an open letter to "immediately establish a Commonwealth Royal Commission into the rapid rise of antisemitism in Australia" and examine "law enforcement, intelligence, and policy failures that led to the Bondi Beach massacre".
Families of the victims of Australia's Bondi Beach mass shootings called Monday for a national inquiry into antisemitism and alleged failures in policing, intelligence and policy they blame for the attack.
Father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram are accused of targeting a Hanukkah event on Sydney's Bondi Beach on December 14, killing 15 people and wounding dozens in what authorities have described as an antisemitic terrorist attack.
Seventeen families urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in an open letter to "immediately establish a Commonwealth Royal Commission into the rapid rise of antisemitism in Australia" and examine "law enforcement, intelligence, and policy failures that led to the Bondi Beach massacre".
"We demand answers and solutions," they wrote.
"We need to know why clear warning signs were ignored, how antisemitic hatred and Islamic extremism were allowed to dangerously grow unchecked, and what changes must be made to protect all Australians going forward."
Albanese has resisted calls for a federal inquiry, citing a need for urgent action rather than waiting "years for answers". 
"We need to get on with any changes that are required," he told reporters Monday.
"I have nothing except sympathy for those families. My job, as prime minister, is to look at how we build unity, how we build social cohesion, how we do what the nation needs at what is a very difficult time."
Albanese said last week that a New South Wales-led royal commission -- where the shooting occurred -- would suffice and promised full support.

'Not enough'

Canberra has flagged a suite of reforms to gun ownership and hate speech laws, as well as an review of police and intelligence services.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke warned Monday that a national royal commission could give "some of the worst statements and worst voices" a platform to relive "the worst examples of antisemitism over the last two years", which he said was not in the interest of unity or national security.
But the families of those killed said the federal government's response is "not nearly enough".
"We have lost parents, spouses, children, and grandparents. Our loved ones were celebrating Chanukah at Bondi Beach, a festival of light and joy, in an iconic public space that should have been safe," the letter said.
"You owe us answers. You owe us accountability. And you owe Australians the truth."
The families said the rise of antisemitism was a "national crisis", adding the "threat was not going away".
"We need strong action now. We need leadership now. You cannot bring back our loved ones. But with a well-led Commonwealth Royal Commission and strong action, you may be able to save many more."
The call for a royal commission echoes voices in the broader Jewish community, legal experts and other politicans. 
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the government was not listening.
"We deserve answers. Only a royal commission has the coercive powers to get to the bottom of how this was allowed to happen and what needs to change in this country to prevent the next massacre," he told national broadcaster ABC.
One of the gunmen, Sajid Akram, 50, was shot and killed by police during the attack. An Indian national, he entered Australia on a visa in 1998.
His 24-year-old son Naveed, an Australian-born citizen, remains in custody on charges including terrorism and 15 murders, as well as committing a "terrorist act" and planting a bomb with intent to harm.
He has yet to enter a plea.
lec/mjw

RSF

Sudanese trek through mountains to escape Kordofan fighting

BY ABDELMONEIM ABU IDRIS ALI AND MENNA FAROUK IN CAIRO

  • - Those left behind - According to Refaat, transport prices from El-Obeid in North Kordofan have increased more than tenfold in two months, severely "limiting who can flee".
  • For eight days, Sudanese farmer Ibrahim Hussein led his family through treacherous terrain to flee the fighting in southern Kordofan -- the latest and most volatile front in the country's 31-month-old conflict.
  • - Those left behind - According to Refaat, transport prices from El-Obeid in North Kordofan have increased more than tenfold in two months, severely "limiting who can flee".
For eight days, Sudanese farmer Ibrahim Hussein led his family through treacherous terrain to flee the fighting in southern Kordofan -- the latest and most volatile front in the country's 31-month-old conflict.
"We left everything behind," said the 47-year-old, who escaped with his family of seven from Keiklek, near the South Sudanese border.
"Our animals and our unharvested crops -- all of it."
Hussein spoke to AFP from Kosti, an army-controlled city in White Nile state, around 300 kilometres (186 miles) south of Khartoum.
The city has become a refuge for hundreds of families fleeing violence in oil-rich Kordofan, where the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) -- locked in a brutal war since April 2023 -- are vying for control.
Emboldened by their October capture of the army's last stronghold in Darfur, the RSF and their allies have in recent weeks descended in full force on Kordofan, forcing nearly 53,000 people to flee, according to the United Nations.
"For most of the war, we lived in peace and looked after our animals," Hussein said.
"But when the RSF came close, we were afraid fighting would break out. So we left, most of the way on foot."
He took his family through the rocky spine of the Nuba Mountains and the surrounding valley, passing through both paramilitary and army checkpoints.
This month, the RSF consolidated its grip on West Kordofan -- one of three regional states -- and seized Heglig, which lies on Sudan's largest oil field.
With their local allies, they have also tightened their siege on the army-held cities of Kadugli and Dilling, where hundreds of thousands face mass starvation.

