conflict

Israeli minister sparks outcry over video of bound flotilla activists

diving

Italian divers in Maldives may have got lost in cave: recovery firm

BY ELLA IDE

  • The dead-end corridor is where the four other bodies were found.
  • Italian divers who died in the Maldives may have taken the wrong tunnel in a cave and died in a dead-end corridor, the head of the company that recovered their bodies told AFP on Thursday.
  • The dead-end corridor is where the four other bodies were found.
Italian divers who died in the Maldives may have taken the wrong tunnel in a cave and died in a dead-end corridor, the head of the company that recovered their bodies told AFP on Thursday.
Finnish divers working for Dan Europe found their bodies in a corridor with a dead end inside the cave complex, some 50 metres (165 feet) down in the Indian Ocean archipelago.
"The bodies were found together in an area of the cave. Based on the cave's layout, they may have got lost," the company's CEO Laura Marroni told AFP.
The Italian divers included a marine biology professor with many years of experience, her daughter, two young researchers, and their Maldives-based guide.
The alarm was sounded last Thursday after they failed to return from a dive.
The cave, an underwater system which extends for hundreds of metres through multiple chambers and internal passages, begins with a first large, bright cavern with a sandy bottom.
That is where the guide's body was found, in an earlier recovery operation by Maldivian authorities.
At the end of this cavern is a corridor, which is almost 30 metres long and three metres across, and which leads to a second chamber of the cave.
The corridor ends in a sandbank, which is easy to get over into a second chamber, but "which could limit visibility" when attempting to leave again, Marroni said.
"The divers, unable to find the exit corridor, found themselves in a corridor to the left of what would have been the exit, which, however, was a dead end," she said.
The dead-end corridor is where the four other bodies were found.

'Limited air supply'

"Considering that they had a very limited air supply and therefore only a few minutes at the bottom, there probably wasn't even time for them to make numerous attempts to find the correct exit," said Marroni.
An attempt by the Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF) to recover them was called off after one of its rescuers died Saturday from decompression complications, and the Finnish team was called in.
It was made up of three divers: one tasked with recovering the bodies, the second with operational safety support, and the third documenting the recovery and dive site.
The divers "are highly trained" and "conducted an extensive reconnaissance with us, and developed a conservative dive plan, considering that no one knew the cave well", Marroni said.
"This type of operation always involves a great deal of responsibility, emotional toll, and a strong desire to return bodies to their families," she said.
The team recovered the bodies on Tuesday and Wednesday.
One of the divers, 54-year-old Patrik Gronqvist, told AFP by telephone that they "had started to see some traces on the bottom, as if there had been some kind of activity", leading them to find all four bodies in a pitch-black hole in the cave. 
"The bodies were here and there," within an area of two to three metres, he said. 
"Three were on the floor (of the cave) and one in the roof." 
Gronqvist said the mission had not been as "technically challenging" as previous operations he has been involved in.  
"But this operation was very sad... I will never forget it," he said.
The divers were returning to the cave Thursday to remove guide lines and operational equipment used inside the cave system during the recovery efforts.
"Much like at a crime scene, everything is documented, archived, and then cleaned up," Marroni said.
The photos and videos taken by the Finnish recovery team will be shared with the Maldivian authorities, who are investigating how the Italians were allowed to descend to a depth of 60 metres.
The Indian Ocean country permits a maximum depth of 30 metres for tourists.
ide-ank/po/phz

conflict

Italy and Spain urge EU sanctions on Israeli minister for activists' treatment

  • A global outcry erupted after Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir published a video Wednesday showing the heavy-handed treatment of foreign activists from the flotilla who were detained at sea by Israel and awaiting deportation at the southern port of Ashdod.
  • Italy and Spain have called on the EU to sanction Israel's far-right national security minister, who posted a video showing detained activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla forced to their knees with hands bound.
  • A global outcry erupted after Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir published a video Wednesday showing the heavy-handed treatment of foreign activists from the flotilla who were detained at sea by Israel and awaiting deportation at the southern port of Ashdod.
Italy and Spain have called on the EU to sanction Israel's far-right national security minister, who posted a video showing detained activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla forced to their knees with hands bound.
A global outcry erupted after Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir published a video Wednesday showing the heavy-handed treatment of foreign activists from the flotilla who were detained at sea by Israel and awaiting deportation at the southern port of Ashdod.
In the video, dozens of activists are seen forced to kneel with their foreheads to the ground and their hands tied. 
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the treatment of the activists "unacceptable".
Tajani wrote on X Thursday that he had requested sanctions against the minister for "seizing the activists in international waters and subjecting them to harassment and humiliation, in violation of the most basic human rights".
His comment came a day after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the activists' treatment "intolerable" and demanded an apology by Israel.
On Wednesday, Sanchez wrote on X the "images of Israeli Minister Ben Gvir humiliating members of the international flotilla in support of Gaza are unacceptable. We will not tolerate anyone mistreating our citizens".
In Ireland, a leaked letter revealed Prime Minister Micheal Martin urging the EU chief for "further action" against Israel over the activists' treatment.
In the letter to European Council President Antonio Costa that was leaked to AFP Thursday by an unnamed government source, Martin condemned Israel's "shocking treatment of EU citizens" and "unacceptable behaviour" by Ben Gvir.
The letter dated Wednesday called for a discussion about the matter at the next European Council meeting in June. 
"At the very least, this must include the banning of products from Israeli settlements and the suspension of parts if not all of the EU's Association Agreement with Israel," Martin said.
That June 2000 agreement -- a treaty that sets a framework for cooperation -- includes a clause requiring respect for human rights.
Sanchez called sanctions against Ben Gvir a "matter of urgency" for Brussels, saying that he had already in September announced a ban on the minister entering Spain.
Also Thursday, the United Kingdom announced it had summoned Israel's most senior diplomat in Britain following "the inflammatory video".
The video, which was captioned "Welcome to Israel", also showed Ben Gvir heckling the activists while waving an Israeli flag.
The activists had departed from Turkey last week on around 50 vessels under the Global Sumud Flotilla.
It was the latest attempt by activists to breach Israel's blockade of Gaza, after Israeli forces intercepted a previous convoy last month.
dt-ams/ide/pdw/am/st

media

'Fired and festive': 'Late Show' host Stephen Colbert bows out

BY GREGORY WALTON

  • The US president has long been a fierce critic of late-night talk show hosts and their jabs at him.
  • "The Late Show" frontman Stephen Colbert will host the final edition of the 33-year-old US cultural institution on Thursday night, after it was cancelled by CBS as the network courted President Donald Trump.
  • The US president has long been a fierce critic of late-night talk show hosts and their jabs at him.
"The Late Show" frontman Stephen Colbert will host the final edition of the 33-year-old US cultural institution on Thursday night, after it was cancelled by CBS as the network courted President Donald Trump.
The show, which Colbert has hosted since 2015, was axed after he mocked the broadcaster for a $16 million settlement with Trump for allegedly "maliciously" editing an interview with his Democratic election rival Kamala Harris.
Colbert called it a "big fat bribe."
CBS has insisted the decision to cancel "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," the ratings leader in the time slot, was purely financial -- and that it was a coincidence the move came as CBS parent company Paramount lobbied for government approval of its $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media. 
Around that time CBS brought in Bari Weiss, a right-wing journalist without significant TV experience, to run its news division.
In the weeks leading to Thursday's curtain call, 62-year-old Colbert has at times cut a subdued figure, lacking some of his usual cheerful flair.
"Sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense you might be losing it," Colbert said while accepting an Emmy award last year.
The identity of the final night's guests remained a closely held secret early Thursday.
On the penultimate night, rock legend Bruce Springsteen joined the "Late Show" to sing his "Streets of Minneapolis" anti-Trump protest song and to attack the Republican leader.
"You're the first guy in America who's lost his show because we've got a president who can't take a joke," Springsteen told Colbert on Wednesday.
And Colbert was clearly moved when he was joined in his studio by fellow late night hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver, who paid tribute in the final days.
Kimmel was briefly taken off the air in September 2025 by his network ABC after complaints about a remark he made over the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Trump has repeatedly attacked media and press freedom since returning to office, using lawsuits and regulatory threats to retaliate for unflattering news coverage and jokes.
The US president has long been a fierce critic of late-night talk show hosts and their jabs at him. Trump has called Colbert a "pathetic trainwreck" who should be "put to sleep."
One late night host bidding a less fond farewell was Greg Gutfeld of right-wing Fox News.
Asked in November about both the cancellation and Kimmel's suspension, Gutfeld said, "Why did it take so long?"

