film

Dissident Iranian filmmaker Panahi wins Cannes top prize

tariff

White House slams court decision blocking Trump tariffs

BY BEIYI SEOW AND DANNY KEMP

  • The White House called the ruling "blatantly wrong," filing an appeal and expressing confidence that the decision would be overturned.
  • The White House on Thursday blasted a federal court's decision to block many of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs -- a major setback to his trade strategy.
  • The White House called the ruling "blatantly wrong," filing an appeal and expressing confidence that the decision would be overturned.
The White House on Thursday blasted a federal court's decision to block many of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs -- a major setback to his trade strategy.
Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has moved to reconfigure US trade ties with the world while using tariffs to force foreign governments to the negotiating table.
But the stop-start rollout of levies, impacting both allies and adversaries, has roiled markets and snarled supply chains.
The three-judge Court of International Trade ruled Wednesday that Trump had overstepped his authority, and barred most of the tariffs announced since he took office.
The court gave the White House 10 days to complete the process of halting affected tariffs.
The White House called the ruling "blatantly wrong," filing an appeal and expressing confidence that the decision would be overturned.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the judges "brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump."
In a court filing, the Justice Department called for an immediate administrative halt on the decision pending the appeal, saying the administration plans to seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court as soon as Friday.
Leavitt said the Supreme Court "must put an end" to the tariff challenge, though stressing that Trump has other legal means to impose levies.

'Nothing's really changed'

Trump's trade advisor Peter Navarro said on Bloomberg Television: "Nothing's really changed."
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told Fox Business that although officials have other options that would "take a couple of months" to implement, they are not planning to pursue these right now.
He insisted that "hiccups" sparked by the decisions of "activist judges" would not affect negotiations with other trading partners, adding that three deals are close to finalization.
Trump's import levies -- aimed at punishing economies that sell more to the United States than they buy -- have roiled global markets.
The president has argued that trade deficits and the threat posed by drug smuggling constituted a "national emergency" that justified the widespread tariffs -- which the court ruled against.

China: 'cancel the wrongful' tariffs

Trump unveiled sweeping import duties on nearly all trading partners in April, at a baseline 10 percent -- plus steeper levies on dozens of economies including China and the EU, which have since been paused.
The US court's ruling also quashes duties that Trump imposed on Canada, Mexico and China separately using emergency powers.
But it leaves intact 25 percent duties on imported autos, steel and aluminum.
Beijing -- which was hit by additional 145 percent tariffs before they were temporarily reduced to make space for negotiations -- reacted to the court ruling by saying Washington should scrap the levies.
"China urges the United States to heed the rational voices from the international community and domestic stakeholders and fully cancel the wrongful unilateral tariff measures," said commerce ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government welcomed the court decision, but warned trade ties were still "profoundly and adversely threatened" by sector-specific levies.
Asian markets rallied Thursday but US indexes were mixed and Europe closed slightly down.

'Extraordinary threat'

The federal trade court was ruling in two separate cases -- brought by businesses and a coalition of state governments -- arguing that the president had violated Congress's power of the purse.
The judges said the cases rested on whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) delegates such powers to the president "in the form of authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world."
The judges stated that any interpretation of the IEEPA that "delegates unlimited tariff authority is unconstitutional."
Analysts at London-based research group Capital Economics said the case may end up with the Supreme Court, but would likely not mark the end of the tariff war.
burs-bys/sst

conflict

US says Israel backs latest Gaza truce plan sent to Hamas

BY AFP'S TEAM IN GAZA

  • The White House said President Donald Trump and US envoy Steve Witkoff had "submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed".
  • The White House said on Thursday that Israel had "signed off on" a new Gaza ceasefire proposal submitted to Hamas, as the Palestinian militants confirmed they were studying the deal.
  • The White House said President Donald Trump and US envoy Steve Witkoff had "submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed".
The White House said on Thursday that Israel had "signed off on" a new Gaza ceasefire proposal submitted to Hamas, as the Palestinian militants confirmed they were studying the deal.
Negotiations to end more than 19 months of war have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in Gaza in March after a brief truce.
The White House said President Donald Trump and US envoy Steve Witkoff had "submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed".
"Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding discussions were "continuing" with the militants.
Hamas said it had "received Witkoff's new proposal from the mediators and is currently studying it responsibly".
The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire despite aid beginning to trickle back into the territory following a more than two-month Israeli blockade.
Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people.
Israel has intensified its offensive in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war.
Gaza’s civil defence said 54 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Thursday, including 23 in a strike on a home in Al-Bureij and two by Israeli gunfire near a US-backed aid centre in the Morag axis, in the south.
The centre, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, is part of a new aid distribution system designed to keep supplies from Hamas. It has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the European Union.
"What is happening to us is degrading. The crowding is humiliating us," said Gazan Sobhi Areef, who visited a GHF centre on Thursday.
"We go there and risk our lives just to get a bag of flour to feed our children."

'Starvation tactics'

The Israeli military said it was not aware of the shooting near the aid centre. In Al-Bureij, it said it struck a "Hamas cell" and was reviewing reports that civilians were killed.
It said its forces had struck "dozens of terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip" over the past day.
In a phone call with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi accused Israel of "systematic starvation tactics" that had "crossed all moral and legal boundaries".
On Wednesday, thousands of desperate Palestinians stormed a World Food Programme warehouse in central Gaza, the UN agency said, with Israel and the United Nations trading blame over the deepening hunger crisis.
The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid starvation fears and intense criticism of the GHF, which has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system in the territory.
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said aid trucks were entering Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing and accused the UN of "trying to block" GHF's work.
The United Nations said it was doing its utmost to distribute the limited aid allowed in.
It said 47 people were wounded Tuesday when crowds rushed a GHF site. A Palestinian medical source reported at least one death.

'Forced evacuation'

GHF disputed that anyone had been killed or injured, saying "several inaccuracies" were circulating about its operations and that "there are many parties who wish to see GHF fail".
Medical facilities in Gaza have come under increasing strain and repeated attack.
Al-Awda Hospital said Israeli troops were "carrying out a forced evacuation of patients and medical staff" from its premises, adding it was "the only hospital that was still operating in the northern Gaza Strip".
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Out of 251 hostages seized during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. 
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday that at least 3,986 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,249, mostly civilians.
On Thursday, the military said an "employee of a contracting company that carries out engineering work" was killed in northern Gaza.
bur-smw/dv

environment

Climate action could save half of world's vanishing glaciers, says study

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • "Well -- sea level rise.
  • More than three-quarters of the world's glaciers are set to vanish if climate change continues unchecked, a major new study warned Thursday, fueling sea-level rise and jeopardizing water supplies for billions.
  • "Well -- sea level rise.
More than three-quarters of the world's glaciers are set to vanish if climate change continues unchecked, a major new study warned Thursday, fueling sea-level rise and jeopardizing water supplies for billions.
Published in Science, the international analysis provides the clearest picture yet of long-term glacier loss, revealing that every fraction of a degree in global temperature rise significantly worsens the outlook.
It may sound grim, but co-lead author Harry Zekollari, a glaciologist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and ETH Zurich, told AFP the findings should be seen as a "message of hope."
Under existing climate policies, global temperatures are projected to reach 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.9F) above pre-industrial levels by 2100 --  a pathway that would ultimately erase 76 percent of current glacier mass over the coming centuries.
But if warming is held to the Paris Agreement's 1.5C target, 54 percent of glacial mass could be preserved, according to the study, which combined outputs from eight glacier models to simulate ice loss across a range of future climate scenarios.
"What is really special about this study is we can really show how every tenth of a degree of additional warming matters," co-lead author Lilian Schuster of the University of Innsbruck told AFP.
The paper's release comes as Swiss authorities monitor flood risks following the collapse of the massive Birch Glacier, which destroyed an evacuated village.
While Swiss glaciers have been heavily impacted by climate change, it remains unclear how much the latest disaster was driven by warming versus natural geological forces.

Cultural and economic importance

Glaciers are found on every continent except Australia -- from Mount Kilimanjaro to the Austrian Alps and the Karakoram range in Pakistan. 
While most are clustered in the polar regions, their presence in mountain ranges across the world makes them vital to local ecosystems, agriculture and human communities.
Vast bodies of snow, ice, rock, and sediment that gain mass in winter and lose it in summer, glaciers formed in the Earth's deep past when conditions were far colder than today.
Their meltwater sustains rivers critical for farming, fisheries, and drinking water.
Their loss can have profound ripple effects, from disrupting tourism economies to eroding cultural heritage. 
In recent years, symbolic glacier funerals have been held in Iceland, Switzerland and Mexico.
"The question I always get is, why are you a glaciologist in Belgium?" said Zekollari. "Well -- sea level rise. Glaciers melt everywhere on Earth... and that affects coastal defenses even in places far from mountains."
Around 25 percent of current sea-level rise is attributed to glacier melt. 
Even if all fossil fuel use stopped today, the study finds that 39 percent of glacier mass loss is already locked in -- enough to raise sea levels by at least 113 millimeters (4.4 inches).

