US

War in the Middle East: latest developments

indicator

US registers strong job growth in boost to Trump

BY ASAD HASHIM AND MYRIAM LEMETAYER

  • "My Economic Policies have created an enormously powerful engine of Economic Growth, and nothing can slow it down," Trump said on his Truth Social platform, hailing the number of private sector jobs gained.
  • The US economy posted unexpectedly strong job gains in March, data showed Friday, in a development hailed by US President Donald Trump -- but seen with caution by analysts.
  • "My Economic Policies have created an enormously powerful engine of Economic Growth, and nothing can slow it down," Trump said on his Truth Social platform, hailing the number of private sector jobs gained.
The US economy posted unexpectedly strong job gains in March, data showed Friday, in a development hailed by US President Donald Trump -- but seen with caution by analysts.
The world's largest economy gained 178,000 jobs in March, after losing 133,000 in February, and the unemployment rate dropped by 0.1 percentage points to 4.3 percent, the Labor Department said.
Friday's data significantly beat analyst expectations, with economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal expecting an increase of 59,000 jobs.
The data was stronger than forecast, "but vastly overstates the sustainable pace of job growth," said Oxford Economics lead US economist Nancy Vanden Houten.
"The end of a strike, seasonal quirks and a rebound after harsh winter weather likely boosted job growth in some sectors," she said.
Trump touted the numbers as a success.
"My Economic Policies have created an enormously powerful engine of Economic Growth, and nothing can slow it down," Trump said on his Truth Social platform, hailing the number of private sector jobs gained.
Earlier, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said that once the "short-term disruptions" of the US-Israel war on Iran are over, "America's economic resurgence is set to only accelerate."
Markets were closed Friday in the United States for Good Friday.

Health care recovery

Much of March's recovery was fueled by health care jobs, which have remained resilient even as labor demand has dropped in other sectors.
Health care added 76,000 jobs in March, after having lost jobs the month before, in part due to strike actions.
Employment in construction also grew by 26,000 in March, although the Labor Department flagged that it had changed little over its level from a year ago.
Federal government employment continued to decline, down 11.8 percent since October 2024. Trump has taken a hatchet to the sector in a drive aimed at cost-cutting and reducing the size of government. 
The new data reflected a revision in the figures for January and February, showing employment for those two months combined was 7,000 lower than previously reported.

'Look through the noise'

The US-Israel war on Iran has engulfed the Middle East, sent oil prices surging and snarled supply chains, leading to fears of a global economic slowdown.
Analysts signaled caution as the economic impact of the war begins to hit Americans.
Nationwide Chief Economist Kathy Bostjancic said the March report showed the labor market was in "good standing," with "broad-based gains in the private sector."
Oxford Economics' Houten, however, said the report "doesn't change our assessment that the downside risks to the labor market have increased" due to the war.
"As the labor market softens due to the fallout from the war, we expect the unemployment rate to edge up," she said.
High energy prices tend to drive up production costs, curbing economic activity, with analysts expecting the current "low-hire, low-fire" trend to continue.
"If you look through the noise you have, you know that same picture that we've been looking at, which is a labor market that's holding up, but that has become more fragile, and that remains stuck in this low-hire, low-fire type of environment," EY-Parthenon Senior Economist Lydia Boussour told AFP.

Fed fallout

Uncertainty about the war's economic shock has so far led policymakers at the Federal Reserve to adopt a wait-and-see approach on interest rate moves, as they balance curbing stubbornly high inflation with managing unemployment.
Unemployment rates have remained relatively steady in the United States -- but the figure has hidden churn under the surface, analysts warn, as weak jobs growth has been matched by a drop in labor supply.
That drop in supply is largely attributed to Trump's crackdown on migrants.
For Fed policymakers, however, inflation currently appears to be a bigger risk than unemployment.
"We are getting mixed signals, with some key indicators showing signs of steadying while others are suggesting a weakening labor market," New York Fed President John Williams said Monday.
EY-Parthenon's Boussour said Friday's report will provide "a little bit of reassurance and a little bit of breathing room for the Fed to focus on the inflation side of their mandate in the coming months."
aha-myl/sst/mjf/dw 

space

'Extraordinary' views of home as astronauts head towards Moon

BY MOISéS ÁVILA, WITH MAGGY DONALDSON IN NEW YORK

  • The Artemis 2 mission is part of a longer-term plan to repeatedly return to the Moon, with the goal of establishing a permanent lunar base that will offer a platform for further exploration. bur-mdo/mlm
  • As Artemis 2 astronauts forged ahead Friday on their lunar mission, NASA released initial images taken from inside the Orion spacecraft, including a full portrait of Earth featuring its deep blue oceans and billowing clouds.
  • The Artemis 2 mission is part of a longer-term plan to repeatedly return to the Moon, with the goal of establishing a permanent lunar base that will offer a platform for further exploration. bur-mdo/mlm
As Artemis 2 astronauts forged ahead Friday on their lunar mission, NASA released initial images taken from inside the Orion spacecraft, including a full portrait of Earth featuring its deep blue oceans and billowing clouds.
After a flurry of high-stakes activity including a dramatic blast-off and an engine firing that catapulted them on their historic trajectory to circle the Moon, the four astronauts aboard were able to catch their breath, even as they continued to perform a variety of equipment checks and tests.
"There has been a tremendous amount of disbelief for me, it's just so extraordinary," said Canadian Jeremy Hansen during a Q&A session with press late Thursday.
"I really like it up here," said Hansen, on his first ever journey to space. "The views are extraordinary."
"It's really fun to be floating around" in zero gravity, he added. "It just makes me feel like a little kid."
Hansen is on the crew with Americans Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman.
They are due to loop around the Moon early next week -- a feat not accomplished in more than 50 years.
NASA official Lakiesha Hawkins praised the photographs taken by commander Wiseman, calling them "amazing" during a briefing Friday.
"We continue to learn all about our spacecraft as we operate it in deep space with crew for the first time," Hawkins said.
"It's important to remind ourselves of that as we learn a little bit more day by day.

'Great spirits'

Friday's to-do list includes a CPR demonstration and medical kit checks, the US space agency said, as well as preparation for the scientific observations they'll need to document when they are closest to the Moon on day six of their journey.
NASA officials reported Friday that all systems were performing well, and that the astronauts were in "great spirits" and had spoken to their families.
The next major milestone of the approximately 10-day journey is expected overnight Sunday into Monday, at which point the astronauts will enter the "lunar sphere of influence" -- when the Moon's gravity will have stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth's.
If all proceeds smoothly, as Orion whips around the Moon the astronauts could set a record by venturing farther from Earth than any human before.
"There is nothing normal about this," said mission commander Wiseman late Thursday.
"Sending four humans 250,000 miles away is a Herculean effort, and we are now just realizing the gravity of that."
The Artemis 2 mission is part of a longer-term plan to repeatedly return to the Moon, with the goal of establishing a permanent lunar base that will offer a platform for further exploration.
bur-mdo/mlm