'Can't take a man's voice'

Colbert made his name playing a fictitious version of himself, embodying the type of conservative blowhard beloved by Fox News viewers -- and derided by the left.
He first played the sharp-suited but dim-witted character on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" before getting a spin-off, "The Colbert Report."
Colbert ascended to the pinnacle of US late-night TV when he was named host of the CBS flagship, shedding the character and employing his own voice.
In the weeks leading to Thursday, Colbert auctioned off a raft of props and costumes featured on the show, as well as pieces of set including a giant illuminated sign. Proceeds will go to World Central Kitchen.
Colbert has been coy about his next steps but announced he will be a writer on a forthcoming "Lord of the Rings" movie -- as well as lying down and taking a breather.
Details of the last broadcast were scant, with show insiders tight-lipped when contacted by AFP.
One guest has eluded Colbert: the pope. The host, a devout Catholic, has called the pontiff his "white whale."
While an impromptu trip to New York seems unlikely, Pope Leo XIV's public schedule is clear on May 21.
Colbert's fellow late-night hosts were all due to air re-runs Thursday out of respect for Colbert's swansong.
And the theme of the after-party? "Fired and festive!"
Ahead of the final show, Colbert brought back former "Late Show" host David Letterman who steered the ship from 1993 until 2015.
The pair ascended to the roof of the show's Ed Sullivan Theater to throw furniture at a giant logo of CBS, describing it as "wanton destruction of CBS property."
"You can take a man's show," said Letterman. "You can't take a man's voice."
gw/sms/acb

conflict

Israel deports all foreign activists from Gaza flotilla

BY HIBA ASLAN

  • Israel's foreign ministry spokesman, Oren Marmorstein, said on Thursday that "all foreign activists from the PR flotilla have been deported from Israel."
  • Israel said on Thursday it had deported all the foreign activists seized by Israeli forces from a Gaza-bound flotilla, following global outcry over their treatment in custody.
  • Israel's foreign ministry spokesman, Oren Marmorstein, said on Thursday that "all foreign activists from the PR flotilla have been deported from Israel."
Israel said on Thursday it had deported all the foreign activists seized by Israeli forces from a Gaza-bound flotilla, following global outcry over their treatment in custody.
More than 430 activists from countries around the world had been placed in detention in Israel after they were intercepted at sea on Monday while making the latest in a string of attempts to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.
Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sparked widespread condemnation and diplomatic backlash on Wednesday by posting a video showing the detained activists with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground.
Israel's foreign ministry spokesman, Oren Marmorstein, said on Thursday that "all foreign activists from the PR flotilla have been deported from Israel."
"Israel will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza," he added.
The legal centre representing the flotilla members said earlier on Thursday that the majority were "en route for deportation" from Ramon Airport in Israel's far south.
Adalah said that the activists had been held at Israel's Ktziot prison, in the Negev Desert near Gaza.
Turkey had announced it was sending charter flights to Israel to repatriate Turkish citizens and participants from third countries.
Turkish foreign ministry sources later confirmed that "a total of 422 flotilla participants, 85 of whom are our citizens, are being brought to our country on special charter flights."
A spokesman for Adalah said activists from Egypt had been transferred to Taba at Egypt's border with Israel, while those from Jordan had been transferred to Aqaba.

'Inflammatory video'

Around 50 vessels under the Global Sumud Flotilla set sail from Turkey last week in the latest attempt by activists to breach Israel's blockade of Gaza, after Israeli forces intercepted a previous convoy last month.
The deportations come after footage posted by Ben Gvir, captioned "Welcome to Israel" and showing the minister heckling and waving an Israeli flag among the detained activists, sparked resounding condemnation by governments around the world, from Italy to Spain and Australia to Canada.
He was also criticised at home by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, as well as by US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
Italy, Ireland and Spain have called on the European Union to sanction Ben Gvir, with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez calling the treatment of the activists "unacceptable."
The United Kingdom announced it had summoned Israel's most senior diplomat in Britain following "the inflammatory video".
Francesca Albanese, an outspoken UN expert on the Palestinian territories, called on Italy, where she is from, to take action.
The treatment of the flotilla activists "is a luxury compared to what is inflicted on Palestinians in Israeli prisons," Albanese wrote on X.
"Words do not suffice: let Italy stop opposing the suspension" of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, she added.

'They kicked us'

Adalah's legal director Suhad Bishara told AFP Wednesday that the group's lawyers had been able to give legal counsel to "many" of the hundreds of activists, though she added that others had faced court hearings without legal assistance.
"We know of at least two participants who were hospitalised... both of them were shot by rubber bullets," Bishara said, adding that others said they feared they had broken ribs.
Alessandro Mantovani, an Italian journalist detained with the flotilla activists and deported before the others, told reporters at Rome's Fiumicino airport Thursday that he and others had been "taken to Ben Gurion airport in handcuffs and with chains on our feet and put on a flight to Athens".
"They beat us up. They kicked us and punched us and shouted 'Welcome to Israel'," he said of his treatment by Israeli security forces.
Israel controls all entry points into Gaza, under blockade since 2007.
Since the start of the Gaza war, sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the territory has suffered severe shortages of food, medicine and other essential supplies, with Israel at times halting aid deliveries entirely.
A previous flotilla was intercepted last month in international waters off Greece, with most activists expelled to Europe.
Two were brought to Israel, detained for several days and then deported.
bur-ha-lba-acc/jfx

labour

Top UN court says right to strike protected in key labour treaty

BY RICHARD CARTER

  • The International Court of Justice had been asked to deliver a so-called advisory opinion on whether an ILO treaty from 1948, known as Convention 87, implicitly enshrined workers' right to strike.
  • The top United Nations court ruled Thursday that the right to strike was protected in a key treaty of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a decision that could have profound implications for global labour relations.
  • The International Court of Justice had been asked to deliver a so-called advisory opinion on whether an ILO treaty from 1948, known as Convention 87, implicitly enshrined workers' right to strike.
The top United Nations court ruled Thursday that the right to strike was protected in a key treaty of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a decision that could have profound implications for global labour relations.
The International Court of Justice had been asked to deliver a so-called advisory opinion on whether an ILO treaty from 1948, known as Convention 87, implicitly enshrined workers' right to strike.
ICJ president Yuji Iwasawa said the court was "of the opinion that the right to strike of workers and their organisations is protected" under that convention.
However, judges said their opinion, which is not binding, should not be understood as laying out any other ground rules for strike action.
The conclusion "does not entail any determination on the precise content, scope or conditions for the exercise of that right", said Iwasawa.
ILO Convention 87 is an agreement between unions and employers including the right "in full freedom, to organise their administration and activities".

Heated legal battle

Unions at the ILO had argued that this by extension enshrined the right to industrial action, but employers disagreed, so they took the fight to the ICJ.
Behind the dry legal interpretation of a decades-old treaty lay a heated battle between unions and employer groups at the ILO, which played out in hearings in October 2025.
"This case is about more than legal abstractions," Harold Koh, representing the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), told the judges. 
"It will affect the real rights of tens of millions of working people around the world," he added.
Koh warned that if the ICJ ruled the right to strike was not inherent in the Convention, companies and governments could start to unpick labour deals around the world.
"National employer groups would contest the right to strike country by country, focusing first on nations with compliant courts, weak civil societies and ineffective media," said Koh.