Running for their lives

In just two days this week, nearly 4,000 people arrived in Kosti, hungry and terrified, said Mohamed Refaat, Sudan chief of mission for the UN's International Organisation for Migration.
"Most of those arriving are women and children. Very few adult men are with them," he told AFP, adding that many men stay behind "out of fear of being killed or abducted."
The main roads are unsafe, so families are taking "long and uncertain journeys and sleeping wherever they can," according to Mercy Corps, one of the few aid agencies operating in Kordofan.
"Journeys that once took four hours now force people to walk for 15 to 30 days through isolated areas and mine-littered terrain," said Miji Park, interim country director for Sudan. 
This month, drones hit a kindergarten and a hospital in Kalogi in South Kordofan, killing 114 people, including 63 children, according to the World Health Organisation.
Adam Eissa, a 53-year-old farmer, knew it was time to run. He took his wife, four daughters and elderly mother -- all crammed into a pickup truck with 30 others -- and drove for three days through "backroads to avoid RSF checkpoints", he told AFP from Kosti.
They are now sheltering in a school-turned-shelter housing around 500 displaced people.
"We receive some help, but it is not enough," said Eissa, who is trying to find work in the market.
According to the IOM's Refaat, Kosti -- a relatively small city -- is already under strain. It hosts thousands of South Sudanese refugees, themselves fleeing violence across the border.
It cost Eissa $400 to get his family to safety. Anyone who does not have that kind of money -- most Sudanese, after close to three years of war -- has to walk, or stay behind.

Those left behind

According to Refaat, transport prices from El-Obeid in North Kordofan have increased more than tenfold in two months, severely "limiting who can flee".
In besieged Kadugli, 56-year-old market trader Hamdan is desperate for a way out, "terrified" that the RSF will seize the city.
"I sent my family away a while ago with my eldest son," he told AFP via satellite internet connection, asking to be identified only by his first name. "Now I am looking for a way to leave."
Every day brings "the sound of shelling and sometimes gunfire", said Kassem Eissa, a civil servant and head of a family of eight.
"I have three daughters, the youngest is 14," he told AFP, laying out an impossible choice: "Getting out is expensive and the road is unsafe" but "we're struggling to get enough food and medicine".
The UN has issued repeated warnings of the violence in Kordofan, raising fears of atrocities similar to those reported in the last captured city in Darfur, including summary executions, abductions and rape.
"If a ceasefire is not reached around Kadugli," Refaat said, "the scale of violence we saw in El-Fasher could be repeated."
bur-maf/bha/dc/tc