Uneven impacts

One key finding of the study is that some glaciers are far more vulnerable than others -- and the global average obscures drastic regional losses.
Glaciers in the European Alps, the Rockies of the US and Canada, and Iceland are expected to lose nearly all their ice at 2C of warming -- the fallback goal of the Paris accord.
In the central and eastern Himalayas, whose rivers support hundreds of millions of people, only 25 percent of glacier ice would remain at 2C. 
By contrast, the west of the range may retain 60 percent of its ice at the same temperature thanks to its wide range of elevations, which allows some glaciers to persist at colder, higher altitudes, said Shuster.
Glacier loss is already affecting communities. 
In a related commentary in Science, Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer of Rice University describe how the retreat of Oregon's Glisan Glacier has imperiled orchards, fisheries, and the cultural heritage of the Indigenous Quinault people.
"Unfortunately we'll lose a lot, but with ambitious targets we can still save many of these glaciers -- which are not only beautiful, but vital for water supply, sea-level regulation, tourism, hydroelectricity, spiritual values, ecology, and more," said Zekollari.
ia/sla/aha

ARG

After 2 months, 40 witnesses, Maradona trial scrapped

BY TOMáS VIOLA

  • Her colleague, judge Maximiliano Savarino, annulled the trial on Thursday saying Makintach's behavior had "caused prejudice" to proceedings that have already heard hours of painful, sometimes tearful, testimony from witnesses including Maradona's children.
  • After weeks of hearings and testimony from over 40 witnesses, an Argentine court on Thursday nullified the trial of late football legend Diego Maradona's medical team due to a scandal over a TV miniseries.
  • Her colleague, judge Maximiliano Savarino, annulled the trial on Thursday saying Makintach's behavior had "caused prejudice" to proceedings that have already heard hours of painful, sometimes tearful, testimony from witnesses including Maradona's children.
After weeks of hearings and testimony from over 40 witnesses, an Argentine court on Thursday nullified the trial of late football legend Diego Maradona's medical team due to a scandal over a TV miniseries.
A new trial will have to start from scratch, with three new judges, in a case already long delayed into Maradona's death in 2020, allegedly due to medical negligence.
Judge Julieta Makintach was forced to step down from the case this week after it emerged she had been involved in a documentary miniseries about the case, potentially breaking a string of ethics rules.
Her colleague, judge Maximiliano Savarino, annulled the trial on Thursday saying Makintach's behavior had "caused prejudice" to proceedings that have already heard hours of painful, sometimes tearful, testimony from witnesses including Maradona's children.
"I am not calm. I am angry. I hate them!" the footballer's daughter Jana Maradona told reporters outside the court Thursday.
Ex-partner Veronica Ojeda described the events as "outrageous." 
But she added: "if I have to do it (testify) a thousand times more, I will."
Maradona -- considered one of the world's greatest ever players -- died in November 2020 aged 60 while recovering from brain surgery.
He was found to have died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema -- a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs -- two weeks after going under the knife.
His seven-person medical team is on trial over the conditions of his home convalescence, described by prosecutors as grossly negligent. 

'Divine Justice'

In a trial that kicked off on March 11, prosecutors alleged the former footballer was abandoned to his fate for a "prolonged, agonizing period" before his death.
Daughter Gianinna Maradona told the court her father was kept in "a dark, ugly and lonely" place and that his carers were more interested in money than his welfare.
Then the proceedings hit a hiccup, with Makintach coming under scrutiny over alleged unauthorized filming.
She denied any wrongdoing, but after police raids and a week-long suspension of proceedings, evidence came to light that brought the 47-year-old judge's conduct into question.
A trailer for a TV show dubbed "Divine Justice" was played in court Tuesday, showing Makintach stalking the halls of justice in high heels as grim details of the footballing hero's demise were relayed.
The footage, which sparked an uproar, appeared to contain unauthorized recordings made inside the court, and showed Makintach being interviewed on camera.
Makintach has been suspended from her duties and is being investigated by a judicial disciplinary body, accused of violating impartiality requirements, influence peddling and possibly even bribery.
The prosecution, the complainants and most of the defense lawyers had asked for a new panel of judges to be appointed and the trial restarted. 
No date has been set, but the prosecution has said it hopes for a restart this year.
Any possible appeals could delay the resumption of proceedings, for which judges will be chosen by an internal court lottery.
Maradona's caregivers risk prison terms of between eight and 25 years if convicted of "homicide with possible intent" -- pursuing a course of action despite knowing it could lead to his death.
tev/mlr/bgs

conflict

Israel's settlement plan in occupied West Bank draws criticism

BY STUART WHITE

  • Human rights groups and anti-settlement NGOs say a slide towards at least de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank has gathered pace, particularly since the start of the Gaza war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel.
  • Israel announced Thursday the creation of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, drawing sharp condemnation from Britain, Jordan and others already at odds with the country over its Gaza war.
  • Human rights groups and anti-settlement NGOs say a slide towards at least de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank has gathered pace, particularly since the start of the Gaza war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel.
Israel announced Thursday the creation of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, drawing sharp condemnation from Britain, Jordan and others already at odds with the country over its Gaza war.
London called the move a "deliberate obstacle" to Palestinian statehood, while UN chief Antonio Guterres' spokesman said it pushed efforts towards a two-state solution "in the wrong direction".
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are regularly condemned by the United Nations as illegal under international law and are seen as a major obstacle to lasting peace.
The decision, taken by Israel's security cabinet, was announced by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, and Defence Minister Israel Katz, who oversees the communities.
"We have made a historic decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing settlement in the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel," Smotrich said on X, using the Israeli terms for the southern and northern West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967.
"Next step: sovereignty!" he added.
Katz said the initiative "changes the face of the region and shapes the future of settlement for years to come".
Not all of the 22 settlements are new. Some are existing outposts, while others are neighbourhoods of settlements that will become independent communities, according to the left-wing Israeli NGO Peace Now.
Hamas accused Israel of "accelerating steps to Judaize Palestinian land within a clear annexation project".
"This is a blatant defiance of the international will and a grave violation of international law and United Nations resolutions," Gaza's Islamist rulers said.
Britain's minister for the Middle East, Hamish Falconer, said the plan imperils "the two-state solution" and does not protect Israel.
Jordan called the decision illegal and said it "undermines prospects for peace by entrenching the occupation".
"We stand against any and all" expansion of the settlements, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, repeating calls for Israel to halt such activity, which he said blocks peace and economic development.
On Telegram, the right-wing Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the move a "once-in-a-generation decision" and said it "includes the establishment of four communities along the eastern border with Jordan, as part of strengthening Israel's eastern backbone".
A map posted by the party showed the 22 sites scattered across the territory.

'Heritage of our ancestors'

Two of the settlements, Homesh and Sa-Nur, are particularly symbolic.
Located in the north of the West Bank, they are resettlements, having been evacuated in 2005 as part of Israel's disengagement from Gaza, promoted by then prime minister Ariel Sharon.
Netanyahu's government, formed in December 2022 with the support of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, is the most right-wing in Israel's history.
Human rights groups and anti-settlement NGOs say a slide towards at least de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank has gathered pace, particularly since the start of the Gaza war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel.
"The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: the annexation of the occupied territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal," Peace Now said in a statement.
In his announcement, Smotrich offered a pre-emptive defence of the move, saying: "We have not taken a foreign land, but the heritage of our ancestors."
Some European governments have moved to sanction individual settlers, as did the United States under former president Joe Biden -- though those measures were lifted under Donald Trump.
The announcement comes ahead of an international conference led by France and Saudi Arabia at the United Nations next month aimed at reviving the two-state solution.
myl-mj/reg/dv/srm