'Inflammatory and alarmist'

On the other side of the argument, Roberto Suarez Santos, from the International Organisation of Employers, said the 1948 convention "neither explicitly nor implicitly covers the right to strike."
Santos noted that the rules surrounding industrial action varied widely from country to country -- whether emergency services were excluded, for example.
These differences "cannot be resolved by simply reading an abstract right to strike into Convention No.87 and trying to impose it on employers, workers and governments", said Santos.
Rita Yip, also representing the employers' groups, dismissed the union arguments as "inflammatory and alarmist".
The right to strike is still protected in national laws, argued Yip, and does not need to be enshrined in "boilerplate norms, imposed at the highest level".
Urging the court to answer "no" to the question before it, Yip said the case "goes to the credibility of the entire international labour system".
Both sides at least agreed on the importance of the case for labour relations.
"At first blush, this case may not seem momentous," said Koh from the trade union confederation.
"But your decision here will affect every worker in the world," he told the judges.
ric/jj

Germany

In Ankara, DW journalist goes on trial for 'insulting president'

  • About an hour into the hearing, the judge granted him conditional release and adjourned the hearing, the broadcaster said.
  • A Turkish journalist with Deutsche Welle (DW) went on trial in Ankara on Thursday for allegedly "insulting the president", with the court granting him conditional release, the German broadcaster said. 
  • About an hour into the hearing, the judge granted him conditional release and adjourned the hearing, the broadcaster said.
A Turkish journalist with Deutsche Welle (DW) went on trial in Ankara on Thursday for allegedly "insulting the president", with the court granting him conditional release, the German broadcaster said. 
Alican Uludag was arrested at his home in Ankara on February 19 over allegations of "insulting" President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and "disseminating false news" over several posts on X.
Berlin has denounced the allegations against him as "baseless" and Amnesty International has demanded his release. 
Held at an Istanbul jail some 500 kilometres (300 miles) from his home, he appeared before the court via video link, giving a strong defence for his innocence and asking the court to acquit him, said DW which had a team in the courtroom. 
"I was detained, but I did not commit a crime that warrants arrest... I am a journalist who is being silenced," testified Uludag, who has been a court reporter for 18 years. 
"I made general criticisms, I criticised the relationship between the judiciary and politics. As a judicial reporter, I criticised operations in the judiciary on social media, I want to know what is criminal about that?" 
About an hour into the hearing, the judge granted him conditional release and adjourned the hearing, the broadcaster said.
Many people, from teenagers to journalists and even a former Miss Turkey, have been hit with the same charge in recent years, which observers say is often used to silence Erdogan's critics.
Media freedom campaign group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described Uludag's arrest as "outrageous", saying if convicted, he could face up to four years and eight months in jail.
"All journalists and other media workers who are the subjects of rights violations, criminalised and deprived of their liberty solely because of their journalism must be immediately released," said Amnesty's Turkey director Ruhat Sena Aksener in a statement.
Prosecutors on Thursday opened a new probe into two senior staff at the left-leaning BirGun newspaper for "insulting the president" over a report about university students who join protests, the paper said. 
The pair are Sefer Selcuk Ozbek and Gokay Bascan. 
RSF places Turkey 163rd out of 180 countries in its 2026 world press freedom rankings.
bur-hmw/pdw

aviation

Air France, Airbus guilty of manslaughter in 2009 Paris-Rio crash: French court

BY ALEXANDRE MARCHAND

  • On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight AF447, travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, was cruising over the Atlantic when the pilots lost control of the aircraft, causing it to plunge into the ocean.
  • Paris' appeals court Thursday found Air France and Airbus guilty of involuntary manslaughter over the 2009 crash of a Rio-Paris flight that killed 228 people, the worst disaster in France's aviation history.
  • On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight AF447, travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, was cruising over the Atlantic when the pilots lost control of the aircraft, causing it to plunge into the ocean.
Paris' appeals court Thursday found Air France and Airbus guilty of involuntary manslaughter over the 2009 crash of a Rio-Paris flight that killed 228 people, the worst disaster in France's aviation history.
The Paris Court of Appeal ruled that the French flag carrier and Europe's leading aerospace manufacturer were "solely and entirely responsible for the crash of flight AF447," ordering each to pay 225,000 euros ($261,000) — the maximum fine for corporate manslaughter.
While the penalties are symbolic, the ruling will be seen as significant reputational damage for both companies.
On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight AF447, travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, was cruising over the Atlantic when the pilots lost control of the aircraft, causing it to plunge into the ocean.
There were no survivors among the 216 passengers and 12 crew on board the Airbus-built A330 aircraft, the dead including 72 French nationals and 58 Brazilians.
The companies, who have denied any criminal liability, blaming pilot error, had been acquitted by a lower court in 2023.
That verdict was a blow to the victims' families, who said they were outraged by the court's decision to clear the companies of the charges.
Although prosecutors at the time had asked for the charges to be dropped, they had subsequently lodged the appeal to allow "the full potential of the legal appeals procedure" to play out. 
The eight-week appeal trial ran between September and December last year.
- 'Indecency' - 
In November, prosecutor Rodolphe Juy-Birmann lambasted the behaviour of Air France and Airbus over the years.
"Nothing has come of it -- not a single word of sincere comfort," he said.
"It's a rock-solid defence. One word sums up this whole circus: indecency."
Lawyers for the families have argued that both companies were aware of the problem with pitot tubes, which are used to measure flight speed, and that the pilots were not trained to deal with such a high-altitude emergency. 
The court heard how a malfunction with the tubes, which became blocked with ice crystals during a mid-Atlantic storm, caused alarms to sound in the plane's cockpit and the autopilot system to switch off.
Experts highlighted how, after the instrument failed, the pilots put the plane into a climb that caused the aircraft to stall and then crash into the ocean.
The companies were found guilty on all counts.
The court criticised Airbus for underestimating the seriousness of problems with sensors and failing to properly inform the crews of operating airlines.
Air France was found guilty of failing to provide pilot training tailored to situations involving icing of pitot tubes and to adequately inform flight crews.
In October, Christophe Cail, who represented Airbus, said in court the company's goal was "zero accidents".
"Even the smallest accident is a failure for our entire community," he said.
Pascal Weil, who represented Air France, said at the time that the company "had the means to conduct high-altitude training, but we did not do so because we sincerely believed it was unnecessary".
amd-as/cw

culture

'French Banksy' and Daft Punk star turn Paris bridge into Alpine cave

  • "It's incredible," passer-by Caroline Masson told AFP. "People used to tell me about Christo's project on Pont Neuf, so I never imagined I'd see as an adult the wrapping of the Pont Neuf by JR... it's spectacular!" 
  • Tourists and Parisians goggled at the sight of the French capital's oldest bridge transformed into a giant "cave" on Thursday, a spectacular new public work by the street artist JR. JR, dubbed the "French Banksy" after the British street artist, has wrapped the Pont Neuf in fabric painted white, grey and black to create the impression of a rocky grotto.
  • "It's incredible," passer-by Caroline Masson told AFP. "People used to tell me about Christo's project on Pont Neuf, so I never imagined I'd see as an adult the wrapping of the Pont Neuf by JR... it's spectacular!" 
Tourists and Parisians goggled at the sight of the French capital's oldest bridge transformed into a giant "cave" on Thursday, a spectacular new public work by the street artist JR.
JR, dubbed the "French Banksy" after the British street artist, has wrapped the Pont Neuf in fabric painted white, grey and black to create the impression of a rocky grotto.
The creation, 120 metres (390 feet) long, 20 metres wide and varying in height from 12 to 18 metres, drew curious onlookers to the banks of the Seine on a sunny spring morning. 
"It really stands out," 37-year-old Parisian Stephanie Da Cruz told AFP.
"You imagine mountains, the Alps or something like that, and contrasts so strongly with the architecture of Paris, that it's just very surprising."
JR, who began his career as a street Paris graffiti tagger and has become one of the best known figures on the French art scene, created the work as a tribute to the duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
They wrapped the Pont Neuf in fabric in 1985, drawing millions of visitors, as well as the Arc de Triomphe in 2021.
"It's incredible," passer-by Caroline Masson told AFP.
"People used to tell me about Christo's project on Pont Neuf, so I never imagined I'd see as an adult the wrapping of the Pont Neuf by JR... it's spectacular!" 