film

Bardot: from defending sheep to flirting with the far right

BY LAURE FILLON

  • Her fourth husband, Bernard d'Ormale, was an advisor of late French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, whose daughter Marine took over the party.
  • Film legend Brigitte Bardot in her later decades raised eyebrows calling far-right leader Marine Le Pen a modern "Joan of Arc", but she always maintained she was merely doing what was best for animals.
  • Her fourth husband, Bernard d'Ormale, was an advisor of late French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, whose daughter Marine took over the party.
Film legend Brigitte Bardot in her later decades raised eyebrows calling far-right leader Marine Le Pen a modern "Joan of Arc", but she always maintained she was merely doing what was best for animals.
Bardot, who died on Sunday aged 91, argued she was unfairly labelled as a supporter of the anti-immigration far right after she made explosive remarks in the late 1990s about Muslims slaughtering sheep.
"I never asked anyone to be racist and I don't think I fuel any racial hatred," she wrote in her 2018 book "Larmes de Combat", translated into English under the title "Tears of Battle". 
But the Paris-born star of around 50 films, who walked away from cinema to defend animal rights, was repeatedly convicted for hate speech -- mostly against members of the Islamic faith after migration from France's former colonies.
And she actively backed far-right presidential contender Marine Le Pen when she ran in 2012 and 2017.
"I wish for her to save France. She's the Joan of Arc of the 21st century," she told Paris Match in 2014, referring to the legendary teenager who repelled the English in the Hundred Years War in the 15th century.
"She's the only woman... who has balls," she later added of Le Pen, who also vied for president in 2022.

'We'll be slaughtered too'

Le Pen may be barred from a fourth run for the Elysee in 2027 due to a graft conviction, but her National Rally party feels its best chance ever to win the presidency in the upcoming polls, with Emmanuel Macron stepping down after two consecutive terms.
Le Pen on Sunday mourned Bardot, calling her "incredibly French: free, untameable, whole", while her lieutenant Jordan Bardella -- who could run instead of Le Pen -- described her as an "ardent patriot", adding French people had lost "the Marianne they so loved".
France's republic is traditionally represented by a female figure called Marianne, and Bardot in the 1960s posed for such a statue by artist Alain Aslan.
Macron also alluded to "the face that became Marianne" in his tribute to a woman he called a "legend" of the 20th century.
But he made no mention of her comments leading to convictions for hate speech.
In 1997, Bardot argued against the ritual killing of sheep for the celebration of Eid al-Adha, saying the practice would "stain the soil of France".
"They're slitting the throats of women and children, our monks, our civil servants, our tourists, and our sheep. One day we'll be slaughtered too," she wrote, appearing to conflate violent Islamists with ordinary Muslims, and warning against "a Muslim France with a North African Marianne".
In 1996, Islamist insurgents killed French monks in France's former colony Algeria during the civil war.
Bardot declared herself "against the Islamisation of France" in a 2003 book, arguing "our ancestors, our grandfathers, our fathers have for centuries given their lives to push out successive invaders".
But in 2018 the former actor told Le Monde newspaper her concerns surrounding Eid al-Adha had been misunderstood, and she was "simply requesting the animals be stunned" to avoid suffering.

'Wild hopes' in the far right

In her final book, "Mon BBcedaire" ("My BB Alphabet"), she said right-wing politicians were "the only urgent remedy to France's agony".
The animal activist, who has criticised the #Metoo movement, also made derogatory comments about gay and transgender people.
Her fourth husband, Bernard d'Ormale, was an advisor of late French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, whose daughter Marine took over the party.
In 1996, Bardot described Jean-Marie Le Pen as a "charming" man also worried about the "terrifying rise of immigration".
He later invoked Bardot to argue Muslim women should not be allowed to wear burkinis in public. 
"French beaches are those of Bardot and Vadim," he said, in an apparent reference to Roger Vadim's 1956 film "And God created Woman", featuring the actor dancing with her skirt slit up to her waist.
Often a guest at the Elysee palace, Bardot said French presidents -- including Macron -- did not do enough to protect animal rights.
"I had wild hopes when the National Front (now called the National Rally) put forward concrete proposals to reduce animal suffering," she told Le Monde.
But she claimed she also reached out to hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, "congratulating him for being a vegetarian", and said that if a communist took up her proposals, she would vote for them.
bur-laf-ah/jh/tc

Global Edition

North Korea tests cruise missiles in show of 'combat readiness'

