protest

Mass rallies, disruptions in France on day of anger against Macron

conflict

Israel bombards Gaza City, army says four soldiers killed

BY AFP TEAM IN GAZA
Thu Sep 18 2025 19:35:56 GMT+0000

  • The Israeli military, meanwhile, conducted strikes on Thursday targeting Hezbollah sites in south Lebanon shortly after it urged residents of several villages in the region to evacuate.
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  • Israeli tanks and jets pounded Gaza City, the target of a major ground offensive, on Thursday prompting Palestinians to flee south, where the Israeli military announced the deaths of four soldiers.
  • The Israeli military, meanwhile, conducted strikes on Thursday targeting Hezbollah sites in south Lebanon shortly after it urged residents of several villages in the region to evacuate.
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Israeli tanks and jets pounded Gaza City, the target of a major ground offensive, on Thursday prompting Palestinians to flee south, where the Israeli military announced the deaths of four soldiers.
AFP journalists and witnesses saw a steady stream of Gazans heading south on foot, in vehicles and on donkey carts -- their meagre belongings piled high.
"There is artillery fire, air strikes, quadcopter and drone gunfire. The bombing never stops," said Aya Ahmed, 32, sheltering with 13 relatives in Gaza City.
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"The world doesn't understand what is happening. They (Israel) want us to evacuate south -- but where will we live? There are no tents, no transport, no money."
Palestinians say the cost of a ride to the south has soared, in some cases topping $1,000.
"The situation is indescribable -- crowds everywhere, the sound of explosions, women and men crying and screaming as they walked while carrying their belongings," said Shadi Jawad, 47, describing his family's ordeal as they fled their home on Wednesday.
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"God, send a missile to take us out and relieve us," he said.
The offensive has sparked international outrage, with the territory already devastated by nearly two years of war and the Gaza City area gripped by a UN-declared famine.
It comes ahead of a planned move by several Western countries, including France and Britain, to recognise a Palestinian state later this month at the UN.
US President Donald Trump, currently on a visit to Britain, said Thursday he had a "disagreement" with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over this.
The United States on Thursday again vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, shielding its ally Israel from diplomatic pressure.

'Unfit for human dignity'

"The military incursion and evacuation orders in northern Gaza are driving new waves of displacement, forcing traumatised families into an ever-shrinking area unfit for human dignity," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
"Hospitals, already overwhelmed, are on the brink of collapse as escalating violence blocks access and prevents WHO from delivering lifesaving supplies," he warned.
Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital said it had received the bodies of 33 people killed in Israeli strikes since midnight.
The Israeli military said it continued to target "Hamas terror infrastructure" and was also operating in the southern areas of Rafah and Khan Yunis. 
Media restrictions in the territory and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence or the Israeli military.
Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned the military to expect fierce fighting.
"We are ready to send the lives of your soldiers to hell, and we have prepared for you an army of martyrs," the group said in a statement.
"Gaza will be a cemetery for your soldiers."
Later on Thursday the Israeli military said four of its soldiers had been killed using an explosive device in Rafah, in southern Gaza.
Meanwhile, a Jordanian driving an aid truck from Jordan to Gaza shot dead two Israeli soldiers at the Allenby crossing between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the kingdom.
Israel's military said one of the men was an officer in the civil administration's reserve unit, while the other was a soldier.
"This is the result of the echoing of Hamas's campaign of lies," the foreign ministry said on X.
Jordan condemned the attack, saying it jeopardised the delivery of aid, with the Israeli military later calling for aid from Jordan to be halted.
The US-backed offensive on Gaza City began on Tuesday and came as a United Nations probe accused Israel of committing "genocide" in the Gaza Strip, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had incited the crime.
Israel rejected the findings and slammed it as "distorted and false".

'My boy is dying there'

The United Nations estimated at the end of August that about one million people were living in Gaza City and its surroundings. Israel says 350,000 of them have fled.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, conducted strikes on Thursday targeting Hezbollah sites in south Lebanon shortly after it urged residents of several villages in the region to evacuate.
The families of hostages taken by Palestinian militants in their October 2023 attack protested the Gaza City offensive in front of Netanyahu's house in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
"My boy is dying over there. Instead of bringing him back, you have done the exact opposite -- you have done everything to prevent his return," Ofir Braslavski, whose son Rom is held captive in Gaza, said addressing the prime minister.
Of the 251 people taken hostage by Palestinian militants in October 2023, 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
The attack also resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 65,141 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
bur-jd/dcp/bha

protest

Mass rallies, disruptions in France on day of anger against Macron

BY BEATRICE JOANNIS AND STUART WILLIAMS
Thu Sep 18 2025 19:33:04 GMT+0000

  • "We've had enough, he's tormenting France," she told AFP. - 'Thousands of strikes' - Others complained about a growing gap between ordinary people and elites, saying a series of austerity measures proposed by the government would hit the poorest hardest.
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  • Hundreds of thousands of people protested across France on Thursday over President Emmanuel Macron's planned austerity policies, disrupting much of the country's public life.
  • "We've had enough, he's tormenting France," she told AFP. - 'Thousands of strikes' - Others complained about a growing gap between ordinary people and elites, saying a series of austerity measures proposed by the government would hit the poorest hardest.
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Hundreds of thousands of people protested across France on Thursday over President Emmanuel Macron's planned austerity policies, disrupting much of the country's public life.
Heeding a call from trade unions, protesters staged a day of actions that saw public transport stalled, schools closed and people taking to the streets for demonstrations marked by sporadic clashes with the police.
One trade union, the leftist CGT, said that more than a million people across the country had taken part in the demonstrations -- higher than the 900,000 it says turned out for a June 2023 protest against the lifting of the retirement age to 64 from 62.
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French authorities, whose counts are usually substantially lower than those of unions, said more than 500,000 people had demonstrated in the country, including 55,000 in Paris.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said 309 people had been detained during the protests, with an alleged 7,300 "radicalised" protestors joining the demos.
He added that 26 officers had been injured.
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Protesters demand Macron resign 

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, Macron's seventh head of government since 2017, vowed a break from the past in a bid to defuse a deepening political crisis after taking office last week.
But the appointment of the 39-year-old former defence minister and close Macron ally has failed to calm the anger of unions and many French people.
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"I reiterate my commitment to pursue a dialogue with all social partners" Lecornu said in a statement Thursday, adding that he would meet again soon with union leaders.
But many protesters took direct aim at Macron, who has just 18 months left in power and is enduring his worst-ever popularity levels.
Several placards urged him to resign, and demonstrators in the southern city of Nice threw an effigy of Macron into the air.
Sophie Larchet, a 60-year-old civil servant, said she came to protest in Paris because of Macron.
"We've had enough, he's tormenting France," she told AFP.

'Thousands of strikes'

Others complained about a growing gap between ordinary people and elites, saying a series of austerity measures proposed by the government would hit the poorest hardest.
"Every day the richest get richer and the poor get poorer," Bruno Cavalier, 64, said in Lyon, France's third-largest city.
Protesters remain incensed about the draft budget of Lecornu's predecessor Francois Bayrou, who had proposed a series of measures he said would save 44 billion euros ($52 billion) to curb France's high debt.
Lecornu has tried to calm anger by promising to abolish life-long privileges for former prime ministers and halt a widely detested plan to scrap two public holidays.
More than 80,000 police officers were deployed, backed by drones, armoured vehicles and water cannon.
With unions calling for strikes, around one in six teachers at primary and secondary schools walked out, while nine out of 10 pharmacies were shuttered.
Commuters faced severe disruption on the Paris Metro, where only the three driverless automated lines were working normally.
Trade unions said they were pleased with the scale of the protests.
"We have recorded 260 demonstrations across France," said Sophie Binet, leader of the CGT union. "There are thousands and thousands of strikes in all workplaces."