Vatican

Pope leads torch-lit Colosseum procession before Easter

BY CLéMENT MELKI

  • Leo, the first US-born pope, has repeatedly and ever more insistently called for peace in the Middle East and this week directly urged US President Donald Trump to find an "off-ramp".
  • Pope Leo XIV led a torch-lit procession at the Colosseum in Rome on Friday as he prepares for his first Easter as pontiff in the shadow of war in the Middle East.
  • Leo, the first US-born pope, has repeatedly and ever more insistently called for peace in the Middle East and this week directly urged US President Donald Trump to find an "off-ramp".
Pope Leo XIV led a torch-lit procession at the Colosseum in Rome on Friday as he prepares for his first Easter as pontiff in the shadow of war in the Middle East.
Among the 30,000 people attending the poignant ceremony, known as the Way of the Cross, was Sarah, a Palestinian Catholic.
"We need peace in the Holy Land," she told AFP.
"People like you and me listen, but the governments don't. They still do whatever they want. They don't listen. They promise and they don't deliver," the 61-year-old said.
Geryes Bejjani, a 33-year-old Lebanese man, said he had come with friends to "carry a message of peace and coexistence," despite the difficulty of travelling from his homeland which has been dragged into the war.
"The pope is the only purely selfless political leader... There's no hidden agenda, there's no ambiguity in his message. And that's his strength," he said.
Leo, the first US-born pope, has repeatedly and ever more insistently called for peace in the Middle East and this week directly urged US President Donald Trump to find an "off-ramp".
"Hopefully he's looking for a way to decrease the amount of violence, of bombing," he said.
The United States and Israel sparked the war on February 28 by bombing Iran, which retaliated with strikes against Gulf states and an effective chokehold on the vital Strait of Hormuz.
"If only Trump would listen to anyone!" said Ines Duplessis, 29, who came from Paris to the Colosseum ceremony, where attendees held candles in a silence broken only by liturgical chants and recited prayers.
"For me, it's very symbolic, but nothing more," she said of the pope's appeals.
"Sadly, everything is so driven by political and economic interests" that "it's a bit of a lost cause", she said.
On Sunday, Leo will preside over Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square before delivering a typically political blessing which is especially anticipated this year.
– 'A form of humility' –
It is the first time since 2022 that the pope has personally taken part in the Way of the Cross, which has been organised at the Colosseum since 1964.
In recent years, his predecessor Francis, who died on Easter Monday last year aged 88, had to give up attending for health reasons.
Wearing his red mozzetta and stole, Leo appeared deep in prayer during the ceremony, listening with eyes closed.
The 70-year-old pope himself carried a large wooden cross through all 14 stations retracing Jesus Christ's path to the tomb, marking a return to a tradition observed by John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
Augustin Ancel, from Paris, said the pope carrying the cross was "a powerful message".
"It's also a form of humility, because we naturally tend to see the pope as distant, as someone in a very important role," he said.
cmk/dt/sbk

US

Iran hunts crew of crashed US jet, one reported rescued

BY AFP TEAMS IN TEHRAN, JERUSALEM, WASHINGTON, BEIRUT, DUBAI AND SANAA

  • - 'Valuable reward' - A spokesperson for the Iranian military's central operational command said "an American hostile fighter jet in central Iranian airspace was struck and destroyed by the IRGC Aerospace Force's advanced air defence system".
  • Iranian and American forces were racing each other early Saturday to recover the crew of the first US fighter jet to go down inside Iran since the start of the war.
  • - 'Valuable reward' - A spokesperson for the Iranian military's central operational command said "an American hostile fighter jet in central Iranian airspace was struck and destroyed by the IRGC Aerospace Force's advanced air defence system".
Iranian and American forces were racing each other early Saturday to recover the crew of the first US fighter jet to go down inside Iran since the start of the war.
Tehran said it had shot down the F-15 warplane, while US media reported American special forces had rescued one of two crew members.
Iran's military also said it downed a US A-10 ground attack aircraft in the Gulf, with US media saying the pilot was rescued.
The war erupted more than a month ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei, triggering retaliation that spread the conflict throughout the Middle East, convulsing the global economy and impacting millions of people worldwide.
US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the loss of the F-15, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: "The president has been briefed".
President Donald Trump told NBC the F-15 loss would not affect negotiations with Iran, saying: "No, not at all. No, it's war."

'Valuable reward'

A spokesperson for the Iranian military's central operational command said "an American hostile fighter jet in central Iranian airspace was struck and destroyed by the IRGC Aerospace Force's advanced air defence system".
"The jet was completely obliterated, and further searches are ongoing."
An Iranian television reporter on a local official channel said anyone who captured a crew member alive would "receive a valuable reward".
The US military has announced the loss of several aircraft during Iran operations, including one tanker that crashed in Iraq and three F-15s shot down by Kuwaiti friendly fire.
Fresh strikes meanwhile hit Israel, Iran, Lebanon and Gulf countries -- and large blasts rocked northern Tehran, an AFP journalist said. Israel said it had launched a wave of strikes in the Iranian capital, alongside parallel attacks in Beirut.

Blown-out windows

Earlier, Israel's military reported a new missile salvo from Iran, activating its air defences.
Strikes by all sides have increasingly targeted economic and industrial sites, raising fears of wider disruption to global energy supplies.
In the area around a bridge west of Tehran that was targeted by the United States, an AFP reporter saw a villa and residential buildings with blown-out windows -- but no military installations.
According to the martyrs foundation of Alborz province, cited by the official IRNA agency, the attack killed 13 civilians and wounded dozens.  
In Abu Dhabi, Iran's neighbour across the Gulf, metal giant Emirates Global Aluminium meanwhile said it could take up to a year before it can resume full production, after its site was damaged by Iranian strikes.

Ex-FM urges deal

Writing in the US journal Foreign Affairs, Iran's former foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said Tehran should make a deal with Washington to end the war by offering to curb its nuclear programme and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief.
Iran has virtually blocked the key waterway since the war began, where one-fifth of the world's oil and natural gas normally passes. 
Of the few ships that have managed to cross, most have had links to Iran, with 60 percent of commodity-bearing ships crossing the strait either coming from Iran or heading there, an AFP analysis of maritime data showed.
In the first known transit by a major European shipping group since March 1, the Maltese-flagged Kribi, belonging to the French maritime transport group CMA CGM, crossed the strait to exit the Gulf on Thursday, according to Marine Traffic data analysed by AFP.
Three other ships, including one co-owned by a Japanese company, crossed Thursday.
Iranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari warned that Iran would increase its own attacks on energy sites in the region in response to threats from Trump of attacks on infrastructure.
A drone attack on a refinery owned by Kuwait's national oil company on Friday sparked fires at several of its units, state media said. 
Later, an Iranian attack damaged a power and desalination complex, Kuwait's water and electricity ministry said.
In Abu Dhabi, a gas complex shut after a fire broke out, following an attack that resulted in "falling debris" upon interception, the government media office said.

Bridge destroyed in Lebanon

The Israeli military said Friday it had struck more than 3,500 targets across Lebanon in the month since fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah began.
It added that it would attack two bridges in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa region "in order to prevent the transfer of reinforcements and military equipment".
Lebanese state media later reported that Israel destroyed one bridge in the region.
Lebanon's health ministry said Thursday that 1,345 people had been killed -- and 4,040 wounded -- since the start of the war.
Hezbollah has so far not announced its losses.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon peacekeeping force said a blast of unknown origin wounded three peacekeepers Friday, the third such incident in a week.
bur-wd/sst

US

War in the Middle East: latest developments

  • - Trump briefed on downed plane, Iran hunts for pilot - US President Donald Trump has been briefed about the downing of a military jet in Iran that has triggered a major search and rescue operation for the crew, the White House said.
  • Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war: - Iran says second US plane downed - Iran's military says it has downed a second US military jet in the Gulf, according to state media.
  • - Trump briefed on downed plane, Iran hunts for pilot - US President Donald Trump has been briefed about the downing of a military jet in Iran that has triggered a major search and rescue operation for the crew, the White House said.
Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

Iran says second US plane downed

Iran's military says it has downed a second US military jet in the Gulf, according to state media.
There was no immediate confirmation or denial from Washington.

Man killed in Syria

State media in Syria said Israeli fire killed a man in Quneitra province in the country's south near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The SANA agency said the man had been killed in an attack by "an Israeli tank", while state television said a car was targeted.

One killed at UAE gas site

An Egyptian national was killed and four others wounded after a fire at a gas complex in Abu Dhabi, caused by falling debris from an intercepted attack, the government media office said.
Two of the four people hurt were from Egypt, while the others were from Pakistan, it said. 

Trump briefed on downed plane, Iran hunts for pilot

US President Donald Trump has been briefed about the downing of a military jet in Iran that has triggered a major search and rescue operation for the crew, the White House said.
US media has reported that one crew member was rescued.
Iranian authorities urged people living in the rugged southwest of the country to search for the jet's crew, as state TV broadcast images of what was said to be the mangled debris. 

Lebanon university warning

The US embassy in Lebanon, where the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militant group is at war with Israel, said that Iran and allied groups could seek to target universities in the country.
Among other universities, Lebanon is home to the American University of Beirut, one of the most prominent US institutions in the region, whose campus and hospital are in the heart of the capital.