Mixing the wild and the elegant

From June 6 to 28, visitors will be able to explore inside the new work, with electro artist Thomas Bangalter -- one half of legendary French dance act Daft Punk -- providing the soundtrack.
JR said he wanted to "juxtapose the rough and the wild with the refined elegance of Paris, creating a dialogue between the past and the present.
"There is also a kind of unknown, of fear, of entering into a cave -- and at the same time, a fascination," he told AFP.
Organisers are expecting to draw big crowds, particularly foreign tourists, with some of the city's major attractions including Notre Dame cathedral just a stone's throw away.
"It's wonderful, isn't it? The way Paris plays with the city is extraordinary, in my opinion," Canadian tourist Peter Stuart said.
The work, titled "La Caverne" (The Cave) in French, is the latest in a series of large-scale public art pieces to grace Paris, and even appeared to be winning round the sceptics.
"I'm not a fan of contemporary art. I love Paris as it is, beautiful," tourist Vince, 75, from New York, told AFP.
"But I must admit it's fascinating. When I see it like that, I like it... it's like a little bit of the Alps in Paris."
bur-pdw/fg

health

Deadly DR Congo Ebola outbreak spreads to M23-held South Kivu

  • According to the M23 spokesman, tests "confirm a new positive case" from Bukavu in South Kivu.
  • An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread to a part of eastern South Kivu province under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, the group's spokesman said on Thursday, heightening fears of the deadly disease's growing spread.
  • According to the M23 spokesman, tests "confirm a new positive case" from Bukavu in South Kivu.
An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread to a part of eastern South Kivu province under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, the group's spokesman said on Thursday, heightening fears of the deadly disease's growing spread.
Efforts to get a grip on the latest outbreak of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever, which the World Health Organization has declared an international emergency, have been hampered by the DRC's long-running conflicts, including between the Congolese army and the M23.
Having seized swathes of land in the mineral-rich east with Rwanda's help, the M23 has set up to govern for the long run in areas under its control, installing a parallel administration to the Congolese government.
But the armed group has never had to manage the response to a serious epidemic of a disease like Ebola, which has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the past half-century and whose latest outbreak is already believed to have killed more than 130 people.
According to the M23 spokesman, tests "confirm a new positive case" from Bukavu in South Kivu. He did not specify whether the sample came from the city itself, which fell into M23 hands in February 2025, or the rural areas surrounding the South Kivu provincial capital.
But the case involved a "person coming from Kisangani", a major city in the eastern Tshopo province where no Ebola infections from the current outbreak have so far been recorded.
"The person concerned, a compatriot aged 28, unfortunately succumbed to the disease before the diagnosis was confirmed," the spokesman added.
"The burial was carried out in strict compliance with safety standards."
The Congolese authorities were yet to comment on the reported case.
According to the WHO, the latest outbreak in the DRC, the 17th to hit the vast central African country of more than 100 million people, is already suspected of having caused 139 deaths out of nearly 600 probable cases.

Split by front lines

Many of the cases have been recorded in the epidemic's epicentre in northeastern Ituri province, many in hard-to-access areas plagued by the Congolese east's litany of armed groups.
Cases have also been recorded in North Kivu and neighbouring Uganda, where one person has died, but up till now not in South Kivu.
Given the difficulties in accessing the areas hit by the outbreak, few samples have been laboratory-tested and figures are based mostly on suspected cases.
Both North and South Kivu are split in two by the front lines dividing the Congolese army from the M23 armed group and its Rwandan allies.
The airport in North Kivu's provincial capital Goma, which once helped funnel urgently needed aid into the eastern DRC by air, has been shut since the M23 seized the city in January 2025. 
No vaccine or clinical treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebolavirus responsible for the current epidemic.
A US citizen who contracted Ebola while working in the DRC is currently in hospital in Germany. His spouse and three children, all asymptomatic, will be placed in isolation in the same hospital at Washington's request, according to the German authorities. 
While the WHO believes the risk from the Ebola outbreak is high both in the DRC and the wider central African region, the United Nations health agency considers the risk of a worldwide pandemic to be "low". 
In response to the outbreak, the United States on Monday announced stepped-up screening procedures for air passengers coming from the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan. A day after, Bahrain announced a month-long ban on visitors from the three countries.
On top of that, the DRC football team has cancelled a training camp in Kinshasa in preparation for the World Cup in the United States, which is co-hosting the tournament with Canada and Mexico, a team official told AFP on Wednesday.
The outbreak comes at a time when humanitarian organisations have seen their budgets slashed, particularly as a result of US aid spending cuts under President Donald Trump.
In one of his first acts on returning to office last year, Trump moved to pull the United States out of the WHO, which he had fiercely criticised over its response to the Covid pandemic.
str-clt/sbk/kjm

politics

Late queen pushed for son Andrew to be UK trade envoy: official papers

  • The Liberal Democrat party, which moved the government to release documents related to Mountbatten-Windsor, has also asked for the publication of any correspondence between Mandelson and the former prince. 
  • Britain's late queen Elizabeth II pushed for her son Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to be given a high-profile job as a trade envoy, a senior official said in a 2000 document released by the government on Thursday.
  • The Liberal Democrat party, which moved the government to release documents related to Mountbatten-Windsor, has also asked for the publication of any correspondence between Mandelson and the former prince. 
Britain's late queen Elizabeth II pushed for her son Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to be given a high-profile job as a trade envoy, a senior official said in a 2000 document released by the government on Thursday.
The British government agreed to release the documents related to the disgraced former prince's role as trade envoy from 2001 to 2011, amid the fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his remaining royal titles following the release of US files related to Epstein last year, was arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office linked to the late American sex offender.
He is accused of sharing sensitive information with Epstein during his time as an official trade envoy for Britain.
The former prince was released after being questioned for hours by police and has not been charged. He denies any wrongdoing.
The 11 documents published by the government discuss the appointment of the former prince to a role as a special envoy for British Trade International (BTI), which promoted the UK abroad.
Following a "wide-ranging conversation" with the queen's private secretary, BTI head David Wright wrote to the then foreign minister to say it was the queen's "wish" that Andrew, then the Duke of York, be appointed to the role.
"The Queen is very keen that the Duke of York should take on a prominent role in the promotion of national interests," said the letter dated 25 February 2000.
One month earlier, in a message with the subject "Duke of York's travel", head of protocol Kathryn Colvin advised that the Duke of York "should not be offered golfing functions abroad".
Colvin also noted that the former duke preferred "more sophisticated countries" and "liked travelling, especially when on royal business".

'No vetting'

The role was unpaid, but during his time as envoy, the then-prince was dubbed "Air Miles Andy" as he jetted around the world with his expenses, including luxury hotels, covered by taxpayers.
In a written statement to parliament, trade minister Chris Bryant said "we have found no evidence that a formal due diligence or vetting process was undertaken."
However, this was "understandable" as the "new appointment was a continuation of the Royal Family's involvement in trade and investment promotion work".
Peter Mandelson, former UK ambassador to the US who was sacked over his ties to Epstein, is also being investigated for misconduct in public office when he was a government minister in the 2000s.
The Liberal Democrat party, which moved the government to release documents related to Mountbatten-Windsor, has also asked for the publication of any correspondence between Mandelson and the former prince. 
The former duke has been long embroiled in scandals over his friendship with Epstein.
Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, claimed she was trafficked three times to have sex with the British royal, starting in 2001 and twice when she was 17.
Mountbatten-Windsor settled a US civil lawsuit in 2022 brought by Giuffre while not admitting liability.
aks/jkb/pdw