BY HIEUN SHIN

  • The goal of the exercise was to review the "counter-offensive response posture and combat capability of long-range missile sub-units," KCNA said.
  • North Korea test-fired two strategic long-range cruise missiles, state media reported Monday, hailing the exercise as a show of "combat readiness" against foreign threats.
  • The goal of the exercise was to review the "counter-offensive response posture and combat capability of long-range missile sub-units," KCNA said.
North Korea test-fired two strategic long-range cruise missiles, state media reported Monday, hailing the exercise as a show of "combat readiness" against foreign threats.
Leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the drill -- staged Sunday over the Yellow Sea to the west of the Korean peninsula -- and called for "unlimited and sustained" development of his nuclear weapons forces, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
The goal of the exercise was to review the "counter-offensive response posture and combat capability of long-range missile sub-units," KCNA said.
The missiles flew for more than two hours, state media said, sharing photos of the missiles being fired and hitting a target.
Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired Sunday at 8:00 am (2300 GMT Saturday) from the Sunan area near the capital Pyongyang.
Kim vowed Pyongyang "would as ever devote all their efforts to the unlimited and sustained development of the state nuclear combat force", KCNA said.
North Korea last staged a ballistic missile test in early November, around a week after US President Donald Trump -- on a tour of the region -- expressed interest in meeting with Kim.
Pyongyang did not respond to the offer.
At that time, Trump had just approved South Korean plans to build a nuclear-powered submarine.
Last week Pyongyang showed off a nuclear submarine of its own.
Photos published by KCNA showed Kim walking alongside a purportedly 8,700-tonne submarine at an indoor assembly site, surrounded by officials and his daughter Kim Ju Ae.
Pyongyang viewed Seoul developing nuclear subs as "an offensive act severely violating its security and maritime sovereignty", Kim said, according to KCNA.
North Korean state media last week also published a defence ministry statement condemning the docking of the US Navy's nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Greenville in South Korea's Busan.
The cruise missile launch drill was aimed at countering these moves, said Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. 
"The arrow-type cruise missiles, with a range of around 2,000 kilometres, are capable of striking not only the entire Korean peninsula but also rear bases of US forces stationed in Japan," Yang told AFP.
dw-hs/oho/abs

automobile

China's BYD poised to overtake Tesla in 2025 EV sales

BY ELODIE MAZEIN AND AFP CORRESPONDENTS IN BEIJING

  • Tesla has also faced rising EV competition from BYD and other Chinese companies and from European giants.
  • Growing Chinese auto giant BYD stands poised to officially surpass Tesla as the world's biggest electric vehicle company in annual sales.
  • Tesla has also faced rising EV competition from BYD and other Chinese companies and from European giants.
Growing Chinese auto giant BYD stands poised to officially surpass Tesla as the world's biggest electric vehicle company in annual sales.
The two groups are expected soon to publish their final figures for 2025, and based on sales data so far this year, there is almost no chance the American company led by Elon Musk will retain its leadership position.
At the end of November, Shenzhen-based BYD, which also produces hybrid vehicles, had sold 2.07 million EVs so far in 2025.
Tesla, for its part, had sold 1.22 million by the end of September. 
Tesla's September figures included a one-time boost in sales, to nearly half-a-million vehicles in a three-month period, before the expiration of a US tax credit for buyers of electric vehicles -- which ended under legislation backed by President Donald Trump, a climate change skeptic.
But Tesla's sales in the coming quarter are expected to fall to 449,000, according to a FactSet analysis consensus. That would give Tesla about 1.65 million sales for all of 2025, a drop of 7.7 percent and well below the level BYD had attained by end November.
Deutsche Bank, which projects just 405,000 Tesla EV sales during the fourth quarter, sees the company's sales down by around one-third in both North America and Europe, and by one-tenth in China.