'Fed up'

Police in Paris and Marseille used tear gas to disperse early, unauthorised demonstrations. In Marseille, an AFPTV reporter filmed a policeman kicking a protester on the ground, while police said they had been confronted by "hostile" demonstrators.
On the outskirts of the northern city of Lille, protesters took part in an early morning action to block bus depots.
"We're fed up with being taxed like crazy," said Samuel Gaillard, a 58-year-old garbage truck driver.
Even schoolchildren joined in, with pupils blocking access to the Maurice Ravel secondary school in eastern Paris, brandishing slogans such as: "Block your school against austerity."
bur-sjw-as/jh/js/rlp

climate

EU states agree broad UN emissions target avoiding 'embarrassment'

BY UMBERTO BACCHI
Thu Sep 18 2025 18:56:41 GMT+0000

  • The countries have not been able to agree on their level of ambition, so they settled for a compromise "statement of intent" to cut emissions between 66.25 percent and 72.5 percent compared to 1990 levels.
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  • The EU agreed on a broad emissions-cutting target on Thursday to bring to a UN conference in Brazil, sparing the bloc potential diplomatic embarrassment but risking its reputation as a climate champion.
  • The countries have not been able to agree on their level of ambition, so they settled for a compromise "statement of intent" to cut emissions between 66.25 percent and 72.5 percent compared to 1990 levels.
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The EU agreed on a broad emissions-cutting target on Thursday to bring to a UN conference in Brazil, sparing the bloc potential diplomatic embarrassment but risking its reputation as a climate champion.
Environment ministers for the 27-nation bloc met in Brussels with the clock ticking down on a UN deadline to produce an official pledge to fight global warming for 2035.
The countries have not been able to agree on their level of ambition, so they settled for a compromise "statement of intent" to cut emissions between 66.25 percent and 72.5 percent compared to 1990 levels.
"It's very positive that member states have been able to reach a consensus," Lars Aagaard, climate minister of Denmark, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, told a press conference.
The EU "is and will remain a global climate leader", he said.
The EU -- behind only China, the United States and India in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions -- has been by far the most committed of the major polluters to climate action.
The bloc was hoping to come up with an ambitious submission to November's COP30 climate conference but months of negotiations failed to produce an agreement, leaving Brussels scrambling for a last-minute solution.
The UN has pushed for world leaders, among them EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, to announce their commitments at the General Assembly in New York next week.
Denmark suggested a "statement of intent" with a target range rather than a hard goal backed by a detailed plan -- a majority of states eventually getting on board on Thursday after a long day of talks in Brussels.

'Consolation prize'

"This statement of intent allows the EU to show up in New York with something tangible and avoid complete embarrassment," said Jens Mattias Clausen of Concito, a Danish think-tank. 
Like most other parties to the 2015 Paris Agreement, the EU had already missed a February deadline to provide a 2035 emissions reduction target and a detailed blueprint for achieving it.  
The deadline was extended to September -- still allowing plans to be assessed before COP30 starts on November 10, in the Brazilian city of Belem. 
As the statement of intent does not count as the official EU submission, the bloc is all but sure to also miss the second deadline. 
"The statement of intent is a hard-fought consolation prize," said Linda Kalcher, director of the Strategic Perspectives think tank.
The bloc was still aiming to file its official pledge ahead of COP30, said the European Council, the EU body that represents states.
The deal "allows us to confidently walk into New York next week", Wopke Hoekstra, the European Commissioner for Climate, told reporters. 
He described the target range as "ambitious" and "clearly in line with the Paris Agreement". 

Divisions

The EU has set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 and says it has already cut emissions by 37 percent compared to 1990. 
But climate has increasingly taken a backseat in Brussels, as global trade tensions and the war in Ukraine have shifted focus to defence and industry. 
Thomas Gelin of Greenpeace said Thursday's compromise showed the bloc was "abdicating the role of climate leader". 
"The EU is more concerned with making the continent 'competitive' than keeping it liveable," he said. 
The deal reflects discord among the 27 over the bloc's green agenda. 
Denmark and Spain are among countries pushing for Brussels to stick to a related European Commission proposal to cut emissions by 90 percent by 2040 on the way to net-zero a decade later. 
But others, like Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, think it over-ambitious and detrimental to industry.
"Our analysis shows we can do at great expense, 83 percent of reductions by 2040," Polish climate official Krzysztof Bolesta said ahead of the talks, adding his government wanted an exemption for defence production.
France, which is suffering from shaky finances and a prolonged political crisis, wants more clarity on the investment framework to support decarbonisation before committing. 
Last week Paris and Berlin called for a decision on 2040 targets to be discussed at a leaders' summit in October -- effectively pushing back a decision that the commission had hoped could have been reached Thursday. 
adc-ub/jxb

justice

Colombian court issues first sentences for ex-soldiers over civilian killings

Thu Sep 18 2025 18:12:14 GMT+0000

  • As part of their sentence, the 12 former soldiers who did admit their role will be put to work to construct memorials for their victims and community centers in Indigenous communities in the Caribbean, where the crimes were mostly committed.
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  • A Colombian tribunal on Thursday issued its first sentences for former soldiers over the killing of civilians during the country's decades-long armed conflict, ordering 12 of them to carry out work including building memorials for their victims.
  • As part of their sentence, the 12 former soldiers who did admit their role will be put to work to construct memorials for their victims and community centers in Indigenous communities in the Caribbean, where the crimes were mostly committed.
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A Colombian tribunal on Thursday issued its first sentences for former soldiers over the killing of civilians during the country's decades-long armed conflict, ordering 12 of them to carry out work including building memorials for their victims.
The retired military personnel, who had falsely tallied the civilians as leftist guerrilla fighters killed in combat, were sentenced to do reparations for the families of 135 victims for a total of eight years each.
It is the highest sentence that can be handed down by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace for people who cooperate and acknowledge guilt.
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The tribunal known by its Spanish acronym JEP was set up under a landmark 2016 agreement that saw the FARC guerrilla group lay down arms.
The 12, including two colonels, acknowledged their role in the murders and disappearances carried out between 2002 and 2005.
It was part of a crime that has become known in Colombia as "false positives" -- recording dead civilians as fallen combatants to inflate military successes.
Thousands of civilians, mostly young, poor and unemployed, were killed, and in return, soldiers were decorated or received days off as a reward for achieving targets.
According to the JEP, the main perpetrators were members of the armed forces who sometimes worked in cahoots with other armed groups or even civilians. 
"No Colombian should have died as a result of a criminal network tasked with selecting, killing, and disappearing innocent people... with the sole purpose of turning them into statistics," tribunal president Alejandro Ramelli said in handing down sentence in Bogota Thursday.
Blanca Monroy, whose son Julian became one of the "false positives" aged just 19 nearly 20 years ago, said the JEP process had brought her some peace.
Without it, the 66-year-old told AFP, "I would never have known what happened to my son, nor that he asked to speak with me before he was killed."

Guerrilla uniforms

The tribunal has documented at least 6,402 "false positives" cases between 2002 and 2008 during the presidency of Alvaro Uribe, known for his iron-fisted crackdown on insurgents.
In some cases, people were tricked into getting into trucks, only to be shot en masse and buried in communal graves.
Some were changed into guerrilla uniforms after their death and presented to the press in what became the worst scandal in the history of Colombia's military.
Uribe, who was a critic of the 2016 peace agreement, has denied there was any policy to kill civilians.
He was sentenced to 12 years of house arrest last month in a witness tampering case, found guilty of asking right-wing paramilitaries to lie about links to him as they committed atrocities while fighting FARC rebels.
Retired general Mario Montoya, who was army commander under Uribe, has rejected any responsibility in the "false positives" case. He faces a trial before the JEP and risks going to prison.
As part of their sentence, the 12 former soldiers who did admit their role will be put to work to construct memorials for their victims and community centers in Indigenous communities in the Caribbean, where the crimes were mostly committed.
Their mobility will be restricted to the places where the reparations work is being carried out.
The sentence can be appealed, and the years some of the soldiers have already spent in prison will be taken into account for possible sentence reductions.
On Tuesday, the tribunal also issued its first sentences for ex-FARC leaders over the kidnapping of tens of thousands of people during its war against the state.
The JEP, created to pursue justice for victims of the conflict, took more than seven years to issue its findings against the FARC, a Marxist group that terrorized Colombia with a five-decade campaign of bombings, assassinations and kidnappings.
Seven ex-FARC defendants were sentenced over 21,396 kidnappings and ordered to carry out reparations work.
Some victims have described the sentences as too lenient.
lv/vd/mlr/bgs

royals

Putin has let me down, says Trump at end of UK state visit

BY PETER HUTCHISON WITH DANNY KEMP IN LONDON
Thu Sep 18 2025 17:52:42 GMT+0000

  • The US president and First Lady Melania Trump wrapped up their visit later Thursday, flying out after less than 48 hours on British soil. 
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  • Donald Trump warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "really let me down" after he met Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, the final day of the US president's historic UK state visit.
  • The US president and First Lady Melania Trump wrapped up their visit later Thursday, flying out after less than 48 hours on British soil. 
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Donald Trump warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "really let me down" after he met Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, the final day of the US president's historic UK state visit.
A day after King Charles III treated him to royal pageantry at Windsor Castle, Trump appeared at a news conference with Starmer and spared him the harsh criticism he has doled out to other leaders -- although he suggested the UK leader could use the military to curb immigration. 
Starmer meanwhile gently nudged Trump on Ukraine and called for more pressure on Putin, as he tries to bridge the divide between Trump and European allies on Kyiv.
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Trump, who has long been friendly with Putin, then issued a rebuke to the Russian leader for continuing the war. 
"The one that I thought would be easiest would be because of my relationship with President Putin, but he's let me down," Trump said. 
"He's really let me down."
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He urged European nations to stop buying Russian oil, saying that "if the price of oil comes down, Putin's going to drop out of that war".