diplomacy

Cuba outraged after US indicts Raul Castro

  • Authorities in Cuba and abroad slammed the indictment, the latest step-up in Trump's international interventions after the Iran war, the US toppling of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and threats against Greenland.
  • Cubans expressed their shock and indignation after the United States indicted former president Raul Castro on murder charges, a stunning new step in President Donald Trump's pressure on the communist state.
  • Authorities in Cuba and abroad slammed the indictment, the latest step-up in Trump's international interventions after the Iran war, the US toppling of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and threats against Greenland.
Cubans expressed their shock and indignation after the United States indicted former president Raul Castro on murder charges, a stunning new step in President Donald Trump's pressure on the communist state.
The charges against the ex-leader -- who at 94 years old remains influential in Cuban politics -- have fuelled speculation that Trump will try to topple the crisis-hit island, culminating a US pressure campaign which has imposed months of crippling oil blockades.
Authorities in Cuba and abroad slammed the indictment, the latest step-up in Trump's international interventions after the Iran war, the US toppling of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and threats against Greenland.
The charges against Raul Castro -- younger brother of Fidel Castro, the late iconic US nemesis who led Cuba's communist revolution that culminated in 1959 -- stem from the deadly downing of two civilian planes manned by anti-Castro pilots in 1996.
Cuban authorities called on citizens to protest the "despicable" indictment, with the official newspaper Granma urging Cubans to gather outside the US embassy in Havana on Friday at 0730 (1230 GMT).
"This isn't really an accusation, something from more than 30 years ago, but rather a public attack on a public figure," Fabian Fernandez, a 30-year-old accountant, told AFP in Havana.
"It's a matter of politics and public image," he added.
In addition to murder, Castro has been charged with conspiracy to kill Americans and destruction of aircraft.
The Cuban government said in a statement that the 1996 shootdown was "legitimate self-defense" against an airspace violation.
"We expect that he will show up here by his own will or by another way and go to prison," acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a news conference in Miami attended by Cuban-Americans who cheered the announcement.

'It's criminal'

Pedro Leal, a 65-year-old retiree, accused Washington of hurting ordinary Cubans.
"What the US government is doing here now, aside from the energy blockade preventing us from bringing in fuel, honestly, it's criminal," he said.
A four-month US oil blockade, part of a campaign to undermine Cuba's communist leadership, has brought the island's already battered economy to the brink of collapse.
Cubans have suffered power outages of up to 20 hours a day and taps running dry.
Runaway inflation has caused the price of basic goods to soar and mountains of trash have piled up on the streets of Havana.
Iris Herrera, a 58-year-old self-employed woman, said she worried about a US military intervention in Cuba.
"I do not agree with a war by the United States here in Cuba," she told AFP.
"It's inhumane, because there will be deaths, There will be many deaths."
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on X that the charges carry no legal basis and "add to the file they are fabricating to justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba."
China led international reaction to the charge, saying it "firmly supports" Cuba and urging the United States to deescalate tensions with the country.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a press briefing Thursday that Washington "should stop brandishing the sanctions stick and the judicial stick against Cuba and stop threatening force at every turn."
Beijing's comments came after the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and its escort warships entered the Caribbean Sea, the military's Southern Command said on Wednesday.
"Welcome to the Caribbean, Nimitz Carrier Strike Group!" the Southern Command posted on X, alongside a video flaunting the ship's capabilities.
Trump has hailed the indictment as a "very big moment" but played down prospects of moving on Cuba.
"There won't be escalation. I don't think there needs to be. Look, the place is falling apart. It's a mess, and they sort of lost control," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Analysts were quick to draw comparisons with Venezuela, where the US government seized on a domestic indictment to justify military action in January that toppled and seized president Maduro, a staunch ally of Cuba.
"The idea is to say, we can do to you what we did to Nicolas Maduro," Christopher Sabatini, senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House told AFP.
"The military would certainly defend Cuba" in the event of US military intervention, Sabatini said.
"Whether the people would or not, it's difficult to say," he added.
bur-cms/jm

US

Pakistan army chief due in Iran as Trump says talks on 'borderline'

BY AFP TEAMS IN TEHRAN AND WASHINGTON

  • Other Iranian media carried the same report.
  • Pakistan's army chief was due in Iran Thursday, Iranian media reported, with Islamabad mediating as the Islamic republic examines a new US proposal to end the Middle East war.
  • Other Iranian media carried the same report.
Pakistan's army chief was due in Iran Thursday, Iranian media reported, with Islamabad mediating as the Islamic republic examines a new US proposal to end the Middle East war.
The expected visit by Field Marshal Asim Munir, a powerful figure with a growing role in Pakistan's foreign relations, comes a day after US President Donald Trump warned that negotiations to end the war were on the "borderline" between a deal and renewed strikes.
A ceasefire on April 8 halted the war launched weeks earlier by the US and Israel, but negotiation efforts have so far failed to yield a lasting peace agreement.
A war of words has taken the place of open conflict but the impasse continues to weigh on the world economy, leaving everyone from investors to farmers in a painful state of uncertainty.
On Thursday, Iran's ISNA news agency said Munir's visit was aimed at continuing "talks and consultations" with Iranian authorities, without providing details. Other Iranian media carried the same report.
Pakistan hosted in April the only direct negotiations between US and Iranian officials to take place since February 28, the day the war began.
Munir was at the centre of the action during that round of talks, greeting both delegations on their arrival and displaying remarkable bonhomie with US Vice President JD Vance.
But the talks ultimately failed, with Iran accusing the US of making "excessive demands".
Since then, the two sides have sent each other multiple proposals, with the threat of renewed war looming all along.
"It's right on the borderline, believe me," Trump told reporters Wednesday. "If we don't get the right answers, it goes very quickly. We're all ready to go."
He said a deal could come "very quickly" or "in a few days", but warned Tehran would have to provide "100 percent good answers".

'Forceful response'

Tehran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Wednesday accused Washington of seeking to restart the war, warning of a "forceful response" if Iran were to be attacked.
"The enemy's movements, both overt and clandestine, show that despite economic and political pressure, it has not abandoned its military objectives and is seeking to start a new war," Ghalibaf said.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the Islamic republic was examining points received from Washington, while repeating Tehran's demands for the release of its assets frozen abroad and an end to a US naval blockade.
Trump is under political pressure at home as energy costs rise.
The ceasefire halted the fighting but has not reopened the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that normally carries about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas.
The future of Hormuz remains a key sticking point in the negotiations, with fears growing that the global economy will feel more pain as pre-war oil stockpiles run down.
Iran imposed the blockade of Hormuz as part of its retaliation in the war, allowing only a trickle of vessels through in recent weeks while introducing a toll system.
Iran's new body overseeing Hormuz said its claimed area of control extends to Emirati waters, drawing a sharp rebuke from Abu Dhabi.
Relations between Iran and the United Arab Emirates have been severely strained since the war, after Tehran launched missile and drone strikes against Gulf countries in response to US-Israeli attacks.
Hormuz carries around a third of global fertiliser shipments, raising concerns of higher food prices and shortages if the closure drags on.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said the closure could trigger "a severe global food price crisis" and a "systemic agrifood shock".
bur/ser/jsa

tourism

Tourists in Thailand plan for coming cuts to visa-free stays

BY WATSAMON TRI-YASAKDA AND SEBASTIEN DUVAL

  • The 60-day visa-free stay was introduced two years ago to encourage more visitors and for them to stay longer.
  • The backpackers on Khao San Road, a Bangkok thoroughfare famous for its wild nightlife, are waking up this week with an extra headache: the Thai government is set to shorten the length of visa-free stays.
  • The 60-day visa-free stay was introduced two years ago to encourage more visitors and for them to stay longer.
The backpackers on Khao San Road, a Bangkok thoroughfare famous for its wild nightlife, are waking up this week with an extra headache: the Thai government is set to shorten the length of visa-free stays.
Near the capital's Tha Tian pier, where tourists catch ferries to the landmark Wat Arun, Irishman Alex Brady said the forthcoming one-month limit would have affected his plans a lot -- because he and his friends "initially came here with no plan at all".
Brady and his travel companions were visiting for about five weeks, and the flexibility of the current 60-day visa-free scheme allowed them to see more of Thailand at their leisure, the 24-year-old said.
The new limits -- announced Tuesday for tourists from more than 90 countries in a bid to curb crime -- would "really restrict you in what you can see", said Brady.
After Bangkok, he and his group planned to get a bus and ferry to the diving hotspot of Koh Tao for about a week before travelling north to the mountains of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.
"If you're paying for an expensive flight ticket out here, you want to spend a good amount of time out here," said Brady, a digital engineer.
Tourism accounts for more than 10 percent of Thailand's GDP, but foreign arrivals are yet to return to their pre-pandemic highs.
The 60-day visa-free stay was introduced two years ago to encourage more visitors and for them to stay longer.
But a recent series of high-profile arrests of foreigners, including cases linked to drug offences, sex in public and foreigners operating businesses such as hotels and schools without proper permits, has sparked public backlash.
Now officials say they will limit how long visitors can stay on a country-by-country basis to try to prevent foreigners committing crimes.