education

Harvard graduation overshadowed by Trump threats

BY GREGORY WALTON

  • A federal judge in Boston said she would issue an order that "gives some protection" to international students while courts consider the legality of Trump's effort to block Harvard from enrolling foreign students.
  • Thousands of Harvard students in crimson-fringed gowns celebrated their graduation Thursday, as a federal judge said she would temporarily block Donald Trump's bid to bar the prestigious university from enrolling international scholars.
  • A federal judge in Boston said she would issue an order that "gives some protection" to international students while courts consider the legality of Trump's effort to block Harvard from enrolling foreign students.
Thousands of Harvard students in crimson-fringed gowns celebrated their graduation Thursday, as a federal judge said she would temporarily block Donald Trump's bid to bar the prestigious university from enrolling international scholars.
Trump has made Harvard the central target of his campaign against elite US universities, which he has threatened with funding freezes and action against their foreign students over what he says is liberal bias and anti-Semitism.
A federal judge in Boston said she would issue an order that "gives some protection" to international students while courts consider the legality of Trump's effort to block Harvard from enrolling foreign students.
"We want to make sure there's no more shenanigans between now and then," said Harvard's lawyer Ian Gershengorn. 
"Our students are terrified and we're (already) having people transfer" to other universities, he said.
In an eleventh-hour filing ahead of the hearing, the Trump administration issued a formal notice of intent to withdraw Harvard's ability to enrol foreign students -- kickstarting the process.
The filing gave Harvard 30 days to produce evidence showing why it should not be blocked from hosting and enrolling foreign students.
Judge Allison Burroughs had already temporarily paused the policy affecting some 27 percent of Harvard's student body, extending that pause Thursday.
She said she would seek to determine "whether they were terminated for a retaliatory motive."
A law professor present in the packed court said the Trump administration was prolonging the suffering of international students.
"Harvard is in this purgatory. What is an international student to do?" said the Harvard Law School graduate, who declined to be named.

'Bully and threaten'

There also remained "this specter of other actions" the government could take to block Harvard having international students, she added.
The Ivy League institution has continually drawn Trump's ire while publicly rejecting his administration's repeated demands to give up control of recruitment, curricula and research choices.
"Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they're doing is getting in deeper and deeper," Trump said Wednesday.
Harvard president Alan Garber got a huge cheer Thursday when he mentioned international students attending the graduation with their families, saying it was "as it should be" -- but Garber did not mention the Trump fight directly. 
He at one point received a standing ovation, which one student told AFP was "revealing of the community's pride and approval."
Garber has led the legal fightback in US academia after Trump targeted several prestigious universities -- including Columbia, which made sweeping concessions to the administration in an effort to restore $400 million of withdrawn federal grants.
He has acknowledged that Harvard does have issues with anti-Semitism and that it has struggled to ensure that a variety of views can be safely heard on campus.
Ahead of the ceremony, members of the Harvard band sporting distinctive crimson blazers and brandishing their instruments filed through the narrow streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts -- home to the elite school, America's oldest university.
In front of a huge stage, hundreds of students assembled to hear speeches, including one entirely in Latin, in a grassy precinct that was closed off to the public for security.
Many students from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government carried inflatable plastic globes at the ceremony to symbolize the international makeup of the school's student body. 
"In the last two months it's been very difficult, I've been feeling a lot of vulnerability," said one such student, Lorena Mejia, 36, who graduated with a masters in public administration and wore robes marking her as a Colombian.
gw/st

justice

Chapo's ex-lawyer among Mexico's 'high-risk' aspiring judges

BY HERIKA MARTINEZ WITH YUSSEL GONZALEZ IN MEXICO CITY

  • Her candidacy is one of the most controversial in elections beginning on Sunday that will make Mexico the world's only country to choose all of its judges and magistrates by popular vote.
  • In a crime-plagued Mexican border city, lawyer Silvia Delgado urges passersby to vote for her as a judge, despite her past work for one of the world's most notorious drug lords.
  • Her candidacy is one of the most controversial in elections beginning on Sunday that will make Mexico the world's only country to choose all of its judges and magistrates by popular vote.
In a crime-plagued Mexican border city, lawyer Silvia Delgado urges passersby to vote for her as a judge, despite her past work for one of the world's most notorious drug lords.
Her candidacy is one of the most controversial in elections beginning on Sunday that will make Mexico the world's only country to choose all of its judges and magistrates by popular vote.
But Delgado is not the only contender whose suitability to dispense justice has been called into question.
Other hopefuls include a man who was imprisoned in the United States for drug crimes, even though those taking part are supposed to have no criminal record.
Candidates must have a law degree, experience in legal affairs and what is termed "a good reputation."
But that did not prevent a former prosecutor accused of threatening two journalists who were later murdered from getting his name on the ballot.
Delgado, 51, was a member of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's legal team in Ciudad Juarez, where the Sinaloa cartel co-founder was detained before being extradited to the United States in 2017.
"I've defended many people," she told AFP in an interview, saying that having assisted Guzman in his hearings did not make her a criminal.
"Every person has the right to counsel," she said, talking up her experience to voters.
"You're going to have an impartial and knowledgeable judge," she told a street vendor near a border crossing between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas.

'The most imperfect'

Delgado is one of around 20 candidates identified by rights group Defensorxs as "high-risk" for reasons including allegations of cartel links, corruption and sexual abuse. 
Defensorxs describes Delgado as someone who "defends alleged drug traffickers."
It is a sensitive issue in Mexico, where criminal violence has claimed more than 480,000 lives since 2006 and left around 120,000 people missing.
A violent split in the Sinaloa cartel -- one of several Mexican drug trafficking groups that have been designated terrorist organizations by US President Donald Trump -- has resulted in 1,200 deaths since September.
Also on the Defensorxs list is Leopoldo Chavez, an aspiring federal judge in the northern state of Durango.
He was imprisoned for almost six years in the United States between 2015 and 2021 for methamphetamine trafficking.
"I've never sold myself to you as the perfect candidate," he said in a video posted on social media. "I'm the most imperfect, but the one who most wants to get this done.
Fernando Escamilla, who is standing to be a judge in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, was a lawyer for Miguel Angel Trevino, a former leaders of Los Zetas, a cartel known for its brutality.

'0.01 percent'

In the western state of Michoacan, candidate Francisco Herrera is accused by the press of having threatened journalists Roberto Toledo and Armando Linares, who were murdered in 2022.
He denies any involvement.
In neighboring Jalisco state, Job Daniel Wong is a minister of the Mexican mega-church La Luz Del Mundo, whose leader Naason Joaquin Garcia was convicted in the United States of sexual abusing minors.
President Claudia Sheinbaum has downplayed the importance of the controversial candidacies, saying "it's 0.01 percent" of all those standing.
Her ruling party promoted the elections, which it says are needed to combat corruption and impunity.
Critics say criminal groups who regularly use violence, threats and bribery will seek to increase their influence over the courts by meddling in the vote.
The ruling party's Senate leader, Gerardo Fernandez Norona, has said that lawyers who represented drug traffickers "should not participate."
The electoral authority will only assess the validity of their candidacies after the elections.
Defensorxs director Miguel Alfonso Meza blames the situation on the haste with which the constitutional reform was passed and the lack of rigor in vetting candidacies.
"It's impressive that to be a municipal traffic officer you have to take an exam, but to be a criminal judge who resolves cases involving a cartel, all you have to do is send your resume," he said.
yug/axm/dr/bgs

AI

Generative AI's most prominent skeptic doubles down

  • Marcus, a longtime New York University professor, champions a fundamentally different approach to building AI -- one he believes might actually achieve human-level intelligence in ways that current generative AI never will.
  • Two and a half years since ChatGPT rocked the world, scientist and writer Gary Marcus still remains generative artificial intelligence's great skeptic, playing a counter-narrative to Silicon Valley's AI true believers.
  • Marcus, a longtime New York University professor, champions a fundamentally different approach to building AI -- one he believes might actually achieve human-level intelligence in ways that current generative AI never will.
Two and a half years since ChatGPT rocked the world, scientist and writer Gary Marcus still remains generative artificial intelligence's great skeptic, playing a counter-narrative to Silicon Valley's AI true believers.
Marcus became a prominent figure of the AI revolution in 2023, when he sat beside OpenAI chief Sam Altman at a Senate hearing in Washington as both men urged politicians to take the technology seriously and consider regulation.
Much has changed since then. Altman has abandoned his calls for caution, instead teaming up with Japan's SoftBank and funds in the Middle East to propel his company to sky-high valuations as he tries to make ChatGPT the next era-defining tech behemoth.
"Sam's not getting money anymore from the Silicon Valley establishment," and his seeking funding from abroad is a sign of "desperation," Marcus told AFP on the sidelines of the Web Summit in Vancouver, Canada.
Marcus's criticism centers on a fundamental belief: generative AI, the predictive technology that churns out seemingly human-level content, is simply too flawed to be transformative.
The large language models (LLMs) that power these capabilities are inherently broken, he argues, and will never deliver on Silicon Valley's grand promises.
"I'm skeptical of AI as it is currently practiced," he said. "I think AI could have tremendous value, but LLMs are not the way there. And I think the companies running it are not mostly the best people in the world."
His skepticism stands in stark contrast to the prevailing mood at the Web Summit, where most conversations among 15,000 attendees focused on generative AI's seemingly infinite promise. 
Many believe humanity stands on the cusp of achieving super intelligence or artificial general intelligence (AGI) technology that could match and even surpass human capability.
That optimism has driven OpenAI's valuation to $300 billion, unprecedented levels for a startup, with billionaire Elon Musk's xAI racing to keep pace. 
Yet for all the hype, the practical gains remain limited. 
The technology excels mainly at coding assistance for programmers and text generation for office work. AI-created images, while often entertaining, serve primarily as memes or deepfakes, offering little obvious benefit to society or business.
Marcus, a longtime New York University professor, champions a fundamentally different approach to building AI -- one he believes might actually achieve human-level intelligence in ways that current generative AI never will.
"One consequence of going all-in on LLMs is that any alternative approach that might be better gets starved out," he explained. 
This tunnel vision will "cause a delay in getting to AI that can help us beyond just coding -- a waste of resources."