'Unbreakable bond'

Referring to Starmer, Trump said "one of our few disagreements" was over the UK's plan to recognise a Palestinian state.
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The US leader, embroiled in an immigration crackdown at home, offered his thoughts on immigration in Britain, revealing: "I told the prime minister I would stop it", even if it meant calling in the military.
But for the rest of the time at the prime minister's official country house north of London, the two leaders seemed on the same page, as Trump hailed America's "unbreakable bond" with Britain and signed a huge tech cooperation deal with Starmer.
At the signing ceremony attended by a host of US tech CEOs, Starmer said he and Trump were "leaders who genuinely like each other".
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The deal comes on the back of pledges of £150 billion ($205 billion) of investment into the UK from US giants including Microsoft, Google and Blackstone.
Trump had earlier said goodbye to King Charles at Windsor, calling him a "great gentleman and a great king".
The US president and First Lady Melania Trump wrapped up their visit later Thursday, flying out after less than 48 hours on British soil. 

'Highest honours'

With investment deals and a deepening alignment on Ukraine to show for the diplomatic effort, Starmer can claim some justification for granting Trump an unprecedented second state visit.
But the British leader still faces political trouble at home after sacking his ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, over his connections to disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Sex offender Epstein has also haunted Trump in recent weeks with further revelations about the pair's relationship in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Trump, however, helped Starmer out, by claiming not to know Mandelson -- despite having hosted the envoy in the Oval Office to seal Britain's trade deal with the US in May.
Trump was lavished with the full pomp of the British state on Wednesday -- the second time it has done so, after his first visit in 2019.
"This is truly one of the highest honours of my life," Trump said at the state banquet. 
The king meanwhile hailed Trump's peace efforts and support for Ukraine after a day featuring gun salutes, soldiers on horseback and bagpipes -- all designed to appeal to the US president's fascination with royalty.
Melania remained in Windsor on Thursday morning, where she met scouts with Princess Catherine, and viewed Queen Mary's Doll's House with Queen Camilla.
The US first lady's husband, though, was kept far from the British public, with an estimated 5,000 people marching through central London Wednesday to protest against his visit.
pdh-dk/jkb/jxb

politics

US medical panel insists it's 'pro-vaccine'

BY MAGGY DONALDSON, WITH CHARLOTTE CAUSIT IN WASHINGTON
Thu Sep 18 2025 15:53:21 GMT+0000

  • President Donald Trump's top health official, the anti-vax crusader Robert F. Kennedy Jr., handpicked the members of the medical advisory group that will vote on whether to alter the standard childhood vaccine schedule, despite warnings from across the medical and public policy communities that dire consequences could result.
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  • A US panel stacked with figures sympathetic to the anti-vaccine movement opened a highly politicized meeting Thursday on the defensive, insisting that they are "pro-vaccine" even as public health experts fear the group is set to upend longstanding medical advice.
  • President Donald Trump's top health official, the anti-vax crusader Robert F. Kennedy Jr., handpicked the members of the medical advisory group that will vote on whether to alter the standard childhood vaccine schedule, despite warnings from across the medical and public policy communities that dire consequences could result.
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A US panel stacked with figures sympathetic to the anti-vaccine movement opened a highly politicized meeting Thursday on the defensive, insisting that they are "pro-vaccine" even as public health experts fear the group is set to upend longstanding medical advice.
President Donald Trump's top health official, the anti-vax crusader Robert F. Kennedy Jr., handpicked the members of the medical advisory group that will vote on whether to alter the standard childhood vaccine schedule, despite warnings from across the medical and public policy communities that dire consequences could result.
"We are currently experiencing heated controversies about vaccines, and a key question is, who can you trust?" said the chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), biostatistician Martin Kulldorff, in opening the two-day meeting.
He then criticized the American Academy of Pediatrics and the recently fired director of the US disease prevention agency, who told a Senate health panel Wednesday the Trump administration sacked her for refusing to pre-approve vaccination schedule recommendations without first analyzing science that would back up that advice.
Kulldorff insisted that members of the panel would "welcome scientific critique of any of our votes, as there are gray areas due to incomplete scientific knowledge" but cast as "false" accusations that the group's members are "unscientific."
On Thursday's ACIP agenda is a vote on whether to recommend delaying childhood shots including against the highly contagious disease Hepatitis B.
The Covid-19 vaccine is also on the docket, as well as the combination MMRV shot that covers measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella shot, which is offered as an alternative to separate MMR and chicken pox injections.
Earlier this year Kennedy fired all 17 members of the influential ACIP committee and replaced them with members whose vaccine skepticism tracks more closely with his own.
Their first meeting promoted anti-vax themes and raised questions about long-settled medical debates.
The revised committee and its agenda has triggered concern across medical, scientific and policy communities that ideology rather than science will guide the future of public health in the United States.
"Vaccines have added decades of life to our life expectancy. They have helped Americans live healthier lives. There's so much here that's riding," said epidemiologist Syra Madad.
She told AFP shifting the childhood vaccine schedule "is like pulling bricks out of the foundation of public health."
"It risks collapse, and creates real consequences for every community in America."
Experts including Madad say the votes could prompt unnecessary confusion and concern among parents. 
Revised recommendations could also restrict federal funding of vaccines for low-income families, or shift requirements for private insurers.

Preying on 'ignorance'

Kennedy has spent decades promoting vaccine misinformation, including the widely debunked claim that the MMR shot causes autism.
He has also taken aim at the Hepatitis B shot. Since 2005 ACIP has recommended administering the first dose to most newborns within 24 hours of birth, to prevent any maternal transmission of the disease, which can cause severe liver damage.
But because Hepatitis B is also spread sexually and through needles, Kennedy and his allies have questioned why newborns need protection from it.
Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, said that notion is "a play on people's ignorance."
"RFK doesn't get rewarded when he prevents perinatal Hepatitis B, he gets rewarded when he panders to the anti-vax movement," Adalja told AFP.
The committee is also expected to consider this season's Covid-19 shot, including who should get it and who should pay for it.
mdo/bgs

bribery

S. Korea prosecutors seek arrest of Unification Church leader

BY KANG JIN-KYU
Thu Sep 18 2025 10:39:21 GMT+0000

  • "We have requested an arrest warrant for Han earlier today," prosecutor Park Sang-jin said.
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  • South Korean prosecutors requested an arrest warrant on Thursday for the leader of the Unification Church, Han Hak-ja, on allegations of bribery linked to a former first lady and incitement to destroy evidence.
  • "We have requested an arrest warrant for Han earlier today," prosecutor Park Sang-jin said.
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South Korean prosecutors requested an arrest warrant on Thursday for the leader of the Unification Church, Han Hak-ja, on allegations of bribery linked to a former first lady and incitement to destroy evidence.
The move came a day after the 82-year-old was questioned over her alleged role in bribing former first lady Kim Keon Hee and a prominent lawmaker.
The Unification Church was founded in 1954 by Han's late husband Moon Sun-myung and has long been the subject of controversy and criticism, with its teachings centred on Moon's role as the Second Coming, its mass weddings and a cult-like culture.
Followers are derisively referred to as "Moonies".
The church's reach extends far beyond religion, spanning businesses from media and tourism to food distribution.
Han assumed leadership of the church after Moon's death in 2012.
"We have requested an arrest warrant for Han earlier today," prosecutor Park Sang-jin said.
"The charges against her include violation of political funds act, anti-graft law, incitement to destroy evidence and embezzlement," he said.
"We considered the risk of Han tampering with evidence to be very high, which led us to seek the warrant."
A court is expected to review the validity of the warrant request early next week.
Han is suspected of ordering the delivery of luxury gifts, including a designer handbag and diamond necklace, to Kim in 2022 to curry favour with her husband, Yoon Suk Yeol, who became president that year.
The former first lady has been arrested and indicted on charges of bribery and stock market manipulation. Her husband -- also in custody -- is standing trial over his declaration of martial law in December.
The couple fell from grace after Yoon's martial law declaration briefly suspended civilian rule in December before it was overturned by opposition MPs hours later.
Yoon was impeached and removed from office in April over the attempt.
Han also faces allegations of bribing a prominent MP with 100 million won (US$72,000). 
— 'Unjust persecution' —
Her church said the warrant request was "unjust persecution of a global religious leader".
"We firmly denounce the fact that, instead of humanitarian consideration and rational judgment, excessive and coercive measures have been taken against our leader," it said in a statement.
The church, which claims to have 10 million followers worldwide, is best known for its mass weddings, where thousands of couples from across the globe are married in stadium-sized ceremonies, often officiated by church leaders including Han.
Critics say such events are emblematic of its cult-like influence.
A Seoul court issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday for the lawmaker, Kweon Seong-dong, citing the risk he could tamper with evidence.
Han, who was wheeled out of the prosecutors' office after more than nine hours of questioning, denied wrongdoing.
"Why would I have done that?" she said when asked about the allegations.
Prosecutor Park also said Han had denied committing any crimes during questioning on Wednesday.  
kjk/ceb/pbt