Extended stays

Exactly how the new policy's reduced timing will prevent visa overstayers, public indecency and illegal businesses has not been disclosed, nor when the fresh rules will go into effect.
Tourists will still be able to renew 30-day visas once for an additional 30 days -- at the discretion of an immigration officer -- before needing to leave the country, officials said.
Visitors can make one "visa run" a year and stay for up to another 60 days, but would then need to leave again and could only return on a different visa status, such as a work, education or retirement visa.
Another traveller, Elin Ovrebo, director of a US university study abroad programme, said she has brought students to Thailand for 28-day trips almost every year for more than a decade -- and she likes to stay a week longer herself.
While the policy change may mean she would not do that in the future, "it won't stop me from coming", she said.

Visa runs

Sitting on a stool outside a Bangkok shopping mall, Anna Heindrich waited for a minibus for a lightning round trip to Laos to re-enter Thailand on a new stay.
At 80, the German does not fit the typical customer profile for services provided by the Bangkok Buddy agency, which charges 5,500 baht ($170) per client -- mostly younger backpackers. 
But Heindrich has been in Thailand for three months and wants to stay two weeks longer.
"I spoke with the agency and it sounded easy on paper. Not necessarily very comfortable, but easy," she told AFP before setting off on a nearly 16-hour round trip.
Bangkok Buddy manager Tanya Chansuwan said the new visa rules could help her business, but may also complicate travel plans for tourists.
"It will be tougher for the clients, and some might choose to go somewhere else," she said.
"Vietnam, because it's cheaper."
bur-sdu/sco/slb/fox

defense

Australia 'disappointed' by Chinese owner's resistance to forced port sale

  • Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged last year to return the northern port -- which sits across the harbour from a defence base hosting 2,000 US Marines annually and tarmacs upgraded for US bomber aircraft -- to Australian ownership.
  • Australia's defence minister Richard Marles said Thursday that Canberra was "disappointed" the Chinese leaseholder of the strategic Darwin Port was challenging efforts to return it to local ownership.
  • Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged last year to return the northern port -- which sits across the harbour from a defence base hosting 2,000 US Marines annually and tarmacs upgraded for US bomber aircraft -- to Australian ownership.
Australia's defence minister Richard Marles said Thursday that Canberra was "disappointed" the Chinese leaseholder of the strategic Darwin Port was challenging efforts to return it to local ownership.
Private Chinese company Landbridge acquired a 99 year lease to Darwin Port in 2015, prompting criticism of Australia from then-US president Barack Obama.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged last year to return the northern port -- which sits across the harbour from a defence base hosting 2,000 US Marines annually and tarmacs upgraded for US bomber aircraft -- to Australian ownership.
In April, Landbridge's billionaire owner Ye Cheng lodged a complaint in the World Bank's tribunal for investment disputes, alleging Australia's push for the company to sell the port had breached its free trade agreement with China and was taking a discriminatory approach.
"We're committed to putting the Port of Darwin back into Australian hands," Marles told reporters Thursday on a visit to Darwin.
"We're disappointed about the steps that have been taken to put this toward the place of an international tribunal. Obviously, we will do everything in our power to defend that matter," he said.
Marles also noted the US military was committed to "doing more from Darwin".
Darwin is Australia's closest port to Asia, and cargo shipments of commodities including iron ore and liquefied natural gas to China have dominated trade ties.
In January, China's ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian warned if Landbridge were forced to leave the port it could impact wider trade and investment between China and Australia.
kln/oho/abs

ICC

Philippines orders arrest of fugitive senator sought by ICC

  • Former president Duterte was arrested last year and is awaiting trial by the ICC in The Hague on charges stemming from the drug crackdown.
  • The Philippine government on Thursday ordered police to arrest a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court over his role in ex-president Rodrigo Duterte's deadly drug crackdown.
  • Former president Duterte was arrested last year and is awaiting trial by the ICC in The Hague on charges stemming from the drug crackdown.
The Philippine government on Thursday ordered police to arrest a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court over his role in ex-president Rodrigo Duterte's deadly drug crackdown.
Senator Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa, who served as the nation's police chief, was the enforcer of the drug war that killed thousands of people in the Philippines.
Dela Rosa is on the run after fleeing the Senate building last week, hours after a shooting incident between government agents and senate security personnel.
"I would like to confirm that the Philippine law enforcement agencies... are now tasked to effect the arrest of Senator Ronald 'Bato' dela Rosa," Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida told reporters.
The ICC last week unsealed an arrest warrant against Dela Rosa, accused along with Duterte and other "co-perpetrators" of the crime against humanity of murder.
After a dramatic chase up the senate stairs on the same day, government agents who failed to arrest him later paused the effort as the senate leadership gave him sanctuary.
The Philippine Supreme Court's interim ruling on Wednesday denying the Philippine ex-police chief's bid for a temporary restraining order means the ICC warrant can now be enforced, Vida added.
"We're pursuing this so that the ends of justice may be achieved," Vida added, warning that "there are consequences" to anyone who would try to help Dela Rosa avoid arrest.
His lawyer said Wednesday he will appeal the Supreme Court ruling.
Former president Duterte was arrested last year and is awaiting trial by the ICC in The Hague on charges stemming from the drug crackdown.
The drug war left thousands of people dead, mostly drug users and low-level traffickers from urban slums according to human rights monitors.
Philippine police say more than 6,000 drug suspects were killed in legitimate police operations during the Duterte presidency in 2016-2022.
Dela Rosa served as national police chief from 2016 to 2018 during the early phase of Duterte's anti-drug campaign and was elected to two successive six-year terms in the Senate after retiring from the force.
cgm/jm

demonstration

'Ready for violence': Serbian hooligans target protesters

BY ANDREW LEESON

  • According to Voja, the men chased him into a supermarket before dragging him out, beating him and forcing him into the car -- while repeatedly claiming to be police officers.
  • When Voja was beaten and dragged from a Belgrade street into a waiting car, the young activist thought he would die.
  • According to Voja, the men chased him into a supermarket before dragging him out, beating him and forcing him into the car -- while repeatedly claiming to be police officers.
When Voja was beaten and dragged from a Belgrade street into a waiting car, the young activist thought he would die.
After an hours-long ordeal, his assailants freed him, bruised and bloodied.
"I feared for my life. I had no idea what they were planning to do with me," Voja, who asked to be identified only by his first name, told AFP.
Weeks later, he is still visibly shaken when recounting the April 29 incident, just one report in a mounting pattern of violence against people connected to Serbia's long-running protest movement.
But unlike many other attacks, Voja said his captors made no attempt to hide their faces -- and had allegedly emerged from a van emblazoned with the campaign slogan of the ruling party of President Aleksandar Vucic.