'Right answers matter'

Instead, Marcus advocates for neurosymbolic AI, an approach that attempts to rebuild human logic artificially rather than simply training computer models on vast datasets, as is done with ChatGPT and similar products like Google's Gemini or Anthropic's Claude.
He dismisses fears that generative AI will eliminate white-collar jobs, citing a simple reality: "There are too many white-collar jobs where getting the right answer actually matters."
This points to AI's most persistent problem: hallucinations, the technology's well-documented tendency to produce confident-sounding mistakes. 
Even AI's strongest advocates acknowledge this flaw may be impossible to eliminate.
Marcus recalls a telling exchange from 2023 with LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, a Silicon Valley heavyweight: "He bet me any amount of money that hallucinations would go away in three months. I offered him $100,000 and he wouldn't take the bet."
Looking ahead, Marcus warns of a darker consequence once investors realize generative AI's limitations. Companies like OpenAI will inevitably monetize their most valuable asset: user data.
"The people who put in all this money will want their returns, and I think that's leading them toward surveillance," he said, pointing to Orwellian risks for society. 
"They have all this private data, so they can sell that as a consolation prize."
Marcus acknowledges that generative AI will find useful applications in areas where occasional errors don't matter much. 
"They're very useful for auto-complete on steroids: coding, brainstorming, and stuff like that," he said. 
"But nobody's going to make much money off it because they're expensive to run, and everybody has the same product."
arp/st

border

Thai, Cambodian army chiefs meet over border clash

BY SALLY JENSEN

  • A Cambodian soldier was killed on Wednesday during an exchange of gunfire with the Thai army at the border, a Cambodian army spokesman said.
  • Thai and Cambodian militaries said on Thursday they had agreed to ease border tensions after a Cambodian soldier was killed in a frontier clash.
  • A Cambodian soldier was killed on Wednesday during an exchange of gunfire with the Thai army at the border, a Cambodian army spokesman said.
Thai and Cambodian militaries said on Thursday they had agreed to ease border tensions after a Cambodian soldier was killed in a frontier clash.
Military clashes between the Southeast Asian neighbours erupted in 2008 and have led to several years of sporadic violence, resulting in at least 28 deaths. 
Commmander General Pana Klaewplodthuk met with his Cambodian counterpart and both sides agreed to move troops away from the area, said Thai army spokesman Winthai Suvaree in a statement.
He added that a Joint Boundary Committee would meet in two weeks' time to "solve the problem of the border conflict".
The Royal Cambodian Army said in a statement that the commanders agreed to use "existing mechanisms... to resolve disputes", but that Cambodia would not pull back its troops from the site of the clash.
The Cambodian side "will not withdraw or station without weapons at the site of clash," it said, citing a demarcation agreement.
A Cambodian soldier was killed on Wednesday during an exchange of gunfire with the Thai army at the border, a Cambodian army spokesman said.
His death -- a rare fatality along the long-sensitive frontier -- came after Cambodian and Thai leaders attended a Southeast Asian summit where the regional ASEAN grouping vowed greater cooperation.
Both sides confirmed the clash on Wednesday, with the Thai military saying their soldiers had responded to gunshots and Cambodia's saying they were attacked first.
"Our soldier died in the trenches. The Thais came to attack us," said Cambodian Royal Army spokesman Mao Phalla.
Thai Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told journalists Thursday that there had been a "misunderstanding by both sides".

'Remain calm'

Cambodia and Thailand have long been at odds over their more than 800-kilometre-long (500-mile) border, which was largely drawn during the French occupation of Indochina.
The 2008 military clashes erupted over a patch of land next to Preah Vihear, a 900-year-old temple near their shared border.
This led to several years of sporadic violence before the International Court of Justice ruled the disputed area belonged to Cambodia.
In February, Bangkok formally protested to Phnom Penh after a video of women singing a patriotic Khmer song in front of another disputed temple was posted on social media.
On Thursday, influential former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen urged calm and a peaceful resolution to the ongoing border issues between the two countries.
Hun Sen is the father of current Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and a close ally of ex-Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the father of Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
Paetongtarn travelled to Cambodia in April for a two-day visit, during which she met Hun Manet to discuss cross-border cooperation on issues such as online scams and air pollution.
On Thursday she called for peaceful discussion, saying "both sides should remain calm and discuss to see what we can agree".
Hun Manet wrote on Facebook that he hoped the meeting between the two army commanders would "yield positive results".
burs-sjc/tc

trade

Chinese exporters "on hold" despite US tariff relief

BY AGATHA CANTRILL, EMILY WANG AND RITA QIAN

  • Exporters at a bustling cross-border trade fair in Ningbo who spoke to AFP said they were stuck in port -- both metaphorically as they surveyed an uncertain future, and in some cases quite literally.
  • Chinese exporters in one of the world's busiest port cities spoke Thursday of murky horizons as they try to navigate the trade maelstrom unleashed by the ever-changing saga of US tariff policy.
  • Exporters at a bustling cross-border trade fair in Ningbo who spoke to AFP said they were stuck in port -- both metaphorically as they surveyed an uncertain future, and in some cases quite literally.
Chinese exporters in one of the world's busiest port cities spoke Thursday of murky horizons as they try to navigate the trade maelstrom unleashed by the ever-changing saga of US tariff policy.
Suppliers in the eastern city of Ningbo -- home to the world's third biggest container port -- have had a wild ride since US President Donald Trump announced sweeping duties on nearly all trading partners in April. 
On Wednesday a federal court blocked most of the US tariffs, including ones imposed on China separately using emergency powers, but that news failed to give much solace.
"Due to the Trump administration's appeal, there is uncertainty in tariff policy, so we remain cautious," said Han Zhongkai, an employee at a technology company that makes products like smartwatches. 
Exporters at a bustling cross-border trade fair in Ningbo who spoke to AFP said they were stuck in port -- both metaphorically as they surveyed an uncertain future, and in some cases quite literally.
Following Trump's levies announcement in April, Beijing and Washington became enmeshed in a tit-for-tat escalation that saw tariffs soar into triple figures on each side. 
"(US clients) stopped ordering. Before this, many foreign customers had already sent their goods to our domestic warehouse and were ready to ship them out," said 28-year-old Li Jie, who works for shipping company Freight Service Limited.
After the tariff increase, "they informed us that -- for the time being -- we should keep the goods in our warehouse".
Hundreds of exporters selling everything from furniture to small electronic devices and baby toys jostled for attention in the expo hall, trying to capture potential clients' attention. 
The reciprocal tariffs have already been slashed for 90 days after a meeting between Chinese and US officials in Geneva in May, but uncertainty remains. 
"Orders from the United States have essentially been put on hold," said company owner Xiao Chuan, sitting at his booth displaying multicoloured LED neon signs in different languages. 
"One order was nearly ready to be placed, but may be delayed due to tariff concerns. Since the recent tariff policy adjustment, (clients) are adopting a wait-and-see approach -– unsure if further changes might occur."