Transition period

Industry watchers say it will take time for EV demand to reach a level of equilibrium in the United States following the elimination of the $7,500 US tax credit at the end of September 2025.
Even prior to that, Tesla had seen sales struggle in key markets over CEO Musk's political support of Trump and other far-right politicians. Tesla has also faced rising EV competition from BYD and other Chinese companies and from European giants.
"We believe Tesla will see some weakness on deliveries" in the fourth quarter, said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.
Sales of 420,000 would be "good enough to show stable demand," with Wall Street "laser focused on the autonomous chapter kicking off in 2026," Ives added, referring to plans for self-driving vehicles.
Even as it has grown quickly, BYD has faced challenges in its home market. 
With profitability in China weighed down by price-wary consumers, the company has sought to strengthen its foothold in foreign markets.
BYD is "one of the pioneers to establish overseas production capacity and supply chains for EVs," Jing Yang, Director of Asia-Pacific Corporate Ratings at Fitch Ratings, told AFP.
"Going forward, its geographical diversification is likely to help it to navigate an increasingly complicated global tariff environment," said Yang.
Overseas rivals to BYD have balked at Chinese state subsidies and other state supports that have allowed the company to sell vehicles cheaply. 
Trump's predecessor Joe Biden imposed 100 percent tariffs on Chinese EV imports that could potentially go even higher under Trump. Europe has also imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, but BYD is building manufacturing capacity in Hungary.
While the chance of Tesla reclaiming its global leadership in EVs looks uncertain, the American company is also potentially positioned for growth.
Michaeli of TD Cowen sees autonomous technology playing an increasingly important role for Tesla, with breakthroughs in its "full self-driving" or "FSD" offerings potentially boosting sales.
"As Tesla really begins to roll out eyes-off features and expand FSDs capability, if they do that successfully, that should generate more demand for their vehicles," Michaeli said.
Musk has said the Cybercab, an autonomous robotaxi model, will begin production in April 2026. The company has also unveiled lower-priced versions of the Models 3 and Y that could boost sales.
bur-elm/msp

Israel

Somaliland recognition prompts celebrations, condemnation

BY MUSTAFA HAJI ABDINUR IN MOGADISCIO WITH JORIS FIORITI IN NAIROBI

  • They came as Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud addressed an emergency parliamentary session, calling Israel's decision as "tantamount to a blunt aggression against the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and the unity of the people of the Somali Republic".
  • People gathered in several towns in the breakaway region of Somaliland on Sunday to celebrate its recognition by Israel -- a decision condemned by the Somali president as a "threat" to stability in the Horn of Africa.
  • They came as Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud addressed an emergency parliamentary session, calling Israel's decision as "tantamount to a blunt aggression against the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and the unity of the people of the Somali Republic".
People gathered in several towns in the breakaway region of Somaliland on Sunday to celebrate its recognition by Israel -- a decision condemned by the Somali president as a "threat" to stability in the Horn of Africa.
Israel announced on Friday it was officially recognising Somaliland, a first for the self-proclaimed republic that in 1991 declared it had unilaterally separated from Somalia.
On Sunday, the leader of the Houthis warned that any Israeli presence in Somaliland would be considered a "military target". 
Somaliland, which has for decades pushed for international recognition, enjoys a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden and has its own money, passport and army.
Thousands of people thronged a stadium in the capital Hargeisa, where many dressed in the green, white and red colours of Somaliland's flag.
"Victory for Somaliland!" they chanted.
The flag was hoisted alongside that of Israel in a ceremony broadcast live by Somaliland television stations.
"Mass celebrations are taking place in Hargeisa and across cities of the Republic of Somaliland, as citizens proudly gather to commemorate the historic decision by the Government of Israel," Somaliland's foreign ministry said on X.
"We welcome every country that recognises our existence," Jama Suleyman, a resident of Hargeisa, told AFP.
"For the people of Somalia, our neighbours should not be concerned about this victory; we know they are making noises, but there is nothing that will make Somaliland stop from aiming high," he added.
- 'Violations' - 
Local authorities questioned by AFP said gatherings were also held in the central town of Burao, and in Gebiley in the east.
They came as Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud addressed an emergency parliamentary session, calling Israel's decision as "tantamount to a blunt aggression against the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and the unity of the people of the Somali Republic".
He added that "the violations of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and his attempts to divide the Federal Republic of Somalia is (a) threat to the security and stability of the world and the region".
Later Sunday, chief Abdulmalik al-Houthi, leader of Yemen's Houthi rebels, issued a warning to Israel.
"We consider any Israeli presence in Somaliland a military target for our armed forces, as it constitutes aggression against Somalia and Yemen, and a threat to the security of the region," he said in a statement.
Israel's recognition of Somaliland was "a hostile stance targeting Somalia and its African surroundings, as well as Yemen, the Red Sea, and the countries along both shores of the Red Sea", he added. 