Takaichi

China critic Takaichi joins party race, could become Japan's first woman leader

BY HIROSHI HIYAMA
Thu Sep 18 2025 09:49:50 GMT+0000

  • Takaichi has run in past LDP leadership elections, coming second to Ishiba last year.
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  • Japanese political hawk and strident China critic Sanae Takaichi said on Thursday she will run in the ruling party's leadership election, a campaign that could make her Japan's first woman prime minister.
  • Takaichi has run in past LDP leadership elections, coming second to Ishiba last year.
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Japanese political hawk and strident China critic Sanae Takaichi said on Thursday she will run in the ruling party's leadership election, a campaign that could make her Japan's first woman prime minister.
Takaichi, seen among the favourites in the race, will be up against popular agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi, who is expected to formally declare his candidacy on Friday.
They aim to succeed moderate Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as the head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a partyroom vote slated for October 4.
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"What we need now is politics that transforms people's daily lives and anxieties about the future into hopes and dreams," Takaichi said in a brief media address to announce her run on Thursday.
"And it is also strong politics that will overcome the crisis Japan faces," she said.
Takaichi, 64, is a staunchly hawkish leader who has advocated for a conservative social agenda and robust national defence programmes. 
On the economic front, she has pushed big government spending and low interest rates that echo policies of her political mentor, the late former prime minister Shinzo Abe. 
She was also a regular visitor to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japan's war dead, including war criminals, and is seen by Asian nations as a symbol of Japan's militarist past. 
On China, she has been vocal of Beijing's military build-up in the Asia-Pacific region.
Takaichi has run in past LDP leadership elections, coming second to Ishiba last year.

Biggest rival

Three men have already formally declared their candidacy in the party vote, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, a soft-speaking moderate known for his policy knowledge.
But Takaichi's biggest political rival is Koizumi, 44, who also often goes to Yasukuni and is the telegenic son of former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi. 
Whoever wins the internal contest will have been chosen from the viewpoint of who can best "revive the LDP and lead it to election victories", Junichi Takase, professor emeritus of Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, told AFP.
With major political parties, including the LDP, "recognised as old parties and struggling to gain support from young voters", LDP members are likely to prioritise a candidate's election savvy over their specific policies, Takase said. 
Japanese news agency Jiji Press's opinion polls released on Thursday showed that Koizumi was the public's top candidate for the premiership, with Takaichi running a close second.
The leader of the ruling party can become the prime minister if they receive enough support from opposition parties to form a legislative majority, which is needed to take the top political seat.
The LDP decided to hold the election after Ishiba announced this month that he would step down after losing two national elections in the past year.
hih-kh/aph/pbt

border

Cambodian PM accuses Thai forces of evicting civilians on border

Thu Sep 18 2025 08:00:15 GMT+0000

  • "Twenty-five families have already been blocked from their homes and fields," Hun Manet wrote, adding that a Thai military spokesperson had threatened more evictions, "potentially affecting hundreds of households comprised of about a thousand inhabitants".
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  • Cambodia's leader Hun Manet has accused Thailand of preventing more than 20 families from returning to their homes on the disputed border, according to his letter to the head of the UN released on Thursday.
  • "Twenty-five families have already been blocked from their homes and fields," Hun Manet wrote, adding that a Thai military spokesperson had threatened more evictions, "potentially affecting hundreds of households comprised of about a thousand inhabitants".
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Cambodia's leader Hun Manet has accused Thailand of preventing more than 20 families from returning to their homes on the disputed border, according to his letter to the head of the UN released on Thursday.
The Thai army said the Cambodian residents had "illegally occupied" Thai territory.
The Southeast Asian neighbours agreed a truce in late July following five days of clashes that killed at least 43 people on both sides -- the latest eruption of a long-standing dispute over contested border temples on their 800-kilometre (500-mile) frontier.
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Both sides have since traded accusations of ceasefire violations.
On Wednesday, Thai forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas at several hundred Cambodian protesters during a stand-off in a disputed border village, a move that Phnom Penh said injured nearly 30 people, including a soldier and a Buddhist monk.
In a letter dated September 17 to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Hun Manet said Thai forces had "widened the conflict zone by erecting barbed wire and barricades", and "forcibly" evicted Cambodian civilians from their "long-settled lands" in two border villages in northwestern Banteay Meanchey province since last month.
"Twenty-five families have already been blocked from their homes and fields," Hun Manet wrote, adding that a Thai military spokesperson had threatened more evictions, "potentially affecting hundreds of households comprised of about a thousand inhabitants".
Thai army spokesperson Winthai Suvaree said in a statement Thursday that the Cambodian civilians involved in the violent incident the day before had "deliberately and illegally occupied Thai territory for an extended period".
Winthai also accused Cambodian military personnel of failing to intervene on Wednesday as Cambodian villagers "carried long wooden sticks as makeshift weapons, showing intent to harm Thai officials and breach Thai barriers".
Video released by the Thai military late Wednesday showed Thai security forces firing tear gas at several Cambodians, some of who flung long sticks towards Thai authorities and tried to remove barbed wire.
In his letter, Hun Manet told the UN chief that the Thai military had "an intention of using forces to seize territory at 17 other locations" along the shared border.
He also asked Malaysia -- the current chair of the ASEAN regional bloc -- to urge Thailand to refrain from using force against civilians and "halt planned forced evictions".
July's military clashes between Cambodia and Thailand were their deadliest in decades, with 300,000 people also forced to flee their homes along the border.
suy-tak/sco/abs

Antifa

Trump says designating Antifa 'a major terrorist organization'

Thu Sep 18 2025 07:51:41 GMT+0000

  • In June 2020, Trump said he would formally designate Antifa as "terrorists" on the same level as al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
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  • US President Donald Trump said he would designate "Antifa" -- a shorthand term for "anti-fascist" used to describe diffuse far-left groups -- as "a major terrorist organization," a move he threatened in his first term.
  • In June 2020, Trump said he would formally designate Antifa as "terrorists" on the same level as al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
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US President Donald Trump said he would designate "Antifa" -- a shorthand term for "anti-fascist" used to describe diffuse far-left groups -- as "a major terrorist organization," a move he threatened in his first term.
For years Trump has blamed Antifa for various wrongs, from violence against police to being behind the US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021 that aimed to block Joe Biden's presidential election win.
"I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices," Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social, calling Antifa "A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER."
Antifa has no head or national organization and seemed to be made up of "independent, radical, like-minded groups and individuals," a Congressional Research Service analysis found in 2020.
The White House did not immediately offer details on how the label could be applied.
While federal law enforcement includes combating domestic terrorism under its purview, the United States does not have a list of designated "domestic terrorist organizations."
Trump threatened the move on Monday after senior White House official Stephen Miller vowed the administration would dismantle an alleged "vast domestic terror movement" that he linked to the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

Ideology, not a movement

Critics of the Republican president warn such a move could be used as a pretext to quash dissent and target political rivals.
While Kirk was a vocal conservative, the United States has seen violence targeting members of both political parties in recent years, amid a sharp rise in polarization and easy access to firearms.
Antifa -- whose name has roots in socialist groups in 1930s Germany that opposed Hitler -- has a track record of confronting right-wing groups and engaging in civil disobedience.
Its members, often dressed entirely in black, protest against racism, far-right values and what they consider fascism, and say violent tactics are sometimes justified as self-defense. 
During Trump's first inauguration in January 2017 scores of black-clad, mask-wearing Antifa and other protestors smashed windows and burned a car in Washington.
Antifa was also involved in counter-protests to racist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia later that year. 
In June 2020, Trump said he would formally designate Antifa as "terrorists" on the same level as al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
But FBI director Chris Wray responded in a Congressional hearing that Antifa was "a movement or an ideology" as opposed to a group.
Antifa is not among the 95 "designated foreign terrorist organizations" listed on the State Department website on Wednesday.
jgc-hol/jm