Trump seeks $1.5 tn defence budget

Trump asked lawmakers to approve a massive $1.5 trillion defence budget for 2027, as the United States faces rising costs from its war with Iran and mounting global security commitments.
The proposal would lift Pentagon spending by more than 40 percent in a single year -- the sharpest increase since World War II.

UN peacekeepers wounded

The United Nations force in Lebanon said a blast at one of its positions had wounded three peacekeepers, two of them seriously -- the third such incident in a week.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is deployed in the country's south near the border, where Israel and Hezbollah have been at war for a month and where Israeli troops are carrying out a ground invasion.

'Immediate ceasefire' urged

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East war during a phone call, the Kremlin said.
"It was noted that intense military action is leading to serious negative consequences not only regionally but also globally, including in the areas of energy, trade, and logistics," it added.

Fresh strikes on Beirut

Fresh strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs as the Israeli army said it was targeting "terror infrastructure", hours after having issued an evacuation warning for the area.
An AFP correspondent heard explosions as the state-run National News Agency reported strikes on the area, a Hezbollah bastion that has largely emptied of residents since war erupted last month.

Tankers cross Hormuz

Three tankers, including one co-owned by a Japanese company, crossed the Strait of Hormuz by hugging close to Oman's shore, a rare transit route as Iran maintains a chokehold on the key war-torn passageway.
Their passage was notable because they sailed close to the Omani Musandam Peninsula to the south of the waterway, maritime traffic data showed Friday.

Italian PM visits Gulf

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni began a surprise visit to Saudi Arabia as part of a Gulf tour to boost "national energy security", a government source said.
The source said Meloni would meet with officials from Saudi Arabia, as well as from Qatar and United Arab Emirates on what had been a hitherto unannounced trip.
burs/sst/jgc

politics

Cuba begins prisoner release after mass pardon

BY LISANDRA COTS

  • Cuban authorities deny holding any such prisoners.
  • Cuban authorities began to free prisoners on Friday after announcing the country would pardon 2,010 inmates, the second release in less than a month as it faces heightened US pressure.
  • Cuban authorities deny holding any such prisoners.
Cuban authorities began to free prisoners on Friday after announcing the country would pardon 2,010 inmates, the second release in less than a month as it faces heightened US pressure.
More than 20 inmates came out of La Lima penitentiary in east Havana, holding their release papers, crying and hugging relatives who had been waiting for them all morning, AFP journalists said.
Albis Gainza, a 46-year-old who had served half of a six-year sentence for robbery, told AFP he was grateful for "this opportunity that they gave us."
He said he could not sleep after learning he would be released.
"This needs to keep going," Gainza told AFP, referring to the releases.
The Cuban government announced late Thursday that it would proceed with the pardons -- one of the biggest releases in years -- as a "humanitarian and sovereign gesture" to mark Holy Week culminating in the Easter holiday.
It was unknown so far if any of those who were freed on Friday were political prisoners as no list was published. Cuban authorities deny holding any such prisoners.
The US State Department said it was aware of reports of the prisoner release, but added that it was unclear if any political prisoners would be part of it. 
"We continue to call for the immediate release of the hundreds of other brave Cuban patriots who remain unjustly detained," a State Department spokesperson told AFP.
Miami-based rights group Cubalex told AFP that it was unable to confirm the release of any political prisoners so far.
The Trump administration has called for change in communist-run Cuba's system of government, and the US president has mused about "taking" the island.
But the two sides have also held talks recently.
Havana did not link the pardons to talks with Washington, but the move came days after US President Donald Trump eased a de facto oil blockade of Cuba by allowing a Russian tanker to deliver crude to the fuel-starved island.
This "follows a long pattern where there is a song and dance about how (Cuba) has nothing to do with negotiations when it clearly does," Andres Pertierra, a historian focusing on Cuba at the University of Wisconsin, told AFP.
Cuba is holding 775 political prisoners, according to rights group Justicia 11J.

'Crimes against authority'

Justicia 11J said "any release represents immediate relief, especially for the families," but it warned that the gesture "does not constitute a change in the Cuban state's repressive policies."
The Cuban government said the releases would be based on the nature of the crimes, good behavior, health reasons and time served.
It added those released would not include people who committed murder, sex assault, drug-related crimes, theft, illegal slaughter of livestock and "crimes against authority."
Justicia 11J said the mention of the all-encompassing "crimes against authority" was "particularly concerning."
"These charges have instead served as instruments of political repression in Cuba," said the group, which tracks arrests stemming from massive anti-government protests in July 2021.

'Great blessing'

The Cuban government said the individuals being freed include young people, women and prisoners over 60 years old who are scheduled for early release within the next six months to a year.
The government previously announced on March 12 that it would free 51 prisoners as a sign of "good will" toward the Vatican, which has often acted as a mediator between Washington and Havana.
At least 20 political prisoners were released in the wake of the March announcement, according to Cubalex.
Of half a dozen former prisoners interviewed by AFP outside La Lima, none were jailed for political reasons.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Brian Perez, 20, who was jailed for causing bodily injury. "We suffered enough and the mothers, too."
Damian Farinas, 20, was serving a nearly three-year sentence for robbery.
"It's a great blessing," he said. "This pardon comes at the right time for many inmates."
lis-lt/pnb/sst

US

French, Japanese ships cross Strait of Hormuz in first since war

  • - Down to a trickle - Just 221 commodities vessels have crossed the Strait of Hormuz since March 1, some more than once, according to Kpler data up to Friday morning.
  • One French- and another Japanese-owned vessel are among a handful of vessels to have crossed the war-torn Strait of Hormuz, maritime tracking data showed Friday.
  • - Down to a trickle - Just 221 commodities vessels have crossed the Strait of Hormuz since March 1, some more than once, according to Kpler data up to Friday morning.
One French- and another Japanese-owned vessel are among a handful of vessels to have crossed the war-torn Strait of Hormuz, maritime tracking data showed Friday.
The passage, a vital maritime route for oil and liquified natural gas, has been virtually blocked by Iran since the start of the war.
But both ships made the crossing on Thursday, according to ship tracking company Marine Traffic's website.
The Maltese-flagged Kribi belonging to the French maritime transport group CMA CGM crossed the waterway to leave the Gulf on Thursday afternoon, Marine Traffic's data showed.
By early Friday, it was off Muscat, Oman, still broadcasting the message "owner France" on its transponder system in the field usually used to give the destination.
The vessel's navigation data showed it had crossed via an Iranian-approved route through its waters, dubbed the "Tehran Toll Booth" by leading shipping journal Lloyd's List.

Southern route

In addition, three tankers -- including one co-owned by a Japanese company -- crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday by taking an alternative, southern route.
They hugged close to the shore of Oman's Musandam Peninsula -- a first in nearly three weeks according to Lloyd's List.
Before the war, which started more than a month ago, about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) passed through the Strait.
All three ships signalled they were an "OMANI SHIP" in the message broadcast by their transponder as they crossed the strait.
The Sohar LNG, which was empty when crossing, is co-owned by Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K.
That makes it the first Japanese vessel to exit the Gulf since the start of the war, according to a company statement quoted by Japanese media.
The Hong-Kong flagged New Vision, which crossed the strait on March 1 right after the war started, is expected in the French port of Le Havre on Saturday evening.
Since the conflict started however, that has dwindled to a trickle as Iran selectively attacks ships and energy facilities throughout the Gulf in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks.
A few commercial ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz recently have passed through the Iranian-approved route in the north of the waterway.