'Ready for violence'

For more than a year, student-led protests have swept across Serbia, with some rallies drawing crowds unseen since demonstrations toppled strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.
Demands for a transparent investigation into a railway station canopy collapse in November 2024, which killed 16 people, have snowballed into a push for early elections, in a direct challenge to Vucic.
As the largely peaceful demonstrations grew, groups of young men -- largely dressed in black and wearing masks -- increasingly targeted anti-government gatherings.
During a series of demonstrations last year, protesters claimed the police shielded groups of masked men, some armed with batons and fireworks, and violently suppressed the anti-government side.
Council of Europe observers also witnessed the "threatening" presence of large groups of men, several masked, outside polling stations during local elections that were marred by violence earlier this year.
The ties between these groups, locally referred to as hooligans, and Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) run deep, according to Predrag Petrovic, research director at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy.
"The essence of it is that you have an organised group of people ready for violence, for street violence, and you want them on your side," he said.

'A blind eye'

According to Petrovic, the existence of a pro-government camp -- reportedly containing known criminals -- near the country's parliament shows a clear connection to the government.
"Hooligan leaders wanted to be seen there in order to send a message to others about which side was the right one," the expert said, referring to the camp, which has remained ringed by fences and guarded by police for months.
There have been several reports of assaults on protesters and journalists near the camp, while Serbian media have identified known criminals staying inside.
"But the police turned a blind eye," Petrovic said.
Last summer, the president pardoned four men, linked to the SNS, accused of beating students and breaking a woman's jaw in Novi Sad.
Vucic has also visited what he dubbed the "defenders of Serbia" in the pro-government camp several times and bragged about being "partly a football hooligan" in a recent podcast -- claiming he was arrested "many times".
"Those remarks should be taken very seriously, and they are certainly utterly inappropriate," Petrovic said.

'Nightmares'

With Vucic flagging potential early election dates, political outreach has ramped up on both sides, and it was during campaigning that Voja and his two friends were attacked.
After handing out stickers on the street in the Belgrade suburb of Resnik, a van painted with the campaign slogan of Vucic's party blocked their path, he said. A group of about five or six people jumped out to confront them.
As the men began threatening and grabbing the trio, one of Voja's friends used pepper spray.
According to Voja, the men chased him into a supermarket before dragging him out, beating him and forcing him into the car -- while repeatedly claiming to be police officers.
He said they drove him to an empty field and interrogated him before his friends published the alleged attackers' names on social media, at which point the men dropped him on a nearby street.
Neither the Interior Ministry nor the SNS responded to AFP's request for comment.
The incident has been reported to police and prosecutors, but Voja said he doubted there would be any real action.
With a badly bruised and swollen face, he remains fearful every time he goes outside.
"I have sleeping problems, mostly nightmares."
oz/al/pdw

Centroam

'They're afraid': Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli on fighting censorship

BY JUAN JOSé RODRíGUEZ

  • Belli, who lives in Spain after the government stripped her of her Nicaraguan nationality in 2023, explores the theme of betrayal in her novel "A Silence Full of Whispers."
  • Exiled Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli said on Wednesday that the government censored the publication of her latest novel in her home country because it is "afraid" to hear the truth.
  • Belli, who lives in Spain after the government stripped her of her Nicaraguan nationality in 2023, explores the theme of betrayal in her novel "A Silence Full of Whispers."
Exiled Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli said on Wednesday that the government censored the publication of her latest novel in her home country because it is "afraid" to hear the truth.
Belli, one of Latin America's most influential literary voices, said husband-and-wife co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo fear voices that expose their betrayal of the leftist Sandinista revolution that toppled the US-backed right-wing regime of Anastasio Somoza in 1979.
Belli served in the early administrations of Ortega, then a Sandinista guerrilla icon, but the United States has since branded his government a dictatorship, accusing it of seizing total power with a constitutional rewrite and crushing dissent.
Belli, who lives in Spain after the government stripped her of her Nicaraguan nationality in 2023, explores the theme of betrayal in her novel "A Silence Full of Whispers."
The writer sat down with AFP in Panama, where she is attending the Centroamerica Cuenta literary festival.
Question: How do you view the evolution of Central American literature?
Answer: On one hand, it's still vibrant, but on the other, I feel it has suffered greatly due to the political context we're living through in Central America.
In a way, that suffering is the very thing that generates literature. It is truly a region that has endured great sacrifice. But at the same time, even under the cruelest dictatorships, it has still managed to produce fine literature.
Q: What role can literature play in this context?
A: Literature is a tremendous asset for Central America. It brings visibility to the region and it creates dreams, promises and possibilities. Literature cannot topple an authoritarian regime on its own, but it can encourage people to reflect on authoritarian tendencies and what that can mean for their own lives.

'Lost battle'

Q: This is how censorship can occur.
A: Power has always feared the written word, and above all, the written word that speaks the truth. Dante was exiled, Victor Hugo was exiled. The written word compels you to think and a heightened conscience is one of the essential elements required to bring about change.
We're not going to end a dictatorship with poetry. However, if a poem leads you to a state of understanding, of awareness, and above all, aspiration, then you start to think about a different life, you want to live differently.
Q: Why do you think your novel was censored?
A: Because we hold a critical stance. Because we emerged from within Sandinismo, we know what Sandinismo originally set out to achieve, and we can't tolerate what they've done with it, how they have debased and manipulated it.
They know that we have the capacity, the moral authority and the background to expose and uncover exactly what they're doing. They're afraid of us.
Q: You've said that this book seeks to exorcize the power structure in Nicaragua.
A: It's a novel about the relationship between a mother and a daughter, but it's also a novel about disillusionment. The mother, having dedicated her entire life to the revolution, is left with the crushing sensation that her dream has been betrayed.
Q: In North Korea, films from South Korea still manage to find their way into the country despite censorship.
A: We have ways to communicate nowadays. I've sent a PDF of my book to my friends and asked them to distribute it. They can't control everything, no matter how much they want to. They've already lost that battle.
Q: Is there self-censorship in the region?
A: Being censored by others is one thing but I do not censor myself. I believe that one of my roles, as someone harmed by this regime and now living in exile, is to speak out on behalf of those who have no voice, to talk about what's happening.
There are so many people living in exile who fled with absolutely nothing left to their names. I have a name, a body of work, but there are people who are jobless, stripped of their pensions and left in a state of utter abandonment.
— 'Intoxicated with power' —
Q: Do you see any immediate possibility of being able to return home?
A: I don't see it as imminent, but I could be mistaken, and that's where my hopes lies. You never know what the future holds. I do see the end in sight. Both Ortega and Murillo are becoming intoxicated with power and doing reckless things. They're very afraid, more afraid than we are. I believe they're wearing themselves down considerably.
Q: What do you miss about Nicaragua?
A: It fills me with great sadness to think that I've lost my home, a place I loved deeply because I felt like a guardian of the landscape. Seeing the lake, the volcanoes, the vegetation, the flowers, I miss all of that.
Q: Did you ever imagine this would happen back when you were part of the Sandinista movement?
R: I never, ever imagined that this could happen. They have committed the most despicable and vindictive acts against the very people who risked everything for the revolution.
jjr/axm/dga/cms/abs

labour

Samsung shareholders vow legal action over tentative union deal

BY CLAIRE LEE AND KANG JIN-KYU

  • The Korea Shareholder Action Headquarters, a shareholders' group, on Thursday staged a rally protesting the deal, near the residence of Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong.
  • A group of Samsung Electronics shareholders on Thursday vowed legal action against a tentative deal between the South Korean chip giant and its largest labour union that averted a major strike.
  • The Korea Shareholder Action Headquarters, a shareholders' group, on Thursday staged a rally protesting the deal, near the residence of Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong.
A group of Samsung Electronics shareholders on Thursday vowed legal action against a tentative deal between the South Korean chip giant and its largest labour union that averted a major strike.
The last-minute agreement on bonuses -- which union members will vote on -- was struck late Wednesday, with plans for an 18-day strike from Thursday put on hold until further notice.
The dispute takes place against the backdrop of a global artificial intelligence boom that has turbocharged Samsung's business, while boosting national growth and the stock market.
Around 50,500 workers had been set to walk off production lines as anger flared over how the company distributes its massive profits.
Under the tentative deal between Samsung and its union, wages will rise and special bonuses will partly be paid in company stock over 10 years.
That is conditional on the chip division achieving more than 200 trillion won (US$130 billion) in operating profit each year between 2026 and 2028, then 100 trillion won until 2035.
The Korea Shareholder Action Headquarters, a shareholders' group, on Thursday staged a rally protesting the deal, near the residence of Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong.
Negotiations over operating profit-linked bonuses were not passed in a shareholders' resolution, and therefore have no "legal validity" under the current commercial act, they said.
The group vowed to "use all legal means available" to "block any company fund disbursement" based on the deal if it is concluded by "bypassing" these required procedures.