'Will not create violence' 

Somaliland has been diplomatically isolated since its unilateral declaration of independence, even if it has generally experienced greater stability than Somalia, where Al-Shabaab Islamic militants periodically mount attacks in the capital Mogadishu.
Regional analysts believe that a rapprochement with Somaliland would provide Israel with better access to the Red Sea, enabling it to hit Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Israel repeatedly struck targets in Yemen after the Gaza war broke out in October 2023, in response to Houthi attacks on Israel that the rebels said were in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 
The Iran-backed Houthis have halted their attacks since a fragile truce began in Gaza in October.
In addition, press reports a few months ago said Somaliland was among a handful of African territories willing to host Palestinians expelled by Israel.
"Somalia will never accept the people of Palestine to be forcibly evicted from their rightful land to a faraway place, let it be Somalia or elsewhere," Mohamud told parliament. 
But at the Hargeisa rally, Khadar Hussein Abdi, minister of the presidency of Somaliland, sought to allay fears.
"The recognition and the arrival of Israel will not create violence, will not bring conflict and will never harm anyone," he said.
Somaliland will collaborate with Israel on improving the economy, agricultural production and on water, he added.
Israel's recognition of Somaliland was criticised by the African Union, Egypt, Turkey, the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and the Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The European Union insisted Somalia's sovereignty should be respected.
burs-jj/jh

film

France's screen siren Brigitte Bardot dies at 91

BY VINCENT-XAVIER MORVAN WITH ADAM PLOWRIGHT AND ALICE HACKMAN IN PARIS

  • "The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with immense sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actor and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation," it said in a statement sent to AFP. It did not give the cause of death.
  • French film sensation Brigitte Bardot, a symbol of sexual liberation in the 1950s and 1960s who reinvented herself as an animal rights defender and embraced far-right views, died on Sunday aged 91, her foundation said.
  • "The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with immense sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actor and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation," it said in a statement sent to AFP. It did not give the cause of death.
French film sensation Brigitte Bardot, a symbol of sexual liberation in the 1950s and 1960s who reinvented herself as an animal rights defender and embraced far-right views, died on Sunday aged 91, her foundation said.
She passed away in her Saint-Tropez home, La Madrague, on the French Riviera.
"The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with immense sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actor and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation," it said in a statement sent to AFP.
It did not give the cause of death. But Bardot was briefly hospitalised in October for what her office called a "minor" procedure. Bardot at the time had lambasted "idiot" internet users for speculation that she had died.
Tributes were immediately paid to the star who was known as "BB" in her home country, with President Emmanuel Macron calling her a "legend" of the 20th century.
An AFP reporter in Saint-Tropez saw a hearse enter and leave her property, as a handful of fans came to lay bunches of flowers near a police car that was blocking the road to her home.
Julia Gangotena, 36, was among the few to have made it up to Bardot's blue front gate, where she left some white roses near a Christmas wreath and a dog's bowl full of water, she said, showing AFP a picture.
"She's a woman who lived as much in the thronging crowd as she did alone -- profoundly alone," she said.
Born on September 28, 1934 in Paris, Bardot was raised in a well-off traditional Catholic household.
Married four times, she had one child, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, with her second husband, actor Jacques Charrier.
Bardot became a global star after appearing in "And God created Woman" in 1956, and went on to appear in about 50 more movies before giving up acting in 1973.
She turned her back on celebrity to look after abandoned animals, saying she was "sick of being beautiful every day".