Down to a trickle

Just 221 commodities vessels have crossed the Strait of Hormuz since March 1, some more than once, according to Kpler data up to Friday morning.
In peacetime, the same waterway handles around 120 daily transits, according to Lloyd's List.
Of the vessels that made the crossing, 60 percent either came from Iran or were heading there.
The other countries whose vessels -- of origin or destination -- made the crossing, were in decreasing order: the United Arab Emirates, China, India, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Brazil, and Iraq.
It was not clear from the data how many had been cleared to make the crossing by Tehran.
But it did show that, among the 118 crossings by ships carrying cargo, 37 had left the Gulf carrying crude oil.
Most of those oil tankers -- 30 of them -- came from Iran or sailed under the Iranian flag. And most ships carrying Iranian oil did not specify their destination on their transponder.
Of those who did, all but one reported they were heading to China.
In the early days of the war, transponder data showed dozens of ships broadcasting messages such as "Chinese crew" or "Chinese owner" in the field usually used for their destination.
This appeared to be an attempt by the ships to avoid being targeted by Iran.
dvz-jah-ys-lmc-lcr/jj

judiciary

French court rules to extradite Russian who owned Portsmouth football club

  • Antonov's lawyer said that his client would challenge the ruling.
  • A French court has ruled to extradite Russian banker Vladimir Antonov, a former owner of English football club Portsmouth, to Lithuania, his lawyer said on Friday.
  • Antonov's lawyer said that his client would challenge the ruling.
A French court has ruled to extradite Russian banker Vladimir Antonov, a former owner of English football club Portsmouth, to Lithuania, his lawyer said on Friday.
Antonov was detained in western France last December on suspicion of fraud, following a European arrest warrant from Lithuania.
He is accused of having stripped assets and funds from a leading Lithuanian bank, Snoras, where he was a majority shareholder, between 2008 and 2011, when the lender was nationalised.
A second arrest warrant issued in December 2025 added charges of corruption, money laundering and bankruptcy, with total losses amounting to at least 478 million euros ($551 million).
Antonov's lawyer said that his client would challenge the ruling.
The court "clearly did not take into account the real risk to Mr. Antonov's life in Eastern Europe", Henry Ermeneux told AFP.
In 2024, a Lithuanian court sentenced Antonov in absentia to 10.5 years in prison for embezzlement.
In 2011, Antonov was arrested in Britain on the strength of a Lithuanian arrest warrant issued over the collapse of the Snoras Bank, but later released.
He purchased Portsmouth, then in the second-tier Championship, in June 2011.
He stepped down the following November when his company, Convers Sports Initiatives, went into administration following his arrest over the fraud allegations.
In 2015, a lawyer said Antonov had fled Britain because he feared for his life.
laf/ekf/as/jj

Global Edition

Senegal-Morocco friendship put to test by Africa Cup of Nations title turmoil

BY BY MALICK ROKHY BA, WITH ISMAIL BELLAOUALI IN RABAT

  • - Business, diplomacy partners - In late January in Rabat, Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch spoke of a "natural, lasting" relationship with Senegal where he said Morocco has invested more than $540 million.
  • Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco.
  • - Business, diplomacy partners - In late January in Rabat, Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch spoke of a "natural, lasting" relationship with Senegal where he said Morocco has invested more than $540 million.
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco.
Now the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries' sides.
On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. 
"The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football (CAF) decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents," a local resident told AFP.
CAF stripped Senegal of its title on March 17, over the team's angry departure from the pitch after a penalty was awarded to Morocco late in second-half stoppage time.
In a photo the following day, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye was seen in his office with the trophy behind him.
Senegal has lodged an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over the matter and some fans have meanwhile called for a boycott of Moroccan goods. 
On March 18, Dakar called for an international investigation into "allegations of corruption within the CAF leadership" in a statement that sent a chill through Morocco.
"An official (Senegalese) document mentioned corruption. It insinuates that Morocco is the corrupting influence without of course any evidence and this could have repercussions," Morocco's Aziz Daouda, a track and field official and former athlete, told AFP.
He added that "comments made by certain Senegalese football officials are damaging relations" between the two countries, referring to allegations that Morocco controls CAF.

'Hostages' of Morocco

One of Senegal's points of contention is the detention of 18 Senegalese football fans in Morocco for more than two months now.
They were sentenced on February 19 to prison terms ranging from three months to a year for hooliganism.
Minutes before the end of the match, some Senegalese supporters attempted to storm the pitch while Senegal's players halted the game for nearly 20 minutes in protest of the late penalty to Morocco.
The appeal hearing for the 18 fans was postponed for a second time on Monday until April 13.
Dozens of demonstrators in Dakar called for their release at the end of February, describing them as "hostages" of Morocco.
"One gets the impression that this affair goes beyond the realm of sport and that is regrettable. For two countries that claim to be friends, such as Morocco and Senegal, things should not have come to this," Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said in late February, lamenting the supporters' convictions.
That said, Morocco's relationship with Senegal is "unique, specific and extraordinary", Senegal's Director of Religious Affairs Djim Ousmane Drame said in a recent article.
"Morocco has always been the only (African) country with which diplomatic relations with Senegal are based on an emotional bond and popular appeal, beyond the institutions and bilateral ties," Bakary Sambe of the Timbuktu Institute think tank told AFP.
Fez, for example, is a favourite destination for many Senegalese Muslim followers of Tidianism, an influential brotherhood in Senegal whose founder, Cheikh Ahmed Tidiane, is buried there.
Moroccan authorities meanwhile made no comment and "preferred not to get involved in this football affair" following the CAF decision, Daouda said.

Business, diplomacy partners

In late January in Rabat, Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch spoke of a "natural, lasting" relationship with Senegal where he said Morocco has invested more than $540 million.
Many Moroccan companies operate in Senegal, particularly in the food, pharmaceutical, energy, construction, mining, banking and insurance sectors.
On the international stage, the two countries' diplomatic views are generally aligned.
Senegalese nationals constitute the largest group of foreign residents in the kingdom (18.4 percent), according to official figures, and a robust student exchange also exists between the two countries.
"There are many of us on both sides trying to calm down all those hotheads from both camps who enjoy spreading irresponsible claims, lots of 'fake news' and plenty of insults," Daouda said.
Former Senegalese foreign minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio wrote in early February that "a hundred minutes of football will never be able to ruin a thousand years of close ties between Senegal and Morocco".
mrb-isb/bfm/kjm

celebrity

Judge dismisses Lively sex harassment claim against Baldoni

  • Manhattan federal judge Lewis Liman also dismissed Thursday defamation and conspiracy claims brought by Lively -- but her claims of retaliation and breach of contract against Baldoni still stand as their May 18 civil trial approaches.
  • A US judge has dismissed sexual harassment claims brought by actor Blake Lively against co-star Justin Baldoni that were at the heart of explosive public row between the two, a court filing showed.
  • Manhattan federal judge Lewis Liman also dismissed Thursday defamation and conspiracy claims brought by Lively -- but her claims of retaliation and breach of contract against Baldoni still stand as their May 18 civil trial approaches.
A US judge has dismissed sexual harassment claims brought by actor Blake Lively against co-star Justin Baldoni that were at the heart of explosive public row between the two, a court filing showed.
Manhattan federal judge Lewis Liman also dismissed Thursday defamation and conspiracy claims brought by Lively -- but her claims of retaliation and breach of contract against Baldoni still stand as their May 18 civil trial approaches.
Lively had filed a complaint against Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath for allegedly inappropriate behavior and comments during the shooting of the romantic drama "It Ends with Us."
The complaint said Baldoni -- who also directed the film -- had spoken inappropriately about his sex life and sought to alter the film to include sex scenes that were not in the script and had not been agreed to.
It also said Heath had watched Lively while she was topless, despite having been asked to turn away. It further said Baldoni waged a PR campaign to wreck Lively's reputation.
Baldoni and the studio Wayfarer countersued Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds with claims of extortion and defamation -- but judge Liman dismissed those claims last year.
Wayfarer previously insisted that neither the studio, its executives, nor its PR team did anything to retaliate against Lively.
Based on a best-selling novel by the US writer Colleen Hoover, "It Ends with Us" that made more than $350 million at the box office in 2024, making it one of the biggest hits of the year.
gw/bgs

children

New Paris mayor vows end to sexual violence in schools

BY JULIETTE COLLEN

  • - 'Code of silence' - Gregoire himself has spoken publicly about being a victim of sexual abuse in an after-school swimming programme for several months when he was in primary school.
  • The new mayor of the French capital pledged Friday to stop sexual violence in schools and pre-schools, saying Paris had suspended more than 30 school monitors suspected of sexual abuse since January.
  • - 'Code of silence' - Gregoire himself has spoken publicly about being a victim of sexual abuse in an after-school swimming programme for several months when he was in primary school.
The new mayor of the French capital pledged Friday to stop sexual violence in schools and pre-schools, saying Paris had suspended more than 30 school monitors suspected of sexual abuse since January.
School monitors recruited and trained by the city help look after children outside the classroom, including in the evening before their parents can pick them up.
City hall is under intense scrutiny after allegations that abusers slipped through the net and were even looking after nursery school pupils.
Claims of sexual abuse in schools were a central issue in the campaign leading up to last month's Paris mayoral election.
"Since the beginning of 2026, 78 staff members have been suspended, including 31 on suspicion of sexual violence," mayor Emmanuel Gregoire told reporters.
"These figures must lead us to a profound, thorough reappraisal," he added.
"Everything has to be reviewed from the ground up with one objective: zero tolerance."
He said he wanted to establish an independent commission to carry out a full examination of recruitment, reporting and monitoring procedures.
"We will give it access to everything and its freedom of speech will be absolute," he said.