'Slapdash operation'

Faced with the unpredictability of the US market, many have looked to offload their wares elsewhere. 
Chinese exports to Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam surged by double digits in April, attributed to a re-routing of US-bound goods.
"Southeast Asian countries have actually gained quite significantly. Many factories are gradually shifting their sourcing away from China, placing manufacturing orders in Southeast Asian nations instead," said Li. 
At a container depot near Ningbo's vast port, an employee who gave his surname as Huang said he thought manufacturers were on a mission to diversify. 
"The world doesn't revolve around America alone. We'll ultimately find alternative outlets to redirect these products," he told AFP. 
Hundreds of containers, including pink ones from Japanese company ONE, baby blue from Denmark's Maersk and maroon from South Korea's HMM, were neatly stacked on top of each other around him.
However, daily order volumes had decreased recently, said Huang. 
"Although tariffs have now been lowered, uncertainty remains about potential future increases," he said. 
A spike in US-bound shipments when tariffs were slashed in May was just a blip, likely just backlogged orders and earlier negotiated deals. 
After a couple of days, "things levelled off".
Xiao, the LED neon light vendor, said he thought new orders would come only when tariff policy stabilised. 
And so all eyes are on Washington's next move. 
Huang said he thought US-bound shipping would probably continue, but with "tighter profit margins and reduced volumes". 
"I don't find American credibility particularly trustworthy these days," he said. 
"Honestly, the US government often feels like some slapdash operation –- all over the place."
bur-reb/tc

education

Chinese students lament US plans to block visas

BY MATTHEW WALSH

  • "It seems that Trump and his team are acting recklessly, without any thought for the consequences," Bi said.
  • Chinese students lamented Washington's latest tirade against them on Thursday, accusing the Trump administration of acting "recklessly" and tarnishing their once-sparkling image of an American higher education.
  • "It seems that Trump and his team are acting recklessly, without any thought for the consequences," Bi said.
Chinese students lamented Washington's latest tirade against them on Thursday, accusing the Trump administration of acting "recklessly" and tarnishing their once-sparkling image of an American higher education.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that authorities would "aggressively" revoke the visas of Chinese students, long a major revenue stream for American colleges.
Washington will also tighten visa checks on future applications from China and Hong Kong, Rubio said, days after the US government moved to ban Harvard University from enrolling non-Americans.
"This US policy may seem to be a hasty decision, but it has had an immeasurably devastating impact," Bi Jingxin, a student at a college in the Chinese capital Beijing, told AFP on Thursday.
"If we Chinese want to study in the US, the most important thing is its faculties and cutting-edge academic achievements," Bi, 21, said.
Rubio's proposals, he added, show that Washington was "not behaving in a way that's conducive to the spread of the United States'... international academic image".
"It seems that Trump and his team are acting recklessly, without any thought for the consequences," Bi said.
Elsewhere on the sun-dappled campus of Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) -- one of the country's most prestigious -- the mood was unseasonably gloomy.
"If (the US) is targeting us so strongly, it chips away at my best options (for studying abroad), as well as my impression of the United States," 23-year-old Zhang Yue said.
While she may have considered a course at an American college before, "now, my expectations of (the country) have been lowered", she told AFP, adding that she might opt for a European adventure instead.
In his Wednesday statement, Rubio indicated that officials would particularly go after students "with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields".
Outside BFSU's library, a student who asked to be identified by his surname, Wang, said that attitude "seemed a bit unreasonable".
"Students go to (the US) purely for academic progress, so they shouldn’t have to deal with these kinds of inconveniences," the 19-year-old told AFP.

Classroom chaos

Young Chinese people have long been crucial to US universities, with 277,398 attending them in the 2023-24 academic year alone, according to a State Department-backed report of the Institute of International Education.
Beijing's foreign ministry on Thursday blasted Washington for acting "unreasonably" and said it had lodged diplomatic representations.
Also affected are large numbers of Chinese high school students preparing to study in the United States later this year, as well as a thriving private industry that helps prepare them for their lives overseas.
One teacher at a Beijing-based international school said it was "heartbreaking" to see "highly aspirational" pupils wracked with uncertainty over their international futures.
"The timing and short-termism of this announcement means that many of our students... have had to make major changes to their potential pathways," the teacher said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Daniel Strom, co-founder and lead consultant at Elite Scholar Advising, an educational consultancy, said many clients "remain hopeful that Trump's proposals will be reversed in the courts".
But, he added, some of them had begun to look at alternatives in Britain and Canada if their plans to go to America fell through.
mjw/tc

conflict

44 killed in Israel attacks in Gaza, after food warehouse looted

  • - 'Hordes of hungry people' - On Wednesday, thousands of desperate Palestinians stormed a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in central Gaza, with Israel and the UN trading blame over the deepening hunger crisis. 
  • At least 44 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, rescuers said, a day after a World Food Programme warehouse in the centre of the territory was looted by desperate Palestinians.
  • - 'Hordes of hungry people' - On Wednesday, thousands of desperate Palestinians stormed a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in central Gaza, with Israel and the UN trading blame over the deepening hunger crisis. 
At least 44 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, rescuers said, a day after a World Food Programme warehouse in the centre of the territory was looted by desperate Palestinians.
After a more than two-month blockade, aid has finally begun to trickle back into Gaza, but the humanitarian situation remains dire after 18 months of devastating war. Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people.
The Israeli military has also recently stepped up its offensive in the territory in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war.
Gaza civil defence official Mohammad al-Mughayyir told AFP "44 people have been killed in Israeli raids", including 23 in a strike on home in Al-Bureij. 
"Two people were killed and several injured by Israeli forces' gunfire this morning near the American aid centre in the Morag axis, southern Gaza Strip," he added.
The centre, run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), is part of a new system for distributing aid that Israel says is meant to keep supplies out of the hands of Hamas, but which has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the European Union.
"What is happening to us is degrading. The crowding is humiliating us," said Gazan Sobhi Areef, who visited a GHF centre on Thursday. 
"We go there and risk our lives just to get a bag of flour to feed our children."
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported deaths in Al-Bureij and near the aid centre.
Separately, it said in a statement that its forces had struck "dozens of terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip" over the past day.
In a telephone call Thursday with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Israel's "systematic starvation tactics have crossed all moral and legal boundaries".

'Hordes of hungry people'

On Wednesday, thousands of desperate Palestinians stormed a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in central Gaza, with Israel and the UN trading blame over the deepening hunger crisis. 
AFP footage showed crowds of Palestinians breaking into the WFP facility in Deir al-Balah and taking bags of emergency food supplies as gunshots rang out.
"Hordes of hungry people broke into WFP's Al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, in search of food supplies that were pre-positioned for distribution," the UN agency said in a statement.
The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid starvation fears and intense criticism of the GHF, which has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system in the territory.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the Security Council that aid was entering Gaza by truck -- under limited authorisation by Israel at the Kerem Shalom crossing -- and accused the UN of "trying to block" GHF's work through "threats, intimidation and retaliation against NGOs that choose to participate".
The UN has said it is doing its utmost to facilitate distribution of the limited assistance allowed by Israel's authorities
The world body said 47 people were wounded Tuesday when crowds of Palestinians rushed a GHF site. A Palestinian medical source reported at least one death.
GHF, however, alleged in a statement that there had been "several inaccuracies" circulating about its operations, adding "there are many parties who wish to see GHF fail".
But 60-year-old Abu Fawzi Faroukh, who visited a GHF centre Thursday, said the situation there was "so chaotic". 
"The young men are the ones who have received aid first, yesterday and today, because they are young and can carry loads, but the old people and women cannot enter due to the crowding," he told AFP.

'Nothing has changed'

Negotiations on a ceasefire, meanwhile, have continued, with US envoy Steve Witkoff expressing optimism and saying he expected to propose a plan soon.
But Gazans remained pessimistic.
"Six hundred days have passed and nothing has changed. Death continues, and Israeli bombing does not stop," said Bassam Daloul, 40.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Out of 251 hostages seized during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. 
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday that at least 3,986 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,249, mostly civilians.
bur-smw/kir