Union vote

Samsung memory chips are found in everything from consumer electronics to computer processors -- with its next-gen, high-bandwidth models used to scale up AI data centres.
Samsung in April said first-quarter operating profit soared roughly 750 percent year-on-year, while its market capitalisation topped $1 trillion for the first time this month.
The prospect of a strike had raised concern over the economic impact on South Korea, where semiconductors account for about 35 percent of exports.
The labour union said Wednesday that all of its members -- around 70,000 staff -- would participate in a vote on the tentative deal to be held between May 23 and May 28.
The government hailed the outcome of last-hour negotiations, which were mediated by the labour minister.
The tentative deal introduces a new bonus pool for employees in the chip division, equivalent to 10.5 percent of the division's business performance, with no payout cap.
Of the total bonus pool, 40 percent will be allocated across the division as a whole, while 60 percent will be distributed based on the performance of individual business units.
The union had argued that workers at rival South Korean chip giant SK hynix received bonuses last year that were more than three times larger than those paid at Samsung.
The union's lawyer said Samsung has seen a talent drain to its rival and a rise in union membership due to what workers describe as a "lack of transparency" in the bonus system.
Samsung shares surged Thursday, up 8.2 percent in afternoon trade in Seoul.
kjk-cdl/kaf

labour

Top UN court to rule on right to strike

BY RICHARD CARTER

  • "National employer groups would contest the right to strike country by country, focusing first on nations with compliant courts, weak civil societies and ineffective media," said Koh.
  • The top United Nations court will on Thursday issue a ruling on the right to strike that both unions and employers say could have profound implications for global labour relations.
  • "National employer groups would contest the right to strike country by country, focusing first on nations with compliant courts, weak civil societies and ineffective media," said Koh.
The top United Nations court will on Thursday issue a ruling on the right to strike that both unions and employers say could have profound implications for global labour relations.
The International Court of Justice has been asked to deliver a so-called advisory opinion on whether a treaty drawn up in 1948 by the International Labour Organisation implicitly enshrines the right to strike.
The treaty, known as Convention 87, is an agreement between unions and employers including the right "in full freedom, to organise their administration and activities".
Unions at the ILO say this by extension enshrines the right to industrial action, but employers disagree.
So the 15-judge panel at the ICJ in The Hague will hand down its ruling, which is not binding, but in practice will clarify the right to strike in international law.
The ICJ has been asked the question: "Is the right to strike of workers and their organisations protected under the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87)?"
Behind the dry legal interpretation of a decades-old treaty lies a heated battle between unions and employer groups at the ILO that played out in hearings in October 2025.
"This case is about more than legal abstractions," Harold Koh, representing the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), told the judges. 
"It will affect the real rights of tens of millions of working people around the world," he added.
Koh warned that if the ICJ ruled the right to strike was not inherent in the Convention, companies and governments could start to unpick labour deals around the world.
"National employer groups would contest the right to strike country by country, focusing first on nations with compliant courts, weak civil societies and ineffective media," said Koh.

'Inflammatory and alarmist'

On the other side of the argument, Roberto Suarez Santos, from the International Organisation of Employers, said the 1948 convention "neither explicitly nor implicitly covers the right to strike."
Santos noted that the rules surrounding industrial action varied widely from country to country -- whether emergency services were excluded, for example.
These differences "cannot be resolved by simply reading an abstract right to strike into Convention No.87 and trying to impose it on employers, workers and governments", said Santos.
Rita Yip, also representing the employers' groups, dismissed the union arguments as "inflammatory and alarmist".
The right to strike is still protected in national laws, argued Yip, and does not need to be enshrined in "boilerplate norms, imposed at the highest level".
Urging the court to answer "no" to the question before it, Yip said the case "goes to the credibility of the entire international labour system".
Both sides can at least agree on the importance of the case for labour relations.
"At first blush, this case may not seem momentous," said Koh from the trade union confederation.
"But your decision here will affect every worker in the world," he told the judges.
ric/jj/sbk

conflict

Israeli minister sparks outcry over video of bound flotilla activists

BY NIR KAFRI WITH ALICE CHANCELLOR IN JERUSALEM

  • Captioned "Welcome to Israel", the footage shows dozens of activists forced to kneel with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground.
  • Israel's far-right national security minister posted a video on Wednesday showing detained activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla kneeling with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground, sparking international condemnation.
  • Captioned "Welcome to Israel", the footage shows dozens of activists forced to kneel with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground.
Israel's far-right national security minister posted a video on Wednesday showing detained activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla kneeling with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground, sparking international condemnation.
The video, shared on X by firebrand minister Itamar Ben Gvir, was published after Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla's vessels at sea and began detaining hundreds of foreign activists at the southern port of Ashdod.
The video drew swift international uproar and Ben Gvir was criticised by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.
Captioned "Welcome to Israel", the footage shows dozens of activists forced to kneel with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground. At some points, the Israeli national anthem can be heard playing in the background.
The footage also shows Ben Gvir heckling and waving an Israeli flag among the detained activists.
Ben Gvir drew the ire of Netanyahu, who said the minister's conduct with the activists was "not in line with Israel's values and norms", adding that authorities would deport the activists "as soon as possible".
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee denounced what he said were the national security minister's "despicable actions".
"Universal outrage & condemnation from every high-ranking Israeli official... for despicable actions by Ben Gvir. Flotilla was stupid stunt, but Ben Gvir betrayed dignity of his nation," Huckabee wrote on X.
European Commissioner Hadja Lahbib also criticised Ben Gvir, saying on X that "no one should be punished for defending humanity" while Belgium and France summoned the Israeli ambassadors in their capitals over what Paris called his "unacceptable actions".
Around 50 vessels under the Global Sumud Flotilla set sail from Turkey last week in the latest attempt by activists to breach Israel's blockade of Gaza, after Israeli forces intercepted a previous convoy last month.
Israeli authorities had said 430 activists aboard the flotilla were en route to Israel, while the Adalah rights group said some had already arrived at Ashdod port and were being held there.

'Disgraceful display'

Israel's foreign minister Saar said Ben Gvir had "knowingly caused harm to our State in this disgraceful display -- and not for the first time".
Ben Gvir hit back, saying: "I am proud to be the minister in charge of the organisations that operated today against those supporters of terror."
"Yes, there will be all sorts of pictures that Gideon Saar does not like, but I think they are a great source of pride," he added at parliament.
Non-profit legal group Adalah also criticised Israeli authorities over the video.
"Israel is employing a criminal policy of abuse and humiliation against activists seeking to confront Israel's ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people," the group, whose lawyers went to the detention centre to meet the detainees, said in a statement.
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Poland and Turkey also condemned the incident with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney calling the treatment of civilians onboard the flotilla "abominable" and saying the Israeli ambassador would be summoned. 
Ireland's Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said she was "appalled and shocked" by the video and demanded the immediate release of the activists, who include the sister of President Catherine Connolly.

'Malicious scheme'

Netanyahu had earlier denounced the flotilla as "a malicious scheme designed to break the blockade we have imposed on Hamas terrorists in Gaza".
Hamas, which now controls less than half of Gaza and whose attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 sparked the war in the Palestinian territory, said the footage was evidence of Israeli leaders' "moral depravity and sadism".
Israel controls all entry points into Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007.
During the Gaza war, the territory suffered severe shortages of food, medicine and other essential supplies, with Israel at times halting aid deliveries entirely.
A previous flotilla attempt was intercepted last month in international waters off Greece, with most activists expelled to Europe.
Two were brought to Israel, detained for several days and then deported.
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