'Code of silence'

Gregoire himself has spoken publicly about being a victim of sexual abuse in an after-school swimming programme for several months when he was in primary school.
The mayor on Friday promised to spend 20 million euros ($23 million) on his action plan.
Last year 30 monitors were suspended in the capital, including 16 on suspicion of sexual abuse, according to city hall.
Of those suspended this year for physical or sexual violence, nine were working at the same Paris nursery school.
Parents of pupils have accused school management of failing to inform them about their suspicions.
"If there was a collective mistake, it was treating these cases as isolated incidents when in fact they reflect a systemic risk, and perhaps even a systemic code of silence," Gregoire told newspaper Le Monde Friday.
Kindergarten pupils were especially vulnerable, and almost all alleged perpetrators were men, he said.
He said most cases of alleged sexual abuse were from 2024 and 2025.
juc-ah/fg

government

Greece names new ministers after EU farm scandal resignations

BY JOHN HADOULIS

  • The government resignations came after European Union prosecutors this week said they were probing 20 members of the ruling New Democracy party, including active and former lawmakers.
  • Greece on Friday reshuffled its government after three cabinet members resigned as a burgeoning EU farm subsidy scandal piled pressure on the country's conservative government.
  • The government resignations came after European Union prosecutors this week said they were probing 20 members of the ruling New Democracy party, including active and former lawmakers.
Greece on Friday reshuffled its government after three cabinet members resigned as a burgeoning EU farm subsidy scandal piled pressure on the country's conservative government.
The government resignations came after European Union prosecutors this week said they were probing 20 members of the ruling New Democracy party, including active and former lawmakers.
Prosecutors are reportedly probing whether beneficiaries of agriculture subsidies had made false claims.
According to Greek authorities, the network defrauded at least 23 million euros ($27 million) since it started around 2018. 

'Widespread corruption'

"The removal of the current leadership of the Ministry of Rural Development highlights the widespread corruption whose core and heart lie deep within the government" and the prime minister's office, the main opposition socialist Pasok party said in a statement.
"Of course, until yesterday the prime minister was claiming that this leadership had brought order to the chaos of illegal subsidies," it said.
The EU's European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) on Wednesday demanded that Greece lift the parliamentary immunity of 11 lawmakers, for acts allegedly committed in 2021.
The agency said it also had information regarding the possible involvement of a former agriculture minister, his deputy and five former MPs.
On Thursday, it said there were another two MPs under suspicion.
It said the investigation concerns "instigation of breach of trust, computer fraud and false attestation with the intent to obtain for another an unlawful benefit."
The suspects have not been formally named, but their names were widely circulated by Greek media.
According to news reports, the EPPO investigation was partly based on phone recordings in which politicians are allegedly heard attempting to secure subsidy payments for their constituents.
"You had wolves guarding the sheep," Konstantinos Barkas, parliament speaker for the leftist Syriza party, told lawmakers.
Ministers cannot be independently prosecuted by Greek courts. Any probe must first pass through parliament in a cumbersome process that is frequently blocked by the government's majority lawmakers.
Greek police last year made dozens of non-political arrests over the scandal.
EU prosecutors first detailed the scam last May, accusing subsidy beneficiaries of making claims for land that they did not own and exaggerating the number of animals on farms. 
Some people receiving payments had no link to agriculture.
The scheme started after the EU's Common Agricultural Policy began calculating subsidies based on land instead of livestock in 2014.
The incomplete land registry at the time made ownership across much of Greece unclear. Farmers were therefore allowed to declare land owned elsewhere in the country to claim subsidies.

'Thieves'

Cases under investigation include pastures declared on archaeological sites, olive trees in a military airport and banana plantations on Mount Olympus.
The allegations led to a string of raids and arrests last October, as well as long-running protests from farmers who had their legitimate subsidies held up.
Most of the fraudulent subsidies went to the island of Crete, where the family of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been politically influential for over a century. 
"To conceal the illicit origin of the proceeds, the suspects are believed to have issued fictitious invoices, routed the funds through multiple bank accounts, and mixed them with legitimate income," the EPPO said in October.
According to Greek authorities, approximately 80 percent of subsidies for pastures granted from 2017 to 2020 ended up in Crete.
And while the number of livestock farmers in Greece is decreasing, 13,000 new farmers were registered in Crete between 2019 and 2025. The number of declared sheep and goats doubled over the same period.
Mitsotakis, who notes the fraud began before he came to power in 2019, has vowed to imprison the "thieves" responsible and to reclaim the funds.
Elections are scheduled in Greece next year. Mitsotakis's conservative party leads in opinion polls, but is not expected to secure an absolute majority.
yap-jph/yad/giv

politics

Myanmar junta chief elected president by pro-military MPs

  • He served as both commander-in-chief of the armed forces and acting president in a post-coup period of emergency rule, but he is constitutionally compelled to relinquish his military post to become president.
  • Myanmar's pro-military lawmakers elected junta chief Min Aung Hlaing as president on Friday, with the ex-armed forces commander set to maintain his rule in a civilian guise after snatching power by force five years ago.
  • He served as both commander-in-chief of the armed forces and acting president in a post-coup period of emergency rule, but he is constitutionally compelled to relinquish his military post to become president.
Myanmar's pro-military lawmakers elected junta chief Min Aung Hlaing as president on Friday, with the ex-armed forces commander set to maintain his rule in a civilian guise after snatching power by force five years ago.
The coup-leading general ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, triggering a civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people.
Parliament speaker Aung Lin Dwe announced Min Aung Hlaing was elected president, chosen by military-aligned MPs installed in a recent election overseen by the junta he leads.
Min Aung Hlaing secured 429 of 584 votes cast in the upper and lower houses of parliament in the capital Naypyidaw on Friday, a parliament official said.
While the junta touted parliament's reopening last month as a return of power to the people, analysts describe it as civilian window dressing intended to launder the military's continuing rule.
"There is no hope for the country under his presidency. The country will only get worse," said a 50-year-old Yangon resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
"I never expected anything from this government anyway," she said, adding it was formed through "fake elections".
The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won more than 80 percent of parliamentary seats contested in the phased poll that concluded in January. Serving members of the armed forces also occupy unelected seats making up a quarter of the total.
The massively popular Suu Kyi has been detained since the February 2021 coup, her party dissolved, criticism or protest over the election outlawed and voting blocked in territories controlled by rebels fighting the military.
The conflict and ensuing humanitarian crisis show no sign of abating, with opposition factions still standing defiant after the poll.
Rights campaigners Burma Campaign UK said the Myanmar military would never reform.
"The only thing that changes are the forms of political system it uses to ensure its survival, and the tactics it uses to try to relieve pressure from the domestic population and international community," it said in a statement.
Analysts say the decision by Myanmar's top brass to cloak its command in civilian dress gives some regional partners cover to engage with and invest in a country that many Western nations consider a pariah.
Key junta ally China congratulated Min Aung Hlaing on Friday on his election win and pledged "high-quality" cooperation on Beijing's Belt and Road infrastructure projects.
"China supports the new Myanmar government in safeguarding national peace and stability, and realising development and prosperity," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters.