Far-right leanings

"Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom," Macron wrote on X.
His tribute, though, made no reference of Bardot's alignment with far-right views in her post-cinema years, which alienated many of her fans.
Bardot was convicted five times for hate speech, mostly about Muslims, but also the inhabitants of the French island of Reunion whom she described as "savages". 
A supporter of far-right politician Marine Le Pen, Bardot declared herself "against the Islamisation of France" in a 2003 book, which argued that "our ancestors, our grandfathers, our fathers have for centuries given their lives to push out successive invaders".
The head of Le Pen's far-right National Rally party, Jordan Bardella, called Bardot an "ardent patriot".
Le Pen, who has been barred from public office pending an appeal trial in January, called her "incredibly French: free, untameable, whole".
In her final book, Mon BBcedaire ("My BB Alphabet"), published just months before her death, Bardot fired barbs at what she described as a "dull, sad, submissive" France and at her home town of Saint-Tropez, now packed with the wealthy tourists she helped attract.
Bardot, a critic of the #MeToo movement, also made derogatory remarks about gay and transgender people.

Saint-Tropez retreat

After retiring from cinema, Bardot withdrew to her home in the Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez where she devoted herself to fighting for animals.
Her calling apparently came when she encountered a goat on the set of her final film, "The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot". To save it from being killed, she bought the animal and kept it in her hotel room.
Bardot went on to found the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in 1986, which now has 70,000 donors and around 300 employees, according to its website.
"I'm very proud of the first chapter of my life," she told AFP in a 2024 interview ahead of her 90th birthday.
"It gave me fame, and that fame allows me to protect animals -- the only cause that truly matters to me."
She added that she lived in "silent solitude" in La Madrague, surrounded by nature and content to be "fleeing humanity".
On the subject of death, she warned that she wanted to avoid the presence of "a crowd of idiots" at her funeral and wished for a simple wooden cross above her grave, in her garden -- the same as for her animals.
burs-ah/jh

Bardot

Bardot: the screen goddess who gave it all up

BY EMILIE BICKERTON

  • In 1986 she set up the Brigitte Bardot Foundation dedicated to animal protection.
  • She was the ultimate sex symbol whose voluptuous figure and libertine lifestyle sent tremors through the straitlaced 1950s, but Brigitte Bardot soon tired of the male gaze and walked away from it all to care for animals.
  • In 1986 she set up the Brigitte Bardot Foundation dedicated to animal protection.
She was the ultimate sex symbol whose voluptuous figure and libertine lifestyle sent tremors through the straitlaced 1950s, but Brigitte Bardot soon tired of the male gaze and walked away from it all to care for animals.
In the early days, when her curves, kohl-rimmed eyes and pout were plastered on French film posters, the actor known widely by her initials BB drew comparisons with Marilyn Monroe.
But from one day to the next in 1973 she turned her back on celebrity to look after abandoned animals, saying she was "sick of being beautiful every day".

And God Created BB

In her brief film career, Bardot enjoyed a string of popular successes, without garnering much critical acclaim.
Most of her 50-odd films were fun but forgettable flops -- with a few exceptions.
In 1956 she set the screen alight as an 18-year-old caught up in a love triangle in "And God Created Woman", directed by her then husband Roger Vadim.
Vadim's promise that the young dancer would become "the unattainable fantasy of all married men" proved prescient.
A scene of unbridled sexual energy, in which Bardot dances a mambo in a flowing skirt slit to the waist, sealed her film goddess status, while incurring the wrath of censors.
Seven years later, her role as the sullen, frustrated wife of a screenwriter in Jean-Luc Godard's "Contempt" also resulted in scenes that became part of cinema folklore.
Playing with the expectations of producers and spectators to have shots of Bardot's naked body in the film, Godard created a montage of her limbs as she lay in bed with her husband, asking him which part of her body he liked best.

Leaving first

"Queen Bardot stands there where morality ends," French author Marguerite Duras wrote in 1958.
"She does as she pleases, and that is what is disturbing," philosopher Simone de Beauvoir declared a year later. 
But far from revelling in her role as libertine, Bardot struggled with objectification. 
On her 26th birthday in 1960 she attempted suicide, and then in 1973, just short of her 40th birthday, she turned her back on it all.
"I knew my career was based entirely on my physique," she explained in 1978, "so I decided to leave cinema just as I have always left men: first." 