Mediterranean

Europe, Mediterranean coast saw record drought in August: AFP analysis of EU data

Thu Sep 18 2025 04:15:32 GMT+0000

  • Several countries in the eastern Mediterranean were severely impacted, with more than 90 percent of Armenia, Georgia and Lebanon all affected by drought.
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  • Europe and the Mediterranean basin saw record drought in August, with more than half of the land affected, according to AFP analysis of EU data.
  • Several countries in the eastern Mediterranean were severely impacted, with more than 90 percent of Armenia, Georgia and Lebanon all affected by drought.
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Europe and the Mediterranean basin saw record drought in August, with more than half of the land affected, according to AFP analysis of EU data.
Last month, 53 percent of the region was affected by drought -- an all-time high since records began in 2012 -- according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The figure is far above the 2012-2024 average for August of 30.1 percent. 
Eastern Europe and the Balkans were particularly hard hit. Thousands of residents were evacuated and two people were killed as a result of wildfires in Balkan states spurred by high temperatures.
Western Europe was also badly affected, with Portugal seeing a drop in rainfall across 70 percent of the country.
France, hit by its second heatwave of the summer in August, experienced water shortages in two-thirds of the country.
Several countries in the eastern Mediterranean were severely impacted, with more than 90 percent of Armenia, Georgia and Lebanon all affected by drought.
Turkey, which experienced water shortages in 84 percent of the country, also faced numerous wildfires.
The Copernicus dataset, drawing on billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations, has recorded relentlessly rising temperatures as the planet warms as a result of humanity's emissions of greenhouse gases.
pp/shu/ys/dhw/rsc

shooting

As media declines, gory Kirk video spreads on 'unrestrained' social sites

BY ANUJ CHOPRA
Thu Sep 18 2025 03:43:19 GMT+0000

  • Most newspapers and television networks -- longtime gatekeepers with editorial guidelines to shield audiences from graphic content -- chose not to show the moment Charlie Kirk was shot dead.
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  • Traditional news outlets were cautious not to broadcast the moment Charlie Kirk was assassinated, but it mattered little in the age of declining media influence. 
  • Most newspapers and television networks -- longtime gatekeepers with editorial guidelines to shield audiences from graphic content -- chose not to show the moment Charlie Kirk was shot dead.
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Traditional news outlets were cautious not to broadcast the moment Charlie Kirk was assassinated, but it mattered little in the age of declining media influence. 
Within minutes, millions of people -- including children -- watched the graphic footage auto-play across social media platforms.
The amplification of the video showing the American conservative activist's final moments at a university in Utah underscores how major tech firms are falling short in enforcing content moderation amid rising political violence and deepening polarization in the United States.
Most newspapers and television networks -- longtime gatekeepers with editorial guidelines to shield audiences from graphic content -- chose not to show the moment Charlie Kirk was shot dead. Instead, many outlets focused on the calm leading up to the attack and the chaos that followed.
That discretion was largely absent on social media, a fragmented digital landscape shaped by smartphones and instant uploads where graphic footage showing Kirk's body recoiling and blood pouring from a wound spread rapidly.
The footage, which mostly lacked content warnings, was instantly accessible online and often auto-played before viewers had a chance to consent or look away.
"Journalists draw lines for a reason. We know how trauma seeps in through a screen. We know that immediacy without context is its own kind of harm," said Ren LaForme, from the nonprofit media institute Poynter.
"Social media has no such restraint. It promises unfiltered access, but without guarantees of truth and without protection from harm. The cork is off the bottle, and everything spills out: real or fabricated, searing or false."
- 'Shocked and dismayed' - 
The graphic visuals also flooded children's devices and social media feeds, sparking anxiety among parents and prompting bipartisan calls from lawmakers for tech companies to take swift action.
"Last week, countless children witnessed the assassination on the portable devices they carry everywhere, in addition to a murder on public transportation, reports of mass shootings and school gun violence," Titania Jordan, from the parental controls app Bark, told AFP.
"Childhood was never meant to include graphic violence or murder. Parents are rightly shocked and dismayed," she said, while advising families to log off social media and make room for "real-time conversations as kids process what they've seen."
The virality of Kirk's video -- alongside the amplification of extreme posts glorifying his death –- comes as many platforms scale back content moderation and, in some cases, eliminate human fact-checkers and moderators even as their algorithms reward engagement.
"The way algorithms have flooded our timelines with posts celebrating Charlie Kirk's horrifying assassination is a damning indictment of the way social media works," Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), told AFP.
"It lays bare how platforms are designed to reward extreme emotion over empathy or integrity."

'Whims of algorithms'

Posts on Elon Musk's platform X that celebrated Kirk's assassination racked up 52 million views, according to CCDH's research -- evidence that "policy enforcement is not just broken but has been abandoned," Ahmed said.
The posts violated X's guidelines, which allow users to post graphic imagery only "if it is properly labeled" and forbids material explicity "glorifying or expressing desire for violence."
The trend comes as surveys show that traditional media is battling record low public trust, and a growing number of Americans, especially young adults, get their news from platforms such as TikTok.
"At a time when more Americans are tuning out credible news for social media, it's worth remembering that they're leaving behind not just reporting, but the discipline of restraint," said LaForme.
"Journalistic restraint still matters. Someone has to decide what should be witnessed and what scars can be spared."
Peter Adams, senior vice president of research and design at the News Literacy Project, said the widespread exposure to Kirk's assassination video -- which could cause vicarious trauma -- offers an opportunity for people to reassess their relationship with social media.
"These platforms are hyper-addicting because they are personalized, giving everyone little tailor-made hits of dopamine," Adams told AFP.
"We all have a responsibility to ourselves not to hand our consciousness over to the whims of algorithms designed to keep us scrolling, regardless of what it might cost us." 
ac/jgc

royals

Trump's UK state visit gets political after royal welcome

BY JAMES PHEBY
Thu Sep 18 2025 03:41:42 GMT+0000

  • - Epstein shadow - The talks could turn awkward on several fronts, with Starmer facing political troubles at home after sacking his UK ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, over a furore involving the diplomat's connections to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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  • After the royal hospitality and pageantry, US President Donald Trump's unprecedented second state visit to the UK takes a serious turn on Thursday when he is hosted by Prime Minister Keir Starmer for wide-ranging talks.
  • - Epstein shadow - The talks could turn awkward on several fronts, with Starmer facing political troubles at home after sacking his UK ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, over a furore involving the diplomat's connections to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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After the royal hospitality and pageantry, US President Donald Trump's unprecedented second state visit to the UK takes a serious turn on Thursday when he is hosted by Prime Minister Keir Starmer for wide-ranging talks.
Starmer will greet Trump on the second day of the visit at his country residence, Chequers, with pressing issues such as trade, Ukraine and Gaza on the agenda.
The prime minister has positioned himself as a bridge between the unpredictable US leader and European allies, particularly on the war in Ukraine, in a bid to secure more commitments for Kyiv from Trump.
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Starmer's warm tone with Trump -- in stark contrast to his words while in opposition -- has won some leniency in the president's trade war, with the two countries signing an "economic prosperity deal" at the White House in May.
Britain hopes to secure further concessions, and is keen to see 25-percent duties on aluminium and steel reduced to zero, but Trump's non-committal comments suggest an agreement is not imminent.
"They'd like to see if they could get a little bit better deal. So, we'll talk to them," Trump said before leaving for Britain.
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However, Starmer received a boost when US private equity giant Blackstone said it planned to invest £90 billion ($123 billion) on UK projects over the next decade, after Microsoft unveiled a plan to spend $30 billion in the country.
In the other direction, British pharmaceutical group GSK announced that it will invest $30 billion in the United States over the next five years.

Epstein shadow

The talks could turn awkward on several fronts, with Starmer facing political troubles at home after sacking his UK ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, over a furore involving the diplomat's connections to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein has also haunted Trump over recent weeks, with further revelations about the pair's relationship in the 1990s emerging.
Police arrested four people after they projected images of Trump and Epstein onto Windsor Castle late Tuesday. 
But it was all smiles for the US leader on Wednesday as he was lavished with the full pomp and circumstance of the British state.
King Charles III welcomed Trump to Windsor Castle with a royal spectacle featuring gun salutes, mounted horses and bagpipes.
The pair laughed and joked as Trump inspected troops at the castle west of London, in an elaborate welcome designed to play into the mercurial US leader's love of pageantry.
Around 120 horses and 1,300 members of the British military -- some in red tunics and gold plumed helmets -- feted Trump during a ceremonial guard of honour that British officials called the largest for a state visit to Britain in living memory.
Trump was due to see an unprecedented joint flypast of US and UK jets, but bad weather saw the American planes pull out.