Civilian leader

Min Aung Hlaing is expected to be sworn in as president next week.
He served as both commander-in-chief of the armed forces and acting president in a post-coup period of emergency rule, but he is constitutionally compelled to relinquish his military post to become president.
Min Aung Hlaing handed the military baton over to loyalist and former spymaster Ye Win Oo on Monday.
Myanmar's military has ruled the restive Southeast Asian nation for most of its post-independence history and presents itself as the only force guarding it from rupture and ruin.
The generals loosened their grip for a decade-long democratic interlude beginning in 2011, allowing Suu Kyi to ascend as civilian leader and steer a spurt of reform as the nation opened up from its hermetic history.
Min Aung Hlaing snatched back power, making allegations of massive voter fraud, after the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's party trounced the pro-military USDP with a landslide victory in 2020 elections.
Analysts say the claims were unfounded and that he acted out of anxiety about the armed forces' waning influence.
The new government is expected to march in lockstep with the top brass now that the USDP is entrenched in parliament with back-up from the unelected military lawmakers.
bur-sco/pbt

US

Container ship declaring French ownership passes through Hormuz strait

  • The few commercial vessels transiting through the waterway with their transponders on since the start of the war have passed close to Larak Island, according to maritime data analysed by AFP. Most of the transits made since March 1 have been ships coming from or heading to Iran, with some linked to the United Arab Emirates, India, China or Saudi Arabia.
  • A container ship declaring itself to have a French owner has passed through the Strait of Hormuz, according Marine Traffic data analysed by AFP Friday.
  • The few commercial vessels transiting through the waterway with their transponders on since the start of the war have passed close to Larak Island, according to maritime data analysed by AFP. Most of the transits made since March 1 have been ships coming from or heading to Iran, with some linked to the United Arab Emirates, India, China or Saudi Arabia.
A container ship declaring itself to have a French owner has passed through the Strait of Hormuz, according Marine Traffic data analysed by AFP Friday.
The Maltese-flagged Kribi belonging to the French maritime transport group CMA CGM crossed the strait -- which has been virtually blocked by Iran since early in the Middle East war -- to exit the Gulf on Thursday afternoon, the maritime tracking website showed.
It appears to be the first known transit by a major European shipping group since March 1, when Iranian attacks against ships near the Strait of Hormuz, in retaliation for US-Israel strikes, reduced crossings to a trickle. 
The ship was off Muscat, Oman, early Friday, still broadcasting the message "owner France" on its transponder system in the field usually used to give the destination.
The vessel's navigation data showed it crossed via a new Iranian-approved route through its waters, dubbed the "Tehran Toll Booth" by leading shipping journal Lloyd's List.
At least two vessels have paid to use the corridor around Larak Island just off Iran's coast, a Lloyd's List Intelligence analyst said in a briefing on Thursday.
The few commercial vessels transiting through the waterway with their transponders on since the start of the war have passed close to Larak Island, according to maritime data analysed by AFP.
Most of the transits made since March 1 have been ships coming from or heading to Iran, with some linked to the United Arab Emirates, India, China or Saudi Arabia.
In peacetime, around 20 percent of the world's crude oil and liquefied natural gas passes through the chokepoint. 
In early March, vessels began displaying links to China while sailing or anchoring in the Gulf region in a effort to signal political neutrality and reduce the risk of being targeted by Iran, according to analysts.
Beijing expressed "gratitude" on Tuesday after three of its ships passed through the strait, including two container ships on Monday belonging to state-owned shipping giant Cosco.
The war broke out on February 28, when the United States and Israel began bombing Iran, prompting Tehran to retaliate with strikes across the region and by severely restricting access to the Strait of Hormuz. 
dvz-jah-ys/pa/er/lmc/aks/rmb

US

War in the Middle East: latest developments

  • The statement said the latest salvos were in response to attacks on its own steel industries.
  • Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war: - Easter mass cancelled - All masses in Dubai have been cancelled because of the war, two Catholic churches in the United Arab Emirates posted on their websites.
  • The statement said the latest salvos were in response to attacks on its own steel industries.
Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

Easter mass cancelled

All masses in Dubai have been cancelled because of the war, two Catholic churches in the United Arab Emirates posted on their websites.

'France' ship

A container ship declaring itself to have a French owner has passed through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Marine Traffic data analysed by AFP.
The Maltese-flagged Kribi belonging to the French maritime transport group CMA CGM crossed the strait on Thursday to exit the Gulf and on Friday was off the coast of Muscat, Oman, still broadcasting the message "owner France", the maritime tracking website showed.

Ukraine offer

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in remarks made public Friday said his country could help unblock the Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking to a small group of journalists, including AFP, he did not provide details, but but cited Kyiv's experience in restoring passage through the Black Sea, which Russia had blocked at the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine.

Kuwait plant hit

A Kuwaiti power and desalination complex was damaged by an attack from Iran, the electricity and water ministry said.
An AFP correspondent in Kuwait City said there had been no disruption to power or water services.

Gas complex shut

A fire caused by falling debris from an intercepted attack forced the suspension of operations at the Habshan gas complex in Abu Dhabi, the government media office said.

3,500 targets

The Israeli military said it had struck more than 3,500 targets across Lebanon since fighting with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militants began.
- 'Provocative action' - 
Iran warned against any "provocative action" as the UN considers whether to authorise the use of force to protect shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
"Any provocative action by the aggressors and their supporters, including in the UN Security Council regarding the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, will only complicate the situation," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.
- Hormuz vote delayed - 
The UN Security Council has postponed a vote scheduled for Friday on authorising the use of "defensive" force to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian attacks, according to the official program.
Bahrain had brought a resolution that, according to the final draft seen by AFP, greenlights member states to use "all defensive means necessary and commensurate with the circumstances."

'Destroying what's left'

President Donald Trump warned that US forces have yet to begin "destroying what's left in Iran", as he said more of the country's bridges and energy infrastructure were in his sights.
The US military "hasn't even started destroying what's left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!" Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, several hours after he said Iran's tallest bridge had been destroyed.

Missiles at Israel

The Israeli military said in a statement it had "identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel", adding that "defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat". 

Fresh Gulf attacks

Kuwait's military said its air defences were working to intercept missiles and drones fired towards the Gulf nation's territory.
A drone attack on a refinery owned by Kuwait's national oil company sparked fires at several of its units, state media said.
Bahrain's interior ministry reported sirens sounding in the country and told residents to head "to the nearest safe place", without providing further details.

Hezbollah rockets

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said that its fighters targeted at least three communities in northern Israel with rockets, as it keeps up attacks in support of ally Iran.

Fresh Iran attacks

A military statement carried on Iranian state television said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had launched a fresh wave of attacks on American steel factories in the UAE and Bahrain, as well as an arms factory in Israel.
The statement said the latest salvos were in response to attacks on its own steel industries.

Pakistan petrol hikes

Pakistan drastically raised fuel prices in response to spiking global prices caused by the war, the country's petroleum minister said.
Petrol will see a 42.7 percent increase effective on Friday while diesel will be hiked 54.9 percent.
burs/yad/giv

religion

Braving high fuel costs, Filipinos flock to crucifixion spectacle

BY PAM CASTRO

  • Many in the crowd had driven for hours to witness the play's climax, in which devotees allow three-inch nails to be driven into their palms before they are hoisted upright on crosses.
  • Thousands of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila on Good Friday to witness one of the country's most blood-soaked displays of religious fervour, undeterred by rising fuel prices driven by the Middle East war.
  • Many in the crowd had driven for hours to witness the play's climax, in which devotees allow three-inch nails to be driven into their palms before they are hoisted upright on crosses.
Thousands of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila on Good Friday to witness one of the country's most blood-soaked displays of religious fervour, undeterred by rising fuel prices driven by the Middle East war.
Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga province's San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in scorching heat.
AFP journalists saw devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from God.
"I'm doing this to pray for the healing of my seven-month-old baby, who is suffering from pneumonia," John David, clutching a whip in one hand, told AFP at the beginning of the procession.
"My grandfather started this, then my father, and now it's my turn," the 49-year-old said. 
"I have been witnessing miracles of healing through the years because of this act of faith." 
The Catholic-majority country's annual spectacle re-enacting the last moments of Jesus Christ typically draws up to 12,000 local and foreign tourists.
This year, at least 15,000 people attended, city disaster official Raymond Del Rosario told reporters.
"We expected that the ongoing (energy) crisis right now would have an effect, but we saw that many people still came," Del Rosario said.
"This is tradition. We don't take our tradition and our faith for granted."
Many in the crowd had driven for hours to witness the play's climax, in which devotees allow three-inch nails to be driven into their palms before they are hoisted upright on crosses.
Ricky Margate, 57, told AFP he had driven a motorcycle to the site this year instead of his car because it consumes less fuel.
"I think that the high fuel prices that I have to pay to be here are just part of my sacrifices this Holy Week," Margate told AFP.
Fuel prices have hit historic highs in the country since the United States and Israel launched their attack on Iran over a month ago, prompting President Ferdinand Marcos last week to declare a "national energy emergency".