conflict

Dua Lipa, public figures urge UK to end Israel arms sales

  • Over 800 UK lawyers including Supreme Court justices, and some 380 British and Irish writers warned of Israel committing a "genocide" in Gaza in open letters this week.
  • Pop star Dua Lipa joined some 300 UK celebrities in signing an open letter Thursday urging Britain to halt arms sales to Israel, after similar pleas from lawyers and writers.
  • Over 800 UK lawyers including Supreme Court justices, and some 380 British and Irish writers warned of Israel committing a "genocide" in Gaza in open letters this week.
Pop star Dua Lipa joined some 300 UK celebrities in signing an open letter Thursday urging Britain to halt arms sales to Israel, after similar pleas from lawyers and writers.
Actors, musicians, activists and other public figures wrote the letter calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "end the UK's complicity in the horrors in Gaza".
British-Albanian pop sensation Dua Lipa has been vocal about the war in Gaza and last year criticised Israel's offensive as a "genocide".
Israel has repeatedly denied allegations of genocide and says its campaign intends to crush Hamas following the deadly October 2023 attack by the Palestinian militants.
Other signatories include actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton and Riz Ahmed, and musicians Paloma Faith, Annie Lennox and Massive Attack.
"You can't call it 'intolerable' and keep sending arms," read the letter to Labour leader Starmer organised by Choose Love, a UK-based humanitarian aid and refugee advocacy charity.
Sports broadcaster Gary Lineker, who stepped down from his role at the BBC after a social media post that contained anti-Semitic imagery, also signed the letter.
Signatories urged the UK to ensure "full humanitarian access across Gaza", broker an "immediate and permanent ceasefire", and "immediately suspend" all arms sales to Israel.
"The children of Gaza cannot wait another minute. Prime Minister, what will you choose? Complicity in war crimes, or the courage to act?", the letter continued.
Earlier this month, Starmer slammed Israel's "egregious" renewed military offensive in Gaza and promised to take "further concrete actions" if it did not stop -- without detailing what the actions could be.
Last September the UK government suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licenses to Israel, saying there was a "clear risk" they could be used to breach humanitarian law.
Global outrage has grown after Israel ended a ceasefire in March and stepped up military operations this month, killing thousands of people in a span of two months according to figures by the Hamas-run health ministry.
The humanitarian situation has also sparked alarm and fears of starvation after a two-month blockade on aid entering the devastated territory.
Over 800 UK lawyers including Supreme Court justices, and some 380 British and Irish writers warned of Israel committing a "genocide" in Gaza in open letters this week.
Hamas killed 1,218 people, mostly civilians, in their October 2023 attack on Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's military offensive launched in response has killed 54,084, mostly civilians, in Gaza according to its health ministry, displaced nearly the entire population and ravaged swathes of the besieged strip.
aks/jkb/jm

diplomacy

Macron decorates Indonesia leader, announces cultural partnership

  • Macron then visited Borobudur, a Buddhist temple built in the 9th century that is the world's largest, where the pair announced they were boosting cultural ties.
  • French President Emmanuel Macron bestowed Indonesia's leader with France's top award on Thursday, before announcing a new cultural partnership with Jakarta on a visit to the world's largest Buddhist temple.
  • Macron then visited Borobudur, a Buddhist temple built in the 9th century that is the world's largest, where the pair announced they were boosting cultural ties.
French President Emmanuel Macron bestowed Indonesia's leader with France's top award on Thursday, before announcing a new cultural partnership with Jakarta on a visit to the world's largest Buddhist temple.
Macron's trip to Indonesia is the second stop of a three-nation, six-day tour of Southeast Asia that began with Vietnam and concludes in Singapore.
After meeting for talks in the capital Jakarta, Macron and his counterpart Prabowo Subianto flew by helicopter on Thursday from Javan city Yogyakarta to a military academy in Magelang, a city in Central Java surrounded by mountains.
The pair attended a military parade and Macron gave Prabowo the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, France's highest military or civil award.
Prabowo is an ex-general accused of rights abuses under dictator Suharto's rule in the late 1990s. He was discharged from the military over his role in the abductions of democracy activists but denied the allegations and was never charged.
Macron rode in a jeep driven by Prabowo with the pair welcomed by a marching band and hundreds of students waving Indonesian flags.
Macron then visited Borobudur, a Buddhist temple built in the 9th century that is the world's largest, where the pair announced they were boosting cultural ties.
"In front of this temple, we are taking an important step by launching a new cultural partnership," said Macron.
"The first pillar is heritage and museum cooperation. The second pillar is cultural and creative industries," he said.
Macron said the basis of the new partnership would be cinema and fashion, as well as video games, design and gastronomy.
The French leader will now depart for Singapore where he will deliver the opening address Friday at the Shangri-la Dialogue, Asia's premier security forum.
On Wednesday, the pair called for progress on "mutual recognition" between Israel and the Palestinians at a key meeting next month as Macron brought the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation into his diplomatic efforts.
"Indonesia has stated that once Israel recognises Palestine, Indonesia is ready to recognise Israel and open the diplomatic relationship," said Prabowo.
Indonesia has no formal ties with Israel and support for the Palestinian cause among Indonesians runs high.
The nations also signed a series of agreements on cooperation in a range of fields including defence, trade, agriculture, disaster management, culture and transport.
fff-dsa-jfx/tc

education

China condemns 'discriminatory' US plan to revoke student visas

BY MARY YANG WITH SHAUN TANDON IN WASHINGTON AND GREGORY WALTON IN CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

  • On Wednesday, Rubio heaped pressure on China, saying Washington will "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.
  • Beijing reacted in fury Thursday at the US government's vow to revoke Chinese students' visas, condemning President Donald Trump's crackdown on international scholars as "political and discriminatory".
  • On Wednesday, Rubio heaped pressure on China, saying Washington will "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.
Beijing reacted in fury Thursday at the US government's vow to revoke Chinese students' visas, condemning President Donald Trump's crackdown on international scholars as "political and discriminatory".
Trump's administration on Wednesday said it would "aggressively" remove permissions for Chinese students, one of the largest sources of revenue for American universities, in his latest broadside against US higher education.
The US will also revise visa criteria to tighten checks on all future applications from China and Hong Kong, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
Blasting the US for "unreasonably" cancelling Chinese students' visas, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Beijing had lodged its opposition with Washington.
Rubio had upped the ante after China criticised his decision a day earlier to suspend visa appointments for students worldwide at least temporarily.
The Trump administration has already sought to end permission for all international students at Harvard University, which has rebuffed pressure from the president related to student protests.
Young Chinese people have long been crucial to US universities, which rely on international students paying full tuition.
China sent 277,398 students in the 2023-24 academic year, although India for the first time in years surpassed it, according to a State Department-backed report of the Institute of International Education.
Trump in his previous term also took aim at Chinese students but focused attention on those in sensitive fields or with explicit links with the military.

Global uncertainty

Beijing's Mao on Wednesday said that China urged the United States to "safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of international students, including those from China."
Rubio has already trumpeted the revocation of thousands of visas, largely to international students who were involved in activism critical of Israel.
A cable signed by Rubio on Tuesday ordered US embassies and consulates not to allow "any additional student or exchange visa... appointment capacity until further guidance is issued" on ramping up screening of applicants' social media accounts.
On Wednesday, Rubio heaped pressure on China, saying Washington will "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.
"We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong," he said.
But the slew of measures also threaten to pressure students from countries friendly to the United States.
In Taiwan, a PhD student set to study in California complained of "feeling uncertain" by the visa pause.
"I understand the process may be delayed but there is still some time before the semester begins in mid-August," said the 27-year-old student who did not want to be identified.
"All I can do now is wait and hope for the best."

Protests at Harvard

Trump is furious at Harvard for rejecting his administration's push for oversight on admissions and hiring, amid the president's claims the school is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and "woke" liberal ideology.
A judge paused the order to bar foreign students pending a hearing scheduled for Thursday, the same day as the university's graduation ceremony for which thousands of students and their families had gathered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The White House has also stripped Harvard, as well as other US universities widely considered among the world's most elite, of federal funding for research.
"The president is more interested in giving that taxpayer money to trade schools and programmes and state schools where they are promoting American values, but most importantly, educating the next generation based on skills that we need in our economy and our society," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News.
Some Harvard students were worried that the Trump administration's policies would make US universities less attractive to international students.
"I don't know if I'd pursue a PhD here. Six years is a long time," said Jack, a history of medicine student from Britain who is graduating this week and gave only a first name.
Harvard has filed extensive legal challenges against Trump's measures.
burs-sct/mlm/cms/hmn