'Greatest honour'

The president and Charles wrapped up Wednesday with a white-tie state banquet, attended by 160 guests including senior royals, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Apple CEO Tim Cook and golfer Nick Faldo. 
On the menu: Watercress panna cotta with parmesan shortbread and quail egg salad, chicken wrapped in courgettes and vanilla ice cream bombe with raspberry sorbet.
The playlist included Trump favourites such as Nessun Dorma from Puccini's opera Turandot and a James Bond medley.
Before the dinner, Trump told guests that the state visit was "truly one of the highest honours of my life," describing the UK and US as "two notes in one chord... each beautiful on its own, but really meant to be played together."
In his speech, the king praised Trump's "personal commitment to finding solutions to some of the world's most intractable conflicts", while stressing the environmental obligations current leaders have to "our children, grandchildren, and those who come after them".
The 79-year-old Republican is being kept far away from the British public, among whom polls indicate Trump remains unpopular, with the entire trip happening behind closed doors.
An estimated 5,000 people marched through central London on Wednesday, waving Palestinian flags and displaying banners with slogans including "Migrants welcome, Trump not welcome".
"I'm just scared of the way the world's being taken over by really nasty men," Jo Williamson, a 58-year-old funeral director from Kent, southeast England, told AFP.
jwp/jkb/sbk

LGBTQ

'Raped, jailed, tortured, left to die': the hell of being gay in Turkmenistan

BY ROMAIN COLAS
Thu Sep 18 2025 03:30:20 GMT+0000

  • Arslan, who is now in hiding abroad, told AFP how he was raped five times in jail -- where HIV-positive prisoners are condemned to a slow death from lack of treatment -- while David was beaten and raped by his torturers, who wore gloves "to avoid touching my blood".
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  • Two men who escaped one of the world's most secretive and repressive states have told AFP how they were tortured, beaten and raped in Turkmenistan for the "crime" of being gay.
  • Arslan, who is now in hiding abroad, told AFP how he was raped five times in jail -- where HIV-positive prisoners are condemned to a slow death from lack of treatment -- while David was beaten and raped by his torturers, who wore gloves "to avoid touching my blood".
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Two men who escaped one of the world's most secretive and repressive states have told AFP how they were tortured, beaten and raped in Turkmenistan for the "crime" of being gay.
When the oil- and gas-rich Central Asian republic makes the headlines, it is usually for the eccentricities of its "National Leader" and "Hero Protector" Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.
The dentist-turned-autocrat who writes poems about his horse -- and whose football team has never lost a game in the local league -- is a health freak. So much so that his son Serdar, the president, plans to "eradicate smoking" there by the end of the year.
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But behind the monumental statues and the marble city of Arkadag built in Berdymukhamedov's honour, opponents and minorities are mercilessly persecuted, say Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, none more so than LGBTQ people, who are often jailed or sent to psychiatric hospitals.
Arslan, who is now in hiding abroad, told AFP how he was raped five times in jail -- where HIV-positive prisoners are condemned to a slow death from lack of treatment -- while David was beaten and raped by his torturers, who wore gloves "to avoid touching my blood".
Their rare testimonies, supported by official documents and confirmed by NGOs, reveal a hidden side of the reclusive regime, which tolerates no independent media or rights groups. 
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The authorities refuse to comment on all such allegations. But last year at the UN they insisted that "all discrimination" was illegal in Turkmenistan. 
Homosexual relations are a crime, they said, because they run counter to the "traditional values" of the Turkmen people.
- Arslan's story - 
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Arslan -- whose name AFP has been changed to protect him -- grew up in poverty in the second largest city of Turkmenabat, near the Uzbek border. "We had neither bread nor basic clothes," said the 29-year-old, who comes from the Uzbek minority.
When he moved to the capital Ashgabat at 18, he was taken aback by the pomp of the white marble edifices built by the country's first post-Soviet president Saparmurat Niyazov and Berdymukhamedov, who took power in 2006. 
He also discovered a small gay community and formed a secret relationship with a man. But three years later he was arrested with about 10 other "suspected homosexuals". 
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He believes his boyfriend was forced to denounce him. 
Arslan was beaten by the police and jailed for two years for sodomy at a closed-door hearing in January 2018. He spent nine months in a penal colony before being pardoned. 
Of the 72 men in his barracks, around 40 were there for their sexual orientation. One day, the leader of the barracks, a murderer -- "who was sleeping with lots of the prisoners" -- turned his attention to him, raping him repeatedly after plying him with sedatives. 
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"It was abominable," said Arslan, who tried to kill himself by taking "a bunch of pills". When he told the prison director about the rapes from hospital, "he laughed, saying I was there for that".
After his release, Arslan got work and tried to rebuild his life, but the stigma was overwhelming. People recognised him and threatened him, "yelling at me in the street". 
He was twice sent to a psychiatric unit after being arrested again in 2021 and 2022. "They wanted to cure me because to them I have a disease." 
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He decided to leave the country, but with authorities trying to curb a mass exodus of Turkmens fleeing hardship and repression, he was refused a passport. 
Eventually after circumventing tight internet controls, he got help from the NGO EQUAL PostOst, which assists LGBTQ people in the former communist bloc, and was able to buy a passport.
"Everything is settled through corruption" in Turkmenistan, he said. Transparency International has declared the country one of the 15 most corrupt on the planet. 
Finally he was finally able to flee to one of the few countries that allow Turkmens to enter without a visa.
- Screams go unheard - 
David Omarov, 29, has been HIV-positive since he was a teenager, with education about the virus and preventive measures almost nonexistent in Turkmenistan. 
From a middle-class background in the capital, his life was turned upside down in 2019 when he was summoned by the security services during one of the frequent crackdowns on LGBTQ people. He was held for several days and tortured to give the names of other men. 
"They knew I was HIV-positive," he told AFP. 
"So they hit me with gloves and kicked me to avoid touching my blood. But I started bleeding profusely. Maybe that saved me.
"The worst is that no one hears your screams," he said, adding that he was raped by his torturers but cannot yet bear to tell what they did to him. "Those are wounds that haven't healed," he said.
Omarov said Turkmenistan justifies the persecution as a defence of its "traditional values".
"They're folk fascists," he said. 
While Turkmenistan is predominantly Muslim, the government is secular, with huge emphasis on the veneration of Turkic folklore and traditions.
Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, 68, and his son, Serdar, 43, are portrayed as guardians of this steppe culture with personality cults akin to those of Stalin or the Kims in North Korea.
They have also put the Turkmen Akhal-Teke horse and the Alabai dog on a pedestal as national symbols, dotting the country with statues of the animals.
 - Father disappeared -
The sheer "cruelty" of the Turkmen regime marks it out from other authoritarian Central Asian states, argues Omarov, who has been granted asylum in Poland.
The only Turkmen LGBTQ activist to speak openly, Omarov has received death threats online.
Back home he said his family are being punished in his stead, with his father disappeared and his brother stabbed.
The persecution has been such that he avoids contacting them for fear of further reprisals.
Having secretly set up the support group The Invisible Rainbow of Turkmenistan while still in the country, he continues the struggle in exile on a shoestring, funding his activism by working in a Polish supermarket.
"You are not the shame of a nation," he tries to tell LGBTQ people back home. "You deserve to be loved and you are not a mistake." 
- The trap - 
Emir first fell for another boy when he was about 12. He thought he was the "only one like that" until he later learnt of the existence of gay people from watching Russian television before satellite dishes were banned in Turkmenistan. 
Growing up in a poor family in Turkmenabat, he liked wearing pink clothes and he soon became the target of homophobic slurs. 
His fear and paranoia grew. "I thought the police could read my thoughts," he said. But in 2018 he left after getting a study visa for Russia.
Despite hostile laws, Russia was a first point of refuge for LGBTQ people escaping former Soviet republics for a long time -- until the full invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 
In 2019 Emir moved to a small disputed territory in Europe that AFP cannot disclose for his safety. 
But he discovered he was HIV-positive in April last year and his new life collapsed. He lost his job and was threatened with deportation back to Turkmenistan, where he is certain "they will abuse me and let me die because of my illness".
To escape that fate, he needs to renew his old passport but that would mean returning to Turkmenistan and risking being locked up.
- Jailed for being HIV-positive - 
The law allows Turkmen authorities to imprison anyone who is HIV-positive for "sodomy" or for "exposing others" to the virus. 
"When gay men seek treatment for HIV, they risk being turned into the police," said Anne Sunder-Plassmann of the International Partnership for Human Rights. 
While the government relentlessly promotes a healthy lifestyle, it does not provide statistics on HIV infections and "refuses to acknowledge a crisis, with doctors often concealing infections", said Sunder-Plassmann. 
Emir has only had intermittent access to antiviral treatment and worries he will end up with AIDS. Like Arslan, he lives in constant terror of being recaptured by Turkmen authorities. 
His fears are not unfounded. Turkmen dissidents Alisher Sakhatov and Abdulla Orusov disappeared from a Turkish deportation centre in July despite a court order for their release, with rights groups fearing they were taken to Turkmenistan. 
rco/dp/fg/jxb