'I hope the war stops'

At least 15 people were nailed to crosses in five different locations in San Fernando, while six people were reported to have sought medical help after fainting in the heat.
AFP journalists saw one flagellant, his back dripping with blood, lose consciousness as he was struck with a slipper while praying in front of the three big black crosses that stood on a mound above the proceedings.
He was escorted by responders to the first aid area minutes later.
In Cutud village, 65-year-old Ruben Enaje was crucified for the 37th time on Friday.
"I hope for the war to stop... that was what I prayed when I was hanging at the cross," Enaje told reporters, lamenting the skyrocketing prices of fuel and liquefied petroleum gas.
"They won't benefit from (the war). They will just hurt each other."
Pilgrims filmed on their mobile phones as Enaje was whipped and escorted by actors dressed as Roman centurions.
"I realised the bloody things that Jesus went through. Coming here strengthened my faith," 63-year-old Angelito Punzalan told AFP, adding he had taken a bus to save on fuel expenses.
Slovakian spectator Simona Kacurek, who travelled to the Philippines just to see the crucifixions, said she was in awe of the production, which involved a mix of solemn music and sound effects like rumbling thunder.
"It was more aggressive than what I expected, but it was very impressive," she told AFP after the performance.
Vendors, meanwhile, were simply relieved that pilgrims showed up despite higher transportation costs.
"I guess fuel prices are no match for the strength of our faith and tradition," snack vendor Mhekyle Salazar, 22, told AFP.
pam/cwl/abs

US

Human remains found on Thai ship attacked in Hormuz strait: firm

  • "Certain human remains were found within the affected area of the vessel," a statement from transport company Precious Shipping said Friday, adding it could not yet confirm the identities or the number of individuals.
  • Human remains have been found aboard a cargo ship struck by Iran while transiting the Strait of Hormuz last month, the vessel's owner said Friday, after three crew members were reported missing following the attack.
  • "Certain human remains were found within the affected area of the vessel," a statement from transport company Precious Shipping said Friday, adding it could not yet confirm the identities or the number of individuals.
Human remains have been found aboard a cargo ship struck by Iran while transiting the Strait of Hormuz last month, the vessel's owner said Friday, after three crew members were reported missing following the attack.
US-Israeli strikes on Iran late February prompted Tehran to respond by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial artery for global oil supplies.
The Thai-flagged Mayuree Naree was struck in March while travelling through the strait after departing Khalifa port in the United Arab Emirates.
"Certain human remains were found within the affected area of the vessel," a statement from transport company Precious Shipping said Friday, adding it could not yet confirm the identities or the number of individuals.
Twenty Thai crew members returned home in mid-March, while three of their colleagues were missing and presumed trapped in the damaged engine compartment.
A search was carried out under "challenging conditions" as the vessel's engine room had been flooded and damaged by fire, the company said.
Thailand's foreign ministry said it was "saddened" by the development and that families of the missing crew had been informed.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in March they had struck the Mayuree Naree, as well as a Liberia-flagged vessel, in the strait because the ships had ignored "warnings".
pk/sjc/abs

election

Hungary's opposition surfs grassroots wave ahead of key election

BY ANDRAS ROSTOVANYI

  • Menczel, the beautician, said that a close relative of the local Fidesz lawmaker stopped frequenting her salon after she posted a picture with TISZA's candidate on social media.
  • Like many of her fellow volunteers, Hungarian beautician Krisztina Menczel sat idle in the past elections that kept nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban in power.
  • Menczel, the beautician, said that a close relative of the local Fidesz lawmaker stopped frequenting her salon after she posted a picture with TISZA's candidate on social media.
Like many of her fellow volunteers, Hungarian beautician Krisztina Menczel sat idle in the past elections that kept nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban in power.
But opposition leader Peter Magyar's hopes of ending thelongstanding premier's 16-year reign in Hungary rest in no small part on first-time campaigners like Menczel.
"Canvassing has a big impact," the 41-year-old told AFP in Jaszfenyszaru, a central Hungarian town long considered a stronghold of Orban's Fidesz party. "Even those who wouldn't dare reveal their political preferences come over and chat with us."
Magyar, a former government insider turned critic, is offering voters a radical break from Orban's self-described "illiberal" system, vowing to crack down on corruption and improve public services.
Thanks to his party's on-the-ground network, Orban's grip on small towns like Jaszfenyszaru, population 6,000, appears to be weakening ahead of the April 12 vote.
Orban, who has criticised neighbouring Ukraine and acted as a spoiler at many European Union summits, has long counted on his media dominance to promote his platform.
Instead, Magyar's TISZA party has had to rely on grassroots word-of-mouth to promote its message. 
While the ruling party puts up billboards, TISZA has asked its supporters to hang party signs on homes and shopfronts.
Menczel said she decided to help the party after Magyar visited the town last August on his nearly non-stop nationwide tour.
She now spends up to three hours a day campaigning, on top of managing TISZA's local social media pages.

'Revolution of the entrepreneurs'

When he shot into prominence in 2024, Magyar had no party apparatus behind him.
But his rise came in the wake of a child abuse pardon scandal which shook Orban's tight grip on power.
With many Hungarians already dissatisfied with the economy, the scandal proved a "tipping point", when many voters "realised they had enough of Orban's system", according to Zoltan Lakner, the editor-in-chief of the Jelen weekly newspaper.
After tirelessly criss-crossing the country and a prominent social media campaign, Magyar led a previously dormant TISZA to second place behind Fidesz at the 2024 European elections.
A month after the vote, he called supporters to set up loosely connected associations to handle on-the-ground organising, dubbed "TISZA islands", a nod to the party sharing its name with the country's longest river.
According to the party, around 4,000 "islands" have since been established, including in rural areas which the old opposition parties had effectively abandoned.
These groups organised local community events, such as charity drives, cookouts and political discussions, before switching to full-time campaigning.
Key to these events' success was the involvement of small and medium-sized businesses, according to Lakner, who describes the movement as a "revolution of entrepreneurs".
"This also affects the islands' attitude towards politics: They approach it pragmatically instead of ideologically, simply wanting the country to function well," the analyst explained.