education

Foreign students seek to quit Harvard amid Trump crackdown

  • She said that a handful of domestic students at Harvard had also "expressed serious interest" in transferring elsewhere because they did not want to attend a university with no international students.
  • Harvard University has been flooded with requests from foreign students to transfer to other institutions as US President Donald Trump's administration seeks to ban it from hosting international scholars, a staff member said Wednesday.
  • She said that a handful of domestic students at Harvard had also "expressed serious interest" in transferring elsewhere because they did not want to attend a university with no international students.
Harvard University has been flooded with requests from foreign students to transfer to other institutions as US President Donald Trump's administration seeks to ban it from hosting international scholars, a staff member said Wednesday.
"Too many international students to count have inquired about the possibility of transferring to another institution," Maureen Martin, director of immigration services, wrote in a court filing.
Trump has upended the United States' reputation among foreign students, who number around one million, as he presses a campaign against US universities he sees as obstructing his "Make America Great Again" populist agenda.
He has blocked Harvard from hosting international scholars in a maneuver being challenged legally, targeted non-citizen campus activists for deportation, and most recently suspended student visa processing across the board.
The president's crackdown has prompted "profound fear, concern, and confusion" among students and staff at the elite university, which has been "inundated with questions from current international students and scholars about their status and options", Martin wrote.
More than 27 percent of Harvard's enrollment was made up of foreign students in the 2024-25 academic year, according to university data.
"Many international students and scholars are reporting significant emotional distress that is affecting their mental health and making it difficult to focus on their studies," Martin wrote in the filing.
Some were afraid to attend their graduation ceremonies this week or had canceled travel plans for fear of being refused re-entry into the United States, she added.
She said that a handful of domestic students at Harvard had also "expressed serious interest" in transferring elsewhere because they did not want to attend a university with no international students.
A judge last week suspended the government's move to block Harvard from enrolling and hosting foreign students after the Ivy League school sued, calling the action unconstitutional.
A hearing into the case was scheduled for Thursday.
At least 10 foreign students or scholars at Harvard had their visa applications refused immediately after the block on foreign students was announced, including students whose visa applications had already been approved, Martin wrote.
"My current understanding is that the visa applications that were refused or revoked following the Revocation Notice have not yet been approved or reinstated," despite a judge suspending the move, she said.
bur-cms/dhw

vote

Lee Jae-myung's rise from poverty to brink of South Korean presidency

BY KANG JIN-KYU

  • - Live-streaming a crisis - South Korea has experienced a leadership vacuum since lawmakers suspended Yoon for deploying armed troops to parliament in his failed attempt to suspend civilian rule.
  • Lawsuits, scandals, armed troops and a knife-wielding attacker all failed to deter Lee Jae-myung's ascendancy from sweatshop worker to the cusp of South Korea's presidency.
  • - Live-streaming a crisis - South Korea has experienced a leadership vacuum since lawmakers suspended Yoon for deploying armed troops to parliament in his failed attempt to suspend civilian rule.
Lawsuits, scandals, armed troops and a knife-wielding attacker all failed to deter Lee Jae-myung's ascendancy from sweatshop worker to the cusp of South Korea's presidency.
After losing by a gossamer thin margin in 2022, the Democratic Party candidate has returned to the ballot, and is now poised to replace the political rival he was instrumental in unseating.
Opponents decry Lee, 60, for his populist style. But his rags-to-riches personal story sets him apart from many of South Korea's political elite.
After dropping out of school to work at a factory to support his family, he suffered a disabling elbow injury in an industrial accident.
He earned a scholarship to study law and passed the bar to become an attorney. 
Lee has used this origin story to cultivate a loyal support base and frame himself as understanding the struggles of the underprivileged.
"You can worry about people outside shivering in the cold while you sit in your warm living room," Lee told AFP in a 2022 interview.
"But you can never really understand their pain."
Polls suggest the margin between Lee and his closest challenger, conservative Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party, has narrowed in recent days, with some showing a single-digit margin.
But Lee has consistently maintained his lead since the race was triggered by the impeachment of former president Yoon Suk Yeol over his brief declaration of martial law in December.

Live-streaming a crisis

South Korea has experienced a leadership vacuum since lawmakers suspended Yoon for deploying armed troops to parliament in his failed attempt to suspend civilian rule.
During the tense minutes following that move, Lee live-streamed his frantic scramble over the perimeter fence as he and other lawmakers rushed to vote down the martial law decree.
"It was a race against time," he recalled in an interview with AFP.
Lee previously served as mayor of Seongnam, south of Seoul, for eight years.
In that role, he helped shut down what had been the country's largest dog meat market -- ending a trade that had once involved 80,000 canines a year.
He later served as governor of Gyeonggi Province -- the country's most-populous region surrounding the capital -- for more than three years.
Lee lost his 2022 bid for the presidency to Yoon by one of the smallest margins in South Korean history.
And in 2024 he was stabbed in the neck by a man posing as a supporter and was airlifted to hospital for emergency surgery.
The attacker later confessed that his intention was to kill Lee to prevent him from becoming president.
If elected next week, Lee has vowed, among other things, to boost South Korea's artificial intelligence industry, with the goal of making the country one of the top three global leaders in the field.
He has also called for holding those involved in the martial law attempt accountable -- promising to "bring insurrection elements to justice".
During his early days in politics, Lee drew criticism for his confrontational attacks on political opponents.
But Kim Hye-kyung, his wife of 34 years with whom he shares two children, insists Lee speaks with "deliberation".
"He's someone who's come up from the margins, from the very bottom," she said in a 2017 interview.
"Just like how a flea has to jump to be noticed, I hope people can understand and view him in that context."

Legal troubles

Lee has been dogged by legal troubles of his own, including allegations of corruption tied to a real estate development and violations of election law through the dissemination of false information.
He has denied any wrongdoing, insisting the charges are politically motivated.
In early May, Seoul's Supreme Court overturned a lower court's acquittal of Lee on election law charges and ordered a retrial.
But with the election looming, the Seoul High Court postponed the proceedings until after the June 3 vote.
If Lee wins, legal experts say the proceedings would be suspended due to presidential immunity, and would only resume after his single five-year term ends in 2030.
Lee's opponents argue the charges are serious enough to disqualify him from running.
"With these kinds of corruption allegations, how can you seek public office?" Kim Moon-soo, his main opponent in next week's vote, said during a televised debate on Friday.
kjk/oho/ceb/fox/lb

conflict

Thousands storm aid warehouse in Gaza as hunger crisis deepens

  • Israel accused the United Nations Wednesday of seeking to block Gaza aid distribution, as the global body said it was doing its utmost to facilitate distribution of the limited assistance greenlit by Israel's authorities.
  • Thousands of desperate Palestinians stormed a United Nations warehouse in central Gaza on Wednesday, with the World Food Programme reporting two possible deaths in the tumult as Israel and the UN traded blame over the deepening hunger crisis. 
  • Israel accused the United Nations Wednesday of seeking to block Gaza aid distribution, as the global body said it was doing its utmost to facilitate distribution of the limited assistance greenlit by Israel's authorities.
Thousands of desperate Palestinians stormed a United Nations warehouse in central Gaza on Wednesday, with the World Food Programme reporting two possible deaths in the tumult as Israel and the UN traded blame over the deepening hunger crisis. 
The humanitarian situation in Gaza, where aid has finally begun to trickle in after a two-month blockade, is dire following 18 months of devastating war. Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people.
AFP footage showed crowds of Palestinians breaking into a WFP warehouse in Deir Al-Balah and taking bags of emergency food supplies as gunshots rang out.
"Hordes of hungry people broke into WFP's Al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, Central Gaza, in search of food supplies that were pre-positioned for distribution," WFP said in a statement on X.
"Initial reports indicate two people died and several were injured in the tragic incident," WFP said, adding that it was still confirming details.
Israel accused the United Nations Wednesday of seeking to block Gaza aid distribution, as the global body said it was doing its utmost to facilitate distribution of the limited assistance greenlit by Israel's authorities.
The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid starvation fears and intense criticism of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private US-backed aid group that has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system in the territory.
Israel's UN ambassador Danny Danon told the Security Council that aid was entering Gaza by truck -- under limited authorisation by Israel at the Kerem Shalom crossing -- and via a "new distribution mechanism developed in coordination with the US and key international partners".
Danon was referring to the GHF operation, which he accused the UN of "trying to block", saying it was "using threats, intimidation and retaliation against NGOs that choose to participate in the new humanitarian mechanism".
The UN said 47 people were injured Tuesday when thousands of Palestinians rushed a GHF site. A Palestinian medical source reported at least one death.

600 days

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, reiterated the world body's opposition to coordinating with GHF. 
"We will not participate in operations that do not meet our humanitarian principles," Dujarric told AFP.
He said the UN was doing all it could to send aid, adding that since last week 800 truckloads were approved by Israel but fewer than 500 made it into Gaza.
As the war entered its 600th day Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the offensive had "changed the face of the Middle East".
He said it had killed tens of thousands of militants including Mohammed Sinwar, Hamas's presumed Gaza leader and the brother of Yahya -- slain mastermind of the October 2023 attacks that sparked the Gaza war.
Israeli media said Sinwar was targeted by strikes in southern Gaza earlier this month. His brother was killed in October 2024.
In Washington, US envoy Steve Witkoff expressed optimism about a possible ceasefire, saying he expected to propose a plan soon.
"I have some very good feelings about getting to a... temporary ceasefire, and a long-term resolution, a peaceful resolution of that conflict," he said.
But Gazans remained pessimistic.
"Six hundred days have passed and nothing has changed. Death continues, and Israeli bombing does not stop," said Bassam Daloul, 40.
"Even hoping for a ceasefire feels like a dream and a nightmare."