emissions

Australia vows to cut emissions by 62 to 70% by 2035

Thu Sep 18 2025 02:43:58 GMT+0000

  • Australia's previous 2030 commitment was to cut emissions by 43 percent of 2005 levels. 
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  • Australia pledged Thursday to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 62 to 70 percent from 2005 levels over the next decade, after warnings that homes and livelihoods are under threat.
  • Australia's previous 2030 commitment was to cut emissions by 43 percent of 2005 levels. 
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Australia pledged Thursday to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 62 to 70 percent from 2005 levels over the next decade, after warnings that homes and livelihoods are under threat.
Under the Paris accord, each country must provide a headline figure to the United Nations for cutting heat-trapping emissions by 2035, and a detailed blueprint for how to achieve this.
"We listen to the science and we act in Australia's national interest," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said as he unveiled the goal.
Australia's goals are above those of Canada and neighbouring New Zealand, but below the United Kingdom which is one of the most ambitious in the world.
Global emissions have been rising but need to almost halve by the end of the decade to limit global warming to safer levels agreed under the Paris deal.
Australia's previous 2030 commitment was to cut emissions by 43 percent of 2005 levels. 
Countries were meant to submit updated targets earlier this year but only 10 of nearly 200 countries required under the Paris Agreement did so on time, according to a UN database tracking the submissions.
The Climate Change Authority warned the world was on track for 2.9C of warming this century based on previous 2030 commitments. 
Australia's pledge follows the release this week of a national climate risk assessment that found rising temperatures will have "cascading, compounding, concurrent" impacts on life in Australia, home to more than 27 million people.
It warned rising oceans and flooding caused by climate change would threaten the homes and livelihoods of more than a million Australians by 2050.
The country has poured billions into solar power, wind turbines and green manufacturing and pledged to make the nation a renewable energy superpower.
But Australia's green ambitions are at odds with its deep entanglement with lucrative fossil fuel industries.
It remains one of the world's biggest coal exporters and continues to heavily subsidise fossil fuel sectors.
The sun-kissed country has attempted to burnish its green credentials by bidding to host next year's UN climate summit alongside Pacific island neighbours threatened by rising seas.
lec/oho/rsc 

conflict

Top UN Gaza investigator hopeful Israeli leaders will be prosecuted

BY AGNèS PEDRERO
Thu Sep 18 2025 02:35:11 GMT+0000

  • Israeli leaders, she said, had made statements, including calling Palestinians "animals", which recalled the demonising rhetoric used during the Rwanda genocide, when Tutsis were labelled as "cockroaches".
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  • The UN investigator who this week accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza said she sees parallels with the butchery in Rwanda, and that she hopes one day Israeli leaders will be put behind bars.
  • Israeli leaders, she said, had made statements, including calling Palestinians "animals", which recalled the demonising rhetoric used during the Rwanda genocide, when Tutsis were labelled as "cockroaches".
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The UN investigator who this week accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza said she sees parallels with the butchery in Rwanda, and that she hopes one day Israeli leaders will be put behind bars.
Navi Pillay, a South African former judge who headed the international tribunal for the 1994 Rwanda genocide and also served as UN human rights chief, acknowledged that justice "is a slow process".
But as late South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson "Mandela said, it always seems impossible until it's done", she told AFP in an interview.
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"I consider it not impossible that there will be arrests and trials" in the future.
Pillay's Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the United Nations, issued a bombshell report on Tuesday concluding that "genocide is occurring in Gaza" -- something Israel vehemently denies.
The investigators also concluded that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant have "incited the commission of genocide". 
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Israel categorically rejected the findings and slammed the report as "distorted and false".
But for Pillay, the parallels to Rwanda -- where some 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were slaughtered -- are clear.
As head of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, she says watching footage of civilians being killed and tortured had marked her "for life".
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"I see similarities" to what is happening in Gaza, she said, pointing to "the same kind of methods".
While Tutsis were targeted in Rwanda's genocide, she said "all the evidence (indicates) it is Palestinians as a group that is being targeted" in Gaza.
Israeli leaders, she said, had made statements, including calling Palestinians "animals", which recalled the demonising rhetoric used during the Rwanda genocide, when Tutsis were labelled as "cockroaches".
In both cases, she said the target population is "dehumanised", signalling that "it's ok to kill them".

'Traumatic'

The International Criminal Court has already issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for suspected war crimes.
Pillay said securing accountability would not be easy, highlighting that the ICC "does not have its own sheriff or police force to do the arrests".
But she stressed that popular demand could bring about sudden change, as it had in her home country.
"I never thought apartheid will end in my lifetime," she said.
Pillay, who rose through the ranks to become a judge in apartheid South Africa despite her Indian heritage, has a knack for handling difficult cases. 
Her career has taken her from defending anti-apartheid activists and political prisoners in South Africa to the Rwanda tribunal, the ICC and on to serving as the UN's top human rights official from 2008 to 2014.
The 83-year-old took on a particularly daunting mission four years ago when she agreed to chair the freshly-created COI tasked with investigating rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.
Since than, she and her two co-commissioners have faced a barrage of accusations of bias and antisemitism, which they deny, and a recent social media campaign urging Washington to sanction them, as it has ICC judges, Palestinian NGOs and a UN expert focused on the situation in Gaza.
The pressure has been intense, but Pillay says the hardest thing for her team has been viewing video evidence from the ground.
"Watching those videos is just traumatic," she said, pointing to images of "sexual violence of women (and abuse of) doctors who were stripped naked by the military."
"It's so painful" to watch.
Pillay said that going forward, the commission aims to draft a list of suspected perpetrators of abuses in Gaza, and also explore the suspected "complicity" of countries supporting Israel.
That work will meanwhile be left to her successor, since Pillay will be leaving the commission in November, citing her age and health concerns.
Before that, she said she had her visa ready to travel to New York to present her report to the UN General Assembly.
So far, she said, "I have heard nothing about that visa being withdrawn".
apo/nl/st

migration

'I don't cry anymore': In US jail, Russian dissidents fear deportation

BY MARIA DANILOVA
Thu Sep 18 2025 01:45:41 GMT+0000

  • In April, a judge denied Natalia's request for political asylum, despite the family's prior arrests for anti-government protests and a history of involvement with a banned opposition group.
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  • Natalia fled Russia fearing imminent arrest for her family's opposition activism and sought political asylum in the United States.
  • In April, a judge denied Natalia's request for political asylum, despite the family's prior arrests for anti-government protests and a history of involvement with a banned opposition group.
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Natalia fled Russia fearing imminent arrest for her family's opposition activism and sought political asylum in the United States. But instead of refuge, she found herself locked in jail for over a year, separated from her husband and children and dreading deportation.
With the Trump administration stepping up removals as part of its sweeping anti-immigration crackdown, rights activists warn that deporting Russian dissidents puts them at risk of prison and persecution back home.
"I supported the opposition, I supported opposition activists who were against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's regime," Natalia told AFP in a phone interview from an immigration detention center in the southern state of Louisiana. "If I return to Russia, I will be arrested."
Clad in an orange prison uniform, Natalia shares a dormitory with about 60 other women sleeping in bunk beds. Showers and toilets are in the same room, behind curtains that don't offer privacy or respite from the foul smell.
Tens of thousands of Russians have applied for political asylum in the United States, many by crossing the border from Mexico, since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Moscow's ensuing suppression of dissent.
About 85 percent of Russian asylum claims adjudicated last year were approved, according to official data, but detainees, lawyers and rights groups say denials have increased in recent months, while detainees are subjected to arbitrary detention and not given a fair chance to defend themselves in court.
Nearly 900 Russians, many of them asylum seekers, have been deported back home since 2022, official data shows.
They include some 100 who were sent back under convoy over the summer on two specially chartered flights, precluding them from seeking refuge in a third country, according to the Russian America for Democracy in Russia (RADR) group and the Russian Antiwar Committee.
The deportees faced lengthy interrogations on arrival and at least two of them were arrested, including a serviceman who deserted following the Ukraine invasion and an opposition activist, the groups said.
"It's a catastrophe," said Dmitry Valuev, RADR's president. "It cannot be done. They are deporting people who face real danger in Russia."
- 'Deep sense of disappointment' - 
Long-time political activists, Natalia and her husband campaigned for the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose organization has since been outlawed and declared "extremist" in Russia, while his supporters were persecuted.
After police searched their apartment outside Moscow in 2023, Natalia's husband and their pre-teen son flew to Mexico and crossed the US border. 
In the United States, they surrendered themselves to immigration authorities and were released on parole to await their political asylum hearing in a midwestern state.
Natalia followed them a year later, but ended up detained.
She has spent nearly 1.5 years in jail, one of an estimated 1,000 Russian citizens held in immigration jails across the country, according to RADR.
Lawyers say married couples are often sent to prison in different states, often depriving one of the spouses of a strong asylum case.
In April, a judge denied Natalia's request for political asylum, despite the family's prior arrests for anti-government protests and a history of involvement with a banned opposition group. She has filed an appeal. 
"I have a deep sense of disappointment, I thought there is some kind of justice and reason here," Natalia said. "I could never believe that I would be treated in court the same way as in Russia."
- 'Completely inhumane' - 
Another Russian asylum seeker held with Natalia has also lost her case and is awaiting removal. 
Her husband Yuri was deported on a commercial flight over the summer, after a year in detention, but was able to get off the plane in Morocco and buy a plane ticket to a third country.
He worries, however, that his wife will not have that chance, as was the case with the two mass deportation flights.
"It's completely inhumane not to give people an opportunity to get off the flight," Yuri told AFP from a South Asian country where he is currently staying. "Fine, you want to kick them out of America, but to do this?"
US officials declined to comment on recent deportations of Russian citizens.
At the Louisiana detention center, the days are long and grim.
Natalia says security guards can throw away their meager belongings or forbid them to use a towel to keep warm during a walk outside. Some say they are going hungry and are not receiving proper medical care.
"I don't cry anymore, I know I need to live to see the appeal," Natalia said. "My biggest sorrow is not being able to take part in my children's lives. I know they need me."
md/bgs