Breaking the 'spiral of silence'

Dozens of "islanders" ended up being chosen as party candidates during November's primaries. 
Many of them are locally respected professionals, such as doctors, who are completely new to politics.
"This lends them credibility, given the widespread disillusionment with professional politicians," Bulcsu Zsiga, a researcher at the Centre for Fair Political Analysis, told AFP.
But their political inexperience carries a "danger" which TISZA is "clearly trying to mitigate", the expert noted, pointing to the party's much criticised policy of restricting media access to candidates.
Even so, drawing in local figures has helped to break the "spiral of silence" some Fidesz-dominated rural communities, where opposition supporters previously felt isolated or reluctant to express their views, Zsiga added.
In the Hungarian countryside, activism often comes at a price, some dearer than others, as campaigners in Jaszfenyszaru can attest.
Menczel, the beautician, said that a close relative of the local Fidesz lawmaker stopped frequenting her salon after she posted a picture with TISZA's candidate on social media.
Others have suffered more serious consequences. 
Forty-eight-year-old retailer Eszter Somfai had her home address shared online, after an internal party database with some 200,000 supporters' personal details was leaked last November.
"But we will not let them deter us, we proudly campaign for Tisza," Menczel said.
"I feel people here are increasingly opening up… If everything is conducted fairly, then we will be victorious."
ros/sbk

environment

Blood clots, burning eyes: pollution chokes north Thailand

BY CHAYANIT ITTHIPONGMAETEE

  • But parts of northern Thailand are seeing haze that even hardened locals say is exceptional.
  • After hours spent in the thick pollution-choking parts of northern Thailand, Pon Doikam gets home and blows her burning nose to find blood clots spattered across the tissue.
  • But parts of northern Thailand are seeing haze that even hardened locals say is exceptional.
After hours spent in the thick pollution-choking parts of northern Thailand, Pon Doikam gets home and blows her burning nose to find blood clots spattered across the tissue.
"It's suffocating," the 36-year-old coconut seller told AFP in Chiang Mai, a tourist destination among the areas affected by dangerous pollution levels this week.
"It feels like you're trapped in the smoke constantly."
Seasonal agricultural burning, forest fires and weather patterns produce an annual pollution season across much of Southeast Asia.
But parts of northern Thailand are seeing haze that even hardened locals say is exceptional.
"I've lived in Chiang Mai since I was a kid, and this is the worst it has ever been," said Pon, who works outdoors all day.
"I don't have a choice," she added. "I have to come out, making a living day to day."
This week Thailand's second city, Chiang Mai, regularly topped the IQAir monitor website's most polluted big cities list.
The situation is even worse to the west in Pai, a backpacker destination known for its greenery and mountains.
Some monitors there recorded levels of PM2.5 -- particles small enough to enter the bloodstream and linked to diseases like cancer -- of over 900 micrograms per cubic metre.
That is 60 times higher than the World Health Organization's recommended 24-hour average exposure.
The area's mountainous geography makes it doubly vulnerable. Smoke is easily trapped, and the forested hillsides are hard to access when fires start. 

'Very disappointed'

AFP saw multiple blazes burning on hillsides and along roads between Pai and Chiang Mai, lighting up patches of otherwise pitch-black countryside.
Volunteer firefighters like Maitree Nuanja do their best to bolster limited local capacity, relying heavily on donations such as drinking water and face masks.
"The fire control centre gave us 20 litres of fuel and lent us leaf blowers. Once the season ends, we have to return them," he told AFP, standing before a blackened, ash-strewn stretch of land.
"Everyone can see how serious it is now. It's so dark and hazy you can't see a thing, and it's gone on for far too long."
He worries about his home next to a forest, and his health.
"We now live with this smoke, breathing it in every day."
On Wednesday, a volunteer firefighter was found dead from suspected exhaustion linked to heat and underlying health conditions, officials told AFP. 
Pollution is particularly dangerous to those with existing health problems, the elderly and children.
In Chiang Mai, the government has installed hundreds of "dust-free rooms" -- equipped with air purifiers and positive pressure systems that keep out the polluted air -- including at the retirement facility that Watwilai Chaiwan now calls home.
The retired nurse, 82, said the pollution made her afraid to go out and aggravated her dizziness and migraines.
"It's a real problem for the elderly. You have to wear a mask the entire time you're breathing this air," she told AFP.
Thailand's government held talks this week on the haze, and some districts in Chiang Mai have issued disaster declarations to help speed up financial support.
But clean air activists say more is needed, and are pushing for the government to move quickly on clean air legislation that stalled last year with the dissolution of parliament.
"A normal government would have been concerned about clean air not only now but a long time ago," said Kanongnij Sribuaiam, legal team leader at Thailand Clean Air Network, which pushed for the legislation.
If no action is taken by May 13, the legislation will expire and the process will have to start from scratch, she added.
"The public is very disappointed."

'This is shocking'

In Chiang Mai, doctor Thanakrit Im-iam was wearing a heavy-duty respirator to protect himself.
He warned that the long-term health consequences of the pollution are "devastating".
"It affects everyone because these toxins and heavy metals enter the body directly," he told AFP, describing "burning eyes, phlegm, and nasal inflammation."
The mask is his only protection, he said.
"We can't control the rest. That's up to the government."
The pollution is also increasingly a deterrent for tourists, who form a key pillar of the region's economy.
"Usually, Chiang Mai is buzzing in March and April, but this year, it's just quiet," said tuk-tuk driver Chakkrawat Wichitchaisilp.
At a viewpoint overlooking Chiang Mai, the city skyline was almost entirely obscured, with only faint outlines of hills visible through a dense grey haze and a dim orange sun hanging in the sky.
"I've taken photos from this very spot, and it's just a beautiful blue sky -- and you can see as far as the horizon," said Martin Astill, 57, a Briton who previously lived in Thailand and was visiting with his family.
"This is shocking. Never seen it as bad as this."
ci/sah/lga/fox

TikTok

AI-generated 'Fruit Love Island' takes TikTok by storm

BY KATIE FORSTER

  • The sudden popularity of "Fruit Love Island" has spawned many fake TikTok accounts publishing copycat episodes, while some of the original clips appear to have been removed from the platform.
  • Millions of people have been gripped by the juicy twists of an AI-generated TikTok micro-series based on the television hit "Love Island" -- except all the participants are sexy human-like fruit.
  • The sudden popularity of "Fruit Love Island" has spawned many fake TikTok accounts publishing copycat episodes, while some of the original clips appear to have been removed from the platform.
Millions of people have been gripped by the juicy twists of an AI-generated TikTok micro-series based on the television hit "Love Island" -- except all the participants are sexy human-like fruit.
The exploits of the bizarre animated characters, including "Strawberina" and a buff open-shirt "Bananito", parody reality TV tropes, from love triangles to emotional re-couplings.
Each short clip is hosted by a voluptuous green apple, and the most popular, "Episode 15: New Dates... New Doubts", has been viewed 39 million times since being posted two weeks ago.
For comparison, the big-budget 2025 Eurovision Song Contest says it reached 166 million people.
Many have dismissed the fruity videos as so-called artificial intelligence "slop" -- poor-quality content churned out to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
But their mass consumption also signals "demand for media that helps people to switch off, to have a laugh, or to relax for a few minutes", Ludmila Lupinacci, lecturer in digital media at the University of Leeds, told AFP.
That desire may be heightened when "social platforms also give us access to horrifying, stressful, violent, and overall negative experiences", she added.
The micro-drama was started in mid-March by an account called "Ai Cinema". It does not disclose who runs it or where it is based.
"Thank you guys for watching this has been fun!" it said in the caption of a series finale posted Wednesday.
The sudden popularity of "Fruit Love Island" has spawned many fake TikTok accounts publishing copycat episodes, while some of the original clips appear to have been removed from the platform.

'Hate-watching'

"I'm not going to lie, I didn't expect you to be this easy to talk to," a watermelon woman tells her dragon-fruit date over their corresponding fruit cocktails at sunset.
"Is this cannibalism?" laughed YouTuber Annamarie Forcino in a review posted this week, titled "Fruit Love Island is pure AI slop".
"Sure, AI data centres consume massive amounts of energy, contribute to air pollution, and drain the water supply from local communities," Forcino said.
"But would you rather have clean air and lower electricity bills or Cocomelon for adults?" she joked, referring to the animated children's channel that is among YouTube's most subscribed.
In her video, Forcino points out the tell-tale visual inconsistencies that pepper AI-generated videos: "Why is this girl's right arm pink, but this one green?"
ChatGPT maker OpenAI recently said it would shut down its AI video generation app Sora, barely six months after its launch, in a shift towards business tools.
Meanwhile, Chinese video generators, like Seedance 2.0 from TikTok creator ByteDance, have wowed users and spooked the creative industries with their almost-cinematic quality.
"Fruit Love Island" is one of a bunch of other fruit-themed content spreading on social media, from fellow TV parody "Fruit Paternity Court" to a slew of other memes in different languages that often reinforce sexist or racist stereotypes.
Fruit is an absurd but also simple way to reflect the formulaic, sensationalist and stereotypical world of dating reality TV, Lupinacci said.
Its AI quirks "might indeed be actually part of the appeal, as they make it funnier, more bizarre, and potentially more engaging -- even if prone to mockery and hate-watching".
kaf/lkd/abs