Elusive ceasefire

Israel stepped up its military offensive earlier this month, while mediators push for a still elusive ceasefire.
In Tel Aviv, hundreds of people called for a ceasefire, lining roads at 6:29 am -- the exact time the unprecedented October 7 attack began.
Relatives of hostages held since that attack also gathered in Tel Aviv.
"I want you to know that when Israel blows up deals, it does so on the heads of the hostages," said Arbel Yehud, who was freed from Gaza captivity in January.
"Their conditions immediately worsen, food diminishes, pressure increases, and bombings and military actions do not save them, they endanger their lives."
Out of 251 hostages seized during the October 7 attack, 57 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. 
Some 1,218 people were killed in Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Wednesday at least 3,924 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,084, mostly civilians.
bur-tym/fec

planet

The hunt for mysterious 'Planet Nine' offers up a surprise

BY DANIEL LAWLER

  • "OF201 is, in my opinion, probably one of the most interesting discoveries in the outer solar system in the last decade," Deen told AFP. - What about Planet Nine?
  • It's an evocative idea that has long bedevilled scientists: a huge and mysterious planet is lurking in the darkness at the edge of our solar system, evading all our efforts to spot it. 
  • "OF201 is, in my opinion, probably one of the most interesting discoveries in the outer solar system in the last decade," Deen told AFP. - What about Planet Nine?
It's an evocative idea that has long bedevilled scientists: a huge and mysterious planet is lurking in the darkness at the edge of our solar system, evading all our efforts to spot it. 
Some astronomers say the strange, clustered orbits of icy rocks beyond Neptune indicate that something big is out there, which they have dubbed Planet Nine.
Now, a US-based trio hunting this elusive world has instead stumbled on what appears to be a new dwarf planet in the solar system's outer reaches.
And the existence of this new kid on the block could challenge the Planet Nine theory, the researchers have calculated.
Named 2017 OF201, the new object is roughly 700 kilometres (430 miles) across according to a preprint study, which has not been peer-reviewed, published online last week.
That makes it three times smaller than Pluto. 
But that is still big enough to be considered a dwarf planet, lead study author Sihao Cheng of New Jersey's Institute for Advanced Study told AFP.

Distant traveller

The object is currently three times farther away from Earth than Neptune.
And its extremely elongated orbit swings out more than 1,600 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, taking it into the ring of icy rocks around the solar system called the Oort cloud.
It goes so far out, it could have passed by stars other than our Sun in the past, Cheng said.
During its 25,000-year orbit, the object is only close enough to Earth to be observed around 0.5 percent of the time, which is roughly a century.
"It's already getting fainter and fainter," Cheng said.
The discovery suggests "there are many hundreds of similar things on similar orbits" in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune, Cheng said.
After taking a risk spending more than half a year sorting through a difficult dataset in search of Planet Nine, Cheng said he was "lucky" to have found anything at all.
The researchers are requesting time to point the James Webb, Hubble and ALMA telescopes at their discovery.
But Sam Deen, a 23-year-old amateur astronomer from California, has already been able to track the dwarf planet candidate through old datasets. 
"OF201 is, in my opinion, probably one of the most interesting discoveries in the outer solar system in the last decade," Deen told AFP.

What about Planet Nine?

The icy rocks discovered in the Kuiper belt tend to have a clustered orbit going in a particular direction. 
Two decades ago, astronomers proposed this was due to the gravitational pull of a world up to 10 times larger than Earth, naming it Planet Nine and kicking off a debate that has rumbled since.
It is also sometimes called Planet X, a name proposed for a hypothetical world beyond Neptune more than a century ago.
Back in 1930, astronomers were searching for Planet X when they discovered Pluto, which became our solar system's ninth planet. 
But Pluto turned out to be too tiny -- it is smaller than the Moon -- and was demoted to dwarf planet status in 2006.
There are now four other officially recognised dwarf planets, and Cheng believes 2017 OF201 could join their ranks.
When the researchers modelled its orbit, they found it did not follow the clustered trend of similar objects. 
This could pose a problem for the Planet Nine theory, but Cheng emphasised more data is needed.
Samantha Lawler of Canada's University of Regina told AFP that this "great discovery" and others like it mean that "the original argument for Planet Nine is getting weaker and weaker".
The Vera Rubin Observatory, which is scheduled to go online in Chile this year, is expected to shed light on this mystery, one way or another.
Deen said it was discouraging that no sign of Planet Nine has been found so far, but with Vera Rubin "on the horizon I don't think we'll have to wonder about its existence for much longer".
For Cheng, he still hopes that this huge planet is out there somewhere.
"We're in an era when big telescopes can see almost to the edge of the universe," he said.
But what is in our "backyard" still largely remains unknown, he added.
dl/yad/fec

farright

Portugal far-right party becomes second biggest in parliament

BY THOMAS CABRAL AND LEVI FERNANDES

  • Chega became the third-largest force in parliament in the next general election in 2022 and quadrupled its parliamentary seats last year to 50, cementing its place in Portugal's political landscape and mirroring gains by similar parties across Europe.
  • Portugal's far-right Chega party won second place in snap elections last week, according to final results published Wednesday, making it the official opposition party in the country just six years after its creation.
  • Chega became the third-largest force in parliament in the next general election in 2022 and quadrupled its parliamentary seats last year to 50, cementing its place in Portugal's political landscape and mirroring gains by similar parties across Europe.
Portugal's far-right Chega party won second place in snap elections last week, according to final results published Wednesday, making it the official opposition party in the country just six years after its creation.
Chega, which means "Enough", and the left-wing Socialist Party (PS) had been level on 58 seats after the provisional results from the May 18 poll.
But the far-right party won two of the previously unannounced four overseas constituencies, taking its tally to 60.
The centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) claimed the other two overseas seats taking its total to 91, still far from the 116 seats needed to form a majority government. The Social Democratic Party of outgoing prime minister Luis Montenegro is the main party of the alliance.
"It is a big victory," said Chega founder and leader Andre Ventura, claiming that it "marks a profound change in the Portuguese political system".
Montenegro is expected to try to form a minority government after the latest election and he has said he will not deal with Chega. But Ventura called on Montenegro to "break" with the Socialists.
"Portugal is moving in line with the European trend" for a "protest vote" and "anti-establishment sentiment", said Paula Espirito Santo at Lisbon University's Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences.

'Divine mission'

Support for Chega has grown in every general election since the party was founded in 2019 by Ventura, a former trainee priest who later became a television football commentator.
It won 1.3 percent of the vote in a general election the year it was founded, giving it a seat in parliament -- the first time a far-right party had won representation in Portugal's legislature since a coup in 1974 toppled a decades-long rightist dictatorship.
Chega became the third-largest force in parliament in the next general election in 2022 and quadrupled its parliamentary seats last year to 50, cementing its place in Portugal's political landscape and mirroring gains by similar parties across Europe.
Chega's policies include chemical castration for paedophiles, limiting newcomers' access to welfare benefits, and stricter controls on migration which it links to crime and higher pensions.
Ventura attended US President Donald Trump's inauguration in January, and has embraced the support of Brazil's former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
He speaks of restoring respect for the police, and has protested on the streets with Movement Zero, a group of disgruntled police officers with suspected extremist ties who are demanding better pay and conditions.
"In politics, you have to be different. And I wanted to be different," Ventura once said of himself, before adding that his path had been guided by a "divine mission".

'Fundamental shift'

When preliminary election results came in last week, Ventura said he was confident his party would eventually finish ahead of the PS.
"Nothing will ever be the same again," Ventura told his supporters, who chanted "Portugal is ours and it always will be".
"This is indeed a fundamental shift," said analyst Espirito Santo. 
"We cannot say that Chega will lose ground in the coming years... It looks as though Chega is here to stay for a while."
Many voters "certainly support the radical and anti-establishment solutions that Chega proposes" but others may have chosen the party "because of the erosion of the traditional parties' ability to meet expectations", she said.
The future of the Socialist Party meanwhile remains "unpredictable", Espirito Santo said.
Party leader Pedro Nuno Santos, a 48-year-old economist, said he would stand down after the initial election results were announced.
Under a previous PS government, Portugal became one of Europe's most open countries for immigrants. Between 2017 and 2024, the number of foreigners living in Portugal quadrupled, reaching about 15 percent of the total population.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is to hold new talks with the leaders of the three main parties on Thursday and could name a new prime minister during the day.
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