military

With eye on US threat, Venezuela holds Caribbean military exercises

Thu Sep 18 2025 01:08:44 GMT+0000

  • Public television showed images of amphibious vessels and warships deployed off La Orchila, where Venezuela has a military base.
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  • Venezuela said Wednesday it had begun three days of military exercises on its Caribbean island of La Orchila as tensions soar amid US military activity in the region.
  • Public television showed images of amphibious vessels and warships deployed off La Orchila, where Venezuela has a military base.
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Venezuela said Wednesday it had begun three days of military exercises on its Caribbean island of La Orchila as tensions soar amid US military activity in the region.
Forces deployed for what Washington called an anti-drug operation have blown up at least two Venezuelan boats and a combined 14 people allegedly transporting drugs across the Caribbean this month -- a move slammed as "extrajudicial execution" by UN experts. 
The strikes and a deployment of US warships in the region have raised fears of an invasion in Venezuela, whose President Nicolas Maduro Washington accuses of being a cartel leader.  The exercise ordered by Maduro as commander-in-chief was baptized "Sovereign Caribbean," Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said Wednesday.
"There will be air defense deployments with armed drones, surveillance drones, submarine drones... We are going to implement electronic warfare actions," he added, citing the "threatening, vulgar voice" of the United States.
Public television showed images of amphibious vessels and warships deployed off La Orchila, where Venezuela has a military base.
The armed forces said the exercises will involve 12 ships, 22 aircraft and 20 small boats from the "Special Naval Militia."
La Orchila island is close to the area where the United States intercepted and held a Venezuelan fishing vessel for eight hours over the weekend.
Maduro, whose last two elections the US and many other countries did not recognize, has vowed Caracas would defend itself against what he labeled US "aggression" against his country. 
Washington is offering a $50 million bounty for the arrest of Maduro, who faces drug trafficking charges.

'Who saw the drugs?'

Venezuela has urged an investigation of a US strike on an alleged drug boat early this month that killed 11 people.
It was one of three Venezuelan vessels US President Donald Trump said his country had "knocked off" without providing details. 
"One doesn’t know, because they say it carried drugs, but who saw the drugs?" Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said earlier Wednesday as he claimed Venezuela is cracking down on narcotics.
Cabello told reporters that officials have seized over 60 tonnes (about 66 US tons) of drugs so far this year. 
"It is the largest amount that has been seized since 2010," said Cabello, who like Maduro and other senior officials is under US sanctions. 
Trump has justified taking military action by saying "violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to US National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital US Interests."
The US government has released videos of two of the boat strikes and claims it has irrefutable evidence the people killed were US-bound traffickers.
It has not provided details to back up those claims. Drug trafficking is not a capital offense under US law.
Caracas has consistently denied being a trafficking hub.
ba-mbj/mar/mlr/ksb

pope

Pope Leo puts the brake on Church reforms

BY HECTOR VELASCO WITH CLEMENT MELKI AT THE VATICAN
Thu Sep 18 2025 01:03:01 GMT+0000

  • In an interview with US journalist Elise Ann Allen for the book "Pope Leo XIV: Global Citizen, Missionary of the 21st Century," Leo admitted that "people want the church doctrine to change, want attitudes to change."
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  • Pope Leo XIV sought to reassure Catholics in his first interview published Thursday that he would not change key doctrine on gay marriage and women deacons, after his predecessor's divisive papacy.
  • In an interview with US journalist Elise Ann Allen for the book "Pope Leo XIV: Global Citizen, Missionary of the 21st Century," Leo admitted that "people want the church doctrine to change, want attitudes to change."
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Pope Leo XIV sought to reassure Catholics in his first interview published Thursday that he would not change key doctrine on gay marriage and women deacons, after his predecessor's divisive papacy.
The US-born pontiff, elected four months ago, struck a different tone to outspoken Pope Francis, whose attempts to open the Church for the modern era enraged traditionalists.
In an interview with US journalist Elise Ann Allen for the book "Pope Leo XIV: Global Citizen, Missionary of the 21st Century," Leo admitted that "people want the church doctrine to change, want attitudes to change."
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But he said "we have to change attitudes before we even think about changing what the Church says about any given question".
Leo said he shared Francis's desire to welcome everyone in to the Church, "but I don't invite a person in because they are or are not of any specific identity."
His predecessor, who died in April aged 88, made numerous statements welcoming people traditionally seen as "sinners" into the Church.
But Leo said it was "highly unlikely, certainly in the near future," that Church doctrine on sexuality or marriage would change.
"I think that the Church's teaching will continue as it is," he said in the book, published Thursday in Spanish in Peru, where Leo lived for nearly 20 years as a missionary.
The decision by Francis to authorize blessings for same-sex couples in very limited circumstances sparked a backlash from conservatives, particularly in Africa and the United States.
Leo -- elected as the Church grappled with serious internal divisions -- said "any issue dealing with the LGBTQ questions is highly polarizing," adding: "I'm trying not to continue to polarize or promote polarization in the Church."
The pontiff received American priest James Martin, one of the leading advocates for homosexual Catholics, in a private audience this month.
But Leo did not publicly address the approximately 1,400 LGBTQ+ Catholics who came on pilgrimage to the Vatican.
He stressed support for "the traditional family," which "is father, mother, and children."

'Real crisis'

Leo, 70, also dampened expectations regarding the hot-button issue of women deacons, a potentially historic reform which Francis had encouraged Catholic experts to explore. 
"I at the moment don't have an intention of changing the teaching of the Church on the topic," Leo said, though he added he was "certainly willing to continue to listen to people."
The pope addressed one of the biggest scandals to have dogged the Catholic Church in recent decades -- sexual abuse of children by priests -- but said it would not be the main focus of his papacy.
Francis enacted a series of measures aimed at battling clerical pedophilia during his 12 years as pope, though victims' associations said he did not go far enough.
While Leo said the clerical abuse was "a real crisis," he stressed that accused priests were innocent until proven guilty and must be "protected" as such, and "we can't make the whole church focus exclusively on this issue."
The US pope reflected on his new life as head of the Catholic Church, living in the tiny Vatican city state, and meeting regularly with world leaders.
"It's quite frankly not an easy thing to give up everything that you were and had in the past and take on a role that's 24 hours a day, basically, and so public," he revealed.
Some bits of the job were easier than others, he said, adding he was just dipping a "big toe into the shallow end" of internal Church governance.
The Vatican's financial woes did not keep him awake a night, because of his "bit of knowledge and background in lots of different kinds of financial matters."
But he expressed concern about the ever-growing income divide, noting the recent news that Elon Musk was set to become the world's first trillionaire.
"If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we're in big trouble," he said.
cmk/ide/ar/mlr/mlm