Animal love

Born on September 28, 1934 in Paris, Bardot was raised in a well-off traditional Catholic household.
Married four times, she had one child, Nicolas-Jacques with her second husband, actor Jacques Charrier.
Animal activism became the dominant feature of her life after film, as she retreated to the French Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez at the age of just 39.
In a 2011 letter to conservation group WWF, Bardot recounted her life-changing visit to Canada in the 1980s when she witnessed its annual seal cub culls.
"I will never forget these pictures, the screams of pain, they still torture me but they have given me the strength to sacrifice my whole life to defend the animal’s one,” she said.
In 1986 she set up the Brigitte Bardot Foundation dedicated to animal protection. She has crusaded for baby seals and elephants, called for the abolition of ritual animal sacrifice and the closure of horse abattoirs.

Far-right 'Joan of Arc'

In later decades Bardot veered to the far-right, increasingly prone to disparaging remarks about gays, Muslims and immigrants that led to five convictions for inciting racial hatred.
In her 2003 book "A Cry in the Silence", she warned against the "Islamisation of France" and a "subterranean, dangerous, and uncontrolled infiltration".
In the 2012 and 2017 presidential elections she publicly supported far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whom she called the "Joan of Arc of the 21st century".

Not #MeToo

Bardot continued to shun the fashion and film worlds long after her retreat from both, frequently outspoken against the wearing of fur and proudly refusing to resort to plastic surgery.
In the whirlwind of the Harvey Weinstein scandal that unravelled in 2017, she again swam against the tide, hitting back at the #MeToo campaign which denounced the abuse of women.
"The vast majority are being hypocritical and ridiculous," she told Paris Match in 2018, referring to the actresses who had come forward with stories of abuse.
"Lots of actresses try to play the tease with producers to get a role. And then, so we will talk about them, they say they were harassed. I found it charming when men told me I was beautiful or I had a nice little backside."
bur-eab/cb/rmb

politics

UK's Starmer under fire over Egyptian activist's 'abhorrent' posts

  • Posting on X Friday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had said he was "delighted" Abdel Fattah had been reunited with his loved ones in the UK, after Egypt lifted its travel ban.
  • UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was under pressure Sunday after "abhorrent" social media posts by a British-Egyptian activist came to light days after he welcomed his return to the country.
  • Posting on X Friday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had said he was "delighted" Abdel Fattah had been reunited with his loved ones in the UK, after Egypt lifted its travel ban.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was under pressure Sunday after "abhorrent" social media posts by a British-Egyptian activist came to light days after he welcomed his return to the country.
Alaa Abdel Fattah only got back to the UK a few days ago after years of diplomatic efforts by London to secure his release from detention in Egypt.
But after old social posts emerged of him calling for violence against Zionists and the police, the opposition conservatives called Sunday for him to be stripped of his citizenship and deported to Egypt.
Posting on X Friday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had said he was "delighted" Abdel Fattah had been reunited with his loved ones in the UK, after Egypt lifted its travel ban.
Now Starmer is facing calls to retract those comments over the content of the activist's posts, which date back to 2010.
A Foreign Office statement said Sunday: "Mr El-Fattah is a British citizen. It has been a long-standing priority under successive governments to work for his release from detention, and to see him reunited with his family in the UK.
"The Government condemns Mr El-Fattah's historic tweets and considers them to be abhorrent."
Shadow justice minister Robert Jenrick, of the opposition Conservatives, has called for El-Fattah to be stripped of his citizenship.
"If the Prime Minister really was unaware that El Fattah was an extremist, he should immediately retract his comments expressing 'delight' at his arrival and begin proceedings to revoke his citizenship and deport him," Jenrick said on X.
Abdel Fattah was a leading voice in Egypt's 2011 Arab Spring uprising.
He was detained in Egypt in September 2019, and in December 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of spreading false news.
His imprisonment was branded a breach of international law by UN investigators and international campaigns were launched to get him freed.
His mother went on a long-running hunger strike as part of her efforts to secure his release. 
Abdel Fattah himself went on hunger strike this March whilst behind bars and was later released after being pardoned by Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi.
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